Dr Susanna's guide to MJoTA sites
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Above, picture of Santo Domingo, on my first night in the island of Hispaniola on Feb 6 2010 on the way to witness the relief effort after the Jan 12 2010 earthquake.
Santo Domingo is the capital city in the Dominican Republic near the border of Haiti.
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Today is Sunday, which is a great day to celebrate Dominica, given a European name by a European man in 1492. I will try to find out what the rightful inhabitants called this tiny Caribbean island: I do know that the inhabitants of more than one Caribbean island were genocided by the European settlers and the land plowed for European consumption of sugar, cotton and tobacco.
Dominica click here.
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Picture above I took on a hot August morning in Brooklyn. The store Super Wings sells Caribbean food, and the owner is daughter of the Caribbean Colette Cyrus Burnett.
More on her at a later date: for now I can tell you that she is a member of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry and that she frequently caters at CACCI events. I had my photograph taken with her at CACCI's 27th anniversary celebration.
CACCI click here. Trinidad & Tobago click here.
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"Former Jamaica prime minister P.J. Patterson
says he is at a loss why his country and Trinidad and Tobago are still
clinging on to the London-based Privy Council as their final court, 50
years after attaining political independence from Britain." My
sentiments exactly. Prime Minister Mrs Portia Simpson-Miller is on it, I
am sure.
News from the countries of the Caribbean click here.
"MEMBERS of the Jamaican judiciary and the
legal fraternity will tomorrow participate in the annual Assize Service
at the East Queen Street Baptist Church, marking the start of the
Michaelmas term of the Home Circuit Court." News from Jamaica. You saw
the picture I took of Prime Minister Mrs Simpson-Miller on Daily Updates
this week, in the Jamaica page you can listen to her speak click here.
Today is a good day to look at the gorgeous
buildings that are part of Medgar Evers College, and scroll down and
look at the picture called "Ibos". Click on that picture and read about
Igbos in flight click here.
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The above picture I took as week ago as I was heading out of the Annual Legislative Conference of the Black Congressional Caucus Foundation Inc. The day was the first day of fall, also known as autumn, and a week later, seems to me we have been in this times of year forever, suspended between the hot of summer and the cold of winter.
And what a week. What a treat watching and listening to President Bill Clinton fondly introduce Governor Mitt Romney, and then later, President Barack Obama. What delight hanging out with the grumpy press corps: the comment "they are treating us like criminals!" was answered with "we are criminals!" oh. And then forging through the "I love President Metally" crowd and the "President Metally is a criminal" crowd to witness the love fest of President Metally and the Haitian diaspora.
Now the leaders are all going home to their countries, and New York traffic around the United Nations is permitted again. I am so glad the United Nations exists and that for a week every year, in the suspended time of year, leaders get together to meet each other, to network, and I know minor wars and maybe major wars have been prevented by this. And how many wars are prevented by the Clinton Global Initiative and other organizations such as the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation and the Cato Institute and the Institute of Peace? I don't know, how can we know? But I do know they try, and I thank them all so much for that. God bless the leaders and give them safe travel back home.
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You bored? Or just want to mellow into a happy
sleep without the use of drugs or whatever? Does MJoTA Friday Night
Movie have the remedy for you! You will be humming "One Love" when you
wake and you will bounce merrily through the weekend, click here.
Terri Lyne Carrington may be the best jazz drummer alive. I think so. Make up your own mind, click here
Updated page on MJoTAtalks Music click here. My musical tastes are beginning to emerge. I know steel drums were invented by some
exceedingly blessed angels. You can listen to great steel drums music on
several pages on the MJoTA websites, here is a good place to start click here.
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The president of Haiti came to New York this week for the United Nations sessions, and addressed a meeting of the Haitian Diaspora in Brooklyn on Wednesday night. Picture above, the crowd in Brooklyn College who came out to hear him.
The president of Haiti was elected last year: President Metally is a popular singer, and during hs speech sang a few notes. When he took questions from the crowd, he gave his microphone to a questioner, then took it back and answered the question himself.
Not everyone is thrilled with President Metally. Outside Brooklyn College a protest crowd gathered, which was still there, still chanting when the town hall meeting was over.
Bed Stuy Vollies showed up, and formed part of the crowd. The were first on the ground in Haiti after the Earthquake, and are ready to help in any disaster.
Haiti click here. Bed Stuy Vollies click here. Haitian American Veterans Association click here. Chasing a yellow balloon click here.
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I have been on the road now over a week, and I feel like I have been to the moon and back. I am at the moment in the heart of Caribbean Brooklyn, where I am hearing both Creole from Haitians and the singing voices of Jamaica. I am waiting to meet the president of Haiti at Brooklyn College, which is one of the many institutions that make up the City University of New York.
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism click here. Medgar Evers College click here.
This week every year the United Nations is in session; so for one week the Ambassadors' jobs are to smooth the paths for their countries' leaders to show up in New York and make resolutions and meet each other. Which is why the Clinton Global Initiative was held this week, and why the president of Haiti is here, and why I was able yesterday to take the picture above, of the prime minister of Jamaica Mrs Portia Simpson-Miller sitting next to a senior princess from Saudi Arabia.
Jamaica click here. Haiti click here.
Yes, the man with the white hair is President Bill Clinton. And the men standing along the walls are armed-to-the-teeth security forces. They were not taking any chances, especially with the ratbag press corps. They even insisted in escorting us to the toilets.
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Day 3, and the final day of the Clinton Global Initiative. The morning started with gracious comments by President Clinton about Mitt Romney, who created a volunteer corps when he was governor of Massachusetts. This corps transferred successfully to South Africa, and President Clinton praised the successes he has seen in South Africa. I know President Clinton is often in South Africa visiting his friend President Nelson Mandela. I saw them both hanging out on a stage in Barcelona during the 2002 International AIDS conference.
South Africa click here. Nelson Mandela click here.
Mr Romney rambled on about how free enterprise is the only thing that works for prosperity. Oh really? Look at Nigeria: all free enterprise. Then he started Muslim bashing: listing all the states that are threatening the security of the world. They are all Muslim ruled. Then for fair balance, he explained how the Arab Spring was triggered by the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit seller. II understood that what happened there was that the government was not doing its job of protecting its citizens. Oh well. In 6 weeks Mr Romney will retire from his job as presidential candidate. I wish hm well. I hope he creates lots of volunteer organizations that help give jobs to South Africa and elsewhere.
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Day 2 of the Clinton Global Initiative. Above, picture from Day 1: President Clinton chatting with Queen Rania of Jordan, the CEO of Walmart, the Secretary General of the United Nations and the President of the World Bank. Yep, they were all there.
A lot is being said and a lot is being reported and a lot of money has been spent and promised. Mr Clinton is trying, and so is Mr Gates and other leaders. May God bless them all, and put them on the right paths.
