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.

Canadian!

Sigh where to start?

Ok well I had wanted to do a post on the whole Golf-gate controversy surrounding Kelly Tilghman's comments in reference to Tiger Woods and Golfweek's follow up. In essence although I think Tilghman was an idiot for using the word lynching I didn't get too riled up because I just figured she was clueless or made a mistake. It wasn't deliberate or at least I don't believe it was premeditated. It was dumb, it was improper but it wasn't deliberate. Golfweek's subsequent action in putting a noose on their cover was however just blatantly wrong and inexcusable though. Mind you I believe that the firing of the editor who approved the image has less to do with the impropriety of the image and more to do with the market's reaction. When subscribers and advertisers speak heads roll, remember Imus? So don't think that Golfweek was just doing the right thing from a moral standpoint. Like the Lox this was all about the Benjamins baby.

And through all this mini-hoopla Tiger sweeps it under the rug. Non-issue for him he says. Of course it is cause well after all he's not black, he's cablasian. Whatever dude!

Canada and Toronto are alot like Tiger Woods. They just sweep the racist ish under the rug. Maybe if we pretend it didn't happen then it'll go away seems to be the thinking.

I was a little disturbed by the report of anti-black graffiti at one of our places of higher learning last week. When places we consider our centres of liberal thinking can be subjected to this type of stuff then one really wonders about our society.

What is to be noted here here was the faculty's slow response to the concerns of the students. Yet another example of sweep it under the rug. Canada and Canadians just tend to take a very cavalier, whatever man attitude towards racially charged incidents. (Oh and also tell me why City tv had to flash the graffiti on its news cast even though it contained a racial slur?)

There have been other incidents here; the racial threats to the prison guards at the Don Jail, the whole Nippertipping thing happening with Asian fishermen north of Toronto. Yet Canadians seem to either ignore these incidents or deny that there is any racial aspect to them. Its an ostrich, head in the sand mentality. Denial is more than a river in Egypt.

Ever thought about Canada and its melting pot of inclusiveness to immigrants and minorities though? Where are the minority leaders in this country challenging for a place at the tables of power? The US has Obama and before that Jesse and that was the 80s. How come we don't have any minorities running for leader of one of the federal parties? Actually come to think of it how many federal MP are visible minorities? How many Provincial MPs are visible minorities? Mayors? City Councilors even?

I'll leave you to draw your conclusions but don't for one second think that his place is any better than the US in terms of minorities breaking the glass ceilings to success.

Oh and now the word Canadian is slang for black in the US apparently. If only they knew the reality of Canada.

I can see clearly now

Dear Neighbor on the corner,

Look is not that I don't appreciate your willingness to share your bounty of wealth with us your fellow neighbors. No is nothing so at all. I am all for your community minded spirit of giving. More power to ya and I wish that more neighbors shared your spirit!

And is not that I jealous of your bounty of riches or anything so. No far from that, I am quite delighted in your windfall and aspire to be just like you one of these days.

But my friend, let me give you some advice. Invest in some curtains nuh man, some beaded blinds, some bamboo shutters, drapes even hang up a lil sheet or something so cause fa me personally I really don't need to see what you watching on your tv.

I mean cheese on bread yes ya got a 72 inch LCD HD with DVD or whatever size big behemoth tv that even Stevie Wonder could see in his sleep but that don't mean that ya got to share the tv wid everybody in the neighborhood so.

I mean every evening I coming home and from 'bout two blocks up the road I can see what it is you watching. Today it was Dora de Explorer and even though I marveled at the HD like pretty pretty colors of Dora and her cousin Diego that were jumping out at me from the tv screen coming through your window, I, a man in the street, and not only a man in the street but a man in the street two blocks down the road aint have no right seeing your tv clearer than the Cinema screens at Scarborough Town Center.

This is serious ya know. I mean yes the neighborhood fairly safe and all that but my man that don't mean you need to advertise that you got a television screen so big that people can turn the school parking lot three blocks away into a drive in. Ya just asking fa trouble with that.

Yes the living room is all glass and ya gots nice furnitures and knickknacks and whatchamaycallits and ya got a nice view that ya can recline an watch the tv and look outside and see the lawn and the birds and the squirrels and all sorta nature in the comfort of ya own home but would it kill ya put up some curtains?

I just telling you this for your benefit ya kno.

Still who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth. Next time I pass by I bringing long my lawn chair an pull up wid a drink an sit down and start watching the tv. And doan feel that you gine change the channel to get me to move ya kno or doan play ya getting vex cause I outside peeping in ya house cause clearly you trying to run some sort of cinema and I feel that I wouldnt be doing my neighborly duty if I didnt sit down and give you some company outside. A mean ya might feel that we ignoring ya or not supporting ya or someting so i I dont do that.

And while ya at it looka try an watch something more entertaining man. Some football or basketball or something wid some shooting or some car chases or some sorta action would be better. Dora is nice but big man aint gine sit down outside an watch that forever.

Yours sincerly
Jdid

ps: Wait ya kno I feel my universal remote will work wid dat big tv so doan feel the tv possessed with evil spirits if all a sudden the channel change to Sarah Connors and you see two big red ugly Terminator eyes staring at ya or um change sudden, sudden so to Top Model cause I want to see Tyra in HD LCD, blue ray DVD life size vision.

Oh and tell that big head chile of yours to stop walking up an down in front the tv every two minutes before I come inside an pop two slaps cross he head. He aint kno big people outside trying to watch tv. Like he trying to offset my concentration. chupse!

Brand New Day (maybe)

Yesterday was election day in Barbados and the incumbent BLP government got turfed, (ps somebody try and edit that BLP wikipedia entry) the boot, throw way, kicked out of power. So long, siyonara, arevaderchi, au revoir, it was nice while it lasted.

In Barbados, we usually don't have close elections and this one followed form with the former opposition DLP giving the incumbents a 20-10 lashing! A so it a go sometimes I guess. Good for the Dems (DLP) considering about 8 years ago they only had 2 seats in the Parliament, tonnes of infighting and word was they might be on their way to becoming irrelevant to the masses.

