Prophetic?

 Earlier this year, I watched a Netflix movie for which Obama was the executive producer. It was titled  "Leave the world behind".

The trailer: https://youtu.be/cMVBi_e8o-Y?si=6voIcF33NoTMoFzt.

It was really a creepy movie about a cyber attack which caused the Internet to go down, causing chaos everywhere as planes crashed, ships ended up on land, electric self driving vehicles stopped and on and on.

A realistic possibility of the future, in my book, as we become more reliable on online activity in every aspect of our existence.

That movie has remained at the back of my mind for quite some time, then on the 19th July 2024, the world got a taste. 

That was when, according to a company called Crowd Strike, a faulty software glitch occured which led to:

 'disrupting airlines, government services, hospital systems, and other businesses. A defect in the update crashed Microsoft's Windows, triggering its infamous "blue screen of death" for users relying on the operating system. 

Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed yesterday, including those with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. The outage disrupted emergency services and court systems in some areas, while some healthcare providers postponed nonessential surgeries. The United Parcel Service and FedEx also reported issues. Some billboards in New York City's Times Square went dark....".

I am no conspiracy theorist, but what if that isn't the truth but what actually happened was a test run by some entity somewhere and Crowd Strike came up with that explanation to deter worldwide panic?

Regardless, I still think the Obama movie is prophetic!

Religion and crime

I hate upsetting my christian friends, but many years ago, I developed a theory that wherever you see an over-abundance of churches, it's a sign that there is also an overabundance of wicked people there!

And most are described as the 'good' church-going folk.😊

After living for over half century in the land of my birth, Jamaica, where people have told me many times, that the Guinness Book of World Records, singles us out as having more churches per square mile than any other country on the planet, it wasn’t difficult to find evidence that this is so.

Since that theory is always at the back of my mind,  I remember with great amusement, how on visiting Sicily, the home of the bloody mafia, on seeing the numerous church steeples around, I immediately started to count.

Covering around three blocks as we walked there, and counting as we went along, after recording around twenty five huge structures, I decided that I had better things to do with my time. This was so in contrast with Switzerland (from where we were traveling) with  it's low crime rate  and almost non- existent churches!

My theory  came flooding back as I recently visited Charleston S. Carolina, where just around everywhere you turn, you see  huge church steeples hovering over the city.

I  subsequently learned, that because there are over 400 places of worship of different denominations throughout that city, it was once dubbed "The Holy City.” 

Even the powerful  Southern Baptist Convention, (then considered "an institution of heaven" ) which is the basis of so much of Donald Trump’s religious support today,  had its genesis in Charleston during the 19th century.

 Of interest too, is the fact that the most most ostentatious church buildings date back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when slavery and brutality towards Africans was at its peak!

In 1816, free blacks and slaves, realizing that there was no regard for them in white churches, established the African Methodist Episcopal Church under the leadership of a pastor named Morris Brown.

Naturally, this was objected to by the good white folk and Brown and other ministers of the church were jailed for violating laws that prohibited slaves and free blacks from gathering without white supervision.

 In 1822, the church was burned to the ground, and the authorities, claiming a slave revolt was being planned there, arrested 313 members of the congregation and executed 35.

In 1834, all black churches were banned by the authorities.

Undeterred, members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church continued to meet in secret until the end of the Civil War in 1865, when they formally reorganized. 

 They adopted the name ‘Emanuel,’ meaning “God with us.”

At that time, the church was a wooden structure. 

This is it today.

Interestingly, it is situated on Calhoun Street, a street named after the notorious John Calhoun (1782-1850), who violently opposed the abolition of slavery and who  black Carolinians refer to as Killhoun, up to today.

It was at this church  that in June 2015, a white supremacist killed nine people including the senior pastor and a South Carolina State Senator, during a prayer service.

At the funeral on June 26, 2015, President Barack Obama gave the eulogy for the pastor who was killed in the attack and after a moving tribute, sang "Amazing Grace."

Today, that area is renamed " Mother Emanuel Memorial District " and a plaque 

has been erected on the church with the names of all who were killed and declaring their forgiveness of the murderer.

Yup, with a few exceptions, Charleston definitely confirms the theory about religion and crime.

At least in my mind.😊

 

The Maasai et al

 While Wikipedia claims there are forty-two tribes in Kenya, my very knowledgeable Kenyan acquaintance, said the real figure is actually is forty-seven.

Forty two or forty seven, tribal politics in Kenya is something that would take me many moons to understand. So, after a mere two weeks, I would not be prepared to say I know anything about it.

