By Ron Scherer, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Mon Jan 23, 3:00 AM ET

NEW YORK - This may sound eerily familiar: oil prices are spiking, sending shivers from Wall Street to Main Street.

Since the new year began, crude oil has soared more than $7 a barrel to $68.35 - the highest level since late August when hurricane Katrina roiled energy markets. This time, the main impetus appears to be a bad case of international jitters, ranging from
Iran to Nigeria to
Osama bin Laden. If the tensions don't cool off, energy analysts warn, consumers should brace themselves to pay more at the gas pump in weeks ahead. "It's been one thing after another," says Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading in Chicago.

On Friday, rising oil prices and disappointing earnings sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average into a 213 point dive, one of the sharpest declines since spring 2003. One reason for Wall Street's concern: if the price of oil stays high, it will take money out of people's pockets in a year when consumers are expected to moderate spending anyway.

"Consumer spending may slow down a bit more than thought," says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York. "But, it won't drive us into a recession - that would probably take oil going well over $100 a barrel."

Rising oil prices could increase the prices Americans pay for everything from pizza delivery - yes, there is an extra $1 fuel surcharge - to how much money it will cost to get the kids back and forth to hockey practice.

So far, however, many companies have absorbed their higher energy costs. Last year, food and energy added just 1.2 percentage points to the inflation rate, which averaged 3.4 percent.

Still, energy costs are one of the factors the
Federal Reserve monitors. The Fed will meet next Tuesday and is expected to raise rates for the fourteenth consecutive time by a quarter percentage point.

Beyond that, how the Fed acts will depend on inflation prospects and its own analysis of the economy.

Typically, oil prices start to retreat by this time in January since there are only about six weeks left to the worst part of the home heating oil season. Other than early December, this winter has been milder in the US than some meteorologists expected. Last Friday, the temperature reached 61 degrees in New York.

While winter in the US has been relatively mild, parts of Europe have faced bitter conditions. This has lead to much higher use of heating oil and natural gas. Last week, fierce winter conditions led Russia to curtail production of oil in its Arctic regions.

But geopolitical uncertainty has shaken up energy markets even more than cold weather in Europe.

Iran, faced with the prospect of economic sanctions for restarting its nuclear program, has warned that the price of oil might rise if the West intervenes. The country's leaders have been vague in explaining how that might happen. Iran exports 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, a significant amount going to Asia.

The other trouble spot is Nigeria which exports about 2.25 million barrels of crude per day, most of it suitable for producing gasoline. Tribal frictions have cut production by about 100,000 to 200,000 barrels of oil per day.

"It's not sizable but any amount has gotten people nervous," says John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington.

Sunday, the situation in Nigeria remained murky, at best. Four foreign oil workers have been kidnapped by guerrilla forces demanding the release of some tribal leaders. Nigerian newspapers are warning that there could be more attacks in the Niger Delta but the government says it is negotiating in order to calm the region.

Some analysts say the markets will retreat in the weeks ahead. "Once the market realizes there is no real threat of an immediate conflict, the market will calm down and we will see oil prices back in the $50s or $60s per barrel," says Eugenio Aleman, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Banks in Minneapolis. "This is highly political."

Before the jitters in the market, some analysts thought the price would head lower.
OPEC oil ministers are still talking about reducing oil production this spring, to avoid a supply glut. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting the average price for oil will be $63.30 this year.

"If there was no anxiety about Iran and Nigeria and other countries, we think prices would be much lower than they are now," says Mark Rodekohr, an EIA analyst.

Even though Mr. Rodekohr says that the price of oil should be going lower during the year, he says he would not be surprised to see the price rise to the $70 range, back where it was soon after hurricane Katrina struck. "The key is how long - will it be a day or two or is there enough anxiety to drive it for a little while longer?"

If the price of oil stays high in the weeks ahead, it will likely be reflected in the price at the pump. So far, gasoline price gains have remained relatively modest given the rise in oil prices. Nationally, gasoline is about $2.30 a gallon, up from $2.09 a gallon only a few months ago.

"Oil prices at this level are not factored into the price of gasoline," says Rodekohr.

For 2006, EIA expects a price range of $2.25 to $2.50 a gallon. "We don't see any reason to think it will go below $2," he says. And, if oil moves above $70 a barrel for a sustained period, he says, prices at the pump will move quite a bit higher-even before the spring driving season begins.
*******************************************************

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/abarrel;_ylt=ArX0xt9OhSy6MtqAtZGaxINv24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3bGI2aDNqBHNlYwM3NDk-

Aint that a B?

