War on Drugs and Prostitution Is it Needed?

War on Drugs and Prostitution

Conference and Action Needed

Mr. Kevin Whynder, 30 murdered in Prison

The twenty-eight (28) unsolved murder cases of the Halifax Regional Police contain the names of four (4) African Nova Scotians, three men and a woman, representing some 14% of the unsolved murders. Many of you who visit this site will know them, perhaps better than I do.

Here’s the link below:

http://www.halifax.ca/Police/UnsolvedMurders/index.asp

Mr. Donald Charles Downey, 28, October 30, 1988.
Ms. Kimber Leanne Lucas, November 23, 1994.
Mr. Tyrone Layton Oliver, 20, July 20, 2000.
Mr. Kevin James Bowser, 28, July 10, 2004.

All of the above died on the street.

These deaths occurred in Halifax and remain unsolved. There were other deaths of African Nova Scotians, which occurred in other places in Canada. The one prominent one was that of Philip James “Rabbit” Simmons, 33 on March 9, 2006.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his novel: The White Company once wrote:

“Ill armed and half starved, they were still desperate men, to whom danger had lost all fears: for what was death that they should shun it to cling to such a life as theirs?”

We would do well to begin not to condone the lives some of our children lead in the face of the stark reality of racism and other disadvantages we all, who are Black, endure.

We would do better to ask ourselves what more can we do to end the problem of racism in our schools, in finding employment and in achieving fair promotions within our chosen occupations, before another one of us becomes a victim of this racist system that we all acknowledge does exist.

The assumption that our young people are lured away to a life of crime due to racism is of course nonsense. But still let us take even that assumption away by aggressively fighting it; by standing up and supporting those who are true victims of the system and by letting those know who need to know that we will not tolerate victimization of any kind. We cannot expect others to do it for us; it is up to us to struggle and defeat this problem.


Some of our young Black men, two in fact, died in prison at Renous, New Brunswick. Prison is the one place where one might think there is safety. But it seems that Black men, young Black men in particular, are the least safe in the custody of our correction services.

Among those who have died there are:

Mr. Wade Oscar Parsons, 42, August 16, 2002.
Mr. Kevin Whynder, 30, November 6, 2003.


Soon, there will be no recollection of those, Black inmates, who die in our prisons. Sooner, or later, there will be more deaths to add to this list of those Black men dying in prison, if we do not hold Corrections Canada accountable for the well-being of Black inmates in their custody.
Clearly the drug trade is responsible for the deaths on our streets in Halifax and elsewhere. A campaign against drug trafficking has to be commenced. What drug control programs are available? How do we get them working for us? Do we have a Black organization which deals with rehabilitation of Black users and if not to who do we turn? How do we take back our neighbourhoods from drug pushers?

What can we do? We need to think and act individually and collectively in community groups and organizations. We need to be ever mindful that what we do we do for the collective good of our community of like interests and not only for our own purposes, or to achieve the goals of our organizations, or for this, or that, personal goal. It seems apparent that on issues of drugs, fair employment opportunities we need an Advocacy Group much like the former Black United Front, to counsel victims and to wage war on drugs on the street and in the prisons.

Recently, I have come to appreciate life more that ever. Remember the names of those who have paid the highest price with their lives for the way of life they desired.

But also remember that they once had goals and objectives as worthy as our own. Reach out to remember them, as members of our community who have fallen victim to drugs. So we can derive some good from the lessons they have to teach us let us always remember them. Remember them that we may never forget that they were our friends, brothers, sister, husbands and perhaps a wife, perhaps fathers and a mother to children who at are now perhaps parentless. If we do not love ourselves how can we begin to love and respect those others we should?

What redemption can be found in prison? What redemption for the Black inmate can be found in the collective care for their well-being by members of the community from which they derived their lives? A little caring can go a long way sometimes.

From these facts above I draw two conclusions and those conclusions are:

a) The Black communities of Nova Scotia need to declare war on drugs and prostitution;

b) The Black communities of Nova Scotia need to convene a conference on these subjects to evolve an understanding of both issues and to devise strategies to protect our youth from getting involved and

c) The organizations of the Black community must take the lead, including the clergy, in seeing that the above two conclusions are carried out. The integrity and honor of our communities depend upon us taking joint action now in light of the current state of affairs.

We must act or be content to view the alarming parade of young Black people being shot in the streets of Halifax or stabbed in the nation’s prisons as reported on the media spectacles we have witnessed recently. Can anyone honestly say that they are happy with the status quo? Where is our pride? What will it take to muster up some courage to do what we need to do?

The graphic or table at the top of the page shows that since 1995 drug offences have slightly less than doubled, from 1995's 444 to 2004's 874. To enlage the graph and pictures double left click them. Note that crimes of violence are up 29.54% over 1995 by the year 2004. These statistics show the trend in Metro.


As always, Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

Note: This link comes highly recommended by Sister Lynn Jones and in particular: "Remember Black Wall Street." Those interseted can view the book and buy of copy of the volume. It's a must read in understanding from whence we have come:

http://blackwallstreet.org/BWS.e.Store.html

The Four Faces of Hollywood's Jungle Fever

Fay Wray as Ann Darrow in the 1933 version of

King Kong

The Jungle Fever (JF) theme has its origin in the 1933 Merian C. Copper movie called, King Kong, where the idea of controversial love, JF, had its film debut.

The idea of love between a white woman and a black ape was understandable – people love and adore pets.

In 1933 the love in Kong was entirely more acceptable then than the other form of controversial love, that is, love between a black man and a white woman, which was about to debut on the silver screen thirty-four years later.

King Kong stirred no racial passions. Only she, Ann Darrow, (played by Fay Wray) knows for sure if their passion was truly JF. Yet women of eclectic tastes yearned to know what Kong was like, but Kong wasn’t showing or telling. Kong was a silent lover.

