Saturday, February 27, 2010

Fights Off Lynch Mob

Black Buzz News Service
From The Archives Of The
Cleveland Gazette
Jacksonville, Fla.

JACKSONVILLE, Florida May 12, 1896- A Negro, Jack Trice, has escaped after fighting off 15 white men who were attempting to "regulate" (brutally ) whip and perhaps kill) his 14 year-old son.
The battle occurred after Trice's son had fought with the son of Town Marshall Hughes and beaten him badly.
The Marshall was enraged. He brought 14 of his friends to Trice's Palmetto home and demanded the boy be sent out to be" regulated."
Trice refused and the mob began firing. Returning the fire, Trice's first bullet killed Marshall Hughes.
When the whites tried to batter in the door, Henry Daniels received a fatal bullet in the stomach. Albert Bruffum was shot in the back as the "regulators" began their retreat.
The whites returned the next morning with reinforcements, vowing to burn father and son at the stake; but both were gone.
Posses with bloodhounds are chasing Trice and his son. If caught they will be lynched.
*Blogger Black Buzz says there is no further information on the above incident involving the Trice family and the nefarious mob.
Blogger Black Buzz, states that in 1895 One hundred-seventy-one Southern Blacks were lynched ; Black men were disenfranchised in South Carolina and Mississippi; Black workers were excluded from most unions.

A Young Brother Testifies: By Vera B. Hubbard

Black Buzz News Service
Scottsboro, Alabama
February 27, 2010

Vera B.Hubbard's poem titled" A Young Brother Testifies appeared in the Crossing Limits Anthology, 1996.
Crossing Limits is a project of Kingsley Association in co-operation with the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.
Vera B. Hubbard is a performance poet living and working in Pittsburgh. She often writes poetry in Ebonics, in the tradition of Sterling Brown, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Zora Neale Hurston. Her poetry has been anthologized and also appears in various literary publications.
Vera is a member of the Kuntu Writers Workshop.

A Young Brother Testifies : Vera B. Hubbard

My Mama said she named me Sam after my daddy,
The man I ain't never had a chance to see.
But mama say he look just like me.
They calls this the Ghetto where we stays;
Where mama tryin' to make our way,
An' doin' the bes' she can
To show me how to be a man.
But I can't count on gettin' grown
'Cause these streets is a battle zone
Where gangs makes rules
And back' em up with they gats in schools.

I don't want to be in no gang
And lots of homeboys feel the same.
But we got to do things they do,
Even kill for a jacket or a shoe
'Cause I done seen a dude blowed away,
Could have been about them drugs like they say.
But some of it got to do
With brother's not in the same gang, too.

In that other hood you's the mark
And out of the dark a shot can come
And your won't know where from.
I wanna grow up to be a man
So I kin help my mama all I can
But most times I can't see
How that's ever gonna be.
I think about time mama saved up
To buy me them Nike shoes
And a brother took'em with a gat
And I was one scared cat.

The big boys been takin' my daddy's place.
I wish he'd come back and show his face
'Cause most times I'm all alone
And have to make it on my own.
Mom's workin' keeps her late.
I ain't ate but the brothers waits,
So I slams the door with a bang and go to hang
On the corner with the gang.

Congratulations Vera Hubbard.

Friday, February 26, 2010

The Republicans Don't Give A Damn About Health Care Reform: They Want To Go Back And Start Over To Draw Out The Process Into The Fall Election.

Black Buzz News Service
Big Ben, Texas
February 26, 2010

It is quite apparent from President Obama's Health Care Summit held on February 25th at the Blair House in Washington D.C., that the Republican party doesn't care about the quality or cost of health care in this country.
The Republicans are only concerned about scoring political points and dragging the health care debate into the fall elections therefore benefiting them. These lying Republicans don't give a "Tinker's" damn about the health care of "Joe & Suzie Six Pack" or about any segment of the population. They care only for their friends and cronies in the insurance industry and allied industries. If you check Politifact or the Truth-o-Meter on the Republican talking points regarding their positions on the topic of Health Care Reform, 90% of there assertions and positions at the Health Care Summit were outright lies and distortions. The Republican Party along with the Insurance lobby has done a better job of misrepresenting the facts relative to the Obama health care plan and the bill that passed in the Senate. The average Joe and Suzie Six Pack has been suckered again by the Republican Party and their pals in the Insurance industry with their gross exaggerations and out right lies in an effort to kill any semblance of health care reform.
But I must admit that the cantankerous and duplicitous Republicans do a masterful job of duping and tricking the average "Joe and Suzie Six Pack", plus the Tea Party folks with the false cultural issues such as guns, gay marriages, stem cell research, abortion, prayer in the public schools and illegal immigration. The movers and shakers in the party of Lincoln always get the dummies to vote against their economic interest. The Republicans could care less about those unfortunate whiners in the Tea Party and the average Joe and Suzie Six Pack.
The Republican Party is the party for the rich and powerful and the well heeled crowd. 400 of the richest Americans, both Democrats and Republicans had incomes that doubled under President Bush from 2001 to 2007. How many of the folks that make up the Tea Party had their incomes double since 2001?
So how does Joe Six Pack and the Tea Party folks fit in with the Buffett's, Mellon's, Hilton's, Walton's, Hillman's, Kellogg's, Vanderbilt's, Duke's, Hearst's, and Ralstons? The ruling families don't want you Joe & Suzie Six Pack and you Tea Party people in their crowd, so they dupe and trick you with the cultural issues to make you feel that you're part of the their gang. One of the Hillman family members of Pittsburgh, PA once told me that they strive to influence their party's middle class with the issues of: abortion, prayer in the public schools, guns, gay marriages and affirmative action, and that's how they fire up their base of the Joe & Suzie Six Packs". The Hillman party went on to say that none of those issues were their issues. The Hillman family member stated that they are only concerned about the tax havens, estate tax revision, loop holes in the tax laws, lowering the corporate business tax and less governmental regulations governing their businesses.
The Republicans don't want Obama or the Democrats to succeed on Health Care Reform because they know good and well that Obama and the Democrats will use that as a victory for the fall elections in 2010 and 2012. The Republicans are playing hardball politics with the lives of the American people by suggesting with their disingenuous comments that the President and Democrats need to start over again and go step by step while Americans are dying each and every day because of a lack of adequate health care coverage.The lack of health care insurance kills many more Americans each year than September 11th. and Katrina combined. In fact, the National Academy of Science estimates that 18,000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance. The Republicans don't believe that Health Care is a human rights issue. The brokers in the Republican Party have taken the position that Health Care in not a moral right and that the free and open market should take priority over the quality of a human beings health care coverage or lack of coverage.
The smaller businesses will not be able to survive under the Health Care plan advocated by (R)Representative John A. Boehner. Right now, we spend twice as much per person on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet we have a lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rate than Canada, Japan, and most of Europe. In fact, the United States is the only country in the industrialized world that does not have a national health care system.
Republicans have convinced the Joe Six packs that they are paying for the the thirty one millions Americans who presently don't have health care coverage. Which is not true. Further the Republicans purport that America has the best Health Care system in the world, which is false.
The folks in Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Federal Judiciary, have the best medical and health care coverage in the world.
The Republicans state that polls show that Americans don't want the present Senate Health Care Plan but those corporate pollsters don't ask their targeted audience whether they have read the entire bill of 2,700 pages. Only a fool, moron, or a person with significant learning disabilities would say they formed an opinion on a topic or subject without reading the said subject in its entirety.
How many of the folks in the town hall meetings in Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, Ohio, Kentucky, or Louisiana have read the entire proposed Senate Health Care Reform Bill?
How many Congress people and their staff have read the entire Senate proposed Health Care bill? The Republicans rather kill the present Health Care bill in the senate just because Obama is pushing the subject forward, a bill that would allegedly benefit the masses of the middle class American people.
Mr. Alexander, Mr. McCain, Mr.Ryan, Mr. Bad News Cantor, Mr. McConnell, my premiums with High Mark Security Blue went up 79 % in January 2010. How many of those previously mentioned jackals had their premiums go up 79% in January 2010? My income didn't go up 79 % in January. I bet there are some Joe & Suzie Six Packs who had their rates go up also in January 2010. Did those Joe & Suzie Six Packs' incomes go up 79% in January 2010 ? Then you tell me why in the hell are they supporting the obstructionists in the Democratic Party along with those cowards in the "Grand Olde Party of Lincoln?"
I must reiterate that the Congress people in the Republican and Democratic Party have the best medical- health care coverage that the public's money can buy.
We need to pass this legislation that will put a cap control on these greedy insurance companies, pharmaceuticals companies, hospitals, doctors and other medical practitioners. And there is no need for any kind of "Tort Reform". The doctors need to become more competent and skillful. I know many highly educated people that avoid going to Physicians because they claim the doctors make error after error them mask and cover-up their mistakes with a whole host of excuses. What we need to do is up the ante on what litigants can receive in lawsuits.
I am still in favor of the Public Option but the Democrats and Obama have taken the Public Option out to curry favor with the Party of "NO".
After listening to the dubious debate between the Party of "No" and the Democrats during the Health Care Summit, it is quite obvious why the U.S. is in dire need of educational reform.
I know as an American citizen, we can do better than those addle brained people representing both parties in the U.S. Congress and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hiram Revels, representing Mississippi was elected first African American in the U.S. Senate in 1870.

