View of New Orleans

Urban Removal

Bill Quigley

June 28, 2007

The Black Commentator columnist Bill Quigley is a law professor and director of the law clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University New Orleans. This article appeared first in The Black Commentator.
Step One. Delay. If there is one word that sums up the way to destroy an African American city after a disaster, that word is delay. If you are in doubt about any of the following steps—just remember to delay and you will probably be doing the right thing.

Step Two. When a disaster is coming, do not arrange a public evacuation. Rely only on individual resources. People with cars and money for hotels will leave. The elderly, the disabled and the poor will not be able to leave. Most of those without cars—25 percent of households of New Orleans, overwhelmingly African Americans—will not be able to leave. Most of the working poor, overwhelmingly African American, will not be able to leave. Many will then permanently accuse the victims who were left behind of creating their own human disaster because of their own poor planning. It is critical to start by having people blame the victims for their own problems.

Step Three. When the disaster hits, make certain the national response is overseen by someone who has no experience at all handling anything on a large scale, particularly disasters. In fact, you can even inject some humor into the response—have the disaster coordinator be someone whose last job was the head of a dancing horse association.

Step Four. Make sure that the president and national leaders remain aloof and only slightly concerned. This sends an important message to the rest of the country.

Step Five. Make certain the local, state, and national governments do not respond in a coordinated, effective way. This will create more chaos on the ground.

Step Six. Do not bring in food or water or communications right away. This will make everyone left behind more frantic and create incredible scenes for the media.

Step Seven. Make certain that the media focus of the disaster is not on the heroic community work of thousands of women, men and young people helping the elderly, the sick and the trapped survive, but mainly on acts of people looting. Also spread and repeat the rumors that people trapped on rooftops are shooting guns, not to attract attention and get help, but at the helicopters. This will reinforce the message that “those people” left behind are different from the rest of us and are beyond help.

Step Eight. Refuse help from other countries. If we accept help, it looks like we cannot or choose not to handle this problem ourselves. This cannot be the message. The message we want to put out over and over is that we have plenty of resources and there is plenty of help. Then if people are not receiving help, it is their own fault. This should be done quietly.

Step Nine. Once the evacuation of those left behind actually starts, make sure people do not know where they are going or have any way to know where the rest of their family has gone. In fact, make sure that African Americans end up much farther away from home than others.

Step Ten. Make sure that when government assistance finally has to be given out, it is given out in a totally arbitrary way. People will have lost their homes, jobs, churches, doctors, schools, neighbors and friends. Give them a little bit of money, but not too much. Make people dependent. Then cut off the money. Then give it to some and not others. Refuse to assist more than one person in every household. This will create conflicts where more than one generation lives together. Make it impossible for people to get consistent answers to their questions. Long lines and busy phones will discourage people from looking for help.

Step Eleven. Insist the President suspend federal laws requiring living wages and affirmative action for contractors working on the disaster. While local workers are still displaced, import white workers from outside the city for the high-paying jobs like crane and bulldozer operators. Import Latino workers from outside the city for the low-paying dangerous jobs. Make sure to have elected officials, black and white, blame job problems on the lowest wage immigrant workers. This will create divisions between black and brown workers that can be exploited by those at the top. Because many of the brown workers do not have legal papers, those at the top will not have to worry about paying decent wages, providing health insurance, following safety laws, unemployment compensation, workers compensation, or union organizing. These become, essentially, disposable workers—use them, then lose them.

Step Twelve. Whatever you do, keep people away from their city for as long as possible. This is the key to long-term success in destroying the African American city. Do not permit people to come home. Keep people guessing about what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. Set numerous deadlines and then break them. This will discourage people and make it increasingly difficult for people to return.

Step Thirteen. When you finally have to reopen the city, make sure to reopen the African American sections last. This will aggravate racial tensions in the city and create conflicts between those who are able to make it home and those who are not.

Step Fourteen. When the big money is given out, make sure it is all directed to homeowners and not to renters. This is particularly helpful in a town like New Orleans that was majority African American and majority renter. Then, after you have excluded renters, mess up the program for the homeowners so that they must wait for years to get money to fix their homes.

Step Fifteen. Close down all the public schools for months. This will prevent families with children in the public school system, overwhelmingly African Americans, from coming home.

Step Sixteen. Fire all the public school teachers, teacher aides, cafeteria workers and bus drivers and decertify the teachers union—the largest in the state. This will primarily hurt middle class African Americans and make them look for jobs elsewhere.