So JF, its first edition, went quietly into the film can, but in 2005 there was another resurrection. Still, that initial, though acceptable, controversial love with Kong gave birth in a most unorthodox fashion to the JF that was about to follow.

JF, edition II, thirty-four years after Kong, takes us to the year 1967. In that year the Stanley Kramer’s movie: “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” surfaced. It was a more controversial form of love than in Kong and of a slightly different type – human to human.

The subject of interracial love in 1967 was as controversial as it gets. The Academy Award winning movie, for original screenplay, starred the young Sidney Poitier.

The story centres on Joanna Drayton, a young white American woman, played by Katharine Houghton who has a worldwind romance with Dr. Prentice, an African American. They meet while on holiday in Hawaii. The two plan to marry and she will return with him to Switzerland. It was a groundbreaking story of subtle interracial love, quiet “JF.”

The JF Kramer creates in ’67 became that once in a lifetime event; it was like Fate had taken both of them by the hand. To both of them this “quiet JF” seemed so real. But, could they be sure? Was he sure? Was she sure?

They were so innocent of the ways of the world and they wanted to believe that a new day had dawned for other people in love just as they were. Love, like time, is fleeing and yet it moves mountains.

JF, edition III, was in fact the 1991 movie called “Jungle Fever.” The Spike Lee movie starred Wesley Snipes and introduced newer generation of actors poised to make their marks.

The plot centres on the interracial romance between a successful, married architect, Flipper Purify, Wesley Snipes, and an Italian-American woman, Angie Tucci, Annabella Sciorra. One notes that the names of the actors were as unrecognizable as the names of the characters in the script.

This is the real JF, raunchy, no holes barred type of JF, where both partners get more than what they wanted in the first place. They meet in the architectural firm, where Purify works and Tucci is hired as a temp secretary.

As a result of their relationship, they come under intense pressure, exerted by their families and friends. There are also subplots this time (the JF is not enough): Flipper’s brother, ‘Gator, (Samuel L. Jackson) is a crack addict.

Gone is the innocence of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” JF is no longer that once in a lifetime experience that it was in 1967. By 1991 JF is allowed to let “it all hang out.”

Raunchy JF is defined now as the passion of a couple of the opposite race, notably black and white, making-out all over the place. Now, the lovers are all in a hurry. It’s jiggy time.

So far JF is a love of extremes: animal-love JF, quiet JF, raunchy JF and at last “indifferent JF.”

The last and fourth source of JF appears in the television show, Grey’s Anatomy. The popular television series stars Canadian Sandra Ho as a doctor of Korean ancestry, Dr. Cristina Yang, and the plot matches her with Isaiah Washington, a doctor of African American ancestry, Dr. Preston Burke. Suddenly interracial love, JF, takes on a whole new meaning.

Yang is a graduate of Sanford University medical school. Work complications arise out of their “secret” relationship but they continue to sleep together and she gets pregnant but does not tell her mate, Dr. Burke.

Her pregnancy is revealed one day when she collapses in surgery and the pregnancy is aborted. Always uptight Cristina only tells Dr. Burke she loves him only when he falls to sleep; this is a kind of “indifferent JF,” but it works for the show.

It is to be yet observed that for some reason the medical and scientific professions seems to have the corner in the marketplace when it comes to JF.

So, if JF started all with a black ape. Where can JF go from here?

Perhaps, next time we witness JF it will probably be between two gender-identical gang leaders, a kind of Brokeback Mountain of the intercity, where two male leaders of rival gangs, driving powerful and expensive European sports cars, fall in love, play video games for fun but never get it on.


As always, well wishes, and having fun,


F. Stanley Boyd

Our History Can Change Our Future

By

M. Raymond Sheppard

We must actively take an exploratory journey into the past and the present to discover the impending future of our people. We must put our past economic and sociological predicaments to work for us through understanding and thus plot a course to affect positive future change, the changes we want and need. And how will observing these past findings help us navigate the future? In profound ways!

There are past and present-day parallels that can predict and rescue the future. Analyzing the similarities, the successes, the limitations, the influences and the dreams can be and are the guiding principles for future growth and development.

We must never forget that the downturn in our natural civilization was at the hands of exploitation practiced by those seeking power and control. It is a time to look at our history memoir sort of speak, an accent the exceptional levels of accomplishments set against all odds. Presently, by looking behind we can inject a level of stimulation into our future, thus planting seed for germination. By going deep into the history of our culture (society) on all levels and in all its splendour and glory, we can truly make a difference.

We must seek to gain and indeed gain, a intricate and multifaceted understanding of all aspects of our past and present. Equally, how we portray ourselves in our own history will serve to leave our people with more appreciation of our culture. This appreciation will also allow us to distinguish the truth from the stereotype, this is need for our future development.


As Always, well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd
Publisher

Next: "The Four Faces of Jungle Fever."

The Ides Of March Are Come

Above Cars parked at the Church today. At the right Philip James Simmons.


I can’t help but think that there is some uncanny or eerie kind of symbolism, or ominous warning given today on this March 15, 2006, the ides of March. Recall that on March 15, 44 B.C.E. that this ominous warning was heard: “Beware the ides of March.”

Scholars say that it was Spurinna, the unidentified Roman soothsayer in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, who warned Caesar that on the Ides of March he would be in great danger, but if he took care on that day all would be well.

The word “ides” was derived from Latin meaning “to divide.” In the months of March, May July and October the ides fall on the 15th day. Ides were originally meant to mark the full moon. This week that unsettle feeling was everywhere. Several people over the course of the past few days have mentioned to me the uneasy feelings they have been having.