Black Buzz News Service
Washington, D.C.
February 26, 2010

Besides the U.S. Supreme Court, the old boy U.S. Senate remains the most exclusive all White club in the USA. We have had only five so-called Blacks elected or appointed to the U.S. Senate in the entire 234 year old history of the said Republic. They are follows: Hiram Revels, Blanche Bruce, Edward Brooke, Carol Mosley Braun, Barack Obama and Roland Burris. Many Americans are either unaware of this present and past history in reference to the U.S. Senate or simply do not care. So many highly talented African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and women haven't been afforded the opportunity to run for the U.S. Senate because of a lack of powerful connections and well heeled friends.

The Republicans Would Be Wise To Draft Michele Bachmann For President And Eric Cantor For Vice President: They Could Be Called The BC Kids.

Black Buzz News Service
February 25, 2010
Jewfish, Florida

A Republican ticket of Michele Bachmann for President and Eric Cantor for VP. would be a very formidable team against the Democrats in 2012.

John McCain Still Can't Get Over The Fact That A Black Man Beat Him: Obama Put McCain In Check And Made Him look Like A Sore-Head Buffoon

Black Buzz News Service
February 25, 2010
Washington D.C.

Everyone knows that little man John McCain is still perturbed about getting his behind kicked by Obama in loosing the Presidential election.
McCain will be engaged in a very heated battle to retain his senate seat in state of Arizona. So Mr. McCain took the opportunity in meeting with President Obama in his (Health Care Summit) on supposedly health care reform to score political talking points but President Obama put him in check and made him look rather silly and dumbfounded.
Mr. McCain the Presidential election is over and when will you get over the fact that a skinny more intelligent Black man kicked your butt ?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Rep. Davis (R) on the Congressional Toyota Oversight Committee Says Saving Jobs Is More Important Than Saving Lives.

Black Buzz News
February 24, 2010
Washington D.C.

Mr.Toyoda Chief Operating Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation world wide and his head honcho in America Mr. Yochimi Inaba basically double talked with conflicting and evasive testimony in today's hearing before the Congressional Oversight Committee.
The cover-up by Toyota continues with no end in sight while millions of motorists are driving cars and trucks that are simply not safe any speed.
This buffoon, Republican Representative Davis on the Oversight Committee said saving jobs in his district was important than saving lives.

DON'T BUY TOYOTA PRODUCTS.... THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAYBE YOUR OWN.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Republicans Are Playing Politics On The Congressional Oversight Committee Hearing Allegedly Investigating Toyota When Lives Are At Stake.

Black Buzz News Service
Washington D.C.
February 23, 2010

It is quite apparent that cantankerous Republicans on the House Congressional Oversight committee allegedly investigating Toyota Motor Corporation of America relative to its numerous safety/quality problems are playing plain and simple unadulterated politics when the lives of the American consumer is at stake. Rather getting to the bottom of Toyota's sticking accelerator pedals and other acute problems, the Republicans on said committee are playing the part of defense council for Toyota.
Who are the people that elected these ne'er-do-wells Republicans to the U.S. Congress? You have to be embarrassed.
Toyota has known about the sticking accelerator pedal as far back as the year 2000 when their overrated Lexus had numerous problems with the defective accelerator pedal and floor mats in said United Kingdom.
Toyota has in the past and continues to present in maintaining a pattern and Practice of covering up its numerous safety problems with the defective accelerator pedal, poor braking systems, flawed Electronic Throttle Control Systems, sticking floor mats to accelerator pedal, and the smell of excessive gasoline fumes in said cabin on many of its Camry, and Solara models. These Toyota models are so poorly engineered and designed that there is no code that shows up for excessive fuel odor, or problems within its Electronic Data Control Systems that will tell the driver there is a problem with said defective accelerator pedal sticking to floor mat.
Officials at Toyota who are responsible for this massive cover up and conspiracy should be held accountable by a court of proper jurisdiction for the number of people who have been injured and the lost of 34 lives.
The American public needs to wake up and refrain from buying Toyota products. Those 100 million dollars were more important than a human life to Toyota.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Yet She Rose: By Turhan Shabazz

Black Buzz News Service
Special Report
Braddock, Pa.
February 22, 2010


The poem titled "Yet She Rose" by Turhan Shabazz appeared in the Crossing Limits Anthology in 1996.

TURHAN SHABAZZ, AKA " The BARD of BRADDOCK," the "Community Griot," is a cultural voice within the African American communities of Pittsburgh. His poetry inspires, and uplifts all fortunate enough to either hear him read his own work, or who read his work in one of his published poetry collections. Turhan is also active in human and social justice efforts in and around Pittsburgh.

Yet, She Rose by Turhan Shabazz

Through years of slavery, hard times and oppression...
she rose.
Through weeks of hard work, til each Sunday school session...
she rose.
Through tired days in hot sun, gardening, raking, planting
and hoeing.
Through tired days doing laundry, washing, ironing and sewing.
Through days in the market, walking, carrying groceries
and shopping.
Raising children who run, play, climb; who
never know about stopping...
she rose.
Through rapes and assaults that occurred day and night,
by a slave owner she had no way to reject or to fight.
Through years of being touch, felt, produced and pinched;
with no one to defend her without being lynched.
Through years of watching her man emasculated.
Years of being insulted, ignored; being miseduacated.
She rose.
Though put down because she was considered too dark and not
"fair".
Put down because she didn't have cornsilk hair.
Put down because she was not refined and petite..
Because her shoes didn't cover corns on her feet...
yet she rose.
Like a sunflower in summer that grows higher and higher.
Like a flame in winter from logs on the fire.
Like her voice on a Sunday as she sings in the choir.
She rose, She rose.
Like Mary, the sister in the Bible, in Luke eight.
Who rose after the Lord made seven devils vacate.
Like Sojourner and Harriet, who were not meant to fall.
Like sister Rosa, who stood and started it all.
Yes, they rose. They rose. But, not because they were strong.
They rose because the Creator was with them all along.
Like so many black sisters whose strength is surprising.
They rose. They rose. And God still has them rising.
9-9-94.

Blogger Black Buzz states that in 1973 in the community of Braddock Pa., Casey now called Turhan Shabazz, and Big Jim Morgan helped their community avoid an all out armed racial conflict. Through the efforts of Casey and Big Jim Morgan along with the Governor's Office of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, The Community Advocate Unit of The State Attorney Generals Office, The Pennsylvania State Police, Pa. Department of Community Affairs, The Pa. Education Department, and the U.S. Justice Department's Community Affairs Branch, a major race war was averted.
* African American history is American history and we will not be confined to the shortest month of year February in presenting facts, stories, and critical analysis on the contributions of Black Africans throughout the African Diaspora in the development of western civilization.

Don't Abandon me Now Black Man, By Latara Jasmine Jones

Black Buzz News Service
Special Report
The Arts
Tyler, Texas
February 22, 2010

The poem by Latara Jasmine Jones, titled "Don't Abandon me Now Black Man appeared in the book Crossing Limits Anthology in 1996.

LATARA J. JONES is a 1992 High Technology graduate of Schenley High School where she lettered in basketball, track, and Silks.
She represented Schenley High School on a 1992 trip to Mexico City. Her awards include a Character Award from McDonald's, and winner of a AKA poetry competition. Her poetry was published in Kwibidi, North Carolina.

