WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.
"Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The resolution, passed by voice vote, was the work of Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, the only white lawmaker to represent a majority black district. Cohen faces a formidable black challenger in a primary face-off next week.
Congress has issued apologies before — to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws.
Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations — payment for damages.
The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying "the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow."
It says that Africans forced into slavery "were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage" and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.
The House "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow."
"Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth," Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, "is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong."
Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.
Another of his first acts as a freshman congressman in early 2007 was to introduce the slavery apology resolution. His office said that the House resolution was brought to the floor only after learning that the Senate would be unable to join in a joint resolution.
More than a dozen of the 42 Congressional Black Caucus members in the House were original co-sponsors of the measure. The caucus has not endorsed either Cohen or his chief rival, attorney Nikki Tinker, in the Memphis primary, although Cohen is backed by several senior members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Tinker is the former campaign manager of Harold Ford, Jr., who held Cohen's seat until he stepped down in an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2006.
By JIM ABRAMS for AP
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Exxon Mobil 2Q Profit Sets US Record
HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results were well short of Wall Street expectations and its shares fell.
The world's largest publicly traded oil company said net income for the April-June period came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 40 percent to $138.1 billion from $98.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million related to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings amounted to $11.97 billion, or $2.27 per share.
Analysts on average expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. The estimates typically exclude one-time items.
The record-setting results were largely expected, given that crude prices in the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago. Natural gas prices were significantly higher too.
But investors expected even bigger profits Thursday, especially after Europe's Royal Dutch Shell reported a 33 percent jump in second-quarter earnings to $11.6 billion, which fell just shy of Exxon's own record earnings from 2007.
Exxon Mobil shares fell $2.24, or 2.6 percent, to $82,14 in morning trading.
Setting U.S. profit records has become commonplace for Irving-based Exxon Mobil. The $11.68 billion topped its own U.S. record of $11.66 billion, posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Right behind that was the $10.9 billion it reported to start 2008.
Exxon Mobil owns the record for at least the top six most-profitable quarters for a U.S. company, as well as the largest annual profit.
The company, which produces 3 percent of the world's oil, got its biggest boost from its exploration and production arm, where earnings rose 68 percent to $10.01 billion from $5.95 billion a year ago. The main driver was record crude prices, partially offset by lower sales volumes and higher operating costs.
Once again, Exxon Mobil's results revealed a troubling trend at the heart of its business.
Production on an oil-equivalent basis fell 8 percent from a year ago — a significant blow for a company that generates more than two-thirds of its earnings from oil and gas production. That follows an opening quarter of 2008 when the company said overall production fell 5.6 percent from a year ago.
Excluding last year's loss of its Venezuelan assets, a labor strike in Nigeria and lower volumes because of production-sharing contracts, Exxon said production was down about 3 percent in the most-recent quarter.
Like its competitors, Exxon Mobil said it took a beating from lower global refining margins. Earnings from refining and marketing fell 54 percent in the quarter to $1.55 billion.
For the first six months of 2008, Exxon Mobil said it earned $22.57 billion, or $4.25 a share, from $19.54 billion, or $3.45 a share, in the first half of 2007. Revenue rose to $254.9 billion from $185.5 billion.
By JOHN PORRETTO, AP Business Writer
The world's largest publicly traded oil company said net income for the April-June period came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 40 percent to $138.1 billion from $98.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million related to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings amounted to $11.97 billion, or $2.27 per share.
Analysts on average expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. The estimates typically exclude one-time items.
The record-setting results were largely expected, given that crude prices in the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago. Natural gas prices were significantly higher too.
But investors expected even bigger profits Thursday, especially after Europe's Royal Dutch Shell reported a 33 percent jump in second-quarter earnings to $11.6 billion, which fell just shy of Exxon's own record earnings from 2007.
Exxon Mobil shares fell $2.24, or 2.6 percent, to $82,14 in morning trading.
Setting U.S. profit records has become commonplace for Irving-based Exxon Mobil. The $11.68 billion topped its own U.S. record of $11.66 billion, posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Right behind that was the $10.9 billion it reported to start 2008.
Exxon Mobil owns the record for at least the top six most-profitable quarters for a U.S. company, as well as the largest annual profit.
The company, which produces 3 percent of the world's oil, got its biggest boost from its exploration and production arm, where earnings rose 68 percent to $10.01 billion from $5.95 billion a year ago. The main driver was record crude prices, partially offset by lower sales volumes and higher operating costs.
Once again, Exxon Mobil's results revealed a troubling trend at the heart of its business.
Production on an oil-equivalent basis fell 8 percent from a year ago — a significant blow for a company that generates more than two-thirds of its earnings from oil and gas production. That follows an opening quarter of 2008 when the company said overall production fell 5.6 percent from a year ago.
Excluding last year's loss of its Venezuelan assets, a labor strike in Nigeria and lower volumes because of production-sharing contracts, Exxon said production was down about 3 percent in the most-recent quarter.
Like its competitors, Exxon Mobil said it took a beating from lower global refining margins. Earnings from refining and marketing fell 54 percent in the quarter to $1.55 billion.
For the first six months of 2008, Exxon Mobil said it earned $22.57 billion, or $4.25 a share, from $19.54 billion, or $3.45 a share, in the first half of 2007. Revenue rose to $254.9 billion from $185.5 billion.
By JOHN PORRETTO, AP Business Writer
Numbers of African Americans in Large Cities Continue to Drop
Black faces are disappearing from many of America’s largest cities, a report is showing.
Cities such as Washington, D.C., San Francisco and California are seeing a dip in the number of black people living there, the Wall Street Journal said.
Instead, the number of white people are resurging, a reversal on the 1990s when the cities experienced a “white flight”, which left neighbourhoods in the hands of black and Hispanic people.
The report said the reduction is so significant for cities such as San Francisco that its Mayor Gavin Newsome has created a special task force to help keep black people there. The report said in San Francisco, African-American deaths now outnumber births.
Data show that Washington, D.C., gained 24,000 whites and lost 21,000 Blacks between 2000 and 2006. The Black proportion of population has declined from a high of 72 percent in the 1970s to less than 60 percent last year. The same thing is happening in New York, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles. Among the reasons suggested for the change is rising real estate prices and the growing number of middle-class black families who have been moving to the suburbs in greater numbers. The report said Hispanic immigrants are increasingly heading to the suburbs.
Cities such as Washington, D.C., San Francisco and California are seeing a dip in the number of black people living there, the Wall Street Journal said.
Instead, the number of white people are resurging, a reversal on the 1990s when the cities experienced a “white flight”, which left neighbourhoods in the hands of black and Hispanic people.
The report said the reduction is so significant for cities such as San Francisco that its Mayor Gavin Newsome has created a special task force to help keep black people there. The report said in San Francisco, African-American deaths now outnumber births.
Data show that Washington, D.C., gained 24,000 whites and lost 21,000 Blacks between 2000 and 2006. The Black proportion of population has declined from a high of 72 percent in the 1970s to less than 60 percent last year. The same thing is happening in New York, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles. Among the reasons suggested for the change is rising real estate prices and the growing number of middle-class black families who have been moving to the suburbs in greater numbers. The report said Hispanic immigrants are increasingly heading to the suburbs.
Mbeki Struggling to Keep Zimbabwe Talks on Track: Analysts
HARARE (AFP) - South African President Thabo Mbeki's presence this week in Harare pointed to deep-rooted problems in his efforts to mediate a power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe's political crisis, analysts said Thursday.
Mbeki flew here and held face-to-face discussions with President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday after negotiations at a secret location near Pretoria between Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the main opposition MDC adjourned in apparent deadlock.
After meeting Mugabe, Mbeki insisted the negotiations were on track and would resume on Sunday. He also met with Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a smaller Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction.
"There are naturally some matters which require the negotiators to come back to consult. That's why they are all here in Harare today," Mbeki said.
But observers suggested that the South African leader was putting a positive spin on a difficult situation.
"Mbeki's visit signifies that there has been a deadlock no matter what the negotiators and facilitators would want the world to believe," Charles Mangongera, a Harare-based political analyst, said.
"He (Mbeki) is trying to use his influence to push each of the leaders to make certain compromises," he said.
Takura Zhangazha, a Harare independent political analyst said Mbeki's visit pointed to "an urgency" surrounding certain issues in the power-sharing talks.
"The visit was probably to emphasise to Mugabe what the MDC wants from the talks," Zhangazha said.
Mbeki had met the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in Pretoria on Tuesday before his visit to Harare.
Mugabe, 84, who has been in office since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, expressed his "total commitment" to the negotiations on Wednesday.
"We are still negotiating, we want to succeed," Mugabe said. "We would like to see the speedy conclusion of the talks ... and successful outcome so that we can focus in the future our attention around our economy".
Mbeki's spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga warned against reading too much into Mbeki's visit to Harare, saying it was simply "part and parcel" of efforts to achieve an all-inclusive government in Zimbabwe.
"There is no deadlock at the talks. Newspapers invented the deadlock and the parties do not agree with that media suggestion," Ratshitanga said.
John Makumbe, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, argued that the media coverage was probably accurate.
"Things are not going well. President Mbeki can pretend that everything is under control. But the body language, even of Mugabe makes it very clear that there is a deadlock," he said Thursday in an interview on South Africa's public broadcaster SA FM.
"I had expected all along that there will be serious problem on agreeing on a vehicle for transition to democracy; either to adopt a government of national unity, as canvassed by the ZANU-PF or create a transitional government, as suggested by the MDC."
Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara signed an accord on July 21 in Harare to begin talks on sharing power after a months-long election dispute.
While Tsvangirai believes his victory in the first round of a presidential election in March should give him the right to the lion's share of power, MDC sources say Mugabe's negotiators are so far only offering him the chance to become one of several vice presidents.
The political crisis in Zimbabwe heightened after the June 27 victory in the widely denounced and controversial presidential run-off in which Mugabe was the only candidate after Tsvangirai boycotted it, claiming violence against his supporters ahead of the poll.
by Fanuel Jongwe for AFP
Mbeki flew here and held face-to-face discussions with President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday after negotiations at a secret location near Pretoria between Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the main opposition MDC adjourned in apparent deadlock.
After meeting Mugabe, Mbeki insisted the negotiations were on track and would resume on Sunday. He also met with Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a smaller Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction.
"There are naturally some matters which require the negotiators to come back to consult. That's why they are all here in Harare today," Mbeki said.
But observers suggested that the South African leader was putting a positive spin on a difficult situation.
"Mbeki's visit signifies that there has been a deadlock no matter what the negotiators and facilitators would want the world to believe," Charles Mangongera, a Harare-based political analyst, said.
"He (Mbeki) is trying to use his influence to push each of the leaders to make certain compromises," he said.
Takura Zhangazha, a Harare independent political analyst said Mbeki's visit pointed to "an urgency" surrounding certain issues in the power-sharing talks.
"The visit was probably to emphasise to Mugabe what the MDC wants from the talks," Zhangazha said.
Mbeki had met the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in Pretoria on Tuesday before his visit to Harare.
Mugabe, 84, who has been in office since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, expressed his "total commitment" to the negotiations on Wednesday.
"We are still negotiating, we want to succeed," Mugabe said. "We would like to see the speedy conclusion of the talks ... and successful outcome so that we can focus in the future our attention around our economy".
Mbeki's spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga warned against reading too much into Mbeki's visit to Harare, saying it was simply "part and parcel" of efforts to achieve an all-inclusive government in Zimbabwe.
"There is no deadlock at the talks. Newspapers invented the deadlock and the parties do not agree with that media suggestion," Ratshitanga said.
John Makumbe, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, argued that the media coverage was probably accurate.
"Things are not going well. President Mbeki can pretend that everything is under control. But the body language, even of Mugabe makes it very clear that there is a deadlock," he said Thursday in an interview on South Africa's public broadcaster SA FM.
"I had expected all along that there will be serious problem on agreeing on a vehicle for transition to democracy; either to adopt a government of national unity, as canvassed by the ZANU-PF or create a transitional government, as suggested by the MDC."
Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara signed an accord on July 21 in Harare to begin talks on sharing power after a months-long election dispute.
While Tsvangirai believes his victory in the first round of a presidential election in March should give him the right to the lion's share of power, MDC sources say Mugabe's negotiators are so far only offering him the chance to become one of several vice presidents.
The political crisis in Zimbabwe heightened after the June 27 victory in the widely denounced and controversial presidential run-off in which Mugabe was the only candidate after Tsvangirai boycotted it, claiming violence against his supporters ahead of the poll.
by Fanuel Jongwe for AFP
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
T.I. Helps with Registration, Education of Young Voters
T.I. has joined forces with political organization, the Hip Hop Caucus, to launch new voter registration and Get Out the Vote campaign that combines the power of celebrity and media with grassroots efforts to mobilize and educate young people between the ages of 18 and 29, who are not in college.
The campaign slogan, "Respect My Vote!" and accompanying t-shirts were unveiled Monday (July 28) at a press event in Washington, DC, where DJ Green Lantern, Dawn from Danity Kane, Yung Berg, Maino, Wale, BET Executive Vice President Stephen Hill and many others turned out to support.
Led by T.I., the campaign will employ other celebrities to get out the vote via PSAs for radio, television and online use; in person appearances; press events; and mobile and email alerts from celebrities themselves.
According to a press release, half of young Americans ages 18-29 have never enrolled in college. Other research indicate that nearly 80 percent of the young voters who turned out on Super Tuesday had college experience. The disparity between college educated and non-college educated young voter participation is also evident by their turnout rates: one in four eligible young voters with college experience voted on Super Tuesday, compared with one in 14 eligible young voters with no college experience.
Based on these statistics, the Hip Hop Caucus and T.I. have elected to focus on engaging those individuals who are part of the larger scope of the non-college and non-voting community.
"It's an honor and a pleasure to be involved with the Hip Hop Caucus and be a part of such a worthy cause and important campaign," said T.I. "I look forward to urging the masses to take advantage of the right that I no longer have."
"No matter who wins in November, if large numbers of young people do not vote, then we all lose," added Hip Hop Caucus President, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. "It does not bode well for the future of our country, and our Democracy, if young people, particularly those who are not in college, are not engaged or involved in the electoral process. This campaign is critical in strengthening our Democracy and thus protecting our freedom."
Grassroots voter registration activities will be led by Hip Hop Caucus community-based street teams in seventeen cities across the nation -- include the Bay Area, Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Dallas and several others.
For more information visit HipHopCaucus.org or TrapMuzik.com.
Words by Allen Starbury for Ballerstatus.com
The campaign slogan, "Respect My Vote!" and accompanying t-shirts were unveiled Monday (July 28) at a press event in Washington, DC, where DJ Green Lantern, Dawn from Danity Kane, Yung Berg, Maino, Wale, BET Executive Vice President Stephen Hill and many others turned out to support.
Led by T.I., the campaign will employ other celebrities to get out the vote via PSAs for radio, television and online use; in person appearances; press events; and mobile and email alerts from celebrities themselves.
According to a press release, half of young Americans ages 18-29 have never enrolled in college. Other research indicate that nearly 80 percent of the young voters who turned out on Super Tuesday had college experience. The disparity between college educated and non-college educated young voter participation is also evident by their turnout rates: one in four eligible young voters with college experience voted on Super Tuesday, compared with one in 14 eligible young voters with no college experience.
Based on these statistics, the Hip Hop Caucus and T.I. have elected to focus on engaging those individuals who are part of the larger scope of the non-college and non-voting community.
"It's an honor and a pleasure to be involved with the Hip Hop Caucus and be a part of such a worthy cause and important campaign," said T.I. "I look forward to urging the masses to take advantage of the right that I no longer have."
"No matter who wins in November, if large numbers of young people do not vote, then we all lose," added Hip Hop Caucus President, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. "It does not bode well for the future of our country, and our Democracy, if young people, particularly those who are not in college, are not engaged or involved in the electoral process. This campaign is critical in strengthening our Democracy and thus protecting our freedom."
Grassroots voter registration activities will be led by Hip Hop Caucus community-based street teams in seventeen cities across the nation -- include the Bay Area, Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Dallas and several others.
For more information visit HipHopCaucus.org or TrapMuzik.com.
Words by Allen Starbury for Ballerstatus.com
Black US AIDS Rates Rival Some African Nations
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The AIDS epidemic among African-Americans in some parts of the United States is as severe as in parts of Africa, according to a report out Tuesday.
"Left Behind - Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS" is intended to raise awareness and remind the public that the "AIDS epidemic is not over in America, especially not in Black America," says the report, published by the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on African-Americans.
"AIDS in America today is a black disease," says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the institute and himself HIV-positive for 20 years. "2006 CDC data tell us that about half of the just over 1 million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black."
Although black people represent only about one in eight Americans, one in every two people living with HIV in the United States is black, the report notes.
The report uses just-released data from UNAIDS and existing CDC and Census data to highlight grim statistics:
• AIDS remains the leading cause of death among black women between ages 25 and 34. It's the second-leading cause of death in black men 35-44.
In Washington, more than 80 percent of HIV cases are among black people, that's one in 20 residents.
"Five percent of the entire population (in DC) is infected... that's comparable to countries like Uganda or South Africa," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN for the recent "Black in America" documentary.
According to this report, if black Americans made up their own country, it would rank above Ethiopia (420,000 to 1,300,000) and below Ivory Coast (750,000) in HIV population. Both Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast are among the 15 nations receiving funds from the President's Emergency Plan For Aids Relief. The United States has given about $15 billion to PEPFAR nations in the past five years.
The Black AIDS Institute says it's not criticizing the federal government for helping poorer countries cope with the AIDS epidemic. Rather, it's saying the "AIDS epidemic [in the U.S.] is not getting the kind attention that it merits."
"We understand the needs of black folk in Johannesburg (South Africa)," Wilson says. "Why can't we understand the needs of them in Jackson, Mississippi? We understand the needs in Nigeria or Botswana, why not understand the needs of Los Angeles or Oakland?"
Wilson says more needs to be done to prevent the spread of HIV in this country. The report states that the U.S. government "increased spending on HIV prevention, treatment and support programs for low-income countries dramatically, at the same time that domestic remained all but flat."
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, domestic prevention efforts make up the smallest part of the HIV/AIDs budget, the 2009 budget request includes $892 million for domestic HIV prevention efforts, the same as in 2008.
In this report, Wilson and others urge the federal government and private foundations to significantly increase funding for HIV prevention and treatment programs. The report also calls on international agencies to hold the U.S. government accountable for failure to address HIV/AIDS epidemic in its own country (despite lauding it for its PEPFAR efforts). It also urges black communities in the United States to fight the stigma and overcome prejudice associated with being infected with HIV.
"Peggy" found out 10 years ago that she was HIV positive. The fact that she's asked us to not use her real name is an example of the stigma that's still attached to having the virus that causes AIDS, especially in the African-American community.
"I don't really talk to many other people about it, 'cause I guess maybe, they don't want to talk," says the 27-year-old Lake Charles, Louisiana, woman. Others like her, she says, are still too ashamed to admit they have HIV.
Marvelyn Brown, 24, of Washington, is more open about her status. She learned she had HIV when she was only 19, after one time of unprotected sex while in a monogamous relationship.
Brown has told her story in a book, "The Naked Truth, " and to CNN in last week's special report, "Black in America." She regularly addresses community groups, trying to help educate blacks about the risk of of HIV and AIDS.
The report was funded by the Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
from cnn.com
"Left Behind - Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS" is intended to raise awareness and remind the public that the "AIDS epidemic is not over in America, especially not in Black America," says the report, published by the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on African-Americans.
"AIDS in America today is a black disease," says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the institute and himself HIV-positive for 20 years. "2006 CDC data tell us that about half of the just over 1 million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black."
Although black people represent only about one in eight Americans, one in every two people living with HIV in the United States is black, the report notes.
The report uses just-released data from UNAIDS and existing CDC and Census data to highlight grim statistics:
• AIDS remains the leading cause of death among black women between ages 25 and 34. It's the second-leading cause of death in black men 35-44.
In Washington, more than 80 percent of HIV cases are among black people, that's one in 20 residents.
"Five percent of the entire population (in DC) is infected... that's comparable to countries like Uganda or South Africa," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN for the recent "Black in America" documentary.
According to this report, if black Americans made up their own country, it would rank above Ethiopia (420,000 to 1,300,000) and below Ivory Coast (750,000) in HIV population. Both Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast are among the 15 nations receiving funds from the President's Emergency Plan For Aids Relief. The United States has given about $15 billion to PEPFAR nations in the past five years.
The Black AIDS Institute says it's not criticizing the federal government for helping poorer countries cope with the AIDS epidemic. Rather, it's saying the "AIDS epidemic [in the U.S.] is not getting the kind attention that it merits."
"We understand the needs of black folk in Johannesburg (South Africa)," Wilson says. "Why can't we understand the needs of them in Jackson, Mississippi? We understand the needs in Nigeria or Botswana, why not understand the needs of Los Angeles or Oakland?"
Wilson says more needs to be done to prevent the spread of HIV in this country. The report states that the U.S. government "increased spending on HIV prevention, treatment and support programs for low-income countries dramatically, at the same time that domestic remained all but flat."
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, domestic prevention efforts make up the smallest part of the HIV/AIDs budget, the 2009 budget request includes $892 million for domestic HIV prevention efforts, the same as in 2008.
In this report, Wilson and others urge the federal government and private foundations to significantly increase funding for HIV prevention and treatment programs. The report also calls on international agencies to hold the U.S. government accountable for failure to address HIV/AIDS epidemic in its own country (despite lauding it for its PEPFAR efforts). It also urges black communities in the United States to fight the stigma and overcome prejudice associated with being infected with HIV.
"Peggy" found out 10 years ago that she was HIV positive. The fact that she's asked us to not use her real name is an example of the stigma that's still attached to having the virus that causes AIDS, especially in the African-American community.
"I don't really talk to many other people about it, 'cause I guess maybe, they don't want to talk," says the 27-year-old Lake Charles, Louisiana, woman. Others like her, she says, are still too ashamed to admit they have HIV.
Marvelyn Brown, 24, of Washington, is more open about her status. She learned she had HIV when she was only 19, after one time of unprotected sex while in a monogamous relationship.
Brown has told her story in a book, "The Naked Truth, " and to CNN in last week's special report, "Black in America." She regularly addresses community groups, trying to help educate blacks about the risk of of HIV and AIDS.
The report was funded by the Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
from cnn.com
Bush's AIDS Program Ignores Epidemic in US Blacks
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, whose international program has given $15 billion to combat AIDS in poor countries, is ignoring the growing epidemic in U.S. blacks, an advocacy group says.
More than 500,000 U.S. blacks carry HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the report today from the Black AIDS Institute, based in Los Angeles. Seven of 15 poor countries served by Bush's $15-billion international treatment and prevention program have fewer infected people, the group said.
Blacks account for about half of new HIV infections in the U.S. each year, even though they represent 13 percent of the population, government figures show. The virus has become the leading cause of death in black women ages 25 to 34 years, and the second-leading cause for men 35 to 44, said Phill Wilson, the institute's chief executive officer. While Bush requires that countries have a national AIDS plan to get funds for HIV treatment, the U.S. has no plan of its own, Wilson said.
``The lack of a comprehensive AIDS strategy is devastating,'' Wilson said in a telephone interview yesterday. ``We continue to work in this environment of `Alice in Wonderland' HIV prevention, where what is, isn't, and what isn't, is.''
Wilson criticized Bush for championing sexual abstinence programs as a tool of HIV prevention. Studies suggest the approach provides no information to help those who later become sexually active avoid infection. Bush also has continued a ban on federal dollars for programs that let people exchange dirty needles used to inject drugs for clean ones, a strategy that has proven effective, Wilson said.
``We've allowed ideology to trump science,'' Wilson said.
U.S. Domestic Spending
The administration is spending $402 million in the current fiscal year combating AIDS among minority groups, Bush spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said today in a voice mail. More than $99 billion has been spent for treatment and care of people with HIV and AIDS since 2001, she said.
``The administration is committed to fighting HIV/AIDS in African American communities and in all communities,'' Lawrimore said.
About 2.7 million people worldwide became infected with the AIDS virus last year, the United Nations said today in a separate report. New infections were unchanged from the previous year even as the percentage of young people having sex before age 15 fell in many African countries, and nations moved to provide pregnant mothers with drugs that prevent babies from catching HIV, the UN report found. Deaths from AIDS fell.
Some 25,000 researchers, advocates, and doctors will gather in Mexico City in a week for the biennial International AIDS Conference. Activists gathering there are waiting for a new government estimate of the number of annual U.S. infections. UNAIDS estimated 2007 North American infections at 54,000.
Gene Variant
Africans who live in the region south of the Sahara desert and their descendants around the world carry a gene variant that may make them more prone to infection, according to a July 16 study in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.
Wilson, 52, said he founded the Black AIDS Institute nine years ago to understand why the disease was spreading in black communities and how best to deal it.
Of the 33 million HIV-infected people in the world, about 22 million live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS. Bush pledged in 2003 to give $15 billion over five years for AIDS treatments in 15 African countries.
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, as it's called, has been a great success, Wilson said. Bush is expected to sign follow-up legislation, passed by Congress, giving $50 billion to the program through 2013. About 2 percent of all U.S. blacks are infected.
Still, ``U.S. policy treats AIDS as a foreign policy issue, but virtually ignores the epidemic among black citizens here at home,'' said the Reverend Al Sharpton, founder and chief executive officer of the National Action Network, a civil rights advocacy group, in a statement.
By John Lauerman for Bloomberg.com
More than 500,000 U.S. blacks carry HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the report today from the Black AIDS Institute, based in Los Angeles. Seven of 15 poor countries served by Bush's $15-billion international treatment and prevention program have fewer infected people, the group said.
Blacks account for about half of new HIV infections in the U.S. each year, even though they represent 13 percent of the population, government figures show. The virus has become the leading cause of death in black women ages 25 to 34 years, and the second-leading cause for men 35 to 44, said Phill Wilson, the institute's chief executive officer. While Bush requires that countries have a national AIDS plan to get funds for HIV treatment, the U.S. has no plan of its own, Wilson said.
``The lack of a comprehensive AIDS strategy is devastating,'' Wilson said in a telephone interview yesterday. ``We continue to work in this environment of `Alice in Wonderland' HIV prevention, where what is, isn't, and what isn't, is.''
Wilson criticized Bush for championing sexual abstinence programs as a tool of HIV prevention. Studies suggest the approach provides no information to help those who later become sexually active avoid infection. Bush also has continued a ban on federal dollars for programs that let people exchange dirty needles used to inject drugs for clean ones, a strategy that has proven effective, Wilson said.
``We've allowed ideology to trump science,'' Wilson said.
U.S. Domestic Spending
The administration is spending $402 million in the current fiscal year combating AIDS among minority groups, Bush spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said today in a voice mail. More than $99 billion has been spent for treatment and care of people with HIV and AIDS since 2001, she said.
``The administration is committed to fighting HIV/AIDS in African American communities and in all communities,'' Lawrimore said.
About 2.7 million people worldwide became infected with the AIDS virus last year, the United Nations said today in a separate report. New infections were unchanged from the previous year even as the percentage of young people having sex before age 15 fell in many African countries, and nations moved to provide pregnant mothers with drugs that prevent babies from catching HIV, the UN report found. Deaths from AIDS fell.
Some 25,000 researchers, advocates, and doctors will gather in Mexico City in a week for the biennial International AIDS Conference. Activists gathering there are waiting for a new government estimate of the number of annual U.S. infections. UNAIDS estimated 2007 North American infections at 54,000.
Gene Variant
Africans who live in the region south of the Sahara desert and their descendants around the world carry a gene variant that may make them more prone to infection, according to a July 16 study in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.
Wilson, 52, said he founded the Black AIDS Institute nine years ago to understand why the disease was spreading in black communities and how best to deal it.
Of the 33 million HIV-infected people in the world, about 22 million live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS. Bush pledged in 2003 to give $15 billion over five years for AIDS treatments in 15 African countries.
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, as it's called, has been a great success, Wilson said. Bush is expected to sign follow-up legislation, passed by Congress, giving $50 billion to the program through 2013. About 2 percent of all U.S. blacks are infected.
Still, ``U.S. policy treats AIDS as a foreign policy issue, but virtually ignores the epidemic among black citizens here at home,'' said the Reverend Al Sharpton, founder and chief executive officer of the National Action Network, a civil rights advocacy group, in a statement.
By John Lauerman for Bloomberg.com
Slavery in US Lingered Long After Civil War
This is how John Davis became a slave:
He was walking one evening from the train depot in Goodwater, Ala., when a white man appeared in the road. "Nigger," he demanded, "have you got any money?"
The white man, Robert Franklin, was a constable. He claimed Mr. Davis owed him. This was news to Mr. Davis.
"I don't owe you anything," he said.
But what Mr. Davis said did not matter. He was arrested that night and summarily convicted. A wealthy landowner, John Pace, paid the alleged $40 debt and a $35 fine in exchange for Mr. Davis' mark - Mr. Davis was illiterate - on a contract binding him to work 10 months at any task Mr. Pace demanded. For all intents and purposes, the one man now owned the other. For all intents and purposes, John Davis was John Pace's slave.
This was September 1901, 36 years after the end of the Civil War.
It would be appalling if it happened once. Douglas A. Blackmon says it happened hundreds of thousands of times in Alabama alone. Mr. Blackmon, Atlanta bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, is the author of a compelling new book, Slavery by Another Name. Yours truly flatters himself that he is well versed in black history, but this book introduced me to a chapter of that history I did not know.
I didn't know, for example, about the so-called convict leasing system of the South, wherein poor black men were routinely snatched up and tried on false, petty or nonexistent charges by compliant courts, assessed some fine they could not afford and then "sold" for the cost of that fine to some mine, turpentine farm or plantation, the money going back to the judges and sheriffs.
I did not know that when men served their time, they were sometimes subject to prompt rearrest on even flimsier charges - such as that of "stealing" the jail clothes they walked out in.
I did not know the system was so elaborate that businesses could put in orders with local sheriffs to arrest the number of men they needed.
I did not know about black men chained up in swamps and workhouses, held under armed guard, fed gruel, worked beyond human endurance, beaten beyond human decency, subjected to cruelties that made antebellum slavery seem merciful by comparison. After all, in the antebellum years, a slave represented an investment of up to $2,000, but in this new economy, slave labor was cheap, which made slave life cheaper still.
Mr. Blackmon says white men were openly buying and selling black men under this system until after World War II.
And is it too fanciful to draw a straight line from that perversion of the justice system to six black kids charged with attempted murder in Jena, La., for jumping on a white boy, or to dozens of black men and women lied into jail by a fake cop in Tulia, Texas, or to Marcus Dixon sentenced to 15 years for having sex with a white girl near Atlanta, or to studies documenting beyond refutation or debate the systemic racism of the nation's cops and courts?
Small wonder, says Mr. Blackmon, "there is a fundamental culture of skepticism, cynicism, fear of the judicial system among African-Americans."
As Mr. Blackmon sees it, the revelations here reset the clock on the old argument over how much progress blacks have or have not made since slavery "ended" in 1865: "It changes all the math of racial progress and racial achievement. Huge numbers of people who are alive today were born into a world where de facto slavery was still a part of American life."
Which is an astonishing notion, but then, Slavery by Another Name is an astonishing book. It will challenge and change your understanding of what we were as Americans - and of what we are.
Leonard Pitts Jr. for Baltimore Sun
He was walking one evening from the train depot in Goodwater, Ala., when a white man appeared in the road. "Nigger," he demanded, "have you got any money?"
The white man, Robert Franklin, was a constable. He claimed Mr. Davis owed him. This was news to Mr. Davis.
"I don't owe you anything," he said.
But what Mr. Davis said did not matter. He was arrested that night and summarily convicted. A wealthy landowner, John Pace, paid the alleged $40 debt and a $35 fine in exchange for Mr. Davis' mark - Mr. Davis was illiterate - on a contract binding him to work 10 months at any task Mr. Pace demanded. For all intents and purposes, the one man now owned the other. For all intents and purposes, John Davis was John Pace's slave.
This was September 1901, 36 years after the end of the Civil War.
It would be appalling if it happened once. Douglas A. Blackmon says it happened hundreds of thousands of times in Alabama alone. Mr. Blackmon, Atlanta bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, is the author of a compelling new book, Slavery by Another Name. Yours truly flatters himself that he is well versed in black history, but this book introduced me to a chapter of that history I did not know.
I didn't know, for example, about the so-called convict leasing system of the South, wherein poor black men were routinely snatched up and tried on false, petty or nonexistent charges by compliant courts, assessed some fine they could not afford and then "sold" for the cost of that fine to some mine, turpentine farm or plantation, the money going back to the judges and sheriffs.
I did not know that when men served their time, they were sometimes subject to prompt rearrest on even flimsier charges - such as that of "stealing" the jail clothes they walked out in.
I did not know the system was so elaborate that businesses could put in orders with local sheriffs to arrest the number of men they needed.
I did not know about black men chained up in swamps and workhouses, held under armed guard, fed gruel, worked beyond human endurance, beaten beyond human decency, subjected to cruelties that made antebellum slavery seem merciful by comparison. After all, in the antebellum years, a slave represented an investment of up to $2,000, but in this new economy, slave labor was cheap, which made slave life cheaper still.
Mr. Blackmon says white men were openly buying and selling black men under this system until after World War II.
And is it too fanciful to draw a straight line from that perversion of the justice system to six black kids charged with attempted murder in Jena, La., for jumping on a white boy, or to dozens of black men and women lied into jail by a fake cop in Tulia, Texas, or to Marcus Dixon sentenced to 15 years for having sex with a white girl near Atlanta, or to studies documenting beyond refutation or debate the systemic racism of the nation's cops and courts?
Small wonder, says Mr. Blackmon, "there is a fundamental culture of skepticism, cynicism, fear of the judicial system among African-Americans."
As Mr. Blackmon sees it, the revelations here reset the clock on the old argument over how much progress blacks have or have not made since slavery "ended" in 1865: "It changes all the math of racial progress and racial achievement. Huge numbers of people who are alive today were born into a world where de facto slavery was still a part of American life."
Which is an astonishing notion, but then, Slavery by Another Name is an astonishing book. It will challenge and change your understanding of what we were as Americans - and of what we are.
Leonard Pitts Jr. for Baltimore Sun
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Hip Hop Caucus and Grammy Award Winning Artist T.I. Launch "Respect My Vote" Voter Registration and Education Campaign
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - July 28, 2008) - The Hip Hop Caucus, www.hiphopcaucus.org, and Multi-Platinum, Grammy Award Winning Superstar T.I. have joined forces to launch a powerful new voter registration and Get Out the Vote campaign that combines the power of celebrity and media with 21st century grassroots organizing tactics to mobilize and educate young people between the ages of 18 and 29, who are not in college. The campaign slogan, "Respect My Vote!" and t-shirts were unveiled today at a press event in Washington, DC, with DJ Green Lantern, Dawn from Danity Kane, Young Berg, Maino, Wale, Young Steff, Washington Wizard Etan Thomas, Olympic Gold Medalist Anthony Killieberew, Immortal Technique, Pleasure P, World Class Sprinter and Champion Michael Walton, BET Executive Vice President Stephen Hill and many others turning out to support.
The campaign, led by T.I., will employ other celebrities, athletes and high profile influential figures to get out the vote in a variety of ways including PSAs for radio, television and online use; in person appearances; press events; mobile and email alerts from celebrities themselves; and an aggressive online campaign. Famed photographer Jonathan Mannion has been exclusively tapped to shoot portraits of the famous faces adoring the "Respect My Vote!" slogan and t-shirt produced by forthcoming AKOO clothing line as well as direct and produce the PSAs. Confirmed participating talent will be announced throughout the campaign leading up to the November election.
Grassroots voter registration activities will be led by Hip Hop Caucus community-based street teams in seventeen (17) cities across the nation: CA (Bay Area), FL (Miami), GA (Atlanta), IN (Indianapolis), MD (Baltimore), MI (Detroit), MO (St. Louis), NC (Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham), OH (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus), PA (Philadelphia), TX (Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston), VA (Richmond), and DC (Washington, DC).
Hip Hop Caucus President, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., who helped create VOTE OR DIE! with Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2004, explains, "No matter who wins in November, if large numbers of young people do not vote, then we all lose. It does not bode well for the future of our country, and our Democracy, if young people, particularly those who are not in college, are not engaged or involved in the electoral process. This campaign is critical in strengthening our Democracy and thus protecting our freedom."
Half of young Americans ages 18-29 have never enrolled in college. According to research done by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), a non-partisan research center, nearly 80 percent of the young voters who turned out on Super Tuesday had college experience. The disparity between college educated and non-college educated young voter participation is also evident by their turnout rates: one in four eligible young voters with college experience voted on Super Tuesday, compared with one in 14 eligible young voters with no college experience.
Based on these statistics, the Hip Hop Caucus and T.I. have elected to focus on engaging those individuals who are part of the larger scope of the non-college and non-voting community.
T.I., who is gearing up for the release of his highly anticipated new album, "Paper Trail" (Grand Hustle/Atlantic Records) on September 30th and has grown to truly be one of his generation's most captivating speakers, explains, "It's an honor and a pleasure to be involved with the Hip Hop Caucus and be a part of such a worthy cause and important campaign. I look forward to urging the masses to take advantage of the right that I no longer have."
This campaign will build on what worked in 2004 by using proven market outreach strategies in an electoral context. With programs including bus tours, street teams to register voters, voter education events during the Democratic and Republican Conventions and other events, we will integrate the audience building capacity of celebrities and media, and the data management and technology available for political organizations. The campaign will provide insights and data into the political behavior of this generally unengaged citizenry, and build sustainable community participation.
For more information visit www.hiphopcaucus.org or www.trapmuzik.com or to request press conference b-roll and photos please contact Tracy Nguyen, tnguyen@5wpr.com or Reggie Dance, rdance@5wpr.com at 5W Public Relations, 212-999-5585.
About the Hip Hop Caucus:
The Hip Hop Caucus was established in September 2004 by activists and organizers who were working to get out the vote. In organizing and mobilizing around the 2004 elections we realized the critical need for a sustainable political organization that empowers the Hip Hop generation to participate in the policymaking process. Through the Hip Hop Caucus we are challenging the demonization of a generation and culture by creating a space for young people to speak up -- to discuss and debate a new vision of a society and a government that works for all of us. We engage the Hip Hop generation, those born after 1964, through issue campaigns, events, and voter education.
from Marketwire.com
The campaign, led by T.I., will employ other celebrities, athletes and high profile influential figures to get out the vote in a variety of ways including PSAs for radio, television and online use; in person appearances; press events; mobile and email alerts from celebrities themselves; and an aggressive online campaign. Famed photographer Jonathan Mannion has been exclusively tapped to shoot portraits of the famous faces adoring the "Respect My Vote!" slogan and t-shirt produced by forthcoming AKOO clothing line as well as direct and produce the PSAs. Confirmed participating talent will be announced throughout the campaign leading up to the November election.
Grassroots voter registration activities will be led by Hip Hop Caucus community-based street teams in seventeen (17) cities across the nation: CA (Bay Area), FL (Miami), GA (Atlanta), IN (Indianapolis), MD (Baltimore), MI (Detroit), MO (St. Louis), NC (Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham), OH (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus), PA (Philadelphia), TX (Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston), VA (Richmond), and DC (Washington, DC).
Hip Hop Caucus President, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., who helped create VOTE OR DIE! with Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2004, explains, "No matter who wins in November, if large numbers of young people do not vote, then we all lose. It does not bode well for the future of our country, and our Democracy, if young people, particularly those who are not in college, are not engaged or involved in the electoral process. This campaign is critical in strengthening our Democracy and thus protecting our freedom."
Half of young Americans ages 18-29 have never enrolled in college. According to research done by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), a non-partisan research center, nearly 80 percent of the young voters who turned out on Super Tuesday had college experience. The disparity between college educated and non-college educated young voter participation is also evident by their turnout rates: one in four eligible young voters with college experience voted on Super Tuesday, compared with one in 14 eligible young voters with no college experience.
Based on these statistics, the Hip Hop Caucus and T.I. have elected to focus on engaging those individuals who are part of the larger scope of the non-college and non-voting community.
T.I., who is gearing up for the release of his highly anticipated new album, "Paper Trail" (Grand Hustle/Atlantic Records) on September 30th and has grown to truly be one of his generation's most captivating speakers, explains, "It's an honor and a pleasure to be involved with the Hip Hop Caucus and be a part of such a worthy cause and important campaign. I look forward to urging the masses to take advantage of the right that I no longer have."
This campaign will build on what worked in 2004 by using proven market outreach strategies in an electoral context. With programs including bus tours, street teams to register voters, voter education events during the Democratic and Republican Conventions and other events, we will integrate the audience building capacity of celebrities and media, and the data management and technology available for political organizations. The campaign will provide insights and data into the political behavior of this generally unengaged citizenry, and build sustainable community participation.
For more information visit www.hiphopcaucus.org or www.trapmuzik.com or to request press conference b-roll and photos please contact Tracy Nguyen, tnguyen@5wpr.com or Reggie Dance, rdance@5wpr.com at 5W Public Relations, 212-999-5585.
About the Hip Hop Caucus:
The Hip Hop Caucus was established in September 2004 by activists and organizers who were working to get out the vote. In organizing and mobilizing around the 2004 elections we realized the critical need for a sustainable political organization that empowers the Hip Hop generation to participate in the policymaking process. Through the Hip Hop Caucus we are challenging the demonization of a generation and culture by creating a space for young people to speak up -- to discuss and debate a new vision of a society and a government that works for all of us. We engage the Hip Hop generation, those born after 1964, through issue campaigns, events, and voter education.
from Marketwire.com
Sugary Drinks Boost Black Women's Diabetes Risk
Women who drink soda pop and sugar-sweetened fruit drinks and juices on a regular basis are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, a study of African-American women has found.
Orange juice, grapefruit juice and diet pop weren't associated with a higher incidence of diabetes, the researchers found.
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, is one of the largest to focus on diabetes risk factors among African-American women, who, as a group, are twice as likely as white women to be diagnosed with the disease.
Having two or more soft drinks a day increased the risk of developing diabetes by 24 percent, compared with women who drank less than one soft drink per month, the researchers found.
Women who drank Kool-Aid, fortified juice drinks and fruit juices at least twice a day were 31 percent more likely to develop diabetes, even though these beverages are often billed as a healthy alternative to pop.
The study's authors noted that high intake of sugary drinks is linked to weight gain and obesity -- one of the key risk factors for diabetes.
suntimes.com/
Orange juice, grapefruit juice and diet pop weren't associated with a higher incidence of diabetes, the researchers found.
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, is one of the largest to focus on diabetes risk factors among African-American women, who, as a group, are twice as likely as white women to be diagnosed with the disease.
Having two or more soft drinks a day increased the risk of developing diabetes by 24 percent, compared with women who drank less than one soft drink per month, the researchers found.
Women who drank Kool-Aid, fortified juice drinks and fruit juices at least twice a day were 31 percent more likely to develop diabetes, even though these beverages are often billed as a healthy alternative to pop.
The study's authors noted that high intake of sugary drinks is linked to weight gain and obesity -- one of the key risk factors for diabetes.
suntimes.com/
Thousands of Black Men in Northeast Ohio Unemployed
As the region and the state strive to prepare workers to compete in the new economy, a local research group warns that huge numbers of people are likely to be left behind.
Tens of thousands of black men are not only unemployed but also nearly unemployable in a knowledge-based economy, so investments in higher education and in high-skills job training will not reach them, PolicyBridge argues in a study to be released today.
"The Job Prescription: Examining Pervasive Joblessness Among African-American Men" argues that creative strategies are needed to re-introduce the working life to jobless black adults, some of whom have given up on ever finding steady work.
"That's a pretty scary trend," said Randell McShepard, a vice president at RPM International and chairman of PolicyBridge, a think tank founded in 2005 to explore issues critical to the black community. "It's the kind of thing we don't talk about so much."
The report, written by McShepard and Mark Batson, PolicyBridge's executive director, along with researcher Fran Stewart, warns of a "full-blown economic emergency" left largely untreated.
It's well known that the black unemployment rate well exceeds the white unemployment rate here and nationally, but even that alarming number reflects only people actively looking for work, the authors point out.
For a clearer look at the work force, the authors combined the numbers of unemployed with the numbers of jobless black adults reported to the U.S. Census Bureau.
By their reckoning, 38 percent of black men ages 25 to 54 in Cleveland are not in the labor force. Regionwide, 31 percent of black men of prime working age are not employed.
The numbers do not surprise Claudia Coulton, co-director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University.
"That's the long-term trend that people are concerned about: More African-American men are disconnected from the labor force," she said.
Some are disabled. Some have felony records. Some have lost hope and are no longer looking, the authors say. Their sheer numbers - about 35,000 adults in the region - demand attention.
"That's a big number of people who are going to be disenfranchised for a very long time," McShepard said.
"Somehow, new ideas need to come to the table," Batson added.
Often, a work ethic is lost in communities afflicted with long-term joblessness, making its residents even less attractive to employers.
The report calls for focused attention to the problem and suggests a couple of helping strategies.
Investments aimed at increasing the numbers of college graduates and high-tech workers, while important, will not lift the urban black underclass anytime soon, the report argues.
PolicyBridge calls for more basic adult job training and job matching. It suggests alternatives to jail for drug offenders, like "skills training camps," and more programs aimed at helping high school dropouts earn degrees.
The issue may even demand a marketing campaign, one promoting the working life in communities where men rarely leave the home for work.
"The standard and usual practices for placing these hard-to-place individuals, we know they don't work," McShepard said. "We're saying something different has to happen."
Find the report online at www.policy-bridge.org, or call 216-344-4600.
Tens of thousands of black men are not only unemployed but also nearly unemployable in a knowledge-based economy, so investments in higher education and in high-skills job training will not reach them, PolicyBridge argues in a study to be released today.
"The Job Prescription: Examining Pervasive Joblessness Among African-American Men" argues that creative strategies are needed to re-introduce the working life to jobless black adults, some of whom have given up on ever finding steady work.
"That's a pretty scary trend," said Randell McShepard, a vice president at RPM International and chairman of PolicyBridge, a think tank founded in 2005 to explore issues critical to the black community. "It's the kind of thing we don't talk about so much."
The report, written by McShepard and Mark Batson, PolicyBridge's executive director, along with researcher Fran Stewart, warns of a "full-blown economic emergency" left largely untreated.
It's well known that the black unemployment rate well exceeds the white unemployment rate here and nationally, but even that alarming number reflects only people actively looking for work, the authors point out.
For a clearer look at the work force, the authors combined the numbers of unemployed with the numbers of jobless black adults reported to the U.S. Census Bureau.
By their reckoning, 38 percent of black men ages 25 to 54 in Cleveland are not in the labor force. Regionwide, 31 percent of black men of prime working age are not employed.
The numbers do not surprise Claudia Coulton, co-director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University.
"That's the long-term trend that people are concerned about: More African-American men are disconnected from the labor force," she said.
Some are disabled. Some have felony records. Some have lost hope and are no longer looking, the authors say. Their sheer numbers - about 35,000 adults in the region - demand attention.
"That's a big number of people who are going to be disenfranchised for a very long time," McShepard said.
"Somehow, new ideas need to come to the table," Batson added.
Often, a work ethic is lost in communities afflicted with long-term joblessness, making its residents even less attractive to employers.
The report calls for focused attention to the problem and suggests a couple of helping strategies.
Investments aimed at increasing the numbers of college graduates and high-tech workers, while important, will not lift the urban black underclass anytime soon, the report argues.
PolicyBridge calls for more basic adult job training and job matching. It suggests alternatives to jail for drug offenders, like "skills training camps," and more programs aimed at helping high school dropouts earn degrees.
The issue may even demand a marketing campaign, one promoting the working life in communities where men rarely leave the home for work.
"The standard and usual practices for placing these hard-to-place individuals, we know they don't work," McShepard said. "We're saying something different has to happen."
Find the report online at www.policy-bridge.org, or call 216-344-4600.
Rights Group: UK Trained Kenya 'Torture Troops'
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A human rights group called on Monday for suspension of international military cooperation with Kenya, saying Britain helped train Kenyan troops who are accused of torture and murder.
Human Rights Watch says such aid should be halted until there is an independent investigation and action is taken against those responsible for atrocities.
Britain and the U.S. provide assistance and training to security forces in Kenya, which is considered a regional hub for controlling extremist Islamist groups in the Horn of Africa.
"The British people should be concerned that their money is being spent on training forces implicated in torture, murder and disappearances," said researcher Ben Rawlence, who wrote Monday's report.
Human Rights Watch and other local human rights groups documented hundreds of cases of torture and dozens of disappearances during a Kenyan military operation against a brutal militia in the country's western Mount Elgon district.
The militia, the feared Sabaot Land Defense Force, had mutilated and murdered hundreds of people during a land dispute before the military operation began in March. Blanket detentions by Kenyan security forces swept up thousands of people, including children as young as 11.
The military denies allegations of torture.
Britain helped train one of several army units deployed to the area in counterinsurgency techniques. Several victims identified their torturers as members of the 20 Paratrooper unit by their insignia of green berets with a white paratrooper ensign on the front.
"Given the Kenyan government's lack of transparency about the abuses in Mount Elgon, the U.K. and U.S. governments cannot say with certainty that U.S. or U.K.-trained units were not involved in torture," the Human Rights Watch report said.
Human Rights Watch said it documented dozens of cases of torture by police, paramilitary and military units
"The British government has a duty to make sure the forces it trains are abiding by the law and if they don't, they should stop supporting them," said Rawlence. "The Kenyans claim this is how counterinsurgency is done. If that is true, Britain should have no part of it."
British officials, asked to comment, had no immediate response. But a Kenyan defense spokesman said the allegations were nonsense.
"Our personnel are not trained to torture people they are supposed to protect," said Bogita Ongeri. He said the military had not been involved in torture because they had received no complaints, and said he would welcome independent investigations, as long as the investigators sought permission from the military first.
Ongeri refused to discuss the involvement of the paratrooper unit, citing operational security.
The Mount Elgon conflict has its roots in a long-running land dispute that has been manipulated by local politicians. The militia group first emerged in 2006, predating the deadly clashes sparked by disputed national elections in December. But activists say the causes of grievances over land, corruption and local officials who encourage violence to seize power is common to both conflicts.
By KATHARINE HOURELD
Human Rights Watch says such aid should be halted until there is an independent investigation and action is taken against those responsible for atrocities.
Britain and the U.S. provide assistance and training to security forces in Kenya, which is considered a regional hub for controlling extremist Islamist groups in the Horn of Africa.
"The British people should be concerned that their money is being spent on training forces implicated in torture, murder and disappearances," said researcher Ben Rawlence, who wrote Monday's report.
Human Rights Watch and other local human rights groups documented hundreds of cases of torture and dozens of disappearances during a Kenyan military operation against a brutal militia in the country's western Mount Elgon district.
The militia, the feared Sabaot Land Defense Force, had mutilated and murdered hundreds of people during a land dispute before the military operation began in March. Blanket detentions by Kenyan security forces swept up thousands of people, including children as young as 11.
The military denies allegations of torture.
Britain helped train one of several army units deployed to the area in counterinsurgency techniques. Several victims identified their torturers as members of the 20 Paratrooper unit by their insignia of green berets with a white paratrooper ensign on the front.
"Given the Kenyan government's lack of transparency about the abuses in Mount Elgon, the U.K. and U.S. governments cannot say with certainty that U.S. or U.K.-trained units were not involved in torture," the Human Rights Watch report said.
Human Rights Watch said it documented dozens of cases of torture by police, paramilitary and military units
"The British government has a duty to make sure the forces it trains are abiding by the law and if they don't, they should stop supporting them," said Rawlence. "The Kenyans claim this is how counterinsurgency is done. If that is true, Britain should have no part of it."
British officials, asked to comment, had no immediate response. But a Kenyan defense spokesman said the allegations were nonsense.
"Our personnel are not trained to torture people they are supposed to protect," said Bogita Ongeri. He said the military had not been involved in torture because they had received no complaints, and said he would welcome independent investigations, as long as the investigators sought permission from the military first.
Ongeri refused to discuss the involvement of the paratrooper unit, citing operational security.
The Mount Elgon conflict has its roots in a long-running land dispute that has been manipulated by local politicians. The militia group first emerged in 2006, predating the deadly clashes sparked by disputed national elections in December. But activists say the causes of grievances over land, corruption and local officials who encourage violence to seize power is common to both conflicts.
By KATHARINE HOURELD
Sunday, July 27, 2008
T.I. Partners With Hip-Hop Caucus For Voter Registration Drive
T.I. and the Hip-Hop Caucus have partnered to form a voter registration initiative targeted at young adults, aged 18 to 29.
The “Get Out The Vote” pact was announced today and next week the campaign will kick off with Tip and the organization holding a press conference in Washington D.C.
The campaign slogan and t-shirts will be revealed at the event, to be held the morning of July 28 at the 9:30 Club.
T.I. will be the major spokesman, but will be joined by other celebrities and key figures. PSAs, online marketing, and photos by famed hip-hop lensman Jonathan Mannion will be used.
During the last presidential election, Diddy launched the “Vote or Die” campaign, which registered a number of first time voters. The Russell Simmons founded Hip-Hop Action Summit Network has also been responsible for securing a number of young people to vote. Simmons official resigned form his board position of HHSAN (a non-partisan group) after officially endorsing Illinois Senator Barack Obama during the Democratic primary.
LaTisha Robbins
XXL Magazine
The “Get Out The Vote” pact was announced today and next week the campaign will kick off with Tip and the organization holding a press conference in Washington D.C.
The campaign slogan and t-shirts will be revealed at the event, to be held the morning of July 28 at the 9:30 Club.
T.I. will be the major spokesman, but will be joined by other celebrities and key figures. PSAs, online marketing, and photos by famed hip-hop lensman Jonathan Mannion will be used.
During the last presidential election, Diddy launched the “Vote or Die” campaign, which registered a number of first time voters. The Russell Simmons founded Hip-Hop Action Summit Network has also been responsible for securing a number of young people to vote. Simmons official resigned form his board position of HHSAN (a non-partisan group) after officially endorsing Illinois Senator Barack Obama during the Democratic primary.
LaTisha Robbins
XXL Magazine
House to Take Up Apology for Slavery and Racial Segregation
The House is scheduled to take up a resolution (H.Res.194) next week "apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans."
The resolution was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.), a white Democrat who represents a majority African-American district in Memphis. Early in 2007, Cohen expressed interest in joiing the Congressional Black Caucus but later backed away from that idea. The CBC's PAC has actually donated money to an African-American Democrat challenging Cohen, but he has received re-election backing from Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and some other prominent black lawmakers.
The resolution, which was introduced at the beginning of the 110th Congress, makes no mention of reparations, but it does state that black Americans "continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow--long after both systems were formally abolished...."
The resoltion also acknowledges that an apology an apology "cannot erase the past, but confession of the wrongs committed can speed racial healing and reconciliation and help Americans confront the ghosts of their past."
Cohen's resolution, which will be taken up under suspension, meaning it must receive a two-thirds vote in order to pass. The resolution has 120 co-sponsors.
Here is the entire text of Cohen's resoltuion:
"Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.
Whereas millions of Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and the 13 American colonies from 1619 through 1865;
Whereas slavery in America resembled no other form of involuntary servitude known in history, as Africans were captured and sold at auction like inanimate objects or animals;
Whereas Africans forced into slavery were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage;
Whereas enslaved families were torn apart after having been sold separately from one another;
Whereas the system of slavery and the visceral racism against persons of African descent upon which it depended became entrenched in the Nation's social fabric;
Whereas slavery was not officially abolished until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865 after the end of the Civil War, which was fought over the slavery issue;
Whereas after emancipation from 246 years of slavery, African-Americans soon saw the fleeting political, social, and economic gains they made during Reconstruction eviscerated by virulent racism, lynchings, disenfranchisement, Black Codes, and racial segregation laws that imposed a rigid system of officially sanctioned racial segregation in virtually all areas of life;
Continue reading post...
By John Bresnahan for teh Politico
The resolution was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.), a white Democrat who represents a majority African-American district in Memphis. Early in 2007, Cohen expressed interest in joiing the Congressional Black Caucus but later backed away from that idea. The CBC's PAC has actually donated money to an African-American Democrat challenging Cohen, but he has received re-election backing from Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and some other prominent black lawmakers.
The resolution, which was introduced at the beginning of the 110th Congress, makes no mention of reparations, but it does state that black Americans "continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow--long after both systems were formally abolished...."
The resoltion also acknowledges that an apology an apology "cannot erase the past, but confession of the wrongs committed can speed racial healing and reconciliation and help Americans confront the ghosts of their past."
Cohen's resolution, which will be taken up under suspension, meaning it must receive a two-thirds vote in order to pass. The resolution has 120 co-sponsors.
Here is the entire text of Cohen's resoltuion:
"Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.
Whereas millions of Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and the 13 American colonies from 1619 through 1865;
Whereas slavery in America resembled no other form of involuntary servitude known in history, as Africans were captured and sold at auction like inanimate objects or animals;
Whereas Africans forced into slavery were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage;
Whereas enslaved families were torn apart after having been sold separately from one another;
Whereas the system of slavery and the visceral racism against persons of African descent upon which it depended became entrenched in the Nation's social fabric;
Whereas slavery was not officially abolished until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865 after the end of the Civil War, which was fought over the slavery issue;
Whereas after emancipation from 246 years of slavery, African-Americans soon saw the fleeting political, social, and economic gains they made during Reconstruction eviscerated by virulent racism, lynchings, disenfranchisement, Black Codes, and racial segregation laws that imposed a rigid system of officially sanctioned racial segregation in virtually all areas of life;
Continue reading post...
By John Bresnahan for teh Politico
Bush Orders Expanded US sanctions on Zimbabwe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Friday expanded U.S. sanctions against the "illegitimate" Zimbabwe government of President Robert Mugabe and the United States moved to freeze assets of 17 state-controlled businesses.
"This action is a direct result of the Mugabe regime's continued politically motivated violence," Bush said in a statement.
Mugabe won a landslide victory last month in an election condemned by Western nations and boycotted by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who cited government-sponsored violence and intimidation.
The Treasury Department moved to freeze assets under U.S. jurisdiction of 17 business enterprises controlled by the Zimbabwean government.
The Treasury said it was banning Americans from doing business with the enterprises, which included the Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe and producers of minerals, steel, textiles, chemicals and other services.
Mugabe, himself, has been under U.S. sanctions since March 2003, American officials said.
Bush said he took the step to expand sanctions after Mugabe's government disregarded calls from the African Union, the United Nations and the Southern African Development Community to stop attacks against opposition supporters and officials.
"Should ongoing talks in South Africa between Mugabe's regime and the Movement of Democratic Change result in a new government that reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people, the United States stands ready to provide a substantial assistance package, development aid, and normalization with international financial institutions," Bush said.
Mugabe's party and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have started talks under South African mediation on a possible power-sharing deal to break a deadlock over Mugabe's victory in a June 27 run-off election.
The opposition says 120 of its supporters have been killed and many others tortured and beaten since the first round of the elections on March 29, which Tsvangirai won but fell short of the margin needed to avoid a run-off.
Mugabe blames the opposition for the violence.
African governments see a national unity government as the only way to reverse Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and avert an escalation of political violence.
Bush authorized using up to $2.5 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund to help Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers displaced by the violence.
Russia and China this month blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, led by the United States and Britain, in response to the violence.