Red is a dominant color among the Maasai, as it is said to repel lions. Third left is a Kikuyu

However from the little I was able to glean, the Kikuyu is the dominant tribe. Not not only are they largest in number, but in the true spirit of 'divide and conquer,' when the British ruled Kenya with an iron hand, they gave 'special privileges' to that tribe.

Even  today therefore, they are still dominant in every area.

Lessons in changing a tire

.

Kenyans, I understand, tend to vote along tribal lines, and the Kikuyu have held the reins of power since independence. 

This has led to some resentment among other tribes, and between 2007-2008, serious violence erupted after the general elections.

Maasai approach to observe the tire-changing activity
Some Kikuyus contend that this stemmed from as an attempt to displace and even eradicate them. They insist they won the elections fair and square.

Ask just anyone in Kenya 'who controls the wealth in the country'  and they will most likely tell you its the Kikuyus.

Even some Kikuyus though, will admit that that the government led by Kenyatta is extremely corrupt.

 

However, many contend that they have to keep voting for them to protect themselves from the other tribes which would like to remove them from power and even eliminate them. '

Maasai herder at Ndong Mountain

I was invited by a Kikuyu informant who is an activist, to ask anyone from other tribes, what they thought of them and did try.

One opinion I did get was that that the Kikuyu are so power-hungry, that they are even trying to replace Swahili as the national language with their own! 

(Like in most of East Africa, Swahili is the dominant language but most people speak some English plus their tribal language.)

Another bit of information I garnered, was that, types of professions and employment usually follow tribal lines.

So while the Kikuyu dominate commerce, many professions and politics, some other tribes are predominantly laborers.

 The Luo tribe to which Obama's family belongs, is the fourth largest tribe in the country and they tend towards intellectual activities.  I was quite amused though, that when I enquired of my Kikuyu informant whether Kenyans celebrated the ascendency of Obama to the  presidency of the USA, I received the cryptic response "The Luo did.")😂

I was genuinely shocked as I had (wrongly) assumed that Kenyans all, would have been overjoyed to have a descendent of theirs, in the Oval Office. But the more I learnt about that county, the more I realized that most Kenyans did not care too hoots about America, what they said or did and most surely would even accept their money!.

The offending creek

That caused my curiosity about the tribal situation in Kenya to really peak!

One person even told me that she could tell what tribe someone belongs to by their body shape!

I can only tell who belongs to the Maasai tribe, and that is because of how they dress.

They are best known internationally as a result of their intimate knowledge of wildlife, which is the heart of Kenya's safari/tourism industry.

While Kenya has a population of some fifty million, the Maasai make up only around two million.  

Despite the massive changes taking place around them, they seem determined to stick to their traditional nomadic/herding ways.

Their wealth is determined, I was told, by the number of cattle they have and most of their land is community owed.  

You therefore see the herders with their flocks of sheep, cattle and goats, roaming lands which are not fenced off.

 I was told by Chief Johnathon from the village near to where we stayed, that individuals can purchase private property by applying to the government. How much land you are permitted to purchase, depends on the size of the family. Most however prefer to continue using community lands.

Chief Johnathon (minus his staff!)

My first encounter with Maasai people was when we were on the way to spend a few days at a safari camp.

We drove for around three hours from Nairobi on an excellent highway. To get to the camp in Maasai land however, we had to take a dirt tract which could only be accessed by a four wheel drive.

As we crossed a creek, there was a loud bang, followed by signs that we had a puncture.

Then it was as if from nowhere, that a small a group of mostly women,  appeared. 

And guess what, they were anxious to take photographs with us, as long as we paid them!

All the Maasai people I met over the next few days, turned out to be extremely curious but nice, helpful people.

Their village adjoins the conservancy where we were staying and in fact that land was leased to the operators by that village council.  Most of the workers therefore were from the  village.

I learned some interesting facts about their lifestyle.

A Massai compound

⚉ Most have Angelified first names but their surnames are their tribal name.

⚉ While the men are generally the herders, the women are housewives and even build the mud houses!

⚉ Maasai in general do not eat wildlife anymore.

⚉ You know who is the chief by how he holds his staff.

⚉ You know a Maasai's wealth by how many cattle he appears to have, but never ask a         Massai how many cows he owns!

⚉ To have respectability a Maasai man should have at least two wives.

The Kenyan tribal situation appears fascinating and even contradictory at times, and it is is something I would certainly love to learn a lot more about.

However, AS TO THE MAASAI, I MAKE NO JUDGEMENTS. AS I GET IT I REPORT IT!😒😒 

(169) Joan Williams, author - YouTube

The white establishment would never allow the ‘Douglas Plan’ to succeed

That was the consensus among us discussants reviewing the marshal-style-plan for minorities of color, put forward by presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg.

