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Taser Lawsuit: Douglas Boucher (Mason, OH)
Mason police officers tased 39-year old Douglas Boucher in December 2009. He died. The police didn't see anything wrong with it. No charges were filed against the two officers. The family of the dead man see it differently. Boucher's family filed a federal lawsuit. [SOURCE]

The autopsy didn't indicate that the taser was the cause of death.  The lawsuit claims that the two police officers used excessive force on a mentally ill person. The family seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the city of Mason and officers Daniel Fry and Sean McCormick.

The two police officers were not called onto the scene. They just stopped by the same Speedway gas station where a female clerk was serving Mr. Boucher. When the police arrived, the clerk alleged that Boucher was harassing her. The two officers asked Boucher to go outside. The officers were attempting to handcuff Boucher when he wrestled away and hit Fry in the head with his one handcuffed hand, according to the police. When he tried to go after the clerk again - she had come outside - McCormick attempted to use a Taser on him. The first shot failed, but the second electrocution with the 50,000 volts from the taser gun knocked Boucher to the ground. He hit his head on the concrete and died.
The lawsuit claims that "Mason police officers arrested him, tased him in the chest and in the back and then, while he was on the ground, struck him with a police baton, kicked him and tased him five more times."
The report issued by the Ohio powers-that-be did note that the police officers failed to 'spark test' their taser guns ... to the device may have given off more that the 50,000 volts of electricity specified by the manufacturer.

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Happy Birthday: Bob Marley (1945-1981) Bob Marley was born on this date (February 6) in 1945. He was a Jamaican singer and songwriter whose name more than anyone represents reggae music, the tenets of Rastafarianism, and the struggle of the economically and politically oppressed. [SOURCE]



via videosift.com


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Village Tip: Increase Sales by Making a Promise
We make promises all the time. Cross my heart and hope to die; swear on my mother's grave; the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. These are all promises. Whether these statements are used to make a false promise or not, they all do one thing; they make the person who receives the promise feel more secure.

Entrepreneurs quickly learn that one of the quickest ways to get a potential customer's attention is to make a promise. In marketing, that promise should be the first thing they see, so it should be embedded in the headline.

A headline should appeal to an immediate need. Regardless of who your target audience is, all people have the need to feel secure; to know that an advertised product or service can fulfill the advertised claim. That is where the promise comes in.

Now, this doesn't mean that you should say the words "I promise," only that they should be implied. Offer a benefit and phrase it in a way that says, "We are completely confident in what we claim."

But beware the false promise. Though plenty of advertisers make them, a false promise will only sell a product or service once. Your success as an entrepreneur is based on repeat sales ... so don't do something that may help you today, with negative consequences for you in the future.

If you want to create long-term customers, make a promise that your product or service can fulfill. Once they see you are as good as your word, they will feel utterly secure. And security is what really sells a product.

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Happy Birthday: Hank Aaron, Greatest Baseball... My favorite team growing up in southern California was the Los Angeles Dodgers. As such, I have a vivid memory of Hank Aaron hitting homerun #715 ... the one that pulled him ahead of Babe Ruth. He hit it during a game against the Dodgers. Al Downing was the Dodger pitcher that gave up the most famous home run in history.

These are the memories that came to mind today. I join with other villagers in wishing a blessed 77th birthday to Henry Louis Aaron. He was born on this date in 1934.

