Dr Susanna's guide to MJoTA sites
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Jun 28, 2012. Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke's neighborhood click here.
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Jun 27, 2012. Congresswoman Clark wins re-election click here.
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Above, picture of US Representative Yvette Clarke, who spoke to an audience about the huge toll HIV/AIDS has taken, is taking, on New York City. HIV/AIDS pages, click here.
The meeting on HIV/AIDS was organized in a church next to the United Nations by Nigerian-born friend of MJoTA, Dr Ada Okika, who works tirelessly to lessen the toll of HIV/AIDS. The Igbo outfit I first wore to celebrate the life of the late General Ojukwu, I bought from one of Dr Okika's United Nations gatherings click here.
Today is election day in New York. Which means Democrats vote for their candidates in the November general elections. And so do Republicans. In Brooklyn, daughter of Jamaica, US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke is up for re-election to the Democratic ticket. Before she was a congresswoman, she was a New York City Council member. She is the daughter of the Hon. Una ST Clarke, the first Caribbean-born woman elected to the New York City's legislature, 1991-2001. For more pictures and video and news from Jamaica, click here.If you live in New York, go and vote. If you know someone who lives in New York, call them and tell them they need to go and vote. Because if you do not vote, you have not shown who you support, or who you like better of 2, or better of 3. If you don't like anyone, you should have used your democratic right to get involved earlier and make sure someone who speaks for you is there. As Winston Churchill said, "..democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." Get on with it. Vote. Sickle cell disease is horrible, and Ms Zemoria Brandon knows that very well. Sickle cell videos and information, click here.
Guinea news, videos, click here.Ecuador. Do the right thing. Give Australian freedom fighter Julian Assange political asylum. When I posted that, I was told he committed sex crimes. Say what? From what I have read, and of course this is a second-hand account, I haven't spoken with him or his accusers, but the consensus appears to be that he didn't commit sex crimes.
He had consensual sex on different occasions with 2 adult women, who
chatted about it with each other, both got mad and decided they had been
raped.
He did not behave well, but in my world view, he did not rape anyone,
did not assault anyone and all this nonsense is political pressure
because he publishes things governments do not want.
His behavior is not
equivalent to rape or sexual assault of young and old females who have
been targeted by predators and bullies in war or peace.
To me, it looks
like he fell into the oldest trap in the world for getting rid of good
men. Definitely he was stupid. Like Samson, he fell for Delilah. Two Delilahs. Ecuador. Do the right thing.
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Above, I made this desert! Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, the top is the German flag, the bottom is the Union Jack.
This was my salute to Queen Elizabeth II for 60 years of being Queen, not perfect: she could have told her parliament to behave itself when they refused to recognize Biafra, and she certainly should have told the Governor General of Australia in 1975 that his job was to open garden parties, not to sack Labor Governments. Everything is Rupert Murdoch's fault, he should have been arrested for all the nonsense in Australia in 1975, and he certainly should have been arrested now.
I made the desert above for my daughter's graduation, click here: I am British and her father Lothar Blossfeld Dipl Physik is German. I told her I was building a Union Jack, so she got her friend to buy a cake with a German flag, pictured below.
Anyway, look closely at the German flag. I made it right: black, red, then yellow. Then look at the picture below.
Made by a Greek baker in New Jersey. The day after Germany annihilated Greece in soccer. The week after Germany gave a severe talking to Greece about cash flow and working hard. Not a whole lot of love lost between Germany and Greece this week.
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Above, flags from Caribbean nations decorate Brooklyn Borough Hall in Jun 2012, as they have every June since 2005. The furthest right is the flag of Antigua & Barbuda, next to it is the flag for Guyana. Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President, proudly claims Trinidad & Tobago as his adopted home.
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Agnes Doherty, my great-grandmother, had been widowed in Kent by the Rev John D'Alziell Piper, and
married to the Rev Solomon Cambie when her step-son Maurice was killed in
World War I. A few months later, in August 1916, her daughter Jane gave birth to her only child, and named him Maurice.
The Right Rev MAP Wood, Bishop of Norwich, as he became, told me decades later, at the end of his long life, that his being named Maurice had not been a good idea, instead of comforting his grandfather, he annoyed him.
Cousin Maurice knew war, he was born into war, he grew up at the shadow of war, and was the highest decorated priest during World War II. He told me that someone needed rescuing and he could swim, and everyone made a big fuss. I asked him about landing on Juno Beach on D-Day, Jun 6, 1944. For the rest of his life, whenever he was able, he returned to France to officiate at sunrise services.
Cousin Maurice was a decorated hero. A hero of war, but not a war hero.
War hero is contradictory phrase, which is also known as an oxymoron. Wars make heroes, but no-one creating war is a hero. Heroes push others out of harm's way, rescue others, fight against war with every tool they have.