When Spurinna met Caesar on his way to the Roman Senate, Caesar is reputed to have said to the Soothsayer:

“The ides of March have come.”

It is acknowledged that Spurinna’s reply to Caesar was:

“Yes, they have come, but they have not past.”

We all know that Caesar’s enemies assassinated him in the Pompey theatre, at the foot of Pompey’s statue, not far from where the Roman Senate was meeting that day in the temple of Venus.

Today, I attended a funeral and this thought continually ran through my mind, “Beware the ides of March.” I am well aware that it has not past.

Today Harvey and Alice Simmons’ buried their son, Philip James “Rabbit” Simmons. Some 700 seated mourners fill the North Preston Community Centre and another two hundred and a half, remained standing. It was so well attended I could find no seat and no sermon agendas were left.

To give you an idea of how large the attendance of mourners grew I took a photo of the cars parked around the adjacent property.

The symbolism with the ides of March and Caesar’s assassination on that day and Philip’s burial today on the ides of March and how he met his death seemed so chillingly striking that I could not but mentioned the warning here.

Rest easy Rabbit, the ides of March are upon us all...



As always, well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

PHILIP JAMES "RABBIT" SIMMONS ALWAYS REMEMBERED

On march 9, 2006 Philip James "Rabbit" Simmons was shot several times at a party to mark his thirty-third birthday in Niagara Falls Ontario, after being airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital, he was pronounced dead. For those of us who knew "Rabbit"he was a good reliable friend, who did much for his community. His parents, Harvey and Alice Simmons, are among my friends; they are a strong family, who will overcome this and move on. My condolences to the family and to Harvey and Alice in particular

Pictured here (on the left) on August 2, 2002, his wedding day, the future, for Rabbit, looked bright and long. The scene of the shooting (centre above) on Malibu Drive in Niagara Falls is a trendy, upscale neighbourhood.

Tragedy knew Philip's name, he was the beloved husband of the late Laurie (Cain) Simmons.

He worked in construction with his father Harvey. Philip was a member of Saint Thomas United Baptist church in North Preston. His funeral, in the North Preston Community Centre at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15, 2006, will be well attended. The publisher of this blog will attend the funeral tomorrow.

As Always, well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

Ex-White House Aide -- Claude Allen Admits Fraud

Target Corp. investigator, Pete Schomburg, said he stopped Allen on January 2 outside a company store in Gaithersburg. Schomburg alleges that Allen received a refund for items using a reciept from an earlier purchase.

George Bush and Allen Photo

Schomburg says that Allen admits "committing fraudulent returns" according to documents filed March 7, two days before Allen was charged with theft and theft scheme.

Allen's lawyer denies the charges, saying they were the result of problems with Allen's credit cards. Allen, 45, is scheduled to go on trial April 27.

Allen, who resigned his $161,000-a-year job in Februay at the white House, wanted to spend more time with his family. The allegations were made prior to his White House resignation.

CNN says tha Bush used the words that it would be "deeply disappointing" if Allen had not told the truth to the White House about what happened. Allen notified White House chief of staff, Andy Card, the night of the January 2 incident, saying it was a misunderstanding.

As always well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

Chronicle Herald Ad Byron's Face Lifted

In the chronicle Herald deivered to my door today, Tuesday, March 14, 2006 there was a production problem as you can see from the photo above. The carrier's name is Bryon, a Black man.

The writer did contact the Chronicle Herald about this flaw in the photo that was embedded in the photo not on the surface of the copy of the newspaper I received. In other words, it was somewhere in production that this problem originated before it reached my door. It was not defaced between production and when it was deliverd to me at my residence.

It somehow took place during production cycle. It seems to have affected newspapers in Dartmouth Nova Scotia in the B3B 1A6 postal codes.

I have checked with subscribers in Halifax and in Cole Harbour and none of those ads are affected in anyway.

Other subscribers in this area got similar flawed photos. If you received or have picked up copies of the Chronicle Herald that are similarly flawed please let me know. The ad appears at page G4, bottom left hand corner and it is a large ad you cannot miss.

I am in contact with the Herald and I would like to see this problem corrected. I have scanned and forwarded the above flawed ad to the Chronicle Herald. If you see it, please notify me immediately. My email link to be clicked is:

fsjboyd@yahoo.com

As always,

Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

The Anatomy of Yellow Journalism’s

“Crime” Reporting

Newspapers are the last vestige of the old-styled, mudslinging rumor mill that is tolerated under the guise of freedom of the press, or freedom of expression. Newspapers, unlike other media, appear to have no requirement to self-regulate.

On television the viewer is protected and warned that the following program contains scenes of violence and descriptive language of events that may offend younger and older viewers alike. In the case of newspapers that shoot from the hip, anything goes; they are not regulated. Now, I agree that anyone may read any article, and that is as it should be.

But failing to regulate themselves, newspapers in Metro must be regulated by an agency whose readers caution newspaper editors when they cross the line and for repeated infractions the agency must have the power to fine the offending newspapers, making those infractions public. This should be a deterrent to newspapers who cross the line.

If you or I walked into a downtown bar and began shouting racial epithets, defaming gay and lesbian people, people in wheelchairs and claimed the holocaust never happened, we would soon be regulated. So, why should newspapers be permitted to do what we as individuals cannot do and under the guise of freedom of expression and “crime” reporting.

The article offered here to make the point was published in the Chronicle Herald’s section B on Friday, March 10, 2006, page B 1 and B7 under the headline “N.S. man with criminal past killed in Ontario shooting.” The article was written by Dan Arsenault and Chris Lambie. The article is sensational; it re-victimizes the murdered victim, taints his life and exploits his family and community. Is this the work of a good corporate citizen?

