It is so difficult to actually find historical and political analysis of Iraq before and after second the U.S. led Invasion. This is a documentary about the real events that have played out in that war shown beside the image portrayed by U.S. and British politicians and media.
"Thus, it would appear that both Barack Obama and Ron Paul were the primary targets of vote-rigging operations in New Hampshire.", reports the European Press. How is it that Diebold machines are still being used to run elections when it was shown they were rigged in the previous election debacle in Florida.
Most people are aware that there is a Black reality. But in North America, it isn't connected with a Black consciousness in South America and the Carribbean (or Africa for that matter). This is a 1988 documentary about the Black experience in Brazil. Racism in Brazil is often denied, but not too veiled. These are parts one, two, three, four.
This is a piece about the sacred text, the "Kebra Nagast", in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. It shows a different side of Christianity that was apparently ignored by Catholic church when putting together their Bible. This is interesting linguistically as well as culturally. As Ethiopia has many newer forms of Christianity. This kind solidifies Ethiopian Orthodoxy as a kind of cultural baseline due to it's deep history and enduring legacy.
The text's relevance to Rastafarians is also discussed. Pretty interesting.
Apparently openly smoking in Vancouver and T.O. is a-ok these days. How is it that all this cool stuff is happening in the T-Dot after I left!!! Well this mini-doc recounts the path that Toronto Hemp Company founder Dom Cramer took. Can't get enough of that Toronto accent on film ;)
Being a Black person usually means that part of your history and reality is invisible to the larger society. I experienced this growing up in a part of Jamaican culture. I say "a part of" because even within Jamaican culture, there's a few different social classes artificially created by slavery. So people from different walks of life didn't and still don't share a class consciousness. So there's still a dynamic of a field versus house negro; and now the poor versus middle class. And certainly Africans in the Caribbean, Latin America, America and Africa still don't REALLY understand each other.
This video sort of helps to fill that gap. Africans on the continent and Diasopa are starting to communicate their experiences with each other through novels, music, art, etc. Here's an example of this expanding consciousness. 'Khayav', from Youtube, recounts what it was like growing up in South Africa.
Being a native Torontonian, I'm always torn between the place. There's so much talent and interesting people there. But as a collective whole, the city is, or at least was, lacking character and something love and endear. There was a stifling inferiority complex that fed into this too - checkout what Maestro Fresh Wes has to say about it in the middle (from about 4:00 minutes) of this video.
But looking back, I can see how much T.O. has to offer. What's funny is I always come across old friends that are there and want to continue living in T.O. for the foreseeable future. Heck, I went back last fall and almost didn't recognise Yonge and Gerrard, where the Eaton Centre is. It's bigger and more eventful than I remember from even 2 years ago. But what would it be like to actually live there again?
Well MSTRKRFT, the world's latest techno super group, is from T.O. and gives a really good breakdown of the dynamic I'm trying to describe.
This is the first time I've spotted a $100 laptop actually in the field. The One Laptop per Child is a non-profit association dedicated to research to develop a low-cost laptop.
"They are currently being tested around the world, including at the LEA primary school, Galadima, on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria", says the BBC. Very cool.
I usually don't feel compelled to post about politicians or philosophy. But I came across this compelling video of Ron Paul talking at Google. He's got it pretty close in terms of personal liberty, freedom of the individual, respect for contracts, etc.
There was an undercurrent in this talk, which he touches on once or twice. The belief that free individuals interacting together will produce tremendous wealth and a fair society. Or more, that freedom is progress in human society. So this is kind of thing that the Renaissance thinkers like Voltaire were going towards. Jefferson and those guys were very influenced by those ideas of human freedom and social libertarianism, etc. And they designed the American Constitution with that in mind - and also British rule over them.
And he actually uses historical and structural analysis to make his case. That's really exciting for me, because that's kind of what I've tried to do with my life over the last 2 years. Here's some guy doing exactly the same thing and succeeding based on the message and principles he's using. Pretty interesting.
The recent movie "A Might Heart" is about Daniel Pearl and his wife Marianne's ordeal in Afghanistan. Now, I didn't really pay attention or know this until an article pointed it out to me. Danny Pearl's wife is black... well mixed race. And Angelina Jolie, an excellent actress, plays her in the movie adaptation of Marianne's account of the tale. Now, even if there were the most benign of intentions, someone in the project had to know something about the cultural history of blackface in American cinema.
And the project's major player's ( Jolie, Pitt, Pearl ) don't see a problem with this!! I usually try to avoid overtly political or racial topics, but geeez.