Read a great historical view of Aaron's childhood and baseball career here on the African American Registry. One aspect of his career that inspired me occurred early in his career:
After only a short time in the Negro Leagues, the Milwaukee Braves recruited Aaron. He joined the Braves' system in 1952 and was sent to the minor leagues. There he became one of the first Black players to break the color line in the Deep South; a dangerous proposition in the last, desperate days of segregation that was legally enforced by Jim Crow laws. After one season in Wisconsin, Aaron found himself playing for a Jacksonville, Florida team in the South Atlantic League. Fans insulted him constantly, and even some of his teammates hurled racial slurs at him. Hotels and restaurants were closed to him because he was Black. The situation was only tolerable because Aaron showed such talent and because he was young. Somehow the heightened tension inspired Aaron. During his year with the South Atlantic League, he led the circuit in batting average, doubles, runs scored, total bases and runs batted in. He was voted League Most Valuable Player for 1953.
Aaron retired in 1976 with record 755 home runs and 2297 runs batted in. One week later he began a new phase of his career, as director of player development for the Braves. Aaron was one of the first Blacks hired in a major league front office. Throughout his tenure with the Braves' management, he has called for more Black participation in the business end of baseball.

Hank Aaron has been a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1982.
What do you know or remember about Hammerin' Hank?


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Obama's Weekly Address: It's Time for Congress... President Obama continues his call for a return to American values, including fairness and equality, as part of his blueprint for an economy built to last.





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OURstory: Rosa Parks (1913-2005) Rosa Parks was born February 4, 1913. She didn't seek notoriety. She was simply a quiet and resolute woman who stood up by sitting down. She became an American civil rights activist.

Rosa McCauley grew up in Montgomery, Alabama and attended the all-Black Alabama State College. Rosa and her husband Raymond Parks were active in Montgomery's chapter of the NAACP. She worked as the chapter's youth adviser; on voter registration drives and was secretary of the NAACP’s Montgomery branch in 1943. As the 1950’s began, the segregated seating policies on public buses were growing as a source of resentment and bitterness within the Black community in Montgomery.

Blacks were required to pay their fares at the front of the bus, and then board again through the back door. The white bus drivers would harass Blacks, sometimes driving away before they were able to get back on the bus. On December 1, 1955, Parks took her seat in the front of the "colored section". When the driver asked Parks and three other Black riders to give up their seats to whites, Parks refused and was arrested; she soon agreed to let the NAACP provide legal council. Rosa Parks' case was filed in United States District Court, which ruled in her favor, declaring segregated seating on buses unconstitutional, a decision later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was more than an inadvertent symbol; she was an experienced activist with strong beliefs. whose arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a bus set in motion the turning point in the African American battle for civil rights. Parks and her husband relocated to Detroit in 1957, where in time, Congressman John Conyers hired her as an administrative assistant, a position she held until 1987.

Rosa Parks, a committed activist died on October 24, 2005. On October 30th, and 31st of that year, she became the first woman to lie in honor in the vast circular room under the Capitol dome. By voice vote the House agreed to the action "so that the citizens of the United States may pay their last respects to this great American."







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Black Unemployment Rate Drops to 13.6% in...
The United States added 243,000 jobs in January 2012 - far exceeding expectations of about 150,000 jobs - and unemployment rate dipped to 8.3 percent. Job growth was widespread last month in the private sector, with large employment gains in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are about 12.8 million unemployed people in the country. The unemployment is the lowest its been in almost three years. The trend of positive employment news continues to grow under the leadership of President Obama.

The news also contained positive progress for the Black community.

The unemployment rate in the Black community took a big dip in January 2012 to 13.6%. This compares to previous months:
  • Dec 2011 - 15.7%
  • Nov 2011 - 15.5%
  • Sep 2011 - 16.0%
  • Aug 2011 - 16.7%
The overall message for the US economy is good. This is the seventh straight month with over 100,000 people entering the workforce. The rate of unemployment in the Black community is still out of whack with what we see nationwide, but at least the statistics are trending in a positive direction.

What is your opinion of the unemployment data that was released today?

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OURstory: 15th Amendment On this date in 1870 the 15th amendment was ratified. Republicans wanted the 15th Amendment passed to obtain the vote of the freed slaves.


Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The 15th Amendment ensures the right to vote to all male citizens of the United States, regardless of color or previous condition of servitude. The 15th Amendment opened the door for the elections of African Americans to the US Congress and to Southern local and state offices.