I got back from Washington DC early on Saturday morning, and headed to Manhattan early Sunday morning. In between, I did what we all should do: honor our family members and our friends.
I did not wake early enough to honor my friend the Rev Mrs Zemoria Brandon, who held her annual walk to raise awareness and funds for those who are living with sickle cell disease in the United States.
Video of Mrs Brandon and videos and stories about sickle cell disease click here.
However, I was able to dance and celebrate the blessings of the new year with Philadelphia's leader in the Ghanaian community, Dr Samuel F Quartey. I drove to the Philadelphia charter school of which he is Chairman of the Board, the Imohotep School, and met the Queen Mother of Ghana.
Ghana click here.
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I have been having trouble posting on the websites all day. Hopefully, the troubles are now resolved. Above, President Clinton embracing Smokey Robinson during the Clinton Global Initiative, on now in New York City.
On this day in 1926, John Coltrane was born. He was born in North Carolina, but he moved to Philadelphia. John Coltrane click here.
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Above, picture of a blue donkey and a red elephant, representing the American Democrats and the American Republicans. I like them being side by side, talking to each other. That is what we need to do, come together, talk to each other, get good legislation passed that makes sure that every child in America grows up healthy and educated and ready to take her or his place as a citizen of the world.
In Sierra Leone, the colors are red and green. I wish the same for the Sierra Leonean people as they get ready for their presidential election in November. And for Kenya, getting ready for their own presidential election.
Sierra Leone click here. Kenya click here.
I saw a lot at the 42nd Legislative Conference organized by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Inc, and heard a lot of stories. These will trickle out of me, one by one, during the cold months that are ahead. I met a sculptor who wants to build a giant statue of Sojourner Truth, an artist who makes dolls that look like your grandmother who has just returned home from church, nonprofit organizations that do everything they can to stop the spread of HIV infection, and another that does everything it can to help Black veterans get homes.
HIV/AIDS click kere. Nelson Mandela click here. Freedom Riders click here.
And I heard some really cool jazz.
John Coltrane click here.
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Happy Fall to my friends and family in the Northern Hemisphere! Happy Spring to my friends and family in the Southern Hemisphere!
Last night, the Legislative Conference held its annual jazz concert, and I listened to Jimmy Heath and the Antonio Hart band and also to the Terri Lyne Carrington band. I took a lot of pictures, more to come. Above, Terri Lyne Carrington band.
In the afternoon I went to a panel on Africa. Not much in Africa, or the Caribbean at this conference but what I have seen has been magnificent. A long-term congressman from North Jersey, Donald Payne, died earlier this year. He was a great friend of Africa, and a panel was held in his honor.
I heard the Nigerian Ambassador the the United States tell us that the current president is the best they have ever had, and he is doing a great job in stopping the militants in the Nigerian Delta. He is paying them to give him their guns and he is paying them money to stop fighting. More on the Governor of the Nigerian Central Reserve Bank and the Nollywood movie director of Black November.
Click on left green menu for MJoTA Friday Night Movie: 2, one is a documentary about the Freedom Riders, and one is a movie from Haiti.
Haiti page is updated. You can get to pages on countries of the Caribbean from the green menu, click on News from the Countries of the Caribbean. This connection really is bad. More later, with pictures.
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I
am in Washington at the annual Legislative Conference of the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Yesterday I sat in 2 sessions
that hit at the problems facing Americans with African ancestry: early
death from stroke, and difficulty in moving into the middle class.
Stroke.
A panel was convened with 2 practicing physicians and 2 women with
compelling stories of surviving stroke. The 2 physicians took us through
the causes of stroke: stop smoking now! plus bad diet and lack of
exercise and genetic predisposition to high blood pressure.
The
panel discussion was part of a lunch, and I sat briefly at a table and
chatted with ladies on either side. I asked in general if anyone knew
the causes of stroke and how to prevent it, one lady nodded and she said
she knew! A young lady sitting next to me said this was of great
concern to her, several of her friends in their 30s and 40s had recently
had strokes. She said a doctor came to her church to talk about stroke
and said the main cause was stress and nothing could be done about that.
I asked really? She continued, and also what you eat and lack of
exercise. Not how much you eat? She continued that she herself had
started a rigorous exercise program. She herself was morbidly obese.
One
of the ladies at the table asked the last public question of the panel.
She asked why she was not able to get the tests she wanted from a
hospital and why people should keep taking pills for high blood pressure
when the side effects were so horrible. The physicians told her she
needed to trust her doctors, and to take other blood pressure pills.
She
had clearly not heard the main message of the day: lower your blood
pressure at all costs. Keep trying out one pill after another until you
get one that does not make you feel ill. Blood pressure medicines come
in more than 30 varieties. And if you do not get down your blood
pressure, you will, you will have a stroke.
Diabetes, stroke,
heart attacks: they are all diseases which can be prevented if you know
what to prevent and how. What works to prevent and live healthy with
diabetes works for the other diseases, but if you cannot get down your
blood pressure with diet and exercises, you must take some kind of
medicine that does it, click here.
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The
next panel discussion I sat in on briefly was a 3-hour rally for black
women to get women registered to vote, and to transport to the ballot
box on election day those who need help. I wanted to sit in on the
2-hour discussion of the need to unionize labor in the work place, and
all through that discussion I occasionally heard loud cheers and
clapping from the women's panel next door.
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The
panel on the state of labor in non-unionized America was sobering, and
was channeling Dr Martin Luther King jr. The right to work for a fair
living wage is a human rights issue, and the inability to be allowed to
unionize violates all our civil rights. MJoTAtalks needs a page on
unions. Watch for it.
Meanwhile, from the continent of Africa, a
gold mine has opened in Sudan and the striking miners have reached a
deal in South Africa.
South Africa click here. Sudan click here
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I find the evening light intoxicating. Above is a good example of why. I was walking around the campus of Richard Stockton College, after delivering my son his supply of vegan food. Richard Stockton College, named after a signer of the Declaration of Independence, tries so hard to be environmentally friendly. Solar panels are everywhere, and I enjoyed looking at an electric car being plugged in, happily charging. These pictures you can see on the page for the college click here.
Climate change is a big threat to all of us, and countries which are low-lying are facing the real possibility that after a few decades, they will be entirely underwater. To read news feeds and watch videos about the effects global warming and climate changes are having on the countries of Africa and the countries of the Caribbean click here.
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Above, daughter of Liberia Dr Vera Tolbert presides over the September 2012 meeting of AfriCom Philly. Seated next to her is daughter of Ghana, AfriCom Philly secretary Ms Antoinette Ghartey RN. Also in the room were son of Mali Alou Traore, son of Haiti Giordani Jean-Baptiste, son of Nigeria Dr Philip Udo-Inyang, daughter of Cameroon Ms Raphia Noumbissi, son of Cote D'Ivoire Dr Eric Edi, adopted daughter of Mali Ms Megan L Doherty.
