Thursday, March 28, 2024
Advertisement

World News & Views

The latest from the Black community worldwide.

Conflict minerals: A cover for U.S. allies and Western mining interests?

As global awareness grows around the Congo and the silence is finally being broken on the current and historic exploitation of Black people in the heart of Africa, a myriad of Western based “prescriptions” are being proffered. Most of these prescriptions are devoid of social, political, economic and historical context and are marked by remarkable omissions. The conflict mineral approach or efforts emanating from the United States and Europe are no exception to this symptomatic approach which serves more to perpetuate the root causes of Congo’s challenges than to resolve them.

Depleted uranium weapons in Iraq, drastic birth defects in Fallujah

On Friday, Nov. 13, the London Guardian reported a "Huge rise in birth defects in Fallujah," Iraq. I sent the news to KPFA Radio 94.1FM Weekend News anchor Anthony Fest, along with contact info for Bob Nichols, San Francisco Bay View newspaper correspondent and winner of a 2004 Project Censored Award for his reporting on the U.S. military's use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq and consequent radiation poisoning.

African immigrants and refugees in Europe, Part 2

The historic city of Rome is known for breathtaking sights from the Vatican to the Coliseum and beyond. However, there are little known areas not far from the historic routes frequented by tourists, areas where large numbers of refugees from a number of African countries reside in poverty but with dignity.

African immigrants and refugees in Europe, Part 1

Saint Calogero, an African priest, is the patron saint of the Sicilian town of Agrigento. But in the 21st century, African refugees who traverse the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean Sea find Calogero’s city, indeed the entire country, unwelcoming, even hostile to them.

Dr. Luther Castillo, voice of the voiceless in Honduras, gets rousing reception in San...

“Doctor Luther! Doctor Luther, give it to the Honduras oligarchy hard!” Dr. Luther Castillo, who represents the National Resistance Front against the Military Coup in Honduras, brought to San Francisco the echoes of Cuba’s former President Fidel Castro on Thursday night at the Centro del Pueblo. He spoke for almost two hours with passion, conviction and a keen understanding of the savage rule of the minority oligarchic coup government in Honduras.

Haiti and Honduras: End military coups and occupations

The universal condemnation of the military coup in Honduras by Latin American governments is unprecedented. If this dictatorship is allowed to stay in power, no democratically elected government is safe. Just as President Obama promised a more respectful relationship between the U.S. and the rest of America – we are faced with another coup with U.S. military complicity.

Congo Week: an interview wit’ Kambale Musavuli, spokesman for Friends of the Congo

Coltan is a mineral necessary for making electronic things work – like cellphones, ipods, PS3s and laptops. Over 6 million Congolese have been murdered to assure that the corporations and governments involved have a corner on the market for the minerals that the Congo produces. This is "Break the Silence" Congo Week. Check out the events and get involved!

Cynthia McKinney: My visit to Cape Town, South Africa

At the Cape Town film festival, Cynthia McKinney debuted Minister of Information JR's "Operation Small Axe," a film that will get folks ready for the venue change in the Oscar Grant killer cop case. It's screening Saturday, Oct. 17, 1:30 p.m., at the West Oakland Library, 18th & Adeline, for Black Panther History Month and Thursday, Oct. 22, 7 p.m., SF State Student Union for the Black Student Union.

The challenges of Congo advocacy in the 21st century

One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated 10 million Congolese resulted in the end of King Leopold II of Belgium’s rule in the Congo. Ordinary people around the world from all walks of life stood at the side of the Congolese and demanded the end of the first recorded Congolese holocaust. A century later, the world finds itself facing the same issue, where the Congolese people are subjected to unimaginable suffering.

Can Gavin Newsom’s ‘United Nations’ Center turn the Hunters Point Shipyard green?

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) predicts a 16-inch mid-century sea level rise, covering Bay Area coastal lands and eventually swamping downtown San Francisco up to Market Street. The primary global warming gas is carbon dioxide. Methane gas, heavily implicated in global warming, has been emitted for years from the Bayview Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Sea level rise will release methane gas from wetlands and landfill, of which much of Hunters Point is composed.

