telesur - "latin america's al-jazeera"

The new Pan-Latin American tv Channel Telesur began broadcasting recently to bring news from a Latin American perspective. It is backed by the governments of Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay who say they want it to promote Latin American integration. The driving force has been Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government has contributed 70 percent of Telesur's financing and owns 51 percent of the channel. The channel's board members include a group of international supporters including the actor Danny Glover, the writer Tariq Ali and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel.

The "Latin American 'Al-Jazeera'" is already ruffling feathers. Before the new channel even started broadcasting, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to call for the US government to broadcast its own channel in the region to counter Telesur's influence.

That's sort of a disturbing thought. The image just flashed in my mind of a more tan version of Tom Cruise, only with a Latin accent saying "I want the truth!" while a US congressman with an uncanny resemblance to Jack Nicholson replies "You can't handle the truth!".

Telesur's Website
BBC News story about Telesur
Democracy Now! story about Telesur (includes excerpt from interview with Telesur's president)

that old-time religion... not!

A recent Guardian piece written by Karen Armstrong called Unholy Strictures makes the interesting observation that fundamentalism is actually a new thing(bida) in the history of Christianiity and Islam. Even though fundamentalists often claim to follow the "Old Time Religion", it would be more accurate to see them as being part of a recent reaction to the influence of modern science.

Before the modern period, Jews, Christians and Muslims all relished highly allegorical interpretations of scripture. The word of God was infinite and could not be tied down to a single interpretation. Preoccupation with literal truth is a product of the scientific revolution, when reason achieved such spectacular results that mythology was no longer regarded as a valid path to knowledge.

We tend now to read our scriptures for accurate information, so that the Bible, for example, becomes a holy encyclopaedia, in which the faithful look up facts about God. Many assume that if the scriptures are not historically and scientifically correct, they cannot be true at all. But this was not how scripture was originally conceived. All the verses of the Qur'an, for example, are called "parables" (ayat); its images of paradise, hell and the last judgment are also ayat, pointers to transcendent realities that we can only glimpse through signs and symbols.

We distort our scriptures if we read them in an exclusively literal sense.

According to Armstrong, one difference which contributes to the growth of fundamentalism is the fact that, in the past, the scriptures were primarily performed orally and taught in context, in the presence of a teacher. But now, with widespread literacy, it is easier for individuals to (mis)read the texts, out of context, selectively for themselves.

I don't want to sound like an Amish caveman or anything, but it is important to realize that every example of "progress" in history, every step forward, typically comes with a price. In the West, some good things came out of the Reformation but it also led to a certain amount of chaos and violence as well. And in the case of Islam, it is traditional Islam (Ahl al Sunnah wal Jamaat) the classical understandings which have been dominant for most of Islamic history, which are for the most part more tolerant and peaceful than the modern "reform" movements which tend to carry the label "Fundamentalist" who are involved in much of the violence giving Islam a bad name.

(ps. i found the Armstrong story from anarchoakbar)

making face, making soul

In the course of looking for more information about Gloria Anzaldua and Borderlands online I found the following website about Chicana feminism. Making Face, Making Soul is actually the name of a book which Gloria Anzaldua edited and contains an interesting and inspiring collection of texts about feminism and women of color.

The WEBSITE Making Face, Making Soul is here and has a pretty interesting bunch of links on a similar set of topics.

immortal technique: volume 2

So I finally got Immortal Technique's Revolution, Volume 2. It's a pretty good follow-up to Volume 1. I wasn't disappointed. I bought it at a local store which is something like a cross between a lefty book store and a head shop. They also happened to have a good selection of music including "underground" and political hip-hop

Here is a brief interview with Immortal Technique from Playahata.com

And here are some previous Planet Grenada entires about the man:
[1], [2], [3]

black muslims in the uk

Given the recent piece on Afro-Caribbean people in the UK, I thought it would be good to recap some older entries on the subject. The Forbidden Dialogues is a book which I blogged about early on. And I later included an excerpt from that same book in an entry titled laughing lions.

race, islam and terrorism

Most African-Caribbean men who become Muslims do so because it gives their lives hope and meaning

Robert Beckford
Tuesday August 16, 2005
The Guardian

I met a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo at a university function at the end of the summer term. A well-educated academic, he had escaped the civil war engulfing his country. In the middle of our conversation on the state of Africa, he reminded me that there were "many well-educated white males engaged in acts of terror" in his country.