There was no warning that this article might prove offensive to the murdered victim's parents, family, relatives, and friends and to the newspaper’s Black readers in general. The public cannot continue to tolerate such insensitivity, but then you judge: one man’s meat is another’s poison.

The Encyclopedia Britannica Online defines “Yellow Journalism” as the use of lurid features and sensationalized news in newspaper publishing to attract readers and increase circulation. The phrase was coined in the 1890s to describe the tactics employed in furious competition between two New York City newspapers, not unlike the war between the two newspapers in Halifax for circulation and revenue.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy takes the definition a step further descriptively when it says yellow journalism is inflammatory, irresponsible reporting by newspapers.

There are ten criteria in writing "yellow journalism" successfully in Metro Halifax when it comes to "crime reporting". The true and tried way appears to include the following:

• Find a murder victim, preferably a Black male, with a criminal record.
• Find a live body to “interview” a witness, preferably a family member, a relative or a close friend who is yet unaware of the death. Be sure to move in haste.
• Make sure you contact the interviewees as fast as possible while they are yet in a state of shock over the death.
• Regardless of what the interviewees say about the victim’s character during the "interview" write the “crime” article you had intended to write from the beginning, be sure not to let facts get in the way.
• Make sure your content does character-assassinate the victim because he is dead, feel confident that he'll be unable to launch any defense.
• Make sure your language is vague enough so that there is sufficient confusion over its meaning, making sure the reader can take its meaning anyway the reader chooses. This assures the article will be discussed at work over the water coolers in offices in metro.
• Hope to blazes the article sells more newspapers and increases circulation. It is a requirement though that you must be insensitive to the harm and hurt it causes the family of the murder victim.
• Don’t worry about the friends and family of the murder victim taking any legal action against the newspaper because we have the victim’s criminal record to hide behind.
• Finally, be confident that the victim’s family and close friends are in such a state of shock and are hurting far too much to do anything about the article but cry.
• Lastly, you may assume with confidence that Black people are not likely to read the article anyway, as it is in the newspaper. Be also confident that Black people will have no idea what the article truly means.

N.S. man with criminal past killed in Ontario shooting

By DAN ARSENAULT and CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporters

A North Preston man with a criminal past who recently moved to Ontario was shot down at a party while celebrating his 33rd birthday.

Phillip James (Rabbit) Simmons was pronounced dead Thursday morning at Hamilton General Hospital, just over 24 hours after the shooting took place at about 3 a.m. Wednesday at a Niagara Falls home.

One source said Mr. Simmons was shot three or four times by another Nova Scotia man armed with a 9-mm pistol. Police would only say he’d been shot multiple times in the lower abdomen.

"This is just devastating," his friend Neville Provo said Thursday. "He was well-loved in the community."

The 41-year-old Upper Lawrencetown man has known Mr. Simmons most of his life. The killing has shocked the entire North Preston community, he said, remembering Mr. Simmons as a fun-loving, generous man.

Many people rushed to the family’s home right after they heard of the shooting, Mr. Provo said.

"At the time, we were just hoping that he’d pull through."

He said Mr. Simmons lost too much blood from three gunshot wounds, suffered heart failure and died.

Harvey and Alice Simmons, the dead man’s parents, have gone to Ontario, said one of Mr. Simmons’ brothers, who answered the phone at the family home Thursday but wouldn’t give his name.

An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday.

Mr. Simmons moved to Niagara Falls about two months ago looking for construction work, said the source, adding his brother, Darren, works there now.

Investigators were in the process of interviewing people Thursday who were at the party, said Const. Sal Basilone of the Niagara Regional Police Service.

"They’re still working the matter quite aggressively," Const. Basilone said.

Either one or two men held a gun to the head of Darren Simmons during the birthday party, said the source, who did not want to be identified. After that, Darren left the home, but Phillip remained behind, said the source.

"We know that there was an altercation that included the victim," Const. Basilone said. "To go outside of that, it would be premature to speculate."

The source identified the shooter as a 23-year-old man who used to live on Cherry Brook Road in Dartmouth.

Police wouldn’t say if they had interviewed that man after the deadly party.

Neighbours told Niagara This Week the two-storey Malibu Drive rental home where the shooting took place was known as a hot spot for local parties.

There was always loud music coming from the home and people were always coming and going, said one neighbour, who didn’t want to be named.

Another resident said police had been to the house on a couple of occasions before the shooting.

Mr. Simmons was not living at the home. In August 2004, sources said, Halifax Regional Police were ready to arrest the Cherry Brook Road resident for the murder of Kevin Bowser. But he was never charged with the killing.

The man was slated to stand trial around that time on a charge of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. But he didn’t show up for trial and a warrant was issued for his arrest on the drug charge.

Mr. Bowser was gunned down July 10, 2004, on a sidewalk in Uniacke Square in Halifax after leaving the home of his ex-girlfriend and two daughters.

Mr. Simmons had a criminal record that included sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in 2000. He also has convictions dating back to 1991 for theft, threats, obstructing a police officer and fraud.

In 1999, he was convicted of trafficking cocaine. He had just completed a 20-month conditional sentence on that charge days before sexually assaulting the girl.

Mr. Provo said Mr. Simmons remained popular despite his trouble with the law.

"He did his time for that," Mr. Provo said. "He did a lot for the community.

"Any time I needed him, he was always there for me."

Mr. Simmons had two children — a six-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy — with Laura Kane, who died of cancer about three years ago, said the source.

Mr. Provo said Mr. Simmons had three other children in addition to his two with Ms. Kane.

"They’re without a father," he said. "Can you imagine?"

Mr. Provo said this type of violence is becoming too frequent with young people in his community.

"There’s got to be other ways that people deal with problems, other than gunshots and killing."

(clambie@herald.ca)

Next time we will review the article published in the Niagara Falls' newspaper called The Review to see how the same story was handled there by that newspaper's crime reporting.

