As a way to engage in the PROCESS OF
LIBERATION, I GREET ALL AFRIKANS WITH
THE WORDS, “BLACK LIBERATION”
INSTEAD OF “HOTEP” WHY? I WANT
US TO PUT INTO THE UNIVERSE
WHAT WE WANT TO MANIFEST
INTO REALITY- FIRST THINGS FIRST-
WE CAN’T HAVE “PEACE” BEFORE WE
HAVE TOTAL LIBERATION- WITH THAT
AS A BRIEF BACKGROUND- HERE IS THE
POINT I AM COMING TO:

ALL THE AFRIKANS WHO ARE STRIVING FOR
TOTAL LIBERATION, NEED TO GET ON ONE
ACCORD, AT SPECIFIED TIMES, NO MATTER
WHERE YOU ARE LOCATED, AND DECLARE,
OUT LOUD, “I WANT TOTAL LIBERATION
FROM UNDER white terror domination”!

POINT: WHEN OUR MINDS, VOICES ARE IN
SYNC AND HARMONY, WE BECOME
A UNIFYING FORCE AND OUR WORDS
WILL MANIFEST INTO REALITY-

CHECK OUT THIS RESEARCH:

Synchronized Musicians’ Brains Fire Together Their nervous impulses are triggered simultaneously	By Tudor Vieru, Science Editor 17th of March 2009, 13:40 GMT Adjust text size:
Scientists have recently discovered that the brains of musicians who play together fire up electrical impulses at the same time to the beat, a find that shows the fact that the two or more players are connected by something more than the common beat they play to. For this find, investigators have analyzed 8 pairs of duetting guitar players, and have hooked up electroencephalogram (EEG) machines to each of the individuals. Then, they have watched them play in real time, and have noticed the synchronization on their brain patterns, which has proven to be identical. Each of the pairs repeated the same jazz-fusion sequence some 60 times. At first, both guitarists would hear a metronome in their headphones, which then stopped. The lead guitarist then tapped his instrument, giving the other one the cue when to start playing, as well as the tempo. The EEG readings showed that while the brain behaved similarly when they heard the metronome, the diagrams were only identical when the lead guitarist started tapping his instrument. This hints at some “wireless” network of sorts, scientists say. There are currently no certified explanations as to why this is happening. What’s even more curious is the fact that the brain wave patterns of the guitarists in each pair had become attuned to each other even before the two started playing, which really had brain experts baffled. “Synchronization at frontal and central electrode sites may indicate coordinated firing of neuronal assemblies located in the motor and somatosensory cortices,” the researchers write in their new paper, published in .pdf format in the online journal BMC Neuroscience. These neurons are directly responsible with controlling motor functions in humans, yet they manage to do so in perfect sync. “There’s evidence that the [temporal and parietal regions] could be activated during music perception and also during music production, as well as throughout pleasant feelings induced by the music,” the paper reads. The medial prefrontal cortex has been also found to play an important part in the way the guitarists played in sync with each other. In real-life, the musicians’ ability to play with each other even if they play faster or slower than the beat, is absolutely essential, as if communicating with the other through eye contact alone, without actually saying anything. All the great bands have this type of “chemistry,” which makes the crowds go wild with excitement.
more info about this to come:

By Stephen de Tarczynski

MELBOURNE, Mar 12 (IPS) – With hundreds of Australian mining companies now involved in the extraction of natural resources in Africa, the Rudd government is also aiming to play a bigger role in the continent’s affairs.

In a speech delivered to the executive council of the African Union (AU) in Ethiopia earlier this year, foreign minister Stephen Smith was forthright in proclaiming Australia’s intentions.

“I have come to Addis Ababa…to convey to you personally the Australian government’s deep commitment and strong resolve to enhance Australia’s relationships with the nation-states and the continent of Africa,” Smith told executive council ministers on Jan. 29.

He added that hitherto, “Australia has not given Africa the priority it requires and deserves.”

David Lucas, based at the Australian National University and president of the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (ASAAP), says that Australia has indeed neglected Africa in the past.

