Impeach the Prime minister??

Misremembered.

That's got to be the one thing I'll remember about February 2008. To me it sounded a lot like Krs-one's faux pas "un-rational" back in the day but apparently its a real word.

Yep Misremembered. There was Roger Clements, all dressed up, in front of the committee dealing with the drama related to the whole question of whether he used HGH and claiming that Petitte misremembered his claims. Yep I'll remember that cause I've followed the story not just from the sporting standpoint but to see how they would deal with him as opposed to how they are dealing with Barry Bonds. So far I'm impressed. They haven't used the kid's gloves on him. He's being investigated by the FBI now so lets see what comes of that.

Actually this entire month has been one of scandal maybe thats what I'll remember most about February 2008. Scandal!

This week in Jamaica former Energy minister Kern Spenser was jailed on corruption, fraud and money laundering charges relating to the Cuban Lightbulb scandal. Pure drama! The man had even cried in Parliament late last year. Cuhdear!

I was a bit surprised on this one to be honest. I just figured all Caribbean poli-tricks-ions had some immunity from prosecution because its alleged (and note I aint saying is true I saying is alleged) that some poli-tricks-ions in the Caribbean have been getting away with murder for years. Well not murder literally but some seriously questionable behavior when it comes to pocketing the states funds and such. Maybe, rather hopefully, this ushers in a new era of responsibility and accountability in the Caribbean. Tiefing politicians best be on their p's & q's from now on. Of course this may just turn out to be a one off and back to business as usual.

And then this morning I read about the next potential scandal right here in Canada. I know allya not going to read the link so I'll try to paraphrase the situation for you.

It is alleged that the current Prime Minister, when he was in opposition knew about attempts to bribe an independent MP to vote with the opposition to bring down the previous government. They even have the PM on tape saying he knew about the attempts! Talk about scandal!

The independent MP was dying and they were allegedly offering him a million dollar insurance policy. Forget corn beef and biscuits or curry goat poli-tricks this is serious million dollar business! Even his widow has come out and said that her husband told her of the offer and was offended by it and dismissed it.

Shocking!

That sounds like some serious bribery was attempted to me. I mean the man never take the bribe and he didn't vote with the opposition but the fact that a bribe was offered and the PM can say yea man I knew about it but I didn't tell them to do it seems like it could be grounds for some charges to be laid.

Actually a couple of things occurred to me on reading this story though:

(1) This is just related to one of the case details. The MP's widow who claims that a bribe was offered to her now dead husband is actually now running for the ruling Conservatives? Huh? Ok let me get this straight, your husband came to you enraged that the Conservatives offered him a bribe and said he was offended and said he was ashamed to have once been part of that party and a few years later you're running for them?

Yet even as you run for them you help in exposing that they tried to bribe your husband?

Whoa! I have to sit down and think through this one. Huh?

(2) This could really bring down PM Harper cause the man get in on a whole I will be a better politician and wont have scandals like the previous Liberal government campaign. Actually got to say for a first world country the politicians in Canada seem to always be embroiled in one scandal or another. One fella allegedly taking bribes from German businessmen, another set had a sponsorship scandal in Quebec now this. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. I really expected better of them but I guess poli-tricks is poli-tricks is poli-tricks wherever you go.

You would like to think though that your poli-trick-sions while shady would be smart enough to avoid being caught in things like these.

(3) Its still early in the story's cycle but I cant help but compare the reactions here to the reactions that would have been garnered if this story was happening in the U.S. I mean its front page news here but its still sort of flying under the radar like a whatever, who cares sort of thing. If this was the U.S, CNN, MSNBC and FOX would have it so that there was no way you could escape this story. They would devote days on end to it with three gazillion experts and eyewitnesses parading on tv ad infinitum til you were so tired of the scandal you would turn off your tv and become a news recluse.

Here the reaction is so subdued. I'm sure even if they decide to hold an inquiry into it we'll all still be like yea whatever man.

