Walking our Own Path

I had the nicest message in my Inbox this morning. I want to thank my friend J. K. for his question which allowed me to under the guise of answering him, write out a message to myself that needed to be more prominent in my consciousness. Again, thank you~


Hi Kentke,


How are you? Are you on summer break, or are you blasting through summer school? How is it that you seem to be so much wiser than most people?


I try to channel your wisdom and the wise advice that you've given me. Old habits are hard to break, particularly when people are dependent upon you. I think that marriage and family obligations keep me in order. Otherwise, I'd simply sell everything I own, buy a nice motorhome, and simply travel. Okay... gotta keep a bicycle, running shoes, and swimming goggles. That's all I really need - bicycle, running shoes, and swimming goggles.


Several years ago, I was on patrol at about 1:00 a.m. This buffed out homeless guy was preparing his box for his night's sleep. I pulled the black & white along side him and said/asked, "Brother... why do you care to live like this?"


He looked at me as though I were the crazy one and said, "Brother... no responsibilities..." We exchanged respectful words, and as I drove off, I thought to myself, "MAYBE I'VE GOT IT TWISTED."


When I got home approximately two hours later, my family was asleep. I thought to myself how blessed I was, how blessed I and am.
Life is good...
Good night.
-JK-


Hi JK,


So very nice to hear from you. And as always, a very thoughtful message. You asked about the source of my wisdom. And it's interesting because your message was full of your own wisdom. I think the difference is that I really look at what arises within me, and pay attention to it. I notice what it strikes in me, and if it feels REAL, and when the feeling fills a 'hole in my Soul'....I know this is something I have to not just be aware of,....but that I have to honor. By honor, I mean I have to accept this insight or revelation the same way I would a Federal Law. I'd have to give importance to it, and follow it, act upon it.


You noticed that Brother and his lifestyle. You said after listening to him, 'Maybe I've got it twisted". For me, that would have been a point of contemplation. I would have had to start to look deeper at what this phenomena was bringing to me. The questions that it aroused would have to be seriously thought about. I would have wanted to "play" with it. To explore what it felt like to live a life less encumbered with 'STUFF"...and that would include responsibilities, people, relationships, and material possessions.


All those things are in our lives because of what spiritual teachers call ' attachments'. Meaning that we've formed a way of thinking that tells us, that we need, must have, or can't exist without these things. But in reality that is cultural programming, and adhered to over time, it becomes a delusion of the mind.


Now how extreme one goes, into letting go of (what I call) unnecessary and negative attachments is a very personal project. You notice I italicize unnecessary, because it's easier to identify those people, relationships, habits, beliefs, and possessions that are negative factors in our existence. But to break into the realm of unnecessary attachments, means that one is starting to get serious about trimming down from what society tells you you must have, do and be.....to listen to what Higher Consciousness/Divine Life inside directs.


Back to your original message. You yourself declared, "All I need is a bike, running shoes, and swimming goggles". See...there, you said it...You've done it. You just don't listen to that statement. Nor do you allow yourself to embrace it, and accept it as YOUR TRUTH. Instead, again because of what you think you should be doing,.....you provide a way of living that brings a certain peace of mind, but that in other ways, is questionable as to whether it really expresses YOU!

You state YOUR TRUTH, and then DISCOUNT IT, and laugh about. Do you see what you're doing to yourSelf?

Now I'm not saying tell everyone in the house to "Stand up and start taking responsibility for their own existence," (Which is what most of the people of the world and animal kingdom do), while you pack everything in your duffel bag, take off on your bike, and go out and TASTE Life...simply following your Heart. But you can do that. Now that you are retired, really there's no reason for you to not start experimenting with different ways of experiencing a more personally fulfilling Life.


Little by little....What's to stop you from renting a small mobile home, and start with short vacations on the road by yourself, or take a compatible companion for your adventures? The point is to allow yourself to see how it all feels. For your own Inner Wisdom will tell you what's right for you, and what's not. But even those determinations fall under the rule of Transformtion. Meaning, that something might not be right for you at this moment, but if it remains a strong interest in your consciousness, pursue it, check it out or give it another try at another time. There's a perfect alignment, between one's inner life and wishes, and the circumstances in the external world that must be met, that let's us know we're in harmony with the Cosmos.

I could go on ....but all I'm saying is don't let yourself become a victim of societies' requirement for order and stability. Those are only illusions. Transformation is the natural way of all Life, and we should not be afraid, to be a part of that ongoing process. Society and culture have handed us a template for Life, that I'm sure is far below what's possible. Be a pioneer...an explorer, a scientist with your own Life as the Lab.


Go on over to Agape Spiritual Center on Buckingham in Fox Hills, and listen to one of my spiritual leaders, Michael Beckwith. I remember him saying: "Ask yourself what is asking to be born within me right now? What wants to be expressed in my Life right now?" These are the types of questions that seekers of alignment with the Cosmos are always asking themselves.

And then, when the answers arise from within, listen,.... and go with it.

It takes great courage to live this way my friend. But because you're in alignment ---your life with Cosmic Consciousness/God,---- doors open, support is offered, mystical experiences and magic happens. And often times, the way is made clear and far easier than you'd ever have known was possible. It's called Grace.

