Monday, February 29, 2016

Don't Drink The Kool Aid

                                                     
Image result for free use  2016 political cartoons

From The Ramparts
 Junious Ricardo Stanton
 Don't Believe The Hype, Don't Drink The Kool-Aid

 
            "It may be that during your lifetime you will not be formally judged as to your culpability or lack of culpability for the acts of your leaders. But in relation to Natural law, you will be guilty or not depending on what you do. If you refuse to inform yourself as to what your leaders are doing, if you unthinkingly accept the propaganda and lies of the capitalist cabal, then you will be guilty of the crimes of your rulers. You cannot legitimately excuse yourself with catch-phrases such as: 'My country right or wrong, I'm only following orders, I don't make the laws, I merely carry them out, I'm only agreeing with the ideas of our leaders, If I'm critical of my country's leaders, I'm a traitor.'" America's Suicidal Ignorance http://www.hermes-press.com/insane_masses.htm

            As the campaign rhetoric ratchets and the political circus grinds on, my advice to you is don't fall for the okey-doke, don't believe the hype and don't drink the Kool Aid! The campaign circus is a distraction to deceive you into believing the United States is a real democracy, that you have agency in the political process, that your vote counts. If you listen to what Bernie Sanders is saying he is telling the truth. The system is rigged against ordinary people, the system has been totally corrupted by big money. He is correct a "political revolution" is needed to turn things around.  The problem is he is asking young people to believe in a corrupt system; the very same system that is stealing votes from Bernie Sanders as he speaks via so called "Super Delegates".
            The system is rigged in favor of the insiders. The Super Delegates are not bound by the results of the caucuses or primary elections where the voters cast their votes for the candidate of their choice. Many of these Super Delegates are already beholden to Hillary Clinton who is probably more corrupt than all of the men running in both parties put together. So in this regard, Sanders is being disingenuous. He is setting the young people up for major disappointment just like Barack Obama set folks up for disappointment during his first campaign. (I know defenders of Obama will say the Republicans have obstructed him and tried to sabotage everything he's done. But they are either a-historical or they forgot during the first two years of his presidency, the Democrats controlled both the House and Senate, and all he did during that time was bail out Wall Street!) The system is rigged!
            Both Trump and Sanders are outsiders and this is why they are so wildly popular to their core demographics young people for Sanders and disaffected, frustrated and anxious white males (mostly) for Trump. Both of them say things the "establishment candidates" dare not say. Essentially they talk about class warfare, how ordinary folks are being jerked around by the establishment already in power. Former US Senator John Edwards was run out of the 2008 presidential race for saying the same things that upset the powers that be. But conditions are worse now and much more obvious. Income inequality is at an all time high wealth the gap is wider than ever before. The talking TV heads openly admit the ruling class is apoplectic about Trump and Sander's success and on air they hypothesize how the establishment can take back both parties. They do so because they work for the establishment corporate media that makes millions in ad revenue and consultant fees every national election cycle.
            Now due to the success and popularity of Sander's message Hillary Clinton the consummate Washington insider is forced to call herself a "progressive" and speak in populous jargon when everyone knows she is a bought and paid for shill of Wall Street, Big Pharma, the insurance companies, the Military Industrial Complex, the Bio-Tech industry, private prisons and big money. As Bill's wife she has always served as his campaign surrogate, spokesperson and shill. Hillary was the rah rah girl for his racist welfare "reform" legislation, his anti-crime bills that saw a disproportionate rise in incarceration rates for black and brown folks for the same crimes committed by white folks who didn't go to prison! Sure he later apologized when he was called out for it; but what did he or Senator Hillary Hillary do to reverse that legislation and those policies? Nothing!