Because I grew up a half-world away from my relatives in England and Ireland, the first time I remember meeting Cousin Maurice was when he was the principal of the Anglican priest-training college in London and he was the guest of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.
I answered the phone when he called, immediately my crippled mother sprang into action, she was so excited to see someone from home. She got my brothers and me on our hands and knees scrubbing the floors, and the next day Cousin Maurice appeared at our front door in Kensington in a taxi, carrying a towel and a bathing suit.
Mother drove Cousin Maurice and my younger brothers to La Perouse. Cousin Maurice really did swim even though it was the middle of the winter. My brothers and I were truly impressed: who was this superman who was our relative?
All afternoon, Cousin Maurice told us stories about his incredible life as an evangelist with Billy Graham, with singer Cliff Richards, his 6 children, his late wife, his current wife. He delighted us with a tale of his American friends' debate about when Grace should be said, if a meal or snack was 50 cents? One dollar? My mother was so happy, happier than I had seen her in a year. Story of Dr Patience Uprichard and pictures of La Perouse, click here. Story of Haddonfield Memorial High School graduation of Miss Patience Dodgson click here.
I had never heard of my father's Cousin Maurice. My father simply thought children were just there to be nuisances, and he just never said anything to us. We got out of his way. At the time Cousin Maurice showed up, my father had been in South Australia for a year, and exactly at that time, his young girlfriend succeeded in one of her several attempts at suicide. Ah life. Story of Dr MCH Dodgson, click here.
Good came out of Cousin Maurice's flash visit. In the Anglican young persons' circles my status moved from being a "bloody Pom", a despised immigrant, to being the cousin of the Rev Maurice Wood. And 2 years later, when Cousin Maurice became Bishop of Norwich, and put all his priest on motorbikes, and made a speech in the House of Lords, he made international headlines and the nasty jabs at me being British and never washing almost stopped.
And that's what heroes of war do. Protect young women, old women, children, young men, old men and lift up the spirits of crippled women whose husbands have left them for young girls.
Page of constantly updated news from and about Jamaica has been started, click here. Successful daughter of Jamaica, New York State Deputy Commissioner Yvonne J Graham click here, successful son of Jamaica Lowell Hawthorne click here.
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Yesterday, a huge Caribbean celebration in New York, in Brooklyn's Borough Hall. The 7th Annual Caribbean Heritage festival, and the Hall was filled with CACCI members (I am a member click here), Brooklyn Borough officials, Caribbean consular staff and persons with links to the Caribbean.
Our keynote speaker at the morning's breakfast was Lowell Hawthorne, founder and CEO of Golden Krust, which he refers to as GK. GK is a manufacturing operation with 1700 stores, and a huge creator of jobs and wealth in Caribbean communities. I met Lowell at the 2009 Christmas party, quiet, thoughtful man from Jamaica. What impressed me about him then is that he was not surrounded by handlers or sycophants, and is clearly a serious man of deep faith that translates into understanding that he has been given the ability to work hard for good. Listen to him speak to other audiences about his ascent from poverty in Jamaica and in New York through to today, click here.
Updated page on Stop and Frisk: several videos, mostly featuring NYC Councilmember Jumaane Williams, click here.
MJoTA Friday Night Movie features 3 movies: one from Barbados, one from North Jersey, the third is Swedish click here.
What are my links to the Caribbean? My first trip outside the British Isles was to the Caribbean: I was 6 and with my mother click here and brothers. My father had flown from England. He had enough sea voyages when he was Captain Dodgson in the British Army Medical Corps, click here.
We didn't stop long in Curacao or Panama, we went through the Panama Canal through to the Pacific and stopped for 3 years in New Zealand. Another link: in 1996, I was an adjunct full professor in physiology and the University of Puerto Rico, and since then I have owned a very small condominium in Puerto Rico.
I like to tell my friends in CACCI that I come from a small island in the Caribbean known as Australia. But of course, Australia was another stop for me, an 18-year stop.
The Caribbean was a stopping place in the illegal war on Africans that we know as the Slave Trade. The Caribbean islands in general were kinder to Africans than elsewhere: cultures brought from West Africa are still in evidence. I know when I was in a bus driving from Santo Domingo to Port au Prince after the 2010 Haiti earthquake (click here) I was astonished at how much the people in Haiti looked like Nigerians.
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Picture above, me with Mr Bernard Williams, the owner of Zoomradiofm in Antigua, and the first Antiguan I had ever met. Not the last, the next morning I flew to the tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua & Barbuda as the guest of Zoomradiofm.com. My mission was to talk to the prime minister of Grenada and convince him Zoomradiofm needs a radio license.
Quickly I learned that Antigua has never been conquered and had slave uprisings going back to 1730: Antiguans are not going to take advice from anyone, especially me. I also know, from my 3 weeks as the guest of Mr Williams, and his lovely dog Hercules, that if ever a radio station deserved a license, it is Zoomradiofm. You can listen live to the radio station on the MJoTA sites, click here.