The best part of all of this.....you get to BE your authentic TRUE Self.

Keep writing....keep loving Life to the Max.....and like Bob said, "Free yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves, can free our Minds."

Look for ways to Be More Fun. Stretch beyond your present capacities. Pursue experiences that will tickle the Heart in You that No One has ever met.......
Kentke

Headline Photo:

A Loving Couple by Vincent Van Gogh

Actions that Speak Louder than Words - A Deeper Look into Obama the Man

Much has been said about the fact that Barack Obama still has left us wondering where he actually stands on many issues. The article below, sheds light on his 'way of Being in the world', that could help us to understand why sometimes he doesn't express hard and solid positions on certain issues. Yet, I've noticed that when he succumbs to the pressure to take a position, as with the rest of us, that reckless acting outside of Cosmic order or time, can produce results that are far from the highest outcome that was possible.



I personally have been trying to pursue a way, that focuses me on staying present to each moment. What this means for me, is that instead of reacting, I get to spend time observing phenomena. If I don't get involved, I can watch what arises, and how it will act, and if I can be patient and stay out of it, I get to watch 'it' subside. All without me doing anything. It's really interesting. Especially since we're programmed to think that we have to be doing something (about it). I know you folks know what I'm talking about.






What this way of living requires, is that one suspends those hard and fast ideas, attitudes, and yes----even those cherished beliefs, that one normally relies upon to navigate existence. It means backing off of one's opinions, so that one can adequately accept what the moment holds, ...offers....presents. It also means that it's okay NOT to have an answer, or a response. That one can just wait....and you'll see....it'll come.








Now, this is really a non-Western way of living, a non-Western way of thinking. We've been programmed to think that we must have answers for everything, and the faster we can shoot them back, why the more clever we appear to others. Think about it. if someone takes the time to consider a question,....in fact if they take too long, average human minds will already begin to judge that person. And the judgement will more than likely be tending to the negative. We even have created minute and stop watches, so that in a game, your answer must be delivered within an arbitrarily decided amount of time, or---you loose! Your're wrong. You're out.



So the idea of listening carefully to a question, or looking deeply into an issue, and contemplating it's meaning, and then seeking the many answers one could utilize in it's resolution, is a dead thing in today's world. It's gotten to the point, that people that normally would follow such measures, give in to social habits, and will just utter back anything sometimes, in order to appease group thinking.





As I think about it.... I'm very unhappy about Obama's position on the issues facing Palestine and Israel. And the fact that he went to speak to American Jews as his first act, after securing the Democratic nomination, I found disturbing. Especially after it was headline news what he'd declared to this important part of the population. And that was that Jerusalem should forever be the undivided capital of Israel. From a man declaring himself about 'Change and Hope', I found these very disturbing comment to my ears and heart.




I immediately wondered, how deep was his understanding of the issues in this quagmire? He obviously was pandering for Jewish support in November. But today (6/23/08) even, Frances' 'President Sarkozky, visiting Israel and speaking before the Knesset, (and only 2 or 3 months after France and Israel 'kissed and made up' after years of distance due to France's displeasure with Israel's activities against the Palestinians - whew! long sentence...but hold on, I'm getting there) CHIDED the Israelis, and said that Jerusalem must be the capital of two nations, living side by side.





I wish that Obama had held his silence, until he'd applied the facts to his heart and mind. I would hope that the world would have heard something different from his lips, than a position that already, is at the root of a tremendous amount of strife in the human family.




Whew again......really didn't mean take you on that ride, but really it speaks to the issue of why I'm sharing the article below.



It is because of his tendency or nature, to see many sides of a situation, that as I said, is not particularly a Western way of seeing, that Obama presents a unique element in American ways of thinking. Black or white, good or bad, settler vs Indian, rain or shine, whatever,... Americans definately live in the world of duality. And that type of reasoning gets this nation into a lot of trouble.





The majority Americans have a difficult time of wresting themselves out of a self-righteous position, to see the effect that this nation's actions have on others. Many also find it impossible to respect the fact that others can feel, or desire a way of living different than what is pursued here.




This is all coming to the surface much more in today's society, as evidenced by the infamous statements of Obama former minister and Clinton spiritual counselor Rev.Wright. White people have been appalled to learn that professional, sophisticated and successful people of color, do not see the world, American society and life, from the same perspective that they do. And despite his Constitutional rights to think and speak his perspective....the media, some Blacks and white public and political arena made the decision to demonize him. I am not condoning his theatrics nor his timing, but I applaud his effort to express his authentic feelings.




It's easy to label and then deal with someone that has loudly proclaimed their stance. But much more difficult when you have a person that is poised, waiting, listening and watching what arises and then more thoughtfully reacts....or doesn't. I'm developing a sense that that description is closer to Obama's true nature. The article below, also hints at that same conclusion. I pray that he will remain strong in resisting the pressure from others to make statements, and take actions, that are 'out of time', that truly are not necessary. Americans need to learn to practice patience and extend mutual respect once again. Perhaps, as a leader Barack Obama can lead us in this regard.




