Togo

Recentley Togo has been in the news over election failures. I wanted to give some information as to what kind of wonderful country Togo is.

And how bad policies have held the people of Togo down for so many years.


The Togolese Republic is a country in West Africa, bordering Ghana in the west, Benin in the east and Burkina Faso in the north. In the south, it has a small Gulf of Guinea coast, on which the capital Lomé is located.


History of Togo

No one is quite sure what was happening in Togo before the Portuguese arrived in the late 15th century. Various tribes moved into the country from all sides - the Ewé from Nigeria and Benin and the Mina and Guin from Ghana. All of them settled on the coast. When the slave trade began in earnest in the 16th century, several of the tribes - especially the Mina - became agents for the European traders, travelling inland to buy slaves from the Kabyé and other northern tribes. Denmark staked a claim on Togo in the 18th century, but in 1884, Germany signed a deal with a local king, Mlapa, and 'Togoland' became a German colony. The Germans brought scientific cultivation to the country's main export crops (cacao, coffee and cotton) and developed its infrastructure to the highest level in Africa. The Togolese, however, didn't appreciate some of Germany's tighter reins on their lives, and when WWI broke out, they welcomed British forces with open arms. Encircled by British and French colonies, the Germans blew up their expensive radio station and surrendered - the Allies' first victory in the war. Togo was split between the British and the French by League of Nations mandates after the war ended in 1918.

During the colonial period, the Mina grew in political and economic influence by virtue of their coastal position and long association with Europeans. The Ewé, by contrast, were divided with the dissection of Togoland, and political groups on both sides began to agitate for reunification. Hopes for unity were dashed when British Togoland voted to be incorporated into Ghana, then on the brink of independence. When the French side declared its independence in April 1960, that half of the country became known as Togo.

In 1963, Togo became the first country on the continent to experience a military coup following independence (Africa has averaged at least two a year since then, plus many more unsuccessful attempts). President Sylvanus Olympio was shot by Sgt. Etienne Eyadema, and Olympio's brother-in-law, Nicolas Grunitzky, returned from exile and was put in charge, but he too was deposed in January 1967 by then Lt Colonel (later General) Étienne Eyadéma.

Eyadéma set out to unify the country, insisting on one trade union confederation and one political party. After nearly losing his life in a plane crash that he (at least publicly) chalked up to an assassination attempt, Eyadéma nationalised the country's phosphate mines and ordered all Togolese to take an African name. He renamed himself Gnassingbé Eyadéma.

It was, however, only a perfunctory strike against colonialism: Togo remained heavily dependent on the West. From the late 1960s to 1980, Togo experienced a booming economy, built largely on its phosphate reserves, and Eyadéma tried to mould the country into a traveller's and investor's paradise. His plans proved overly ambitious, and when the recession of the early 1980s hit and phosphates prices plummeted, Togo's economy fell into ruin. The government was plagued by numerous coup attempts. Eyadéma himself fired many of the shots that killed 13 attackers in a 1986 coup.

In the early 1990s, the international community began putting pressure on Eyadéma to democratise, a notion he resisted with a few waves of his trademark iron fist. Pro-democracy activists - mainly southern Mina and Ewé - were met with armed troops, killing scores of protesters in several clashes. The people of France and Togo were furious, and under their backlash Eyadéma gave in. He was summarily stripped of all powers and made president in name only. An interim prime minister was elected to take over command, but not four months later his residence was shelled with heavy artillery by Eyadéma's army. Their hardball tactics continued into 1993.

Terror strikes against the independent press and political assassination attempts became commonplace, while the promised 'transition' to democracy came to a standstill. The opposition continued to call general strikes, leading to further violence by the army and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of southerners to Ghana and Benin. Using intimidation tactics and clever political machinations that disqualified one opposition party and caused another to refuse to participate, Eyadéma won the 1993 presidential elections with more than 96% of the vote. In the years following, opposition parties have lost most of their steam and Eyadéma's control has become almost as firm as before the crisis began.

In August 1996, Prime Minister Edem Kodjo resigned, and the planning minister, Kwassi Klutse, was appointed prime minister. Eyadéma won another five-year term in June 1998 with 52% of the vote, nearly being defeated by Gilchrist Olympio, son of Sylvanus Olympio. Later investigations revealed widespread human rights abuses.

In 2002, in what critics called a 'constitutional coup', the national assembly voted unanimously to change the constitution and allow Eyadéma to 'sacrifice himself again' and run for a third term during the 2003 presidential elections. The constitutional change eliminated presidential term limits. Meanwhile, Gilchrist Olympio's attempts to beat the man who overthrew his father were scuppered yet again when he was banned from running on a tax-law technicality.

Despite allegations of electoral fraud, Eyadéma won 57% of the votes in the 2003 elections, which international observers from the African Union described as generally free and transparent. For many Togolese, there was little optimism for the future and a prevailing sense of déjà vu as Eyadéma extended his record as Africa's longest-serving ruler.

On February 5, 2005, Eyadéma died of a heart attack. Shortly afterwards, his son Faure Gnassingbé was named by Togo's military as the country's leader, raising numerous eyebrows. The constitution of Togo declared that in the case of the president's death, the speaker of Parliament takes his place, and has 60 days to call new elections. However, on February 6th, Parliament retroactively changed the Constitution, declaring that Faure would hold office for the rest of his father's term, with elections deferred until 2008.

The African Union described the takeover as a military coup d'état.

International pressure came also from the United Nations.

Within Togo, opposition to the takeover culminated in riots in which four people died.

In response, Gnassingbé agreed to hold elections in April 2005. On February 25, Gnassingbé resigned as president, soon after accepting nomination to run for the office in April. Parliament designated Deputy Speaker Bonfoh Abbass as interim president until the inauguration of the election winner. [Togo was until 1918 a German colony.

French Togoland became Togo in 1960 after the expiration of the French-administered UN trusteeship on April 27 of that year. Despite the facade of multiparty rule instituted in the early 1990s, the government continues to be dominated by the military, which has maintained its power continuously since 1967. The first president of Togo, Sylvanus Olympio (1901-1963) took office as soon as Togo gained independence in 1960. When he refused to let 626 Togolese veterans of the French army, many of whom had fought in Indochina and Algeria, join Togo's army, they deposed him in a military coup on January 13, 1963. He was killed the next day. A civilian president, Nicolas Grunitzky (1913-1969) was installed, but exactly four years later, there was another military coup. Grunitzky fled the country and was killed in a car crash in the Côte d'Ivoire.


Geography
Main article: Geography of Togo

Togo is located in Western Africa. It is a small sub-Saharan nation in Afrca. It borders the Bight of Benin in the south. Ghana lies to the west, Benin to the east. To the north Togo is bound by Burkina Faso.

In the north the land is characterized by a gently rolling savannah in contrsat to the centre of the country which is characterized by hills. The south of Togo is characterized by a plateau which reaches to a coastal plain with extensive lagoons and marshes. The land size is a little bit smaller than West Virginia with 21 927 mi2, with a density of 232 people/mi2.

Economy
Main article: Economy of Togo

This small sub-Saharan economy is heavily dependent on both commercial and subsistence agriculture, which provides employment for 65% of the labor force. Cocoa, coffee, and cotton together generate about 30% of export earnings. Togo is self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs when harvests are normal, with occasional regional supply difficulties. In the industrial sector, phosphate mining is by far the most important activity, although it has suffered from the collapse of world phosphate prices and increased foreign competition.


Map of TogoTogo serves as a regional commercial and trade center. The government's decade-long effort, supported by the World Bank and the IMF, to implement economic reform measures, encourage foreign investment, and bring revenues in line with expenditures has stalled. Political unrest, including private and public sector strikes throughout 1992 and 1993, jeopardized the reform program, shrunk the tax base, and disrupted vital economic activity. The 12 January 1994 devaluation of the currency by 50% provided an important impetus to renewed structural adjustment; these efforts were facilitated by the end of strife in 1994 and a return to overt political calm. Progress depends on following through on privatization, increased openness in government financial operations (to accommodate increased social service outlays), and possible downsizing of the military, on which the regime has depended to stay in place. Lack of aid, along with depressed cocoa prices, generated a 1% fall in GDP in 1998, with growth resuming in 1999. Assuming no deterioration of the political atmosphere, growth should rise to 5% a year in 2000 - 2001.

Politics of Togo

Togo's transition to democracy is stalled. Its democratic institutions remain nascent and fragile. President Eyadéma, who ruled Togo under a one-party system for nearly 25 of his 37 years in power, died February 5, 2005. Under the constitution, the speaker of parliament, Fanbare Ouattara Natchaba, should have become president, pending a new election. Nevertheless, the army announced that Eyadéma's son Faure Gnassingbé, also known as Faure Eyadéma, who had been the communications minister, would succeed him. The stated justification was that Natchaba was out of the country.

Gnassingbé resigned on February 25.

No group has a monopoly on Hate

April 11, 2005
By Marianna Hernandez

Invoking the name “Martin Luther King” and screaming “Black Power!” a gang of up to 30 black teens attacked four white girls in Marine Park in what police are saying is not a bias crime.

The March 30 attack was a hot topic at state Senator Marty Golden’s recent public safety forum.

According to witnesses and parents of the victims, four young girls from St. Edmund’s had the day off from school due to Easter recess. They were playing basketball during dismissal from nearby Marine Park Junior High School, when several Marine Park students demanded to use the court.

After adults intervened and asked them to wait their turn, the teens left - but returned in a pack of up to 30, both boys and girls, and stormed into the park.

Witnesses say the attackers were all black and called their victims “white crackers” during the bloody melee, which raged for almost 20 minutes.

“This is not being looked at as a bias crime,” NYPD Deputy Inspector Kevin McGinn said at the meeting.

“When I pulled my car up to the park, I witnessed a pandemonium I’ve never seen in my life,” said Debbie, a mother of one victim who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

Her daughter ran to the car, screaming, “They’re going to kill us,” Debbie recalled. My daughter was so scared and kids were running around like crazy.

Pursued by dozens of teens, some of the girls were “literally running into traffic to save their lives,” she said.

One girl made it as far as a nearby house, but was dragged by her hair back into the playground by a “wolf pack of children,” Debbie said.

The St. Edmund girls were bleeding and beaten to the point where they had cuts, scrapes, footprints and dirt all over them - and the attackers surrounded her car and started pounding on the windows as Debbie tried to herd the terrified children into her vehicle.

Two girls were hospitalized - one with a broken nose and one with a head injury, according to Edith, the mother of another girl.

According to Lt. Mark Molinari, from the 63rd Precinct, five of the assailants, who attend Marine Park Junior High School, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault. But since the attackers are all under the age of 16, they are facing charges in Family Court, and were arraigned last Friday.

“I always felt safe in the area and after hearing about such an incident, you start thinking what else could happen. These situations should not be happening, not in Marine Park, or anywhere else, and the safety of our kids should be of most importance,” said Denise Williams, a parent from Gerritsen Beach.

“It’s getting progressively worse in the community - these types of gangs are not only taking away our parks, they‚re ruining our neighborhoods,” said parent Cathy Miller.

“Nobody expects their child to go to a park and get beaten, with footprints on her head and arm, everyone just wants their child to be safe,” said Edith. “Everyone should have the right to be safe from teens, to small kids, to seniors, to mothers with strollers, no one should fear of being beaten while enjoying a day in the park.”

Hip hop duo OutKast and Rosa Parks

Hip hop duo OutKast and US civil rights activist Rosa Parks have settled a long-running legal wrangle over the use of her name as a song title.
The award-winning act and record company Sony BMG have not admitted any wrongdoing, but have agreed to help educate young people about her work.

Ms Parks, 92, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in 1950s Alabama, sparking a boycott.

OutKast and other artists are to record a tribute CD to the civil rights icon.

Accomplishments

A television programme about Ms Parks' legacy will also be made and distributed to schools on DVD.

OutKast and their record company will work in conjunction with the Raymond and Rosa Parks Institute of Self Development on a number of educational initiatives.

Sony BMG's lawyer Joe Beck said the defendants were pleased with the settlement.

"We think it will go a long way towards teaching a new generation about Rosa Parks and her accomplishments.

OUTKAST'S SONG ROSA PARKS

It was nominated for a Grammy award in 1999
It includes the lyrics: "Hush that fuss, everybody move to the back of the bus"
It is taken from the band's 1998 Aquemini album
The album has sold about 2.5 million copies

"We appreciate Ms Parks' and her lawyers' acknowledgment of the First Amendment in protecting artistic freedom," he said.

Legal action was originally taken in 1999, in which Ms Parks alleged defamation and and trademark infringement because OutKast had not asked permission to use her name.

This challenge was dismissed on the grounds that use of Ms Parks' name was permitted under the First Amendment.

A second case worth $5bn (£2.65bn) was brought by Ms Parks' lawyers in 2004, which was aimed at OutKast's record companies rather than the band.

Relatives of Ms Parks, who has suffered from dementia since at least 2002, criticised her lawyers and carers, saying there would have been no objection to the song if she had been in good health.

They alleged that she was probably unaware of the legal action.



Former Mayor of Detroit Dennis Archer, who became Ms Parks' guardian in October, also welcomed the settlement.

"The sacrifices and work that Mrs Parks has made during her life to ensure that all people are treated fairly under the law is acknowledged and appreciated by both sides," he said.

Ms Parks was arrested in 1955 after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in the segregated southern US.

The 381-day bus boycott was organised by civil rights leader Martin Luther King as a result of her action.

Expressions of Ethnic Animosity!

Expressions of Ethnic Animosity
Compiled by James P. Lubinskas

Walter Mosley (President Clinton's favorite mystery writer, in his novel) "Dad?" "Yes?" "Why do black men always kill each other?"
(Long pause.) "Practicing." After repeating these lines to him, I ask, "You mean, practicing to kill whites?" He smiles that crooked
half-smile again, nods and says, "Yup." (added 2/3/00)

Susan Sontag (white intellectual) "The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean Algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government,
baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, and Ballanchine ballets don't redeem what this particular
civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history." (added 1/30/00)

Buffy Sainte-Marie (American Indian folk singer) "Here the melting pot stands open -- if you're willing to get bleached first" (added
1/30/00)

John Updike (white novelist) "Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them" (added 1/30/00)

James Baldwin (black novelist) "The future is ...black" (added 1/30/00)

Louis Farrakhan (black religious leader) "The Titanic was a great ship, but is was captained by one depicted as being arrogant, and
warnings of an iceberg were not heeded. America is like that great ship. Unfortunately, at the helm may be a proud captain. And
black people could become the iceberg that causes the sinking of this great ship called the United States of America." (added 1/30/00)

Leroi Jones (black writer) "If you are black the only roads into the mainland of American life are through subservience, cowardice
and loss of manhood. These are the white man's roads." (added 1/30/00)

Thurgood Marshall (black Supreme Court justice) "Some years ago I said in an opinion that if this country is a melting pot, then
either the Afro-American didn't get in the pot or he didn't get melted down." (added 1/30/00)

Sonny Carson (black activist in New York when asked if he was anti-Semitic) "I am anti-white. I don’t limit my ‘anti’ to just one
group of people." [Mark Mooney, "Ex-Dinkins Organizer Boasts He’s ‘AntiWhite’" New York Post, October 21, 1989, p. 3.]

Miles Davis (black jazz musician) "If somebody told me I had only one hour to live, I’d spend it choking a white man. I’d do it nice
and slow." [Miles Davis Can’t Shake Boyhood Racial Abuse, Jet March 25, 1985.]

Eldridge Clever (former Black Panther leader on why he raped white women) "Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that
I was defying and trampling upon the white man’s law, upon his system of values, and that I was defiling his women . . . ." [Eldridge
Clever, Soul on Ice, McGraw-Hill, 1968, p.14.]

Gus Savage (former U.S. Representative from Chicago to a white member of the press) "I don’t talk to you white motherf*ckers. . . .
You bitch motherf*ckers in the white press. . . . F*ck you, you motherf*cking *sshole . . . white devils." [Marilyn Rauber, "Reporter
Says Black Rep Hurled Racial Slurs," New York Post, June 27, 1991, p. 18.]

Chino Wilson (in an editorial in the Daily Collegian, campus newspaper at Penn State University) "After looking at all the evidence
there is only one conclusion: white people are devils . . . . I believe that we must secure our freedom and independence from these
devils by any means necessary, including violence. . . . To protect ourselves we should bear arms (three handguns and two rifles,
maybe an M-16) immediately and form a militia. . . . So black people, let us unite, organize and execute." [Chino Wilson, "African
American Students Should Not Trust ‘Devilish’ White People," The Daily Collegian, Penn State University, January 28, 1992.]

Khalid Abdul Muhammed (former assistant to Louis Farrakhan - current leader of the New Black Panther Party) -’Hollywood is
owned by these so-called Jews. Look at the movies they make about us, Black people killing Black people. Let’s make some
revolutionary movies where we kill white people in the movie. Kill ‘em so hard you have to cover up your popcorn from the blood
spraying out of the screen." [Speech at San Francisco State University, May 21, 1997.]

Khalid Abdul Muhammed (on what South African blacks should do to any whites who refuse to leave South Africa): "We kill the
women. We kill the babies. We kill the blind. We kill the cripples. We kill them all. . . . When you get through killing them all, go to
the goddamn graveyard and kill them a-goddamn-gain because they didn’t die hard enough."[November 29, 1993 speech at Kean
College in Union, New Jersey.]

Mary Frances Berry (current head of U.S. Commission on Civil Rights) - "Civil rights laws were not passed to protect the rights of
white men and do not apply to them." [Civil Rights Under Reagan, San Francisco, ICS Press, 1991, p. 141.]

Augustin Cebada (Head of the Brown Berets, a Hispanic activist organization at a July 4, 1996 rally) - "We’re here today to show
L.A., show the minority people here, the Anglo-Saxons, that we are here, the majority, we’re here to stay. We do the work in this
city, we take care of the spoiled brat children . . . we are the majority here and we are not going to be pushed around."

Augustin Cebada "Go back to Simi Valley, you skunks! Go back to Woodland Hills! Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth
Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white
people, it is your duty to die. . . ." [Quoted in Barbara Coe, Reconquista, The Takeover of America, California Coalition for
Immigration Reform, 1998, p. 20.]

Prof. Jose Angel Gutierrez (University of Texas, Arlington) "We have an aging white America. They are dying. They are shitting in
their pants with fear! . . . I love it!" - [Speech of Jan. 1995, quoted in Coe, Reconquista, p. 16.]

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (in a conversation with Justice William Douglas about racial preferences) "You guys
have been practicing discrimination for years. Now it is our turn." [William O. Douglas, The Court Years 1939-1975, New York,
Random House, 1980.]

bell hooks (black professor of English at City College of New York) "I am writing this essay sitting beside an anonymous white male
that I long to murder." [From her book A Killing Rage, quoted by David Horowitz in Hating Whitey, Spence Publishing, 1999, p. 31.]

