We weep. We reap what hate has sown.
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
Yet again hate has brought us as a Nation to viewing a community in shock, in grief, traumatized by brutal slaying.
I really don't want to hear "lone gunman stories".
Terrorism (and that is what this was) is like a fungus that grows in a petri dish. It can only do so when there is a culture of hate that feeds it.
Hatred of those whose skins are not white
Hatred of different religions
Hatred of immigrants
Hatred of different sexual orientations
Fueled by the media, social networks, certain churches, and taught at home, this hate still consumes too many of our citizens.
The end result is death and pain.
Each one of us who does not rise up, speak out and fight hatred by shining the light of love, acceptance, and the illumination of education is responsible.
Just like the saying "it takes a village to raise a child", the converse is also true—it takes a group of haters to warp individuals.
We have haters in the House and Senate.
We have haters on the Supreme Court.
We have haters who wear badges.
We have haters on our airwaves and in cyberspace.
We have haters spewing from pulpits.
We have haters at podiums and lecterns.
We have haters deciding on textbooks.
We have haters who make "music".
We are not powerless. There are more of us than there are of them.
Each one of us has to step up our efforts to reach out, teach-in, and fight hate in all its virulence.
Take some timeout each day—to reflect, or pray and question yourself.
Ask yourself "what have I done to fight hate today?"
Please send your thoughts, prayers, condolences to the members of the Sikh community.
Sikh Temple of Wisconsin
Support groups who fight hate.
We each can name groups who are part of that battle—there are too many to list here, so I am only going to name one in this commentary. Please share those that you support in comments.
I'm selecting The Southern Poverty Law Center.
Light a candle.
Fight hate.
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Biased by picking this story? Who me? :-) LA Times: Sprinter Usain Bolt is in no rush to leave the stage.
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Usain Bolt kept running. Can you believe he kept running? He was already officially the fastest man in the world, the race was over, his competitors were kneeling and gasping, yet he kept running.
Skipping down the track in joy. Spreading his arms as if he were flying. Putting his finger to his mouth to shush his doubters. Breaking into a sudden somersault. Shaking his shoulder, bobbing his head, rolling his eyes.
And, yeah man, doing The Bolt.
You just knew the most dazzling star of these giant Olympics would be doing his trademark lightning-bolt gesture Sunday night after winning a second consecutive Olympic 100-meter dash in a Games record 9.63 seconds. Yet the most amazing part of the wonder he showered all over Olympic Stadium was what happened afterward, because he never really stopped bolting.
Usain Bolt kept running. Our finish line was his starting blocks. The end of these Olympics' most flash-popping moment was the beginning of his show. Only this 6-foot-5 Jamaican with the starry smile and lovable laugh, it seems, can knock seven other runners silly with possibly the greatest closing jab in track history … and that's the prelims.
"This is what I do," he said with a grin. "A lot of people come out to see what I'm gonna do today, tomorrow, it's fun for them, and I enjoy showing them."
Yeah, he certainly showed us. After blowing his opponents away in the final strides — I swear, he won a 100-meter race by what looked like 100 meters — he left most of the defeated field in a heap and took off down the track. The more he kept running, the more 80,000 fans kept roaring. Wrapped in a Jamaican flag, he jogged and celebrated for more than a lap, so long that an Olympic mascot eventually grabbed him as if to usher him off.
Usain Bolt strikes his familiar winner's pose after claiming gold in the 100 meters on Sunday at the London Olympics. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times / August 5, 2012)
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Science improving the lives of ordinary Africans. East Africa: Hope for farmers in Africa as scientists make breakthrough against dangerous Striga.
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n any other setting, its lilac blooms would pass as a beautiful flower. But to Hassan, a sorghum grower in Sudan’s North Kordofan state, and his compatriots in East and Central Africa, the plant’s appearance is often the harbinger of a lost harvest.
It is not uncommon to find farmers who have lost between 70 and 100 per cent of the expected yield from their cereal crop to the parasitic Striga weed, nicknamed witches weed because of its devastating impact on livelihoods.
With an estimated 21 million hectares of African farmland infested, Striga has become a major threat to food security on the continent.
Relief is in sight however, after four varieties of Striga resistant sorghum were recently approved for growing.
Under development for almost eight years, the new varieties have roots that block the parasite from attaching to their host, eventually causing the weed’s death through water and nutrient starvation.
Released by the Agricultural Research Corporation of Sudan (ARC) in Khartoum on June 19, the varieties were jointly developed by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (Asareca) and ARC.
Importance of sorghum to Africa
Sorghum is believed to have its origins in Africa in the Ethiopian Highlands and South Sudan.
Africa is the largest producer of sorghum in the world with an annual production of about 22 million tonnes, according to 2006 data.
Africa’s leading sorghum producers are Nigeria and Sudan. Other producers are Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique Niger, Somalia and Tanzania.
Drought resistant: It is highly tolerant to high temperatures, and is arguably one of the most drought-tolerant crops under modern day cultivation. It thrives in arid and semi-arid conditions.