Many women suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had worked alongside Black suffragists like Frederick Douglass to gain suffrage for both groups. But when the 15th Amendment passed, it angered many women suffragists terribly, and some of them even spoke out against Black suffrage.

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OURstory: Dr. Bernard Harris Did you know that Astronaut Dr. Bernard Harris was the first African American to walk in space on February 2, 1995?

Dr. Harris was the Payload Commander on STS-63, the first flight of the joint Russian-American Space Program. He fulfilled his childhood dreams and became another pioneer in Black history.

This is not the first time we have talked about the impact of African Americans in the space program. You may recall that we showed this video of space history that isn't well known:






Did you ever dream of being an astronaut?

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Wordless Wednesday: RIP Don Cornelius - Love,...


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Happy Birthday: Langston Hughes (1902-1967) Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, MO on this date in 1902. He began writing poetry while attending Central High School in Cleveland, OH. He was educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Click here to view most of the literary works of Langston Hughes!

He was an influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's. Hughes spent time in Paris and after returning to the United States, he worked as a busboy in Washington, D.C. It was there in 1925, that his literary skills were discovered after he left three of his poems beside the plate of American poet Vachel Lindsay, who recognized Hughes's abilities and helped publicize his work.

Langston Hughes was active in social and political causes, using his poetry as a vehicle for cultural protest. He traveled to the Soviet Union, Haiti, and Japan, and he served as the Madrid correspondent for a Baltimore newspaper during the Spanish Civil War. Hughes wrote over 50 books and his drama Mulatto was performed 373 times on Broadway. Hughes also became known for the character Jesse B. Simple that he created in the 1940's for the Chicago Defender & New York Post. The humor and dialect of Jesse Simple disguised his common sense while depicting the everyday American experiences of Black citizens.

Langston Hughes died in 1967.

Let America be America Again
LANGSTON HUGHES 1938
Originally published in Esquire and in the International Worker Order pamphlet A New Song (1938)

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!

Do you have any thoughts about Langston Hughes? What is your favorite literary work by Bro. Hughes?

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Google+ Hangout Interview with President Obama I didn't listen to the unique Google+ Hangout social network event hosted by President Obama yesterday. Here is the video of the full Q&A session for you listening pleasure:





What is your take-away from this Google+ Hangout session?

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OURstory: Morgan State University Morgan State University celebrates its 144th birthday today. I was born 92 years after Morgan State University became one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America.

Founded in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute by the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the school's original mission was to train young men for the ministry. It broadened its mission to educate both men and women as teachers. It was renamed Morgan College in 1890 in honor of the Reverend Lyttleton Morgan, who donated land to the college. Morgan awarded its first baccalaureate degree in 1895.

Morgan remained a private institution until 1939. By this time the College had become an all-inclusive institution. In 1975 the Maryland Legislature designated Morgan as a university, gave it the authority to offer doctorates, and provided for it to once again have its own governing board. In 1988 Maryland reorganized its higher education structure. It strengthened its coordinating board, the Higher Education Commission, and abolished the state college system.

The 1988 legislation also strengthened Morgan's authority to offer advanced programs and designated the campus as Maryland's Public Urban University.

It is important that we learn OURstory whenever possible. Are there any Morgan State alumni in the village?





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Villager is Another Year Old Today...


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Unique Building * MUMOK House Attack (Vienna,... Erin Wurm is an Austrian artist with a unique perspective on life. Highly regarded and very influential within the art scene for some time, Erwin Wurm’s work may not be all that familiar to most Villagers.

Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK) is the largest art museum in Austria. They pride themselves on the collection of modern art from the 20th and 21st century.

Erin Wurm and MOMAK combined to create some architectural buzz in 2006. That is when the so-called 'Attack House' was born. Wurm installed the house on the outside facade of the MUMOK building. Wurm indicates that 'House Attack is a symbol for an everyday occurrence as well as small-mindedness.'



I found a video that showed how 'House Attack' was created.






Every day I'm amazed at the things that people are paid cash-money to do...