Dr Vera speaks about growing up in Liberia and about her dreams for AfriCom Philly. Liberia click here. Coalition of African Communities in Philadelphia click here.The countries of Africa, click on left green menu. The countries of the Caribbean click on left green menu.
Articles from MJoTA since the first issue in Jan 2007 are being migrated to this site. An index is being prepared, until then, the deadly poison diethylene glycol which has been used to dissolve medicines for children click here, evolution of clinical trials as the way to test whether therapies are safe and effective click here; cancer therapies click here.
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Yesterday my friend Mrs Phibby Otaala called me and invited me to hang out with Ugandans while she and Jackie prepared for an evening flight back to Uganda. Ah! Lovely lunch, conversations about being arrested in Kenya (mine was only for 19 hours; his was for a week), about when I was coming to Uganda, about Ugandan dress which looks very different from Nigerian dress, and an interview with Phibby. And prayers for journey mercies for them both, pictures above with me on Aug 31, 2012, and healing for Jackie, who is recovering from malaria.
You can listen to the interview about the work she does in rural Uganda, trying to keep women alive as long as possible. Jackie works with Phibby: I did not interview her because she was clearly ill.
Uganda click here. Uganda in Philadelphia click here.
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In my line of work, often all I have to do is answer the phone, or read my emails, and sit back in my chair and laugh.
In 2003 I accepted a 6-month contract in North Jersey, which meant my eldest son lived in my house to care for his sister and youngest brother, and I had to jam all my daughter's music and dance lessons into Saturdays and Mondays.
Every Tuesday morning, early, I drove 2 to 3 hours north to the pharmaceutical company which was housed in a former marble-and water-fountain Bell Company building, stayed in a truckers' motel, and drove back late, very late on Friday night.
The pharmaceutical company believed they had a cure for cancer, a lot of cancers, and my job was to prepare the documents from the clinical trials so the United States Food and Drug Administration would smile and say yes! This drug cures cancer! You can sell it for astronomical prices so that rich people live a few more years and poor people long for a drug that they believe will let them stay alive for their daughter's high school graduation, or middle school dance recital, or kindergarten entry.
Unfortunately the drug was not doing what was expected, and even with high-priced statisticians, the data were not coming out on the cure side. They were coming out on the "doesn't stop early death" side.
This drug has never been approved, and maybe never will be: pharmaceutical companies continue to pour money into presenting it to the Food and Drug Administration so clearly some professionals believe it works, even now, nearly a decade later. I hope that if this drug really is a miracle cure for a single person with an unusual cancer, it will be approved for that.
So
there I was in 2003, in a cubicle next to a plate glass window that looked out
on deer grazing on a hill on the other side of a highway, writing one narrative after another for each patient in the clinical trial, and the story ended in death, with the responsible physician trying to decide whether death resulted from the disease or other causes or from the drug itself.
I took 2 business phone calls during that time: one was from Florida inviting me to create a new medical journal called American Journal of Diabetes. Which is what I did when I left North Jersey. The whole journal. From setting up the advisory board to badgering professionals for articles, to ghost writing a few myself. That was the Christmas that did not happen, I worked through it.
Diabetes resources click here. American Journal of Diabetes click here.
The second call was from Israel, from a lawyers who wanted me to help him get Food and Drug Administration approval for this wonderful mix of herbs that he had cooked up. He told me he mixed things together, and he and his friends drank it, and immediately after, the men and women looked at each other and got stuck into what comes naturally. OK!
My questions: What was in the mix? He did not remember, he had too great a time. Ah. So I get a call from Israel to approve a mixture for sale in the United States and not only are lost in the mists of time the quantity of each ingredient but the ingredients themselves. I asked him if he had tried to recreate the mixture and the party, he said yes, but it had not worked, but it was so so great, he keeps on trying.
I do not know if he kept on trying to find his elixir that opened the door of paradise briefly. I hope he knew that paradise does not come from a drug; maybe it was the music that made them all so happy, so loving; maybe it was the news that a baby had been born or that an Israeli soldier returned home safely to start his studies.
And can we find a cure from cancer in a drug? Arguably one of the most brilliant minds of the 2oth and 21st centuries, Steve Jobs, could not find it; either could arguably one of the bravest astronauts Sally Ride. I hope we can. I really do.
Cancer resources click here. Cancer therapies click here.
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Picture above, the Richards Building on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The Richards Building housed the School of Medicine Department of Physiology, and I first walked into the building in Nov 1978, after an exciting trip across America that included my giving lectures on kangaroo blood to the University of California in San Diego, Loma Linda University, University of Texas at Austin and the University of Florida in Gainesville. The trip, which lasted 3 weeks after I flew from Australia to Los Angeles, also included a Halloween party, a foiled rape, a foiled kidnap, a wonderful afternoon at Pepperdine University law library, and the canyons around Los Angeles were on fire.
So walking into the Richards Building on a cold fall day was an anticlimax, and understanding that the fun stuff was over, cold weather meant I had now to settle down to work.
And work I did, I stayed in the Physiology Department for 18 years, emerging as an Associate Professor of Physiology, I received a few grants including a RO1 from the National Institutes of Health, I divorced twice and married twice and gave birth to 3 sons and 1 daughter. I left in 1996, and now, my time at Penn seems like a dream, except that my children are very real, and I can find my publications in the National Library of Medicine.
Through all this, I see one constant, which I saw yesterday as I was walking through the campus on my way to "Imagine Africa" at the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. The constant is the large maple tree.
This tree is always the last to change color, to gold, and the last to shed its leaves. My boss, the chairman of Physiology, Dr Robert E Forster, had a weekly meeting with me to see what I had been doing, was doing. I found these meetings excruciatingly painful, and spent a lot of time gazing through the window at the maple tree as it gained leaves in the spring, defied the sun in the summer, and gently and gradually changed to gold in the fall.
The tree is still there. Dr Forster is now 92, but most of the others have gone. Dr Forster's beloved Betsy died in 2009 and was buried on his 90th birthday. Dr Britten Chance is gone: he famously scheduled a heart bypass operation on Christmas Day because he knew he would not get much work done that day and he knew the Jewish doctors would not be busy, and whom I saw riding his bicycle through campus less than a week later. Dr John Williamson is gone: he signed my British passport one year because it had to be signed by a British professional for it to be renewed. Dr Jack Leigh is gone. Dr John Hazelgrove is gone. But the tree is still there.
The building itself is famous, designed and built by Louis Kahn. When I first arrived in Philadelphia, I spoke with one of my brothers, who is an architect. He told me that Philadelphia had a famous building, called the Richards Building. He did not believe me when I told him I was working in it. And I was always amused, looking out of the lowest window on the left over the courtyard, to see groups of people with cameras, photographing the Richards Building at every angle.