Sister Souljah (rap artist and black activist) "If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people."
[R.W. Apple "Jackson Sees ‘Character Flaw’ in Clinton’s Remarks on Racism, New York Times, June 19, 1992.]

Ice Cube (black rapper and actor, on the anti-Korean album Death Certificate)
"So don’t follow me up and down your market.
or your little chop suey ass will be a target.
So pay your respects to the black fist
or we’ll burn your store right down to a crisp."
[Eric Briendel, "Rap Star to Koreans: ‘We’ll Burn Your Stores,’ " New York Post, Dec. 5, 1991, p. 29.]

Amiri Baraka (black poet and writer)
"You cant steal nothin from a white man, he’s already
stole it he owes
you anything you want, even his life. All the stores will
open up if you
will say the magic words. The magic words are: Up against
the wall
motherfucker this is a stick up!"
[Quoted in Anne Wortham, The Other Side of Racism, Ohio State University Press, 1981, p. 257.]

Mario Obledo - (1998 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and former head of Mexican American Legal Defense and Education
Fund - MALDEF) "California is going to be a Mexican state, we are going to control all the institutions. If people don’t like it they
should leave." [Tom Leykis Radio Show, June 7, 1998.]

Malcolm X - "The death of over 120 white people is a very beautiful thing." [Speech in Los Angeles on June 3, 1962 upon learning of
a plane crash. He also said on numerous occasions, "The white man is the devil."]

Rev. James Cone - "What we need is the destruction of whiteness, which is the source of human misery in the world." [Quoted in
David Horowitz, Hating Whitey, Spence Publishing, 1999, p. 44.]

Art Torres (former chairman, California Democratic Party) - "Remember, [Proposition] 187 [the measure to cut public benefits to
illegal aliens] is the last gasp of white America." [The Social Contact, Summer 1998, p. 290.]

Willie Brown (Mayor of San Francisco to a white parent complaining that affirmative action would penalize his children) "I don’t care
about your idiot children." [The Social Contract, Summer 1998, p. 290.]

The Republican Party - "Anti Slavery Party"

The Republican Party - GOP History



The Republican Party was born in the early 1850's by anti-slavery activists and individuals who believed that government should grant western lands to settlers free of charge. The first informal meeting of the party took place in Ripon, Wisconsin, a small town northwest of Milwaukee. The first official Republican meeting took place on July 6th, 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. The name "Republican" was chosen because it alluded to equality and reminded individuals of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. At the Jackson convention, the new party adopted a platform and nominated candidates for office in Michigan.

In 1856, the Republicans became a national party when John C. Fremont was nominated for President under the slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont." Even though they were considered a "third party" because the Democrats and Whigs represented the two-party system at the time, Fremont received 33% of the vote. Four years later, Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican to win the White House.

The Civil War erupted in 1861 and lasted four grueling years. During the war, against the advice of his cabinet, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves. The Republicans of their day worked to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery, the Fourteenth, which guaranteed equal protection under the laws, and the Fifteenth, which helped secure voting rights for African-Americans.

The Republican Party also played a leading role in securing women the right to vote. In 1896, Republicans were the first major party to favor women's suffrage. When the 19th Amendment finally was added to the Constitution, 26 of 36 state legislatures that had voted to ratify it were under Republican control. The first woman elected to Congress was a Republican, Jeanette Rankin from Montana in 1917.

Presidents during most of the late nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century were Republicans. While the Democrats and Franklin Roosevelt tended to dominate American politics in the 1930's and 40's, for 28 of the forty years from 1952 through 1992, the White House was in Republican hands - under Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush. Under the last two, Reagan and Bush, the United States became the world's only superpower, winning the Cold War from the old Soviet Union and releasing millions from Communist oppression.

Behind all the elected officials and the candidates of any political party are thousands of hard-working staff and volunteers who raise money, lick the envelopes, and make the phone calls that every winning campaign must have. The national structure of our party starts with the Republican National Committee. Each state has its own Republican State Committee with a Chairman and staff. The Republican structure goes right down to the neighborhoods, where a Republican precinct captain every Election Day organizes Republican workers to get out the vote.

Most states ask voters when they register to express party preference. Voters don't have to do so, but registration lists let the parties know exactly which voters they want to be sure vote on Election Day. Just because voters register as a Republican, they don't need to vote that way - many voters split their tickets, voting for candidates in both parties. But the national party is made up of all registered Republicans in all 50 states. For the most part they are the voters in Republican Presidential primaries and caucuses. They are the heart and soul of the party. Republicans have a long and rich history with basic principles: Individuals, not government, can make the best decisions; all people are entitled to equal rights; and decisions are best made close to home. The symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. During the mid term elections way back in 1874, Democrats tried to scare voters into thinking President Grant would seek to run for an unprecedented third term. Thomas Nast, a cartoonist for Harper's Weekly, depicted a Democratic jackass trying to scare a Republican elephant - and both symbols stuck. For a long time Republicans have been known as the "G.O.P." And party faithfuls thought it meant the "Grand Old Party." But apparently the original meaning (in 1875) was "gallant old party." And when automobiles were invented it also came to mean, "get out and push." That's still a pretty good slogan for Republicans who depend every campaign year on the hard work of hundreds of thousands of volunteers to get out and vote and push people to support the causes of the Republican Party.

From the Beginning
Abolishing slavery. Free speech. Women's suffrage. In today's stereotypes, none of these sounds like a typical Republican issue, yet they are stances the Republican Party, in opposition to the Democratic Party, adopted early on.
The First Republican
With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the Republicans firmly established themselves as a major party capable of holding onto the White House for 60 of the next 100 years.
The Bull Moose
Assuming the presidency when McKinley was assassinated in 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt busied himself with what he considered to be the most pressing issue, ensuring the Republican principle of competition in a free market.
Leading The Way On the Issues
Some people have argued that Republicans fought to give blacks equal rights and then the vote as a way of wresting control of the South away from the Democrats. While it is true that almost all blacks voted Republican, these were very dangerous and controversial issues at the time
Republican Women
Standing in sharp contrast to the two existing political parties' present stereotypes regarding minorities and women, once again the Republican Party was the vanguard in relation to women

Howard University College Republican's

Chairman Mehlman greets Howard University College Republican Co-Chairman Adam Hunter as part of the Republican National Committee's Conversations With The Community tour.

Bush with real "Hotel Rwanda" heroe

President Bush and the First Lady meet with the actual heroes of whom the hit movie "Hotel Rwanda" was based upon in the West Wing of the White House recently

President Bush discusses new Job Training Program

President Bush discusses his new Job Training Proposal in Maryland recently.

Chairman Mehlman meets with Alveda C. King

Chairman Mehlman meets with Alveda C. King, the niece of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after giving a speech, recently.

President Bush greets youngsters in Philadelphia

President Bush greets youngsters in Philadelphia

Sec. Rod Paige and Pres Bush

The President with Education Secretary Rod Paige at the signing of the historic No Child Left Behind Act
The President greets volunteers at a stop in Georgia

146,000 New Jobs Created

Friday, February 04, 2005

146,000 New Jobs Created in January--20 Straight Months of Job Gains


Today’s News: Jobs Data Shows President’s Economic Policies are Driving Steady Job Growth

146,000 jobs were created in January.
Under the leadership of President George W. Bush, the economy has posted 20 straight months of job gains.
2.7 million jobs have been created since May 2003, according to the payroll survey.
The national unemployment rate ticked down 0.2 percentage point to 5.2% in January, the lowest rate since September 2001. The rate is down 1.1 percentage points from a peak of 6.3% in June 2003. At 5.2%, the unemployment rate is well below the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Job creation was up in 48 of the 50 states in the last year, and the unemployment rate was down in all regions and in 43 of the 50 states.

Employment in financial services, leisure and hospitality, and education and health services is at an all-time high.

Since the national peak in June 2003, unemployment rates have fallen across all levels of education, races, and ages.


More to Do: The President’s Second Term Agenda Will Create More Jobs, Security, and Opportunity in a Growing Economy


The President’s tax cuts are creating jobs and continue to strengthen the economy, yet there is still more to do. The President has said that he will do everything he can to ensure that every American who wants a job can find one, which is why he continues to push for pro-growth policies that create jobs. He further opposes tax increases that would add a burden to working families and set back our economy. The President’s six-point plan:


Allows families to plan for the future by making tax relief permanent.
Encourages investment and expansion by restraining Federal spending and reducing regulation.
Makes our country less dependent on foreign sources of energy through a comprehensive national energy policy.
Expands trade and levels the playing field to sell American goods and services across the globe.
Protects small business owners and workers from excessive frivolous lawsuits that threaten jobs across America.
Lowers the cost of health care for small businesses and working families through Association Health Plans, tax-free Health Savings Accounts, tax credits for employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts, Medical Liability Reform, and health information technology.

To keep our economy growing, the President will lead a bipartisan effort to reform and simplify the tax code.

The President’s budget reflects the country’s most important priorities of fighting the war on terror and ensuring economic growth and recovery.


To help workers find better, higher-paying jobs, the President has proposed to double the number of people served by our principal job training program and has increased funding for community colleges.

Helping America’s BlackYouth!

Helping America’s Youth

Tonight’s Action

Tonight, the President spoke of the enduring values that keep America strong – freedom, faith, and family – and highlighted the need to encourage communities to focus on our most-at-risk youth.

The President is fully committed to empowering more of America’s families, schools, and faith-based and community organizations to address some of our toughest social problems and help those most in need. President Bush’s new proposals focus on an outreach to young, at-risk Americans to help them make healthy decisions and to help America’s youth overcome the danger of gang influence and involvement.

Background on Presidential Action

Young Americans Are At Risk. While many trends in negative risk-taking among youth are heading in the right direction, risky behaviors, including illegal drug and tobacco use, violence and early sexual activity, are still among the top causes of disease and early death among youth. In addition, more children are growing up in homes without a father present, and studies show that an overwhelming number of violent criminals in the United States are males who grew up without fathers. Research has shown that the more children are connected to family, school, and community, the less likely they are to engage in risky behaviors.

Statistics show that boys are at greater risk than girls for learning disabilities, illiteracy, dropping out of school, substance-abuse problems, violence, juvenile arrest, and early death caused by violent behavior. Many adolescent boys also struggle with literacy skills and aggressive behavior. Boys often begin to fall behind girls in elementary school, which leads to higher dropout rates and juvenile delinquency, and they often show signs of behavioral problems early in life. As boys grow older, risk behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse become more prevalent, and gang involvement increases.

The Department of Justice estimates approximately 750,000 individuals are now members of gangs – one-third of which are under the age of 18. While gang membership among girls is becoming much more common, the overwhelming majority of gang members are male – representing more than 90% of the gang population in large cities. Without prevention and intervention, these problems will continue.

The President and Mrs. Bush are Committed to Helping America’s Youth.

The President announced a new outreach effort, to be led by Mrs. Laura Bush, to focus on young Americans, especially young men, to help ensure a successful future. During the next year, the President and Mrs. Bush are committed to: Highlighting the importance of focusing on at-risk youth, especially boys; Educating parents and communities on the importance of promoting positive youth development; and Informing parents and communities of strong and successful prevention and intervention programs that work by highlighting the efforts of coaches, pastors, and mentors from around the country, especially those with programs that focus on boys.

The President’s focus on young Americans will include support for programs that help youth overcome the specific risk of gang influence and involvement.

The President proposed a three-year, $150-million initiative to help youth at risk of gang influence and involvement. Through grants to faith-based and community organizations targeting youth ages 8-17, the initiative will help some of America’s communities that are most in need. These organizations will provide a positive model for youth – one that respects women and rejects violence.

The Nine Lies of Fahrenheit 9/11

The Nine Lies of Fahrenheit 9/11


Fahrenheit Lie #1

National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice is depicted in the movie telling a reporter, “Oh, indeed there is a tie between Iraq and what happened on 9/11.”
The scene deceptively shows the Administration directly blaming Saddam and his regime for the attacks on 9/11 by taking her comments out of context. Now read the entire statement made by Ms. Rice to the reporter:
“Oh, indeed there is a tie between Iraq and what happened on 9/11. It’s not that Saddam Hussein was somehow himself and his regime involved in 9/11. But if you think about what caused 9/11, it is the rise of ideologies of hatred that led people to drive airplanes into buildings in New York.” (CBS News, November 28, 2003 Interview)
Fahrenheit Lie #2

In the film, Moore leads viewers to believe that members of bin Laden’s family were allowed to exit the country after the attacks without questioning by authorities. o The September 11th commission, on the other hand, reported that 22 of the 26 people on the flight that took most of the bin Laden family out of the country were interviewed and found to be innocent of suspicion. (Sumana Chatterjee and David Golstein, “Analyzing ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’: It’s Accurate To A Degree,” Seattle Times, 07/05/04)

The commission reported that “each of the flights we have studied was investigated by the FBI and dealt with in a professional manner prior to its departure.”
Fahrenheit Lie #3

Moore claims that James Bath, a friend of President Bush from his time with the Texas Air National Guard, might have funneled bin Laden money to an unsuccessful Bush oil-drilling firm called Arbusto Energy.

Bill Allison, managing editor for the Center for Public Integrity (an independent watchdog group in Washington, D.C.), on the other hand, said, “We looked into bin Laden money going to Arbusto, and we never found anything to back that up,” (Sumana Chatterjee and David Golstein, “Analyzing ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’: It’s Accurate To A Degree,” Seattle Times, 07/05/04)
Fahrenheit Lie #4

The movie claims that the Bush administration “supported closing veterans hospitals.” o “The Department of Veterans Affairs did propose closing seven hospitals in areas with declining populations where the hospitals were underutilized, and whose veterans could be served by other hospitals” (Dave Kopel, Independence Institute, “Fifty-nine Deceits In Fahrenheit 9/11,” http://i2i.org/ Accessed, 07/11/04)

But Moore’s film fails to mention that the Department also proposed building new hospitals in areas where needs were growing, and also proposed building blind rehabilitation centers and spinal cord injury centers (News Release, Department of Veterans Affairs, www.va.gov, 10/24/03)
Fahrenheit Lie #5

Conspiracy theories abound about the reasons for the War on Terror, but none is more outlandish than the one propagandized in Moore’s film: that the Afghan war was fought solely to enable the Unocal company to build an oil pipeline (the plan for which was abandoned by the company in 1998).

Moore “suggests that one of the first official acts of Afghan President Hamid Karzai … was to help seal a deal for … Unocal to build an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. It alleges that Karzai had been a Unocal consultant.” (emphasis added) (Sumana Chatterjee and David Golstein, “Analyzing ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’: It’s Accurate To A Degree,” Seattle Times, 07/05/04)

Unocal spokesman, Barry Lane, says unequivocally, “Karzai was never, in any capacity, an employee, consultant or a consultant of a consultant,” and Unocal never had a plan to build a Caspian Sea pipeline. (Sumana Chatterjee and David Golstein, “Analyzing ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’: It’s Accurate To A Degree,” Seattle Times, 07/05/04)

Moore mentions that the Taliban visited Texas while President Bush was governor to discuss a potential project with Unocal.

While Moore implies that then-Governor Bush met with the Taliban, no such meeting occurred. The Taliban delegation did, however, meet with the Clinton Administration on this visit. (Matt Labash, “Un-Moored From Reality; Fahrenheit 9/11 Connects Dots That Aren’t There,” Weekly Standard, July 5-July 12 Issue)
Fahrenheit Lie #6

Even readily available figures are exaggerated for effect in Fahrenheit 9/11. The claims have a basis in reality, making them believable, but are false nonetheless. ü In the film, Moore asks Craig Unger, author of House of Bush, House of Saud, “How much money do the Saudis have invested in America, roughly?” to which Unger responds, “Uh, I’ve heard figures as high as $860 billion.”

The Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy reports that worldwide Saudi investment approximated $700 billion – a figure much lower than Unger alleges the Saudi government to have invested in the U.S. (Tanya C. Hsu, Institute For Research: Middle Eastern Policy, “The United States Must Not Neglect Saudi Arabian Investment,” www.irmep.org, Accessed 07/11/04)

The Institute reports that 60 percent of that $700 billion – roughly $420 billion, less than half of what Unger “heard” – was actually invested in the United States by the Saudi government.
Fahrenheit Lie #7

“Moore’s film suggests that [President] Bush has close family ties to the bin Laden family – principally through [President] Bush’s father’s relationship with the Carlyle Group, a private investment firm. The president’s father, George H.W. Bush, was a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group’s Asian affiliate until recently; members of the bin Laden family – who own one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest construction firms – had invested $2 million in a Carlyle Group fund. Bush Sr. and the bin Ladens have since severed ties with the Carlyle Group, which in any case has a bipartisan roster of partners, including Bill Clinton’s former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt. The movie quotes author Dan Briody claiming that the Carlyle Group ‘gained’ from September 11 because it owned United Defense, a military contractor. Carlyle Group spokesman Chris Ullman notes that United Defense holds a special distinction among U.S. defense contractors that is not mentioned in Moore’s movie: the firm’s $11 billion Crusader artillery rocket system developed for the U.S. Army is one of the only weapons systems canceled by the Bush administration.” (Dave Kopel, Independence Institute, “Fifty-nine Deceits In Fahrenheit 9/11,” http://i2i.org/ Accessed, 07/11/04)

“There is another famous investor in Carlyle whom Moore does not reveal: George Soros. But the fact that the anti-Bush billionaire [Soros] has invested in Carlyle would detract from Moore’s simplistic conspiracy theory.” (Dave Kopel, Independence Institute, “Fifty-nine Deceits In Fahrenheit 9/11,” http://i2i.org/ Accessed, 07/11/04)
Fahrenheit Lie #8

Not revealing relevant facts is dishonest enough. But to paint the Bush Administration as sympathetic and friendly to the Taliban prior to September 11, is not only dishonest, but maliciously so. ü Moore shows film of a March 2001 visit to the United States by a Taliban delegation, claiming that the Administration “welcomed” the Taliban official, Sayed Hashemi, “to tour the United States to help improve the image of the Taliban.”

But the Administration did not welcome the Taliban with open arms. In fact, the State Department rejected the Taliban’s claim that it had complied with U.S. requests to isolate bin Laden.

To demonstrate even further the Administration’s contempt for the Taliban and its illegitimacy, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher – on the day of the terrorist regime’s visit – said, “We don’t recognize any government in Afghanistan.”
Fahrenheit Lie #9

Moore does more than simply downplay the threat posed to the U.S. by the former Hussein regime in Iraq. He goes so far as to assert that Saddam “never threatened to attack the United States.”