For those of you that are research-minded and seriously committed to solving problems, check out this article: http://www.stevecokely.com/docs/SupremacybyStealth.pdf

As usual, please leave some comments... if you read it.

*chuckles*

Maybe that the interface and features has been simplified to the point were old folks can easily pick up on it?

If you can be productive with Frontpage then have at it, but soon (especially considering that Dreamweaver is an Adobe product now) M$ will slowly be edged out of the market. Hosting services will probably continue to use it as a service to clients, like IX Webhosting, but all in all, M$'s days in this market are numbered... Unless of course they are working on a killer app in conjuection with another well established company ... Or they plan to ship Frontpage 2006 with Windows Vista aka Longwait

That's funny.

Thinks i'll put that in my cutnpaste arsenal.

How would one say 'please do not put a curse on him' or 'them'?

Has anybody ever heard that celerons were p3s that failed final testing?

Has anybody compared the performance of a celeron to a sempron?

Good Question

@WesleyanA

Thanks I can only hope to be as objective as possible when pointing out these contradictions in the 'Land of the Free' that myself and others who were born here experienced.

@dafman

Thanks Man, I will try harder to contribute more.

I think I will do a multi article post here that highlights american corruption, espeacially in light of currents events. Like the fall of supper lobbyists abramoff. I will try to get to that today.

Holla!

Hey Guys,

Do we need to create another Linix thread instead of adding to this one? Especially so, since folks are going to be using the unix accounts offered by sbucareer. I would think so.

What do you guys thinks?

Furthermore, how can i log into my account from my kubuntu install?

Thanks!

Uhh, Thanks?



Sorry, folks there has been a huge amount of info in the news lately as this administration/country melts downs. I'm trying to figure out whether to post it here or start a journal. I'll figure it out soon and start regularly contributing some intel.

Afrika Unite!

Cool, i just logged off and it was pretty cool. Brought back memories of my frst experience with shrike 3 years agos. I will be sure to post my site soon as i get it designed.

Free Unix account that you can access from a doze box? What more could you ask for if you don't want to deal with dual booting and want to get your feet wet with the command line? I love it.

Take advantage folks.

This is the station i usually listen to when i am not listening to LIB or Inner Light or GAP or Deep Roots.

http://www.live365.com/stations/radio_abeokuta_5

But i did get an email a while back about the start of this station: http://www.live365.com/stations/abeokuta_webpages and i plan to check it out today.

Thanks for those links, I want to start on the Benin Yorubas article later this evening.

Did anybody check out the "ezpressions" site above? Seems as though it is merely a front end for a new (i guess) P2P protocol. I see that to get the full benefits you have to "buy" into the network. Sucks IMHO. No comparison to bit torrent. Especially if you get into a good torrent site like demonoid (where i get most of my files from).

Anyway if someone actually uses this "rapidshare" "one click downloader", I would love to hear how it goes (or went).

Sounds dreadfully interesting, Sbucareer. Sign me up!

I would love to flex my *nix fingers over the web in true Unix fashion. I agree with Seun, this is an awesome step and a darned good idea to boot. I see great things coming out of this. I've been meaning to crank back up my Unix studies.

I'm down sbucareer

At least $800 new. Used? no less than $500. Yeah, i'd pay $500 for that pc used as long i could check it out first.

But:

the moniter would have at least 16ms refresh

the zip is kinda useless

only four usb slots is pushing it but only if they are *all* in the back

Hope I was useful.

Wassup. I was checking out some partial torrents on my laptop and noticed this list of free documentation and ebooks. I saw some that i have visited before so i am going to post it here before i shift back to work so check it out.

Let's do this dance and shake up the Planet.