Yes, I did talk to the Prime Minister. Charming man.
The picture was taken at Borough Hall, Brooklyn, at a CACCI event. Today CACCI takes over Borough Hall for the annual Caribbean Heritage celebration. Links to pages about CACCI, click here.
Stop and frisk, click here.
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Picture above, I was in Lagos in August 2010 on my way to Sierra Leone. We were all dressed up to go to the coronation of a Yoruba king. For Nigeria news, click here.
Summer solstice! Also known as Midsummer. As in Midsummer Night's Dream.
Last night Haddonfield Memorial High School graduated its senior class, which included MJoTAtalks host Carlos Ginsburg, and my daughter Patience Dodgson. For story and pictures, click here.
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Above picture, Nigerian Yoruba princess Ms Tosin Mustapha organized a poetry day in Brooklyn Public Library in 2010, and scholar Dr Marie Umeh was guest of honor. Princess Tosin is the publisher of AfroHeritage magazine and has for some years been a teacher in New York.
And the list of foods to eat when you dance diabetes to hell
continues.... story of why you need to eat oats, clinical studies show
this from India, England, Sweden, Brazil, Ulster, Canada... click here.
Today my youngest child graduates from high school. My father did not live long enough to see my oldest child finish first grade, so I started a page as tribute to my late father. He was born in England and studied medicine in England while death and destruction was falling on heads and ending lives all over England, all over Europe, click here. Story of my late mother, click here.
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Above, me between 2 leaders of West African communities in Philadelphia. Two leaders who have been trained to make things work, and who run businesses in Philadelphia, and who value law and order and security.
Left, Dr Samuel Quartey, president of the Imhotep Charter High School, a director of the board of the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and runs a podiatry practice. On Oct 2, 2011 he enstooled 4 Philadelphians as Kings and Queens of Ghana. One was the Rev Zemoria Brandon. Dr Quartey does other things to, I see him everywhere in Philadelphia. Dr Quartey and Mrs Brandon are part of Africom Philly click here and the Mayors Commission on African and Caribbean Affairs click here.
I told Dr Quartey that he looks like he is wearing a toga, and he said yes! I am right! Ghana's national costume has come down to them from the ancients. Videos, pictures, stories from Ghana plus constantly updated news, click here.
Right, High Chief MC Orji, aeronautical engineer, owner of Philadephia auto shop, St Cyprian's vestry member, survivor of the Biafran Holocaust, click here.
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According to the New York Police Department (NYPD) website: "When a police officer reasonably suspects that a
person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a felony or a
Penal Law misdemeanor, the officer is authorized by NYS Criminal
Procedure law 140.50 to stop, question and possibly frisk that individual. This frequently asked question is also available in the following
languages: Spanish, Russian, Korean, Italian, French Creole and
Chinese."
Stop and frisk: huge march through New York yesterday to protest it. Looked like a lot of good people were protesting violation of their human rights, and they believed they were being violated.
I don't know whether they were, but if they believe they were, then I believe them.
To me, the story is odd. I have had some interaction with the NYPD myself and from Commissioner Ray Kelly down, they are a highly diverse group, trained in defusing danger in New York and abroad.
NYPD uniformed officers are a diverse multi-racial group of professionals. From what they have told me, most police officers are veterans of Iraq, and Afghanistan, certainly all uniformed officers that I have spoken with have been veterans.
And you know I have spoken with a lot of NYPD detectives, officers and African liaisons socially at parades and with being hit on the face with my camera, trying to get Lookman Sulaimon out of jail, being sued for $20million, being served and serving restraining orders and being arrested for sending out a Mother's Day greeting.
I have long been interested in police forces, because they are there for security, to make sure the rule of law is accepted. I support their existence, and very much want them to have the tools they need to succeed.
When I first went to Nigeria in July 2007 I came into contact with uniformed officers quickly, they flagged down the car transporting me to the School of Pharmacy at Unilag. The driver was Osagie Edoro-Ighalo, who managed to rapidly get the 2 officers to argue with each other.
I had to bite down hard on tissues to stop myself laughing, I know never to laugh at men with guns. They stopped us to get money, but all the papers for the car were in order and they were no match for Osagie.
He drove another 500 yards, and was stopped again by a female officer who demanded he drive immediately to the police station. He spoke to her in her own dialect, and suddenly she was flirting with him. A second attempt at extortion thwarted.
During later visits to Nigeria I have been a guest in the house of the police commissioner of Lagos for 2 days, and I have stopped in to chat with the police commander of Ikeja headquarters. I have also chatted with police officers, who have explained that they do not get a living wage, and they take their job in protecting lives and property seriously, but absolutely rely on "gifts" from citizens. The police commander told me that 20 years ago he was a United Nations police officer in Asia, and he has not come close to earning as much in Nigeria. For constantly updated news from Nigeria, click here.
