Questions To The Pan Africans

Unity is a tricky thing. Its probably most often misconstrued as uniformity. A well known social media influencer who’s Looking For Freedom wrote something like, ‘now African Americans claiming to be the true Indians of America, [they’re] stupid.

A proclaimed Pan Africanist chimed in having the same sentiment. I get from their comments they hold fast to the idea all heavily melanated people are African no matter the landmass they’ve lived for thousands of years.

I wonder how this actually works. I mean how does a group of people continue to claim a group of cultures they may no longer have memory of, if ever they were in fact ancestrally connected to those cultures.

Like many people of my generation, children of Black people migrating from the south to the west and west coast originally southerners. My parents were both born in Mississippi, however my mother’s parents moved to Memphis, TN by the time she was eight years old.

Whenever she spoke of her childhood it was memories of growing up in Memphis and visiting her grandparents, maternal and paternal, both in Mississippi albeit north of my father’s Mississippi delta home. In her mind she was a Memphian.

If we think along the lines of the aforementioned Pan Africans she would still have to claim to be a Mississippian because claiming Memphis would be a denial of her Mississippi ancestors and their land.

She, in time, moved from Memphis and migrated to California and over time she gave birth to me. At the young tender age of 3 months I was whisked away from California to Memphis for the next 5 years of my young life.

After five years living in Memphis we moved back to Cali and there we stayed for the duration only visiting Memphis and Mississippi for a 2-3 week stay during summer break from school. So, culturally I’m a Californian with slight hints of the south.

I grew up in the culture of southern California. Specifically, Southeast San Diego raised by southern parents. I went to southern California schools from Kindergarten to through into college. I never went to Booker Washington high school in Memphis or Coleman high in Greenville, MS.

I didn’t grow up in the south. I don’t know the culture of growing up in the south. As a teenager and in my early twenties I never partied or hungout in the south with southern cousins and homies. I didn’t grow up with the overwhelming church culture which permeates southern society.

Later in life I migraged to the south first to Memphis then on to Atlanta. I learned of the similarities but great differences in living in the west versus the south. I was well into my 30’s by the time I moved to the south. Yet, after 25 years living here I could in no way claim to be a true southerner.
My children, who like my mother, moving to Memphis at age 8 came to the south at ages 8, 9 and 10. They went to elemenatry school all the way through to college graduation in the south. They’re culturally southern with hints of the West coast in the home.

If I apply the logic of the Pan Africans my children are not Georgians but Californians since thats where they were born even though they have little to no memory of Los Angeles or San Diego.

In fact, per the Pan Africans, their children and coming, grandchildren and great grandchildren will be Californians although they would have no cultural connection to California.

The Pan Africans would say they are denying their ancestral heritage by claiming to be Geogians rather than Californians. Even though they, the great great great grandchildren would no longer have cultural connections to southern California’s culture.

This begs the question. How long does a group of people have to be in a place before they can claim to be from that land mass? Black people have been in the Americas for several thousand years, possibly hundreds of thousands of years and having developed cultures that have some similarities to Africa but not truly African. Why then can’t they be called Americans?

This same question applies to dark, swarthy and brown people of Europe, Asia and the south Pacific islands. Why would it be a denial if they now claim the territory and cultural practices of the lands they’ve inhabited for thousands of years?

What Happened?

Maybe this it the wrong question. Why did it happen? This is probably the best question at this juncture of our existence.

De-Evolution

Scientist have evaluated humans and explained that some of our senses have been diminished by depending more heavily on another.  For instance, the sense of smell, although functional, has been diminished by our dependence on our sense of sight.  As we place more emphasis on our ability to see things around us, we have come to depend less on our sense of smell.  I was downtown on my daily commute and observed a young woman who was legally blind.  She exited the escalator from the train station with her cane and turned to her left then went down the block to her destination.  I wondered how much more she depended not only on her sense of hearing but, how much more has her sense of smell increased. 

These thoughts enticed me to wonder how our dependence on electronic digital technology diminishes our ability to use the power of our minds.  Our dependence on these electronic devices have surely eroded our ability to memorize things as we may once have.  The media have expose this phenomenon as “digital amnesia”.  But, how much more are we not retaining?  What appears to be worse, is our ability to critically analyze information being directed at us.  Increasingly people are becoming less and less attentive in this digital world.  Another study pronounced humans to have an attention span of less than eight seconds.  Apparently, goldfish have a greater attention span than people.