OS Programming Programs etc[url=http://www.cec.uchile.cl/~lindsey/tutorial.htm]
http://www.cec.uchile.cl/~lindsey/tutorial.htm[/url]

O'Reilly online
http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/
http://sysadmin.oreilly.com/

Computer books and manuals
http://www.hoganbooks.com/freebook/webbooks.html
http://www.informit.com/itlibrary/
http://www.fore.com/support/manuals/home/home.htm
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/webbuy/freebooks.html

The Network Book
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/netbook/

Some #bookwarez.efnet.irc links
http://www.extrema.net/books/links.shtml

Some #bookwarez.efnet.irc fiction
http://194.58.154.90:4431/enscifi/

Pimpas online books (Indonesia)
http://202.159.16.55/~pimpa2000
http://202.159.15.46/~om-pimpa/buku

Security, privacy and cryptography
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/crypto-security.html
http://www.oberlin.edu/~brchkind/cyphernomicon/

My own misc online reading material
http://www.eastcoastfx.com/docs/admin-guides/
http://www.eastcoastfx.com/~jorn/reading/

Computer books
http://solaris.inorg.chem.msu.ru/cs-books/
http://sweetrude.net/~cab/books/
http://alaska.mine.nu/books/
http://poprocks.dyn.ns.ca/dave/books/
http://58-160.skarland.uaf.edu/books/
http://202.186.247.194/~ebook/
http://hooligans.org/reference/

Linux documentation
http://www.linuxdoc.org/docs.html

FreeBSD documentation
http://www.freebsd.org/tutorials/

Sun documentation
http://osiris.imw.tu-clausthal.de:8888/
http://uran.vvsu.ru:8888/

SGI documentation
http://newton.unicc.chalmers.se/ebt-bin/nph-dweb/dynaweb;td=2
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/init.cgi

IBM Online Redbooks
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/

Digital Unix documentation
http://www.unix.digital.com/faqs/publications/base_doc/DOCUMENTATION/V40D_HTML/V40D_HTML/LIBRARY.HTM

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.0/fhs-toc.html
http://www.linuxbase.com/

UNIX stuff
http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/~unixhelp/index.html
http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/usail/
http://www.isu.edu/departments/comcom/unix/workshop/unixindex.html
http://www.franken.de/users/lorien/unix.html
http://www.cs.buffalo.edu/~milun/unix.programming.html

Programmers reading
http://www.programmersheaven.com/
http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~alanf/se_proj97/

Programming Pearls 2nd edition
http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/pearls/

C stuff
http://www.strath.ac.uk/CC/Courses/NewCcourse/ccourse.html
http://www.cm.cf.ac.uk/Dave/C/CE.html
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/c++programdesign/slides/
http://www.icce.rug.nl/docs/cplusplus/cplusplus.html

Perl stuff
http://www.webdesigns1.com/perl/ir.html
http://www.ictp.trieste.it/texi/perl/perl_toc.html
http://www.itknowledge.com/tpj/
http://www.plover.com/~mjd/perl/

Java stuff
http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs016/book/
http://polaris.cis.ksu.edu/~schmidt/CIS200/
http://www.daimi.au.dk/dProg1/java/langspec-1.0/index.html

Lisp stuff
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/ai-repository/ai/html/cltl/mirrors.html
http://www.cs.tulane.edu/www/Villamil/lisp/

Ada stuff
http://www.adahome.com/Tutorials/

Database reading
http://www.bus.orst.edu/faculty/brownc/lectures/db_tutor/index.htm

SQL stuff
http://w3.one.net/~jhoffman/sqltut.htm
http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/STAFF/E.Ferneley/SQL/index.htm
http://www.daimi.au.dk/~oracle/sql/index.html

Visual Basic stuff
http://www.vb-world.net/books/

Handbook of Applied Cryptography
http://www.cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/hac/

X Window System
http://tronche.com/gui/x/ | http://www.cen.com/mw3/refs.html | http://www.gaijin.com/X/

GTK and Gnome stuff
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/GGAD/ggad.html

QT and KDE stuff
http://www.troll.no/qt/ | http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/index.html
http://www.arrakis.es/~rlarrosa/tutorial.html

Corba stuff
http://www.iona.com/hyplan/vinoski/

TCP/IP info
http://www.tunix.kun.nl/ptr/tcpip.html

Misc programmers reading
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~chilimbi/Pubs.html
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~nromano/spring99/readings.htm

Some useful tech articles
http://www.sysadminmag.com/
http://www.dotcomma.org/

Considering Hacking Constructive
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_2/gisle/index.html

Eric's Random Writings
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/

IBM's History
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/story/text.html

Electronic Publishing
http://www.civeng.carleton.ca/~nholtz/ElectronicPublishing.html