I know the salaries for NYPD officers are good, and that stopping cars to shake down motorists for money is rare, or never happens. The stop and frisk policy is an attempt to stop murders and hold-ups. The problem that was being addressed by the march is that citizens believe that anyone of African origin is seen as a likely carrier of guns, and a likely perpetrator. My people are being profiled.
Bed Stuy Vollies EMT had a run-in with police last year, a young man was tasered and tortured when he had no criminal intent. I was told he had to dunk his head in the toilet to ease the pain, no other water was available. I saw a picture of him after this: his face was swollen. Bed Stuy Vollies click here.
I know the young man. He races out when New Yorkers need EMT, even when Haiti needed EMT. Constantly updated news from Haiti click here.
Does NYPD have a few bad eggs? I call for NYPD review of officers' records for full lists of their arrests, and violations.
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After I have called into question some who are sworn to take care of our security. Now I am taking aim at some sworn to take care of our health.
This article is irresponsible and wrong, click here. I expect better of a government agency, making sweeping statements without any evidence. I read reports of clinical studies showing that cinnamon is a good thing to take if you have diabetes, and published an article summarizing the reports, with links to each article, click here.
I was convinced that cinnamon lowers blood glucose, so I take a teaspoon a day. Occasionally I suck on cinnamon bark to sweeten my breath.
Everything that works to lower blood glucose and blood sugar should and must be used. I read today that 1 in 10 in China have diabetes. Chinese eat white rice, read about the effects of white rice and white bread on diabetes, click here.
Does cinnamon interfere with other drugs? I do not know, but I could find no evidence in the US National Library of Medicine database.
I am teetering on the brink of being diagnosed with clinical diabetes, I do everything I can to keep me from falling. I ate red rice a month ago, an hour later my blood sugar was way up in the nearly-diabetes range. So now I do not eat white rice, ever. I eat lentils instead, and move around at every opportunity. Dance diabetes into hell. What else to eat when you have diabetes? Click here.
I am wondering what other nonsense the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine will come up with. I will let you know.
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Picture above, I took at Medgar Edgars University in Crown Heights Brooklyn. Members of CACCI (Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry) were gathered to celebrate 26 years of CACCI on 26 Aug 2011, click here.
MJoTA today published a page on the right to free speech and the right to assemble. Because in America we have that right, click here.
I heard that someone wants to sue me for defamation when I have published nothing about them. I guess that is reason enough! That happened to me before, and that is why I know the laws of defamation better than most. In 2009 I was sued in US Federal Court for $20million. By a Nigerian-born New York State-licensed lawyer who was told to drop the case when I showed that she lied.
Janet Oluwasolape Ogundipe Fashakin. Sola was very happy to lie under oath in Federal Court. Astonishing. And every year in June she makes a big fuss of her invention that her father was raised from the dead after 3 days, just like Jesus, which is not as rare as you might think, click here.
After the Federal Judge kicked out the case against me, Oluwasolape became a Lady Evangelist in a church in the Bronx, and Walden University gave her a PhD in criminal justice.
Oluwa means God. Lovely Yoruba word.
I remember discussing lying in 1974 during the days up to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, for lying. I was living with avid bridge players. They told me that in bridge, if you are caught lying you are kicked out because being caught means you have probably been lying for a long time. Liars do what they do best, lie. You catch out a liar, and you start to wonder if that person ever said a true thing. Ever.
So what was going on? I don't know. I did not know her. I saw her twice, the third time she saw me she hit me on the face with my camera in Mayor Bloomberg's campaign headquarters. This was a month after she fabricated an email that she said came from me, and mass disseminated it.
Ah, water under the bridge, click here.
The summer solstice is this week and the summer nights are long and sensuous. And the fireflies are back. How lovely is midsummer, I need to read Midsummer's Night's Dream. Because everything that seemed so real 400 years ago, when Shakespeare wrote his play, is now a dream. God bless us all.
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Picture above I took in August 2009, a celebration by Philadelphia's Ghanaian community of the Yam Festival, also called the Homowo Festival. Whatever it is called, it is great to watch and fun to be a guest. And you know that Philadelphia foot doctor Dr Samuel Quartey is there somewhere. He told me he likes to be behind the scenes. For constantly updated news from Ghana, and pictures of Ghanaian communities and businesses, click here.It is Friday: time for MJoTA Friday Night Movie! I posted 2 movies, but if you don't want to watch these, you can scroll down and watch earlier choices. Or click on pictures on the MJoTA Friday Movie page and you will be taken to other movies and documentaries, click here.I posted 3 long documentaries made by Frank Capra on the May Day page, click here. The May Day page reminds us of the human consequence of war, and the generations that come afterwards, or don't. Anne Frank didn't have children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews. But her cousins survived, and one of them was the grandmother of my younger 2 children, click here.
