Interesting thoughts on strategy and action in life

Strategy is better than strength
- Hausa proverb

On the busiest road leading to the village and old wise man sat watching a young man struggling to move logs. The young man, sweated, panted and moaned. He called out to the old man, "Hey, aren't you going to help me get this work done?" The old man smiled and said "Yes" and continued to sit. A man passed by and greeted the old man with a smile. The old man asked, "As a a favor to an old man, can you move a log?" The man complied as did the second, the third and so on until all the logs were cleared from the old man's field. The young man saw this and rebuked the old man for being lazy. The wise man smiled and replied, " If you are in right place, at the right time, using your assets, the work will get done."

Excerpt from Iyanla Vanzant's Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Colour

This is a very interesting story and makes you think about life and our concept of work, opportunity, strategy and luck.....food for thought

The legacy of slavery By Dominic Casciani

This article appeared in today's BBC and it is incredible. It covers a lot of the issues that I have realised are not in the minds or hearts of many Europeans because it is just not discussed or an issue. The same disassociation with a topic that is still to this day influencing the direction of all sectors of human activity even takes place in the Americas where it is harder to deal with. But how interesting that on the continent where it all began and which to this day benefits from the fruit of the process, it is not being dealt with or confronted...not even being recognised for what it is.I challenge anyone who reads this to click the link in the title, read more about these issues, there are lots of reports done by the BBC and open your mind and eyes to the world we live in.

"Those who forget the past and doomed to repeat those mistakes in the future"...Let us make a difference.

Sean

What do we mean by the legacy of slavery? Is it something
measurable - or perhaps a feeling that echoes of a terrible past can still be heard today?

Dehumanised: White faces depicted - but not black slave faces

The legacy of slavery is one of the hardest issues in world history upon
which to find agreement.
The sheer scale of the transactions of slavery
- the untold cargo of people whose names, heritage and culture were extinguished
- is, like the Nazi holocaust, almost impossible to take in. But 200 years on
there are voices around the world who say we still need to address the legacy of
those events.
Steve Martin, a writer and historian of black history, says our failure to do so is a sign that we still cannot agree on the very basics of what the slave trade did to the world.
Mr Martin is an expert in the history of Britain's built environment. He uses it as a springboard to debate the often unwritten contribution of minorities to the national story.

Physical evidence

He says a simple test of our understanding of legacy is to look for physical reminders in countries which were part of the trade. Very often, they are there - but difficult to recognise.
"Take the English country house and stately home," he says. "Harewood House in Yorkshire, the home of the Lascelles family, for example. How did they make their money?

Harewood House: Profits of slavery contributed to family riches

"Then there is [the Georgian] Queen Square in Bristol. You can walk through these places every day but how do you know the role that slavery played in their existence? "The legacy of slavery in our environment is there - the rise of the gardening of Capability Brown can be associated with the wealth from slavery."

If difficult questions are going unanswered - what are they?

Two centuries of stereotypes

Ken Barnes is the president of 100 Black Men of London. It's a worldwide movement, born in the USA, which recruits successful black men to mentor the next generation.

18th CENTURY BIOLOGY

European: eyes blue; gentle, acute, inventive. Covered with close vestments. Governed by laws
Asiatic: eyes dark; severe, haughty, covetous. Covered with loose garments.
Governed by opinions

Black: phlegmatic, relaxed. African. Crafty, indolent,
negligent. Anoints himself with grease. Governed by caprice

The System of Nature, Linnaeus, 1735

But Mr Barnes says this work does not take place in a vacuum: the legacy of slavery is everywhere for his members - and at its heart is racism.
"Slavery was used to justify and reinforce racism and allow it to become endemic [in Europe and the Americas]," he says.
"All of a sudden you have entire peoples seen as sub-human; if someone is sub-human then the slaver is justified in what he does.
"This even affects the way black people today perceive themselves. Ask people what it is to be black. Black is associated with rap music, with being lazy and uninterested in society. These are traceable back to the racism of slavery."
This is one of the most challenging arguments of the legacy debate: how much can the racism of the past be blamed for the racism,
culture or inequalities of today?
Two of the most provocative areas for legacy theory are the caricatures of black male sexual prowess and sporting achievement. The suggestion is that today's stereotypical images were born out of slave owners' preference for the most athletic specimens from among their stock.
Two centuries of these stereotypes and pseudo-science have arguably left a deep psychological scar on society - both in white perceptions of black people and the responses of some black people to that projection.