If by “attack the United States” one interprets this claim to mean that Saddam never threatened to send troops to the United States, then Mr. Moore has a point. ü But Saddam Hussein clearly sought to attack the United States within his own sphere of influence, even though he didn’t have the resources to attack U.S. soil from his side of the world:

On November 15, 1997, “the main propaganda organ for the Saddam regime, the newspaper Babel (which was run by Saddam Hussein’s son Uday), ordered: ‘American and British interests, embassies, and naval ships in the Arab region should be the targets of military operations and commando attacks by Arab political forces.’” (Dave Kopel, Independence Institute, “Fifty-nine Deceits In Fahrenheit 9/11,” http://i2i.org/ Accessed, 07/11/04)

In addition, “Iraqi forces fired, every day, for 10 years, on the aircraft that patrolled the no-fly zones and staved off further genocide in the north and south of the country,” (Source: New York Times, 12/1/03).

Saddam Hussein also provided safe haven to terrorists who killed Americans, like Abu Nidal; funded suicide bombers in Israel who certainly killed Americans; and ran the Iraqi police, which plotted to assassinate former President George Bush.
CRITICISM OF FAHRENHEIT 9/11

Newsweek Columnists Isikoff & Hosenball: Moore “Twists and Bends” The Facts. “But for all the reasonable points he makes, on more than a few occasions in the movie Moore twists and bends the available facts and makes glaring omissions in ways that end up clouding the serious political debate he wants to provoke.” (By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, “More Distortions From Michael Moore,” Newsweek Online, 6/30/04)

Christopher Hitchens: Fahrenheit 9/11 “Sinister Exercise In Moral Frivolity.” “To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of ‘dissenting’ bravery.” (Christopher Hitchens, “Unfairenheit 9/11; The Lies Of Michael Moore,” Slate, 6/21/04)

Former NY Mayor Ed Koch: Fahrenheit 9/11 “Propaganda” And “Screed.” “I am a movie critic, so I went to see “Fahrenheit 9/11.” The movie is a well-done propaganda piece and screed as has been reported by most critics. It is not a documentary which seeks to present the facts truthfully. The most significant offense that movie commits is to cheapen the political debate by dehumanizing the President and presenting him as a cartoon. … Now that no WMDs have yet been found, was the invasion to end the reign of Saddam Hussein, who had killed and tortured hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, still supportable? Moore thinks not. I think, yes. The movie’s diatribes, sometimes amusing and sometimes manifestly unfair, will not change any views. They will simply cheapen the national debate and reinforce the opinions on both sides.” (Ed Koch, Op/Ed, “Koch: Moore’s Propaganda Film Cheapens Debate, Polarizes Nation,” World Tribune, 6/29/04)

Washington Post Columnist Richard Cohen: Fahrenheit 9/11 “Silly” And “Incomprehensible.” “I brought a notebook with me when I went to see Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ and in the dark made notes before I gave up, defeated by the utter stupidity of the movie. … ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ is not, as proclaimed, a sure sign that Bush is on his way out but is instead a warning to the Democrats to keep the loony left at a safe distance. … Moore’s depiction of why Bush went to war is so silly and so incomprehensible that it is easily dismissed. As far as I can tell, it is a farrago of conspiracy theories. … It is so juvenile in its approach, so awful in its journalism, such an inside joke for people who already hate Bush, that I found myself feeling a bit sorry for a president who is depicted mostly as a befuddled dope. I fear how it will play to the undecided.” (Richard Cohen, “Baloney, Moore Or Less,” The Washington Post, 7/1/04)

Fact Sheet: The 9/11 Commission Report

Fact Sheet: The 9/11 Commission Report


The President welcomes the report. The President appreciates the hard work of the Commission to develop this report, and he welcomes the Commission's recommendations.

The Commission found that al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks and that government institutions failed to adapt to the threat of terrorism over more than a decade, enabling the terrorists to exploit "deep institutional failings." The Commission report notes that "the September 11 attacks fell into the void between the foreign and domestic threats."

The Commission confirms that the blame for the 9/11 attacks lies squarely, and exclusively, with the al Qaeda network. It is clear that, as the threat of international terrorism evolved over more than a decade after the end of the Cold War, our national security and counterterrorism institutions did not evolve adequately to best protect against the threat.
Under Republican and Democratic Administrations and Republican and Democratic Congresses, the kinds of systemic changes and reforms that might have made it more difficult for the terrorists to strike us on 9/11 did not take place.

The Commission's report makes the case for the policies the Bush Administration has been pursuing in the War on Terror. The country on the right track in addressing many of the problems identified by the Commission, but we still have more work to do. The President and Congress have taken important steps to protect America, including:
Implementing a new policy on terrorism by holding terrorist groups and the states that sponsor them to account, working to end all terrorist sanctuaries worldwide, and not allowing dangerous threats to gather overseas unchecked.
Strengthening relationships and promoting democratic reform in the broader Middle East.
Transforming the FBI into a world-class agency focused first on preventing as well as investigating terrorism and other crimes.
Conducting the largest reorganization of the Federal government since 1947 by creating the Department of Homeland Security, bringing unparalleled focus and resources to homeland security efforts.
Dramatically increasing security on airplanes and other transportation systems, on our borders, and in our ports - and providing significantly increased support for America's first responders.
Breaking down the unnecessary "wall" between intelligence and law enforcement with the USA PATRIOT Act and internal procedural and guidelines reforms. Already, the USA PATRIOT Act has been instrumental in helping to break up terror cells and plots in Portland, Oregon; Buffalo, New York; Northern Virginia; and elsewhere.
Closing dangerous gaps between counterterrorism intelligence collected abroad and at home by creating the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) and consolidating all U.S. government watchlist information on suspected terrorists in the new Terrorist Screening Center (TSC).
Creating U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), establishing a four-star unified military commander with a principal responsibility for defending the homeland with capabilities and resources that did not exist before 9/11.
Establishing robust biodefense capabilities to detect attacks and provide countermeasures.

The Commission's report suggests ways to strengthen many of the reforms that are already underway under the President's leadership. For example, President Bush has called for intelligence reform and has laid out the guiding principles for reform, including:
1) increasing both the quality and quantity of human intelligence collection to disrupt terrorist attacks;

2) investing more in our technical intelligence capability so that we stay ahead of our enemies' changing communications technology and tactics; and

3) ensuring the most effective and coordinated use of these resources and personnel, because there are multiple agencies with intelligence responsibilities.

President Bush is also committed to ensuring that our law enforcement and intelligence officers have the information and authorities they need to detect and prevent terrorist attacks.

The Commission report provides useful ideas for strengthening our intelligence capabilities. The Commission has provided a number of important recommendations that should help to guide the reform debate in the Administration and Congress. President Bush and his team will closely study the Commission's report, along with the recent Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report and the work of other independent studies, as we prepare to take the next steps on intelligence reform.

The Bush Administration provided unprecedented access and cooperation to enable the Commission to do its work. In his remarks today, Chairman Kean, speaking on behalf of the Commission, thanked the President "for unprecedented access to documents, and cooperation from [the] administration." Chairman Kean noted that "We were able to see things that no commission or no member of Congress had ever seen . . . ." In response to more than 500 separate information requests from the Commission, the Administration provided more than 900 interviews with current officials, including the most senior officials of the Federal government; almost 50 current officials for public hearings; 2.5 million pages of documents, including, by far, the most comprehensive outside review of sensitive documents in our Nation's history; more than 1,000 audio tapes and CDs; and more than 170 briefings.

As the Commission notes, there is no such thing as perfect security in our vast, free Nation - but the Bush Administration is committed to taking every necessary step to protect America and bring the terrorists to justice.

Meet Jarod Tolson!

Meet Jerod Tolson

When native Washingtonian and third generation entrepreneur isn't running the family buisness--Tolson Logistics-- begun by his grandfather, Jerod Tolson is working to build the party base in Ward 7 and will attend the Republican Convention as a Bush alternate

Republican since: Birth


Republican because: I relate to the idelas of the Party and believe that less government regulation is better for the economy.


Describe your republican community activism: I have been Chairman Ward 7 Since August of last year. It has been a learning experience for me as this was my first foray into local politics. I have found it to be challenging given the demographics and the mindset of my community as well as the city. The rewarding part of the appointment has been the opportuntiy to relay the message of the Party to residents in the community and to get them thinking outside of the traditional "Democratic" box.


I attended the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Apr 15-18, 2004. I wanted to see how it felt to participate in a large Republican event; and Florida, being the pivotal state in the 2000 election, seemed like the perfect place to explore. The guest speakers included Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (MD), Gov. Haley Barbour (MS), J.C. Watts, fmr Congr. (OK), Ed Gillespe, RNC Chairman and Gov. Jeb Bush (FL). I met a lot of interesting people of varying ethnicities from across the country.


Advice you’d give the President: Don't waver in the face of adversity.


Favorite Republican: George W. Bush


Last book read: What Color is a Conservative? - J.C. Watts


Best vacation: Disney World, Orlando FL circa 1993 with family.

Howard Univeristy "Finaly" gets a Republican Club!

Grassroots in Action: an Interview with Adam Hunter

The DCRC is proud to announce that after a ten-year hiatus, Howard University once again boasts a Republican club thanks to the organizing efforts of Adam Hunter. We’d like to introduce you to Adam—and his club—because he’s reaching out to republicans one at a time by stimulating dialog on the issues.

DCRC: Adam, tell us about yourself.
AH: I’m a sophomore dual majoring in Political Science and Business. I’ve been elected to student government and serve as Director of Internal Affairs. My hometown is Somerset, New Jersey.

DCRC: What motivated you to start a Republican Club at Howard?
AH: National College Republicans came to Howard to recruit. I liked what they had to say, and they encouraged me to start a club.

DCRC: Tell us what your club has been doing.
AH: Our goal is to educate Howard students on the issues, and we do that by distributing literature on campus, holding biweekly meetings, and debating the issues with the Democratic club—all of which have been fairly covered by the campus newspaper, TV station, and radio station. One of our special events occurred last November: Republican Week, which featured a panel discussion, chapel services, an appearance by Star Parker, and a mix and mingle with Young Republicans from other local universities. Our big event this semester occurs April 17th, when we hosting a Spring Soiree to celebrate the history of African-Americans in the Republican Party.

DCRC: How many members do you have?
AH: Approximately 70, although our active core numbers between 10-15

DCRC: We understand your parents are lifelong Democratic activists and party leaders in New Jersey. Why are you a Republican?
AH: I have worked on campaigns throughout childhood and was raised to be active. It was during middle school when I first examined the issues, and I believed in the Republican positions on educational choice, school vouchers, and local control of education. I also share Republican beliefs on tax cuts, abortion, welfare reform, and faith-based initiatives. I have been active with Young Republicans and county Republicans since high school

DCRC: What politicians do you admire?
AH: Bill Frist stands out as he embodies compassionate conservatism His beliefs are close to my own, and I also respect the medical outreach work that he’s done in Africa. I also admire Elizabeth Dole’s approach to politics, J.C. Watts, and Colin Powell.

DCRC: What advice would you give Republican leaders to attract more minorities?
AH: It is as simple as reaching out because there are many young people willing to listen. The Republican Party has solutions. People on campus are thinking differently, and there are many “closeted” Republicans. I would also advise stressing the history of African-Americans in the Republican Party.

Rep Cynthia Mckinney's Conspiracies

Congresswoman representing the 4th District of Georgia, DeKalb County

Member of the radical Progressive Caucus

Voted to legalize the killing of babies after they are born
Voted against a resolution supporting Israel in the War on Terror, but refused to vote for a resolution condemning the anti-Semitic statements of a disciple of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
Told a Saudi prince she would accept his offer of $10 million that New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani rejected because it came with anti-Semitic strings attached
Provided propaganda for Communist FARC guerrillas in Colombia
Voted against school vouchers for black parents in Washington, D.C.
"We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11. What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered??.What do they have to hide?" -- Rep. Cynthia McKinney
"Ms. McKinney is a racist and anti-Semite of the first rank. If she were white and male, she would be David Duke." -- Peter Swartz, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University



Cynthia McKinney is a Democratic Member of Congress who represents the Fourth District of Georgia, which includes DeKalb County, Emory University, and the famous huge carving of Confederates Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on Stone Mountain. The Second District is 49.5% African-American, 11% Hispanic, 37.7% Caucasian, and cast 70 percent of its votes for Democrat Al Gore in 2000.



In 2002, after serving 10 years in Congress, McKinney was swept out of office by controversy and lost the 2002 Democratic primary election. In 2004 she won 51 percent of the votes as one of six candidates in that primary and went on to regain this congressional seat, winning almost 64 percent of the vote in the November general election.



Cynthia McKinney was born in 1955 in Atlanta. Billy McKinney, her father, was one of the first black police officers in Atlanta and in 1973 was elected to the state legislature's House of Representatives. She has spoken often of being carried on her father's shoulders during civil rights marches during the 1960s. She earned an undergraduate degree in International Relations in 1978 from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Back in Georgia McKinney taught at Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta and at Agnes Scott College in Decatur.



In 1988 McKinney was elected to the state legislature, where with her father's help she was given a seat on the redistricting committee that in 1991 re-drew congressional districts, some of which were gerrymandered to elect African-Americans. In 1992 McKinney ran and won in one of those districts she helped design.



Congresswoman McKinney became an outspoken member of the radical Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives and will continue to vote with this caucus. The group Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) rated her voting record 95 percent on the left side of legislation. She also joined the Congressional Black Caucus.



In 2002 McKinney joined 43 other members of Congress, all but two of whom were Democrats, in signing a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell alleging human rights violations by the Government of Colombia in its war against the drug-running guerrilla terrorist Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, FARC, established as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. This letter, published worldwide and used as pro-FARC anti-Government of Colombia propaganda, made no mention of FARC's thousands of murders, atrocities and support from Cuban Marxist dictator Fidel Castro and from Venezuela's Marxist caudillo Hugo Chavez. The letter urged Secretary Powell "to take our concerns into account when determining whether to approve additional military aid for Colombia this year."



In November 2004 Colombian Defense Minister Alberto Uribe announced that informants had warned of a FARC plot to assassinate President George W. Bush during his brief visit that month to Colombia.



McKinney had a 100 percent pro-union voting record, according to the AFL-CIO. She also had a solidly "pro-education," voting record, according to the teachers' union -- the National Education Association (NEA), which shares her ideology. Jackson earned this honor in part by voting in 1998 to deny vouchers to the 70 percent of African-American parents in Washington, D.C. who want to liberate their children from inferior, unionized public schools.



McKinney opposed the tax cuts proposed by President George W. Bush, endorsing instead the Progressive Caucus' "American People's Dividend," a payment of $300 to every person in America, the same for all whether a person paid $1 million in taxes or $0.



Although nominally a Roman Catholic, McKinney had a 100 percent pro-choice voting record, according to the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), a group that strongly backed her for re-election in 2002. In 2000 she voted against legislation to ban partial-birth abortions.



In 2000 Cynthia McKinney was one of only 15 Members of Congress to vote against the "Born-Alive Infants Protection Act." This measure provided that if during the procedure commonly called a "partial birth abortion" a nearly-born infant slipped entirely out of its mother before its brains were vacuumed out, it would acquire the human rights of a person already born. Rep. McKinney, in other words, along with seven of her Progressive Caucus colleagues voted to permit what some would call "Post-natal abortion" and others would call infanticide, the killing of an already-born baby that its mother had wanted to abort.



In 1999 she voted against banning physician-assisted suicide. In 1994 she voted to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment.



In 1998 McKinney voted against ending racial preferences in college admissions.



During the 2000 presidential campaign, wrote journalist Michael Barone, "following a complaint by black Secret Service agents, [McKinney's] office issued a statement attacking [Democratic candidate] Al Gore's low 'Negro tolerance level' and accused him of rarely having more than one black agent with him."



In 2001 she voted for legislation to impose nationwide same-day voter registration on election days. This would have eliminated most checks and safeguards that prevent fraudulent voting.



In 1994 McKinney refused to vote for a resolution condemning the anti-Semitic speeches of Khalid Muhammad, a firebrand disciple of Nation of Islam leader Rev. Louis Farrakhan.



Beginning in 1997, McKinney voted repeatedly to cut U.S. aid to Israel.



With regard to the environment, McKinney joined with such radical eco-activist groups as the Rainforest Action Network and the Earth Island Institute in endorsing the Heritage Tree Preservation Act, which seeks to ban all logging in old-growth forests.



In 2001 the United States withdrew most of its diplomatic participation in the United Nations' World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia And Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa after it became clear that the gathering would give prominence not only to anti-American but also to anti-Israel and anti-Semitic leaders. Despite this, seven members of Congress including Congresswoman McKinney attended, and they plus another seven congressional Democrats lent their prestige to what became an anti-Jewish hatefest.



In May 2002 McKinney was one of 17 House Democrats who voted against a House Resolution (HR 392) expressing support for Israel as it faced terrorist attacks that killed more than 600 civilians, including several Americans. The resolution she opposed stated that, "the United States and Israel are now engaged in a common struggle against terrorism."



In 2002, after McKinney lost her bid for the Democratic nomination to her seat in Congress, her father offered the media a four-letter word as explanation: "The Jews, J-E-W-S." McKinney lost to a more moderate African-American woman, Denise Majette.



Many in Atlanta's Jewish community were shocked and horrified. They remembered when state lawmaker Billy McKinney had been co-chairman of Sidney Marcus' campaign for mayor against civil rights leader Andrew Young 1981. McKinney had been widely attacked in his own community for siding with a Jew who was running against a prominent African-American.



But clearly something had changed in both Billy McKinney and his radicalized and increasingly anti-Semitic daughter Cynthia. During her heated 1996 re-election campaign, Billy McKinney at a gathering at Ebenezer Baptist Church had called her Republican opponent John Mitnick "a racist Jew."



Many Jewish leaders had given support to her opponent after it came to light that McKinney had taken huge political campaign contributions from radical Muslims, including some with links to terrorist-supporting organizations. McKinney also had the support of the Rev. Louis ("Judaism is a gutter religion") Farrakhan.



"McKinney has enjoyed strong support from the Arab and Muslim community, which views her as a prime backer of a Palestinian state," wrote investigative reporter Matthew E. Berger in 2004. "A review of her Federal Election Commission filings shows a slew of Arab surnames, and she received $1,000 from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee."



And McKinney in exchange was willing and eager to speak out in concert with such views. When a Saudi prince tried to use his $10 million 9-11 charity donation as a platform from which to criticize U.S. support for Israel, New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani returned Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's check. Congresswoman McKinney then immediately wrote to the Prince to offer her services in helping him spend his $10 million.



"A growing number of people in the United States," McKinney wrote sycophantically to the Prince, "recognize, like you, that U.S. policy in the Middle East needs serious examination."



A member of her congressional staff, Raeed Tayeh, wrote to the Capitol Hill magazine Roll Call to criticize "these pro-Israeli lawmakers [who] sit on the House International Relations Committee despite the obvious conflict of interest that their emotional attachments to Israel cause?. The Israeli occupation of all territories must end, including Congress."