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Above, June meeting of the Philadelphia Mayor's Commission for African
and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs, chaired by Stan Straughter and always
attended and blessed by Philadelphia Councilmember Jannie Blackwell. You will have to enlarge this page if you want to see them.
I
was standing at the far right corner, bracing my body against a marble
wall, the light is horrible and I steady myself however I can. This room
is the Philadelphia Council Chamber, and it is topped with an ornate
high ceiling, and you can get an idea from this picture how gorgeous is
the floor.
At my right is a Ugandan, a lot of Ugandans were there
because they are hosting a big Ugandan conference in Philadelphia on
Labor Day weekend. For Uganda news and resources, click here.
The lady you can see to his right is the Rev Mrs
Zemoria Brandon who wants to rid the world of the symptoms of sickle
cell disease. She is a member of Africom Philly, and the administrator,
social worker and media
relatio. She also runs the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America,
Philadelphia-Delaware Valley Chapter (SCDAA/PDVC), established
Jul 2, 1982 to provide psycho-social and social services to persons with sickle cell disease and
sickle cell trait and their families. She is a Bachelor of Social Work
Administration (Temple University). She was married and a caregiver for 25 years to
the late Rev Mr Walter E. Brandon who died at 59 years from complications of sickle cell disease.
In
2011, the Rev Mrs Brandon was ordained a minister of a Christian
religion, and was installed as a Ghanaian Queen in a ceremony presided
over by Philadelphia secondary school chairman and foot doctor, Dr
Samuel Quartey. He is in the picture too, to the left of Mrs Blackwell.
He likes being behind the scenes. Which is fun, because I can always
find him with my telephoto lens.
I started a page on Haiti resources, and posted some pictures from my
trip to Haiti in the first month after the catastrophic earthquake in
2010, click here. I went with the Bed Stuy Vollies, click here.
A picture story about a hat that went for an upstream sail up the Delaware River, click here.
Zemoria A. Brandon is the administrator/social worker and media
relations liaison for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America,
Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Chapter (SCDAA/PDVC) which was established
July 2, 1982 as a community-based advocacy organization with the mission
of providing psycho-social and social services to children,
adolescents, adults and families affected by sickle cell disease and
sickle cell trait. She obtained her Bachelors degree in Social Work
Administration from Temple University, School of Social Administration
in May 2001. She was married and a caregiver for twenty-five years to
the late Reverend Walter E. Brandon who, at the age of 59 years, passed
from complications of sickle cell disease. Zemoria A. Brandon is the administrator/social worker and media
relations liaison for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America,
Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Chapter (SCDAA/PDVC) which was established
July 2, 1982 as a community-based advocacy organization with the mission
of providing psycho-social and social services to children,
adolescents, adults and families affected by sickle cell disease and
sickle cell trait. She obtained her Bachelors degree in Social Work
Administration from Temple University, School of Social Administration
in May 2001. She was married and a caregiver for twenty-five years to
the late Reverend Walter E. Brandon who, at the age of 59 years, passed
from complications of sickle cell disease.
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Above, I took this picture on Friday Jun 8, 2012, after a day inside the building behind the mulberry tree, the Rutgers University School of Public Affairs and Administration. The mulberries were ripe, and sweet, as they are now also in South Jersey, 80 miles south of Newark. Pictorial essay about the conference on Media and Democratic Governance that brought me to Newark, click here.
We had a wonderful mix of brilliant journalists representing Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Japan as well as from the countries of Africa. I have added country pages: Rwanda click here, Senegal click here, Ethiopia click here, Uganda click here, South Africia click here. For the list of country pages, and constantly updated news from all over the continent of Africa, click here.
Food and love are concepts we have trouble understanding, we don't know when we have them, but we certainly feel their absence. In my 33 years in the United States I have never seen anyone eating mulberries from trees, and the trees are usually in public places, like this one, and the fruit is full of vitamin C and wonderfully stains fingers purple.
For what to eat to prevent or treat diabetes, click here. For constantly updated diabetes news, click here. For constantly updated news from African countries, click here.
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Click on above picture to read my speech at the conference on Media and Democratic Governance at Rutgers University. The lady above is a South African journalist, for stories about South Africa, click here.
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Above
is a picture of a group of Ethiopian ladies listening attentively to
Gilead medical liaison Amadou Diagne before he spoke to the Saturday
night gathering about HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B. Senegal click here, Ethiopia click here, HIV/AIDS click here, India and China, click here.
So happy to be back in my office, watching cats and squirrels chase each other over the grass while I talk to and about Africa, looked on by the mask of Queen of Benin, listening to classical music created in Austria by African musicians.
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Jun 10, 2012, Brazil: updated news, videos, click here
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Pages with constantly updated news from Africa, click here. This morning I added Senegal click here, Watch 4 videos, one is a lovely musical video of Senegal, one explains how to braid hair. Plus constantly updated news from this old stable West African country.
