Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A Traveller's Tale


Moroccan Maiden


I had the fortune of beginning my college education as a student on an ocean liner that traveled the world. My parents had close friends whose daughter had studied and traveled this way for two years, and her stories, intellect and worldly knowledge were quite impressive. Carol was the type of young lady that would have made the best of a junior college experience, but she was an excellent ambassador for what was first known as the University of the Seven Seas.
The institution has undergone many name changes through the years, as it has changed affiliations with colleges and universities in the United States . When I attended it was called the World Campus Afloat, and the land campus was Chapman College, of Orange, California . Today it is known as The Institute for Shipboard Education, Semester at Sea, and the academic sponsor is the University of Pittsburgh .



The year I attended (Fall 1967-1968), was quite extraordinary in the world of political affairs, as well as in the history of the sailing university. That was the year that fierce fighting in the Arab-Israeli War resulted in a first time closing of the Suez Canal. Being a successful teen model, embodying the African American version of the “California Girl”, living in Los Angeles, these events would normally have been of little importance to me. But because I was about to expand my horizons, traveling the world by its oceans and seas, this turned out to be of great significance.
The closing of the Suez resulted in a drastic change of itinerary for my semester at sea. Normally the ship left from either the East or West Coast, traveled half of the globe and returned home. But closure of the Suez Canal meant we would have to travel all the way down and around the Cape of Good Hope . Our tour now would be circumventing the entire globe! Around the world in about 110 days. And all for the same price!



One experience I will always cherish was the visit to the North African port of Casablanca, Morocco . The city has such a rich and exotic culture. It would be my first experience being in a land where people of color were in the majority. With people of all shades of brown I was eager to explore the feeling of blending in and becoming one with the native people. I was also fortunate in that I spoke French, one of the countries’ major languages. Mrs. Marquez, my high school French teacher, had always complimented me on my accent.



Our first day out shopping, I headed straight to the Old Medina, the souk where Casablanca ’s residents did their shopping. No tourist markets for me, I was looking for a Djellaba, the long robe worn by the local women. I added the accompanying head wear and face coverings and Voila! My transformation was complete! And what a transformation it was. Now, speaking French and covered head to toe in the traditional garments, I became a Moroccan.
While we shopped, I saw that my money got a lot more than what my white shipmates were able to bargain for their purchases. The only drawback was that I was now prohibited from escaping the hot sun by retreating into the clubs or hotels for a cool alcoholic beverage as we were used to doing. A young lady sitting and drinking alcohol wearing a Djellaba in those types of establishments was definitely a ‘No No’. And it was only after getting several dirty looks by local men that a bartender kindly explained this to me.


However, the deepest implications of my obviously very authentic image hit home that evening as I walked up the gangplank and attempted to board the ship with my friends. There was a normal routine that consisted of first passing the port officials, then greeting the designated ship officers. After doing it so many times, one was no longer required to show your passport and documents, as the officers by now were familiar with the faces of their 300 or more student body. This evening was different though, because I greeted them in French instead of English, and for all intents and purposes, I looked like a Djellaba covered Moroccan woman.



Before the officers could allow me to step onto the ship, the local port police thrust their arms in front of me and told me, “Arête!! Arête!!” They were ordering me to stop. Very adamantly they were not about to allow me to board the ship. In French, they kept asking me where I was from. In my playful mood, the first time they asked I said, “Je suis (I am) Moroccan”. My friends and I, being young college kids were all laughing at the confusion I was creating. Each time they asked me, I would switch, where I said I was from between being Moroccan and American. I kept responding, “Je suis Americaine”, but I would pronounce Americaine with my very good accent, and it would sound like I said, “Je suis Moroccan”.



Things took a serious turn when the ships’ officers finally told my friends to embark, but said that I would not be allowed onboard. When we all asked why, we were told that the port police had determined that I was a Moroccan prostitute attempting to get onboard to offer my services to the young men! Overcoming my shock, and now very sober, I began to speak English, and the ships’ Captain was called. He quickly verified my identity and ushered me onboard.



Needless to say, I realized after reflecting upon all of the experiences I had that first day wearing the Djellaba, that donning a costume worn by the local people one is visiting, entails a lot more than, “Hey look at me! I look just like the natives!” For, truly respecting the dignity of the people and the cultures that one meets is much more than a surface effort. The significance of customs and learning what’s behind the symbols of that culture is as much an important part of the travel experience, as being there. I learned that I could easily look like a native, but that behaving like one was a completely different matter.


And because you know, I love to create a banquet for you, here's.....a bit more.......