Anyway after 12 years of BLP rule its a brand new day (hopefully), brand new bag, brand new funk, brand new DLP government, brand new poli-trick-sions.

Congrats to new PM David Thompson (somebody do a wikepedia entry fa the man nuh) and his party and umm I meant that term poli-trick-sions in the nicest possible way sir.

But me still cant believe we elected a PM who went to Caw'mere. Soon all a we will be singing under an um-ba-rella ella ella eh eh eh. Lawd ave mercy!

Ya know what I like about Bajan elections though? Nuh big lot of drawn out preamble like in the US. Election call just before Christmas, a few weeks later election done. Compare that to the US with all sort of primaries, secondaries and tertiaries , two years of campaigning and nuff long drawn out speech-ifying where after the first debate the candidate really doesn't say anything new at all. No wonder the electorate duz get tired and fall sleep and become despondent and don't carish and eventually don't vote. Plus all this long lotta campaigning mek it so is only millionaire can compete for the Presidency and the House and Senate cause you need nuff, nuff, nuff money to carry staff and have election supplies for that long a campaign. Ya cant run no lil corn beef n biscuits campaign or as my friends in Jamaica would say Curry Goat campaign for that long at least not given the high price of eclipse biscuits or goat these days. I lie?

Contrast the US with their millionaire candidates with Barbados where we have certain politicians (both who I think won) who don't even own a car let alone have millionaire status. That is democracy star! Respect that!

Anyway regarding the Barbados elections now its all over all the experts and pundits and know-it-alls will come out the woodwork and pontificate on the results saying they predicted this outcome and trying to make it seem like they really have a clue. Hindsight really is 20-20 isn't it?

Last night listening to CBC Barbados from the time results start coming in I hear all sort of man chat about how they predict the undeclared people from the surveys done prior to the polls
would vote Dems (DLP) and how they knew winds of change were blowing since most of the region who have held elections in the past year, TnT being the exception, have voted out the incumbents and yada yada yada. Yea fa true? Well all ya wasn't saying that prior to the election so hush up!

Anyways well that is just the start as the talking heads will continue ad nauseum for days and months to dissect this election result looking for trends and nuance and extrapolations and answers to the whys and what not of the outcome. Cant hate on the analysis. But being a budding pundit myself I feel that all the so-called experts overlooking the real reason former PM Owen Arthur lose. Its so simple and yet they can't see it.

I wont waste time with more preamble but get to the point. Look for all the talk about insular Bajans who don't like people from the rest of the region and feel they better than them Bajans like their leaders to have non-Bajan wives. That is the truth people!

To prove my point consider the history of the former Bajan Prime Ministers why don't we. (this theory is limited to post-1966 independence analysis by the way).

The father of Independence; the Skipper Errol Barrow was married to an American. Following him Tom's wife wasn't Bajan either (at least as far as I know), Sandiford's wife is from yard, Owen's former wife was from yard, new PM David Thompson's wife is from St Lucia. You see the trend? Coincidence ?? I say not!

And some of you that know Barbados will say but Jdid what about Bree St John who was prime minister for a year from '85 to '86 after Tom Adams died? His wife was Bajan wasn't she? That don't fit your hypothesis.

Very perceptive I'd say in response. The answer to that is yes she was/is Bajan and if you don't examine carefully that would seem to spoil my hypothesis but in fact if you do really know the history this case really proves my theory about Bajans not wanting Bajan first ladies.

Examining Bree's tenure lets make it clear that Bree never won an election, never ever got a clear mandate from the people, only Bajan PM you can say that about, and in fact presided over the worse defeat by a ruling party in Barbados history when his Bees (BLP) were routed 24-3 by the Skipper's Dems back in 1986. Coincidence that he had a Bajan wife and loss so bad at the polls? I think not! See my point? Alright then.

And is it coincidence that Owen Arthur won three elections when he was married to a Jamaican but now that he divorced recently and married a Najan lady he lost so badly? Hmmm. Wunnah can decide for wunnah selves but I think the facts are clear. Owen loss this election from the time he divorce the Jamaican lady and marry a Bajan. I feel he should have gone Guyanese but that is juss me.

See for all the talk about insular Bajans we doing our part for regional integration. No Bajan first ladies allowed. The record speaks for it self and the proof is in the pudding people.

So see de I, I think if I want to get into the poli-tricks business I must look for a new non-Bajan wife so I can compete on an even footing. :-)

ps: I hope no one takes this post serious cause I know sum a wunnah would start cussing me now but like I always say refer to the title of the blog.

This n That

(1) Its bad enough they're sending Marion to jail but now they trying to mess with my girl Mary.

A new report claims that certain entertainment stars are linked to the steroid scandal. They named 50 Cents, Mary J Blige, Wycleff Jean, Timbaland and Tyler Perry.

Anything to get Roger Clements out of the spotlight I guess. Chupse!

Look who really cares if these stars used steroids? Do steroids or HGH help you to sing better? Is it like those Ghost Weed skits from De La Soul's Art Official Intelligence album where the Ghost weed helped you to drop rhymes like certain rappers? Was Tyler Perry on an HGH binge when he came up with his Madea character?

Look these Hollywood types have been going under the knife, botoxing, enhancing, siliconing, bleaching, tanning and the like for donkey years in order to enhance appearance. If they are using HGH and steroids now its not the same as an athlete who is using this stuff to compete against another athlete and break sporting records. So big deal!

I can just see congressional hearings into Entertainers and steroids?
Congressman: Mr Perry, And is it true that Madea's tirades are fueled by your rampant steroid abuse?
Perry: What? You do know Madea is a fictional character right?
Congressman: Just answer the question Mr Perry, stop trying to throw us off track here.

(2) BET founder Bob Johnson criticizes Obama? What? Seriously? You mean Bob 'I sold out the black community with my shucking and jiving channel' Johnson can criticize anyone? Ok maybe Obama did some drugs or did some questionable stuff in his teen years but ummm isn't that like 99% of the folk you promote on your channel? You've made money off promoting and giving voice to dudes who have claimed to slang rock, peddled yayo, carried weight, moved fishscale and God knows what else (While giving some credible real artists the shaft I might add) and you're going to get on a high horse here?