            While Bill Clinton did appoint a record number of African Americans to cabinet and subcabinet level positions, people forget that when the Republicans went after Lani Guinier, Clinton left her hangin'. Same thing with Mike Espy and the Tyson Foods Scandal. The Clintons threw Espy under the proverbial bus because there were prior shady connections to them and allegations about Hillary's hanky-panky with Tyson Foods going back to 1978-79 when she and Bill were in Arkansas. The last thing the Clintons wanted was the press to dredge up that scandal in 1997. So they sacrificed the Brother. Espy should have known better than to take the bribes in the first place, but the game is rigged and bribery is how the game is rigged!
            Let's not forget Bill Clinton and Al Gore turned the Democratic Party to the right, courted and wooed Wall Street and Corporate America while selling the party base: organized labor, blue collar workers, African-Americans, women and other splinter groups down the river. They adopted a version of Ronald Reagan's "Southern strategy" because they were both from the South and they courted white Southerners back to the Democratic Party.
            Under Bill Clinton the depression era Glass-Steagall Act, which established a fire wall of separation and safety among investment banks, commercial banks and insurance companies, was repealed. This set the stage for the Wall Street shenanigans that imploded the global financial system in 2007-08 that we are still feeling the consequences of. By the way Blacks and Latinos suffered a greater wealth loss during the 2007-08 economic implosion, home foreclosures, lost wealth and asset devaluation that will never be recouped, than anyone else. Now Hillary expects her House Negroes to ignorantly and dutifully endorse her, stump for her and vote for her. Don't drink the Kool Aid!
            On the Republican side don't go for the okey-doke about "Conservative values". None of those clowns are conservatives. The last real Conservative to run for president was Barry Goldwater who was so out of touch he lost in a humongous landslide to LBJ in 1964. Under Ronald Reagan the man the media the mind control apparatus touts as a "Conservative hero", he violated all the tenants of conservatism: the federal government grew and expanded, Reagan even added a whole new department to the federal bureaucracy, the Department of Veterans Affairs.
            Due to his bogus trickle down economic theory Reagan was forced to raise taxes seven out of eight years he was in the White House and under him the federal deficit ballooned three times what it was before he entered office. In fact when George H.W. Bu$h succeeded Reagan he too was forced to raise taxes which did him in when he ran for re-election against Bill Clinton.
            Don't believe the hype! Conservative is just a word they use to try to trick you. Just like Hilary now calls herself a "progressive". When we look around we see the government in total paralysis and gridlock except for the military industrial complex and deep security police state, which are booming. All the candidates want to spend even more on "national security" at the expense of Main Street, education, the physical infrastructure and social programs.  They want to spend more on war, arm, train and fund more Saudi Arabian Wahhabi fanatics at a time when the US is broke! The federal deficit is over 5 trillion dollars and climbing http://www.usdebtclock.org. The number changes every second, as do the figures for Social Security, Medicare and other unfunded liabilities.  As of this writing this means tax payers are on the hook for $840,360 per tax payer. (Keep in mind by the time you read this the number will be higher!)  The numbers are staggering  and mind boggling for the total national debt. Go to http://www.usdebtclock.org to see a real time up to the minute stats on the debt.
            This is insane and totally unsustainable; which is why I urge you not to fall for the flim flam of the election cycle. The best way to change things is to take to the streets with massive strikes, shut downs, civil disobedience and boycotts. Make the 1% pay attention and act in our interests for a change. Ask yourself is any candidate talking about real peace, shutting down the war economy and converting to a peace time economy? Is any candidate talking about closing the US foreign bases and bringing the troops home? Is any candidate talking about channeling the money we spend for war and the CIA's immoral covert operations into the infrastructure, health care, education or economic development?   What are they saying about protecting citizens rights? Nothing! Even the outsiders Trump and Sanders aren't saying anything like this.
            Please don't allow the politicians to make fools and suckers out of you! Don't believe the hype, don't drink the Kool Aid and don't go for the okey-doke.

