WikiLeaks Cable: Obama Admin. Pressured Haiti Not to Raise Minimum Wage

Eco.Soul.Intellectual

What can you buy for 61 cents? In the case of the Obama Administration, that was simply too much for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Wikileaks cables expose that the Obama Administration put pressure on the disaster-stricken country, Haiti, to not raise its hourly minimum wage to 61 cents an hour, or $5 a day.

Perplexing being that everything in Haiti has skyrocketed since the January 2009 earthquake. A large can of peaches is reported to be roughly $40 American dollars by Haitian activist Mawiyah Duperval of Haitian American Ministries and Ujaama International based in Haiti.

According to the report by the Columbia Journalism Review, American corporations who hire Haiti's 25,000 garment workers, like Hanes and Levi Strauss, were pissed off because that meant they had to pay their workers an increase. So let's put this together, a pair of Hanes' underwear costs more than a worker making about 200 of them in a day.

Since the earthquake there has been much criticism of the lack of aid that actually went directly to the Haitian government, less than 7 cents, the question remains "Where is the money?" According to a Huffington Post article back in 2010, here was the breakdown.

Whose Dick is This? Uhh, Yours Anthony?

by Eco.Soul.Intellectual

The age of the social media highway is quite intriguing. A dick here, a dick there, and a dick on Twitter. Thanks to Congressman Anthony Weiner who just admitted he has an obsessive proclivity for showing his man parts to random women, has also defied the rule of thumb to step down.

In an unconvincing apology, Weiner declared that he will continue operating in his Congressional position in a raw-dog riding stallion sort-a-way. Pun intended.

Is Weiner attempting to stop the trend of outted public officials (and pastors) who can't deny their embedded stank-freakiness due to photographic evidence and silently leave (or settle a lawsuit) in disgrace?

I bet is favorite position is Doggystyle, that little porn star.

Wombs for Hire

by Eco.Soul.Intellectual

In Aba, Nigeria, Dr. Hyacinth Orikara is being detained for running a clinic that housed pregnant teens and eventually purchased the children to be sold throughout the world for various reasons.

There have been claims of the babies entering into a world of underground sex slavery, to illegal international adoptions. This sordid trade of babies is not new in a world that has traded and sold flesh for thousands of years.

Do you remember when the Tsunami in Indonesia and Sumatra also revealed a large child sex trafficking trade? Or the prostitution ring that is alive and well in the US, and is fueled by foster-care and neglected children?

More specifically, in Enugu, Nigeria in 2008, a baby farm was raided and the teenage mothers reported that they were repeatedly raped by the doctor of the clinic and local youth.

The Nigerian baby farms raise more awareness with the gross exploitation of women in developing countries who have extreme difficulty in generating income and taking care of their families. It also brings up the painful past of breeding farms during US slavery and the disruption of families in general in the slave trade.

In breeding farms, women and men who were seen as "good breeders" were housed and forced to copulate. Revered historian, John Henrik Clarke's grandfather was enslaved on a breeding farm, forced to bear numerous children, only for them to be sold. Clarke re-tells that his fore-father walked from the East Coast to the West, looking for his progeny and other family members.

Now lets slightly re-direct the billion-dollar trade of families in developing areas paying women to have babies for $26-a-day in countries like India. The "trend" is called "Wombs for Rent" and are exchanges between wealthy or upper middle class people from all over the globe, but highly concentrated in the UK and USA. These people create inequitable contracts with poor women who breed babies as a way to make money.

Somehow, this type of baby trade gets lost in baby trafficking.

I guess if Madonna or Angelina Jolie scoop up a couple of African babies, they are exempt? Hunh, but what is the difference. It is legal baby trading?

The Day I Met Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt

by Eco.Soul.Intellectual

I knew Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt through books and stories passed by old head revolutionaries in Los Angeles. He was part myth and part hero---a comrade and political prisoner in conscious circles, and a brother effed by the police in the larger black community. 

I can recall going to Leimert Park in Los Angeles circa 1997-98, to celebrate and see Geronimo upon his release. He was like Mandela and Michael, and pre-Obama, much more grassroots, and more like a legendary dream. 

Leimert Park, the black arts Mecca in Los Angeles was packed with everyone from thugs to business folk. On that day, we all one. Every person that was unjustly treated by the justice deparment, from all walks of life, and races, hugged and shook hands in a small slice of victory. 

Los Angeles used to be a blood bath during the 60s and 70s when it came to black liberation struggle. There were more Panthers killed in Los Angeles, than any other city, including the home of BPP, Oakland. We couldn't believe that not only did he get released and was acquitted of the bogus charges, but he also got paid several million dollars.

Folk gathered and hugged, and waited to see Bro. Geronimo.

But as soon as we saw him he was whisked away to finally get a small taste of a life that was robbed from him.