Look I'm not saying you need to support Obama cause he's black or anything I'm just questioning what gives you the moral high ground to attack Obama given your record of exploiting and demeaning black culture.


(3) Random and completely innocent dude accidentally gets shot and killed on Yonge street Friday night by some cats who were trying to shoot a strip club bouncer. The victim just happened to be walking up the street to the subway to go home to his family when the incident occurred.

Tell me where's the outrage? Where's the we're being slack on crime and innocents are suffering outcry that followed Jane Crebe's death two years ago? I mean there are similarities right? Random innocent bystander gets shot downtown, in the heart of the city, on Yonge street right? Where's the outrage man? A child is left without a father and a wife without a husband. I'm just saying.

Detergent Math

Any of you guys know about Detergent Math?

I'm serious so don't look at me like I loss my head. This is serious analytical mathematical business we dealing with. So either you familiar with the concept or you're not but don't start laughing at me til you hear me out.

Let me explain. Allya familiar with laundry detergent? Either the powdery kind or the liquid kind that does come in a container with a cup or the cap having markings to explain how to derive a cup or two cups full of the said detergent? Allya familiar with that? Allya really really familiar with that? Ya ever take a look at the markings on the cup or the cap that shows you what the detergent measurements are?

Well that is the foundation of detergent mathematics right there. Cause ya see if you take a close look at those cup markings you will realize that they don't make any sort of rational sense at all. Compare them and you will notice some serious discrepancies if you try to use regular mathematical logic. Is like the detergent makers just arbitrarily put some lines on the cup.

Follow me now: If the mark showing one cup full is 10 cm from the bottom of the cup how the mark for 2 cups going to be only 3 cms above that first mark unless the cup is a conical shape? Otherwise the first cup full is about three times bigger than the second cup full. That don't make no sense! In no sorta world duz 13 times x equal 2 times 10 times x! ....... except de world of detergent math

And all the detergent cups I've checked have similar types of concepts. In detergent math 2 cups of detergent is 1.25 x 1 cup of detergent or 1.3 x 1 cup of detergent. Check the cups in the detergent box good and tell me if I lie?

Is like dem fellas must have some sort of advanced carry the one, integrate x to the derivative of the cosign arc tangent viscosity variable raised to the power of one over pi x times the free flow cubed, ice cubed, rubix cubed formula to work out them markings man.

Is Detergent math. Take a look at the detergent fa true. Wha allya know bout dat?

Ethnic Hair

Got soul like that Afro pick with the black fist!
My mellow, my man - The Roots

So yesterday I went into Shoppers Drug Mart to do some shopping; grab some cold meds, some cheap nobody loved me enough to purchase me so now I'm on discount chocolate etc etc.

I didn't really have no list with me but since I go there so infrequently by the time I hit the door
I had like ten things I needed to stock up on. One was some hair grease and by grease I mean well lets just say that I using that term loosely cause my family duz refer to almost any product ya duz put in ya head as grease even if it aint suh greasy. We doan moisturize, condition, nor gel we duz grease! Ya understand?

'Looka try an grease ya scalp boy!'

Anyway so I walk into Shoppers, see the sign for the hair products and walk downed the aisle, which I should probably refer to from now on as the "regular hair products" aisle, but didn't see anything at all that looked familiar to me. Seeing all sorts of mousse, conditioner, holding gel and shampoos, VO5s, Garniers, Pantenes, Herbal Essences and other generic products that may be grease-like but don't really correspond to my needs in term of hair grease.

Where the TCB at son? Where my Jeri juice, the curl activator? What no Lusters Pink? no Sta-sof-fro. Doan even think bout open ing wunnah mout to tell me wunnah aint got nuh Sporting Waves or I gone den!

Wait wha kinda stupid store wunnah could be doah? Chupse! Wunnah mekkin sport den! Wunnah gine mek me have to go an check someplace like Novellette shop down on Eglington West (anybody see that Kink in My hair sitcom yet? Trust me is nice.)

So I was thinking to myself maybe these guys dont carry any black hair products although this is Scarborough and I know some of the other Shoppers Drugs I've been in do carry them.

It was then as I walked down another aisle searching for the cough medicine that I butt up on the sign saying "Ethnic hair products" and the corresponding products which in my opinion turn out to be mostly black hair products with a few items made in Greece and Australia thrown in. (Grease made in Greece aint that ironic somehow?)

Now before I say anything else let me mek it clear I not making any big issue out of this I just find it funny so I commenting. I got some questions for these ethnic hair people.

Why were those hair products separate from the other hair products? Ok I can see putting all of the black hair products together or all the hair product produced a foreign together but did they really need a separate aisle? Couldn't they keep them together but within the same aisle as the "regular hair products"? It wasn't a space issue cause the store could have rearranged things to do that.

I mean it was a little confusing. Confusing as hell actually cause if I walk in and just see the sign for Hair Products where logically all hair products should be and not see what I looking for in that aisle then odds are I would take my business elsewhere cause I normally wouldn't be looking for a sign saying ethnic hair products.

I mean logically one would think you would keep all hair products together and not scatter them around. Wha happen dem frighten de ethnic hair products taint de regular hair products so dem segregating the hair products. Cuhdear!

(And for the person who will say but in the supermarket they separate out the foods and have aisles with imported foods etc is not the same thing.)

Secondly what really is with the ethnic hair products designation? What exactly is an ethnic hair product? Y'all got some Russian hair grease in deyso? New Delhi mousse? Scottish gel? Or is that short form code for products imported from outside North America or products for people whose hair is not naturally straight or products that regular people who duz shop in the "regular hair product" aisle don't use?

I feel to solve all this wunnah need to put all the hair products together and just put up one big sign saying hair grease.

Anyways that is all I got to say I gine an mek myself useful an grease my head.

Bhutto dead

Why does it seem like something tragic is always happening just before or after Christmas every year?

The murder/assassination of Benazir Bhutto today in Pakistan is tragic but hardly surprising in my mind. From the time she returned to Pakistan a few months ago she has been in danger. It started just after she landed in Pakistan when militants tried to blow up her car in a procession. An attempt that killed over 160 persons but failed to harm Bhutto.

