Yesterday a friend and I drove the three hours to Seattle in the grueling North West heat (Okay it was only 80F) to see the Felice Brothers. My buddy just introduced me to this band of brothers who hail from the Catskill mountains in rural New York. They took their act to the Big Apple and would play in the New York subway.
After hearing their first major release album (self titled) and watching live clips from the band on You Tube I decided I didn't want to miss seeing the Felice Brothers. I wasn't disappointed. They played at a small bar in North Seattle which was packed with young people as well as the old hippie folk fan.
Their act includes guitar, drums, base, accordion, fiddle, keyboard, and washboard. They wail on their instruments with intense passion and artistry. The result is a fresh organic sound with deep roots in folk and Americana styling. The most impressive thing may be their song writing capability. The songs include crime sagas, lonely love ballads, and drinking songs. They sound inspired by Dylan, Hank Williams, and Townes Van Zandt (whom they covered for one song).
I am definetley going to order their latest album (Yonder is the Clock) and check out some of their older repetuare. I also hope to see them come to Vancouver at some point but would definitely travel down the Coast to see the "Greatest Show on Earth" again.
I've attached one of the live clips from You Tube.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Friday, March 21, 2008
Jeremiah Wright or wrong and Obama's quest for an equal America
Last week Barack Obama took alot of heat in the mainstream media and perhaps in public opinion because of the comments of his pastor Jeremiah Wright.
Many of the video clips were short sections of sermons all presented in a context of anti Americanism and reverse racism. The clips weren't long enough to present the entire message of Rev. Wright's sermons furthermore the discussion of the comments didn't take into account the historical and social or economic background behind the reverends comments.
As I watched the clips I was shocked, not by the content of the messages but at the fact that people were so outraged about the content. In my opinion Jeremiah Wright's comments were logical, insightful, and poignant. The fact that "white America" didn't understand them may just re-enforce some of Wright's points about the gap in realities for black America and white America.
Obama, in response, denounced a great deal of what Wright had to say. The presidential hopeful went on to give a lengthy speech on the history of racism in America. Many saw the speech as a historical moment. I think it is positive that Obama wants to present a hopeful message to Americans that racial equity is close at hand. He has said that he feels that Blacks have almost achieved equality with whites. However, I find this extremely hard to believe. In contrast to Obama's claims one need only to look at the footage from Katrina or statistics on prison populations and poverty. Equality is along way off.
There is also a danger, I believe, of people thinking that equality will be reached if Obama wins the presidency. Something that is perhaps the underlying message behind Obama's rhetoric. This is completely illogical. As my earlier blog post "the bi-partisan consensus" suggests the differences in policies between parties and politicians is really unsubstantial.
While I find it difficult to catch sound bytes on what Obama's policies actually are (I listened to about 34 minutes of his speech on race in America before he mentioned something about education and healthcare) they will likely not stray far from the kind of pro- corporate strategies of the Bush Clinton years. On the foreign policy front his policies will also likely be very familiar. While he takes lots of credit for not voting for the war in Iraq he has voted for increased military spending at every opportunity since. He is clearly a supporter of the military industrial complex which is sustained by actions like those in Iraq.
In conclusion the positive change that Obama speaks of and that so many seem so desperate for has to come from the actions of people. That is the true essence of democracy. People have to constantly challenge and critique those in authority whether it be George Bush or Barak Obama. People have to stand up when corporate greed and injustice threaten the environment and the wellbeing of one another. People have to stand up and take real responsibility for racism, ethnocentrism, and state sponsored terrorism. People have to continue to speak up and act up against war, torture, and violence of all kinds.
And I believe like Jeremiah Wright does that these truths have to be shouted about no matter how unpopular these truths are. I also believe like Rev. Wright does that this is the true meaning of the Gospel to declare freedom and good news both in spirit and in truth.
I will close this post with the comments of another Rev. ...Jim Wallis. I find that Wallis always finds a way of expressing current events in a clear and profound way.