Scroll down for stories posted this week. I am now off to a discussion of business in Africa with 3 West African Ambassadors, hosted by the Hon Stanley Straughter click here.
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Above, my attempt at being an impressionist with as subject the African American Museum of Philadelphia. Sunday we have Philadelphia's biggest African American festival, which is Odunde. The streets of south Philly will be jammed.
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Left, picture I took of booth in convention: Deborah Heart and Lung
Hospital. They are stuck in the middle of fields in Southern New Jersey.
From their website:
"Generous donations are a significant factor in helping
Deborah Heart and Lung Center, which provides the highest quality of medical
and surgical care to patients suffering from cardiac, pulmonary and vascular
disease and children with congenital heart disease without distinction as to
race, gender, sexual preference, creed, color, religion, age, national origin,
handicap, or ability to pay.
The Deborah campus consists of Deborah Heart and Lung Center, an
89 bed hospital with a full-service ambulatory care center and Deborah
Hospital Foundation, the fundraising arm for the Center with about
16,000 volunteers supporting the Deborah mission."
Dance diabetes into hell! For diabetes resources, click here. For constantly updated diabetes news, click here. For constantly updated health news, click here.
For stories about Kenya, and to link to stories about health in Kenya, and the Karen Hospital, which is a state-of-the-art heart hospital in Nairobi, click here.
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Today is Friday! Time for a MJoTA Friday Night Movie! Today we have 2 new movies: one is British and only available free on the internet, Born of Hope, and one is American The Pink Panther, click here.
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Jun 07, 2012. Chisom Orji sings gospel click here.
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Zimbabwe! Picture at left I took at Atlanta airport, which has a permanent display of Zimbabwean art.
For automatically updated stories, videos of independence celebrations in 1980, when Rhodesia broke from Britain and became Zimbabwe, and in 2012 in Ireland, and stories that MJoTA has published, click here.
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Picture above, on Monday I drove to Lincoln University of Pennsylvania to hear Dr Chieke Ihejirika speak about the first institution in America dedicated to educating men of African descent. It took some years for them to admit women, but it was a start of a magnificent institution that is truly at the core of the new Africa.
Find out who Dr Ihejiriika is and listen to him speak, click here. Read Dr Ihejirika's speech and look at pictures of Lincoln University, click here.
After I heard Dr Ihejirika speak, and chatted with some of the audience, I drove out of the gates and pulled over to photograph a bird soaring through trees, through clouds, into blue sky. Education and hope makes us fly. Don't ever give up. See these pictures, click here.
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Somalia was a British colony, and became independent in 1960. For constantly updated news from Somalia, click here.
On the Somalia page you can also watch a video of the British dropping their flags and slinking off into the sunset, and a video of the Turkish efforts to stabilize Somalia, click here.
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Above, wedding in Catholic church. I took this picture in Lagos.
The church was filled with happy people celebrating the future of a young couple, today the churches in Lagos are filled with mourners for the dead of the Dana plane that came down and blew up the lives of 153 people on board, and an uncounted number on the ground.
I am reading nonsense everywhere about this crash, from American and Nigerian press, talking about incompetence.
Earlier this year I had the attention for 2 months of Captain Augustine De Hems Okpe the Chief pilot of Biafra, who was also the Chief Pilot of the international carrier the now defunct Nigeria Airways. He was also the first air accident investigator in Nigeria, and when he retired from Nigeria Airways in 1999, continued as an accident investigator for the Nigerian civil aviation authority until 2005, when he retired to write his extraordinary opus, The Last Flight, click here. He told me a lot about planes, and a lot about Biafra, and a lot about aviation systems.
I am very angry at irresponsible reporting, saying that planes fall down from the sky in Nigeria frequently. They do not, and international bodies record all fatal crashes. I am putting together a story on the statistics. Until you have any proof of what happened, I beg you to stop pointing your fingers. Stories about Nigeria that are constantly and automatically updated click here.
May the souls of the recently departed air crash victims rest in perfect
peace. And may the Nigerian civil aviation agency not rest until they
have figured out what happened, why and make sure it never happens
again.
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I read in a post from Kenya today that Kenyan independence from Britain came too soon. The British flag was lowered to the dust and the Kenyan flag raised and saluted on Dec 12, 1963, after massacres of Kenyans, guerrilla warfare.... Astonishing comment, I know that Kenyan independence came too late.
And Kenyan independence came not because anyone in Britain cared about Kenyans, Simply, Britain ran out of money, Britain had spent all its resources
on weapons and planes and boats and tanks to fight off German conquest of Britain and Japanese conquest of Asia and Australia and New Zealand from 1939 to 1945,
they could no longer give Kenya, or any other country, what it needed
for industrialization.
The writer was comparing Kenya with another British colonial possession, New Zealand. Ah. The British subjugated the Maoris, and I never heard of a Maori movement to become independent and throw out the colonizers. In my class in Mangapapa School, in Gisborne, we had a Maori girl named Gloria. She was beautiful, and she played the ukelele during her 9th birthday party in her house.