Lastly, the blog before this noted that author Toni Morrison said, that her final decision to support Obama over Clinton was because of his wisdom. And I would like to confirm that that is what his way of taking in, seeing many sides, and offering a solution that has real possibilites to remove the cause of the problem amounts to....these are steps that allow wisdom to arise and rule a situation. Not selfish or self-centered choices that are immaturely clung to and egotistically pursued at all cost.



The fool Bush feeling cocky taunted his foes, "...(to) Bring it on".


And they did.


Now look at us.....

Kentke

Obama kept Harvard Law Review balanced

By: Jeffrey Ressner and Ben Smith

June 23, 2008 04:10 PM EST


Barack Obama's election in 1990 s the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gave him his first moment of national fame, a powerful intellectual credential and a sweet book deal. It was also his first electoral victory, won in part by convincing the conservative minority of law students that he would treat them fairly.

While the title and election have become well-known parts of Obama's personal story, the substance of his actual work on the Review, where he spent at least 50 hours a week, has received little attention.



Obama might have had it right while he was running the journal, when he reportedly ended minor disputes with the words, "Just remember, folks: Nobody reads it."





The eight dense volumes produced during his time in charge there — 2,083 pages in all — show the Review to have been a decidedly liberal institution, albeit one in transition as its focus on race and gender was contested by liberals and conservatives alike. Under his tenure, the Review published calls to expand the powers of women, African-Americans and the elderly to sue for discrimination.







But Obama, who this March referred to "identity politics" as "an enormous distraction," was not so easily pinned down. He published a searing attack on affirmative action, written by a former Reagan administration official. And when, in an unusual move, he selected a young woman from a non-Ivy League law school to fill one of the Review’s most prestigious slots, she produced an essay focused as much on individual responsibilities as on liberties, criticizing both conservative judges and feminist scholars.



"I was very surprised and honored to receive the invitation, of course, as I was teaching at Maryland Law School at the time, and the Foreword typically is extended to more established scholars at ‘top’ law schools," Robin West, now a professor and associate dean at Georgetown Law Center, wrote in an e-mail to Politico. While other articles are selected by the Review's editors as a group, the Foreword is solicited by a smaller band led by the Review's president.










West worked closely with Obama on her piece, she said, remembering him as gracious and helpful, if a bit polite and even formal: "He would always ask first about my baby," she recalled.







If the editor and author — a black man and a woman — were an unconventional team for the Review, however, West's article challenged the then-prevailing wisdom in a different way, taking as its touchstone the work of Czech freedom fighter Vaclav Havel and the anti-Communist revolutions in Eastern Europe that were then still under way. Havel had written that the citizen’s sense of responsibility — not just of individual rights — was essential to political liberty, and West applied that critique to contemporary liberalism to argue that goals such as tolerance and diversity might in fact be "weakened, not strengthened, by taking rights so 'super-seriously' that we come to stop examining our sense of responsibility."



Obama "clearly agreed with me at the time that a shift in constitutional thinking from a rights-based discourse to one that centered [on] responsibility and duties ... would be a good thing," West told Politico. "Partly because of those conversations, I don't find it surprising at all that Sen. Obama's speeches are often marked by calls to spark a sense of responsibility, rather than a sense of grievance."

That classically liberal approach was hardly the mainstream of legal academia at the time. Under Obama's guidance, the Review underwent a period of relative peace after the turbulent 1970s and '80s, when the publication — like the institution itself — attempted to balance its inherent elitism with some semblance of openness and multiculturalism.















“He was as much a traditionalist as anything,” recalled Susan Estrich, the USC School of Law professor who served as Michael Dukakis’ campaign manager in 1988 — and who broke ground as the first female president of the Harvard Law Review 14 years before Obama took the reins. “It was a big deal that he got the presidency. He was selected because of merit, and he believed in the institution and its history. There are some years [at the Review] that are radical and others that are traditional."







Eleanor Kerlow, the author of "Poisoned Ivy: How Egos, Ideology and Power Politics Almost Ruined Harvard Law School," depicted Obama's tenure as a calm before the storm. Kerlow told Politico she “never heard anything negative about him” while researching her book. “Despite the political and ideological infighting, he maneuvered his way around pretty well.”







Her book is set in the following year, when Obama’s successor circulated a parody of an article by a feminist legal scholar who had been murdered, igniting a crippling ideological power struggle at the Review.In Obama's time, as it is today, the Harvard Law Review was one of the most important and distinguished legal publications in the world. Founded in 1887, it is the rare self-supporting legal publication compiled and edited completely by students, typically those attending their second or third year at the prestigious school.




After winning a spot on the Review, Obama beat out 18 other contenders to become the first African-American president in the then-103-year history of the Review, and his duties included leading discussions and debates to determine what to print from the mountain of submissions from judges, scholars and authors from across the country, supervising the thorough editing of each issue's contents and giving every article what's known as a "P-read" once it was finally considered ready for publication.



