Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The War on Terror, Afghanistan, and more News

The famous rapper Lupe Fiasco debated Bill O’Reilly on many issues. Some of them revolve around Afghanistan, the war on terror, Osama bin Laden, and terrorism. Among both men, on foreign policies issues, I’m more aligned with Lupe Fiasco. I’m a young man, so I’ve heard about him. He is a rapper from Chicago. He knows martial arts, is a Muslim, and promotes his music. He has been famous for years for promote conscious music and other forms of eclectic music. In typical form, Bill O’Reilly tries to use extreme hypotheticals in trying to intellectually stump Lupe Fiasco. By the end of the debate, I think that Lupe didn’t take his bait for the most part. Lupe has his form of controversy by calling the President Barack Obama a terrorist because of his aggressive support for U.S. military actions in the Middle East. Common sense dictates that the bombings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and other countries have been unwarranted. None of these nations collectively have involvement in 9/11, they didn’t attack us in 9/11, and these unjust military actions can only enhance (not improve) upon the relationship that the U.S. have with the people of color in Africa, the Middle East, & Central Asia. That is why people are right to call for an end to the war on terror, a new focus on our building up bonds with nations without jingoistic deeds, and rebuilding our national infrastructure in the USA. A war on terror is unnecessary since Osama Bin Laden has been funded and supported for decades by the CIA, the ISI, and other Western powers. He has been presented as the boogeyman as an excuse for the military aggression overseas and domestic suppression of dissent here at home (this anti-civil liberties atmosphere is exemplified with the institution of the Patriot Act, the USA Commissions Act, militarized police, FEMA checkpoints, and other nefarious, unconstitutional policies). The President is accountable for his military actions though. Obama is used as a puppet and springboard while the higher up elite (as found in the Pilgrims, Bilderbergers, the Vatican/Jesuit network, Goldman Sachs, CFR, Trilateralists, etc. These people are in his administration cabinet) remain mostly untouched. The manufactured war on terror wasn’t created to kill a group of radical Muslims. It was created to institute a high tech globalization system to control humanity via centralization, privatization, & getting resources. Tons of people are awake about what the President represents (He’s a representation of globalization, the Patriot Act, compromise with the reactionaries on economic issues, and an imperial foreign policy). Bill O’Reilly is brainwashed to assume that the U.S. is defending ourselves toward people that killed us on 9/11 when Osama didn’t cause Building Number Seven to collapse, he didn’t cause NORAD to stand-down, and he wasn’t on any of the planes the crashed into the Twin Towers at all. Plus, the bombings of Libya via Western powers have nothing to do with the deaths on 9/11 either.


I’ve look at the History International Channel on Andrew Jackson. This and other motivating factors inspired me to write about the man. Andrew Jackson lived a controversial life and many people criticize him to this day. Andrew Jackson was President from 1829 to 1837. Ironically, Thomas Jefferson as President allowed his administration to subpoenaed Jackson to testify as an unindicted co-conspirator in the treason trial of Aaron Burr. President Jackson witness the first and only time America experienced no debt in U.S. history, which is fine. Yet, he broke down the nation’s power over credit. He crushed tariffs protecting U.S. industries and wages and he blocked national expansion of canals and railroads. He was a Tea Party man ideologically before the Tea Party existed. The reason is that he wanted to crush the government in an extremely small level. This is hard now since in the 21st century we live in a more complex society. We don’t live in the 19th century anymore. After Jackson, the British cotton owners and the plantation slaveholders promoted cheap labor and radical free trade. Andrew Jackson was involved in the war of 1812 between the U.K. and America. America was in defense or they used self defense when the British military burned down large portions of Washington, D.C. The Western elites hated nationalism (or the building of public education, the spreading of infrastructure, and the common peaceful relations with fellow human beings). In those days of the 19th century, the oligarchy wanted imperialism, racism, and stagnation. Bentham supported Andrew Jackson. Bentham wrote in hatred of the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence deals with self evident human rights. Georgia rowdies, up-and-coming Masons such as Howell Cobb, demanded the Cherokees' land on the rumor that there was gold underneath it. Georgia's governor ordered the arrest of U.S. government-financed Protestant missionaries who were teaching the Cherokees mathematics, science, and literature. Andrew Jackson supported the Cherokee to leave their lands and go into Oklahoma (even when the Supreme Court confirmed the treaty rights of the Cherokee to have their rights). Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was not only a bigot, but he was a covert anti-Union agent. Taney worked constantly with pro-Confederate intriguers in Maryland, although that state remained in the Union. He sought the arrest of U.S. military officers, because they were obeying Lincoln's orders to stop saboteurs and spies, but could find no one to serve his writs. He opposed John Quincy Adams’ run for President in 1824 and he backed Andrew Jackson. It would take the Civil War for legalized slavery to end. The Andrew Jackson legacy is apparent.