This time they got her though. Shot through the neck and then a bomb. I guess they weren't taking any chances.

This comes at a time when the country prepares for general elections on January 8th with Bhutto having been one of the main opposition leaders trying to wrest control from current leader and some might say dictator Musharraf. Her death is sure to throw the whole country into an uproar.

Last week Bhutto spoke out on the religious schools in her country which she claimed were making killers out of children. I'm sure this probably didn't go down well with some of the radical elements in her country. Bad enough that a politician is making those statements, bad enough that the politician is seen as pro-US and pro-western but even worse that its a female politician probably.

Got to wonder why Bhutto who previously held the presidency only to be forced into exile returned to her homeland in the hopes of regaining power. She was literally marked for death from the get go so was it bravery, stupidity, idealism or hunger for power that made her put her life in jeopardy for a chance to lead a country with such a fragile stability?

Whatever it was it cost her her life. RIP.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of my readers and fellow bloggers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. In case you want something more to read check out my Ol Time Christmas post from two years ago. Blessings!

More than Culture

I kno mi roots n culture (murderer!)
Shabba Ranks - Roots n Culture

The facts are this: A Mississauga father strangled his 16 year old daughter Aqsa Parvez to death last week. The media pounced on the story because the two had apparently been arguing over whether the Muslim girl should wear her hijab or not.

It became a story not about domestic violence or child abuse but rather a story about how
cultures clash or how some immigrants can't integrate into western society or basically those evil Muslims.

I tend to disagree somewhat with the media's coverage.

To me, assuming that the hijab was part of the issue since I've read other stories that say it was just a fraction of what the arguing was about, its more a story of a child who challenged her parent's rules and a parent whose reaction to that challenge got out of hand. There was a cultural aspect because of what they were allegedly fighting about but this story could have played out exactly the same way in other cultures or religious families.

So to me I just see the media's reporting as sensationalizing the story to get us to fall for that "evil Muslim" or that look how different these immigrants are from us angle that they would like us to always believe.

Yes the killing was unique because a Western raised non-Muslim would probably not be killed by a parent over a hijab but he/she might have been killed or attacked over dating someone from what was perceived as the wrong ethnicity or race, over wearing something that the parent considered improper or even not wanting to follow the parents religious beliefs. It has happened before, it will happen again. Its the same thing just no hijab involved.

The problem is that our society likes to categorize incidents involving minorities. One drug dealer of black or Caribbean descent becomes all black men sell weed and carry guns and are in general dangerous. One Muslim father who went way too far in disciplining his child becomes look at these Islamic folk. See how they behave and why cant they just assimilate to the dominant culture. Its a reinforcement of the fear of the unknown and the different. Different means scary in these parts and these stories reinforce this.

Somehow the positives never get distributed that evenly do they?

To be honest when I first heard the story my thoughts were look how teenage rebellion can go wrong. Look how she play she disobeying the old man and the man get ig'rant and kill she just so.

Teenagers can get on your last damn nerve regardless of their culture and some parents do see red when they think that their child is disobeying some fundamental tenet of their law. As a West Indian I've heard plenty of stories of parents who would throw at or lash their kids with whatever was handy including shoes, clothes irons etc if the kid disobeyed them or as we would say in Barbados "feel dat duh big" or "get too big for he/she boots".

I'm not saying that's right I'm just saying that is/was how it was. I've head similar stories from other cultures.

The facts are parents need to discipline kids. They don't need to throw stuff at them or choke them to death or indeed get violent to do it but they need to exert strong discipline. Everyone does this differently and sometimes stuff gets out of hand as it apparently did with Asqa and her dad. Don't get me wrong its a dreadful story and her father deserves full punishment because parents should protect their children not kill them.

But its a story that's not unique to any culture or religion as some media outlets would have you believe. No need for cultural or religious labels this is simply a tragedy.

Rest in Peace Aqsa. What a sad way to go.

Church Shooting

I guess one isn't safe anywhere these days.

I'm referring to the folk who were killed in a church in Colorado yesterday.

What I find interesting though is that the gunman was shot by a security guard at the church. (OK disclaimer I really haven't followed all the info on this incident particularly closely so forgive me if I'm wrong but the reports said the gunman was shot by church security.)

Whoa! Hold up! Did I miss something? Since when Church had security guards? I neva been to church with security guards have you? I mean I know earlier this year I mek joke about fete church but security at church? Armed security at church! Fa real?

Blouse n skirt!

Church must really turn into bashment. Wha kinda rowdiness a gwan at church that dem need security guard. OK so it did come in handy this one time but church shootings are not a norm are they? I reminded of that Shaggy's recent Church Heathen song. Maybe next we will see dress code at church. Actually hmmm that might not be such a bad idea. Make it so number one.

I'll leave it there though and not make any comments about these watered down mega churches and their self-help Tony Robbins style sermons.

All I have to say is things ruff when church have armed security. Wow!

Bye Bye Garbo

I must commend Raptors General Manager Bryan Colangelo for the job he's done with the team over the past season and a bit. Via his personnel moves he has been able to get the team to some semblance of respectability and an Atlantic Division title. Good job!

A significant part of that revival has been the influx of European players onto the Raptors roster.

As an aside though when you think of the invasion of European players into the Raptor ranks you have to at least grudgingly give credit to former GM Rob Babcock for starting the trend by picking up Jose Calderone, Uros Slokar and Roko Ukic a few years back. The flood gates however didnt officially open until Colangelo arrived two summers ago and picked up number one draft pick Andrea Bargnani, free agent Jorge Garbajosa and made the trade with San Antonio for Rasho Nesterovich.

And it has not been a faulty plan. Actually to be honest it was a great move on the Raptors part. Not only because the European players are highly skilled and usually well trained but also because unlike some of their African-American counterparts they have no issue with playing in Canada.

The Raptors over the past have been burned considerably by several myopic US basketball players who grudgingly came but skipped town as soon as possible, complained about playing in Toronto as if we were a third rate Mexican border town, complained about raising their family in Canada as if we were located somewhere behind the old Iron Curtain or who forced management to overpay for their services just cause they were going to be an hour outside the good ol US of A.