On Berkeley Pacifica Radio station KPFA McKinney even implied that President George W. Bush knew in advance that the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were coming ? declaring that the President let thousands of innocent people die because this would somehow profit the Bush family's wealthy friends.



"We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11," said McKinney. "What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered??.What do they have to hide?"



Pressed to retract or substantiate this blood libel, McKinney weaseled: "I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9-11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case?. On the other hand, what is undeniable is that corporations close to the Administration have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11.



"America's credibility, both with the world and with her own people," added McKinney, "rests upon securing credible answers to these questions."



Her hatred of Jews and the Bush Administration also apparently includes a hatred of white people here and abroad. Of Marxist President Robert Mugabe's racist policy of confiscating all white farms in Zimbabwe, McKinney said: "To any honest observer, Zimbabwe's sin is that it has taken the position to right a wrong, whose resolution has been too long overdue ? to return its land to its people."



McKinney also wants to confiscate the property of American whites (most of whose ancestors never owned slaves, or who were not even here when slavery existed) via tax-supported reparations to black Americans. "Eight generations of African-Americans," she said last April, "are still waiting to achieve their rights ? compensation and restitution for the hundreds of years during which they were bought and sold on the market."



Georgia Democratic Senator Zell Miller called McKinney "dangerous, loony and irresponsible."



"More than 50 Green Party activists from across the nation?[traveled] to Georgia," reported Associated Press, "to help McKinney in the final days of her primary campaign." Green Party activist Adam Eidinger told Associated Press. "I told her, 'You are on the very short list of people in this country the Green Party would like to draft to run for president. Would you do it? Her exact words were: 'Sure.'"



"The Democratic Party cost my father his office," McKinney told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, without elaboration. She also accused then Democratic Governor Roy Barnes of aiding McKinney's more moderate primary opponent by allowing his staffers to work in Majette's campaign headquarters.



The congresswoman's father Billy McKinney told Journal-Constitution reporter Rhonda Cook that he "would leave the Democratic Party and take his daughter with him."

"I've always worked on what the Democrats wanted and tried to defeat Republicans," Billy McKinney told Cook. "Now I'm an independent?. We're through with the Democrats."



McKinney blamed her own 2002 Democratic primary defeat on Republicans, as many as 40,000 of whom, she claimed, has crossed over and voted unfairly in the Democratic primary.



During her two years out of office, McKinney held the position of Visiting Professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "The selection of Cynthia McKinney as a Class of '56 professor is an affront to the intellectualism of Cornell University," wrote Professor Emeritus Peter Swartz. "Ms. McKinney is a racist and anti-Semite of the first rank. If she were white and male, she would be David Duke. It is unfortunate that the selection committee was so open minded that its collective brain fell on floor."



"I'm attracted to fights," McKinney has said. In 2004 she ran and won in a Democratic primary, the outcome of which determines the winner in this heavily-gerrymandered district. One of Congresswoman McKinney's biggest campaign contributors had been the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), whose members are wealthy tort lawyers. She has voted against legislation that would limit their profits. In 2001 she voted No on a bill to put lawsuits against HMOs under federal regulation.



Roughly 41 percent of McKinney's 2001-2002 Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions came from organized labor. Two of her biggest contributors were the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), with its long history of corruption, as well as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Teamsters Union. More than 37 percent of her PAC donations came from single issue or ideological groups, such as the gay Human Rights Campaign.



McKinney has supposedly represented the 4th District of Georgia. But in 2001-2002, 73 percent of her campaign contributions came from outside the state of Georgia. She pocketed almost as much cash just from California donors ($ 131,250) as she did from her fellow Georgians in and around Atlanta ($ 140,669).

Angela Davis our Freind the Communist!

Communist professor at the University of California's Santa Cruz campus
Recipient of the Lenin "Peace Prize" from the police state of East Germany.
Provided an arsenal of weapons to Black Panthers who used them to kill a Marin Country judge in a failed attempt to free her imprisoned lover, Black Panther murderer George Jackson
A highly paid professor at UC Santa Cruz and icon of the campus left and frequent guest speaker at anti-war rallies
Leader of a movement to free all criminals who are minorities claiming that they are political prisoners of the racist United States
"The only path of liberation for black people is that which leads toward complete and radical overthrow of the capitalist class."




Born into a middle-class family in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944, Angela Davis attended segregated schools in that city until she was selected for a special life of radical privilege, becoming a student at New York's Little Red Schoolhouse (LRS), famous for its Communist faculty and student body Kathy Boudin of the terrorist Weather Underground attended the school). Having been exposed to the Marxist classics at the LRS, Davis was moved on to a full scholarship at Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York, an adjunct of the Little Red Schoolhouse. While attending these schools she was a house guest of the Aptheker family. Herbert Aptheker was the Communist Party's chief theoretician.

In 1961 Davis enrolled at Brandeis University, where she majored in French. She spent her junior year studying in Paris, where she came into contact with Algerian revolutionaries. She graduated from Brandeis in 1965, and then spent two years on the faculty of Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. She then returned to the U.S. to take another faculty job at UCLA, working with radical professor Herbert Marcuse. In 1968, as Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague spring," she joined the Communist Party, voicing her belief that "the only path of liberation for black people is that which leads toward complete and radical overthrow of the capitalist class." In September 1969 Davis was fired from UCLA when her membership in the Communist Party became known. This resulted in a celebrated First Amendment battle that made Angela Davis a national figure and forced UCLA to rehire her. This victory for free speech however had no effect on Davis' low opinion of American democracy, which she ritually denounced on ceremonial occasions as when she received a "Lenin Prize" from the East German Communist police state.

In 1970 Davis was implicated by more than 20 witnesses in a plot to free her imprisoned lover, Black Panther and prison thug George Jackson by hijacking a Marin County, California courtroom and taking the judge, the prosecuting assistant district attorney, and two jurors hostage. In an ensuing gun battle outside the court building, Judge Harold Haley's head was blown off by a sawed-off shotgun owned by Ms. Davis. The assistant district attorney, Gary Thomas, shot and killed the driver of the getaway car and two convicts the hijackers had freed, wounding a third. But he himself was tragically struck and paralyzed by the wild shooting of San Quentin guards. To avoid arrest for her alleged complicity in the plot (she supplied the hijackers with a small arsenal, but claimed not to know the purposes for which it was used) Ms. Davis fled California, where she used aliases and changed her appearance to avoid detection. Two months later she was arrested by the FBI in New York City.

At her trial, Davis presented her version of where she had been and what she had been doing at the time of the shootout; because she was acting as her own attorney, she could not be cross-examined. She presented a number of alibi witnesses, almost all Communist friends, who testified that she had been with them in Los Angeles playing Scrabble at the time of the Marin slaughter. Witnesses who placed her in Marin were dismissed by Davis and her fellow attorneys as being unable to accurately identify blacks - because they were white. Davis' case was further aided by the pliant nature of the jury, which acquitted her. Following the verdict, one juror faced news cameras and gave a revolutionary's clenched-fist salute. He laughed at the justice system, saying that prosecutors had been mistaken to expect that the "middle-class jury" would convict Davis. He and most of the jurors then went off to partake in a Davis victory party.

The heroic Gary Thomas was eventually appointed a superior court judge, and he sat at the bench in his wheelchair for several decades. A street at Marin Civic Center was named in honor of the murdered Judge Haley. Ms. Davis's love interest, George Jackson, was killed at San Quentin in 1971 when he and several other prisoners tried to escape. During their failed attempt they slit the throats of three guards and two convicts, who begged for their lives to no avail.

Ms. Davis ran for Vice President of the United States in 1980 and 1984 on the Communist Party ticket. She is currently a "University Professor," one of only seven in the entire California University system, which entitles her to a six-figure salary and a research assistant. This income is supplemented by speaking fees ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 per appearance on college campuses, where she is an icon of radical faculty, administrators, and students. Her professorship is in the History of Consciousness Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz - a program that gave a PhD to Black Panther rapist, crack addict, and murderer Huey P. Newton, while Davis was on the faculty. The Provost at UC Santa Cruz is Conn Hallinan, who joined the Communist Party in 1963 at Berkeley and was a an editor of the Communist Party newspaper, People's World.

During the months preceding the 2003 war in Iraq, Davis was a frequent guest speaker at anti-war rallies sponsored by such pro-Communist groups as International ANSWER and United For Peace and Justice. She is the leader of her own movement against "The Prison-Industrial Complex," claiming that all minorities in jail are actually "political prisoners."

W.B.Dubois

I am posting some information on W.B.Dubois on the blog today.

Dubois, was a man of the times, a social activist, and intellect, he dealt with things no man could have. He was strong, brave at at times ,wrong headed at others. His views about america were shaped as a boy seeing racism and disrimination, his books are a window into the souls of black folks at the time.

Today many black activist, and social commentary will use the words of Dubois, to make moral comparison's to what occur in today's african american society. I belive that the difference lies in the fact that in the 60's blacks lived in a fear society, but not so today.

In the new book The Case for Democracy, the author a victim of communism, Sharansky starts with an analysis of "free" societies and "fear" societies. A society is "free" if it passes the "town square" test: "Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm?" Such societies will be free, if not always just.

But those societies that flunk the "town square" test are "fear" societies, unfree and unjust. Sharansky goes on to describe the consequences of living in a fear society, which typically fractures into three groups: "true believers," those who sincerely believe in the regime's ideology; "dissidents," those who oppose the regime and speak out against it; and "doublethinkers," those who oppose the regime yet do not publicly express their opposition, particularly to outsiders.

This frame work, explains why when black elite use such dangerous moral equivalence's they only abuse and harm the legacy fought for in the civil rights movement.


DuBois was born in the village of Great Barrington, Massachusetts to Alfred and Mary DuBois. As a youth, his intellectual development was spurred through an interest in the condition of his race while in high school. He showed much promise academically and desperately desired to attend Harvard University like so many of his New England peers. Nevertheless, a lack of funds at the time prevented him from attaining this dream and instead he attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

This would be DuBois' first trip to the American South and here was where DuBois was first exposed to the social system of segregation and Jim Crow. During his summers in Tennessee, DuBois taught in a county school in rural Alexandria, Tennessee and gained even deeper insight into poverty and its numerous related ailments.

After graduating from Fisk University, he received scholarships that finally enabled him to attend Harvard where he studied history and philosophy. Here, he lived slightly off-campus on Flagg St. in Cambridge, MA near the Charles River that separates Cambridge from Boston. He never fully felt himself a part of the university and remarked that he was "In Harvard, but not of it."

After receiving his B.A in 1890 he immediately began pursuing graduate studies. In 1895 he became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard. After receiving travel grants in part from his dispute with former U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes over racist comments made in the Boston Herald, DuBois travelled in Europe, and studied in Berlin. While in Europe, he was able to correlate the struggles of African Americans with that of the people of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Following this, he spent many years studying the lives and situations of African-Americans, applying social science to problems of race relations.

Though he consistently militated against biological conceptions of racial inequality, DuBois still subscribed to some subtler hereditarian ideas. He wrote that the Talented Tenth of African Americans should be encouraged to have children. (Dorr, "Fighting Fire with Fire")


Pronunciation
In a letter to the Chicago Sunday Evening Club dated Jan. 20, 1939 (cited in David Levering Lewis W.E.B. DuBois, Biography of a Race, p. 11), Du Bois wrote that "The pronounciation of my name is Due Boyss, with the accent on the last syllable." He was known as "Dr. DuBois" to most people.


Civil rights activism

Du Bois became arguably the most notable political activist on behalf of African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. A contemporary of Booker T. Washington, he argued in print about African-American acceptance of issues such as segregation and political disenfranchisement. Labeled the "father of Pan-Africanism" Du Bois believed that peoples of African descent should, because of their common interests, work together to battle prejudice and inequality.

In 1905, Du Bois helped to found the Niagara Movement with fellow Harvard-educated black intellectual William Monroe Trotter, who was the first black Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard. This powerful alliance between Du Bois and Trotter turned out to be short-lived as they had a dispute over whether or not white people should be included in the organization and their struggle. Du Bois felt that they should, and with a group of like-minded supporters, helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Strangely enough for an organization with its goals, Du Bois was the only African American on the organization's Board at the time of its inception. At the NAACP, Du Bois worked as Editor-in-Chief of the NAACP's official publication entitled The Crisis for twenty-five years. From this literary position, Du Bois was able to utilize and elevate his position as a spokesperson for his race as well as to comment freely and widely on current events.

This was made easier when, in 1910, he left his teaching post at Atlanta University (to which he would later return, from 1934–44) to work as publications director at the NAACP full-time. He wrote weekly columns in many newspapers, including the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, the New York Amsterdam News, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

DuBois became increasingly estranged from Walter Francis White, the executive secretary of the NAACP, and began to question the organization's opposition to racial segregation at all costs. DuBois thought that this policy, while generally sound, undermined those black institutions that did exist, which DuBois thought should be defended and improved, rather than attacked as inferior. When he took this position in The Crisis, the board of directors of the NAACP rebuked him and barred him from criticizing other officers of the NAACP in its publications. DuBois quit the NAACP in 1934 to return to teaching at Atlanta University.


Communism
DuBois was investigated by the FBI, who claimed in May of 1942 that "[h]is writing indicates him to be a socialist," and that he "has been called a Communist and at the same time criticized by the Communist Party."

DuBois visited Communist China during the Great Leap Forward and never supported famine-related criticisms of the Great Leap. Another author visiting China during the Great Leap named Anna Louise Strong wrote a book titled When Serfs Stood Up in Tibet based on her experience. Both these authors, however, had been taken through Potemkin-village style tours of China, never travelling outside of the supervision of the authorities. Both DuBois and Strong are infamous for their rose-coloured depiction of the unfortunate events of that era, its famine, and the invasion of Tibet.

DuBois acted as chairman of the Peace Information Center when the Korean War started, where he fought for the outlawing of atomic weapons. He was subsequently indicted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but acquitted for lack of evidence. In his later years, W.E.B. DuBois became increasingly disillusioned with both black capitalism and the United States. He joined the Communist Party, USA in 1961 and agreed to announce this in The New York Times.

[edit]
Renunciation of US citizenship
DuBois was invited to Ghana in the same year by President Kwame Nkrumah to direct the Encyclopedia Africana, a government production, and a long-held dream of his. Giving up their U.S. citizenship, he and his wife, Shirley Graham DuBois, became citizens of Ghana. DuBois' health declined in 1962, and on August 27, 1963 he died in Accra, Ghana at the age of 95.

In 1992, the United States honored W.E.B. DuBois with his portrait on a postage stamp. On October 5, 1994, the main library at UMass Amherst was named after him.


Quotes

"I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out of the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed Earth and the tracery of stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil."
"In my own country for nearly a century I have been nothing but a nigger." - to an audience in Beijing in 1959.
"The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line."


Bibliography

"The Evolution of Negro Leadership" published in The Dial, 31 (July 16, 1901).
The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

"The Talented Tenth," published as the second chapter of The Negro Problem, a collection of articles by African Americans (September 1903).
John Brown: A Biography (1909)
The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911)
Darkwater (1920)
The Gifts of Black Folk (1924)
Dark Princess: A Romance (1928)
Black Reconstruction: An Essay toward a History of the Part which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 (1935)
Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept (1940)
Color and Democracy (1945)
The Encyclopedia of the Negro (1946)
The Black Flame: A Trilogy
The Ordeal of Mansart (1957)
Mansart Builds a School (1959)
Worlds of Color (1961)
An ABC of Color: Selections from Over a Half Century of the Writings of W.E.B. DuBois (1963)
The World and Africa, An Inquiry into the Part Which Africa has Played in World History (1965)
The Autobiography of W.E. Burghardt DuBois (1968)

The Myth of the "TolerantLeft"

Non PC hisory of Africa!

I hope this information provides people who care about Africa a glimpse into this big open continent, with out all the gabbli goo coming from the left!

Africa is the world's second-largest continent in both area and population, after Eurasia. At about 30,244,050 km2 (11,677,240 mi2) including its adjacent islands, it covers 20.3 percent of the total land area on Earth, and with over 800 million human inhabitants in 54 countries, it accounts for about one seventh of world human population.

Etymology

The name Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the name Africa terra — "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular) — for the northern part of the continent, as the province of Africa with its capital Carthage, corresponding to modern-day Tunisia.

The origin of Afer may either come from:

the Phoenician `afar, dust;
the Afri, a — possibly Berber — tribe who dwelt in North Africa in the Carthage area;
the Greek word aphrike, meaning without cold;
or the Latin word aprica, meaning sunny.
The historian Leo Africanus (1495-1554) attributed the origin to the Greek word phrike (φρικε, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the negating prefix a-, so meaning a land free of cold and horror. But the change of sound from ph to f in Greek is datable to about the first century, so this cannot really be the origin of the name.

Egypt was considered part of Asia by the ancients, and first assigned to Africa by the geographer Ptolemy (85 - 165 AD), who accepted Alexandria as Prime Meridian and made the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge.



Geography of Africa

Africa in the Blue marble picture, with Antarctica to the south, and the Sahara and Arabian peninsula at the top of the globeAfrica is the largest of the three great southward projections from the main mass of the Earth's surface. It includes within its remarkably regular outline an area, of c. 30,244,050 km2 (11,677,240 mi2), including the islands.

Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez, 130 km (80 miles) wide. From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Morocco, a little west of Cape Blanc, in 37°21′ N, to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa, 34°51′15″ S, is a distance approximately of 8,000 km (5,000 miles); from Cape Verde, 17°33′22″ W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27′52″ E, the most easterly projection, is a distance (also approximately) of 7,400 km (4,600 miles). The length of coast-line is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is shown by the fact that Europe, which covers only 9,700,000 km2 (3,760,000 square miles), has a coast-line of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).

The main structural lines of the continent show both the east-to-west direction characteristic, at least in the eastern hemisphere, of the more northern parts of the world, and the north-to-south direction seen in the southern peninsulas. Africa is thus composed of two segments at right angles, the northern running from east to west, the southern from north to south, the subordinate lines corresponding in the main to these two directions.




History of Africa

Africa is home to the oldest inhabited territory on earth, with the human race originating from this continent. The Ishango Bone, dated 25,000 years ago, shows tallies in mathematical notation.

Throughout humanity's prehistory, Africa (and all other continents) had no nation states, and were instead inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers. Later, agriculture was used in Egypt along the Nile river. Egypt was one of the earliest nation states ever formed. Other civilizations include Ethiopia, the Nubian kingdom, and the kingdoms of the Sahel (Ghana, Mali, and Sanghay). In the search for the kingdom of Prester John, 14th century European explorers arrived in Africa.

In the millennia before the nineteenth century, indentured servants and slaves could be had for capture by bargaining with local warlords or tribal leaders. This practice was spread across continents. Arabians and Europeans were able to capture millions of Africans, and export them for labour around the world in what became known as the global slave trade, which ceased by law by the nineteenth century in most European countries.