I spoke with Dr Vera Tolbert, daughter of Liberia. Her father was from Togo, and was living in Germany when Liberia erupted into civil war in 1979. Listen to why she volunteers hours every day to Africom Philly, the Philadelphia Coaltion of African Communities, whose primary function is helping African and Caribbean immigrants.
Liberia click here. Africom Philly click here.
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I won a trip to Cancun yesterday, Fri 13 Sep 2012. Picture above of me being awarded the trip after my business card was pulled out of a goldfish bowl in a raffle.
Good heavens. A delegation of 50 from Burkina Faso came to Philly, and a travel company (representative Sherie above is a the wife of a son of Jamaica) had us all throw our business cards in a goldfish bowl. I stood near when the winning card was being selected, murmured that my card is red! and I will write an article. The guy closed his eyes, shuffled around the cards and pulled out my red card. Did I unduly influence the drawing? Did I do small-level corruption? Urgh. Corruption is easy to detect when the other person does it, but exceedingly invisible when we do it ourselves.
I heard a great description of corruption during the Mets baseball game in August that was the annual Caribbean Heritage game, the game where the Mets lost to the Marlins a spectacular 13 to 0. I was astonished to be told that no-one minds officials stealing money, or demanding brown envelopes as commissions on business conducted: as long as the money thus acquired is invested back into the community in schools, roads, shops, hospitals, or in job creation, or even in buying locally made goods and services. Stealing is only intolerable when the money leaves the country and is dumped in bank accounts in Switzerland, used to buy German luxury cars, first class passage on airlines belonging to other countries. Which describes Nigeria.
Count von Rosen click here. News from the countries of the Caribbean click here.
And what about Gaddafi, the late leader of Libya? For years I was hearing about how he invested in South Africa, in Mali, in countries all over Africa, and how he invested in his own people in hospitals, universities. Was he corrupt, or was he out of touch. I have never really understood why he went along with blowing up a plane filled with Americans that was flying over Scotland.
News from the countries of Africa click here.
The great thing about living next to Philadelphia is that we have the Wharton School of Business whose reason for existing is to make businesses work so that America is prosperous. So any trade delegation or any event hosted by the African and Caribbean Business Council is going to be filled with professionals discussing how to create and sustain business.
My classmate from the Spring course I took on developing business plans was there today welcoming the 50-strong delegation from Burkina Faso. Lois is a daughter of Liberia (pictures above) and she sells beauty products from a store in Philadelphia. Her husband is a pilot, also from Liberia, and they are extremely serious about having their business succeed. In class at the Wharton Small Business Development Center, Lois developed a short range plan, a middle range plan and a long range plan; developed a marketing and advertising plan; developed a plan for making sure cash flow is smooth, rather than with occasional windfalls that are quickly consumed with emergency buying.
Burkina Faso click here. Liberia click here.
The Wharton Small Business Development Center is connected to the sons and daughters of Africa in Philadelphia entirely through the efforts of the Hon Stanley S Straughter, who is the chairman of the Mayor's Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs, and whose picture is all over the MJoTA sites. Stan also is chair of an advisory board on Africa at the World Bank, in Washington DC which is an easy 2-3 hour drive from Philadelphia.
Wharton Small Business Development Center click here.
I have often heard that the World Bank has destroyed Africa, making loans that cannot be repaid, with the money shrunk by officials getting brown envelopes, and projects done poorly or not at all: and then the country has to repay the loans at high interest rates. I have heard this destroyed the cocoa trade with Ghana and ruined their economy in the 1970s. I do not know. I do know that good intentions with large cash donations coupled with a lack of understanding of African communities can destroy good will and trust and create enemies and greed.
I first went to the World Bank in May 2008 with son of Kenya Macharia Waruingi. The occasion was an African Diaspora Conference, and I remember they did not want to let me in, even though I was in African dress and with a Kenyan. Macharia called friends working in the World Bank, and I got in.
World Bank click here.
The Hon Councilwoman Mrs Jannie Blackwell, whose office handles the administration of the Mayor's Commission, includes University City in her district: University City includes the Wharton School.
Council woman Hon Mrs Jannie Blackwell click here.
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Above, a statue representing the Roman Catholic saint Francis in a garden in a Roman Catholic hospital in Philadelphia. I like Francis, first because he was not martyred: he died talking about Psalm 141 which includes the line "Set a guard over my mouth, Lord;
keep watch over the door of my lips." And I like that he loved animals, and is the patron saint of animals.
Roman Catholic church in Philadelphia, we have Father Kieran click here.
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Today is Friday and MJoTA Friday Night Movie has 3 full-length movies for you, with no advertising.
The first comes from India, the "Legend of Prince Rama". The second come from America, a chick flick with Jennifer Lopez called "Enough". The third comes from Germany and has the title "Liebe — kälter als der Tod" which translates as "Love is Colder Than Death." Oh dear.
MJoTA Friday Night Movie click here. India click here. The most famous of all flying aces was a German, the Red Baron click here. And while we are talking about flying aces, the page on the Swedish pilot Count Carl von Rosen has been updated click here.
A delegation from Burkina Faso is in Philadelphia, and to celebrate, MJoTAtalks has published a country page on Burkina Faso. A country in West Africa, French-speaking, land-locked, great music. Burkina Faso click here.
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Picture above, New York City Councilmember Mathieu Eugene on primary day in 2009. See pictures of Senator Edward Kennedy, President Obama and Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke smiling at him.
Dr Eugene won that election, and remains a New York City councilmember, the first son of Haiti so elected. Chasing a golden balloon click here.
Primary
day in New York. That means the day to vote for the Democratic or
Republican candidate for New York State Assembly, Senate, New York City
Council. I have 2 wishes, that everyone who is eligible goes out to
vote, and that the candidates elected know how to work together with
other elected and appointed officials for the common good.
That
is my wish in all elections, including the Kenyan, Sierra Leonean and
American presidential elections which are all being held before
Christmas.
I am what has been called a "yellow dog Democrat": I will vote for any Democrat, even a yellow dog.
Which
is why primary elections are so important. Pick the right Democrat. The
Democrat who does not take "brown envelopes" for favors, who takes
counsel from wise old women, and is accountable to them and to the
electorate, the body to which she has been elected, the country, and all
nations.
The
right candidate keeps her or his house in order. In well-maintained
houses in African communities, after prayers of thanks for the night,
the first morning task is sweeping the floors, and then carrying in
water cooking and bathing.
That is what my ideal Democratic
candidate does. Remembers where she came from, then takes care of her
constituency, her household. When we elect an official, her household
becomes larger, her entire electorate, and if she does not know that,
she should not be elected.
And in my experience, any candidate
who tells you she or he is only accountable to God, is probably a crook.
We are all accountable to God, but we are also accountable to humans.