Don't Abandon me Now Black Man

Don't abandon me Black Man,
For I love you with every breath.

Please wake up and realize
we have
much at stake

No one can tell you what to do
But I can, I know you better
Than you know you yourself, my man.

From my womb, through
The canal of my jet black thighs
Came the first start of your life.
We weren't separated
when our cord was cut by a
physician's knife.

Gently, I caressed your tiny bald head
nursed you from my bosom.
Watched your little black features,
I saw good looks and wisdom in you.

So give me respect I deserve
Black man, for without me
You wouldn't be here.
Don't abandon me black man,
For I am nourisher, soul mate,
inner strength
and backbone of your life.

Understand I'm not
out to hurt you.

I'm the woman who has
been here for you since the beginning of time,
don't abandon me
Black man.

You have the ability
To accomplish anything,
this society led you
To believe,
you're good for only
spreading
your seed.

We are the original
man and woman of Earth
Together we built Pyramids
And
raised mighty nations.

Know your greatness
Black man,
With every moment of breathe.

Do not treat love,
like a disease,
You've been brainwashed to believe,
you're no better than merchandise,
Handle with care, Please don't squeeze.

Your mind is poisoned, You don't respect yourself.
Violence and drugs in our community,
to beat this thing
We need unity.

Work collectively,
There is nothing we can not do.

My dear, sweet black man
Don't abandon me now !!
Realize our past, present and future,
Lies in your hands.

Blogger Black Buzz says what a powerful dynamic poem from a great woman.What are your feelings about this poem ?






Sunday, February 21, 2010

The "shock doctrine" for Haiti

Black Buzz News Service
Negrotown Knoll, FL
February 21, 2010


Ashley Smith reports that the U.S. is reviving what Haitians call "the plan of death."
February 8, 2010

Hillary Clinton celebrates job creation in Haiti
inside a clothing factory

ONE MONTH after the devastating earthquake, Haiti continues to suffer under apocalyptic conditions.
The quake killed more than 200,000 people, injured 250,000 and has left over 3 million dependent on assistance for food, water and housing. Contrary to the puff pieces in the media, the relief operation has been a miserable failure. The United Nations admitted at the end of January that had only been able to feed 1 million people, leaving many more without access to food. Whole sections of Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns never even saw relief convoys.
Amid this catastrophe, imperial powers and corporate vultures are circling, eyeing the profits to be made from reconstruction.
The Street, an investment Web site, published an article, misleadingly titled "An Opportunity to Heal Haiti," that lays out how U.S. corporations can cash in on the catastrophe. "Here are some companies," they write, "that could potentially benefit: General Electric, Caterpillar, Deere, Fluor, Jacobs Engineering."
Other commentators--like James Dobbins, a former U.S. special envoy to Haiti under President Bill Clinton--likewise see an opportunity to remake Haiti along free market lines. As he wrote in the New York Times, "This disaster is an opportunity to accelerate oft-delayed reforms." As director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the Rand Corporation, the reforms he advocates are not designed to meet people's needs, but to pad corporate profits through mechanisms like privatization.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff attempted to pass off the exploitation of cheap labor as a humanitarian initiative:

[T]he best strategy for Haiti: building garment factories. The idea (sweatshops!) may sound horrific to Americans. But it's a strategy that has worked for other countries, such as Bangladesh, and Haitians in the slums would tell you that their most fervent wish is for jobs. A few dozen major shirt factories could be transformational for Haiti.

All of this reads like a sick parody of Naomi Klein's arguments in her book The Shock Doctrine. There, she documents how the U.s. and other imperial powers take advantage of natural and economic disasters to impose free-market plans for the benefit of the elites and their corporations, and to the detriment of the victims. She writes:

Disaster capitalists have no interests in repairing what was. In Iraq, Sri Lanka and New Orleans, the process deceptively called "reconstruction" began with finishing the job of the original disaster by erasing what was left of the public sphere and rooted communities, then quickly moving to replace them with a kind of corporate New Jerusalem--all before the victims of war or natural disaster were able to regroups and stake their claims to what was theirs.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE U.S. actually had a Shock Doctrine for Haiti on hand--the same one that it has imposed for decades.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. used the dictatorship of Baby Doc Duvalier to impose what the International Monetary Fund calls a "structural adjustment program." Haitians called it "the plan of death."
Duvalier opened up the Haitian economy to heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural exports, especially rice, which undermined the ability of Haitian peasants to compete on the market. Dislocated peasants flooded into Port-au-Prince, swelling the population from 760,000 in the early 1980s to close to 3 million before the earthquake.
The U.S. set up export processing zones in the capital city to take advantage of the new cheap labor. But with only about 80,000 jobs, the sweatshops could not meet the demand for employment. As a result, hundreds of thousands were reduced to desperate poverty in the sprawling shantytowns. They maintained a desperate existence based on irregular employment and remittances from relatives who fled abroad to the U.S., Canada and elsewhere.
The U.S. and its multinationals also cut deals with Baby Doc to set up several resorts along the coast to cater to U.S. tourists and the Haitian elite. Club Med opened a swank facility in 1975, and it was joined by dozens of others, mainly around Port-au-Prince and in the country's north, especially around the famous Labadee beach. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton joined the party for their honeymoon in 1975 and have professed their love of the island's potential riches for decades.
To finance the neoliberal plan, Baby Doc racked up enormous debts to international financial institutions. To Haitian workers, the urban poor and the peasantry, it was a social disaster.
But out of the poverty, the Haitian masses built a mass movement, Lavalas, that drove Baby Doc from power in 1986. In 1990, in the country's first free and democratic elections, one of the leaders of Lavalas, Jean Bertrand Aristide, won two-thirds of the vote on a program to reverse the plan of death.
The U.S., however, would not tolerate any kind of reform. So it backed two coups, one in 1991 and another in 2004 to stop even modest changes to the plan of death. Each coup regime, backed up by the U.S., other governments and the United Nations, attacked the Lavalas movement, killing thousands. The UN has occupied the country since 2004. Since 2006, a former ally of Aristide, René Préval, now the president, has overseen the reimplementation of the American neoliberal plan.
The earthquake has exposed its social consequences. As David Wilson wrote at MRZine, "The results were predictable: a decimated rural economy, a virtually nonexistent infrastructure, and an impoverished, overpopulated urban center so badly constructed that tens of thousands of people, at least, were certain to die when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck."
The U.S. has taken advantage of this natural disaster. It has deployed 20,000 troops to Haiti to buttress the UN occupation of 12,500 soldiers. Now secretary of state, Hillary Clinton convinced Préval to declare emergency powers, which have been largely delegated to the U.S.. From its position of power, the US has pushed for implementing a new version of the same old plan.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE U.S., a few other imperial powers, some lesser countries and the UN convened a meeting on January 26 in Montreal to profess their concern and promise to aid Haiti.
The 14 so-called "friends of Haiti" at the conference made sure to include Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive to at least give the illusion of respect for the country's sovereignty. But outside, a protest organized by Haiti Action Montreal challenged the meeting with signs demanding "Medical relief not guns," "Grants not loans" and "Reconstruction for people not profit."
Guardian columnist Gary Younge criticized the summit for failing to produce any solutions:

Even as corpses remained under the earthquake's rubble, and the government operated out of a police station, the assembled "friends" would not commit to canceling Haiti's $1 billion debt. Instead, they agreed to a 10-year plan with no details and a commitment to meet again--when the bodies have been buried along with coverage of the country--sometime in the future.