By Tabassum Zakaria for AP
"This action is a direct result of the Mugabe regime's continued politically motivated violence," Bush said in a statement.
Mugabe won a landslide victory last month in an election condemned by Western nations and boycotted by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who cited government-sponsored violence and intimidation.
The Treasury Department moved to freeze assets under U.S. jurisdiction of 17 business enterprises controlled by the Zimbabwean government.
The Treasury said it was banning Americans from doing business with the enterprises, which included the Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe and producers of minerals, steel, textiles, chemicals and other services.
Mugabe, himself, has been under U.S. sanctions since March 2003, American officials said.
Bush said he took the step to expand sanctions after Mugabe's government disregarded calls from the African Union, the United Nations and the Southern African Development Community to stop attacks against opposition supporters and officials.
"Should ongoing talks in South Africa between Mugabe's regime and the Movement of Democratic Change result in a new government that reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people, the United States stands ready to provide a substantial assistance package, development aid, and normalization with international financial institutions," Bush said.
Mugabe's party and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have started talks under South African mediation on a possible power-sharing deal to break a deadlock over Mugabe's victory in a June 27 run-off election.
The opposition says 120 of its supporters have been killed and many others tortured and beaten since the first round of the elections on March 29, which Tsvangirai won but fell short of the margin needed to avoid a run-off.
Mugabe blames the opposition for the violence.
African governments see a national unity government as the only way to reverse Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and avert an escalation of political violence.
Bush authorized using up to $2.5 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund to help Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers displaced by the violence.
Russia and China this month blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, led by the United States and Britain, in response to the violence.
By Tabassum Zakaria for AP
Jamaica PM Proposes Change to Fight Crime
Associated Press
KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Jamaica's prime minister is proposing to let police hold criminal suspects as long as 72 hours without bail as a measure to fight violent crime.
Bruce Golding's amendment to Jamaica's Bail Act would extend the legal detention period by two full days.
Golding says police are reporting increasing numbers of suspects committing crimes shortly after being arrested and released on bail. He did not offer statistics Tuesday evening when he announced the measure in Parliament.
The government has been under pressure to reduce violent crime in this Caribbean nation of 2.8 million. More than 850 people have been killed here this year.
Lawmakers will take up the proposal in coming days.
AP
KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Jamaica's prime minister is proposing to let police hold criminal suspects as long as 72 hours without bail as a measure to fight violent crime.
Bruce Golding's amendment to Jamaica's Bail Act would extend the legal detention period by two full days.
Golding says police are reporting increasing numbers of suspects committing crimes shortly after being arrested and released on bail. He did not offer statistics Tuesday evening when he announced the measure in Parliament.
The government has been under pressure to reduce violent crime in this Caribbean nation of 2.8 million. More than 850 people have been killed here this year.
Lawmakers will take up the proposal in coming days.
AP
Friday, July 25, 2008
Blacks in Congress Split Over Menthol Cigarettes
Free cigarettes are no longer handed out at Congressional Black Caucus functions. And it has been years since anyone referred to Edolphus Towns, Democrat of Brooklyn, as the “Marlboro Man” for his campaign contributions from the tobacco industry.
But the Congressional Black Caucus has not severed its financial ties to big tobacco. And that can complicate matters when the political discussion involves smoking’s impact on African-Americans.
A rift has opened in the 43-member caucus over a menthol provision in legislation that would enable the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. To reduce smoking’s appeal to teenagers, the legislation would outlaw flavored cigarettes — except for menthol cigarettes, which are specifically exempted.
With menthol brands making up about 28 percent of the $70 billion American cigarette market, the exemption was seen as a necessary compromise to win broad backing for the legislation.
But menthol has become a politically charged subject in Washington because an estimated 75 percent of black smokers choose mentholated brands.
Scientists have long wondered whether menthol might play a role in the disproportionate share of smoking-related cancer among African-Americans — if for no other reason than the additive may mask the harshness of the smoke, making it easier for teenagers to begin smoking.
Critics of the menthol exemption tend to denounce it as a sellout to the tobacco industry, and some members of the black caucus are pressing to narrow the exemption or ban menthol outright. But other caucus members oppose any changes, saying that pushing too hard now on menthol could endanger the legislation.
Concerns about the racial implications of menthol may have been heightened last week by a Harvard study stating that cigarette makers had deliberately manipulated menthol levels to attract young people.
As long as two decades ago, Brown & Williamson, then the maker of Kool cigarettes, concluded that the menthol cigarette was a “good starter product” because new smokers “already know what menthol tastes like, vis-Ã -vis candy,” according to a company memo.
“It’s a very emotional issue,” said Elijah E. Cummings, a member of the caucus from Maryland who tells stories of the deadly impact of cigarette smoking in his hometown, Baltimore. He opposes the menthol exemption.
But the caucus’s chairwoman, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, says its members, all Democrats, are deeply divided on the subject. “The caucus is split,” she said. “We do want to see menthol regulated, but we’re convinced that eliminating or prohibiting menthol would be a killer for the bill.”
The legislation in its current form, with the menthol exemption, has broad support in the House. It also has the backing of many health groups, as well as the nation’s biggest cigarette company, Philip Morris USA, whose support is considered crucial for passage. The company makes Marlboro Menthol, the second-biggest menthol brand.
Philip Morris over the years has been one of the biggest contributors to the caucus’s nonprofit Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. That financial support, in some years exceeding $250,000, and lesser amounts at times from other cigarette makers, has been the reason some critics perceived an alliance between big tobacco and African-American members of Congress, some of whom were willing to help fend off antitobacco efforts.
Among them, some critics have said, was Charles B. Rangel of New York. Although he supported some antitobacco initiatives, until the last few years Mr. Rangel staunchly opposed federal tobacco tax increases. He has said his stand was based on the disproportionate effect of excise taxes on the poor, not the thousands of dollars he received in tobacco industry political action committee donations.
Some caucus members have always seen tobacco money as a Faustian bargain and refused to take such donations, urging their colleagues to do likewise. One of them, John Lewis of Georgia, once told a reporter, “People are reluctant to criticize the giver, to bite the hand that feeds them.”
Black lawmakers who maintain strong tobacco industry ties include James E. Clyburn, who represents a tobacco-growing region of South Carolina and is majority whip of the House. Last year, Altria, the parent of Philip Morris, donated $50,000 to an endowment he established at South Carolina State University, a historically black college.
And yet, even before the menthol controversy erupted, tobacco money was gradually becoming less crucial to the group, as it attracted more money from a broader segment of industries, including drug makers.
Last year the caucus unanimously supported legislation to finance the children’s health insurance program, Schip, with a 45-cent tax increase on tobacco products. Mr. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, sponsored the legislation. The caucus has sponsored college antismoking programs and smoking-cessation talks.
Ms. Kilpatrick, from Michigan, said the black caucus was drafting an amendment to the House tobacco regulation bill, possibly to call for a study of menthol. That is short of what some members had hoped for — a phase-out of menthol cigarettes.
Philip Morris declined to say whether the company would continue its support for the bill if menthol were banned.
Some supporters of the legislation in its current form argue that an outright ban on menthol may drive menthol smokers to contraband imported cigarettes.
The Bush administration opposes the tobacco legislation, saying it would do more harm than good by seeming to give an F.D.A. imprimatur to smoking. In the Senate, the issue is not expected to be taken up until after a House floor vote, which could come before the end of July.
Tobacco companies opposed to the legislation include Lorillard, maker of the leading menthol brand, Newport, the favorite of African-American smokers. The company, which says there is no scientific evidence that menthol is harmful, argues that the legislation’s marketing restrictions would place smaller companies at a competitive disadvantage against the giant, Philip Morris.
Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, who is the House bill’s sponsor, has indicated he is unwilling to risk the bill’s passage by making major changes in its menthol language. He has said the bill gives the F.D.A. the power to regulate menthol if it is shown to be harmful. In transmitting the bill to the House of Representatives last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee included a note that urged the F.D.A. to “move quickly to address the unique public health issues posed by menthol cigarettes.”
Two former federal health secretaries, Joseph A. Califano Jr. and Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, who is African-American, met recently with Mr. Waxman to argue against the menthol exemption. Because he said he was unlikely to change his mind, they later sent him a letter saying “the current version of the bill, which gives menthol a protected status, would have the effect of discriminating against the health interests of African-Americans.” The letter was also signed by William S. Robinson, executive director of the National African-American Tobacco Prevention Network.
In response to a reporter’s query, Mr. Waxman said in a written response, “I’ve clearly heard the concerns that we can and should do more to address the issue of menthol in cigarettes.”
For his part, Mr. Cummings, listed as one of 234 co-sponsors of the legislation along with many other members of the black caucus, said he could not predict how he or the others would vote. Mr. Cummings, who formerly served as chairman of the caucus, acknowledged that tobacco contributions might have influenced caucus members in the past.
But he added, “When you look in a cancer patient’s eye, I think it becomes much more difficult to look at the contributions that may be given to support the caucus and be swayed by them than it was before.”
By STEPHANIE SAUL for NY Times
But the Congressional Black Caucus has not severed its financial ties to big tobacco. And that can complicate matters when the political discussion involves smoking’s impact on African-Americans.
A rift has opened in the 43-member caucus over a menthol provision in legislation that would enable the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. To reduce smoking’s appeal to teenagers, the legislation would outlaw flavored cigarettes — except for menthol cigarettes, which are specifically exempted.
With menthol brands making up about 28 percent of the $70 billion American cigarette market, the exemption was seen as a necessary compromise to win broad backing for the legislation.
But menthol has become a politically charged subject in Washington because an estimated 75 percent of black smokers choose mentholated brands.
Scientists have long wondered whether menthol might play a role in the disproportionate share of smoking-related cancer among African-Americans — if for no other reason than the additive may mask the harshness of the smoke, making it easier for teenagers to begin smoking.
Critics of the menthol exemption tend to denounce it as a sellout to the tobacco industry, and some members of the black caucus are pressing to narrow the exemption or ban menthol outright. But other caucus members oppose any changes, saying that pushing too hard now on menthol could endanger the legislation.
Concerns about the racial implications of menthol may have been heightened last week by a Harvard study stating that cigarette makers had deliberately manipulated menthol levels to attract young people.
As long as two decades ago, Brown & Williamson, then the maker of Kool cigarettes, concluded that the menthol cigarette was a “good starter product” because new smokers “already know what menthol tastes like, vis-Ã -vis candy,” according to a company memo.
“It’s a very emotional issue,” said Elijah E. Cummings, a member of the caucus from Maryland who tells stories of the deadly impact of cigarette smoking in his hometown, Baltimore. He opposes the menthol exemption.
But the caucus’s chairwoman, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, says its members, all Democrats, are deeply divided on the subject. “The caucus is split,” she said. “We do want to see menthol regulated, but we’re convinced that eliminating or prohibiting menthol would be a killer for the bill.”
The legislation in its current form, with the menthol exemption, has broad support in the House. It also has the backing of many health groups, as well as the nation’s biggest cigarette company, Philip Morris USA, whose support is considered crucial for passage. The company makes Marlboro Menthol, the second-biggest menthol brand.
Philip Morris over the years has been one of the biggest contributors to the caucus’s nonprofit Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. That financial support, in some years exceeding $250,000, and lesser amounts at times from other cigarette makers, has been the reason some critics perceived an alliance between big tobacco and African-American members of Congress, some of whom were willing to help fend off antitobacco efforts.
Among them, some critics have said, was Charles B. Rangel of New York. Although he supported some antitobacco initiatives, until the last few years Mr. Rangel staunchly opposed federal tobacco tax increases. He has said his stand was based on the disproportionate effect of excise taxes on the poor, not the thousands of dollars he received in tobacco industry political action committee donations.
Some caucus members have always seen tobacco money as a Faustian bargain and refused to take such donations, urging their colleagues to do likewise. One of them, John Lewis of Georgia, once told a reporter, “People are reluctant to criticize the giver, to bite the hand that feeds them.”
Black lawmakers who maintain strong tobacco industry ties include James E. Clyburn, who represents a tobacco-growing region of South Carolina and is majority whip of the House. Last year, Altria, the parent of Philip Morris, donated $50,000 to an endowment he established at South Carolina State University, a historically black college.
And yet, even before the menthol controversy erupted, tobacco money was gradually becoming less crucial to the group, as it attracted more money from a broader segment of industries, including drug makers.
Last year the caucus unanimously supported legislation to finance the children’s health insurance program, Schip, with a 45-cent tax increase on tobacco products. Mr. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, sponsored the legislation. The caucus has sponsored college antismoking programs and smoking-cessation talks.
Ms. Kilpatrick, from Michigan, said the black caucus was drafting an amendment to the House tobacco regulation bill, possibly to call for a study of menthol. That is short of what some members had hoped for — a phase-out of menthol cigarettes.
Philip Morris declined to say whether the company would continue its support for the bill if menthol were banned.
Some supporters of the legislation in its current form argue that an outright ban on menthol may drive menthol smokers to contraband imported cigarettes.
The Bush administration opposes the tobacco legislation, saying it would do more harm than good by seeming to give an F.D.A. imprimatur to smoking. In the Senate, the issue is not expected to be taken up until after a House floor vote, which could come before the end of July.
Tobacco companies opposed to the legislation include Lorillard, maker of the leading menthol brand, Newport, the favorite of African-American smokers. The company, which says there is no scientific evidence that menthol is harmful, argues that the legislation’s marketing restrictions would place smaller companies at a competitive disadvantage against the giant, Philip Morris.
Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, who is the House bill’s sponsor, has indicated he is unwilling to risk the bill’s passage by making major changes in its menthol language. He has said the bill gives the F.D.A. the power to regulate menthol if it is shown to be harmful. In transmitting the bill to the House of Representatives last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee included a note that urged the F.D.A. to “move quickly to address the unique public health issues posed by menthol cigarettes.”
Two former federal health secretaries, Joseph A. Califano Jr. and Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, who is African-American, met recently with Mr. Waxman to argue against the menthol exemption. Because he said he was unlikely to change his mind, they later sent him a letter saying “the current version of the bill, which gives menthol a protected status, would have the effect of discriminating against the health interests of African-Americans.” The letter was also signed by William S. Robinson, executive director of the National African-American Tobacco Prevention Network.
In response to a reporter’s query, Mr. Waxman said in a written response, “I’ve clearly heard the concerns that we can and should do more to address the issue of menthol in cigarettes.”
For his part, Mr. Cummings, listed as one of 234 co-sponsors of the legislation along with many other members of the black caucus, said he could not predict how he or the others would vote. Mr. Cummings, who formerly served as chairman of the caucus, acknowledged that tobacco contributions might have influenced caucus members in the past.
But he added, “When you look in a cancer patient’s eye, I think it becomes much more difficult to look at the contributions that may be given to support the caucus and be swayed by them than it was before.”
By STEPHANIE SAUL for NY Times
Men Say They Were Tortured Into Giving False Confessions by Chicago Police
Michael Tillman was 20, with a 3-year-old daughter and an infant son, when he was brought into the Area 2 police station on Chicago's South Side for questioning. His mother, Jean Tillman, says that although he had gotten into some trouble with the law as a youngster, he had been on the straight-and-narrow, working as a janitor and paying his bills, since he and his girlfriend had their first child. That was July 22, 1986.
He hasn't been home since.
Tillman is one of at least 24 African-American men that the People's Law Office in Chicago claims are still serving sentences for crimes they say they confessed to only after enduring hours of torture at the hands of Chicago police officers under Commander Jon Burge between 1972 and 1992. Although 10 of Burge's victims have been pardoned or given new trials after their illegally obtained confessions were exposed, the vast majority of the 100-plus cases have yet to be reviewed by the state of Illinois. Those men have either served out their sentences, died in custody or, like Tillman, continue to live their lives behind bars, hoping that one day they will have a fair trial.
According to Tillman's 1986 trial testimony, when he arrived at the Area 2 police station in the predawn hours of July 21, 1986, Detectives Ronald Boffo and Peter Dignan took him to a second-floor interrogation room and pressed him for information about the murder of 42-year-old Betty Howard, whose body was found the day prior in the apartment building Tillman oversaw. When he told the detectives that he knew nothing about the murder, he says that Boffo and Dignan, along with three other officers, became abusive. Without ever reading him his Miranda rights, he says they handcuffed him to the wall, hit him in the face and punched him in the stomach until he vomited blood. During the course of what appeared to be three days, rotating pairs of officers brought him to the railroad tracks behind the station and held a gun to his head, suffocated him repeatedly with thick plastic bags, poured soda up his nose and forced him into Dumpsters outside of the apartment building, ordering him to search through the rubbish for a murder weapon until, according to Detective John Yucaitis, Tillman confessed to the crime.
According to Tillman's mother, she, her husband and an attorney they called for counsel were all denied access to her son during his three days of interrogation.
A Brutal Crime and a Corrupt Investigation
According to the police investigation, Howard and her 2-year-old son were on their way to meet relatives for a birthday celebration when they were forced into a vacant apartment on the seventh floor of the South Side building. The boy was locked in the bathroom while his mother was bound to a radiator, raped, stabbed and killed with one bullet to the head. Her car and other valuables were stolen. Her son was found days later by detectives. He was still in the bathroom.
Three weeks after Tillman's arrest, police found two men driving Howard's stolen car, with the knife used to stab her still in the vehicle. Those men led the officers to 27-year-old Clarence Trotter, who had Howard's camera and stereo in his apartment. His fingerprints were found on a soda can at the murder scene, and evidence linked him to the gun used in her murder.
Police found no physical evidence tying Tillman to the scene, or to Trotter. Years later, in 1999, Trotter wrote a letter to People's Law Office attorney Flint Taylor. While he did not admit guilt in that letter, he did write that Tillman was "beat … into confessing a crime (he) did not commit."
Tillman's mother says that, given the evidence found linking Trotter to the crime, and the lack of physical evidence implicating her son, she thought for sure the judge would let him go. "We thought he was going to get out," she said. "Even his lawyer said that would probably happen. … But it wasn't that way."
Michael Tillman's lawyer presented physical evidence of abuse in court, including the blue jeans that Tillman wore during his interrogation, which hadn't been washed since and were still stained with blood. He also showed scars on his wrists from where the handcuffs pulled while he was being beaten. Despite this, and despite the fact that there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime scene, the jury did not believe him. On Dec. 18, 1986, Michael Tillman was found guilty of murder, aggravated criminal sexual assault, and aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to life in prison. The Chicago Tribune wrote the next day that "Tillman, 20, put his hand over his face and shook his head when he was found guilty."
Weeks later, after Tillman's case file was sealed, Trotter was also given a life sentence in a separate trial.
Tillman appealed the decision in 1999 and lost. The judge wrote in his decision that "a nexus was never established between defendant and either Trotter or the two individuals apprehended in possession of the victim's car." He also wrote that, even though the corroborating evidence may only be circumstantial, it "need only tend to confirm and inspire belief in the confession." "The accused's identity need not be corroborated by evidence apart from his own extrajudicial statements," he wrote. "(His) self-described involvement to police is sufficient to establish his participation in the victim's attack."
His mother says that they had a series of public defenders and lawyers they couldn't afford, and that he no longer has legal representation.
A Conspiracy of Silence
Tillman's story is not unique, nor is it particularly shocking.
By 1999, it was "common knowledge," according to U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, "that in the early to mid-1980s, (Jon Burge) and many officers working under him regularly engaged in the physical abuse and torture of prisoners to extract confessions. Both internal police accounts and numerous lawsuits and appeals brought by suspects alleging such abuse substantiate that those beatings and other means of torture occurred as an established practice, not just on an isolated basis."
The massive scandal began to unravel in 1989, when convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson launched a very public federal civil rights suit against the Chicago Police Department. Seven years before, Wilson had been beaten, shocked in the testicles and burned on the face, chest and thigh by Area 2 detectives working under Burge. What caught the eye of Chief Medical Examiner of Cermak Medical Services John Raba, however, were the small markings on his ears that he couldn't explain away. Wilson told him the markings were from alligator clips used to electrocute him, and Raba believed him. He notified then-Superintendent of Police Richard Brzeczek, who wrote a letter to then-State's Attorney Richard M. Daley, "seeking direction" on how to proceed. Daley, who is now Chicago's mayor, never responded.
Wilson was later granted a new trial and sentenced to natural life, without his illegally obtained confession. His case, however, set off a chain of events that would eventually expose the widespread, systematic use of torture within certain South Side units of the Chicago Police Department.
In 1990, a CPD Office of Professional Standards investigation, prompted by Wilson's story and the physical evidence backing it up, found that abuse at Areas 2 and 3 "was not limited to the usual beatings, but went into such esoteric areas as psychological techniques and planned torture." "Particular command members were aware of the systematic abuse and perpetuated it, either by actively participating in some or failing to take any action to bring it to an end," the report concluded. Subsequent OPS investigations found Detectives John Byrne, Peter Dignan and John Yucaitis, all involved in Michael Tillman's interrogation, to be "players" repeatedly named as abusers in Area 2 and 3 torture allegations.
During Wilson's civil trial, his attorneys at the People's Law Office began receiving anonymous letters tipping them off to other victims of police torture. Eventually, PLO lawyers compiled testimony in 107 Burge-connected torture cases, Tillman's among them.
Nevertheless, almost 20 years later, not a single police officer has been made to face charges in the massive scandal. They were all let off the hook, first by a succession of judges and legal professionals who looked the other way, and later by a statute of limitations that expired before the Illinois state attorney considered filing charges. According to Taylor, there is no state or federal law criminalizing torture by law enforcement officers. While possible offenses for torture can include attempted murder, aggravated battery, battery, assault, assault with a dangerous weapon or hate crimes, the statute on these crimes is generally five years for federal prosecution and three years in the state of Illinois.
In fact, the only officer who has thus far suffered any consequence for his actions has been Burge himself -- and his could hardly be called punishment. In 1993, the Police Board removed him from his command and forced him into early retirement. He currently lives in Apollo Beach, Fla., on a $3,400-a-month pension, where he is known to enjoy rides on his boat, the Vigilante. Other officers involved have since advanced in the ranks, as have the assistant state's attorneys who prosecuted the cases, at times burying or ignoring clear evidence of how the confessions were obtained.
Many of the co-conspirators who helped conceal the abuse are today Chicago's political elite. They include prominent Cook County and Illinois Appellate Court judges (including one of the prosecutors in Tillman's case), Illinois State's Attorney Richard Devine and Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was the state's attorney when many of the cases were tried and would have been responsible for bringing official charges against the abusive officers, but chose instead to look the other way. Devine was Daley's first assistant when he served as a "tough-on-crime" state's attorney from 1980 to 1989, a period that saw 55 allegations of confessions elicited through torture. He later went into private practice (before assuming his current role of state's attorney), where he was paid more than $1 million by the City of Chicago for defending Burge and the other officers involved in Wilson's civil suit. He then represented Burge in proceedings before the Police Board. Later, as state's attorney of Cook County, Devine discouraged investigations of Area 2 torture and continued to uphold confessions obtained by that means. Because of this conflict of interest, in 2002, at the request of a coalition of civil rights attorneys and activists, Circuit Judge Paul Biebel transferred jurisdiction over all torture-related cases to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. They have sat idle on her desk ever since.
The 10 cases that have been resolved have been done in spite of, rather than with the help of, Madigan or Devine.
Gov. George Ryan: "The Category of Horrors Was Hard to Believe"
In 2003, after years of campaigning by Chicago-area police accountability activists, then-Gov. George Ryan pardoned four Burge victims -- Madison Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Stanley Howard and Leroy Orange -- who at the time were on death row. "The category of horrors was hard to believe," Ryan said. "If I hadn't reviewed the cases myself, I wouldn't believe it. We have evidence from four men, who did not know each other, all getting beaten and tortured and convicted on the basis of the confessions they allegedly provided. They are perfect examples of what is so terribly broken about our system."
Because of the mounting criticism of the Cook County justice system, because the four men were on death row, and because their attorneys had filed for clemency, Hobley, Patterson, Howard and Orange were pardoned. But dozens of others stayed behind, out of the limelight. "These weren't death penalty cases, so they're not nearly as sexy," explained attorney Scott Schutte, who recently represented another Burge torture victim, James Andrews, in a civil suit. "These are run-of-the-mill homicides."
Andrews is one of the few additional torture victims granted new trials or evidentiary hearings. Schutte filed a post-conviction petition in Andrews' case last year, claiming that new evidence had arisen in his case. In October, Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Sumner vacated his 1984 conviction and in February of this year, the attorney general's office declined to file new charges. His case, then, became the first to be thrown out in Cook County on the basis of torture. Andrews was set free, after spending 24 years in jail for a murder he insisted he didn't commit. "All along, he knew he was going to ultimately prevail," said Schutte.
However, he added that while the attorney general's office did not prohibit Andrews from going free, it didn't help. The attorney general requested bail, which Sumner set at $300,000. "In the larger scheme of things, it's inconsequential," said Schutte. "But the family had to ... bail him out. They cashed out 401(k)s, savings, everything. They did everything they could collectively."
Only one other Burge-related case has moved on the basis of torture and still awaits conclusion: that of Cortez Brown, who has been in jail since 1990. Earlier this year, an appeals court ordered evidentiary hearing in his case after reconsidering his torture allegations. In all, of the 100-plus identified victims of police torture in Chicago, few have been acknowledged and dealt with accordingly. According to Julien Ball of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, that's because of a lack of "political will" in Chicago to try these cases. "We have people at the highest levels of public office who have built their careers on torture," said Ball. "The state of Illinois doesn't care about you if you're black and you're poor. That's what these cases show."
Joey Mogul, an attorney with the People's Law Office, says some of the lawyers are also to blame. "I think it's an accumulation of racism and classism, as well as a massive cover-up that has led many people to not get fair hearings," she said. "Their lawyers didn't believe them and didn't even request hearings."
Schutte took on Andrews' case pro bono, but Tillman hasn't been so lucky. He currently lacks representation, and despite two appeals, remains in jail for life. "It's just pretty outrageous because all of the physical evidence points to someone else," said Catherine Crawford, a Northwestern University professor and attorney who was on a team of lawyers representing Leroy Orange and has researched Tillman's case and attempted to find him legal counsel. "But they had gotten a confession out of him before they found the stolen car. I think it's just one of those situations where the police said, 'Well, we don't want to throw out this confession so we're just going to pursue this case based on our original theory.'"
Robyn Ziegler, spokesperson for the attorney general's office, told AlterNet that all Burge-related cases are "in various stages of the post-conviction process," and that, "Ethically, the attorney general is obligated to handle each case individually based on the facts and history of the case. No two cases are the same."
But advocates for victims of police torture contend that it shouldn't matter. "In each case, the same thing needs to happen," said Ball. "Madigan needs to order evidentiary hearings so torture victims can present evidence of torture on the way to winning new trials. Regardless of the differences in individual cases, every single torture victim deserves a new trial where 'confessions' that were electroshocked, beaten and suffocated out of them are not used against them." Zeigler claimed that the attorney general does not have the authority or power to initiate new hearings.
But on July 10, 2007, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution urging Madigan to do just that.
On July 18 of this year, members of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, lawyers from the People's Law Office, religious and community leaders and relatives of the wrongfully imprisoned rallied in front of Madigan's office.
"Every day Lisa Madigan sits and does nothing is a day she is furthering a cover-up," said Marlene Martin, national director of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. "We're here to ask her to have guts."
The group, which had been there twice already this year, delivered a letter with more than 400 signatures from organizations, religious institutions and concerned citizens, asking Madigan to take action on the cases of the Burge victims who remain behind bars. They are also seeking reparations, in the form of psychological treatment and financial compensation, particularly since the vast majority of the Burge victims and their families have little if any financial resources to assist them in their legal battles and recovery process.
Michael Tillman is currently being held at Menard Correctional Center in southern Illinois, about a six-hour drive from Chicago. His mother, Jean, says she used to go down and visit him twice a month, but "with gas prices the way it is, I haven't been able to get down there." Since Tillman went to jail 24 years ago, his girlfriend, Princess, left Chicago with their two children and stopped keeping in touch with the family. "After all of this happened we stayed together for a while and then we all separated," she said. "I can't tell you why." She says the kids, who are grown now, haven't been to visit him for "about ten years."
"He's missed out on everything -- his kids, his family, just life," she said. "He was just snatched away from us. It's a dreadful experience to go through."
By Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet
He hasn't been home since.
Tillman is one of at least 24 African-American men that the People's Law Office in Chicago claims are still serving sentences for crimes they say they confessed to only after enduring hours of torture at the hands of Chicago police officers under Commander Jon Burge between 1972 and 1992. Although 10 of Burge's victims have been pardoned or given new trials after their illegally obtained confessions were exposed, the vast majority of the 100-plus cases have yet to be reviewed by the state of Illinois. Those men have either served out their sentences, died in custody or, like Tillman, continue to live their lives behind bars, hoping that one day they will have a fair trial.
According to Tillman's 1986 trial testimony, when he arrived at the Area 2 police station in the predawn hours of July 21, 1986, Detectives Ronald Boffo and Peter Dignan took him to a second-floor interrogation room and pressed him for information about the murder of 42-year-old Betty Howard, whose body was found the day prior in the apartment building Tillman oversaw. When he told the detectives that he knew nothing about the murder, he says that Boffo and Dignan, along with three other officers, became abusive. Without ever reading him his Miranda rights, he says they handcuffed him to the wall, hit him in the face and punched him in the stomach until he vomited blood. During the course of what appeared to be three days, rotating pairs of officers brought him to the railroad tracks behind the station and held a gun to his head, suffocated him repeatedly with thick plastic bags, poured soda up his nose and forced him into Dumpsters outside of the apartment building, ordering him to search through the rubbish for a murder weapon until, according to Detective John Yucaitis, Tillman confessed to the crime.
According to Tillman's mother, she, her husband and an attorney they called for counsel were all denied access to her son during his three days of interrogation.
A Brutal Crime and a Corrupt Investigation
According to the police investigation, Howard and her 2-year-old son were on their way to meet relatives for a birthday celebration when they were forced into a vacant apartment on the seventh floor of the South Side building. The boy was locked in the bathroom while his mother was bound to a radiator, raped, stabbed and killed with one bullet to the head. Her car and other valuables were stolen. Her son was found days later by detectives. He was still in the bathroom.
Three weeks after Tillman's arrest, police found two men driving Howard's stolen car, with the knife used to stab her still in the vehicle. Those men led the officers to 27-year-old Clarence Trotter, who had Howard's camera and stereo in his apartment. His fingerprints were found on a soda can at the murder scene, and evidence linked him to the gun used in her murder.
Police found no physical evidence tying Tillman to the scene, or to Trotter. Years later, in 1999, Trotter wrote a letter to People's Law Office attorney Flint Taylor. While he did not admit guilt in that letter, he did write that Tillman was "beat … into confessing a crime (he) did not commit."
Tillman's mother says that, given the evidence found linking Trotter to the crime, and the lack of physical evidence implicating her son, she thought for sure the judge would let him go. "We thought he was going to get out," she said. "Even his lawyer said that would probably happen. … But it wasn't that way."
Michael Tillman's lawyer presented physical evidence of abuse in court, including the blue jeans that Tillman wore during his interrogation, which hadn't been washed since and were still stained with blood. He also showed scars on his wrists from where the handcuffs pulled while he was being beaten. Despite this, and despite the fact that there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime scene, the jury did not believe him. On Dec. 18, 1986, Michael Tillman was found guilty of murder, aggravated criminal sexual assault, and aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to life in prison. The Chicago Tribune wrote the next day that "Tillman, 20, put his hand over his face and shook his head when he was found guilty."
Weeks later, after Tillman's case file was sealed, Trotter was also given a life sentence in a separate trial.
Tillman appealed the decision in 1999 and lost. The judge wrote in his decision that "a nexus was never established between defendant and either Trotter or the two individuals apprehended in possession of the victim's car." He also wrote that, even though the corroborating evidence may only be circumstantial, it "need only tend to confirm and inspire belief in the confession." "The accused's identity need not be corroborated by evidence apart from his own extrajudicial statements," he wrote. "(His) self-described involvement to police is sufficient to establish his participation in the victim's attack."
His mother says that they had a series of public defenders and lawyers they couldn't afford, and that he no longer has legal representation.
A Conspiracy of Silence
Tillman's story is not unique, nor is it particularly shocking.
By 1999, it was "common knowledge," according to U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, "that in the early to mid-1980s, (Jon Burge) and many officers working under him regularly engaged in the physical abuse and torture of prisoners to extract confessions. Both internal police accounts and numerous lawsuits and appeals brought by suspects alleging such abuse substantiate that those beatings and other means of torture occurred as an established practice, not just on an isolated basis."
The massive scandal began to unravel in 1989, when convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson launched a very public federal civil rights suit against the Chicago Police Department. Seven years before, Wilson had been beaten, shocked in the testicles and burned on the face, chest and thigh by Area 2 detectives working under Burge. What caught the eye of Chief Medical Examiner of Cermak Medical Services John Raba, however, were the small markings on his ears that he couldn't explain away. Wilson told him the markings were from alligator clips used to electrocute him, and Raba believed him. He notified then-Superintendent of Police Richard Brzeczek, who wrote a letter to then-State's Attorney Richard M. Daley, "seeking direction" on how to proceed. Daley, who is now Chicago's mayor, never responded.
Wilson was later granted a new trial and sentenced to natural life, without his illegally obtained confession. His case, however, set off a chain of events that would eventually expose the widespread, systematic use of torture within certain South Side units of the Chicago Police Department.
In 1990, a CPD Office of Professional Standards investigation, prompted by Wilson's story and the physical evidence backing it up, found that abuse at Areas 2 and 3 "was not limited to the usual beatings, but went into such esoteric areas as psychological techniques and planned torture." "Particular command members were aware of the systematic abuse and perpetuated it, either by actively participating in some or failing to take any action to bring it to an end," the report concluded. Subsequent OPS investigations found Detectives John Byrne, Peter Dignan and John Yucaitis, all involved in Michael Tillman's interrogation, to be "players" repeatedly named as abusers in Area 2 and 3 torture allegations.
During Wilson's civil trial, his attorneys at the People's Law Office began receiving anonymous letters tipping them off to other victims of police torture. Eventually, PLO lawyers compiled testimony in 107 Burge-connected torture cases, Tillman's among them.
Nevertheless, almost 20 years later, not a single police officer has been made to face charges in the massive scandal. They were all let off the hook, first by a succession of judges and legal professionals who looked the other way, and later by a statute of limitations that expired before the Illinois state attorney considered filing charges. According to Taylor, there is no state or federal law criminalizing torture by law enforcement officers. While possible offenses for torture can include attempted murder, aggravated battery, battery, assault, assault with a dangerous weapon or hate crimes, the statute on these crimes is generally five years for federal prosecution and three years in the state of Illinois.
In fact, the only officer who has thus far suffered any consequence for his actions has been Burge himself -- and his could hardly be called punishment. In 1993, the Police Board removed him from his command and forced him into early retirement. He currently lives in Apollo Beach, Fla., on a $3,400-a-month pension, where he is known to enjoy rides on his boat, the Vigilante. Other officers involved have since advanced in the ranks, as have the assistant state's attorneys who prosecuted the cases, at times burying or ignoring clear evidence of how the confessions were obtained.
Many of the co-conspirators who helped conceal the abuse are today Chicago's political elite. They include prominent Cook County and Illinois Appellate Court judges (including one of the prosecutors in Tillman's case), Illinois State's Attorney Richard Devine and Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was the state's attorney when many of the cases were tried and would have been responsible for bringing official charges against the abusive officers, but chose instead to look the other way. Devine was Daley's first assistant when he served as a "tough-on-crime" state's attorney from 1980 to 1989, a period that saw 55 allegations of confessions elicited through torture. He later went into private practice (before assuming his current role of state's attorney), where he was paid more than $1 million by the City of Chicago for defending Burge and the other officers involved in Wilson's civil suit. He then represented Burge in proceedings before the Police Board. Later, as state's attorney of Cook County, Devine discouraged investigations of Area 2 torture and continued to uphold confessions obtained by that means. Because of this conflict of interest, in 2002, at the request of a coalition of civil rights attorneys and activists, Circuit Judge Paul Biebel transferred jurisdiction over all torture-related cases to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. They have sat idle on her desk ever since.
The 10 cases that have been resolved have been done in spite of, rather than with the help of, Madigan or Devine.
Gov. George Ryan: "The Category of Horrors Was Hard to Believe"
In 2003, after years of campaigning by Chicago-area police accountability activists, then-Gov. George Ryan pardoned four Burge victims -- Madison Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Stanley Howard and Leroy Orange -- who at the time were on death row. "The category of horrors was hard to believe," Ryan said. "If I hadn't reviewed the cases myself, I wouldn't believe it. We have evidence from four men, who did not know each other, all getting beaten and tortured and convicted on the basis of the confessions they allegedly provided. They are perfect examples of what is so terribly broken about our system."
Because of the mounting criticism of the Cook County justice system, because the four men were on death row, and because their attorneys had filed for clemency, Hobley, Patterson, Howard and Orange were pardoned. But dozens of others stayed behind, out of the limelight. "These weren't death penalty cases, so they're not nearly as sexy," explained attorney Scott Schutte, who recently represented another Burge torture victim, James Andrews, in a civil suit. "These are run-of-the-mill homicides."
Andrews is one of the few additional torture victims granted new trials or evidentiary hearings. Schutte filed a post-conviction petition in Andrews' case last year, claiming that new evidence had arisen in his case. In October, Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Sumner vacated his 1984 conviction and in February of this year, the attorney general's office declined to file new charges. His case, then, became the first to be thrown out in Cook County on the basis of torture. Andrews was set free, after spending 24 years in jail for a murder he insisted he didn't commit. "All along, he knew he was going to ultimately prevail," said Schutte.
However, he added that while the attorney general's office did not prohibit Andrews from going free, it didn't help. The attorney general requested bail, which Sumner set at $300,000. "In the larger scheme of things, it's inconsequential," said Schutte. "But the family had to ... bail him out. They cashed out 401(k)s, savings, everything. They did everything they could collectively."
Only one other Burge-related case has moved on the basis of torture and still awaits conclusion: that of Cortez Brown, who has been in jail since 1990. Earlier this year, an appeals court ordered evidentiary hearing in his case after reconsidering his torture allegations. In all, of the 100-plus identified victims of police torture in Chicago, few have been acknowledged and dealt with accordingly. According to Julien Ball of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, that's because of a lack of "political will" in Chicago to try these cases. "We have people at the highest levels of public office who have built their careers on torture," said Ball. "The state of Illinois doesn't care about you if you're black and you're poor. That's what these cases show."
Joey Mogul, an attorney with the People's Law Office, says some of the lawyers are also to blame. "I think it's an accumulation of racism and classism, as well as a massive cover-up that has led many people to not get fair hearings," she said. "Their lawyers didn't believe them and didn't even request hearings."
Schutte took on Andrews' case pro bono, but Tillman hasn't been so lucky. He currently lacks representation, and despite two appeals, remains in jail for life. "It's just pretty outrageous because all of the physical evidence points to someone else," said Catherine Crawford, a Northwestern University professor and attorney who was on a team of lawyers representing Leroy Orange and has researched Tillman's case and attempted to find him legal counsel. "But they had gotten a confession out of him before they found the stolen car. I think it's just one of those situations where the police said, 'Well, we don't want to throw out this confession so we're just going to pursue this case based on our original theory.'"
Robyn Ziegler, spokesperson for the attorney general's office, told AlterNet that all Burge-related cases are "in various stages of the post-conviction process," and that, "Ethically, the attorney general is obligated to handle each case individually based on the facts and history of the case. No two cases are the same."
But advocates for victims of police torture contend that it shouldn't matter. "In each case, the same thing needs to happen," said Ball. "Madigan needs to order evidentiary hearings so torture victims can present evidence of torture on the way to winning new trials. Regardless of the differences in individual cases, every single torture victim deserves a new trial where 'confessions' that were electroshocked, beaten and suffocated out of them are not used against them." Zeigler claimed that the attorney general does not have the authority or power to initiate new hearings.
But on July 10, 2007, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution urging Madigan to do just that.
On July 18 of this year, members of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, lawyers from the People's Law Office, religious and community leaders and relatives of the wrongfully imprisoned rallied in front of Madigan's office.
"Every day Lisa Madigan sits and does nothing is a day she is furthering a cover-up," said Marlene Martin, national director of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. "We're here to ask her to have guts."
The group, which had been there twice already this year, delivered a letter with more than 400 signatures from organizations, religious institutions and concerned citizens, asking Madigan to take action on the cases of the Burge victims who remain behind bars. They are also seeking reparations, in the form of psychological treatment and financial compensation, particularly since the vast majority of the Burge victims and their families have little if any financial resources to assist them in their legal battles and recovery process.
Michael Tillman is currently being held at Menard Correctional Center in southern Illinois, about a six-hour drive from Chicago. His mother, Jean, says she used to go down and visit him twice a month, but "with gas prices the way it is, I haven't been able to get down there." Since Tillman went to jail 24 years ago, his girlfriend, Princess, left Chicago with their two children and stopped keeping in touch with the family. "After all of this happened we stayed together for a while and then we all separated," she said. "I can't tell you why." She says the kids, who are grown now, haven't been to visit him for "about ten years."
"He's missed out on everything -- his kids, his family, just life," she said. "He was just snatched away from us. It's a dreadful experience to go through."
By Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet
US Strengthening Zimbabwe Sanctions
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe says the United States is in the process of strengthening sanctions against individual Zimbabweans blamed for deadly electoral violence.
Mark Weinberg, an embassy spokesman, says that "proposed new sanctions are under review by the White House and the State Department" and that they would target "individuals we hold responsible for subverting the will of the people of Zimbabwe, people associated with the regime and those responsible for the recent violence and political problems."
The sanctions would restrict both travel by individuals and their finances, he told AP on Friday.
The European Union on Tuesday also broadened its sanctions against Zimbabwe.
from AP
Mark Weinberg, an embassy spokesman, says that "proposed new sanctions are under review by the White House and the State Department" and that they would target "individuals we hold responsible for subverting the will of the people of Zimbabwe, people associated with the regime and those responsible for the recent violence and political problems."
The sanctions would restrict both travel by individuals and their finances, he told AP on Friday.
The European Union on Tuesday also broadened its sanctions against Zimbabwe.
from AP
Latino vs. Black Violence on the Rise in L.A.
Hate crimes in Los Angeles County rose to their highest level in five years last year, led by attacks between Latinos and blacks, officials said Thursday.
The annual report by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission showed hate crimes rose by 28%, to 763, with vandalism and assault leading the way.
In what commission Executive Director Robin Toma called an alarming trend, hate crimes based on race, religion and sexual orientation all rose, increasing against nearly all groups -- including blacks, gays, Jews, Mexicans, whites and Asians -- even as crime in general declined.
The largest number of racial hate crimes involved Latino suspects against black victims, followed by black suspects against Latino victims. Latinos also made up the largest number of suspects in hate crimes based on sexual orientation. Whites were the leading suspects in religion-based incidents. Overall, blacks made up nearly half the hate crime victims, totaling 310.
"What we're seeing is the democratization of hate crimes," said Brian Levin, who directs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. "We're not only seeing a diversification of victims but also increased diversification of offenders."
Police agencies report hate crimes to the county, but because departments vary on when they pursue hate-crime charges, variations in hate-crime numbers can stem from an actual increase in crimes or from changes in reporting. In this case, experts said they believed that hate crimes themselves, not just the reporting of them, are rising.
Levin said other areas of the country have reported similar increases, including a 30% increase in New York last year; a 10-year study published last fall found that hate crimes in New York began to increase two years ago after declining over several years.
Levin said several factors may be driving the rise, including deepening economic distress, growing ethnic diversity and population density in neighborhoods and what he called "increasingly inflammatory rhetoric" over illegal immigration.
Amanda F. Susskind, Pacific Southwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Los Angeles, said hate rhetoric is rising online and is particularly targeting youth, perpetuated in part by as many as 110 white supremacist organizations nationwide.
The rhetoric appears to be influencing other groups, Toma said. He cited law enforcement reports that some Latino gang members who targeted blacks in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles were found with neo-Nazi material and some Latino gangs were forming alliances with white supremacists in prisons to prey on blacks.
Despite the intense national debate over illegal immigration, hate crimes against immigrants decreased slightly from 42 to 39. However, the report noted that some crimes may "be inspired by anti-immigrant animus but it may not be explicitly verbalized."
The report noted, for instance, that as of last August, Pasadena police had investigated 69 crimes involving attacks against Latinos, many of them low-wage immigrant workers who were robbed and beaten, allegedly by African Americans. But none of the cases were submitted to the county commission for inclusion in the hate crime report this year.
The report quoted a statement by acting Pasadena Police Chief Christopher Vicino that investigators had theorized the crimes were racially motivated, but it was "impossible to meet the legal criteria required" for hate crimes in many cases, such as concrete evidence that prejudice was a substantial factor in the attack.
Incidents against Muslims and people from the Middle East, which increased after the 2001 terrorist attacks and drove reported hate crimes to their highest level ever in Los Angeles County, also fell last year to seven from 25 the previous year. Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council welcomed the decline but said a recent Gallup Poll showed anti-Muslim hostility had increased by 16% in the last two years, which he blamed in part on "anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric" by some presidential candidates and their supporters.
The county report found that the largest number of religion-based hate crimes was directed against Jews. In its own survey released in March, the ADL found anti-Semitic incidents declined last year to 186 from 204. The incidents included the defacing of L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss' office in Sherman Oaks with swastikas.
One of the most worrisome findings, commissioners said, was the rising number of hate crimes between Latinos and blacks -- many of them driven by gang hostility.
The report found that a third of suspected Latino-on-black crimes and 42% of suspected black-on-Latino crimes involved gangs. The crimes were increasingly violent last year, including two attempted murders.
Asked what can prevent hate crimes, the Rev. Eric P. Lee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles offered another answer.
"Pray," he said. "How else do you change someone's heart? Hatred is a spiritual wickedness."
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
The annual report by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission showed hate crimes rose by 28%, to 763, with vandalism and assault leading the way.
In what commission Executive Director Robin Toma called an alarming trend, hate crimes based on race, religion and sexual orientation all rose, increasing against nearly all groups -- including blacks, gays, Jews, Mexicans, whites and Asians -- even as crime in general declined.
The largest number of racial hate crimes involved Latino suspects against black victims, followed by black suspects against Latino victims. Latinos also made up the largest number of suspects in hate crimes based on sexual orientation. Whites were the leading suspects in religion-based incidents. Overall, blacks made up nearly half the hate crime victims, totaling 310.
"What we're seeing is the democratization of hate crimes," said Brian Levin, who directs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. "We're not only seeing a diversification of victims but also increased diversification of offenders."
Police agencies report hate crimes to the county, but because departments vary on when they pursue hate-crime charges, variations in hate-crime numbers can stem from an actual increase in crimes or from changes in reporting. In this case, experts said they believed that hate crimes themselves, not just the reporting of them, are rising.
Levin said other areas of the country have reported similar increases, including a 30% increase in New York last year; a 10-year study published last fall found that hate crimes in New York began to increase two years ago after declining over several years.
Levin said several factors may be driving the rise, including deepening economic distress, growing ethnic diversity and population density in neighborhoods and what he called "increasingly inflammatory rhetoric" over illegal immigration.
Amanda F. Susskind, Pacific Southwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Los Angeles, said hate rhetoric is rising online and is particularly targeting youth, perpetuated in part by as many as 110 white supremacist organizations nationwide.
The rhetoric appears to be influencing other groups, Toma said. He cited law enforcement reports that some Latino gang members who targeted blacks in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles were found with neo-Nazi material and some Latino gangs were forming alliances with white supremacists in prisons to prey on blacks.
Despite the intense national debate over illegal immigration, hate crimes against immigrants decreased slightly from 42 to 39. However, the report noted that some crimes may "be inspired by anti-immigrant animus but it may not be explicitly verbalized."
The report noted, for instance, that as of last August, Pasadena police had investigated 69 crimes involving attacks against Latinos, many of them low-wage immigrant workers who were robbed and beaten, allegedly by African Americans. But none of the cases were submitted to the county commission for inclusion in the hate crime report this year.
The report quoted a statement by acting Pasadena Police Chief Christopher Vicino that investigators had theorized the crimes were racially motivated, but it was "impossible to meet the legal criteria required" for hate crimes in many cases, such as concrete evidence that prejudice was a substantial factor in the attack.
Incidents against Muslims and people from the Middle East, which increased after the 2001 terrorist attacks and drove reported hate crimes to their highest level ever in Los Angeles County, also fell last year to seven from 25 the previous year. Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council welcomed the decline but said a recent Gallup Poll showed anti-Muslim hostility had increased by 16% in the last two years, which he blamed in part on "anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric" by some presidential candidates and their supporters.
The county report found that the largest number of religion-based hate crimes was directed against Jews. In its own survey released in March, the ADL found anti-Semitic incidents declined last year to 186 from 204. The incidents included the defacing of L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss' office in Sherman Oaks with swastikas.
One of the most worrisome findings, commissioners said, was the rising number of hate crimes between Latinos and blacks -- many of them driven by gang hostility.
The report found that a third of suspected Latino-on-black crimes and 42% of suspected black-on-Latino crimes involved gangs. The crimes were increasingly violent last year, including two attempted murders.
Asked what can prevent hate crimes, the Rev. Eric P. Lee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles offered another answer.
"Pray," he said. "How else do you change someone's heart? Hatred is a spiritual wickedness."
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Black Banks Stable Despite Economy
Customers at banks across the country are nervous these days because of the July 14 federal takeover of IndyMac Bank in California.
IndyMac is the second largest financial institution to fail and is now being managed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
But business at Chicago’s four Black-owned banks remains upbeat despite the IndyMac debacle, record foreclosures and a dwindling job market.
“I disagree with anyone who says the banking industry is in a downturn,” said Walter Grady, president and CEO of Seaway Bank and Trust Co. “The banking industry is strong, and Black banks are thriving here in Chicago and elsewhere. And even though a lot of banks are involved in sub prime loans, Seaway does not do sub prime loans. If we cannot get you qualified for a conventional loan, then we deny your loan request.”
Seaway, headquartered at 645 E. 87th St., is Chicago’s largest Blackowned bank with $350 million in assets.
Grady added that Seaway currently has a $40 million mortgage portfolio and advises anyone renting to continue renting if they cannot get a conventional loan such as one with a fixed interest rate.
“You know you cannot afford a $1,200 monthly mortgage if you’re making $200 a week,” Grady said.
“What has happened is that a lot of first time Black home buyers have been misled to think they only can qualify for a sub prime loan when that is not always the case.”
Economists say that the current foreclosure crisis, caused largely by sub prime lending, is crippling some financial institutions such as banks that offer those types of non-conventional loans.
But at Illinois Service Federal, a Black-owned bank at 4619 S.King Drive, no sub prime loans are offered. Still, many of its customers have been calling daily to get reassurance that their money is safe.
“Our customers have been calling us asking is everything all right with their money,” said Norman Williams, CEO of Illinois Service Federal. “We tell them that one of the worst things they can do is take their money out of the bank.”
Illinois Service Federal has $120 million in assets and a mortgage loan portfolio equal to Seaway at $40 million. And like Seaway, ISF will decline a loan request if the customer does not qualify for a conventional one.
Banking analysts estimate the IndyMac takeover would cost taxpayers between $4 billion and $8 billion.
In 1984, the FDIC took over the now-defunct Continental Illinois National Bank in Chicago, which had $40 billion in assets, making it the nation’s largest bank takeover.
Banking customers said the IndyMac situation has them up at night.
“I just hope when I go to the ATM I can get my money out and not get surprised,” said Cheryl McBride, 36, who has a checking and savings account at Highland Community Bank, another Black-owned bank in the city.
“Personally, I think account holders should not be stuck holding the bag if a bank fails. Customers have nothing to do with that,” she said.
Larry Bowen, 67, banks at Illinois Service Federal and said he is more concerned about his Individual Retirement Account than anything else.
“Without it, my wife and I cannot survive because that is our sole source of income,” he said. “If I have to, I will close our account and start keeping our money at home under the mattress.”
Sheila Bair, chair of the FDIC, said bank accounts up to $100,000 are protected by her agency. Retirement accounts, such as IRAs, are insured up to $250,000.
“I won’t say that banks don’t have challenges right now … they do,” Bair told the Defender.
Still, she said, the banking industry is safe, and customers should not panic.
“The IndyMac Bank closing is just one of five bank closings this year. There are 8,500 banks,” she said.
Bair added that in the FDIC’s 75- year history, no customer with an FDIC-insured bank account has ever lost a penny.
Besides Seaway, ISF and Highland Community Bank, 1701 W. 87th St., the city’s other Black-owned bank is Covenant Bank (formerly Community Bank of Lawndale), 1111 S. Homan St.
Dennis Irvin, CEO of Highland Community Bank, and Herman Davis, president of Covenant Bank, were unavailable for comment.
by Wendell Hutson for the Chicago Defender
IndyMac is the second largest financial institution to fail and is now being managed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
But business at Chicago’s four Black-owned banks remains upbeat despite the IndyMac debacle, record foreclosures and a dwindling job market.
“I disagree with anyone who says the banking industry is in a downturn,” said Walter Grady, president and CEO of Seaway Bank and Trust Co. “The banking industry is strong, and Black banks are thriving here in Chicago and elsewhere. And even though a lot of banks are involved in sub prime loans, Seaway does not do sub prime loans. If we cannot get you qualified for a conventional loan, then we deny your loan request.”
Seaway, headquartered at 645 E. 87th St., is Chicago’s largest Blackowned bank with $350 million in assets.
Grady added that Seaway currently has a $40 million mortgage portfolio and advises anyone renting to continue renting if they cannot get a conventional loan such as one with a fixed interest rate.
“You know you cannot afford a $1,200 monthly mortgage if you’re making $200 a week,” Grady said.
“What has happened is that a lot of first time Black home buyers have been misled to think they only can qualify for a sub prime loan when that is not always the case.”
Economists say that the current foreclosure crisis, caused largely by sub prime lending, is crippling some financial institutions such as banks that offer those types of non-conventional loans.
But at Illinois Service Federal, a Black-owned bank at 4619 S.King Drive, no sub prime loans are offered. Still, many of its customers have been calling daily to get reassurance that their money is safe.
“Our customers have been calling us asking is everything all right with their money,” said Norman Williams, CEO of Illinois Service Federal. “We tell them that one of the worst things they can do is take their money out of the bank.”
Illinois Service Federal has $120 million in assets and a mortgage loan portfolio equal to Seaway at $40 million. And like Seaway, ISF will decline a loan request if the customer does not qualify for a conventional one.
Banking analysts estimate the IndyMac takeover would cost taxpayers between $4 billion and $8 billion.
In 1984, the FDIC took over the now-defunct Continental Illinois National Bank in Chicago, which had $40 billion in assets, making it the nation’s largest bank takeover.
Banking customers said the IndyMac situation has them up at night.
“I just hope when I go to the ATM I can get my money out and not get surprised,” said Cheryl McBride, 36, who has a checking and savings account at Highland Community Bank, another Black-owned bank in the city.
“Personally, I think account holders should not be stuck holding the bag if a bank fails. Customers have nothing to do with that,” she said.
Larry Bowen, 67, banks at Illinois Service Federal and said he is more concerned about his Individual Retirement Account than anything else.
“Without it, my wife and I cannot survive because that is our sole source of income,” he said. “If I have to, I will close our account and start keeping our money at home under the mattress.”
Sheila Bair, chair of the FDIC, said bank accounts up to $100,000 are protected by her agency. Retirement accounts, such as IRAs, are insured up to $250,000.
“I won’t say that banks don’t have challenges right now … they do,” Bair told the Defender.
Still, she said, the banking industry is safe, and customers should not panic.
“The IndyMac Bank closing is just one of five bank closings this year. There are 8,500 banks,” she said.
Bair added that in the FDIC’s 75- year history, no customer with an FDIC-insured bank account has ever lost a penny.
Besides Seaway, ISF and Highland Community Bank, 1701 W. 87th St., the city’s other Black-owned bank is Covenant Bank (formerly Community Bank of Lawndale), 1111 S. Homan St.
Dennis Irvin, CEO of Highland Community Bank, and Herman Davis, president of Covenant Bank, were unavailable for comment.
by Wendell Hutson for the Chicago Defender
Nas Takes Fox News to Task for What He Calls 'Racist Attacks'
NEW YORK — Nas' very public disdain for Fox News continued Wednesday (July 23) when he teamed up with the Web site ColorOfChange.org to protest outside the network's Manhattan headquarters on Wednesday (July 23) and present a petition to the news organization. Color of Change gathered more than 600,000 signatures to try to curb what it considers biased reporting on Fox's part.
The organization saw me as someone who could be a part of it, and they reached out," Nas said. "I was like, 'Hell yeah, I'm a part of it!' This is a network that's been going after rappers ... yet Bill O'Reilly uses the phrase 'lynching party' for a woman. That's the worst term I've ever heard to disrespect a woman, and he says it on television. And he doesn't like rappers? Wow."
The grassroots organization heard Nas' lyrical lambasting of Fox on the new song "Sly Fox" and asked him to help with its protest.
"Our main goal is to amplify the political voice of black Americans," said Color of Change spokesman Andre Banks. "We were founded after Hurricane Katrina to make sure that every American, regardless of race or class, is respected, protected and served. We're here today because we saw a real pattern on Fox, a pattern that not only targets the Obamas but uses the Obamas' race and other black Americans' race to cast them as outsiders in their own country."
Fox News released the following statement in response to the protest: "Fox News believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech, including Nas, who has an album to promote."
All the activism caused quite a spectacle, and onlookers were inspired to engage in their own debates. As two men walked by, one said, "Apparently Fox News is a racist station." The guy's friend scoffed, insisting, "They're not racist." Another man walked by and said to the person on the other end of his cell phone, "They don't report the whole truth."
Upon his arrival, Nas stood in front of the press and protesters and gave a prepared speech. "We already knew that Fox is not a news network; they are a propaganda machine," he said. "But their racist attacks have gone way too far. Calling Michelle Obama 'Barack's baby mama' — tell me, is that acceptable? Is that racist? Bill O'Reilly saying a 'lynching party' for Michelle Obama might be legit if she has the wrong political opinions. Is that acceptable? Is that flat-out racist?
"Is this hate-mongering and fear-mongering at its worst?" he continued. " ... Fox's pattern of race-baiting and fear-mongering regularly focuses on black leaders, black institutions and ordinary black people. Like when they used the solemn occasion of Coretta Scott King's funeral to call black leaders racist — that's not acceptable. It's offensive to black Americans, and it's offensive to all Americans."
Nas' latest album, Untitled, sold 186,600 copies in its first week to claim the #1 spot on the Billboard albums chart. He said it was vindication in light of all the controversy that surrounded the album's original title.
"I know by throwing out this record, people would say a lot," Nas said. "People would say, 'I'm not buying that record.' And there were gonna be some people that say, 'Yeah, I'll check it out, out of curiosity.' I took that risk. We knew when we named the album what we named it, we knew. We weren't surprised that people were gonna say, 'We can't sell that album with that title.' It's bigger than the title. It's bigger than just stamping a title on the album. It's about the music. It's about being here right now and being more than words and being action."
mtv.com
The organization saw me as someone who could be a part of it, and they reached out," Nas said. "I was like, 'Hell yeah, I'm a part of it!' This is a network that's been going after rappers ... yet Bill O'Reilly uses the phrase 'lynching party' for a woman. That's the worst term I've ever heard to disrespect a woman, and he says it on television. And he doesn't like rappers? Wow."