Step Seventeen. Even better, take this opportunity to flip the public school system into a charter system and push foundations and the government for extra money to the new charter schools. Give the schools with the best test scores away first. Then give the least flooded schools away next. Turn 70 percent of schools into charters so that the kids with good test scores or solid parental involvement will go to the charters. That way, the kids with average scores, or learning disabilities, or single parent families, who are still displaced, are kept segregated away from the “good” kids. You will have to set up a few schools for those other kids, but make sure those schools do not get any extra money, do not have libraries, nor doors on the toilets, nor enough teachers. In fact, because of this, you better make certain there are more security guards than teachers.

Step Eighteen. Let the market do what it does best. When rent goes up 70 percent, say there is nothing we can do about it. This will have two great results: it will keep many former residents away from the city and it will make landlords happy. If wages go up, immediately import more outside workers and wages will settle down.

Step Nineteen. Make sure all the predominately white suburbs surrounding the African American city make it very difficult for the people displaced from the city to return to the metro area. Have one suburb refuse to allow any new subsidized housing at all. Have the sheriff of another threaten to stop and investigate anyone wearing dreadlocks. Throw in a little humor and have one nearly all-white suburb pass a law that makes it illegal for homeowners to rent to people other than their blood relatives! The courts may strike these down, but it will take time and the message will be clear—do not think about returning to the suburbs.

Step Twenty. Reduce public transportation by more than 80 percent. The people without cars will understand the message.

Step Twenty One. Keep affordable housing to a minimum. Instead, use the money to reopen the Superdome and create tourism campaigns. Refuse to boldly create massive homeownership opportunities for former renters. Delay re-opening apartment complexes in African American neighborhoods. As long as less than half the renters can return to affordable housing, they will not return.

Step Twenty Two. Keep all public housing closed. Since it is 100 percent African American, this is a no-brainer. Make sure to have African Americans be the people who deliver the message. This step will also help by putting more pressure on the rental market, as 5000 more families will then have to compete for rental housing with low-income workers. This will provide another opportunity for hundreds of millions of government funds to be funneled to corporations when these buildings are torn down and developers can build up other less-secure buildings in their place. Make sure to tell the 5000 families evicted from public housing that you are not letting them back for their own good. Tell them you are trying to save them from living in a segregated neighborhood. This will also send a good signal—if the government can refuse to allow people back, private concerns are free to do the same or worse.

Step Twenty Three. Shut down as much public health as possible. Sick and elderly people and moms with little kids need access to public healthcare. Keep the public hospital, which hosted about 350,000 visits a year before the disaster, closed. Keep the neighborhood clinics closed. Put all the pressure on the private healthcare facilities and provoke economic and racial tensions there between the insured and uninsured.

Step Twenty Four. Close as many public mental healthcare providers as possible. The trauma of the disaster will seriously increase stress on everyone. Left untreated, medical experts tell us this will dramatically increase domestic violence, self-medication and drug and alcohol abuse and, of course, crime.

Step Twenty Five. Keep the city environment unfriendly to women. Women were already widely discriminated against before the storm. Make sure that you do not reopen day care centers. This, combined with the lack of healthcare, lack of affordable housing, and lack of transportation, will keep moms with kids away. If you can keep women with kids away, the city will destroy itself.

Step Twenty Six. Create and maintain an environment where black on black crime will flourish. As long as you can keep parents out of town, keep the schools hostile to kids without parents, keep public healthcare closed, make only low-paying jobs available, not fund social workers or prosecutors or public defenders or police, and keep chaos the norm, young black men will certainly kill other young black men. To increase the visibility of the crime problem, bring in the National Guard in fatigues to patrol the streets in their camouflage hummers.

Step Twenty Seven. Strip the local elected, predominately African American government of its powers. Make certain the money that is coming in to fix up the region is not under their control. Privatize as much as you can as quickly as you can—housing, healthcare, and education for starters. When in doubt, privatize. Create an appointed commission of people who have no experience in government to make all the decisions. In fact, it is better to create several such commissions; that way, no one will really be sure who is in charge and there will be much more delay and conflict. Treat the local people like they are stupid; you know what is best for them much better than they do.

Step Twenty Eight. Create lots of planning processes but give them no authority. Overlap them where possible. Give people conflicting signals whether their neighborhood will be allowed to rebuild or be turned into green space. This will create confusion, conflict and aggravation. People will blame the officials closest to them—the local African American officials, even though they do not have any authority to do anything about these plans, since they do not control the rebuilding money.