“Under the previous [conservative] government, I don’t think they were that enthusiastic about Africa,” Lucas told IPS.

The new importance placed on developing a closer relationship with Africa, however, appears to stem directly from the growth in Australian investment in sub-Saharan Africa’s resources sector over the last decade.

The value of the current and prospective investment by the more than 300 Australian mining, oil and gas companies operating there – including BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, which is active in Angola, Guinea, Mozambique and South Africa – is estimated to be worth some 20 billion US dollars.

Overall, Australia’s recent trade growth with Africa – it has increased by more than ten percent per year on average since 2003 – is second only to the nation’s increased trade ties with Asia over the same period.

And in order to augment this growing relationship, Australia is looking to boost its defence relations with the continent.

There are currently more than 30 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel in Sudan – eight peacekeepers are with the United Nations and African Union Mission (UNAMID) in Darfur and roughly 25 ADF members are working as military observers and logistical support staff with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) – and the government is keen to build on that.

“The Australian government feels that it is time to strengthen our engagement with Africa and the African Union in the fields of peace and security,” said defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon on a visit to Africa in February.

Both Fitzgibbon and ADF chief Angus Houston had discussions with their African counterparts regarding new arrangements, which include the establishment of a resident Australian defence attaché to Africa as well as training courses available here for a number of AU-nominated officers.

Fitzgibbon also said that later in 2009, “Australia will co-host a peacekeeping symposium in Africa with the African Union and the United Nations to allow for the exchange of experience and expertise.”

Furthermore, Australia is to increase its aid to Africa, despite maintaining a heavy slant towards the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2006, Australia’s bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) – aid provided to developing countries – to the continent was just four percent of the total available.

But according to the government, what it refers as “development assistance” to Africa has increased by 23 percent since the Kevin Rudd-led Australian Labor Party was elected in November 2007.

A recent review of Australia’s aid programme by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) noted that Australia’s total ODA for 2008-2009 is Australian dollars 3.7 billion (2.4 billion US dollars) or around 0.32 percent of gross national income. And with Australia planning to increase the percentage allocated to aid over the coming years, Africa is set to benefit proportionately.

“Africa will continue to benefit from our commitment to scale-up Australia’s aid program to 0.5 percent of Australia’s gross domestic product by 2015-2016,” said Smith in January.

However, Lucas warns that any talk of increased aid must be tempered by the economic crisis which has engulfed the world.

“Because the government is committed to a target which is related to our gross national product, if our gross national product falls then the amount of money we’ll be committing to Africa will also fall,” says the ASAAP president.

Regardless, it is not only defence and aid – the purported benefits of “development assistance” are panned by Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo in her recently-released book, ‘Dead Aid’ – through which Australia is seeking to develop closer ties with Africa.

The government also wants to foster the growth of people-to-people ties, especially with increasing numbers of Africans migrating to Australia.

“The strong people-to-people links which already exist…will help drive our relationship forward,” Smith told AU leaders at the Addis Ababa meeting.

Of the almost 150,000 people arriving to settle permanently here between July 2007 and June 2008, 10,600 were from sub-Saharan Africa – a further 8,300 people arrived from North Africa and the Middle East, for which the department of immigration’s figures do not make a distinction – representing 7.1 percent of all permanent settlers.

While these figures include Africans settling in Australia under the country’s humanitarian programme – more than 30,000 visas were issued to Africans under this stream between 2003 and 2007, and in the year to June 2008, nationals of Sudan, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Sierra Leone were numerically among the top ten recipients of humanitarian visas.

There are also close to 9,000 African students studying here.

Tredwell Lukondeh, the president of Australia’s Federation of African Communities Council – the peak national organisation for Africans in Australia – says that the increasing interpersonal ties between Africans and Australians make it imperative that the political relations are also close.

But he describes Australia’s recent approach to Africa as “lukewarm,” exemplified by its relative lack of diplomatic representation across the continent.

“For instance, I personally come from Zambia where we had an Australian [diplomatic] mission for many years, but which ceased to operate ten or fifteen years ago. And there hasn’t been one since, despite the fact that the area includes many countries whose nationals travel to Australia,” Lukondeh told IPS.