He was not referring to suicide bombers but to middle-class corporate executives who fund warlords and low-rank politicians in exchange for access to diamonds and other precious minerals. Their act of terror was to be party to the ethnic cleansing, rape, child abduction and murder conducted by the renegades they financed. Conscious of the dangers of stereotyping, I replied: "Surely not all white males involved in business in Africa are bad? I'm certain many get involved in business with the best of intentions but are seduced by the lure of profits."

Introducing the subject of "race" into the analysis of any area of social conflict can enlighten or obscure the real causes of distress. And this perilous pathway has been followed in some of the news coverage of young black men and domestic terrorism.
The Jamaican origins of Jermaine Lindsay, one of the July 7 suicide bombers, has prompted some to ask why a disproportionate number of black males are attracted to extremism. Lindsay, 19, had spent the vast proportion of his life in England, which made tenuous the tabloid obsession with his place of birth. Intriguingly there was less of a clamour over the ethnicity of Richard Reid, the notorious "shoe bomber", who had a white mother and a black father. In the case of David Copeland, the white, racist, homophobic nail-bomber, there was no analysis of a potential relationship between ethnicity, extremism and terror.

Black men converting to Islam should be placed within the religious context of their communities, where religion still matters. African-Caribbean men and women continue to turn out in large numbers for religious activities. But Islam is able to do what the black church cannot - attract black men.

I have spent most of my working life in conversation with African-Caribbean converts to Islam. Two relationships stand out. I have an ongoing dialogue with an artist who converted in the mid-90s. His journey began when he listened to tapes of African-American Muslim preachers while at graduate school in America. The tapes made a clearcut link between a commitment to Allah and black liberation from poverty, drugs, gangs and meaninglessness. His first visit to a predominantly African-American mosque was life-changing. Hundreds of smartly dressed black men full of self-belief, black pride, purpose and respect immediately became role models.

This is still the case today. Many black men, including Reid and Lindsay, were impressed by Islam's African-centred preaching and positive association with blackness. After all, one of the most powerful icons of the 20th century, Malcolm X, made the journey from Christianity to Islam in search of black redemption. My artist friend says mainstream Islam provides him with a social awareness and commitment to justice that is mostly ignored in black churches.

I have a nephew who recently converted while serving a prison sentence. Spending an inordinate amount of time alone in his cell, he took to reading the Bible and the Qur'an to pass the time. Intrigued by the notion that Islam was the last testament, God's final revelation, he pursued his interest by attending lessons with the imam assigned to the prison chaplaincy. Convinced, he became a devotee.

It was clear to me that the daily regime of Islam provided him with the tools for personal discipline and an interest in intellectual thought. He gained qualifications while inside and, most importantly, became completely dissociated from criminal activity. Having left prison, he continues to live devoutly, and is employed in a management position.

Most African-Caribbean men converting to Islam do so because it is a religion with a capacity to give their lives hope and meaning. This is not a new idea. As long ago as 1888, the Caribbean educator Edward Wilmot Blyden argued that Islam was more respectful of black culture and easier to translate into Caribbean culture than Christianity.

There will always be a few captivated by extremist versions of Islam that exploit the continued disaffection and marginalisation of working-class black youth. After all, with as little potential for social mobility as their migrant grandparents, it is difficult to sell them the New Labour dream of living in a meritocratic "stakeholder" society.

As is the case with the white middle-class corporate executives who see no ethical boundaries preventing them from working for exploitative multinationals in Africa, which displace and destroy the lives of tens of thousands, there will always be a small number of impressionable converts, from the poorest communities, who are lured on to the paths of unrighteousness.

Robert Beckford is a lecturer in African diasporan religions and cultures at the University of Birmingham

Source

boondocks tv show

Exclusive interview with Aaron McGruder about the upcoming Boondocks television show from C.H.U.D. (Cinematic Happenings Under Development)

aaron mcgruder

Here is an old post 9/11 interview with Boondock's creator Aaron McGruder from the Refuse and Resist site.

boondocks: livejournal

Here is a livejournal which echoes some recent Boondocks strips.

boondocks: public enemy #2

So I recently bought the latest Boondocks collection, Public Enemy #2 To be honest, it was a little disppointing but I'm a big fan so I had high expectations. It was funny, but not gut-busting laugh-out-loud funny. It was good. But I felt like it would have been better if it had a little more scathing political humor, and a little less momma jokes. I don't regret buying it, but I didn't have to rush.

in this time of war against osama...