But at the same time that serfdom was ending in Europe, in the early 19th century the European imperial powers staged a massive "scramble for Africa" and occupied most of the continent, creating many colonial nation states, leaving only two independent nations (Liberia and Ethiopia). This occupation continued until the conclusion of the Second World War, after which all colonial nation states gradually obtained formal independence.

Today, Africa is home to over 50 independent countries, many of which still have borders drawn during the era of European colonialism.

Migration from Africa continues to this day.

[edit]
Politics

Map showing European claimants to the African continent at the beginning of World War IThe vast majority of African nations are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule.

Colonialism had a destabilizing effect on what had been a number of ethnic groups that is still being felt in African politics. Prior to European influence, national borders were not much of a concern, with Africans generally following the practice of other areas of the world, such as the Arabian peninsula, where a group's territory was congruent with its military or trade influence. The European insistence of drawing borders around territories to isolate them from those of other colonial powers often had the effect of separating otherwise contiguous political groups, or forcing traditional enemies to live side by side with no buffer between them. For example, the Congo River, although it appears to be a natural geographic boundary, had groups that otherwise shared a language, culture or other similarity who resided on both sides. The division of the land between Belgium and France along the river isolated these groups from each other. Those who lived in Saharan or Sub-Saharan Africa who had traded across the continent for centuries, often found themselves crossing "borders" that often existed only on European maps.

In nations that had substantial European populations, for example Rhodesia and South Africa, systems of second-class citizenship were often set up in order to give Europeans political power far in excess of their numbers. However, the lines were not often drawn strictly across racial lines. In Liberia, the citizens who were descendants of American slaves managed to have a political system for over 100 years that gave ex-slaves and natives to the area roughly equal legislative power despite the fact the ex-slaves were outnumbered ten to one in the general population. The inspiration for this system was the United States Senate, which ironically balanced the power of free and slave states despite the much larger population of the former.

Europeans often changed the balance of power in the areas they controlled, despite often being largely outnumbered by native Africans. For example, in what is now Rwanda, the Hutus were generally in control of political matters over the Tutsis because the Hutus controlled ownership of cattle, the most important commodity. However, when the Belgians arrived, the Tutsis sided with them and they soon took effective control of politics in the region. However, when the Belgians finally left, the Hutus formed the first independent government and used the Tutsis' collaboration with the Belgians as an excuse to shut them out of politics.

Since independence, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. Until recently, few nations in Africa were able to sustain democratic governments, instead cycling through a series of brutal coups and military dictatorships.

Many of Africa's post-colonial political leaders were very poorly educated or ignorant on matters of governance, which led to great instability. Others were corrupt and dictatorial, outlawing opposition immediately upon assuming office, and suppressing the European-made constitutions and parliaments.

As well, many used the positions of power to re-ignite old tribal conflicts which had been suppressed under colonial rule. In many countries, the military was perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain order and ruled most nations in Africa during the 70s and early 80s.

During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s Africa had over 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations.

Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union also played a role in the instability. When a country became independent for the first time, it was often expected to align with one of the two superpowers. Many countries in Northern Africa received Soviet military aid, while many in Central and Southern Africa were supported by the United States or France. The 1970s saw an escalation as newly independent Angola and Mozambique aligned themselves with the Soviet Union and the West and South Africa sought to contain Soviet influence.

Border and territorial disputes have also been common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.

Failed government policies and political corruption have also resulted in many widespread famines, and significant portions of Africa remain with distribution systems unable to disseminate enough food or water for the population to survive. The spread of disease is also rampant, especially the spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the associated Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which has become a deadly epidemic on the continent.

Despite numerous hardships, there have been some signs the continent has hope for the future. Democratic governments seem to be spreading, though are not yet the majority. As well, many nations have at least nominally recognized basic human rights for all citizens, and have created reasonably independent judiciaries.

As well, under pressure from international financial institutions like the IMF, many African governments have been able to turn their economies around, so that they have started to show positive growth according to conventional economic measurements after decades of negative or zero growth. It remains to be seen if such developments will be able to survive long term, however.

There are clear signs of increased networking among African organisations and states. In the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, about half-a-dozen neighbouring African countries got involved (see also Second Congo War). The death toll has been estimated by some to be 3.5 million since the conflict began in 1998. This might play a role similar to that of World War II for Europe, after which the people in the neighbouring countries decide to integrate their societies in such a way that war between them becomes as unthinkable as a war between, say, France and Germany would be today.

Political associations such as the African Union are also offering hope for greater co-operation and peace between the continent's many countries.


Economy

Africa is by far the world's poorest inhabited continent, and more saliently it is on average poorer than it was 25 years ago.

The United Nations' Human Development Report 2003 (of 175 countries) found that positions 151 (Gambia) to 175 (Sierra Leone) were taken up entirely by African nations.

It has had (and in some ways is still having) a shaky and uncertain transition from colonialism, with the ensuing Cold War and increases in corruption and despotism being major contributing factors to its poor economic situation. While rapid growth in China and now India, and moderate growth in South America, has lifted millions beyond subsistence living, Africa has stagnated, even going backwards in terms of foreign trade, investment, and per capita income. This poverty has widespread effects, including low life expectancy, violence, and instability - factors intertwined with the continent's poverty. Over the decades a number of solutions have been proposed and many attempted, but no improvement scheme has shown much success.

Part of the problem is that foreign aid has generally been used to encourage the cultivation of cash crops such as cotton, cocoa and coffee in place of subsistence farming. However, at the same time, industrialized nations have pursued policies that drive down the prices of those commodities. For example, the real cost of producing cotton in West Africa is far less than half of that of producing it in the United States, thanks to lower labor costs. However, American cotton sells for less than African cotton as the cultivation of cotton is heavily subsidized in the United States. As a result, the prices of these commodities is about the same now as they were in the 1960s.

Africa also suffers from sustained capital flight. Generally, any income coming into African nations goes right out again, either because the assets sold were foreign owned (oil being a good example) and the money coming in is sent to the foreign owners, or the money is used to repay loans to industrial nations or the World Bank. It has been estimated that Africa could cease its dependence on foreign aid merely by insisting that all profits earned in an African country be invested in the region for at least twelve months.

Botswana, which is the one poor nation in Africa that has not submitted to controls suggested by the World Bank or the IMF, has been one of the exceptions to the general rule of African economic stagnation, and has sustained healthy growth over recent years despite the lack of foreign investment, free flow of capital or trade liberalization.

The major economic success is South Africa, which is as industrially and economically developed as any industrialized European or American nation, to the extent that it has its own mature stock exchange. This is primarily due to its amazing wealth of natural resources, being the world's leading producer of both gold and diamonds.

Although Nigeria sits on one of the largest proven oil reserves in the world, it also has the highest population of any nation in Africa, and one of the fastest growing. Moreover, most of the oil industry is foreign owned, and the industry is rife with corruption at the national level so that very little oil money stays in the country, and what does goes to a very small percentage of the population.


Race and physical appearance
Approximately 80% of Africans live south of the Sahara Desert. There is a wide variety of physical types found amongst the sub-Saharan African peoples (two particular extremes are the Masai who are known for their tall stature, and Pygmies who are among the world's shortest adults). While "African" and "black" are often viewed as synonymous in much of the West, a large minority of Africans, especially in the northern and southern portions of the continent, are not dark-skinned. The physical differences of sub-Saharan Africans from their neighbors to the north and the Western countries made, and continue to make, stereotyping easy. The dehumanization required for slavery and apartheid was made easier by racial stereotyping, and physical differences have been offered to explain why much of the world treats the modern troubles of Africa as being alien from their own experience.

Africans from the eastern part of the continent have a different appearance from those on the West coast, which supplied the vast majority of those blacks who were transported to the Americas as slaves. Speakers of Bantu languages predominate in much of western, central, and southern Africa. In the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, a distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San", closely related but distinct from "Hottentots") have long been present. The San and Xhosa people (among whom Nelson Mandela can be counted), are physically distinct from other Africans.

The peoples of North Africa are primarily descended from the speakers of Afro-Asiatic languages. These peoples include the ancient Egyptians, the Berbers, and Nubians who developed civilizations in North Africa during ancient times. The semitic Phoenicians, and the European Greeks and Romans settled in North Africa as well. In the 600s, Muslim Arabs swept across North Africa from the east and conquered the entire region within a hundred years. The North Africans today are descended from indigenous North Africans such as the Berbers, ancient Europeans, Arabs, and black Africans from south of the Sahara. Berber peoples remain a significant minority within Morocco and Algeria, and are also present in Tunisia and Libya. The Tuareg and other often nomadic peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa.

Peoples such as Ethiopians and Somalis have links to both North African and sub-Saharan cultures. Several African nations, such as Sudan and Mauritania are divided between a mostly Arab north and a black African south (though many of the "Arabs" are Arabized blacks of Arab culture). Some areas of Eastern Africa, particularly the island of Zanzibar, received Arab and Asian Muslim settlers and merchants during the Middle Ages.

Beginning in the 1500s, Europeans such as the Portuguese and Dutch began to establish trading posts and forts along the coasts of western and southern Africa. Eventually a large number of Dutch, augmented by French Huguenots and Germans settled in what is today South Africa. Their descendants, the Afrikaners, are the largest white group in South Africa today. In the 1800s, a second phase of colonization brought a large number of French and British settlers to Africa. The French settled in large numbers in Algeria and on a smaller scale in other areas of North and West Africa. The British settled in South Africa as well as the colony of Rhodesia and in the highlands of what is now Kenya. Smaller numbers of European soldiers, businessmen, and officials also established themselves in administrative centers such as Nairobi and Dakar. Decolonization during the 1960s often resulted in the mass exodus of European-descended settlers out of Africa, especially in Algeria, Kenya, and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). However in South Africa, the white minority (10% of the population) largely remained in the country after the end of white rule in 1994. South Africa also has a community of mixed-race people (Coloured people).

European colonization also brought sizeable groups of Asians, particularly people from the Indian subcontinent to British colonies. Large Indo-African communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya and Tanzania. A fairly large Indian community in Uganda was expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972, though many have since returned.


Languages

Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African languages. Afro-Asiatic extends into the Sahel and Southwest Asia. Niger-Congo is divided to show the size of the Bantu sub-family.Main article: African languages

By most estimates Africa contains well over a thousand languages. There are four major language families native to Africa.

The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are mainly spoken in Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania.
The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different languages. A substantial number of them are the Bantu languages spoken in Central and Southern Africa.
The Khoisan languages number about 50 and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 120 000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.
Languages of Europe have also acquired prominence; English and French, for example, are official languages in several countries.





Culture
Rather than one culture, Africa has a number of cultures that overlap. The most conventional distinction is that between sub-Saharan Africa and the northern countries from Egypt to Morocco, who largely associate themselves with Arabic culture. In this comparison, the nations to the south of the Sahara, are considered to consist of many cultural areas, in particular that of the Bantu linguistic group.

Divisions may also be made between Francophone Africa and the rest of Africa, in particular the former British colonies of southern and East Africa. Another cultural fault-line is that between those Africans living traditional lifestyles and those who are essentially modern. The traditionalists are sometimes subdivided into pastoralists and agriculturalists.

African art reflects the diversity of African cultures. The oldest existing art from Africa are 6000-year old carvings found in Niger, while the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the world's tallest architectural accomplishment for four thousand years until the creation of the Eiffel Tower. The Ethiopian complex of monolithic churches at Lalibela, of which the Church of St. George is representative, is regarded as another marvel of engineering.

The music of Africa is one of its most dynamic art forms. Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular west Africa, were transmitted through the Atlantic slave trade to modern blues, jazz, reggae and rock and roll. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A recent development of the 21st century is the emergence of African hip hop, in particular a form from Senegal is blended with traditional mbalax.



Religion

Africa is home to a wide variety of different religious groups. As with the rest of the world, the earliest religions revolved around animism and ancestor worship. A common thread in traditional belief systems was the division of the spiritual world into helpful and harmful. Helpful spirits include ancestor spirits that help their descendants and powerful spirits that protected entire communities from natural disaster or attacks from enemies. Harmful spirits include the souls of murdered victims who were buried without the proper funeral rites and spirits used by hostile spirit mediums to cause illness among their enemies. While the effect of these early forms of worship continues to have a profound influence, belief systems evolved as they interacted with other religions.

The formation of the Old Kingdom of Egypt in the third millenium BCE marked the first complex religious system on the continent. Around the ninth century BCE, Carthage (in present-day Tunisia) was founded by the Phoenicians. Carthage went on to become a major cosmopolitan center of the ancient world in which deities from neighboring Egypt, Rome and the Etruscan city-states were worshipped.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church dates from the fourth century CE and was thus one of the first Christian churches. The expansion of Islam in the seventh century was more far-reaching as Muslims conquered the whole of Africa north of the Sahara Desert. Islam followed the sea trade down the coast of East Africa, while Islam diffused through the Sahara desert into the interior of Africa, following in particular the paths of Muslim traders. Muslims were also among the Asian peoples who settled in British-ruled Africa.The even greater disruption of the European slave trade that accompanied the colonial Scramble for Africa was followed by attempts to convert the colonized populations to Western Christianity.

Many Africans today subscribe to a syncretic belief system that mixes both traditional religion and either Christianity or Islam. Muslims form the majority of the population north of the Sahara, and significant minorities in sub-Saharan countries such as Nigeria and Kenya. In the last decades of the twentieth century, various sects of Charismatic Christianity rapidly grew. A number of Africans have even been mentioned as possible papal candidates. African Christians appear to be more socially conservative than their co-religionists in much of the industrialized world, which has led to tension within denominations such as the Anglican and Methodist Churches.

Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs. The two most widespread religious groups of Africa, Christianity and Islam, have their roots in Southwest Asia. Approximately 40% of all Africans are Christians and another 40% Muslims. Roughly 20% of Africans primarily follow indigenous African religions. A small number of Africans also have beliefs from the Judaic tradition, such as the Beta Israel and Lemba.

Robert Mugabe, Africas Terriost!

Withn the past few weeks Robert Mugabe President of Zimbawe has been accused again of violating the rights of its citizens. He has created fradualent elections, in his counrty. And has gone on a jihad against his own people, by denying them access to food. Hers is an outline of this dictators life. I will add more info on this blog as develepments about the Zimbawe elections, come to closure.

Early life

Mugabe's father is believed to have been from Malawi. Mugabe was raised at Kutama Mission, Zvimba District, north-west of Harare (then called Salisbury), in then Southern Rhodesia. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and was educated in Jesuit schools. He qualified as a teacher at age 17, but left to study for a B.A. in English and history at Fort Hare University in South Africa, an illustrious university at the time, graduating in 1951 while meeting contemporaries like Julius Nyerere, Herbert Chitepo, Robert Sobukwe and Kenneth Kaunda. He then studied at Drifontein in 1952, Salisbury (1953), Gwelo (1954), in Tanzania (1955 - 1957). He obtained a diploma and a bachelor's degree in education from the University of South Africa and another bachelor's degree in economics from the University of London, all by correspondence. Subsequently, Mugabe taught in a teacher-training school in Accra, Ghana (1958–1960) where he met Sally Hayfron, his first wife.

Anti-colonial struggle

Returning to Southern Rhodesia in 1960 as a committed Marxist, Mugabe joined Joshua Nkomo and the National Democratic Party (NDP), which later became the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), both immediately banned by Ian Smith government. He left ZAPU in 1963 to form the rival Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) with Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and lawyer Herbert Chitepo. A split would be easy along tribal lines between the Ndebele and his Shona, but cross-tribal representation was maintained by his partners. ZANU leader Sitole nominated Mugabe as his Secretary General.

ZANU was influenced by the Africanist ideas of the Pan Africanist Congress in South Africa and influenced by Maoism while ZAPU was an ally of the African National Congress and was a supporter of a more orthodox pro-Soviet line on national liberation. Similar divisions can also be seen the in liberation movement in Angola between the MPLA and UNITA.

He was detained with other nationalist leaders Joshua Nkomo and Edson Zvobgo in 1964 and remained in prison for ten years, where he studied law. On his release he left Rhodesia for Mozambique in 1974 and led the Chinese-financed military arm of ZANU, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), in the war against Ian Smith's government.

On 18 March 1975, Chitepo was killed by a bomb placed in his car while in Zambia. Zanla commander, Josiah Tongogara was subsequently blamed by Kenneth Kaunda's government. Mugabe unilaterally assumed control of ZANU from Mozambique. Later that year, after squabbling with Ndabaningi Sithole, Mugabe formed a militant ZANU faction, leaving Sithole to lead the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party, which renounced violent struggle.


Prime Minister, then Executive President
Persuasion from B.J. Vorster, himself under pressure from Henry Kissinger, forced Smith to accept in principle that white minority rule could not continue indefinitely. On March 3, 1978 Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Ndabaningi Sithole and other moderate leaders signed an agreement at Governors Lodge, Salisbury, which paved the way for the interim government, under Lord Soames, a British governor, in preparation for elections.

Elections were held for a new national parliament as Zimbabwe Rhodesia, which was won by the only black party that had renounced violence and was allowed to contest – the UANC, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Canaan Banana. Sanctions, however, were not lifted, because Britain and the USA said there was not proper representation in the elections – meaning Nkomo and Mugabe. Britain called all parties to Lancaster House in September 1979, which were attended by Smith, Mugabe, Nkomo, Chenjerai Hunzvi, Edson Zvobgo and others, where Muzorewa was persuaded to accept new elections, which were held late February, 1980.

After a campaign marked by intimidation from all sides, mistrust from security forces and reports of full ballot boxes found on the road, the Shona majority was decisive in electing Mugabe to head the first government as prime minister on March 4, 1980. ZANU won 57 out of 80 contested seats in the new parliament, with 20 other seats reserved for Whites.


Kofi Annan (left) with Mugabe (right)Mugabe, whose political support came from his Shona-speaking homeland in the north, attempted to build Zimbabwe on a basis of an uneasy coalition with his Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) rivals, whose support came from Ndebele-speaking south, and with whites. Mugabe sought to incorporate ZAPU into his Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) led government and ZAPU's military wing into the army; and ZAPU's leader, Joshua Nkomo, was given a series of cabinet positions in Mugabe's government. However, the new president was torn between this objective and pressures to meet the expectations of his own ZANU followers for a faster pace of social change.

An abortive ZAPU rebellion and discontent in Matabeleland spelled the end to this uneasy coalition. In 1983 Mugabe dismissed Nkomo from his cabinet, which triggered bitter fighting between ZAPU supporters in the Ndebele-speaking region of the country and the ruling ZANU. Between 1982 and 1985 the military brutally crushed armed resistance in Ndebeleland and Mugabe's rule was left secure. A peace accord was negotiated in 1987, resulting in ZAPU's merger (1988) into the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). Mugabe brought Nkomo into the government once again as a vice-president.