The grassroots organization heard Nas' lyrical lambasting of Fox on the new song "Sly Fox" and asked him to help with its protest.
"Our main goal is to amplify the political voice of black Americans," said Color of Change spokesman Andre Banks. "We were founded after Hurricane Katrina to make sure that every American, regardless of race or class, is respected, protected and served. We're here today because we saw a real pattern on Fox, a pattern that not only targets the Obamas but uses the Obamas' race and other black Americans' race to cast them as outsiders in their own country."
Fox News released the following statement in response to the protest: "Fox News believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech, including Nas, who has an album to promote."
All the activism caused quite a spectacle, and onlookers were inspired to engage in their own debates. As two men walked by, one said, "Apparently Fox News is a racist station." The guy's friend scoffed, insisting, "They're not racist." Another man walked by and said to the person on the other end of his cell phone, "They don't report the whole truth."
Upon his arrival, Nas stood in front of the press and protesters and gave a prepared speech. "We already knew that Fox is not a news network; they are a propaganda machine," he said. "But their racist attacks have gone way too far. Calling Michelle Obama 'Barack's baby mama' — tell me, is that acceptable? Is that racist? Bill O'Reilly saying a 'lynching party' for Michelle Obama might be legit if she has the wrong political opinions. Is that acceptable? Is that flat-out racist?
"Is this hate-mongering and fear-mongering at its worst?" he continued. " ... Fox's pattern of race-baiting and fear-mongering regularly focuses on black leaders, black institutions and ordinary black people. Like when they used the solemn occasion of Coretta Scott King's funeral to call black leaders racist — that's not acceptable. It's offensive to black Americans, and it's offensive to all Americans."
Nas' latest album, Untitled, sold 186,600 copies in its first week to claim the #1 spot on the Billboard albums chart. He said it was vindication in light of all the controversy that surrounded the album's original title.
"I know by throwing out this record, people would say a lot," Nas said. "People would say, 'I'm not buying that record.' And there were gonna be some people that say, 'Yeah, I'll check it out, out of curiosity.' I took that risk. We knew when we named the album what we named it, we knew. We weren't surprised that people were gonna say, 'We can't sell that album with that title.' It's bigger than the title. It's bigger than just stamping a title on the album. It's about the music. It's about being here right now and being more than words and being action."
mtv.com
Police Investigate Possible NYPD Racism in Harlem
Harlem community leaders are planning a rally this afternoon as the NYPD investigates charges of misconduct involving two white police officers and the head of a black doll.
Police are probing the incident, which some local leaders call racist.
Witnesses say two white police officers drove through the neighborhood with the head of a black doll on the antenna of their unmarked car.
According to Manhattan State Senator Bill Perkins, outraged residents alerted him to the situation and he approached the officers.
By the time he spoke with them the head was gone, but residents say the policemen put it in their trunk.
"They approached the car and asked why they had a black baby doll head on the top of their car. The guys laughed it off and disposed it inside they trunk," said witness Desiree Murray. "Then after that, that's when all the commotion came about. You know, the community was very upset, because we do have to live here."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, however, said the policemen did not put the doll head on the car.
"They didn't know it was -- they had no knowledge of it,” said Kelly. "The car pulls up in front of a restaurant, in which there was some type of opening celebration. Someone points out to this officer -- and he had been at the club before, no one saw any doll head on the car -- pointed out to him that this doll head is on the antenna. He sees it, takes it and throws it away."
As of Wednesday, police were looking at surveillance video to see if anyone else could have put the doll's head on the car.
An afternoon rally is planned at Marcus Garvey Park to call attention to the incident.
from ny1.com
Police are probing the incident, which some local leaders call racist.
Witnesses say two white police officers drove through the neighborhood with the head of a black doll on the antenna of their unmarked car.
According to Manhattan State Senator Bill Perkins, outraged residents alerted him to the situation and he approached the officers.
By the time he spoke with them the head was gone, but residents say the policemen put it in their trunk.
"They approached the car and asked why they had a black baby doll head on the top of their car. The guys laughed it off and disposed it inside they trunk," said witness Desiree Murray. "Then after that, that's when all the commotion came about. You know, the community was very upset, because we do have to live here."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, however, said the policemen did not put the doll head on the car.
"They didn't know it was -- they had no knowledge of it,” said Kelly. "The car pulls up in front of a restaurant, in which there was some type of opening celebration. Someone points out to this officer -- and he had been at the club before, no one saw any doll head on the car -- pointed out to him that this doll head is on the antenna. He sees it, takes it and throws it away."
As of Wednesday, police were looking at surveillance video to see if anyone else could have put the doll's head on the car.
An afternoon rally is planned at Marcus Garvey Park to call attention to the incident.
from ny1.com
China Lets Child Workers Die Digging in Congo Mines
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Adon Kalenga works seven days a week collecting minerals from the ground with his bare hands.
He is 13 years old and lives in Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has no home and can't afford the $6 a month it costs to attend public school in this central African country of 62 million. Sometimes he sleeps in the streets; other nights he spends in an orphanage.
Mostly, he works, earning about $3 per day. He's one of 67,000 people in Katanga who earn a living collecting stones infused with two minerals that are in demand worldwide: copper and cobalt. Reddish-brown copper is used to make the electrical wires needed to light the world's cities. Cobalt, a silver-gray metal, is used to make jet engines, ink and mobile phone batteries.
Katanga, a region of green rolling hills that's bigger than California, is home to 5.5 million people. The province in the south of Congo contains 4 percent of the world's copper and a third of its cobalt reserves, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The minerals Adon and children like him wrest from the red, hard earth find their way to smoky smelters on the edge of impoverished towns near the mines. Most of these rusting, hand-fed furnaces are owned by companies based in a faraway country, one that was founded on an ideology that exalts the rights of workers: the People's Republic of China.
``My life is hard,'' says Adon, wearing black rubber boots, a hooded sweatshirt and ripped jeans that sag on his skinny frame.
`I Don't Know Why'
Adon's left shin is scarred from a fall during a mine landslide three years ago that killed workers, including four young friends. He spends the day around unstable, hand-dug mineshafts, using his bare hands to fill sacks with ore.
He then hauls the rocks down a steep trail. At the end of the path, he works knee-deep in a stream, the kind that has spread a cholera epidemic throughout much of Katanga. The boy's hands are raw from washing rocks in a metal screen.
``The Chinese buy the ore,'' Adon says. ``I don't know why.''
Adon toils alongside about 200 other boys and men and a handful of women in the Kamatanda mine, a 1-square-mile (2.5- square-kilometer) area pockmarked by holes as deep as 80 feet (25 meters).
On paper, the mine, 3 miles (5 kilometers) northeast of the town of Likasi, is owned by Congo's state mining company, Lubumbashi-based La Generale des Carrieres et des Mines, or Gecamines.
Chaotic Capitalism
In reality, Adon and his peers practice a chaotic form of capitalism, with little supervision from either the company or the state. The hand diggers aren't employees; they're freelancers who sell what they've dug and cleaned to brokers such as Patrick Nsumba.
The middleman pays Adon to wash the copper ore, which the man sells to a smelter in Lubumbashi, Katanga's capital. The plant is run by a unit of Tongxiang, China-based Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., which processes Katangan copper and cobalt. With wads of Congolese francs on hand, Zhejiang Huayou's representatives buy ore from people like 29-year-old Nsumba.
``This is one of the worst forms of child labor,'' says Joost Kooijmans, a legal officer at the Geneva-based International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency. ``If they're buying ore processed by children, they're involved in violating the rights of the children.''
Chinese smelters buy cobalt and copper from mines across Katanga that use child labor, says Patricia Feeney, who campaigns for the rights of Congo's miners.
`No Regard for Health'
``The Chinese smelters have no regard for the health and safety of their workers or the children who dig the ore,'' says Feeney, executive director of Oxford, England-based Rights and Accountability in Development.
In Tongxiang, the Chinese city 80 miles from Shanghai where Zhejiang Huayou is based, marketing manager Zhai Yang says his company sells processed cobalt via intermediaries he declines to name to companies such as Sony Corp., the second-largest consumer electronics company; Nokia Oyj, the world's largest cell phone maker; and Samsung Electronics Co., the second-largest mobile phone maker.
George Boyd, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Sony, declined to comment. Susan Allsopp, of Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, says the company is researching whether Zhejiang Huayou is an indirect supplier.
``We have no evidence to suggest that they are supplying any of our suppliers,'' she says. ``We take any accusations of this nature seriously and do not accept the use of child labor or abuses of human rights. We will continue to monitor this matter, and if we find any breaches of our standards, we will take swift action.''
`I Don't Know'
Samsung spokeswoman Hae Won Choi says the company is investigating and, so far, 70 percent of its suppliers say they don't buy cobalt from Zhejiang Huayou.
Zhejiang Huayou's Zhai says he doesn't know whether his company buys minerals that originated with child labor.
``I've never been to Congo, so I don't know the mines,'' he says. Zhai says his firm has a policy against child labor and will investigate. It will stop purchasing ore if it was dug by children, he says. ``It's our responsibility to make sure the local children are safe, so we won't buy from any children,'' he says.
Congolese law must be respected, the Chinese government says. ``Chinese companies need to observe local labor laws and regulations and fulfill their social commitments,'' says Chen Rongkai, a Beijing-based spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce.
Hand Diggers
Congo, like China, has ratified an ILO convention against hazardous child labor. The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire, borders the Republic of Congo.
Since 2005, the Chinese have become the primary owners of furnaces that rely on ore from hand diggers, says Katanga Governor Moise Katumbi. He says more than 60 of Katanga's 75 processing plants are owned by Chinese companies and adds that 90 percent of the region's minerals go to China.
From the deserts of Sudan in the north to the savannahs of Zimbabwe and South Africa, a juggernaut of Chinese companies is moving across Africa.
The goal is to secure natural resources to supply factories, build cities and fuel an economy that has expanded more than 9 percent per year on average since the late 1970s, when Chinese Communist Party Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping pushed his country toward free enterprise. Deng is commonly associated with the phrase ``To get rich is glorious'' -- although he denied saying it.
Because China isn't self-sufficient in natural resources, the government has made the hunt for minerals and food around the world a foreign policy priority.
Lethal Conditions
In its global quest for commodities, China relies on laborers -- from hand diggers in Katanga to iron ore miners in Peru -- who work in unsafe, unsanitary and sometimes lethal conditions.
In mines, smelters and ports, hundreds of workers have been injured or killed since 2005 working for Chinese companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to government administrators, workers, doctors and official documents.
In Congo, Fidele Kalwa, who runs the biggest morgue in Katanga province, eyes a list of 33 names of people, including four boys aged 13 to 17, who have died in separate mining landslides since the beginning of 2007.
``Many others aren't even dug up because they get buried in their holes,'' Kalwa says.
In Zambia, a blast in 2005 killed at least 45 workers at an explosives factory owned by Chinese-run Chambishi Nonferrous Mines Ltd.
Lung Disease
In Ban Chagnee, Laos, Chinese rubber plantation owners took rice paddies from villagers against their consent and unknowingly removed soil from a burial ground to build a road, according to a February 2008 study for German aid agency GTZ.
In Peru, regulators fined a unit of Shougang Corp., which is owned by Beijing's municipal government. Peruvian officials found that the firm violated regulations by allowing 110 workers with lung disease to work in an iron ore mine. Two have died since 2006. The company disputes those findings.
Africa's weak law enforcement makes the continent vulnerable to Chinese companies with lax practices.
``China desperately needs the raw materials that Africa supplies, to keep its economy growing,'' says Christopher Cramer, professor of the political economy of development at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. ``Chinese companies will go anywhere in the world for natural resources, and many are neglecting labor standards where they are not likely to be challenged.''
Paving New Way
Africa is the world's poorest continent, burdened by centuries of slavery, colonial exploitation, civil war, despotism, corruption, famine and disease. In the past five years, Africa has become China's new frontier for oil, copper, cobalt and iron ore.
Chinese diplomats are paving the way for China's companies, courting governments in places like Congo with promises to build roads, railways and ports -- and to provide jobs. In exchange, China has received access to mines and oil fields and the rights to buy minerals for years to come.
The Chinese don't tie African aid and investment to requirements that governments respect human rights and labor standards, says Ana Maria Gomes, a European Parliament member from Portugal. She sponsored a Parliament resolution critical of China's African strategy that passed by 618 to 16 votes on April 23.
Yang Jiechi, China's foreign minister, said at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs in December that countries should be allowed to set their own standards for development. ``The right of all countries to choose their own social system and development path should be respected,'' he said.
Summer Olympics
China's policy of noninterference is paying off just as the country prepares to host an international coming-out party in the form of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Exports from Africa to China rose to $29.9 billion in 2006 from $6.3 billion in 2000, according to the International Monetary Fund.
State-owned China National Petroleum Corp., China's largest oil and gas company, is the biggest foreign oil producer in Sudan. More than 200,000 people have died since 2003 as the result of a civil war in Sudan's Darfur region, in what the UN has described as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has long opposed sanctions against Sudan and its president, Umar al-Bashir.
China also trades with Zimbabwe. On June 29, President Robert Mugabe, 84, declared himself the victor in a runoff election that European Union leaders and the White House called a sham.
On July 11, Mugabe's regime escaped UN sanctions when China and Russia vetoed a U.S. effort to punish him with an arms embargo.
`An African Problem'
``This is an African problem,'' says Liu Zhenmin, Chinese deputy ambassador to the UN.
Wu Zexian, China's ambassador to Congo, says, ``We will work economically in countries without interfering at all in their internal affairs.''
Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for opposing political repression, says China has an obligation to ensure it and its companies act in a civil and humane manner.
``In countries where human rights aren't respected and where people can't hold their governments accountable, it's vital for foreign governments and investors to impose conditions,'' Maathai, 68, says.
The no-strings deals China makes in Africa benefit consumers in the U.S., Europe and Japan, says Jonathon Bond, managing partner at London-based Actis Capital LLP, which has invested $3 billion in Africa and other developing regions.
`Subcontracted Manufacturing'
The commodities Chinese companies acquire in Africa and Latin America supply factories in China that export more than $1 trillion of goods a year.
``The West has subcontracted its manufacturing industries to China,'' Bond says. ``China imports African raw materials and then re-exports them as components of finished goods to the West.''
That supply chain starts in places like the Kamatanda mine, where hundreds of men, women and children toil in the scorching sun, digging and trading on ground covered by feces in an area with no sewage system and no tap water.
Amid the clamor of hammers, picks and shovels, dust fills the air. The workers don't use excavators or trucks, nor do they work in ventilated shafts. Instead, they labor barefoot and shirtless in lunar landscapes of rocks and pits.
There are 67,000 miners known as creuseurs -- a word of French origin, meaning diggers -- working in Katanga's copper belt, according to Saesscam, a government labor agency that oversees ore miners.
His Body Hurts
One of the workers is Adon, the homeless teenager. On a sweltering day in March, Adon breathes in rancid air as he stands in a stream below the mine, surrounded by workers washing ore. He says his whole body hurts, especially his feet and shoulders.
He has been carrying 40-pound sacks of ore to the river. His small, calloused hands are raw, and bits of stone are shoved under his fingernails.
Sitting on a bag of copper ore a few feet away is a trader, Giselle Ngoya, who breastfeeds her 7-month-old daughter as she haggles over prices with miners.
When Adon was 9, his father died and his mother abandoned him. Adon's aunt and uncle, angry that they had another mouth to feed, accused the child of witchcraft and turned him onto the streets, Adon says.
``I don't believe in this sorcery stuff,'' says Adon, who attends church on Sunday mornings before going to the mine. One day, he says, he'd like to be a mechanic.
Soon after Adon was thrown out of his house, a friend suggested he work at the mines. During Adon's first year on the job, he was nearly killed. He was carrying a sack of ore on his head when torrential rain caused a landslide. Adon, fleeing with other miners, lost his footing in the mud and fell. A rock slammed into his left shin.
`Blood Was Flowing'
``Blood was flowing a lot,'' he says. ``I could even see the bone.'' Adon says that among the dead were four friends -- Fabrice, Jean, Patient and Patrick.
Adon works for middlemen like Patrick Nsumba, who manage the flow of ore from Kamatanda to the smelters. Adon says other middlemen aren't as fair as Nsumba.
``There are a lot of people who haven't paid me,'' he says.
Nsumba says Adon asked him for the work because he needed the money to buy food.
``I'll do everything so my kids don't have to work in the mines,'' Nsumba says. ``The conditions are too tough.''
Nsumba graduated from Congo's Lubumbashi University in 2005 with an economics degree. He pays child laborers like Adon a flat rate of $3 a day.
Copper Prices Triple
Adult diggers who explore deep underground for minerals are paid more when they're producing. Those workers pay a tax of 18 cents per 110-pound bag to Saesscam, the agency that oversees hand diggers.
Nsumba sells the ore for a markup of almost 100 percent to Congo Dong Fang International Mining Sprl, which is owned by Zhejiang Huayou. Even though the three-year rally in commodities lost steam earlier this year, cobalt prices have doubled since the start of 2005, and copper values have almost tripled.
Aside from the Chinese, Gecamines and companies run by Indian, Lebanese and local entrepreneurs also purchase the ore unearthed by the hand diggers, says Denis Kampashi, who runs Saesscam's office in Lubumbashi.
A few hundred feet up a slope from the stream where Adon works, a hill is scarred with dozens of hand-dug shafts, piles of dirt and narrow, slippery trails with gaping pits on each side.
Another teenage boy, Carlito Muamba, climbs partway down a 50-foot-deep shaft that workers have dug with their hands and small shovels. There's no ladder; Carlito scrambles in and out of the hole using his hands and feet.
No Bracing
The shaft has no bracing to protect against cave-ins. It has no fans or vents for air circulation to prevent suffocation.
Carlito, 15, wearing a T-shirt and ripped sneakers with no laces, crouches on a narrow ledge about 10 feet down and stabs a shovel into the mine wall to search for ore.
His digging causes the unsupported tunnel walls to come loose. Red dirt and pebbles begin falling onto Carlito's shaved head. Even so, he keeps digging for more stones with his hands, sweating. Then he claws at the earth with his fingers and climbs out of the hole. Carlito says he is risking his life because he's hungry.
``I work to pay for food,'' he says.
Carlito says he's too young to dig at the bottom of the hole, where miners use hammers, chisels, shovels and their bare hands to secure ore. ``My brothers work down there,'' he says.
Carlito dropped out of school in fifth grade to work with two older brothers at the mine. Four other siblings live at home with his mother in Likasi, and his father can't afford to feed and school them all.
`Poison Mines'
Everyone in Katanga province, including the managers of Chinese smelters, knows children work in the mines, says Betty Bambi, who runs a charity orphanage where Adon sometimes sleeps. She says neither the government nor the companies do anything to help the child miners.
``The mines are like poison,'' says Bambi, 61, who wears a black gown with a pattern of apples and blossoms and is known as Mama Betty to the children in her orphanage. ``The kids work without any safety equipment. The Chinese don't care about the kids. All they're after is the minerals.''
Yang Youngjian, external relations manager in Likasi for Congo Dong Fang, says he hasn't been to the mine, which is 3 miles from his office in Likasi.
``I've seen pictures,'' he says. ``The conditions aren't so good. They are even working with babies on their backs. They are very grueling conditions.''
Centuries Old
He says that if his company stops buying, the workers will lose jobs.
The hand diggers of Congo use methods -- such as working in shafts without shoring, lighting or ventilation -- that began to disappear in other parts of the world in the 1700s because mining companies viewed them as too dangerous, says John Tilton, a professor of mining economics at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.
``Nobody in their right mind would want a job like that unless there's nothing else,'' he says. Katanga hand diggers say they buy their own picks, shovels and torches.
The situation at Kamoto, an underground mine 80 miles from Kamatanda, is different. There, the miners are all employees, not freelancers. They work for the mine's owner, Bermuda-based Katanga Mining Ltd.
The company supplies every miner with $250 worth of safety gear, including a lamp fixed to a hard hat, steel-toed leather boots, coveralls, a belt, a jacket and pants.
Weak Enforcement
``We want to bring safety standards up to North American or European safety standards,'' Katanga Mining manager Andre Boudreault says.
Congo regulators have safety and environmental standards for the mines at which hand diggers collect ore for Chinese companies, but government enforcement is weak, Governor Katumbi, 43, says. Congo's rules follow ILO standards banning child labor.
A Chinese smelter called South China Mining Sprl gets copper ore from Katanga's Kawama mine on a hill overlooking the Congo River, where 3,500 people work inside unstable hand-dug holes.
Joe Kongolo smashes boulders with a sledge hammer. Last year, a mine shaft near where Kongolo was working caved in and buried three men under dirt and rocks, he says. Kongolo, 24, rushed to assist.
``I was helping, digging with my shovel and my hands,'' he says. The workers managed to save two of the men, he says. The third, whom Kongolo didn't know, died.
South China Mining founder Hilton Tsoi, who's based in Hong Kong, says he's visited hand diggers' mines.
`They Have No Choice'
``The conditions are so-so,'' Tsoi says. ``Just humans, no machinery.'' Tsoi, 58, says he's buying ore from people who have to work to survive. ``They have no choice,'' he says. ``How can they get their food?''
Chinese-owned smelters in Katanga are particularly prone to accidents that maim or kill workers, Katumbi says.
``It's not even the Chinese standards which they are building here,'' he says. ``There are no standards.''
Most North American and European companies adhere to international safety and labor guidelines set by groups such as the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization and the ILO. The rules forbid using children under the age of 18 in hazardous conditions.
Since March 2007, Katumbi says he has expelled about 600 Chinese nationals from Katanga for violating labor and environmental laws, about 12 percent of the number working there at the time.
Chinese Explorers
China's connections to Africa go back to the early 1400s, when Chinese explorers sailed through the Indian Ocean to the continent. The Ming dynasty, which ruled China from 1368 to 1644, reined in oceangoing voyages as part of a policy of isolationism.
Britain, Portugal and Spain started raiding Africa in the 1500s to bring slaves to work on plantations in the Americas. By the 19th century, European powers had colonized most of the continent, in part to gain control of its resources.
The Congo region was claimed by Belgian King Leopold II in 1885 as his personal property. The Belgian Congo was granted independence by Belgium in 1960 and became the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997.
China's influence in Africa started to grow after Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China in 1949.
The communist leader established ties to Africa's newly independent states in the 1960s, competing for influence on the continent with the West and the Soviet Union, which sought resources and political relationships of their own, says Martyn Davies, executive director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at South Africa's Stellenbosch University.
`International Prestige'
``Mao was seeking international prestige and recognition,'' he says. In Kinshasa, Congo's capital, China built the National Assembly building in the 1970s and the Stade des Martyrs soccer stadium in the 1990s.
Since 2003, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao have visited 20 African countries between them. In November 2006, representatives of 48 out of 53 African states gathered in Beijing for a summit.
In January, China expanded its ties with Congo by promising to finance $9 billion of roads, railways and mines in exchange for 10 million metric tons of copper and 600,000 tons of cobalt from six Gecamines-run mines over a decade at a fixed price.
``We are going to build major public works at the same time as building mines,'' says Wu, China's ambassador to Congo.
Congo's southern plains are scattered with derelict mines and furnaces -- relics of the predecessor of Gecamines, which Belgium built to extract minerals from its colony.
`A Disaster Area'
The company was plundered during the 32-year regime of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was ousted from power in 1997 by rebel leader Laurent Kabila. In a civil war that lasted from 1998 to 2003, scrap-metal scavengers hacked Gecamines facilities to pieces.
Kabila was assassinated in 2001 by one of his bodyguards. He was succeeded as president by his son Joseph.
``The mines are like a disaster area,'' says Paul Fortin, 69, the Canadian-born chief executive officer of Gecamines. He says China's $9 billion offer was the best one on the table. ``If anybody else can match that, please tell me,'' he says.
Wu says Chinese banks will guarantee the loans for the deal so they won't increase Congo's $11.5 billion of debt.
Xavier Maret, the IMF's Congo representative, isn't so sure. It's not clear who will borrow all the money. Neither country has fully disclosed the terms of the deal, he says. Congo may have to guarantee the loans, which would jeopardize an IMF plan to forgive more than half the national debt, Maret says.
Molten Cobalt
China's promises are meaningless to Mbayo Muyambo, who says he's witnessed a torrent of injuries as safety director at Chinese- controlled Feza Mining Sprl in Likasi.
Muyambo, 38, says Feza's workers are routinely burned at the company's smelter by fiery drops of molten cobalt because the company doesn't supply fireproof suits.
``They say they're too expensive,'' says Muyambo, who had previously worked for 17 years at Gecamines, where he received training from German safety engineers.
China's Wanbao controls Feza, according to Wang Xiao, Feza's deputy director. Feza's shareholders include Congolaise des Mines et de Developpement, which is owned by Gecamines, and Ramat Gan, Israel-based DGI International Ltd.
On March 29, one of Feza's inspectors, Punda Luhendwe, mutilated his left eye when he tried to put out a fire in the smelter control room because he wasn't wearing protective glasses, Muyambo says.
Pushed back by waist-high flames, Luhendwe grabbed a fire extinguisher and its hose whipped up into his eye, Muyambo says.
`Only Productivity'
``The only thing the Chinese care about is productivity,'' he says of his bosses.
A Feza spokeswoman who identified herself as Mrs. Yang declined to comment. Beijing-based Wanbao Mining Ltd. didn't respond to requests for comment. DGI spokesman Pieter Deboutte says the firm has no role in managing Feza and gets no profit from the smelter.
Ambassador Wu says his government can't police the multitude of Chinese investors in Africa.
``There are entrepreneurs who go all over, and when they find a place with good prospects, they stay,'' he says. ``All investors need to respect the law.''
Katanga's government struggles to enforce its own labor and environmental regulations, provincial Mining Minister Barthelemy Mumba says. On a sweltering 90-degree-Fahrenheit (32-degree-Celsius) day in March, he's driving a silver Toyota Land Cruiser over a rutted dirt road.
He arrives unannounced at a cobalt drying plant run by Chinese-owned Cota Mining Sprl near Lubumbashi. The provincial environmental mining ministry had shut down the facility in December because a pool of acid was in danger of leaking into a stream.
`Why Did You Restart?'
The plant was supposed to stay shut until further notice. On this visit, Mumba finds dozens of men shoveling ore into a 50- foot-long oven, their feet baking inside thin rubber boots.
``We suspended your production,'' Mumba tells Nino Ngaktambo, Cota's top Congolese manager at the site. ``Why did you restart without our authorization?''
Ngaktambo says, ``We were just trying to --'' as Mumba yells at him, ordering him to close the site.
One worker, Dunancien Molupenga, tells Mumba he's afraid he'll be fired if he doesn't get back to stoking the drying oven. A few feet away, a Chinese manager in a straw hat gives Molupenga a signal to get back to work. The Chinese manager doesn't speak French, Swahili or English. He declines to give his name or to comment.
`I Could Be Fired'
``I could be fired just like that if I don't work,'' Molupenga says, adding that most Chinese managers don't speak the language of workers, so they use hand gestures to communicate. The Cota raid lasts 30 minutes. By the time Mumba leaves, everyone who paused in his labors is back at work.
``You have to distinguish between those companies that abide by international standards and those that don't,'' Mumba says. ``Among those that don't, you often find Chinese companies. We don't want people to come and build things like this. This, really, isn't investing.''
On March 6, Cota got an order from Katumbi allowing the firm to continue work. Lan Mei, vice director of the company's operations in Lubumbashi, says workers were making adjustments to the oven on the day of the raid, and no cobalt was being refined.
``It was preparatory work,'' says Lan, who tours her smelter dressed in a baggy black dress, burgundy boots with untied laces and a 2-inch (5-centimeter) amber-colored pendant around her neck. Since the December inspection, Cota has given workers cloth masks, rubber boots and long-sleeve work shirts, Lan says.
No Formal Training
``We provide safety equipment,'' she says. A year ago, Lan says, she got the second-highest-ranking job at Cota because she speaks French, unlike her Chinese bosses.
Lan, 37, a former fine arts student in Aix-en-Provence, France, has no formal training to oversee Cota's six smelters, which heat copper ore to the melting point of 1,981 degrees Fahrenheit until it's ready to be drained, at which point the furnace is opened and liquid metal gushes out, along with toxic smoke and flying drops of molten metal.
Cota's Congolese workers say they suffer from a lack of safety equipment. Welder Clovis Pienar's arms and chest are covered with two dozen scars. Pienar, 25, wears a plastic visor and thin cotton overalls. They don't protect him, he says. His pants caught fire earlier this year, and today there's a dark hole on one leg.
``We are treated like animals,'' Pienar says.
Jerome Musonda, 33, has two scars next to his right eye, where he was burned stoking Cota's smelter without safety gear earlier this year.
``Nearly every week there's an accident,'' he says.
Mumba also faults Chinese companies for paying workers less than North American and European mining companies. Cota workers say they're paid $65 a month, 35 percent less than the $100-a-month base pay Katumbi has said he's seeking.
`Benefits Are OK'
A few miles away is a smelter owned by Societe pour le Traitement du Terril de Lubumbashi, or STL, a joint venture between Cleveland-based OM Group Inc., Lubumbashi-based investor George Forrest's Forrest Group and Gecamines.
``The pay and benefits are OK,'' says Alex Tetemukombo, who gets $218 a month for tending a smelter in heat-resistant steel-toe boots and a fireproof suit. ``A lot of people who work at other smelters don't get that protection, especially when they work for the Chinese.''
As more and more Chinese arrive in Katanga, pressure is rising to prove to locals that they'll benefit from the new investors, Gecamines' Fortin says.
``There will be a backlash,'' he says.
On March 6, there was one. Diggers from the Kamatanda mine clashed with riot police in Likasi. They were protesting because Gecamines wanted to oust them from the land and reclaim the mine after it traded six of its other mines to China.
Teenager Mistakenly Killed
As stones flew, a policeman shot Landry Milongo, a passing 15- year-old schoolchild, Likasi Mayor Marthe Chiwengo says. By the time the teenager reached the hospital, he was dead.
Three days after the shooting, about 50 relatives mourn next to an avocado tree at the family's tin-roofed hut.
``The population isn't benefiting at all from the mining,'' says Rene Kasongo, the dead boy's great-uncle. ``The companies just take the minerals and pay the bare minimum.''
Chinese companies are scouring the world for commodities to feed the fastest growth rate of any major economy.
``Chinese economic growth is dependent upon access to these resources,'' says Chris Alden, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of ``China in Africa'' (Zed Books, 2007). ``Some of these companies are exporting worst practice instead of best practice from China.''
China's leap from Marxism to capitalism has come at a cost of deadly labor conditions, says Han Dongfang, who founded the China Labour Bulletin in Hong Kong, which monitors Chinese worker abuses.
`Totally Ignored'
``The government has totally ignored health, environmental and social responsibility,'' Han says. ``The Chinese, from the top leaders to the desperate ordinary people, believe that making money is more important than human life.''
Chinese coal mining accidents killed an average of 10 workers a day last year, according to the Chinese State Administration of Work Safety. Last year, the governor of Shanxi province was forced to make a public apology after official media disclosed that brick kiln managers in his province were using child slave labor.
Under Mao's state socialism, China's masses were supposed to be protected by a cradle-to-grave welfare system dubbed the ``iron rice bowl.'' The government and its giant state-owned enterprises offered full employment, subsidized housing, free health care and pensions.
Mao's regime was no workers' paradise: 70 million people died from manmade famine and political oppression, according to ``Mao: The Unknown Story'' (Knopf, 2005).
415,000 Millionaires
In the past 30 years -- following Mao's death and Deng's embrace of market principles -- 300 million out of a population of 1.3 billion have lifted themselves out of poverty, according to the UN. More than 415,000 of them have become millionaires, according to a study by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Capgemini SA.
Still, another 200 million live on less than $1 a day, according to a 2004 World Bank estimate.
The new China urged unprofitable state-owned companies to put profit ahead of providing for employees. From 1995 to 2001, 46 million Chinese lost their jobs, according to Andy Rothman, a Shanghai-based China strategist at CLSA Ltd. and former economic official at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Private companies now account for 70 percent of China's gross domestic product compared with 17 percent in 1990.
The rush to make money came at the expense of workers, says Auret van Heerden, Washington-based CEO of the Fair Labor Association, a nonprofit organization that monitors work conditions in 60 countries.
New Laws
``Conditions in China became comparable to the period in the West from the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century up to the Second World War,'' van Heerden says.
This year, in an effort to bridge the growing chasm between rich and poor and to close down the worst sweat shops, Chinese President Hu passed new labor laws setting minimum wages and assuring one month's pay for each year worked for employees who get fired. Hu has yet to send that message to Chinese companies working abroad.
Maathai, the Kenyan Nobel laureate, says Chinese companies should respect human rights and internationally accepted labor standards around the world.
``We in Africa expect China to help and not to take advantage of Africa's vulnerability,'' she says. ``China needs to understand Africa. We hope she will.''
For Adon Kalenga, the 13-year-old from Congo whose minerals supply Chinese smelters, the concept of fair treatment is a world away.
It's the end of a nine-hour workday in March, and he's slumped in a chair, nursing his back. Tomorrow, as he has almost every day for more than three years, Adon intends to return to the mine and the stream.
``I want a normal life, like the people I see walking in the street,'' says Adon, who can barely read and write. ``But I can't even afford to go to school. Things will never change.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Simon Clark in London at sclark4@bloomberg.netMichael Smith in Santiago at mssmith@bloomberg.netFranz Wild in Kinshasa at fwild@bloomberg.net
from bloomberg.com
He is 13 years old and lives in Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has no home and can't afford the $6 a month it costs to attend public school in this central African country of 62 million. Sometimes he sleeps in the streets; other nights he spends in an orphanage.
Mostly, he works, earning about $3 per day. He's one of 67,000 people in Katanga who earn a living collecting stones infused with two minerals that are in demand worldwide: copper and cobalt. Reddish-brown copper is used to make the electrical wires needed to light the world's cities. Cobalt, a silver-gray metal, is used to make jet engines, ink and mobile phone batteries.
Katanga, a region of green rolling hills that's bigger than California, is home to 5.5 million people. The province in the south of Congo contains 4 percent of the world's copper and a third of its cobalt reserves, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The minerals Adon and children like him wrest from the red, hard earth find their way to smoky smelters on the edge of impoverished towns near the mines. Most of these rusting, hand-fed furnaces are owned by companies based in a faraway country, one that was founded on an ideology that exalts the rights of workers: the People's Republic of China.
``My life is hard,'' says Adon, wearing black rubber boots, a hooded sweatshirt and ripped jeans that sag on his skinny frame.
`I Don't Know Why'
Adon's left shin is scarred from a fall during a mine landslide three years ago that killed workers, including four young friends. He spends the day around unstable, hand-dug mineshafts, using his bare hands to fill sacks with ore.
He then hauls the rocks down a steep trail. At the end of the path, he works knee-deep in a stream, the kind that has spread a cholera epidemic throughout much of Katanga. The boy's hands are raw from washing rocks in a metal screen.
``The Chinese buy the ore,'' Adon says. ``I don't know why.''
Adon toils alongside about 200 other boys and men and a handful of women in the Kamatanda mine, a 1-square-mile (2.5- square-kilometer) area pockmarked by holes as deep as 80 feet (25 meters).
On paper, the mine, 3 miles (5 kilometers) northeast of the town of Likasi, is owned by Congo's state mining company, Lubumbashi-based La Generale des Carrieres et des Mines, or Gecamines.
Chaotic Capitalism
In reality, Adon and his peers practice a chaotic form of capitalism, with little supervision from either the company or the state. The hand diggers aren't employees; they're freelancers who sell what they've dug and cleaned to brokers such as Patrick Nsumba.
The middleman pays Adon to wash the copper ore, which the man sells to a smelter in Lubumbashi, Katanga's capital. The plant is run by a unit of Tongxiang, China-based Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., which processes Katangan copper and cobalt. With wads of Congolese francs on hand, Zhejiang Huayou's representatives buy ore from people like 29-year-old Nsumba.
``This is one of the worst forms of child labor,'' says Joost Kooijmans, a legal officer at the Geneva-based International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency. ``If they're buying ore processed by children, they're involved in violating the rights of the children.''
Chinese smelters buy cobalt and copper from mines across Katanga that use child labor, says Patricia Feeney, who campaigns for the rights of Congo's miners.
`No Regard for Health'
``The Chinese smelters have no regard for the health and safety of their workers or the children who dig the ore,'' says Feeney, executive director of Oxford, England-based Rights and Accountability in Development.
In Tongxiang, the Chinese city 80 miles from Shanghai where Zhejiang Huayou is based, marketing manager Zhai Yang says his company sells processed cobalt via intermediaries he declines to name to companies such as Sony Corp., the second-largest consumer electronics company; Nokia Oyj, the world's largest cell phone maker; and Samsung Electronics Co., the second-largest mobile phone maker.
George Boyd, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Sony, declined to comment. Susan Allsopp, of Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, says the company is researching whether Zhejiang Huayou is an indirect supplier.
``We have no evidence to suggest that they are supplying any of our suppliers,'' she says. ``We take any accusations of this nature seriously and do not accept the use of child labor or abuses of human rights. We will continue to monitor this matter, and if we find any breaches of our standards, we will take swift action.''
`I Don't Know'
Samsung spokeswoman Hae Won Choi says the company is investigating and, so far, 70 percent of its suppliers say they don't buy cobalt from Zhejiang Huayou.
Zhejiang Huayou's Zhai says he doesn't know whether his company buys minerals that originated with child labor.
``I've never been to Congo, so I don't know the mines,'' he says. Zhai says his firm has a policy against child labor and will investigate. It will stop purchasing ore if it was dug by children, he says. ``It's our responsibility to make sure the local children are safe, so we won't buy from any children,'' he says.
Congolese law must be respected, the Chinese government says. ``Chinese companies need to observe local labor laws and regulations and fulfill their social commitments,'' says Chen Rongkai, a Beijing-based spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce.
Hand Diggers
Congo, like China, has ratified an ILO convention against hazardous child labor. The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire, borders the Republic of Congo.
Since 2005, the Chinese have become the primary owners of furnaces that rely on ore from hand diggers, says Katanga Governor Moise Katumbi. He says more than 60 of Katanga's 75 processing plants are owned by Chinese companies and adds that 90 percent of the region's minerals go to China.
From the deserts of Sudan in the north to the savannahs of Zimbabwe and South Africa, a juggernaut of Chinese companies is moving across Africa.
The goal is to secure natural resources to supply factories, build cities and fuel an economy that has expanded more than 9 percent per year on average since the late 1970s, when Chinese Communist Party Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping pushed his country toward free enterprise. Deng is commonly associated with the phrase ``To get rich is glorious'' -- although he denied saying it.
Because China isn't self-sufficient in natural resources, the government has made the hunt for minerals and food around the world a foreign policy priority.
Lethal Conditions
In its global quest for commodities, China relies on laborers -- from hand diggers in Katanga to iron ore miners in Peru -- who work in unsafe, unsanitary and sometimes lethal conditions.
In mines, smelters and ports, hundreds of workers have been injured or killed since 2005 working for Chinese companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to government administrators, workers, doctors and official documents.
In Congo, Fidele Kalwa, who runs the biggest morgue in Katanga province, eyes a list of 33 names of people, including four boys aged 13 to 17, who have died in separate mining landslides since the beginning of 2007.
``Many others aren't even dug up because they get buried in their holes,'' Kalwa says.
In Zambia, a blast in 2005 killed at least 45 workers at an explosives factory owned by Chinese-run Chambishi Nonferrous Mines Ltd.
Lung Disease
In Ban Chagnee, Laos, Chinese rubber plantation owners took rice paddies from villagers against their consent and unknowingly removed soil from a burial ground to build a road, according to a February 2008 study for German aid agency GTZ.
In Peru, regulators fined a unit of Shougang Corp., which is owned by Beijing's municipal government. Peruvian officials found that the firm violated regulations by allowing 110 workers with lung disease to work in an iron ore mine. Two have died since 2006. The company disputes those findings.
Africa's weak law enforcement makes the continent vulnerable to Chinese companies with lax practices.
``China desperately needs the raw materials that Africa supplies, to keep its economy growing,'' says Christopher Cramer, professor of the political economy of development at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. ``Chinese companies will go anywhere in the world for natural resources, and many are neglecting labor standards where they are not likely to be challenged.''
Paving New Way
Africa is the world's poorest continent, burdened by centuries of slavery, colonial exploitation, civil war, despotism, corruption, famine and disease. In the past five years, Africa has become China's new frontier for oil, copper, cobalt and iron ore.
Chinese diplomats are paving the way for China's companies, courting governments in places like Congo with promises to build roads, railways and ports -- and to provide jobs. In exchange, China has received access to mines and oil fields and the rights to buy minerals for years to come.
The Chinese don't tie African aid and investment to requirements that governments respect human rights and labor standards, says Ana Maria Gomes, a European Parliament member from Portugal. She sponsored a Parliament resolution critical of China's African strategy that passed by 618 to 16 votes on April 23.
Yang Jiechi, China's foreign minister, said at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs in December that countries should be allowed to set their own standards for development. ``The right of all countries to choose their own social system and development path should be respected,'' he said.
Summer Olympics
China's policy of noninterference is paying off just as the country prepares to host an international coming-out party in the form of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Exports from Africa to China rose to $29.9 billion in 2006 from $6.3 billion in 2000, according to the International Monetary Fund.
State-owned China National Petroleum Corp., China's largest oil and gas company, is the biggest foreign oil producer in Sudan. More than 200,000 people have died since 2003 as the result of a civil war in Sudan's Darfur region, in what the UN has described as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has long opposed sanctions against Sudan and its president, Umar al-Bashir.
China also trades with Zimbabwe. On June 29, President Robert Mugabe, 84, declared himself the victor in a runoff election that European Union leaders and the White House called a sham.
On July 11, Mugabe's regime escaped UN sanctions when China and Russia vetoed a U.S. effort to punish him with an arms embargo.
`An African Problem'
``This is an African problem,'' says Liu Zhenmin, Chinese deputy ambassador to the UN.
Wu Zexian, China's ambassador to Congo, says, ``We will work economically in countries without interfering at all in their internal affairs.''
Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for opposing political repression, says China has an obligation to ensure it and its companies act in a civil and humane manner.
``In countries where human rights aren't respected and where people can't hold their governments accountable, it's vital for foreign governments and investors to impose conditions,'' Maathai, 68, says.
The no-strings deals China makes in Africa benefit consumers in the U.S., Europe and Japan, says Jonathon Bond, managing partner at London-based Actis Capital LLP, which has invested $3 billion in Africa and other developing regions.
`Subcontracted Manufacturing'
The commodities Chinese companies acquire in Africa and Latin America supply factories in China that export more than $1 trillion of goods a year.
``The West has subcontracted its manufacturing industries to China,'' Bond says. ``China imports African raw materials and then re-exports them as components of finished goods to the West.''
That supply chain starts in places like the Kamatanda mine, where hundreds of men, women and children toil in the scorching sun, digging and trading on ground covered by feces in an area with no sewage system and no tap water.
Amid the clamor of hammers, picks and shovels, dust fills the air. The workers don't use excavators or trucks, nor do they work in ventilated shafts. Instead, they labor barefoot and shirtless in lunar landscapes of rocks and pits.
There are 67,000 miners known as creuseurs -- a word of French origin, meaning diggers -- working in Katanga's copper belt, according to Saesscam, a government labor agency that oversees ore miners.
His Body Hurts
One of the workers is Adon, the homeless teenager. On a sweltering day in March, Adon breathes in rancid air as he stands in a stream below the mine, surrounded by workers washing ore. He says his whole body hurts, especially his feet and shoulders.
He has been carrying 40-pound sacks of ore to the river. His small, calloused hands are raw, and bits of stone are shoved under his fingernails.
Sitting on a bag of copper ore a few feet away is a trader, Giselle Ngoya, who breastfeeds her 7-month-old daughter as she haggles over prices with miners.
When Adon was 9, his father died and his mother abandoned him. Adon's aunt and uncle, angry that they had another mouth to feed, accused the child of witchcraft and turned him onto the streets, Adon says.
``I don't believe in this sorcery stuff,'' says Adon, who attends church on Sunday mornings before going to the mine. One day, he says, he'd like to be a mechanic.
Soon after Adon was thrown out of his house, a friend suggested he work at the mines. During Adon's first year on the job, he was nearly killed. He was carrying a sack of ore on his head when torrential rain caused a landslide. Adon, fleeing with other miners, lost his footing in the mud and fell. A rock slammed into his left shin.
`Blood Was Flowing'
``Blood was flowing a lot,'' he says. ``I could even see the bone.'' Adon says that among the dead were four friends -- Fabrice, Jean, Patient and Patrick.
Adon works for middlemen like Patrick Nsumba, who manage the flow of ore from Kamatanda to the smelters. Adon says other middlemen aren't as fair as Nsumba.
``There are a lot of people who haven't paid me,'' he says.
Nsumba says Adon asked him for the work because he needed the money to buy food.
``I'll do everything so my kids don't have to work in the mines,'' Nsumba says. ``The conditions are too tough.''
Nsumba graduated from Congo's Lubumbashi University in 2005 with an economics degree. He pays child laborers like Adon a flat rate of $3 a day.
Copper Prices Triple
Adult diggers who explore deep underground for minerals are paid more when they're producing. Those workers pay a tax of 18 cents per 110-pound bag to Saesscam, the agency that oversees hand diggers.
Nsumba sells the ore for a markup of almost 100 percent to Congo Dong Fang International Mining Sprl, which is owned by Zhejiang Huayou. Even though the three-year rally in commodities lost steam earlier this year, cobalt prices have doubled since the start of 2005, and copper values have almost tripled.
Aside from the Chinese, Gecamines and companies run by Indian, Lebanese and local entrepreneurs also purchase the ore unearthed by the hand diggers, says Denis Kampashi, who runs Saesscam's office in Lubumbashi.
A few hundred feet up a slope from the stream where Adon works, a hill is scarred with dozens of hand-dug shafts, piles of dirt and narrow, slippery trails with gaping pits on each side.
Another teenage boy, Carlito Muamba, climbs partway down a 50-foot-deep shaft that workers have dug with their hands and small shovels. There's no ladder; Carlito scrambles in and out of the hole using his hands and feet.
No Bracing
The shaft has no bracing to protect against cave-ins. It has no fans or vents for air circulation to prevent suffocation.
Carlito, 15, wearing a T-shirt and ripped sneakers with no laces, crouches on a narrow ledge about 10 feet down and stabs a shovel into the mine wall to search for ore.
His digging causes the unsupported tunnel walls to come loose. Red dirt and pebbles begin falling onto Carlito's shaved head. Even so, he keeps digging for more stones with his hands, sweating. Then he claws at the earth with his fingers and climbs out of the hole. Carlito says he is risking his life because he's hungry.
``I work to pay for food,'' he says.
Carlito says he's too young to dig at the bottom of the hole, where miners use hammers, chisels, shovels and their bare hands to secure ore. ``My brothers work down there,'' he says.
Carlito dropped out of school in fifth grade to work with two older brothers at the mine. Four other siblings live at home with his mother in Likasi, and his father can't afford to feed and school them all.
`Poison Mines'
Everyone in Katanga province, including the managers of Chinese smelters, knows children work in the mines, says Betty Bambi, who runs a charity orphanage where Adon sometimes sleeps. She says neither the government nor the companies do anything to help the child miners.
``The mines are like poison,'' says Bambi, 61, who wears a black gown with a pattern of apples and blossoms and is known as Mama Betty to the children in her orphanage. ``The kids work without any safety equipment. The Chinese don't care about the kids. All they're after is the minerals.''
Yang Youngjian, external relations manager in Likasi for Congo Dong Fang, says he hasn't been to the mine, which is 3 miles from his office in Likasi.
``I've seen pictures,'' he says. ``The conditions aren't so good. They are even working with babies on their backs. They are very grueling conditions.''
Centuries Old
He says that if his company stops buying, the workers will lose jobs.
The hand diggers of Congo use methods -- such as working in shafts without shoring, lighting or ventilation -- that began to disappear in other parts of the world in the 1700s because mining companies viewed them as too dangerous, says John Tilton, a professor of mining economics at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.
``Nobody in their right mind would want a job like that unless there's nothing else,'' he says. Katanga hand diggers say they buy their own picks, shovels and torches.
The situation at Kamoto, an underground mine 80 miles from Kamatanda, is different. There, the miners are all employees, not freelancers. They work for the mine's owner, Bermuda-based Katanga Mining Ltd.
The company supplies every miner with $250 worth of safety gear, including a lamp fixed to a hard hat, steel-toed leather boots, coveralls, a belt, a jacket and pants.
Weak Enforcement
``We want to bring safety standards up to North American or European safety standards,'' Katanga Mining manager Andre Boudreault says.
Congo regulators have safety and environmental standards for the mines at which hand diggers collect ore for Chinese companies, but government enforcement is weak, Governor Katumbi, 43, says. Congo's rules follow ILO standards banning child labor.
A Chinese smelter called South China Mining Sprl gets copper ore from Katanga's Kawama mine on a hill overlooking the Congo River, where 3,500 people work inside unstable hand-dug holes.
Joe Kongolo smashes boulders with a sledge hammer. Last year, a mine shaft near where Kongolo was working caved in and buried three men under dirt and rocks, he says. Kongolo, 24, rushed to assist.
``I was helping, digging with my shovel and my hands,'' he says. The workers managed to save two of the men, he says. The third, whom Kongolo didn't know, died.
South China Mining founder Hilton Tsoi, who's based in Hong Kong, says he's visited hand diggers' mines.
`They Have No Choice'
``The conditions are so-so,'' Tsoi says. ``Just humans, no machinery.'' Tsoi, 58, says he's buying ore from people who have to work to survive. ``They have no choice,'' he says. ``How can they get their food?''
Chinese-owned smelters in Katanga are particularly prone to accidents that maim or kill workers, Katumbi says.
``It's not even the Chinese standards which they are building here,'' he says. ``There are no standards.''
Most North American and European companies adhere to international safety and labor guidelines set by groups such as the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization and the ILO. The rules forbid using children under the age of 18 in hazardous conditions.
Since March 2007, Katumbi says he has expelled about 600 Chinese nationals from Katanga for violating labor and environmental laws, about 12 percent of the number working there at the time.
Chinese Explorers
China's connections to Africa go back to the early 1400s, when Chinese explorers sailed through the Indian Ocean to the continent. The Ming dynasty, which ruled China from 1368 to 1644, reined in oceangoing voyages as part of a policy of isolationism.
Britain, Portugal and Spain started raiding Africa in the 1500s to bring slaves to work on plantations in the Americas. By the 19th century, European powers had colonized most of the continent, in part to gain control of its resources.
The Congo region was claimed by Belgian King Leopold II in 1885 as his personal property. The Belgian Congo was granted independence by Belgium in 1960 and became the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997.
China's influence in Africa started to grow after Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China in 1949.
The communist leader established ties to Africa's newly independent states in the 1960s, competing for influence on the continent with the West and the Soviet Union, which sought resources and political relationships of their own, says Martyn Davies, executive director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at South Africa's Stellenbosch University.
`International Prestige'
``Mao was seeking international prestige and recognition,'' he says. In Kinshasa, Congo's capital, China built the National Assembly building in the 1970s and the Stade des Martyrs soccer stadium in the 1990s.
Since 2003, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao have visited 20 African countries between them. In November 2006, representatives of 48 out of 53 African states gathered in Beijing for a summit.
In January, China expanded its ties with Congo by promising to finance $9 billion of roads, railways and mines in exchange for 10 million metric tons of copper and 600,000 tons of cobalt from six Gecamines-run mines over a decade at a fixed price.
``We are going to build major public works at the same time as building mines,'' says Wu, China's ambassador to Congo.
Congo's southern plains are scattered with derelict mines and furnaces -- relics of the predecessor of Gecamines, which Belgium built to extract minerals from its colony.
`A Disaster Area'
The company was plundered during the 32-year regime of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was ousted from power in 1997 by rebel leader Laurent Kabila. In a civil war that lasted from 1998 to 2003, scrap-metal scavengers hacked Gecamines facilities to pieces.
Kabila was assassinated in 2001 by one of his bodyguards. He was succeeded as president by his son Joseph.
``The mines are like a disaster area,'' says Paul Fortin, 69, the Canadian-born chief executive officer of Gecamines. He says China's $9 billion offer was the best one on the table. ``If anybody else can match that, please tell me,'' he says.
Wu says Chinese banks will guarantee the loans for the deal so they won't increase Congo's $11.5 billion of debt.
Xavier Maret, the IMF's Congo representative, isn't so sure. It's not clear who will borrow all the money. Neither country has fully disclosed the terms of the deal, he says. Congo may have to guarantee the loans, which would jeopardize an IMF plan to forgive more than half the national debt, Maret says.
Molten Cobalt
China's promises are meaningless to Mbayo Muyambo, who says he's witnessed a torrent of injuries as safety director at Chinese- controlled Feza Mining Sprl in Likasi.
Muyambo, 38, says Feza's workers are routinely burned at the company's smelter by fiery drops of molten cobalt because the company doesn't supply fireproof suits.
``They say they're too expensive,'' says Muyambo, who had previously worked for 17 years at Gecamines, where he received training from German safety engineers.
China's Wanbao controls Feza, according to Wang Xiao, Feza's deputy director. Feza's shareholders include Congolaise des Mines et de Developpement, which is owned by Gecamines, and Ramat Gan, Israel-based DGI International Ltd.
On March 29, one of Feza's inspectors, Punda Luhendwe, mutilated his left eye when he tried to put out a fire in the smelter control room because he wasn't wearing protective glasses, Muyambo says.
Pushed back by waist-high flames, Luhendwe grabbed a fire extinguisher and its hose whipped up into his eye, Muyambo says.
`Only Productivity'
``The only thing the Chinese care about is productivity,'' he says of his bosses.
A Feza spokeswoman who identified herself as Mrs. Yang declined to comment. Beijing-based Wanbao Mining Ltd. didn't respond to requests for comment. DGI spokesman Pieter Deboutte says the firm has no role in managing Feza and gets no profit from the smelter.
Ambassador Wu says his government can't police the multitude of Chinese investors in Africa.
``There are entrepreneurs who go all over, and when they find a place with good prospects, they stay,'' he says. ``All investors need to respect the law.''
Katanga's government struggles to enforce its own labor and environmental regulations, provincial Mining Minister Barthelemy Mumba says. On a sweltering 90-degree-Fahrenheit (32-degree-Celsius) day in March, he's driving a silver Toyota Land Cruiser over a rutted dirt road.
He arrives unannounced at a cobalt drying plant run by Chinese-owned Cota Mining Sprl near Lubumbashi. The provincial environmental mining ministry had shut down the facility in December because a pool of acid was in danger of leaking into a stream.
`Why Did You Restart?'
The plant was supposed to stay shut until further notice. On this visit, Mumba finds dozens of men shoveling ore into a 50- foot-long oven, their feet baking inside thin rubber boots.
``We suspended your production,'' Mumba tells Nino Ngaktambo, Cota's top Congolese manager at the site. ``Why did you restart without our authorization?''
Ngaktambo says, ``We were just trying to --'' as Mumba yells at him, ordering him to close the site.
One worker, Dunancien Molupenga, tells Mumba he's afraid he'll be fired if he doesn't get back to stoking the drying oven. A few feet away, a Chinese manager in a straw hat gives Molupenga a signal to get back to work. The Chinese manager doesn't speak French, Swahili or English. He declines to give his name or to comment.
`I Could Be Fired'
``I could be fired just like that if I don't work,'' Molupenga says, adding that most Chinese managers don't speak the language of workers, so they use hand gestures to communicate. The Cota raid lasts 30 minutes. By the time Mumba leaves, everyone who paused in his labors is back at work.
``You have to distinguish between those companies that abide by international standards and those that don't,'' Mumba says. ``Among those that don't, you often find Chinese companies. We don't want people to come and build things like this. This, really, isn't investing.''
On March 6, Cota got an order from Katumbi allowing the firm to continue work. Lan Mei, vice director of the company's operations in Lubumbashi, says workers were making adjustments to the oven on the day of the raid, and no cobalt was being refined.
``It was preparatory work,'' says Lan, who tours her smelter dressed in a baggy black dress, burgundy boots with untied laces and a 2-inch (5-centimeter) amber-colored pendant around her neck. Since the December inspection, Cota has given workers cloth masks, rubber boots and long-sleeve work shirts, Lan says.
No Formal Training
``We provide safety equipment,'' she says. A year ago, Lan says, she got the second-highest-ranking job at Cota because she speaks French, unlike her Chinese bosses.
Lan, 37, a former fine arts student in Aix-en-Provence, France, has no formal training to oversee Cota's six smelters, which heat copper ore to the melting point of 1,981 degrees Fahrenheit until it's ready to be drained, at which point the furnace is opened and liquid metal gushes out, along with toxic smoke and flying drops of molten metal.
Cota's Congolese workers say they suffer from a lack of safety equipment. Welder Clovis Pienar's arms and chest are covered with two dozen scars. Pienar, 25, wears a plastic visor and thin cotton overalls. They don't protect him, he says. His pants caught fire earlier this year, and today there's a dark hole on one leg.
``We are treated like animals,'' Pienar says.
Jerome Musonda, 33, has two scars next to his right eye, where he was burned stoking Cota's smelter without safety gear earlier this year.
``Nearly every week there's an accident,'' he says.
Mumba also faults Chinese companies for paying workers less than North American and European mining companies. Cota workers say they're paid $65 a month, 35 percent less than the $100-a-month base pay Katumbi has said he's seeking.
`Benefits Are OK'
A few miles away is a smelter owned by Societe pour le Traitement du Terril de Lubumbashi, or STL, a joint venture between Cleveland-based OM Group Inc., Lubumbashi-based investor George Forrest's Forrest Group and Gecamines.
``The pay and benefits are OK,'' says Alex Tetemukombo, who gets $218 a month for tending a smelter in heat-resistant steel-toe boots and a fireproof suit. ``A lot of people who work at other smelters don't get that protection, especially when they work for the Chinese.''
As more and more Chinese arrive in Katanga, pressure is rising to prove to locals that they'll benefit from the new investors, Gecamines' Fortin says.
``There will be a backlash,'' he says.
On March 6, there was one. Diggers from the Kamatanda mine clashed with riot police in Likasi. They were protesting because Gecamines wanted to oust them from the land and reclaim the mine after it traded six of its other mines to China.
Teenager Mistakenly Killed
As stones flew, a policeman shot Landry Milongo, a passing 15- year-old schoolchild, Likasi Mayor Marthe Chiwengo says. By the time the teenager reached the hospital, he was dead.
Three days after the shooting, about 50 relatives mourn next to an avocado tree at the family's tin-roofed hut.
``The population isn't benefiting at all from the mining,'' says Rene Kasongo, the dead boy's great-uncle. ``The companies just take the minerals and pay the bare minimum.''
Chinese companies are scouring the world for commodities to feed the fastest growth rate of any major economy.
``Chinese economic growth is dependent upon access to these resources,'' says Chris Alden, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of ``China in Africa'' (Zed Books, 2007). ``Some of these companies are exporting worst practice instead of best practice from China.''
China's leap from Marxism to capitalism has come at a cost of deadly labor conditions, says Han Dongfang, who founded the China Labour Bulletin in Hong Kong, which monitors Chinese worker abuses.
`Totally Ignored'
``The government has totally ignored health, environmental and social responsibility,'' Han says. ``The Chinese, from the top leaders to the desperate ordinary people, believe that making money is more important than human life.''