Digital processing
http://www.dspguide.com/pdfbook.htm

The Hardware Book
http://sunsite.auc.dk/hwb/

Network iQ Router Reference Manual
http://www.teltrend.co.nz/documentation/networkiq/rel74/html/rmtoc.htm

Cisco Product Documentation
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/

Novell developers appnotes
http://developer.novell.com/research/appnotes/

Icons for your desktop
http://nether.tky.hut.fi/iconstore/

Hackers' Hall of Fame at Discovery Online
http://www.discovery.com/area/technology/hackers/hackers.html

Symbols and signs and ideograms and stuff
http://www.symbols.com/

Dictionaries
http://www.ohiolink.edu/db/oed.html
http://www.ohiolink.edu/db/ahd.html
http://www.ohiolink.edu/db/columbia.html
http://www.ohiolink.edu/db/thes.html
http://www.eb.com:180/

Misc reading material
http://dali.orgland.ru/tcd/
http://www.ud.se/english/press/pdf_publ.htm

Dantes Inferno
http://sophia.smith.edu/~lkleinbe/dante/home.html
http://www.divinecomedy.org/

Books and texts
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/books.html
http://www.ipl.org/reading/books/
http://www.nakedword.org/
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/alex/

Literature stuff
http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk:8080/
http://www.swan.ac.uk/uwp/lit.htm

Octavo books
http://www.octavo.com/

Project Gutenberg - books and texts
http://www.promo.net/pg/

Project Runeberg - Scandinavian in books and texts
http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/katalog.html

The Elements of Style
http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html

Bigtext - illustrated books and manuals for DOS
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~kevsol/oldfav.html#bigtext

Breeze - a complete text system for Windows
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~kevsol/sware.html#brzwin

Language link
http://www.june29.com/HLP/

Grimms' fairy tales
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/archive.html

Winnie the Pooh
http://www.machaon.ru/pooh/

Seven Wonders of the World
http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/

Medieval history
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook2.html

Misc history
http://www.usaor.net/users/ipm/contents.html
http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/littleton/re0_cath.htm

Stonehenges Legends
http://www.missgien.net/stonehenge/legends.html

In Parentheses historical papers
http://www.inpar.dhs.org/

Bulfinchs Mythology
http://www.bulfinch.org/

The Dead Sea Scrolls
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/toc.html

Qumran historical site
http://www.kalia.org.il/Qumran/

Index of cults
http://www.totentanz.de/kmedeke/cults.htm

Heretical speculation
http://www.calweb.com/~queribus/gnosticgnus.html

The esoteric Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani
http://www.osmth.org/index.html

Runes and Norse stuff
http://www.multiart.nu/grimner/
http://www.eastcoastfx.com/~jorn/runes/

Extinction level events
http://members.xoom.com/korwisi/ele/english/index.html
http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/clark/ncar.html

Stephen Hawkings Universe
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/html/home.html

The constellations
http://www.dibonsmith.com/constel.htm

Falling into a black hole
http://casasrv.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schw.shtml

Gravity is a push
http://www.epicom.com/gravitypush/

Online audiobooks
http://www.broadcast.com/books/scifi/

ElecBooks
http://www.elecbook.com/eblist.htm

NewMedia Classics
http://www.newmediaclassics.com/

Online Books Archive
http://docs.online.bg/

Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org/

Rocket-Library.com
http://www.rocket-library.com/categories.asp

PalmPilot E-Text Ring
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=pilot_text&id=2&List

Virtual Free Books
http://www.virtualfreesites.com/free.books.am.html

All About Ebooks
http://aalbc.com/ebooks/Allaboutebook

Whew! I went thru and seperated and attempted to apply a consistant format. I also see that some are not technical and refer to general info that might be useful to some of the nontech intitiated.

all that homo templis ordo/grim story/wierd stuff i just left in. I was bout to erase it but Who knows, maybe someone will look at that stuff and find the keys to the Problem. Hope yall enjoy.

Imhotep,
anton

joftech:

some of you should try to visit the following sites:
http://www.efbrown.com/osebiile/basics.htm
http://www.
http://www./ori.htm
http://www.ifainc.org/main/navigation.html

Thanks for the links, Joftech!

Does anybody here listen to the Yoruba Drumming Station on Live365. That music is so freakin kewl...