Once a piece is set, the president also sends a letter or fax and makes a follow-up phone call to each author. Federal Judge Michael W. McConnell, who was nominated by President Bush and has frequently been mentioned as one of Bush’s potential Supreme Court nominees, recalls receiving one such letter and call in early 1990 for his article “The Origins and Historical Understanding of Free Exercise of Religion.”



McConnell told Politico, “A frequent problem with student editors is that they try to turn an article into something they want it to be. It was striking that Obama didn’t do that. He tried to make it better from my point of view.” McConnell was impressed enough to urge the University of Chicago Law School to seek Obama out as an academic prospect.







Yale professor Vicki Schultz, then an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, wrote a lengthy article for the June 1990 issue, titled “Telling Stories About Women and Work,” which compared the ways in which the courts handled sexual and racial discrimination cases. She was concerned that “some African-American scholars might be offended by the comparison” but says Obama was “incredibly reassuring and smart and nonideological” about the way he approached the piece.


One thing Obama did not do while with the review was publish any of his own work. Campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said Obama didn't write any articles for the Review, though his two semesters at the helm did produce a wide range of edited case analyses and unsigned “notes” from Harvard students.


Estrich believes that Obama must have had something published that year, even if his campaign says otherwise. “They probably don’t want [to] have you [reporters] going back” to examine the Review.


(While the Review's contents are protected by U.S. copyright law and aren’t available for free online, Politico is providing all the front covers — which include each issue's table of contents — and a representative masthead from Obama's term as president.)


In recent months, Obama's stewardship of the Review has generated a small dust-up in the blogosphere, with some critics insisting that "Obama's Volume 104 is the least-cited volume of the Harvard Law Review in the last 20 years." The claim has methodological problems, however, including the fact that Obama oversaw only the first four issues of that volume. Review veterans said he would have had an increasing influence on — as well as a final read of — the latter half of Volume 103, then a diminishing influence over the second half of Volume 104, produced after he left the presidency.


Moreover, with the exception of the Foreword, Review articles are selected by a committee of editors, with the president merely the first among equals. Still, the substance of the Review offers a glimpse at the environment in which Obama came to the law, and the eight issues that Obama presided over have enough material to keep the blogosphere busy for months. Among the more interesting pieces:



• March 1990 — This issue, the first of Obama’s presidency, has an article by University of Florida associate law professor Anthony Cook on "the reconstructive theology of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." The article ends with a theme that would later emerge in Obama's speeches: "With such mutual respect and openness to each others' pain, suffering and faith, we must work out more fully and struggle towards King's ideal of the Beloved Community and thereby hew from our mountain of despair a stone of hope."

• April 1990 — An unbylined note titled "Rethinking (M)otherhood: Feminist Theory and State Regulation of Pregnancy" asks whether the state should consider the potential for endangering the fetus when pregnant women abuse drugs. The author suggests that the problem's positioning as a conflict between fetal and maternal rights is "both illegitimate and counterproductive" and concludes that policies should to be recast to expand, rather than restrict, women's reproductive rights.



• June 1990 — This issue included five responses to “Racial Critiques of Legal Academia,” a highly controversial article published in the Review before Obama became its president. The article — written by Randall Kennedy, a black professor at Harvard Law — argued against the idea that legal scholars of color have a unique and at times uniquely valuable voice on issues related to race.



The first entry in the colloquy is prefaced by a quote from performer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson’s 1934 article “The Culture of the Negro” — "The white man has made a fetish of intellect and worships the god of thought; the negro feels rather than thinks" — and several quotes from the now largely forgotten but once highly controversial racial provocateur Frantz Fanon, among them: “If the white man challenges my humanity, I will impose my whole weight as a man on his life and show him that I am not the ‘sho’ good eatin'’ that he persists in imagining.”

• November 1990 — This issue included perhaps the most conservative piece of Obama's tenure, in which Ronald Reagan’s former Solicitor General Charles Fried attacked race-based affirmative action, calling it "racial balkanization" that would "impoverish the human race." The implications of group rights, he wrote, are "sinister."



• February 1991 — Obama's last issue contains one of its most sharply liberal pieces, a study of race and gender in car sales, which, the editors say in an equally liberal introduction, provides "evidence that seriously challenge faith in the ability of competitive market forces to eliminate racial and gender discrimination in other markets" and calls for more government action.

In the end, though, Obama's time on the Review mirrored other aspects of his life. Even in the staunchly liberal milieus in which he has spent his entire adult life, Obama has managed to lead without leaving a clear ideological stamp, and to respect — and even, at times, to embrace — opposing views. To his critics, that's a sign of a lack of core beliefs. To his admirers, it's the root of his appeal.

"To understand what someone else is trying to say isn't just an editorial skill," said McConnell. "It's a life skill.”

© 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC

Obama article-http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11257.html

Sarkozy article-http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/23/africa/mideast.php

Bush 'Bring it on'-http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-07-02-bush-iraq-troops_x.htm

Because you love to read........

Toni Morrison's new work, What Moves at the Margin,

a collection of selected non-fiction, is now in bookstores.

This year, we thought we'd approach Black History Month (see 02/07/08) in a different way. So we featured a reading list of Black authors that write science fiction literature. In the course of that piece we got a chance to talk about our reverence for the late Octavia E. Butler, queen of that realm, evidenced by her popularity, and the many distinguished national and international awards for her stories and novels.