Of course there are always exceptions to these rules.  Not all people are falling prey to this electronic digital de-evolution of the mind.  There are people who take advantage of today’s electronic digital technology while allowing the mind to continue to flourish.  This group of people continue to exercise mind power but the few that do are being totally over shadowed by the greater majority that do not.  There is, however, a coming divide between those that rely on the ability of their own minds versus those who depend heavily on the technology to guide them.

Tilapia, Worse For You Than Ever Before?

We really need to be cognizant of what we purchase as food these days.  We’ve all heard that eating fish is touted as being one of the best foods for our health, because fish provide the needed Omega 3 fatty acids required by humans for optimum health.  But, what cost do we pay attempting to absorb healthy Omega 3 fatty acids by eating fish?  Taking supplements of vitamins and minerals by mouth have proven to be effective to a certain level however, the body assimilates vitamins and minerals best by eating.  Because, people tend to shop for food by price more than the benefit the food may offer, and tilapia fish don’t smell fishy or have a fishy taste it has been a big seller even to the tune of almost 500 million pounds consumed each year in the United States by people attempting to get the desired Omega 3 fatty acids the fish may offer.

Tilapia has also proven to be one of the cheapest fish to purchase in the super market, but there is a reason the fish is so cheap.  One reason its cheap is that it lacks the proper amounts of Omega 3s believed by the population to be present because it is fish.  And,  according to Michael Doyle Director of the Center for Food Safety  “While there are some really good aquaculture ponds in Asia, in many of these ponds — or really in most of these ponds — it’s typical to use untreated chicken manure as the primary nutrition,” he told MSN News. “In some places, like Thailand for example, they will just put the chickens over the pond and they just poop right in the pond.”  

Due to these living conditions the fish are treated with large amounts of antibiotics as a prophylactic against salmonella and E Coli.  In turn, when people eat the fish  and these same antibiotics are absorbed into their bodies, and linked to the ever growing antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria among us.  Yet, there is a much more sinister aspect to the eating of this fish and others.   AquaBounty has petitioned the Food And Drug Administration to introduce “designer” genetically engineered AquAdvantage® salmon into the food chain.  These GE salmon will be the first (known) genetically engineered  fish to be sold onto the U.S. market.  Their genetically engineered salmon grow faster and bigger than the natural fish  in a shorter amount of time. 

AquaBounty, which designs the genetically engineered salmon eggs on Prince Edward Island, Canada and sends the eggs to Panama where they raise and farm these animals.   AquAdvantage® “lost” several of its GE salmon during a storm in Panama in 2008.   According to Outsideonline.com “an unusually severe storm” in Panama, as AquaBounty revealed in an August 15, 2008, memo to their investors…”  These “lost” AquAdvantage® salmon are now free to mate have been mating with natural salmon (and create a new species?)  So, what has all this salmon talk have to do with tilapia?

AquaBounty is now designing genetically engineered tilapia fish.  Tilapia fish are a vegetarian fish that will grow (even in a garbage can) and consume almost anything (including chicken manure) other than flesh, which makes them one of the easiist  fish to farm on the commercial side.  AquaBounty has designed the tilapia to grow faster than “traditional” tilapia (notice the word natural cannot be used here.)  And yet, they will not go into detail concerning how they cause this super growth.  At any rate, tilapia will be managed genetically and sold over into the U.S. population and an unwitting public may become more manipulated since people give no thought about what or how animals are prepared for their consumption.  AquaBounty has plans to design trout along with their AquAdvantage® salmon and tilapia.  Like the TV commercial that says whats in your wallet?  Ask yourself whats in you stomach?

Fukushima, Japan And You.

“And the second angel trumpeted [And the second angel sang in trump]; and as a great hill burning with fire was cast into the sea…and the third part of [the] creatures was dead…”

It’s all to easy to forget something if the news does not continue to bring that thought to the top of your mind.    The nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan is still leaking radiation into the Pacific Ocean.  Comic fun has been poked at what’s happening off the coast of Japan by the posting of fake mutant turtles coming ashore.