Step Twenty Nine. Hold an election but make it very difficult for displaced voters to participate. In fact, do not allow any voting in any place outside the state, even though we do it for Americans in other countries and even though hundreds of thousands of people are still displaced. This is very important because when people are not able to vote, those who have been able to return can say, “Well, they didn’t even vote, so I guess they are not interested in returning.”

Step Thirty. Get the elected officials out of the way and make room for corporations to make a profit. There are billions to be made in this process for well-connected national and international corporations. There is so much chaos that no one will be able to figure out, for a long time, exactly where the money went. There is no real attempt to make sure that local businesses, especially African American businesses, get contracts—at best they get modest subcontracts from the corporations that got the big money. Make sure the authorities prosecute a couple of little people who ripped off $2,000—that will temporarily satisfy people who know they are being ripped off and divert attention from the big money rip-offs. This will also provide another opportunity to blame the victims—as critics can say, “Well, we gave them lots of money, they must have wasted it, how much more can they expect from us?”

Step Thirty One. Keep people’s attention diverted from the African American city. Pour money into Iraq instead of the Gulf Coast. Corporations have figured out how to make big bucks whether we are winning or losing the war. It is easier to convince the country to support war—support for cities is much, much tougher. When the war goes badly, you can change the focus of the message to supporting the troops. Everyone loves the troops. No one can say we all love African Americans. Focus on terrorists—that always seems to work.

Step Thirty Two. Refuse to talk about or look seriously at race. Condemn anyone who dares to challenge the racism of what is going on—accuse them of “playing the race card” or say they are paranoid. Criticize people who challenge the exclusion of African Americans as people who “just want to go back to the bad old days.” Repeat the message that you want something better for everyone. Use African American spokespersons where possible.

Step Thirty-Three. Repeat these steps.

Note to readers. Every fact in this list actually happened and continues to happen in New Orleans, after Katrina.

Advertisements

Jena Six Updates, Action, and Coverage

Please take time to view the awesome resources Color of Change has put together regarding the Jena Six.

Two commenters have left reporting updates:

George L. Cook III of Let’s Talk Honestly interviewed Alan Bean at Friends of Justice about the case here. The interview and media notes also have important e-mail addresses to the Jena Six Defense Fund, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, and the National Action Network:

Jena 6 Defense Fund
jena6defense@gmail.com

Louisiana Attorney General’s office
CivilInfo@ag.state.la.us Civil Division
Executive@ag.state.la.us Executive Division

National Action Network ( Al Sharpton )
crisis@nationalactionnetwork.net

Ana alerted me that Le Monde in Paris covered the Jena Six today as a feature story; check out this story: “L’arbre de la colere (The Tree of Wrath).”

Thin Black Duke of Slant Truth has created a Facebook group and cause for the Jena Six. Much obliged, man; much obliged. There are a couple of other groups dedicated to the Jena Six too, if you’re interested in joining them. The most important thing is to spread the word.

And I just spotted this on his site and it’s awesome (yes, I’m still wowed by the interwebs):

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

THE PETITION IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR SIGNING HERE.

UPDATE: Mychal Bell (one of the Jena Six) has been convicted of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery.

1. Dr. Elle has more information about the Jena Six, including a Microsoft Word document (7 pages) from the Friends of Justice detailing and analyzing the events surrounding the trial and the charging of the six young men involved.
2. Tom has prepared version 5 of the Jena Six petition to the United States Department of Justice; the petition is demanding a review of the charges leveled against the Jena Six for misconduct and bias:
   Petition to the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice
   This is a petition to request that the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice review events surrounding the prosecution of six Black students in Jena, Louisiana, for evidence of racial discrimination. The six students are reportedly facing prosecution for second degree attempted murder — and possible prison sentences of up to 100 years — for allegedly participating in an unarmed school brawl that resulted in no serious injuries.The brawl followed months of racial tension after hangman’s nooses were reportedly hung from a tree at the students’ school. Please see these articles for the situation in Jena:
   Chicago Tribune article
   BBC Article.
   The prosecution of these young men represents a gross miscarriage of justice, punishing Black students for opposing segregation of their schools while ignoring the threatening and provocative acts of those engaging in segregation.From a Chicago Tribune article on the cases:

   “There’s been obvious racial discrimination in this case,” said Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who described Jena as a “racial powder keg” primed to ignite. “It appears the black students were singled out and targeted in this case for some unusually harsh treatment.”