                                                            -30-


           





Monday, February 22, 2016

Deep African Thought




                                                From The Ramparts
                                                Junious Ricardo Stanton
                                               African Deep Thought

            "The word 'Ubuntu' comes from one of the Bantu dialects of Africa. It is a traditional African philosophy that gives an understanding of us as human beings in relation with the rest of the world. According to Ubuntu, there exists a common link between us all and it is through this tie, through our interaction with our fellow human beings, that we discover our own human qualities. The Zulus would say, "Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu", which means that a person is a person through other persons. We affirm our humanity when we acknowledge that of others." Ubuntu philosophy as an African philosophy for peace  http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=20359
           
            Last week we discussed the need to rethink Africa and our relationship to the continent and our ancient forbearers. We desperately need to do this because we have been indoctrinated and programmed to see Africa as backward, uncivilized, bereft of culture other than drumming and dancing and as offering nothing noteworthy to humanity. Last week I suggested these notions propagated by our Arab and European enemies were/are designed to assuage any guilt they felt about their invasions, rape, theft, capture, kidnapping and colonization of African people and as a way to justify their pillage, plunder and rapine of Africa.  I say any guilt because they have never repented of their sins of imperialism and plunder over the years. They've only shifted their modus operandi to accommodate and use their advanced material weaponry and psychological warfare so their oppression is less obvious because it is so thorough and all pervasive.
            We need to realize most of what these foreigners, invaders and aliens said/say about Africa is not true. During their invasions they discovered countless ruins of great civilizations, clear cut evidence of advanced cultures and vast treasures that they suppressed, stole, appropriated to whites or extraterrestrials.
             The ruling class who disseminate their "history", archeology, anthropology and "education" are even at odds with first hand eye witness accounts by Arabs and Europeans who chronicled the magnificence of Africa and its people! Their denial of history and African accomplishments speaks volumes about themselves and their deep seated inadequacies. Western "education" reflects the consciousness and values of the ruling class. In this case the megalomaniacal capitalists who financed the industrial and technological "revolutions" that needed brute labor and dim intellect to keep the machines humming, to develop and maintain the wasteful, pollution causing factories, businesses and armies that fueled the rise and expansion of the Western economy.
             Schools and curricula were developed to forge common identities for the emerging European nation states out of diverse ethnic, tribal and racial groups and prepare them to plunder the world, to work in the factories, mills, mines and large farms.  The downside of this ongoing pattern is the ecocide, total disrespect and desecration of nature the West demonstrates with each passing minute, day, month, year.
            Their fantasies about Europe being the epicenter of all human progress gives whites a false sense of superiority and non-Europeans suffering under their imperialistic hegemony suffer from a debilitating sense of inferiority, emptiness, defeat and purposelessness. Part of their brainwashing technique is to always show us as defeated, subjugated and happily acquiescing to their domination.
            But we are not defeated, we've only been brainwashed to think we are. We can use Black History Month to jump start and reenergize ourselves to begin a three hundred sixty five day search for our true selves, our rich history, heritage and innate potential.  We can use Black History Month to decolonize our minds, to deprogram ourselves and erase the lies and distortions we have been feed and forced to internalize about Africa, Africans and ourselves. We can use Black History Month to discover how our ancestors fought back and defeated their enemies.
            As I said last week we are a deep and creative people. The depths of our creativity are not just in the monuments our ancestors left but in the values and consciousness that created and produced them. At the root of those accomplishments was a cosmology, a philosophy and value system which is antithetical to that of the Europeans, what we have been brainwashed and conditioned to internalize. African technology, architecture, building, science and social organization were all based upon deep metaphysical and humanitarian values. These values are found throughout the continent in every indigenous traditional culture and group.
            At the core of these values was/is the notion we are a spiritual people linked and connected to a vast spiritual universe most of which is undetectable to the five senses. All Africans believe in an invisible universal energy/intelligence or force that permeates all creation. Europeans called this idea pan-theism god in everything. Europeans don't believe or comprehend this because they are essentially materialists, they only accept what they can experience via the senses; although their astrophysicists and physicists now say the universe is composed of pure energy that vibrates a differing frequencies from the undetectable ultra-ethereal to the densest levels we call physical matter.
            Our ancestors articulated this thousands of years ago. Read George G.M. James great work Stolen Legacy  to get a glimpse of how a handful of Greek "philosophers" plagiarized African cosmology and philosophy. James points out that to the rank and file Greeks these plagiarized African ideas were totally foreign and incomprehensible.
             The metaphysical ideas of Kemet are thousands of years old and were probably originated by Africans who originated outside the Nile Valley deep in the interior of Africa. We are discovering more about the values that produced the societies in South Africa and we should  explore and learn more about them. Discerning and understanding these values and the consciousness of the people gives us deeper insight into their culture their social organization and how they interacted with each other, others and their immediate and distant environments.
            In South Africa there is an ancient word Ubuntu that to me is the essence of African, holism, deep thought and philosophy. "The word ‘Ubuntu originates from one of the Bantu dialects of Africa, and is pronounced as uu-Boon-too. It is a traditional African philosophy that offers us an understanding of ourselves in relation with the world. According to Ubuntu, there exists a common bond between us all and it is through this bond, through our interaction with our fellow human beings, that we discover our own human qualities. Or as the Zulus would say, 'Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu', which means that a person is a person through other persons. We affirm our humanity when we acknowledge that of others. The South African Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes Ubuntu as:
'It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with Ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming of others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole. They know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. The quality of Ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them.'" https://motivationinspirationandlife.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/ubuntu-i-am-what-i-am-because-of-who-we-all-are/
            Ubuntu is an ancient African concept as is Ma'at (Divine Order, Truth, Balance, Harmony, Justice, Righteousness and Reciprocity). Both were the root and underpinning of African culture, social, ethical and relational values. Both were the philosophical mortar that held the societies together, that allowed them to define themselves within a communal framework and live in a collective, harmonious manner. This philosophy laid the foundation of a genuine attempt to live together in harmony and peace.
            Were the societies perfect? Of course not. They were the first to do it so they learned by trial error, intuition and experience. Our African ancestors put into place family, peer and age social controls to reinforce values of Ubuntu and Ma'at. For thousands of years we worked to live together in harmony because our values were collective and humane not exploitative and rapacious.
            What if we rediscovered, relearned and revitalized Ubuntu and Ma'at then adapted them to modern living as a way of transcending this hostile environment? What if we looked for an alternative to the crass materialism, decadence and emptiness of the West and embraced our own African values and philosophies?  How would the quality of our lives be different if we based our thinking, emotions, actions and relationships on Ubuntu and Ma'at? This is not as far fetched as you might think. We do have agency in this, we can choose the values we live by.
             The Western way is unsustainable, it is built on selfishness, greed, theft, war, exploitation and wanton violence. That model cannot last forever, its inhumane values are destroying the planet as we speak! We see the concomitant moral rot and devastation all around us now. Things are not getting better. We have to search for and find an alternative to European madness and psychopathy.
            Social reform only goes so far in a morally depraved culture like this. We need a total transformation, a turnaround in values and I am suggesting we look to our African ancestral roots for the solutions to these issues. Ubuntu is such a solution.  Africans are a deep and creative people.  As Desmond Tutu said, "The quality of Ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them."
            We need to seriously rethink Africa, embrace our powerful legacy of deep thought, humane values, live and restructure our relationships in accordance to those values. Failure to do so will result in sure spiritual, psychological and physical death.