However, this is in fact a serious matter that’s being ignored by the news and of course this means the general population is unaware of possible effects the radiation is bringing to the West Coast of the U.S.  There is a natural jet stream of air that flows around the planet.  Have you ever noticed when you’ve purchased an airline ticket that when flying from west to east the times are shorter than flying from east to west?

In fact during World War II, the Japanese army sought to exploit the westerly jet stream by attaching bombs to balloons, launching them into the air and hoping  that the jet stream would eventually carry them to the United States on the wind.  It was their hope that the bombs would explode somewhere in the States without having the expenditure of utilizing their navy and aircraft.  This same westerly jet stream is bringing the radioactivity from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants to the United States as I write these words.  Be not alarmed as there are ways to protect yourself when you know what’s going on.

When the nuclear bombs exploded over the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima there were many, many horrible deaths that took place immediately and incinerating people into nothing.  But, the long-term effects of the nuclear blasts lasted for decades.  Though thousands of people died of radiation poisoning in the decades to come there were many more that lived without any effects of the radiation.  It was found that those who survived without radiation poisoning were heavy consumers of fermented soy or Miso and these survived with little to no effects.

We can protect ourselves right now by consuming Miso in our diet.  We can add organic seaweed to our diets to protect against the coming radiation (coming because each time it rains radiation falls on us.)  By adding these products to our regimen and avoiding as much produce grown on the west coast and fish from the Pacific Ocean as possible, we can combat the ill effects of radiation and protect our space suits or what most people call our bodies.  There are more fermented soy products other than Miso.  There is Doenjang from Korea, Douchi from China used to make black bean sauce, and Tauco from Indonesia just to name a few.

Be Healthy!

STANDING IN HONOR; A ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF TAI CHI AND SOCIETY

One of the greatest tenets (it I can really call it that) is building good character.  Encompassed on good character is honor. Surely, character is a sum of qualities, and yet one could develop and build bad character but I wonder how many people of sound mind actually work at building bad character.  But, honor would be a byproduct of good character.  Today thee doesn’t appear there is a societal emphasis building good character to nurture honor.  

Even our leaders (I use this term very lightly) in Washington DC display less honor in their positions than the general public that have elected them.  When people go to the polls to vote the general consensus is to elect people who will represent them in the capital.  Good character and honor are ingredients people admire and require however, based on the actions of many in office including shutting down the government are based on less than honorable character.  This shutting down the government came at the expense of the people who elected them and not the elected officials.  All of congress will be receiving their pay.  The public  (federal workers) will not.

Each and every congressman and woman,, and senator will be able to continue to feed their families.  This includes the president of the U.S. A few members of congress want to appear to maintain some form of honor will be donating their pay to a charity, but most will continue to receive and enjoy their salary.  This attitude is an actually living our Marie Antoinette’s statement of “let them eat cake.”  Cultivating good character is essential in becoming, and becoming an adept in Tai Chi.  Cultivating good character is essential for formulating a positive peaceful society.  I wonder if those elected to “lead” really want that?

AVON WHAT THE HECK IS SEA OAK???

All to often there’s some new and quirky product coming onto the market appealing to a particular demographics senses.  The health and wellness industry has fashioned our thinking into searching out products that are “organic” or “natural” to somehow improve something or other we humans perceive as a flaw.  Correcting this flaw naturally is the appeal as opposed to unnatural whatever that may be.

Avon recently introduced a product line they call Avon Elements.  Avon, seems to go out of its way to show how you can improve your skin by using their “natural” based product line.   Avon Elements Moisture Boost Daily Moisture Lotion is made with Sea Oak.  Immediately, I thought to myself that this is some ish they made up.  Sea Oak???  I thought this is another product being made with something that is supposed to be natural from an “element” that is natural that no one has ever heard of before.  So, of course to Google I go.  I typed in Sea Oak, and noting of value came up.  Sea Oak.  Really?  After a bit more searching I finally located something on what turns our to be actually something many of us know of if you have ever done any reading and research on herbs and natural healing..