   In view of these facts, we the undersigned respectfully request that the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice launch a full investigation into events in Jena, Louisiana, beginning with the noose incident of August 31, 2006, and culminating in the alleged fight of December 4, 2006 to determine whether the civil rights of Jena residents have been violated.

   ———————————————————–
   [signatures]

   You can suggest any changes or recommendations for the petition at Tom’s blog, at my blog, at the AfroSpear Think Tank, or on the AfroSpear Forum (requires AfroSpear membership). We hope to begin circulating the petition by the middle of next week.

3. According to Brother J. Vallot of the National Action Network, you can watch a streaming version of the entire “Free the Jena Six” Rally on the Black Action Network website. He recommends watching it using RealPlayer through its stream rather than doing the download.
4. Calling the artistically inclined: Aulelia originally suggested that a banner be created for the Jena Six so people can post the image to their websites. If anyone is interested in designing something, please post a comment. Best case scenario is to create an image to couple with the petition so we can generate as many signatures as possible.
5. Carmen D. has shared previous coverage she did about the Jena Six on All About Race and an update with additional resources. Go take a look.

For previous information and updates, see Jena, Louisiana: Meet the Grassroots and Jena, Louisiana and the United States. If you have posted any commentary or information surrounding the Jena Six, please include a link to your work in the comments.

Support the Newark Women

from blogger Yolanda Carrington at The Primary Contradiction:

Four African American lesbian women from Newark, New Jersey were sentenced this past June 14th to excessively long prison terms in New York for the crime of defending themselves against homophobic harassment and violence. These young sistas were railroaded by both a dismissively misogynist judge and by the reactionary, sensationalist media. As Imani Henry writes in Workers World:

Deemed a so-called “hate crime” against a straight man, every possible racist, anti-woman, anti-LGBT and anti-youth tactic was used by the entire state apparatus and media. Everything from the fact that they lived outside of New York, in the working-class majority Black city of Newark, N.J., to their gender expressions and body structures were twisted and dehumanized in the public eye and to the jury.

According to court observers, [presiding judge Edward J.] McLaughlin stated throughout the trial that he had no sympathy for these women. The jury, although they were all women, were all white. All witnesses for the district attorney were white men, except for one Black male who had several felony charges.

Court observers report that the defense attorneys had to put enormous effort into simply convincing the jury that they were “average women” who had planned to just hang out together that night. Some jurists asked why they were in the Village if they were from New Jersey. The DA brought up whether they could afford to hang out there—raising the issue of who has the right to be there in the first place.

It’s gonna take the struggle of people around the country to get these young women out of prison. Here’s information from the organization FIERCE! on how we all can help.

*************************************************************

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

• Pro-bono legal support: Most if not all of the women need new lawyers for the appeal. Finding new counsel is the #1 priority for support. All leads and contacts welcome.
• Media contacts and writers: Journalists to report, community members to write opeds, and media-savvy people to advise the families about working with media.
• Pen pals: Prison is profoundly isolating, as well as boring. Express your solidarity and prayers for the women’s strength.
• Money: Some of the families have depleted their life savings paying legal fees. Also imagine: collect calls from prison, transportation costs upstate for prison visits, paying for prison commissary. Direct financial contributions (even $10, $20, $30) are needed, along with people to organize fundraisers.
• Diverse organizational support: Building a public campaign requires support from all
  corners. If you think the sentences these women are receiving are too harsh, there is a place for your support.

NEXT COMMUNITY MEETING:
Tuesday, July 10th at 6:30pm at the new office of FIERCE
located at 147 West 24th Street, 6th Floor
(between 6th & 7th Ave. – 1/F/C/E to 23rd Street)
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
For more information about how to get involved, please contact:
Bran Fenner [bran@fiercenyc.org], Jessica Robertson [jessonia@gmail.com], or
Jessica Stern [sternj@hrw.org].

Fear of “Dark Skin”

This is an interesting post by Shakazp.