North Carolina is a state trying to make amends for thousands people suffering sterilization programs via eugenics (from 1933 after the 1929 North Carolina Sterilization Act was declared unconstitutional for not allowing the appeals process). The victims of eugenics want compensation for sterilization. This occurred into 1974. About 85 percent of the victims are women or girls. Some of the people are young as 10. North Carolina has more victims than any other state since a majority of them were sterilized after WWII (according to Charmaine Fuller Cooper. Cooper is the director of the state Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation). These evil eugenics programs became popular in the early 20th century in the West. The Nazi Germany’s program claimed to watch racial purity. North Carolina’s program peaked in the 1950’s and the early 1960’s. State figures show that about 70 percent of the state’s 7,600 sterilizations occurred after the war. The sick people that have done eugenics claimed to protect mentally disabled parents’ offspring to the improvement of the human race. Some people were brainwashed before the atrocities of WWII especially that these justifications were moral when they weren’t. “Sterilization was always a cost-cutting measure,” said Paul Lombardo, a professor at Georgia State University’s College of Law. “The argument was anybody who generates social costs shouldn’t be allowed to have children.” “Sterilization was always a cost-cutting measure,” said Paul Lombardo, a professor at Georgia State University’s College of Law. “The argument was anybody who generates social costs shouldn’t be allowed to have children.” Elaine Riddick was once a poor black female that was sterilized in 1969. She now lives in Atlanta. She wants to drive to Raleigh to tell the task force about her sterilization at age 14 after she was rape. She said that her grandmother gave the state permission for the procedure. Riddick didn’t blame her grandmother since she was worried about her. Elaine suffered depression plus physical problems for years after the sterilization. Riddick wants compensation from the state to pay for doctor bills and medicine. Researchers found that during the 20th century, more than 60,000 people in America were sterilized via government programs. Even in some states without sterilization laws, the same acts have been done. Lombardo says that the total numbers could be 100,000 of higher people. North Carolina had an opened sterilization law. Doctors and social workers referred people to the state Eugenics Board for possible sterilization (Lombardo said that other states had people institutionalized or jailed before they could be sterilized). North Carolina averaged about 300 sterilizations per year between 1950 and 1963. This is according to the research from University of Vermont professor Lutz Kaelber. The Winston Balem based Human Betterment League was a group that promoted such evil acts (Texile magnates and “illuminaries” supporting this stuff was James Hanes and tobacco czar R. J. Reynolds). Planned Parenthood, Clarence Gamble, Margaret Sanger and like minded people were in support of eugenics for decades. N.C. History Project’s Troy Kickler discusses eugenics, in these terms, ” it was a defense for abortion” and “racist program that targeted African Americans.” Time proves that he is quite accurate.


One of the greatest legends of the Motherland of Africa was Miriam Makeba. She lived from March 4, 1932 to November 10, 2008. She had a fruitful life and her legacy is respected by a whole bunch of people worldwide. She’s admired by me and other all across the world of every background. She is famous of using music to not only document the struggles of her people, but to enlighten all peoples that it is legitimate to actively fight against injustice using the arts, music, and any other adequate efforts. She was born in Prospect Township, which is found in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the 1960’s, she was the first person to popularize African music in the U.S. and around the world. She is known for many songs like of course Pata Pata (that was first recorded in 1957, yet it was released in America in 1967). She was friends with many people like the artists Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela. These people are known in my parent’s generation since they are Baby Boomers. Miriam Makeba constantly fought against the evil system of apartheid in South Africa. That is why the South African government in that time revoked her citizenship and right of return. She passed away in the realm of always fighting for justice. Before she died, she supported the author Roberto Saviano (he was anti-Camorra. The Camorra is a mafia like group local to the region of Campania). Miriam sang with the Manhattan Brothers and the all women group called the Skylarks. She was in the Come Back, Africa, which was an anti-apartheid documentary. It was produced and directed by Lionel Rogosin (or the American independent filmmaker). Makeba was mentioned in the documentary and she attended the premiere of the film in the 24th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Italy where the documentary won the prestigious Critics’s Award. Harry Belafonte and other helped her to gain entry into America. Her mother passed away in 1960. The world helped her out when South African revoked her citizenship. In 1962, she met President John F. Kennedy. Her 1963 album The World of Miriam was released in 1963, which was her 2nd studio album for RCA. She won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording in 1966. She made tons of well known music like Malika. She once married the Trinidadian civil rights activist, Black Panther, and once SNCC leader Kwame Ture in 1968. The couple moved to Guinea and lived there for the next 15 years. She was separated from Kwame Ture in 1973. She returned home to South Africa in June 10, 1990 on her French passport. This was after Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl in February 11, 1990. She worked in shows and movies. She also promoted help for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. Certainly, you can’t mention anything about South African culture and South African history without mentioning the truth about Miriam Makeba.




In genetics and sociology, there is the term of haplogroup. A haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation. Scientists use a SNP test to confirm a haplogroup. Scientists use haplogroups in letter number combinations like R1b1. Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups have different haplogroup designations. Haplogroups pertain to deep ancestral origins dating back thousands of years. Scientists involved in genetics study mostly the Y-chromosome (Y-DNA) haplogroups and the mitochrondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups. Y-DNA is listed from A to T (with the subdivisions of numbers and lower case letters). The Y chromosome haplogroup designations are formed by the Y Chromosome Consortium. Y-chromosomal Adam is the name given by researchers to the male who is the most recent common patrilineal (male-lineage) ancestor of all living humans. The Haplogroup L type consists of nearly all Africans. There is overlaps among Y-DNA haplographs and mtDNA haplogroups as well. In simple terms, haplotypes are one person's results on various DNA test. Y-DNA is passed down from a father and mtDNA is passed down from a mother. Both can be used to find genetic populations and their spreading from one generation to the next. Scientists have traced the mitochondrial DNA in all living humans back to a single female, and similarly, genetic markers in all males in the world today can be traced back to a single male. Different populations carry distinct markers. Haplogroup classifications are based on identification of genetic markers which a population of individuals share, passed down from an ancient but common ancestor. Scientists said that Haplogroup A (in Y-DNA) houses the first branch off from the root of the human y-chromosome phylogeny. The Haplogroup A is mostly in Africa and a handful of cases have been reported in Europe and Western Asia. However, haplogroup A's oldest sub-clades are exclusively found in Central-Northwest Africa.




By Timothy

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