Healing the Wounds of Race by Jim Wallis
It has simmered throughout this campaign, and now race has exploded into the center of the media debate about the presidential race. Just when a black political leader is calling us all to a new level of responsibility, hope, and unity, the old and divisive rhetoric of race from both blacks and whites is rearing its ugly head to bring down the best chance we have had for years of finally moving forward.
And that is indeed the real issue here. A black man is closer to possibly becoming president than ever before in U.S. history. And this black man is not even running as "a black man," but as a new kind of political leader who believes the country is ready for a new kind of politics. But a new kind of politics and a new face for political leadership is deeply threatening to all the forces that represent the old kind of politics in the U.S. And all the rising focus on race in this election campaign has one purpose and one purpose alone—to stop Barack Obama from becoming president of the United States.
Barack Obama should win or lose his party's nomination or the presidency based on the positions he takes regarding the great issues of our time and his capacity to lead the country and the U.S.'s role in the world. He must not win or lose because of the old politics of race in the U.S. That would be a tragedy for all of us.
The cable news stations and talk radio are playing carefully selected excerpts of the most potentially incendiary statements from Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery sermons. Wright is the retiring pastor of Barack Obama and his family's home Trinity Church in Chicago. Obama, while affirming the tremendous work his church has done in his city and around the nation, has condemned the most controversial remarks of his pastor. But the whole controversy points to the enormous gap in understanding between the mainstream black community in the U.S. and the experience of many white Americans. And that is what we are going to have to heal if we are ever to move forward.
Here is what I mean.
There is a deep well of both frustration and anger in the African-American community in the U.S. And those feelings are borne of the concrete experience of real oppression, discrimination, and blocked opportunities that most of America's white citizens take for granted. African Americans across the spectrum of income and success will speak personally to those feelings of frustration and anger, when white people are willing to listen. But usually we are not. In 2008, to still not comprehend or seek to understand the reality of black frustration and anger is to be in a state of white denial - which, very sadly, is where many white Americans are.
The black church pulpit has historically been a place of prophetic truth-telling about the realities that black people experience in their own country. Indeed, the black church has often been the only place where such truths are ever told. And, black preachers have had the pastoral task of nurturing the spirits of people who feel beaten down week after week. Strong and prophetic words from black church pulpits are often a source of comfort and affirmation for black congregations. The truth is that many white Americans would indeed feel uncomfortable with the rhetoric of many black preachers from many black churches all across the country.
But if you look beyond the grainy black-and-white clips of the dashiki-clad Rev. Wright and the angry black male voice (all designed to provoke stereotypes and fear), and actually listen to what his words are saying about the U.S. being run by "rich white people" while blacks have cabs speeding by them, and about the U.S.'s misdeeds around the world, it's hard to disagree with many of the facts presented. It's rather the angry tone of Wright's comments that provides the offense and the controversy.
Ironically, a new generation of black Americans is now eager and ready to move beyond the frustration and anger to a new experience of opportunity and hope. And nobody represents that shift more than Barack Obama. There is a generational shift occurring within the black community itself. This shift is between an older generation that is sometimes perceived to be stuck in the politics of victimization and grievance, and a younger generation that believes that opportunity and progress are now possible—not by ignoring, but by being committed to actually changing the facts of oppression and discrimination.
Barack Obama represents that hope of dealing with the substance of the issues of injustice while at the same time articulating the politics of hope, and even the possibility of racial unity. Obama's attraction to many who are white, especially a new generation, demonstrates the promise of a new racial politics in the U.S. But to be a leader for a new generation of black Americans, Barack Obama had to be firmly rooted in the black church tradition, where the critique of white America, the sustenance of the African-American community, and God's promise for the future are all clearly articulated. That's why he began attending Trinity Church, where he was converted to Jesus Christ in the black liberationist tradition of, among others, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
So it would be a great tragedy if the old rhetoric of black frustration and anger were to now hurt Barack Obama, who has become the best hope of beginning to heal that very frustration and anger. Obama has never chosen to talk about race in the way that Rev. Jeremiah Wright does on the video clips that keep playing, and indeed has never played "the race card" at any time in this election. It's been his opponents that have, especially the right-wing conservative media machine that wants the U.S. to believe he is secretly a Muslim and from a "racist" church.