I never once spoke to Geronimo, but I met him in the living room of Johnny Cochran. That day I met Geronimo, through the thick narrative of Mr. Cochran who was miles away from O.J. or gloves. He spoke with a passion that epitomized his practice of being a revolutionary with a 3-piece.

I had made the trek to a nice area of the city to go speak with Mr. Cochran on his next career venture. It was my last interview for a black local paper. I was thinking about suing them, but Mr. Cochran talked me out of it. Instead he shifted to his law firm and all the cases he vividly served as counsel.

Scientist's Claim they can predict cholera: Now we can all continue to ignore the underlying problems!

by Joanna


I came across this little tidbit yesterday on my news feed sections that is dedicated to African news. It definitely set off some bells and whistles in my head.

Johannesburg — A new study into the linkages between rain, temperature and cholera shows scientists may be able to predict epidemics in time to save people from the life-threatening disease.

After analysing several years of disease and weather data from cholera-endemic areas of Zanzibar, Tanzania, scientists from the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Seoul, Korea, found that if a more than one degree Celsius increase in the average monthly minimum temperature and a 200mm increase in monthly rainfall were recorded in a month, a cholera outbreak was imminent in the following month.

"A mere one degree Celsius increase in the average monthly minimum temperatures was a warning sign that cholera cases were likely to double within four months," said Mohammad Ali, a senior scientist at IVI, and one of the authors of the study published in the June 2011 issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Rita Reyburn, a research associate at IVI and the study's lead author, said in a statement: "Our work validates the notion that rainfall and temperature increases are often precursors to cholera outbreaks in vulnerable areas."

Climate experts have predicted that hotter and wetter climate in many cholera-endemic areas could see higher caseloads.

"We are getting very close to developing a reliable forecasting system that would monitor temperatures and rainfall patterns to trigger pre-emptive measures - like mobilizing public health teams or emergency vaccination efforts - to prepare for an outbreak before it arrives," she added. SOURCE

Oh So Obama Has "Failed" America? So It Wasn't The GOP All This Time, Mitt Romney?

So I heard Mitt Romney finally threw his hat into the race; and not only that, heard the muthafucka was talking greasy about my man Barack yesterday. This rat bastard had the nerve to say some shit like Obama has totally failed America, and has made things with the economy worse, or some stupid shit like that. Well gee Wally, for starters, all he did was pass that terrible and ultimate economy crushing health care reform just like the one your loser-ass signed into law in Massachusetts, ya prick. Of course I agree that Obama could have done a better job on the economy; shit, I've run my mouth enough 'bout that on this site. But, err, umm... what has the GOP done, Mitt?

OK, don't answer that question, Mitt; last thing I want is for your punkass to end up flip flopping like your fellow republican hopeful, Newt Gingrich. And lord knows as much shambles as the GOP is in right now, you fuckers don't need any more "distractions" right about now. Hell, that broad riding the short-bus touring the country is enough of an embarrassing for you guys as is. But talking out the side of your neck about Obama and his handling of the economy is pretty good strategy, and I understand. I mean what else can be said about Obama? What, that he's a Kenyan Marxist Socialist who hates white people? Oh yeah, that ain't working; that bullet has long left the gun.

So yeah, because Americans who vote republican are for the most part silly, you tell them that Obama is destroying the economy, and making it a lot worse than before. Of course you don't tell them that the Bush Tax Cuts and the wars we're involved with are projected to account for half the public debt by 2019. No you don't tell them that. You tell them that Obama hasn't created any jobs or isn't doing anything about unemployment. Which is kinda true, Mitt; and he sure can do better or be more robust in this regard. But again I ask, Mitt: what exactly has the GOP done about the problem, and where are the jobs, Mitt?

The Friday Sex Blog [Virgins and Whores]

Early Christian leaders were forced to establish the absolute purity of the mother of Christ because of their attitudes toward women. Eve had tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden and therefore women were view as vessels of sin, which was passed on to their wombs at conception. The pains of childbirth and menstruation were the curse of Eve (fuckin’ slut!), and according to influential Christian saints, the closeness of women to all that is vile could be seen in the “feces and urine” of childbirth.

In comparison, Mary, who had not conceived like other women, was the second coming of Eve, put here to redeem the mistakes of the first. In many ways, Eve was the fleshy mother of humanity (slut!), Mary its spiritual mother (good girl!).

Mary would quickly become an object of worship in her own right. The first recorded prayer to the Virgin dates from about 390 b.c.e.; her cult reached its height around the 16^th century. In popular worship, however, Mary may have lost her virginal status. She has often been given the attributes of pagan mother goddesses, all who came before Mary. Mary’s most striking pagan metamorphosis, however, occurs within the orthodox doctrine, because she is identified with the Church, and the Church is the bride of Christ. In that way, like many other goddesses that preceded her, Mary becomes the bride in an incestuous marriage with her own son. She is regarded as an ideal of feminine perfection but the church has never used Mary to represent women, but rather to shame them in comparison.