Until then,

Well wishes,
F. Stanley Boyd

ALFRED DIGGS -- East Preston Dies

Alfred Diggs, 73, East Preston passed away on Wednesday, March 4, 2006. He was born March 20, 1932 in East Preston and was the son of the late Joseph and Stella (James) Diggs. I met Alffie went I work in East Preston with the Combined Insurance Company of America and every six months I would visit him and his lovely wife, Elizabeth "Ollie" Clayton. Whenever in East Preston I made it a point to visit both of them. They were my dear friends and I will greatly miss Alffie's humor and hospitality. There will never be another Alffie Diggs.

My condolences to his entire family and to Ollie in particular who knows I too will always think of Alffie.

God Has Cursed Us Kenyan Family Cries

Water is More Important Than Food


Garissa, Kenya -- CNN reporter Jeff Koinange says he has seen women with babies on their backs walking for miles in search of food in Niger. In Malawi he witness people eating termites to keep from starving to death. In Kenya, which is his home, Jeff says it is the country's fourth season without rain and people who are herders are watching their animals being decimated by drought and a looming famine.

What can we do to help? Aid is on the ground from the US, Japan and of course the Kenyan government. The World Food Program is helping move supplies to drought-stricken northern Kenya. Peter Smerdon, spokes man fofr the UN World Food Program says, logistics is the major problem;

"Having food is one thing," Smerdon says. "Moving it, is quite another." Much of the food is stored in warehouses around the country. The immediate need is water to save the dying animals.

Many of us in this country are animal lovers, can you imagine how you would feel if your animals were dying of thrist and you could do nothing?

The ousman family head, Salat Ousman, says. "God has cursed us. Why else are we allowed to suffer for so long? What have we done wrong?"

God has not forsaken the Ousmans, I wish there were something we could do to help. Does anyone have any ideas how we can get water to the people in northern Kenya? Please write or make a comment if you have any ideas.

To view this story click the link below:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/03/09/btsc.koinange.kenya/index.html?section=cnn_topstories


In the photo above families receive food and water from the US, Japan and the Kenyan government, but the water is so little it barely keeps the people alive and the livestock is perishing.

Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

FEAR -- The Spectre That Must Be Laid To Rest

Re: Polls on this site:

I have been doing this blog because it is something that needs to be done; I do not need to do it. The number of people turning the pages of this blog each day is amazing. I have an accurate count and I know how many. In the two months since I have started this there have been more than 2000 visits

More than sixty people on average per day turn these pages; the highest being 145 visits in a single day, February 24, 2006. I know you like what you see on these pages because it speaks of us and of course some of you do not. That’s to be expected. Why turn these pages if silent is all you want to be.

Your silence also speaks of you; it defines the kind and quality of people you are. You are measured by what you say, as well as, by what you do not say. Nothing is after all just that, nothing. I know most of you out there are people of substance and the time has come to show it. Complacence is complacence and participation is the way to freedom.

The polls on this site are to gage your opinions, use them as a measure of what you truly believe and if you want a poll on a particular issue or idea let me know.


Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

Gordon Parks -- "Nothing Came Easy" Dies

"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."

He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.

But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.

"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."

In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.

"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well as directed.

In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.

The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972, and that same year his son Gordon Jr. directed "Superfly." The younger Parks was killed in a plane crash in 1979.

Parks also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Parks was born November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas, the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith.

Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

For more about Gordon Parks click the link below:

http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=117

West Trying to Help Sudan?

US says Africans must do more in Darfur


By Sue Pleming

African nations, including Sudan itself, must do more to end the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, said a top U.S. official before leaving on Tuesday for talks to push African and European leaders to act faster.

"No one party can do it alone -- Africans must play a key role, the Government of National Unity in Sudan must assume responsibility, and the U.N. must be active as well," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said in a statement.

Zoellick was headed for Brussels and Paris for meetings with top Sudanese officials, leaders of the African Union, NATO and the European Union.

African Union troops are struggling to keep the peace in Sudan's western Darfur region, and while the United Nations has started contingency planning for a takeover from African forces, the United States is impatient at how long it is taking to reorganize that mission.
"We believe that, to the maximum extent possible, the AU forces in Darfur should be incorporated into the U.N. mission in which Africans should play a key leadership role," said Zoellick.

U.S. efforts to push through a resolution in the U.N. Security Council on Darfur failed last month, mainly as the African Union had not yet requested a U.N. force and because some officials in Khartoum said they opposed the move.

On Friday, AU foreign ministers are expected to vote to invite the United Nations to take over the mission, a week later than originally expected.

BIG PUSH

"I hope to push for progress on Sudan with key European and African leaders this week in Brussels and Paris," Zoellick said.

About 7,000 African Union troops are monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Darfur, where 2 million people have been driven from their homes by a campaign of rape, killing and looting, called genocide by Washington.

Tens of thousands of people have died in Darfur in three years of fighting between government-backed Arab militias and non-Arab rebels.

The United Nations has asked the United States and other countries with big militaries to provide tactical air support in Darfur. Most troops on the ground are expected to come from Africa and Asia and the United States reiterated on Tuesday it was premature to talk about U.S. forces going to Darfur.

Aid groups urged world leaders not to allow lengthy debates over who should be in charge of a Darfur mission to delay action, pointing out that a U.N. force would likely not be in place until 2007.

International relief organization Oxfam said the immediate priority should be on saving lives and the solution was to boost AU forces and give them a broader mandate to protect civilians.
In New York, a delegation of seven U.S. lawmakers led by House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California met with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to, in Pelosi's words, "bring a sense of the urgency we saw there" following a congressional visit to Darfur two weeks ago.