This most recent controversy over race just demonstrates how enormous the gap still is between whites and blacks in the U.S. - in our experience and our capacity to understand one another. May God help us to heal that divide and truly bless America.
Many of the video clips were short sections of sermons all presented in a context of anti Americanism and reverse racism. The clips weren't long enough to present the entire message of Rev. Wright's sermons furthermore the discussion of the comments didn't take into account the historical and social or economic background behind the reverends comments.
As I watched the clips I was shocked, not by the content of the messages but at the fact that people were so outraged about the content. In my opinion Jeremiah Wright's comments were logical, insightful, and poignant. The fact that "white America" didn't understand them may just re-enforce some of Wright's points about the gap in realities for black America and white America.
Obama, in response, denounced a great deal of what Wright had to say. The presidential hopeful went on to give a lengthy speech on the history of racism in America. Many saw the speech as a historical moment. I think it is positive that Obama wants to present a hopeful message to Americans that racial equity is close at hand. He has said that he feels that Blacks have almost achieved equality with whites. However, I find this extremely hard to believe. In contrast to Obama's claims one need only to look at the footage from Katrina or statistics on prison populations and poverty. Equality is along way off.
There is also a danger, I believe, of people thinking that equality will be reached if Obama wins the presidency. Something that is perhaps the underlying message behind Obama's rhetoric. This is completely illogical. As my earlier blog post "the bi-partisan consensus" suggests the differences in policies between parties and politicians is really unsubstantial.
While I find it difficult to catch sound bytes on what Obama's policies actually are (I listened to about 34 minutes of his speech on race in America before he mentioned something about education and healthcare) they will likely not stray far from the kind of pro- corporate strategies of the Bush Clinton years. On the foreign policy front his policies will also likely be very familiar. While he takes lots of credit for not voting for the war in Iraq he has voted for increased military spending at every opportunity since. He is clearly a supporter of the military industrial complex which is sustained by actions like those in Iraq.
In conclusion the positive change that Obama speaks of and that so many seem so desperate for has to come from the actions of people. That is the true essence of democracy. People have to constantly challenge and critique those in authority whether it be George Bush or Barak Obama. People have to stand up when corporate greed and injustice threaten the environment and the wellbeing of one another. People have to stand up and take real responsibility for racism, ethnocentrism, and state sponsored terrorism. People have to continue to speak up and act up against war, torture, and violence of all kinds.
And I believe like Jeremiah Wright does that these truths have to be shouted about no matter how unpopular these truths are. I also believe like Rev. Wright does that this is the true meaning of the Gospel to declare freedom and good news both in spirit and in truth.
I will close this post with the comments of another Rev. ...Jim Wallis. I find that Wallis always finds a way of expressing current events in a clear and profound way.
Healing the Wounds of Race by Jim Wallis
It has simmered throughout this campaign, and now race has exploded into the center of the media debate about the presidential race. Just when a black political leader is calling us all to a new level of responsibility, hope, and unity, the old and divisive rhetoric of race from both blacks and whites is rearing its ugly head to bring down the best chance we have had for years of finally moving forward.
And that is indeed the real issue here. A black man is closer to possibly becoming president than ever before in U.S. history. And this black man is not even running as "a black man," but as a new kind of political leader who believes the country is ready for a new kind of politics. But a new kind of politics and a new face for political leadership is deeply threatening to all the forces that represent the old kind of politics in the U.S. And all the rising focus on race in this election campaign has one purpose and one purpose alone—to stop Barack Obama from becoming president of the United States.
Barack Obama should win or lose his party's nomination or the presidency based on the positions he takes regarding the great issues of our time and his capacity to lead the country and the U.S.'s role in the world. He must not win or lose because of the old politics of race in the U.S. That would be a tragedy for all of us.