In light of that drama it has been a pleasure to have European professionals here who actually want to play here and help build up a good franchise in a cosmopolitan North American city like Toronto.

But if the problem with American players is their wish not to play professionally outside their home country the problem with European players is their wish to play for their home country's squad during the NBA off-season. Even at times when it may have a detrimental effect on their performance for their professional team, the one that actually pays their huge salaries.

Case in point: Raptors and Spanish forward Jorge Garbajosa.

Garbo as he is affectionately called made what can only be described as a bad call this summer. (oh and I called it twice. Here and here. See even a broken clock can be right sometimes.)

He broke his leg late in the last NBA season. Doctors at that time told him it would take approximately six months to rehab properly. Garbo four months later played for Spain in the European Championships against the advice of Raptors doctors who still thought that he needed surgery to correct parts of his damaged leg. Fast forward to yesterday and it has now been announced that Garbo will need to have surgery after all and in all likelihood will miss a significant portion if not all of this season. (Oh and I also read that he had indeed been practicing with the Spanish squad for up to 5 weeks before the actual Eurobasket tournament begun)

Now I'll admit that I'm upset with this. Been upset with it since I first heard he was playing in the FIBA Eurobasket tournament this summer instead of sitting it out to rehab for the NBA season. Look I'm not adverse to a player wishing to represent his country but Spain had already qualified for the 2008 Olympics and this Eurobasket tournament was about nothing more significant than bragging rights. To me it made sense if you were coming off an injury to play it safe and sit out the summer tournament so you could be 100% by the time NBA training camp rolled around.

Maybe Garbo had a right to be skeptical about the Raptors doctor's diagnosis and go against their advice. Professional teams do try to protect their investments and in the case of NBA teams there has been much fuss about international players who play a full NBA season then rush off to play all summer for their home countries. When do such players get a chance to rehab and relax and recharge one wonders? Still if a player thinks he can handle it and its necessary I say more power to him ......once he's are healthy.

Garbo was however by no means injury free and should have sat out this summer's tourney with a view towards being 100% in the fall. The biggest clue to the injury and how it was coming along may have been the fact that the Spanish federation and Garbo had to take out an insurance policy which cost them an exorbitant one million dollars for three months coverage this summer in order for him to play in the Eurobasket tournament. If the insurers thought he wasn't a big risk to reinjure himself or was close to full rehabilitation why was the premium so high?

It seems pretty clear that a never fully healed Garbo rushed back to play in Eurobasket 2007 and in so doing risked his rehab maybe even damaging himself further.

I honestly would like to think that he would have had some more regard for the franchise that pays him and the fans that cheer him here in Toronto and not have rushed to play this summer and then not even last a full month into the NBA season.

Like I said in my previous blog in reference to Garbo back this summer "Now you'll probably get to Raptors training camp and fall apart within a month of the season then have surgery and miss the entire season. All the while being paid by the Raptors. That's to me is like you have just dealt a b* slap to the entire Toronto fandom collective with your actions. Boy and they complain that home grown NBA players are childish, haughty and own way! I do hope you stay semi-healthy so we can trade you but alas I know that wont happen. Enjoy the season on the sidelines."

Damn I wish I had been wrong.

Guess this just goes to show that athletes can be idiots regardless of where they are from despite what some folks may think.

There are terms written into players contracts forbidding them to ski or ride motorbikes or engage in other slightly dangerous hobbies that may injure them. Maybe there needs to be terms written in forbidding injured players from playing in tournaments that can cause them to lengthen their time on the injured list. Or just clauses about using common sense to determine what events to engage in during the off-season.

Personally I think Garbo owes us Raptors fans an apology. Maybe he owes the franchise some money too but for sure he owes us an apology for risking his ability to play for the Raptors leaving us a weaker team in his absence.

ps: In terms of responsibility why isn't Garbo getting more heat on this? Vince went to his University graduation the morning of a playoff game but returned to play in that game and was widely pilloried as letting down the team. Garbo plays all summer on a bad leg and then comes to the season injured. He has let down his team too. Actually in my opinion more than Vince did. Shouldn't he be hearing it from the fans for letting us down?

Forget me not

Today was Thanksgiving in the US but here in Toronto it was the first day of winter. Not officially mind you but seeing as today was the first winter storm of the season to hit the City of Toronto and the snow actually stuck around for more than an hour I declare it the first day of winter.

Its also the day when the collective memory of the city draws a blank. Huhhh! The day everyone forgets.

Happens every year but yet when the temperature drops and that white fluffy stuff falls from the sky or worse yet the hard frozen pellets that make everything slippery fall for the first time for the season its like our brains rather than our bodies are frozen and we forget how to act in winter.

We forget how to shovel snow properly. The TTC forgets how to run buses on a schedule. Drivers forget how to drive in bad weather and the accidents pile up on the highways. Some folk forget that you need proper footwear for this weather and that you cant run or walk as fast as you would when the ground isn't all slushy. Some drivers forget that they cant be speeding on the roads as they will splash pedestrians. Some pedestrians forget that they shouldn't walk near the sidewalk's edge if possible as they will be splashed by crazy drivers.

Lots of memory lapses today. GO-trains forgot their schedules, business forgot to raise the heat for their staff in their offices. Folks forgot what they did with those gloves and that scarf and those boots and that jacket. The body forgets what it feels like to be bundled under the heavy layers of clothing keeping you warm but weighing you down.

The collective "Duhh what was I supposed to do here again" struck again today.

Bonds

I take a bite out of crime
wash it down with some juice.
East Coast - Das Efx

Sigh its going to be hard to stay retired.

Read about the Barry Bonds indictment yesterday. Well its about time isn't it! Took them only 4 years to finally get the info they needed to indict him. Day duz run til night ketch it ya hear.

Well its good to see that our law enforcement folk have got their priorities set straight. Time to get that scumbag and menace to society off the streets. Society is going to be so much safer. Maybe he can be cellmates with that other despicable athlete and criminal Mike Vick. The world will be a better place and we can all walk around singing Kumbaya and holding hands. Om!