Chinese coal mining accidents killed an average of 10 workers a day last year, according to the Chinese State Administration of Work Safety. Last year, the governor of Shanxi province was forced to make a public apology after official media disclosed that brick kiln managers in his province were using child slave labor.
Under Mao's state socialism, China's masses were supposed to be protected by a cradle-to-grave welfare system dubbed the ``iron rice bowl.'' The government and its giant state-owned enterprises offered full employment, subsidized housing, free health care and pensions.
Mao's regime was no workers' paradise: 70 million people died from manmade famine and political oppression, according to ``Mao: The Unknown Story'' (Knopf, 2005).
415,000 Millionaires
In the past 30 years -- following Mao's death and Deng's embrace of market principles -- 300 million out of a population of 1.3 billion have lifted themselves out of poverty, according to the UN. More than 415,000 of them have become millionaires, according to a study by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Capgemini SA.
Still, another 200 million live on less than $1 a day, according to a 2004 World Bank estimate.
The new China urged unprofitable state-owned companies to put profit ahead of providing for employees. From 1995 to 2001, 46 million Chinese lost their jobs, according to Andy Rothman, a Shanghai-based China strategist at CLSA Ltd. and former economic official at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Private companies now account for 70 percent of China's gross domestic product compared with 17 percent in 1990.
The rush to make money came at the expense of workers, says Auret van Heerden, Washington-based CEO of the Fair Labor Association, a nonprofit organization that monitors work conditions in 60 countries.
New Laws
``Conditions in China became comparable to the period in the West from the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century up to the Second World War,'' van Heerden says.
This year, in an effort to bridge the growing chasm between rich and poor and to close down the worst sweat shops, Chinese President Hu passed new labor laws setting minimum wages and assuring one month's pay for each year worked for employees who get fired. Hu has yet to send that message to Chinese companies working abroad.
Maathai, the Kenyan Nobel laureate, says Chinese companies should respect human rights and internationally accepted labor standards around the world.
``We in Africa expect China to help and not to take advantage of Africa's vulnerability,'' she says. ``China needs to understand Africa. We hope she will.''
For Adon Kalenga, the 13-year-old from Congo whose minerals supply Chinese smelters, the concept of fair treatment is a world away.
It's the end of a nine-hour workday in March, and he's slumped in a chair, nursing his back. Tomorrow, as he has almost every day for more than three years, Adon intends to return to the mine and the stream.
``I want a normal life, like the people I see walking in the street,'' says Adon, who can barely read and write. ``But I can't even afford to go to school. Things will never change.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Simon Clark in London at sclark4@bloomberg.netMichael Smith in Santiago at mssmith@bloomberg.netFranz Wild in Kinshasa at fwild@bloomberg.net
from bloomberg.com
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Nas Joins Protest Against On-Air Racism at Fox
Nas will join activists from MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org today as they march on Fox News headquarters in Manhattan demanding that the conservative network end what protesters call a "pattern of racist attacks against Black Americans including presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle."
Nas will help deliver a petition bearing 600,000 signatures to the Fox News offices at 2:00 this afternoon.
The groups criticize Fox's overall approach to news but singled out a few specific examples including: a reference to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama," saying that Barack and Michelle's fist pound had been called a "terrorist fist jab," a commentator confusing "Obama" with "Osama" and then joking about assassinating both and Bill O'Reilly using the term "lynch party" while criticizing Michelle Obama for comments she made about being proud of America.
"Fox poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news," said Nas, who slams Fox News in a track called "Sly Fox" on his new Untitled album.
"When FOX talks about lynching the woman who may soon be our First Lady and then refers to this wife and mother as a 'baby mama' they are maligning not only the Obamas, but Black women and Black people across this country. We have over 600,000 signatures - more than half a million people, saying we won't stand for FOX's racism and hate-mongering," James Rucker, director of ColorOfChange.org, added.
Nas will help deliver a petition bearing 600,000 signatures to the Fox News offices at 2:00 this afternoon.
The groups criticize Fox's overall approach to news but singled out a few specific examples including: a reference to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama," saying that Barack and Michelle's fist pound had been called a "terrorist fist jab," a commentator confusing "Obama" with "Osama" and then joking about assassinating both and Bill O'Reilly using the term "lynch party" while criticizing Michelle Obama for comments she made about being proud of America.
"Fox poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news," said Nas, who slams Fox News in a track called "Sly Fox" on his new Untitled album.
"When FOX talks about lynching the woman who may soon be our First Lady and then refers to this wife and mother as a 'baby mama' they are maligning not only the Obamas, but Black women and Black people across this country. We have over 600,000 signatures - more than half a million people, saying we won't stand for FOX's racism and hate-mongering," James Rucker, director of ColorOfChange.org, added.
14 Million in Africa's Horn Need Food Aid
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Dahir Abdi Salah used to feed his children three meals a day — pancakes for breakfast, spaghetti for lunch and beans for dinner.
Now, due to a global food crisis that is hitting this impoverished country especially hard, the family eats one meal a day. Other times they drink tea or water to ward off the inevitable hunger pangs.
"They eat porridge once a day," Salah said of his children, ages 2, 5 and 6, who live on the outskirts of Somalia's shattered capital, Mogadishu. "A kilogram (2 pounds) of beans used to cost a few cents — now it's a dollar. You can imagine the difference and how it has affected our lives."
More than 14 million people across the Horn of Africa are relying on food aid and other assistance to survive a devastating drought and rising food prices, aid officials said Tuesday. The crisis is especially dire in Ethiopia and Somalia, two of the poorest countries in the world.
Many are surviving on one meal a day; others choose between feeding their children and sending them to school.
"This had led to more than belt-tightening," Mark Bowden, the U.N.'s aid chief for Somalia, told journalists in Nairobi, Kenya. "People are reducing their food intake ... We have only months before we go into a major crisis."
Bowden estimates that 3.5 million people — half of Somalia's population — will need food assistance by the end of 2008. The U.N. has issued an aid appeal for $637 million for Somalia, but so far has gotten about a third of that.
The worldwide food crisis is threatening to push the number of hungry people in the world toward 1 billion — despite a recent U.N. summit pledge to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production.
In the Horn of Africa, food production is also hampered by drought — a double blow for Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti. In Ethiopia, more than 80 percent of people live off the land.
Peter Smerdon, Nairobi-based spokesman for World Food Program, said there are fears the September-October rains, crucial to ease the crisis here, will not come.
"If those rains fail," he said, "the number in need in those regions may well explode."
Responding to the crisis in Somalia is particularly dangerous because the arid, impoverished country has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991. The warlords then turned their clan-based militias on each other, plunging the country into chaos.
Violence against aid workers in Somalia also has dramatically increased this year, with at least five workers killed and several others kidnapped for ransom.
The food problem in the Horn is also spreading further west. Several West African nations across the high desert-like region called the Sahel, just below the Sahara Desert, are experiencing a decline this year in food reserves just as global food prices are soaring.
The so-called "lean season" that begins around June has been marked by near-empty grain stores there, with the next harvest not due until around September. Invasions of locusts and poor rains in recent years have only worsened the condition, which leads to deadly malnutrition among the area's young children.
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN and ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY fpr AP
Now, due to a global food crisis that is hitting this impoverished country especially hard, the family eats one meal a day. Other times they drink tea or water to ward off the inevitable hunger pangs.
"They eat porridge once a day," Salah said of his children, ages 2, 5 and 6, who live on the outskirts of Somalia's shattered capital, Mogadishu. "A kilogram (2 pounds) of beans used to cost a few cents — now it's a dollar. You can imagine the difference and how it has affected our lives."
More than 14 million people across the Horn of Africa are relying on food aid and other assistance to survive a devastating drought and rising food prices, aid officials said Tuesday. The crisis is especially dire in Ethiopia and Somalia, two of the poorest countries in the world.
Many are surviving on one meal a day; others choose between feeding their children and sending them to school.
"This had led to more than belt-tightening," Mark Bowden, the U.N.'s aid chief for Somalia, told journalists in Nairobi, Kenya. "People are reducing their food intake ... We have only months before we go into a major crisis."
Bowden estimates that 3.5 million people — half of Somalia's population — will need food assistance by the end of 2008. The U.N. has issued an aid appeal for $637 million for Somalia, but so far has gotten about a third of that.
The worldwide food crisis is threatening to push the number of hungry people in the world toward 1 billion — despite a recent U.N. summit pledge to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production.
In the Horn of Africa, food production is also hampered by drought — a double blow for Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti. In Ethiopia, more than 80 percent of people live off the land.
Peter Smerdon, Nairobi-based spokesman for World Food Program, said there are fears the September-October rains, crucial to ease the crisis here, will not come.
"If those rains fail," he said, "the number in need in those regions may well explode."
Responding to the crisis in Somalia is particularly dangerous because the arid, impoverished country has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991. The warlords then turned their clan-based militias on each other, plunging the country into chaos.
Violence against aid workers in Somalia also has dramatically increased this year, with at least five workers killed and several others kidnapped for ransom.
The food problem in the Horn is also spreading further west. Several West African nations across the high desert-like region called the Sahel, just below the Sahara Desert, are experiencing a decline this year in food reserves just as global food prices are soaring.
The so-called "lean season" that begins around June has been marked by near-empty grain stores there, with the next harvest not due until around September. Invasions of locusts and poor rains in recent years have only worsened the condition, which leads to deadly malnutrition among the area's young children.
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN and ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY fpr AP
'Family Wants Justice' in Taser Death
WINNFIELD, Louisiana (CNN) -- A police officer shocked a handcuffed Baron "Scooter" Pikes nine times with a Taser after arresting him on a cocaine charge.
He stopped twitching after seven, according to a coroner's report. Soon afterward, Pikes was dead.
Now the officer, since fired, could end up facing criminal charges in Pikes' January death after medical examiners ruled it a homicide.
Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner, told CNN the 21-year-old sawmill worker was jolted so many times by the 50,000-volt Taser that he might have been dead before the last two shocks were delivered.
Williams ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study.
Winn Parish District Attorney Christopher Nevils said he will decide on any charges against the ex-officer, Scott Nugent, once a Louisiana State Police report on the case is complete.
"It's taken several months for this case to even be properly addressed, so one has to wonder, why did it take so long?" said Carol Powell Lexing, a lawyer for the Pikes family. "Obviously, a wrongful death occurred."
Nugent's lawyer, Phillip Terrell, said his client followed proper procedure to subdue a man who outweighed him by 100 pounds. But Williams said Pikes was already handcuffed and on the ground when first hit with the Taser, after the 247-pound suspect was slow to follow police orders to get up.
Winnfield, a sleepy lumber town about 100 miles southeast of Shreveport, Louisiana, is best known as the birthplace of legendary Louisiana governors Huey and Earl Long. It's also about 45 miles northwest of Jena, Louisiana, where a racially charged assault case sparked a September 2007 demonstration by an estimated 15,000 people.
One of the teenage defendants in that case, Mychal Bell, is Pikes' first cousin -- and his lawyer was Powell Lexing.
Nugent is white; Pikes was black. His death led to demonstrations that drew several dozen people in Winnfield, where the population of about 15,000 is roughly half African-American.
"The family wants justice," Lexing said. "This is just another example of why it's very important to stay vigilant with these types of cases, on the injustice that's been perpetrated on the disadvantaged."
But Winnfield police Lt. Chuck Curry said race "isn't an issue at all" in the matter.
"This has come down to a police officer that was trying to apprehend a suspect that they had warrants for," he said. "He done what he thought he was trained to do to bring that subject into custody. At some point, something happened with his body that caused him to go into cardiac arrest or whatever."
According to police, Pikes was wanted on a charge of possession of cocaine when police tried to arrest him outside a shopping center January 12.
"He would not stop for the officer," Curry said. "At some point in there, he was Tased to bring him under control, and several hours later, died at the emergency room."
Terrell said Pikes was fighting Nugent "on uneven ground" amid obstructions such as concrete blocks and barbed wire.
"He's fighting, wrestling with an individual who weighs 100 pounds more than him," he said. "His partner had just come back to the police department from triple bypass surgery and could not assist Officer Nugent."
Terrell said his client "used every means possible" to take Pikes into custody before pulling out his Taser, a weapon Winnfield police purchased in 2007.
"The only thing he could have done other than to say, 'OK, we're going to let you go' is to beat him or Tase him. He did the right thing," Terrell said.
Williams, who ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study, said Nugent fired his Taser at Pikes six times in less than three minutes -- shots recorded by a computer chip in the weapon's handle. Then officers put Pikes in the back of a cruiser and drove him to their police station -- where Nugent fired a seventh shot, directly against Pikes' chest.
"After he was given that drive stun to the chest, he was pulled out of the car onto the concrete, " Williams told CNN. "He was electroshocked two more times, which two officers noted that he had no neuromuscular response to those last two 50,000-volt electroshocks."
Williams said he had two nationally known forensic pathologists, including former New York city medical examiner Michael Baden, review the case before issuing his conclusions. He said it's possible Nugent was shocking a dead man the last two times he pulled the trigger.
"This fellow was talking in the back seat of the car prior to shot number seven," he said. "From that point on, it becomes questionable [if Pikes was still alive]."
Curry said Pikes told officers he suffered from asthma and had been using PCP and crack cocaine. But Williams said he found no sign of drug use in the autopsy, and no record of asthma in Pikes' medical history.
In the year since Winnfield police received Tasers, officers have used them 14 times, according to police records -- with 12 of the instances involving black suspects. Ten of the 14 incidents involved Nugent, who has no public disciplinary record.
Nugent was suspended after Pikes' death, and Winnfield's City Council voted 3-2 to fire him in May. He is appealing his dismissal, and his lawyer says he followed proper procedures in Pikes' case. He was trained in the use of the Taser by a senior police officer who was present during the incident that led to Pikes' death, Terrell said.
Curry said Taser International, the device's manufacturer, indicates that "multiple Tasings do not affect a person." But he said he could not explain why Pikes was shocked so many times, and said whether Nugent followed proper procedure was "yet to be determined."
But a copy of the Winnfield Police Department's Taser training manual, obtained by CNN, says the device "shall only be deployed in circumstances where it is deemed reasonably necessary to control a dangerous or violent subject." And Williams said regulations regarding the use of Tasers were not followed.
"It violated every aspect -- every single aspect -- of the department's policy about its use," the coroner said.
Winnfield has seen a spate of high-profile corruption cases in recent years. One of Nevils' predecessors as district attorney, Terry Reeves, killed himself amid allegations of embezzlement and extortion. The town's current police chief, Johnny Ray Carpenter, is a convicted drug offender who received a pardon from former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards who himself is now serving a federal prison term for racketeering.
And Carpenter's predecessor, Gleason Nugent -- the father of Pikes' arresting officer -- committed suicide in 2005, after allegations of fraud and vote buying in the race for police chief, an elected position in Winnfield.
Now Nevils is awaiting the state police report on Pikes' death, which will be presented to a grand jury for possible charges against Nugent -- a possibility Curry said would be a blow to the department.
"It's one of these no-win situations," he said. "No matter the outcome, nobody's going to win in this case."
From Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick
CNN
He stopped twitching after seven, according to a coroner's report. Soon afterward, Pikes was dead.
Now the officer, since fired, could end up facing criminal charges in Pikes' January death after medical examiners ruled it a homicide.
Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner, told CNN the 21-year-old sawmill worker was jolted so many times by the 50,000-volt Taser that he might have been dead before the last two shocks were delivered.
Williams ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study.
Winn Parish District Attorney Christopher Nevils said he will decide on any charges against the ex-officer, Scott Nugent, once a Louisiana State Police report on the case is complete.
"It's taken several months for this case to even be properly addressed, so one has to wonder, why did it take so long?" said Carol Powell Lexing, a lawyer for the Pikes family. "Obviously, a wrongful death occurred."
Nugent's lawyer, Phillip Terrell, said his client followed proper procedure to subdue a man who outweighed him by 100 pounds. But Williams said Pikes was already handcuffed and on the ground when first hit with the Taser, after the 247-pound suspect was slow to follow police orders to get up.
Winnfield, a sleepy lumber town about 100 miles southeast of Shreveport, Louisiana, is best known as the birthplace of legendary Louisiana governors Huey and Earl Long. It's also about 45 miles northwest of Jena, Louisiana, where a racially charged assault case sparked a September 2007 demonstration by an estimated 15,000 people.
One of the teenage defendants in that case, Mychal Bell, is Pikes' first cousin -- and his lawyer was Powell Lexing.
Nugent is white; Pikes was black. His death led to demonstrations that drew several dozen people in Winnfield, where the population of about 15,000 is roughly half African-American.
"The family wants justice," Lexing said. "This is just another example of why it's very important to stay vigilant with these types of cases, on the injustice that's been perpetrated on the disadvantaged."
But Winnfield police Lt. Chuck Curry said race "isn't an issue at all" in the matter.
"This has come down to a police officer that was trying to apprehend a suspect that they had warrants for," he said. "He done what he thought he was trained to do to bring that subject into custody. At some point, something happened with his body that caused him to go into cardiac arrest or whatever."
According to police, Pikes was wanted on a charge of possession of cocaine when police tried to arrest him outside a shopping center January 12.
"He would not stop for the officer," Curry said. "At some point in there, he was Tased to bring him under control, and several hours later, died at the emergency room."
Terrell said Pikes was fighting Nugent "on uneven ground" amid obstructions such as concrete blocks and barbed wire.
"He's fighting, wrestling with an individual who weighs 100 pounds more than him," he said. "His partner had just come back to the police department from triple bypass surgery and could not assist Officer Nugent."
Terrell said his client "used every means possible" to take Pikes into custody before pulling out his Taser, a weapon Winnfield police purchased in 2007.
"The only thing he could have done other than to say, 'OK, we're going to let you go' is to beat him or Tase him. He did the right thing," Terrell said.
Williams, who ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study, said Nugent fired his Taser at Pikes six times in less than three minutes -- shots recorded by a computer chip in the weapon's handle. Then officers put Pikes in the back of a cruiser and drove him to their police station -- where Nugent fired a seventh shot, directly against Pikes' chest.
"After he was given that drive stun to the chest, he was pulled out of the car onto the concrete, " Williams told CNN. "He was electroshocked two more times, which two officers noted that he had no neuromuscular response to those last two 50,000-volt electroshocks."
Williams said he had two nationally known forensic pathologists, including former New York city medical examiner Michael Baden, review the case before issuing his conclusions. He said it's possible Nugent was shocking a dead man the last two times he pulled the trigger.
"This fellow was talking in the back seat of the car prior to shot number seven," he said. "From that point on, it becomes questionable [if Pikes was still alive]."
Curry said Pikes told officers he suffered from asthma and had been using PCP and crack cocaine. But Williams said he found no sign of drug use in the autopsy, and no record of asthma in Pikes' medical history.
In the year since Winnfield police received Tasers, officers have used them 14 times, according to police records -- with 12 of the instances involving black suspects. Ten of the 14 incidents involved Nugent, who has no public disciplinary record.
Nugent was suspended after Pikes' death, and Winnfield's City Council voted 3-2 to fire him in May. He is appealing his dismissal, and his lawyer says he followed proper procedures in Pikes' case. He was trained in the use of the Taser by a senior police officer who was present during the incident that led to Pikes' death, Terrell said.
Curry said Taser International, the device's manufacturer, indicates that "multiple Tasings do not affect a person." But he said he could not explain why Pikes was shocked so many times, and said whether Nugent followed proper procedure was "yet to be determined."
But a copy of the Winnfield Police Department's Taser training manual, obtained by CNN, says the device "shall only be deployed in circumstances where it is deemed reasonably necessary to control a dangerous or violent subject." And Williams said regulations regarding the use of Tasers were not followed.
"It violated every aspect -- every single aspect -- of the department's policy about its use," the coroner said.
Winnfield has seen a spate of high-profile corruption cases in recent years. One of Nevils' predecessors as district attorney, Terry Reeves, killed himself amid allegations of embezzlement and extortion. The town's current police chief, Johnny Ray Carpenter, is a convicted drug offender who received a pardon from former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards who himself is now serving a federal prison term for racketeering.
And Carpenter's predecessor, Gleason Nugent -- the father of Pikes' arresting officer -- committed suicide in 2005, after allegations of fraud and vote buying in the race for police chief, an elected position in Winnfield.
Now Nevils is awaiting the state police report on Pikes' death, which will be presented to a grand jury for possible charges against Nugent -- a possibility Curry said would be a blow to the department.
"It's one of these no-win situations," he said. "No matter the outcome, nobody's going to win in this case."
From Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick
CNN
UN: Congo Prisoners Dying of Hunger
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — At least 26 prisoners have died of hunger in a prison in Congo since the beginning of the year, U.N. officials said.
The United Nations Mission in Congo sent a team to the Mbuji-Mayi Central Prison in the province of Kasai Oriental, about 600 miles southeast of the capital, Kinshasa.
Sylvie Van Wildenberg, a U.N. spokeswoman, said that four prisoners died during the night of July 13 "as a result of severe malnutrition." At least 10 have died since June, and 26 since the beginning of the year, she said Monday.
"Our concern is even greater as we noted that among these deaths, many of them are defendants, who are therefore presumed innocent because they have not been judged due to the slowness of the legal process," said Assiongbon Tettekpoe, a local human rights officer for the U.N., who visited the prison earlier this month.
The prison, built in the 1960s, has a capacity for 200 prisoners but is housing at least 425.
The U.N. mission said Tuesday that there is not enough food to go around at the overcrowded facility and it is asking local officials to create a specific budget for food.
"One of the causes is the overcrowding versus the limited resources in terms of food. The money is simply not there. And when it is there it doesn't go to where it should go," said Kemal Saiki, chief spokesman for U.N. Mission in Congo.
He said unhygienic conditions are another factor contributing to the famine mortality.
Ngoy Kasandji, the governor of the province, says he recognizes the overcrowding problem. The prison, he said, has failed to expand along with the neighboring town's population, which has grown from around a half million residents in the 1960s to over 4 million today.
"We have an obligation to expand the prison. We need to find the means to do so as the current penitential structure cannot contain the number of prisoners anymore," he said.
Floribet Chebeya, the director of Voice for the Voiceless, a local rights group, said the reaction is too little too late.
"We have raised the alarm several times before on this situation but nothing has changed. In this prison, there are living skeletons. There are people whose bones are only covered with skin because of famine," he said.
By EDDY ISANGO fpr AP
The United Nations Mission in Congo sent a team to the Mbuji-Mayi Central Prison in the province of Kasai Oriental, about 600 miles southeast of the capital, Kinshasa.
Sylvie Van Wildenberg, a U.N. spokeswoman, said that four prisoners died during the night of July 13 "as a result of severe malnutrition." At least 10 have died since June, and 26 since the beginning of the year, she said Monday.
"Our concern is even greater as we noted that among these deaths, many of them are defendants, who are therefore presumed innocent because they have not been judged due to the slowness of the legal process," said Assiongbon Tettekpoe, a local human rights officer for the U.N., who visited the prison earlier this month.
The prison, built in the 1960s, has a capacity for 200 prisoners but is housing at least 425.
The U.N. mission said Tuesday that there is not enough food to go around at the overcrowded facility and it is asking local officials to create a specific budget for food.
"One of the causes is the overcrowding versus the limited resources in terms of food. The money is simply not there. And when it is there it doesn't go to where it should go," said Kemal Saiki, chief spokesman for U.N. Mission in Congo.
He said unhygienic conditions are another factor contributing to the famine mortality.
Ngoy Kasandji, the governor of the province, says he recognizes the overcrowding problem. The prison, he said, has failed to expand along with the neighboring town's population, which has grown from around a half million residents in the 1960s to over 4 million today.
"We have an obligation to expand the prison. We need to find the means to do so as the current penitential structure cannot contain the number of prisoners anymore," he said.
Floribet Chebeya, the director of Voice for the Voiceless, a local rights group, said the reaction is too little too late.
"We have raised the alarm several times before on this situation but nothing has changed. In this prison, there are living skeletons. There are people whose bones are only covered with skin because of famine," he said.
By EDDY ISANGO fpr AP
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
ACLU challenges Ala. Law Barring Convicted Felons From Voting
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - After serving eight months behind bars for a conviction of receiving stolen property, Annette McWashington Pruitt was excited about the prospect of being able to vote again.
One of her first stops after being released from prison was the Jefferson County Voter Registrar's Office. But she was told she was a convicted felon and couldn't vote.
"I couldn't believe it," Pruitt said. "They continued to give me numbers to call. It was very much demeaning."
Now she has gone to court to try to get her right to vote restored.
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in Montgomery Circuit Court on behalf of Pruitt and two other ex-felons seeking restoration of their voting rights. The lawsuit claims Alabama law is unclear on the subject, citing a bill passed by the Legislature in 2003 that says felons can vote unless convicted on "crimes of moral turpitude," but never defines those crimes.
The Legislature adopted a list of 15 crimes, including murder, treason and some sex crimes, that would exempt a person from having their voting rights restored. But the lawsuit says it's up to the state's voter registrars and the attorney general to decide in other cases if a person's rights can be restored.
"Two voter registrars might come to different conclusions," said Sam Brooke, an attorney for the ACLU.
The lawsuit asks that convicted felons not be denied the right to voted unless they were convicted of one of the crimes on the list adopted by the Legislature.
The lawsuit also asks that the state not deny a convicted felon the right to vote because they have not paid all court ordered fines and restitution. Brooke said that requirement makes it easier for convicts from wealthier backgrounds to get their rights restored.
"We believe this is a modern day version of the poll tax," Brooke said.
Brooke said more than 40 states make it easier for convicted felons to have their rights restored. Alabama has a procedure through the Board of Pardons and Paroles that allows felons to apply to have their rights restored, but Brooke said that process is "complicated and confusing."
In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist and the state clemency board last year voted to make it easier for most felons to have their voting rights restored.
Officials in the Alabama attorney general's offices declined to comment, saying they had not seen the lawsuit.
"Because the lawsuit has been filed, the issue will have to be resolved by the courts," Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman said in a statement.
Restoring voting rights would help most convicts return to society after prison, said Ed Nettles, pastor of Freewill Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery.
"It gives them a sense of dignity, a sense of pride, a sense of connecting to the community," Nettles said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.
Pruitt said she has a son in the military in Iraq and another son who is going into the Navy and that voting has always been an important part of her life.
"My father taught me this is what every American should do," she said.
By BOB JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
One of her first stops after being released from prison was the Jefferson County Voter Registrar's Office. But she was told she was a convicted felon and couldn't vote.
"I couldn't believe it," Pruitt said. "They continued to give me numbers to call. It was very much demeaning."
Now she has gone to court to try to get her right to vote restored.
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in Montgomery Circuit Court on behalf of Pruitt and two other ex-felons seeking restoration of their voting rights. The lawsuit claims Alabama law is unclear on the subject, citing a bill passed by the Legislature in 2003 that says felons can vote unless convicted on "crimes of moral turpitude," but never defines those crimes.
The Legislature adopted a list of 15 crimes, including murder, treason and some sex crimes, that would exempt a person from having their voting rights restored. But the lawsuit says it's up to the state's voter registrars and the attorney general to decide in other cases if a person's rights can be restored.
"Two voter registrars might come to different conclusions," said Sam Brooke, an attorney for the ACLU.
The lawsuit asks that convicted felons not be denied the right to voted unless they were convicted of one of the crimes on the list adopted by the Legislature.
The lawsuit also asks that the state not deny a convicted felon the right to vote because they have not paid all court ordered fines and restitution. Brooke said that requirement makes it easier for convicts from wealthier backgrounds to get their rights restored.
"We believe this is a modern day version of the poll tax," Brooke said.
Brooke said more than 40 states make it easier for convicted felons to have their rights restored. Alabama has a procedure through the Board of Pardons and Paroles that allows felons to apply to have their rights restored, but Brooke said that process is "complicated and confusing."
In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist and the state clemency board last year voted to make it easier for most felons to have their voting rights restored.
Officials in the Alabama attorney general's offices declined to comment, saying they had not seen the lawsuit.
"Because the lawsuit has been filed, the issue will have to be resolved by the courts," Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman said in a statement.
Restoring voting rights would help most convicts return to society after prison, said Ed Nettles, pastor of Freewill Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery.
"It gives them a sense of dignity, a sense of pride, a sense of connecting to the community," Nettles said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.
Pruitt said she has a son in the military in Iraq and another son who is going into the Navy and that voting has always been an important part of her life.
"My father taught me this is what every American should do," she said.
By BOB JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Authorities Deny Banning Blacks from Bars During Olympics
Beijing, China (AHN) -- Reports have surfaced that the Chinese Government is forcing bar owners to ban blacks and Mongolians from their bars during the Olympic games next month.
The pledges are said to be secret, but The South China Daily reported that some bar owners, especially those in Sanlitun, an area known for its nightlife, said they were forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to allow black people into their bars. Mongolians are also reportedly banned.
Some police and bar owners deny this ban is in place, but some Africans reported being charged double what other's pay as entry fees, and others recently told the World Net Daily that they were forced to show their passports prior to being allowed into a bar. No one else had to show such identification. The South China Daily quoted one bar owner as saying police came to him and made him agree, "not to serve black people or Mongolians."
It is reported that Chinese officials regard blacks and Mongolians as largely responsible for drug dealing and other criminal activity, and this ban is another measure to control what the rest of the world sees when all eyes are on Beijing for 17 days during the summer games.
On the Chinese website Danwei it was written that these bans are highly unlikely, however, unless they were done by low-level police officers.
Amy Beeman--allheadlinenews.com
The pledges are said to be secret, but The South China Daily reported that some bar owners, especially those in Sanlitun, an area known for its nightlife, said they were forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to allow black people into their bars. Mongolians are also reportedly banned.
Some police and bar owners deny this ban is in place, but some Africans reported being charged double what other's pay as entry fees, and others recently told the World Net Daily that they were forced to show their passports prior to being allowed into a bar. No one else had to show such identification. The South China Daily quoted one bar owner as saying police came to him and made him agree, "not to serve black people or Mongolians."
It is reported that Chinese officials regard blacks and Mongolians as largely responsible for drug dealing and other criminal activity, and this ban is another measure to control what the rest of the world sees when all eyes are on Beijing for 17 days during the summer games.
On the Chinese website Danwei it was written that these bans are highly unlikely, however, unless they were done by low-level police officers.
Amy Beeman--allheadlinenews.com
Legendary Hip Hop Female DJ K Swift Dead at 28
Legendary hip hop female DJ K Swift died this morning (July 21) at her home in Baltimore, Maryland after a swimming pool accident, according to reports by Allhiphop.com.
K-Swift (born Khia Edgerton) began DJ’ing at the young age of 11, and became a pioneer on Baltimore’s popular Radio One station 92Q Jams, where she rose to Female Mix Show Coordinator, the only female in the country to hold such a title. The young DJ also was a member of the Violator-All Star DJ Coalition, as well as a member of the all female squad the Murda Mamis, and just appeared at Baltimore’s annual Artscape Music Festival this past Saturday (July 19).
"I'm at a loss for words right now,” Murda Mami founder 1st Lady El told AllHipHop.com. “K-Swift was not only one of my Murda Mami sisters, she was a great friend. She knocked down doors for women in this industry, so humble and hard working…She will be missed."
A business woman in her own right, K-Swift owned Club Queen Entertainment, a graphics management and production company which produced a variety of hit club music albums within the Baltimore area including Club Queen Vol. 1-6 and The K-Swift EP.
K-Swift was 27-years-old.
VIBE.com
K-Swift (born Khia Edgerton) began DJ’ing at the young age of 11, and became a pioneer on Baltimore’s popular Radio One station 92Q Jams, where she rose to Female Mix Show Coordinator, the only female in the country to hold such a title. The young DJ also was a member of the Violator-All Star DJ Coalition, as well as a member of the all female squad the Murda Mamis, and just appeared at Baltimore’s annual Artscape Music Festival this past Saturday (July 19).
"I'm at a loss for words right now,” Murda Mami founder 1st Lady El told AllHipHop.com. “K-Swift was not only one of my Murda Mami sisters, she was a great friend. She knocked down doors for women in this industry, so humble and hard working…She will be missed."
A business woman in her own right, K-Swift owned Club Queen Entertainment, a graphics management and production company which produced a variety of hit club music albums within the Baltimore area including Club Queen Vol. 1-6 and The K-Swift EP.
K-Swift was 27-years-old.
VIBE.com
Haitians Recycle to Survive
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitians facing widespread unemployment or a minimum wage of less than US$2 a day are turning to the junk that litters the streets for survival.
Thousands of Haitians amass and haul scrap metal, plastic bottles, even abandoned cars to recycling plants such as GS Industries SA, one of the capital city's largest, where they are melted and exported to countries throughout the Americas and Asia.
Delicame Giles, 56, collects discarded plastic bottles that flow with the rain through an open canal, earning about US$8 a week. She has no other means of support. Her husband is dead, and her children are unemployed.
"I have been doing this work for one year," Giles said. "I wouldn't do it, but life is so hard, I'm forced to. Sometimes I sit here with my eyeballs popping out. I feel like they're going to pop out of my head, I'm so hungry."
GS Industries manager Stephane Sajous says recycling in Haiti serves two purposes: cleaning the countryside and creating raw materials for the rest of the world.
"All solid trash has a consumer who can recycle it and make something new," Sajous said.
The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Thousands of Haitians amass and haul scrap metal, plastic bottles, even abandoned cars to recycling plants such as GS Industries SA, one of the capital city's largest, where they are melted and exported to countries throughout the Americas and Asia.
Delicame Giles, 56, collects discarded plastic bottles that flow with the rain through an open canal, earning about US$8 a week. She has no other means of support. Her husband is dead, and her children are unemployed.
"I have been doing this work for one year," Giles said. "I wouldn't do it, but life is so hard, I'm forced to. Sometimes I sit here with my eyeballs popping out. I feel like they're going to pop out of my head, I'm so hungry."
GS Industries manager Stephane Sajous says recycling in Haiti serves two purposes: cleaning the countryside and creating raw materials for the rest of the world.
"All solid trash has a consumer who can recycle it and make something new," Sajous said.
The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Report: US Africa Aid is Increasingly Military
NAIROBI, July 17 -- U.S. aid to Africa is becoming increasingly militarized, resulting in skewed priorities and less attention to longer-term development projects that could lead to greater stability across the continent, according to a report released Thursday by the advocacy group Refugees International.
The report warns that the planned U.S. Africa Command, designed to boost America's image and prevent terrorism, is allowing the Defense Department to usurp funds traditionally directed by the State Department and U.S. aid agencies.
A Pentagon spokesman did not return a call requesting comment. But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned this week against the risk of a "creeping militarization" of U.S. foreign policy and said the State Department should lead U.S. engagement with other countries.
The Pentagon, which controlled about 3 percent of official aid money a decade ago, now controls 22 percent, while the U.S. Agency for International Development's share has declined from 65 percent to 40 percent, according to the 56-page report.
"The danger is this strategy will not achieve the security objectives of addressing the root causes of terrorism," said Mark Malan, author of the report. "And it certainly won't address the developmental objectives of U.S. foreign policy."
Refugees International, based in Washington, provides aid to refugees and advocates for solutions to end conditions that create displacement.
Malan said the militarization has been driven by the U.S. focus on counterterrorism, though the trend dates to the Cold War era. The more fundamental problem, he said, is a lack of consistent, coherent U.S. foreign policy attention to Africa.
For example, the United States has dedicated nearly $50 million to hire contractors to train 2,000 soldiers in post-civil war Liberia, a West African country of 4 million people. Meanwhile, $5.5 million has been dedicated to boosting a weak and unprofessional army of 164,000 soldiers in Congo, a country of 65 million where a decade-long conflict and humanitarian crisis have left an estimated 5 million people dead.
The headquarters of the new African command post, known as Africom, has not been determined, and many African leaders have rejected hosting it. A temporary headquarters is being set up in Stuttgart, Germany, and is expected to begin consolidating responsibility for the continent in October.
Africom in part aims to better integrate U.S. efforts in Africa by coordinating military activities with the State Department and other agencies, but "the State Department is being overwhelmed by the Pentagon," Malan said.
That concern was also raised in a Government Accountability Office report on Africom released this week. The report noted that Africom, which is to have about 1,300 employees, has had difficulty integrating 13 staff members from the State Department and other agencies.
"State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development officials have expressed concerns that Africom will become the lead for all U.S. efforts in Africa, rather than just DOD activities," the report said.
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 18, 2008; Page A10
The report warns that the planned U.S. Africa Command, designed to boost America's image and prevent terrorism, is allowing the Defense Department to usurp funds traditionally directed by the State Department and U.S. aid agencies.
A Pentagon spokesman did not return a call requesting comment. But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned this week against the risk of a "creeping militarization" of U.S. foreign policy and said the State Department should lead U.S. engagement with other countries.
The Pentagon, which controlled about 3 percent of official aid money a decade ago, now controls 22 percent, while the U.S. Agency for International Development's share has declined from 65 percent to 40 percent, according to the 56-page report.
"The danger is this strategy will not achieve the security objectives of addressing the root causes of terrorism," said Mark Malan, author of the report. "And it certainly won't address the developmental objectives of U.S. foreign policy."
Refugees International, based in Washington, provides aid to refugees and advocates for solutions to end conditions that create displacement.
Malan said the militarization has been driven by the U.S. focus on counterterrorism, though the trend dates to the Cold War era. The more fundamental problem, he said, is a lack of consistent, coherent U.S. foreign policy attention to Africa.
For example, the United States has dedicated nearly $50 million to hire contractors to train 2,000 soldiers in post-civil war Liberia, a West African country of 4 million people. Meanwhile, $5.5 million has been dedicated to boosting a weak and unprofessional army of 164,000 soldiers in Congo, a country of 65 million where a decade-long conflict and humanitarian crisis have left an estimated 5 million people dead.
The headquarters of the new African command post, known as Africom, has not been determined, and many African leaders have rejected hosting it. A temporary headquarters is being set up in Stuttgart, Germany, and is expected to begin consolidating responsibility for the continent in October.
Africom in part aims to better integrate U.S. efforts in Africa by coordinating military activities with the State Department and other agencies, but "the State Department is being overwhelmed by the Pentagon," Malan said.
That concern was also raised in a Government Accountability Office report on Africom released this week. The report noted that Africom, which is to have about 1,300 employees, has had difficulty integrating 13 staff members from the State Department and other agencies.
"State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development officials have expressed concerns that Africom will become the lead for all U.S. efforts in Africa, rather than just DOD activities," the report said.
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 18, 2008; Page A10
CNN to Offer a Glimpse of Black Life in America
As the world's window on the United States, CNN is offering its second documentary on black life in the republic, just as Barack Obama heads off to Europe and the Middle East, with the three network anchors in global tracking mode.
Dick Parsons, board chairman of the cable network parent company, Time Warner Inc., wondered aloud why he was invited to launch the two-part series, "Black in America," that starts Wednesday. "It may have something to do with the fact that I'm black in America." Gilding the lily, as CEOs are wont to do, he said that the documentary illustrates a "new paradigm."
Soledad O'Brien, the CNN host of the show, however, kept her feet on ground and was closer to the point of the 18-month production. "We did not have a desired outcome," she said, "what we wanted to do was to tell stories; not to pull punches. We wanted to tell stories through human beings ... who have to make choices; some are personal, others are influenced by [government] policy."
The Time Warner honcho seemed intent on nudging the CNN series away from its journalistic moorings toward the open sea of politics. "Things have changed," said Parsons, sliming African-Americans' struggle to achieve parity as a "paradigm of victimization." "It's time to stop thinking in the old way and start thinking in the new way. Barack Obama is trying to get us to converse through this new paradigm."
Such efforts, which hold great appeal for whites, collide with the very reality that the CNN series explores. As cited in a recent New York Times poll, Americans are sharply divided along racial lines over the nation's first presumptive black presidential nominee. Blacks are nearly three times more likely to have a favorable opinion of Obama than are whites; twice as likely to embrace his wife, Michelle; and twice as likely to see "race relations" as "bad," with no improvement in recent years.
While African-Americans agree with whites that these troubled times render America "ready" to elect a black president, they do not view this change as a significant sign of improvement in race relations.
This perception, chairman Parsons might note, flows not from a black paradigm of victimization but rather a white American history of villainy. Such a model of villainization does not reassure the lamb when sitting down with the wolf to discuss dinner. The American experience instructs that most whites who would dare vote for Obama will do so not out of altruism but rather a cataclysmic desperation brought on by Bush-Cheney. Sen. John McCain offers no hope with his plethora of disquieting inadequacies.
The new racial "paradigm" that Parsons preaches and Obama campaigns upon is, unfortunately, quite a ways off. The CNN documentary flicks at the structural problem when discussing the raw side of the criminal justice system that bludgeons black men unfairly. Those who don't run afoul of the law are nonetheless stigmatized. Potential employers, the TV series reports, treat black job-seekers without criminal records less fairly that they do comparable whites with criminal records.
Reporter O'Brien found the level of terror police generate in black neighborhoods simply "staggering." "No matter what the socio-economic class, people told stories of what they told their 12-year-old sons to do when pulled over by cops." The "almost verbatim" spiel was given "whether it's inner city Detroit in a house that is falling down around you or a Hollywood star in a giant mansion with a pool that is humongous."
"If you're pulled over by a cop, here's what you do, here's what you say." Single mothers; couples, everybody had the same speech. Typically, "an Ivy league professor said, 'I tell my boys, you cower, cower, because I want you to live.'"
"These are conversations that white people do not have with their children," said O'Brien. With its global audience of 1.2 billion viewers in 212 countries and territories, CNN will offer a mere hint of this state of terror that the police sustain in black America.
Les Payne for newsday.com
Dick Parsons, board chairman of the cable network parent company, Time Warner Inc., wondered aloud why he was invited to launch the two-part series, "Black in America," that starts Wednesday. "It may have something to do with the fact that I'm black in America." Gilding the lily, as CEOs are wont to do, he said that the documentary illustrates a "new paradigm."
Soledad O'Brien, the CNN host of the show, however, kept her feet on ground and was closer to the point of the 18-month production. "We did not have a desired outcome," she said, "what we wanted to do was to tell stories; not to pull punches. We wanted to tell stories through human beings ... who have to make choices; some are personal, others are influenced by [government] policy."
The Time Warner honcho seemed intent on nudging the CNN series away from its journalistic moorings toward the open sea of politics. "Things have changed," said Parsons, sliming African-Americans' struggle to achieve parity as a "paradigm of victimization." "It's time to stop thinking in the old way and start thinking in the new way. Barack Obama is trying to get us to converse through this new paradigm."
Such efforts, which hold great appeal for whites, collide with the very reality that the CNN series explores. As cited in a recent New York Times poll, Americans are sharply divided along racial lines over the nation's first presumptive black presidential nominee. Blacks are nearly three times more likely to have a favorable opinion of Obama than are whites; twice as likely to embrace his wife, Michelle; and twice as likely to see "race relations" as "bad," with no improvement in recent years.
While African-Americans agree with whites that these troubled times render America "ready" to elect a black president, they do not view this change as a significant sign of improvement in race relations.
This perception, chairman Parsons might note, flows not from a black paradigm of victimization but rather a white American history of villainy. Such a model of villainization does not reassure the lamb when sitting down with the wolf to discuss dinner. The American experience instructs that most whites who would dare vote for Obama will do so not out of altruism but rather a cataclysmic desperation brought on by Bush-Cheney. Sen. John McCain offers no hope with his plethora of disquieting inadequacies.
The new racial "paradigm" that Parsons preaches and Obama campaigns upon is, unfortunately, quite a ways off. The CNN documentary flicks at the structural problem when discussing the raw side of the criminal justice system that bludgeons black men unfairly. Those who don't run afoul of the law are nonetheless stigmatized. Potential employers, the TV series reports, treat black job-seekers without criminal records less fairly that they do comparable whites with criminal records.
Reporter O'Brien found the level of terror police generate in black neighborhoods simply "staggering." "No matter what the socio-economic class, people told stories of what they told their 12-year-old sons to do when pulled over by cops." The "almost verbatim" spiel was given "whether it's inner city Detroit in a house that is falling down around you or a Hollywood star in a giant mansion with a pool that is humongous."
"If you're pulled over by a cop, here's what you do, here's what you say." Single mothers; couples, everybody had the same speech. Typically, "an Ivy league professor said, 'I tell my boys, you cower, cower, because I want you to live.'"
"These are conversations that white people do not have with their children," said O'Brien. With its global audience of 1.2 billion viewers in 212 countries and territories, CNN will offer a mere hint of this state of terror that the police sustain in black America.
Les Payne for newsday.com
HIV Rate Down in Jamaica
KINGSTON, Jamaica, July 16, 2008 - Jamaica is leading the Caribbean in the fight against AIDS, having reduced the prevalence rate of HIV in Jamaica to about 1.5 per cent, the country's Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer has reported.
He made the revelation at the recent launch of the US$44.1 million Global Fund Agreement in the capital. The agreement is Jamaica's second HIV/AIDS proposal to the Global Fund, following the Ministry's successful implementation of the first HIV/AIDS proposal to the Global Fund (2002-2009).
Lauding the successes of the first Global Fund programme, led by outgoing Chief of Epidemiology and AIDS Dr Peter Figueroa, the Minister reported that there was also a 35 per cent decline in deaths due to AIDS between 2004 and 2006. He accredited this to an overall improved access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS.
"The mother-to-child transmission rate has also witnessed a dramatic decline from 25 per cent in 2004 to less than 10 per cent in 2007," he noted.
However, while Jamaica has achieved much success in HIV control, particularly in treatment and care, risk taking behaviours have not decreased significantly, especially among vulnerable groups and young persons.
Mr Spencer announced that the new Global Fund would be rolling out a number of initiatives that would target vulnerable groups, such as casual sex workers and their clients, drug users, prison inmates and young persons, among others.
The three priority areas under the 2007-2012 National Strategic Plan are prevention, universal access to treatment care and support, and creating an enabling environment for the successful implementation of national HIV/AIDS policies and human rights.
"This project will also seek to improve the quality of life for those currently in need of treatment. The strategies and interventions will help us to move toward universal access to free anti-retroviral drugs," he explained.
The Global Fund Agreement, which takes effect this month, will provide part financial support for the proposed National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan, which the Minister said would require funding of US$201 million. The balance will be supplemented by smaller grants and a second World Bank loan of US$10 million, which Minister Spencer revealed, was signed last month. The government of Jamaica will also be providing some of the resources.
"Jamaica is also qualified to receive an additional grant of up to US$23 million from the Global Fund," Mr Spencer added." Again, based on our track record of meeting our targets, we have been invited by the Global Fund to apply for more money under the Rolling Continuation Channel and we have applied."
The Global Fund was created to finance a dramatic turn around in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. These diseases kill over six million people each year and the numbers continue to grow. To date, the Global Fund has committed US$10.7 billion in 136 countries to support aggressive interventions against all three diseases.
caribbean360.com
He made the revelation at the recent launch of the US$44.1 million Global Fund Agreement in the capital. The agreement is Jamaica's second HIV/AIDS proposal to the Global Fund, following the Ministry's successful implementation of the first HIV/AIDS proposal to the Global Fund (2002-2009).
Lauding the successes of the first Global Fund programme, led by outgoing Chief of Epidemiology and AIDS Dr Peter Figueroa, the Minister reported that there was also a 35 per cent decline in deaths due to AIDS between 2004 and 2006. He accredited this to an overall improved access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS.
"The mother-to-child transmission rate has also witnessed a dramatic decline from 25 per cent in 2004 to less than 10 per cent in 2007," he noted.
However, while Jamaica has achieved much success in HIV control, particularly in treatment and care, risk taking behaviours have not decreased significantly, especially among vulnerable groups and young persons.
Mr Spencer announced that the new Global Fund would be rolling out a number of initiatives that would target vulnerable groups, such as casual sex workers and their clients, drug users, prison inmates and young persons, among others.
The three priority areas under the 2007-2012 National Strategic Plan are prevention, universal access to treatment care and support, and creating an enabling environment for the successful implementation of national HIV/AIDS policies and human rights.
"This project will also seek to improve the quality of life for those currently in need of treatment. The strategies and interventions will help us to move toward universal access to free anti-retroviral drugs," he explained.
The Global Fund Agreement, which takes effect this month, will provide part financial support for the proposed National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan, which the Minister said would require funding of US$201 million. The balance will be supplemented by smaller grants and a second World Bank loan of US$10 million, which Minister Spencer revealed, was signed last month. The government of Jamaica will also be providing some of the resources.
"Jamaica is also qualified to receive an additional grant of up to US$23 million from the Global Fund," Mr Spencer added." Again, based on our track record of meeting our targets, we have been invited by the Global Fund to apply for more money under the Rolling Continuation Channel and we have applied."
The Global Fund was created to finance a dramatic turn around in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. These diseases kill over six million people each year and the numbers continue to grow. To date, the Global Fund has committed US$10.7 billion in 136 countries to support aggressive interventions against all three diseases.
caribbean360.com
At 102, 'Grandmother' of Black Panthers is Honored
OAKLAND — At 102, Ruth Villa Jones is still committed to the work of the Black Panther Party.
She is considered the "grandmother" of many of the party's programs and was honored Saturday at the Oakland Community School Reunion and Picnic.
The East Oakland school was founded by the Panthers more than 30 years ago, and Jones was there at the beginning. She helped with everything from the party's free breakfast program to passing out shoes to poor children.
"It's so wonderful that she always thinks of others first and herself last,'' said Betty Reuben, who was a parent volunteer at the school.
About 50 former students, staff members and parents gathered for the event at Dimond Park. They greeted each other, and Jones, the oldest living former Panther member, with hugs and smiles. The reunion was the first official gathering since the school closed at the end of 1981.
The school grew out of a need to help African-American and other disadvantaged children caught in an unequal public education system that tended to have better schools in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods than in poor inner-city areas. It began in 1974 with about 90 children and was located at 6118 E. 14th St.
Poets, artists and activists, including Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Cesar Chavez, James Baldwin and Richard Pryor were guest teachers and lecturers at the school.
Party members say Jones was a "real comrade" and had a strong sense of commitment.
She was recruited by Panthers co-founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to help with the school and other party work. Jones founded the party's Seniors Against A Fearful Environment (SAFE) program.
"She was always there at critical times and on the picket lines for the party,'' said Melvin Dickson, a former party member. He said he remembers how Jones supported Newton when he returned to the U.S. from Cuba by attending his court hearings. She was also present to protect the party against negative attacks from the media.
Today, Jones is still on the move and uses a walker to get around. Last week, she celebrated her birthday and was recognized by the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church for her long-standing work in the community.
At the reunion, Jones said she was glad to connect with her friends from the school.
"I'm happy I'm able to see what the party has done,'' she said. "We did the work, and many seeds were planted.''
By Kamika Dunlap
insidebayarea.com Staff Writer
She is considered the "grandmother" of many of the party's programs and was honored Saturday at the Oakland Community School Reunion and Picnic.
The East Oakland school was founded by the Panthers more than 30 years ago, and Jones was there at the beginning. She helped with everything from the party's free breakfast program to passing out shoes to poor children.
"It's so wonderful that she always thinks of others first and herself last,'' said Betty Reuben, who was a parent volunteer at the school.
About 50 former students, staff members and parents gathered for the event at Dimond Park. They greeted each other, and Jones, the oldest living former Panther member, with hugs and smiles. The reunion was the first official gathering since the school closed at the end of 1981.
The school grew out of a need to help African-American and other disadvantaged children caught in an unequal public education system that tended to have better schools in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods than in poor inner-city areas. It began in 1974 with about 90 children and was located at 6118 E. 14th St.
Poets, artists and activists, including Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Cesar Chavez, James Baldwin and Richard Pryor were guest teachers and lecturers at the school.
Party members say Jones was a "real comrade" and had a strong sense of commitment.
She was recruited by Panthers co-founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to help with the school and other party work. Jones founded the party's Seniors Against A Fearful Environment (SAFE) program.
"She was always there at critical times and on the picket lines for the party,'' said Melvin Dickson, a former party member. He said he remembers how Jones supported Newton when he returned to the U.S. from Cuba by attending his court hearings. She was also present to protect the party against negative attacks from the media.
Today, Jones is still on the move and uses a walker to get around. Last week, she celebrated her birthday and was recognized by the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church for her long-standing work in the community.
At the reunion, Jones said she was glad to connect with her friends from the school.
"I'm happy I'm able to see what the party has done,'' she said. "We did the work, and many seeds were planted.''
By Kamika Dunlap
insidebayarea.com Staff Writer
Sunday, July 20, 2008
T.I., Hip-Hop Caucus Encourage Voting
Rapper T.I. is joining forces with the Hip-Hop Caucus to launch a new voter registration campaign.
The 2008 Voter Registration and Education initiative and Get Out the Vote campaign will officially kick off at 10:30 a.m. July 28, with a celebrity green carpet at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC.
A press conference will follow at 11:45 a.m. after doors open to the public at 11:30 a.m. T.I. will be among the celebrities appearing at the free event, to discuss the importance of civic engagement in young people.
The Get Out the Vote campaign slogan as well as exclusive t-shirts produced by T.I.’s forthcoming AKOO clothing line will be unveiled at the event, which will feature guest DJ Green Lantern.
T.I’s involvement in the Get Out the Vote campaign isn’t the first time the Atlanta rapper has made an effort to encourage fans to register and vote during the upcoming presidential election.
T.I. is part of an all-star line up of entertainers who took part in a new public service announcement created by the Hip Hop Summit Action Network and CPX Interactive.
For free passes to the Get Out the Vote event, e-mail events@hiphopcaucus.org or visit www.hiphopcaucus.org
By Chris Richburg for allhiphop.com
The 2008 Voter Registration and Education initiative and Get Out the Vote campaign will officially kick off at 10:30 a.m. July 28, with a celebrity green carpet at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC.
A press conference will follow at 11:45 a.m. after doors open to the public at 11:30 a.m. T.I. will be among the celebrities appearing at the free event, to discuss the importance of civic engagement in young people.
The Get Out the Vote campaign slogan as well as exclusive t-shirts produced by T.I.’s forthcoming AKOO clothing line will be unveiled at the event, which will feature guest DJ Green Lantern.
T.I’s involvement in the Get Out the Vote campaign isn’t the first time the Atlanta rapper has made an effort to encourage fans to register and vote during the upcoming presidential election.
T.I. is part of an all-star line up of entertainers who took part in a new public service announcement created by the Hip Hop Summit Action Network and CPX Interactive.
For free passes to the Get Out the Vote event, e-mail events@hiphopcaucus.org or visit www.hiphopcaucus.org
By Chris Richburg for allhiphop.com
Africans in Beijing Harassed as Olympics Approach
BEIJING -- Chinese police officials have forced some Beijing bar owners to sign secret pledges promising to prohibit blacks from entering their bars during the Olympics next month, a Hong Kong newspaper says.
The police denied the report yesterday, and most bars denied any knowledge of the pledges. But many African residents of Beijing say they are facing harassment from police and discrimination from bars as the Olympics approach.
"Bar owners near the Workers Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises," the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.
It quoted the co-owner of a bar who said that a group of police had recently visited his establishment to order it "not to serve black people or Mongolians."
In the famed Sanlitun bar district of Beijing, some bar owners have been required to sign pledges agreeing to ban a variety of activities, including dancing and serving black customers, the newspaper said.
Africans and Mongolians are often perceived as criminals in Beijing. Until this year, a number of young African men were openly selling drugs in the Sanlitun district, and many Mongolian women were working as prostitutes in the city.
Both groups are among the targets of China's security crackdown in the lead-up to the Olympics, along with thousands of Tibetans, Uyghurs, migrant workers, petitioners and social activists who are seen as potential troublemakers or protesters.
In a notorious incident last September, dozens of black people were detained by police in a raid on bars in the Sanlitun district.
Witnesses said the police rounded up all the black people they could find, up to three dozen in total, and beat some of them with rubber truncheons.
Grenada's ambassador to China filed a complaint to the Foreign Ministry, saying that his son suffered a concussion and needed hospital treatment after he was clubbed on the head by police during the raid.
Africans have been coming to Beijing for decades as university students or traders. But many were forced to leave China this year because of new visa restrictions that made it difficult to renew their paperwork.
In interviews yesterday, a number of Africans said they are facing discriminatory rules from Beijing's bars and nightclubs as the Olympics approach.
A woman from Liberia, who is co-owner of a hair salon in Beijing, said she was outraged when she visited a popular Beijing nightclub and found that the entrance fee for black people was twice as high as for other foreigners.
Even if they managed to enter the club, the black patrons were prohibited from sitting at the tables, she said.
In another incident, she said, an African-owned bar was raided this week by police with dogs, and the customers were required to provide urine samples for drug tests.
"When the police come, you have to run," she said. "I've lived in Holland and the United States and it was never like this. There's no human rights here. It's racist and it makes me feel very bad."
If the police are now ordering bars to prohibit black people from entering, it is highly unfair, she said. "Every race has good people and bad people. You can't blame all blacks for drugs. If a person is not causing a problem, you shouldn't bother them."
Two Nigerian businessmen said they were required to show their passports before being allowed to enter a Beijing nightclub last weekend. Black people who could not produce their passports were barred from entering the club, but other foreigners were not required to show their passports, they said.
"This had never happened before to me," one of the Nigerians said. "I was very angry. This is racism."
The Africans spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing more harassment from the police if they are identified. The Nigerians, interviewed at a bar, asked that the bar not be identified because they were worried that it could be raided if the police learned that Africans congregate there.
GEOFFREY YORK
theglobeandmail.com
The police denied the report yesterday, and most bars denied any knowledge of the pledges. But many African residents of Beijing say they are facing harassment from police and discrimination from bars as the Olympics approach.
"Bar owners near the Workers Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises," the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.
It quoted the co-owner of a bar who said that a group of police had recently visited his establishment to order it "not to serve black people or Mongolians."
In the famed Sanlitun bar district of Beijing, some bar owners have been required to sign pledges agreeing to ban a variety of activities, including dancing and serving black customers, the newspaper said.
Africans and Mongolians are often perceived as criminals in Beijing. Until this year, a number of young African men were openly selling drugs in the Sanlitun district, and many Mongolian women were working as prostitutes in the city.
Both groups are among the targets of China's security crackdown in the lead-up to the Olympics, along with thousands of Tibetans, Uyghurs, migrant workers, petitioners and social activists who are seen as potential troublemakers or protesters.
In a notorious incident last September, dozens of black people were detained by police in a raid on bars in the Sanlitun district.
Witnesses said the police rounded up all the black people they could find, up to three dozen in total, and beat some of them with rubber truncheons.
Grenada's ambassador to China filed a complaint to the Foreign Ministry, saying that his son suffered a concussion and needed hospital treatment after he was clubbed on the head by police during the raid.
Africans have been coming to Beijing for decades as university students or traders. But many were forced to leave China this year because of new visa restrictions that made it difficult to renew their paperwork.
In interviews yesterday, a number of Africans said they are facing discriminatory rules from Beijing's bars and nightclubs as the Olympics approach.
A woman from Liberia, who is co-owner of a hair salon in Beijing, said she was outraged when she visited a popular Beijing nightclub and found that the entrance fee for black people was twice as high as for other foreigners.
Even if they managed to enter the club, the black patrons were prohibited from sitting at the tables, she said.
In another incident, she said, an African-owned bar was raided this week by police with dogs, and the customers were required to provide urine samples for drug tests.