Anyone
claiming to have a direct line to God is always suspect; my ancestors
in England knew that in 1630 when a raggedy band joined together to
denounce priests and eventually set up a religion in which being kind is
paramount and claiming to understand God is deeply suspect. We are the
Society of Friends, we were derisively known as Quakers, which name has
stuck. Scroll down to Sep 2 for picture of Quaker Meeting House in
Sydney.
In Philadelphia we have a treasure who understands the importance of what she does, Councilmember Mrs Jannie L Blackwell click here.
In
New York MJoTA has profiled a daughter and 2 sons of the Caribbean who
know that not only are they accountable to the State of New York, and
the City of New York, but also the countries of Jamaica, Grenada and
Haiti.
Stop and frisk click here. Grenada click here.
Haiti click here. Bed Stuy Vollies click here.
Congresswoman Hon Yvette D Clarke click here. Jamaica click here.
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Picture above. Page of photographs I took in New York City in Sep and Oct 2009 that I laid out in the shortly lived African Reporters print newspaper published by Chukwuma Oraegbu of Xclusive Nigeria.
First, the memorial to the Nigerian lawyer who believed in the rule of law, and staked is life on it several times, Gani Fawehinmi (Chief Abdul-Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi (22 Apr 1938 - 5 Sep 2009).
Next to that, protest by the Nigerian Democratic Liberty Forum during the Nigerian Independence Day march to Nigeria House near the United Nations. Below that, pictures taken during the annual celebration of the Nigerian Lawyers Association in Manhattan.
The rule of law makes countries work, provided the laws are just. MJoTA published the speech of the then-Attorney General of Lagos, which can be read as a pdf, this is slated to be migrated to the MJoTAtalks pages so it can be read directly.
Speech by the Attorney General of Lagos click here. MJoTAtalks in their own words click here.
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Beautiful September Tuesday. The day after Sep 11, the day we were all wondering what happened, and I was trying to get my family organized to celebrate the 13th birthday of my third son. Most of the restaurants were closed, and some were offended that we would even try to celebrate after nearly 3,000 Americans had died so suddenly, so horribly. But we did celebrate, he was given presents, he blew out candles on a cake. And today, after taking each day as it came, he celebrates his 24th birthday in the greenest university in America, Richard Stockton College.
Richard Stockton College is a model for America. Pictures are coming of an electric car plugged in, charging, of solar panels over the parking spaces in the parking lots, of the huge lake in the middle of the campus. Richard Stockton was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and I cannot think of a more fitting name for a university, and this is a state university.
Richard Stockton College click here.
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Tuesday, September 11 2012, we are 11 years on from Tuesday September 11, 2001. My God, what a day then, what an 11 years.
How many many more have died since that day from broken hearts, breathing disorders, falling buildings, bullets, bombs?
I grieve the loss of life in the fallout from the fatally injured buildings, and hold fast onto my faith: I marvel at the life that has come since.
And what fell on that beautiful sunny Tuesday morning, that looked like this Tuesday, today?
Humans, so many humans, more than we can bear.
From Mar 2009 to Sep 2010 I was working on the now defunct African newspaper New York Echo published by a Nigerian Yoruba journalist and fighting a $20 million lawsuit from his lover. During that chaotic time I was staying in East New York and finding calm in walking to the train station past a memorial to those who fell in 9/11 who had been residents of the 22 8-storey Department of Housing Pink Houses. More than 20. And the Pink Houses are an hour's train ride away from the World Trade Center in Manhattan. New York is vast, and the impact of 9/11 felt personally in every corner.
Last year, on the 10th anniversary, I had spent 2 days at the annual Yoruba convention which was held in Long Island New York, and on the way home I decided to walk along the boardwalk on Brighton Beach. In a park across from the beach I came across a solemn memorial service for those who had lived in Brighton Beach: Russian Jewish immigrants. One by one, wreaths were laid, speeches were made, funeral music played. Palpable grief.
Scroll down to Sep 6 picture. I took this picture on the board walk of Brighton Beach in May 2009.
The buildings that fell were the twin towers, 2 solid blocks that pierced the sky and clouds over Manhattan, lacking the grace of the Empire State building, which you can see in photographs I have taken of the Marble Collegiate Church
Marble Collegiate Church click here.
When they fell, the airline industry all but collapsed: the 2 Igbo aviation professionals I know well had their lives turned upside down. An already shaky Nigeria Airways completely folded: this was the national airline of Nigeria. Various American airlines collapsed or retracted or merged, and pilots and aeronautical engineers lost their positions.
Aeronautical engineer High Chief MC Orji click here. Captain August Okpe click here.
In the early days, the staggering airlines cut the prices of tickets to get passengers, and I was an early passenger and in the next 3 months flew from Philadelphia to San Diego; then to Greece; then to Los Angeles; then to San Antonio.
The skies were open for those who would fly; but the airports were jammed with one more security demand after another. And then they stopped giving us food. And snacks. And then they started charging for every bag checked. And started treating us all like criminals, making us take off our shoes and belts and throw out our bottles of water and juice because they could be bombs. Oy.
The picture above I took at Brooklyn's Afropunk Fest in Aug 2012. Bed Stuy Vollies were on duty, and they showed up on 9/11 to help, Brooklyn is just over the river from Manhattan, and the emerging new World Trade Center is clearly seen.
Bed Stuy Vollies click here. Listen to Janelle sing; pictures from Afropunk Fest click here.
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Rafiya, who is a daughter of Congo and sings beautifully click here.
Picture of Raphia, who is a daughter of Cameroon and who is a Philadelphia social worker click here.--------------------
Such a beautiful calm day today. What a gift. No planes exploding into buildings north of my South Jersey office, no planes falling into Pennsylvania fields to my west, no planes exploding into buildings in DC to my south. Just the waves calm in the Jersey shore to my east. What a blessed day. In South Jersey.
I demand blessed days everywhere.
Peace and prosperity belongs to us, they
are our rights from birth. Whether we are born in England, as I was, or
in New Zealand, as my brother Charles was, or in India, as my
grandfather Hubert was, or in Ireland, as my mother was, or in America, as my children were, or in Sudan, or in Syria.
On
this day, 24 years ago, I went into labor, drove my 2 older sons to my
friends' house, drove myself into the University of Pennsylvania, ran
into the maternity ward and got stuck into the delightful task of giving birth to Allister in the first few minutes of Sep 12.
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Picture above, a house that peace built in Lagos, Nigeria. Lagos is a big city, according to some lists, one of the 20 biggest, according to others, one of the 10 biggest. Which means a lot of people, millions of people, and a lot of poor people and not so many rich people. This house was built for and by a building company, 40 years after the end of the Biafra War.
Honest work, good work. Do they build for crooks? Do funeral directors bury crooks? In a functioning society, determining whose money is stolen is not the job of a builder, or a funeral director. And so it is in a lesser functioning society.
This gorgeous house was truly built by peace by sons and daughters of Biafra.
Positive thinking during the Biafran Holocaust click here.