Kristin Palitza interviews BILLY KAHORA, editor of Kenyan journal Kwani?

DURBAN, Mar 11 (IPS) – The goal is ambitious: Kenya’s first literary journal, Kwani?, wants to bring new thinking to the country – and ultimately the continent – and reshape African identities. The journal aims to provoke, create, entertain and develop a literary community that isn’t afraid to question the status quo.

Knowing that the publication of an annual journal might not be enough to bring a new vision to a country, Kwani? Banks on regular interaction with the public. It organises two literary events each month – a prose reading series and a poetry open mic evening. Kwani? Also runs an annual literature festival that features 40 poets and writers from the continent.

Kwani? Was set up in Nairobi by contemporary Kenyan writers, Binyawanga Wainaina and Muthoni Garland in 2003. Its editor, Billy Kahora, launched the journal’s fifth edition this week at the 12th Time of the Writer festival in Durban, South Africa.

IPS: What does Kwani mean?

Billy Kahora: Kwani is a Swahili word and means literally translated ‘so what?’. We chose the name because it indicates a stance, a reaction. It’s our form of rebellion against a country that has unilateral, prescriptive, too-structured ways of doing politics. We want to question the status quo with new, fresh ideas and new thinking.

IPS: Who contributes to Kwani?

BK: Most of our writers, 60 percent to 70 percent, are from Kenya and East Africa, but we also have contributors from Senegal, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the diaspora, especially in the later editions. With every new journal, we include more contributions from different countries on the continent.

Our writers tend to be in their 20s and 30s and are generally interested in expressing themselves in a more modern way that questions political, social and economic structures. They are journalists, writers, photographers, cartoonists and poets. We are a space for new voices.

IPS: Some of the writers published in Kwani? Have won or been shortlisted for the prestigious Caine Prize. How do you select your contributors?

BK: We are interested in new expressions, sensibility and making evident what is happening in day-to-day live but which is usually not articulated. We want to entertain, provoke, create. We choose writers who grapple with issues and force us out of our comfort zones.

IPS: What differentiates Kwani? From other African literary journals?

BK: What makes Kwani? Different is that we are non-academic and non-institutionalis ed. While most journals are situated within a university context, we come from an unstructured place, from fiction and social commentary backgrounds. We want to celebrate African stories.

Our aim is to promote East African writers, develop new talent and create a literary community.

IPS: Kwani?’s aim is to open up new socio-cultural and socio-political spaces through literature. How?

BK: We want to re-define what Kenyan day-to-day life is. Usually, socio-political and socio-cultural spaces are defined by government, the media, universities and local constituencies. But that’s not enough. We want to open additional, alternative spaces.

Kwani? Is interested in starting a more direct interaction with the public. That’s why we are not only a journal, but we also do readings, organise literature festivals and offer workshops in places that fall out of the ‘official’, such as youth clubs and community centres.

IPS: Do you intend to reshape or revision Kenyan identity?

BK: It’s happening all the time. Narratives in our journals are about unrecognised Africanness – not how it is usually defined by the church, the state, the media and universities. Those institutions see culture and identity in descriptive, one-dimensional ways. Kwani? Tries to open this up and represent the rest of society without being prescriptive.

IPS: What are some of the key themes of the journals?

BK: We are interested in investigating the relationship between people and power. Our concern is the image of Kenya and Africa and creating a new political consciousness.

We aim to interrogate Kenya from a post-national space. Who are we? Is the question we constantly ask and try to answer in our writing. As a result, Kwani? Tends to publish very personal stories about issues of identity, self-discovery, family, crime, ethnicity, poverty and urbanisation.

IPS: The latest Kwani? Examines Kenya in the context of the violent aftermath of the 2007 elections. Have these events changed contemporary literature in Kenya?

BK: They haven’t. What Kwani? Does is offer a mirror, a new beginning of thinking about society. Concerns of writers are always influenced by the events around them and their writing reflects upon society.