"When the police come, you have to run," she said. "I've lived in Holland and the United States and it was never like this. There's no human rights here. It's racist and it makes me feel very bad."
If the police are now ordering bars to prohibit black people from entering, it is highly unfair, she said. "Every race has good people and bad people. You can't blame all blacks for drugs. If a person is not causing a problem, you shouldn't bother them."
Two Nigerian businessmen said they were required to show their passports before being allowed to enter a Beijing nightclub last weekend. Black people who could not produce their passports were barred from entering the club, but other foreigners were not required to show their passports, they said.
"This had never happened before to me," one of the Nigerians said. "I was very angry. This is racism."
The Africans spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing more harassment from the police if they are identified. The Nigerians, interviewed at a bar, asked that the bar not be identified because they were worried that it could be raided if the police learned that Africans congregate there.
GEOFFREY YORK
theglobeandmail.com
Military High Court: Racist Speech Not Criminal
BOISE, Idaho —
A U.S. Army soldier who espoused racist views in an Internet profile was exercising his right to free speech, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled Wednesday.
Nearly eight years ago, military prosecutors charged Pfc. Jeremy T. Wilcox with making statements online that discredited the Armed Forces and were detrimental to good order and discipline.
Wilcox was also accused of several other charges - including violating military rules by attending a Ku Klux Klan rally and encouraging participation in extremist organizations. Those charges were resolved separately and not part of the appeal to the Washington, D.C.-based military high court.
A civilian police officer notified the military's criminal investigative division after spotting an online profile that contained racist views posted by someone calling himself "US Army Paratrooper," according to the written ruling. That's when a military investigator went undercover, posing as a young woman interested in the white supremacist movement and recording her online conversations with Wilcox, who also referred to himself as "Wskullhead."
At the conclusion of his court martial, Wilcox, who was originally from Idaho Falls, Idaho, but was serving with the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C., was sentenced to eight months confinement, a bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade. The court decision did not indicate what portion of the sentence applied to the charges at issue in Wednesday's ruling.
In a 4-to-1 decision, the military's highest court found that Wilcox's statements didn't go far enough to justify criminal charges.
The investigator's testimony showed that Wilcox "held beliefs that are both disturbing and inconsistent with Department of Defense policies regarding racial equality and other matters," the high court found. But Wilcox's defense lawyers were able to show that he had good working relationships with minorities in his unit, and that there was no evidence that his racist views adversely affected his military performance.
Though members of the military don't have the same free speech rights as other civilians because their speech must be weighed against military interests, the court found that Wilcox's statements were still protected. Wilcox thought he was making the statements to a like-minded civilian friend, not to his fellow soldiers, the court noted.
The court took special care to distance itself from Wilcox's beliefs.
"Condemnation and conviction are drastically different when the First Amendment is involved, and our disagreement with his statements cannot substitute for the government's failure to introduce evidence legally sufficient to meet the element of either service-discrediting behavior or prejudice to good order and discipline," the court wrote.
The case now returns to the military Court of Criminal Appeals so Wilcox's sentence can be reassessed.
Wilcox, now 32, could not be reached by The Associated Press for comment. His mother, Linda Wilcox, said he has neither a phone nor a permanent address, and that she did not know where he could be reached.
Chief Judge Andrew Effron and Judges Charles Erdmann, Scott Stucky and Margaret Ryan signed the majority opinion. Judge James Baker was the lone dissenter, contending that Wilcox's behavior did discredit the service because it was contrary to military policy and values and could hurt recruiting efforts. Failing to punish that conduct suggests to the public that the military tolerates the poor behavior, Baker wrote.
"What parents would want their daughter or son to serve in a unit they thought might be infected with white supremacists and closet skinheads? What soldier (other than a white supremacist) would want to have 'Wskullhead' on his right or his left in combat?" Baker asked.
By REBECCA BOONE
The Associated Press
A U.S. Army soldier who espoused racist views in an Internet profile was exercising his right to free speech, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled Wednesday.
Nearly eight years ago, military prosecutors charged Pfc. Jeremy T. Wilcox with making statements online that discredited the Armed Forces and were detrimental to good order and discipline.
Wilcox was also accused of several other charges - including violating military rules by attending a Ku Klux Klan rally and encouraging participation in extremist organizations. Those charges were resolved separately and not part of the appeal to the Washington, D.C.-based military high court.
A civilian police officer notified the military's criminal investigative division after spotting an online profile that contained racist views posted by someone calling himself "US Army Paratrooper," according to the written ruling. That's when a military investigator went undercover, posing as a young woman interested in the white supremacist movement and recording her online conversations with Wilcox, who also referred to himself as "Wskullhead."
At the conclusion of his court martial, Wilcox, who was originally from Idaho Falls, Idaho, but was serving with the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C., was sentenced to eight months confinement, a bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade. The court decision did not indicate what portion of the sentence applied to the charges at issue in Wednesday's ruling.
In a 4-to-1 decision, the military's highest court found that Wilcox's statements didn't go far enough to justify criminal charges.
The investigator's testimony showed that Wilcox "held beliefs that are both disturbing and inconsistent with Department of Defense policies regarding racial equality and other matters," the high court found. But Wilcox's defense lawyers were able to show that he had good working relationships with minorities in his unit, and that there was no evidence that his racist views adversely affected his military performance.
Though members of the military don't have the same free speech rights as other civilians because their speech must be weighed against military interests, the court found that Wilcox's statements were still protected. Wilcox thought he was making the statements to a like-minded civilian friend, not to his fellow soldiers, the court noted.
The court took special care to distance itself from Wilcox's beliefs.
"Condemnation and conviction are drastically different when the First Amendment is involved, and our disagreement with his statements cannot substitute for the government's failure to introduce evidence legally sufficient to meet the element of either service-discrediting behavior or prejudice to good order and discipline," the court wrote.
The case now returns to the military Court of Criminal Appeals so Wilcox's sentence can be reassessed.
Wilcox, now 32, could not be reached by The Associated Press for comment. His mother, Linda Wilcox, said he has neither a phone nor a permanent address, and that she did not know where he could be reached.
Chief Judge Andrew Effron and Judges Charles Erdmann, Scott Stucky and Margaret Ryan signed the majority opinion. Judge James Baker was the lone dissenter, contending that Wilcox's behavior did discredit the service because it was contrary to military policy and values and could hurt recruiting efforts. Failing to punish that conduct suggests to the public that the military tolerates the poor behavior, Baker wrote.
"What parents would want their daughter or son to serve in a unit they thought might be infected with white supremacists and closet skinheads? What soldier (other than a white supremacist) would want to have 'Wskullhead' on his right or his left in combat?" Baker asked.
By REBECCA BOONE
The Associated Press
Haiti's Lower House Accepts Female PM Nominee
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, July 18, 2008 - Haiti's lower house of Parliament has backed President René Préval's plan to put a woman in charge.
With a vote of 61-1, with 20 abstentions, the chamber of deputies, as it's called, on Thursday ratified the nomination of Michèle Pierre-Louis - Mr Préval's third choice for prime minister.
Ms Pierre-Louis, 61, whose name was put forward three and a half weeks ago, must still get the endorsement of the 18-member Senate which is expected to vote next week.
Observers have already predicted that the latest nominee will get the Senate's nod, bringing three months of political deadlock that resulted after the ousting of the last prime minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis. He was fired by the Senate on April 12th on the heels of riots over skyrocketing food prices.
Two previous nominees to fill his post - Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) economist, Ericq Pierre, and security expert and presidential adviser, Robert Manuel - were both rejected by legislators.
Ms Pierre-Louis is known internationally for her work on behalf of the poor and youth in Haiti and heads the independent educational and cultural organisation, Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty (FOKAL), which aims to support the development of children, youth organisations, youth civil society associations, peasants and women's organisations.
If she secures the vote of confidence of legislators, Ms Pierre-Louis would be the second woman to serve in that position, following Claudette Werleigh who served from November in 1995 to February in 1996.
caribbean360.com
With a vote of 61-1, with 20 abstentions, the chamber of deputies, as it's called, on Thursday ratified the nomination of Michèle Pierre-Louis - Mr Préval's third choice for prime minister.
Ms Pierre-Louis, 61, whose name was put forward three and a half weeks ago, must still get the endorsement of the 18-member Senate which is expected to vote next week.
Observers have already predicted that the latest nominee will get the Senate's nod, bringing three months of political deadlock that resulted after the ousting of the last prime minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis. He was fired by the Senate on April 12th on the heels of riots over skyrocketing food prices.
Two previous nominees to fill his post - Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) economist, Ericq Pierre, and security expert and presidential adviser, Robert Manuel - were both rejected by legislators.
Ms Pierre-Louis is known internationally for her work on behalf of the poor and youth in Haiti and heads the independent educational and cultural organisation, Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty (FOKAL), which aims to support the development of children, youth organisations, youth civil society associations, peasants and women's organisations.
If she secures the vote of confidence of legislators, Ms Pierre-Louis would be the second woman to serve in that position, following Claudette Werleigh who served from November in 1995 to February in 1996.
caribbean360.com
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Rapper T.I. is joining forces with the Hip-Hop Caucus to launch a new voter registration campaign.
The 2008 Voter Registration and Education initiative and Get Out the Vote campaign will officially kick off at 10:30 a.m. July 28, with a celebrity green carpet at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC.
A press conference will follow at 11:45 a.m. after doors open to the public at 11:30 a.m. T.I. will be among the celebrities appearing at the free event, to discuss the importance of civic engagement in young people.
The Get Out the Vote campaign slogan as well as exclusive t-shirts produced by T.I.’s forthcoming AKOO clothing line will be unveiled at the event, which will feature guest DJ Green Lantern.
T.I’s involvement in the Get Out the Vote campaign isn’t the first time the Atlanta rapper has made an effort to encourage fans to register and vote during the upcoming presidential election.
T.I. is part of an all-star line up of entertainers who took part in a new public service announcement created by the Hip Hop Summit Action Network and CPX Interactive.
For free passes to the Get Out the Vote event, e-mail events@hiphopcaucus.org or visit www.hiphopcaucus.org
By Chris Richburg for allhiphop.com
The 2008 Voter Registration and Education initiative and Get Out the Vote campaign will officially kick off at 10:30 a.m. July 28, with a celebrity green carpet at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC.
A press conference will follow at 11:45 a.m. after doors open to the public at 11:30 a.m. T.I. will be among the celebrities appearing at the free event, to discuss the importance of civic engagement in young people.
The Get Out the Vote campaign slogan as well as exclusive t-shirts produced by T.I.’s forthcoming AKOO clothing line will be unveiled at the event, which will feature guest DJ Green Lantern.
T.I’s involvement in the Get Out the Vote campaign isn’t the first time the Atlanta rapper has made an effort to encourage fans to register and vote during the upcoming presidential election.
T.I. is part of an all-star line up of entertainers who took part in a new public service announcement created by the Hip Hop Summit Action Network and CPX Interactive.
For free passes to the Get Out the Vote event, e-mail events@hiphopcaucus.org or visit www.hiphopcaucus.org
By Chris Richburg for allhiphop.com
US Cities' Black Populations Lose Ground
Decades of white flight transformed America's cities. That era is drawing to a close.
In Washington, a historically black church is trying to attract white members to survive. Atlanta's next mayoral race is expected to feature the first competitive white candidate since the 1980s. San Francisco has lost so many African-Americans that Mayor Gavin Newsom created an "African-American Out-Migration Task Force and Advisory Committee" to help retain black residents.
"The city is experiencing growth, yet we're losing African-American families disproportionately," Mr. Newsom says. When that happens, "we lose part of our soul."
For much of the 20th century, the proportion of whites shrank in most U.S. cities. In recent years the decline has slowed considerably -- and in some significant cases has reversed. Between 2000 and 2006, eight of the 50 largest cities, including Boston, Seattle and San Francisco, saw the proportion of whites increase, according to Census figures. The previous decade, only three cities saw increases.
The changing racial mix is stirring up quarrels over class and culture. Beloved institutions in traditionally black communities -- minority-owned restaurants, book stores -- are losing the customers who supported them for decades. As neighborhoods grow more multicultural, conflicts over home prices, taxes and education are opening a new chapter in American race relations.
Part of the demographic shift is simple math: So many whites had abandoned cities over the past half-century, there weren't as many left to lose. Whites make up 66% of the general U.S. population, but only about 40% of large cities. Sooner or later, the pendulum was bound to swing back, and that appears to be starting.
The Census data "suggests that white flight from large cities may have bottomed out in the 1990s," says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
For instance, while most of the 50 largest cities continue to see declines in the share of whites, it is at much-reduced rates. In Los Angeles the share of the white population declined only about a half a percentage point between 2000 and 2006, compared to a 7.5-point decline the previous decade. Cities including New York, Fort Worth and Chicago show a similar pattern.
'Natural Decrease'
Demographic readjustments can take decades to play out. But if current trends continue, Washington and Atlanta (both with black majorities) will in the next decade see African-Americans fall below 50% for the first time in about a half-century.
Meantime, in San Francisco, African-American deaths now outnumber births. Once a "natural decrease" such as this begins, it's tough for the population to bounce back, since there are fewer residents left to produce the next generation. "The cycle tends to be self-perpetuating," says Kenneth M. Johnson, senior demographer at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
There are myriad factors driving the change. In recent years, minority middle-class families, particularly African-Americans, have been moving to the suburbs in greater numbers. At the same time, Hispanic immigrants (who poured into cities from the 1970s through the 1990s) are now increasingly bypassing cities for suburbs and rural areas, seeking jobs on farms and in meat-packing plants.
Cities have spent a decade tidying up parks and converting decaying factories into retail and living space. That has attracted young professionals and empty-nesters, many of them white.
The shift has put the future at odds with the past. New York City's borough of Brooklyn has seen its proportion of whites grow to 36.1% in 2006 from 35.9% in 2000 -- the first increase in white share in about a century.
Hoarding Computers
While the root of neighborhood conflicts is often money or class differences between white-collar and blue-collar workers, it often unfolds along racial lines. About two years ago Public School 84, in a largely Hispanic section of Brooklyn, meetings of the Parent Teacher Association started drawing a more professional, wealthier and whiter group of parents.
Soon, disagreements spilled into the open. Arguments concerned everything from how PTA money was spent, to accusations that some white parents were hoarding computers for their kids.
Even ice cream became a point of contention: In the past year, a group of mostly white parents took issue with a school tradition of selling ice cream to raise money. They felt the school shouldn't be serving sugary foods to kids, but the break with tradition angered many minority parents who felt the sales were an important source of money and that ice cream is a harmless treat.
"It was a gigantic fight," says Brooke Parker, who is white and whose daughter attended the school last year. "If the school is saying 'It's OK to give out ice cream' while at the same time they're holding workshops on how to deal with your kid's Type 2 diabetes, maybe we should rethink the message we're sending."
Relations got testy enough that about 20 kids, most of whom were white, transferred to private schools or other public schools. "I don't think the battleground against gentrification should take place in the schools," says Ms. Parker, who withdrew her own daughter from P.S. 84 as tensions built. "It seemed nothing could get accomplished," she said.
Cries of 'Segregation'
Elsewhere in Brooklyn, in a majority African-American section of the borough, Councilwoman Letitia James says a handful of predominantly white parents last year asked her if some of their local tax money could be steered to schools in a nearby neighborhood. The parents wanted their kids in schools with a more diverse racial mix, Ms. James says, rather than the majority-black schools in her district.
The parents felt "tax dollars should follow the children, and not the school," Ms. James says. She denied their request.
There's a century's worth of history behind the ebb and flow of whites and minorities in urban America. Rural blacks began flocking to cities more than a century ago, lured by factory jobs. After World War II, whites headed for the suburbs as the great postwar building boom got rolling, while African-American families stayed in the cities, partly because they were often denied access to home loans that whites could get. In the 1970s Hispanic immigrants surged into cities, chasing service jobs and further diluting the share of whites. By the 1980s, as cities hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs, blacks and whites both left -- but whites at a higher rate.
Cities Get a Makeover
Today, cities are refashioning themselves as trendy centers devoid of suburban ills like strip malls and long commutes. In Atlanta, which has among the longest commute times of any U.S. city, the white population rose by 26,000 between 2000 and 2006, while the black population decreased by 8,900. Overall the white proportion has increased to 35% in 2006 from 31% in 2000.
In other cities, whites are still leaving, but more blacks are moving out. Boston lost about 6,000 black residents between 2000 and 2006, but only about 3,000 whites. In 2006, whites accounted for 50.2% of the city's population, up from 49.5% in 2000. That's the first increase in roughly a century.
Tracking population shifts is an inexact science. Changes in how Census data are tallied makes for imprecise comparisons across decades. Hispanics, for instance, were mostly lumped in with whites until 1980, potentially overstating the white population in earlier decades. Also, losses of African-Americans from cities are often disproportionate to other minorities because unlike, say, Hispanics or Asians, the inflow of black immigrants into the U.S. isn't big enough to offset the loss of African-Americans to the suburbs.
Washington -- where African-Americans have been in the majority for a half-century -- has lost about 80,000 black residents between 1990 and 2006. Whites had been leaving, too, but recently they've started coming back. Between 2000 and 2006, Washington gained 24,000 whites and lost 21,000 blacks. Whites are now 32% of the population, up from 28% in 2000.
Churches Take a Hit
This is a problem for Washington's African-American churches. The past few years, numerous black churches have relocated to suburban Prince George's County, Md., to follow their parishioners. Later this year, Metropolitan Baptist Church (founded by freed slaves during the Lincoln administration) plans to leave town as well.
Some of the remaining black churches are now courting white members. On a recent Sunday, the Rev. John Blanchard, the 64-year-old pastor at Ebenezer United Methodist Church, preached to a thin crowd; several pews were empty. About half his parishioners now live in the suburbs and drive into the city for services. High gasoline prices aren't helping attendance.
So Mr. Blanchard says he's planning to add a white intern to preach with him, in hopes of filling more pews. "You've got to love the one you're with," he says, "but you also need to adjust to the environment you're in."
While his church flounders, the predominantly white Capitol Hill United Methodist Church just down the street is flourishing. There the average attendance on Sundays has doubled to about 120 people the past five years. "Demographics are in our favor. We're attracting the folks that are moving in," says the Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, 38, who headed the church for five years before recently leaving for a position elsewhere.
In San Francisco, the African-American population has fallen by a third, or about 30,000 people, since 1990, largely due to surging housing costs and redevelopment that destroyed some public housing. Mayor Newsom's African-American Out-Migration Task Force, set up last year, has a two-pronged strategy: keep African-Americans from leaving, and promote affordable housing and cultural institutions like a jazz center to try to lure blacks back. "The greatness of our city and region is in its diversity," Mayor Newsom says.
So far, his efforts have focused on residents of public housing, about half of whom are black. The city is trying to prevent evictions by building new community centers where residents can get job training and help with the rent. The city is also giving residents displaced by redevelopment, many of whom are black, an inside track on affordable-housing units.
From Poor to Poorer
As middle-class African-Americans have left San Francisco, the remaining black population has gone from poor to poorer. In 1990, half of the city's African-American population was very low-income; by 2005, that number swelled to about two-thirds. The number of black-owned businesses fell 25% between 1997 and 2002.
As blacks migrated to San Francisco's suburbs, so too have many social activities centered on the community. The San Francisco Chapter of the National Black MBA Association has started hosting many of its events across the bay in Oakland.
The Western Addition, a historically black neighborhood in San Francisco once home to many jazz clubs, has lost much of that character. Powell's Place, an iconic soul-food restaurant that had been located in or around the neighborhood since the 1970s, has moved to Bayview-Hunters Point. Charles Spencer, who owns a barbershop catering to black men, says he has lost many of his customers and is trying to diversify. His Web site has a picture of a white client to go with three black faces.
'An Act of Faith'
The city has celebrated its traditional black culture by designating a stretch of Fillmore Street the "Fillmore Jazz Preservation District," yet the businesses that defined the era are now gone or dying. Raye Richardson, owner of Marcus Book Stores -- its motto is "Books by and about black people everywhere" -- has been in the Fillmore district since 1946. She remembers the clubs, the black tailor shops and the many black residents who supported her shop. Today, Ms. Richardson says her store is losing money; much of her business comes from mail-order traffic.
"San Francisco has so few blacks now, that it's just an act of faith to stay open," says Ms. Richardson, 88.
Sherri Young, executive director at the African-American Shakespeare Company in San Francisco, is one of the few blacks at her theater company who still lives in San Francisco. "I'm a single woman in my late 30s," Ms. Young says. "Culturally, it's difficult."
Recently, she says, her production of "The Comedy of Errors" drew a mostly white audience. It's the first time that's happened since she founded the company 14 years ago.
By CONOR DOUGHERTY
In Washington, a historically black church is trying to attract white members to survive. Atlanta's next mayoral race is expected to feature the first competitive white candidate since the 1980s. San Francisco has lost so many African-Americans that Mayor Gavin Newsom created an "African-American Out-Migration Task Force and Advisory Committee" to help retain black residents.
"The city is experiencing growth, yet we're losing African-American families disproportionately," Mr. Newsom says. When that happens, "we lose part of our soul."
For much of the 20th century, the proportion of whites shrank in most U.S. cities. In recent years the decline has slowed considerably -- and in some significant cases has reversed. Between 2000 and 2006, eight of the 50 largest cities, including Boston, Seattle and San Francisco, saw the proportion of whites increase, according to Census figures. The previous decade, only three cities saw increases.
The changing racial mix is stirring up quarrels over class and culture. Beloved institutions in traditionally black communities -- minority-owned restaurants, book stores -- are losing the customers who supported them for decades. As neighborhoods grow more multicultural, conflicts over home prices, taxes and education are opening a new chapter in American race relations.
Part of the demographic shift is simple math: So many whites had abandoned cities over the past half-century, there weren't as many left to lose. Whites make up 66% of the general U.S. population, but only about 40% of large cities. Sooner or later, the pendulum was bound to swing back, and that appears to be starting.
The Census data "suggests that white flight from large cities may have bottomed out in the 1990s," says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
For instance, while most of the 50 largest cities continue to see declines in the share of whites, it is at much-reduced rates. In Los Angeles the share of the white population declined only about a half a percentage point between 2000 and 2006, compared to a 7.5-point decline the previous decade. Cities including New York, Fort Worth and Chicago show a similar pattern.
'Natural Decrease'
Demographic readjustments can take decades to play out. But if current trends continue, Washington and Atlanta (both with black majorities) will in the next decade see African-Americans fall below 50% for the first time in about a half-century.
Meantime, in San Francisco, African-American deaths now outnumber births. Once a "natural decrease" such as this begins, it's tough for the population to bounce back, since there are fewer residents left to produce the next generation. "The cycle tends to be self-perpetuating," says Kenneth M. Johnson, senior demographer at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
There are myriad factors driving the change. In recent years, minority middle-class families, particularly African-Americans, have been moving to the suburbs in greater numbers. At the same time, Hispanic immigrants (who poured into cities from the 1970s through the 1990s) are now increasingly bypassing cities for suburbs and rural areas, seeking jobs on farms and in meat-packing plants.
Cities have spent a decade tidying up parks and converting decaying factories into retail and living space. That has attracted young professionals and empty-nesters, many of them white.
The shift has put the future at odds with the past. New York City's borough of Brooklyn has seen its proportion of whites grow to 36.1% in 2006 from 35.9% in 2000 -- the first increase in white share in about a century.
Hoarding Computers
While the root of neighborhood conflicts is often money or class differences between white-collar and blue-collar workers, it often unfolds along racial lines. About two years ago Public School 84, in a largely Hispanic section of Brooklyn, meetings of the Parent Teacher Association started drawing a more professional, wealthier and whiter group of parents.
Soon, disagreements spilled into the open. Arguments concerned everything from how PTA money was spent, to accusations that some white parents were hoarding computers for their kids.
Even ice cream became a point of contention: In the past year, a group of mostly white parents took issue with a school tradition of selling ice cream to raise money. They felt the school shouldn't be serving sugary foods to kids, but the break with tradition angered many minority parents who felt the sales were an important source of money and that ice cream is a harmless treat.
"It was a gigantic fight," says Brooke Parker, who is white and whose daughter attended the school last year. "If the school is saying 'It's OK to give out ice cream' while at the same time they're holding workshops on how to deal with your kid's Type 2 diabetes, maybe we should rethink the message we're sending."
Relations got testy enough that about 20 kids, most of whom were white, transferred to private schools or other public schools. "I don't think the battleground against gentrification should take place in the schools," says Ms. Parker, who withdrew her own daughter from P.S. 84 as tensions built. "It seemed nothing could get accomplished," she said.
Cries of 'Segregation'
Elsewhere in Brooklyn, in a majority African-American section of the borough, Councilwoman Letitia James says a handful of predominantly white parents last year asked her if some of their local tax money could be steered to schools in a nearby neighborhood. The parents wanted their kids in schools with a more diverse racial mix, Ms. James says, rather than the majority-black schools in her district.
The parents felt "tax dollars should follow the children, and not the school," Ms. James says. She denied their request.
There's a century's worth of history behind the ebb and flow of whites and minorities in urban America. Rural blacks began flocking to cities more than a century ago, lured by factory jobs. After World War II, whites headed for the suburbs as the great postwar building boom got rolling, while African-American families stayed in the cities, partly because they were often denied access to home loans that whites could get. In the 1970s Hispanic immigrants surged into cities, chasing service jobs and further diluting the share of whites. By the 1980s, as cities hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs, blacks and whites both left -- but whites at a higher rate.
Cities Get a Makeover
Today, cities are refashioning themselves as trendy centers devoid of suburban ills like strip malls and long commutes. In Atlanta, which has among the longest commute times of any U.S. city, the white population rose by 26,000 between 2000 and 2006, while the black population decreased by 8,900. Overall the white proportion has increased to 35% in 2006 from 31% in 2000.
In other cities, whites are still leaving, but more blacks are moving out. Boston lost about 6,000 black residents between 2000 and 2006, but only about 3,000 whites. In 2006, whites accounted for 50.2% of the city's population, up from 49.5% in 2000. That's the first increase in roughly a century.
Tracking population shifts is an inexact science. Changes in how Census data are tallied makes for imprecise comparisons across decades. Hispanics, for instance, were mostly lumped in with whites until 1980, potentially overstating the white population in earlier decades. Also, losses of African-Americans from cities are often disproportionate to other minorities because unlike, say, Hispanics or Asians, the inflow of black immigrants into the U.S. isn't big enough to offset the loss of African-Americans to the suburbs.
Washington -- where African-Americans have been in the majority for a half-century -- has lost about 80,000 black residents between 1990 and 2006. Whites had been leaving, too, but recently they've started coming back. Between 2000 and 2006, Washington gained 24,000 whites and lost 21,000 blacks. Whites are now 32% of the population, up from 28% in 2000.
Churches Take a Hit
This is a problem for Washington's African-American churches. The past few years, numerous black churches have relocated to suburban Prince George's County, Md., to follow their parishioners. Later this year, Metropolitan Baptist Church (founded by freed slaves during the Lincoln administration) plans to leave town as well.
Some of the remaining black churches are now courting white members. On a recent Sunday, the Rev. John Blanchard, the 64-year-old pastor at Ebenezer United Methodist Church, preached to a thin crowd; several pews were empty. About half his parishioners now live in the suburbs and drive into the city for services. High gasoline prices aren't helping attendance.
So Mr. Blanchard says he's planning to add a white intern to preach with him, in hopes of filling more pews. "You've got to love the one you're with," he says, "but you also need to adjust to the environment you're in."
While his church flounders, the predominantly white Capitol Hill United Methodist Church just down the street is flourishing. There the average attendance on Sundays has doubled to about 120 people the past five years. "Demographics are in our favor. We're attracting the folks that are moving in," says the Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, 38, who headed the church for five years before recently leaving for a position elsewhere.
In San Francisco, the African-American population has fallen by a third, or about 30,000 people, since 1990, largely due to surging housing costs and redevelopment that destroyed some public housing. Mayor Newsom's African-American Out-Migration Task Force, set up last year, has a two-pronged strategy: keep African-Americans from leaving, and promote affordable housing and cultural institutions like a jazz center to try to lure blacks back. "The greatness of our city and region is in its diversity," Mayor Newsom says.
So far, his efforts have focused on residents of public housing, about half of whom are black. The city is trying to prevent evictions by building new community centers where residents can get job training and help with the rent. The city is also giving residents displaced by redevelopment, many of whom are black, an inside track on affordable-housing units.
From Poor to Poorer
As middle-class African-Americans have left San Francisco, the remaining black population has gone from poor to poorer. In 1990, half of the city's African-American population was very low-income; by 2005, that number swelled to about two-thirds. The number of black-owned businesses fell 25% between 1997 and 2002.
As blacks migrated to San Francisco's suburbs, so too have many social activities centered on the community. The San Francisco Chapter of the National Black MBA Association has started hosting many of its events across the bay in Oakland.
The Western Addition, a historically black neighborhood in San Francisco once home to many jazz clubs, has lost much of that character. Powell's Place, an iconic soul-food restaurant that had been located in or around the neighborhood since the 1970s, has moved to Bayview-Hunters Point. Charles Spencer, who owns a barbershop catering to black men, says he has lost many of his customers and is trying to diversify. His Web site has a picture of a white client to go with three black faces.
'An Act of Faith'
The city has celebrated its traditional black culture by designating a stretch of Fillmore Street the "Fillmore Jazz Preservation District," yet the businesses that defined the era are now gone or dying. Raye Richardson, owner of Marcus Book Stores -- its motto is "Books by and about black people everywhere" -- has been in the Fillmore district since 1946. She remembers the clubs, the black tailor shops and the many black residents who supported her shop. Today, Ms. Richardson says her store is losing money; much of her business comes from mail-order traffic.
"San Francisco has so few blacks now, that it's just an act of faith to stay open," says Ms. Richardson, 88.
Sherri Young, executive director at the African-American Shakespeare Company in San Francisco, is one of the few blacks at her theater company who still lives in San Francisco. "I'm a single woman in my late 30s," Ms. Young says. "Culturally, it's difficult."
Recently, she says, her production of "The Comedy of Errors" drew a mostly white audience. It's the first time that's happened since she founded the company 14 years ago.
By CONOR DOUGHERTY
Zimbabwe Introduces 100-Billion-Dollar Note
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe, grappling with a record 2.2 million percent inflation, has introduced a new 100-billion-dollar bank note in a bid to tackle rampant cash shortages, the central bank said Saturday.
The new note will go into circulation on Monday, the bank said in a statement cited by state media, joining about half a dozen new high denomination notes already issued this year.
In January, a 10-million-dollar note was issued, then a 50-million-dollar note in April. In May, notes for 100 million and 250 million dollars were issued, swiftly followed by those for five billion, 25 billion and 50 billion.
The southern African nation, currently gripped by a post-election crisis, has been ravaged by hyperinflation which shot up from 165,000 percent in February to 2.2 million in June.
Independent economists however believe the official inflation figure is grossly understated, estimating it could be running between 10 million and 15 million percent.
Zimbabwe's chronic economic crisis has left at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold and mass shortages of basic goods in shops.
AFP
The new note will go into circulation on Monday, the bank said in a statement cited by state media, joining about half a dozen new high denomination notes already issued this year.
In January, a 10-million-dollar note was issued, then a 50-million-dollar note in April. In May, notes for 100 million and 250 million dollars were issued, swiftly followed by those for five billion, 25 billion and 50 billion.
The southern African nation, currently gripped by a post-election crisis, has been ravaged by hyperinflation which shot up from 165,000 percent in February to 2.2 million in June.
Independent economists however believe the official inflation figure is grossly understated, estimating it could be running between 10 million and 15 million percent.
Zimbabwe's chronic economic crisis has left at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold and mass shortages of basic goods in shops.
AFP
Bob Marley Statue to Be Erected in Serbia
BELGRADE (AFP) — A statue of late Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley is to be erected in the tiny Serbian hamlet of Banatski Sokolac, organisers of a rock music festival there said Thursday.
"We are honoured to announce that the first monument in Europe of the reggae legend Bob Marley will be erected in Banatski Sokolac," said the Internet site of the "Rock Village" festival.
"Our village thus enters into history and supporters and all those who respect this 'liberty fighter armed with a guitar' can take part in the unveiling ceremony" on August 23, it added.
Last year, two other Serbian villages put up statues of Johnny Weissmuller, the late actor famed for his role as "Tarzan", and Sylvester Stallone's famous film character "Rocky Balboa".
The rock festival, first held in the northeastern village in 2005, will be opened by Del Arno Band, one of the most influential reggae groups in the Balkans, and Jamaican act Ras Abraham & the Irie Vibes.
from AFP
"We are honoured to announce that the first monument in Europe of the reggae legend Bob Marley will be erected in Banatski Sokolac," said the Internet site of the "Rock Village" festival.
"Our village thus enters into history and supporters and all those who respect this 'liberty fighter armed with a guitar' can take part in the unveiling ceremony" on August 23, it added.
Last year, two other Serbian villages put up statues of Johnny Weissmuller, the late actor famed for his role as "Tarzan", and Sylvester Stallone's famous film character "Rocky Balboa".
The rock festival, first held in the northeastern village in 2005, will be opened by Del Arno Band, one of the most influential reggae groups in the Balkans, and Jamaican act Ras Abraham & the Irie Vibes.
from AFP
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Sudan's Bashir Could Escape War Crimes Indictment
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sudan's president, accused of masterminding genocide in Darfur, might escape war crimes charges if he brings to justice two men suspected of mass killings, Western envoys said on Wednesday.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, asked the ICC on Monday to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on suspicion of crimes against humanity.
Moreno-Ocampo accused Bashir of a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through a "slow death" and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes in Sudan's western Darfur region.
Sudan, China and South Africa have expressed concern that a formal indictment of Bashir could damage the stalled peace process aimed at ending the 5-year-old conflict in Darfur.
"The search for justice should not jeopardize the other priorities in Sudan," South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo told reporters ahead of a Security Council meeting.
U.N. peacekeeping officials and national diplomats say privately they fear an arrest warrant against Bashir could provoke a wave of violence against the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) or even prompt Khartoum to order all international peacekeepers in Sudan out of the country.
There are around 9,500 UNAMID troops and police in Darfur and another 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers in other parts of Sudan.
Sudan's U.N. envoy Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem said he was in talks with the Russians and Chinese to find a way for the Security Council to use its power to freeze any ICC moves.
Western diplomats say it is too early to discuss a council suspension of any ICC indictment but added that Moreno-Ocampo made it clear a messy situation can be avoided if Khartoum were to change its behavior on earlier ICC charges.
They say Bashir could escape indictment if he ended what they see as impunity for two men the ICC charged last year over Darfur. Khartoum has not handed them to the court or started legal proceedings in Sudan to investigate the allegations.
ICC judges are not expected to issue a ruling on Moreno-Ocampo's recommendation until October or November.
"NO IMPUNITY"
One senior diplomat said on condition of anonymity that Moreno-Ocampo's "mounting frustration was because of a complete lack of engagement or any response to the indictments."
The main allegation against Bashir was one of "command responsibility," he said.
"His refusal to cooperate in bringing to justice those that the ICC thought were responsible for the actual killings on the ground adds force, adds evidence to the allegation of command responsibility for those killings," the diplomat said.
"Now, were the situation to change, the prosecutor's attitude might change." Other envoys confirmed this view.
French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert and British Ambassador John both said it was "not too late" for the Sudanese authorities to cooperate with the ICC over the indictment of Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun and former Janjaweed militia commander Ali Kushayb.
But Ripert, Sawers and other diplomats said they have no intention of interfering with the ICC process, which is independent and should be free of political pressure.
The U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson, told Reuters "there can be no impunity" for crimes in Darfur.
Bashir and his U.N. envoy Abdalhaleem say that Khartoum has no intention of cooperating with the ICC because Sudan, like the United States and Russia, is not a party to the court.
Human Rights Watch international law expert Richard Dicker said he strongly disapproved of the idea that Bashir should be allowed to negotiate his way out of an indictment.
"The pattern of crimes in Darfur does indicate responsibility at the highest level of Sudan's government," he said. "It's not an auction on eBay."
COUNCIL CONDEMNS ATTACK
The Security Council unanimously condemned an attack last week against UNAMID, in which well-organized militia men killed seven peacekeepers and wounded more than 20, calling it an "unacceptable act of violence."
One U.N. official said on condition of anonymity that the attackers used sophisticated weaponry not yet seen in Darfur, including recoilless rifles, which are lightweight weapons that can fire heavier projectiles than normal light arms.
Several diplomats said they suspected the attackers were linked to the Sudanese government but Abdalhaleem denied it.
Britain circulated a draft resolution among the 15 council members that would extend UNAMID's mandate for another 12 months once it expires on July 31. The council is expected to vote on the draft before the end of the month.
The draft also calls for the rapid and full deployment of UNAMID, which at 9,500 people in Sudan is well below its planned full strength of 26,000.
Western states blame Khartoum for the slow deployment, saying it has been blocking non-African forces and has insisted on picking their nationalities. Khartoum accuses the West of exaggerating the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
By Louis Charbonneau
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, asked the ICC on Monday to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on suspicion of crimes against humanity.
Moreno-Ocampo accused Bashir of a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through a "slow death" and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes in Sudan's western Darfur region.
Sudan, China and South Africa have expressed concern that a formal indictment of Bashir could damage the stalled peace process aimed at ending the 5-year-old conflict in Darfur.
"The search for justice should not jeopardize the other priorities in Sudan," South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo told reporters ahead of a Security Council meeting.
U.N. peacekeeping officials and national diplomats say privately they fear an arrest warrant against Bashir could provoke a wave of violence against the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) or even prompt Khartoum to order all international peacekeepers in Sudan out of the country.
There are around 9,500 UNAMID troops and police in Darfur and another 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers in other parts of Sudan.
Sudan's U.N. envoy Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem said he was in talks with the Russians and Chinese to find a way for the Security Council to use its power to freeze any ICC moves.
Western diplomats say it is too early to discuss a council suspension of any ICC indictment but added that Moreno-Ocampo made it clear a messy situation can be avoided if Khartoum were to change its behavior on earlier ICC charges.
They say Bashir could escape indictment if he ended what they see as impunity for two men the ICC charged last year over Darfur. Khartoum has not handed them to the court or started legal proceedings in Sudan to investigate the allegations.
ICC judges are not expected to issue a ruling on Moreno-Ocampo's recommendation until October or November.
"NO IMPUNITY"
One senior diplomat said on condition of anonymity that Moreno-Ocampo's "mounting frustration was because of a complete lack of engagement or any response to the indictments."
The main allegation against Bashir was one of "command responsibility," he said.
"His refusal to cooperate in bringing to justice those that the ICC thought were responsible for the actual killings on the ground adds force, adds evidence to the allegation of command responsibility for those killings," the diplomat said.
"Now, were the situation to change, the prosecutor's attitude might change." Other envoys confirmed this view.
French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert and British Ambassador John both said it was "not too late" for the Sudanese authorities to cooperate with the ICC over the indictment of Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun and former Janjaweed militia commander Ali Kushayb.
But Ripert, Sawers and other diplomats said they have no intention of interfering with the ICC process, which is independent and should be free of political pressure.
The U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson, told Reuters "there can be no impunity" for crimes in Darfur.
Bashir and his U.N. envoy Abdalhaleem say that Khartoum has no intention of cooperating with the ICC because Sudan, like the United States and Russia, is not a party to the court.
Human Rights Watch international law expert Richard Dicker said he strongly disapproved of the idea that Bashir should be allowed to negotiate his way out of an indictment.
"The pattern of crimes in Darfur does indicate responsibility at the highest level of Sudan's government," he said. "It's not an auction on eBay."
COUNCIL CONDEMNS ATTACK
The Security Council unanimously condemned an attack last week against UNAMID, in which well-organized militia men killed seven peacekeepers and wounded more than 20, calling it an "unacceptable act of violence."
One U.N. official said on condition of anonymity that the attackers used sophisticated weaponry not yet seen in Darfur, including recoilless rifles, which are lightweight weapons that can fire heavier projectiles than normal light arms.
Several diplomats said they suspected the attackers were linked to the Sudanese government but Abdalhaleem denied it.
Britain circulated a draft resolution among the 15 council members that would extend UNAMID's mandate for another 12 months once it expires on July 31. The council is expected to vote on the draft before the end of the month.
The draft also calls for the rapid and full deployment of UNAMID, which at 9,500 people in Sudan is well below its planned full strength of 26,000.
Western states blame Khartoum for the slow deployment, saying it has been blocking non-African forces and has insisted on picking their nationalities. Khartoum accuses the West of exaggerating the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
By Louis Charbonneau
Bay Area Suburb Accused of Harassing Black Renters
Civil rights groups alleged in a federal lawsuit Wednesday that Antioch police have created a special unit to harass the rising number of black renters there who receive federal housing assistance.
The lawsuit originally was filed in San Francisco federal court in May by five renters, and was expanded Wednesday to seek class-action status for all past and present black recipients of federal vouchers in the East Bay suburb.
City officials are accused of creating a special police unit called the Community Action Team to run the new renters out of town by pressuring landlords and housing authority officials to evict black tenants receiving vouchers. The lawsuit also accused Antioch police of illegally searching tenants' homes without search warrants.
Antioch officials released an unsigned statement Wednesday denying the allegations and defending the special police unit, which it said was created in July 2006 "in response to neighborhood demands for help in dealing with growing crime rates and persistent neighborhood problems."
The city called the program "extremely successful" and said it was disappointed that the civil rights groups chose to file a lawsuit rather than negotiate with Antioch officials.
"We believe that any objective review of our city's policing efforts will reveal that these efforts are focused exclusively on criminal and/or dangerous behavior," the statement said. "Claims of other, sinister motivations are untrue and irresponsible."
Two black women who rented homes in Antioch said at a press conference that police used domestic violence complaints they filed in attempts to get the women evicted.
"Instead of my children feeling protected by the police, they feel afraid," said Karen Coleman, one of the original renters who sued the city she has lived in for five years.
Antioch, which is about 37 miles east of San Francisco, has been among the Bay Area communities hardest hit by the housing crisis, with home prices plummeting and foreclosures soaring.
Civil rights lawyers representing the tenants alleged in the lawsuit that more homeowners and speculators in Antioch are choosing to rent their houses to recipients of federal housing vouchers to help cover their mortgage payments.
In 2003, 1,049 families in Antioch received the vouchers, and last year that number swelled to 1,582, according to statistics cited in the lawsuit. A little more than half the voucher recipients are black and the city's black population has grown to roughly 15 percent of the city's 101,000 residents, the lawsuit said.
"The city has reacted with alarm and hostility to the newcomers, choosing to scapegoat them as the cause of economic downturn because they allegedly bring blight and crime into the community," the ACLU alleged in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit originally was filed in May on behalf of the tenants by Bay Area Legal Aid. The ACLU and several other civil rights organizations signed on to the case Wednesday.
The lawsuit noted that the Housing Authority for Contra Costa County, which manages the federal voucher program in Antioch, refused police-recommended evictions in 60 percent of the cases forwarded to them. Fully 70 percent of those eviction rejections involved black tenants, according to the lawsuit.
PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
The lawsuit originally was filed in San Francisco federal court in May by five renters, and was expanded Wednesday to seek class-action status for all past and present black recipients of federal vouchers in the East Bay suburb.
City officials are accused of creating a special police unit called the Community Action Team to run the new renters out of town by pressuring landlords and housing authority officials to evict black tenants receiving vouchers. The lawsuit also accused Antioch police of illegally searching tenants' homes without search warrants.
Antioch officials released an unsigned statement Wednesday denying the allegations and defending the special police unit, which it said was created in July 2006 "in response to neighborhood demands for help in dealing with growing crime rates and persistent neighborhood problems."
The city called the program "extremely successful" and said it was disappointed that the civil rights groups chose to file a lawsuit rather than negotiate with Antioch officials.
"We believe that any objective review of our city's policing efforts will reveal that these efforts are focused exclusively on criminal and/or dangerous behavior," the statement said. "Claims of other, sinister motivations are untrue and irresponsible."
Two black women who rented homes in Antioch said at a press conference that police used domestic violence complaints they filed in attempts to get the women evicted.
"Instead of my children feeling protected by the police, they feel afraid," said Karen Coleman, one of the original renters who sued the city she has lived in for five years.
Antioch, which is about 37 miles east of San Francisco, has been among the Bay Area communities hardest hit by the housing crisis, with home prices plummeting and foreclosures soaring.
Civil rights lawyers representing the tenants alleged in the lawsuit that more homeowners and speculators in Antioch are choosing to rent their houses to recipients of federal housing vouchers to help cover their mortgage payments.
In 2003, 1,049 families in Antioch received the vouchers, and last year that number swelled to 1,582, according to statistics cited in the lawsuit. A little more than half the voucher recipients are black and the city's black population has grown to roughly 15 percent of the city's 101,000 residents, the lawsuit said.
"The city has reacted with alarm and hostility to the newcomers, choosing to scapegoat them as the cause of economic downturn because they allegedly bring blight and crime into the community," the ACLU alleged in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit originally was filed in May on behalf of the tenants by Bay Area Legal Aid. The ACLU and several other civil rights organizations signed on to the case Wednesday.
The lawsuit noted that the Housing Authority for Contra Costa County, which manages the federal voucher program in Antioch, refused police-recommended evictions in 60 percent of the cases forwarded to them. Fully 70 percent of those eviction rejections involved black tenants, according to the lawsuit.
PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
Mandela Group Declares Food Human Right
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and other members of Nelson Mandela's global crisis task force turned their attention to world hunger on Wednesday, focusing on soaring food prices.
The Nobel laureates and human rights activists the former South African president brought together as The Elders at his birthday last year have sent peace missions to the Middle East and Sudan's Darfur and spoken out against sham elections and political violence in Zimbabwe.
With the food crisis, they were taking on an issue that some experts say could lead to new wars, and that has touched all parts of the world, rich and poor.
Food riots have broken out in the poorest countries, and the crisis has set back efforts to lift Africa out of poverty.
Tutu, the Elders chairman and former Cape Town Anglican archbishop, called the right to food "fundamental."
Tutu — speaking after the meeting to an audience that included British entrepreneur Richard Branson, a main supporter of The Elders — said world leaders were wasting resources fighting terror instead of poverty.
"We have it in us to make this a better world, a caring world, a compassionate world in which everyone would enjoy the right to food and freedom from hunger," he said.
Another Elder, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the solution was not just humanitarian aid today, but steps to improve food security tomorrow.
Annan called for a focus on small-scale farmers. He encouraged banks and other lenders to extend services to small farmers so that they can afford fertilizer and other productivity-boosting measures and to help them take on the risks associated with expanding their enterprises.
He added governments needed to improve rural infrastructure, and scientists need to develop better seeds and improve soil in Africa, "the only continent that cannot feed itself."
Mandela, who turns 90 Friday, did not attend Wednesday's meeting, at which The Elders consulted with Olivier de Schutter, appointed by the U.N. last year to study the food crisis, and experts from the development group ActionAid International.
Along with Tutu and Annan, some of the Elders include former President Jimmy Carter; former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland; former Brazil President Fernando Cardoso; and former Irish President Mary Robinson.
By DONNA BRYSON, Associated Press Writer
The Nobel laureates and human rights activists the former South African president brought together as The Elders at his birthday last year have sent peace missions to the Middle East and Sudan's Darfur and spoken out against sham elections and political violence in Zimbabwe.
With the food crisis, they were taking on an issue that some experts say could lead to new wars, and that has touched all parts of the world, rich and poor.
Food riots have broken out in the poorest countries, and the crisis has set back efforts to lift Africa out of poverty.
Tutu, the Elders chairman and former Cape Town Anglican archbishop, called the right to food "fundamental."
Tutu — speaking after the meeting to an audience that included British entrepreneur Richard Branson, a main supporter of The Elders — said world leaders were wasting resources fighting terror instead of poverty.
"We have it in us to make this a better world, a caring world, a compassionate world in which everyone would enjoy the right to food and freedom from hunger," he said.
Another Elder, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the solution was not just humanitarian aid today, but steps to improve food security tomorrow.
Annan called for a focus on small-scale farmers. He encouraged banks and other lenders to extend services to small farmers so that they can afford fertilizer and other productivity-boosting measures and to help them take on the risks associated with expanding their enterprises.
He added governments needed to improve rural infrastructure, and scientists need to develop better seeds and improve soil in Africa, "the only continent that cannot feed itself."
Mandela, who turns 90 Friday, did not attend Wednesday's meeting, at which The Elders consulted with Olivier de Schutter, appointed by the U.N. last year to study the food crisis, and experts from the development group ActionAid International.
Along with Tutu and Annan, some of the Elders include former President Jimmy Carter; former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland; former Brazil President Fernando Cardoso; and former Irish President Mary Robinson.
By DONNA BRYSON, Associated Press Writer
Fisk University Raises Millions Before Deadline
Fisk University sang the final notes of its familiar song of financial turmoil a few weeks ago when the university reached its fundraising goal of $4 million enabling it to receive a supplementary foundation grant to prevent the school from closing.
For the historically black institution with a chronicled past of financial struggle, the achievement meant the past year's highly-publicized funding fiasco might finally be its last.
On June 25, the university announced it had raised $4 million in unrestricted funds before a June 30 deadline as required to receive a $2 million challenge grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Mellon Foundation also gave Fisk $1 million outright during the school year.
"Thirty-four percent of contributions in support of the Mellon Foundation Challenge came from Middle Tennessee and it is clear that with the help of our alumni, the community of faith, government leaders, as well as our corporate and foundation partners we can claim great victory this year," said university president Hazel R. O'Leary in a press release.
Total fundraising for the year is expected to exceed $8.3 million.
Former director and concert pianist of the legendary Fisk Jubilee Singers, Matthew Kennedy said he thought Fisk would reach its goal.
"I'm a very positive thinking person and I just didn't think that Fisk would be faced with serious consequences such as having to close and I don't think the public will let that happen because of the long legacy in the field of education that Fisk has," the 87-year-old said.
The special fundraising effort was prompted by acute, if not unprecedented, financial struggle at the school.
In November 2007, Fisk was in danger of not being able to make its payroll after the middle of December, according to John Donohue, executive vice president of development for The United Negro College Fund. UNCF partnered with Fisk in the fall to help with fundraising at the request of the Mellon Foundation, Donohue told Black College Wire in February.
Donohue said there was talk of closing the school, but Fisk spokesperson Ken West contended that was not true.
In any case, the school was running out of money, and quickly. Its efforts to sell the rights to or portions of a 101-piece art collection gifted to the university in 1949 by renowned artist Georgia O'Keeffe were thwarted by legal challenges from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Sante Fe, N.M., heir of the O'Keeffe estate.
In a cost-cutting move, Fisk announced in February that it would be ending its NCAA athletics program, which cost over $250,000 annually, in favor of a less expensive intramural sports program. The announcement generated negative feedback from alumni to coaches who felt the move would devastate campus camaraderie. The university recently announced it was reinstating basketball.
By the end of February, the university had raised $1 million of the $4 million goal for the foundation grant. Throughout the fundraising drive, administrators remained confident that Fisk would be able to reach its goal.
"One of the things that we know, and we're completely confident in this, is that Fisk isn't going anywhere," said Keith Chandler, dean of admissions, in a May interview with Black College Wire.
"We're planning for a second 142 years, not for any imminent shutdown of any kind."
Former Fisk provost Kofi Lomotey told Black College Wire in February that there was "no question in my mind" that the goal would be met.
In May, Lomotey was appointed chancellor of the Baton Rouge campus of Southern University.
In February, Kennedy told of his daily search through the newspaper for updates on the financial crisis at his alma mater. By the end of June, the 87-year-old had traded in his newspaper for a party hat as he attended a university celebration for reaching its goal.
"I was delighted," he said. "Our president gave remarks and appreciation for all the efforts of everyone."
Throughout the fundraising push, Fisk alumni were strongly urged to dig deep to save their school.
In May, D. Billye Sanders, chair of the General Alumni Association of Fisk University, said alumni had been sent letters asking them to give. At that point, she said, alumni had raised just over $1.1 million.
Now that the goal has been met, Sanders said it's important for the giving to continue.
"The whole matching gift initiative excited our alumni," she said.
"Our theme for alumni: make giving to Fisk a habit."
The university president seems to think that will happen.
In a university press release, O'Leary said, "We are well positioned to sustain our fund raising momentum year over year."
It's too early to tell if the high hopes of administrators will translate into a new era of sustainability for Fisk or if the start of a new fiscal year on July 1 was just the cue to rewind to the beginning of the oft-troubled university's familiar song of financial struggle.
By Shauntel Lowe -- Black College Wire
For the historically black institution with a chronicled past of financial struggle, the achievement meant the past year's highly-publicized funding fiasco might finally be its last.
On June 25, the university announced it had raised $4 million in unrestricted funds before a June 30 deadline as required to receive a $2 million challenge grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Mellon Foundation also gave Fisk $1 million outright during the school year.
"Thirty-four percent of contributions in support of the Mellon Foundation Challenge came from Middle Tennessee and it is clear that with the help of our alumni, the community of faith, government leaders, as well as our corporate and foundation partners we can claim great victory this year," said university president Hazel R. O'Leary in a press release.
Total fundraising for the year is expected to exceed $8.3 million.
Former director and concert pianist of the legendary Fisk Jubilee Singers, Matthew Kennedy said he thought Fisk would reach its goal.
"I'm a very positive thinking person and I just didn't think that Fisk would be faced with serious consequences such as having to close and I don't think the public will let that happen because of the long legacy in the field of education that Fisk has," the 87-year-old said.
The special fundraising effort was prompted by acute, if not unprecedented, financial struggle at the school.
In November 2007, Fisk was in danger of not being able to make its payroll after the middle of December, according to John Donohue, executive vice president of development for The United Negro College Fund. UNCF partnered with Fisk in the fall to help with fundraising at the request of the Mellon Foundation, Donohue told Black College Wire in February.
Donohue said there was talk of closing the school, but Fisk spokesperson Ken West contended that was not true.
In any case, the school was running out of money, and quickly. Its efforts to sell the rights to or portions of a 101-piece art collection gifted to the university in 1949 by renowned artist Georgia O'Keeffe were thwarted by legal challenges from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Sante Fe, N.M., heir of the O'Keeffe estate.
In a cost-cutting move, Fisk announced in February that it would be ending its NCAA athletics program, which cost over $250,000 annually, in favor of a less expensive intramural sports program. The announcement generated negative feedback from alumni to coaches who felt the move would devastate campus camaraderie. The university recently announced it was reinstating basketball.
By the end of February, the university had raised $1 million of the $4 million goal for the foundation grant. Throughout the fundraising drive, administrators remained confident that Fisk would be able to reach its goal.
"One of the things that we know, and we're completely confident in this, is that Fisk isn't going anywhere," said Keith Chandler, dean of admissions, in a May interview with Black College Wire.
"We're planning for a second 142 years, not for any imminent shutdown of any kind."
Former Fisk provost Kofi Lomotey told Black College Wire in February that there was "no question in my mind" that the goal would be met.
In May, Lomotey was appointed chancellor of the Baton Rouge campus of Southern University.
In February, Kennedy told of his daily search through the newspaper for updates on the financial crisis at his alma mater. By the end of June, the 87-year-old had traded in his newspaper for a party hat as he attended a university celebration for reaching its goal.
"I was delighted," he said. "Our president gave remarks and appreciation for all the efforts of everyone."
Throughout the fundraising push, Fisk alumni were strongly urged to dig deep to save their school.
In May, D. Billye Sanders, chair of the General Alumni Association of Fisk University, said alumni had been sent letters asking them to give. At that point, she said, alumni had raised just over $1.1 million.
Now that the goal has been met, Sanders said it's important for the giving to continue.
"The whole matching gift initiative excited our alumni," she said.
"Our theme for alumni: make giving to Fisk a habit."
The university president seems to think that will happen.
In a university press release, O'Leary said, "We are well positioned to sustain our fund raising momentum year over year."
It's too early to tell if the high hopes of administrators will translate into a new era of sustainability for Fisk or if the start of a new fiscal year on July 1 was just the cue to rewind to the beginning of the oft-troubled university's familiar song of financial struggle.
By Shauntel Lowe -- Black College Wire
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Rihanna New Face of UNICEF Campaign
Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - Singer Rihanna is set to front luxury goods label Gucci's UNICEF campaign, whose products will benefit the charity.
The 20-year-old "Umbrella" hitmaker will appear in the ads for the "Tattoo Heart" campaign. Creative director Frida Gianinni apparently sought her out to front the campaign after seeing her at a UNICEF fundraiser earlier this year.
The campaign includes a special limited edition of selected Gucci items. A quarter of the sales would be donated to the charity.
Meanwhile, Rihanna has recorded a duet with singer Ciara, "Tears Fall," for her new album scheduled to come out in November.
Anne Lu - Celebrity News Service News Writer
The 20-year-old "Umbrella" hitmaker will appear in the ads for the "Tattoo Heart" campaign. Creative director Frida Gianinni apparently sought her out to front the campaign after seeing her at a UNICEF fundraiser earlier this year.
The campaign includes a special limited edition of selected Gucci items. A quarter of the sales would be donated to the charity.
Meanwhile, Rihanna has recorded a duet with singer Ciara, "Tears Fall," for her new album scheduled to come out in November.
Anne Lu - Celebrity News Service News Writer
New US Postage Stamps Honor Early Black Cinema
WASHINGTON (AP) — Josephine Baker looks straight at you with bright eyes and shining smile, fearless and demanding attention.
The time is 1935, and the St. Louis native who transfixed France and much of Europe with song and dance stares out from a poster advertising the film "Princess Tam-Tam." Baker starred as a simple African woman presented to Paris society as royalty.
Baker's movie is one of five recalled on a set of U.S. postage stamps being released Wednesday to honor vintage black cinema. Ceremonies marking the sale of the stamps will be held at the Newark Museum in New Jersey, which is holding a black film festival.
"So many things happened in her life that she had never expected," her son Jean-Claude Baker said Tuesday.
"I guess that if she was with us today she would be very honored. At her death she was a French citizen, but she never forgot she was born in America," he said in a telephone interview. "She would be delighted and very moved."
"Despite all the difficulty of colored people in her time, she triumphed over all the adversity that she and her people had to endure," he added.
Another poster, for a 1921 release, provides a taste of the racial divide that sent the young Baker to Europe to pursue her career.
"The Sport of the Gods," the poster proclaims, is based on a book by Paul Laurence Dunbar, "America's greatest race poet," and it adds that the film has "an all-star cast of colored artists."
Other posters in the set of 42-cent stamps are:
_ "Black and Tan," a 19-minute film released in 1929 featuring Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra.
_ "Caldonia," another short at 18 minutes, which was released in 1945. It showcased singer, saxophonist and bandleader Louis Jordan.
_ "Hallelujah," a 1929 movie released by MGM. It was one of the first films from a major studio to feature an all-black cast. Producer-director King Vidor was nominated for an Academy Award for his attempt to portray rural African-American life, especially religious experience.
In addition to Jean-Claude Baker and his brother, Jarry, the ceremony was scheduled to include Louis Jordan's widow, Martha Jordan; Paul Ellington, grandson of Duke Ellington; Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker; and Gloria Hopkins Buck, chairwoman of the film festival.
Josephine Baker may be best remembered in the United States for her singing and dancing in Europe, but she also earned military honors as an undercover agent for the French resistance in World War II. Later, she was active in civil rights work and appeared with Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington in 1963.
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID for AP
The time is 1935, and the St. Louis native who transfixed France and much of Europe with song and dance stares out from a poster advertising the film "Princess Tam-Tam." Baker starred as a simple African woman presented to Paris society as royalty.