Today another successful writer, Gale Madyun alerted us to an article, about Toni Morrison, one of her favorite writers, who was graciously answering ten questions from Time Magazine readers. Like Octavia, Morrison also has received the highest awards possible for her creative genius. She's won the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes and recently received the PEN/Borders Literary Service Award. A new collection of her nonfiction, What Moves at the Margin, is out now.

10 Questions for Toni Morrison

How did you discover your passion for writing? —Roderick Yang, Seattle

My deepest passion was reading. At some point—not early, I was 35 or 36—I realized there was a book that I wanted very much to read that really hadn't been written, and so I sort of played around with it in trying to construct the kind of book I wanted to read.

Portrait of the author as a young woman

In 1973, Morrison's novel,
Sula was nominated for the National Book Award.
Her third novel, Song of Solomon (1977), also brought her national attention,
and was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club.
It was the first novel by a black writer to be selected since Richard Wright's Native Son in 1940.

Out of all the novels you've written, do you have a favorite? —Sarah Henderson, Loma Linda, Calif.

No, I always am most deeply impressed with the one that's going on at the moment.

What is your prewriting process like? —Sarah McLaughlin, Berkeley, Calif.

Different books arrive in different ways and require different strategies. Most of the books that I have written have been questions that I can't answer. In order to actually put down the first word—I don't really have a plan—I sometimes have a character, but I can't do anything with it until the language arrives.

Song of Solomon should be required reading for all African-American boys. How did you know what is in our heads?

That was a leap for me. I really wanted to do that book, about the education of a middle-class black man, about his ancestry, and I couldn't. And then my father died, and it was earthshaking for me. I remember saying to myself, I wonder what my father knew about these men? And I have to tell you, I felt access. I knew I could get there if I thought about him.

In 1988, Morrison's novel Beloved became a critical success and shortly afterward won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In 1998, Beloved was adapted into a film starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.

Do you think that young black females are dealing with the same self-acceptance issues today as your character was in The Bluest Eye? —Francesca Siad, Calgary, Alta.

No, not at all. When I wrote the book, the young women who read it liked it [but] were unhappy because I had sort of exposed an area of shame. Nowadays I find young African-American women much more complete. They seem to have a confidence that they take for granted.

Do you regret referring to Bill Clinton as the first black President? —Justin Dews, Cambridge, Mass.

People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race.

Toni Morrison photographed in Princeton, NJ in April 2008.

Why did you endorse Barack Obama for the presidency? —Chris Francis Lightbourne, Long Island, N.Y.

I thought about voting for Hillary at the beginning. I don't care that she is a woman. I need more than that. Neither his race, his gender, her race or her gender was enough. I needed something else, and the something else was his wisdom.

My 15-year-old daughter lives to write. What advice do you have for aspiring writers? —Darren Wethers, St. Louis, Mo.

The work is in the work itself. If she writes a lot, that's good. If she revises a lot, that's even better. She should not only write about what she knows but about what she doesn't know. It extends the imagination.

If you had not chosen to share your gift of writing, what else would you have done? —Michelle Patrick, New York City

When I started teaching, I was absolutely thrilled. There's nothing more exciting to me than to read books, to talk about books with students—generation after generation—who bring different things to them. I loved that. I would stay there.

In 2006, Morrison was invited to serve as a guest curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris, where she mixed ancient art with slam poetry as part of a program to open dialogue between the historic art museum and young rappers in the then troubled and rioting French suburbs.

Are there any dreams or goals that you have yet to fulfill? —Janie Crawford, Syracuse, N.Y.

I have two. Well, three, really. Two involve novels that I'm going to write and haven't written. The third is immortality. [Laughs.] I don't mean my work. I mean me.

I know I don't have to add, how glad I am, that you love to read!

Kentke


Click on the link to see the whole webpage, with more on Toni Morrison.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1738303,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom

April 2008 photo credit: Gregg Delman for TIME

From Mugabe in Zimbabwe to the airline pilots in tiny Cape Verde...it seems as if all of Africa is going crazy

Cape Verde Airliner Throws out PM

afrol News, 17 June 2008
By staff writer
© afrol News

The national airliner of Cape Verde, TACV, this week asked the country's Prime Minister José Maria Neves to leave one of its planes. The reason was that the captain did not want transport members of Mr Neves' security guards, which were carrying arms.


The events occurred this weekend as security agents accompanying the Prime Minister of Cape Verde on a trip to the island of São Vicente with the national carrier Transportadora Aérea do Cabo Verde (TACV) were rejected by the pilot.


The security agents wanted to enter the aircraft with their arms, holding these were necessary to protect the chief of government, who was already inside the airplane. However, the pilot refused to take the armed guards on board, leading to the abortion of the PM's flight to São Vicente.


However, after some negotiation at the Praia airport, the head of government reached an agreement with the national airliner and TACV made another aircraft available to Mr Neves. The PM and his armed guards thus were allowed to go to São Vicente, arriving four hours behind schedule.