“People hate to talk about this issue, but I feel it is my responsibility to give it a little attention. There is a fear of black men who has darker skin, most whites feel comfortable around lighter skinned black people particularly black men. My theory is darker skinned black men are stereotyped as violent, angry, oversexed, and etc. any negative prejudgements are always attached to a brotha’s image. But men always kept the spoils of war (I use as a loose metaphor), that’s why there is no fear of dark skinned black women, not saying we are at war but the numbers don’t lie the majority work places rather have them around than men its no secret. Perceptions must change about the darker brotha, don’t let videos and news reports be the final determining factor of how you see the darker black men, in other words don’t judge the book by its cover look at his fruits individually, thus judging the tree by the fruit it bears. Jennifer Eberhardt associate professor of psychology has findings you might find interesting [just click on her name to read the article on her]. Not every tree has rotten fruits and not every dark skinned black man will harm white people, some of us are really trying to achieve the American Dream just like everyone else.”

I did a psychological based bias test called an “Implicit Association Seo Companies Test”. It claims to measure our unconscious preferences (maybe a better term is “sub-conscious”) in the areas such as “Race” and “Skin-tone”. It is suppose to be fool proof. Try it and let me know if you agreed with your result. Just follow the link and the click on “Go to Demonstration Test” and then “i wish to proceed”. Just follow the instructions after that. It’s rather simple to do and takes about 10 minutes.

What Does The Sphere Think?

OK Guys give me some help with this case. I am sure everyone is aware of it by now, but I am still posting the column by a reporter named Jill Porter which was taken from the Philadelphia Daily News. I don’t want to say too much because I am very familiar with the case (A colleague of mine actually prosecuted Mr. Caldwell a few years back) and I want to keep my law license 🙂 

So after you read this article-which was written with an unapologetic slant- let me know what you think.

“IF LOSING HER beloved son Kenny on 9/11 was unbearable for Philadelphia mom Elsie Goss-Caldwell, what’s happened since is unconscionable.

Kenny’s father, who she says abandoned the family when Kenny was a toddler and played no role in his life, is seeking to profit from his death.

In an act of shameless greed, Leon Caldwell Sr. has filed for half of the nearly $3 million awarded to Kenny’s estate from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001.

“It’s not even about the money – how dare you insult Kenny’s memory?” seethed Goss-Caldwell, of West Philadelphia.

“To think you’re supposed to sit back and profit off of Kenny? No. That’s not right. That’s not respecting him at all.”

Goss-Caldwell intends to be in a Brooklyn court today, seeking to disqualify her ex-husband from receiving any part of the estate.

And what does the paragon of fatherhood have to say for himself?

He said he stopped seeing Kenny and his other son, Leon Jr., when his ex-wife “prevented him from continuing to do so,” according to a legal brief filed by his lawyer.

Goss-Caldwell denies it.

And, by his own account, that would have been around 1976 – 25 years before Kenny died.

Caldwell never sought visitation or custody in court – couldn’t afford a lawyer, he claims – and never attempted to re-establish a relationship when Kenny grew up.

According to Elsie, he last saw Kenny in 1984, at her mother’s funeral, 17 years before Kenny’s death.

As Elsie’s lawyer, Paul J. Bschorr, put it so succinctly in his brief, Caldwell “abandoned Kenny and had nothing to do with him until the smell of money brought him forth.”

 

Caldwell, a cook, and Goss-Caldwell, a tax practitioner, had been married for six years when he left the family and moved in with an aunt in Paterson, N.J., in 1974.

According to his court pleadings, he saw Kenny and his older son, Leon Jr., every weekend for the next year.

But when Goss-Caldwell stopped letting him see them at her home and told him to arrange visits at her mother’s house, his visits got “sporadic.”

That’s the insurmountable “impediment” he cited as the reason he soon vanished from their lives.

And while he claims to have supported the boys financially, he was still more than $12,000 in arrears on court-ordered child support when Kenny died, Elsie’s brief said.

At $30 a week, that’s a lot of missed payments.

“He simply was not around,” Goss-Caldwell’s legal brief said.

“Not around for family gatherings, birthdays, holidays or graduations; not around to counsel the boys; not around to attend their sports and school functions; in sum, not around as a parent should be.”

Caldwell was so estranged from the family that when Kenny died, Goss-Caldwell didn’t even think to contact him.

“He was the last thought on my brain,” she said.

 

Kenny had called his mom the morning of Sept. 11 to tell her he loved her, but had to get out of the World Trade Center because of “a bomb.”

He was an executive for a consulting company on the 102nd floor of the North Tower – the first building hit by the terrorists. His body was never found.

Elsie’s agonizing search for her son and her refusal to accept his death was chronicled in gut-wrenching stories by Barbara Laker in the Daily News.