In this time of war against Osama bin Laden and the oppressive Taliban regime, we are thankful that OUR leader isn't the spoiled son of a powerful politician from a wealthy oil family who is supported by religious fundamentalists, operates through clandestine organizations, has no respect for the democratic electoral process, bombs innocents, and uses war to deny people their civil liberties. Amen.

-Huey Freeman's Thanksgiving Prayer

languages dying

Here is an Al-Jazeera piece entitled Languages in Danger of Dying Out about how in some parts of the world, certain languages are in danger of disappearing altogether and how important it is to do something to save them.

As Wade Davis, an anthropologist who roams the world as an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, wrote: "Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities."

my son, the fanatic

Here is a review of the film My Son, The Fanatic by Muslim poet, Marvin X, connecting the film to the recent events in London.

ending poem

There is a theme in alot of Latino poetry. There are alot of pieces out there which talk about the experience of being part of a diaspora and being caught in the middle of multiple worlds.

Ending Poem
by Rosario Morales and Aurora Levins Morales

I am what I am.
A child of the Americas.
A light-skinned mestiza of the Caribbean.
A child of many diaspora, born into this continent at a
crossroads.
I am Puerto Rican. I am U.S. American.
I am New York Manhattan and the Bronx.
A mountain-born, country-bred, homegrown jibara child,
up from the shtetl, a California Puerto Rican Jew
A product of the New York ghettos I have never known.
I am an immigrant
and the daughter and granddaughter of many immigrants.
We didn’t know our forbears’ names with a certainty.
They aren’t written anywhere.
First names only or mija, negra, ne, honey, sugar, dear

I come from the dirt where the cane was grown.
My people didn’t go to dinner parties. They weren’t
invited.
I am caribeña, island grown.
Spanish is in my flesh, ripples from my tongue, lodges
in my hips,
the language of garlic and mangoes.
Boricua. As Boricuas come from the isle of Manhattan.
I am of latinoamerica, rooted in the history of my
continent.
I speak from that body. Just brown and pink and full of
drums inside.

I am not African.
Africa waters the roots of my tree, but I cannot return.

I am not Taìna.
I am a late leaf of that ancient tree,
and my roots reach into the soil of two Americas.
Taìno is in me, but there is no way back.

I am not European, though I have dreamt of those cities.
Each plate is different.
wood, clay, papier machè, metals basketry, a leaf, a
coconut shell.
Europe lives in me but I have no home there.

The table has a cloth woven by one, dyed by another,
embroidered by another still.
I am a child of many mothers.
They have kept it all going.

All the civilizations erected on their backs.
All the dinner parties given with their labor.
We are new.
They gave us life, kept us going,
brought us to where we are.
Born at a crossroads.
Come, lay that dishcloth down. Eat, dear, eat.

History made us.
We will not eat ourselves up inside anymore.

And we are whole.

When I'm not in a critical mood, the piece has a nice ring to it. But when I put my thinking cap on, I get mixed feelings about the poem. I can probably blog about it more later on, but the basic question I would want to raise is whether this joyful image of mestizaje allows for or is consistent with Pan-Africanism? Actually, I had this same question when I first read Gloria Anzaldua's book Borderlands/La Frontera. She went on and on about being a mestiza and combining the best elements of different worlds. But then if I replace "mestizo" with "mulatto" it just has an incredibly different ring to it and raises the question of whether Anzaldua (or before her Vasconcelos with his idea of La Raza Cosmica) is saying there is something wrong with being "just" Black?

Just something to think about.

gustavo perez firmat

Cuban-American writer Gustavo Perez Firmat also has had some interesting results playing with Spanglish poetry...

Bilingual Blues

Soy un ajiaco de contradicciones.
I have mixed feelings about everything.
Name your tema, I’ll hedge;
name your cerca, I’ll straddle it
like a cubano.