The cable news stations and talk radio are playing carefully selected excerpts of the most potentially incendiary statements from Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery sermons. Wright is the retiring pastor of Barack Obama and his family's home Trinity Church in Chicago. Obama, while affirming the tremendous work his church has done in his city and around the nation, has condemned the most controversial remarks of his pastor. But the whole controversy points to the enormous gap in understanding between the mainstream black community in the U.S. and the experience of many white Americans. And that is what we are going to have to heal if we are ever to move forward.
Here is what I mean.
There is a deep well of both frustration and anger in the African-American community in the U.S. And those feelings are borne of the concrete experience of real oppression, discrimination, and blocked opportunities that most of America's white citizens take for granted. African Americans across the spectrum of income and success will speak personally to those feelings of frustration and anger, when white people are willing to listen. But usually we are not. In 2008, to still not comprehend or seek to understand the reality of black frustration and anger is to be in a state of white denial - which, very sadly, is where many white Americans are.
The black church pulpit has historically been a place of prophetic truth-telling about the realities that black people experience in their own country. Indeed, the black church has often been the only place where such truths are ever told. And, black preachers have had the pastoral task of nurturing the spirits of people who feel beaten down week after week. Strong and prophetic words from black church pulpits are often a source of comfort and affirmation for black congregations. The truth is that many white Americans would indeed feel uncomfortable with the rhetoric of many black preachers from many black churches all across the country.
But if you look beyond the grainy black-and-white clips of the dashiki-clad Rev. Wright and the angry black male voice (all designed to provoke stereotypes and fear), and actually listen to what his words are saying about the U.S. being run by "rich white people" while blacks have cabs speeding by them, and about the U.S.'s misdeeds around the world, it's hard to disagree with many of the facts presented. It's rather the angry tone of Wright's comments that provides the offense and the controversy.
Ironically, a new generation of black Americans is now eager and ready to move beyond the frustration and anger to a new experience of opportunity and hope. And nobody represents that shift more than Barack Obama. There is a generational shift occurring within the black community itself. This shift is between an older generation that is sometimes perceived to be stuck in the politics of victimization and grievance, and a younger generation that believes that opportunity and progress are now possible—not by ignoring, but by being committed to actually changing the facts of oppression and discrimination.
Barack Obama represents that hope of dealing with the substance of the issues of injustice while at the same time articulating the politics of hope, and even the possibility of racial unity. Obama's attraction to many who are white, especially a new generation, demonstrates the promise of a new racial politics in the U.S. But to be a leader for a new generation of black Americans, Barack Obama had to be firmly rooted in the black church tradition, where the critique of white America, the sustenance of the African-American community, and God's promise for the future are all clearly articulated. That's why he began attending Trinity Church, where he was converted to Jesus Christ in the black liberationist tradition of, among others, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
So it would be a great tragedy if the old rhetoric of black frustration and anger were to now hurt Barack Obama, who has become the best hope of beginning to heal that very frustration and anger. Obama has never chosen to talk about race in the way that Rev. Jeremiah Wright does on the video clips that keep playing, and indeed has never played "the race card" at any time in this election. It's been his opponents that have, especially the right-wing conservative media machine that wants the U.S. to believe he is secretly a Muslim and from a "racist" church.
This most recent controversy over race just demonstrates how enormous the gap still is between whites and blacks in the U.S. - in our experience and our capacity to understand one another. May God help us to heal that divide and truly bless America.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Fire sale! Where do your used clothes go?
Here's an interesting story from the CBC posted by a friend of mine...
From: CBC Article
Where old clothes go: Pedernales
The seamy side of donated clothing
Last updated June 18, 2007
By Sabrina Saccoccio, CBC News
A few weeks ago, Sebastian Velez spotted smoke from rising from the mountainside in Pedernales, a small border town in the Dominican Republic. Pedernales is the end of the road in the Dominican Republic between Santo Domingo and Haiti — a sleepy town set up to protect the capital from "invasions of Haitians." Although this time Velez knew immediately what it signalled, that wasn't the case the first time he encountered the smoke two years ago.