Baker's movie is one of five recalled on a set of U.S. postage stamps being released Wednesday to honor vintage black cinema. Ceremonies marking the sale of the stamps will be held at the Newark Museum in New Jersey, which is holding a black film festival.
"So many things happened in her life that she had never expected," her son Jean-Claude Baker said Tuesday.
"I guess that if she was with us today she would be very honored. At her death she was a French citizen, but she never forgot she was born in America," he said in a telephone interview. "She would be delighted and very moved."
"Despite all the difficulty of colored people in her time, she triumphed over all the adversity that she and her people had to endure," he added.
Another poster, for a 1921 release, provides a taste of the racial divide that sent the young Baker to Europe to pursue her career.
"The Sport of the Gods," the poster proclaims, is based on a book by Paul Laurence Dunbar, "America's greatest race poet," and it adds that the film has "an all-star cast of colored artists."
Other posters in the set of 42-cent stamps are:
_ "Black and Tan," a 19-minute film released in 1929 featuring Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra.
_ "Caldonia," another short at 18 minutes, which was released in 1945. It showcased singer, saxophonist and bandleader Louis Jordan.
_ "Hallelujah," a 1929 movie released by MGM. It was one of the first films from a major studio to feature an all-black cast. Producer-director King Vidor was nominated for an Academy Award for his attempt to portray rural African-American life, especially religious experience.
In addition to Jean-Claude Baker and his brother, Jarry, the ceremony was scheduled to include Louis Jordan's widow, Martha Jordan; Paul Ellington, grandson of Duke Ellington; Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker; and Gloria Hopkins Buck, chairwoman of the film festival.
Josephine Baker may be best remembered in the United States for her singing and dancing in Europe, but she also earned military honors as an undercover agent for the French resistance in World War II. Later, she was active in civil rights work and appeared with Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington in 1963.
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID for AP
Rappers, Athletes, Actors Seek to End Youth Violence
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - Nationally recognized actresses, athletes, local activists assembled at Harold Washington Cultural Center on the south side of Chicago to make a clarion call to “Silence the Violence” among the youth in our communities.
Several hundred enthusiastic students packed the auditorium to hear from Atlantic recording artist T.I., Fox News anchor Robin Robinson, actor and comedian Michael Colyar, entrepreneur, community activist and former high ranking member of the Gangster Disciples Noonie “G” Ward, actress and fitness trainer A.J. Johnson, NBA star Quentin Richardson, Pastor Phil Jackson of The House Covenant Church also known as “The House” on Chicago’s west side, and hip hop recording artist Shawnna. The panel was moderated by 107.5 WCGI’s Tony Sculfield and simulcast live on the station for the entire 2-hours of the session.
“You all are beautiful people but you are your own worst enemy,” said Mr. Ward. “If you take time and think, everything you do is a thought before you do it. Before you go and shoot somebody, before you do something wrong, it is a thought,” he added.
Alluding to his recent run-ins with federal law enforcement officials, T.I. told the crowd that he has grown and matured and the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.
“I think there were a lot of necessary adjustments that needed to be made,” said the platinum selling rapper. Many people were around that didn’t necessarily need to be around, and my behavior—I was really running wild. I had to develop a lot of patience and really just assume another responsibility,” said the rapper, actor and father of six. “I have been blessed to make it this far through so many different adverse situations. I have done things before you all knew I was even T.I. that could have gotten me under the jail. I just pray to God for even allowing me to be before you today a free man, a living man,” said T.I. as the crowd took it all in.
In one testy exchange during the panel discussion, Fox News anchor Robin Robinson, raised the subject of street credibility to the audience and to T.I. challenging the idea that some rappers and those who emulate them a real history of criminal behavior makes them authentic tough guys and establishes their credentials in ‘the hood.’
“I have to be the devils advocate here, trouble also makes money. This thing we talk about ‘street cred’ and rappers who have the real rap sheet are the ones that you all follow. That is crazy! So don’t you think that by being good now you are afraid that it might hurt your career, because people like to listen to the real thugs, rapping real thug stuff,” said Ms. Robinson.
T.I. shot back “I don’t need no ‘street cred’ to sell no records! What I have done, I’ve done and I’m not proud of everything but at the same time a lot of that which you consider ‘street cred’ gave me the moral standards and principles that it takes for me to be the same man I am today,”
Ms. Robinson replied, “Well that’s the kind of ‘street cred’ we are trying to work on not the ‘street cred’ that counts the number of altercations you’ve been in or the number of times you have been arrested or gone to jail.”
“Unfortunately, this is what it took for me to learn what I know today and I am trying to make sure that they learn it without going through all of this. I am not in no way glorifying or trying to brag on nothing, I am just telling the absolute truth and that’s what they respect. They respect the truth,” said T.I.
Chicago native and NBA basketball star Quentin Richardson shared a personal experience about having two of his brothers killed. He also talked about the real feelings of revenge and thoughts of retaliation that came up when violence hit close to home.
“They were trying to steal his truck. It was just a senseless situation just over a vehicle,” said the guard for New York Knicks. “When you see it right in your neighborhood, something like that is just unfortunate. To see it’s your own people that are trying to steal and it’s difficult to take. If I didn’t know any better and have my sister there to talk to me, I might have tried to go and retaliate but I had people around keeping me grounded and telling me the right things to do. I had a chance to be pulled away from the situation and got an opportunity to make the right decisions,” said Mr. Richardson.
The conversation then turned to negative messages and images in hip-hop and in response to a question from an audience member, T.I., again defended hip-hop placing much of the responsibility on the consumers.
“Rappers do rap about positive things. You have people like Common and Kanye, now the question is why don’t you guys support these positive rappers as you support the gangster rappers? That’s the question! It’s out there, go to the record store and buy it and quit bootlegging,” said T.I. “Any business, I don’t care if you are selling music, haircuts, cutting grass, selling clothes—any business is supply and demand. As long as there is a demand for this gangster rap music that demand will be supplied. If you create a different demand then there will be a different supply. It is up to you guys as the consumer,” he added.
T.I. then asked a question, “I just want to know why is everybody waiting on a rapper to save the world? We are here to entertain. Can we also accept responsibility for our own actions as individuals and not use T.I., Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wayne, 50 Cent and the rest of us as an excuse?”
Jessica Williams, a student engagement specialist at Manley High School in Chicago said this kind of honest dialogue is needed to reduce the levels of violence among youth. She also said more mentors are needed in the community.
“Some of the main problems I see is students not being able to identify with somebody in their school or within their neighborhoods. They are turning to negative means of development,” said Ms. Williams. “They are looking up to the wrong individuals and they are doing negative things within their community because they do not have outlets for a positive expression readily available to them.”
By Ashahed M. Muhammad
Assistant Editor for FinalCall.com
Several hundred enthusiastic students packed the auditorium to hear from Atlantic recording artist T.I., Fox News anchor Robin Robinson, actor and comedian Michael Colyar, entrepreneur, community activist and former high ranking member of the Gangster Disciples Noonie “G” Ward, actress and fitness trainer A.J. Johnson, NBA star Quentin Richardson, Pastor Phil Jackson of The House Covenant Church also known as “The House” on Chicago’s west side, and hip hop recording artist Shawnna. The panel was moderated by 107.5 WCGI’s Tony Sculfield and simulcast live on the station for the entire 2-hours of the session.
“You all are beautiful people but you are your own worst enemy,” said Mr. Ward. “If you take time and think, everything you do is a thought before you do it. Before you go and shoot somebody, before you do something wrong, it is a thought,” he added.
Alluding to his recent run-ins with federal law enforcement officials, T.I. told the crowd that he has grown and matured and the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.
“I think there were a lot of necessary adjustments that needed to be made,” said the platinum selling rapper. Many people were around that didn’t necessarily need to be around, and my behavior—I was really running wild. I had to develop a lot of patience and really just assume another responsibility,” said the rapper, actor and father of six. “I have been blessed to make it this far through so many different adverse situations. I have done things before you all knew I was even T.I. that could have gotten me under the jail. I just pray to God for even allowing me to be before you today a free man, a living man,” said T.I. as the crowd took it all in.
In one testy exchange during the panel discussion, Fox News anchor Robin Robinson, raised the subject of street credibility to the audience and to T.I. challenging the idea that some rappers and those who emulate them a real history of criminal behavior makes them authentic tough guys and establishes their credentials in ‘the hood.’
“I have to be the devils advocate here, trouble also makes money. This thing we talk about ‘street cred’ and rappers who have the real rap sheet are the ones that you all follow. That is crazy! So don’t you think that by being good now you are afraid that it might hurt your career, because people like to listen to the real thugs, rapping real thug stuff,” said Ms. Robinson.
T.I. shot back “I don’t need no ‘street cred’ to sell no records! What I have done, I’ve done and I’m not proud of everything but at the same time a lot of that which you consider ‘street cred’ gave me the moral standards and principles that it takes for me to be the same man I am today,”
Ms. Robinson replied, “Well that’s the kind of ‘street cred’ we are trying to work on not the ‘street cred’ that counts the number of altercations you’ve been in or the number of times you have been arrested or gone to jail.”
“Unfortunately, this is what it took for me to learn what I know today and I am trying to make sure that they learn it without going through all of this. I am not in no way glorifying or trying to brag on nothing, I am just telling the absolute truth and that’s what they respect. They respect the truth,” said T.I.
Chicago native and NBA basketball star Quentin Richardson shared a personal experience about having two of his brothers killed. He also talked about the real feelings of revenge and thoughts of retaliation that came up when violence hit close to home.
“They were trying to steal his truck. It was just a senseless situation just over a vehicle,” said the guard for New York Knicks. “When you see it right in your neighborhood, something like that is just unfortunate. To see it’s your own people that are trying to steal and it’s difficult to take. If I didn’t know any better and have my sister there to talk to me, I might have tried to go and retaliate but I had people around keeping me grounded and telling me the right things to do. I had a chance to be pulled away from the situation and got an opportunity to make the right decisions,” said Mr. Richardson.
The conversation then turned to negative messages and images in hip-hop and in response to a question from an audience member, T.I., again defended hip-hop placing much of the responsibility on the consumers.
“Rappers do rap about positive things. You have people like Common and Kanye, now the question is why don’t you guys support these positive rappers as you support the gangster rappers? That’s the question! It’s out there, go to the record store and buy it and quit bootlegging,” said T.I. “Any business, I don’t care if you are selling music, haircuts, cutting grass, selling clothes—any business is supply and demand. As long as there is a demand for this gangster rap music that demand will be supplied. If you create a different demand then there will be a different supply. It is up to you guys as the consumer,” he added.
T.I. then asked a question, “I just want to know why is everybody waiting on a rapper to save the world? We are here to entertain. Can we also accept responsibility for our own actions as individuals and not use T.I., Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wayne, 50 Cent and the rest of us as an excuse?”
Jessica Williams, a student engagement specialist at Manley High School in Chicago said this kind of honest dialogue is needed to reduce the levels of violence among youth. She also said more mentors are needed in the community.
“Some of the main problems I see is students not being able to identify with somebody in their school or within their neighborhoods. They are turning to negative means of development,” said Ms. Williams. “They are looking up to the wrong individuals and they are doing negative things within their community because they do not have outlets for a positive expression readily available to them.”
By Ashahed M. Muhammad
Assistant Editor for FinalCall.com
Feeding Africa: Key is Better Farms, Not Food Aid
AWASH MELKASA, Ethiopia - Hussein Ibrahim walked solemnly past tidy rows of bright green cabbages, vines bursting with tomatoes and trees weighed down with plump avocados.
This modern, thriving farm — a rarity in drought-ravaged Ethiopia — filled Hussein with envy. Like so many other farmers across the Horn of Africa, he has no hope for his own crops this year.
"We are behind all the other people in the world," said Hussein, who tends his land in southern Ethiopia the way his ancestors did hundreds of years ago — with rain, if it comes; and oxen, as long as they're healthy.
To break out of endless cycles of drought, poverty and hunger, experts say, Africa desperately needs to modernize its age-old farming techniques. But the vast sums in foreign aid to Africa go toward feeding the hungry, and very little is left for improving farming so that Africans will cease to depend on handouts.
It isn't impossible. A decade ago, a "green revolution" helped millions of farmers in Asia and Latin America emerge from poverty with basic innovations such as fertilizer, improved irrigation and hybrid seeds.
But Africa's farms, which employ more than half the labor force, remain one-fourth as productive as their counterparts around the world.
Ethiopia drew international attention in 1984 when a famine compounded by communist policies killed 1 million people. It is now gripped by drought that has left 4.6 million people in need of emergency food shipments.
Drought is especially bad for Ethiopia because farming employs more than 80 percent of Ethiopians and accounts for half of all domestic production and 85 percent of exports.
Yet it's not that Ethiopia is incapable of growing food, as this experimental farm 100 miles southwest of Addis Ababa demonstrates. It just needs the right tools.
The farm, part of a government-run research center, beats the drought with smart irrigation systems, higher-yielding seeds, and fertilizer and pesticides correctly applied.
Hussein and dozens of other farmers were invited to the farm in late June to learn about modern agricultural techniques.
The 640-acre center employs nearly 350 workers, nearly 60 of whom hold advanced degrees in agriculture. It was set up in 1969 in the dying days of Ethiopia's monarchy, survived a decade of Marxist dictatorship, famine and wars, and continues to point the way to food independence.
But all it can do is point. It costs the Ethiopian government about $1.1 million a year to run the farm. The average Ethiopian works two acres, has little education and earns about $800 a year.
Also on the visit to the center was Mitike Abebe, who farms wheat, barley, lentils and other crops in southern Ethiopia. She depends entirely on rainfall, sturdy oxen, and her overworked soil.
"We don't want food aid," she said. "We need tractors, we need seeds, we need farm machinery."
There's aid aplenty — Ethiopia alone got $1.95 billion in 2006 — but Africa-wide, less than 5 percent of it goes toward the sort of things Mitike needs.
The United States, Ethiopia's largest donor, this year gave it more than $570 million, but just over 1 percent of that money is going toward developing agriculture.
In 2004, African nations agreed to set aside 10 percent of their national budgets for agricultural development. Ethiopia exceeded that promise, with 16 percent of its $3.4 billion budget. But experts say it is simply not enough for a country so dependent on the land.
According to the U.N., nearly two-thirds of Africa's agricultural land has been degraded by erosion and misused pesticides. In Ethiopia, where bad farming practices have led to massive erosion, 85 percent of land is damaged.
"We've under-invested, and everybody appreciates this now," said Glenn Anders, who heads the American aid program in Ethiopia. "Particularly in Africa, for the last few decades, maybe more."
The continent's other needs often offer a quicker fix for donors, he said.
"You give a kid an immunization and that kid's better. Agriculture's much more indirect than that and also requires a lot more time. It's not a quick fix at all."
By ANITA POWELL, Associated Press Writer
This modern, thriving farm — a rarity in drought-ravaged Ethiopia — filled Hussein with envy. Like so many other farmers across the Horn of Africa, he has no hope for his own crops this year.
"We are behind all the other people in the world," said Hussein, who tends his land in southern Ethiopia the way his ancestors did hundreds of years ago — with rain, if it comes; and oxen, as long as they're healthy.
To break out of endless cycles of drought, poverty and hunger, experts say, Africa desperately needs to modernize its age-old farming techniques. But the vast sums in foreign aid to Africa go toward feeding the hungry, and very little is left for improving farming so that Africans will cease to depend on handouts.
It isn't impossible. A decade ago, a "green revolution" helped millions of farmers in Asia and Latin America emerge from poverty with basic innovations such as fertilizer, improved irrigation and hybrid seeds.
But Africa's farms, which employ more than half the labor force, remain one-fourth as productive as their counterparts around the world.
Ethiopia drew international attention in 1984 when a famine compounded by communist policies killed 1 million people. It is now gripped by drought that has left 4.6 million people in need of emergency food shipments.
Drought is especially bad for Ethiopia because farming employs more than 80 percent of Ethiopians and accounts for half of all domestic production and 85 percent of exports.
Yet it's not that Ethiopia is incapable of growing food, as this experimental farm 100 miles southwest of Addis Ababa demonstrates. It just needs the right tools.
The farm, part of a government-run research center, beats the drought with smart irrigation systems, higher-yielding seeds, and fertilizer and pesticides correctly applied.
Hussein and dozens of other farmers were invited to the farm in late June to learn about modern agricultural techniques.
The 640-acre center employs nearly 350 workers, nearly 60 of whom hold advanced degrees in agriculture. It was set up in 1969 in the dying days of Ethiopia's monarchy, survived a decade of Marxist dictatorship, famine and wars, and continues to point the way to food independence.
But all it can do is point. It costs the Ethiopian government about $1.1 million a year to run the farm. The average Ethiopian works two acres, has little education and earns about $800 a year.
Also on the visit to the center was Mitike Abebe, who farms wheat, barley, lentils and other crops in southern Ethiopia. She depends entirely on rainfall, sturdy oxen, and her overworked soil.
"We don't want food aid," she said. "We need tractors, we need seeds, we need farm machinery."
There's aid aplenty — Ethiopia alone got $1.95 billion in 2006 — but Africa-wide, less than 5 percent of it goes toward the sort of things Mitike needs.
The United States, Ethiopia's largest donor, this year gave it more than $570 million, but just over 1 percent of that money is going toward developing agriculture.
In 2004, African nations agreed to set aside 10 percent of their national budgets for agricultural development. Ethiopia exceeded that promise, with 16 percent of its $3.4 billion budget. But experts say it is simply not enough for a country so dependent on the land.
According to the U.N., nearly two-thirds of Africa's agricultural land has been degraded by erosion and misused pesticides. In Ethiopia, where bad farming practices have led to massive erosion, 85 percent of land is damaged.
"We've under-invested, and everybody appreciates this now," said Glenn Anders, who heads the American aid program in Ethiopia. "Particularly in Africa, for the last few decades, maybe more."
The continent's other needs often offer a quicker fix for donors, he said.
"You give a kid an immunization and that kid's better. Agriculture's much more indirect than that and also requires a lot more time. It's not a quick fix at all."
By ANITA POWELL, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
China 'Concerned' at Sudan Genocide Charge
BEIJING (Reuters) - China expressed "grave concern" on Tuesday after the International Criminal Court's prosecutor charged Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur.
In Khartoum, the United Nations told its staff to stay at home as thousands of Sudanese rallied in support of Bashir.
ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday asked the court for an arrest warrant for Bashir, accusing him of running a campaign of genocide that has killed 35,000 people and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes in Sudan's western region.
Sudan's Vice President, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, called the ICC's move "irresponsible, illegal and unprofessional."
China, a main investor in Sudan's oil industry and Khartoum's biggest arms supplier, also criticized the move.
"China expresses grave concern and misgivings about the International Criminal Court prosecutor's indictment of the Sudanese leader," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular news conference in Beijing.
"The ICC's actions must be beneficial to the stability of the Darfur region and the appropriate settlement of the issue, not the contrary," Liu said.
China now faces difficult choices over its relationship with Bashir just as the Beijing Olympics opens a soft spot for international pressure.
Beijing has sought to balance its energy and political interests in Sudan with its desire for a respected seat at the table in Darfur peace efforts.
Some Western countries have called for respecting the ICC's decisions. "We are committed to cooperating with the international court and we should strengthen its work by not criticizing it," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin at a joint news conference with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The ICC prosecutor's momentous move makes that balancing act harder, with all sides waiting to see if Beijing will seek to suspend the legal action via a U.N. Security Council decision.
Asked whether China would support a U.N. resolution suspending the ICC's actions against Bashir, Liu said:
"China will continue consultation with other members of the United Nations Security Council, but as for the outcome, that I don't know," he said.
Liu confirmed that 172 Chinese engineers would head to Darfur on Wednesday, bringing all of its 315 promised peacekeepers into place.
PROTESTS
In Khartoum, thousands of Sudanese rallied outside a U.N. office in the Sudanese capital, some on horses, in support of Bashir, a former army general who came to power in a coup in 1989. They chanted "Ocampo is a criminal.
The protests, which began on Sunday, have been staged by pro-government bodies but even Sudanese who traditionally oppose Bashir have backed him against The Hague-based ICC.
The U.N.'s Ban urged Bashir to "ensure that all the conditions ... in Darfur and in Sudan (are in place so) that all the UN peacekeeping operations should be able to carry (out) their duties ... as mandated by the Security Council."
Sudan has reassured international workers it will ensure their safety, but the United Nations raised security levels in Khartoum and Darfur ahead of the Hague court's announcement, fearing a violent backlash.
U.N. security officials told non-essential staff to stay at home ahead of Tuesday's protests. Families have been evacuated from Khartoum and non-essential staff moved out of Darfur.
Many aid agencies said they had pulled staff from rural areas back to towns in Darfur. The joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission said it would also begin relocating some non-essential staff, although core operations would continue.
International experts say at least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced since 2003. Khartoum says 10,000 people have been killed.
Moreno-Ocampo said on top of the 35,000 directly killed by Sudan's armed forces and the militia they support, 2.5 million were subjected to a campaign of "rape, hunger and fear" in refugee camps where he said genocide continued "under our eyes."
He Wenping, an Africa expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading think-tank in Beijing, said the ICC prosecutor's move "presents China with many quandaries."
"It will have many consequences that China won't like," he said. "Our own peacekeepers could be threatened, and also this will seriously impede China's space to mediate over Darfur and encourage dialogue between Sudan and the West."
He Wenping and other observers did not expect China to move on its own to hold off the ICC, especially with Beijing determined to burnish its image with the August Olympics.
Groups critical of China's arms and oil ties with Khartoum have urged protests to shame Beijing during the Games.
By Chris Buckley for reuters
In Khartoum, the United Nations told its staff to stay at home as thousands of Sudanese rallied in support of Bashir.
ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday asked the court for an arrest warrant for Bashir, accusing him of running a campaign of genocide that has killed 35,000 people and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes in Sudan's western region.
Sudan's Vice President, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, called the ICC's move "irresponsible, illegal and unprofessional."
China, a main investor in Sudan's oil industry and Khartoum's biggest arms supplier, also criticized the move.
"China expresses grave concern and misgivings about the International Criminal Court prosecutor's indictment of the Sudanese leader," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular news conference in Beijing.
"The ICC's actions must be beneficial to the stability of the Darfur region and the appropriate settlement of the issue, not the contrary," Liu said.
China now faces difficult choices over its relationship with Bashir just as the Beijing Olympics opens a soft spot for international pressure.
Beijing has sought to balance its energy and political interests in Sudan with its desire for a respected seat at the table in Darfur peace efforts.
Some Western countries have called for respecting the ICC's decisions. "We are committed to cooperating with the international court and we should strengthen its work by not criticizing it," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin at a joint news conference with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The ICC prosecutor's momentous move makes that balancing act harder, with all sides waiting to see if Beijing will seek to suspend the legal action via a U.N. Security Council decision.
Asked whether China would support a U.N. resolution suspending the ICC's actions against Bashir, Liu said:
"China will continue consultation with other members of the United Nations Security Council, but as for the outcome, that I don't know," he said.
Liu confirmed that 172 Chinese engineers would head to Darfur on Wednesday, bringing all of its 315 promised peacekeepers into place.
PROTESTS
In Khartoum, thousands of Sudanese rallied outside a U.N. office in the Sudanese capital, some on horses, in support of Bashir, a former army general who came to power in a coup in 1989. They chanted "Ocampo is a criminal.
The protests, which began on Sunday, have been staged by pro-government bodies but even Sudanese who traditionally oppose Bashir have backed him against The Hague-based ICC.
The U.N.'s Ban urged Bashir to "ensure that all the conditions ... in Darfur and in Sudan (are in place so) that all the UN peacekeeping operations should be able to carry (out) their duties ... as mandated by the Security Council."
Sudan has reassured international workers it will ensure their safety, but the United Nations raised security levels in Khartoum and Darfur ahead of the Hague court's announcement, fearing a violent backlash.
U.N. security officials told non-essential staff to stay at home ahead of Tuesday's protests. Families have been evacuated from Khartoum and non-essential staff moved out of Darfur.
Many aid agencies said they had pulled staff from rural areas back to towns in Darfur. The joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission said it would also begin relocating some non-essential staff, although core operations would continue.
International experts say at least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced since 2003. Khartoum says 10,000 people have been killed.
Moreno-Ocampo said on top of the 35,000 directly killed by Sudan's armed forces and the militia they support, 2.5 million were subjected to a campaign of "rape, hunger and fear" in refugee camps where he said genocide continued "under our eyes."
He Wenping, an Africa expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading think-tank in Beijing, said the ICC prosecutor's move "presents China with many quandaries."
"It will have many consequences that China won't like," he said. "Our own peacekeepers could be threatened, and also this will seriously impede China's space to mediate over Darfur and encourage dialogue between Sudan and the West."
He Wenping and other observers did not expect China to move on its own to hold off the ICC, especially with Beijing determined to burnish its image with the August Olympics.
Groups critical of China's arms and oil ties with Khartoum have urged protests to shame Beijing during the Games.
By Chris Buckley for reuters
First Black Sorority Turns 100
WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- Thousands of members of the nation's first black sorority gathered in Washington Monday for a weeklong convention marking the group's 100th anniversary.
The centennial meeting has attracted nearly 25,000 "sisters" from 975 chapters around the world, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reports.
Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington by an undergraduate named Ethel Hedgeman Lyle who started it as a social and service organization.
Today the sorority has more than 200,000 members with civil rights leaders, judges, doctors, lawyers and educators among its ranks.
Famous members include civil rights activists Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, actresses Phylicia Rashad and Jada Pinkett, and singer Alicia Keys.
Among the events planned this week are a bevy of receptions, teas and parties as well as discussions of the sorority's future.
For those in a shopping mood, the exhibition hall at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center features everything Alpha Kappa Alpha from pink and green stationary to diamond and gold jewelry.
from upi,com
The centennial meeting has attracted nearly 25,000 "sisters" from 975 chapters around the world, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reports.
Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington by an undergraduate named Ethel Hedgeman Lyle who started it as a social and service organization.
Today the sorority has more than 200,000 members with civil rights leaders, judges, doctors, lawyers and educators among its ranks.
Famous members include civil rights activists Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, actresses Phylicia Rashad and Jada Pinkett, and singer Alicia Keys.
Among the events planned this week are a bevy of receptions, teas and parties as well as discussions of the sorority's future.
For those in a shopping mood, the exhibition hall at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center features everything Alpha Kappa Alpha from pink and green stationary to diamond and gold jewelry.
from upi,com
N.C. Considers Black Execution Imbalance
RALEIGH, N.C., July 14 (UPI) -- Efforts by black leaders to address the racial imbalance in death sentences may be paired with a move to restart executions in North Carolina, observers say.
The North Carolina branch of the NAACP is working with Democrats in the state Senate to introduce a measure forcing judges and juries in capital cases to consider statistics showing far more blacks are given death sentences than whites, the News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh, N.C., reported Monday.
But for the measure to gain enough support from Republicans to pass, it may have to be paired with a move to restart the state's stalled executions. North Carolina's Medical Board last year adopted ethics rules prohibiting doctors from participating in executions, which has halted trips to North Carolina's death chamber.
As part of a compromise, the North Carolina Legislature could adopt a measure overriding the ethics panel decision, granting professional immunity for doctors to administer executions in exchange for supporting the statistics bill, the newspaper said.
State NAACP President William Barber doesn't want the two issues combined, saying, "It should stand alone. This is about people dying simply because of their race."
UPI.com
The North Carolina branch of the NAACP is working with Democrats in the state Senate to introduce a measure forcing judges and juries in capital cases to consider statistics showing far more blacks are given death sentences than whites, the News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh, N.C., reported Monday.
But for the measure to gain enough support from Republicans to pass, it may have to be paired with a move to restart the state's stalled executions. North Carolina's Medical Board last year adopted ethics rules prohibiting doctors from participating in executions, which has halted trips to North Carolina's death chamber.
As part of a compromise, the North Carolina Legislature could adopt a measure overriding the ethics panel decision, granting professional immunity for doctors to administer executions in exchange for supporting the statistics bill, the newspaper said.
State NAACP President William Barber doesn't want the two issues combined, saying, "It should stand alone. This is about people dying simply because of their race."
UPI.com
Rick Ross Denies Ex-Correctional Officer Claims
By Charlie Rem
Rick Ross has charged that images depicting him as a young correctional officer are totally fabricated, the result of savvy graphic artists.
He told AllHipHop.com exclusively, "My life is 100% real. These online hackers putting a picture of my face when I was a teenager in high school on other peoples' body. If this s**t was real don't you think they would have more specifics, like dates and everything?”
Earlier, a single image was in circulation on the internet suggesting that Ross previously worked as a correctional officer at an unnamed jail or prison.
The Miami-based rap artist, known for his gritty street rhymes, said envious people have conspired against him for his success and stature.
“I'm in the entertainment business and a lot of people who like to hate because I'm on top of my game,” Ross told AllHipHop.com. “Like I said before my life is 100% real. I live by this die by this. Fake pictures are created by the fake, meant to entertain the fake."
While the image appears very realistic, boxer Oscar De La Hoya was involved in a similar scandal that made the pugilist appear to be a cross dresser.
The images were proven to be doctored and De La Hoya was completely exonerated. Ross is already moving on.
He stated that he was working on a new album called Deeper Than Rap, which would come at an undetermined date in the near future.
AllHipHop.com
Rick Ross has charged that images depicting him as a young correctional officer are totally fabricated, the result of savvy graphic artists.
He told AllHipHop.com exclusively, "My life is 100% real. These online hackers putting a picture of my face when I was a teenager in high school on other peoples' body. If this s**t was real don't you think they would have more specifics, like dates and everything?”
Earlier, a single image was in circulation on the internet suggesting that Ross previously worked as a correctional officer at an unnamed jail or prison.
The Miami-based rap artist, known for his gritty street rhymes, said envious people have conspired against him for his success and stature.
“I'm in the entertainment business and a lot of people who like to hate because I'm on top of my game,” Ross told AllHipHop.com. “Like I said before my life is 100% real. I live by this die by this. Fake pictures are created by the fake, meant to entertain the fake."
While the image appears very realistic, boxer Oscar De La Hoya was involved in a similar scandal that made the pugilist appear to be a cross dresser.
The images were proven to be doctored and De La Hoya was completely exonerated. Ross is already moving on.
He stated that he was working on a new album called Deeper Than Rap, which would come at an undetermined date in the near future.
AllHipHop.com
Monday, July 14, 2008
Green Party Picks Cynthia McKinney as Nominee
(CBS/AP) Green Party delegates have selected former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia as the party's presidential nominee.
Ruth Weill, the party's national convention coordinator, said the delegates selected McKinney as they wrapped up their national convention here on Saturday.
McKinney tapped Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop artist, journalist and activist, as her running mate.
McKinney, 53, entered politics by following her father, an Atlanta policeman who later served in the Georgia State House. She won her first seat in 1988, and later ran for and won a House race in 1992, becoming the first African American woman to represent Georgia in Congress.
She was reelected several times but suffered a primary defeat in 2002, before winning her final term in the House in 2004.
She was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war, has called for new investigations into the September 11, 2001 attacks, sought justice for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and introduced articles of impeachment against President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In 2006 McKinney apologized on the floor of the House for an incident in which she got into a scuffle with a Capitol Police Officer after passing through security without an identifying lapel pin.
Clamente, 36, born in the Bronx and of Puerto Rican descent, was raised in one of the nation's poorest communities, and became an activist and journalist angered by the Bush administration's response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"I choose to do this, not for me, but for my generation, my community and my daughter," she said of the nomination. "I don't see the Green Party as an alternative; I see it as an imperative."
On Saturday she described the campaign as an opportunity for the Hip-Hop generation: "We must remember that youth have always taken risks. From the Soweto uprisings in South Africa, to African-American and Mexicano children in the '50s and '60s who walked out of schools, to the 17-, 18- and 19-year old men and women who joined the ranks of the Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee, the Black Panther party, the American Indian movement, the Black Liberation Movement, the Young Lords Party - young people have always been the catalyst of change."
A Green Party official, meanwhile, said he misspoke when he told the Chicago Tribune for a story Friday that the Greens had borrowed money from party members to help pay for the Chicago convention. Scott McLarty, the Green Party's spokesman, said the loan had been authorized by top party officials, but no borrowing had taken place.
CBSNews.com
Ruth Weill, the party's national convention coordinator, said the delegates selected McKinney as they wrapped up their national convention here on Saturday.
McKinney tapped Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop artist, journalist and activist, as her running mate.
McKinney, 53, entered politics by following her father, an Atlanta policeman who later served in the Georgia State House. She won her first seat in 1988, and later ran for and won a House race in 1992, becoming the first African American woman to represent Georgia in Congress.
She was reelected several times but suffered a primary defeat in 2002, before winning her final term in the House in 2004.
She was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war, has called for new investigations into the September 11, 2001 attacks, sought justice for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and introduced articles of impeachment against President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In 2006 McKinney apologized on the floor of the House for an incident in which she got into a scuffle with a Capitol Police Officer after passing through security without an identifying lapel pin.
Clamente, 36, born in the Bronx and of Puerto Rican descent, was raised in one of the nation's poorest communities, and became an activist and journalist angered by the Bush administration's response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"I choose to do this, not for me, but for my generation, my community and my daughter," she said of the nomination. "I don't see the Green Party as an alternative; I see it as an imperative."
On Saturday she described the campaign as an opportunity for the Hip-Hop generation: "We must remember that youth have always taken risks. From the Soweto uprisings in South Africa, to African-American and Mexicano children in the '50s and '60s who walked out of schools, to the 17-, 18- and 19-year old men and women who joined the ranks of the Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee, the Black Panther party, the American Indian movement, the Black Liberation Movement, the Young Lords Party - young people have always been the catalyst of change."
A Green Party official, meanwhile, said he misspoke when he told the Chicago Tribune for a story Friday that the Greens had borrowed money from party members to help pay for the Chicago convention. Scott McLarty, the Green Party's spokesman, said the loan had been authorized by top party officials, but no borrowing had taken place.
CBSNews.com
A Clash of Generations in Black Community
WASHINGTON - The Rev. Jesse Jackson's offhand insult of Barack Obama last week has exposed a heated debate over whether Obama's groundbreaking presidential campaign - and his repeated challenge to the black community to straighten out its own affairs - is displacing and alienating some in Jackson's generation of black leadership, which held the government accountable for the plight of African-Americans.
Though Jackson apologized profusely for the remark, he still faced intense criticism, not least a sharply worded rebuke from his namesake son, who is a congressman and an Obama campaign official. Some in the black community said the clash demonstrates the elder Jackson's resentment at having to make way for a new generation of leaders like Obama, who believe that black America is not blameless for its chronic social problems.
"Jesse Jackson isn't known for saying the smartest things," said Vernon Odemns, 19, who was shopping at the Pentagon City Mall with Derrell Lip scomb late last week. Obama, he said, "is saying what we need to hear. A lot of our problems [in the black community] start at home."
Lipscomb, 18, said Jackson is behind the times: "He doesn't understand that racism really isn't the main thing right now."
Several prominent black political figures note that Jackson expressed aloud what some black voters had kept to themselves: a suspicion that Obama's criticism of deadbeat dads and undisciplined households is a play for more-conservative white voters. That part of the debate, they say, has been largely kept quiet to avoid damaging Obama's historic bid for the presidency.
Many believe a public discussion could undermine Obama's support among African-Americans, a constituency he will need behind him at full strength to defeat Republican challenger John McCain. Though black voters turned out for Obama in record numbers during the marathon Democratic primaries, any erosion of that support could mean the difference in battleground states like Georgia and North Carolina.
"We don't need Jesse Jackson to be divisive," said Jerome Jenkins, 44, sipping a glass of wine at a downtown Washington cigar bar. "It's Barack's time. If the man's going to be president, let him be president."
By making the debate public, Jenkins said, Jackson feeds white-held stereotypes: "They'll say, 'Look at the blacks - they still can't get together,' " he said.
The controversy erupted Wednesday when Jackson, waiting to start an interview on Fox News, whispered to fellow guest Reed Tuckson, executive vice president and chief medical officer of United Health Group Inc., that Obama has been "talking down to black people" with speeches on personal responsibility.
Jackson, 66, was referring to a speech the Illinois senator gave on Father's Day last month at one of Chicago's largest black churches. Obama, who was a child when his father abandoned their family, told the congregation they should set better examples for their children because "too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes."
Apparently not realizing his lapel microphone was on at the time, Jackson used a vulgar reference when he muttered to Tuckson about how angry he was about the Obama's rhetoric.
After the interview, Fox News announced it had captured Jackson's remarks and would make them public. As word of the incident swept across the Internet and 24-hour cable news channels, Jackson tried damage control, apologized to Obama over the phone and on the airwaves. Obama accepted the apology.
Within hours, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., 43, an Illinois Democrat and cochairman of Obama's national campaign, issued a statement rebuking his father for "his ugly rhetoric." The younger Jackson, whom many consider to have ambitions for Obama's Senate seat if he becomes president, said his father "should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."
The dust-up "is the classic battle between the old and new politics" among African-Americans, said Kerry Haynie, a Duke University political science professor who specializes in race and politics.
Unlike Jackson, who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Obama, 46, and the younger Jackson represent "the new generation which is less confrontational, more willing to compromise [with whites] and play inside the game of politics," Haynie said. They see themselves not as activists but as politicians who are elected to solve problems, even if it means adopting moderate or conservative positions.
William Galston of the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy center, said some believe Obama's criticism of the black community has spurred debate because "every time someone who is not a conservative talks about personal responsibility, he or she is accused of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It suggests in so many words that the people at issue are not pure victims."
That's a message liberals and some black people find disturbing, Galston said, because "it takes white America and privileged America off the hook."
Yet most blacks would rather keep quiet about their discomfort with that message if it means helping elect the first African-American president.
On the Internet, a sampling of bloggers and African-American-themed websites showed that most sided with Obama and against Jackson, and an unscientific survey conducted by Black Voices found that 54 percent of those who participated had a negative opinion of Jackson.
But Ron Walters, who managed Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign and now is a University of Maryland political science professor said Jackson inartfully made a legitimate point: Obama must balance his remarks toward black voters if he wants to maintain a high level of support.
"There's a very healthy discussion in the black community about how Barack Obama very often goes to black venues and talks about black responsibility, and then goes across town to white venues and talks about public policy," Walters said.
The positive news for Obama, Walters said, is that the debate is happening now rather than late in the campaign. And Obama is likely to solve the problem sooner rather than later when he addresses the annual NAACP convention this week in Cincinnati, he said.
"The way to deal with this is to go to the NAACP convention and give a hard-hitting address on public policy and put this to rest," Walters said
By Joseph Williams
Boston Globe Staff
Though Jackson apologized profusely for the remark, he still faced intense criticism, not least a sharply worded rebuke from his namesake son, who is a congressman and an Obama campaign official. Some in the black community said the clash demonstrates the elder Jackson's resentment at having to make way for a new generation of leaders like Obama, who believe that black America is not blameless for its chronic social problems.
"Jesse Jackson isn't known for saying the smartest things," said Vernon Odemns, 19, who was shopping at the Pentagon City Mall with Derrell Lip scomb late last week. Obama, he said, "is saying what we need to hear. A lot of our problems [in the black community] start at home."
Lipscomb, 18, said Jackson is behind the times: "He doesn't understand that racism really isn't the main thing right now."
Several prominent black political figures note that Jackson expressed aloud what some black voters had kept to themselves: a suspicion that Obama's criticism of deadbeat dads and undisciplined households is a play for more-conservative white voters. That part of the debate, they say, has been largely kept quiet to avoid damaging Obama's historic bid for the presidency.
Many believe a public discussion could undermine Obama's support among African-Americans, a constituency he will need behind him at full strength to defeat Republican challenger John McCain. Though black voters turned out for Obama in record numbers during the marathon Democratic primaries, any erosion of that support could mean the difference in battleground states like Georgia and North Carolina.
"We don't need Jesse Jackson to be divisive," said Jerome Jenkins, 44, sipping a glass of wine at a downtown Washington cigar bar. "It's Barack's time. If the man's going to be president, let him be president."
By making the debate public, Jenkins said, Jackson feeds white-held stereotypes: "They'll say, 'Look at the blacks - they still can't get together,' " he said.
The controversy erupted Wednesday when Jackson, waiting to start an interview on Fox News, whispered to fellow guest Reed Tuckson, executive vice president and chief medical officer of United Health Group Inc., that Obama has been "talking down to black people" with speeches on personal responsibility.
Jackson, 66, was referring to a speech the Illinois senator gave on Father's Day last month at one of Chicago's largest black churches. Obama, who was a child when his father abandoned their family, told the congregation they should set better examples for their children because "too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes."
Apparently not realizing his lapel microphone was on at the time, Jackson used a vulgar reference when he muttered to Tuckson about how angry he was about the Obama's rhetoric.
After the interview, Fox News announced it had captured Jackson's remarks and would make them public. As word of the incident swept across the Internet and 24-hour cable news channels, Jackson tried damage control, apologized to Obama over the phone and on the airwaves. Obama accepted the apology.
Within hours, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., 43, an Illinois Democrat and cochairman of Obama's national campaign, issued a statement rebuking his father for "his ugly rhetoric." The younger Jackson, whom many consider to have ambitions for Obama's Senate seat if he becomes president, said his father "should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."
The dust-up "is the classic battle between the old and new politics" among African-Americans, said Kerry Haynie, a Duke University political science professor who specializes in race and politics.
Unlike Jackson, who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Obama, 46, and the younger Jackson represent "the new generation which is less confrontational, more willing to compromise [with whites] and play inside the game of politics," Haynie said. They see themselves not as activists but as politicians who are elected to solve problems, even if it means adopting moderate or conservative positions.
William Galston of the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy center, said some believe Obama's criticism of the black community has spurred debate because "every time someone who is not a conservative talks about personal responsibility, he or she is accused of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It suggests in so many words that the people at issue are not pure victims."
That's a message liberals and some black people find disturbing, Galston said, because "it takes white America and privileged America off the hook."
Yet most blacks would rather keep quiet about their discomfort with that message if it means helping elect the first African-American president.
On the Internet, a sampling of bloggers and African-American-themed websites showed that most sided with Obama and against Jackson, and an unscientific survey conducted by Black Voices found that 54 percent of those who participated had a negative opinion of Jackson.
But Ron Walters, who managed Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign and now is a University of Maryland political science professor said Jackson inartfully made a legitimate point: Obama must balance his remarks toward black voters if he wants to maintain a high level of support.
"There's a very healthy discussion in the black community about how Barack Obama very often goes to black venues and talks about black responsibility, and then goes across town to white venues and talks about public policy," Walters said.
The positive news for Obama, Walters said, is that the debate is happening now rather than late in the campaign. And Obama is likely to solve the problem sooner rather than later when he addresses the annual NAACP convention this week in Cincinnati, he said.
"The way to deal with this is to go to the NAACP convention and give a hard-hitting address on public policy and put this to rest," Walters said
By Joseph Williams
Boston Globe Staff
Sudan Leader Faces Darfur Charges
(CNN) -- The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed genocide charges against Sudan's president for a five-year campaign of violence in Darfur.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday urged a three-judge panel to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to prevent the deaths of about 2.5 million people forced from their homes in the war-torn region of Darfur and who are still under attack from government-backed Janjaweed militia.
The five charges against al-Bashir include masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in the war-torn region with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Nic Robertson in the Dutch city of The Hague, the prosecutor said he had a responsibility to bring charges against al-Bashir.
"The (U.N.) Security Council referred the case to me and requested me to investigate," Moreno-Ocampo said. Read a transcript of the interview
"After three years I have strong evidence that al-Bashir is committing a genocide. I cannot be blackmailed, I cannot yield. Silence never helped the victims. Silence helped the perpetrators. The prosecutor should not be silent."
The judges must now decide whether to issue the warrant, and it is widely expected that they will; the judges have approved all 11 of Moreno-Ocampo's previous submissions to the court.
If issued, the warrant would make al-Bashir the first sitting president to be indicted by the ICC for genocide. Watch as ICC prosecutor targets al-Bashir »
In his request, Moreno-Ocampo says there are reasonable grounds to believe that al-Bashir bears criminal responsibility for five counts of genocide, two counts of crimes against humanity, and two counts of war crimes.
The alleged crimes stem from a brutal counter-insurgency campaign the Sudanese government conducted after rebels began an uprising in Sudan's western Darfur region in 2003. The United States and much of the world has already characterized the campaign as genocide.
The authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels draw strength.
About 300,000 people have died in Darfur, the United Nations estimates, and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes. Watch a tour of Darfur's deserted Northern Corridor »
Moreno-Ocampo says al-Bashir targeted three ethnic groups living in the region -- including the Fur group, for whom Darfur is named -- solely on account of their ethnicity.
Al-Bashir bears responsibility, Moreno-Ocampo says, because he sat at the apex of the government.
"For such crimes to be committed over a period of five years and throughout Darfur, al-Bashir had to mobilize and keep mobilized the whole state apparatus; he had to control and direct perpetrators; and he had to rely on a genocidal plan," Moreno-Ocampo wrote as background for arrest warrant request.
Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations has already condemned the charges. Watch how some are concerned by the move
"It is a criminal move that should be resisted by all," Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said Friday amid reports that the charges were imminent. "We will resist it by all possible legal means."
Mohamad accused Moreno-Ocampo of "playing with fire."
In Khartoum, a crowd of about 2,000 people greeted al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup, when he arrived for an emergency meeting of his Cabinet Sunday to discuss the charges.
When he saw the crowd, al-Bashir climbed onto a pickup truck and pumped his fist in the air, whipping the group into a frenzy.
Some held signs saying, "You are joking... Ocamp-who?" and "Death to America."
A high-ranking ambassador at the presidential palace called the possible prosecution stupid and malicious, and warned that the Sudanese people would see it as proof of a larger conspiracy against the country.
In 2005, the Security Council cleared the way for possible war crimes prosecutions related to Darfur by the ICC, a permanent tribunal set up to handle prosecutions related to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court is based on a treaty signed by 106 nations -- excluding Sudan.
In addition to Sudan, ICC prosecutors are investigating offenses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and the Central African Republic.
The attacks in Darfur over the past five years have followed a common pattern, Moreno-Ocampo's evidence says.
Members of Sudan's armed forces, often acting together with the militias and under al-Bashir's command, singled out villages and towns inhabited by tribal groups. Troops and militia members shot and killed civilians, and sometimes the Sudanese air force was called in to bomb villages and towns in support of the ground forces, the prosecutor's evidence says.
Residents who fled were often chased and attacked or left to fend for themselves in the wilderness, the evidence says.
The attacks, it says, undermined the ability of the targeted groups to survive in Darfur. The destruction of their homes scattered entire communities, and the pervasive rape and sexual violence against girls and women -- who are often targeted when they are out collecting firewood or water -- has torn families apart. Watch how UNICEF is trying to prevent rape in Darfur
"They are raping women, raping girls, raping in groups -- raping to destroy the communities," Moreno-Ocampo told CNN. "Rape is a tool in the genocide -- the most important tool today."
The chief U.N. humanitarian coordinator, John Holmes, said Friday that aid workers were already preparing for the effects of an arrest warrant against al-Bashir, making sure staff members are safe.
Moreno-Ocampo said any attacks on peacekeepers would be another reason to bring al-Bashir to justice.
The ICC has already indicted two men for Darfur crimes -- Ahmad Harun, Sudan's former minister of the interior who is now in charge of humanitarian affairs for the Sudanese government and militia leader Ali Kushayb -- but neither has been brought to justice.
Once the ICC indicts someone, authorities in that person's native country -- or the country in which the indicted person is located -- have the power to detain the indicted person for trial at the Hague.
Kushayb and Harun both remain in Sudan where they enjoy the protection of al-Bashir, Moreno-Ocampo said. Since they have not been arrested, the prosecutor says, it is unlikely al-Bashir will be -- and he says it will probably take a U.N. Security Council resolution for al-Bashir to be brought to justice.
Senior Sudanese government leaders have previously told CNN that reports of atrocities in Darfur are exaggerated.
"Yes, there has been a war and some people have died, but it's not like what has been reflected in the media," Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid said last month.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday urged a three-judge panel to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to prevent the deaths of about 2.5 million people forced from their homes in the war-torn region of Darfur and who are still under attack from government-backed Janjaweed militia.
The five charges against al-Bashir include masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in the war-torn region with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Nic Robertson in the Dutch city of The Hague, the prosecutor said he had a responsibility to bring charges against al-Bashir.
"The (U.N.) Security Council referred the case to me and requested me to investigate," Moreno-Ocampo said. Read a transcript of the interview
"After three years I have strong evidence that al-Bashir is committing a genocide. I cannot be blackmailed, I cannot yield. Silence never helped the victims. Silence helped the perpetrators. The prosecutor should not be silent."
The judges must now decide whether to issue the warrant, and it is widely expected that they will; the judges have approved all 11 of Moreno-Ocampo's previous submissions to the court.
If issued, the warrant would make al-Bashir the first sitting president to be indicted by the ICC for genocide. Watch as ICC prosecutor targets al-Bashir »
In his request, Moreno-Ocampo says there are reasonable grounds to believe that al-Bashir bears criminal responsibility for five counts of genocide, two counts of crimes against humanity, and two counts of war crimes.
The alleged crimes stem from a brutal counter-insurgency campaign the Sudanese government conducted after rebels began an uprising in Sudan's western Darfur region in 2003. The United States and much of the world has already characterized the campaign as genocide.
The authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels draw strength.
About 300,000 people have died in Darfur, the United Nations estimates, and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes. Watch a tour of Darfur's deserted Northern Corridor »
Moreno-Ocampo says al-Bashir targeted three ethnic groups living in the region -- including the Fur group, for whom Darfur is named -- solely on account of their ethnicity.
Al-Bashir bears responsibility, Moreno-Ocampo says, because he sat at the apex of the government.
"For such crimes to be committed over a period of five years and throughout Darfur, al-Bashir had to mobilize and keep mobilized the whole state apparatus; he had to control and direct perpetrators; and he had to rely on a genocidal plan," Moreno-Ocampo wrote as background for arrest warrant request.
Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations has already condemned the charges. Watch how some are concerned by the move
"It is a criminal move that should be resisted by all," Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said Friday amid reports that the charges were imminent. "We will resist it by all possible legal means."
Mohamad accused Moreno-Ocampo of "playing with fire."
In Khartoum, a crowd of about 2,000 people greeted al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup, when he arrived for an emergency meeting of his Cabinet Sunday to discuss the charges.
When he saw the crowd, al-Bashir climbed onto a pickup truck and pumped his fist in the air, whipping the group into a frenzy.
Some held signs saying, "You are joking... Ocamp-who?" and "Death to America."
A high-ranking ambassador at the presidential palace called the possible prosecution stupid and malicious, and warned that the Sudanese people would see it as proof of a larger conspiracy against the country.
In 2005, the Security Council cleared the way for possible war crimes prosecutions related to Darfur by the ICC, a permanent tribunal set up to handle prosecutions related to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court is based on a treaty signed by 106 nations -- excluding Sudan.
In addition to Sudan, ICC prosecutors are investigating offenses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and the Central African Republic.
The attacks in Darfur over the past five years have followed a common pattern, Moreno-Ocampo's evidence says.
Members of Sudan's armed forces, often acting together with the militias and under al-Bashir's command, singled out villages and towns inhabited by tribal groups. Troops and militia members shot and killed civilians, and sometimes the Sudanese air force was called in to bomb villages and towns in support of the ground forces, the prosecutor's evidence says.
Residents who fled were often chased and attacked or left to fend for themselves in the wilderness, the evidence says.
The attacks, it says, undermined the ability of the targeted groups to survive in Darfur. The destruction of their homes scattered entire communities, and the pervasive rape and sexual violence against girls and women -- who are often targeted when they are out collecting firewood or water -- has torn families apart. Watch how UNICEF is trying to prevent rape in Darfur
"They are raping women, raping girls, raping in groups -- raping to destroy the communities," Moreno-Ocampo told CNN. "Rape is a tool in the genocide -- the most important tool today."
The chief U.N. humanitarian coordinator, John Holmes, said Friday that aid workers were already preparing for the effects of an arrest warrant against al-Bashir, making sure staff members are safe.
Moreno-Ocampo said any attacks on peacekeepers would be another reason to bring al-Bashir to justice.
The ICC has already indicted two men for Darfur crimes -- Ahmad Harun, Sudan's former minister of the interior who is now in charge of humanitarian affairs for the Sudanese government and militia leader Ali Kushayb -- but neither has been brought to justice.
Once the ICC indicts someone, authorities in that person's native country -- or the country in which the indicted person is located -- have the power to detain the indicted person for trial at the Hague.
Kushayb and Harun both remain in Sudan where they enjoy the protection of al-Bashir, Moreno-Ocampo said. Since they have not been arrested, the prosecutor says, it is unlikely al-Bashir will be -- and he says it will probably take a U.N. Security Council resolution for al-Bashir to be brought to justice.
Senior Sudanese government leaders have previously told CNN that reports of atrocities in Darfur are exaggerated.
"Yes, there has been a war and some people have died, but it's not like what has been reflected in the media," Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid said last month.
Sean Bell Little League Season Begins
Sean Bell's family honored his memory Saturday by helping kids in Queens.
A Little League named after Bell, who was killed by police in 2006, began its season.
Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell appeared at the opening and the Rev. Al Sharpton threw out the first pitch.
The Sean Bell Little League also held a parade along rockaway Boulevard in the Jamaica section of Queens.
The league was formed and funded by Paultre-Bell.
Sean Bell played Little League and was a pitcher at John Adams High School and Nassau Community College.
MyFoxNY.com
A Little League named after Bell, who was killed by police in 2006, began its season.
Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell appeared at the opening and the Rev. Al Sharpton threw out the first pitch.
The Sean Bell Little League also held a parade along rockaway Boulevard in the Jamaica section of Queens.
The league was formed and funded by Paultre-Bell.
Sean Bell played Little League and was a pitcher at John Adams High School and Nassau Community College.
MyFoxNY.com
Sunday, July 13, 2008
King Children Sue Brother Over Father's Estate
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Two of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s children are suing their brother, accusing him of wrongfully taking money from their parents' estates.
Bernice King and Martin Luther King III allege that Dexter King took "substantial funds" out of Coretta Scott King's estate and "wrongfully appropriated" money from their father's estate.
The suit, filed Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court, serves as a very public fissure in an iconic family that has always professed unity, particularly as questions have swirled around some of their financial dealings.
In a written statement Friday, Dexter King called the suit "inappropriate and false."
"I'm disappointed that our personal family disagreement, as it relates to the family business, has evolved into being handled in a public legal forum," he said.
"It is my hope that this inappropriate and false claim by my siblings will be swiftly resolved and we can go about the business of focusing on our parents' tremendous legacy."
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead garbage workers on a protest march.
King's wife, Coretta Scott King, also devoted her life to the civil rights movement, died in 2006.
Attorneys for Bernice King and Martin Luther King III would not say Friday how much money they are accusing Dexter King of taking from their mother's estate.
Bernice King is the administrator of that estate. Dexter King, the suit says, controls their father's estate, which is registered as a Georgia corporation.
All three children are shareholders in that corporation.
The lawsuit names Dexter King and the corporation as defendants. It alleges that last month, the defendants "converted substantial funds from the estate's financial account at Bank of America for their own use."
Harmon Caldwell, an Atlanta attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Dexter King is a signatory on the account, but "was not authorized to transfer the funds," and gave his sister "no notice that those funds were being transferred."
The suit says that as a result of the transfer, "plaintiffs have and will suffer financial loss."
The lawsuit lists Bernice King as a plaintiff both individually and as administrator of their mother's estate.
Separately, the suit says Dexter King "has wrongfully appropriated assets belonging to the [estate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.] or its shareholders for his own benefit."
Caldwell said Dexter King has refused to say what has happened with some of the corporation's money.
"I can't tell you that he's gone out and used corporate assets for his own living expenses," the attorney said. "What I can tell you for certainty is that by not providing Martin and Bernice with information about how the corporation is using its assets, he is essentially using those assets, appropriating those assets for his own benefit."
The plaintiffs' attorneys would not estimate the size of either estate. But one, Jock Smith, noted that a collection of King's manuscripts and other items was sold in 2006 for a reported $32 million.
"I don't think it was a substantial corporation of any sort before that," Smith said.
Over the years, the family of the civil rights leader has zealously protected its financial interests, at times taking legal steps even against the media for showing some of King's most famous speeches.
In 2005, some news agencies reported on the King Center, a nonprofit, having put millions of dollars into a for-profit business run by Dexter King. The family rejected allegations of wrongdoing, and has generally pushed to keep financial matters private.
Smith said his clients made repeated efforts to reach out to their brother in recent weeks before deciding to take legal action.
Smith agreed with the suggestion that it was emotionally tough for the King children to file the suit.
By Josh Levs
CNN
Bernice King and Martin Luther King III allege that Dexter King took "substantial funds" out of Coretta Scott King's estate and "wrongfully appropriated" money from their father's estate.
The suit, filed Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court, serves as a very public fissure in an iconic family that has always professed unity, particularly as questions have swirled around some of their financial dealings.
In a written statement Friday, Dexter King called the suit "inappropriate and false."
"I'm disappointed that our personal family disagreement, as it relates to the family business, has evolved into being handled in a public legal forum," he said.
"It is my hope that this inappropriate and false claim by my siblings will be swiftly resolved and we can go about the business of focusing on our parents' tremendous legacy."
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead garbage workers on a protest march.
King's wife, Coretta Scott King, also devoted her life to the civil rights movement, died in 2006.
Attorneys for Bernice King and Martin Luther King III would not say Friday how much money they are accusing Dexter King of taking from their mother's estate.
Bernice King is the administrator of that estate. Dexter King, the suit says, controls their father's estate, which is registered as a Georgia corporation.
All three children are shareholders in that corporation.
The lawsuit names Dexter King and the corporation as defendants. It alleges that last month, the defendants "converted substantial funds from the estate's financial account at Bank of America for their own use."
Harmon Caldwell, an Atlanta attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Dexter King is a signatory on the account, but "was not authorized to transfer the funds," and gave his sister "no notice that those funds were being transferred."
The suit says that as a result of the transfer, "plaintiffs have and will suffer financial loss."
The lawsuit lists Bernice King as a plaintiff both individually and as administrator of their mother's estate.
Separately, the suit says Dexter King "has wrongfully appropriated assets belonging to the [estate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.] or its shareholders for his own benefit."
Caldwell said Dexter King has refused to say what has happened with some of the corporation's money.
"I can't tell you that he's gone out and used corporate assets for his own living expenses," the attorney said. "What I can tell you for certainty is that by not providing Martin and Bernice with information about how the corporation is using its assets, he is essentially using those assets, appropriating those assets for his own benefit."
The plaintiffs' attorneys would not estimate the size of either estate. But one, Jock Smith, noted that a collection of King's manuscripts and other items was sold in 2006 for a reported $32 million.
"I don't think it was a substantial corporation of any sort before that," Smith said.
Over the years, the family of the civil rights leader has zealously protected its financial interests, at times taking legal steps even against the media for showing some of King's most famous speeches.
In 2005, some news agencies reported on the King Center, a nonprofit, having put millions of dollars into a for-profit business run by Dexter King. The family rejected allegations of wrongdoing, and has generally pushed to keep financial matters private.
Smith said his clients made repeated efforts to reach out to their brother in recent weeks before deciding to take legal action.