Can you really compare moses and noah to Shango and Obatala? No one calls on moses and noah, where as millions of people actively call on Shango and Obatala, daily. Lord, (no pun intended ) just about everybody in Central and South America calls on the Orishas. Yeah, they go to mass and do that singing moaning stuff, but when they have a problem they know to get away from there and call on the African Gods. In *every* major grocery store here in the south east (Food Lion, Harris Teeter, etc), *every* mexican/latin section of the store *will* have the candles they use to worship the Orishas wit the pictures of the "saints" on them... funny how African Religion and Spirituality has legitimized and balanced Catholicism in Central and South American and the Caribbian.

That is so Dread.

@ijebuman

See? Dat's wut i be talkin bout! Thanks, Black Man. I am about to see if i can get them on the interlibrary loan right now!

Thanks again and let's keep this thread alive. Do the Yorubas in Nigeria deal with the Yorubas in the surrounding areas econimically or politically?

Has Nigeria benefitted in any way from the history and power of IFA?

Now this topic is right on! I love it!

Ijebuman, post a little about the history of IFA. How far back does it go? What are the origens of the Oracle. Are you aware of any similarities betwwen IFA and the asian I Ching (Book of Changes). The I Ching for instance is composed of 8 trigrams that combine to form 64 hexagrams which describe all events on earth and in heavan. But if IFA has 250 odus, then man thats what I need to work wit!

I checked out the Wiki and would like to know if anyone here can point me to scholarly works about the structure of Yoruba Society and Organization before european contact, written by actual Yorubas. I will look into Prof Oluwole's work also. I had a chance to read one of her speeches and she is very, very SHARP.

Also, Naijaguru, i see you have translated 'Iya Aje' as witch. Does that mean a woman that is at one with the natural world and possesses great spiritual insight or do the people mean it in a derogative manner when they call her that? In the documentry Music is the Weapon, I heard Fela Anikulapo describe his Queens as Iya Aje, but in a very positive and benefitual manner.

I can't wait for that site to pop up, Naijaguru. Alot of young folks over here have no idea that we have African systems of Divination. I myself only recently found out about IFA after studying the I ching for close to six years. Anyway, can't wait for the site.

Again, wonderful topic. You guys keep up the good work in promoting one of the True Powers of Africa.

Peace

http://www.developingwebs.net/paintshop/blending.php

Good Luck and Happy hunting!

@tim

i just funnin you . have you checked the photo and flyer links since i changed them. Also, i would like to know what size moniter and resolution do you use, since that was a problem for you.

Thanks for your help!

I use dreamweaver also, but i am eager to hear more about adobe's web design software since they have acquired macromedia.

Another thing for beginners to consider is the number of free online tutorials available for a given program. At pixel2lifehttp://www.pixel2life.com/, the lion's share of web design resources are for dreamweaver.

Okay, i fixed the links (totally forgot about...sorry, i'm used to dsl). Both sites now have the same style sheet (& font sizes), but i have changed the background color of the http://asadte05.tripod.com/index.html.

@timmy
stop hatin : this is work is pro bono and experimental in nature which explains why it is plain. No $$$, just trying to help out a friend and learn some new CSS techniques. Further more i had to make it simple because dude will be maintaining it himself. Thanks for catching the link issue, though. I wasn't even thinking about it... Good Save! I use dreamweaver only for layout and export most images from fireworks 7. I hear you on the scroll; i despise it myself but by the time i had realized my mistake, the work flow had progressed to a point it would have been a freakin nightmare to do all that backtracking. Dude aint payin so it'll probably stay that way.

Anyways, Thanks alll!

Holla peoples!

Nas has been in the game for a long minute, now. His position is as solid as it gets. Yeah, he'll walk backwards every now and then, making cat say WTF?!, but overall he reps. Them other two charactas i cant even comment on... Nas has ny fa sho.

As far as the south goes Andre 3000 is a str8 monster. That cat is 100% pure cantf*ckwit. Know Dat.

3rd Coast: BunB and PimpC, no doubt.

As far as I know, tho, Nas has NY on lock... as far as mainstreamas go.

Holla!

Well! Guess'll i'll make an attempt to say something. It seems as though no one is listening but i just did a website at www.presentdangeronline.com. check it out and let me know what you think!

