Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson & Herbie Hancock

- Lush Life

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

UK theatre:

"Blood of a Nation"

 

The play "Blood of a nation" is the latest production of R.O.T.A Entertainment (Revolutionaries of the Arts) in the UK.

The video of the play is a short version of the script which is performed as a reading in front of a live audience) that speaks on the 1960 Congo crisis and assassination of Patrice Lumumba from the viewpoint of two young men.

For more information: www.rotaentertainment.com

 

 

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the cream city review. We are devoted to publishing memorable and energetic fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, by new and established writers. The magazine also features reviews of contemporary literature and criticism, as well as author interviews and artwork. Please note that we are now only accepting submissions via our online submission management system. Submissions via mail or email will be discarded without response.We are guessing that you are becoming increasingly familiar with the system we utilize and its numerous conveniences for writers (like us), as well as the cost savings for postage and the immense reduction of paper used by both writers and publishers. You can find the link to the online submission management system further down this page – after reading our guidelines.**For now, submissions for our annual literary prizes will only be accepted via paper mail, due to the $15 entrant’s fee.**

 

The author’s name and address should appear on the first page of the manuscript or on each individual piece of artwork. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, as long as CCR is notified at the time of submission. We prefer that files be submitted in PDF, RTF, or DOC format. You may withdraw your own submissions via the submission management system; in the case of a partial withdrawal of a poem or poems, we request that you email our Poetry Editors at the address listed below. Be sure to keep a copy of your work, as CCR cannot be responsible for lost or damaged files.

You may include a few lines about your publication history and other information you think of interest. CCR seeks to publish not only a broad range of writings, but a broad range of writers with diverse backgrounds as well. Both beginning and well-established writers are welcome.

Reporting time is 2–8 months. We accept submissions for our annual theme issue from August 1 to November 1. General submissions are accepted from August 1 to November 1 and from December 1 to April 1. Our online submission management system will not allow submissions to be made at times outside of our reading periods. Contributors are given a one-year subscription to CCR beginning with the issue in which their work appears. Copyright automatically reverts to the author upon publication, although CCR retains the right to republish in future issues of the magazine.

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Deadline for current year’s contest: December 31.

Fee: $15/story (no longer than 30 pages) or 3-5 poems, payable to cream city review. The entrant’s fee includes the issue in which prize winners are announced.

Prize: $1,000.00 plus publication.

Address your submission to one of the following:

The A. David Schwartz Fiction Prize
The Beau Boudreaux Poetry Prize
or The David B. Saunders Award for Creative Nonfiction

and send your entry to:
cream city review
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PO Box 413
Milwaukee, WI 53201

Prize submissions must be typed, double-spaced (poetry may be single-spaced), and include the author’s name and address. There is no need to include an SASE, as winners will be announced on this site before publication of the Spring issue. All entrants receive a copy of the issue containing the winners. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as long as cream city review is notified in the event the manuscript is accepted elsewhere. The reading fee, however, is non-refundable.

The theme for the Fall 2010 issue of cream city review was “visual”. For more information on what we were looking for, see our [theme announcement]. Submissions were accepted between August 1 and November 1, 2009.The theme for the Fall 2009 issue was “humor”.

 

Please visit our site during Spring 2010 for an announcement on our Fall 2011 theme.

 

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Fish Publishing Short Story Prize

 

Please note: The 2011/12 Short Story Prize will open for entries 1st Aug 2011.

David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas, number9dream, Ghostwritten, Black Swan Green and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, will be judging the 2011/12 prize.

Fish Publishing runs the short story competition each year, the winners of which are published in the annual Fish Anthology. The Anthology is launched during the West Cork Literary Festival, July each year.

Roddy Doyle, Colum McCann and Dermot Healy, past judges of the Fish Short Story Prize, are honorary patrons.

The Fish Short Story Prize welcomes stories on any theme written in English, with a maximum of 5,000 words.

Fish has been running the short story contest since 1995. Publication in the anthology has been a stepping stone for many into successful writing careers. For a sample of these authors click Alumni, and for a sample of short stories published in previous anthologies click short stories

To view our catalogue of anthologies containing the winning stories from previous short story competitions click Fish Books.

 

Summary - Prizes - The Rules - Entry Fees - How to Enter

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Competition Summary 2011/12

Opens: 1st Aug 2011
Closing date: 30th November 2011
Results announced: 17 March 2012
Anthology published: July 2012

Judge: David Mitchell.

 

Prizes

The winner and nine runners-up will be published in the 2012 Fish Anthology.

First Prize - €3,000 - (of which €1,000 is for travel expenses to the launch of the Anthology.)

Second Prize - a week at the Anam Cara Writers' & Artists' Retreat in West Cork's Beara Peninsula, with €300 traveling expenses.

Third Prize - €300

All those who are published in the Anthology will receive five complementary copies.

 

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The Rules

• No entry form is needed. Entry is mostly on-line, or by post if required.

