Vision Circle

Furor over Fazio

The latest news out of Italy concerns the role played the head of the Italian central bank in reviewing buy-out bids by competing Italian and Dutch interests.

The following story provides an interesting glimpse into how the judicial machinery of a nation-state can encroach upon the nationalist imperatives of that same nation-state in the arena of international capital. There is also a good deal more about this story than will be revealed in the short term.

I can only imagine that if Allen Greenspan were to do something along the same lines and it were caught on tape, the biggest question here would be, "Who decided to bug big Al?" As it stands, Antonio Fazio is on the hot seat. We shall see how long he remains.

Detroit Catholic schools close, repoen. Race involved?

I graduated from Bishop Borgess High School, right outside of Detroit, in 1987. 92 out of 287, or something like that.

Now? The school itself has barely 200 students total. Earlier in the year the Archdiocese closed down over ten Catholic schools.

Borgess was one of them. St. Martin DePorres, where my brother graduated? Closed it too.

I didn't care that much for my high school. I tolerated it as much as it tolerated me. I got into Michigan DESPITE, not because of, my high school. But when I got the news about the closing I was still set back a bit. Like I didn't have a home to go back to.

But recently someone with deep pockets came to the rescue. DePorres, where my brother went to school? IT's reopening too.

The interesting thing? At least one other school that closed contacted the funder...but he didn't bite.

Tim Vervaecke, former development director for Notre Dame Catholic High School in Harper Woods, said he is puzzled by Maida's acceptance of the Covenant plan even as he rejected proposals to reopen Notre Dame.

The difference? When I went to school, Notre Dame had a black population so small you could count it on a few hands and some feet. If that's still the case now, you're talking about a largely white working class population with suburban options (Notre Dame), vs a largely black working class population with urban options (Borgess).

Everyday Extraordinary

The worst thing about being ordinary is that since you are surrounded by same, there is nothing to remind you of your condition.

If the only place you know is the area of neurons where your consciousness was born, then no matter how much you glance around, everything seems fine and in order;

The ordinary human is born, wired & programmed in the nervous-system to be a seventy-year continuity; to live & die ordinary; to think only ordinary thoughts, and feel only ordinary emotions;

What are you if you choose to leave ordinariness – leave your natural-born-mind? Employing nothing but your own awareness, how might you accomplish a permanent escape from the ordinary?

It Ain't 'Bout Ya Blood

It's hard to look at pictures like this and say the issues facing Africans on the continent and the US are simply a function of the priorities, principles and practices of white folks...there are too many black folk involved at all levels of this thing for such a simplistic analysis.

Doing the right thing has never the sole responsibility or province of any particular collective defined by "race", gender, religion, ideology, class or creed. Whether your beef is with Condi or Colin or Connerly or the "brothers Willams" (Juan and Armstrong, etc.) or maybe you resent leaders like Min. Farrakhan or Rev. Jackson - and prefer your local leadership they must not become the focal point of our approach to resolving critical issues. These individuals are fallible and our fidelity must be on the principle...and our practice should steer clear of judgment - even as we hold one another accountable.

I submit we can no longer exclusively see with our eyes, listen with our ears or smell with our noses - because the webs of disinformation are so complex (we have to trust our source - sure it's not empirical or replicable/verifiable - but that's beside the point)...it's like that scene in Indiana Jones-Last Crusade, where the cat with the whip is trying to reach the grail and remembers that "only a penitent man shall pass." Keeping it real is an overused saying, but it really means so much - and the biggest part of keeping it real is keeping it simple and keeping it old school and keeping it ancestral.

I don't recommend throwing out the baby in the bathwater of logic, reason and empirical standards. I do recommend expanding and respecting other ways of knowing because so often, things are not what they seem and our rush to judgment (based on the visible, audible or funky) can do more harm than good. With all the criticism heaped upon the shoulders of Ms. Rice, I hope she has the power, integrity and will to change the situation on the ground in the Sudan.

Mastery Culture vs. Corporate Civilization

It was my privilege to interview Dr. Oba T'Shaka on June 16th 2005 at the National Black United Front (NBUF) annual convention held in Kansas City Missouri. Dr. T'Shaka is the Vice Chairman of NBUF, full professor at San Francisco State University, and former chairman of the Black Studies Program. I caught up with Dr. T'Shaka over the lunch hour, and we had to conclude after about 35 minutes - a discussion that I believe could have gone on much, much longer. Also in the discussion is Mr. Leon Dixon, founder and chairman of the Dubois Learning Center. Rooted in traditional afro-spiritual culture, and possessing a scholar/practitioner's deep knowledge thereof, Dr. T'Shaka confines this time constrained discussion to pragmatic cultural themes readily accessible to any audience.