Follow up

(1) Ok so now we know what OBAY is all about.

Its actually an ad for the Ontario Colleges. Great promotion I think but as my bredren say not as cool as new Diamond Shreddies lol.

Oh and for anyone who is disappointed by this revelation that Obay isn't real don't despair Liks is definitely real.











Actually courtesy of my boy poeza we have added a new product to the Liks line. We call it "THE LOOK". It can take the place of Liks if you don't have the time for Liks or ya out in public and you dont want anyone to see you using Liks. The Look can be used as a stand alone product or as a precursor to Liks. Unlike Liks we dont offer a guarantee on the Look though.


(2) A 16 year old bank robber was arrested here yesterday. 16 years old?? blouse n skirt! As another friend of mine was saying this morning, when we were 16 the worse we were doing was stealing Pepsi bottles for a 25 cent refund at the school cafeteria not trying to take $150Gs from a bank while armed. Damn

(3) I found this rather ironic. The 21 year old son of the publisher of Today's Parent was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in jail for drug dealing and weapons possession. If ya not familiar with Today's Parent its a magazine for parents giving them suggestions and tips on raising their kids.

Of course give him two pounds of blow and a glock 19 isn't one of the suggestions they give and I don't think they've published a story on "the 10 ways to increase the efficiency of cooking your crack"and hopefully likely never will yet I just saw this story and had a "but wait you mean she giving people advice on how to raise dem children an she chile is a criminal getting lock up?" moment. Sorry it just doesn't help the credibility for me. Others I know disagree with me cause they say she is only the publisher but I say if ya telling people how to raise their children and yours turn out this way I would really got to question the advice ya duz give.

(4) Quick celebrity post from the you got to be a idiot file. I wasn't really following this whole Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards storyline but apparently they were in court again because she wants their two kids to be on a reality show and he says no way. I didn't really follow all of it but I thought well maybe Charlie was onto something. Then I was reading a brief article on the subway the other day and realize that Denise Richards' argument is that the children said they want to be in the reality show and she wants to do what they want. Court sided with her too and she won.

Is only then I realize that these clearly rational decision making children are ages 2 and 3. What kinda eediat ting dat? You going to let your 2 and 3 year old decide that they want to be in a reality show? What madness is that?

Its just a cartoon

Straight up racist those suckas were simple and plain ......
Fight the Power - Public Enemy

The above cartoon was in the Globe & Mail newspaper here last Monday.

Now you all know from some of my previous posts I'm not a big fan of the whole Afrocentric School thing being pushed here in Toronto but I found this cartoon tacky, classless and racist.

I mean I know the Toronto Star wouldn't have done something like that. The Sun well maybe back in the day cause they used to be kind of suspect with their commentary on black issues but the Globe & Mail ? Man I expect more from these guys. I mean they are supposed to be a National paper. A highbrow sheet favored by commuters on the, more luxurious than TTC, GO-Trains coming in from the burbs to work on Bay street. The go to paper for business news and all that supposed intellectual stuff that the white collar workers are checking for. I really wouldn't expect this from them.

Did they go out and hire the dude who came up with the noose cover for Golfweek?

Then I was reading a post over at Black Woman & Child blog with the response from the newspaper to readers who complained about the cartoon. It was one of the lamest excuses for an explanation I've seen in a long time talking about the intention of the cartoon was not to be racist and it was just being critical of the proposal for black focused schools.

Way to be critical! Man I don't even get that from the cartoon. Come on maybe y'all didn't think it was racist from where you sat but it is. I had to pause when I first saw this like man I cant believe a newspaper would print this drivel. Its racist, insulting and disrespectful. (Mind you its not as racist as the Barrie Police office's afrocentric math email but its still racist.)

And this is black history month too isn't it? Shame on you Globe & Mail but thanks for letting us see where you stand. Oh and don't you love how "it wasn't meant to be racist" or "there was no racial intent" seems to be our best catch phrases these days up in Canada?

p.s: Man they really swept this one under the rug though. If it wasn't for an email from Urbansista I wouldn't have even heard of this crap.