When a crisis like this happens to a country, you start looking for answers. As a result, the journal dealt with the country’s big, current issues, such as unfair distribution of wealth, land and resources.

IPS: You published a mini-Kwani? Titled “How to write about Africa?”. Have you found an answer to the question?

BK: We asked the question in a satirical way that points a finger to all the books that have been written about Kenya and Africa in the West, based on colonial thinking. The question is meant to indicate that there isn’t one single answer to it. There are many ways to write about Africa, not only they prescriptive, colonial, patronising way.

IPS: Do you believe literature can help bring political and social change?

BK: In Kenya, socio-political conversations usually follow what politicians decide the important issues of the day are. There is too much agenda setting by politicians, to a degree that it is difficult for anyone else to squeeze in a word.

If you write about what ordinary people think and how they live, like Kwani? Aims to do, you open up another conversation and that’s important.

IPS: Is Kwani? In search of a new nation?

BK: Because of national state failure in Kenya, people have become sceptical of anything to do with nation building. We want to allow for and start off a debate that enables democracy and creates an economy that everybody can take part in and benefit from.

Brahima Ouédraogo

OUAGADOUGOU, Mar 14 (IPS) – Filmmaker Haile Gerima’s Ethiopian movie “Teza” has won the Golden Stallion of Yennenga at the 21st Panafrican Festival of Cinema and Television (Fespaco) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Gaston Kaboré, the Burkinabé filmmaker who presided over the jury for feature films, told IPS, “Teza is a masterpiece at all levels of creativity. From the strength of the film to the powerful images, it is a very accomplished piece of work.” Altogether 18 feature films competed for the top prize; as the winner, Gerima receives about $20,000.

The film tells of the adventures of a young man, Anberber, who in the early 1970s leaves his village Minzero to go and study in Germany. He comes back home in 1990, a changed man.

Haile Gerima himself immigrated to the United States in 1968 and has taught film at Howard University in Washington since 1975.

According to Kaboré, Gerima’s film simultaneously addresses “times gone by, moments etched in memory, history and the culture of the continent,” while also showing “how Africans can master their present and their future and leave behind the trauma and dilemmas they have experienced. ”

“The filmmaker’s hard work, serious and determined attitude and pursuit of excellence really come across in this movie,” says Kaboré.

Selome Gerima, co-producer of the film, was in Ouagadougou to receive the award on behalf of her brother Haile, who could not make it.

“This film conveys many messages to African intellectuals who suffer racism abroad – but do not draw lessons from their tribulations when they return home.”

Fespaco, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year under the theme “African Cinema, Tourism and Cultural Heritage.” The aim was to stress the importance of imagery when disseminating African culture; the kind of imagery which will result in attracting tourists.

But the problem of financing film remains the bottleneck of African filmmakers.

According to Mauritanian filmmaker, Abdheramane Cissako, winner of the Yennenga prize in 2003 with his film “Heremakono” , some countries have gone ten years without producing films while the most fortunate ones produce a film every three years.

“African politicians choose not to view culture as a cornerstone for the development of countries,” Cissako laments. He adds that, “this shows a lack of foresight because where there is vision, there is possibility. ”

According to the chair of the jury for short films, Baluku Bakupa Kanyinda, the origins of competing works in this category during this year’s Fespaco gives an idea of the national policies governing film production in various countries. Of the 19 films in competition, 14 are from North Africa, five of them from Morocco alone.

“This proves that Morocco is supporting its cinema industry. But it highlights the lack of participation from sub-Saharan Africa,” says Baluku. He tells IPS that countries in sub-Saharan Africa need to realise they must master the short film genre before moving onto longer films.

Baluku is nevertheless pleased that some countries have acknowledged this by supporting training and production in the short film industry. He explains that only television and film are able to tell stories etched in popular memory.

The prize for best short film was won by “Sektou” (They are silent), by Algerian filmmaker Benaïssa Khaled.

“Africa has a problem: we are people who have been politically abused. We have a shattered image because Africa now absorbs strange and foreign images which are not of its own making,” says Baluku, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“When we wake up, we look in the mirror and see someone else, not ourselves. Then you get people wanting to lighten their skin and have long hair.”