After a bit more searching I in fact found that Sea Oak was actually a sea plant.  Fucus Vesiculosus, or Sea Oak is commonly known as Bladderwrack.  Bladderwrack is found in the North and Baltic Seas.  The Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  I suppose this means it’s not found in the Indian, Arctic Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico or the Mediterranean.  However, there are several minerals in Bladderwrack, but the over whelming mineral is iodine.  But, iodine working in the body is great for thyroid function, but I wondered how Bladderwrack was good for the skin.

Living Strong writes that Bladderwrack (Avon calls it Sea Oak) powder “…is filled with minerals that help nourish and cleanse the skin of toxins that cause dryness, wrinkles and excess fluid retention…”  Seems Avon has in hit upon something natural that is good for the body that comes from the Earth, her seas and oceans that will help make you look rested and healthier.  This however, should be used along with a proper liveit as opposed to diet to bring out the best in your natural beauty within.  Always augment the use of any external products with proper amounts of water and fresh live fruits and veggies.

LIFE IS ONE BIG ROAD WITH LOTS OF SIGNS…CAN YOU READ THEM?

 

 

Viet Nam was a far away land that most in the States had never heard of before.  In the 1960’s the world was huge, no internet or cable to link us.  The fortunate among us that could travel the world at that time could see what the rest of could not see.  In his April 4th, 1967 speech Beyond Viet Nam made at Riverside church in New York City, Rev. Dr. King broke with many in his camp and outside of his camp.  Dr. King in his speech says that he was queried by his people “Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?” “Peace and civil rights don’t mix,” they say. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people?”  Dr. King could read the signs that others could not (or did not want to for their own agenda) and as he says “Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.”

Clearly, the people could not read the signs.  Clearly, the people did not understand that our struggles of that time were interconnected to the struggles of others the world over.   Today we are at this same crossroads and such the same mental delimna still exists.  That old and visible enemy of racism is still with us, but now racism/white supremacy are revealed as  only one of many in this theater of war against the people.  The landscape has changed and now our bodies are on the line.  Putting you right back into slavery.  Today we face off with the industries of death, the food and wellness industries.

The difficult task of attempting to awaken people from the slumber of chasing down racism/white supremacy is that these two creatures are obvious to those that know and understand what they are seeing, but the enemy that is first and foremost is cloaked behind your own tastes and wants.  The industries of disease (medical practice/big pharma), wellness (diet industries) and death (biochemical/agricultural/insurance) have been exposed as they major chronic enemy of human life.   The focus on racism/white supremacy keeps one deluded and facing away from the real enemy of the people.  If I could imagine that  Dr. King and El Hajj Malik El Shabazz were alive today, I believe they would understand that the demons of racism/white supremacy are only little players in the denigration of our lives.  They demonstrated their understanding of a changing battle field and would adapt and teach the people how to overcome our current state.

LIFE IS ONE BIG ROAD WITH LOTS OF SIGNS…CAN YOU READ THEM?

When I first heard Bob Marley singing “Life is one big road with lots of signs…” I was young and only of the impression that he was being poetic.  It never occurred to me he was giving a lesson.  When I was growing up most entertainers were eight to ten years older then me unlike today it appears most musical entertainers are chronological peers of their audience.  But, Bob Marley was teaching.

Life is one big road with lots of signs.  I wonder though, as to how many of us can read them or understand the signs set before us.  We live in an age that requires that we evolve, else we will stagnate and perish.   During the Civil Rights era we were faced with a visible and common enemy.  Out right and blatant racism.  Old customs hung over from the Jim Crow era folding into a coming age.  The age of television sounded the death knell of the time of Jim Crow.  Television offered scenes of brutality to the world, showing America eating her own.  These were the images spread around the world.  Jim Crow had to go.  America could not afford to be the leader of the free world with images of black bodies being destroyed spreading across the globe.

The world was changing.  A shift had taken place and our vaunted black leaders of the time Malcolm Shabazz and Dr. Martin Luther King, also shifted and rotated with the cycle.  By 1964 brotha Malcolm had come to see it was not racism that was the actual enemy of black people in the States and black people world wide, but something bigger appeared to be the problem.  As he had sat with men of every color in peace and harmony during the time he had made the hajj and becoming El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. It seems he came to know that it was the lack of unity rather than racism that was a real culprit.