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Tea Party Wants to Re-Write History Books to... Did any of you see the passionate comments by GOP candidate Rick Santorum towards the end of the debate last night? He was answering the question about what impact religion would have on his work as president if he were elected. He talked about the nation's founding fathers and the fact that "God-given rights" were at the heart of the Declaration of Independence.

Santorum noted that 'God-given rights' can't be given away by the government. As he was talking I kept thinking to myself about the Africans in America at the time of the Declaration of Independence. I wondered what Santorum would say about the "God-given rights" of those men and women who were enslaved by our Founding Fathers? Did they have any "God-given rights"?

Now, I learn that there are some in Santorum's Republican Party who no longer want to be troubled by the inconvenience of our nation's history of slavery. There are some GOP (aka, Tea Party) in Tennessee who want to re-write the history books being used in our public schools to give a positive spin on slavery. [SOURCE]

These Republican (or Tea Party) activists say that the way textbooks are worded now can portray out founding fathers in a negative light.
"Slavery is of course portrayed in the textbooks nowadays I'm sure as a totally negative thing. Had there not been slavery in the south, the economy would've fallen," said Tea Party Activist Brian Rieck.
I guess one person's dehumanizing atrocity is another person's economic stimulus agenda.

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Unique Building * The Crooked House (Sopot,...
This is a very unique building! The Crooked House was built in 2003. What inspired the architects were Per Dahlberg's drawings. You'll found numerous beauty shops and stores inside along with the branch office for RMF radio broadcasting company. It lies in the Bohaterów Monte Cassino street, the town's most prominent promenade.

I wonder if the building would appear straight and normal if you were drunk?

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GOP Wingnuts Gone Wild: Jan Brewer and Mark Oxner It looks like the dog whistles that GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has been blowing are having their effect. Arizona governor Jan Brewer appears to have lost her mind while welcoming the President of the United States.
The level of disrespect by the Republican Party during the past three years of the Obama presidency is unprecedented. And Jan Brewer wasn't the only one demonstrating a lack of respect to President Obama.

Congressional candidate Mark Oxner thought it would be a good idea to share a political advertisement in which our nation's first African American president is shown on a slave ship. Are Republicans so disrespectful of Black people in this nation that they don't see where shyt like this is NOT funny?





I usually remind people that it's never a good idea to use Adolph Hitler as a comparison for anybody at anytime. I guess I'll need to also note that it is never a good idea to show a Black man on a slave ship. Who knew that an educated adult human being wouldn't know that unwritten rule of common decency?

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Rest In Peace: Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
Born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall was the grandson of a slave. His father, William Marshall, instilled in him from youth an appreciation for the United States Constitution and the rule of law.

After graduating from Frederick Douglass High School in 1925, Thurgood followed his brother, William Aubrey Marshall, to Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His classmates at Lincoln included a distinguished group of future Black leaders such as the poet and author Langston Hughes, the future President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and musician Cab Calloway.

Just before graduation, he married his first wife, Vivian "Buster" Burey. Their twenty-five year marriage ended with her death from cancer in 1955.

In 1930, he applied to the University of Maryland Law School, but was denied admission because he was Black. This was an event that was to haunt him and direct his future professional life.

Thurgood sought admission and was accepted at the Howard University Law School that same year and came under the immediate influence of the dynamic new dean, Charles Houston, who instilled in all of his students the desire to apply the tenets of the Constitution to all Americans.

Paramount in Houston's outlook was the need to overturn the 1898 Supreme Court ruling, Plessy v. Ferguson which established the legal doctrine called, "separate but equal." Marshall's first major court case came in 1933 when he successfully sued the University of Maryland to admit a young African American Amherst University graduate named Donald Gaines Murray.