Smith agreed with the suggestion that it was emotionally tough for the King children to file the suit.
By Josh Levs
CNN
Lawsuit Claims LAPD Shot, Killed Man Because He was Black
A Woodland Hills woman has filed a lawsuit against the city, saying Los Angeles police officers shot her husband to death because he was black.
Laura Cox is suing the city of Los Angeles and five LAPD officers, claiming discrimination, civil-rights violations, wrongful death, negligence and battery, seeking unspecified damages.
The suit, filed Tuesday, rebuts the police's version of the March 1 events leading up to Maurice Cox's demise.
Authorities have said the 38-year-old man crashed his speeding truck into a tree on Crenshaw Boulevard in Hyde Park, threatened officers and refused to surrender for more than 15 minutes. He then tried to flee, holding an object that looked like a gun, officials said, prompting officers to shoot him.
He turned out to be holding a power adapter for a car cigarette lighter. He died that evening at California Hospital Medical Center.
Laura Cox says in the lawsuit the crash left her husband disoriented, which is why he didn't get out of the car immediately. The suit also denied he hurled any threats at officers or tried to get away.
"He did not attempt to flee the scene, he merely began running for his life when the defendants opened fire on him for no reason," the lawsuit says. "Mrs. Cox contends that the defendants would not have fatally shot her husband to death had he not been African-American."
The suit also accuses officers of dragging their feet to seek medical help for Coxafter he was shot.
His attorneys did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday. An LAPD spokeswoman said the department does not comment on pending lawsuits.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, which investigates all police shootings in the county, is likely months away from getting the results of the LAPD's internal inquiry into the shooting, spokeswoman Jane Robison said.
By Brandon Lowrey, Daily News Staff Writer
Laura Cox is suing the city of Los Angeles and five LAPD officers, claiming discrimination, civil-rights violations, wrongful death, negligence and battery, seeking unspecified damages.
The suit, filed Tuesday, rebuts the police's version of the March 1 events leading up to Maurice Cox's demise.
Authorities have said the 38-year-old man crashed his speeding truck into a tree on Crenshaw Boulevard in Hyde Park, threatened officers and refused to surrender for more than 15 minutes. He then tried to flee, holding an object that looked like a gun, officials said, prompting officers to shoot him.
He turned out to be holding a power adapter for a car cigarette lighter. He died that evening at California Hospital Medical Center.
Laura Cox says in the lawsuit the crash left her husband disoriented, which is why he didn't get out of the car immediately. The suit also denied he hurled any threats at officers or tried to get away.
"He did not attempt to flee the scene, he merely began running for his life when the defendants opened fire on him for no reason," the lawsuit says. "Mrs. Cox contends that the defendants would not have fatally shot her husband to death had he not been African-American."
The suit also accuses officers of dragging their feet to seek medical help for Coxafter he was shot.
His attorneys did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday. An LAPD spokeswoman said the department does not comment on pending lawsuits.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, which investigates all police shootings in the county, is likely months away from getting the results of the LAPD's internal inquiry into the shooting, spokeswoman Jane Robison said.
By Brandon Lowrey, Daily News Staff Writer
Designer Sought for African American Museum
The National Museum of African American History and Culture began the formal process of designing a building yesterday, one that will include a slave cabin and a Jim Crow railroad car.
The museum is not scheduled to open until 2015. But there is a certain urgency to identifying large artifacts that are likely to influence the shape of the exhibit space, said Lonnie G. Bunch III, the founding director of what will be the Smithsonian's 19th museum.
Yesterday, the museum issued a document inviting architectural firms to present their qualifications. The building will be on a five-acre site on Constitution Avenue, within the shadow of the Washington Monument.
The museum will be 350,000 square feet, slightly smaller than the National Museum of the American Indian at 400,000 square feet, and surpassing its cost at $500 million. Half of that figure will come from Congress. For the Native American museum, the federal government paid two-thirds of the cost. For the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, part of the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian covered all expenses.
"Significant millions have been raised," said Bunch, adding that many donors prefer to see a model before writing a check. "The design phase is part of the fundraising strategy."
The document issued yesterday gives architectural and engineering firms 10 weeks to submit a summary of their experience and qualifications. A board, yet to be appointed, will cull the submissions to three to seven proposals, and a finalist will be named by next spring.
After the pool is narrowed, the design competition will last about six to eight weeks. The finalist will have 36 months to create a design and receive approval from federal and city oversight boards, said Sheryl L. Kolasinski, the director of planning and project management for the Smithsonian.
Kolasinski said the museum had already received hundreds of inquiries about the process.
Yesterday's announcement says the firms and teams should demonstrate an "appreciation of African American history and culture."
"We are committed to casting the widest possible net," Bunch said. The participation of a minority firm is "clearly encouraged."
The architects received a hefty mandate. Bunch said he wants the site "to sing" as well as respect its prominent location and enhance the Mall. "It also must help us to remember those often left out of history, such as an enslaved woman . . . who refused to let slavery strip her of her humanity, her humor and her family," he said. "Yet this museum must also let our audiences find the joy, the strength and the creativity that is at the heart of this community. . . . This is not an African American museum created to tell the African American story; rather, it is created to tell the quintessential American story."
By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
The museum is not scheduled to open until 2015. But there is a certain urgency to identifying large artifacts that are likely to influence the shape of the exhibit space, said Lonnie G. Bunch III, the founding director of what will be the Smithsonian's 19th museum.
Yesterday, the museum issued a document inviting architectural firms to present their qualifications. The building will be on a five-acre site on Constitution Avenue, within the shadow of the Washington Monument.
The museum will be 350,000 square feet, slightly smaller than the National Museum of the American Indian at 400,000 square feet, and surpassing its cost at $500 million. Half of that figure will come from Congress. For the Native American museum, the federal government paid two-thirds of the cost. For the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, part of the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian covered all expenses.
"Significant millions have been raised," said Bunch, adding that many donors prefer to see a model before writing a check. "The design phase is part of the fundraising strategy."
The document issued yesterday gives architectural and engineering firms 10 weeks to submit a summary of their experience and qualifications. A board, yet to be appointed, will cull the submissions to three to seven proposals, and a finalist will be named by next spring.
After the pool is narrowed, the design competition will last about six to eight weeks. The finalist will have 36 months to create a design and receive approval from federal and city oversight boards, said Sheryl L. Kolasinski, the director of planning and project management for the Smithsonian.
Kolasinski said the museum had already received hundreds of inquiries about the process.
Yesterday's announcement says the firms and teams should demonstrate an "appreciation of African American history and culture."
"We are committed to casting the widest possible net," Bunch said. The participation of a minority firm is "clearly encouraged."
The architects received a hefty mandate. Bunch said he wants the site "to sing" as well as respect its prominent location and enhance the Mall. "It also must help us to remember those often left out of history, such as an enslaved woman . . . who refused to let slavery strip her of her humanity, her humor and her family," he said. "Yet this museum must also let our audiences find the joy, the strength and the creativity that is at the heart of this community. . . . This is not an African American museum created to tell the African American story; rather, it is created to tell the quintessential American story."
By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Rangel Defends Use of Rent-Stabilized Apartments
Representative Charles B. Rangel held a 20-minute news conference on Friday afternoon after The New York Times reported that he had four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem at a time when the city is experiencing an affordable housing crisis. At one point angry residents accosted the congressman, the dean of Harlem politics, in an unusual sidewalk confrontation, as Mr. Rangel faced questions from reporters.
Mr. Rangel, who is the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said his living arrangements were fair and legal and that he was paying the maximum rent allowed on all four rent-stabilized units, in the Lenox Terrace complex at West 135th Street and Lenox Avenue. “I didn’t see anything unfair about it,” he said. “I didn’t even know it was a deal.”
He did say, however, that he was evaluating the use of one of the four apartments as a campaign office, saying, “I have to take another look” at that situation. If the use of the apartment as a campaign office is a problem, he said, he would “go to another place and get a different office. Period.”
“That is something that I have to look into, but as it relates to me and my family, I’m not looking into that at all,” he said, saying he had no problem with the large combined residential apartment he and his family live in.
Mr. Rangel began the sidewalk news conference with this statement:
First of all, to get the general theme of the New York Times story, which starts off with Rangel living in a luxurious penthouse. It’s very difficult to do this when you don’t live on the top floor.
It’s even more difficult to do it with a building that does not have a penthouse, but that is the general thrust of the story, in terms of talking about a guy that was born and raised in this community, and for close to 80 years lived in two places: 74 West 132nd Street and as I used to joke about it, became a big shot, moved uptown three blocks from 132nd Street and Lenox Avenue to 135th and Lenox Avenue.
I feel so terribly proud of never having to leave my neighborhood. I feel so proud that my wife, no matter what small successes we’ve had, has never felt to leave the neighborhood. If there’s an implication that I could live someplace that’s more expensive, then I would say yes and it’s none of The New York Times’s business where I decide to live. Nor do I think it is The New York Times’s business how much space I think need for my family and friends, who used to be able, when I owned a home in Washington, to spend a night and visit, and when I lived on 132nd Street, in a brownstone, to do the same.
What is true in the story is that I pay the maximum legal rent for my apartments.
Mr. Rangel noted that he had adult children and grandchildren, who often stay over at his residence.
He portrayed himself as a proud lifelong resident of Harlem, who moved into the complex when others could not afford to.
“To say that this is one of the most attractive buildings that we have in Harlem is true,” he said. “But when it went up it was damn near empty because no one could afford to live here. I’m not even thinking about leaving the neighborhood, and that’s that.”
Asked by a reporter whether his living arrangements were fair — given that other residents of rent-stabilized apartments who have more than one unit are typically asked to occupy just one — Mr. Rangel replied, “The question of fairness is so subjective.”
The news conference took a turn when Mr. Rangel said he was not aware of tenants legally living in rent-stabilized apartments being evicted.
Several residents angrily accosted Mr. Rangel, saying that he had ignored their complaints about that phenomenon. “I have no knowledge of anyone being evicted that has paid their rent,” he said.
When a Times reporter, David Kocieniewski, pressed Mr. Rangel on the issue of fairness, the congressman declined to answer, saying, “I have decided unilaterally that you have asked more than your share.” He added, when Mr. Kocieniewski tried to press him, “Hell no, I’m not going to respond to you.”
Mr. Rangel said he did have a problem with “people living in rent-stabilized apartments that have moved themselves from the building and lived in other places,” and he said the management of the complex had taken action against such tenants. But he said that residents who legitimately lived in their rent-stabilized units were not being evicted.
Asked whether it was proper for him to live in three attached apartments on the 16th floor of the building, Mr. Rangel said, “That was done before I moved into the apartment, and there are many apartments here that are combined.”
Mr. Rangel said that two of the three apartments he used as a residence — a one-bedroom and a two-bedroom, listed as two separate apartments in the state rent roll — had been combined before he moved in. As for the third unit, he said:
The apartment next door became vacant. And I got that apartment and I used that as
my den and my office when I came in late at night from Washington I go in there first. It’s a studio apartment. It has its own kitchen and bathroom and no bedroom.
He added, “I’m not apologizing to anyone for that.”
Later he said, “The idea that being 78 years old, having two places, one is rent-stabilized, and this is the twilight of my life…”
Toward the end of his news conference, Mr. Rangel suggested that it was absurd that he should be criticized, asking rhetorically whether he should place an ad in a newspaper asking, “Is there any place I can get this at a higher price because there’s some crazy reporter who thinks I have a good deal?”
As Mr. Rangel walked away, reporters followed him, and a Times reporter, Jeremy W. Peters, asked the congressman why he did not disclose his rent discounts on his financial disclosure reports. Mr. Rangel’s reply was testy: “Paying the legal rent is not a gift. Are you doing this deliberately, or are you just stupid?”
Jim Capel, Mr. Rangel’s chief of staff, said that the congressman and his aides never asked the state or the city for an exception that would allow them to use a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office. (Rent regulation laws in New York require that such units be used as primary residences.)
The landlord was aware of the situation, said Mr. Capel, who also lives in Lenox Terrace. “It’s not like we snuck in here,” Mr. Capel said. “He knew what we were doing, so we didn’t have to ask anyone else.”
Around noon, dozens of journalists had gathered on the sidewalk outside the tower, at 40 West 135th Street, where Mr. Rangel lives, approaching residents as they entered and left and asking for comment.
“Is everybody ready?” Mr. Rangel, wearing a dark pinstripe suit and polka-dot tie, asked before he started speaking.
Earlier, residents interviewed about Mr. Rangel’s living situation had expressed anger.
“I’m a registered nurse, I live in this community, I take care of this community, and I can’t get a deal like that,” said Evelyn Harvey, who mentioned that she once lived in a $700-a-month rent-stabilized apartment in Lenox Terrace but now lives in a $1,300-a-month market-rate unit in the same complex. “When you have money and you have status, the rules are different.”
Another Harlem resident, James Bryant, said: “If he had four, he has to let three go. Think about the homeless people who are out here. Other people need a place to live too.”
The Times reported on Friday that Mr. Rangel has four rent-stabilized apartments at Lenox Terrace, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan, in a building owned by one of New York’s premier real estate developers. (The apartment is featured in “Style and Grace: African Americans at Home,” a book published by Bulfinch Press.)
Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.
Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit luxury development of six towers, with doormen, that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.
The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.
Mr. Rangel said at the sidewalk news conference he had never done any favors for, or requested any favors from, the landlords, adding, “If I saw the landlord today, in this group, I would not know what the hell he looked like.”
The use of multiple apartments that might not normally be available to other tenants could pose legal or ethical problems for Mr. Rangel. The House Ethics Manual [pdf] defined a gift as “a gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value.” But Mr. Rangel dismissed the notion that his housing arrangements could be construed as a gift.When a reporter asked Mr. Rangel whether he thought the publicity about his four rent-stabilized apartments would harm his chances for reelection or put any pressure on him to resign, he responded, his voice thick with sarcasm, “Yeah, I’ll have to give that some serious thought. Yes, I may give up the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee and give up the seat I’ve had for 38 years and say, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, how could this happen to me?’”
He added: “If anyone can show any remote possibility that this could be considered as a gift, I’ll quit tomorrow. If not, they should owe me an apology.”
Mr. Rangel’s aides distributed a formal statement, titled, “This Is My Home,” at the start of the news conference. The full text of the statement follows:
I called this press conference to respond to a puzzling article in today’s New York Times that was critical of my living arrangements in my hometown of Harlem. The story said I live in a penthouse, and insinuated that I have some sort of sweetheart deal with the landlord. Nothing could be further from the truth.
All you have to do is look at this 50-year-old building to see that there are no penthouses, certainly not my apartment. I pay the maximum legal rent, and in fact, would be violating the law if I paid more.
When my family moved in, apartments were not scarce in Harlem, and rents were relatively low, including those in Lenox Terrace. Because I have not moved the rents have increased only incrementally each year, and therefore have remained low, especially compared to today’s “downtown” rentals.
My wife, Alma, and I moved into 40 West about 20 years ago. Our apartment - the same place we live in today — was two units combined into one by the previous occupant, Dr. Eugene Callendar, a prominent minister and community leader. It is where we raised our two children and where our three grandchildren visit with us.
A few years ago, as our family grew, we rented a small unit next door to our apartment, which served as a sort of den and work room for me and as an extra room for our children, and now our grandchildren, to sleep when they visit us.
The office mentioned in the story is a small apartment, which I use for working and to make fund-raising calls. When the apartment was rented about 10 years ago, there was no question about whether it was appropriate in view of the fact there were — and still are — other offices in the building.
The main point that I wish to make today is not only that the rents I pay are the maximum allowable by law, but that the units I’ve rented for close to 20 years are my home. What has been described as a double apartment is the same apartment it’s been even before we moved in; the small unit next door is just another room in our house.
Some people are surprised that in my 78 years I’ve basically lived in two places, 40 West 135th Street, and before that, in a brownstone three blocks away on 132nd Street, which was owned by my grandfather and where I was born and lived for more than 50 years. It is for that reason that rents have not increased that much for me. Not because of any sweetheart deal.
I know what it’s like in the rental market today: apartments are scarce, rents are high, and some unscrupulous landlords are using under-handed means to evict tenants. For years, I’ve been fighting them, including owners who have relationships to the owners of this building.
In my role on the Ways and Means Committee, housing has been a top priority. Since 1986, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which I authored, has been responsible for the development of 2 million rental units across the nation, and over 6,500 affordable units in Upper Manhattan alone. This year, I am working on adjustments to the tax code to expand the credits by 10 percent.
I am grateful that the G.I. Bill provided me — a poor high school dropout from Lenox Avenue — with the education to become a lawyer and to eventually make my way to Congress, where my position on the Ways and Means Committee is allowing me to make a difference in the lives of my constituents, friends and neighbors. Harlem will always be my home.
Sewell Chan NY Times
Mr. Rangel, who is the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said his living arrangements were fair and legal and that he was paying the maximum rent allowed on all four rent-stabilized units, in the Lenox Terrace complex at West 135th Street and Lenox Avenue. “I didn’t see anything unfair about it,” he said. “I didn’t even know it was a deal.”
He did say, however, that he was evaluating the use of one of the four apartments as a campaign office, saying, “I have to take another look” at that situation. If the use of the apartment as a campaign office is a problem, he said, he would “go to another place and get a different office. Period.”
“That is something that I have to look into, but as it relates to me and my family, I’m not looking into that at all,” he said, saying he had no problem with the large combined residential apartment he and his family live in.
Mr. Rangel began the sidewalk news conference with this statement:
First of all, to get the general theme of the New York Times story, which starts off with Rangel living in a luxurious penthouse. It’s very difficult to do this when you don’t live on the top floor.
It’s even more difficult to do it with a building that does not have a penthouse, but that is the general thrust of the story, in terms of talking about a guy that was born and raised in this community, and for close to 80 years lived in two places: 74 West 132nd Street and as I used to joke about it, became a big shot, moved uptown three blocks from 132nd Street and Lenox Avenue to 135th and Lenox Avenue.
I feel so terribly proud of never having to leave my neighborhood. I feel so proud that my wife, no matter what small successes we’ve had, has never felt to leave the neighborhood. If there’s an implication that I could live someplace that’s more expensive, then I would say yes and it’s none of The New York Times’s business where I decide to live. Nor do I think it is The New York Times’s business how much space I think need for my family and friends, who used to be able, when I owned a home in Washington, to spend a night and visit, and when I lived on 132nd Street, in a brownstone, to do the same.
What is true in the story is that I pay the maximum legal rent for my apartments.
Mr. Rangel noted that he had adult children and grandchildren, who often stay over at his residence.
He portrayed himself as a proud lifelong resident of Harlem, who moved into the complex when others could not afford to.
“To say that this is one of the most attractive buildings that we have in Harlem is true,” he said. “But when it went up it was damn near empty because no one could afford to live here. I’m not even thinking about leaving the neighborhood, and that’s that.”
Asked by a reporter whether his living arrangements were fair — given that other residents of rent-stabilized apartments who have more than one unit are typically asked to occupy just one — Mr. Rangel replied, “The question of fairness is so subjective.”
The news conference took a turn when Mr. Rangel said he was not aware of tenants legally living in rent-stabilized apartments being evicted.
Several residents angrily accosted Mr. Rangel, saying that he had ignored their complaints about that phenomenon. “I have no knowledge of anyone being evicted that has paid their rent,” he said.
When a Times reporter, David Kocieniewski, pressed Mr. Rangel on the issue of fairness, the congressman declined to answer, saying, “I have decided unilaterally that you have asked more than your share.” He added, when Mr. Kocieniewski tried to press him, “Hell no, I’m not going to respond to you.”
Mr. Rangel said he did have a problem with “people living in rent-stabilized apartments that have moved themselves from the building and lived in other places,” and he said the management of the complex had taken action against such tenants. But he said that residents who legitimately lived in their rent-stabilized units were not being evicted.
Asked whether it was proper for him to live in three attached apartments on the 16th floor of the building, Mr. Rangel said, “That was done before I moved into the apartment, and there are many apartments here that are combined.”
Mr. Rangel said that two of the three apartments he used as a residence — a one-bedroom and a two-bedroom, listed as two separate apartments in the state rent roll — had been combined before he moved in. As for the third unit, he said:
The apartment next door became vacant. And I got that apartment and I used that as
my den and my office when I came in late at night from Washington I go in there first. It’s a studio apartment. It has its own kitchen and bathroom and no bedroom.
He added, “I’m not apologizing to anyone for that.”
Later he said, “The idea that being 78 years old, having two places, one is rent-stabilized, and this is the twilight of my life…”
Toward the end of his news conference, Mr. Rangel suggested that it was absurd that he should be criticized, asking rhetorically whether he should place an ad in a newspaper asking, “Is there any place I can get this at a higher price because there’s some crazy reporter who thinks I have a good deal?”
As Mr. Rangel walked away, reporters followed him, and a Times reporter, Jeremy W. Peters, asked the congressman why he did not disclose his rent discounts on his financial disclosure reports. Mr. Rangel’s reply was testy: “Paying the legal rent is not a gift. Are you doing this deliberately, or are you just stupid?”
Jim Capel, Mr. Rangel’s chief of staff, said that the congressman and his aides never asked the state or the city for an exception that would allow them to use a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office. (Rent regulation laws in New York require that such units be used as primary residences.)
The landlord was aware of the situation, said Mr. Capel, who also lives in Lenox Terrace. “It’s not like we snuck in here,” Mr. Capel said. “He knew what we were doing, so we didn’t have to ask anyone else.”
Around noon, dozens of journalists had gathered on the sidewalk outside the tower, at 40 West 135th Street, where Mr. Rangel lives, approaching residents as they entered and left and asking for comment.
“Is everybody ready?” Mr. Rangel, wearing a dark pinstripe suit and polka-dot tie, asked before he started speaking.
Earlier, residents interviewed about Mr. Rangel’s living situation had expressed anger.
“I’m a registered nurse, I live in this community, I take care of this community, and I can’t get a deal like that,” said Evelyn Harvey, who mentioned that she once lived in a $700-a-month rent-stabilized apartment in Lenox Terrace but now lives in a $1,300-a-month market-rate unit in the same complex. “When you have money and you have status, the rules are different.”
Another Harlem resident, James Bryant, said: “If he had four, he has to let three go. Think about the homeless people who are out here. Other people need a place to live too.”
The Times reported on Friday that Mr. Rangel has four rent-stabilized apartments at Lenox Terrace, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan, in a building owned by one of New York’s premier real estate developers. (The apartment is featured in “Style and Grace: African Americans at Home,” a book published by Bulfinch Press.)
Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.
Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit luxury development of six towers, with doormen, that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.
The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.
Mr. Rangel said at the sidewalk news conference he had never done any favors for, or requested any favors from, the landlords, adding, “If I saw the landlord today, in this group, I would not know what the hell he looked like.”
The use of multiple apartments that might not normally be available to other tenants could pose legal or ethical problems for Mr. Rangel. The House Ethics Manual [pdf] defined a gift as “a gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value.” But Mr. Rangel dismissed the notion that his housing arrangements could be construed as a gift.When a reporter asked Mr. Rangel whether he thought the publicity about his four rent-stabilized apartments would harm his chances for reelection or put any pressure on him to resign, he responded, his voice thick with sarcasm, “Yeah, I’ll have to give that some serious thought. Yes, I may give up the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee and give up the seat I’ve had for 38 years and say, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, how could this happen to me?’”
He added: “If anyone can show any remote possibility that this could be considered as a gift, I’ll quit tomorrow. If not, they should owe me an apology.”
Mr. Rangel’s aides distributed a formal statement, titled, “This Is My Home,” at the start of the news conference. The full text of the statement follows:
I called this press conference to respond to a puzzling article in today’s New York Times that was critical of my living arrangements in my hometown of Harlem. The story said I live in a penthouse, and insinuated that I have some sort of sweetheart deal with the landlord. Nothing could be further from the truth.
All you have to do is look at this 50-year-old building to see that there are no penthouses, certainly not my apartment. I pay the maximum legal rent, and in fact, would be violating the law if I paid more.
When my family moved in, apartments were not scarce in Harlem, and rents were relatively low, including those in Lenox Terrace. Because I have not moved the rents have increased only incrementally each year, and therefore have remained low, especially compared to today’s “downtown” rentals.
My wife, Alma, and I moved into 40 West about 20 years ago. Our apartment - the same place we live in today — was two units combined into one by the previous occupant, Dr. Eugene Callendar, a prominent minister and community leader. It is where we raised our two children and where our three grandchildren visit with us.
A few years ago, as our family grew, we rented a small unit next door to our apartment, which served as a sort of den and work room for me and as an extra room for our children, and now our grandchildren, to sleep when they visit us.
The office mentioned in the story is a small apartment, which I use for working and to make fund-raising calls. When the apartment was rented about 10 years ago, there was no question about whether it was appropriate in view of the fact there were — and still are — other offices in the building.
The main point that I wish to make today is not only that the rents I pay are the maximum allowable by law, but that the units I’ve rented for close to 20 years are my home. What has been described as a double apartment is the same apartment it’s been even before we moved in; the small unit next door is just another room in our house.
Some people are surprised that in my 78 years I’ve basically lived in two places, 40 West 135th Street, and before that, in a brownstone three blocks away on 132nd Street, which was owned by my grandfather and where I was born and lived for more than 50 years. It is for that reason that rents have not increased that much for me. Not because of any sweetheart deal.
I know what it’s like in the rental market today: apartments are scarce, rents are high, and some unscrupulous landlords are using under-handed means to evict tenants. For years, I’ve been fighting them, including owners who have relationships to the owners of this building.
In my role on the Ways and Means Committee, housing has been a top priority. Since 1986, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which I authored, has been responsible for the development of 2 million rental units across the nation, and over 6,500 affordable units in Upper Manhattan alone. This year, I am working on adjustments to the tax code to expand the credits by 10 percent.
I am grateful that the G.I. Bill provided me — a poor high school dropout from Lenox Avenue — with the education to become a lawyer and to eventually make my way to Congress, where my position on the Ways and Means Committee is allowing me to make a difference in the lives of my constituents, friends and neighbors. Harlem will always be my home.
Sewell Chan NY Times
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Many Black Voters Expected for Fall Election
Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama can count on the Midwest, especially Michigan's African-American community, to go to the polls this November.
The Midwest has the highest voting rate compared with all other regions of the country, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released earlier this month that compares 2006 voting data with previous congressional election years.
That same report says Michigan has the highest African-American voting rate in the nation at 57.4%.
Experts say that should bode well for Obama.
In fact, African Americans "could tip the balance from Republican to Democrat in some states," said Thomas B. Jankowski, associate research director at the Wayne State University Institute of Gerontology.
Jankowski, who has studied voting behavior, said he expects a record turnout from the African-American community in the upcoming November election because Obama is the first minority person in history to be a major party's presumptive nominee.
People tend to support people they can identify with, Jankowski said.
"It's just human nature," he said. "Maybe they look alike, maybe they share a common cultural experience or maybe they shared a common experience."
More than 58% of Michiganders voted in the 2000 presidential election, and nearly 65% voted in the 2004 race, the Michigan Secretary of State's Office reported.
"One of the challenges Obama faces with African-American voters is the Kwame Kilpatrick problem," said Bill Rustem of the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants Inc., referring the pending perjury and other criminal charges facing the Detroit mayor. He said former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young "was marvelous at turning people out to vote, but Kilpatrick is not going to be a big factor because he's got other issues he has to deal with. Turnout in Detroit is going to be key in determining who wins Michigan."
Even though McCain won the state's 2000 Republican primary and has a proven track record in getting Michigan supporters to the polls, President George W. Bush "is extremely low in the state in terms of job satisfaction, and that's baggage that John McCain has to deal with," Rustem said.
Voting rates for white Michiganders are about the same as for blacks, according to the Census Bureau report. Mark Grebner, an East Lansing political analyst, said the crucial votes in November will lie with white voters who are ticket-splitters.
"That's where the game is won or lost," Grebner said.
freep.com
The Midwest has the highest voting rate compared with all other regions of the country, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released earlier this month that compares 2006 voting data with previous congressional election years.
That same report says Michigan has the highest African-American voting rate in the nation at 57.4%.
Experts say that should bode well for Obama.
In fact, African Americans "could tip the balance from Republican to Democrat in some states," said Thomas B. Jankowski, associate research director at the Wayne State University Institute of Gerontology.
Jankowski, who has studied voting behavior, said he expects a record turnout from the African-American community in the upcoming November election because Obama is the first minority person in history to be a major party's presumptive nominee.
People tend to support people they can identify with, Jankowski said.
"It's just human nature," he said. "Maybe they look alike, maybe they share a common cultural experience or maybe they shared a common experience."
More than 58% of Michiganders voted in the 2000 presidential election, and nearly 65% voted in the 2004 race, the Michigan Secretary of State's Office reported.
"One of the challenges Obama faces with African-American voters is the Kwame Kilpatrick problem," said Bill Rustem of the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants Inc., referring the pending perjury and other criminal charges facing the Detroit mayor. He said former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young "was marvelous at turning people out to vote, but Kilpatrick is not going to be a big factor because he's got other issues he has to deal with. Turnout in Detroit is going to be key in determining who wins Michigan."
Even though McCain won the state's 2000 Republican primary and has a proven track record in getting Michigan supporters to the polls, President George W. Bush "is extremely low in the state in terms of job satisfaction, and that's baggage that John McCain has to deal with," Rustem said.
Voting rates for white Michiganders are about the same as for blacks, according to the Census Bureau report. Mark Grebner, an East Lansing political analyst, said the crucial votes in November will lie with white voters who are ticket-splitters.
"That's where the game is won or lost," Grebner said.
freep.com
Diddy Receives the Reginald F. Lewis Award
The 4th of July weekend had more than white parties for Diddy, the late Reginald F. Lewis, who was the first Back billionaire and ran Wall Street’s first African American law firm, chose their first recipient of the Reginald F. Lewis Award. This is a prestigious honor for an person to get so the Hamptons were buzzing with some high level celebs to celebrate tis honor with Diddy, take a look!
AllHipHop.com
AllHipHop.com
GM, Procter & Gamble Pull Ads on BET
Media watchdogs are declaring it a victory. Black Entertainment Television hasn't said much, and advertisers are mum. What is clear, though, is that at least two top advertisers–-automaking giant General Motors and consumer goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble–-have pulled ads from BET's Rap City and 106 & Park programs.
Rap City features music videos and artist interviews, and 106 & Park is a top 10 music video countdown. They air at 4 and 5 p.m. (CDT) respectively-attracting a large under-18, after-school audience.
An April Parent Television Council study highlighted high levels of sex, violence and profanity in both programs and reported, among other things, that Rap City featured on average 31.6 instances of sex, 25.3 instances of explicit language and 11.7 instances of violence per hour. The study also examined Sucker Free, a music video countdown that airs on MTV.
Armed with the report, leaders of the Enough is Enough campaign--a movement for corporate responsibility in entertainment--began petitioning BET's top advertisers to pull ads from the programs. Rev. Delman Coates, 35, a Harvard graduate and chairman of the campaign, led the charge.
“We let (advertisers) know that the Enough is Enough campaign is seeking to challenge lyrical and visual content, in the hip hop industry in particular, that sexually objectifies Black women, portrays Black men as pimps, gangsters and thugs, glorifies violence, criminal activity, drug use. We made them aware that they're currently running commercials during (programs that feature this content),” Coates said. Procter & Gamble and GM quietly pulled ads from Rap City and 106 & Park. Coates claims that Pepsi and Walmart did so also, although the companies did not confirm this with the Defender.
Kelly Cusinato, advertising and marketing communications manager for GM, said that conversations with Coates influenced the company's decision. “We asked (BET) for a better monitoring process to allow us as an advertiser to understand which videos were running within an hour-long program,” Cusinato said. But BET dismisses the report as “misleading and inaccurate.”
A BET employee, who asked not to be identified because she is not authorized to speak on behalf of the company, added that the network has not lost any money from the ad withdrawals. She did not say whether new advertisers had popped up in Procter & Gamble and GM's place, but Cusinato confirmed that GM had shifted its advertising to other BET programs, as opposed to abandoning the network altogether.
Despite this, the campaign is pressing forward and shifting its focus to companies that have not pulled advertising because they do not want to lose young African American viewers. “Procter & Gamble and GM have been receptive. I'm more worried about the advertisers that haven't; McDonald's, YUM! Brands, Verizon. I'd rather point a finger at them,” said Paul Porter, an Enough is Enough campaign supporter and former BET programmer. Porter added that Black media outlets have been hesitant to publicize the ad withdrawals, or apply pressure on remaining 106 & Park and Rap City advertisers.
But a Black advertising analyst, who asked not to be identified because of his relationship to Procter & Gamble and GM, said that many Black media outlets--who have criticized major companies for not advertising enough in Black media in the first place--find themselves in a thorny position.
“Other media outlets, such as Black newspapers, have criticized Procter & Gamble and GM for not exercising fairness in the placement of their advertising dollars. “They are the two largest advertisers in the country and among the five largest advertisers in the world,” he said.
Chicago Defender, News Report
Rap City features music videos and artist interviews, and 106 & Park is a top 10 music video countdown. They air at 4 and 5 p.m. (CDT) respectively-attracting a large under-18, after-school audience.
An April Parent Television Council study highlighted high levels of sex, violence and profanity in both programs and reported, among other things, that Rap City featured on average 31.6 instances of sex, 25.3 instances of explicit language and 11.7 instances of violence per hour. The study also examined Sucker Free, a music video countdown that airs on MTV.
Armed with the report, leaders of the Enough is Enough campaign--a movement for corporate responsibility in entertainment--began petitioning BET's top advertisers to pull ads from the programs. Rev. Delman Coates, 35, a Harvard graduate and chairman of the campaign, led the charge.
“We let (advertisers) know that the Enough is Enough campaign is seeking to challenge lyrical and visual content, in the hip hop industry in particular, that sexually objectifies Black women, portrays Black men as pimps, gangsters and thugs, glorifies violence, criminal activity, drug use. We made them aware that they're currently running commercials during (programs that feature this content),” Coates said. Procter & Gamble and GM quietly pulled ads from Rap City and 106 & Park. Coates claims that Pepsi and Walmart did so also, although the companies did not confirm this with the Defender.
Kelly Cusinato, advertising and marketing communications manager for GM, said that conversations with Coates influenced the company's decision. “We asked (BET) for a better monitoring process to allow us as an advertiser to understand which videos were running within an hour-long program,” Cusinato said. But BET dismisses the report as “misleading and inaccurate.”
A BET employee, who asked not to be identified because she is not authorized to speak on behalf of the company, added that the network has not lost any money from the ad withdrawals. She did not say whether new advertisers had popped up in Procter & Gamble and GM's place, but Cusinato confirmed that GM had shifted its advertising to other BET programs, as opposed to abandoning the network altogether.
Despite this, the campaign is pressing forward and shifting its focus to companies that have not pulled advertising because they do not want to lose young African American viewers. “Procter & Gamble and GM have been receptive. I'm more worried about the advertisers that haven't; McDonald's, YUM! Brands, Verizon. I'd rather point a finger at them,” said Paul Porter, an Enough is Enough campaign supporter and former BET programmer. Porter added that Black media outlets have been hesitant to publicize the ad withdrawals, or apply pressure on remaining 106 & Park and Rap City advertisers.
But a Black advertising analyst, who asked not to be identified because of his relationship to Procter & Gamble and GM, said that many Black media outlets--who have criticized major companies for not advertising enough in Black media in the first place--find themselves in a thorny position.
“Other media outlets, such as Black newspapers, have criticized Procter & Gamble and GM for not exercising fairness in the placement of their advertising dollars. “They are the two largest advertisers in the country and among the five largest advertisers in the world,” he said.
Chicago Defender, News Report
Chris Brown and TI Set to Star in Blockbuster
Teen R&B star Chris Brown is in final negotiations to join Matt Dillon and rapper T.I. in the thriller "Bone Deep."
The Screen Gems project revolves around a group of criminals who plan a major heist at a money depot, with two detectives hot on their trail. Brown will play one of the members of the heist crew.
He made his feature film debut with the low-budget studio's "Stomp the Yard," which grossed more than $60 million at the domestic boxoffice last year, and co-starred in November's holiday film "This Christmas," which brought in $49 million. He's also attached to star in the studio's sports drama "Phenom."
Brown hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with the tunes "Run It!" and "Kiss Kiss."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
The Screen Gems project revolves around a group of criminals who plan a major heist at a money depot, with two detectives hot on their trail. Brown will play one of the members of the heist crew.
He made his feature film debut with the low-budget studio's "Stomp the Yard," which grossed more than $60 million at the domestic boxoffice last year, and co-starred in November's holiday film "This Christmas," which brought in $49 million. He's also attached to star in the studio's sports drama "Phenom."
Brown hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with the tunes "Run It!" and "Kiss Kiss."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Friday, July 11, 2008
Jury: Black Community Denied Water for Years
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Residents of a mostly black neighborhood in rural Ohio were awarded nearly $11 million Thursday by a federal jury that found local authorities denied them public water service for decades out of racial discrimination.
Each of the 67 plaintiffs was awarded $15,000 to $300,000, depending on how long they had lived in the Coal Run neighborhood, about 5 miles east of Zanesville in Muskingum County in east-central Ohio.
The money covers both monetary losses and the residents' pain and suffering between 1956, when water lines were first laid in the area, and 2003, when Coal Run got public water.
The lawsuit was filed in 2003 after the Ohio Civil Rights Commission concluded the residents were victims of discrimination. The city, county and East Muskingum Water Authority all denied it and noted that many residents in the lightly populated county don't have public water.
Coal Run residents either paid to have wells dug, hauled water for cisterns or collected rain water so they could drink, cook and bathe.
"As a child, I thought it was normal because everyone done it in my neighborhood," said one of the plaintiffs, Cynthia Hale Hairston, 47. "But I realized as an adult it was wrong."
Colfax described the verdict as unique among civil rights cases nationally, both in the nature of the ruling and the size of the award.
The jury in U.S. District Court found that failing to provide water service to the residents violated state and federal civil rights laws. The lawsuit was not a class-action. Colfax said 25 to 30 families live in Coal Run now.
The water authority must pay 55 percent of the damages, while the county owes 25 percent and the city owes 20 percent, plaintiffs' attorney Reed Colfax said. The water authority no longer exists, and the county would be responsible for paying that share of the judgment.
Zanesville attorney Michael Valentine said in court that he intended to appeal but declined to comment further. The county commission also plans to appeal.
Attorney Mark Landes, who represented the county and water district, called the verdict disappointing. He said jurors were not allowed to hear defendants' testimony that neighborhood residents were offered water service years ago and refused it.
Colfax said he was unaware of any evidence that was excluded from the trial.
"This was a case that was started and fired by out-of-town lawyers who saw an opportunity for a cash settlement," Landes said.
The plaintiffs' attorneys will receive a separate amount to be decided later by a judge, Colfax said.
John Relman, a civil rights attorney based in Washington, D.C., who represented the residents, said the jury heard hours of testimony and saw hundreds of pages of documentation over the seven-week trial.
"This verdict vindicates that this (treatment) was because of their race," he said. "The jury agreed with that and issued a verdict based on a full airing of the facts."
Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers said she was pleased.
"This decision speaks firmly about the importance of treating citizens with equal respect, regardless of race," she said in a statement.
Plaintiff Frederick Martin said the long wait was worth it.
He and his nine siblings shared two tubs of water between them on bath nights when he was growing up. He left Coal Run, built on a former coal mine, in 1970 so his children wouldn't have to endure the same living conditions, he said.
"Today I feel that we are really blessed, to know and to see justice being met," Martin said. "And to see, regardless of who we are, there is a price to pay if you discriminate against people."
The plaintiffs' attorneys successfully argued that the decision not to pipe water to the plaintiffs was racially motivated, painting a picture of a community with a history of segregation. Black residents of Coal Run Road were denied water over the years while nearby white neighbors were provided it, they said.
Landes countered that about half of Muskingum County residents are not tied into the public water system even today. Among those without it are county commissioners, judges and other prominent officials, he said.
Zanesville has about 25,000 residents on the edge of the state's Appalachian region. One in every five families is below the federal poverty level, and the unemployment rate in Muskingum County in May was 7.4 percent. The national unemployment rate that month was 5.5 percent.
Each of the 67 plaintiffs was awarded $15,000 to $300,000, depending on how long they had lived in the Coal Run neighborhood, about 5 miles east of Zanesville in Muskingum County in east-central Ohio.
The money covers both monetary losses and the residents' pain and suffering between 1956, when water lines were first laid in the area, and 2003, when Coal Run got public water.
The lawsuit was filed in 2003 after the Ohio Civil Rights Commission concluded the residents were victims of discrimination. The city, county and East Muskingum Water Authority all denied it and noted that many residents in the lightly populated county don't have public water.
Coal Run residents either paid to have wells dug, hauled water for cisterns or collected rain water so they could drink, cook and bathe.
"As a child, I thought it was normal because everyone done it in my neighborhood," said one of the plaintiffs, Cynthia Hale Hairston, 47. "But I realized as an adult it was wrong."
Colfax described the verdict as unique among civil rights cases nationally, both in the nature of the ruling and the size of the award.
The jury in U.S. District Court found that failing to provide water service to the residents violated state and federal civil rights laws. The lawsuit was not a class-action. Colfax said 25 to 30 families live in Coal Run now.
The water authority must pay 55 percent of the damages, while the county owes 25 percent and the city owes 20 percent, plaintiffs' attorney Reed Colfax said. The water authority no longer exists, and the county would be responsible for paying that share of the judgment.
Zanesville attorney Michael Valentine said in court that he intended to appeal but declined to comment further. The county commission also plans to appeal.
Attorney Mark Landes, who represented the county and water district, called the verdict disappointing. He said jurors were not allowed to hear defendants' testimony that neighborhood residents were offered water service years ago and refused it.
Colfax said he was unaware of any evidence that was excluded from the trial.
"This was a case that was started and fired by out-of-town lawyers who saw an opportunity for a cash settlement," Landes said.
The plaintiffs' attorneys will receive a separate amount to be decided later by a judge, Colfax said.
John Relman, a civil rights attorney based in Washington, D.C., who represented the residents, said the jury heard hours of testimony and saw hundreds of pages of documentation over the seven-week trial.
"This verdict vindicates that this (treatment) was because of their race," he said. "The jury agreed with that and issued a verdict based on a full airing of the facts."
Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers said she was pleased.
"This decision speaks firmly about the importance of treating citizens with equal respect, regardless of race," she said in a statement.
Plaintiff Frederick Martin said the long wait was worth it.
He and his nine siblings shared two tubs of water between them on bath nights when he was growing up. He left Coal Run, built on a former coal mine, in 1970 so his children wouldn't have to endure the same living conditions, he said.
"Today I feel that we are really blessed, to know and to see justice being met," Martin said. "And to see, regardless of who we are, there is a price to pay if you discriminate against people."
The plaintiffs' attorneys successfully argued that the decision not to pipe water to the plaintiffs was racially motivated, painting a picture of a community with a history of segregation. Black residents of Coal Run Road were denied water over the years while nearby white neighbors were provided it, they said.
Landes countered that about half of Muskingum County residents are not tied into the public water system even today. Among those without it are county commissioners, judges and other prominent officials, he said.
Zanesville has about 25,000 residents on the edge of the state's Appalachian region. One in every five families is below the federal poverty level, and the unemployment rate in Muskingum County in May was 7.4 percent. The national unemployment rate that month was 5.5 percent.
Zimbabwe Rivals Enter Second Day of Talks in South Africa
PRETORIA (AFP) - Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition held a second day of talks in South Africa on Friday as the UN delayed a vote on fresh sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime after his one-man election.
The talks, aimed at laying the groundwork for fully-fledged negotiations to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis, were the first since Mugabe won a new term as president in a June 27 poll widely denounced as a sham.
In New York, the United Nations Security Council delayed the crucial vote to slap fresh sanctions on Mugabe and 13 of his cronies as opponents of the measures expressed support for the South African-mediated talks.
Held in an undisclosed location in Pretoria, the talks were being kept under wraps as the parties set conditions for negotiations.
Nqobizitha Mlilo, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's chief spokesman in South Africa, said the two sides would continue to discuss conditions needed to allow talks to go ahead.
"We are meeting them (the ruling ZANU-PF party) face-to-face. We are not afraid of them," Mlilo told AFP.
The MDC has insisted substantive negotiations could only take place if violence is halted and over 1,500 "political prisoners" are released.
They have also called for an expanded mediation team including an African Union permanent envoy and the swearing in of lawmakers as the opposition now controls parliament.
"Those are the issues, that's the sole agenda. There is no substantive agenda," Mlilo said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is the region's long-time mediator between the opposition and Mugabe's ruling party.
South African government officials -- though not Mbeki himself -- were involved in Thursday's discussions in the capital Pretoria, said presidential spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga.
"They (talks) are going on, yes they are taking place," said Ratshitanga, confirming the second day of talks had begun on Friday.
ZANU-PF was represented by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Labour Minister Nicholas Goche, and the MDC by secretary-general Tendai Biti and deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma.
The ruling party has refused comment on the talks.
Mugabe was re-elected in last month's run-off after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out, citing a wave of attacks against his supporters that killed dozens and injured thousands.
On Friday, the MDC said a total of 113 supporters had now been killed in politically related violence.
Among the most recent victims was a polling agent, Gift Mutsvungunu, whose body was found in a suburb of Harare on Thursday after he was reported missing last week, the MDC said.
Tsvangirai confirmed in a statement that the MDC would set pre-conditions for further talks at the Pretoria meeting.
The UN Security Council vote on the US-drafted sanctions resolution scheduled for Thursday was cancelled as opponents of the measures instead wanted to extend support to the South African-mediated talks.
"We have been seeing efforts under way by the African Union and the (14-nation) SADC (Southern African Development Community) and we think those efforts should be supported," said Vietnam's UN ambassador Le Luong Minh, who chairs the council this month.
The fresh sanctions, which would include an assets freeze and a travel ban on Mugabe and 13 of his allies, as well as an arms embargo, have been pushed forward despite opposition from South Africa, which says dialogue is the answer to the deadlock in Zimbabwe.
Russia, China, Libya and Indonesia have also raised objections, with Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin warning the sponsors that rushing a vote could have "unpredictable" consequences.
On Thursday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed hope that Zimbabwe's rival parties "would be able to come out with some mutually acceptable political solution whereby we can bring and see peace and stability and the humanitarian situation into normalcy."
by Jean-Jacques Cornish for AFP
The talks, aimed at laying the groundwork for fully-fledged negotiations to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis, were the first since Mugabe won a new term as president in a June 27 poll widely denounced as a sham.
In New York, the United Nations Security Council delayed the crucial vote to slap fresh sanctions on Mugabe and 13 of his cronies as opponents of the measures expressed support for the South African-mediated talks.
Held in an undisclosed location in Pretoria, the talks were being kept under wraps as the parties set conditions for negotiations.
Nqobizitha Mlilo, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's chief spokesman in South Africa, said the two sides would continue to discuss conditions needed to allow talks to go ahead.
"We are meeting them (the ruling ZANU-PF party) face-to-face. We are not afraid of them," Mlilo told AFP.
The MDC has insisted substantive negotiations could only take place if violence is halted and over 1,500 "political prisoners" are released.
They have also called for an expanded mediation team including an African Union permanent envoy and the swearing in of lawmakers as the opposition now controls parliament.
"Those are the issues, that's the sole agenda. There is no substantive agenda," Mlilo said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is the region's long-time mediator between the opposition and Mugabe's ruling party.
South African government officials -- though not Mbeki himself -- were involved in Thursday's discussions in the capital Pretoria, said presidential spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga.
"They (talks) are going on, yes they are taking place," said Ratshitanga, confirming the second day of talks had begun on Friday.
ZANU-PF was represented by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Labour Minister Nicholas Goche, and the MDC by secretary-general Tendai Biti and deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma.
The ruling party has refused comment on the talks.
Mugabe was re-elected in last month's run-off after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out, citing a wave of attacks against his supporters that killed dozens and injured thousands.
On Friday, the MDC said a total of 113 supporters had now been killed in politically related violence.
Among the most recent victims was a polling agent, Gift Mutsvungunu, whose body was found in a suburb of Harare on Thursday after he was reported missing last week, the MDC said.
Tsvangirai confirmed in a statement that the MDC would set pre-conditions for further talks at the Pretoria meeting.
The UN Security Council vote on the US-drafted sanctions resolution scheduled for Thursday was cancelled as opponents of the measures instead wanted to extend support to the South African-mediated talks.
"We have been seeing efforts under way by the African Union and the (14-nation) SADC (Southern African Development Community) and we think those efforts should be supported," said Vietnam's UN ambassador Le Luong Minh, who chairs the council this month.
The fresh sanctions, which would include an assets freeze and a travel ban on Mugabe and 13 of his allies, as well as an arms embargo, have been pushed forward despite opposition from South Africa, which says dialogue is the answer to the deadlock in Zimbabwe.
Russia, China, Libya and Indonesia have also raised objections, with Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin warning the sponsors that rushing a vote could have "unpredictable" consequences.
On Thursday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed hope that Zimbabwe's rival parties "would be able to come out with some mutually acceptable political solution whereby we can bring and see peace and stability and the humanitarian situation into normalcy."
by Jean-Jacques Cornish for AFP
Nas: 'I Think Kanye West Saved Rap'
Nas is the rapper who said Hip Hop Is Dead a couple years back, but according to him, someone has saved it.
In a recent interview with Complex, the Queensbridge rapper said he thinks Kanye West has saved the genre.
"I think Kanye West saved rap. I think Lil Wayne is showing there is a future for all kinds of artists to continue doing this. You know, I love it," Nas said.
So if the genre is no longer dead, who still gets Nas excited when he hears them? Kanye, Outkast, and Eminem.
He later touched on the issue with his the controversial title he chose for his upcoming album -- which was later changed from Nigger to Untitled -- and said if had had it to do over, he wouldn't.
"I think the Hip Hop Is Dead and the Nigger album, they were for that time. ... People may think it's a controversial title, but it's really what I'm feeling," he told the mag. "I'm not going to make the title less controversial because it's going to offend people."
The interview took place during a Kanye-esque photoshoot for the magazine, and while it's not usually Nas' style, he had fun with it.
"That's not how I dress, but for a magazine spread, it's out there to be fun," explained Nas. "... I always do what I do, so I just wanted to change it up a little bit. Get people talking shit, so it's cool."
Nas' upcoming untitled album hits stores July 15.
ballerstatus.com
In a recent interview with Complex, the Queensbridge rapper said he thinks Kanye West has saved the genre.
"I think Kanye West saved rap. I think Lil Wayne is showing there is a future for all kinds of artists to continue doing this. You know, I love it," Nas said.
So if the genre is no longer dead, who still gets Nas excited when he hears them? Kanye, Outkast, and Eminem.
He later touched on the issue with his the controversial title he chose for his upcoming album -- which was later changed from Nigger to Untitled -- and said if had had it to do over, he wouldn't.
"I think the Hip Hop Is Dead and the Nigger album, they were for that time. ... People may think it's a controversial title, but it's really what I'm feeling," he told the mag. "I'm not going to make the title less controversial because it's going to offend people."
The interview took place during a Kanye-esque photoshoot for the magazine, and while it's not usually Nas' style, he had fun with it.
"That's not how I dress, but for a magazine spread, it's out there to be fun," explained Nas. "... I always do what I do, so I just wanted to change it up a little bit. Get people talking shit, so it's cool."
Nas' upcoming untitled album hits stores July 15.
ballerstatus.com
Wal-Mart Removes Comic Book Criticized as Racist
By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Wednesday it removed the comic book "Memin Pinguin" from its stores after receiving complaints the popular Mexican character was a racist depiction of blacks.
The series started 60 years ago in Mexico, and the main character, Memin Pinguin, is a black Cuban-Mexican boy with enlarged lips who often gets into mischief.
Wal-Mart recently started offering the Spanish-language comic in parts of California, Texas and Miami, where the giant retailer serves large populations of Hispanic customers.
"We understand that Memin is a popular figure in Mexico. However, given the sensitivities to the negative image Memin can convey to some we felt that it was best to no longer carry the item in our stores," said Lorenzo Lopez, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.
"We apologize to those customers who may have been offended by the book's images," Lopez added.
A black woman in Houston told the Houston Chronicle this week she complained about the comic books after seeing them at a Wal-Mart.
"I said, wait a minute: Is this a monkey or a little black boy?" Shawnedria McGinty told the newspaper. "I was so upset. This is 2008."
Many Mexicans argue Memin Pinguin is misunderstood in the United States and that he is a lovable character and not a racist depiction of blacks.
Memin Pinguin was at the center of a controversy in 2005, when the Mexican postal service issued a series of stamps featuring the character.
President George W. Bush called the stamps offensive, which put him at odds with Mexico's then president, Vicente Fox.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Wednesday it removed the comic book "Memin Pinguin" from its stores after receiving complaints the popular Mexican character was a racist depiction of blacks.
The series started 60 years ago in Mexico, and the main character, Memin Pinguin, is a black Cuban-Mexican boy with enlarged lips who often gets into mischief.
Wal-Mart recently started offering the Spanish-language comic in parts of California, Texas and Miami, where the giant retailer serves large populations of Hispanic customers.
"We understand that Memin is a popular figure in Mexico. However, given the sensitivities to the negative image Memin can convey to some we felt that it was best to no longer carry the item in our stores," said Lorenzo Lopez, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.
"We apologize to those customers who may have been offended by the book's images," Lopez added.
A black woman in Houston told the Houston Chronicle this week she complained about the comic books after seeing them at a Wal-Mart.
"I said, wait a minute: Is this a monkey or a little black boy?" Shawnedria McGinty told the newspaper. "I was so upset. This is 2008."
Many Mexicans argue Memin Pinguin is misunderstood in the United States and that he is a lovable character and not a racist depiction of blacks.
Memin Pinguin was at the center of a controversy in 2005, when the Mexican postal service issued a series of stamps featuring the character.
President George W. Bush called the stamps offensive, which put him at odds with Mexico's then president, Vicente Fox.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Black Enterprise: 40 Best Companies for Diversity
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BLACK ENTERPRISE (BE) has announced its fourth annual tally of the 40 Best Companies for Diversity as featured in the July issue. The companies identified in the special report demonstrated strength and outperformed their peers in one or more of four key categories: supplier diversity, senior management, board involvement, and employee base.
Of the 40 best, both McDonald’s Corp. and MGM Mirage met BE’s criteria in all four categories. Among the companies that hit the mark in three of the four areas are AETNA Inc., the Coca-Cola Co., Pepco Holdings Inc., WGL Holdings Inc., and Xerox Corp. Making their debut on this year’s list are Burger King Holdings, Sempra Energy, and Sodexho USA.
With the number of African American CEOs at America’s largest companies dwindling, BE focused additional reporting on companies that have demonstrated the ability to retain and develop diverse executive talent. Featured in this year’s report are several bold, energetic leaders-to-be, including cover subjects Abram Mercedes of IBM and Tonya Berry of Chrysler.
The full list of the BLACK ENTERPRISE 40 Best Companies for Diversity consists of the following companies:
Aetna Inc., Hartford, CT MGM MIRAGE, Las Vegas, NV
Aflac Inc., Columbus, GA Pepco Holdings, Inc. , Washington, D.C.
American Express Co., New York, NY Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., Somers, NY
ARAMARK Corp., Philadelphia, PA PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, NY
AT&T, San-Antonio, TX PG&E Corp., San Francisco, CA
Bank of America, Charlotte, NC Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT
Burger King Holdings, Miami, FL Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, OH
Chrysler L.L.C., Auburn Hills, MI Ryder System Inc., Miami, FL
Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, GA Sempra Energy, San Diego, CA
Comcast Corp., Philadelphia, PA Sodexho USA, Gaithersburg, MD
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., White Plains, NY
Exelon Corp., Chicago IL State Farm Insurance Cos., Bloomington, IL
Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C. TIAA-CREF, New York, NY
FedEx Corp., Memphis, TN Toyota Motor North America Inc., New York, NY
General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, MN Marriott International Inc., Washington, D.C.
General Motors Corp., Detroit, MI United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), Atlanta, GA
IBM Corp. (IBM), Armonk, NY Verizon Communications Inc., Washington, D.C.
Johnson Controls Inc., Milwaukee, WI WGL Holdings Inc., Washington, D.C.
Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, MI Xerox Corp., Stamford, CT
McDonald’s Corp., Oak Brook, IL Yum! Brands Inc., Louisville, KY
The 2008 40 Best Companies for Diversity were determined by analyzing responses from a survey administered to major corporations. BE conducted a comprehensive outreach effort to the CEOs and diversity executives of the top 1,000 publicly traded companies, and the diversity executives of the 50 leading global companies with strong U.S. operations.
The complete special report, including methodology and selection criteria, is available in the July 2008 issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine, on newsstands now.
BLACK ENTERPRISE, your ultimate source for wealth creation, is the premier business, investing, and wealth-building resource for African Americans. Since 1970, BE has provided essential business information and advice to professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and decision makers. Every month, BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine provides 3.9 million readers with information on entrepreneurship, careers, and financial management. A multimedia company, BE also produces radio and television programming, business and lifestyle events, Web content, and digital media. BLACK ENTERPRISE is the definitive source of information for and about African American business markets and leaders, and the authority on black business news and trends.
www.businesswire.com
Of the 40 best, both McDonald’s Corp. and MGM Mirage met BE’s criteria in all four categories. Among the companies that hit the mark in three of the four areas are AETNA Inc., the Coca-Cola Co., Pepco Holdings Inc., WGL Holdings Inc., and Xerox Corp. Making their debut on this year’s list are Burger King Holdings, Sempra Energy, and Sodexho USA.
With the number of African American CEOs at America’s largest companies dwindling, BE focused additional reporting on companies that have demonstrated the ability to retain and develop diverse executive talent. Featured in this year’s report are several bold, energetic leaders-to-be, including cover subjects Abram Mercedes of IBM and Tonya Berry of Chrysler.
The full list of the BLACK ENTERPRISE 40 Best Companies for Diversity consists of the following companies:
Aetna Inc., Hartford, CT MGM MIRAGE, Las Vegas, NV
Aflac Inc., Columbus, GA Pepco Holdings, Inc. , Washington, D.C.
American Express Co., New York, NY Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., Somers, NY
ARAMARK Corp., Philadelphia, PA PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, NY
AT&T, San-Antonio, TX PG&E Corp., San Francisco, CA
Bank of America, Charlotte, NC Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT
Burger King Holdings, Miami, FL Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, OH
Chrysler L.L.C., Auburn Hills, MI Ryder System Inc., Miami, FL
Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, GA Sempra Energy, San Diego, CA
Comcast Corp., Philadelphia, PA Sodexho USA, Gaithersburg, MD
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., White Plains, NY
Exelon Corp., Chicago IL State Farm Insurance Cos., Bloomington, IL
Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C. TIAA-CREF, New York, NY
FedEx Corp., Memphis, TN Toyota Motor North America Inc., New York, NY
General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, MN Marriott International Inc., Washington, D.C.
General Motors Corp., Detroit, MI United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), Atlanta, GA
IBM Corp. (IBM), Armonk, NY Verizon Communications Inc., Washington, D.C.
Johnson Controls Inc., Milwaukee, WI WGL Holdings Inc., Washington, D.C.
Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, MI Xerox Corp., Stamford, CT
McDonald’s Corp., Oak Brook, IL Yum! Brands Inc., Louisville, KY
The 2008 40 Best Companies for Diversity were determined by analyzing responses from a survey administered to major corporations. BE conducted a comprehensive outreach effort to the CEOs and diversity executives of the top 1,000 publicly traded companies, and the diversity executives of the 50 leading global companies with strong U.S. operations.
The complete special report, including methodology and selection criteria, is available in the July 2008 issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine, on newsstands now.
BLACK ENTERPRISE, your ultimate source for wealth creation, is the premier business, investing, and wealth-building resource for African Americans. Since 1970, BE has provided essential business information and advice to professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and decision makers. Every month, BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine provides 3.9 million readers with information on entrepreneurship, careers, and financial management. A multimedia company, BE also produces radio and television programming, business and lifestyle events, Web content, and digital media. BLACK ENTERPRISE is the definitive source of information for and about African American business markets and leaders, and the authority on black business news and trends.
www.businesswire.com
Zimbabwe Sanctions Call 'Racist'
Zimbabwe has denounced calls for UN sanctions over disputed polls as "a colonial and racist campaign".
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the issue did not belong on the UN Security Council's agenda as Zimbabwe was not a threat to world peace.
The US and the UK are pushing for a travel ban and assets freeze on President Robert Mugabe and 13 of his allies, and an arms embargo.
Meanwhile, leaders of South Africa's ruling party have met Mr Mugabe.
South Africa sees a government of national unity as a more realistic solution to Zimbabwe's crisis.
Ahead of an expected UN Security Council resolution on Zimbabwe, the European Parliament has called on European countries to impose more economic sanctions against members of Zimbabwe's government.
The parliament in Strasbourg said travel restrictions on businessmen who finance Mr Mugabe's government should be among new measures.
It also said the banks that provide loans or invest in Zimbabwe should be exposed. The vote is non-binding.
Bail conditions eased
Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe says there are no details of the president's meeting with two African National Congress (ANC) officials in the capital, Harare.
But the ANC Deputy-President Kgalema Motlanthe repeated the African Union's call for dialogue between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Their meeting came as the High Court eased bail conditions on MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti to allow him to travel to South Africa for proposed crisis talks on forming a unity government.
Mr Biti's lawyer told the court that opposition talks with Zanu-PF were due to begin in Pretoria this week.
South Africa's leader Thabo Mbeki, the regionally appointed mediator, was in Zimbabwe over the weekend to meet the two parties.
But MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the talks, saying meeting Mr Mugabe at State House would mean recognising his legitimacy as president.
The MDC says more than 100 of its supporters have been killed since it won elections in March, some 5,000 are missing and more than 200,000 have been forced from their homes.
It pulled out of a presidential run-off last month, citing state-sponsored violence and leaving Mr Mugabe unopposed.
The UN Security Council is due to meet in New York to discuss a draft resolution on Zimbabwe despite several African leaders saying they oppose sanctions, including South Africa.
Mr Mbeki reportedly told G8 leaders earlier this week that UN sanctions could lead to civil war.
South Africa is currently on the UN Security Council but does not have the power of veto.
BBC
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the issue did not belong on the UN Security Council's agenda as Zimbabwe was not a threat to world peace.
The US and the UK are pushing for a travel ban and assets freeze on President Robert Mugabe and 13 of his allies, and an arms embargo.
Meanwhile, leaders of South Africa's ruling party have met Mr Mugabe.
South Africa sees a government of national unity as a more realistic solution to Zimbabwe's crisis.
Ahead of an expected UN Security Council resolution on Zimbabwe, the European Parliament has called on European countries to impose more economic sanctions against members of Zimbabwe's government.
The parliament in Strasbourg said travel restrictions on businessmen who finance Mr Mugabe's government should be among new measures.
It also said the banks that provide loans or invest in Zimbabwe should be exposed. The vote is non-binding.
Bail conditions eased
Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe says there are no details of the president's meeting with two African National Congress (ANC) officials in the capital, Harare.
But the ANC Deputy-President Kgalema Motlanthe repeated the African Union's call for dialogue between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Their meeting came as the High Court eased bail conditions on MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti to allow him to travel to South Africa for proposed crisis talks on forming a unity government.
Mr Biti's lawyer told the court that opposition talks with Zanu-PF were due to begin in Pretoria this week.
South Africa's leader Thabo Mbeki, the regionally appointed mediator, was in Zimbabwe over the weekend to meet the two parties.
But MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the talks, saying meeting Mr Mugabe at State House would mean recognising his legitimacy as president.
The MDC says more than 100 of its supporters have been killed since it won elections in March, some 5,000 are missing and more than 200,000 have been forced from their homes.
It pulled out of a presidential run-off last month, citing state-sponsored violence and leaving Mr Mugabe unopposed.
The UN Security Council is due to meet in New York to discuss a draft resolution on Zimbabwe despite several African leaders saying they oppose sanctions, including South Africa.
Mr Mbeki reportedly told G8 leaders earlier this week that UN sanctions could lead to civil war.
South Africa is currently on the UN Security Council but does not have the power of veto.
BBC
Nigeria Rebels to Suspend Ceasefire
LAGOS (AFP) - The most high-profile rebel group in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta said Thursday it was suspending a two-week-old unilateral ceasefire and threatened British interests in the region.
In an e-mail sent to AFP, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it would resume armed operations from midnight Saturday.
The group had declared a unilateral ceasefire on June 22 in order "to give peace and dialogue a chance".
MEND said its decision to resume armed attacks was linked to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's promise at the G8 summit in Japan to support the Nigerian government in ending violence in delta region.
"Should Gordon Brown make good his threat to support this criminality for the sake of oil, UK citizens and interests in Nigeria will suffer the consequences," MEND warned.
The unrest in the Niger Delta has reduced Nigeria's total oil production by a quarter in the past two years.
from AFP
In an e-mail sent to AFP, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it would resume armed operations from midnight Saturday.
The group had declared a unilateral ceasefire on June 22 in order "to give peace and dialogue a chance".
MEND said its decision to resume armed attacks was linked to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's promise at the G8 summit in Japan to support the Nigerian government in ending violence in delta region.
"Should Gordon Brown make good his threat to support this criminality for the sake of oil, UK citizens and interests in Nigeria will suffer the consequences," MEND warned.
The unrest in the Niger Delta has reduced Nigeria's total oil production by a quarter in the past two years.
from AFP
Doctors' Group Plans Apology for Racism
The country's largest medical association is set to issue a formal apology today for its historical antipathy toward African American doctors, expressing regret for a litany of transgressions, including barring black physicians from its ranks for decades and remaining silent during battles on landmark legislation to end racial discrimination.
The apology marks one of the rare times a major national organization has expressed contrition for its role in the segregation and discrimination that black people have experienced in the United States.
In a commentary in the July 16 Journal of the American Medical Association, Ronald M. Davis, the organization's immediate past president, noted that many of the organization's questionable actions reflected the "social mores and racial discrimination" that existed for much of the country's history. But, he wrote, that should not excuse them.
"The medical profession, which is based on a boundless respect for human life, had an obligation to lead society away from disrespect of so many lives," Davis wrote. "The AMA failed to do so and has apologized for that failure."
AMA officials declined yesterday to discuss specifics of the apology, including how it came about, saying that information would be released today. But the Davis article refers to a committee of experts convened and supported by the organization to examine "the historic roots of the black-white divide in U.S. medicine."
Specifically, the panel noted that the AMA permitted state and local medical associations to exclude black physicians, effectively barring these doctors from the national organization. In the early 20th century, the organization listed black doctors as "colored" in its national physician directory. In addition, the AMA was silent during debates over the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, and, for years, declined to join efforts to force hospitals built with federal funds to not discriminate.
Richard Allen Williams, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles and the president of the Minority Health Institute, said the apology is "an excellent gesture of goodwill."
"I applaud the AMA for doing this. In the current climate of health care, it is a very timely gesture," he said. "Less than 5 percent of physicians are African Americans, and that needs to be changed. This cannot be changed by African American physicians alone, and we all need to move forward together."
Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society and a member of the National Medical Association, a predominantly black medical association that was established in 1895 in response to the AMA policy allowing the exclusion of African American physicians, welcomed the apology.
"Any sort of acknowledgment that blacks were excluded is a positive step," Brawley said. "But I'm much more interested in the future than in the past. I would like to see a focus on getting quality care for all people."
The AMA was founded in 1847 by Nathan S. Davis, a doctor from New York. Today, it has almost 250,000 members and supports education and research programs, but in recent years has also been losing membership.
Today's apology is the latest in a series of expressions of regret by government entities and businesses in recent years.
In the past, states including Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia and Florida and businesses such as Wachovia have express regret for their role in slavery. Last year, the governing board of the University of Virginia became the first to pass a resolution over the "regret for its use of enslaved persons from 1819 to 1865."
In 2005, the Republican Party said it was sorry for its racially tinged "Southern Strategy," which it adopted during Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign.
President Bill Clinton in 1997 expressed regret for the experiment in which U.S. government researchers used black men to study syphilis in Tuskegee, Ala., starting in 1932. Instead of treating almost 400 men who had been infected by syphilis, the researchers gave the men placebos and then observed the progression of the disease. The study continued until 1972 and ended when its existence was leaked to the media. Clinton called the study "deeply, profoundly, morally wrong."
The apologies issued by institutions are often carefully worded to ensure that they do not become liable for financial reparations.
According to the AMA's online chronology, the association has also been slow to respond to the issue of discrimination against African American doctors.
In 1939, the organization stated that it "emphatically deprecated discrimination." At the same time, however, the AMA recognized county societies' "right of self-governance in local matters, including membership."
In 1954, the AMA refused to allow the Old North State Medical Society, which represented African American physicians in North Carolina, to be admitted to the association, just as the North Carolina Medical Society had refused to lift its racial barriers.
In his commentary, Davis wrote: "Although current members of a group might bear little or no responsibility for past actions, a group apology makes clear the group's current moral orientation. Acknowledging past wrongs lays a marker for understanding and tracking current and future actions."
By Holly Watt
Washington Post Staff Writer
The apology marks one of the rare times a major national organization has expressed contrition for its role in the segregation and discrimination that black people have experienced in the United States.
In a commentary in the July 16 Journal of the American Medical Association, Ronald M. Davis, the organization's immediate past president, noted that many of the organization's questionable actions reflected the "social mores and racial discrimination" that existed for much of the country's history. But, he wrote, that should not excuse them.
"The medical profession, which is based on a boundless respect for human life, had an obligation to lead society away from disrespect of so many lives," Davis wrote. "The AMA failed to do so and has apologized for that failure."
AMA officials declined yesterday to discuss specifics of the apology, including how it came about, saying that information would be released today. But the Davis article refers to a committee of experts convened and supported by the organization to examine "the historic roots of the black-white divide in U.S. medicine."
Specifically, the panel noted that the AMA permitted state and local medical associations to exclude black physicians, effectively barring these doctors from the national organization. In the early 20th century, the organization listed black doctors as "colored" in its national physician directory. In addition, the AMA was silent during debates over the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, and, for years, declined to join efforts to force hospitals built with federal funds to not discriminate.
Richard Allen Williams, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles and the president of the Minority Health Institute, said the apology is "an excellent gesture of goodwill."
"I applaud the AMA for doing this. In the current climate of health care, it is a very timely gesture," he said. "Less than 5 percent of physicians are African Americans, and that needs to be changed. This cannot be changed by African American physicians alone, and we all need to move forward together."
Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society and a member of the National Medical Association, a predominantly black medical association that was established in 1895 in response to the AMA policy allowing the exclusion of African American physicians, welcomed the apology.
"Any sort of acknowledgment that blacks were excluded is a positive step," Brawley said. "But I'm much more interested in the future than in the past. I would like to see a focus on getting quality care for all people."
The AMA was founded in 1847 by Nathan S. Davis, a doctor from New York. Today, it has almost 250,000 members and supports education and research programs, but in recent years has also been losing membership.
Today's apology is the latest in a series of expressions of regret by government entities and businesses in recent years.
In the past, states including Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia and Florida and businesses such as Wachovia have express regret for their role in slavery. Last year, the governing board of the University of Virginia became the first to pass a resolution over the "regret for its use of enslaved persons from 1819 to 1865."
In 2005, the Republican Party said it was sorry for its racially tinged "Southern Strategy," which it adopted during Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign.
President Bill Clinton in 1997 expressed regret for the experiment in which U.S. government researchers used black men to study syphilis in Tuskegee, Ala., starting in 1932. Instead of treating almost 400 men who had been infected by syphilis, the researchers gave the men placebos and then observed the progression of the disease. The study continued until 1972 and ended when its existence was leaked to the media. Clinton called the study "deeply, profoundly, morally wrong."
The apologies issued by institutions are often carefully worded to ensure that they do not become liable for financial reparations.
According to the AMA's online chronology, the association has also been slow to respond to the issue of discrimination against African American doctors.
In 1939, the organization stated that it "emphatically deprecated discrimination." At the same time, however, the AMA recognized county societies' "right of self-governance in local matters, including membership."
In 1954, the AMA refused to allow the Old North State Medical Society, which represented African American physicians in North Carolina, to be admitted to the association, just as the North Carolina Medical Society had refused to lift its racial barriers.
In his commentary, Davis wrote: "Although current members of a group might bear little or no responsibility for past actions, a group apology makes clear the group's current moral orientation. Acknowledging past wrongs lays a marker for understanding and tracking current and future actions."
By Holly Watt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Broader Youth Involvement Urged: Outreach Targets Those Who Lack College Education
Erica Williams worries about the wave of political involvement among young people this election season.
She knows, for example, that college students' participation in Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign -- whether it's knocking on doors or raising money on the Internet -- has been unprecedented.
But Williams fears that the army of young activists, no matter the political party, doesn't include enough people who haven't gone to college. And as director of outreach for Campus Progress, a nonpartisan youth activist organization, Williams is trying to involve them.
Williams spoke alongside former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) yesterday to more than 1,000 participants at the Campus Progress National Conference at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Northwest Washington.
"I think [youth vote turnout] is going to be huge," she said. "The question is going to be, who is that youth?"
She said primary turnout among college-educated 18- to-24 year-olds was far higher than among those who had attended only high school.
This year, the group targeted community colleges in its invitations and conference scholarships and plans to move on to people without college educations next. Williams, 24, grew up in Largo and graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park three years ago. She grew up being concerned about D.C. voting rights and gentrification, though her time for those issues dropped away in school.
"I was not the most active on-campus student," Williams said. "I worked full time, 40 hours a week, in Bethesda . . . so I understand some of the challenges of trying to pay for your own education."
That echoed Edwards's remarks. The former vice presidential and presidential candidate invoked the Declaration of Independence in exhorting the crowd to fight poverty, in part through making education more accessible.
"The voices of a generation must join together in a great call for change," Edwards said.
His speech focused primarily on high-level policy changes that he said would take 18 million people out of poverty in 10 years. He called for an increase in the minimum wage, a tripling of the earned income tax credit and guaranteed access to quality child care.
"Hard work just isn't paying in America today," Edwards said.
"It's a lie" that young people don't care about political issues in America, Edwards said to cheers. "The core set of values are very similar" to those of his generation, he said after the speech. "But this particular generation is much more interactive," working for change online and in new ways.
But a generation gap was clearly evident yesterday.
One man with a gray ponytail repeatedly tried to start chants throughout Edwards's speech.
"No more war! No more war!" he yelled. But the students would have none of it. Low-level giggling was the only response.
Instead, the crowd cheered for single-payer health care, for President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs and for cleaner energy.
"I think [young people] are comfortable" with grass-roots activism and higher-level policy debate, Edwards said.
Williams agreed. "I think we're pretty much split down the middle" between those approaches, she said.
Excitement about the election has helped. "There's a percentage who are believing more in the political process now," Williams said. "That helps our work."
But staying involved beyond the election is vital, she said.
"It's incumbent upon us to hold whoever we vote into the White House accountable," Williams said. "Policy is not going to change on November 4th, and we know that."
By Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
She knows, for example, that college students' participation in Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign -- whether it's knocking on doors or raising money on the Internet -- has been unprecedented.
But Williams fears that the army of young activists, no matter the political party, doesn't include enough people who haven't gone to college. And as director of outreach for Campus Progress, a nonpartisan youth activist organization, Williams is trying to involve them.
Williams spoke alongside former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) yesterday to more than 1,000 participants at the Campus Progress National Conference at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Northwest Washington.
"I think [youth vote turnout] is going to be huge," she said. "The question is going to be, who is that youth?"
She said primary turnout among college-educated 18- to-24 year-olds was far higher than among those who had attended only high school.
This year, the group targeted community colleges in its invitations and conference scholarships and plans to move on to people without college educations next. Williams, 24, grew up in Largo and graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park three years ago. She grew up being concerned about D.C. voting rights and gentrification, though her time for those issues dropped away in school.
"I was not the most active on-campus student," Williams said. "I worked full time, 40 hours a week, in Bethesda . . . so I understand some of the challenges of trying to pay for your own education."
That echoed Edwards's remarks. The former vice presidential and presidential candidate invoked the Declaration of Independence in exhorting the crowd to fight poverty, in part through making education more accessible.
"The voices of a generation must join together in a great call for change," Edwards said.
His speech focused primarily on high-level policy changes that he said would take 18 million people out of poverty in 10 years. He called for an increase in the minimum wage, a tripling of the earned income tax credit and guaranteed access to quality child care.
"Hard work just isn't paying in America today," Edwards said.
"It's a lie" that young people don't care about political issues in America, Edwards said to cheers. "The core set of values are very similar" to those of his generation, he said after the speech. "But this particular generation is much more interactive," working for change online and in new ways.
But a generation gap was clearly evident yesterday.
One man with a gray ponytail repeatedly tried to start chants throughout Edwards's speech.
"No more war! No more war!" he yelled. But the students would have none of it. Low-level giggling was the only response.
Instead, the crowd cheered for single-payer health care, for President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs and for cleaner energy.
"I think [young people] are comfortable" with grass-roots activism and higher-level policy debate, Edwards said.
Williams agreed. "I think we're pretty much split down the middle" between those approaches, she said.
Excitement about the election has helped. "There's a percentage who are believing more in the political process now," Williams said. "That helps our work."
But staying involved beyond the election is vital, she said.
"It's incumbent upon us to hold whoever we vote into the White House accountable," Williams said. "Policy is not going to change on November 4th, and we know that."
By Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Family Plans $25M Suit in Waiting Room Death
The relatives of a woman who died on the floor of a New York hospital say they plan to file a $25 million lawsuit against the city and the facility where Esmin Green died.
Green's family is also calling for criminal charges against hospital workers, who they say failed to help her and then attempted to cover up the circumstances of her death.
"My sister was killed twice," said Brenda James, Green's sister. "First, by those who neglected to offer her the needed health care. Secondly, she was killed by those who tried to cover up this criminal action."
The family has retained a lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, to file the suit.
Green, a Jamaican immigrant, had been involuntarily admitted to the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on June 18 for what the hospital described as "agitation and psychosis."
Surveillance camera footage captured the mother of six sliding off of a chair and onto the floor of waiting room of the hospital's psychiatric emergency department, where she lay convulsing for more than a hour before anyone helped her.
The footage appears to capture several employees passing by her as she lay on the floor struggling.
The New York Civil Liberties Union said last week that the hospital falsified medical records for the timeframe covering Green's visit, describing her as awake and going to the bathroom when she is seen on the video.
Seven workers, including doctors, nurses and security guards, have been fired or suspended since Green's death, the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation said. It's not clear whether any of the employees have appealed the disciplinary actions against them.
The agency said it referred the matter to law enforcement and is cooperating with the investigation.
"We failed Esmin Green and believe her family deserves fair and just compensation," it said in a statement.
Autopsy results have not been released.
Green's daughter, who reluctantly watched the footage for the first time this week, says disciplinary action doesn't make up for her family's loss.
"Firing is not enough for me, for my brothers. They don't know this wonderful woman they took away from us," said Tecia Harrison, who traveled to New York from Jamaica to attend her mother's funeral Sunday.
"We want them to pay for it," she said.
from CNN.com
Green's family is also calling for criminal charges against hospital workers, who they say failed to help her and then attempted to cover up the circumstances of her death.
"My sister was killed twice," said Brenda James, Green's sister. "First, by those who neglected to offer her the needed health care. Secondly, she was killed by those who tried to cover up this criminal action."
The family has retained a lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, to file the suit.
Green, a Jamaican immigrant, had been involuntarily admitted to the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on June 18 for what the hospital described as "agitation and psychosis."
Surveillance camera footage captured the mother of six sliding off of a chair and onto the floor of waiting room of the hospital's psychiatric emergency department, where she lay convulsing for more than a hour before anyone helped her.
The footage appears to capture several employees passing by her as she lay on the floor struggling.
The New York Civil Liberties Union said last week that the hospital falsified medical records for the timeframe covering Green's visit, describing her as awake and going to the bathroom when she is seen on the video.
Seven workers, including doctors, nurses and security guards, have been fired or suspended since Green's death, the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation said. It's not clear whether any of the employees have appealed the disciplinary actions against them.
The agency said it referred the matter to law enforcement and is cooperating with the investigation.
"We failed Esmin Green and believe her family deserves fair and just compensation," it said in a statement.
Autopsy results have not been released.
Green's daughter, who reluctantly watched the footage for the first time this week, says disciplinary action doesn't make up for her family's loss.
"Firing is not enough for me, for my brothers. They don't know this wonderful woman they took away from us," said Tecia Harrison, who traveled to New York from Jamaica to attend her mother's funeral Sunday.
"We want them to pay for it," she said.
from CNN.com
Support Grows for UN Sanctions Against Zimbabwe
UNITED NATIONS - A majority of U.N. Security Council member countries support a proposal to sanction Zimbabwe and freeze the assets of President Robert Mugabe, French and U.S. officials said Tuesday, but Russia warned it might veto the plan.
A vote on a U.S. draft resolution calling for sanctions over state-sanctioned election violence in Zimbabwe is expected later this week.
"Yes, we think" that nine of the council's 15 votes are behind the proposal, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert told reporters. "It's obvious there is global support for tougher measures."
"The votes are there for it to pass, absent a veto," echoed U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
However, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin warned that his nation could veto it. Russia is one of five council members with that power.
"We should be very careful about setting precedents," he said. "We should make it clear to begin with that the Security Council is not about to enter into the whole realm of mediating elections, or passing judgment on elections."
In Burkina Faso — a council member counted by supporters as the key ninth vote for sanctions — Zimbabwe's foreign minister said Tuesday that Mugabe is ready to form a unity government with the opposition. But Simbarashe Mumbengegwi remained vague on a role for the country's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mumbengegwi said the way forward is for Mugabe to form "an all-inclusive government where all the political parties take part." He was in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, for a meeting with that nation's president.
The 15-nation council met Tuesday to discuss Zimbabwe. Ripert said Zimbabwe's crisis poses a threat to international peace and security, a requirement for the council's involvement, "due to the massive violation of human rights."
Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, who was Tanzania's foreign minister until last year, provided some support for that view. Migiro, who just returned from an African Union summit, told the council that Mugabe's re-election has the potential to affect southern Africa's peace and security.
"The principle of democracy is at stake," she told the council.
The proposed U.N. sanctions include an international arms embargo and freeze on the personal assets of Mugabe and 11 other top government officials who the U.S. believes played a key role in using violence to undermine Mugabe's opposition.
The U.S., Britain and France, three of the council's veto-wielding members, pushed through nonbinding resolutions condemning election violence and intimidation against Zimbabwe's political opposition.
South Africa, Russia and the other council member with veto power, China, have opposed taking further action.
Russia and China — which is sensitive to its world image as the host of this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing — could abstain from council voting on a U.N. sanctions resolution. That would allow it to pass. China and South Africa, which led a fight to water down the two previous council statements on Zimbabwe, are Zimbabwe's biggest trading partners.
The United States is considering tougher unilateral sanctions by expanding the list of about 130 officials now banned from visiting the U.S. and hit with financial penalties.
The European Union and Australia also have imposed their own limited sanctions on Zimbabwe's government, and the EU likewise is studying whether to add to travel bans and an asset freeze already in place on Mugabe, his Cabinet ministers and top ruling party officials.
The United States and Europe also say opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be Zimbabwe's next leader. Tsvangirai led Mugabe and two other candidates in the first presidential ballot March 29, but not by enough of a margin to avoid a runoff with Mugabe, who was second.
Mugabe has shown little sign of yielding power after 28 years as president. Despite international condemnation, he went ahead with a one-candidate election last month after Tsvangirai withdrew because of violence. Mugabe declared himself the winner and was inaugurated for a sixth term as president.
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
A vote on a U.S. draft resolution calling for sanctions over state-sanctioned election violence in Zimbabwe is expected later this week.
"Yes, we think" that nine of the council's 15 votes are behind the proposal, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert told reporters. "It's obvious there is global support for tougher measures."
"The votes are there for it to pass, absent a veto," echoed U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
However, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin warned that his nation could veto it. Russia is one of five council members with that power.
"We should be very careful about setting precedents," he said. "We should make it clear to begin with that the Security Council is not about to enter into the whole realm of mediating elections, or passing judgment on elections."
In Burkina Faso — a council member counted by supporters as the key ninth vote for sanctions — Zimbabwe's foreign minister said Tuesday that Mugabe is ready to form a unity government with the opposition. But Simbarashe Mumbengegwi remained vague on a role for the country's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mumbengegwi said the way forward is for Mugabe to form "an all-inclusive government where all the political parties take part." He was in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, for a meeting with that nation's president.
The 15-nation council met Tuesday to discuss Zimbabwe. Ripert said Zimbabwe's crisis poses a threat to international peace and security, a requirement for the council's involvement, "due to the massive violation of human rights."
Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, who was Tanzania's foreign minister until last year, provided some support for that view. Migiro, who just returned from an African Union summit, told the council that Mugabe's re-election has the potential to affect southern Africa's peace and security.
"The principle of democracy is at stake," she told the council.
The proposed U.N. sanctions include an international arms embargo and freeze on the personal assets of Mugabe and 11 other top government officials who the U.S. believes played a key role in using violence to undermine Mugabe's opposition.
The U.S., Britain and France, three of the council's veto-wielding members, pushed through nonbinding resolutions condemning election violence and intimidation against Zimbabwe's political opposition.
South Africa, Russia and the other council member with veto power, China, have opposed taking further action.
Russia and China — which is sensitive to its world image as the host of this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing — could abstain from council voting on a U.N. sanctions resolution. That would allow it to pass. China and South Africa, which led a fight to water down the two previous council statements on Zimbabwe, are Zimbabwe's biggest trading partners.
The United States is considering tougher unilateral sanctions by expanding the list of about 130 officials now banned from visiting the U.S. and hit with financial penalties.
The European Union and Australia also have imposed their own limited sanctions on Zimbabwe's government, and the EU likewise is studying whether to add to travel bans and an asset freeze already in place on Mugabe, his Cabinet ministers and top ruling party officials.
The United States and Europe also say opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be Zimbabwe's next leader. Tsvangirai led Mugabe and two other candidates in the first presidential ballot March 29, but not by enough of a margin to avoid a runoff with Mugabe, who was second.
Mugabe has shown little sign of yielding power after 28 years as president. Despite international condemnation, he went ahead with a one-candidate election last month after Tsvangirai withdrew because of violence. Mugabe declared himself the winner and was inaugurated for a sixth term as president.
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
Disappearing Voices in Black Radio
No, it isn’t just your imagination. Black radio really is vanishing.
The new film “Disappearing Voices – The Decline of Black Radio” explains why. Written and narrated by veteran radio personality Bob Law and directed by independent filmmaker U-Savior, this documentary is an historical overview of a uniquely American media format that rose in the late 1940’s and 50’s, reached its peak in the 1960’s and 70’s, and has gradually spiraled downward ever since.
At the time of filming, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that out of 10,315 commercial AM and FM radio stations in the United States, only 168 are Black-owned – and even that number is declining.
As the documentary explains, radio took on tremendous importance in the Black community because it spoke directly to its audience through Black radio “jocks” such as Frankie “Hollywood” Crocker, Hal Jackson, Eddie O’Jay, Jocko Henderson, Jack “The Rapper” Gibson, Gerry Bledsoe and "The Mad Lad" E. Rodney Jones, each of whom developed their own distinctive style and sound in their on-air – and sometimes on-top-of-the-record – patter.
They could set the tone and mood for their listeners’ whole day or evening, and they often became as important as the music they selected and played. During its glory days, Black radio advertised directly to local communities and featured local Black-owned businesses. For instance, it would be announced that the release by a hot new artist was available at the local record store, and a local promoter would book that artist to headline at a local venue.
What’s more, as Ron Daniels, who worked on Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign, and Rev. Al Sharpton point out, political and social activists could mobilize thousands of people by simply putting the word out over the radio about a protest or rally. It truly was radio by Black people, for Black people.
However, in the late 1960’s a shift began when Madison Avenue started realizing just how much influence Black radio had over its audience. White-owned stations featuring Black disc jockeys got scared that these jocks were becoming bigger than the station itself and therefore in the position to demand more money. Thus, in the 1970’s something called “urban contemporary” came into being, coopting Black music and phasing out Black radio in favor of a supposedly colorless society. Enter larger advertising dollars from huge corporations selling products like cigarettes, Coca Cola and beer.
Exit the music of artists like Percy Sledge, James Brown and Isaac Hayes whose style and lyrics were deemed “too Black.” And, of course, with huge corporations like Clear Channel dominating the markets, there was scant room for community concerns to be discussed over the airwaves.
As we search up and down the dial today, sadly, we see Black-owned radio stations changing their formats first to one thing and then another as they scramble to find a niche where they can make a go of it financially. But, as “Disappearing Voices” makes clear, the problem isn’t the format or a lack of listeners, of which there have always been plenty. The problem is the collaboration between Arbitron, which drastically undercounts Black listenership, and Madison Avenue, which insists that if their clients are to advertise on Black stations at all, they will only do so at discounted rates far below what they pay to advertise on “white” stations. After all, they figure, Blacks will buy their products anyway, so why pay to advertise on these stations?
So the long and the short of it is – contrary to normal business practices – even if a Black-owned station has a highly successful format that attracts a large number of listeners, the station is still denied the advertising dollars warranted by that number, making it almost impossible for the station to operate profitably. That is pivotal in the decline of Black radio.
All this and much more is laid out in Bob Law’s narration, which U-Savior and Black Waxx Multimedia Inc. have done a remarkable job of bringing to life through archival film footage. The documentary is also made richer by rare interviews with the likes of film icon Melvin Van "Peebles, Chuck D of Public Enemy, and a variety of elected officials, journalists and current broadcasters such as Imhotep Gary Byrd, Sanford "The Cut Man" Moore and many other outstanding voices from the Black community.
As U-Savior stated in the Q&A at a recent standing-room-only screening of “Disappearing Voices” in Manhattan, “"In this age of multimedia we have to look for more innovative ways to remain politically relevant. For me, cinema is the most impactful tool because it combines so many different art forms. My filmmaking is an extension of my commitment to the movement and to Black people. By being unafraid to tell the stories that Black people need to hear, being unafraid to jar people with the truth, I show them that there is not only hope, but certainty that we will prevail.”
“Disappearing Voices – The Decline of Black Radio” which was produced by Iyanna Jones and Shawna Glover with Bob Law and U-Savior, is being shown at various film festivals, including the 6th Annual Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival and the Black International Cinema in Germany.
blackstarnews.com
The new film “Disappearing Voices – The Decline of Black Radio” explains why. Written and narrated by veteran radio personality Bob Law and directed by independent filmmaker U-Savior, this documentary is an historical overview of a uniquely American media format that rose in the late 1940’s and 50’s, reached its peak in the 1960’s and 70’s, and has gradually spiraled downward ever since.
At the time of filming, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that out of 10,315 commercial AM and FM radio stations in the United States, only 168 are Black-owned – and even that number is declining.
As the documentary explains, radio took on tremendous importance in the Black community because it spoke directly to its audience through Black radio “jocks” such as Frankie “Hollywood” Crocker, Hal Jackson, Eddie O’Jay, Jocko Henderson, Jack “The Rapper” Gibson, Gerry Bledsoe and "The Mad Lad" E. Rodney Jones, each of whom developed their own distinctive style and sound in their on-air – and sometimes on-top-of-the-record – patter.
They could set the tone and mood for their listeners’ whole day or evening, and they often became as important as the music they selected and played. During its glory days, Black radio advertised directly to local communities and featured local Black-owned businesses. For instance, it would be announced that the release by a hot new artist was available at the local record store, and a local promoter would book that artist to headline at a local venue.
What’s more, as Ron Daniels, who worked on Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign, and Rev. Al Sharpton point out, political and social activists could mobilize thousands of people by simply putting the word out over the radio about a protest or rally. It truly was radio by Black people, for Black people.
However, in the late 1960’s a shift began when Madison Avenue started realizing just how much influence Black radio had over its audience. White-owned stations featuring Black disc jockeys got scared that these jocks were becoming bigger than the station itself and therefore in the position to demand more money. Thus, in the 1970’s something called “urban contemporary” came into being, coopting Black music and phasing out Black radio in favor of a supposedly colorless society. Enter larger advertising dollars from huge corporations selling products like cigarettes, Coca Cola and beer.
Exit the music of artists like Percy Sledge, James Brown and Isaac Hayes whose style and lyrics were deemed “too Black.” And, of course, with huge corporations like Clear Channel dominating the markets, there was scant room for community concerns to be discussed over the airwaves.
As we search up and down the dial today, sadly, we see Black-owned radio stations changing their formats first to one thing and then another as they scramble to find a niche where they can make a go of it financially. But, as “Disappearing Voices” makes clear, the problem isn’t the format or a lack of listeners, of which there have always been plenty. The problem is the collaboration between Arbitron, which drastically undercounts Black listenership, and Madison Avenue, which insists that if their clients are to advertise on Black stations at all, they will only do so at discounted rates far below what they pay to advertise on “white” stations. After all, they figure, Blacks will buy their products anyway, so why pay to advertise on these stations?
So the long and the short of it is – contrary to normal business practices – even if a Black-owned station has a highly successful format that attracts a large number of listeners, the station is still denied the advertising dollars warranted by that number, making it almost impossible for the station to operate profitably. That is pivotal in the decline of Black radio.
All this and much more is laid out in Bob Law’s narration, which U-Savior and Black Waxx Multimedia Inc. have done a remarkable job of bringing to life through archival film footage. The documentary is also made richer by rare interviews with the likes of film icon Melvin Van "Peebles, Chuck D of Public Enemy, and a variety of elected officials, journalists and current broadcasters such as Imhotep Gary Byrd, Sanford "The Cut Man" Moore and many other outstanding voices from the Black community.
As U-Savior stated in the Q&A at a recent standing-room-only screening of “Disappearing Voices” in Manhattan, “"In this age of multimedia we have to look for more innovative ways to remain politically relevant. For me, cinema is the most impactful tool because it combines so many different art forms. My filmmaking is an extension of my commitment to the movement and to Black people. By being unafraid to tell the stories that Black people need to hear, being unafraid to jar people with the truth, I show them that there is not only hope, but certainty that we will prevail.”
“Disappearing Voices – The Decline of Black Radio” which was produced by Iyanna Jones and Shawna Glover with Bob Law and U-Savior, is being shown at various film festivals, including the 6th Annual Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival and the Black International Cinema in Germany.
blackstarnews.com
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Africa Dominates First Day of G8 Summit
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Africa dominated the agenda at the annual summit of the Group of Eight Monday, as delegates from the leading industrialized nations discussed a range of issues with their African counterparts, including whether enough aid has been forthcoming to help alleviate poverty.
A contingent of seven African heads of state called upon the G8 leaders to increase agricultural aid, according to a report in the Nikkei newspaper, which cited comments by a Japanese official. Their request was made during a special session held to hear how they were coping with rising food and energy prices.
The African leaders -- representing Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania -- said they needed aid in the form of farm equipment, fertilizers and other technologies, the report said.
Discussions also touched on the political violence that marred the June 27 elections in Zimbabwe. President Bush was cited in an Associated Press report as saying on the sidelines of the summit that he believed the re-election of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was illegitimate.
At their 2005 summit in Scotland, the G8 leaders pledged to double aid to Africa to $25 billion by 2010 and cancel debt. But monitoring carried out by different groups say the G8 is well behind in fulfilling its pledge, with only about $3 billion delivered so far, according to advocacy group Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa.
This year's summit, held at a lakeside resort on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, brought together leaders from 22 nations. The U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Canada, and Russia make up the G8.
The remaining two days of the summit are expected to see greater focus on climate change. The G8 leaders were to take forward a pledge made at last year's summit in Germany to consider halving greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.
However, prospects for a comprehensive agreement on greenhouse-gas limits appeared uncertain amid disagreements over how the plan should work. Concerns that tighter emission caps could further restrict growth at a time when the global economy is decelerating also have been cited.
Japan's seeking to upgrade last year's statement to a formal emission-reduction target.
Speaking jointly with Bush on Sunday, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Japan and the U.S. have reached a "common understanding" on their responsibility to curb climate change.
Asked whether he was successful in getting Bush's support for a G8 agreement on a long-term target to curb greenhouse emissions, Fukuda cited bilateral consultations and and that "through these consultations, I think our views are gradually converging."
"Climate change is one of the most severe challenges that humankind faces today, and ... we shall continue to cooperate with the G8," he said.
For his part, Bush said that he plans to share his views on climate change with the G8 leaders and that he intends to "remind people that the United States and Japan really do lead the world in research when it comes to clean technologies."
Bush added, however, that "I also am realistic enough to tell you that if China and India don't share that same aspiration, that we're not going to solve the problem."
The agenda will also include focus on revitalizing the moribund state of global trade talks. The global crisis of rising food and energy prices has also forced its way on the G8's agenda.
"With regard to soaring food and oil prices, which are having negative impact on the world economy, we agreed there's a need for expeditious efforts on these fronts," Fukuda said Sunday.
The leaders will also talk about common security concerns, especially the North Korean nuclear program as well as Zimbabwe's elections.
The G8's discussions could extend further afield on Wednesday, when the group opens its doors to leaders of some of the major developing nations: China, India, Brazil,
Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa.
By MarketWatch
A contingent of seven African heads of state called upon the G8 leaders to increase agricultural aid, according to a report in the Nikkei newspaper, which cited comments by a Japanese official. Their request was made during a special session held to hear how they were coping with rising food and energy prices.
The African leaders -- representing Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania -- said they needed aid in the form of farm equipment, fertilizers and other technologies, the report said.
Discussions also touched on the political violence that marred the June 27 elections in Zimbabwe. President Bush was cited in an Associated Press report as saying on the sidelines of the summit that he believed the re-election of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was illegitimate.
At their 2005 summit in Scotland, the G8 leaders pledged to double aid to Africa to $25 billion by 2010 and cancel debt. But monitoring carried out by different groups say the G8 is well behind in fulfilling its pledge, with only about $3 billion delivered so far, according to advocacy group Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa.
This year's summit, held at a lakeside resort on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, brought together leaders from 22 nations. The U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Canada, and Russia make up the G8.
The remaining two days of the summit are expected to see greater focus on climate change. The G8 leaders were to take forward a pledge made at last year's summit in Germany to consider halving greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.
However, prospects for a comprehensive agreement on greenhouse-gas limits appeared uncertain amid disagreements over how the plan should work. Concerns that tighter emission caps could further restrict growth at a time when the global economy is decelerating also have been cited.
Japan's seeking to upgrade last year's statement to a formal emission-reduction target.
Speaking jointly with Bush on Sunday, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Japan and the U.S. have reached a "common understanding" on their responsibility to curb climate change.
Asked whether he was successful in getting Bush's support for a G8 agreement on a long-term target to curb greenhouse emissions, Fukuda cited bilateral consultations and and that "through these consultations, I think our views are gradually converging."
"Climate change is one of the most severe challenges that humankind faces today, and ... we shall continue to cooperate with the G8," he said.
For his part, Bush said that he plans to share his views on climate change with the G8 leaders and that he intends to "remind people that the United States and Japan really do lead the world in research when it comes to clean technologies."
Bush added, however, that "I also am realistic enough to tell you that if China and India don't share that same aspiration, that we're not going to solve the problem."
The agenda will also include focus on revitalizing the moribund state of global trade talks. The global crisis of rising food and energy prices has also forced its way on the G8's agenda.
"With regard to soaring food and oil prices, which are having negative impact on the world economy, we agreed there's a need for expeditious efforts on these fronts," Fukuda said Sunday.
The leaders will also talk about common security concerns, especially the North Korean nuclear program as well as Zimbabwe's elections.
The G8's discussions could extend further afield on Wednesday, when the group opens its doors to leaders of some of the major developing nations: China, India, Brazil,
Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa.
By MarketWatch
Affirmative Action Will Be on Ballot in Arizona, Nebraska
LINCOLN, Neb. — Supporters of a proposed ban on race-based affirmative action said Thursday that they've turned in enough signatures to get the measure on the ballots in Nebraska and Arizona.
But the fight isn't over in either state, with opponents of the ban vowing to challenge the validity of some signatures to the petition that has ignited controversy across the country.
A coalition of opponents based in Michigan filed a lawsuit Monday, accusing Arizona petitioners of committing voter fraud and violating election law by using deceptively worded pitches to convince people to sign.
And a group opposing the measure in Nebraska plans to go to the secretary of state with video and footage that appears to show circulators leaving petitions unattended and filling in information for signers. Both are illegal and could invalidate signatures.
"There's a significant difference between submitted signatures and valid signatures," said David Kramer, head of Nebraskans United, which opposes the measure. "We'll wait to see the outcome of that process before litigation."
But in both states, supporters claim to have gathered far more signatures than needed. In Nebraska, they needed 112,000 and turned in 167,000. In Arizona, organizers needed about 230,000 signatures and submitted nearly 335,000.
The proposed constitutional amendment would bar preferential treatment by public entities on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.
Supporters say the measure levels the playing field, giving everyone an equal chance at every job. They say most people support the measure and want the chance to vote on it.
Opponents say it plays to people's fears that unqualified minorities are being picked over qualified non-minorities. Affirmative action, they say, ensures good-faith efforts to recruit minority candidates and keep people accountable for their hiring decisions.
Arizona Deputy Secretary of State Kevin Tyne said, barring any legal challenges, his office would have a final tabulation of signatures by late August. In Nebraska, the count of acceptable signatures will be known by mid- to late-August, said Neal Erickson, deputy secretary of state for elections.
Max McPhail, executive director of group pushing the measure in Arizona, scoffed at allegations of wrongdoing. He said Arizona voters will overwhelmingly side with the initiative in November.
"This radical organization believes people should be classified by the government and placed into racial categories and they should be treated differently," McPhail said. "That's the definition of racism."
In Nebraska, the effort was started by a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who said he saw preferential hiring that infuriated him.
"Nebraskans are speaking loud and clear," Marc Schniederjans said Thursday. "They want the opportunity to end the use of race and gender discrimination and preferences in state employment, contracting and education."
Supporters said they do everything possible to train circulators — both paid and unpaid — to follow the rules. They'll keep gathering signatures in Nebraska on Friday, which is the deadline to turn them in.
The Nebraska and Arizona groups pushing the measure are affiliated with the American Civil Rights Initiative's Super Tuesday for Equal Rights Fund, founded by California businessman and activist Ward Connerly.
Connerly has prevailed three times in past elections, with voters in California, Michigan and Washington approving proposals banning government-sponsored race and gender preferences in public education, state hiring and public contracts.
This year, organizers in Missouri conceded that too few signatures would be gathered by the deadline, and they bowed out in Oklahoma in the face of challenges to the signatures gathered there. A petition drive is still active in Colorado.
foxnews.com
But the fight isn't over in either state, with opponents of the ban vowing to challenge the validity of some signatures to the petition that has ignited controversy across the country.
A coalition of opponents based in Michigan filed a lawsuit Monday, accusing Arizona petitioners of committing voter fraud and violating election law by using deceptively worded pitches to convince people to sign.
And a group opposing the measure in Nebraska plans to go to the secretary of state with video and footage that appears to show circulators leaving petitions unattended and filling in information for signers. Both are illegal and could invalidate signatures.
"There's a significant difference between submitted signatures and valid signatures," said David Kramer, head of Nebraskans United, which opposes the measure. "We'll wait to see the outcome of that process before litigation."
But in both states, supporters claim to have gathered far more signatures than needed. In Nebraska, they needed 112,000 and turned in 167,000. In Arizona, organizers needed about 230,000 signatures and submitted nearly 335,000.
The proposed constitutional amendment would bar preferential treatment by public entities on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.
Supporters say the measure levels the playing field, giving everyone an equal chance at every job. They say most people support the measure and want the chance to vote on it.
Opponents say it plays to people's fears that unqualified minorities are being picked over qualified non-minorities. Affirmative action, they say, ensures good-faith efforts to recruit minority candidates and keep people accountable for their hiring decisions.
Arizona Deputy Secretary of State Kevin Tyne said, barring any legal challenges, his office would have a final tabulation of signatures by late August. In Nebraska, the count of acceptable signatures will be known by mid- to late-August, said Neal Erickson, deputy secretary of state for elections.
Max McPhail, executive director of group pushing the measure in Arizona, scoffed at allegations of wrongdoing. He said Arizona voters will overwhelmingly side with the initiative in November.
"This radical organization believes people should be classified by the government and placed into racial categories and they should be treated differently," McPhail said. "That's the definition of racism."
In Nebraska, the effort was started by a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who said he saw preferential hiring that infuriated him.
"Nebraskans are speaking loud and clear," Marc Schniederjans said Thursday. "They want the opportunity to end the use of race and gender discrimination and preferences in state employment, contracting and education."
Supporters said they do everything possible to train circulators — both paid and unpaid — to follow the rules. They'll keep gathering signatures in Nebraska on Friday, which is the deadline to turn them in.
The Nebraska and Arizona groups pushing the measure are affiliated with the American Civil Rights Initiative's Super Tuesday for Equal Rights Fund, founded by California businessman and activist Ward Connerly.
Connerly has prevailed three times in past elections, with voters in California, Michigan and Washington approving proposals banning government-sponsored race and gender preferences in public education, state hiring and public contracts.
This year, organizers in Missouri conceded that too few signatures would be gathered by the deadline, and they bowed out in Oklahoma in the face of challenges to the signatures gathered there. A petition drive is still active in Colorado.
foxnews.com
Haiti's Children Forced into Slavery
CBNNews.com - Child slavery is against the law in Haiti, but an estimated 300,000 children there are forced to become domestic laborers.
During a five-month long investigation ABC News' Dan Harris uncovered disturbing evidence of modern-day slavery.
Using hidden cameras, Harris found traffickers willing to sell children for as little as $150.
Harris interviewed local pastor Jean-Etienne Charles who preaches against child slavery in Haiti. The pastor explains why some parents feel forced into it.
"I don't think they don't love them," he said. "They love them but because they think they cannot take care of them so they just turn them over to another person and the other person ensures them that they will take care of the child. But when the child gets into the house they do not keep their promises."
Watch Video Here:
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/404964.aspx
During a five-month long investigation ABC News' Dan Harris uncovered disturbing evidence of modern-day slavery.
Using hidden cameras, Harris found traffickers willing to sell children for as little as $150.
Harris interviewed local pastor Jean-Etienne Charles who preaches against child slavery in Haiti. The pastor explains why some parents feel forced into it.
"I don't think they don't love them," he said. "They love them but because they think they cannot take care of them so they just turn them over to another person and the other person ensures them that they will take care of the child. But when the child gets into the house they do not keep their promises."
Watch Video Here:
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/404964.aspx
Board Game Traces Underground Railroad
When playing the new board game created by Mayer Foner, you don't pass go or collect $200, and you don't spin the Life wheel.
But you could be captured and returned to slavery.
A Game About the Pennsylvania Underground Railroad 1820 to 1870 is an educational game where each player becomes a freedom seeker who has to make it from southern Pennsylvania to a safe haven in a southern New York town. The goal is to attain freedom before a slave catcher can capture you.
Each player gets 35 turns to make it to the target region.
Whether you reach freedom or are captured, the true goal of the game is to gain a deeper understanding of a difficult period in our nation's history, Foner said.
"It's very important to get a topic where we uncover the past," said Foner, a Harrisburg resident who has created a few other history-based games involving Pennsylvania.
Through his latest game, players navigate 115 stops of the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. The game includes a color map of 1800's Pennsylvania, dice, player pieces and more.
Mentioned on the map are two suspected Underground Railroad stops in Erie County -- one at the Daniel Dobbins House in the city and another in Waterford.
Another local mention comes through one of the historical events cards with the game. One refers to the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) and the freedom trail.
Although not specifically mentioned in the board game, the St. James A.M.E. Church, 236 E. 11th St., is the oldest African-American church in the city of Erie and it was a known Underground Railroad stop. According to the Rev. Eugene Schoolfield, pastor of the church, it was one of the last stops for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. Schoolfield said that after being fed and clothed, the freedom seekers would move on to North East, where they would get passage to Canada and, ultimately, to freedom.
Schoolfield said he thought slavery was a good issue to learn about and the topic is unique when it comes to board games. He said the interactive event cards allow the players to imagine the setting and attitudes of the times.
So could this game be used in schools?
Jeff Lane, a curriculum facilitator for Millcreek Township School District, said that as long as games such as this one fit the curriculum, he thinks they are good learning tools.
"Our approach is that any of those types of tools that can make a historical event seem more real and tangible, would be something we would use," said Lane, who has been with the district for 34 years.
A Game About the Pennsylvania Underground Railroad 1820 to1870 costs $24.70, with tax, plus the cost of shipping. For more information or to order the game, e-mail Foner at maygam1@verizon.net.
goerie.com
But you could be captured and returned to slavery.
A Game About the Pennsylvania Underground Railroad 1820 to 1870 is an educational game where each player becomes a freedom seeker who has to make it from southern Pennsylvania to a safe haven in a southern New York town. The goal is to attain freedom before a slave catcher can capture you.
Each player gets 35 turns to make it to the target region.
Whether you reach freedom or are captured, the true goal of the game is to gain a deeper understanding of a difficult period in our nation's history, Foner said.
"It's very important to get a topic where we uncover the past," said Foner, a Harrisburg resident who has created a few other history-based games involving Pennsylvania.
Through his latest game, players navigate 115 stops of the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. The game includes a color map of 1800's Pennsylvania, dice, player pieces and more.
Mentioned on the map are two suspected Underground Railroad stops in Erie County -- one at the Daniel Dobbins House in the city and another in Waterford.
Another local mention comes through one of the historical events cards with the game. One refers to the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) and the freedom trail.
Although not specifically mentioned in the board game, the St. James A.M.E. Church, 236 E. 11th St., is the oldest African-American church in the city of Erie and it was a known Underground Railroad stop. According to the Rev. Eugene Schoolfield, pastor of the church, it was one of the last stops for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. Schoolfield said that after being fed and clothed, the freedom seekers would move on to North East, where they would get passage to Canada and, ultimately, to freedom.
Schoolfield said he thought slavery was a good issue to learn about and the topic is unique when it comes to board games. He said the interactive event cards allow the players to imagine the setting and attitudes of the times.
So could this game be used in schools?
Jeff Lane, a curriculum facilitator for Millcreek Township School District, said that as long as games such as this one fit the curriculum, he thinks they are good learning tools.
"Our approach is that any of those types of tools that can make a historical event seem more real and tangible, would be something we would use," said Lane, who has been with the district for 34 years.
A Game About the Pennsylvania Underground Railroad 1820 to1870 costs $24.70, with tax, plus the cost of shipping. For more information or to order the game, e-mail Foner at maygam1@verizon.net.
goerie.com
Monday, July 7, 2008
G8 Accused of Backtracking on Africa Pledges
TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - African leaders urged the Group of Eight rich nations on Monday to keep promises to help their continent and pleaded with them to remember that soaring oil and food prices were making their poverty worse.
The G8 has been accused by activists of reneging on the promise made at its 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to double aid by 2010 to $50 billion, half of which would go to Africa.
"Some African leaders just wanted to emphasize that while appreciating G8 leaders' commitment to help Africa in past G8 summits, they just wanted to point that they would like to see these commitments fully implemented," Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama said.
"They also sent their message that they would really like to see no backtracking, as such, on the part of G8 leaders on their commitments."
The issue of African poverty topped the agenda at the start of a three-day G8 summit in Japan, closely linked with rising food and fuel prices and the contentious topic of how to fight global warming, which the leaders will tackle later in the week.
Citing a final draft of the G8 leaders' communique, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported on Monday that they would call rising food and oil prices a "serious threat."
Japan invited the leaders of Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania to join the day's discussion at a luxury hotel wreathed in fog on the northern island of Hokkaido.
"African leaders asked for the G8 leadership to help those who are hurt significantly by rising oil prices, such as showing their leadership in talks with OPEC countries," a Japanese official said after the meeting.
BETTER MONITORING
World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who was also at the talks, said the leaders discussed a system to better track the aid to ensure commitments were honored.
"There was a desire to have greater comfort on both sides on the delivery. So there was some movement towards the idea that the G8 in their process -- perhaps with their sherpas -- may engage with the African Union commission," Zoellick said.
"Countries need to deliver on their promises, and that was the tone that was generally accepted in the discussion," he told a news conference.
A report last month by the Africa Progress Panel, which was set up to monitor implementation of the Gleneagles commitments, said that under current spending plans the G8 will fall $40 billion short of its target.
This year marks the half-way point to reach eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the U.N. General Assembly in September 2000 to reduce world poverty by 2015.
With grain prices having doubled since January 2006, Africa needs more help, not less, activists say.
A preliminary World Bank study released last week estimated that up to 105 million more people could drop below the poverty line due to rising food prices, including 30 million in Africa.
In Liberia, the cost of food for a typical household jumped by 25 percent in January alone, increasing the poverty rate to over 70 percent from 64 percent, the study found.
Max Lawson, a policy adviser to Oxfam, a British advocacy group, said the summit was arguably the most important G8 gathering in a decade.
"The world is clearly facing multiple crises -- serious, serious economic problems, both rich and poor countries. But it is poor people who suffer the most, suffering hugely from food price increases," Lawson told reporters.
ZIMBABWE DIVISIONS
World leaders took the opportunity to raise the prospect of more sanctions against Zimbabwe unless quick progress is made to end a political crisis after a run-off election in June in which Robert Mugabe was the only presidential candidate.
The opposition candidate withdrew amid widespread violence against his supporters.
They told the African leaders at the gathering to deal with Mugabe or trade and investment on the whole continent would be affected, a Canadian official told reporters.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete suggested that African leaders shared the G8's concerns, but differed over the best response.
The G8 comprises the United States, Japan, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia.
Many critics and even member countries suggest the G8, formed in 1975 with just six members in the wake of the first oil crisis, should expand to take in large developing nations to better represent the world.
On Monday hundreds of demonstrators from Japan and other countries marched in heavy rain toward the summit venue, carrying signs slamming the rich nations' cosy club.
Heavy security meant that they were kept several kilometers (miles) away. Two groups tried to take unauthorized routes but were turned back by dozens of police.
Global warming will be the focus of an expanded meeting on Wednesday that will include China and India, two fast-growing economies that are pumping out more and more greenhouse gases.
But deep divisions within the G8 as well as between rich and poor nations have raised doubts about the chances for progress beyond last year's summit, where the G8 agreed to "seriously consider" a global goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The European Union and green groups are piling pressure on a reluctant United States to agree to a target to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century and back the need for 2020 targets for rich countries as well.
(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo, David Ljunggren, Gernot Heller, Chisa Fujioka, Yoko Kubota and David Fogarty; Writing by Sonya Hepinstall; Editing by Rodney Joyce)
By Yoko Nishikawa and Jeremy Pelofsky for reuters
The G8 has been accused by activists of reneging on the promise made at its 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to double aid by 2010 to $50 billion, half of which would go to Africa.
"Some African leaders just wanted to emphasize that while appreciating G8 leaders' commitment to help Africa in past G8 summits, they just wanted to point that they would like to see these commitments fully implemented," Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama said.
"They also sent their message that they would really like to see no backtracking, as such, on the part of G8 leaders on their commitments."
The issue of African poverty topped the agenda at the start of a three-day G8 summit in Japan, closely linked with rising food and fuel prices and the contentious topic of how to fight global warming, which the leaders will tackle later in the week.
Citing a final draft of the G8 leaders' communique, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported on Monday that they would call rising food and oil prices a "serious threat."
Japan invited the leaders of Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania to join the day's discussion at a luxury hotel wreathed in fog on the northern island of Hokkaido.
"African leaders asked for the G8 leadership to help those who are hurt significantly by rising oil prices, such as showing their leadership in talks with OPEC countries," a Japanese official said after the meeting.
BETTER MONITORING
World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who was also at the talks, said the leaders discussed a system to better track the aid to ensure commitments were honored.
"There was a desire to have greater comfort on both sides on the delivery. So there was some movement towards the idea that the G8 in their process -- perhaps with their sherpas -- may engage with the African Union commission," Zoellick said.
"Countries need to deliver on their promises, and that was the tone that was generally accepted in the discussion," he told a news conference.
A report last month by the Africa Progress Panel, which was set up to monitor implementation of the Gleneagles commitments, said that under current spending plans the G8 will fall $40 billion short of its target.
This year marks the half-way point to reach eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the U.N. General Assembly in September 2000 to reduce world poverty by 2015.
With grain prices having doubled since January 2006, Africa needs more help, not less, activists say.
A preliminary World Bank study released last week estimated that up to 105 million more people could drop below the poverty line due to rising food prices, including 30 million in Africa.
In Liberia, the cost of food for a typical household jumped by 25 percent in January alone, increasing the poverty rate to over 70 percent from 64 percent, the study found.
Max Lawson, a policy adviser to Oxfam, a British advocacy group, said the summit was arguably the most important G8 gathering in a decade.
"The world is clearly facing multiple crises -- serious, serious economic problems, both rich and poor countries. But it is poor people who suffer the most, suffering hugely from food price increases," Lawson told reporters.
ZIMBABWE DIVISIONS
World leaders took the opportunity to raise the prospect of more sanctions against Zimbabwe unless quick progress is made to end a political crisis after a run-off election in June in which Robert Mugabe was the only presidential candidate.
The opposition candidate withdrew amid widespread violence against his supporters.
They told the African leaders at the gathering to deal with Mugabe or trade and investment on the whole continent would be affected, a Canadian official told reporters.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete suggested that African leaders shared the G8's concerns, but differed over the best response.
The G8 comprises the United States, Japan, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia.
Many critics and even member countries suggest the G8, formed in 1975 with just six members in the wake of the first oil crisis, should expand to take in large developing nations to better represent the world.
On Monday hundreds of demonstrators from Japan and other countries marched in heavy rain toward the summit venue, carrying signs slamming the rich nations' cosy club.
Heavy security meant that they were kept several kilometers (miles) away. Two groups tried to take unauthorized routes but were turned back by dozens of police.
Global warming will be the focus of an expanded meeting on Wednesday that will include China and India, two fast-growing economies that are pumping out more and more greenhouse gases.
But deep divisions within the G8 as well as between rich and poor nations have raised doubts about the chances for progress beyond last year's summit, where the G8 agreed to "seriously consider" a global goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The European Union and green groups are piling pressure on a reluctant United States to agree to a target to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century and back the need for 2020 targets for rich countries as well.
(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo, David Ljunggren, Gernot Heller, Chisa Fujioka, Yoko Kubota and David Fogarty; Writing by Sonya Hepinstall; Editing by Rodney Joyce)
By Yoko Nishikawa and Jeremy Pelofsky for reuters