• You may enter as many times as you wish.

• The competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.

• There is no restriction on theme or style.

• Maximum number of words is 5,000.

• The winning stories must be available for the anthology and, therefore, must not have been published previously.

• Fish holds publishing rights for one year after publication. Copyright remains with the author.

• Notification of receipt of entry will normally be by email.

• The judges' verdict is final.

• No correspondence will be entered into once work has been submitted.

• Stories cannot be altered or changed after they have been entered. Judging at all stages is anonymous. Names or addresses must not appear on the stories, but on a separate sheet if entering by post, or in the appropriate place if entering online.

• The short story competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.

• Overall winners of the Fish Short Story Prize may enter again, but will not be eligible for the first prize

• A writer who has had two stories in Fish Anthologies from the Short Story Prize, may not enter for three years. They may enter other Fish Prizes in that time. (This is designed to give opportunities to emerging writers)

• Entry is taken to be acceptance of these rules

 

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Entry Fees

	Online Entry €	Postal Entry €
Per Entry	20.00	22.00
Critique (Optional)	45.00	47.00
2011 Fish Anthology (Buy Online)	12.00 (Inc. p. & p.)

 

 

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How to Enter

You can enter online or by post. The cheaper option is to enter online.

To Enter Online:

To Enter online, simply submit your story(ies) through our online entry system on our website. Please do not send stories as email attachments. 

MAKE SURE YOUR NAME IS NOT ON THE STORY. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT ALL SHORT-LISTING AND JUDGING IS DONE ANONYMOUSLY. YOUR STORY IS AUTOMATICALLY LINKED TO YOUR AUTHOR NAME IN THE SYSTEM.

If you have any difficulty submitting your story, post your problem at Feedback and Support.

 

CLICK HERE TO ENTER ONLINE

[ Back to Top ]

To Enter by Post:

Post your story to Fish Short Story Prize, Durrus, Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland.

Print on one side of the page only in reasonable sized type. The Fish Prize is judged anonymously, so please do not put your name or any contact details on any of the story pages. Include all contact details on a separate sheet. Receipt of entry will be by email. Stories will not be returned.

Cost €22 or equivalent in the currency of your country. Do not sent postal orders (outside Ireland), or cheques made out in Euros if you are outside the Euro zone.

Cost of postal critique €47, or entry and critique €69.

 

Jeffrey Wright:

Professional Politician?

The Ides of March star discusses acting while black and his affinity for political roles.

• By: Valerie Gladstone | Posted: October 11, 2011 at 12:59 AM

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

 

From playing the painter Basquiat to Martin Luther King Jr. in Boycottto a lawyer in Syriana, plus roles as Secretary of State Colin Powell in W. and Muddy Waters inCadillac Records -- not to mention the demanding title role in John Guare's play A Free Man of Colorat Lincoln Center Theater -- Jeffrey Wright is enjoying one of the most successful careers in film and theater of any other actor today, black or white.

In the just released powerful political thriller The Ides of March, he aces the role of a senator from North Carolina who holds the outcome of a political race in his hands. At Christmastime, we'll see him change up in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to play a Sept. 11 survivor who befriends a boy whose father died in the World Trade Center attacks. It also stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock.

The Root: Why do you take so many political roles?

Jeffrey Wright: Some musicians play blues, others classical jazz or bluegrass. I like to play political roles because I can merge my political interests with my creative interests. I was spoiled by being in Angels in America -- with thinking you could be an actor and also be relevant. Also, I grew up in Washington, D.C., and studied political science in college.

TR: How do you think President Obama is doing?

JW: With his election, he brought more people into our political process and allowed more people to identify themselves as Americans as never before. He's a clear and deep thinker, and a pragmatist. He can lead in crises. But the backlash from left and right has been very disappointing. I still have faith in him.  

TR: Is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close political?

JW: In part, because it deals with emotions and ideas about the events of 9/11. But it affected my head and heart because it explores the relationship of a father and son; it's an examination of the consequences of lost parental love.

 

TR: What do you want for your son and daughter?

JW: I work so they can enjoy the luxury of freedom -- personal, psychological, physical and political -- which is not something that can be taken for granted by kids of color.

TR: How has being black influenced your career?

JW: I inherited the struggle of other African-American artists, who have produced incredibly compelling work in spite of the obstacles. Our history fuels me. Hollywood is still one of the most segregated environments in the United States, though it pretends it's left-leaning and progressive. The military is more progressive and integrated than Hollywood will ever be.

TR: What are your major interests outside acting?

JW: I founded Taia Lion Resources and its philanthropic arm, Taia Peace Foundation, several years ago, to develop the natural resources in West Africa, particularly Sierra Leone. That's where I put all my creativity when I'm not acting.