Applauding Marshall's victory, author H.L. Mencken wrote that the decision of denial by the University of Maryland Law School was "brutal and absurd," and they should not object to the "presence among them of a self-respecting and ambitious young Afro-American well prepared for his studies by four years of hard work in a class A college."
Thurgood Marshall followed his Howard University mentor, Charles Houston to New York and later became Chief Counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During this period, Mr. Marshall was asked by the United Nations and the United Kingdom to help draft the constitutions of the emerging African nations of Ghana and what is now Tanzania. It was felt that the person who so successfully fought for the rights of America's oppressed minority would be the perfect person to ensure the rights of the White citizens in these two former European colonies.

After amassing an impressive record of Supreme Court challenges to state-sponsored discrimination, including the landmark Brown v. Board decision in 1954, President John F. Kennedy appointed Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In this capacity, he wrote over 150 decisions including support for the rights of immigrants, limiting government intrusion in cases involving illegal search and seizure, double jeopardy, and right to privacy issues. Biographers

Michael Davis and Hunter Clark note that, "none of his (Marshall's) 98 majority decisions was ever reversed by the Supreme Court."
In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson appointed Judge Marshall to the office of U.S. Solicitor General. Before his subsequent nomination to the United States Supreme Court in 1967, Thurgood Marshall won 14 of the 19 cases he argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of the government. Indeed, Thurgood Marshall represented and won more cases before the United States Supreme Court than any other American.

Until his retirement from the highest court in the land, Justice Marshall established a record for supporting the voiceless American. Having honed his skills since the case against the University of Maryland, he developed a profound sensitivity to injustice by way of the crucible of racial discrimination in this country. As an Associate Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall leaves a legacy that expands that early sensitivity to include all of America's voiceless.

Justice Marshall died on January 24, 1993.

I invite all villagers to use the COMMENTS section ('Village Voices') to share your thoughts, memories or insights on Thurgood Marshall.

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NIHERST Awards in Science and Technology...
The National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST) is a statutory body established to promote science, technology and higher education in Trinidad and Tobago consistent with national development goals. Trinidad and Tobago has nurtured many sons and daughters who have left their mark in science and technology to the benefit of peoples in the Caribbean and around the world. For many, their contributions have gone unrecognized and unrecorded.

The NIHERST Awards in Science and Technology seek to recognize and reward nationals for outstanding achievements in science and technology, to provide positive role models for our youth to emulate, and to record our scientific heritage. In 2012, NIHERST together with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education and the Caribbean Academy of Science (CAS) will be presenting these awards.

Call for Nominations
  • The Fenrick De Four Award for Engineering - Fenrick De Four was the lead author of almost every national engineering code and standard in Trinidad and Tobago. He was a founding member, President and Fellow of the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago (APETT), and the first Chairman of the Board of Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago.
  • The Emmanuel Ciprian Amoroso Award for Medical Sciences - Professor Emmanuel Ciprian Amoroso was a distinguished professor in the field of medical science research and education. He was famous for his studies on the placenta and was a pioneer in the development of the fields of endocrinology and reproductive biology.
  • The Rudranath Capildeo Award for Applied Science & Technology - Dr. Rudranath Capildeo was renowned for his intellectual contribution to the fields of applied mathematics and physics. He was also a gifted educator of mathematics and physics and taught at University College London among other institutions.
  • The Julian Kenny Award for Natural Sciences - Professor Julian Stanley Kenny was an eminent zoologist, author and columnist. He taught for over 25 years at the UWI, St. Augustine and was highly regarded internationally for his extensive knowledge and seminal research on the ecology of Trinidad and Tobago.
  • The Anthony Williams Award for Technological Innovation in Arts & Culture - Anthony Williams is an early steelpan innovator. He designed the pattern of the placement of the notes on the instrument; added wheels to the bass drums; improved the way pans were made; and initiated the first scientific study on the instrument by testing his ideas at CARIRI.
  • The Frank Rampersad Award for Junior Scientist - NIHERST’s first president, Frank Rampersad, was a brilliant economist who supported indigenous research and development and human capacity building in fields of science and engineering that were critical to economic development.
  • The Ranjit Kumar Award for Junior Engineer - Ranjit Kumar was a well-known legislator and civil engineer. He planned, designed and constructed the first dual carriageway in Trinidad and Tobago, known today as Wrightson Road, completed in 1940.
For further details and application forms please visit http://www.niherst.gov.tt/.