Oil of Obay

I was checking out the guys over at the War on Folly, a really nice site to browse by the way (yo Charles & Charles you guys need a comments option), and along with the video for the marriage proposal that got shot down at halftime at the NBA game I came across this photo

Courtesy Jonathan Goldsbie and originally seen at Torontoist. You can check the original if you cant see this one clearly.

I not sure what it is they actually advertising but this photo is from College and University just outside the Queens Park subway station. I verified it at lunch today (got to love that Metropass).

Actually there are a few of these Obay ads (from the makers of WhybecauseISaidSo) knocking around and I even noticed the campaign on the subway coming home this evening.

Anyway all this Obay talk got me thinking about my new old product that I'm trying to market and rebrand. Its a supplementary product, a catalyst so to speak, in case Obay or WhyBecauseIsaidSo don't just work on their own. I havent locked down the marketing scheme yet, I aint no expert but I have a rough rough draft of the first ad that I will share with y'all today



Yes people that is my new product. Liks! From the same people who brought you WaitYou FeelYouisAMan and IGineGiveYouSomethingtoCryBout. Liks dont be shy. Use it.

Liks and other related products are registered trademarks of the Whapax! aaaiiiiiiiieee! Corporation a fully owned subsidary of Whax Palax.

Whapax! aaaiiiiiiiieee! sharing Liks from before Jesus was a lad.

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Lawless

So this morning I on the bus. The service improvements like they actually happening cause the bus was half full. Anyway a few stops down the road this lady and her child get on the bus. Now cant say for sure how old the child is. I'm thinking 4 is the max although he was barely bigger than my two year old which is what brought him to my attention.

Actually to be honest I wasn't paying attention when they got on. I was reading and then I see this lil' chile in a bright jacket head straight for the back of the bus, unaccompanied, and climb the two steps into the back of the bus and went and sit down in the seat right at the back, the tall one where even my legs duz dangle sometimes.

So this catch my interest so I look up waiting to see a parent come bounding up the steps after him.. I'm watching this child for a few minutes and realize no body aint come to sit down with the chile at all. So I searching the bus cause I figured oh maybe the parent get caught up at the front looking for bus tickets or change or something. Umm nope. Looked up and saw the mother sitting down well and comfortable in the front seat of the bus paying absolutely no attention to the chile.

So we have chile under 4 all the way at the back of the bus legs dangling sitting down. And I know he under 4 maybe even under 3 cause he was walking in that unsteady rocking sort of way that toddlers walk especially when they are in their winter boots. And ya have mother sitting down at the front of the bus not a care in the world.

Aright well it aint like this particular bus full of the lawless school children as is the usual this time of morning so it wasn't so bad but to me I'm like why would I let my toddler go sit down all the way at the back of the bus without me. I don't care how independent the chile is or supposed to be, I figured at any moment she would come and drag he tail back to the front of the bus, call him and tell him to come sit down with her or at least come down in the back and sit with the chile.

No whole bus trip chile sit down by himself in the back, mother in the front until the mother was ready to get off and she come an take him with her.

I aint know but to me that is juss lawlessness on her part. Is not like we in a car or something, you in the bus. Public transit! I aint saying the people on the bus worse than the people in cars but you dont know the people in the bus. They are strangers. Place could be full of all sort of kidnappers, chile molesters, criminals. You dont know so you should keep ya chile close at hand.

And it aint to say the mother looked like one of these silly young wild girls dat aint know nuttin. She was dressed decent an she look like she in her thirties so ya cant use the he young and don't know excuse.

Boy these Canadian people duz boggle my mind sometimes.

helmet

While I commend Ontario in trying to make everyone feel welcome, well some more than others anyways, sometimes I think the whole political correctness and acceptance goes a little too far.

