Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Obama and the Grading System on CNN



I just finished watching Obama's press conference and I guess this is his first quarter marking period because CNN is GRADING the president. Since when did the president get graded??? All of this undermines the authority of the president and of course this is done when the president is African-American (BLACK!)



CNN gave Obama a B grade, which is a good grade, but so the f$@! what! Can you tell I am a little upset by this??? They want to grade the president when the previous president was a sitting idiot savant. Now that we have a man of considerable intelligence and steadiness as our president who carefully, painstakingly tries to do what is right, CNN has decided to assess how he is doing in office.



Where was this grading system when Bush lied about the Iraq War? Where was this grading system when Bush blankly stared at the camera after hearing the Twin Towers had crashed into the ground? Where was this grading system when Bush left all the Black people in New Orleans to fend for themselves as he stalled in sending the city supplies that FEMA had available? Where was this grading system as Americans watched gas prices rise from $1.59/gal to $4.59/gallon? C'mon!



Obama has been dealt a hand by the devil. Only the devil would make sure that America was teetering towards economic depression, unpopular by the world, and in the midst of several wars before white America decided it was OK to have a Black president. Kind of like the Oscars. Have you ever noticed that the Oscars only give the best actor/actress award to a black person when they are playing a despot??? (Think Monster's Ball, King of Scotland, Training Day)

But that is besides the point...



This is the point. The white media wants to create a situation where Obama is truly subject to the will of the white people. They set his agenda before he came into office. And disappointingly, Obama has played to their tune. There is nothing Obama hasn't done that wasn't forecast by media pundits a month ago. I am hoping that as Obama grows more comfortable with his power, he will make decisions more independently and with more authority and less consensus. Now some would argue that his stimulus plan was out-of-the-box (Obama, you are doing too much too soon!) but his stimulus package was just a quick way of putting the agenda he ran for president on into one big package. (Which is actually very smart of him. "Get it when the getting's good!")



Of course, my problem with him, like with all Black people of color is that no where is there anything in his agenda for Black people - the 97% of us that helped him win. Are we going to get shafted by one of our own because he still fills the need to please?



I mean, as much as Bush was called an idiot, he taught me a lot of things about power. For one, his presidency was filled with a lot of unpopular ideas - chicken pox vaccine, Iraq war, investing social security in the stock market, tax cuts for the rich, Patriot Act, Guatanamo Bay and torture, etc. Need I say more. And that was just in his first term! Yet, despite our high gas prices, a war we didn't want, his friendship with a corrupt Enron CEO, his inability to capture Osama bin Laden, skyrocketing healthcare and a healthcare bill that increased costs to senior citizens, and on and on.. do you know what Americans did in response? Americans voted the worst president back into office for a second term! That is power!



And Obama can't seem to muster up the courage to put out a little bill that would for once HELP Black people instead of punish us for being the unfortunate descendants of slaves? Maybe some legislation that would make it easier for us to get into college instead of jail? Maybe legislation targeting blighted Black communities as he doles out billions of dollars to corrupt governors and mayors? Maybe sneak a few billion dollars over to Black people inside the stimulus bill just to say "I got your back" as he gives us the pound?







Bush taught me about power. He showed me that when you are president you can do whatever the f$#! you want to do. He put the middle finger in our face with each chance he got to fit his own agenda and didn't care what anyone said. Bush, basically, said screw Americans with every opportunity. Remember, his administration got us into this mess. Visit http://www.solari.com/ for whether this is actually a mess or a planned disaster. All in the first term. Remember the economic recession of 2001-2002.

And Bush helped those who helped him. He made sure his father's organization, the Carlyle Group, and Cheney's company, Halliburton, got paid during his administration. Everyone who was a friend to Bush while he was governor became a part of his administration. Why don't we see a sea of Black faces in the Obama administration?


Obama became the president of the most powerful country in the world which makes him the most powerful man in the world. Bush knew his power and ran with it. Why can't Obama?



Instead, he acts as if he is beholden to a group of people who didn't even vote him into the White House. Only 40% of white Americans voted for Obama compared with 97% of black Americans and 65% of Latin Americans.


So since he wants to play fair and hold himself accountable to the whole world, then I am giving him a C- for not showing some guts. I hold on to the fact that he still has four years to help black people ----- but I'm not holding my breath.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Update: Black contractors and Intuition

This entry is actually a follow-up to a previous post I wrote about how proud I was to use all Black people in my real estate renovation process. I used a Black real estate agent, black lawyer, black general contractor, and the person who put up my wrought iron fence was black too.