Weeks after Kenny vanished in the rubble, she left messages on his cell phone beseeching him not to give up, that “Mommy” was still looking for him.

She continued paying rent on his Brooklyn apartment, which she’d visit and keep clean, in case her miracle came true and he came home.

She was reluctant to sign his death certificate months after 9/11, because “to me that meant like that was the end, you were giving up,” she told me.

“My pastor said it doesn’t mean that, it’s just paperwork.”

But when she showed up to fill out a death certificate, she was told she wasn’t listed as next of kin for Kenny, who was unmarried and had no children.

His long-estranged father had signed the papers, seeking to be a beneficiary of his estate.

Caldwell‘s attempt to exploit the death of his son is as naked an act of greed as I can imagine – an affront to Goss-Caldwell and an assault on Kenny’s soul.

“Kenny would hate that he’s taking me through all this,” Goss-Caldwell said. “Kenny would tell him to ‘leave my mom alone.’ “

If there’s any justice in a world so cruel as to take her “baby boy” from her, the Surrogate’s Court will do just that. *”

We will see what this Judge up in Brooklyn does in about thirty days or so. 

   

Travelling in a post 9/11 world.

If you think that the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks is limited to the United States….Think Again!

Just so you know- 9/11 was condemned by many Muslims and it wasn’t even organized by the international Muslim community. However, the people who organized the attacks will most probably not pay for what they did but of course the moderate Muslims will suffer and pay for it.

I’m a young African Muslim belonging to a “terrorist-supporting” country (at least it is portrayed this way!). I was raised in a liberal and tolerant household and taught to respect other religions and cultures. I lived in many countries and I attended many international schools. Being a third culture kid, I love getting to know about new cultures and I love travelling! Sadly, in a post 9-11 world travelling is not as fun and comfortable as before. I ‘m not generalizing here…I should be more specific- travelling while “Muslim” or “Arab” is very discomforting now! In my case, not only Muslim but also Sudanese.Keep in mind that Sudan is one of the world’s least favorite countries, Bin Laden lived in my country for a short time and if I want to travel to America, I have to go through “special procedures” along with my fellow Iranians, North Koreans, Cubans and Syrians. Goodies!

Visas:-

My friends brother ( a 14 year old Sudanese boy who attends a prestigious American school here in Cairo) was denied a visa to Belgium a week ago. Ironically, his 29 classmates were given visas so he was the only person not allowed to go on this “school trip”.

I applied for an American visa a month ago. Please keep in mind that I’m going with 5 other Egyptian classmates and two American professors. My fellow classmates got their visas 2 weeks before me because my passport was sent to Washington for “Special procedures”. Of course, being a sophomore at university with a diplomat father..I’m definitely a danger to the American society!Anyways, I received my visa three weeks later only to o find out that my visa only lasted 3 months ( keep in mind: my friends visas lasts 5 years!)Additionally, I paid extra because of my “Special visa procedures”.

I’m not going to be surprised if I was taken to a special “interrogation room” at JFK! Everything is possible now.

 Airports:-

Turkey’s Airport (2004)- please keep in mind that I wasn’t travelling to Turkey (because I was denied a visa to Turkey of course!) but I stopped there on my way to Bulgaria. Anyways when we stood in lines ready to board the plane, I was surprised to find two lines. First line: Americans and Europeans Second line: Yes…THE REST OF THE WORLD!

I have to quote a fellow Sudanese blogger here who said that after 9/11 “airports are like big bedrooms”. Everybody is getting naked! Belts..shoes etc…. Not to mention the liquids confiscated!This is what I recall from Turkey’s airport. ..Not to mention the toilet I used many times during my 12 hours stay there ( I couldn’t leave the airport for some reason…go figure!)

All Eyes on the Muslim World

After 9/11, the Muslim world became very interesting. Middle-Eastern studies is a very popular major in America now. Not to mention the large numbers of western study-abroad students coming to the Muslim world for a semester or even a year( most of them are Americans). Many universities started offering Arabic language courses and learning Arabic will definitely land you a great job with the Department of State (I was told so!).I find it fascinating how the west is suddenly interested in the lives behind the veils, mosques, the political structure of Syria and life in post-revolutionary Iran.I was part of a web-conferencing program called Soliya last year. We met with four students from different universities in the United States and discussed the core problems between the United States and the Arab/Muslim world and other current issues such as the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the Iraq war. This is just another way of opening dialogue between two very different parts of the worlds.