Just a theory?
This may sound entirely theoretical but is a deeply sensitive issue.
The Bell Curve was one of the most controversial American books of recent times.

"Empower people and look at their self-identity ... the key factor for any
young person is how expectations of how they will turn out are reinforced and in
turn influence behaviour Ken Barnes, 100 Black Men "

Critics accused the authors of perpetuating a stereotype of black physical superiority and white intellectual dominance. The authors said their results were scientific. The critics said a straight line ran from the theory to some of the thinking of slavery.
Ken Barnes says the effect of these generations-old stereotypes can be seen most starkly in the disproportionately poor educational results of black boys when compared with other groups. "There is an expectation of failure for black children in schools," he says. "And it comes down to how they are historically perceived by the school system. "Society's continuing image of black men affects the way teachers address the children. But this is a vicious circle. If you continually tell a child that it is naughty then it will act that way."
However some of the legacy arguments have their critics. Last year, an
award-winning BBC drama sparked a furious row when its central character, a
black teacher called Joe, asked why everything bad that had ever happened to him
had involved someone who was black. In one memorable scene Joe tells people to
"get over slavery". Critics of award-winning playwright Sharon Foster (who is black) accused her of pandering to racists. In reality, the film exposed the tensions within black community politics - and a failure to agree on how to progress on legacy issues such as slavery, racism and modern identity. On the other side of the Atlantic, the presidential contender Barack Obama has faced a hint of this political storm. One genealogist has claimed he discovered evidence that Obama's mother, who is white, is a descendant of slave owners. For some activists at least, Obama has therefore not suffered enough as a black man to be able to speak for African Americans.
So if that is the legacy - what is the remedy?
Historian Steve Martin says the starting point is an open and frank engagement on the issues - particularly by white people.
"Slavery is very much a case of don't mention the war," he says. "It's a total emotional trigger and for many people it can't be discussed rationally. "Many people don't want to talk about it or would even attack someone for bringing it up. But when I focus on the built environment -that can't be walked around - it's there and it's a history that's part of them too." "What you need to do is instil hope," says Ken Barnes.
"Empower people and look at their self-identity. The key factor for any young person is how expectations of how they will turn out are reinforced and in turn influence behaviour."

Story from BBC
NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/6456765.stmPublished:
2007/03/20 13:42:19 GMT© BBC MMVII

Recent visit by the Archbishop of Canterbury to African slave pits

500 YEARS LATER- when I saw this trailer I got shivers down my spine and tears came to my eyes...definitely a movie I want to see...this one I never saw in cinemas and I wonder how many have seen it...a testament to the mental shackles we are still in both white and non white

What is it all about?

I know I am not the first nor the last that will ask this question but many things I have been 'bouncing' into recently have been asking this question and prompting me to think about this topic.



What exactly is this emotion called love and how does it manifest itself in our lives and relationships. Two old hobbies of mine I recently encountered again got me to thinking. One of them is Greek mythology and the other is zouk music...related? I am sure in some bizarre way.

As a child growing up I was very fond of Greek and Roman mythology and went to great pains to familiarize myself with the Olympic Pantheon and all the myths and characters of that era. One such myth which I was reminded of by a friend in Brazil, Henrique, who was using it to create a discussion on film and the psychological aspects of film, is the myth of Eros and Psyche.

In short this is a myth about the most beautiful mortal - Psyche, whom the goddess of love, Aphrodite\Venus is jealous of and she asks her son, the God of Love, Cupid\Eros to shoot Psyche with one of his proverbial arrows so that she will fall in love with the ugliest man on earth. However, Eros falls in love with Psyche himself and proceeds to marry her and whisk her away to a secret castle where he visits her, impregnates her and meets her under dark so that she can never know who he is. One day her sisters, who are also jealous of her come to see her and fill her head with lies about Eros and convince her to try and kill Eros in his sleep. When she sees him and his beauty she cannot and a drop of wax from her candle awakens him and he flees.