                                                            -30-


Monday, February 15, 2016

Rethinking Africa and Black History

    

                                             From The Ramparts
                                               Junious Ricardo Stanton                                        
                                    Rethinking Africa and Black History

            "The role racism played and continues to play in shaping world history is a tragedy which negatively influences all people. There are those who are correct in their belief that the race issue is irrelevant and is an impediment to human development. In reality there is only one race, "the human race" which has been proven to have originated in Africa. Yet, for years scientists have ignored and even fabricated data to sow that  humanity developed in Europe or Asia rather than acknowledge Africa is the site where the greatest evidence of early human development is to be found." Anthony T. Browder, Exploding The Myths Vol. 1 Nile Valley Contributions To Civilization page 14.

            Michael Coard my friend and co-activist in our struggle to save Cheyney University recently wrote a column in the Philadelphia Tribune suggesting we should abolish Black History Month. I suspect he used the word abolish for shock value to get folks' attention so they'd read the column. His insightful column shared the role Carter G. Woodson played in the origin of Negro History Week which later evolved to Black History Month. He mentioned the organization Carter G Woodson founded, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. and its mission to promote the study and appreciation of African and African American history and culture.
                 Brother Coard is of the opinion, as am I, that Black History/African History should be expanded and incorporated into every aspect and facet of US pedagogy. I have had discussions with him on this topic and he and I both agree African History is the longest record of human progress and accomplishment and is indeed world history despite the fact much of this history is unknown, suppressed or ignored..
            Africans were the first to walk upright, the first people to cogitate about the meaning and purpose of existence, create and use tools, invent musical instruments, weapons, created metallurgy, develop water way navigation, boats and seafaring. Ancient Africans invented art, science, engineering, healing modalities, philosophy, spiritual awareness, mathematics, writing and formal education. On the social level, Africans invented rituals and ceremonies such as marriage, defined families, created rites of passage, governance and government.
            Unfortunately most of us are not aware of these accomplishments or believe what I'm saying because Europeans, the Johnnie come lately to the human stage, control the historiography and narrative about human progress. To add insult to injury they have disingenuously and arrogantly placed themselves at the epicenter of  all human progress. Even the few whites who attempt to tell the truth about Africa; people like Basil Davidson, Robert Bauval, Johan Heine and others, are ignored or marginalized.  When people of African heritage attempt to set the record straight, right the wrongs and counter the lies of Eurocentric historiography they are denounced, vilified and attacked. We are in a war for truth and the very soul of Africa.
            As African people we must be vigilant and implacable in our quest for the truth and remain steadfast in our mission to set the record straight. New information is coming out all the time about the vast civilizations that developed and flourished on the continent of Africa. We can no longer depend upon Europeans for our history or the truth about humanity. We must realize European leaders have deep psychological insecurities and inadequacies that prompt them to distort and depict history in such a way as to put their forbearers who in terms of global chronology and physical existence were not significant factors on this planet until a mere few thousand years ago as the ultimate in human genius. European elites have created a compensatory narrative of history to be a balm for their inadequacies, inferiority complexes and to justify their abhorrent behavior.
            Africa is a huge landmass, it is the second largest continent on the planet. Africa is not a country. Europe is not a continent contrary to what white folks want us to believe and what we were taught in school!  All of the area of  Europe and North and South America could fit inside of Africa! We have to begin to see Africa in that light, its bigness and vastness as the birthplace of humanity and human genius.
             New discoveries are happening all the time about the brilliance of African people. As great as the Nile Valley Civilizations were, new information is being uncovered that indicates there were advanced civilizations throughout Africa that advanced  culture.
            In their book Black Genesis The Pre Historic Origins and Ancient Egypt Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy two white men state that the artifacts, megaliths and structures at the site called Nabta Playa were in fact created by Black Africans who built those structures to track the stars and for use as ritualistic and ceremonial sites. These Africans were in contact with other communities including the Nile Valley, Nubia (Sudan) and the Mediterranean. They have concluded Nabta Playa were megaliths built and designed by ancient residents to align with the heavens specifically the star Sirius and the three stars of Orion's belt.