What is a Black Community? and What is the Basis of our Collective Action?

Thoughts??

Eating Right

For the past couple months, I've been trying to maximize fruit and vegetable consumption within the Nulan household. Well so, I buy a bunch of bananas every few days as part of this regimen. Anyway, I accidentally picked up a bunch of organic bananas at my local HyVee store yesterday. They were conspicuously large and unlike the regular bananas about ready ripeness-wise for eating. {the usual suspects were all bright green and looked at least a couple days from table ready}

I didn't find out they were organic until I looked at them just a minute ago, and they had a little *organic* sticker on them. So I peel and bite one of these barnaynays and KAPOW!!!!, discover that I haven't eaten a real banana in years. It was so sweet, firm in texture, and like I said above, conspicuously large - that I was shocked by the difference in flavor intensity between it and the high-yield agro product I've grown accustomed to.

From now on, I'll be doing vastly more careful shopping and testing the difference between organic and mass agro produce. If this banana was not merely a fluke, but instead the rule concerning the differences, then the often mulled engagement with gardening, farmer's market co-oping and emphasis on organic produce just went to the top of my priority list.

Prince Bandar bin Abdul Aziz Resigns

Not much seems to be said about Prince Bandar resigning.

Veteran Saudi ambassador in U.S. resigns

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 20 (UPI) -- Saudi King Fahd accepted the resignation of Saudi ambassador in Washington Prince Bandar bin Abdul Aziz who served in the post for more than 20 years.

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An official source at the foreign ministry said Wednesday Bandar expressed his wish to be relieved from his responsibilities earlier this month.

"After all these long years of devoted service as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, which exceeded 20 years, Prince Bandar solicited King Fahd to be released from his post for personal reasons," the source said.

He said the king appointed Prince Turki al-Faisal, the current ambassador to Britain, to replace Bandar.

The source did not say what prompted Bandar to resign.

It had been previously reported that there is tension between Prince Bandar and many of the House of Saud's leaders.

Given the massive amount of wealth Prince Bandar has accumulated because of his position, and the amount of power and access he had, it surprises me that he has resigned.

Given that he is strongly westernized, while the Saud family leaders seem to be embracing radical Islam, I don't think this bodes well at all.

Utility of the Blogosphere

I had a thought about the cnu post on blogosphere as "sub-optimal"...not too long ago, WiRed carried a story about Puff delivering the opening remarks to some technology group that deals with wireless communications (CTIA??)...

surprise...the appeal of Puff to this group is the percentage of young black folk using wireless communications...it's a higher percentage, according to WiRed, than for whites or asians...black folks are using the type of technology that can be accessed using cyberspace - but it may not be through a conventional blog because blogs are tied to keyboards and a functionally different than text messages and other mobile communications...still, there are tremendous possibilities here - especially with respect to organizing and the frequent use by those in the dope game of disposable phones...

so in one respect, you nailed it - but blogs are kinda old school - ass-tied to a desk communication...it's neither mobile nor active unless you have a nice little laptop and a battery supply...as the technology of keyboard phones is more widely accessible, it will be the time to develop new message formats to communicate and drive ideas - but this will require a CONTENT PRODUCTION machine that uses music and film without conceding all space to the Big 6 or Hollywood. and that is a project worth pursuing, but much easier said than done.

The Myth of Race; America's Original Science Fiction

Just saw Dr. Joseph Graves, Jr., PhD, Professor Evolutionary Biology/Life Sciences, Arizona State University West, Phoenix, AZ on Tony Brown's Journal. I'm simultaneously saddened and gladdened by the Work of this distinguished researcher and scholar. On the one hand, it's heartening to see someone cooly and authoritatively demolish racist psychopathology across multiple sectors of its expression. On the other, it's just plain sad that a brother even has to bother wasting so many of his valuable and irreplaceable cycles on the uniquely American mental illness and moral plague.

Racism is not a necessary feature of human society though but coalitional allegiances might be ingrained. They have been and are a feature of present American society. People ask, 'Professor Graves, you say biological races are not real?' I say, 'Yes. Biological races are not real, but socialized races are real as a heart attack, and do not confuse those two.' There are no genetic barriers to dismantling racist ideology; it is a question of whether we want to.

A comprehensive discussion and presentation by Dr. Graves on the Myth of Race.