Psyche is then sorry for her stupidity and lack of trust and she goes through a variety of symbolic trials to try and win Eros' love back....



whew....what does this say about love, our faces in relationships, our identity, trust, jealousy, envy,. the games, the trials, what we are willing to sacrifice, put up with and more for the ability to be near to another soul? makes me think



The second is that recently I have been surfing YouTube a lot and found a lot of new zouk videos on there and that has rekindled my love for zouk which I discovered as a teenager studying French at the Alliance Francaise in Port of Spain and visiting the French Embassy's library. One of the songs, in my opinion, has a gripping melody, by Marvin called ' Amour sans loi' - Love beyond laws and the chorus is deep...really deep and made me wonder if these sort of sentiments and depth of passion and love for another soul is really possible as it has evaded me to date.



The chorus says:



je vendrais mon âme,( I would sell my soul)

j'affronterais les drames (I would face the dramas)

je donnerais tout pour être avec (I would give up everything to be with you)

toi ils peuvent m'oublier (they can forget me)

ils peuvent bien m'ordonner (they can give me orders)

je donnerais tout pour être avec toi (I would give up everything to be with you)

(the video for the song is below in the previous entry)



Whew...what words...quels paroles...makes me think?? does it make you

Latin Rhythms Part 2 - The French Caribbean edition

Well, previously I covered the most popular and basic Latin American rhythms and musical genres that exists. Caribbean music is very similar to Latin genres because it is also a syncretic genre that is based on multiple inflluences and origins - African, European, Asian, indigenous and more but the base rhythms are heavily influenced by African rhythms due to the majority of cultural influence in the region coming from the descendants of African slavery.
Below I will give some examples of the wide diversity that exists and even some imitations of our culture by people from outside the region.

The Caribbean is a region that in the minds of most people today is relegated to the TRIPLE S steroptype - sea, sun and sand, but in the last 500 years or so the Caribbean, besides providing these very envious benefits it is a region with hundred of islands which have been fought over by mosty European nation states for the financial wealth that they provided through the cocoa, sugar, coffee, cotton and other agricultural industries. This wealth, fueled the development of Europe and its progression into the Industrial Age and technological advancements in the 1600s.....hence it is all connected...sugar? coffee? cocoa lead to the lives we have now? think about it

I have covered most of the musical forms that emerged in the Spanish Speaking Caribbean but now we will look at the forms in the French and English speaking Caribbean

The Caribbean has been a region with a lot of interconnection and movment of peoples and cultures from place to place, like any region in the world. As a result, music from each region, besides having common origins, also influenced each other's development.

The FRENCH Caribbean (Antilles)

Martinique and Guadeloupe (see map below) are the largest of the many islands that make up the Caribbean archipelago formally known as the Lesser Antilles. Officially recognized as individual overseas departments of France, the two islands are commonly referred to as French Antilles or, alternately, the French West Indies. Although they are linked historically and politically, each island has made its distinct contribution to the cultural fabric of the region.

Originally inhabited by Arawaks, who were then conquered by the Caribs, both Martinique (Matinino) and Guadeloupe (Karukera) were colonized by French settlers in 1635 and annexed to France in 1674. Slaves were imported from West Africa to support a plantation system based primarily on sugar, rum and coffee production, which continued until slavery was abolished in 1848. Throughout the colonial era, popular European social dances such as mazurka, quadrille, contradanse and waltz became the foundation on which locally based musical styles began to take root. Meanwhile, many Africans were able to escape to the interior of the islands, mixing in with the remaining indigenous population, where their legacy continues in the musical traditions of chouval bwa (Martinique) and gwo ka (Guadeloupe), both of which are still performed at carnival times. Today the popular music of the French Antilles, known broadly as zouk, is a reflection of this blend of cultures throughout the region's history.