Following the incident, which has attracted great attention by media in Cape Verde, the Praia government today announced that it would lodge a protest with the airline as a result of this "surprising and regrettable incident."


The government statement added that it expected that "legislation and directives applicable in this regard be strictly observed and followed by those responsible." It further holds that "all routines and special boarding procedures for transporting weapons in the cabin of the aircraft on this mission were, as usual, respected." The same sources added that the commander of the PM's security personnel had requested the necessary permission last Thursday, obtaining such permission the next day.

The commander added that the attitude of the captain had been unacceptable. TACV still is majority controlled by the Cape Verdean government. The small national airliner, which has produced losses for years, is being beefed up financially to prepare for its privatisation in 2009. Originally, privatisation was foreseen for 2007, but no interesting buyers were found.


Well I guess not!....with the pilots having attitudes like that.......
Can you just picture the Prime Minisiter of the country needing to reach his destination, and the pilot sitting there in the tiny cockpit, with his arms folded across his chest, giving the quick side to side head shake that means No!


By the way, I highly recommend checking the Afrol News website for news from all the states of the African continent. This is an independent news source. They really do an excellent job of providing daily coverage that is free of the usual perspectives of the traditional international news corporations. Their claim is that they are "The only independent news agency dedicated solely to Africa".

Let me add another link, in case you have an interest in following the expanding commerce spreading across Africa as a result of the introduction of technological developments in digital communication, the broadcast and entertainment field. For that you want to sign on to Russell Southwood's Balancing Act subscription list. He's the man with his thumb on the pulse of all of the action. To quote their explanation of what they do, "Balancing Act seeks to be the primary source for information on the telecoms, Internet and audio-visual media industries in Africa. "

They can get quite technical with their data sometime, but I know many of you latent engineering and electronic geeks (sisters included) understand it. And hey....you've got to find someplace to invest all of your idle capital.....Reading Russell's newsletter, provides information on all the latest deals, obstacles and people that are involved. Important to you? Yes, because Africa is definately seen as the next 'boom town' for technological investment.

Kentke

I know I need to quit but I just can't shake the image of the pilot refusing to fly his own Prime Minister. Anyway. ...here's what the Belguim visitor that took the headline photo of the TACV Cape Verde aircraft had to say about their air transportation.

"Leaving Schiphol, Amsterdam Airport, with Cabo Verde airlines. The vegetarian meals that were ordered were not there. Air ventilation was also poor. And the same on the return flight!
They also managed to book us on an inter-island flight which did not exist. This meant we had to stay one day longer on the one island, and one day less on the other. "

Uhmm huh.... 'nother couple a reasons ain't nobody tryin' to buy they national airline!

oh candy stop!

Afrol News - http://www.afrol.com/
Balancing Act -http://www.balancingact-africa.com/

Here are two more links for staying current with the African world:

Jewels in the Jungle-http://jewelsnthejungle.blogspot.com/ - Check the list of links!

Koluki - http://koluki.blogspot.com/ - Portugues and English;economics and culture galore.

Black Conservatives Conflicted on Obama Campaign - But this Time, That's a Good Thing

WASHINGTON - By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer
6/14/08


Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee.

"I don't necessarily like his policies; I don't like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that's incredible."


Just as Obama has touched black Democratic voters, he has engendered conflicting emotions among black Republicans. They revel over the possibility of a black president but wrestle with the thought that the Illinois senator doesn't sit beside them ideologically.

"Among black conservatives," Williams said, "they tell me privately, it would be very hard to vote against him in November."

Perhaps sensing the possibility of such a shift, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has made some efforts to lure black voters. He recently told Essence magazine that he would attend the NAACP's annual convention next month, and he noted that he recently traveled to Selma, Ala., scene of seminal voting rights protests in the 1960s, and "talked about the need to include 'forgotten Americans.'"

Still, the Arizona senator has a tall order in winning black votes, no doubt made taller by running against a black opponent. In 2004, blacks chose Democrat John Kerry over President Bush by an 88 percent to 11 percent margin, according to exit polls.


J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he's thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said he's still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them.


"And Obama highlights that even more," Watts said, adding that he expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy. "Republicans often seem indifferent to those things."
Likewise, retired Gen. Colin Powell, who became the country's first black secretary of state under President George W. Bush, said both candidates are qualified and that he will not necessarily vote for the Republican.


"I will vote for the individual I think that brings the best set of tools to the problems of 21st-century America and the 21st-century world regardless of party, regardless of anything else other than the most qualified candidate," Powell said Thursday in Vancouver in comments reported by The Globe and Mail in Toronto.


Writer and actor Joseph C. Phillips got so excited about Obama earlier this year that he started calling himself an "Obamacan" — Obama Republican. Phillips, who appeared on "The Cosby Show" as Denise Huxtable's husband, Navy Lt. Martin Kendall, said he has wavered since, but he is still thinking about voting for Obama.


"I am wondering if this is the time where we get over the hump, where an Obama victory will finally, at long last, move us beyond some of the old conversations about race," Phillips said. "That possibly, just possibly, this great country can finally be forgiven for its original sin, or find some absolution."