In the Heart of the Medina:

Dances of North Africa



The Medina, the walled city, is the centre of traditional urban life in North Africa today. The maze of confusing streets is the home to the souk or market where traditional crafts are still practised and offered for sale. Modern and traditional urban women mingle with peasants in from the countryside who have come to ply their wares and make special purchases. Continue on a winding narrow ravine-like street between the high walls of the flanking buildings and you will come past solid, wooden doors, decorated and protected with an amulet, offering the possibility of entry with a huge bronze knocker often shaped like a hand. But what one cannot see is the world which opens if one can only pass these doors, past a blind entryway, to where they open on magnificent tiled courtyards with gardens and a fountain, surrounded by rooms which all open to the central communal space and the distant sky. This is the domain of women, their work place and traditionally a place for their celebrations: births, circumcisions, marriages, sacrifices, trance-healing rituals and eventually death.

88888888~8)(8~8)(8~8)(8~88888888


Eric Tournaire

Serpent in Batik by Eric Tournaire

Moroccan artist

Water Color and ink on Paper


Eric Tournaire was born in 1958 in Africa, in Casablanca, Morocco. He lived there until 1974. In 1981, thanks to its education and scholarship, he spent one and a half months in Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, and Ghana. He returned to Morocco in 1999. He painted as an assistant of Claude Morin for 10 years, building its iconography of African inspiration. He lived and painted in Pennes - Mirabeau, still developing his particular universe.

He writes:
Africa ... Africa, the cradle of humanity, is one of my sources of inspiration most intense and the paintings of Korhogo, in northern Côte d'Ivoire. The magic of nature at large, with his powers and cosmogonies primitive touch me a lot. In my paintings I try to refer to all these civilizations that succeeded and mixed in the crucible of the history of this continent. By overlay patterns, colors, and transparencies, I try to express a succession of images, legends, religions and myths together closely in the space of my paintings and drawings.To obtain a summary of these overlays I use different techniques with each other.


Check the Inside African Art link for more of the art being created today by Africa's artists.
http://www.insideafricanart.com/

And here's more!


A wonderful website detailing a festival of extraordinary music of the the Black Africans of Morocco. The festival is in it's 11th year and will be held June 26 - 29, 2008 in Morocco. Some of the website is in French, but much of it is in English, and the homepage offers a taste of the music. Go There! http://www.festival-gnaoua.net/



Gnawa are the descendents of slaves originating from Black Africa who established brotherhoods throughout Morocco. They are made up of master musicians (maâlem), metal castanet players, clairvoyants, mediums and their followers.
They are at the same time musicians, initiators and healers, blending African and Arabo-Berber customs. Despite being Muslims, the Gnawa base their ritual on djinn (spirits) straight from the the African cult of possession.


The most spectacular and important ceremony is the Lila, whose function is essentially therapeutic. During the celebration the maâlem and his group call on the saints and supernaturel entities to take possession of their followers who fall into trance.


Their instruments : 3 stringed percussive lute (guembri) Large metal castanets (qraqeb) Drums (ganga)


Their ritual can be compared to Haïtian voodoo and Brazilian macumba.
The music of the brotherhood - of which only the profane part is played on stage to the public during the festival - has sparked a wave of emulators on the international scene.

GLOSSARY
Gnawa : plural of Gnawi. A generic term which includes all members of the brotherhood including the master musicians, castanet players, clairvoyant healers and the followers of the cult.
Maâlem : master of the ceremony
Moqadma : priestess Tallaâtes,
chouwafates or arifates : clairvoyant healers
Mlouk : supernatural entities
Guembri or Hajhouj : percussive 3-stringed lute
Aouicha : small guembri
Qarqabats or Qraqech : metal castanets
Tbel : drums
Ftouh errahba : beginning of the mlouk repertory of songs
Derdeba ou Lila : Ritual of possession
Hal ou jedba : transe
Koyo : Pre-Islamic musical repertory
Click on this link and scrool to the end of the page for a more photos from a blog by some music lovers that were at last year's festival.
Here's what they had to say:
"We reach Essaouira late that day. It is the 21st of June, 2 days before the start of the Gaoua Festival.
23rd of June. It is Festival time. The town's buzzing. The craze, that the Gnaoua music creates in peoples' heads, is toxic, contagious. You cannot escape it in these next 4 days. Concerts from 6 p.m. to sometimes 3 in the morning. I am loving it. "
Travel My People...Get out there and enjoy yourself, and let the world enjoy you! Why not.... consider Morocco..... instead of Monterey this year?
Just food for thought from this feast of infinite possibilities laid out before you~
Kentke

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

This is not about getting you to give up eating meat.......