Case in point:

The Ontario Human Rights Commission has ridden to the defence of a Brampton man who says being forced to wear a motorcycle helmet instead of his turban runs counter to his religious faith.

Baljinder Badesha, above, who was charged by Peel police in September 2005 with failing to wear a helmet, said he understands the inherent dangers of riding a motorcycle without a helmet but is willing to take the risk to follow his Sikh tenets.

Now I am not against him following his religious tenets but the law is the law is the law and it says you need to wear a helmet to ride a motorcycle. Its not a frivolous law like some, its not a silly law like some, its not a clearly outdated law like some. Its in actual fact a pretty decent law. So if he doesn't want to wear a helmet to ride then don't ride a motorcycle.

Plus way I see it I duz see nuff rastaman wid big big big dreads wearing helmets. If they can find a helmet, or get one custom made to fit over their massive locks I'm sure he can find something to fit over his turban.

Bare nonsense from the Ontario Human Rights Commission if ya ask me. I mean again back to Rasta I'm sure if I was a rasta bunnin a spliff on the corner as my religion tells me to do and the police arrest me no Ontario watch dog group wasn't going to step up an say my rights being violated. No they would say I is a criminal an I need to obey the laws. I lie?

Ya can accommodate, ain't nothing wrong with that but there's got to be a limit where you say this is the law. When in Rome do as the Romans or just don't ride a motorcycle. Its as simple as that thats just my opinion.

What chu talkin bout Willis

I'm bigger than you and higher up the food chain. Get in my belly.
Fat Bastard - Austin Powers the Spy who shagged me

I almost loath blogging about celebrities these days but sometimes well you just have to.

Yesterday I read that Gary Coleman of Different Strokes fame got secretly married last August. Well good for him! Coleman is a small fella 4 foot 8 they say but the lady he marry is 5 foot 7. Even better for him. Power to the small man dem! Also he is 40 and she is 22. She was like 2 when his popular show was last on tv. What?? The man is a champion star! The words of Shabba's Twice My age come to mind.

Anyway as we discussed the news we were questioning what angle this woman coming from cause we say Gary aint no catch more like a catch an throw back. He shorter than a coffee table, he aint got nuh money and he aint too pretty pretty so we want to know what attract she to him. I give up on figuring it out, got better things to think bout so I go with her words that it was Love. As the old bajan saying goes every pot got it cover so maybe she is the one for him.

Again good for them.

But then today I read something else about the couple and it made me wonder if this woman either blind or got some sort of mental handicap.

The couple was interviewed and these are their words

"We may go a week and not speak to each other," he says, while she claims, "He lets his anger conquer him sometimes. … He throws things around, and sometimes he throws it in my direction." She adds, "I don't like the violence."

But wait! Wha wrong wid you girl? First you marry a midget and now you letting he throw things at you so? Wha you could only be blind or you head bad? You blind? You cant se the man is a midget? Look at the size of the man nuh woman! Two words for you girl. Body slam!

Bru Brax! Dun!

I know there is a saying that them short men duz be cruel and all de midgets I know evil but looka dont let nuh midget scare you chile. Looka them got shelters and organizations fa battered women, doan stan in no abusive relationship ya hear.

But if he wanta come test ya remember this; You are bigger than him. You are big enough to put him over your lap, pull out a belt and lash him.

wait -(lash) you (lash)- feel (lash)- you (lash)- big (lash) or what! (lash) Who (Lash) you think (lash,lash lash) you throwing (Lash) at (lash lash lash) nuh man (lash)? Ya (lash) best (lash) behave (lash) yaself (lash)

I guarantee if you do that one time he would think quick about throwing anything at you again.

ps: This blog neither condones spousal abuse or cruelty to small people. If I disappear next week in all likelihood I was kidnapped by a not so merry band of Dwarves.

ps2 : Happy Valentines to those who celebrate it

And it dont stop

I remember a few years back there was this light hearted email floating around about this Jamaican who moved up North and his perception of snow and winter.