In 1987 the position of Prime Minister was abolished, and Mugabe assumed the new office of executive President of Zimbabwe gaining additional powers in the process. He was re-elected in 1990 and 1996, and, controversially, in 2002.


Mugabe's marriages
His well-respected Ghanaian first wife, Sally (born 1933, born Hayfron), died in 1992, from a chronic kidney ailment (their only son died at age 4, while Mugabe was in prison). About two years before, Mugabe had married his former secretary, Grace Marufu, 40 years his junior, in a tribal ceremony, and with whom he already had two children. Mugabe justified the marriage under a traditional African law which allows him to take a junior wife.

On August 17, 1996, in his first brush with Christianity for more than two decades, Mugabe and Marufu were married in a Catholic wedding Mass. A spokesman for Catholic Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, who presided over the ceremony, said the diocese saw "no impediment" to the nuptials.


Social programmes
Mugabe improved health and education for the black majority after elections agreed to after the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979.

In 1991, amid international pressure and short on hard currency, Zimbabwe embarked on a neoliberal austerity regime, but the International Monetary Fund suspended aid, claiming that the reforms were "not on track."

At the same time he pursued a "moral campaign" against homosexuality, making what he deemed "unnatural sex acts" illegal with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. This included the arrest of his predecessor as President of Zimbabwe, Canaan Banana, who was convicted of gay sex offences. Zimbabwe has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the world.

Mugabe was criticized for his intervention in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at a time when the Zimbabwean economy was struggling. The war raised accusations of corruption, with officials alleged to be plundering the Congo's mineral reserves.


Land reforms

Mugabe, addressing the 114-nation Non-Aligned Movement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2003, is a vocal advocate for Third World unity and cooperation on economic development concerns.Main article: Land reform in Zimbabwe

When Mugabe became prime minister, approximately 70% of the country's arable land was owned by approximately 4,000 descendants of white settlers. However, he reassured white landowners that they had nothing to fear from black majority rule. Mugabe favoured a "willing buyer, willing seller" plan for gradual redistribution of land but little was done in his early years in power. However, in 1999 and 2000 Mugabe used force to transfer land ownership from whites to blacks.

Since land redistribution, Zimbabwe has transformed from being an exporter of food to a nation where farms are mismanaged and five million people need food aid. In November 2004 he approved the "Obesity Tourism Strategy" which aims to attract obese tourists to work on lands seized from white farmers.


2000 referendum

On February 11, 2000, a referendum was held on a new constitution. The proposed change would have limited future presidents to two terms, but as it was not retroactive, Mugabe could have stood for another two terms. It would also have made his government and military officials immune from prosecution for any illegal acts committed while in office. Also, it allowed the government to confiscate white-owned land for redistribution to black farmers without compensation. It was defeated, after a low 20% turnout, by a strong urban vote, fuelled by an effective SMS campaign. Mugabe declared that he would "abide by the will of the people". The vote was a surprise to Zanu-PF, and an embarrassment before parliamentary elections due in mid-April. Almost immediately self-styled "war veterans", led by Chenjerai 'Hitler' Hunzvi, start invading white-owned farms. On April 6, 2000, parliament pushed through an amendment, taken word for word from the draft constitution that was rejected by voters, allowing the seizure of white-owned farmland.

[edit]
Elections
Mugabe faced Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in presidential elections in March 2002. Amid accusations of violence and claims that large numbers of citizens in anti-Mugabe strongholds were prevented from voting, Mugabe defeated Tsvangirai by 56% to 42%. Mugabe was helped by an unprecedented turnout of 90% in his rural stronghold of Mashonaland (55% of the population voted overall), although there are credible claims that the turnout may have been rigged.

On July 3rd, 2004, a report [2] (http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2004/July/Friday16/1003.html) adopted by the African Union executive council, which comprises foreign ministers of the 53 member states, criticised the government for the arrests and torture of opposition members of parliament and human rights lawyers, the arrests of journalists, the stifling of freedom of expression and clampdowns on other civil liberties.

It was compiled by the AU's African Commission on Human and People's Rights, which sent a mission to Zimbabwe from June 24th to 28th 2002, shortly after the presidential elections.

The report was apparently not submitted to the AU's 2003 summit because it had not been translated into French. It was adopted at the next AU summit in 2005.

The 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections and their perceived fairness is Mugabe's next hurdle for his government's credibility.

[edit]
Opposition to Mugabe

Handshake of Jack Straw and Robert MugabeIn recent years Mugabe has emerged as one of Africa's most controversial leaders. His critics accuse him of being a corrupt dictator, and a poor role model for the continent at a time when Africa should be trying to embrace greater democratic reforms. Mugabe's supporters tend to dismiss much of the criticism as being racially motivated, and characterize it as being little more than the bitter remarks of whites who have been disadvantaged by his policies.

Since Mugabe began to redistribute white-owned landholdings, he has faced harsh attacks, externally from mostly white former colonial powers and white former settler-colonies such as Australia, and internally from trade-unions and urban Zimbabwean, who overwhelmingly support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. In addition, some African figures have condemned Mugabe, such as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who called Mugabe a "caricature of an African dictator", Zambia's long-time leader Kenneth Kaunda, who asked Mugabe to "bury the hatchet and get on with economic development instead of fighting 'colonialist ghosts'", while Botswana President Festus Mogae distanced himself from the SADC statement opposing the Commonwealth suspension. Mugabe has been condemned by Western non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International, charging that he has committed human rights abuses against minority Ndebeles, the opposition MDC, white landowners, and homosexuals. Mugabe and a list of members of his government are now banned from entering the European Union.

The land distribution scheme, as well as the political turmoil, have gravely affected Zimbabwe's economy (see: Economy of Zimbabwe). The former exporter of cereals is nowadays forced to import grain or to rely on humanitarian aid. Mugabe is also accused of favoring his political allies and members of his ethnic group during the redistribution of white farmers' land. Many of the victims of the current upheaval are farm workers, with no replacements while the land is standing idle.


Mugabe with ZANU-PF supportersOn March 9, 2003, US President George W. Bush approved measures for economic sanctions to be leveled against Mugabe and numerous other high-ranking Zimbabwe politicians, freezing their assets and barring Americans from engaging in any transactions or dealings with them. Justifying the move, Bush's spokesman stated the President and Congress believe that "the situation in Zimbabwe endangers the southern African region and threatens to undermine efforts to foster good governance and respect for the rule of law throughout the continent". The bill was known as the "Zimbabwe Democracy Act" and was deemed "racist" by Mugabe.

On December 8, 2003, in protest against a further 18 months of suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations (thereby cutting foreign aid to Zimbabwe), Mugabe withdrew his country from the Commonwealth. According to reports, Robert Mugabe informed the leaders of Jamaica, Nigeria and South Africa of his decision when they telephoned him to discuss the situation. Zimbabwe's government said the President did not accept the Commonwealth's position, and was leaving the group.

Many African nations, led by South Africa, want Zimbabwe to be brought back into the fold which they claim would encourage dialogue between Mugabe and domestic opponents, while the mainly white Commonwealth countries, namely the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have led the hard-line stance on the suspension of Zimbabwe.

Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, leads a consortium of Christian faiths opposed to Mugabe. Ncube has won human rights awards for opposing the alleged torture and starvation used as a political weapon by the Mugabe government. In 2005, Ncube has called for a "popular mass uprising" in the style of the Orange Revolution or Tulip Revolution to remove Mugabe from power.

HIV in the African American Community

AIDS – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome – was first reported in the United States in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide epidemic. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By killing or impairing cells of the immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body’s ability to fight infections and certain cancers. Individuals diagnosed with AIDS are susceptible to life-threatening diseases called opportunistic infections, which are caused by microbes that usually do not cause illness in healthy people.

More than 600,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in the United States since 1981, and as many as 900,000 Americans may be infected with HIV. The epidemic is growing most rapidly among minority populations and is a leading killer of African-American males. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of AIDS is six times higher in African-Americans and three times higher among Hispanics than among whites.

Transmission
HIV is spread most commonly by sexual contact with an infected partner. The virus can enter the body through the lining of the vagina, vulva, penis, rectum or mouth during sex.

HIV also is spread through contact with infected blood. Prior to the screening of blood for evidence of HIV infection and before the introduction in 1985 of heat-treating techniques to destroy HIV in blood products, HIV was transmitted through transfusions of contaminated blood or blood components. Today, because of blood screening and heat treatment, the risk of acquiring HIV from such transfusions is extremely small.

HIV frequently is spread among injection drug users by the sharing of needles or syringes contaminated with minute quantities of blood of someone infected with the virus. However, transmission from patient to health-care worker or vice-versa via accidental sticks with contaminated needles or other medical instruments is rare.

Women can transmit HIV to their fetuses during pregnancy or birth. Approximately one-quarter to one-third of all untreated pregnant women infected with HIV will pass the infection to their babies. HIV also can be spread to babies through the breast milk of mothers infected with the virus. If the drug AZT is taken during pregnancy, the chance of transmitting HIV to the baby is reduced significantly. If AZT treatment of mothers is combined with cesarean sectioning to deliver infants, infection rates can be reduced to 1 percent.


Although researchers have detected HIV in the saliva of infected individuals, no evidence exists that the virus is spread by contact with saliva. Laboratory studies reveal that saliva has natural compounds that inhibit the infectiousness of HIV. Studies of people infected with HIV have found no evidence that the virus is spread to others through saliva such as by kissing. No one knows, however, the risk of infection from so-called “deep” kissing, involving the exchange of large amounts of saliva, or by oral intercourse. Scientists also have found no evidence that HIV is spread through sweat, tears, urine or feces.

Studies of families of HIV-infected people have shown clearly that HIV is not spread through casual contact such as the sharing of food utensils, towels and bedding, swimming pools, telephones or toilet seats. HIV is not spread by biting insects such as mosquitoes or bedbugs.

HIV can infect anyone who practices
risky behaviors such as: • sharing drug needles or syringes;


• having sexual contact without using a latex male condom with an infected person or with someone whose HIV status is unknown.


Having another sexually transmitted disease such as syphilis, herpes, chlamydial infection, gonorrhea or bacterial vaginosis appears to make someone more susceptible to acquiring HIV infection during sex with an infected partner.
Early Symptoms
Many people do not develop any symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. Some people, however, have a flu-like illness within a month or two after exposure to the virus. They may have fever, headache, malaise and enlarged lymph nodes (organs of the immune system easily felt in the neck and groin). These symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for those of another viral infection. People are very infectious during this period, and HIV is present in large quantities in genital secretions.

More persistent or severe symptoms may not surface for a decade or more after HIV first enters the body in adults, or within two years in children born with HIV infection. This period of “asymptomatic” infection is highly variable. Some people may begin to have symptoms in as soon as a few months, whereas others may be symptom-free for more than 10 years. During the asymptomatic period, however, HIV is actively multiplying, infecting and killing cells of the immune system. HIV’s effect is seen most obviously in a decline in the blood levels of CD4+ T cells (also called T4 cells) – the immune system’s key infection fighters. The virus initially disables or destroys these cells without causing symptoms.

As the immune system deteriorates, a variety of complications begins to surface. One of the first such symptoms experienced by many people infected with HIV is large lymph nodes or “swollen glands” that may be enlarged for more than three months. Other symptoms often experienced months to years before the onset of AIDS include a lack of energy, weight loss, frequent fevers and sweats, persistent or frequent yeast infections (oral or vaginal), persistent skin rashes or flaky skin, pelvic inflammatory disease that does not respond to treatment, or short-term memory loss.

Some people develop frequent and severe herpes infections that cause mouth, genital or anal sores, or a painful nerve disease known as shingles. Children may have delayed development or failure to thrive.

AIDS
The term AIDS applies to the most advanced stages of HIV infection. Official criteria for the definition of AIDS are developed by the CDC in Atlanta, Ga., which is responsible for tracking the spread of AIDS in the United States.

In 1993, CDC revised its definition of AIDS to include all HIV-infected people who have fewer than 200 CD4+ T cells. (Healthy adults usually have CD4+ T-cell counts of 1,000 or more.) In addition, the definition includes 26 clinical conditions that affect people with advanced HIV disease. Most AIDS-defining conditions are opportunistic infections, which rarely cause harm in healthy individuals. In people with AIDS, however, these infections are often severe and sometimes fatal because the immune system is so ravaged by HIV that the body cannot fight off certain bacteria, viruses and other microbes.

Opportunistic infections common in people with AIDS cause such symptoms as coughing, shortness of breath, seizures, mental symptoms such as confusion and forgetfulness, severe and persistent diarrhea, fever, vision loss, severe headaches, weight loss, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting, lack of coordination, coma, abdominal cramps, or difficult or painful swallowing.

Although children with AIDS are susceptible to the same opportunistic infections as adults with the disease, they also experience severe forms of the bacterial infections to which children are especially prone, such as conjunctivitis (pink eye), ear infections and tonsillitis.

People with AIDS are particularly prone to developing various cancers, especially those caused by viruses such as Kaposi’s sarcoma and cervical cancer, or cancers of the immune system known as lymphomas. These cancers are usually more aggressive and difficult to treat in people with AIDS. Hallmarks of Kaposi’s sarcoma in light-skinned people are round brown, reddish or purple spots that develop in the skin or in the mouth. In dark-skinned people, the spots are more pigmented.

During the course of HIV infection, most people experience a gradual decline in the number of CD4+ T cells, although some individuals may have abrupt and dramatic drops in their CD4+ T-cell counts. A person with CD4+ T cells above 200 may experience some of the early symptoms of HIV disease. Others may have no symptoms even though their CD4+ T-cell count is below 200.

Many people are so debilitated by the symptoms of AIDS that they are unable to hold steady employment or do household chores. Other people with AIDS may experience phases of intense life-threatening illness followed by phases of normal functioning.

A small number of people (less than 50) initially infected with HIV 10 or more years ago have not developed symptoms of AIDS. Scientists are trying to determine what factors may account for their lack of progression to AIDS, such as particular characteristics of their immune systems, or whether they were infected with a less aggressive strain of the virus or if their genetic make-up may protect them from the effects of HIV. Scientists hope that understanding the body’s natural method of control may lead to ideas for protective HIV vaccines and use of vaccines to prevent disease progression.

Diagnosis
Because early HIV infection often causes no symptoms, it is primarily detected by testing a person’s blood for the presence of antibodies (disease-fighting proteins) to HIV. HIV antibodies generally do not reach detectable levels until one to three months following infection and may take as long as six months to be generated in quantities large enough to show up in standard blood tests. HIV testing may also be performed on saliva and urine samples, in addition to blood samples.

People exposed to HIV should be tested for HIV infection as soon as they are likely to develop antibodies to the virus. Such early testing will enable them to receive appropriate treatment at a time when they are most able to combat HIV and prevent the emergence of certain opportunistic infections (see Treatment below). Early testing also alerts HIV-infected people to avoid high-risk behaviors that could spread HIV to others.

HIV testing is done in most doctors’ offices or health clinics and should be accompanied by counseling. Individuals can be tested anonymously at many sites if they have particular concerns about confidentiality. In addition, blood samples for anonymous HIV testing may now be collected at home. Home-based test kits are available by telephone order or over the counter at pharmacies.

Two different types of antibody tests, ELISA and Western Blot, are used to diagnose HIV infection. If a person is highly likely to be infected with HIV and yet both tests are negative, a doctor may test for the presence of HIV itself in the blood. The person also may be told to repeat antibody testing at a later date, when antibodies to HIV are more likely to have developed.

Babies born to mothers infected with HIV may or may not be infected with the virus, but all carry their mothers’ antibodies to HIV for several months. If these babies lack symptoms, a definitive diagnosis of HIV infection using standard antibody tests cannot be made until after 15 months of age. By then, babies are unlikely to still carry their mothers’ antibodies and will have produced their own, if they are infected. New technologies to detect HIV itself are being used to more accurately determine HIV infection in infants between ages 3 months and 15 months. A number of blood tests are being evaluated to determine if they can diagnose HIV infection in babies younger than 3 months.

Treatment
When AIDS first surfaced in the United States, no drugs were available to combat the underlying immune deficiency and few treatments existed for the opportunistic diseases that resulted. Over the past 10 years, however, therapies have been developed to fight both HIV infection and its associated infections and cancers.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a number of drugs for the treatment of HIV infection. The first group of drugs used to treat HIV infection, called nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), interrupt an early stage of virus replication. Included in this class of drugs are zidovudine (also known as AZT), zalcitabine (ddC), didanosine (ddI), stavudine (D4T), lamivudine (3TC) and abacavir succinate. These drugs may slow the spread of HIV in the body and delay the onset of opportunistic infections. Importantly, they do not prevent transmission of HIV to other individuals. Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) such as delavirdine, nevirapine and efavirenz are also available for use in combination with other antiretroviral drugs.

A third class of anti-HIV drugs, called protease inhibitors, interrupts virus replication at a later step in its life cycle. They include ritonavir, saquinivir, indinavir and nelfinavir. Because HIV can become resistant to each class of drugs, combination treatment using both is necessary to effectively suppress the virus.

Currently available antiretroviral drugs do not cure people of HIV infection or AIDS, however, and they all have side effects that can be severe. AZT may cause a depletion of red or white blood cells, especially when taken in the later stages of the disease. If the loss of blood cells is severe, treatment with AZT must be stopped. DdI can cause an inflammation of the pancreas and painful nerve damage.

The most common side effects associated with protease inhibitors include nausea, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms. In addition, protease inhibitors can interact with other drugs resulting in serious side effects. Investigators also recently have reported cases of abnormal redistribution of body fat among some individuals receiving protease inhibitors.

A number of drugs are available to help treat opportunistic infections to which people with HIV are especially prone. These drugs include foscarnet and ganciclovir, used to treat cytomegalovirus eye infections, fluconazole to treat yeast and other fungal infections, and TMP/SMX or pentamidine to treat Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP).

In addition to antiretroviral therapy, adults with HIV whose CD4+ T-cell counts drop below 200 are given treatment to prevent the occurrence of PCP, which is one of the most common and deadly opportunistic infections associated with HIV. Children are given PCP preventive therapy when their CD4+ T-cell counts drop to levels considered below normal for their age group. Regardless of their CD4+ T-cell counts, HIV-infected children and adults who have survived an episode of PCP are given drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent a recurrence of the pneumonia.

HIV-infected individuals who develop Kaposi’s sarcoma or other cancers are treated with radiation, chemotherapy or injections of alpha interferon, a genetically engineered naturally occurring protein.

Prevention
Since no vaccine for HIV is available, the only way to prevent infection by the virus is to avoid behaviors that put a person at risk of infection, such as sharing needles and having unprotected sex.

Because many people infected with HIV have no symptoms, there is no way of knowing with certainty whether a sexual partner is infected unless he or she has been repeatedly tested for the virus or has not engaged in any risky behavior. CDC recommends that people either abstain from sex or protect themselves by using male latex condoms whenever having oral, anal or vaginal sex. Only male condoms made of latex should be used, and water-based lubricants should be used with latex condoms.