Velez, a Harvard University entomologist, happened upon the fires when he was studying bark beetles in the area's untouched forests. He also visits Pedernales to visit a local school that he and his colleagues are raising money to help build.
The flames come from blazing bales of Tommy Hilfiger jeans, cotton T-shirts and miscellaneous winter coats. The reds, greens and plaids are spilled out of a flatbed truck's cargo container at a dumpsite near the port town and set on fire.
Pedernales is home to one cement factory, an aluminum mining operation and a facility whose sole purpose is to sort and burn used clothing from North America.
End of the line
In the past an armed guard accompanied the delivery truck taking unwanted clothing from the Pedernales facility to a dump. Scavengers at the site would collect the garments to sell in shops or to local merchants.
That custom has changed, largely due to the frenzy over potentially valuable clothing in the piles.
Velez said sometimes there's a great find among the clothing heaps, which explains the occasional media image of poor Caribbeans dressed in designer shirts and hats.
It's the quest for those high-quality garments that led to tragedy and even one death among the scavengers.
"There are packs that hold jeans and very valuable stuff ... so people start jumping on the truck as it is moving," recounted Velez.
"One guy got entangled with the tire, and it ran over him and killed him. They have had many accidents like broken legs when the [clothing] packs fall on people."
After the fatal accident, the truckers began routinely setting the clothes on fire to discourage people from attacking the vehicle to scavenge the contents.
In what Velez calls a symbiotic relationship, now the driver and guard will allow the scavengers 10 minutes of sifting, in exchange for manually unloading the sacks of clothes that get stuck in the cargo bay when the truck dumps its load.
Once that time is up, the driver and guard, who work for the clothes sorting facility, set the piles ablaze.
Like most factories in the Caribbean, there aren't any signs on the exterior of the sorting shop, but Velez knows that people working there make about $180 US a month. Drivers take in around $100 US, the Dominican Republic's minimum salary.
"Most of it is coming from the U.S. because the boxes are from department stores saying Kmart or Wal-Mart. But they don't necessarily come from there. I think they're mostly coming from charities, because they're used clothes," said Velez. "They look exactly like what you would find in the Salvation Army and Goodwill."
That's not a problem for the local scavengers or people from surrounding regions who come to grab clothes to sell in retail stores or merchants picking up sacks from the sorters.
There's still a living — even a good living by local standards — to be made by selling used clothes that have made it all the way to the end of the line in Pedernales.
As Velez explained, "I talked to a couple who bought their house selling the clothes they collected there, but a house in Pedernales costs only $3,000."
My reply:
So, the clothes are made by these factory workers in Dominican Republic who make a pittance a day.
We buy the clothes for jacked up prices at the mall. Then a few months later after we get tired of them... or we are told that they are not "stylish" we give them to a charity.
The charity sends them back to the Dominican Republic where the impoverished factory workers get run over by trucks as they rummage through the clothing to find the same clothing they are told are "stylish". Everything else gets burned...Ah the intrinsic and @#@%#$d up cylces of the global market.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Presedential Election II - The Bipartisan Consensus
Howard Zinn starts off one of his chapters in A People's History of the United States with the following passage:
Halfway through the twentieth century, the historian Richard Hofstadter, in his book The American Political Tradition, examined our important national leaders, from Jefferson and Jackson to Herbert Hoover and the two Roosevelts - Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. Hofstadter concluded that "the range of vision embraced by the primary contestants in the major parties has always been bounded by the horizons of property and enterprise....They have accepted the economic virtues of capatilist culture as necessary qualities of man.... That culture has been intensely nationalistic...." Coming to the end of the century, observing its last twenty-five years, we have seen exsactly that limited vision Hofstadter talked about - a capitalistic encouragement of enormous fortunes alongside desperate poverty, a nationalistic acceptance of war and preperations for war. Governmental power swong from Republicans to Democrats and back again, but neither party showed itself capable of going beyond that vision.