Democratic Rep. Donald Payne (news, bio, voting record) of New Jersey said the lawmakers wanted African Union leaders to agree to a transformation of the AU force into a stronger and better equipped U.N. peacekeeping mission.


Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

OPEC Countries about to Meet

Minister of State for Petroleum resources and President of the OPEC conference Edmund Daukoru from Nigeria talks to media upon his arrival at a hotel in Vienna, on Monday, March 6, 2006, for the upcoming meeting of ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

VIENNA, Austria -- OPEC's key members said Monday that they would not seek a production cut this week, and that they expected oil prices, now hovering above $60 a barrel, to decline this spring.

Kuwait's energy minister, Sheik Ahmed Fahd al-Ahmed al-Sabah, said oil prices should begin to fall next month assuming the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintains output at current levels and geopolitical tensions do not worsen. OPEC, which pumps about a third of the world's oil, meets Wednesday in Vienna.

Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

We may well escape a disaster of our own here, in Nova Scotia, if this unusually warm weather continues and oil prices fall, or do not rise. Keep your eyes on Nigeria's output it may be the price trendsetter.

Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett Dies at 45

By DAVE CAMPBELL, AP Sports Writer


Kirby Puckett didn't need much time to make a big impact. Those who felt it, near and far, can only wish he had stayed around longer.

The bubbly Hall of Famer with the boyish enthusiasm for baseball, who led the Minnesota Twins to two World Series titles before his career was cut short by glaucoma, died Monday after a stroke. He was 45.

"He was revered throughout the country and will be remembered wherever the game is played," commissioner Bud Selig said. "Kirby was taken from us much too soon — and too quickly."

Indeed, Puckett was the second-youngest person to die having already been enshrined at Cooperstown, Hall of Fame spokesman Jeff Idelson said. Only Lou Gehrig, at 37, was younger.
Stricken early Sunday at his Arizona home, Puckett died at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, where friends and family had gathered. Puckett, who was divorced, is survived by his children, Catherine and Kirby Jr. He was engaged to be married to Jodi Olson this summer.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Puckett's post-retirement weight gain over the past decade concerned friends and family, who were saddened but not shocked by his stroke.

"It's a tough thing to see a guy go through something like that and come to this extent," former teammate Kent Hrbek said.

Puckett led the Twins to championships in 1987 and 1991 after breaking into the majors in 1984. With a career batting average of .318, six Gold Gloves and 10 All-Star game appearances, Puckett woke up one morning during spring training in 1996 and never played again because of blindness in his right eye.

"That's what really hurt him bad, when he was forced out of the game," Hrbek said. "I don't know if he ever recovered from it."

A makeshift memorial began to form Monday night outside the Metrodome, with a handful of bouquets, caps and candles laid on the sidewalk. "I grew up in centerfield yelling down on him. It's just not right," said fan Daniel Boche, who knelt down to pay his respects. "He was my idol growing up."

"It's tough to take," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said from the team's spring training camp in Fort Myers, Fla. "He had some faults, we knew that, but when all was said and done he would treat you as well as he would anyone else, no matter who you were."

Though he steadfastly refused to speak pessimistically about the premature end to his career, Puckett's personal life began to deteriorate after that.

Shortly after his induction to Cooperstown, then-wife Tonya accused him of threatening to kill her during an argument — he denied it — and described to police a history of violence and infidelity. In 2003, he was cleared of all charges from an alleged sexual assault of a woman at a suburban Twin Cities restaurant and kept a low profile after the trial, eventually moving to Arizona. He stopped coming to spring training as a special instructor in 2002.

Puckett was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try in 2001, and his plaque praised his "ever-present smile and infectious exuberance."

He spent his entire career with Minnesota.

"I wore one uniform in my career and I'm proud to say that," Puckett once said. "As a kid growing up in Chicago, people thought I'd never do anything. I've always tried to play the game the right way. I thought I did pretty good with the talent that I have."

Puckett's signature performance came in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series against Atlanta. After claiming he would lead the Twins to victory that night at the Metrodome, he made a leaping catch against the fence and then hit a game-ending homer in the 11th inning to force a seventh game.

The next night, Minnesota's Jack Morris went all 10 innings to outlast John Smoltz for a 1-0 win, Minnesota's second championship in five years.

"If we had to lose and if one person basically was the reason — you never want to lose — but you didn't mind it being Kirby Puckett. When he made the catch and when he hit the home run you could tell the whole thing had turned," Smoltz said.

"His name just seemed to be synonymous with being a superstar," the Braves pitcher added. "It's not supposed to happen like this."

Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk echoed Smoltz's sentiment.

"There was no player I enjoyed playing against more than Kirby. He brought such joy to the game. He elevated the play of everyone around him," Fisk said in a statement to the Hall.

Puckett's birth date was frequently listed as March 14, 1961, but recent research by the Hall of Fame indicated he was born a year earlier.

The youngest of nine children born into poverty in a Chicago housing project, Puckett was drafted by the Twins in 1982 and became a regular just two years later. He got four hits in his first major league start and finished with 2,304 in only 12 seasons.

Though his power numbers, 207 home runs and 1,085 RBIs, weren't exceptional, Puckett won an AL batting title in 1989 and was considered one of the best all-around players of his era. His esteem and enthusiasm for the game factored into his Hall of Fame election as much as his statistics and championship rings.

He made his mark on baseball's biggest stage, leading heavy underdog Minnesota to a seven-game victory over St. Louis in 1987 and then doing the same against Atlanta in one of the most thrilling Series in history.

"There are a lot of great players in this game, but only one Kirby," pitcher Rick Aguilera said when Puckett announced his retirement.

"It was his character that meant more to his teammates. He brought a great feeling to the clubhouse, the plane, everywhere."

Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

East African Dought Threatens Millions of Lives

Tue Feb 21, 12:07 PM ET


Turkana women carrying their babies wait at the feeding center in Elelea, northern Kenya on 15 February. The United Nations's special humanitarian envoy to the Horn of Africa said he was alarmed by the impact of the devastating drought that has put millions of people in the east African region in the risk of starvation.(AFP/File/Simon Maina)


Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

Puckett in Critical Condition After Stroke

Puckett in Critical Condition After Stroke

AP Mon Mar 6, 5:10 AM ET



Kirby Puckett was listed in critical condition early Monday after surgery for a stroke, and the Minnesota Twins asked fans to pray for the Hall of Fame outfielder.

Puckett, who led the Twins to two World Series championships before his career was cut short by glaucoma, was stricken Sunday at his Arizona home.

A nursing supervisor at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, who declined to give her full name, said early Monday the 44-year-old Puckett was in critical condition. She did not provide additional details.

Puckett had surgery at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn on Sunday, the Twins said from their spring training camp in Fort Myers, Fla., and was later moved to St. Joseph's.

"The Minnesota Twins and major league baseball ask fans to keep Kirby and his family in their thoughts and prayers," the team said earlier in a statement.

Ron Shapiro, who was Puckett's agent, said he had been in contact with Puckett's family Sunday.

"We're all praying for his recovery," Shapiro said.

"The doctors said that if he has good luck, he'll be all right. You have to keep the faith," former manager Tom Kelly said.

Twins center fielder Torii Hunter sat out Minnesota's exhibition game against the Red Sox after learning of Puckett's stroke.

Said manager Ron Gardenhire: "Our hearts and our prayers are all with Puck. We know it's a tough situation out there."

Puckett, who broke in with Minnesota in 1984, had a career batting average of .318 and carried the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991.

Glaucoma forced the Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star to retire in 1996 after 12 seasons with the Twins when he went blind in one eye.

Three years ago, he was cleared of assault charges after being accused of groping a woman at a Twin Cities restaurant.

Puckett has maintained relationships with many people in the Twins' organization. The team tried unsuccessfully to get him to come to spring training as a special instructor this year, something he hasn't done since 2002.

Another former Twins great, Tony Oliva, a special instructor during spring training, said he has been worried about Puckett's weight.

"The last few times I saw him, he kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger," Oliva said. "And we worried about him. I saw him about five months ago. He always tries to invite me. He says, `Come to Arizona, and we'll play some golf.'"

Puckett is divorced and has two children.


Well wishes,


F. Stanley Boyd

The Winners Are ... Paula Fairfax Quiz

Quiz Answer: Paula Fairfax, 1976

First Place Goes To:

Gilbert Daye

Second Place Goes To:

Carry Downey

Rosa Parks' Cemetery Jumps its Price to Bury

Cemetery Prices Jump After Parks Buried

Sat Mar 4, 3:03 PM ET

The price to get a spot in Detroit's Woodlawn cemetery has jumped thousands of dollars since civil rights icon Rosa Parks was entombed there last fall, angering some relatives who say it cheapens her legacy.

The spaces in the Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel were priced at $17,000 before the cemetery gave spots, for free, to Parks, her husband and her mother. Now, the spaces cost $24,275, and possibly as much as $65,000 for the slots nearest to Parks' crypt.

Some of her relatives worry the prices might cheapen the legacy of the woman who began the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955. Parks died in October.

Parks' closest living relative, nephew William McCauley, said her burial was a "private matter, not a spectacle."

"I know some people might want to be buried near her, but we're just private people and so was she," he told the Detroit Free Press for a story published Saturday. "When will people stop taking advantage of her legacy?"
Woodlawn officials denied that they are exploiting Parks.

"No, no, I don't think we're profiteering at all," said Wade Reynolds, chief operating officer of Mikocem, the management company for Woodlawn and more than 25 other Michigan cemeteries.

The new prices will cover the cost of maintenance and numerous improvements to the chapel, plus a reasonable profit.

No crypts have been sold yet at the new prices.



Well wishes,


F. Stanley Boyd

A Photo Essay -- With Poem Dream Deferred -- Freedom

A Dream Deferred
By Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Haley's Roots A Fraud? Say It Isn't So, Say It Isn't So

The “Roots” of Huckster Haley’s Great Fraud

By

Stanley Crouch

New York Daily News Columnist

Jewish World Review Jan. 18, 2002

In the early 1980s, when Alex Haley, the author of "Roots," was speaking at Lincoln Center, investigative reporter Philip Nobile asked him a straightforward question. Since he had paid Harold Courlander $650,000 in a plagiarism suit, why shouldn't Haley be considered a criminal instead of a hero?

Haley had no answer. Well, what would you expect from someone who had pulled off one of the biggest con jobs in U.S. literary history?

Yet the "Roots" hoax has sustained itself. Every PBS station in America refused to show the 1997 BBC documentary inspired by Nobile's reporting on the book. And tonight NBC will air a retrospective on the 25th anniversary of the popular TV miniseries.

There are a number of reasons the truth about "Roots" is still ignored. One is that black Americans, primarily because of the influence of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, became obsessed with being a "lost" people in America, people who had "no knowledge of self." Younger black people were told they were not Americans, but victims of Americanism. Their true identity, Malcolm X said, was African and Islamic. The truth had been hidden from them by the white man, who was the Devil.

Another reason the hoax has held is that Haley, riding on the success of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," for which he got "as told to" credit, knew how to hustle. He had already been accused of plagiarizing an interview with Miles Davis for Playboy.

So he traveled the country for years promoting a forthcoming book on the Haley family history, which he had miraculously traced back to Africa. Black college students, swept up in the black power movement and romantic ideas about "the motherland," were thrilled at the idea that Haley had proved it was possible to hold up a lantern in the historical darkness and find one's way home.