@Farriel
Thanks. Which links; the banner links, section navs, link page or footer links? You think I should make the links bigger or make the site fonts smaller? Yeah, i mos def hear you on the color matter. Asa himself did that in photo shop and i just popped it in. Really no excuse, because that was the first thing he gave me. I really wanted to focus on coding the contect box effect and integrating the nav bar into the banner. Next up is a flash player to hear "duplates". that wil be on the other side of the banner. Now, im thinking light blueish gray, black and a darker blue for the site scheme. I just have to figure out where to put what ...

I certainly appreciate all of your advice. It's being processed as we speak. Everyone else, I would like to know the browsers you use and load time critique. Also, when you click on the featured mixcd on the home page, is the resultant image legible? Can you read the titles or does that need to be a larger image?

Thanks, my peoples!

Holla!

Greets, peeps.

I'm definitely not a webmaster, but i just published a site that i would like for some folks to check out. The site is www.presentdangeronline.com (pdo).

The location of the test bed site is at http://asadte05.tripod.com/index.html (tripod).

The issues i have are:

1 When viewed in ie from my desktop the font is like 2 nanometers tall, but on the laptop (where it was designed) it's alright. I called some other folks and it looked normal to them. It may be because i used ems to measure font size. any advice would be nice...

2 How are the H1 and H3 in the pdo site. Good or shave another .25 or so ems off? How is the text on the link page? Too big or what?

3 The review page doesn't work and I haven't made the contact form functional yet. I may add some more complexity to it.

And no, it's not a template. So hammer away at it and try to break it! (hint: just increase the font size in firefox; I really have to bullet proof that)

Holla!

D.Banner and Marcus., We ride them Caddies...

YEA!

Well, I was listening to this loud-a$$ computer but the sista put D.Banner in mind so i'm bout to do that "Christmas Song".

YEA!

tiestat:

I see your point Anton however; many Africans are not like that. I personally have many friends from different African countries. That’s beside the point. I am not hating on anyone; I am a lover not a fighter, however, the whole scenario that you painted still does not give anyone an excuse to portray Africa as a country.

I hear you, Queen. I just think the operative word here is "understanding". You really can't expect anyone to understand you if you aren't willing to do the same for them. Period. Futhermore, everyday black folk are not the entities plastering images of famine and war along with suggestions that African countries are not sovereign, African Countries are indistinguishable from each other, etc, etc, over the global airwaves. As I elluded in my first post, you have to go above our heads to find entities with that power and purpose. So, I hear you and agree.

Anyway, pop "CEMOTAP" and "YAAAMS" into google and you might find something interesting.

nferyn:

Actually Anton, I don't. We don't have BET over here in Belgium (and nowhere in Europe, as far as I know). The cultural imperialism of the good old US of A does not reach that far (yet)
The fact that you think I do could be an indication of how American your point of view is (even though you'd probably hate to admit it)

What do you expect from an "American"?
I was being facetious. I think everybody would have gotten the point if I put the yucky face *inside* the parenthesis. Still, i don't have a problem being born here. It's tough and many don't make it but it's diffenently a strategic asset that will pay off for me and mine. Still, i look forward to the day i speak Yoruba, Twi, Zulu, and Wolof better than I speak english, japanse, french, and spanish. Still, I doubt very much that my point of view is as "American" as you hope it to be...

As a side note, I'll never forget the day i got lunch at an ethiopian restaurant and as i paid my bill at the bar the young Amharic waitress had bet on. Apparently, she didn't notice (or recognize) the look on my face as I glanced at it and she asked expectlyly, excitedly: "You watch BET?"... She still thinks i'm crazy. I tell yah, being Pro-Africa is like going through pruberty all over again...

Don't you know the education of Black People in America has declined since integration? I mean, really, why would american schools teach Yoruba, Wolof, and Twi. Why would american schools expend funds to teach american children about Songhay or Dahomey. Why would they want to accentuate the reason why Africans have been in amerikkka and how they got there. Stop blaming the people and look at the apparatus, the system so to speak.

What do we see of Africa. Coup. Epidemic. Famine. Genocide. Coup. Corruption. Coup... Aids. Debt. Coup, Did I mention Coup? What about Famine? What do you see of Black America? Shootout. Gangbanger. Traffiking. mtv. bet. Ebony. Oprah. Shootout. Bet. Bet. Bet. (I just know you guys watch BET)(heck, you too nferyn) NBA NFL hiphop Fried chicken, gangbangers lawdy lawdy don't forget the church on every corner in every community as the youth are hauled away to fuel the prison industrial complex. Maybe we don't have time to figure what africa is because you don't have time to figure who we are.