The president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré, who presented the Golden Stallion to the winner, said he would take up the responsibility to talk to other African leaders so they could become more involved in supporting film production on the continent.

“It’s a quest for us in Africa, and now through Fespaco, to be able to produce films in Africa made by Africans and also to show an image that best signals our aspirations and expectations; our desire to present ourselves to the rest of the world, ” stresses Compaoré.

Baluku tells IPS, “Africa’s problem is not its economy. The problem is its image and the way the world portrays it. Only cinema can change that.”

Trelawny Town Maroons petition help as cash-strapped Electoral Office abandons poll

BY HORACE HINES Observer West reporter
Thursday, March 12, 2009

MONTEGO BAY, St James – Citing a chronic shortage of funding, the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) has advised the Trelawny Town Maroons that it cannot – for the first time since 1952 – conduct their leadership elections constitutionally due later this year.

“In the past we have conducted maroon elections through our resources. We do not get direct monetary support for that. So with the current fiscal situation now hitting everybody we are unable to continue funding of the elections so we have advised them,” Orrette Fisher, director of elections told the Observer West.

However, he was quick to add: “We are not opposed to supporting them if we get budgetary support. “

The EOJ’s stated inability to continue to preside over the Maroon elections this time around after doing so for nearly six decades, has not gone down well with the seven candidates lining up for an early polls.

“They (EOJ) told us in no uncertain terms that they have no money, that they could not fund the maroon elections at this time, and I was so much astonished because they have been doing it for the maroons since 1952. I am not saying that they must continue and they must find all the resources. But what hurts is the manner in which it is done because if they have been doing it for so long then you should have at least indicated to us that it is unlikely that they would be able to do it for the next elections,” said an incensed Meridi Rowe who plans to contest the elections.

Incumbent Colonel Sydney Peddie said he wasn’t going to take the decision lying down.

“I plan to go up there (Kingston) to talk to them (EOJ) myself. I am concerned because they usually do it but I think because funding is short worldwide. We have not set any date (for elections) as yet because I want to talk with them first,” he said.

According to the director of elections, it would take some $2 million to enumerate the Maroons in different locations; provide a voters’ list; and oversee the Nomination Day and Election Day procedures.

In light of this, Rowe who served as colonel between September 23, 1993 to December 10, 1998, is making an appeal to corporate Jamaica for sponsorship of the elections.

“Our elections are run in nine locations across Jamaica, two of which are run at the electoral office at St Claviers Avenue , Montego Bay and Duke Street, Kingston, and as a result of our shock we had a meeting at Accompong Town on March 1 to discuss the implications and have reached some tentative arrangement as to how we should go forward, such as asking corporate Jamaica to assist in financing the elections. We consider it as very important,” Rowe stressed.

According to Peddie – who has been at the helm of the Trelawny Town Maroons, which is headquartered in Accompong Town, St Elizabeth, since December 10, 2008 – the seven candidates who have thrown their hats in the ring of the impending race represents a marked increase compared to former elections in which an average of three candidates usually competed.

The persons that have indicated their candidacy are: Meridie Rowe, Ferron Williams, Ralston Reid, Norma Edwards, Richard Robinson, Harris Cawley and Sydney Peddie.

NEGRIL, Jamaica – A baby-blue bandana covering his nascent dreadlocks,
Anthony Dixon strides up to a female visitor on a beach stroll. ”Want
to smoke?” Dixon offers. Then, with the unsubtlest of glances: “Your
lips are so soft.”

It’s an abrupt and slightly corny line, but Dixon says it has helped
him pick up plenty of female tourists on the beach by “telling them
some nice things they want to hear.”

Dixon is one of 200 gigolos who Jamaican police say ply Negril’s seven
miles of sand to court women in exchange for money, gifts, or possibly
marriage and a life in the United States. Known as Rent-A-Dread, the
phenomenon — which officials say is contributing to the region’s AIDS
crisis — has flourished along with tourism over the last decade in
Jamaica, Barbados and the small island of Tobago.