The lack of a unified force, an international black unified force, that was our problem.  If Afro Americans could organize and link with black people of other American nations, then an international force would be a force to recon with and could be mounted against the U.S. government starting in the U.N.  Black people in the States could use that force to enter into the political system and run our neighborhoods and communities ourselves using the political system already in place.  Thus he founded the Organization of African American Unity the OAAU, modeled after the Organization of African Unity.  However,  it was the hubris of the white man in the States that held racial hatred rather than the white world at large as he had come to realize.  Mr. Shabazz rightly held that he would defend himself against white hatred, but he understood what the ailment truly was that held us back.

By 1967 brother Rev.  Dr. King had come to see that something else greater than racism was at play in our collective .  Rev. Dr King also had the opportunity to travel the world, spending much of his time on the island of Jamaica to contemplate and to write.  During these times of sitting still and analyzing the war in Viet Nam, Dr. King began to see there was a something deeper was at play  and not simply racism…

To be continued…

A Cutting Away

I am a student in this life.  It’s a blessing to learn and I have learned by experience, reading and observation mostly.   Yet, it’s a  curse as well.  As I observe and learn, there arises in me the urgency  to put into action the lessons I’m learning.  It’s well and good to study a thing in a book, a paper, or a treatise, but another to put into daily action the lessons learned.  Putting into action the good things we learn can cause you to remove yourself from your comfort space and face what you would rather not.

“In one’s life. there are levels in the pursuit of study. In the lowest level, a person studies but nothing comes of it, and he feels that both he and others are unskillful.   At this point he is worthless.”

Upon my recent return to my home town I took noticed that a lesson was in order.  Before I made the journey, I felt such heaviness that hung around my neck as if wearing a slave collar popular for 17th and 18th century Europeans to adorn their slaves with.  Not that I felt some oppression by returning home for as a child I had a happy life.  But, a feeling of foreboding as if I should become aware of something.  I needed to see my aging mother since so many miles separate us and it had been more than a year since I saw her last.  This time, however was to be different since there was a lesson in store for me.

“In the middle level he is still useless but is aware of his own insufficiencies and can also see the insufficiencies of others.”

My father transitioned almost five years ago and my mother has carried the household with the heart of a warrior.  While she and my father were married she was the traditional June Cleaver 1950’s – 1960’s house wife, taking care of us and the house while my father brought home the bacon.  She attended all of our school functions, made dinner and found time to even play with us  children.  When she worked she never held a job long since my father really didn’t like her to work.  Be clear, my father made sure she would have funds to take care of herself financially.   Bu,  as her eldest child, when my father transitioned I felt it my duty to provide as much as I could to assist her in maintaining her living standard.

So, as I stepped into her abode, I could see there were small repairs that needed to be handled, painting, and just general upkeep.  I spent most of my time there taking care of these household requirements for any home owner.  In just a few days the house was bright and shiny again, and I could see on her face the pleasure she took in looking at her newly painted walls.  So, how could one who does this for their personal God, the living God that gave you life and not only by giving birth but by giving you life more abundantly be scorned?    My mother wiped our tears, cleaned our bodies, healed our wounds (mentally and physically), fed us good food and gave us the truth and rights on how to live as an upstanding being.  How does one lose friends and be scorned by siblings for giving back as one should?

“In a higher level he has pride concerning his own ability, rejoices in praise from others, and laments the lack of ability in his fellows. This man has worth. In the highest level a man has the look of knowing nothing.”

Lesson learned.  Yeshua said he came not to bring peace, but a sword.  I understand now this a time of harvest for me in that it is time to cut away the tares.  I am sure I appear as a tare to some, it’s their duty to cut away the tares from themselves.  I have been asked by friends back home when I will return for a visit and when I reach they find very little time to commune, verse, or spend any quality time.  Those were the actions of former friends.  Yet, when your sibling treats you in the same manner it becomes a deeper matter.  Surely, such behavior would be understandable if there were some riff between us,  argument, or falling out of some sort.  Nothing ever occurred as I would never allow such to happen.  But, this is the road and I fully accept.  On this trip I was able to get clarity on so much.

“But there is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of all. This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way arid never thinks of himself as having finished. He truly knows his own insufficiencies and never in his whole life thinks that he has succeeded. He has no thoughts of pride but with self-abasement knows the Way to the end. It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked, “I do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself.”