By contrast, Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas grouping of Latin American and Caribbean nations opposed to U.S. neoliberal plans has called for relief not troops and cancellation of Haiti's debt. On his weekly television show, Chávez declared that thousands of "soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals--that's what the United States should send. They are occupying Haiti undercover."
While the Montreal summit offered few clues about what the U.S. aimed to do, Hillary Clinton spilled the beans before the meeting when she said, "We have a plan. It was a legitimate plan, it was done in conjunction with other international donors, with the United Nations."
The author of the plan is Oxford University professor Paul Collier. Collier wrote The Bottom Billion, a book widely read in development circles. In it, he advocates a neocolonial strategy for crisis-torn societies. He argues that to be effective, great powers and international bodies like the UN must intervene militarily and occupy failed states. After setting up shop, they then can impose development plans to reconstruct their economies.
In Jean Bricmont's apt phrase, Paul Collier is a "useful idiot for imperialism," providing intellectual justification for conquest and exploitation.
Before the earthquake, Bill Clinton, named by Barack Obama to be a special envoy to Haiti, was already pushing for the implementation of Collier's plan as he outlined it in a paper titled "Haiti: From Natural Catastrophe to Economic Security."
Collier and Clinton call for--surprise, surprise--investment in the tourist industry, re-development of the sweatshop industry in cities, export-oriented mango plantations in the countryside and construction of infrastructure to service this development. Each of these projects serves the interests of multinational corporations and the Haitian elite at the expense of the workers and peasants.
The tourist industry is especially infamous in the Caribbean. As Polly Patullo documents in her book, Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean, the industry is completely controlled by multinational corporations, mainly from the U.S. Patullo quotes one critic of the tourist industry, who argues:

When a Third World economy uses tourism as a development strategy, it becomes enmeshed in a global system over which it has little control. The international tourism industry is a product of metropolitan capitalist enterprise. The superior entrepreneurial skills, resources and commercial power of metropolitan companies enable them to dominate many third world tourist destinations.

The Clinton and Collier plan for sweatshops is even less appealing. Collier practically celebrates the poverty wages that corporations can get away with in Haiti. "Due to its poverty and relatively unregulated labor market," Collier writes, "Haiti has labor costs that are fully competitive with China, which is the global benchmark. Haitian labor is not only cheap, it is of good quality. Indeed, because the garments industry used to be much larger than it is currently, there is a substantial pool of experienced labor."
Given the abolition of tariffs on many Haitian exports to the U.S., Haiti is primed, according to Collier, for a new sweatshop boom.
But this is no sustainable development plan for Haitian workers. At best, Collier promises 150,000 or so jobs. As anthropologist Mark Schulman argues, "Subcontracted, low-wage factory work does not contribute much to the economy besides jobs. Being exempt from taxes, it does not contribute to the financing of Haiti's social services." The jobs themselves don't even pay enough to support life--they pay for transport and lunch at about $1.60 a day.
The U.S. will want to keep wages low, since that is the profitable basis for investment. Already last year, the U.S. pressured Préval to prevent an increase in the Haitian minimum wage.
For the peasant majority in Haiti, Clinton and Collier advocate construction of vast new mango plantations. According to them, such new plantations will both create an export crop and aid the reforestation of the country. While it may create jobs for poor peasants, such plantations won't rebuild the agricultural infrastructure of the country so that it can return to the self-sufficient food system it had before the 1980s. Such self-sufficiency goes against the grain of U.S. policy to control the international food market with its subsidized crops.
Finally, Collier argues for investment in infrastructure--airports, seaports and roads--not so much to meet people's needs as to service the new investments in tourism, sweatshops and plantations.As a result, Collier's plan will actually increase infrastructural inequities. Businesses will get what they need to export their products, while the needs of the Haitian masses--for navigable roads, for example--will be left unaddressed. Even worse, Collier advocates increased privatization of Haiti's infrastructure, especially the port and the electrical system.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN REALITY, this "new plan" is the same old plan--"the plan of death" that Haitians rose up against in the 1980s. Nevertheless, in the wake of the disaster, Bill Clinton is pressing ahead.
At a joint press conference with Bill Clinton, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon declared, "We have three priorities. First, continuing to provide the humanitarian assistance with effective mechanisms to deliver all these relief items to the people who need it. Second, provide security and stability for people. Thirdly, the reconstruction of the Haitian economy."
The U.S. and UN have failed largely in their relief operation, but have succeeded in establishing military control of the country--effectively seizing control of the country and bypassing the Haitian state.
Beyond this, the Economist magazine argues for the U.S. to set up "a temporary development authority with wide powers to act. Given the local vacuum of power, this is the best idea around. The authority should be set up under the auspices of the UN or of an ad hoc group (the United States, Canada, the European Union and Brazil, for example). It should be led by a suitable outsider (Bill Clinton who is the UN's special envoy for Haiti, would be ideal, perhaps followed by Brazil's Lula after steps down as president in a year's time) and a prominent Haitian, such as the prime minister."
With its intervention in Haiti, the U.S. is sending a signal to the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean--where masses of people have rejected neoliberalism and elected reform socialist leaders like Hugo Chávez, who aim to tame the excesses of capitalism and pass reforms to address social needs.
The U.S. already toppled Aristide in 2004. The U.S.-backed coup in Honduras last year is another step down the same road. Washington has expanded its network of military bases in Latin America--especially in Colombia, where it has opened seven new bases. "Barack Obama's administration," writes Greg Grandin in The Nation, has disappointed "potential regional allies by continuing to promote a volatile mix of militarism and free-trade orthodoxy in a corridor running from Mexico to Colombia."
The U.S. intervention in Haiti shows that the US wants to reverse its setbacks of the last decade, reassert its geopolitical dominance and re-impose its economic program--the "plan of death"--throughout the region.

Lack of Black Doctors Traced Primarily To Pre-College Factors, Study Finds

UVA TODAY

February 17, 2010 — African-Americans have long been underrepresented among health care professionals. As of 2005, blacks made up slightly more than 8 percent of first-year medical students in the United States – roughly half of their share of the U.S. population (15.4 percent in 2007), and just 1 percent more than their share of first-year medical students in 1975.

Much of that overall gap can be traced to social and economic problems that generate substantial group differences that become entrenched before the college years, according to a new study led by an associate professor of economics at California State University, Sacramento, and co-authored by six University of Virginia professors representing four disciplines: economics, psychology, education and nursing.

The study, "The Educational Pipeline for Health Care Professionals: Understanding the Source of Racial Differences," is based on research done while lead author Jessica Howell was a visiting professor of economics at U.Va. during the 2005-06 academic year. It appears in the Winter 2010 issue of the Journal of Human Resources.

This study, the first to examine the educational pipeline for black health care professionals, is based upon the National Longitudinal Study class of 1972, a comprehensive longitudinal survey of more than 13,000 Americans who graduated from high school in 1972, including about 1,450 African-Americans.

The cohort was tracked into their 30s, long enough to collect data on college attendance and graduation, post-collegiate schooling and career choices, Howell said. The representation of blacks in the 1972 cohort declined from 11 percent at the point of high school graduation, to 9 percent at college entry, to 7.2 percent at college graduation, and to 4.1 percent at the stage of entry to the health professions (which, for this study, included physicians, therapists, dentists, registered nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, optometrists, dietitians and veterinarians, among others.)

Howell and her team modeled the changes in the cohort at each stage along the educational pipeline. The modeling found that when personal background factors (including rural versus non-rural location and parents' educational attainment) were taken into account, black students were more likely than others both to enter college and to graduate from college. Although this finding may seem surprising to some, this general finding has been well documented by social scientists, Howell said.

The majority of the differences in the representation of blacks and whites at the post-baccalaureate stage of entry to a health profession can be traced to gaps generated much earlier in the educational pipeline, Howell said, and stem from factors like parents' education level and students' attending schools with lower per-pupil spending, higher poverty rates, and lower average scores on standardized tests.

"The flow of blacks into the health care professions has been reduced at an early stage in the educational pipeline, so we must go back in the pipeline to open up that spigot," Howell said. "This research and other research confirm that you have to go back further in that pipeline than many people realize."

Remedies that narrow the pre-college educational gaps between black students and other students, Howell said, would improve not just the proportion of blacks in health care, but would also affect any number of professions, such as black representation in law or in business management.

Although the majority of "leakage" in the educational pipeline toward health care professions occurred due to pre-college factors, there was also some leakage at the point when blacks made post-college decisions about what type of graduate schooling and career to pursue.

Controlling for background characteristics and the type of college attended, measured by both institutional selectivity and status as a historically black college or university, black college graduates were "substantially" less likely than other college graduates to pursue post-baccalaureate health care programs, the study found.

This post-college leakage can probably be explained by financial incentives, the study suggested. Alternatives to medical school, such as MBA programs and law schools, are pathways to professions where the gap in wages between blacks and whites narrowed rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, making those fields more financially attractive.