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Beautiful morning in South Jersey: the perfect day to be discussing the rule of law in arms control. If weapons for mass murder cannot be sold, perhaps the merchants of weapons will sell farm machinery or equipment for milk factories.
Would the Biafran War have started, and continued, if Britain had not had a stated policy of selling weapons to Nigeria? If Russia had not believed that selling to Nigeria weapons and aircraft and ammunition was in its best interest? If America had not looked the other way while its citizens sold all these things to Nigeria? I believe not.
Put down weapons of mass destruction, and family destruction, and building destruction, and talk to each other. Talk past the time the sweat and blood drips down your face from anguish. Talk past the time your eyes pop out and you lose control of your bodily functions. Keep talking way long past the time you feel pain. Keep talking.
Because no matter how painful talking is, the pain is nothing compared with a bomb being dropped on your house, your children, your baby sister being raped and bayoneted, and one by one your children dying from starvation. Until 3 million are dead before their time, which is what happened in Biafra.
Positive thinking cannot be stressed enough, and it is the first casualty of war. Positive thinking means you know peace is attainable, you know everyone you are talking to is a decent human being. However, positive thinking needs to be the way you conduct yourself every minute, it is not a weapon to be deployed when everything else has failed.
Would positive thinking have deterred Hitler's grabbing Europe? Yes. The German people had to believe that they could overcome deprivations inflicted on them by the victors of the World War 1. If they had believed and set about building and growing and working together in communities, the runaway cancer that was Naziism would never have happened.
And I know Germany. I am the parent of 2 children with a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust. My third child, our first child, Allister Michael Dodgson Blossfeld, was born on Sep 12 1988. Roses for Ruth click here.
Positive thinking click here.
Positive thinking for immigrants in Philadelphia click here.
Biafra click here. Nigeria click here. Congo click here. Sudan click here.
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Above, me at an Africom Philly meeting in Philadelphia in May 2012. I am sitting between daughter of Cameroon Raphia Noumbissi and son of Mali Alou Traore. The other person is adopted daughter of Mali Meghan L Doherty.
Africom Philly, full name Coalition of African Communities of Philadelphia, is close to my heart, and is one of the organizations which has my heart and soul. As an audibly and visibly non-African, whose every waking moment is witnessing and recording successes in African communities, I am deeply grateful to organizations who take me in and do not look at my appearance but look at my soul and know why I am there.
Africom Philly click here
Africom Philly is a non-profit foundation, a 501 (c) (4) which is run by the bylaws, and we follow the rules for meetings which are chaired by the president, currently daughter of Liberia Dr Vera Tolbert. Sitting beside her is the secretary, daughter of Ghana Antoinette Ghartey.
We come together for a formal membership meeting the first Saturday of every month (except September, when we meet the second Saturday) and we discuss what we are doing in our various African communities. I talk about what is going in in New York in the Caribbean organization CACCI, in the African-American-run organization Bed Stuy Vollies, in the Sierra Leonean communities, in the Philadelphia Igbo communities.
CACCI click here. Bed Stuy Vollies click here.
We have a list serve where we communicate instantly events, fund raisers, happy news and sad news. We heard this week from the son of Mali, Alou Traore, who runs audio video shops. His brother in Mali was riding a motorbike on Thursday, it was raining, an SUV ran over him and killed him. He left behind 3 school-age children and a widow. Our members rallied around him to comfort him, and will do more if needed.
Mali click here.
When our president's father died in Ghana in November, Dr Tolbert went into mourning from which she has only now come out of, she wore a red dress at the September Africom meeting. The Liberian community and ACANA organized a memorial for her, and we all showed up to hug her, cry with her, pray with her, wish her journey mercies on her sad trip to Ghana as her father's eldest child.
Ghana click here.
Africom Philly does a lot more than provide a strong support system for our members. Every day, immigrants from Africa contact us, asking for help. We organize medical help, social help: a lot of this is done by daughter of Cameroon social worker Raphia Noumbissi who organizes medical missions to Cameroon every year; son of Nigeria Temple University engineering faculty member Dr Philip Udo-Inyang and by son of Cote D'Ivoire political science faculty member Dr Eric Edi.
Nigeria click here. Cameroon click here.
Africom Philly Board Member Rev Mrs Zemoria Brandon is also a social worker: she runs the Philadelphia chapter of the Sickle Cell Foundation which every year organizes fund-raising walks through Fairmont Park in September and a gala in the spring. If anyone in or near Philadelphia has sickle cell disease, the Rev Mrs Brandon will arrange help.
Sickle cell resources and video of the Rev Mrs Brandon click here.
The dedicated board member who looks like me. Megan L Doherty probably is a relative, my great-grandmother was a Miss Agnes Doherty and all named Doherty came from County Donegal. Megan speaks a Malian language and spent her summer in Ghana with Engineers Without Borders where she completed a study on diabetes risks in Ghanaian communities. In Africom Philly she reports to the board on the Africom Philly finances.
Every year we gather together everyone and our referring health professionals and run a health fair and sports day for African immigrants.
Mali click here. Africom Philly click here. Africom Philly health fair click here. Sickle Cell Foundation click here. Nigeria click here. Liberia click here.
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West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn, New York City. I was there, and I photographed the grand marshals including Harry Belafonte. Bed Stuy Vollies were there too.
Updated page on Bed Stuy Vollies click here. Updated page on Harry Belafonte click here.
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Above, I spent 3 days in Oct 2008 visiting the National Institutes of Health, learning how to access National Library of Medicine resources. I am pictured with a NIH researcher who has a long interest in malaria and Africa, Dr Joel Bremen.
Malaria click here
The short man on the left is a graduate of Nairobi School of Medicine who is also a graduate of the University of Phoenix, Dr Macharia Waruingi, who, for reasons lost in the mists of time, after being a guest in my house for 7 months, had his lawyer sent me a demand letter for 1 billion US dollars. When I called the lawyer he said no, no, no: he only wants 1 million. I asked what I get for USD 1 million, he said: "nothing". After that, he connected with the multi-degreed Christ Apostolic Church pastor Janet Ogundipe Fashakin who rewrote an email from me and mass emailed it to user groups, who has a church in her own house in Long Island and who claims that her father rose from the dead after 3 days: they sued me in Minnesota State Court. Not sure what for, I never got any papers. I guess he didn't like my cooking.
Kenya click here.
Anyway, NIH is beautiful and this is the inside of a gorgeous building on the campus where good work is done. We have civilization because we have a government that funds data collecting and data analysis.
We also have civilization because good people outside government do the same thing. Civilization brings medical information and other information instantly to writers like me, so I can process information and publish it in the MJOTA pages. For these reasons I pay my taxes and contribute monthly to Wikipedia.
