----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Tidbits December 25th, 2006
Dora Brown Re: "Blood Diamonds" To me, a "blood" diamond is a diamond that is mined and owned by Africans, the alternative, euphemism Kimberly diamond unless I am mistaken, is that is is controlled by whites. How anyone can talk about "blood" diamonds when the whole history of South Africa, especially the kimberley diamond mines and the rest of the apartheid era mining operations was the history of the theft by Rhodes and the rest of the natural resources of US, black and brown Africans, leaves me speechless. As soon as the so called post apartheid South Africa became a reality, Debeers moved its trading to England. The whole saga of the Khoisan in Botswana and the story behind the forced removal of the San was to facilitate the exploitation of the natural resources in the Khalahari by Debeers and the puppet Botswana government. I do not know what the revisionist history of Southern Africa is, since one has been amazed at how our history is being rewritten to serve those who covert our resources, butto hear "blood" anything being applied to Africans and the talk of despots and the rest of the garbage is to watch those who are clueless about the causes and players in the current recolonization and partition of Africa. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Ivory Coast and the current unrest in Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo and the Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea...all these are zones of control being mapped out and the strife created by those who serve not national interests as in the 18th and 19th Centuries, but the new military-industrial, multinational, transnational corporate interests. Africa is being destabilized and tribal strife, which was overcome by Africans when they adjusted to the partitioning and distribution of the spoils of the victorious after WWI and WWII, is now being reintroduced. Africans hear of tribal differences which, if one grew up in Africa in the post colonial period knew were displaced by pride of nation and country, find that the way mostly foreign and predominantly whites report on this that something is seriously wrong with the picture. One never sees Africans themselves or even Africans in the diaspora being included in the current discussion of Africa. Watching this unfolding saga, one sees the same demonizing and labelling that was done to the Arabs and Moslems being now used to define Africans; Aids, poverty, disease, corruption etc. I wonder if those who believe and follow this crap ever ask themselves why the sudden interest in Africa? Why all the chaos? Why was there silence when all there was the great migration of Africans in Sudan to camps, a trek that saw thousands of young boys die and that gave us the picture of that little girl, exhausted crouched on the ground, with a vulture patiently waiting for her to succumb? The South African photographer who took that picture later committed suicide. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the continuing saga of the displaced African Americans makes one wonder why the sudden interest in Africa when a current disaster is not being addressed right here on the Mothership. What happened to the billions allocated for that disaster? Has anyone looked at the quality of life of the Afghanis and Iraqis after billions of dollars and still more are being asked for? There is a terrible inability of those who are commenting on the outside of looking at their own house. There is an arrogance and a view of the rest of humanity especially those of a different race and culture that has always been a terrible flaw in the American way of seeing. I have lived here going on forty years and instead of seeing an improvement, I see the horror of how Americans "see" others now being exported to places where the myth of what America is supposedly, has held sway. The propaganda has been very successful, the major positive outcome of the current state of being is that finally, all thosewho would not believe one when one tried to describe the REAL AMERICA are getting a first hand, personal experience of what it means to be of a different race, creed or color than the Aryan power flirts. If nothing else, that, inspite of the terrible price this knowledge is paid for, in the long run one hopes and prays will make us take a stand in and on our own continent and soil and stop being fodder for fishes, corrupt exploiters and those who "make slaves out of men, women and children." I lived in Sierra Leone and the way it is being described by some of your reviewers makes me wonder exactly what they are talking about and did they live and grow up there. Strange how currently one's history and life story is being rewritten to serve the purposes of those who use myth and misinformation to bolster their dreams of empire, or attempts at the justification of their agendas. Still, there is a naive, intuitive feeling that all will come out into theopen in the near future. A primitive, ancient belief that things are not going to unfold as those who now talk about "blood" diamonds and despots etc., will find out, and a prayer for the reawakening of that pride in being "sons and daughters of the soil" that still drives one hopes more and more of us. dora brown (5) Not a Visit From St. Nick Twas the night before Christmas and in the White House The president bid goodnight to his spouse. And as he was getting into his bed A spectre appeared that filled him with dread. The ghost was a soldier, bloody and tattered. His chest was laid bare, his rib cage was shattered. "What do you want? Why are you here?" The president pleaded, his voice tinged with fear. The ghost didn't answer, just stood in mid-floor And waved his right arm toward the bedroom door. The door slowly opened and from the hall¹s gloom An army of ghosts hobbled into the room. The president never saw such a sight As those apparitions; he shuddered with fright. Youngsters with arms and legs blown away, The room became filled with a ghastly display. And then the young soldier who first had appeared Pointed at him and then disappeared. And so did the others like smoke in the air, All vanished as though they never were there. He looked ¹round the room, even under his bed, Not a sign did he see of those living dead. Twas only a dream, he sighed with relief, A nightmare, decided the decider-in-chief. The morning arrived, he felt a new man. "I¹m going to have to alter my plan," He said to his staff, "More troops is the way, And Rumsfeld must go, someone must pay." And so Christmas came, and so Christmas went, And more deaths piled up the more troops were sent. The moral is this, as I end my refrain, To be truly chastened you must have a brain. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL! Seymour Joseph _____________________________________________ Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. 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