But wait a minute Bonds isn't a menace to society, the scumbag part could be argued though.

I woke up this morning to a female radio announcer with a bit more than a little glee in her voice celebrating Bond's indictment. Finally he gets his comeuppance she basically said. Apparently his arrogance and disdain for the media was her argument for why he needs to be punished. Without directly saying it I interpreted her words as its time they wiped that smugness off his face and took him down a notch. Who does he think he is? Time that surly attitude was dealt with. Take that you despicable criminal!

But I tend to look at this a bit differently. Bonds is neither war criminal, despot or genocidal maniac as much as the media would beg to differ. He hasn't killed anyone, he hasn't robbed anyone, he hasn't stolen anything (besides arguably the home run crown from Hank Aaron and that's for Major League Baseball to decide) and he isn't any sort of violent offender, unless you count him putting a beating on baseballs.

Yet here he is facing 30 years in jail for allegedly perjury and lying about taking steroids. Damn. That's like getting publicly stoned for allegedly lying about stealing a cookie.

Look its not like Bonds is the shoe bomber. Its not like Bonds lied about supplying arms to the Contras or he lied about disclosing state secrets to the enemy. Put this in perspective. Even John Walker Lindh only got 20 years in jail for fighting with Al Quada against American forces!

Bonds allegedly lied about whether he, himself, one man took steroids or not. And while taking steroids is apparently a crime he's not currently under threat of punishment for the actual deed but rather about lying about the actual deed. He faces 30 years in jail for a crime that in the most part effects him more than it does society.

I know some folks disagreed with my argument against the Mike Vick case but this Bonds case reminds me a bit of that. Its just with so much real crime and threat of crime out there is this really a big deal? I mean its not like Bonds was even a distributor of the steroids. He just allegedly took them and allegedly lied about it. Big deal! Who has he hurt besides himself? Oh yea and the American past time baseball.

How much law enforcement hours in the past four years do you think have gone into dealing with this Barry Bonds threat? Sometimes you would think the cat was Al Capone or some other mob figure.

Look I hesitate to use the words witch hunt here and I truly think Bonds can be an ass more times than not but just like that announcer's glee on the radio this morning I cant help but think this is more about knocking the smile off the face of a smug son of a .... than about any sort of justice. If Bonds was a nicer guy, like for argument sake say Mark Mcguire, aside from having more public opinion on his side the question is would Law Enforcement be going after him as diligently as they are now?

Guess we can only surmise.

A fact though is that Bonds has been labeled difficult (y'all know what I mean), he's not the smiling jolly sound bite giving star athlete and it could be argued that some of this again I hesitate to use the word persecution is about a negative perception of him.

But then I guess bad guys can finish last sometimes.

Dun that

Time to put this blog to bed. Nuh setta long talk no drawn out farewell tour. Thanks for the support to all who read, commented, emailed. Hopefully it was interesting while it lasted. Met some good people made some new fam, new friends (and I mean friends not in the facebook friend way). Good to see an increase in my Caribbean people representing.

Peace and one love.

Jdid

ps: I do reserve the right to come back occasionally and write some crap here if I feel like but for the most part its all over.

Random

Ok a few stories that caught my attention.

- The MinnesotaVikings fined one of their players for missing a game two Sundays ago because he had to attend the funeral of his grandmother. His grandmother who raised him as a kid. Damn that's cold.

- While I feel for Kanye's lost I just think its so senseless that she died during elective surgery.

-kid gets killed for brandishing a hairbrush. damn! reminds me of that Michael Moore skit where he said black men shouldn't carry dark colored wallets

-Man in India marries a dog. No no no, fa real I mean a actual female dog, no fa real no insult the man marry a real mutt. Seriously. Ah hell no one will believe me anyway.

-Remember the judge who sued the dry cleaners. I blogged about it a while back. Well he lost his job. Cuhdear!

-Black girl suspended for purple hair. Good for her, she feel she name Prince or what. Oh wait he had purple rain not hair my bad.

-Michael Jordan's divorce is costing him 168 Mil. Van Dammmmm!

Seriously there was more but I cant remember where it went. Oh well enjoy.

You must learn

It seems to me that in a school that's ebony
African history should be pumped up steadily, but it's not
and this has got to stop
See Spot run, run get Spot
Insulting to a Black mentality
A Black way of life or a jet Black family
So I include with one concern, that
You must learn

You must Learn - Boogie Down Productions

Oh man, I dug in the crates for that quote today. That song is about 20 years old.

Black Schools. Its all the talk now in Toronto after this article appeared a few days ago. Now I'm pretty sure this was on the table a few years ago and I blogged about it back then as well but I just can't find that old post so here we go again. Oh and my thoughts might have changed in the ensuing two years so in case you find it don't hold any old posts against me.

Anyway black schools or rather 'African centered alternative schools' are in the news here in Toronto with suggestions that we institute some of them to assist in keeping black kids from flunking out.

My thoughts are all over the place on this. Its quite a volatile topic actually.

First off though, just to get it out of the way, and I might lose some friends over this, I'll say that I cant support African centered schools being funded by the provincial government. I give the same reasoning I gave for not supporting John Tory's faith based schools. I just don't see why the government should foot the bill here when the regular public schools are already suffering from lack of funding. As a taxpayer, if I wasn't black I'd be pretty pissed at having to pay for this special interest group's schools. Sorry that's just my opinion on the funding.

If Black sorry African centered schools are needed I say lets get the Afro-Canadian community together and do this privately. There are privately run schools for other special interest groups why don't we get together and do this too? Alternatively some ethnic communities have their Saturday school where kids are taught their heritage and the language of their ancestors. We could get together and do something like that. I'm all for West Indian school on Saturday. Ya need a teacher, I'm there son! I even have some friend dem that volunteer to teach how to chupse, give cut eye and slam dominoes.

Naa but in all seriousness maybe Saturday school might be a way to start. Teach the children about their heritage and give them some self esteem. Its a start.