Well, I have been disappointed with those choices. The real estate agent and the black lawyer were all women and actually, I have been very, very happy with them. The real estate agent is now a good friend of mine and I would use the lawyer again if I ever needed to.

However, the black contractors I used for my fence and the renovation of my building were men and I was sorely disappointed in my choice. Both of them were unorganized in a way that has cost me time and money.

Now, I won't say that throughout this entire real estate process, I have always had everything perfect, but I can say that I have been close. I finally got a tenant and I have made sure to be responsive and available to them, friendly, yet professional. I set my rent price, matched it to market and whoever could afford it, got the apartment. I went with my intuition and picked tenants that I felt comfortable with. I like them very much and doubt I will have problems with them.

On the other hand, the contractors have been unorganized and it has cost them money which means they have come begging me for more money. With the first contractor who put up my wrought iron gate, he did the job but near the end of it, wanted to charge me higher because he figured he was cutting me a deal in the first place. Now, that actually was not true since I got a much lower price from Mexican contractors. But I wanted to work with Black people and here I am paying almost $500 - $1000 more on a wrought iron fence. Dumb move. I couldn't even fully recommend him to my real estate agent friend because of the move he pulled asking me to pay more money for the fence. That is just unprofessionally and it completely irritated the mess out of me.

Second person is my beloved (sarcastically said) general contractor who I have titled the B!@#$ ( you know what I mean) because everytime I tell him something he did needs correcting and is incomplete, he whines about how he doesn't have any money, is short on the job, is broke, and how this is costing him too much. Does he really think I care?

Here is where I was smart - at least with the general contractor. It has cost $60,000 to renovate my building. That is a lot of money. Thank goodness for good credit. I used the 203k FHA Rehab loan which combines the mortgage with the construction costs into one fixed rate loan. More importantly, the general contractor gets reimbursed for his work and that is after his work has been approved by not only myself, but also a HUD inspector who assessed what needed to be done and put a dollar value to it. This protects the homeowner from being ripped off by a contractor because the contractor has to agree to the HUD inspector's renovation cost.

Back to my contractor.

My beloved contractor never read the HUD inspectors renovation assessment report..... Instead he fixed on what he figured needed fixin' (thanks for the extras!) but left my place kind of undone. Like the electrical outlets don't work and there is still a major plumbing leak in one of my units. My beloved contractor only cares about getting his final reimbursement check. Little does he know that I am an intelligent person and would never dare pay a final check to anyone unless I am fully satisfied with the job. And I am not fully satisfied with anything he has done.

He was a poor choice and I think this article really should be about using your intuition. Because I have used my intuition in all areas except two - the building I chose and in choosing the general contractor. I have had major problems with both. I didn't follow my intuition when I chose my general contractor. I used logic and that was a problem. There was another contractor that I did like, but did not choose and I really regret that. I doubt this project would have taken as long as it has with as much frustration had I have gone with the other non-black general contractor.

Oh well. I do have one tenant at least. Since I have a three-unit, I have two more tenants to go before I can move on with my life. C'est la vie *Sigh*

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Piracy in Somalia and U.S colonial interests

April 8, 2009

I saw this on Yahoo! News when I woke up this morning and as an African-American always questioning U.S. news coverage of African countries, I wondered what the context was for piracy in Somalia. Honestly, I secretly cheered that Somalia, a much maligned country by the U.S., had started a Robin Hoodesque way for evening out the distribution of money.

Somali pirates hijack ship; 20 Americans aboard

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090408/ap_on_re_af/piracy

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, hundreds of miles from the nearest American military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. It was the sixth ship seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

The company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.

http://www.khilafah.com/kcom/index2.php?option=com_content&task=emailform&id=41

What is happening in Somalia?

E-mail Print PDF
 The US has carried out an air strike on a village in southern Somalia. The US/Ethiopian backed puppet transitional government has announced many people have been killed in the raid. The air strike follows the Ethiopian offensive against the Union of Islamic Courts, which reinstalled Abdullahi Yusuf and his American backed transitional government.

Somalia is an Islamic land that has a glorious past and it occupies an important strategic position. The people of Somalia entered into Islam very early, with some entering Islam during the early phase of the da’wah (call) in Makkah when some of the Companions migrated to Abyssinia. The land was subsequently opened in 77 AH during the time of Abd al-Malik and remained an Islamic land connected to the Muslim lands, particularly Yemen which faces it across the Gulf of Aden. Towards the end of the Ottoman Caliphate it was afflicted by the greed of the colonial states that competed for its dominance so as to take its resources and benefit from its strategic position, since then Somalia has been ravaged by poverty and famine.