Although some laboratory evidence shows that spermicides can kill HIV organisms, in clinical trials, researchers have not found that these products can prevent HIV.

The risk of HIV transmission from a pregnant woman to her fetus is significantly reduced if she takes AZT during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and her baby takes it for the first six weeks of life.

Research
NIAID-supported investigators are conducting an abundance of research on HIV infection, including the development and testing of HIV vaccines and new therapies for the disease and some of its associated conditions. More than a dozen HIV vaccines are being tested in people, and many drugs for HIV infection or AIDS-associated opportunistic infections are either in development or being tested. Researchers also are investigating exactly how HIV damages the immune system. This research is suggesting new and more effective targets for drugs and vaccines. NIAID-supported investigators also continue to document how the disease progresses in different people.

For information about studies of new HIV therapies, call the AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service:


Department of Health Education & Promotions
HIV/AIDS Statistics


The Global Pandemic • AIDS is a global pandemic that is impacting the developing world and people of color most dramatically. Worldwide there were 33.4 million persons estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS as of the end of 1998 of which 95% resided in developing countries.


• While only one tenth of the world’s population lives in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is the region of the world hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, accounting for 22.5 of the persons living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 1998.


• In North America, there are an estimated 890,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS; 1.4 million in Latin America; 560,000 in East Asia; 500,000 in Western Europe; and 6.7 million in South and Southeast Asia.





HIV/AIDS and African Americans in the United States
• While African Americans represent about 13% of the total U.S. population, they account for 37% of the cumulative AIDS cases and 45% of the new AIDS cases reported in 1998.


• African American men made up 40% of the new AIDS cases among males, African American women represented 62% of the new AIDS cases reported among females and African American children made up 62% of the new AIDS cases among children reported in the U.S. in 1998.


• CDC estimates that 240,000 - 350,000 African Americans--about 1 in 50 African American men and 1 in 160 African American women--are infected with HIV.




AIDS Cases per 100,000 Population • African Americans have the highest AIDS case rate per 100,000 population of all ethnic/racial groups--66.4 per 100,000 population compared with 8.2 for whites.


• African American males have an AIDS case rate of 125.2, over seven times the rate for white males who have a rate of 17.8 per 100,000 population.


• African American women have an AIDS case rate of 49.8, over 20 times the rate for white women who have a rate of 2.4 per 100,000 population.


• Georgia has an AIDS case rate of 59.1 per 100,000 African American population.




AIDS Cases Among Gender
• African American males make up 75% of the cumulative AIDS cases reported among adolescent/adult African Americans, while females make up 25% of the cases.


• In 1998, African American males made up 69% of the reported cases among African Americans while females made up 31% of the cases.


• Among African American males the leading exposure category for AIDS is men who have sex with men (38% of the cumulative cases and 31% of the new AIDS cases reported in 1998).


• Among African American females, injecting drug use (44%) is the leading exposure category for cumulative AIDS cases and heterosexual transmission (36%) is the leading exposure category for new AIDS reported in 1998.


http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/PUBS/Facts/afam.htm

AIDS, and the Conspiracy Theory

African Americans, AIDS, and the Conspiracy Theory

HIV/AIDS began as a government conspiracy. Is this true? Recent polls from The Rand Corporation and Oregon State University showed:

27% percent of African-Americans believe the government invented the HIV virus.
12% said the CIA created the disease.
15% said the disease was invented to wipe out the black community.
“Many persons just want to believe myths and refuse to accept the work that needs to be done by all of us,'' says Mark Douglas, Executive Director of My Brothaz Home, an AIDS organization in Savannah, Georgia. To be clear, HIV/AIDS is not handed down from the government.

Whether you think the conspiracy is true or not, however, that does not give anyone the right to be irresponsible and spread the disease. HIV/AIDS can destroy people’s lives.


A Dishonest History - An Uncertain Future

African Americans have good reason to believe the conspiracy theories. Between 1932 and 1972, the US government tested the effects of the deadly sexually transmitted disease syphilis on African-Americans. They pretended to treat people with the disease, but they didn’t give them real medicine.

Wherever HIV/AIDS came from doesn’t matter at this point – the disease is here to stay and there’s no cure. Right now, African-American women are getting HIV/AIDS faster and in greater numbers than anyone else.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, black women and Latinas made up 85% of new people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2003. It’s the leading cause of death for black women between the ages of 25 and 44. And black women get HIV/AIDS five times more than Latinas.

And it’s not just African-American women. In 2003, about 50% of all people diagnosed with AIDS in 2003 were African-American, even though they only represent 13% of the US population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and the Census Bureau. The question is: Why do so many African-Americans have HIV/AIDS?

Black Women, AIDS, and the Bedroom

Black women get HIV/AIDS just like black men do: from unprotected sex and IV drug use.
But there's another reason the infection rates are on the rise.

"Black women love so hard," says Jackie Jordan, a 34-year old, HIV-positive black woman. “We care for everyone except ourselves. We put our health on the back shelf to make our men and families happy.”

This includes not asking about her partner’s sexual history and not demanding that her partner wear condoms. “A woman may become dependent on a man and won’t make him wear a condom,” Jackie adds. “She might be afraid to do anything that she thinks might make her man leave her.”

Rape, domestic violence, lack of education, and low self-esteem also make it hard for women – especially many African-American women – to protect themselves.

Health Care, Poverty, and HIV/AIDS

According to MSNBC, black women with HIV/AIDS are more likely to be poor and unemployed. If someone doesn’t have a job and doesn’t have money, they probably don’t have health insurance. This means they’re not getting tested and treated for a number of things, including HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS treatment is expensive, but there are lots of organizations across the country that can help people pay for medications. Medicaid and Medicare often cover treatment too. Most people can’t afford HIV/AIDS drugs, but that’s no reason not to get tested.

The Down Low: Gay and Bisexual Black Men

In recent years, reports have shown more African-American women are getting infected by men who secretly have sex with men without telling them. This is called “the down low.”

A lot of gay and bisexual African-American men keep their sexual behavior a secret, largely because many in African-American communities look down on homosexuality. But recent reports usually use the down low as the main reason for the rising infection rates among black women.

According to Dr. David Malebranche of Emory University Medical School, “We distort the truth about HIV/AIDS in the Black community to divert our attention from the real “down-low” issues of oppression, racism, low self-esteem, sexual abuse, substance abuse, joblessness, hopelessness, and despair.”

Prison and HIV/AIDS Rates

The rate of HIV/AIDS infection in prisons is five times higher than the national average. And the number of African Americans in prison is also high, compared to the number of African Americans in the country.

Drug use and unprotected sex – whether it’s forced or not – helps spread the disease very quickly in prisons. It’s illegal for condoms to be distributed in prisons, so men who get infected and get released go back to the women waiting at home and often infect them too.

Protect Your Body, Control Your Destiny

All people must decide for themselves whether their life is worth protecting – every time they wear a condom and every time they have unprotected sex. Using protection and living a healthy lifestyle is the best way to prove that no one – and no disease – can hold African Americans down.

http://www.thebeehive.org/health/articles/aids-african-americans.asp

Was Clinton impeached for sex?

Many of the black community in this country, blacks still belive strongly that Clinton did not break the law, they think it was about sex. Any one familiar with the vents know it was muchbigger than this.

No,having sex is not impeachable a president lying under oath and right in the face of the American people is an impeachable offense, not to mention the moral stain on the Oval Office itself.

Clinton was impeached as President of the United States on December 19, 1998 by the House of Representatives. The charges were perjury and obstruction of justice. The Senate acquitted Clinton on both counts in a trial concluding on February 12, 1999. The day before leaving office, Clinton agreed to a five year suspension of his Arkansas law license as part of an agreement with the independent counsel to end the investigation. Based on this suspension, Clinton was also automatically suspended from the United States Supreme Court bar, from which he chose to resign. [34][35] Clinton's resignation will have little practical effect. He has never practiced before the Supreme Court and was not expected to in the future.


In addition to impeachment, the Clinton White House was the subject of many lesser scandals. Travelgate refers to the firing of White House travel office staffers. Filegate refers to White House handling of hundreds of personnel files from individuals without asking for their permission. Chinagate involved Democrats accepting improper campaign contributions; allegedly the ultimate source of this money was the Chinese government. Pardongate refers to a grant of clemency to FALN members in 1999 and pardons to Marc Rich and others in 2001. In March, 1998 Kathleen Willey, a White House aide, alleged that Clinton had sexually assaulted her. Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in 1978. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy was acquitted on each of 30 charges of illegally accepting gifts such as sports tickets, lodging, and transportation from companies regulated by his department in exchange for favors. [36] Only one Clinton administration official was convicted for any wrong-doing while in office: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for misstating to the FBI the amount of money he gave his girlfriend. In March 2000, Federal District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that "the President had the requisite intent for committing a criminal violation of the Privacy Act" when the White House released correspondence from Willey to Clinton. [37] The letters were released in March 1998, the morning after Willey appeared on the CBS program "60 minutes" and alleged that Clinton made an unwanted sexual advance while the two were in a private room adjacent to the Oval Office in 1993.

Blood for Oil Lies!

March 8, 2005
Blood for Oil?
No Oil Money for Bloody Terrorists
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune News Services

Even in the face of spreading reform in the Middle East, Americans remain divided over the wisdom of removing Saddam Hussein and then staying on to foster democracy in Iraq. But petroleum should not be part of that controversy. Nevertheless, the most persistent smear of this war has been this idea of "blood for oil"—whether the so-called Afghanistan pipeline or Halliburton "grab" for concessions and profits.

True, our foreign policies, like those of all industrial powers, are in part guided by strategic considerations. Cheap gas, however, is not the supreme driving force behind American intervention. The lack of oil may explain our wrong decision to ignore Rwanda, but not our right choice to stop the dying in the Balkans, Somalia and Indonesia. In fact, China, not America, is already the world player most guided by Oilpolitik.

Whatever George Bush is, he is certainly no longer a realist oilman content with the status quo of propping up dictatorial Middle East regimes. Pulling troops out of Saudi Arabia and toppling Saddam—while putting Iran on notice—sent shivers up an oilman's spine. After the Americans invaded Baghdad, the price of petroleum skyrocketed, enraging voters back home. America currently pours billions into oil-rich Iraq, rather than siphoning Arab petroleum out. That is why the same critics who once claimed that we were thieves now deride us as dupes.

Invading Iraq was not to loot its oil treasure, but more likely to cease the recycling of its petrodollars that went to terrorists and weapons procurement. Oil revenue allowed Saddam to attack four countries. His oil money subsidized terrorists like Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas. He sent cash bounties to suicide murderers on the West Bank and helped al-Qaidists in Kurdistan. Petrodollars empowered him to butcher his own people, and thus indirectly led to endless Western patrolling of two-thirds of his airspace.

In contrast, Iraqi oil revenue is now transparent and under the control of an elected government. Reserves are no longer pledged by a dictator to France and Russia in sweetheart deals and at extortionist rates. Nor is petroleum diverted by greedy insiders of the U.N. Oil-for-Food program.

Oil, remember, is also not just an American interest. Japan, Europe, India and China depend on imported fossil fuels far more than does the United States. Impoverished Third World states need moderately priced petroleum to salvage their chronically weak economies. For all the pampered terrorists' bluster about "stealing our resources," the real moral onus is more often on the opulent oil producer like a Saudi Arabia, Iran or Kuwait rather than a destitute consumer like Bangladesh or Peru.

Oil is pumped out of the ground in the Middle East at costs of between $5 and $8 a barrel. Through the power of a cartel, it is then sold to the world for $50. The Saudis, Gulf States and Iranians—who sit atop it but neither developed it nor can pump it without foreign expertise—have exclusive rights of possession protected by international protocols and ultimately the U.S. Navy.

As thanks, the oil producers have formed a monopoly—every bit as ruthless as any 19th century creation of a John D. Rockefeller—in unison to cut production and jack up the world price. This price-fixing harms millions from rural Brazil to Albania. OPEC, not the United States, is the real cutthroat petroleum profiteer.

Every gambling spree by a Saudi sheik in Monaco or outlandish $1,000 a night hotel in the Gulf comes in part from the income of a peasant in Bolivia or Chad. The money for mustard gas in Iraq, a nuclear reactor in Iran and hate-filled propaganda of the Saudi madrassas all derived from rigged oil prices and went to regimes that were neither elected nor capable of creating real wealth through the participation of a middle class.

Such an easy slur like "blood for oil" persists because the alternative explanation is apparently unpalatable. After Sept. 11, Bush abandoned the realist policies of his past and the Cold War calculus of a half-century, by zeroing in on the old pathology of the Middle East: dictators paying off theocrats and terrorists to redirect popular anger at their failures onto the United States.

If Bush's democratic gambit succeeds, the world will be a far better place. But until then as we work on reform in Iraq, let us also conserve, develop new sources and wean ourselves from foreign oil. Promoting democracy also means keeping astronomical profits out of the hands of both failed autocrats and killers. By reducing world demand to weaken the cartel, we will both help poorer nations and restore the financial integrity of the United States.

Those who scream "no blood for oil" would do better to chant "no oil money for bloody terrorists and dictators."

What have Republicans ever done for Blacks?

Regarding the Republican Party, historians report that while Democrats were busy passing laws to hurt blacks, Republicans devoted their time to passing laws to help blacks. Republicans were primarily responsible for the following Civil Rights legislation:

1. The Emancipation Proclamation
2. The 13th Amendment
3. The 14th Amendment
4. The 15th Amendment
5. The Reconstruction Act of 1867
6. The Civil Rights of 1866
7. The Enforcement Act of 1870
8. The Forced Act of 1871
9. The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871
10. The Civil Rights Act of 1875
11. The Freeman Bureau
12. The Civil Rights Act of 1957
13. The Civil Rights Act of 1960
14. The United State Civil Rights Commission

And gave strong bi-partisan support and sponsorship for the following
legislation

15. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
17. The Voting Rights Act of 1965
18. The 1968 Civil Rights Acts
19. The Equal Opportunity Act of 1972
20. Goals and Timetables for Affirmative Action Programs
21. Comprehensive Employment Training Act of 1973
22. Voting Rights Act of Amendment of 1982
23. Civil Rights Act of 1983
24. Federal Contract Compliance and Workforce Development Act of 1988

Programs By Republicans & their Supporters include:

a. Many of our key traditional Black Colleges are named after Republicans Colleges
b. The Freedman Bureau
c. Historians say that three whites that opposed the Democrat's racist practices, including the lynching of blacks, founded and funded the NAACP

Remember the Congo

With the recent news of the Popes death We must not forget what is happeing in the Congo, may we keep the suffering of the Congo people in our hearts and minds.

Upon independence in 1960, the former French region of Middle Congo became the Republic of the Congo. A quarter century of experimentation with Marxism was abandoned in 1990 and a democratically elected government installed in 1992. A brief civil war in 1997 restored former Marxist President SASSOU-NGUESSO, but ushered in a period of ethnic unrest. Southern-based rebel groups agreed to a final peace accord in March 2003.
It also should be noted why leftists attack Bush on the silly notion that we went into Iraq for oil, The Republic of Congo is one of Africa's largest petroleum producers with significant potential for offshore development!

The White African-American

The White African-American
Does white African-American sound like an oxymoron to you? Who thinks that Africa is composed of 100% black people? Apparently, officials at a Nebraska school do.



OMAHA, Neb. — Officials disciplined students who papered their nearly all-white high school with posters advocating a white student from South Africa for the school's "Distinguished African American Student Award."

Peggy Rupprecht, spokeswoman for the Westside Community Schools (search) district, said administrators at Westside High School (search) discovered more than a hundred of the posters throughout the school first thing Monday — Martin Luther King Jr. Day (search).

"The content of the posters, they believed, was inappropriate and insensitive to some members of our school community," Rupprecht said.

[...]

the mother of the boy pictured on the posters said he was suspended for two days.

The award has been given the last eight years to an outstanding black student as part of the school's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, she said.

The poster pictured junior Trevor Richards, 16, smiling and making a thumbs-up sign. A message at the top encouraged votes for him for next year's award.

Karen Richards said her son and his friends were not trying to hurt anyone.

"My son is not a racist," she told the Omaha World-Herald. "He has black friends, friends from Bangladesh and Egypt. Color has never been an issue in our home."

"It was a very innocent thing," she said.

Two of her son's friends were disciplined along with him, she said. A fourth student was punished for circulating a petition Tuesday criticizing the practice of recognizing only black student achievement with the award, she said.

Tylena Martin, a junior, said the poster had been on the door to her homeroom class where she is the only black student. She said she felt hurt by the posters and the backlash that ensued.

According to 2002-2003 state statistics, 56 Of Westside's 1,632 students are black

Graduation Rates Hide Ugly Reality

NEW YORK - The commencement speeches are done, the confetti has been swept up, the decorations stored away. But even as graduation 2003 fades into memory, an unanswered question continues to trouble the US education community: When it comes to high school graduation rates, should the nation be celebrating, or looking more deeply into some worrisome trends?

A recent study by the Child Trends DataBank in Washington offers interesting figures on the nation's high school dropout rates. Overall, US high school dropout rates have fallen, the study indicates.

In 2001, 11 percent of people aged 16 to 24 had dropped out of high school, compared with 15 percent in 1972. Graduation rates compiled by the federal government also show high school graduation has been steadily on the rise for decades. But broken down by race, the Child Trends figures tell a more nuanced story.

The numbers demonstrate that the dropout rate for black students has been cut almost in half over the past 20 years, having fallen to 11 percent in 2001, compared with 21 percent in 1972. But at the same time, the study also shows a stubborn trend for Hispanic student dropout rates. Although down from a peak of 34 percent in 1972, this rate remains extremely high, at 27 percent, in 2001.

On the surface, it would appear that black students are connecting to high school more firmly than in the past, while Hispanic students, for whatever reason, are not.

But it's essential to look more deeply into such numbers, experts say. Ironically, the figures on black students actually conceal a troubling deficit, some insist, while the news about Hispanic students is surprisingly positive.

"There absolutely was a fall in the high school dropout rate" of black students, confirms Bruce Western, professor of sociology at Princeton University in New Jersey. That's the good news. But the bad news follows quickly behind. "About half the fall in the dropout rate is due to the rise in imprisonment of young black males," he says.

Prison inmates generally are excluded in both graduation and dropout counts. At any point in time that practice can invalidate the accuracy of both figures, but the distortion is particularly dramatic at this point in time.

Incarceration rates for black men aged 22 to 30 who haven't finished high school leaped to 40 percent in 1999 from only 14 percent in 1980 - a stunning acceleration unparalleled in US history, Professor Western says.

That doesn't mean that there has been no improvement in dropout rates for black students. "From the mid-1980s to present it's reasonably clear that the dropout rate has declined among blacks," says Robert Hauser, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Professor Hauser uses his own numbers, which show dropout rates for black students declining from a high of 20 percent in the mid-1980s to about 15 percent in the early 1990s, and remaining more or less flat ever since.