            Changes in the earth's climate and topography impacted the area and the expanding desertification of the Sahara covered the lush river beds that had existed there thousands of years ago which played a major role in the life of Nabta Playa.
            Recently megaliths were discovered in South Africa and named Adam's Calendar that similarly align with Orion's stars and other heavenly objects. What were originally thought by Europeans to be cattle pens for livestock are now surmised to be remains of temples, sun and star calendars, remnants of dwellings and other structures. Dating of the stones indicate the structures are over 75,000 old! "Adam’s Calendar is controversially suggested to be the oldest man-made structure in the world.  Sometimes referred to as 'African Stonehenge', it predates both Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza by tens of thousands of years.  Located in Mpumalanga, South Africa it is a standing stone circle about 30 meters in diameter and has been estimated by some accounts to be more than 75,000 years old. Various astronomical alignments have been identified at the site and it is possibly the only example of a completely functional, mostly intact megalithic stone calendar in the world. Scattered throughout the mountains of South Africa are thousands of stone circle ruins.  The first estimates of the number of these ruins was made in 1891 by English explorer Theodore Bent.  He estimated there were about 4,000 in this area of the world.  By 1974 the estimate had risen to 20,000.  Today, researcher and authority on the subject, Michael Tellinger, has estimated the number of ancient stone ruins to be 100,000 or possibly much higher.  Some of these 'stone circles' have no doors or entrances while most are connected by an expansive network of channels that are often misinterpreted as 'roads' by some historians.  This connected grid of circular ruins are immersed in a seemingly never-ending expanse of ancient agricultural terraces surrounding the structures.  Adam’s Calendar is considered to be the most famous among these ruins." http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/adam-s-calendar-oldest-megalithic-site-world-003160
            Interestingly when Europeans first discovered the stone structures of Great Zimbabwe in South Africa they refused to believe Africans could create such magnificent living arrangements so they attributed them to some unknown 'whites civilization'. When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798  he was astonished at what he and his army saw. He immediately experienced cognitive dissonance because in his warped megalomania he could not believe indigenous Africans created such an awesome civilization. Similarly there are whites who say the Adam's Calendar megaliths in South Africa are the work of extraterrestrial aliens, the Annunaki. According to the people who hold this view, the gold mines in the area thousands of years ago were used to mine gold and send it back to the Annunaki's native planet Nibiru.
            I don't doubt extra terrestrials are real or that intra-dimensional (differing frequencies of energy/matter) pathways exist. Nor do I deny there are ways to alter human consciousness to communicate with deceased ancestors and other intelligent spiritual entities our Africans ancestors called Neters, Orisha, or Sunsum for example. This has all been part of African social, cultural and spiritual practices for hundreds of thousands of years. I'm just not into the Annunaki Nibiru stuff. 
            Nevertheless, we need to investigate and discover what made the heavens so fascinating to our ancestors, what motivated them to build such huge megaliths and monuments of stone exactly aligning them to the stars, how did they cart those stones some weighing several tons apiece to the sites throughout Africa and how did they develop the skills to carve and chisel the stone so magnificently? We have a lot to learn about ourselves and our brilliance.
            I'm sharing this information about Adam's Calendar to let folks know how ancient and great Africa and Africans are; to suggest we need to rethink and expand our perspectives on Africa. The prehistoric megaliths in South Africa (Adam's Calendar), Nabta Playa in Nubia, Tiya in Ethiopia, the Bouar in Central Africa, the magnificence of the Nile Valley Civilizations and the more recent megalith discoveries of Ikom in Nigeria demonstrate continent wide genius. We are a deep and creative people.
            The sad reality is most of us are unaware of this genius. We know very little about the ancient African heritage for several reasons but we can rectify this situation. We are the ones who need to get busy, study, do research, support African centered scholars and archeologists in their mission to counter and correct the ignorance and deliberate defamation of Africa and Africans. It is our responsibility to learn, teach and spread the knowledge world wide about our greatness and accomplishments. It's time we rethink Africa and expand our connection to the motherland.  