In 2007 a new Ambassador to Nigeria was appointed by the United States of America. She is a daughter of Africa and a daughter of unwilling migrants forceably brought to America after capture in an undeclared war that was sanctioned universally. I met her in Manhattan, and a year later, I saw her at the 51st anniversary celebrations of Nigerian independence.
Ambassador Robin Renee Sanders click here. Nigeria click here.
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Above, soccer tournament celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sierra
Leone independence outside Washington DC during the July 4 weekend in
2011.
I drove down in the morning and spent the day hanging out
on the grass, drinking tea from the flasks I always bring with me,
chatting with cool Ghanaians who had come to help celebrate, and
enjoying the dulcet tones of heroic radio announcer David Vandy and I guess everything else, when Freetown, the capitol city of Sierra
Leone, being overrun by rebels. A genuine hero, and greatly loved by the
Sierra Leonean community in the Americas.
Sierra Leone click here. Story of the first 50 years of Sierra Leone after independence click here.
Sierra
Leone and Liberia are connected by history, by geography, and by
tragedy. Liberia click here. The story of Liberia towards the end of its
second century of independence click here.
Botswana is the other end of the continent, click here.
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Today
is Friday night and the MJoTA Friday Movie is about what happened in
America when a presidential election went wrong click here. For other
movies, follow the links on the same page.
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Picture
above, as the afternoon turns into a long evening at midsummer, Jun 21,
Mighty Sparrow sings to an attentive audience sprawled on the Brooklyn
Borough Hall steps, on the sidewalks, on the fountains.
The
light was gorgeous and the day was magic and the pictures from the day
have been published since then, and will continue to be published as
MJoTA talks about the obesity epidemic and fighting diabetes and artists
and the enormous good will in the Caribbean community that produced
stars such as Harry Belafonte, Shirley Chisolm, General Colin Powell,
Hon Dr Una S Clarke, Congresswoman Hon Yvette D Clarke, and not so
public stars who are quietly toiling for health and economic prosperity
for all that MJoTA has spotlighted such as Dr Roy Hastick, George Hulse, Yvonne D
Graham, Dr Eda Hastick, Lowell Hawthorne.
Mighty Sparrow click here. Diabetes click here. Harry Belafonte click here. Caribbean communities news and index click here
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I took this picture on the board walk of Coney Island, which is a Brooklyn, New York City beach, on Memorial Day weekend 2009. Impossible to look at this picture and not know that anything we try to do, we can if we can focus and get people to work with us.
I love optimism. I love birds who soar over oceans, planes that soar over deserts and places where no-one can survive, little tiny churches with huge spires which come to a point, which tell us that hope does not stop because you cannot see it, hope keeps on going up, up into the Universe.
The Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, where the Power of Positive Thinking was invented click here.
I love people who are optimistic, who know they can do something and quietly set about making business plans and putting all the pieces into place to succeed, at the same time as their own family members think they do not know what they are doing, do not understand the steely optimism that sustains every breath.
I know about family members thinking goals are foolish. I know about community members thinking that anything anyone does is doomed to failure. Since the beginning of the year, I have been gathering together resources and people to make a movie about Biafra.
I may not make a movie about Biafra, it may take another form, but someone will, maybe because they read what I am trying to do. And I will rejoice. Since the beginning of last year I have been trying to put in place the things that are needed to start a milk factory in Sierra Leone. I know someone will do this. And I will rejoice.
Biafra click here. Sierra Leone click here.
I have been falling in love with Malawi all morning, a small country in East Africa settled by Bantus, and then along came the British in 1891 and astonishingly, declared the country was theirs (actually ours, I am British).
Malawi was independent in 1964, and adopted a flag based on the UNIA flag of Marcus Garvey. In 2010, the flag was changed. The new flag is exactly the UNIA flag, plus a fun sun in the center. They went from a rising sun to a full sun, I read on Wikipedia that the full sun represents the light of day, the progress towards economic prosperity.
I love a country that decided a rising sun was not enough, and that has a woman president. I posted videos and news feeds. Malawi is a beautiful country, and has a lot, a lot of fish. God bless all who work in and for Malawi.
The flag of UNIA and Marcus Garvey click here. Malawi click here.
Updated page on news from African countries click here. Updated page on news from Caribbean countries click here. Updated page on MJoTAtalks: Music click here. Harry Belafonte click here.
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Back in my office after celebrating the end of summer in Brooklyn New York with 5 million of my closest friends, and the Bedford Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Association.
Yesterday,
Labor Day, I arrived in Brooklyn at around 8am, and made my way to
Eastern Parkway and Rochester Avenue, where I was told the West Indian
Parade Association was holding its annual breakfast for dignitaries and
grand marshals.
The West Indian parade yesterday was the climax of the 5-day celebration that had visitors come to New York from all over - I heard that the border crossings from Canada were jammed and I certainly saw Canadian flags flying. Certainly New York City has a huge Caribbean population, but I am not sure that half the population of New York City is Caribbean, and that every Caribbean in New York was at the parade, either marching, or watching, or both.
On the was to the West Indian Parade Association breakfast I stopped and chatted to a group of dignified ladies and gentlemen dressed in yellow. They was members of Lions Clubs all over New York, most of them sons and daughters of the Caribbean, and they told me that the Lions Clubs were always the first to parade, after the officials. Picture of them above. Page on them coming.
And of course, the greatest friends of the Caribbean, the greatest friends of all who need emergency services, the Bed Stuy Vollies were there. They had an ambulance and emergency personnel on call, and all floats had the opportunity of having 2 of their EMTs on their floats for the parade. Bedford Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Association click here.
Police, my goodness, lots and lots of police. Led by the Commissioner, who is son of Ireland Raymond Kelly. My Sierra Leonean uncle Siddique Wai is his special liasison to New York City's African communities, and he was there, enjoying watching the Commissioner play the drums at the end of the march with the NYPD band. That was fun!
The grand marshals were 3: the speaker of New York City Council, Christine Quinn, a daughter of Ireland with porcelain skin; far prettier than most pictures I have seen published. The second was a young singer Machel Montano; and the third was the knockout punch, son of Jamaica and actor and singer Harry Belafonte. Who did a far better job addressing his audience in Brooklyn than did his contemporary Clint Eastwood at the Republican convention.
I love octagenarians, all of them, because they achieved the longevity that was denied my parents. However, I know that octagenarians are not equal, and that some should be listened to respectfully in quiet settings, not given microphones and large audiences. Mr Belafonte can and should be given a microphone, heis one of the fortunate of the already fortunate.
He gave a gracious speech, starting off speaking like his friends and family in the high country of Jamaica, and continuing in his well-educated, well-rounded American English. He recognized Congresswoman Yvette Clarke and asked her to give his regards to her mother, whom he had not spotted in the crowd. The Hon Dr Una S Clarke, Queen of Brooklyn, first daughter of the Caribbean to be elected to New York City Council, jumped up and made her presence known. Mr Belafonte laughed and said "You are so pretty!"