The discussions took place between Generation Z podcaster Shadrach Williams, his fellow millennia member, psychology major Shadaen Stevens and me the baby boomer author. 

We are all people of color. 

Williams, a recent graduate of Florida International University (FIU) and author of   the self-help book “A month to re-create reality,” (available at Amazon.com) expresses his political views via the podcasts entitled “Politics across generations” which are aired at; https://anchor.fm/politicsacrossgenerations. These podcasts which cover a series of issues, provides Political education from the perspective of the Baby Boomers and the Millennial generation coming together to understand each other’s view points and discuss the candidates, as well as their ideas, for the upcoming 2020 elections. 

According to Buttigieg, his Douglas Plan seeks to tackle systemic racism which has kept Afro-Americans, down for decades. The Plan is named after Frederick Douglas, an escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author, leader in the abolitionist movement. He fought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War.

This is the only plan with concrete solutions being put forward by any of the politicians seeking the Democratic party’s nomination, to redress to the  inequities suffered by descendants of the slaves, for the economic apartheid which has kept black people in poverty for centuries. 

Some aspects are: a pledge by ‘President’ Buttigieg to award 25% of federal contracting to small business owners from underserved communities; the Walker-Lewis Initiative to triple the number of entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds within a decade, and creating 3 million new jobs in minority communities.

However, the Generation Z discussants regarded the proposal as a cheap attempt to try and bring in black minority support for his campaign. They further opined that even if Buttigieg is genuine with this proposal, there is no way that the white establishment which controls the power in the USA, would allow such a program to succeed.

They backed up their arguments by citing actions by the white senators and congressmen, who frustrated every effort for justice, made by President Barak Obama, the USA’s first afro American President.

This view was further reinforced by evidence presented in my latest book entitled ‘2020 DECISION; SOCIALISM, RACISM OR HAPPINESS?, which is available at:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ40KG. For I went to  great pains in this publication, to back up my claim (from an outsider’s perspective), that the Republican Party is fully racist.

Podcaster Shadrach Williams can be contacted at; Williams.shadrach@yahoo.com

Unadulterated Racism

I am a great supporter of strong opposition parties for good opposition parties keep governments on their toes.

The Republican party in the USA is however confusing opposition with personal hatred and have brought politics to a new low. For the shrill attacks that they have been launching at President Barak Obama since his election, are displaying nothing but raw, unadulterated hatred based on their belief that a black man should never ascend to the high office of Presidency in the USA. Even former President Jimmy Carter has recognised it for what it is.

At first these attacks came under the guise that they were opposed to his programme for health care reform, but when one sees the placards that are displayed at the staged demonstrations, the vitriol comes blazing through and the demonstrations are exposed for what they are.

Even when the citizens of the USA stand to benefit greatly from initiatives taken by Obama, the republicans cheer wildly when they go awry, note their recent cheering when Chicago failed in its bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

Actually I find it quite hilarious that their hatred of Obama has even led them to end up in bed with the Taliban since the announcement that Obama has been awarded the prestigious Nobel peace prize. For according to the reports, both the Taliban and the republicans have violently condemned his selection! Maybe to be fair to them, the Republicans cannot see what Obama has done for world peace for as they say "nearer to church further from God". The fact is however, the rest of the peace loving world was glad to see the departure of the warlord Bush and his entourage, for as long as they remained, armed conflict anywhere and everywhere, was only a step away. We need only be reminded that North Korea, Iran as well as Venezuela had been threatened with violence just before Bush's departure. In other words we have all found comfort in the change of attitude to conflict for, as the Nobel Judges said, they found his promise of disarmament and diplomacy too good to ignore.

Neither should we ever forget the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians including women and children who have been killed or displaced because of Bush's senseless incursion into Iraq.

Yes the USA had a real problem with security after 9/11, but the threat never came from Iraq. In fact, most political watchers remain convinced that Bush only went into Iraq to get even with Saddam Hussein whom it is reported, had threatened the life of his father. What a price the Iraqi people have had to pay for a personal vendetta……as did many innocent Panamanian people when his father was president and invaded that country to get at Noriega, with whom he had fallen out

The election of Barack Obama with the promise of ending the current wars quickly and dealing with other troublesome matters using diplomacy rather than weapons of mass destruction, has therefore been met around the world with a huge sigh of relief, a sigh of relief that has obviously been heard by the committee awarding the Peace Prize.

Obama is therefore more than deserving of this great award as every human being except Republican war mongers, prefer peaceful negotiations to cowboy style destructive tactics..