Two thoughts come to mind for me. First, do we have any 'villagers' who are from Trinadad and Tobago. Second, I wonder if the Miss Universe 1977, Penny Commissiong, will be involved in this award on any level? She remains one of the most beautiful women that I can ever remember!

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The Rose of Education Wants to Unleash Your...
Most of the time we see true creativity and invention from afar. Steve Jobs is an example. Everyone know that he was a creative man ... but, I doubt that anyone reading this blog post actually met the man in person.

Anthony Hall
I think I've met and interacted with a true creative genius ... Anthony Hall. Anthony is founder of The Rose of Education. The Rose of Education is investigating the use of language to develop new technologies for communications, education, energy, security, defense, propulsion, automotive and robotics. More applications and sectors are being identified.

This is the point when I need to remind you that folks that Jobs was crazy for trying to combine a telephone and a camera in the same piece of equipment.

Hall feels that the result of his efforts will be a bio/technical interface industry, where technology will be used to focus, speed and multiply our natural abilities - cognitive and physical. The Rose of Education is starting at the beginning, with Language.

It's Never Too LATE: Literacy - Academics - Technology – Education, is an initiative intent on increasing awareness and generating interest in the connection these all share - Language.

  • What are the prospects for those who have the creativity and aptitude to succeed in the technological field, but not the mastery of language to allow them to turn imagination into an application?
  • Are there generations of software engineers and programmers residing in our inner-cities, urban and rural communities, just waiting to be identified and nurtured?
The Rose of Education is preparing to find out.

100,000 REAAL NAMES integrates the 4 components in the LATE acronym in a WORDS Game:

First and Last names are turned into acronyms; player chooses words associated with each letter to compose a list of qualities, or a descriptive sentence about the individual that is evocative of closely held aspirations, beliefs, values, visions, etc. For example:
  1. AARON HALL - Ambition And Resilience Overcomes Negativity; Heralding A Lasting Legacy.
  2. DEBI MELZER - Discerns Enlightenment By Imagination, Masters Enlightenment Lovingly, Zeal Empowers Realization.
  3. WAYNE HICKS - Wise African; Your NAME Expresses Hope, Inspiration, Compassion, Kindness, Strength.
The WORDS will become part of a unique Dictionary and Database to help expand the vocabularies of children and adults using the letters of their own names.

I encourage all 'villagers' to play and by doing so, play a part in empowering, enriching and uplifting youth everywhere with a most precious gift - our Name.

So, I ask you -- 'What is Your REAAL NAME?'

Here are some definitions created by Anthony Hall and the folks at The Rose of Education:
  • AS - Applications / Systems
  • HATHieroglyphic Acronym Translator
  • ITY - I Them You
  • LATE - Literacy Awareness and Technology Education
  • NAMES - Neural Acronymics Modular Exercises: Summations
  • REAALRevolution in Education: Acronymics AS Language
  • WORDSWhat Our REAAL Dialogue Symbolizes
I plan to create my own REAAL NAME for both 'Wayne Hicks' and 'Villager'.  The example shown above was provided by Anthony Hall.  However, it isn't easy and I haven't been able to do it yet. I may have to break out that bottle of vodka in my kitchen so that my creative juices can truly flow!

I hope you will give it a try.  If you do ... please share your REAAL NAME with us! 

Here is our opportunity to live out one of the Kwanzaa principles -- Kuumba (creativity).   Are you ready to 'make it so'?

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Rest In Peace: Heath Ledger (1979-2008)
Actor Heath Ledger died, at the age of 28, in his downtown Manhattan residence on this date in 2008. The cause of death was an accidental combination of prescription drugs.