Versatility: It is a highly versatile crop with many uses including human food and animal feed, for brewing and bio-fuels.
About 55 per cent of the world’s sorghum grain is used as food, usually consumed as porridge and breads. The stalks and leaves provide dry season grazing for livestock.
Support: Last year the Buffett Foundation gave $4 million to Africa in support of efforts to develop sorghum fortified with vitamin A, zinc and iron, and improve its protein digestibility.
Left: A farmer attends to his sorghum field in Rwampara in Mbarara, Uganda. Right: Sorghum crop destroyed by the Striga parasite. Photos/Morgan Mbabazi/File
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Women express their profound frustration with South Africa's system of tribal rulers and courts that keeps money, land and power in the hands of men. LA Times: South Africa's tribal system strips rural women of rights.
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After two decades away, Dlamini, 32, came home last year to this village in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. She approached the head man asking for land to build a house with her savings where she could raise her two children.
"He said he's not allowed to allocate land to a woman," she said. "It must be a male relative."
South Africa's system of traditional rulers and tribal courts endures, and the ruling African National Congress moved recently to widen the reach of that system. The Tribal Courts Bill would subject 20 million rural South Africans to courts ruled by traditional chiefs, in a move critics say creates one law for urban people and another for those in tribal areas.
The bill would deny South Africans in tribal areas their present right to opt out of traditional courts in favor of government courts. Although serious criminal offenses would still be heard in conventional courts, some assaults, including cases of domestic violence, could be heard in tribal courts.
"The tribal courts remain patriarchal institutions. Women complain that when they try to bring their cases to councils comprised of men — and old men at that — they don't get a very sympathetic hearing, particularly when it comes to family matters," said Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, senior researcher at the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit at the University of Cape Town.
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Black audiences should feel included rather than targeted. Black Voices: What Is the Theatre Industry Doing to Reach Them?
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I've always been a theatre kid at heart. And nothing says summer like a theatre trip to New York, a place teeming with theatre spectators, many of whom, like myself travel to experience what Broadway has to offer.
This year, my eyes are fixated on the Gershwin's Porgy & Bess revival featuring five-time Tony award winner Audra McDonald. It's not often that Black casts are featured on Broadway, and even rarer for the lead actress to win a Tony for Best Performance in a Musical. Such is the case for Audra McDonald. As a theatregoer, the show is a seemingly rare opportunity to experience Black theatre on Broadway -- a place often perceived as uncharted territory for Black audiences. That perception appears to be declining as the theatre industry relies on celebrities, and nontraditional casting to target Black audiences.
As in the case of Broadway's revival of A Street Car Named Desire featuring Hollywood stars, Nicole Ari Parker and Blair Underwood, also a show traditionally played by white actors. According to the TheRoot.com, "April 22, marks the first time the 1947 play has appeared on Broadway with a multiracial cast." Although, the revival of A Street Car Named Desire isn't the first of its kind, it restricts the notion that black casts are only limited to traditional casting. A claim often met with skepticism.
In 2011, New York magazine writer John Lahr wrote a wish list of "eliminations" for the upcoming theatre season. He wrote, "And no more infernal all-black productions of Tennessee Williams plays unless we can have their equal in folly: all-white productions of August Wilson." Let's just say the comment didn't go over well; prompting a tidal wave of counter arguments, all the while confirming why these remakes exist historically.
Despite the criticism, lack of Black theatre, and the mind-set that African-Americans are reluctant to go to the theatre, these shows have done exceptionally well. According to TheGrio.com:
"People of color in attendance make up a smaller portion of the box office, with 76 percent of tickets being sold to whites. But last year, despite the down economy, Broadway posted record revenue numbers. And some who keep an eye on Broadway have said the increased number of diverse offerings is one reason for that."
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
She is a spectre, a ghostly presence that we can ignore until we can't. She is pushing a ragged shopping cart, she is stumbling with a cane, she is walking in the slow elegance of the elderly matron; yet we don't see her, even though we move out of her way. She lives next door, down the street, across the river and under a freeway overpass. She is our mother, sister, cousin, aunt and grandmother.
She might have been great once; but we don't see her, we don't hear her. We ignore her, until we can't.
American Sonnet (35)
boooooooo. spooky ripplings of icy waves. this
umpteenth time she returns--this invisible woman
long on haunting short on ectoplasm
"you're a good man, sistuh," a lover sighed solongago.
"keep your oil slick and your motor running."
wretched stained mirrors within mirrors of
fractured webbings like nests of manic spiders
reflect her ruined mien (rue wiggles remorse
squiggles woe jiggles bestride her). oozy Manes spill
out yonder spooling in night's lofty hour exudes
her gloom and spew in rankling odor of heady dour
as she strives to retrieve flesh to cloak her bones
again to thrive to keep her poisoned id alive
usta be young usta be gifted--still black
-- Wanda Coleman
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