Gloria always wore shoes, but other Maoris in my brother's classes did not, so one day Patrick and I decided that we would not either. Patrick and I were 7 and 8 when we took off our sensible British lace-up shoes and socks and neatly placed them by the front door so we could walk down the hill to the Mangapapa School from Cook Hospital Gisborne. I remember my feet hurting, but proud in my resolve to be Maori.
When we returned home I told my maternal grandmother, who was an elegant widow of a lawyer visiting from Belfast, that we went to school with no shoes. She was aghast. And that was the end of us not wearing shoes. Although to this day, I only wear shoes when I really have to.
New Zealand has never become independent of Britain, either has Australia. Both still have as head of state Governors General, who are the Queen's representative. And the Queen of England is the Queen also of Australia and New Zealand. The role of the Governor General has been under fire in Australia since Nov 11, 1975, when the Governor General dissolved the Labor government and handed over the parliament to the conservative parties.
In 2012 New Zealand and Australia are dong well, with economies which are the envies of Europe and the Americas, but at what cost? Genocide of native Australians (who only were given citizenship in May 1967) and subjugation of Maoris? Kenya did better than that.
Kenya is moving in the right direction, they have adopted a new constitution, Kenyans are more and more becoming highly educated, Kenyan physicians can now train as specialist gynecologists at Nairobi's Aga Khan Hospital. Kenya. And goodness, Kenyans run faster than anyone else on earth!
In Kenya, the first 50 years of throwing off some of the shackles of colonial slavery is like molten lava from a volcano. Kenyans despair that the molten lava will never turn into granite, that Kenya will ever have an economy that functions for everyone. I see clearly that it will. And do not wish to be New Zealand, when even the most innocent acts of solidarity can be subverted.
For constantly updated stories from Kenya click here. For links to articles published in MJoTA about Kenya, click here.
For story about Samoa, click here.
Lovely video and tribute by the Archbishop of Canterbury to an old woman who wears silly hats and carries horrible handbags, who for 60 years has been good. And she is my Queen. My first memory was in England, sitting on my father's shoulders watching the parade celebrating her coronation in 1953. Watch below.
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Above, May 2009 final funerary rites for Sukhamay Lahiri DPhil, PhD. He loved climbing mountains, and New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary was a guest in his home, wherever either were.
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In 1989 on this day
China was in uproar and the whole world was watching. On that day in
1989 I was at a party in the house of physiologist-mountain climber-
Penn Professor of Physiology Dr Sukhamay Lahiri and his wife, historian,
educator, commissioner and community leader the Hon Dr Krishna Lahiri.
The
Lahiris prepared my wedding feast when I married in 1980, were guests
in the house of my mother during a Physiology conference in Australia in
1983, stayed in the house of my German husband in Christmas 1989, and
were the first ones to show up at the hospital when each of my sons were
born at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Sukhamay
always had a lot of students and technicians and post-doctoral fellows
working in his lab, and I have always had a love afair with India, as
did my father and his father and his father before him. So I was always
invited, and on that June 4, 1989, I was at the party with my 3 sons,
and the television was on and the Chinese students were in deep shock,
and probably grief. In 1997, I wrote a story about that day and the
result of that day, and published the story in "Tiny Dogs & Violets"
in 2001. To read the story, click here.
------------------- Really awful the plane crash in Lagos, but not usual. Nigerian pilots
and Nigerian engineers are arguably the best in the world. Don't give up
on Nigeria because of this horrible tragedy. Captain Okpe, told me that
most air crashes are pilot error, I hope he will work with the civil authorities figuring it out. He was Nigeria's first accident investigator, click here. May God bless and keep in His Hand those who are in mourning during the 3 days of national mourning for those lost, and always. Constantly updated news from Nigeria, click here. --------------------------- A conference at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania started today to bring together educators interested in teaching African studies. The university was started in 1854 by Presbyterian ministers to train young Black men as missionaries. According to Dr Chieke Ihejirika, it is the oldest Black university in America, and trained the first indigenous democratic rulers of 2 independent countries: Ghana and Nigeria. Story on Dr Ihejirika, click here. Video on first head of state of independent Nigeria, click here.
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Updated page on Nigeria, read constantly streamed news and watch a video about Nigeria's first ruler after the British Union Jack was lowered to the ground, click here.
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Interesting watching the ceremonies in Britain celebrating 60 years of the rule of Queen Elizabeth II. I often forget, but she is my head of state, when I am British, which I understand I always will be no matter what the President and Congress tell me as a naturalized US citizen. I was told in the Nigerian Embassy by a former British Ambassador to Nigeria that I am British and always will be British. OK!
What I have discovered is that the monarchy does not cost much, in fact, hardly anything when you look at the numbers, click here. What I have know for some time is that the presidency of one of my 2 favorite West African countries, Nigeria, costs a lot, a lot. For 2012 budget for the office of the presidency, click here.