This is about us looking at the way we treat forms of Life that we share the biosphere of Earth with.....

I share this, hoping that you got a chance to see the recent videos that were televised, portraying the practices of animal cruelty that an investigator captured at his work environment. I share this because quite frankly, I found myself filled with a deep rage for the viscious, brutal and abominable manner these animals were treated. You see, I had the pleasure of caring for a small herd of cows last year at Pierce College.

We all laugh at the clever California cheese commercials featuring the cows offering their comments, playing practical jokes on one another, and enjoying the idyllic life of a cow living in 'heavenly' sunny California.

Let me tell you---Cows have personalities.

They are intelligent, and physically, they are beautiful animals. Their nature and the 'pace' at which they move in the world----these two qualities alone are healing, meditative and peaceful.

I went out of my way to try to save one particular heifer. She had a quirky personality, and stood off from the herd. She had no friends in the herd, nor did the other cows like her. She also did not like humans.

Her personality was about to create a fatal situation for her. In commercial farming today, if a dairy cow does not give milk.....the animal has no value. And the only way a cow is going to give milk, is because it has had a calf. The way todays' dairy farmers achieve this end, is to artificially inseminate the female, and then immediately remove her calves and use machines to milk her for the assets of her milk product.

Now if a cow, such as my friend, doesn't like humans, that means it's going to be hard to inseminate her, and maybe impossible, if she will not stand still and allow the procedure.

And what a procedure it is! Basically, with a veterinary sleeve protective cover on his arm and gloves on his hands, the farmer, or specialist, sticks his arm up the cow's rectum with a long insemination syringe , at he end of which will be a 'straw' filled with thawed-out sperm from a bull, which is then injected into the heifer's uterus.

An animal lover in the lion's den

By Steve Chawkins and Victoria Kim

Los Angeles Times Staff WritersFebruary 19, 2008


The Humane Society investigator who worked at a Chino meat packing plant said prodding of downer cattle was 'blatant' and 'commonplace.'

To protect his identity and frustrate possible retaliation, the undercover investigator behind the biggest beef recall in U.S. history refuses to disclose his name, his marital status, his hometown, his job background or even his age. One of the few personal things he will reveal is his culinary preference: He's a vegan.

But in a telephone interview Monday, the investigator for the Humane Society of the United States sketched a vivid, bleak account of his six weeks at a Chino slaughterhouse that supplied meat to school lunch programs and supermarkets throughout the U.S.By day, the investigator said, he helped drive cattle from trucks and pens into a chute that led to the killing floor. But at the same time, he employed a tiny, hidden camera to film the alleged brutalization of animals too weak or sick to walk to slaughter.

Under federal regulations, only animals able to walk on their own can be used for meat.At night, the agent said, he retired, exhausted and manure-flecked, to an Ontario motel to chronicle his findings in a notebook and lock his videotapes in a closet safe.

"It was so blatant, so commonplace," he said, speaking from a location he wouldn't reveal. "It was so in-your-face . . . they were pushing animals we felt never should have qualified for human consumption."The video produced by the undercover operation led the San Bernardino County district attorney to file criminal charges against two workers at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. and prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to announce the recall of 143 million pounds of beef. USDA officials said they believed most of the meat had already been consumed, and that the risk to the public was minimal.

The plant is now closed, and company officials could not be reached for comment Monday.The investigator said he was on an unrelated mission -- one he wouldn't disclose -- when he first stopped by the Chino plant. Until then, he said, he didn't realize that most of the animals slaughtered at Hallmark/Westland were former dairy cattle -- many, he said, already weak and emaciated when they were trucked in.

The investigator said he gave his real name and Social Security number and had no trouble getting the job. At $8 an hour for 12-hour days of grueling labor, he said, turnover was so high that managers seemed happy to have anyone who wouldn't quit the next day.He worked from sunup till sundown, driving cattle down a long, narrow chute to the slaughter box. At the end of the day, he would spend about an hour shoveling manure and cleaning up.During short lunch breaks in his car, he ate soy burgers and fake deli meat in an attempt to appear like other employees.

From his first day, he started getting glimpses of alleged illegal actions that he said were routine. When a cow collapsed on its way to the slaughter box, two workers immediately jumped into the chute. One grabbed the cow by its tail and the other shocked it with electrical prods, he said. When that failed, workers killed the cow on the spot, hooked a chain around the animal's neck and dragged it all the way into the slaughter box on its knees.Cattle that cannot walk -- called downer cattle -- have a higher occurrence of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and are supposed to be euthanized on the spot and removed immediately.