Laws have unintended consequences

The law of unintended consequence works in our favor some of the time. A few weeks ago the Congress of the United States fell all over itself trying to sanction ACORN. As you remember, ACORN is a community-based organization that helps the poor throughout the country. It also registers voters. The reason for the sanction was that some members of the organization were accused of giving some illegal advice. It turns out that such a company specific sanction is unconstitutional. This law must apply to any government contractor, not just ACORN.

Ni’lin protesters tear down apartheid wall

More than 100 farmers, youth, internationals and Israeli peace activists marched against the Israeli separation wall Friday and, armed with car tires and a homemade ladder to climb the high wall, they managed to burn one section and pull down three others.

The war where I was killed and Gaza survived

Since Israeli missile savagery first hit Gaza, everything started to become blurry to me. My vision was totally unclear – all the horrible events went in slow motion as if I was watching a horror movie, but the most realistic one I’ve ever seen.

24 hours in Gaza, Part II

You're invited as M1 of dead prez brings his Ghetto to Gaza Speaking Tour to East Oakland 9/24, San Francisco 9/25, West Oakland 9/26, San Jose 9/27, Santa Cruz 9/28 and Sonoma 9/29, comparing his experiences in Gaza, Cairo and Europe with ghetto life in the U.S., benefiting SF Bay View and Block Report Radio. Be there! And check out M1 in his own words.

From the Ghetto to Gaza: an interview with Mutulu Olugbala aka M1 of dead...

Welcome M1 of dead prez to East and West Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Sonoma, San Jose, Santa Cruz – 7 events in 7 cities on 7 days, Sept. 23-29, comparing his experiences in Gaza, Cairo and Europe with ghetto life in the U.S., benefiting SF Bay View and Block Report Radio. Check out new M1 interviews, with Min. of Info JR and KPFA Morning Show.

Problems with the recent exhibit, ‘African Presence in Mexico’

The exhibit focused on Afro-Mexicans from the time when the ex-enslaved African Yanga in 1609 led a successful revolt against the Spanish and founded the first free town. But it grossly omitted the African presence and influence in Mexico for thousands of years, dating back to the period of the Olmec civilization around 1000 BCE.

The story of my shoe

I say to those who reproach me: Do you know how many broken homes that shoe that I threw had entered because of the occupation? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? And how many times it had entered homes in which free Iraqi women and their sanctity had been violated? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.

What has Gavin got to hide?

To this day, no testing of children living and learning near the Shipyard has occurred. Bayview Hunters Point deserves better. Children, elderly, working class and low income residents shouldn’t have to suffer from a neighbor who cares more about profit than people. As a community, we demand that our children be tested for exposure to toxics present in the dirt at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, and for a temporary stoppage of work until the damage done to the community can be assessed.

California’s mean streak, from Native annihilation to Oscar and Lovelle: Ishmael Reed on history

Ishmael Reed is one of the most read writers of his generation, along with Toni Morrison and Amiri Baraka, living in America. In 1962, Reed co-founded “East Village Other,” a well known underground publication at the time, and was a member of the Umbra Writers Workshop, which helped to give rise to the Black Arts Movement. He has published nine novels, four collections of poetry, six plays, four collections of essays and a libretto. He currently lives in Oakland, and I approached him one day while he was visiting KPFA’s studios to ask him what he thought about the state of affairs between the police and Oakland’s Black community, with the backdrop of the police murder of Oscar Grant and, in a separate incident, the police murder of Lovelle Mixon, after Mixon allegedly killed four Oakland police officers.

In spite of siege, ‘Gaza lives,’ Cynthia McKinney says

Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. congresswoman and member of the Free Gaza movement, gave a talk at the San Francisco Lunacy Theater on Sunday, Aug. 23. The event was a benefit for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, an independent monthly that covers a variety of local and international stories. Her speaking tour follows her recent expedition on a Free Gaza boat attempting to break the siege of Gaza by sea and on a Viva Palestina caravan from Egypt that succeeded in delivering some of its cargo of humanitarian aid to Gaza.