The horrendous situation of the Muslims of Somalia remained until the Union of Islamic Courts; a gathering of sincere Somali’s began to unite the country once again around Islam, shunning tribalism and colonialist interference. This situation perturbed the Americans and her agents in the Horn of Africa including Ethiopia. Ethiopia has been funding the defunct ‘government’ of Abdullahi Yusuf, providing it material support. It fears a united Somalia, especially a Somalia united by Islam.

As for America it has not ceased yearning for the long years in which it had control in Somalia during the reign of Siad Barre. Barre was overthrown in 1991 when armed warlords removed him from power, vying for control. At the same time, Britain annexed Somaliland, which was previously under its mandate (British Somaliland). America attempted in 1992 to return her influence once again under the pretext of a humanitarian effort, calling their endeavour ‘Operation Restore Hope’. Some 28,000 troops were used in this operation, however in 1995 it had to make a humiliating retreat.

In 2000 America worked to destroy the Djibouti Agreement which would have established the government of Abdul Qasim Salad, as it was an EU initiative that did not sufficiently consolidate US control over Somalia and its resources. She then worked to establish an interim government headed by her puppet Abdullahi Yusuf and prepared to develop international recognition for this government, which had no recognition with the people. Yusuf’s government sent representatives to the African Union, Arab League and the United Nations.

As well as supporting the puppet government of Yusuf, America continued to support the warlords in Mogadishu. With this parallel strategy, America tried to retake control over Somalia by politically supporting the puppet government and militarily supporting the warlords.

However the corruption of the government and overt link to America and Ethiopia as well as the continued conflict amongst the warlords made the people of Somalia look to an alternative to rescue them from their dire situation. They turned their attention to the Union of Islamic Courts. The Union of Islamic Courts was familiar to the people, who had witnessed its justice since 1994. As Somalia lost a central government, the Union of Islamic Courts voluntarily began to solve the problems between people, earning recognition for their fairness and sincerity. The Union of Islamic Courts initially started as a social movement but after witnessing the state of Somalia it decided to put an end to the disturbed situation of the country. The warlords backed by America opposed them, frightened that a sincere unifying force would put an end to their selfish and narrow designs. But the people rallied behind the Union and soon the warlords were defeated. It was said that the people joined the Union even before their men reached their towns and villages. The Union brought stability to Somalia after years of colonial interference.

This stability was seen by America to be unacceptable, for any independence from its will especially if Islam inspires that independence will not be tolerated. Hence America pushed Sudan to broker negotiations between the Union and its puppet government led by Yusuf in Khartoum. Through these negotiations it tried to marginalise the Union and give some power to its puppet Yusuf under a power sharing agreement. At the same time it assigned Ethiopia to protect Yusuf through military support so that the Courts would not be able to defeat his weak and hated government.

When the strength of the Union of Islamic Courts became intolerable and it became clear that they would soon overrun the puppet government, America instructed Ethiopia to declare openly its opposition to the Union by open warfare. The US military backing of Ethiopia was no match for the ill equipped Muslims of the Courts Union especially since the Muslim governments and armies lay deaf to the call of their brethren in Somalia.

The war was supported by America, who planned, financed and supported the war for three reasons:

1. Islam was a unifying factor in Somalia. America fights any Islamic movement wherever it can. It detests Islam and its people, particularly those who do not conform to what its calls ‘moderate Islam’, as exemplified by the corrupt Arab and Muslim rulers that litter the Muslim world. America is all too aware that if it left the Union of Islamic Courts to stabilise Somalia, this would give strength and support to all those wishing to rid the Muslim lands from colonial interference.

2. Somalia has a strategic position on the Indian Ocean with the longest shoreline (reaching 2720km), longer than any African state. Its shores stretch from the eastern side of Somalia upon the Indian Ocean and from the northern side upon the Gulf of Aden, in front of the Bab al-Mandeb of the Red Sea. Thus its position controls the Horn of Africa in such a way that it makes Somalia a launching point, if not the controlling point, in Southern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

3. Somalia is rich in resources. The land of Somalia is, in some estimation, rich with untapped resources. According to studies it holds reserves of uranium, natural gas, petroleum and other natural resources. Towards the end of the 1980s, in the time of Siad Barre, the rights of exploration were given to American petroleum corporations who found rich reserves of petroleum, the presence of which was verified even before this by geologists from the World Bank. However the coup that removed Siad Barre brought a stop to the exploitation of these resources. America through its greed, wishes to control these resources so that its companies can once again exploit it.

The recent air strike in Southern Somalia has already been announced as a strike against Al-Qaeda camps, with this America will try to justify its shameless intervention in Somalia as part of the War on Terror. In reality what has taken place in Somalia is a result of shameless colonialism.