I was at church today, St Cyprian's Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia, enjoying the Igbo mass and thinking about how marvelous is the Apostolic Succession, when a thought was placed into my head. Nigeria needs a queen.
An uber queen, over all the city and town and village kings and queens, one that opens parliament and is a head of state. I bet the Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala would cost a lot less if she had to report to a queen, a Nigerian queen, and I like the idea of a strong no-nonsense Nigerian woman being queen.
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Pictures and New York State proclamation about how great is New York State Commissioner Yvonne J Graham, click here.
White rice and white bread, I posted these pages yesterday, what do they do to your health? click here.
Below, watch a solar-powered plane fliy over the Mediterranean! What is not to like!
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Innovation happens when someone has a brilliant idea and convinces others to work as a team to create a product or a service. Like for example, the steam engine that powered the Industrial Revolution. Sometimes innovation is so obvious it pops up everywhere and keeps on being redefined, like paying someone to carry messages. The picture above I took on a New Jersey river in May, teamwork needs everyone looking forward. These girls did not win their race. For essay on innovation that was written by a successful entrepreneur, click here.
I think a lot about innovation and what makes a successful business. Pulling people out of poverty requires that they are successful at business: this requires hard work, brilliant ideas, and skill. You need the trifecta. For the past 6 weeks I have been taking classes at Wharton Small Business Center, going through the exercises to write business plans, click here.
Writing business plans is not hard, in fact, they are extremely easy. As long as you know what you need to put in them. I tried to write a business plan for a project in Africa last year, and could not get any data from Africa to put in the plan. I took this course to see if I could figure out what I was doing wrong. Nothing. All I need is data.
In my 6 years in African communities I have seen businesses succeed. The most consistently successful are African food shops and African hair shops: beauty salons where ladies spend Saturdays getting hair braids, and barbers where men go to hang out to get hair cuts.
Frank Lowy, the most successful man in Sydney, arrived in Australia around the same time as my father with my family, which was 1960. My father was a physician, a neuropathologist, so he had a prestigious job at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick. Where he died 28 years later, long after he had left his wife and job for itinerant medical practice, and dabbles at being a psychiatrist, a pilot, a writer, a collector of sea sponges, a nudist. He left behind only the money he had inherited when his widowed paraplegic brother Tony died without a will, click here.
Frank Lowy grew up in Hungary, and grew up fast, because when he was maybe 12 or 13, he was ordered to the train station with other Jews. He ran into some hills, and landed in Israel in 1946, when he was 16. From there he emigrated to Australia with nothing. He stayed in the poorest area of Sydney, far out in the Western suburbs, and he set up a food shop. With the little money he could save he started buying property, married happily and permanently, produced 3 sons, and never looked back. He built a shopping center called Westfield, and then another, and now they are all over the world, even in New Jersey.
Frank Lowy early on, before arriving in Australia, found a business partner and stuck to him like glue to this day. His sons all run his businesses.
The message is clear, when life throws you a lemon, make lemonade. Or fufu. God bless my African friends working so hard every day in their shops.
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White bread and white rice. Are they good for you? Are they bad for you? Will they kill you?
I have collected some data on both. Headlines screeching that white rice and white bread will cause diabetes and heart disease are irresponsible. White rice is the staple diet all throughout Asia, and in parts of Africa, particularly Sierra Leone. White rice is clearly responsible for keeping alive a large percentage of the world's population. My conclusion from reading study reports: eat less if you are overweight.
And drink less carbonated sugary drinks or carbonated fake sugar drinks or sweetened tea. That sugar has to go somewhere. It can go into your cells and make energy. It can go into your cells and be stored in your liver. It can go into your brain and help you think. It can stay in your blood and be shoved through your kidneys and you pee it out. Or it can go into your cells and be used to make fat.
Story on white rice and white bread, click here.
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The mission of Medical Journal of Therapeutics Africa is to celebrate African professionals, and create health in African communities.
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Click on any picture and you will be taken to another page or document on MJoTAtalks.org or MJoTA.org
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Click here to register to access free locked pages on mjota.org, mjotatalks.org and drsusanna.org. I will email you only when passwords change. Would you like mjota.org or mjotatalks.org to link to your news or business site or advertise your book, movie, cosmetic? Want to talk? Email to publisher@mjota.org or chat on Facebook Wanjiru Susanna J Dodgson.
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Read the constantly updated news on health from the CDC, FDA and NIH, click here.
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Biafra was the eastern third of Nigeria that tried to become its own
nation on May 30, 1967 because other Nigerians were murdering them, on Jan 15, 1970 the
rest of Nigeria stopped murdering them and they became again part of
Nigeria.
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Biafra audio. Listen to speeches by General Ojukwu and the Biafran national anthem. Click here.
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