Remember Stella, and how she “got her groove back?”

The main character from the bestselling Terry McMillan novel flew here
for a vacation. Over a French-toast breakfast on her first morning,
the 40-year-old stockbroker fell for a handsome local man half her
age. The book is based on the author’s own experience in Jamaica.

Although actress Angela Bassett played the lead role on film back in
1998, many other Stellas are still grooving.

CLUB SCENE

Middle-age American and European women, looking more homely than sexy
in sneakers and blue jeans, gather daily at beachside reggae clubs
such as the Roots Bamboo. They attach themselves to muscular young
studs, like koalas to a eucalyptus tree. The men hold tight, too. In
this highly competitive business, plenty of others troll nearby,
pitching what the women see as their ”exotic” looks.

”Looking for a Rasta man?” one offers, referring to the Rastafarian
religious sect. Another screams above the music: “I’m from the Blue
Mountains, the tallest in Jamaica.”

Mostly young, poor and unemployed, the beach boys leave the
countryside and come to Negril to make a living, said Kendric Davis,
president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce.

”They come to the resort to find their future, their Dorado,” Davis
said.

Dixon has found a bit of his. His longest relationship, with a
computer programmer from Michigan, lasted for one year. The most
recent, with a Wisconsin woman, went on for a week. Most of his
”beach boy” friends have gotten lucky, too — many now living across
the Midwest with American wives, he said in an interview.

Meanwhile, as a business group, the chamber would rather see the beach
boys leave. But Davis is quick to note that their success rests on the
fact that foreign women travel to Jamaica’s northern coast to seek
them out.

”If you didn’t have any takers, there wouldn’t be any givers,” he
said.

So hotels shush them away. The police try to crack down, but find it’s
easier to jail someone for illegally braiding hair on the beach than
to prove that someone paid for sex with a gigolo, said police Cpl.
Cornel James, who has spent more than a decade working on the beach.

Complaints are rare, he said. And usually, when he approaches a
hustler soliciting a woman, the tourists protest.

‘If I say, `Leave her alone,’ she’ll get mad at me,” James said.

A 2001 study by two British researchers found that most of the women
who had sex with local Jamaican men — about one-third of the 170
reached in a beach survey — were repeat visitors. The men approach,
in spite of looks.

”If you’ve been ignored in the West for years, being older or
overweight, and you go to places like that where the men are
completely chasing you, it feels very nice,” said Jacqueline Sanchez

WORRISOME FINDING

Taylor and sociologist Julia O’Connell Davidson also found that 30
percent of the women who found sex partners reported not using
condoms.

That worries officials in the Caribbean, where close to half a million
people are infected with the HIV virus — a rate second only to
Africa’s. Jamaica’s Prime Minister P.J. Patterson recently called
HIV/AIDS the greatest threat to development in the region.

While there are no studies linking the beach boys to the spread of
AIDS, they are a factor, said Dr. James Hospedales of the Caribbean
Epidemiology Center.

Concerned about the possibilities, the Jamaican government is
considering putting condom dispensers in hotels and is already
educating tourism workers — both men and women — in resort areas
such as Negril and Montego Bay, which has the highest AIDS rate on the
island. Jamaica’s AIDS rate of 36 cases per 100,000 people is twice
the U.S. Average.

The beach boys are aware of the risks of their behavior, said Verity
Rushton, coordinator for Jamaica’s National AIDS Committee.

“The knowledge levels are there, but the behavior change isn’t.”

Some of the beach boys have worked their AIDS awareness into their
pickup spiels.

Dixon, a few minutes into conversation, mentions without prompting
that he has a great fear of ”diseases,” a subtle reference to AIDS,
and that he takes care of himself and goes to the doctor even at the
sign of a little cut.

He also offers up that he isn’t promiscuous, and that he certainly
doesn’t get paid for being with women. Not in cash anyway.

The orange Nike shorts he is wearing, like his drawerful of Timberland
and other clothing, were shipped over from ”friends” in the United
States.

He wears brand names only, he says.