I have mixed feelings about everything.
Soy un ajiaco de contradicciones.
Vexed, hexed, complexed,
hyphenated, oxygenated, illegally alienated,
psycho soy, cantando voy:
You say tomato,
I say tu madre;
You say potato,
I say Pototo.
Let’s call the hole
un hueco, the thing
a cosa, and if the cosa goes into the hueco,
consider yourself en casa,
consider yourself part of the family.

Soy un ajiaco de contradicciones,
un puré de impurezas:
a little square from Rubik’s Cuba
que nadie nunca acoplará.
(Cha-cha-chá.)

brenda cardenas

Brenda Cardenas is a Chicana poet from the Midwest who has done some interesting things with writing in Spanglish. If you click on her name you can find links to other pieces of hers. But this is one I wanted to include.

Al Mestizaje

In mi gente's hips, el clave
and from mi gente's lips, sale
a fluid, funky lingo fusion
that fools among you call intrusion
but purity is an illusion.
So if you can't dig la mezcla, ｡chale!

Es Indio, Africana, Gitana, Americano,
Europeo con nada feo y todo vale:
El papalote, el aguacate, el tecolote, el cacahuate,
y las rucas en sus troques parqueando con los chucos.
Es que muchas palabras inventamos.
Son los brazos en abrazos
y el gas en tus chingazos
that always make us strong.
Es el ｿque? en nuestro choque,
el ｡ole! in mi pozole
que siempre give us song.

Hay un oso en sabroso
y tanto ajo in carajo!
que la verdad requiere ver,
y no podemos hacer nada sin un ser.
En la mente de mi gente que es tan inteligente,
hermanos se levantan las manos
y todos los derechos están hechos.
｡Echale! Es como anda la banda. ｡Echale!

Watcha! Mi Totacha te da catos, un mitote de Caló.
Es la lengua de mis cuates, un cuetazo Chicano.
We call Allah with ｡ojala!
and send Dios with adios,
and the al in tamal feeds us all. ｡Orale

decolonized tongue

It is a bit hard to explain exactly what I'm getting at but this past week also made me want to experiment more with finding my own poetic world, my own language and voice. Kind of how Five Percenters or Rastas have their own "language" and terminology. And some poets like Saul Williams or Reggie Gibson have also come up with special terms which set up re-occurring themes in their work across several poems. I think it would be a good way to develop a certain kind of distinctiveness to my writing which I would like to play with for a while. At the same time, I wouldn't want to become susceptible to the criticism: "Just because folks don't understand you doesn't make you deep".

I also want to write more pieces in Spanglish, not just writing pieces in English where I throw in references to yucca and frijoles negros every once in a while, but really make use of both languages, breathing with both lungs so to speak. It should be interesting.

If I have any progress on either of these two fronts I'll probably share the results down the road.

inspiring and humbling

Being at the Poetry Slam was inspiring and humbling all at the same time. Inspiring because of the beautiful words which we were hearing on a regular basis. Humbling due to the level of competition. Every day I would see people walking on the street whom I had seen on HBO's Def Poetry Jam or who definitely should be, and they were in the competition like everyone else. "Oh look there is Taylor Mali peeing!" or "Oh look there's Mayda Del Valle walking down the street!" (Actually, Taylor was competing but Mayda was not)

For me personally, poetry has been more of a hobby, but other folks were definitely thinking about it as a career move. And so they had the hunger and the hustle which comes with that. Given all those factors, I feel good about how our team did. We were in the middle of the pack in terms of overall rankings but we were also invited to perform one of our pieces at a showcase. InshaAllah, we'll do better next year,

the grass is always greener...

Sometimes I wonder if some transgender people are like the Michael Jacksons of their gender? I mean, I'm sure there are many transgendered people who are born physically different or with ambiguous anatomy or unusual hormone levels. But I wonder if for some it has more to do with psychology and experience. For one reason or another, they have such an antipathy to their own sex that they feel a need to switch teams.

Perhaps if you are born a man in a patriarchal society, then "being a man" can bring with it so much responsibility that some people don't want the job and so they quit. The same could be said in the opposite case as well. But to be honest, I don't really know. I'm just speculating. I think in the ideal society there would be mildly distinct gender roles but they would fit together hand in glove. The rights and responsibilities would balance out so that individuals would feel respected, and no one would feel overburdened or exploited.

surreal moment

Just last night I saw a black man wearing a t-shirt that said "White Trash" across the front.