It's really critical that some of you guys are over here and you have no clue to what's really going on. Furthermore, alot of you guys from the Continent openly and vocally seperate us from the Continent as if our Ancestors came from the moon and not Africa. Therefore, if we have nothing to connect ourselves to (and most don't) but a lifetime of underpaid labor here, what does it really matter to us as to whether Africa is a nation, state, continent, or international cash cow for everybody but <b>Africans</p>. I, mean, really.

Africans from the Continent don't seem to like Africans who are descended from the Africans who were taken as Slaves/prisoners from Africa and Africans who are descended from the Africans who were taken as Slaves/prisoners from Africa don't seem to like Africans who are from the Continent.

Furthermore, Africans from Central Africa don't seem to like Africans from West Africa and Africans from West Africa don't seem the like Africans from Central Africa.

Africans from East Africa don't seem to like any Africans with "Negroid" features and Africans with "Negroid" features don't seem to like East Africans.

Africans in America who are descended from Africans who were taken as Slaves/prisoners from Africa don't seem to like Africans in Jamaica who are descended from the Africans who were taken as Slaves/prisoners from Africa were as Africans in Jamaica who are descended from Africans who were taken as Slaves/prisoners from Africa don't seem to like Africans in America who are descended from the Africans who were taken as Slaves/prisoners from Africa. Now that is just stupid.

Does anybody see a pattern here... I don't think we get it. I don't think we get it at all. *sigh*

Seun:

Precise, proud, and polite. Don't alienate foreigners just because they are confused about Africa. They can all be assets in the future.

...
...
... You know, I sat and looked at that qoute for a long time just listening and meditating on it. One question: Do you plan to dispel the confusion before, after, or does it matter?

nferyn:

Is this a US thing? I haven't seen that level of ingorance here in Europe (plenty of ignorance sure, but nothing so braindead)

...
...*sigh*
What can I say, Made in America? Born in the USA? The People are a product of the policy. We all know who makes the policy here, and they don't have dark skin and wide noses.

Hey vexxy,

have you ever studied the work of Dr. Amos Wilson?

http://www.africawithin.com/wilson/wilson_books.htm

Considering your field of study, he might be someone of interest to you.

Here is an except from Blue for Black Power:

"The oppressed and downtrodden, having been traumatized by the abuse of power by their powerful oppressors, often come to perceive power itself as inherently evil, as by nature corrupting and therefore as something to be eschewed, denied and renounced.

The pursuit of power is viewed as unworthy of virtuous persons, and the desire to possess it as sinful. Therefore, many among the powerless and poor feel compelled to find in their powerlessness and poverty the emblematic signs of their Godliness and redemptive salvation.

How convenient a precept for rationalizing and maintaining the power of the haves over the have-nots! As the result of their ideological manipulation by the powerful and their own reactionary misperception of reality, the poor and powerless have been made to perceive the pursuit, possession and application of power in their own behalf as unbecoming to themselves.

This is even more the case when through their naïve acceptance of the self-serving deceptive propaganda perpetrated by the powers-that-be, their own reactionary self-negation, and their nursing of their internalized inferiority complexes, the poor huddled masses perceive the possession and exercise of power as the inherent and exclusive prerogative of the ruling classes or races."

"To a significant degree Afrikan Americans accept and obey predominant White American power and its authorities (at least from social-psychological standpoint) because they agree with the rules of their establishment and expression as defined by White Americans; share with White Americans the moral, legal, and other values and perspectives which justify them; and to some extent (limited and of recent origin) because they, i.e., Blacks, have been permitted by White Americans to participate in political and social processes by which White power is given legitimacy.

To a limited degree, Afrikan Americans have been permitted access to certain positions of competent and legitimate authority. These factors contribute mightily to their acceptance of White American power (domination) and the White American monopoly of positions of authority as legitimate.

These forms of giving consent to the social power status quo on the part of Blacks help to obscure as well as deny the fact that they are in fact a dominated and severely exploited group (regardless of class); and helps to obscure the fact that their uncritical acceptance of the 'rules,' moral beliefs, perspectives, and their customary-traditional participation in the 'American (White) political-economic process and system is tantamount to the legitimating of their own oppression and to the consensual ensurance of their own powerlessness.