As the investigator toiled in 100-degree heat, sweaty and smelly, he documented the actions through a pinhole camera he wore under his shirt and controlled with a switch in his pocket, he said. With only one hour of recording capability each day, he constantly had to make judgment calls and save his tape for what he saw as the most egregious practices.He said he saw weaker animals being prodded upright, or having water shot into their nostrils before shakily walking to slaughter. Some downer cows were hauled with chains. He said a supervisor would order his men to "get them up! Get them up!" when cows seemed too sick to walk.But government officials charged with inspecting the process were never present to witness such actions, he said.

"There just wasn't that level of oversight," he said. "As cows are making their final steps, there's no USDA personnel objecting to this behavior."A self-described "behind-the-scenes person," the undercover employee said he had been concerned about animal treatment since he was a child.

"It takes a special person to do what he does," said Frank Loftus, a former broadcast journalist who heads investigations for the Humane Society and supervises undercover operations. "When you're doing undercover stuff . . . you're seeing it firsthand."

The long days took their toll, the investigator said. Aching and sweat-drenched, he would return to his motel, check the recordings and make sure his camera had worked properly. Then he would jot down the day's major events in a journal, load his camera for the next day and flop into bed. During the course of the operation, he said, three cameras were destroyed by the intensely physical labor.

"You really get worn down," the investigator said. "You eat poorly -- microwaved food, the same frozen meal every night. At the end of the day, you're spent."There were no calls home and few to his boss. He made no friends among his co-workers, most of whom spoke as little English as he spoke Spanish. On his days off, he stayed put, too tired to venture out. He said his cover never came close to failing, but he was always security-conscious."There are a lot of people who don't like that these investigations happen," he said. "That's why I don't release what might seem like inconsequential details; I'm more worried about someone finding a connection to people around me than I am about myself."

In an interview with Chino police, officers asked him whether he had ever been arrested. According to a police report, he acknowledged three misdemeanor arrests at protests in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and North Carolina on "civil disobedience charges."Speaking to The Times, the investigator said the protests were "political" but declined to say whether they were connected with animal-rights issues. The investigator said he previously had gone undercover at several locations, including a pig farm. He wouldn't say where those investigations took place or what their outcomes were.Humane Society officials say the Chino plant was randomly chosen for the investigation, and they suggest the findings might not be uncommon.

"In my mind, it's not unique," Loftus said. "Are other locations this abusive? I can't say."Loftus said the society has several other undercover operatives but wouldn't say how many.The American Meat Institute on Monday warned against making generalizations based on Hallmark/Westland, saying the practices depicted in the investigator's tapes "stand in sharp contrast" to those of a typical packer.

The investigator said he knew that one day -- perhaps in a court proceeding related to the Chino slaughterhouse -- his cloak of anonymity will come off."There'd be no point in any of this if I weren't willing to take that stand," he said. "But it's something I'm not really focusing on right now. The concealment of my identity is still something I consider really important."

steve.chawkins@latimes.com

victoria.kim@latimes.com

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Suggested Black History Month Reading...From those writing OUTSIDE the Box




I received a message recently from a Dear Friend that's into all sorts of things as a freelance writer based in New York. Black History Month usually is full of opportunities to acquaint oneself with the world of personalities, creations and contributions from people of African descent. I bet here's a realm that you might not have thought about ......the genre of Speculative Literature.


Commonly known as Science Fiction writing, Black people have been not just escaping from the plantation, ghettos and the shores of the U. S. , but some of us literally get 'out of this world'.


And Oh are we good at it too!!! Proof of that fact is that African Americans authors have been receiving awards in this field for some time.


One of my all time favorite authors was the late Octavia E. Butler. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/octavia-e-butler/


Butler was a world class science fiction writer. Butler’s work wasn’t preoccupied with robots and ray guns, but used the genre’s artistic freedom to explore race, poverty, politics, religion and human nature.


“She stands alone for what she did,” Jane Howle of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame said. “She was such a beacon and a light in that way.”


Jane Jewell, executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, said Butler was one of the first black women to explore the genre and the most prominent. But Butler would have been a major writer of science fiction regardless of race or gender, she said.



“She is a world-class science fiction writer in her own right,” Jewell said. “She was one of the first and one of the best to discuss gender and race in science fiction.”



Her novels are just awesome, and she was the recipient of the highest international awards for Science Fiction writing. The way her imagination wove our history and creatively dealt with the past, to usher us into a fictional scenario in present time, was ably met by her visions of new worlds of the future, filled with new beings. Her talent certainly established her as a reigning queen of storytelling in my world. I was truly saddened that an accidental fall, cut short her life, and ended the escapes I and her many fans could find in the cosmologies she created. It's fitting that we remember her this month, as she passed at the young age of 58, Feb. 24, 2006.


