Byts and Bytes

1. “It is easy enough to dismiss those who persist in believing that the first successful African slave revolt took place in Haiti. Arab historians have themselves established the contrary, and in contemporaneous detail, so that it is near common knowledge that a revolt of epical dimensions took place at least a millennium earlier, in the salt marshes of Iraq.” Wole Soyinka in Between Truths and Indulgences: Part 2 

This certainly wasn’t common knowledge to me, so I did a little research and found this very interesting and informative article: The Zanj Slave Rebellion, AD 869-883

2. Here’s another quite interesting and informative article by the National Geographic Magazine from February 2008 on “The Black Pharoahs”. Click on the image for the article:

3. Hat tip to MyAfricanDiaspora blog where I found this article: “Being Black in Cuba by Ivan Garcia” 

4. Hat tip to Faye Anderson for recommending this article at the Huffington Post by Dr. Jonathan David Farley: 
“The National Association for the Advancement of Cowardly Pawns” 

5. Informative piece from STRATFOR, discussing the historical immigration relationship between the U.S. and Mexico:  “Arizona, Borderlands and U.S.-Mexican Relations”

The decade to come…

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Matthew 24: 6-8 

In no way do I consider myself a pessimist about the future. I am a pragmatic optimist, for I know in whom my hope lies. However as I look at the current local, national and international events today, I am going to take the liberty to make certain prediction about the decade the come.

Now I don’t consider myself a wannabe Nostradamus, nor do I claim to have any special ability to the see into the future, nor are these predictions based on any interpretations of biblical prophesies. I believe that anyone with a high school knowledge of world history and isn’t blind to recurring trends in history (which always repeats itself), who follows current events and employs a little common sense (which isn’t as common as the term implies), could make similar predictions. Nevertheless, here goes:

1. The U.S. will broker an agreement with certain elements of the Taliban whom they will declare as “moderates”, claim victory and get the hell out of Afghanistan… after losing hundreds, even thousands of troops with nothing to show for their sacrifice.    

 

2. There will be an ever new scramble for Africa, as the U.S. will manufacture reasons to increase military incursions within the continent via AFRICOM, in an effort to secure valuable minerals and oil reserves as well as blunt China’s growing influence. England and France, via the European Union will also attempt to re-establish their influence in some of their former colonies.

                                                                                                                               3. Black males, Muslim or not, will more and more be portrayed as a threat to national and international security. They will be accused of being religious, political, social and economic terrorists. This will lead to more frequent, stringent and intrusive profiling and harassment, which will result in an increase in detention, incarceration and extermination of Black males for “security” reasons.

                                                                                                  

4. The Obama administration will lobby for and get from the Democratic Congress another stimulus package worth billions for the financial and business community and claim it’s required for job creation. This will secure his second term as president. After 2016, he will be voted in as the Secretary General of the United Nations.

                                                                                                                             5. Sarah “Rouge” Palin will become the first woman and 45th President of the United States of America.

 

                                                                                                                                6. Iran will prepare to test a nuclear weapon with the assistance of Russia. Israel will then counter with a pre-emptive strike. The shit will then hit the fan!

7. After the death of Fidel Castro, the U.S. will attempt to regain control of Cuba and start a domino effect to turn back the tide of left wing populist regimes in Latin America, such as in Venezuela and Bolivia.

 

8. The Chinese economy will collapse under the crushing weight of the U.S. debt which it holds and will be exposed as the “paper tiger” which it truly is.

9. Speaking of tiger, Tiger Woods will break all of Jack Nicklaus’s records, regain all and even more sponsors, and become an even bigger merchandising phenom! He will also be arrested for having a loaded gun in his golf bag at the U.S. Open, release a rap albumn called “A Tiger’s Nightmare: Nigga$ in the Woods”, and will date one Black woman (kinda).

10. Al Davis will finally die and the Oakland Raiders will immediately win back to back Super Bowls!

Cuban Vacation

One thing that has been a constant blessing in my life is the opportunity to travel regularly to different parts of the world. Visiting and interacting with people in different countries or even in different parts of the country where I live, has allowed me a variety of invaluable experiences that has literally opened my eyes to other perspectives, as well as sharpened my intellect.

My wife has always wanted to visit Cuba, especially before Fidel dies. A couple weeks ago we took the trip with our son. We had an excellent time! It was nice to be able to relax and recharge with some fun, sun and rum, after a taxing year. We stayed at an all inclusive resort, but also took a trip to the local town, as well as a day trip to Havana. The food was excellent and plentiful (no hot sauce anywhere though). The only disappointment was that they had no mint for Mojitos! But we managed. Here are some of my impressions of the island:

1. The revolution is still alive, but not doing so well.

2. The people are genuinely friendly. We didn’t get harassed on the beach or by overly aggressive vendors in the markets to buy their trinkets.

3. Although there was obvious poverty, there wasn’t that sense of desperate energy among the people. There were very few beggars, mostly in Havana, but a lot less than in other countries of the Caribbean which I have visited. We had a couple experiences involving corrupt officials asking for a “gift”, but these were minor incidents.  

4. We didn’t see many police officers at all, however we felt totally safe and at ease being off the resort and exploring the local town and Havana with our 2 year old son.

5. Speaking of Havana… it’s an interesting city. It has a very historic feel to it, especially since the buildings are colonial and most of the cars are from the ’50s.    

6. The people didn’t appear “repressed” to us. I mention this because while we were there, we were watching CNN and they reported that an American citizen involved with USAID was arrested for handing out cellphones and laptops to locals (see here). The reporter stated that this was an example of the “repression” the Cuban people were under from the Castro regime. My wife looked at each other and started to laugh and shake our heads. Can you say: “american propaganda!”

7. What does have a noticable negative impact on the people and the economy is the continuing U.S. economic, financial and trade blockade. There is trade with other countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia (particularly China) and of-course Canada, but U.S. laws such as ships which come to Cuba cannot enter a U.S. port for 6 months, has resulted in an unfortunate increase in the cost of goods entering the country. 

8. The people are proud of the fact that they have universal education (including university) and health care. There are also many students on scholarships from various countries studying in Cuban universities and technical institutes, as well as Cuban professionals, particularly doctors and engineers, who have been sent by the government to work in many developing countries. 

9. There is a substantial investment by the government into art and culture. They are also passionate about baseball, which is their national sport.

10. Although there have recently been media reports of racism against Afro-Cubans (see here), we didn’t observe any obvious disparity between them and those of Spanish descent… in fact there is a lot of inter-mixing. Granted we were there only for a week, primarily on a resort, and it didn’t seem appropriate to ask the Black staff if they felt they were being discriminated against in their own country. However I will mention that it was very noticable to my wife and I that the White tourists were catered to more than we were. At times we felt invisible as the staff (both White and Black) would serve the White tourists around us until we were forced to get their attention.

11. Raul is respected. Fidel is revered. Che is worshipped. We were told that in schools, at the end of singing the national anthem, students shout: “We will be like Che!” His image and books are everywhere.

12. We returned with rum and cigars!

Taking a Siesta in Cuba

Feliz Navidad!     Joyeux Noel!     Merry Christmas!