Proposals to provide subsidies to encourage blacks to enter the health care professions could reduce the post-college leakage, but would not address the main cause of black underrepresentation, said study co-author Steven Stern, a U.Va. professor of economics who served as Howell's doctoral adviser at U.Va. (Howell completed her Ph.D. in 2004.)

The fact that much of the difference in pre-college outcomes can be traced to parental education levels, Stern said, suggests that if the average educational achievement of blacks continues to rise, related ramifications such as black underrepresentation in health care will become less of an issue over time.

The ratio of black to white health care professionals has ticked up slightly over the past two decades, but those modest gains have been driven by an erosion in the number of whites choosing health professions rather than a sustained increase in blacks choosing health care, Howell added.

The study's five additional co-authors hail from several departments at U.Va.: Ivora Hinton, a coordinator of data analyses and interpretation at the School of Nursing; Elizabeth Merwin, a professor and associate dean for research at the School of Nursing; Sarah Turner, a professor of economics and education; Ishan Williams, assistant professor of nursing; and Melvin Wilson, a professor of psychology.

— By Brevy Cannon

Saturday, February 20, 2010

It Happened in Thomas Jefferson's Colony of Virginia

Black Buzz News Service
Archives
Charlottesville, Virginia
February 20, 2010


In 1670, Virginia passed a law forbidding Negroes from buying white people. This was fifty-one years after the Negro had arrived in chains.
The same law was repeated in 1748. Free Negroes bought white people in such high numbers in Louisiana, that the state made a similar law in 1818.

*Notes, Africa's Gift To America, by J.A. Rodgers

* The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

Blogger Black Buzz says a more extensive article by Robert M.Grooms is forthcoming on said subject.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Carter G. Woodson and African-American History Month

84th anniversary of popular recognition of struggle and advancement

by Abayomi AzikiweEditor, Pan-African News Wire

February 2010 represents the 84th anniversary of the founding of Negro History Week, now known as African-American History Month. This month of commemoration was initiated by historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who worked tirelessly for many years to popularize the dissemination and study of the history of African people in the United States and throughout the world.

Carter Godwin Woodson originally came from New Canton, Virginia, where he was born on December 19, 1875. Woodson was born into a poor southern family and worked in the coal mines of Kentucky. He was not able to enroll in high school until he was 20 years old.

He would later attend the University of Chicago and Harvard University where he obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees. He was awarded a Ph.D from Harvard University in 1912, becoming the second African-American to receive this degree after W.E.B. DuBois in 1896.

The challenge of W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson and other African-American historians was to refute the racist propaganda disguised as history which sought to provide the ideological justification for the mass enslavement of African people and the continuation of jim crow and racist terror.

Historical Studies Prior to the Intervention of African-American Scholars

One of the major contributions of historians such as DuBois and Woodson is that they scientifically challenged and debunked the myths of the "southern slave-owning aristocracy" and "black docility". These views could no longer stand up to the research presented in the narratives developed by African-American historians.

What is often not emphasized in the historical remembrance of African slavery in American society, is the level of resistance by the captives to the plantations owners, overseers and the legal codes which reinforced this system of exploitation. Notions and theories of African slave resistance were largely absent from the scholarly treatment of this long episode in American history until relatively recent times. One of the early 20th century historians, Ulrich B. Phillips, did much to advance the racist views of southern former slave owning families and their communities.

In Phillips’ book entitled, “American Negro Slavery: A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime,” published originally in 1918, he contends that the overwhelming tendency among southern slave holders was a liberalized form of administrative control which resembles a patriarchal or paternalistic model of slave management.

As a result of the biased views held by Phillips and other white historians, their flawed emphasis and interpretation of data leads the reader to no particular insights or conclusions related to the African slave as a conscious human being within the production process taking place within southern society as a whole.

All of the viewpoints presented by observers of the slave system in Phillips' work reinforce the idea of the inferiority of African peoples and the supposed moral fortitude of the southern slave owners. These views related to the slave-master relationship contend that they are the natural order of things between Africans and Europeans.

The Birth of African-American Studies

However, new schools of thought arose during the early 20th century to counteract the apologists for the antebellum slave system and the rebel confederacy during the Civil War. DuBois declared in 1909 that the cultural presence of the ancestral origins of the slaves played a significant role in shaping the character of American life: “The mystic spell of Africa is and ever was over all America. It has guided her hardest work, inspired here finest literature, and sung her sweetest songs. Her greatest destiny—unsensed and despised though it be—is to give back to the first of continents the gifts which Africa of old gave to America’s fathers’ fathers.”

According to Jacqueline Goggin in her political biography of Woodson, ‘In 1915 he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to encourage scholars to engage in the intensive study of the past as it related to Africans and their descendants through the world. Prior to this work, the field had been largely neglected or distorted in the hands of historians who accepted the traditionally biased picture of blacks in American and world affairs.” (Goggin)

In 1916, Woodson founded the Journal of Negro History, which remained an important scholarly publication under his direction for more than 30 years. His academic work led him to Howard University and West Virginia State College as a professor and administrator.

Over the years he authored numerous important books including “The Negro in Our History” (1922); “The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861” (1915); and “A Century of Negro Migration” (1918). In 1933, during the Great Depression, he published his best known work, “The Miseducation of the Negro,” where he attacked the white capitalist influence over schooling designed for African-Americans during the early 20th Century.

In the book there is a chapter entitled “Political Education Neglected” where Woodson says that “Even the few Negroes who are elected to office are often similarly uninformed and show a lack of vision. They have given little attention to the weighty problems of the nation; and in the legislative bodies to which they are elected, they restrict themselves as a rule to matters of special concern to the Negroes themselves, such as lynching, segregation and disenfranchisement, which they have well learned by experience. “

Woodson then goes on to point out the contributions of African-American elected officials during Reconstruction when he says that “This indicates a step backwards, for the Negroes who sat in Congress and in the State Legislatures during the Reconstruction worked for the enactment of measures of concern to all elements of the population regardless of color. Historians have not yet forgot what those Negroes statesmen did in advocating public education, internal improvements, labor arbitration, the tariff, and the merchant marine.” (Mis-education, pp. 94-95)

Woodson’ Legacy and the African-American Struggle

Woodson died in 1950 at the age of 75. He did not live to see the emergence of the mass civil rights and black power struggles starting in mid-1950s and extending through the early 1970s. He was not able to witness the emergence of a militant student movement in 1960 that led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the later Black Panther Party.

It was during these times that the movement demanding the implementation of African-American Studies programs in K-12 education and in institutions of higher learning emerged. Tremendous protests were carried out at numerous schools, colleges and universities that won concessions that introduced course work that recognized the contributions and essential role of African-Americans in U.S. and world affairs.

The work of Woodson, DuBois and other African-American scholars provided the intellectual basis for the advancement of ethnic and multi-cultural studies. Every major school district and institution of higher learning has been the center of debate and struggle over the character of the academic curriculum and the admission and status of African-Americans and other oppressed people of color in the United States.

Despite these gains related to the adoption of African-American and multi-cultural studies programs and curriculums, as well as admission of people of color to historically white institutions, the current economic crisis has witnessed the wholesale attack on such gains that were made during the civil rights and black power era. Today school districts and colleges are cutting back and laying off educational workers who gained their positions as a result of the mass movements over the last five decades.

These attacks on higher education and their disproportionate impact on African-Americans and other oppressed people must be taken up in the current student movement against the major downsizing taking place in all areas of education in the U.S. With the upcoming March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education, students and educational workers must demand the continuation, restoration and full funding of all academic programs that serve the oppressed and exploited groups that have traditionally been excluded from position of power and influence in the country.

These major cutbacks in education funding must be rejected and students and workers should demand that money be taken away from the banks and the Pentagon and given to the people to ensure quality education for all. The interests of youth and workers must supersede those of the corporations and the military.

Tiger Woods Sounds Phony And Fake Just Like a Little Upset Brat

Black Buzz News Service
February 19, 2010
Coward, South Carolina

As far as I am concern Tiger Woods is full of bull & deceit and I could care less about his religion or personal problems.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for this little punk? This fake news conference was definitely not from the heart and he wasn't sincere.
Case closed.