More about my American visa problems and frustrations.

 I started writing this post after I received my passport because I was frustrated and angry. I considered cancelling my trip because 1- I thought I was discriminated against because of something not in my hands 2- I don’t deserve this treatment after all, I paid a lot for this trip (yes Africans don’t like wasting their money:)  ) and I think I deserve it because I’m interested in the topic we are going to study and I’m not going to let the sour American-Sudanese relations stop me from going to graduate school there(America is home to amazing schools after all!)

However, I would like to add that if this trip was a “holiday”, I would’ve cancelled it.

Activism in the Cyber Age

I came upon an interesting conversation in our AfroSphere on what sacrifices one is willing to make in relation to being an activist against injustice through utilizing internet resources. In the cyber age where one may feel some (false) sense of security and empowerment, due to the vast numbers of bloggers, web sites and the “supposed” anonymity associated with being a faceless moniker (or avatar), the question becomes once that veil has been lifted: “what is the real level of one’s commitment to their cause(s)?” Terry Howcott makes this point in this way:

“The question then becomes will you tighten your understanding of what activism is – because activism is not a hobby. Activism is specifically defined the doctrine or practice of vigorous action or involvement as a means of achieving political or other goals, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc. The use of direct, often confrontational action, such as a demonstration or strike, in opposition to or support of a cause.”

There is indeed a sense that “Activism” within the cyber world is redefining our understanding of and stretching the boundaries of that concept. In my estimation, the above definition used is too limiting and confining to encompass this new phenomenon, however the reprecussions are just as real! There is no doubt in my mind that being involved in “cyber activism” can get you “white-listed”, harassed, monitored, surveilled, intercepted, arrested, interrogated and yes…. maybe even killed? AND I am refering to North America, Europe and not China, Iran nor North Korea. Or am I being too dramatic!? Terry Howcott stated:

“In that light, it’s always possible you might be arrested and it’s very possible you won’t. If you and some friends are out driving tonight and you come across a road that is desolate and no one around – and you see a police officer beating and kicking a Black man who is not responding or fighting back – would you act as an activist and risk going to prison? Or would you think such intervention outside the confines of your perception of activism as a hobby?” 

“A hobby?”…. hmmm. I had a recent (minor) experience which opened my eyes to the possibility of being identified through blogging. I had blogged about a course I attended through the organization I work for and I subsequently received a comment from someone who stated that they were applying for a position with that organization…. and wished for us to connect. Now I am not trying to be an “anonymous personality” when I blog, but it showed me that if I had said something negative about my organization, it could have had real reprecussions. I know for a fact that the organization I work for has a media division which peruses the news, internet and blogs daily, for any reference to them.

Now I am not one to fall into the paranoia of conspiracy theories, but if one doesn’t know that ALL so-called “western democracies” do have agencies monitoring websites and blog pages for “undesirable content” (whatever that may mean to them), AND they can very easily identify who you are and where you live…. then you are like “an ostrich with it’s head in the sand”. There are numerous mainstream media stories of non-violent and non-threatening groups like the Quakers and other senior citizens peace activists, who are purposely infiltrated by federal agents and some of their members are even placed on “no-fly lists”. Terry Howcott continues:

“These are critical questions to ask oneself when determining if activist engagement is for you. Activism is acting out a level of integrity and decency. Seeing disenfranchisement and injustice and resolving to doing something about it is activism.” 

So my question is what are you willing to sacrifice for “integrity and decency”? Your career? Your finances? Your reputation? Your security? What cost are you willing to pay for helping, enlightening and empowering those of African descent by cyber activism? Look to history, recent history, to get an idea of what road you may be embarking upon. Or am I being too dramatic? Let me end with Terry Howcott:

“The committment to what is right is a risky affair.”  

         

Eyes On Darfur

In June 2007, Amnesty International launched a human rights project and accompanying web site called Eyes On Darfur, which uses high resolution commercial satellite images of villages in the Darfur region. It features before and after satellite images of destroyed villages and villages at risk, as well as documented reports and personal accounts from the victims of the genocide and ethnic cleansing. There is a well detailed history of the conflict and the weak international response. There is also a disturbing photo gallery from the book: Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan. Finally there is a “Take Action” section that has four separate online petitions to President Bush of the USA; President al-Bashir of Sudan; President Deby of Chad; and President Putin of Russia, demanding that they do their part to stop the genocide.