After the parade, after I had walked the entire route ahead of Hon Dr Una S Clarke, found and bought a Caribbean Unity flag, I caught up with the Hon Dr Clarke and told her how much I enjoyed Harry Belafonte recognizing her, saying she was so pretty! Mrs Clarke told me that he always knew she was pretty, and when she was running for City Council, gave a concert to raise funds for her campaign. "what was all it took, " she said, "one concert." I asked if they came from the same area of Jamaica, no they did not. They are related by ideals, goals and country of birth, and that is a lot. God bless Harry Belafonte and Dr Una S Clarke and all who fight for the rights of all humans to be treated with dignity in matters of health, education and opportunity.
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I
was in no hurry to leave New York after the parade, I am not a fan of
traffic jams in Chinatown and the Holland Tunnel. And so I hung about
with a techie and an artist or 2, and learned about some programs that
will certainly impact the ease of reading the MJoTA websites.
When
Apple first unveiled the Macintosh computer in Feb 1984, I stood in
line to buy one, because they were advertised, rightly, as "computers
for the rest of us". User friendly, we knew what we wanted done but we didn't want to learn to talk computer languages. I am working on some pages for MJoTAtalks: computers. Which will be techie information for the rest of us.
Summer was fun, summer is always fun, but now summer is over and time to focus on working towards goals is here.
Keep coming back. Several pages will be developed around children of God and organizations mentioned today.
Have a great Fall America!
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Above picture, I took in the medicine garden at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. The College is at the edge of Center City, next to an old church that looks like it has not changed since the 1850s, the decade before Florence Nightingale was discovering nursing in the Crimea.
I have been to the College several times; it houses the Mutter Museum which has an impressive collection of skulls, wax impressions of diseases, a mummified body and other things that fascinate the good souls in health care and make the rest glad they studied law, or engineering, or English.
Today is Labor Day, the last day of summer, and I will be hanging out in Brooklyn on Eastern Parkway with the West Indian Parade and about 3 million of my close friends. It is a good day to think about health.
Florence Nightingale click here. Traditional medicine click here. Cancer resources click here. Diabetes resources click here. Sickle cell disease and malaria resources click here. HIV/AIDS resources click here.
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Above, picture of meeting house of the Society of Friends in Sydney, Australia. My mother's mothers were Friends, also known as Quakers, in Ireland, and I came to be part of meetings of Quakers in 1991, when I saw that America, as part of a United Nations force, started bombing Iraq. I looked at my family, my 3 sons, and told them I was not raising them to kill the sons of other mothers.
My youngest son has gone even further, he refuses to eat or wear anything that came from an animal. He is 6'4" tall, and an extreme athlete. He understands that we must be kind to each other, and believes that any exploitation of animals is wrong.
I am not so evolved. I am a trained physiologist, and am selfish about humans. I want drugs tested on animals before they are given to my 3 sons, or my daughter. The minute drug scientists find a better way to test the toxicity of drugs on humans without giving them to animals, I will work to prevent animals being exploited, but we are not there yet.
You will find the whole spectrum of humanity in Quaker meetings, and yes, some, although very few, have guns because historically Quakers were mostly farmers and some still are. But we are all united in the understanding that violence is against nature, against God, and that we must care for each other, be kind to each other.
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I have been dreaming about flags, thinking about flags all morning. Flags are a powerful symbol of nationhood, of ideology, of what I believe are the 4 eternal realities of love, trust, prayer and accountability.
I do not like events without themes, without focus, because I know I am on earth to learn and to witness and to report. And I need to understand the human efforts behind the events, and to listen to what is said.
Labor Day is a case in point. The West Indian Parade is a huge party on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, I have read that 3 to 5 million converge on Brooklyn to be in it, to watch it. I do not doubt that number. Last year I drove to the Parkway with my gentle artist friend Endangered Speacies from my house where he was sheltering for a few quiet months, he went off in one direction, I gathered my cameras and started taking photographs.
One by one I saw my wonderful friends from CACCI: elected officials like son of Haiti Councilmember Hon Dr Mathieu Eugene, daughters of Jamaica Congresswoman Hon Yvette D Clarke and her mother, the Queen of the Caribbean communities in New York, the former Councilmember Hon Dr Una Clarke; successful entrepreneurs like son of Belize George Hulse.
I was hoping to photograph son of Grenada the young leader of extraordinary charisma who, along with Congresswoman Clarke and Councilmember Eugene, is on his way to national greatness, Councilmember Hon Jumaane Williams. I was looking for him, and walked up and down the parade route, but could not find him because he had been arrested in a case of clear police bullying.
I still cannot wrap my head around his arrest. Mr Williams is 6'4", I know that because I have to tilt my head the same amount to hug him as to hug my youngest son who is 6'4". Mr Williams has long black dreadlocks. He is not an invisible face in a crowd, once he is seen, he is remembered.
Stop and frisk click here. CACCI click here. Haiti click here. Belize click here. African businesses in New York click here.
Labor Day is the original Occupy Wall Street. It is a holiday to show solidarity and give hope to the oppressed working poor, who, no matter how hard they work, no matter how hard they save, cannot climb out of poverty. Labor Day exists to explain that when we all come together, we can break down the barriers of oppression and have a better future.
And what better way to telegraph the reasons for Labor Day than with flags. Caribbean Unity flag click here. Flag for all oppressed peoples click here. Flag of Biafra click here.
And you had better believe that at the West Indian Parade, the Bed Stuy Vollies will be there, click here.
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Picture above, my first sighting of a flag for the Caribbean countries. I took this picture as I stepped out from Brooklyn Borough Hall onto the marble verandah which leads to rows of steps on which I have sat for the June Caribbean Heritage Month celebrations several times. I was at Brooklyn Borough Hall for a reception for the West Indian Day parade, which is the big, big parade in Brooklyn each Labor Day, which is the first Monday of every September and is the Caribbean communities farewell to summer.
CACCI click here.
This is not the first flag I have seen flying for all Caribbean countries. Austin Tuitt, who is a son of Trinidad & Tobago as well as a musician and entrepeneur, started an organization in 1986 and some years later, held an international competition and picked a flag for all oppressed peoples. In May 2009, I witnessed that flag being raised in Brooklyn by physician Dr Julius Garvey, the son of Marcus Garvey and a journalist who raised her 2 sons successfully after the early death of Marcus Garvey.
MJoTA has published stories about the flag for all oppressed peoples. However the story is told, however the flag is flown, whoever flies the flag: it all comes back to Marcus Garvey.
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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 hereto 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? Want to talk? Email publisher@mjota.org or chat on Facebook Wanjiru Susanna J Dodgson click here or Linkedin click here.
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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. At the end, 3 million were dead from a population of 12 million. Do not forget Biafra.
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Biafra audio. Listen to speeches by General Ojukwu and the Biafran national anthem. Click here.
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