                                                            -30-




Monday, February 08, 2016

Reclaiming Our African Mind


                                               From The Ramparts
                                                Junious Ricardo Stanton
                                       Reclaiming Our African Mind

            "When we talk about the so-called diagnosing of our people, it involves an analysis not only of the behavior of our people, but of the behavior of the society as a whole; and we must recognize this fact and face up to it as a people. Diagnosis then is not merely procedural or neutral. As we have said, it is political to the core. It is a political act. Through diagnosis, the ruling society applies its ideological measures to the recalcitrant members of that society. It maintains through diagnosis the status quo and most of all, through diagnosis, the society-where that society is unjust- justifies its repressions. Thus then when an individual is labeled in an unjust and unequal society, and is labeled by the very people who maintain its injustice and inequality, then the very diagnosis process itself, and the very labels attached to the victims of that society are the very means by which repression is carried out in that system. Consequently, those of us who are in the so called helping professions and in the business of diagnosing other people's behavior, must recognize the degree to which we are a part of the repressive mechanism of that system." Amos Wilson sThe Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness Eurocentric History, Psychiatry and the Politics of White Supremacy pages 87-88

            When our immediate ancestors were kidnapped, captured, dragged by Arabs and Europeans to Arabia, Yemen, Asia, the Caribbean, North, Central and South America they depopulated Africa by at least fifty million. The Arab slave trade lasted over fourteen hundred years! The European Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade lasted over four centuries. During this time of deportation and depopulation, Africans were subjected to unfathomable atrocities, horrors and desecration (the process of teaching us to ignore and negate our divinity and sacredness). Beatings, rape, mutilation, castration, branding, starvation were just some of the physical atrocities our ancestors suffered at the hands of Arabs and Europeans.  Many did not survive the ordeals of the kidnapping and transportation process. But just as debilitating and damaging were the psychological abuses we suffered and still suffer to this day perpetrated by our Arab and European enemies.
            Our tormentors denigrated us and disparaged our beautiful dark skin while raping and brutalizing our women and children, they terrorized our people to instill fear in us to make us submit to their depravity and bestiality. Our people who survived lives' were ruined by the unceasing abuse, negative programming and endless trauma. In the minds of demented Europeans any African who resisted or tried to run away was considered "crazy", the whites said there was something wrong with us ofr wanting to be free!
            During slavery in the US Samuel A Cartwright (1793- 1863) a physician wrote a book entitled Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race. Cartwright actually invented a "disease" he called Drapetomania that he said applied to Blacks who ran away or resisted the whites' attempts to impose a sub-human status on us. While Cartwright found sympathy and support from Southern planters and the defenders of slavery he was derided by some for his quackery.
            This type of pseudoscience still exits and is used to defame, denigrate and dehumanize African people every chance they get! Europeans and Arabs denigrated us to justify their lust, savagery and rapine. When we resisted and we always did, this made them angry and they had to create a reason to justify their xenophobia, to rationalize their depravity, violence, brutality and their inhumane treatment of "the other". So just as Samuel Cartwright invented Drapetomania to describe Africans who ran away from their white "owners", modern science and psychiatry come up with conditions and diseases to describe our maladaptive responses or outright resistance to European domination and hegemony.
            In the Arab and European warped mind, African people are seen alternatively as beasts of burden, exotic, hip or crazy criminals.  But they also use their pseudoscience to justify their eugenics, sterilization and genocidal programs.  We must realize this is their perception, their bogus pseudoscience and it's their problem not ours!
            One of the most damaging and traumatic experiences in our sojourn amongst these brutes is we never knew how they were going to act, what trifling incident would set them off so we were always leery, anxious and unsure around them, even to this day. White folks prefer us to be "non-threatening", meaning our presence around them doesn't conjure up their deep seated fears and anxiety because they think we will get back at them for all the evil they perpetuate on non-whites around the world. They are also afraid we will see through their compensatory facade of superiority and arrogance and discern they are really insecure and frightened of just about everything. (This is why it is so easy for the ruling elites to scare them about "terrorism" and crime etc.)
             A few weeks ago I wrote about epigenetic inheritance. I mentioned the idea that experiences, emotions and vivid trauma can be passed down from generation to generation outside the DNA is not a new concept, that our African ancestors recognized this eons ago. I suggested you read Dr. Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kau's books on traditional African Cosmology and Self- Healing to get an glimpse of the deep insight Africans had into the life process, healing and wellbeing.  Dr. Fu-Kiau called the process of transmitting energy, skills, talents and health from generation to generation the genetic rope.
            Epigenetic inheritance or the genetic rope can bring discord, disease and ill health into subsequent generations. In his book  Self-Healing Power and Therapy, Old Teachings from Africa Dr Fu-Kiau points out the importance of a community sanctioned marriage partnership, where every effort is made to ensure the couple comes from good parentage, one of high morals and ethics, good health and the whole community blesses the union. He also states the importance of a serene, calm and healthy environment during the prenatal period. "A well constituted seed from a strong healthy and beautiful tree will germinate with energy. It will grow strong, healthy and become productive. Human beings are seeds too. We are mu me'nga (biogenetically) the seeded fruits of our parents, and great-great-great grandparents. This is what the Kongo call N'singa dikanda, "the biogenetic rope of the community of the dead" with whom we are related by blood." Self-healing Power and Therapy Old Teachings From Africa page 27
            Living in a Western socio-economic-political system while offering material creature comforts, at the same time is stultifying, it is discordant, it throws us off of our natural rhythms and like vampires drains us of our energy. The more we attempt to be like Europeans the farther we get from our African moorings, our natural selves and our indigenous cultural frequencies.
            This process is literally making us ill and killing us. We are becoming more materialistic, more prone to disease, our social networks are becoming superficial, they do not provide the psychological and emotional support and nurturing we need to live full and healthy lives. As a consequence we are exhibiting and experiencing more maladaptive symptoms, more dis-ease, more illness, increasing social dysfunction and alienation.
            The key to reversing the negative epigenetic inheritance is to do what our African ancestors called Sankofa, which literally means "go back and fetch it". Go back and learn from the past to build on the future. Going back to fetch, internalize and live African values is the key to our transformation and redemption. However, I must warn you it means rejecting much of what the West holds near and dear such as: selfishness, greed, individualism, materialism, the exploitative dog eat dog social relationships, everything we see on the so called "reality shows" and in their "entertainment industry".
            Part of our transformation is regaining a respect and love for nature, a healthy awe of the natural space all around us. We have to begin to really appreciate true spirituality, the unseen energies, freqeuncies and forces around us and know that we are all linked to and created by ONE SOURCE. We have to relearn how to hear the song of the universe and resonate to the earth's natural rhythm, learn what it means to live in harmony with oneself, others and nature.
            We have been trained and brainwashed to believe progress is the ideal goal that the natural order is antiquated and needs to be replaced. Wake up, the West's desire to usurp, pervert and supplant nature will be the death of us! Remember what happened to Frankenstein!     
            Our only salvation is to reclaim our African mind, to reconnect with nature and get in touch with the animating life force within each of us and all creation. Our adversaries may call us crazy or invent some new word to define our non-conformity and reawakening, so what? We will be doing what is best for us, we will be saving ourselves and the planet.