Back to the Future in New York.....


I spent quite an intriguing evening hanging out with my friend a few years ago when she was producing a regular gathering of New York's finest Black science fiction authors. With the authors reading their own work, it was an evening of great short stories, poetry and a soundscape that perfectly accompanied the vibe.


Here's the message she forwarded from her colleague:
Hey all,

I'm on the steering committee of The Carl Brandon Society (
http://www.carlbrandon.org/about.html) an organization representating people of color in the speculative genres.

We've polled our members and come up with a recommended reading list of speculative fiction books by black authors for Black History Month.

Black History Month SF Reading List

The Carl Brandon Society recommends the following books for BLACK HISTORY MONTH:

So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy
~edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan

Parable of the Sower ~by Octavia Butler

Dhalgren ~by Samuel R. Delany

My Soul to Keep ~by Tananarive Due

The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad ~by Minister Faust

Mindscape ~by Andrea Hairston

Wind Follower ~by Carole McDonnell

Futureland ~by Walter Mosley

The Shadow Speaker ~by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

Zahrah the Windseeker ~by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

The 2005 CARL BRANDON SOCIETY AWARD Winners:

PARALLAX AWARD given to works of speculative fiction created by a person of color:
47 ~by Walter Mosley

KINDRED AWARD given to any work of speculative fiction dealing with issues of race and ethnicity; nominees may be of any racial or ethnicgroup:
Stormwitch ~by Susan Vaught


The idea is for you to read these books this month. Forward this list around to your friends. Take this list into your local bookstores and ask them to display these books this month. Post the list on your blogs and websites, etc.

I hope you'll all strongly consider at least picking up one of these books and falling into it. It's a wonderful list, and your February will be improved!

Please feel free to pass this list around. It is official!

thanks!
c.

I don't know this lady, but I sure like the motto on her blog:
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars~


And simply because I'm grateful for the opportunity to mention Octavia Butler, here's a piece from the BLACK VOICES website.

Eight Reasons Why Octavia Butler Is Important
Posted Mar 1st 2007 12:00PM by Felicia PrideFiled under: More Than Words


Before she tragically passed away, I had the pleasure to hear Octavia Butler speak about writing, life, and politics. She had such a presence and just hearing her words of wisdom left a significant impression on me.


Her last book, Fledgling, was recently released in paperback. It absolutely captures her creative genius and I highly recommend it. In the book, Butler raises questions about what it means to be human and she explores the reasons behind bigotry. In a time when war rages globally because of idealistic, religious, racial, and social differences, she wonders, in her confident prose, using vampires and humans as paradigms, why can't we accept our differences and live harmoniously, when in the end, we need one another?


Many of us aren't aware of Butler's illustrious career, so I've compiled eight reasons why she's important. There are many more reasons. I hope you're able to discover your own to add to the list.


1. She was the first black woman to come to international prominence as a science fiction writer.


2. She was a writer in the truest sense of the word.


3. Her writing was political without being political. Using powerful, spare language and rich well-developed characters, her work tackled race, gender, religion, poverty, power, politics, and science in a way that touched the readers of all backgrounds.


4. She received numerous awards including a MacArthur "genius grant," both the Hugo and Nebula awards, the Langston Hughes Medal and a PEN Lifetime Achievement award.


5. She influenced a generation of notable authors including Nalo Hopkinson, Tananarive Due, and Steven Barnes.


6. There are nearly one million copies of her books in combined print. Her classics include Kindred, Parable of the Talents, and Parable of the Sower.


7. About herself, she once wrote, "I am a fifty-three-year-old writer who can remember being a ten-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an eighty-year-old writer. I'm also comfortably asocial--a hermit in the middle of Seattle--a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive."


8. She showed us what we can accomplish when we apply our intellect, creative talents, and perseverance.



I also hope you'll check the links below and google her name and explore her worlds on your own. See if I knew how to add sound to this thing, the theme song to the Twilight Zone would be playing in the background, and you would be expecting Rod Serling to materialize a la "Beam me up Scottie!" style, right ...about.....here.

Enjoy a truly 'Far Out!' Black History Month this year....Stretch your imagination......Take a trip exploring the stars and the spaces some of these authors will take your mind to~

loveu....itrulydo

Kentke


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701483.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11593725/from/RS.3/
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/octavia-e-butler/
http://www.carlbrandon.org/index.html

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