November 19th - 2 degrees outside! More rahtid snow. Not a tree or shrub in our yawd that hasn't been damaged. Power was off most of the night. "Blouse and skirt" got mi first heating bill, Tried to keep from freezing to death wid candles and kerosene heater, tipped over and nearly burn the rahtid house down. I managed to put the flames out but suffered second degree burns on my hands and lost all my eyebrows and eyelashes. Car slid on the white s*** on the way to the hospital and was a write-off.

November 20th - Rahtid white ting keeps coming down! I have to put on all the clothes I own just to get to the mailbox. If I ever catch the **** that drives that rahtid snowplough, I gwine mek him mumma feel it. I think he hides around the rahtid corner and wait for me to finish shovelling, then comes down the street at about 160km/hr and cover up wi driveway again. Rahtid power still off.

November 21st - Twelve more centimetres of rahtid snow and rahtid ice and God knows what other kind of rahtid white s*** fell last night. I wounded the rahtid snow plough with the pick,but the driva got away. The wife took off and left me. The rahtid car won't start and I think I'm going rahtid snow-blind. I can't move my rahtid toes, haven't seen the bomboclaat sun in weeks and there's more rahtid snow predicted. Wind chill is 30 rahtid degrees below rahtid zero!!

November 22nd - Me a move back to JA cause dis ya place a go kill mi!

Well boy the last few weeks I sort of feel that way cause winter has been rough this year.

I mean I've been here a good few years and this winter just seems to have the most precipitation I've ever see. We literally getting wash way in snow. And I not just complaining about having to shovel it although that is a major part of my complaint but is also hard to walk and drive and basically do anything useful in.

An dont mind dem tv people that talking about how this is a normal winter and we had mild winters the last few years and get soft. Is lie dem tell! True we had milder than normal winters the last two or so years but even stretching back the last ten years, ignoring the ice storm in 99 0r was it 2000, we never had so much snow so bunched together. So I have a real issue when they call this abnormal weather normal.

I mean lets see, we had mildish weather a few days in January and the snow melt, then all a sudden we had snowstorm two Fridays ago. I mean all day snow, snow that tek me three trips to shovel, snow that mek nuff people had car accidents and nuff businesses close down for the day snow. Snow that they say if ya dont need to leave home dont leave type of snow.

Then more snow the Tuesday and Wednesday after that, then last Friday - Saturday and now today. And is not like how some snow duz come and hit the ground and poof disappear. No this thing sticking and then getting icy and got people stumbling around on the sidewalk.

Look I dun more shovelling in a week than the average poli-trickson when he running for office and this thing still aint stopping. I see people with snow piles that bout two three times my height. I personally dig out the driveway and the snow so high that it got one of my trees looking like a shrub now.

Anyway I wasting time with all this chat, let me go shovel some more so I can leff the house in the morning.

Madness

This is not a fete in hay this is madness
Madness - David Rudder

Well this week was Carnival. Forget Rio, forget New Orleans I think the best carnival might be Trinidad Carnival. No I have not been to it yet but from the stories I hear and knowing Trini people I just feel that Trinidad Carnival is special. What is it about Trini people? Of all the folk in the Caribbean they just seem to have this special joie de vivre that the other Caribbean people can only just look on, watch and be jealous of but cant emulate no matter how much they try.

I could say a little more but I leave it at that.

Anyway these two news articles from this weeks Carnival in Trinidad caught my eye and I thought I'd share.

Two sisters faked their kidnapping, so they could hide from their strict grandfather and sneak off to yesterday's Carnival celebrations.

Read the rest of the story here.

Imagine that! These two teenagers have police searching up and down the island for them and they fake their own kidnapping to go play mas. All I have to say is if I was the police or the grandfather when I find them it would be liks in dey tail.