                                                              -30-


Monday, February 01, 2016

Genocide in Flint Michigan

                                                     
                                                      From The Ramparts
                                                    Junious Ricardo Stanton
                                         Flint Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

            "LANSING  In January of 2015, when state officials were telling worried Flint residents their water was safe to drink, they also were arranging for coolers of purified water in Flint's State Office Building so employees wouldn't have to drink from the taps, according to state government e-mails released Thursday by the liberal group Progress Michigan. A Jan. 7, 2015, notice from the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget, which oversees state office buildings, references a notice about a violation of drinking water standards that had recently been sent out by the City of Flint.
'While the City of Flint states that corrective actions are not necessary, DTMB is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor, positioned near the water fountain, so you can choose which water to drink,' said the notice." Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/28/amid-denials-state-workers-flint-got-clean-water/79470650/


            People are talking about the situation in Flint Michigan where the city's dangerously tainted water supply was known for months by state officials and just like  with the foreknowledge of the September 11, 2001 "attacks", the government whose responsibility it is to protect its citizens did nothing. As the worsening crisis burst onto the national news cycle it has been discovered that the state of Michigan knew of the dangerous consequences of using Flint River water for many months. As reported in the Detroit Free Press newspaper, elevated lead in the blood of Flint children was known for months after the city began using water from the Flint River, "The July data review by the department came amid a growing outcry among Flint residents and local officials about the condition and safety of the city's water. The data showed a spike in the levels of lead in Flint children's blood in July, August and September 2014 — only a few months after the city had switched its water supply from the city of Detroit's system to Flint River water. Email exchanges within the department showed efforts to broaden the data review, to see if the conclusions would change. They didn't. 'Even compared to the previous three years, the portion of first-time EBLL (elevated blood-lead levels) is highest during summer 2014,' health department officials stated in a July 28 memo for Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon"  State's Top Doctor Admits Missed Opportunity For Earlier Flint Response- Keith Matheny Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/23/health-department-flint-water-lead/79174598/
            So there you have it, Michigan officials not only knew about the dangerous health situation in the city of Flint, the state actually sent bottled water into Flint to the state office buildings while they did absolutely nothing for the residents of the city! Now that the crisis has gained international attention Michigan officials including the governor are scrambling to cover their behinds and deflect culpability for their crass malfeasance, insensitivity and racism (Flint Michigan is about sixty percent African-American).
            Fortunately there was a conscientious physician who saw the elevated levels of blood in the school children and sounded the alarm. " It was the work of one Flint pediatrician, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who saw alarming increases in the incidences of children with elevated blood-lead levels at her Hurley Medical Center that ultimately led the state health department's team of epidemiologists — a group Wells called among 'the most advanced epidemiology bureaus, in terms of PhD status' — to what was really happening in Flint. Hanna-Attisha held a news conference in Flint on Sept. 25 to announce her findings. A total of 1,746 test results from Flint children seen at Hurley were compared against 1,640 results from elsewhere in Genesee County. The number of Flint children with elevated blood-lead levels — 5 micrograms per deciliter or more — jumped from 2.1% in the 20 months prior to Sept. 15, 2013, to 4% between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 of 2015. In certain ZIP codes, the change was even more troubling — jumping from 2.5% of the children tested to 6.3%."  ibid
            According to the Detroit Free Press newspaper, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services responded with an E-mail the day after Dr. Hanna-Attisha's press conference which was also sent to Michigan Governor Rick Synder claiming their methodology differed from Dr. Hanna-Attisha's saying the state had studied five consecutive years throughout all of Flint not just one hospital and their results were different.
            But when the state reviewed Dr. Hanna-Attisha's research and methodology and replicated it; they came to the same conclusions she did. Not only did Dr Hanna-Attisha warn the state about dangerous water quality in Flint, Michigan State Representative Sheldon Neely whose district covers Flint also alerted the state, including Governor Rick Snyder, of the danger of water pollution in the Flint infrastructure shortly after Flint went off the Detroit water system and switched to the Flint River. Neely's letter was dated January 29 2015 but Michigan officials did nothing.
            In his letters, Neely who is African-American asked the state for help. He asked for debt forgiveness so Flint could improve their antiquated water system's infrastructure. But at that time the issue was merely the dark color and foul smell of the tap water, toxicity was not then a concern. Neely also wrote to the Michigan State Attorney General asking for an investigation. The Attorney General responded to Neely's letter but no investigation was initiated.