If we stop to ponder this passage we can't help but realize how honest it is. I've heard the electoral choices in the U.S. compared to the choice between Coke or Pepsi. Despite all of the hype and advertisement they are essentially the same. I have talked to friends who beleive that Obama or Clinton are going to win the presidency and make radical changes to the injustices in America and perpretrated by America throughout the world. Unfortuanetly this has never been the case! As Zinn points out and the historical record shows both parties will end up acting in the narrow vision bound by "the horizons of property and enterprize". That is not to say that I don't have "the audacity of hope" for change...but I find it difficult to believe in the possibility of change with the system the way it is.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Presedential Election
I was in the States last weekend and noticed that excitement over the 2008 presedential election is on the rise. Forget Obama, Clinton, Guliani, or McCain the frontrunner in my eyes is the dynamic ticket I saw on this bumper sticker:
They've got my vote!
You can buy a sticker here
They've got my vote!
You can buy a sticker here
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Steve Earle's Jerusalem
I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
Death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say
And I almost listened to him
Yeah, I almost lost my mind
Then I regained my senses again
And looked into my heart to find
That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem
Well maybe I'm only dreamin' and maybe I'm just a fool
But I don't remember learnin' how to hate in Sunday school
But somewhere along the way I strayed and I never looked back again
But I still find some comfort now and then
Then the storm comes rumblin' in
And I can't lay me down
And the drums are drummin' again
And I can't stand the sound
But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb
Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem
And there'll be no barricades then
There'll be no wire or walls
And we can wash all this blood from our hands
And all this hatred from our souls
And I believe that on that day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem
Monday, May 07, 2007
If the Utah Jazz were neopolitan they would have too much vanilla and not enough chocolate
I was watching the Utah Jazz play the Golden State Warriors tonight and had a few questions:
Is there actually any Jazz in Utah? Secondly why do the Jazz seem to have so many white players? Come to think of it as long as I can remember they've had alot of white players? Is this a conspiracy? I googled it and found this on http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2737:
According to http://www.villagevoice.com/news/000...o,12566,3.html white people make up 21% of the NBA, which is an average of 2.5 white people per team. Before I go any further, let's take a look at the Utah Jazz rosters over the past 10 years.
2005: Okur+Kirilenko+Harpring+Giricek+Ostertag+Humphries = 6
2004: Harpring+Giricek+Kirilenko+Borchardt+Humphries+Lop ez+Handlogten = 7
2003: Kirilenko+Lopez+Ostertag+Harpring+Pavlovic+Giricek +Gugliotta+Handlogten = 8
2002: Harpring+Kirilenko+Stockton+Padgett+Ostertag = 5
2001: Stockton+Kirilenko+Padgett+Crotty+Ostertag+LaRue = 6
2000: Stockton+Ostertag+Crotty+Padgett = 4
1999: Stockton+Hornacek+Ostertag+Keefe+Padgett+Chilcutt = 6
1998: Hornacek+Stockton+Ostertag+Keefe+Fuller+Foster = 6
1997: Hornacek+Stockton+Keefe+Foster+Ostertag = 5
Over the past 10 years, the Jazz only once had a roster that didn't contain double the league's average of white people. At what point are we allowed to point fingers and say that this is intentional? After all, Salt Lake City is 93% white, and more than 70% of those whites are Mormon - a religion that has historically believed that black people did not choose sides between Jesus and Satan in the beginning of time (in 1978, the Mormon church decided to allow blacks to join, but they have never officially rescinded the claim that they are cursed).
Do you think there will ever come a time when Utah's roster will include a demographic makeup that is more in line with the league average? In a situation as unique as a basketball roster, how big a sample size is needed before it's no longer a coincidence? Is my 10 years enough, or must we go back further?
So what do you think? Is this a coincidence? I went to Salt Lake City during the 2002 olympics and I saw a few African American people...like 4 - I think they were the Jamaican Bobsled team.
I'm not saying that race should matter... when putting a team together you should select the best possible player regardless of ethnicity. However looking at the Jazz's (is that how you spell Jazz plural...isn't it already plural?) record you have to wonder if they are conciouslly showing favouritism to white players.
For the record...no African American cheerleaders either...although a few brunettes.
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