Yet Phillips, author of the book "He Talk Like a White Boy," realizes the irony of voting for a candidate based on race to get beyond race.


"We have to not judge him based on his race, but on his desirability as a political candidate," he said. "And based on that, I have a lot of disagreements with him on a lot of issues. I go back and forth."


Michael Steele, the Republican former lieutenant governor of Maryland who lost a Senate race there in 2006, said he is proud of Obama as a black man, but that "come November, I will do everything in my power to defeat him." Electing Obama, he said, would not automatically solve the woes of the black community.

"I think people who try to put this sort of messianic mantle on Barack's nomination are a little bit misguided," he said.

John McWhorter, a self-described political moderate who is a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and a New York Sun columnist, said Obama's Democratic Party victory "proves that while there still is some racism in the United States, there is not enough to matter in any serious manner. This is a watershed moment."


"Obama is probably more to the left than I would prefer on a lot of issues," he adds. "But this issue of getting past race for real is such a wedge issue for me. And he is so intelligent, and I think he would be a perfectly competent president, that I'm for him. I want him to get in because, in a way, it will put me out of a job."


James T. Harris, a Milwaukee radio talk show host and public speaker, said he opposes Obama "with love in my heart."


"We are of the same generation. He's African American and I'm an American of African descent. We both have lovely wives and beautiful children," Harris said. "Other than that, we've got nothing in common. I hope he loses every state."


Moderate Republican Edward Brooke, who blazed his own trail in Massachusetts in 1966 as the first black popularly elected U.S. senator, said he is "extremely proud and confident and joyful" to see Obama ascend. Obama sent Brooke a signed copy of his book, inscribed, "Thank you for paving the way," and Brooke sent his own signed book to Obama, calling the presumed Democratic nominee "a worthy bearer of the torch."

Brooke, who now lives in Florida, won't say which candidate will get his endorsement, but he does say that race won't be a factor in his decision.

"This is the most important election in our history," Brooke said. "And with the world in the condition that it is, I think we've got to get the best person we can get."

Williams, the commentator, says his 82-year-old mother, who also hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, has already made up her mind.

"She is so proud of Senator Barack Obama, and she has made it clear to all of us that she's voting for him in November," Williams relates. "That is historic. Every time I call her, she asks, 'How's Obama doing?' They feel as if they are a part of this. Because she said, given the history of this country, she never thought she'd ever live to see this moment."

Noah in 2008

In the year 2008, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United States, and said, 'Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans.'

He gave Noah the blueprints, saying, 'You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights.'

Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard - but no Ark.

'Noah!' He roared, 'I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark ?'

'Forgive me, Lord,' begged Noah, 'but things have changed. I needed a building permit. I've been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system.

My neighbors claim that I've violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision.

Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark 's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.

Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls - but no go!

When I started gathering the animals, an animal rights group sued me. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodation was too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.

Then the EPA ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood.

I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I'm supposed to hire for my building crew. Immigration and Naturalization are checking the green-card status of most of the people who want to work.

The trades unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.

To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.

Then to top it all off I have to learn 150 languages before work can begin.

So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark.'

Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky.

Noah looked up in wonder and asked, 'You mean you're not going to destroy the world?'

'No,' said the Lord. 'The government beat me to it!'

A 'Thank You'~ to Sam, who maintains a great connection with The Omnipotent One, for sharing this joke, chuckle, head nod,.....Truth..?...with us.

Doing this blog has simply been a blast. And I've told you that researching and selecting the graphics has turned out to be as fun and creatively fulfilling as noting my thoughts.

For example, click on this link to see what else I discovered while seeking graphics of Noah's Ark. An very interesting website indeed.

http://www.whybaptism.org/Creation-HTML/NoahArk.htm

Unless I blatently state otherwise, I never mean any disrespect to anyone or group on account of their beliefs. But at the same time, that also doesn't mean that I can't giggle, shake my head, and fall over laughing at what others might espouse as their Truth. And I certainly know that you have that same license with whatever you find wacky in the contents of my mental thought box (head)!

Like Grandma said, "...(we've got to)......Call a spade a spade."

Kentke

And crown Thy good, with Brotherhood.....

NEW YORK (AP) - Jun 13, 2008 - 7:33 AM (ET)



Fox News Channel referred to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama" in a graphic on Wednesday, the latest in a trio of references to the Democratic presidential campaign that have given fuel to network critics.

The graphic "Outraged liberals: Stop picking on Obama's baby mama" was flashed during an interview with conservative columnist Michelle Malkin about whether Barack Obama's wife has been the target of unfair criticism.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

In the past two weeks, Fox anchor E.D. Hill has apologized for referring to an affectionate onstage fist bump shared by the couple as a "terrorist fist jab," and Fox contributor Liz Trotta said she was sorry for joking about an Obama assassination.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern impassioned stress

A thoroughfare of freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America!

God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law!