Zouk (a French Creole word meaning "party") has become one of the most important contemporary pop innovations, achieving international popularity since its emergence in the 1980s. Borrowing from local genres such as cadence (also kadans), biguine, quadrille and the roots traditions of the islands, zouk began as the creative expression of Jacob Desvarieux and Pierre Eduard Decimus, two extraordinary musicians from Guadeloupe who had settled in Paris and founded the seminal band Kassav', featuring the dynamic singer Jocelyn Beroard. Their music was equally informed by influences from European, American, Caribbean and African pop styles—heavy-metal guitar, funk and soul, Congolese soukous and a variety of Latin rhythms—as well as the electronic studio-engineering techniques of the period.

Some examples of my favourite zouk songs:

Ali Angel - Juste nous

Previous to that, beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the '70s—the heyday of the independence era throughout the Caribbean and other formerly European colonies—the prevalent music of the French-speaking islands was kadans, sharing popularity in both Haiti and the French Antilles. Notable in these years were the Creole swing-dance bands of Guadeloupe, such as Les Aiglons and La Perfecta, along with the great bandleaders Henri Guédon and Eddy Louiss, who introduced the big-band Latin-jazz sound to the popular rhythms of the French Caribbean. In this period and through the 1980s, touring Haitian orchestras came to dominate the local music industry, including radio airplay, record sales and in dance clubs. But while Haitian-style kadans evolved into present-day compas (or konpa), the Antillean kadans bands utilized the same musical vocabulary to create a their own dialect, which ultimately became zouk.

Soumia (originally Moroccan)- Ton Silence

Since the 1990s, inspired by an international singer-songwriter movement and resurgent interest in folk traditions, zouk itself has continued to take new forms as well—shifting from a fast-paced, high-tech party sound to the gentle "zouk-love" songs of Patrick Saint Eloi or Edith Lefel—alongside the roots revivals of artists such as Kali and Marcé et Tumpak, from Martinique, and the biguine, mazurka and waltz restylings of key groups like the Vikings of Guadeloupe and Malavoi. Today we can hear the influence of zouk in dance rhythms around the world, from Brazilian lambada to Caribbean styles as diverse as merengue and soca; from Cameroonian makossa, Congolese soukous and Cape Verdian funana to zouglou from Ivory Coast and even zouk-mbalax from Senegal.

Info taken from National Geogrpahic

Medhy Custos- Elle demandent zouk


Marvin- Amour sans lois

An example of Kizomba\Cape Verdean Zouk (sung in Portuguese)

Suzanna Lubrano- Nha Sonho

Perle Lama - Aime Moi Plus Fort

If you would like to learn how to dance to zouk click here... and then select "cours de danse from the menu...great and easy lessons

LOOK OUT FOR MORE ON THE ENGLISH SPEAKING CARIBBEAN...MY REGION!!!

" What is it that I must learn"

This is the question that I have been asking myself for a long time and from time to time it becomes a heightened concern and then it wanes.

Well suprise, surprise....it is back again. I have come to my share of crossroads in life - junctures where a choice had to be made, things to be done and they were critical because they would determine which path my life would take not only socially etc. but even in terms of physical location. STRESS!

This juncture is even more stressful because it is one in which my life can drastically change direction depending on the choice made. choices, choices, choices.....

I have always seen life not as a test or a competition or any such analogy that is popular but as a giant classroom, one in which we are here to learn, analyse and interpret what we experience and encounter and thus to move along the scale of evolution.

The interesting thing is that I am not alone in the struggle. In an age where freedom of every form is common in western countries, young people like myself seem to be in a quandry about the steering of their lives. The absence of family duties, directives or requisities have left many of us in a puzzled state, not sure, when , where or why....

Is this healthy for our generation...to be disconnected from previous generations and our duty to humanity so severely by the 'freedom scissors' that some are now lost and drifting?

For me, I have found some source of purpose in remembering that I have a debt to the world in which I was born: yes, to embrace the freedom that I have been allowed and to find what makes me happy but also to ensure that I use all that I have been given to improve in whatever way o degree that world that has allowed me to get this far.


So American inspirational speaker tell us "Focus all your attention on the centre of your being and ask yourself :

"Is it possible to pretend that you are not the heir
to, and therefore, however inadequately or unwillingly responsible to, and for,
the time and place that gives you life - James Baldwin