            Does anyone believe that if Flint Michigan was an affluent white community this would have happened or been allowed to fester for so long without any substantive action? Does anyone believe Governor Rick Snyder will be indicted or held accountable for this mess? I certainly don't. In America the super rich and certain politicians seem above the law; they can commit crimes of omission, crimes of commission and crimes against humanity and nothing happens to them.
            To add insult to injury the residents of Flint are not able to sue the government to recover the money they have to put out to remedy the problem caused by the city. "As has been widely reported, 6.4 percent of Flint's nearly 8,500 kids are now testing for dangerously high lead levels in their blood stream — up from 3.6 percent before the city switched them from Detroit water to toxic Flint River water. Many of these children have developed rashes and brittle bones and face the prospect of permanent brain damage, diminished IQ, and behavioral difficulties. But kids are not the only ones hurt. Around 85 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease — a particularly horrible form of pneumonia — compared to around six to 13 in a normal year. Ten of them have already died. Even if Obama expands free Medicaid for all Flint children, the rest of the medical bills — deductibles and co-pays — for middle-income Flint families will be substantial. Nor is that their only financial exposure. The lead poisoning occurred because Flint failed to treat water with phosphorous, something that corroded the coating inside city pipes and home plumbing, allowing lead to leach in. Though switching back to treated water has diminished the lead content for now, the danger of lead poisoning will always remain unless all the piping is refitted. But replacing city pipes will cost up to $1.5 billion. This would be difficult for even a financially healthy city, let alone one that can't even pay its existing bills and has unfunded pension liabilities of $1.1 billion." Flint Water Victims Can't Sue the Government, That's The Other Crime- Shikha Dalmia The Week http://theweek.com/articles/601521/flint-water-victims-cant-sue-government-thats-another-crime
            The real travesty is that the residents of Flint cannot sue their city to recover their losses or remediate the problems! "What's more, each homeowner will face at least $4,000 to install a new water heater, plumbing system, and a new service line connection, as The Washington Post points out. And then of course there is the hit to Flint's already declining property values as the city further cements its reputation as an irremediable basket case... The main reason that they don't have a prayer of collecting much more is something called the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Under this doctrine, citizens are barred from suing their government for screw-ups that it has caused in the course of discharging a core function unless the government itself consents. Some very narrow exceptions exist but it is very difficult to make them stick. Some activist lawyers in Michigan have come up with a creative constitutional argument to try and surmount the sovereign immunity hurdle. They have filed a class action lawsuit on the grounds that the government failed to provide Flint residents with equal protection under the 14th Amendment. But this rationale is a stretch that many plaintiffs' lawyers are having trouble buying." ibid
            Very few are mentioning race and class in this crisis. Flint is a former industrial city that has fallen on hard times due to deindustrialization and the shipping of auto jobs overseas. Forty-two percent of Flint residents live below the poverty line and the city is fifty-seven percent Black. The fact most Flint residents are African-American and are either working class or poor are factors in this situation. This makes matters worse because they lack the economic and political clout to galvanize enough support to get the government to act on their behalf.      "For decades, the residents of Flint have borne a disproportionate environmental burden, so much so that they have brought administrative complaints alleging that the amount of pollution residents faced violated their civil rights. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), like every federal agency, must abide by Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and ensure recipients of federal aid do not discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin. Title VI violations can occur if state environmental agencies, for example, permit hazardous and/or polluting industries disproportionately in communities of color. If a community feels Title VI has been violated, they can file an administrative complaint with the EPA's Office of Civil Rights. Flint has a long history of advocates fighting against environmental racism. In 1997, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality granted an air permit to the Select Steel "mini-mill" to operate in Flint, even though the mill would send up to 100 tons of lead and other hazardous pollutants into the city's air every year. Residents were already dealing with pollution from the nearby Genesee Power Station when the Select Steel permit was granted. Advocates in Flint had filed administrative complaints with the EPA for Title VI violations against the Genesee Power Station in 1994. The EPA never responded and the power station started operating in 1995." Flint Water Crisis Is A Classic Case of Environmental Racism  by J. Mijin Cha http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/266850-flint-water-crisis-is-classic-case-of-environmental
            Because of these facts I believe Flint has been the victim of genocide and a crime against humanity.

                                                            -30-