The Coverup At Toyota Continues With The Massive Problems With The Corolla and Solara

Black Buzz News Service
Georgetown Kentucky
February 19, 2010
Breaking News

I repeat consider trading in your Corolla, Camry, and all Toyota products as soon as possible. All vehicles manufactured by Toyota are simply not save to drive under any circumstances and that includes the overrated and overpriced Lexus.
All Toyota owners should join the class action Lawsuit against said Manufacturer for a multitude of safety and quality problems and issues that Toyota is not willing to solve or remedy.
To the grand son of Mr. Toyota, no amount of money can replace a human life and the American public has been had by your American hybrid offspring called Toyota Motor Corporation of America doing business as Toyota LTD. of America, headquartered in Torrance California.
The Congress of the U.S will grandstand with hearings for a few days next week then it will be just business as usual and that will be the end of its duplicitous investigation of Toyota.

The American Public Doesn't Care About Tiger Woods Hypocritical Fake Phony News Conference:There are far more important topics for the media to cover.

Black Buzz News Service
Horneytown, North Carolina
February 19, 2010

The American public could care less about lying Cablinasian Tiger Woods upcoming hypocritical fake phony news conference.
There are far more important things for the media to cover in the USA than a little spoiled billionaire brat's problem with his blatant infidelity and adultery.
Crazy American citizens are crashing planes into buildings and we are fighting two unpopular wars on two fronts and we also have millions Americans of out of work or who are underemployed; And the only thing the media can cover on a Friday morning is this little nickle dime golfer is beyond my comprehension.
The media should be focusing on all those lunatics and the mentally sick people that make up the Tea Party, The Militia Movement, The Patriot Movement, And CPAC for they are far more of a threat to our internal security than Osama's crew. Our Southern border with Mexico has very little security and it remains a low priority with the Obama administration as we get invaded by illegals in droves.
Its the Tea Party folks and CPAC along with their fellow travelers that are fueling all this warped blind hatred toward all our governmental institutions and elected officials.
The media gets a big fat F for coverage of the Tiger Woods fake news conference.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Toyota's James Lentz, President and Chief Operating Officer Continues Coverup of Toyota's Massive Acceleration Problem And Other Safety Issues

Black Buzz News Service
February 16, 2010
Jamestown, Virginia

Contrary to public utterances by Mr. James Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc., he simply is not telling the truth or the whole truth about how many Toyota vehicles had defective accelerator pedals.
Toyota and the federal regulators under President Geo Bush and continuing with Obama have been covering up this massive problem with the poor killer inferior sticking accelerator pedal since 2001. How many more lives will be lost because of this fraud perpetrated by Toyota?
Further, more than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported to the federal regulators, since 2001, cases of cars that suddenly accelerated and slammed into obstacles, not to mention 15 fatal crashes. And Toyota has been informed of numerous other crashes.
Toyota only started the present recall after being forced to do so by the officials at NHTSA who finally decided to cease with its duplicitous role in aiding and abetting Toyota with it campaign of deceit toward the American and International public.
And what about the lack of Congressional Oversight since 2001 up until the present with reference to the defective accelerator pedal used by Toyota? Was the Congress of the United States of America sleep again at the wheel? The Congress of the U.S. has a constitutional duty and moral obligation and responsibility to make sure that all these federal regulatory agencies/commissions are doing their respective jobs in safeguarding the consumers' safety interest and enforcing the various regulations and laws.. How much money did Toyota pay certain Congress people of the world to buy their silence?
So what I find in the instant case of defective poor accelerator pedal on said(Toyota) products is the failure of Toyota, Federal Regulators, the vendor CTS, and the Congress of the United States to do their respective jobs. Therefore all four parties in question are guilty. The vendor in question, CTS also should be held libel for punitive and compensatory damages. CTS is also supplying a similar type of accelerator pedal to other Automotive Manufacturers and those Corporations should stay on top of any quality control or poor vendor parts originating from said CTS.
It's quite apparent that the James Lentz crew at Toyota doesn't care about American citizens getting killed in their unsafe vehicles. Mr. Lentz, one life lost is too many and you should go to jail along with your co-horts for murder if it can be proven that you knowingly and willingly conspired to manufacture vehicles that had defective parts on them. Mr. Lentz, how do you sleep at night knowing that you manufactured vehicles that killed an American citizen or citizens?
It is obvious the acute accelerator problem at Toyota is only the tip of the iceberg with the quality problems at said manufacturer. Toyota has received numerous reports of the smell of gasoline vapors in many of its Camry 4-door sedans and two door coupe Solara models and they can't seem to find a cure for this terrible unique problem. The Prius and Solara's have numerous braking problems and the boys at Toyota are still masking and attempting to camouflage the issue of its brakes with the Prius and Solara models in question.
Mr. Toyota, you need to discharge Mr. Lentz and your top CEO's at the Toyota Motor Sales of North America ASAP.
I urge all intelligent consumers to refrain/boycott from buying any Toyota products. The safety and health of the American consumer is more important than Toyota's bottom line and satisfying its share and stock holders.
What ever happened to Ralph Nader ? Where are the young Ralph Nader's of the world and when will they stand up for the American consumer?

Don't Buy Toyota. The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Attention all Toyota Owners: A Good Way To Save On Gas Is To Park Your Vehicle Until You Can Trade It In On A New Honda or BMW

Black Buzz News Service
Jewtown, Georgia
February 13, 2010

Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan has learned how to cover up + mask, and camouflage its numerous vehicle quality and safety problems from its American Offspring.
I ask that all Toyota owners keep your cars, crossovers, and trucks at home or just simply take them back to the Dealers and I ask for a refund. The Toyota vehicles in question are not safe to drive under any speed, and that also goes for that vastly overrated so-called Toyota luxury car, Lexus.
This family will never buy another Toyota product. Our next car or crossover will be an ACURA, BMW, Nissan, Mercedes, or perhaps a GM product.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

REPORT HITS HAITI OCCUPATION

Black Buzz News Service
BLACK CHRONICLE
ARCHIVES
Negrotown Knoll Florida.

DECEMBER 20, 1927-- An eye witness report on the U.S. occupation of Haiti, written by two black women, three white women, and one white man has been published. "Occupied Haiti" has been reviewed by the NAACP's magazine Crisis, which calls the occupation "a story of inexcusable aggression, distortion of the truth, cheating and discrimination. "
The excuse...... generally given for the American occupation," says the report, "is that it was necessary to prevent foreign intervention." But, the report notes swept from the seas, " the French had no interest, and the British were busy elsewhere.
" There was virtually no danger of foreign intervention."
According to the Crisis, the report also " looks carefully into the economic aspects of the occupation. (It) shows the large profits the National City Bank of New York is making."
From the Haitian point of view, the report adds, "........it is not true that we (U.S.) are in Haiti solely as disinterested benefactors....... The occupation guards American financial interests..... at the expense of our poor weak neighbors.

Blogger Black Buzz says the United States of America is presently behaving and acting against the national aspirations of the Haitian people just as it did in 1927. U.S. aid to Haiti has always come with mucho strings attached based upon protecting its own greedy niggardly financial interests. Much of the present outpouring of compassion and assistance to the Haitian people by the U.S government an its citizenry appears to be based upon guilt.

Discovery in Sahara demands respect

Black Buzz News Service
The Ronald B. Saunders, Archives
This part of the Ronald B. Saunders Project
Athens, Ohio
February 10, 2010

The article by James E. Alsbrook, Ph.D., president emeritus at Ohio University titled "Discovery in Sahara demands respect" appeared in the New Pittsburgh Courier on Feb.1, 1994.