Now back to the issue. The fact remains there is an issue with black kids performance in school here. They just seem to under-perform their peers and drop out at an alarming rate. This under-performance though cannot be viewed in a vacuum. One has to take a look at the socio-economic and other factors affecting these youth. As one commenter said on the Star's page we already have black schools ie schools in neighborhoods where the majority of the students are black so why not try getting them to work first before trying to have a separate new African centered school.

Now a bunch of thoughts run through my mind at this point.

(1) Our public schools in general are not up to par. Hence one would expect that the public schools in the more depressed areas of our society would be even more so under par. This is probably a factor in many black kids under-performing.

But the under-performing also seems to cut across socio-economic boundaries in the black community too. That is disturbing. That says maybe there are other factors at work here. Maybe the system is broken. By the way pardon me if it seems as if I'm making an elitist claim that poor kids will/should do worse in school. I don't subscribe to that belief at all. I'm just arguing that schools in the poorer parts of the city are probably more run down and badly run than schools in other parts of the city and this might lead to the skewing of statistics showing that black students perform worse than others.

(2) Third grade teacher reading and talking about I knew he's amount to nothing
Definition - Talib Kweli

I've heard enough stories about black kids being thrown into special ed with the quickness , a hell of a lot quicker than similarly performing kids of other races. I've also heard of smart black kids being streamed to the technical areas and being told not to think about going to university because teachers have this built in bias that says black kids are only good at certain subjects and athletics. There seems to be some sort of systemic racism in this school system. Is the issue then about curriculum or is it about perception of the students?

(3 or is this 2 1/2)Now from my own recollection and experience and I'll admit I was forced to really think about this after some of the interesting comments traded with Clarabella over at JahWorld a few weeks back I realize how really important teachers are to learning. You can be the smartest dude and if you go into a class with a piss poor teacher or a teacher who doesn't motivate or impart energy to a topic, or a teacher who has already reached the conclusion that you will be a failure before you've said or written word one in that class, it will affect you negatively. No doubt about it. Especially at a young age. My own experiences and those of others I know bear that out without question.

In the case of black kids here in Toronto and elsewhere in North America I think some teachers come into the system with these pre-conceived notions on black folk in general which they quickly apply to our younger generation. They believe these young black men and women have no future that doesn't include drugs, guns, rapping, sports or a job on the lower end of the paying and talent spectrum and either consciously or subconsciously these teachers tend to nudge these kids in those directions. Its like that passage from the Autobiography of Malcolm X where he tells his teacher he wanted to be a lawyer when he grew up and the teacher tells him that's not a realistic goal for a black kid. That was like 60 or 70 years ago but the same thing is still occurring in our school system if not as openly and blatantly stated.

(4) There is also a case for a fear of black youth. In my opinion all youth need a strong hand to keep them on an even keel. I think some teachers are afraid of being strict with their young charges especially when they are black. Fear of a black planet you can call it and you know what some of these young black kids know that their teachers and society in general fear them and use it to their advantage to get away with all sorts of lawlessness. I could site example after example of that from just riding around on the bus on the way to work in the morning. Can't blame the teachers singularly here for not trying though as it does appear that the rules enforced by the school board also leaves some of their hands tied when it comes to discipline. All that to say that lack of discipline in school has an effect on the black black youth in schools.

(5) And lest it seem like I forget the parents let me just say they are far from blameless. That discipline mentioned in the previous point must start at home. Parents also need to stress the necessity of a good education. Not sure what happened between my parents generation and mine but somehow I think the parents of this day and age don't emphasize education to their children enough leading to some slack behavior by our children. Some argue that the parents are busier now and have little time to impart instruction to the kids but to me I really don't see them being any busier than our parents. I think that's just a weak excuse.

Also parents have to stay involved in their children's education. Not only in making sure they do their homework but parents should also try to build a rapport with the teachers. That's one way to get the teachers to realize hey this kid has people pushing him, supporting him, people who love him, people looking out for him. Sometimes I think that makes a difference in teachers interaction with the students.

I could go on about that but will leave it there.

(6) Now some people say this African centric school thing is voluntary segregation. They say we work hard hard for integration of schools and now we saying we want out. Plus we living in a multicultural society. Dem issues we trying to hide our children away from still going come back and bite them in the tail later in life.

Well maybe later in life is better than earlier. Maybe they need a strong set a guidance from early without the added systemic racism. I can site the case of black West Indians who went to school in the Caribbean before immigrating here. I think we have a different perspective on things and handle and view racism from a different perspective than folks who had their primary education here. We also seem to do better in some cases too. But maybe that's just a general thing cause you cant look at our education i the Caribbean and separate it out as an individual thing. You have to look at it within the context of the different society we grew up in. Not only were the schools different but so was that society.

(7) The proponents of these African centric schools don't seem to be saying its the overall system including discipline, teachers, teaching environment that needs changing etc they are saying our kids need a new curriculum. If you say that then you are saying our kids are somehow different in the way they learn. If you are arguing this then can you really argue against someone non-black oh lets say a James Watson who comes out and says black people are different and then goes on to say derogatory things about us? Yes I know I'm stretching a comparison here but its not that big a stretch.

(8) Going back to the Star's initial article on the proposed schools Donna Harrow one of its proponents stated ."For us, it's important to try something else," said Harrow. "Many parents from the Islands or from Africa, they've actually gone through an Africentric way of teaching" back home which includes using mentors from the community. "It's building up students' self-esteem by showing them that there are other black people in the neighbourhood who are successful, who are doing well and who will care for them in a supportive manner."

Now my question is why cant the mentoring and the building up of students occur in a regular school setting? Why cant black professionals , university students be brought in to give speeches to some of these kids. From personal experience I remember we had two programs at University back in the day (big up the old WISA crew) that tried to bridge that gap between black university students and black high school students and brought in successful entrepreneurs and professionals to show these kids what was possible. It was on a small scale granted but isn't it possible to keep doing similar things like that without having a separate African centric school?


In conclusion I still digesting the issues and I think I've missed a few things but there are lots of things to think about here. I think we have to look closely at the root causes of these black kids failures before proceeding. The school cannot be analyzed without looking at the society in general. That doesn't mean necessarily that we do nothing about the schools when we find they aren't working as is. It just means be wary of thinking that African centric schools will have a great impact if that's all that's changing.