And if I was a policeman I would be especially cruel cause bright Carnival day I could be down Port of Spain watching the ladies in their barely there costumes and trying to tief a wine but instead they got me beating the bush looking for these two rascals. Boy I would be real vex.

I had to say is a serious thing when you so in love with Carnival that you have to fake kidnapping to try and get past your grandfather's rules.

But speaking of tiefing a wine though this is the second story.

A woman turned in anger and stabbed a man she did not know for allegedly wining on her as bands paraded at the height of Carnival Monday festivities.

Last night, a man, Juma Modeste, 28, was listed in critical but stable condition at the San Fernando General Hospital.

Cuhdear! Poor fella! Look how he gone down carnival and nearly get kill.

But ya know what? This article had me thinking. First off I had to send it to all my partners cause I know nuff fellas that like to tief a wine here and there and I have to warn them that the women getting cruel these days so they best be careful.

One time ya coulda tief a wine easy so or the worse thing that would happen is the woman look round give ya a big stupse and walk way or put she hand on she bamsy or she turn around an cuss ya. Meanwhile the fella would be behind there feigning ignorance as to what going on, looking in any direction but at the woman but still trying hard to sidle up to her to get in his lil juk before all is said and done. (oh and by juk I mean wine or dance cause we had this deep discussion at the last Toronto bloggers get-together about the multiple meanings of that word, the Caribbean and urban definitions differ, after a certain blogger kept using it in conversation.)

See that was old time tiefing a wine but nowadays ya can get stab so I hope the fellas are careful. I wouldn't like to see nuhbody get hurt.

Another thing I thought of was there was this email making the rounds the last few weeks, pre- carnival, about the rules for tiefing a wine. Was six rules in all, things like pretend ya from Puerto Rico and dont speak English properly or make sure is a big tune playing that the girls love and they wont care who dance up on them etc etc. Well I was thinking this poor fella musse didnt know the rules and that is why he get stab. See dat! If he was on my email list I might have saved him pain an injury.

And finally the last thought I had on this incident was this. I don't remember which comedian it was, Chris Rock probably, but he does a cheesy standup bit about how women only cry sexual harassment when the man ugly. He claim that if the man look like Denzil and he make an improper statement to a woman nuhbody nuh worry themself. They just smile and nod and giggle or play it off but if is not Denzil but an ugly fella that make the statement the women quick to call police to get him arrest for harassment.

Well by that same logic I feel this wining fella was ugly cause if he did good looking the woman wouldn't have stab him she would probably be backing back on him some more.

Ok doan kill muh for that last statement is joke I mekkin.

Afrocentric Schools

I spent a lot of last week debating with friends on this whole Afrocentric school issue that is so much in the news here in Toronto. So much so that I'm actually a bit tired of the issue but I figured I still needed to blog about it, if only briefly, even though I already spoke about it in November in this post.

Last Tuesday, the Toronto District school board passed a vote approving the creation of one or more black focused public schools. Tight vote but passed by a 11-9 margin.

Now maybe my logic is faulty or I'm just not black enough or something but I have completely disagreed with this idea from the get go. However in the recent weeks I've been thinking about my stance after I saw some prominent and smart black folk in the community get behind this project. Had to analyze the stance cause well if folks like former Ontario MP Mary Ann Chambers can get behind this then maybe just maybe I'm wrong.

However, I've come to the conclusion that my stance shall remain unchanged for the short and most likely long term. Who knows maybe I am wrong but I still think this separate Afrocentric school thing is an absolutely terrible idea.

Now once again let me say that I think its great that someone has acknowledged that our black children are having problems in the present school system but I don't think this is the way to go about solving them. Apparently neither did the lone black trustee who voted again the proposal on Tuesday and was booed by the pro faction in the audience.

I'll give you a few of my reasons for being against this project.