Rules, beliefs and consent are manufactured by those in power to justify, legitimate and serve their interests. In its origins White American power was not legitimated (i.e., voluntarily or contractually consented to, morally justified or politically-socially ratified) by Afrikan Americans who at the time of its origination were held in captivity (slavery) and to this point in time have been largely excluded from significantly participating in American legitimating processes.

From the historical point of view of Native and Afrikan Americans, White power, in whatever form, is illegitimate. This is because such power rests essentially on the near physical and genocidal decimation of Native Americans, the theft of their properties, on the exploitation or forced labor (enslavement) of Afrikans, and on the systematic exclusion by Whites of both Black and Native Americans from the influential exercise of practically all forms of 'legitimate' power and authority in the United States.

The rules and beliefs which provide the means for legitimating White power were in fact pre-established, preordained and imposed on Blacks against their will by Whites from the beginning. The illegitimacy of White American power is founded on the illegitimacy of its original sins--genocide, theft of property, and enslavement."

"For social power to be exercised effectively the power holder must possess or control some important or valued material and/or social resource(s) which is the basis of his power. By strategically rewarding or depriving others of these resources, he may use them to influence behavior in ways compatible with his interests.

Resources when used for such ends is referred to as power bases or resources.

Power bases or resources may include physical safety, health and well-being, wealth and material possessions; jobs and means to a livelihood; knowledge and social skills; social recognition, status and prestige; love, affection, social acceptability; a satisfactory self-image and self-respect…

We have no intentions to review the quite sizable number of possible power bases here. We shall constrain ourselves to brief, but pertinent, discussions of those power resources which are of important relevance to Afrikan Americans and the power relations between them and European Americans. These power resources include property, organization, race consciousness and ideology.


We do not include state politics in our discussion at this juncture because in the context of contemporary Afrikan American social, political and economic culture and the more basic issues it must resolve, state politics is of secondary importance to the Black community. Black politics and activism without the Black ownership of and control over primary forms and bases of power such as property, wealth, organization, etc., is the recipe for Black political and non-political powerlessness.

The rather obtuse pursuit of political office and the ballot box as primary sources of power by the Black community and its politicians without its concomitant ownership of and control over important resources, has actually hindered the development of real Black power in America. More ominously, there appears to be a paradoxical and positive correlation between the number of Blacks elected and appointed to high office and retrogressions in the civil and human rights extended to Black Americans during the past twenty years.

Increases in homelessness, poverty, unemployment, criminality and violence in the Black community; disorganization of the traditional Black family, inadequacies in education, increases in health problems of all types, and a host of other social and political ills have all attended increases in the number of Black elected and appointed officials. That is, the more elected and appointed Black politicians, the more social-economic problems the Black community has suffered.

While we are not implying a causal relationship between the increase of the number of Black appointed and elected officials and the increased misery indices of the Black community, we are implying or asserting that their increase obscures those things which are responsible for and do little to ameliorate or uproot the increasing prevalence of social and economic problems in the Black community.

The community's concern with the election and appointment of Black political figures helps it to maintain false hopes that their attainment of office will significantly resolve its problems. The activities of Black politicians, given the current inadequacy of social organization and economic resources, harmfully distract the Black community's attention from recognizing and eradicating the true causes of its problems and the remediation of its powerlessness."

"The responsibility of the Afrikan American community [is to ensure] Afrika's economic development. The ignoring of Afrika by the Western nations provide windows of opportunity open to native Afrikans to drastically reduce the massive outflow or flight of capital, which has been estimated to exceed 80 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, and to reinvest it in their own countries.

Afrikan peoples and nations across the Diaspora must apprise themselves of a full, ongoing knowledge of the social, economic and cultural history of Afrikan nations as well as their contemporary status and reorganize their sociocultural and economic structures so as to initiate and fuel continental Afrika's growth and development.

The Afrikan American community, especially, should vastly overhaul and reconstruct its educational orientation toward a knowledge of the Motherland. It must realize that its own economic salvation is coterminous with or tied to that of Afrika's. It must invest money and human resources in Afrika's development and perceive its economic prosperity as its special responsibility and mission…

The Afrikan American community must become vigilantly and jealously interested in U.S. and European policies toward Afrika and seek to influence those policies in both its own and Afrika's favor."

That Man right thar, ain't playin! That's some serious step-aboard-the-Nebuchadnezzar and come-to-Zion talk right there!


Uhuru...