I truly enjoyed Heath Ledger in the roles he played in movies such as 'The Patriot' and 'A Knight's Tale'. He was also convincing in 'Brokeback Mountain' ... a movie that won an Oscar. He won a posthumous Oscar as 'Best Supporting Actor' for his role as The Joker in the new Batman movie.

Click here to see his full bio. Do any of you have thoughts on the life and career of Heath Ledger that you care to share at this time?


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Obama's Weekly Address: America is Open for... President Obama tells the American people about a series of steps he's taken without the help of Congress to grow the economy and create jobs -- including a new strategy aimed at boosting tourism introduced this week. In next week's State of the Union Address, the President will outline his blueprint for creating an economy built to last.





Did you catch the Apollo Theater debut of President Obama?

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Three Reasons I'm Not Having an Orgasm About... There is a growing buzz about the movie 'Red Tails' that is opening today. The movie focuses on the heroic Tuskegee Airmen and their performance as pilots in World War II. The movie is directed and produced by George Lucas with a cast that is virtually all-Black. George Lucas gives some background on the challenges that he had to overcome in order to get the movie made in this video clip.




It isn't likely that I'll see this movie at the local cinema. I'll wait until it shows up on Netflix or at my local library. My main reason for waiting is simple -- I like to save money whenever possible and Netflix or the library are much less expensive then going to the movie theater.





There are three reasons I'm not all-out 'ga-ga' about this film:
  1. Give some credit to the 1995 television show! George Lucas makes it seem that this is the first film on the topic. I recall a great film called 'The Tuskegee Airmen' with Laurence Fishbourne, Allen Payne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney Vance, Andre Braugher, Cuba Gooding Jr., Mekhi Phifer and others.
  2. Terrance Howard is an asshole! The guy has some talent but he seems to always find a way to show disrespect with Black women ... whether it is his apparent hatred for women, his messy divorce, or his recent trysts with white women.
  3. No worthy story lines for Black women! There is some merit in recent blog post from Gina McCauley (What About Our Daughters).
That's my take on the movie. What say u?

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OURStory: Black Statue of Liberty
People around the world are aware of the Statue of Liberty. It is a sight seen by many immigrant families as they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to come to the shores of the United States.

Few people know that the original Statue of Liberty was a Black Slave in shackles!

Soulclap to Jamia Shephard and Dr. Angela Molette for bringing OURStory (not "his"-story) to our attention. Dr. Molette points out that French Abolitionists (anti-slavery proponents and supporters of John Brown) were among the monument’s creators ... and this was the most compelling and overriding reason for creating the statue as a Black slave in shackles. The idea for the Statue of Liberty was born of a shared historical connection between Egypt (the original intended recipient of the Statue) and African slaves in America for whom the tribute to liberty and freedom was delivered.

It is worth noting that the final product delivered to America had significant changes that can be attributed to white privilege, arrogance, jealousy and financial pressure. This little-known history is discussed in an entry on the original Statue of Liberty documented by Dr. Leroy Vaughn in his book, 'Black People & Their Place in World History'.






The excerpt reads:
"In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte stated that history was only 'a lie agreed upon.' Nothing could be more illustrative than the history of the Statue of Liberty originally called 'Liberty Enlightening the World.' The liberation of African American slaves was the only inspiration for the creation of a Statue of Liberation for Edouard Rene LeFebvre DeLaboulaye. He recruited a young sculptor, Frederick Auguste Bartholdi to create a Black female slave Statue holding a broken chain in her left hand and with broken chains of slavery at her feet.
The official web site of the Statue of Liberty states that the statue was given to the people of the United States by the people of France as an expression of friendship and to commemorate the centennial of American Independence (1776). The Encyclopedia Britannica states Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty as a monument to the Franco-American alliance of 1778.

These are absolute and total lies!