But the most important reason for the durability of the hoax is white folks. Those at Doubleday who published "Roots" had a best seller and were not interested in people knowing it was phony baloney. David Wolper Productions created the most successful miniseries of its time and was not interested. Federal Judge Robert Ward, who presided over the plagiarism case, protected Haley's reputation.

Ward urged Courlander - the man whose novel "The African" Haley pillaged - to be quiet about his huge settlement. Ward thought that Haley had become too important to black people to be torn down in public. As I said once before in this column a few years ago, that was paternalism at its very worst: Treat them like children; they can't handle the truth.

Haley called Nobile in February 1979 at New York magazine when he was reporting on the federal case. Haley said he shouldn't report on the case because the Ku Klux Klan could use the outcome against his people.

On another occasion, I heard Haley protest on the radio that "they" were trying "to say that black people have no history." At another point, according to Nobile, "He compared the truth about him to those people who attacked Anne Frank and said that there was no Holocaust. He would resort to anything."

Since "Roots" has brought millions of black tourist dollars to Gambia, one Gambian said to me, "Yes, it is a lie but it is a good lie."

The book remains an opportunistic insult to black people, and no amount of excuses will change that harsh fact.



Who is Stanley Crouch?

http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=107


Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

Borden -- A Tower of Strength and Perseverance

Borden wins arts prize

By ELISSA BARNARD Arts Reporter

For Walter Borden nothing compares to being honoured at home.

The Nova Scotian actor, author and activist, named a member of the Order of Canada this year, was thrilled to become the eighth recipient Wednesday of Nova Scotia’s $25,000 Portia White Prize recognizing artistic excellence and achievement by a Nova Scotia artist.

"You know that thing they say," a beaming Borden said as he held the framed plaque to his chest, "when you’re honoured by home — well — that’s just sort of everything."

Born in 1942 in New Glasgow, about to enter his fourth season at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Borden became in 1972 the first black professional actor in Nova Scotia and has been an activist and advocate for black artists as well as a public speaker, teacher and mentor to young theatre artists.

Attending Wednesday’s ceremony in the Red Room at Province House were two artists Borden mentored, actor Bruce Godfree who met Borden on stage when he was 14 and author George Elliott Clarke, whom Borden met when Clarke was in Grade 9.

Borden stayed close to home in naming Truro soprano Jonathan Munro as his Portia White Prize protégé. Munro receives $7,000 while Borden receives $18,000. Borden first heard Munro, 15, singing at his sister’s house.

Munro, who plans to study jazz at Berkeley this summer, thanked his first music teacher Mrs. Mary Shepard. "She always knew what was best for me whether I believed it or not and (thanks to) her late husband Dr. Shepard for making sure I was on time for every lesson. Her husband came and got me to drive me to my lesson."

Borden said his own tenacity, which has taken him from tiny theatres to Neptune’s main stage and stages throughout Canada, comes from his mother.

"I think as strange as it may seem I simply wasn’t capable of doing otherwise, even when I didn’t want to, even when I thought it was crazy, I just had to do what I had to do and that’s my mother."

Borden left his initial career as a teacher of English and Latin to train at the Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York and has been a professional actor in contemporary and classical theatre, on stage and screen, since making his debut in Vancouver in the 1960s.

Many family members and colleagues were in the Red Room Wednesday as Borden read a poem about the nature of existence from his one-man show Tightrope Time, a frank discussion of male homosexuality. It was a groundbreaking achievement in African Canadian Theatre when he first wrote and performed it in the mid-1980s. Recently revived by Black Theatre workshop, Tightrope Time was published for the first time in 2005.

Now living in Ontario, where he divides his time between Stratford and Toronto, Borden performs this summer at the Stratford Festival in the Governor General Award-winning Harlem Duet. He also starred in the Toronto production of Djanet Sears’s hit.

This year Borden received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award for his artistic achievements and contribution to performing arts and black cultural expression in Canada.

"People ask me, what have you been doing? I’ve been about my father’s business," Borden said as audience members responded "ah huh" as if they were in church. "I have been making manifest through my work my reason for being here."

Premier Rodney MacDonald presented Borden with the Portia White Prize, named after the classical singer from Nova Scotia who overcame adversity to achieve international acclaim on the stages of Europe and North America. Nominations for the 2006 Portia White Prize will be accepted until Sept. 15.

Jurors for this year’s prize were designer Jeffrey Cowling, musical artist Ed Matwawana, actor/director Maynard Morrison and visual artist and past Portia White Prize recipient Charlotte Wilson-Hammond.

Above Walter Borden as Oberon and Adrian Morningstar as Puck

http://www.canstage.com/2002-2003/about/mediapics/dream_images.asp


Well wishes,

F. Stanley Boyd

The Changing Faces of the Hood -- Creighton Street

The Changing Face of the ‘Hood – Creighton Street

This picture shows the changing face of the ‘Hood and it is now under demolition at the corner of Creighton and Gerrish Streets once again. When I was taking the photos a passerby shouted to me and she said:

“I am glad to see that old place go.”

But she did not know who once lived there. At one time, it was a store, where as a child I bought penny candies such as “honeymoons” from Lew Newman.

She did not know that Mr. George Downey, and my cousins, grew up in the house next to where I was standing and it's boarded up now. So what does she know? So what does she feel?

I took my pictures and in the vernacular of the Hood:

“I left without sayin’ nothin’.”

But there was so much to say about life and living in the ghetto, home.


Well wishes,


F. Stanley Boyd.

For more on the place called home, see JR's Diary of Tales from the Hood on my other blog at:

http://wsogf.blogspot.com/2005/12/its-witchcraft-from-jrs-diary-of-da.html