Black Male Employment Hits 40-Year Low: What's A Black Man To Do In This Economy?

"Do I gotta sell me a whole lotta crack, for decent shelter, and clothes on my back? Or should I just wait for help from Bush, or Jesse Jackson, and Operation Push." - Ice Cube, "Bird In The Hand"

I read a recent story in the Washington Post featuring a local Memphis kid, Kenneth Roberson, and his struggles to find employment. The dramatic irony or should I say the hard reality of this story, is that the young man featured happened to be a member of the graduating class of Memphis' Booker T. Washington High School, the school who won president Obama's Race To The Top commencement challenge. As the winner of said challenge, president Obama was the key note speaker at their commencement ceremony a few weeks ago. I watched the event myself, and I must say he left a group of kids in one of this cities most impoverished zip codes inspired and full of hope. However, as the saying goes: reality bites; and for ypung Black males like Roberson, that promising future looks rather bleak.

Just in case you haven't been paying attention to this site or any legitimate news source via the media, the economy, though slowly getting better, hasn't and isn't recovering fast enough. Unemployment is still relatively high; but you'd probably not know that considering all the talk of Medicare, Paul Ryan, deficits, and Sarah Palin's American short-bus tour. Yes folks, it's still pretty bad. Want to know how bad? OK, lemme tell you. According to the government reports, Black male employment has hit it's lowest levels in forty years. Did you get that? Black male unemployment has hit a forty year high.

If the election of America's first African-American president was expected to give blacks an economic boost, it hasn't emerged yet. Indeed, the percentage of African-American men with a job has dropped to its lowest level since records began in 1972, according to the government's monthly jobs report released last week.

Even as the economy added a better-than-expected 244,000 jobs, the percentage of black males over 20 who are currently employed dropped slightly to 56.9, the Labor Department's April report shows. For whites, the equivalent figure is 68.1 percent.

Before this recession, the percentage of black adult men with a job had never dropped below 60 percent, according to Labor Department statistics.

And among blacks, it's not just men who are suffering. Just 51.5 percent of African-Americans across the board--compared to 59.5 percent of whites--have a job, the numbers show. That's the lowest level for blacks since 1984. (That group includes 16- to 19-year-olds, who are employed at a far lower rate than their elders.)

These employment rates are calculated differently from the top-line unemployment rate, which includes only those actively looking for work, and inched back up last month to 9 percent.

[...] And employers' hiring practices may be making the problem worse. As we've reported, online job listings telling the unemployed not to apply have proliferated in recent years. The federal government is currently probing whether such listings illegally discriminate against African Americans, who are disproportionately likely to be among the jobless.

Nonetheless, much of the media has focused on the travails of educated white men--still a comparatively flourishing group--during the downturn. (source)

Look, the way I see it, there's nothing wrong with being hopeful as the young man featured in the Washington Post piece who even graduated in the top five of his class. Sure, he has a parial scholarship to attend college, and yes, his future may look brighter than others in his graduating class. But the truth is, hope doesn't pay the bills. And especially if you're a Black man with a family, or the responsibility of financially supporting and providing for your kids? Hope won't feed them, nor is hope acceptable by the child support court.

Yep, the child support man ain't tynna hear about how tough it is for brothas.

Hypocrisy: Democrats Silent As President Obama Extends The Patriot Act

I remember when George Bush signed The Patriot Act back in the day, and just how pissed off us lefty lovers of liberty and justice were. I also remember just how appaled we were about the countless instances where people were arrested, held indefinitely in jails across the country, for practically nothing related to 9/11 and or any other terroristic threats or activities. And now here we are today and president Obama has extended The Patriot Act, and yet there's not a word of dissent, disgust, or even disappointment from anyone identified as an Obama supporter. Of course to do so would mean you're racist; and that's not cool. Nope, not in post-racial America where "Blackness" now means no excuses for regular Black folk, and a free pass if you happen to be POTUS.

So, can anyone tell me just exactly what the fuck actually changed? Oh, all of a sudden it's cool to infringe on our civil liberties because, well, the sitting president happens to be a Democrat? OK, so lemme get this right: Osama bin Laden is dead, Al-Qaeda has been reduced to about 12 people after trillions spent on a bullshit war on terror; but the war continues, and yet and still it's important to keep legislation alive which allows the government to give you an anal probe whenever they feel like it without probable cause?

But anyway, lemme stop my tired-ass Liberal/Progressive whining before Seal Team 6 shows up at my door ready to pump something not-so-nice into my booty, and dump my fat ass in the Mississippi river in some secret mission.

Too bad they didn't have this shit when Negroes were terrorized...

Even Bank of America Gets Foreclosed On, But Who Needs Foreclosure Relief, Right?