Edouard DeLaboulaye
Edouard Rene LeFebvre DeLaboulaye, an internationally renowned lawyer and author of a three-volume history of the United States, first discussed the idea of a symbol to represent the end of U.S. Slavery at a dinner party in 1865, at his country home near Versailles, France. In attendance at the dinner party were many abolitionists including Victor Hugo and Frederick Auguste Bartholdi, who had initially been retained to create a sculptured bust of Mr. DeLaboulaye.

Victor Hugo and Edouard DeLaboulaye were leaders of the French Abolitionist movement. They hated slavery and were in strong support of John Brown when he attempted to arm slaves in West Virginia for rebellion by raiding the armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859. After John Brown failed and was hanged, Hugo and DeLaboulaye took up a collection among the French people and presented a gold metal to John Brown’s widow.

After Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in 1861, the French liberals and abolitionists including Hugo, Bartholdi, and DeLaboulaye urged Lincoln to free the slaves even if Civil war resulted. Lincoln was told: “You would become the first country in history to have fought a war against itself to free the internal slave and you would go down in history as a truly great country and a beacon of light to all freedom loving people.”

The French abolitionists saw the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 as a worthless piece of paper since it only freed slaves in the Confederate controlled states where Lincoln had no jurisdiction and not in Union controlled states where Lincoln was still in authority.

When the war ended in 1865, French abolitionists were extremely happy and in addition to again urging Lincoln to free all slaves, DeLaboulaye and Bartholdi requested permission to build and dedicate a monument of colossal statuary to that freeing of all slaves in America. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, DeLaboulaye again headed the abolitionists’ committee that presented a gold medal to Mrs. Lincoln, just as he had done for the widow of John Brown.

In addition to a staunch abolitionist, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) was an outstanding French sculptor. Bartholdi trained to be an architect in Alsace and Paris and then studied painting with Ary Scheffer and sculpture with J.F. Soitoux. Bartholdi’s life and ideas changed dramatically after 1855 when he toured Egypt and witnessed the magnificent colossal monuments and statues created by the ancient Black Egyptians.

Bartholdi’s creation of a giant Black ex-slave female with broken chains at her feet and left hand was readily accepted in France. Although liberals, freemasons, and businessmen with American interests were the most enthusiastic supporters of the project, by 1881 some 100,000 people and 181 towns throughout France had contributed money.

In 1871, Frederic Bartholdi at the urging of DeLaboulaye undertook a voyage to America to sell his idea of a colossal statue clearly symbolizing the end of chattel slavery in the United States. He was armed with a large terracotta statue and numerous drawings to clearly illustrate his proposed Statue of Liberty. The original African face of the Statue of Liberty was published in The New York Post dated June 17, 1986 as part of the centennial celebration. Bartholdi found little American support for his African slave model. In 1878, as the African head of Miss Liberty first went on display at the Universal Exposition in Paris, France, rampant reaction raged throughout the American South.

Bartholdi finally had to abandon his original ideas and changed the Statue of Liberty to the features we are now familiar with. The African face was re-sculptured into the face of his mother Madame Bartholdi. A tablet of law tucked into her folded arm that bears the date July 4, 1776, replaced the broken chains in the slave’s left hand. Ironically, the chains were left at the feet but the meaning changed from broken American slavery to broken English tyranny.

On May 18, 1986 during the centennial celebration, The New York Times joined The New York Post in describing the original Statue of Liberty and the intention of DeLaboulaye and Bartholdi in presenting this statue to America. It’s unconscionable that the Encyclopedia Britannica and the official Statue of Liberty literature can still lie and say that this is a monument celebrating American Independence of 1776 or Franco-American alliance of 1778. Dr. Jack Felder sums it up clearly:
"Once in place, Miss Liberty received a new meaning. She was hailed as the ‘Mother of White Exiles,’ greeting European immigrants seeking freedom in America. Nothing in the original conceptions of Bartholdi or DeLaboulaye envisioned this role for their stature."
I hope that you think about this blog post next time you see the Statue of Liberty.

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Articles last updated at Feb 06, 2012 22:45:41pm.
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