For one, I think the entire school system needs to be fixed and I find this stance to be a small boutique like solution that wont help change the status quo as effectively as if we put some money into really fixing the entire system. Yes some kids may be helped but two, three schools can serve maybe 1000 - 1200 kids max when you have like 30,000 black kids in the system (saw that figure somewhere cant remember where though). This is really like throwing a pebble into the ocean isnt it? Cause don't try to fool me with this whole this system will be extended to all the schools in Toronto idea. Ya not going be able to do it!

Also just dealing with this from a curriculum perspective aren't we just basically saying black kids can't learn unless they have this specialized stuff? Well what happens when they go on to higher education? Do we expect the Universities and other places of higher learning to institute Afrocentric classes too? Actually how will universities judge the grades from an Afrocentric school when it comes to accepting its students? Will an 80% at Afrocentric school be translated as a 50% in a regular school? Who knows? Or maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, lets get them to pass high school first right.

Regardless I think we got to look at two things here well maybe three. One is the attitudes of teachers to black students. I think this needs to be changed and black students need more encouragement and to not be stereotyped and swayed down certain general paths to athletics and other pursuits which I'm sure those teachers probably think are the only things we have an affinity for. No recognize that black kids can do anything. Dont limit their options. Taking them out of the system and putting them in a specialized school may help some but all can't be put into segregated schools so I say change the schools and teachers mindsets that we already have.

Two, the attitudes and attention of the parents need to change. Get on your kids. Schools are there to assist in educating but you can't expect the schools to do everything. Instill in your child the respect for school and the urgency to learn and stay on their cases with what they need to achieve at school. Don't expect the teachers to do it all. Motivate man motivate. This is one of the reasons I really fear the failure of these black schools cause ya can change anything and everything but if the parents don't parent their kids properly all is lost.

Three. These kids have to realize for themselves that they need to respect school. Its not a game and you are not a little gangster. This goes for all kids regardless of color by the way cause I see your lil lawless asses on the bus every day acting a fool and pretending that you're cool. Yea cool has always been a teenage thing but y'all take it too far. Sorry to sound old here but this generation of school kids need to really assess whats going on.

Oh and for all those authority figures at the schools stop being afraid of these kids. I think a lot of the way some of these kids behave and are treated has to do with this fear that others have of black kids. We can't have the inmates running the institution I say. Treat them with respect but that doesn't mean fear them. Have them respect you too. But maybe thats just the general fear of a black planet that I see in this society.

Leads to another point. Ok, so I lied, there was one other thing, point 4, that I wanted to mention. We can't examine the performance of these kids in a vacuum as if this society doesn't exist. The drop-out rate is high amongst black youth but the entire blame cannot be put on the school system can it? If you are in an area with gangs even in the schools well its going to be tougher to be a success than if you're not int it? If you're not getting the support at home, as I mentioned before, its going to be harder to achieve. If ya hungry well brains need food too ya kno! If society is treating you as a failure a castoff before you even get out into the world saying you can only do this this and this but not that then it stifles creativity and productivity and motivation and why would you bother at school?

So lets not just look at curriculum. A lot more to getting these pass rates up than that.

To be honest some of the ideas I mentioned above are mentioned in some of the thoughts of what can go on in an Afrocentric school but I'm asking can't we demand more disciplined students, and teachers who wont fear them or stereotype them in the regular public school setting? Why must we segregate the students to institute these ideas?

Anyway for all the debate I had said from the get go that Premier McGuinty wasnt going to support Afrocentric schools and true to his word he hasnt. Which means although the school board has approved the project it may not even get off the ground cause they need $350,000 from the province to get this going.

And oh what happens if these schools do get implemented and they fail? Again for the umpteenth time I think the broader school system should be targeted. We're letting the Toronto school board off by demanding this small scale solution as changes need to be made globally to the system. And with our current demand for implementation of these schools to be honest I'm afraid that if they don't work the school board will be loath to listen to us again and try some other idea. Maybe it'll just harden society's minds even more into thinking that black kids are somehow dumber than the rest. This Afrocentric school thing better work.

Like De La said Stakes is high.