The incidents are further indications of how closely the endless cable campaign chatter is being watched this year. Hillary Clinton's campaign was angered by what it described as the pro-Obama tilt of some MSNBC commentators. Amid protests, MSNBC's Chris Matthews said he was wrong this winter to say Clinton was a candidate because "her husband messed around." And MSNBC reporter David Shuster was suspended for two weeks for saying Clinton's campaign had "pimped out" daughter Chelsea by having her make political phone calls.

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife.

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness

And every gain divine!

"Obama's baby mama" was never said on the air. Malkin said during her interview that she had seen no gratuitous or cheap shots taken against Michelle Obama by Republican or conservative critics.

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

Joan Walsh, a columnist from Salon.com, criticized the graphic on Thursday as a slur.
"Do you try to explain that 'baby mama' is slang for the unmarried mother of a man's child, and not his wife, or even a girlfriend?" Walsh wrote. "Are they racist, or just clueless? Isn't there racism even in their cluelessness, if somebody didn't know what 'baby mama' means, but used it anyway? Even at Fox, won't somebody have to apologize?"

"Baby Mama" also was the title of a recent movie about a woman who hired a surrogate to bear a child. It starred Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, both of whom are white.

O beautiful for halcyon skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the enameled plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

Till souls wax fair as earth and air

And music-hearted sea!

Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming at Fox, said in a statement that a producer "exercised poor judgment" during the segment. The producer was not fired; no other disciplinary action was announced.

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,

Whose stem impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

Till paths be wrought through

wilds of thought

By pilgrim foot and knee!

Hill's "terrorist fist jab" comment came in a tease to a segment on the candidates' body language, and it wasn't repeated during the subsequent interview. She told Fox it was taken from something she had read online.

No matter: "terrorist fist jab" quickly became an online sensation.
Hill apologized on-air four days after she said it. Hill said some people "thought I had personally characterized it inappropriately. I regret that. It was not my intention and I certainly did not mean to associate the word 'terrorist' in any way with Sen. Obama and his wife."

O beautiful for glory-tale

Of liberating strife

When once and twice,

for man's avail

Men lavished precious life!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

Till selfish gain no longer stain

The banner of the free!

Fox subsequently canceled Hill's weekday afternoon program as part of a larger reorganization. She remains on staff.

Trotta's assassination joke came May 25 as she commented about how some considered it distasteful for Clinton to refer to Robert F. Kennedy's assassination when explaining why she was staying in the presidential race.

"Now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama," she said, quickly correcting herself. "Obama. Well, both if we could."
Obama's name has often been confused with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden's, by people ranging from Mitt Romney to CNN's Alina Cho. And MSNBC once flashed a picture of bin Laden as Chris Matthews talked about Obama.

Trotta apologized on-air the next day, and hasn't appeared on Fox since.
"I sincerely regret it and apologize to anybody I've offended," she said. "It's a very colorful political season and many of us are making mistakes and saying things that we wish we hadn't said."

And if the above article wasn't divisive, disturbing and incendiary enough, please note the caption that appeared beneath the headline photo of Mrs. Obama at the top of this post:

"In this May 5, 2008 file photo, Michelle Obama speaks to a crowd while campaigning for her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, in Charlotte, N.C. The Obama campaign said Thursday that Michelle Obama never used the word "whitey" in a speech from the church pulpit as it launched a Web site to debunk rumors about him and his wife."

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

Till nobler men keep once again

Thy whiter jubilee!

America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates

Melody by Samuel Ward

Lyrics found at ScoutSongs.com.

Article from myway.com

AP Photo - Rick Havner file

....and of course,

Post layout and design by

Kentke

Shop Safe....and Live Smart

Read the Numbers on Your Fruit

Please share this information.

Eating organic means no poisonous pesticides, that lead to unknown numbers of ailments down the line. I know food is expensive, but this is one area where the expense pays off for you and all Life. We all know, that like our grandfolks, having a garden and growing as much of our own food is BEST. It's cheaper and enjoyable as gardening is relaxing and the entire cycle of Life that the activity brings you into is simply wholesome.

Back to the Earth, and the elements. A chance to experience one's Life working in concert with real powers.

Thank you Aaliyah for sharing the message below.

The author writes:
I just found this out about a month ago and I've been an organic vegan for over four years, go figure. That just goes to say that we must all remain as students and continue to learn and learn — never stop studying and gaining new information.

Okay, so what did I learn? I learned that sticker labels on the fruits actually tell you how the fruits have been grown — whether they were organically grown or conventionally grown with pesticides and herbicides; oh, and let's not forget about the genetically engineered fruits.


Conventional Fruit Labels - Have Four digits and mostly start with the number 4

Organic Fruit Labels - Have Five digits starting with the number 9

Genetically Modified Fruits - Start with the digit 8
** this is good to know because stores aren't obligated to tell you if a fruit has been genetically modified (grrr….)


Okay, so if you come across an apple in the store and it's label reads 4922 , it's a conventional apple grown with herbicides and harmful fertilizers.

If it has a sticker 99222, it's organic and safe to eat.

If it says 89222, then RUN!!!! It has been genetically modified (GMO).

So next time you go shopping, remember these critical numbers and know how to avoid purchasing inorganic and GMO fruits.

Shop Safe :)

Kentke adds.....and Live Smart