Discovery in Sahara demands respect

Would you believe that Black African, camel-riding nomads in the Sahara Desert participated in or directed the building of an astronomical observatory and monument 7,000 years ago.
Leading anthropologists and astrophysicists say the recently discovered construction is a layout of stones similar to, but 2,000 years older than, England's admired Stonehenge that is frequently listed among the wonders of the ancient world.
This new discovery is much larger and more complicated than England's 5,000 year-old Stonehenge.
The site is reported to be in "Southern Egypt," but is near the borders of Chad, Lybia and Sudan, all being on a trade route between Timbuktu, an ancient city located near the Niger River in Mali of West Central Africa, and leading to various points along a route going east across the continent for hundreds of miles and ending in East Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
This discovery is important because it associates Black Africans with highly complicated functions of the solar system and destroys the myth that Black Africans were mentally delinquent and incapable of that intellectual development required for the creation of a separate, independent scientific thought and civilization.
This discovery also reminds us that the following points explain the situation of Black people in the world order of today:
1. Just as all living things like trees, flowers and even mountains emerge,develop, mature and bloom at different times and in their own cycles and seasons, so do races of people and nations sprout, grow, mature and bloom at different times and during different cycles,
2. The"early bloomers" sprouted, grew, flowered and then surrendered their primacy to later-developing cultures and civilizations.
3. These early bloomers include the Egyptians (Nile Valley in Africa); a dozen or so civilizations in the Middle East near or around the Tigris Euphrates River, (Asia); people living in the Indus River Valley of Pakistan (Asia); those in the Yellow River Valley (China); the Aztecs and the Mayans of Mexico, (North America) and the Incans (Peru, South America).
Records do not show an independent creation or evolution of civilization either in white Europe or in Black sub-Sahara Africa.
4. Only in Egyptian Africa, Asia and the Americas do records show that civilization erupted independently. Europe received its civilization from the Middle East and Africa (Egypt) by way of Greece and then Rome. After the Renaissance, leadership was passed among Italy, France, Spain and England, with Germany and other European areas following. America leads now, and Japan or China is next in line.
5. Just as a Roman leader was wrong 2,000 years ago when he said the English were not worth civilizing, likewise wrong today are the Europeans who declared that Africans (whom they raped and exploited) were"the white man's burden," incapable of self rule.
Today's leading scientists using mitochondrial DNA taken from worldwide samples write that all people on earth have one common ancestor, a Black female called "Mother Eve." She lived about 200,000 years ago in the Olduvai Gorge in Southeast Africa. Her descendants migrated to various continents over thousands of years and developed varying skin colors, hair textures and other features while their bodies adapted to various local climates and local problem-solving practices.
History and nature tell us that Black people will bloom and enjoy their day in the sun during a natural, emerging spiral of world events characterized by unanticipated problems, favorable situations and other inevitable developments-some immediate and perceptible, others slow and obscure-that cannot be anticipated.
(James E. Alsbrook, Ph.D., is president emeritus at Ohio University.)

HIGH COURT AWARDS BLACK INVENTOR 13 MILLION

Black Buzz News Service
Black Chronicle Archives
Washington D.C.
February 10, 2010

December, 1927-One of America's wealthiest Negro inventors was Elbert R. (Doc) Robinson.
He perfected a wheel design that was eventually used by every railroad in the country.
Although he patented this device, a white man stole the idea and sold it to the Chicago Railway Co.
Robinson took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court finally awarded him 13 million dollars in royalties.

Blogger Black Buzz states that hundreds of Negroes had their inventions stolen by conniving and manipulative and roguish whites. In the vast majority of cases involving the theft of Negro inventions the courts on all levels were always sympathetic to the whites who had taken advantage of the Negroes lack of connection and power. So the Robinson case stands out as a landmark decision by the high court in its ruling for a Negro litigant.

Kansas Blacks Fight Off Attackers

Black Buzz News Service
Black Chronicle Archives
February 10, 2010
Coffeyville, Kansas

COFFEYVILLE, Kan., December 10, 1927- In March, 1927, Texas Negroes won a court victory over the "White Primary."
The same month, Negroes in Coffeyville, Kansas won a different kind of victory. They successfully defended their section of the city from invasion by a white mob.
The whites had threatened to burn down the Negro section when their attempt to lynch a Negro had failed. The Negro Curtis Smith, was suspected of having attacked two white girls. He was being held at the City Hall jail by police, who refused to surrender him. Tear gas was used to drive the whites away, but not before they broke every window in City Hall.
Having been denied their lynch victim and angered by the use of gas, the mob turned on the Negro section for revenge.
The colored population was awaiting the attack. Armed with rifles, pistols and bayonets, they marched in military formation to meet the enemy. Opening fire from previously dug trenches, the Negroes wounded two and drove off a mob of 1,500 armed whites.
Troop B, Kansas National Guard Unit, soon arrived to restore order. The mob returned, however after breaking into hardware stores for more guns and ammunition.
Fighting continued throughout the day. Major E.T. Patterson of the Kansas Guard declared the City of Coffeyville under military rule and imposed a nine p.m. curfew.
Curtis Smith, the mob's intended lynch victim, was freed after the girls were unable to identify him.
During the military occupation, several Negro leaders protested against the military's search procedures. Some Negroes, they said had been stopped and searched for weapons as many as ten times.
After the first two days of fighting, peace was restored. The Negro section was still intact;
the colored population of Coffeyville, Kansas had served notice that their rights cannot be ignored.

Blogger Black Buzz says the above type of incidents are still occurring throughout the good old USA. Innocent Negro citizens are still being brutalized by racists cops, white mobs and individuals; people of color are still being discriminated against in all the systems of Employment, Housing, Home Loans, New Home Financing, and Home Refinancing, Health Care Coverage, Education, Residential Segregation, Credit Bureau Ratings, Immigration Status/Citizenship, and Places Open to the Public.

I strongly urge all citizens to obtain a copy of the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report for 2009, to become better informed citizens on the need to combat all forms of hatred at
www.intelligencereport.org
or call 334-956-8486





Sunday, February 7, 2010

Negro Library Neglected

Black Buzz New Service
February 7 ,2010
Black Chronicle
New York,N.Y.
Feb.2,1948-- Two elderly Negro women recently rushed into the New York Public Library's 135th street branch, and volunteered to do anything they could to save the collection. They were relieved to discover that the Arthur C. Schomburg Collection, special library of Negro literature, history and art, was not actually being destroyed; it was suffering from neglect.
Former curator Dr. L.D. Reddick has for some time been charging publicly that inadequate funds threatened the library's existence. The women apparently misinterpreted his remarks.The neglect has been laid to city officials and Public Library authorities.
In 1926, the collection was donated to the city by the Carnegie Foundation, which had purchased it from Mr. Schomburg.

*Blogger Black Buzz's family visited "The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in the Harlem section of New York City in 2009 and they reported that the Schomburg Center still suffers from benign neglect and lack of adequate funding from the City of New York, private foundations and the Black community.

German Jews Denied Vote

Black Buzz News Service
February 7,2010
Archives
Berlin , Germany, March 10,1936

Jews in Germany have been warned through the press that they risk arrest and prosecution if they vote in the upcoming elections. Another recent law prohibits them from attending public schools.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

A slave society will not endure: By Barbara Jean Pollard Taylor

Black Buzz News Service
February 6, 2010
Archives of USA TODAY
Pittsburgh Pa.

The below article titled "A slave society will not endure " appeared in the USA Today on June 4 ,1986. The article was written by Barbara Jean Pollard Taylor a retired educator currently living in Chicago,Illinois.

A slave society will not endure

Jefferson City , Mo-
History tells us no group of people will long remain submissive to the domination of another.The story of the Roman Empire is replete with slave revolts. Nat Turner and John Brown are well known to students of U.S. history. History does repeat itself , and we who do not learn from it are doomed to repeat its mistakes.
A continuing source of cheap labor has allowed the building of great national treasures and the apparently smooth functioning of the governing class. It was the key to the great pyramids of Egypt , the Nazi war machine ,the great plantations like Monticello and Mount Vernon.
Pharaohs ,charismatic dictators even our Founding Fathers convinced themselves that another race or nation was less human themselves.
They were wedded to the belief that these races or nations should be dominated and were not to think for themselves , plan their own destinies.
It was an easy next step to the belief that these less-than-human beings could be trained to provide for the needs and wants of the governing class.
These societies did not endure.
The average white South African cannot easily give up a status and level of living that he has enjoyed for centuries. He has come to believe his status is his right. This is a castle built of cards ,which must collapse , at the first strong breeze.The South African way of life is very fragile system that arbitrarily categorizes , restricts ,inhibits ,and denies the personhood of its citizens.
History has shown that a society built on the repression of groups of its citizenry is doomed to fall. Living ,breathing thinking man will not be content to remain enslaved. Inter tribal clashes among blacks and coloreds in South Africa will not continue. Man will not continue to self-destruct. Man will be free , and in his struggle to be free will attract others of like mind to his cause.
We in the global family of man do band together in crises to help each other. Indeed ,we are the world- in South Carolina , South America , South Africa. We will not stand idly by and allow our brothers to starve , to be shot at , to be oppressed by an unjust system.