I'll leave you with a passage that I read this summer.

But the little boy listening to Buntin, who sit down there telling every boychild who come in that he, the child, is a prince, showing where it say in the Bible ... Ethiopia shall stretch forth her wings unto God and Princes shall rise forth out of Egypt.... Have Reggie coming home walking straight and tall without the goods I send him for, telling me he is a prince. But as I tell Reggie, and I will tell this to anybody, this ain't Egypt. And you could come from all the kings and queens of Egypt and Ethiopia put together, you still have to eat, you still have to get a job, and if you don't want to dig dirt for a living or pick coconut on Richardson Estate, you have to learn what they teach you in school.

The Wine of Astonishment - Earl Lovelace

Signs

They say signs that the end is near
I wonder can I walk a righteous path holding a beer
Resurrection - Common

Is just reality.....

Yesterday while channel surfing I caught a glimpse of one of the newest reality shows entitled Shot at Love. In case you haven't seen it (and I really couldn't recommend that you go out of your way to watch) its sort of like the Bachelorette but with a twist. See the bachelorette seeking love in this case is one Tila Tequlia, apparently a pretty popular personality on myspace, who is bisexual. So instead of this being a straight case of Tila looking for a man, she is looking for either a man or a woman.

Lawd come fa ya world!

Reality TV! Sigh! Now I wont get on my high horse and play like I don't watch it every now and then. I did watch Tyra's Top Model and the Amazing Race and I'll even admit that I watched last season's College Hill once I realized it was set in the Caribbean but I mean seriously I just don't get this whole Reality TV thing sometimes.

Has anything ever been so aptly misnamed before? I mean just call it shows without SAG actors and be done with it but there is very little reality in reality TV.

Ya know what too? Its going to be sad if those Hollywood writers go on strike cause the networks will beat us till we're silly with new reality shows. All I know is that if the writers go on strike my DVD will be getting a serious workout cause I not looking to watch all this reality sillyness. I can watch one episode or so every few months cause is preferable to watching grass grow but not me and that on a regular basis.

Still back to this shot at Love thing. Every time I see them push the boundaries with the slackness of these reality shows I keep going back to Arnold and that 1987 Running Man movie.
How far fetched is it now that we've seen Dog the Bounty Hunter and Scare Factor and Cops and shows like that for us to see the day when we'll be seeing them execute folks on TV. Yea I'm making a bit of a leap but that leap isn't as big as it was once upon a time.

Wicked Selector!

ya say ya number one wicked selector
Sound Boy Bureill - Smif n Wesson

I tried writing a blog about DJs a few years back but it just got way too long. Just found the draft maybe I'll post it some other time. I just cant help myself from gushing about music and by extension a good DJ. Actually one of the reasons I quit going to clubs back in the day was cause the new breed of DJs just couldn't cut it , pun intended. I know good dj'ing and when I hear a bad dj it just drives me to distraction. I just start getting agitated and wishing that someone would reenact the KRS Prince Bee scene on that DJ.

lik wood mean forward the gunshot mean rewind

But anyways I feel a long winded tirade coming on so I'll strive to keep this short. A good DJ can sell you on a tepid song, they can sell you on an artist and they can sell you on a lukewarm party. And I'm not going to get on my high horse about vinyl vs. CD or mp3 this time but lets just say a DJ has to know what to play, when to play it and how to cue it up. Those to me are the key components along with blending and scratching and if you got that down then you can and will be able to rock both turntables and the crowd.

Soun bwoy time is longer than rope but tonight tonight we gine cut ya throat

A good DJ will make you remember a song, make you remember when you heard it and what the jam was like when he was playing it. Thats a good DJ. I can still remember the first time I heard Brooklyn Zoo in a jam, I can still remember the first time I heard Lauryn come in with 'Its funny how money changes situations' , I can still remember the first time I heard a DJ cue up Take it Easy by Mad Lion. It wasn't just about the song it was about how the DJ introduced it.

Sending kids back to the lab for more practice the only way they'd win is if we battle to see who was the wackest.

A lot of cats these days do not know how to blend songs, how to play a snippet to get the crowd hyped before you bring it in, how to scratch it in, how to slowdown or pick up the tempo so the song blends flawlessly with the preceding tune. Nope instead a lot of DJs get their hype men to shout their little ad-libs at the point where they are doing a terrible job of matching the records and bringing in the song. I personally cant stand that. Ok I'll let it slide if you do it once or twice but every single song come on man, that ridiculous.

In the event of a real emergency, You would have been instructed
On which jams to play, And how loud to blast your radio and now....

As a dDJ you also have to know when to play which jam. I find a lot of DJs these days after struggling for a bit will finally get the party warmed up but then 5 songs into the jam they kill the vibe by changing up the tempo or the genre. If you are killing calypso and the floor is packed don't switch to rnb so quickly. If you are playing dancehall and the place is ram do not switch to house or dance music. If you got a nice old school hip hop session going you could try to slip in something new maybe just maybe but dont bring in three crunk songs when we're waiting for Erik B for President or Aint No Half stepping. Dont do that! I aint mad at you wanting to play CeCe peniston but yo dont play that after flipping Bounty's Poor People Fed up or right after Spragga Benz sings "No bwoy can play Dolly House wid me gal". Oh no no no! See if the crowd is feeling you and continue the vibe. I know sometimes you want to clear the dance floor so the club can sell their 5 dollar watered down rum and cokes but let the people dance for a bit man. Just chill.

It's a certain special skill, that takes much practice. I got it good; apparently you lack this.

Its all about getting a cetain rhythm. Ya gots to have skills. Just because you can find a song on limewire or napster or 1000 songs by that reasoning does not mean you're a DJ. I could go on but I'll leave it there. Lets just say take the game seriously and practice. Stay in your room and blend some tunes together, figure out what goes with what, work on those sloppy scratches, learn how to feel the tempo of the record how to match those bpms. To all the real DJs much respect. The frauds get your game right.

The turntables might wobble but they wont fall down