But that decline, he says, has little to do with anything schools have or have not done and much more to do with changes within black families.

"There have been increases in parental education and decreases in the number of siblings," he says. "In the mid-1970s and late 1980s there was a big change in the number of children, while at the same time the education level of the parents just kind of marches up."

In the early 1980s black parents had completed an average of 11 years of education, while by the late 1990s that figure was up to about 12 years.

That's incontestably good news for the black community, sociologists agree, but it balances very uncomfortably against the shocking rise in incarceration rates.

Meanwhile, the news about dropout rates may be far better for the Hispanic community than it appears on the surface.

While many studies confirm that the number of Hispanic students who drop out remains high, most fail to take into account the record-high numbers of Spanish-speaking immigrants pouring into the US over the past decade or so.

"You have to make a distinction between Hispanic youth born in the US and spending their whole careers in US schools versus those who came later in life," says Richard Fry, senior research associate for the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.

The dropout rate for Hispanic youths born in the US has actually shown a small but significant decline over the 1990s, Dr. Fry says, from 15 percent to 14 percent. "The news is not astoundingly positive, but it's positive," he says. Considering the challenges Hispanic students face in the US, "it's encouraging that dropout rates have fallen a little bit."

But overall dropout rates remain a problem that simply doesn't get the attention it deserves, says Pedro Noguera, professor of sociology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Mass.

Hispanic students obviously face a particular academic challenge if English is not their first language - particularly, points out Professor Noguera, those who may not be literate in Spanish, either. But, in an era in US public schools that tends to focus on high-stakes testing and that continues to place higher demands on students, "it's an issue that's not even on the radar for a lot of policy-makers," Noguera says.

But at the same time, he adds, sometimes focusing on dropout rates for minority students minimizes the ongoing problems faced by poor white children as well.

"We tend to generalize about groups, and there's a tendency to render poor white kids invisible," he says.

There is also a tendency to overlook the huge number of young men - particularly young black men - in prison without high school diplomas, Western says.

What many Americans forget when reading headlines about soaring prison populations is that the vast majority of these prisoners will eventually leave jail and reenter society - without the benefit of enough education to find even an entry-level job.

Ironically, today's more crowded prisons offer inmates fewer educational opportunities than in past decades. "Resources for prison programming, including educational programs, have all contracted as the prison population has gotten larger and larger," Western says.

The best time to focus on breaking the link between low levels of educational attainment and crime is long before either high school graduation or prison, most educators say.

That's why Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio (about 15 miles from downtown Cleveland), decided to tackle this particular problem in its own backyard.

According to city figures, about 50 percent of students in Cleveland do not make it from ninth to 10th grade. And the group most clearly at risk, says Denise Reading, vice president of student affairs at the college, is young urban males.

It's hard to look at Cleveland schools, she says, and not ask the question: "Where are our young men, particularly our young men of color?"

This summer, Baldwin-Wallace launched the Barbara Byrd-Bennetts Scholars Program. The program will bring 34 Cleveland eighth-graders on campus for two weeks this summer to sharpen English and math skills.

Throughout the school year, the boys will continue to receive mentoring and tutorial support in addition to participating in on-campus residential programs over the next four years - a level of involvement that will hopefully support them all the way up to high school graduation.

"We know how to tackle" the problem of dropouts, Dr. Reading says. "The question is, Are we willing to do what we know will work?"

Dropout statistics vary dramatically
One of the hardest things about tracking high school graduation rates is determining which numbers to use.

Statistics often vary dramatically. For instance, numbers compiled by the federal government show the national high school graduation rate for 2000 to be 86.5 percent, while Jay Greene, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York, pegs the same figure at 69 percent.

The government includes in its graduation rate students who attain a high school equivalency diploma, while Mr. Greene does not. At the same time, Greene counts students who land in prison as nongraduates, while the government simply doesn't count them at all.

Dozens of other factors may skew numbers as well. If the dropout rate is calculated by comparing the senior class with the junior class, that figure fails to take into account all students who dropped out between ninth and eleventh grades. A comparison with ninth-graders might show a markedly different number.

Also, when calculating national figures, Census Bureau data are often used to determine how many 18-year-olds graduate. But those data may underrepresent the poorest populations - exactly those most likely to fail to graduate.

It's hard to agree on standards to be used in compiling such figures. The danger, however, is that groups determined to do so can use these numbers to make widely divergent points



— Marjorie Coeyman
staff writer
Christian Science Monitor
The Story Behind Drop Out Rates

2003-07-01

Che's "horrid' legacy in Africa

Che's "horrid' legacy in Africa

Almost 40 years ago, the mountains towering above this lakeside town in South Kivu province were the scene of some of the opening shots in DR Congo's post-colonial wars.

Che was unimpressed with Congo revolutionariesIn 1965, with the world on a tense Cold War footing, the Latin American revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara came here to try to spark a left-wing revolution.
Che aimed to pit himself against what he called the "Yankee Imperialists" whom he saw as backing compliant pro-western candidates for power in DR Congo.
Kabila encounter
Among Che's would-be Congolese allies was the then 26-year-old Laurent Kabila, who he met in the Fizi Baraka mountains, now soaring up above me from the Ruzizi River Plain which empties into Lake Tanganyika at the town of Uvira.

Despite the impression of calm, residents fear war could be round the cornerLaurent Kabila did eventually come to power, in 1997. But the revolution he headed was far from left-wing.
He ousted the ailing President Mobutu Sese Seko after forming a tactical alliance with neighbouring Rwanda.
Rwanda wanted Mobutu deposed because he had hosted the defeated Hutu army which had orchestrated the genocide of Tutsis and other government opponents in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Che diaries
But Rwanda lived to regret its choice of Kabila as an ally in the 1996 invasion of DR Congo.
He turned against them after coming to power in 1997, a switch which rekindled the war in DR Congo as Rwanda attacked again - not with Kabila this time, but against him.
Che's recently published personal diaries make it clear that he was unimpressed by Kabila.
Perhaps if the Rwandans and their American advisers had had better intelligence from the Cold War period, they would not have made such a costly mistake.
Unmitigated disaster
Che Guevara's seven-month stay in the Fizi Baraka mountains was, as he admits himself, an "unmitigated disaster".

Kamanyola's residents fear war at any momentThe mercenary Colonel "Mad Mike" Hoare, who had been contracted by the American-influenced government in Kinshasa, squeezed Che's small Cuban force into an ever smaller area until he had to escape back across Lake Tanganyika into the then-friendly territory of revolutionary Tanzania.
Today, this region is no less pivotal to the war, and potentially the peace process, in the DR Congo.
I drove, with a military escort of UN soldiers from Uruguay, up the Ruzizi River plain from the town of Uvira to the village of Kamanyola which is on the border with Rwanda.
Rebel complaints
Along just 50km of road I encountered such a variety of armed groups that I began to think of the Ruzizi Plains as the theatre of a wider Congolese war, but in miniature.
QUICK GUIDE
The war in DR Congo
The first roadblock (ostensibly to denote territory but also to levy illegal taxes) was near the village of Kiliba.
The armed men there were polite to their surprise BBC guest, but uninformative.
They belonged to the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD).
Originally backed by Rwanda, the rebel RCD controlled Uvira until June when they were ousted by forces loyal to the government.
A young RCD major in uniform broke off from a meeting of officers to complain to me about his conditions in the bush.
Protected warriors
The RCD is now a major component of the coalition transitional government in Kinshasa - although it is regularly accused of still taking orders from Rwanda.
A few more kilometres up the road, past the village of Sange, was another checkpoint.
This was ostensibly manned by the pro-Congolese government militia known as the Mai Mai after the water they douse themselves with to create a magical, bullet-proof shield.
A young man - who said he was 25 but looked no more than 17 - said he was the commander of the post.
A well-informed source in the area told me that this checkpoint was in fact shared between the Mai Mai and anti-Rwandan government rebels that have a base in DR Congo in the hills above the Ruzizi Plain.
"They share the loot", said the source, who asked not to be named.
There were numerous other checkpoints - at least a dozen in total - but many of these were quickly dismantled as the men with guns saw the small Uruguayan army convoy approach.
It would have been very different if we had been ordinary Congolese civilians.
Sane comment
Along the road, I came across a village which had been attacked by one of the groups because they were perceived to support another.
The villagers were clearly terrified, hungry and desperate.
My last stop was the village of Kamanyola, on the border with Rwanda.
Tired now of men with guns, I was relieved to do something ordinary.
I bought some tomatoes and pineapples for a snack and visited a school.
A teacher there said one of the sanest things I had heard all day: "The situation here is very bad", he explained, "because we fear war at any moment."

The pretence of Hip Hop Leadership

Dr. Martin Kilson

At the age of 71, I am a member of the progressive sector of African-American intellectuals, the post-World War II civil rights generation. The civil rights organizations I identified with were the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women, the Congress of Racial Equality, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the National Urban League, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, among others. The leadership personalities I looked up to and revered were W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Height, James Farmer, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, John Lewis, Medgar Evers, and Fannie Lou Hamer, to mention only a few.

However, just recently several articles have appeared by members of the post-civil rights era generation of Black academics that amount to tossing poisoned darts at African Americans’ mainline civil rights tradition and its courageous leadership figures. One of these civil rights tradition-offending articles, penned by Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, appeared in the New York Times, September 27, 2002. In the op ed piece, Dyson claims he belongs to a new generation of Black intellectuals who consider leadership personalities like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks fair game for anyone’s comedic dishonoring. He defended such dishonoring of King and Parks in the Black people-offending MGM film, “Barbershop.”

Supporting the mindless hip-hop style irreverence toward African-American civil rights leadership, Prof. Dyson considers it some kind of new freedom for Black actors and entertainers to verbally dishonor Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and others. Dyson approaches the analytically bizarre in his article when he claims “that the barbershop…may be one of the last bastions of unregulated speech in black America.” He also claims that, “at the worst [civil rights organizations] are antidemocratic institutions headed by gifted but authoritarian leaders.”

These observations are not just bizarre, but outright falsehoods. They are analytically wrong and serve as anti-Black ammunition for conservative opponents of African-Americans’ civil rights agenda. The fact of the matter is that millions of everyday African-American citizens are fully aware of the unique, populist give-and-take interaction between leaders and followers that is typically experienced in branches of the National Council of Negro Women, the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Bar Association, the African Methodist Episcopal Church convention, Black women’s sororities, etc. Extending forward from the Emancipation era in the late 19th century, the nooks and crannies of African-American life have been saturated with open speech, far more so than among other American groups. Open speech is precisely what, for example, Negro spirituals, gospel music, the “dozens,” dinner table-talk, street talk, meetings of all kinds of African-American organizations, have been about. Michael Dyson, an ordained Black clergyman, might do himself well to revisit the folk essence of African-American institutions, before he again contemplates an affront to Black people’s honor.

But Dyson’s article was a relatively mild version of the new Black leadership pretense among hip-hop spokespersons, when compared with another op ed article in the Boston Globe (October 2, 2002) titled “There’s No Bridging The Hip-Hop Gap,” by Todd Boyd, a professor of cinema/TV. Boyd’s grotesque slanders erupt like weeds from a thicket of historical ignorance, as he attempts to elevate hip-hop spokespersons to premier leadership status among African-Americans. Let me explain.

Slandering the ancestors
Todd Boyd commences his historically vacuous article with a cynical assertion that nothing associated with African-American life and history warrants reverence from today’s young Black citizens. He dismisses as valueless the courage, blood, sweat and tears expended by Blacks in the long and tortuous struggle to smash the cruel edifice of legal White supremacy. This intellectually thuggish outlook embraced by Boyd and his hip-hop followers – an outlook that honors nothing genuinely human – is packaged in slick commercialistic lingo that adds to its profanity. Boyd appears to be building a career on insults to past generations of heroic American-American leaders and citizens who, in Martin Luther King’s words, “fought the good fight.” Boyd’s words drip with contempt for Black people’s civil rights tradition:

The new-school hip-hop generation exists with a mandate to ‘keep it real’; this has to do with a hardnosed truth about the world and letting the chips fall where they may. There is now a generation of black people in the United States who find the ways of their parents and grandparents inapplicable to their own lives.
In elaborating this crude and nihilistic outlook – this ode to hedonism and materialism, with its slap in the face of the heroism of our ancestors’ struggle to smash American slavery and White racism – Boyd wants the post-civil rights generations to believe that the only important outcome of their ancestors’ struggle was “assimilation into the mainstream.” This is a twisted, barefaced lie. The facts of the matter are, of course, quite different. Thanks to the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement, multi-thousands of Black Americans have a greater number of middle-class and good working-class jobs and hold authoritative positions in industry and government. Yet they are in no serious sense “assimilated into White society,” because White American society still harbors the racist mystique in most of its sectors.

The vast majority of us African-Americans who work alongside our White American compatriots in industry, banks, retail stores, schools, colleges, law firms, hospitals, in construction, etc., attempt to cosmopolitanize and liberalize the mindset and attitudes of White Americans, rather than defer to and get-along-with old racist habits and attitudes of White Americans. The goal of most Blacks has never been “to assimilate” into some White “mainstream.” Boyd’s charge against the vast majority of today’s middle and professional class Black Americans – that they have “assimilated into racist White America” – is nothing but a lie!

Boyd even has the gall to package this Big Lie in pseudo-radical language: “Hip-hop,” he tells us, “having come about in the aftermath of civil rights, sees this assimilation as being akin to selling one’s soul to the mainstream [white] devil.” I could hardly believe my eyes when they fell upon this sentence, this arrogant and inept ploy by Prof. Boyd to, first, co-opt Minister Farrakhanesque, Black nationalist militant lingo (“the mainstream [white] devil”), then attempt to make it applicable to the phony militant patina of hip-hop verbalism. Such contortions suggest just how pathetic hip-hop minded Black intellectuals like Boyd, Michael Dyson, Tres Ellis, and their circle have become in the quest to claim for themselves the mantle of “new Black leadership.”

The fact of the matter is, there’s nothing whatever that’s seriously radical or progressive about hip-hop ideas and values. It is sad that there are university academics among us like Michael Dyson and Todd Boyd (respectively at the University of Pennsylvania and University of California) who fail to recognize the political emptiness of most hip-hop expression. Hip-hop entertainers and its entertainment modalities do not represent a “new worldview” for African Americans. Quite the contrary, the “hip-hop worldview” is nothing other than an updated face on the old-hat, crude, anti-humanistic values of hedonism and materialism.

The “hip-hop worldview” is far from being a viable post-civil rights era message to African-American children and youth. It is seldom a message of self-respect and self-dignity as Black individuals and as American citizens, a message of discipline of one’s emotions, discipline towards education, discipline and respect toward one’s parents, and discipline and respect towards friendship among peers of both sexes – this last being a discipline so badly required to reduce unacceptable levels of violence among African-American youth. It is ironic, in fact, that Black youth in poverty-level and weak working-class families who struggle to design a regime of self-respect and discipline in matters of education and interpersonal friendship, get no assistance whatever in these respects from hedonistic, materialistic, nihilistic, sadistic, and misogynistic ideas and values propagated by most hip-hop entertainers. The cruelty of the irony is compounded because many hip-hop entertainers come from working-class backgrounds, and yet lack awareness of the injury done to the life chances of themselves and their peers by the warped values that are the hallmark of hip-hop. This is truly sad indeed! Truly sad that Professor Todd Boyd can claim that hip-hop represents a new leadership paradigm for African-Americans.

Contempt for the Black legacy


Of course, hip-hop can claim to be associated with a certain kind of achievement. The genre has fashioned an entrepreneurial and commercial accumulation breakthrough among African-Americans in the Black/White pop entertainment relationship. As Todd Boyd is happy to report in his article, “the hip-hop generation has produced several black figures on Fortune magazine’s list of the richest people under 40.” However, hip-hop entertainment gains in African-American business ownership are hardly the only important entrepreneurial advances among African-Americans in the post-civil rights era, as anyone who keeps up with the nearly 30-year-old Black Enterprise journal is well aware.

Whether they recognize it or not, Todd Boyd, Michael Dyson, and their hip-hop intellectual colleagues have become advocates of anti-human and Negro-minstrel skewed dynamics in contemporary African-American entertainment. It is utter nonsense to pretend that this amounts to a new kind of leadership paradigm for African-American society. Yet this is precisely what Professor Boyd claims in his article. He writes with pride that “Whereas the civil rights generation found its calling in politics and the pursuit of political institutions, this hip-hop generation has contempt for these institutions and finds [commercial] culture to be the primary means of expression.” Thus, for Todd Boyd and also Michael Dyson, African-Americans worthy of respect today are not “Thurgood Marshall, Medgar Evers, James Meredith, Fannie Lou Hamer…etc.,” but “Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, Russell Simmons, Master P., Queen Latifah, and Missy Elliot.”

Clearly, something quite awful has gone wrong in the intellectual character of the new advocates of hip-hop culture like Boyd and Dyson. Their intellects have become saturated with inhumane, politically useless and morally repugnant pop entertainment modalities. Interestingly enough, there is an effort – hopeful perhaps – to capture some of the élan generated by hip-hop entertainment and translate it into genuine social and political activism, the kind of activism Todd Boyd has “contempt” for. A group calling itself the First Active Arts Youth Conference has emerged with this goal in mind, and launched its inaugural event in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, on September 21st, 2002. (See Renee Graham, “Stirring Consciences with Hip-Hop,” Boston Globe, September 20, 2002.) If such a new trajectory within hip-hop modalities is to succeed, it clearly must disengage from the typical dynamics which have thus far defined the cynical character of hip-hop.

Dr. Martin Kilson received his BA degree from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, and his PhD from Harvard University, where he taught from 1962 to 1998. He was the first Black granted full tenure at Harvard. Kilson is Frank G. Thomson Research Professor, Harvard, and recently completed, “The Making of Black Intellectuals: Studies on the African-American Intelligentsia.”

Is Bush a Racist?

Is Bush a Racist?

Racism has historically been defined as the belief that race is the primary determinant of human capacities, that a certain race is inherently superior or inferior to others, and/or that individuals should be treated differently according to their racial designation. Sometimes racism means beliefs, practices, and institutions that discriminate against people based on their perceived or ascribed race.
Let us take a look at Pres Bush's adminstartion


Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Dept of Commerce
Hispanic Male

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Department of Justice
Hispanic Male

Secretary Elaine Chao, Department of Labor
Asian-American Female

Secretary Margaret Spellings, Department of Education
White Female

Secretary Condoleezza Rice, State Department
African-American Female

Secretary Norman Mineta, Department of Transportation
Hispanic Male

Secretary Alphonso Jackson, Dept Housing & Urban Dev.
African-American Male

If Bush is so racist then why does President Bush have the most diverse Admin in History?