Barbara Pollard Taylor is a
director of the National Black
Political Caucus.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The Pittsburgh Courier Story

Black Buzz News Service
Special Edition
February 2, 2010
Pittsburgh, PA

The following story about the Pittsburgh Courier is taken from the official Centennial Edition dated August 17, 1963.

Published by:

The Pittsburgh Courier Publishing Company,Inc.
ABC
The Pittsburgh Courier

(National-Georgia-Ohio-City)
The Chicago Courier
The Detroit Courier
The New York Courier
The Florida Courier
The Philadelphia Courier

The Courier Story
1910-1963
Over a Half Century of Dedication
and Determination.

The success story of this nation's largest Negro weekly is encompassed in the vision and faith of its founders-in its dedication to public service -in its never-ending fight for complete equality for All Americans.
An autonomous enterprise. The Courier is completely unionized from the reporters, who initiate our stories to the truckers, who carry these stories to the newsstands.
Branch offices and correspondents in major cities across the country submit an unending flow of editorial and advertising copy to the home office in Pittsburgh. This material is edited and prepared for inclusion in one of some nine different editions giving our more than-500,000 readers the news-all the news-and the stories behind that news.
Personnel are employed on the basis of ability and judged on their individual merits. This policy,developed through years of experience ,is exemplified by the company's interracial hiring program.
Crusading journalism , a trademark at The Courier, is evidenced by the timely and significant campaigns and stories developed and/or uncovered over years.
The Self-Respect Campaign...Double V Campaign,( Victory at Home, Victory Abroad).......Campaign to End Segregation in Washington,D.C....Educational Equality Campaign....Dollars for Dignity.There was also the Joe Louis crusade , the fight for integration in the armed services, the battle for integration in major league baseball, professional football, golf and tennis;there was the Ghana Story and the Emmett Till case.
This is The Courier Story. Both management and labor are resolved to carry out the fundamental credo of the institution's founders : "You can buy the people's time, perhaps their skill, but never their enthusiasm and good-will.
That you have to earn.

Mrs. Beatrice Saunders Robinson
*Blogger Black Buzz's Mother, Mrs. Beatrice Saunders Robinson, in 1948 was the first African American female in the country to be appointed as treasurer to a National Union, the American Newspaper Guild Pittsburgh local. She went on to serve for 15 years on the local Newspaper Guild's Executive Board.
Mrs. Saunders Robinson was also chairman of the Courier Unit of the American Newspaper Guild. Black Buzz says he remembers Jimmy Hoffa pulling up to the Courier in two big Black Cadillac Limousines to have a meet and discuss with Mrs. Vann. Hoffa represented Teamsters Local 21 and all the Courier pressmen were members of Local 21. My mother informed me that Hoffa was very disrespectful towards Mrs. Vann and very intimidating and outright nasty. My mother further stated that Mr. Hoffa was very polite and respectable towards her and the Newspaper Guild of America whom she represented.
Black Buzz traveled with his mother throughout the United States and Canada as she represented the Courier Unit at the Annual American Newspaper Guild Conventions in such places as San Jose, Boston, New York, St. Louis, Albany and Toronto.
I remember in 1956 staying at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Canada and having lunch with the Mayor of Toronto on an island where many of the people were playing croquette and golf. The thing that I found strange about Toronto is that my mother and I were always waited on before the Caucasians in our party in all the phases of public accommodations.
We rode to Canada in a car owned by David Welty and were also accompanied by Dave Minneham, Ethel Cobb and Jeanie O'Toole.
David Welty would later become Pittsburgh Mayor Caliguiri's Press Secretary. Ethel Cobb retired from the Post Gazette after 37 years of service.
My mother and I traveled to California with the Secretary of the Pittsburgh local of the American Newspaper Guild, Helen M. Minear, her son Gary O'Malley, Ethel Cobb of the Post Gazette Unit, and Jeanie O'Otoole who represented the Guild for the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph employees.
We traveled in Mrs. Minear's brand new 1958 Plymouth Belvedere Station Wagon. It was a nine passenger wagon and was quite large as were most of the cars back in 1958.
I also remember visiting Knots Berry Farm and Disneyland in Anaheim, California. And I remember going up on the Ski-Lift in the Rockies and traveling on that horrible U.S. Route 40 where there were no guard rails in the Rockies. We visited Fisherman's Wharf, China Town in San Francisco and the Hearst Castle off route 1 in California. We also visited the Painted Desert in Arizona and the Petrified Forest in Arizona. We got caught in a terrible rainstorm on the famous route 66 in New Mexico.
My mother and I were Jim Crowed in Reno, Nevada where one motel owner in Reno told my mother that she was "glad that God didn't make her Black". My mother responded to this bigoted women by saying: "I think it is a blessing to be Black and you have a very good day ". Also none of the motels in Tulsa, Oklahoma would allow us to stay in them except there was one that was located off the Turner Turnpike. But the motel owners insisted that we had to leave by six a.m. in the morning. The employee at this motel said that we were light enough to stay and perhaps her Southern guests wouldn't think we were Black. Note my mother was very light and had green/gray/blue eyes more commonly called "cat eyes" among Blacks. My Mother's father, Thomas Marion of Charlotte, North Carolina was a Quadroon and her mother's mother, Mama Dicie was a full bloodied Cherokee Indian from Pee Dee River, South Carolina. My Mother's grandfather, Papa Wolfe's father was from Liberia and his tribe is unknown to the family. We are presently not in a position to do any DNA testing on Papa Wolfe for an exact match with any of the 28 main tribes that make up present day Liberia. These assertions about Papa Wolfe's tribe in Liberia are inconclusive and but the jury is still out on this subject.. as we uncover new facts and records about our vast extensive family history that covers four major continents.
Blogger Black Buzz was 15 years of age at the time of this trip to California. All the Caucasians with whom we were traveling witnessed these Jim Crow incidents firsthand.
Black Buzz says he didn't see any other Blacks at said Guild Conventions.
Most of the daily and weekly corporate white owned newspapers in the USA employed very few Blacks as reporters, editorial writers, clerks, cashiers, etc. in 1958.
The New York Post employed a Black reporter by the name of Ted Poston at the time but he was not an official or officer in the Newspaper Guild as was my mother. Mr. Poston also wrote a weekly column titled "Harlem Shadows" for the Pittsburgh Courier.
I have learned through my research, that in 1935, Mr. Poston led a strike for union recognition at the Amsterdam News. The campaign was successful. Thus the Black employees got their first signed contract between Black employees and their Employers. However Mr. Poston later said proudly that it cost him his job with the paper because they found a way to fire him.
Eventually Mrs. Beatrice Saunders Robinson became the Courier's office manger. She worked for the Courier from 1941 until her retirement in 1980. What a true pioneer.

*In 1973, blogger Black Buzz worked for the Governor's Office of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Pittsburgh Regional Office. I had a case against the ABC Motel in Ligonier, PA for a refusal to accommodate a Black couple from Colorado. The Black couple had made their reservation with said ABC Motel but after they arrived, the motel owners informed the couple that there were no accommodations available.
To make a long important story short, I found reasonable cause (discrimination to credit the allegations of the complaint of the Black couple) and a very appropriate remedy was obtained for the Black couple in question.
I also had a refusal to accommodate case for a group of Blacks from New York against the largest Motel in Grove City, PA. After the group had made reservations for said motel they were told upon arrival that no rooms were available. This case occurred in 1974 and reasonable cause was found in this complaint to credit the allegations of said charge. We entered into a consent order and decree with damages etc.
I had other cases of a similar nature at the Commission which are too numerous to go into at this moment. But the driving force throughout my adulthood in fighting discrimination has been as a result of those horrible nefarious experiences I had with those Jim Crow incidents back in 1958 and because of the other pervasive discrimination and racism that still exist in many forms.
Just last year in the "Windy City"(Chicago), a night club/bar refused to service a group of Black students from Washington University (St. Louis) while serving 200 of their fellow White classmates. The club in question was not private and therefore was open to the public. The owners claimed that the Black students were not dressed appropriately. There are many such incidents as the one in Chicago all around the good Old USA and enforcement on the local, federal and state levels is virtually non-existent. It is a known fact that many of these Local, State, Federal Civil Rights and Human Relations Agencies and Commissions suffer from bureaucratic inertia.
There is more to the rest of the story !