After this article was published, Jeffrey Wright’s publicists reached out to us and said the edited version of his answers, which were edited for brevity, were “taken out of context” and “misrepresented” what he said. In particular, they pointed to his responses to the questions about President Obama, what Wright wants for his children, and his charity work. Wright's responses are below:
 
“With his election, he brought more people into our political process and allowed more people to identify themselves as Americans as ever before. I think that as a result, the extreme right backlash to his presidency has been intense, and criticism and judgment now can be targeted in real time because of the media, but it’s impossible to make policy decisions at the same pace. I wonder when he’s forced to spend so much time being reactive and defensive, how he finds time simply to think deeply and strategize in a clear way. It must be so incredibly challenging to find time to be seriously thoughtful, and that’s a large part of why he was elected, because following the previous administration, he represented thoughtfulness and pragmatism. The backlash from the left has been destructive too, but throughout his candidacy and his presidency, he’s been able to convert liability into asset in a way that’s phenomenal, and I still have faith in him, that he will do that now.”

"This may be luxurious, but I work so that they can enjoy freedom -- personal, psychological, physical and political freedom -- which is not something that can be taken for granted by kids of color, or any kids for that matter."

"I founded Taia Lion Resources and its philanthropic arm, Taia Peace Foundation, several years ago, to undertake natural resource focused economic development in Sierra Leone. A lot of folks ask me why I don’t appear in more films - that work is where I focus a lot of my creativity when I’m not acting."

Valerie Gladstone, who writes about the arts for many publications, including the New York Times, recently co-authored a children's book with Jose Ivey, A Young Dancer: The Life of an Ailey Student. 

 

Friday, October 14, 2011

They Ain’t Wealthy,

They Are Rich:

Economic Lessons

from the NBA Lockout

by David J. Leonard | NewBlackMan

 

Shaq is rich; the white man that signs his check is wealthy.  Here you go Shaq, go buy yourself a bouncing car. Bling-Bling . . . . I ain’t talking bout Oprah, I’m talking about Bill Gates. OK!.  If Bill Gates woke up tomorrow with Oprah’s money, he would jump out a …window. I’m not talking about rich, I’m talking about wealthy—Chris Rock

In headline after headline, in commentary after commentary, the NBA lockout has been described as a battle between “millionaires” and “billionaires.”  Reductionist in many ways, the effort to construct the lockout as a struggle between two different yet similar parties (the owners are not part 99% although some of the players surely are) reflects a problematic conflation of two distinct groups.  In “Why We Can’t Dismiss The NBA Labor Dispute As ‘Millionaires Versus Billionaires,’” Scott Keyes warns against the tendency to link and otherwise obliterate substantive differences between players and owners: “Conflating the two groups as similarly-placed economic royalists, neither of whom deserve sympathy from an American public grappling with a depressed economy, is understandable. But to create an equivalency between millionaire players and billionaire owners obscures a scarier picture regarding the players’ long-term economic prospects.”  Discussing the very different long term economic prospects between owners and players, Keyes points to several larger issues at work: the differences between workers and owners, the differences between a salary and an investment, and the very different economic futures of each group.

 

Yet, one of the more striking aspects of the media coverage and public discussions of the NBA lockout is a continued inability to distinguish between income and wealth.  This isn’t surprising given shows Cribs and media focus on player salaries. The danger, however, is quite evident.  In a society where, according to a recent study from Brandeis University, black and white wealth inequality has dramatically increased in the 23 years from 1984 to 2007, the failures to distinguish between the wealth of players and owners has a larger context.  Accordingly,

 

The gap between Black and white households ballooned during the 23-year study period, as white families went from a median of about $22,000 in wealth to $100,000 – a gain of $78,000. In the same period, Black household wealth inched up from a base of $2,000 per family to only $5,000. The sweat and toil of an entire generation had netted Black families only $3,000 additional dollars, while white families emerged from the period with a net worth of 100 grand that can be used to send a couple of kids to college, make investments, help out other family members, or contribute to the larger (white) community.

 

In other words, despite the accumulated income (some wealth) by a handful of African American athletes and entertainers, and a growing black middle-class, black-white wealth disparities have increased and that was before the economic downturn.  The NBA lockout offers a window into the larger issues of wealth disparity and power differentials and the ways in which race-based wealth disparities operate in myriad of American institutions.  The efforts by the owners to further the disparity in income and wealth, while very different given the salaries of scale, illustrates the level of disparity that defines class and racial inequality in the twenty-first century.

To illustrate this point, lets look at the NBA’s top owners. 

 

·      Mikhail Prokhorov, who is worth a cool 13.4 billion, owns the New Jersey Nets

·      Rich DeVos, of Alticor and Amway fame, is worth 4.3 billion; he owns the Magic

·      Lester Crown, who is worth 4.9 billion, owns a major stake in the Chicago Bulls

·      Mickey Arison, owner of the Heat is worth roughly 4.1 billion

·      Paul Allen, with 13 billion in net wealth, owns the Trailblazers

·      Glenn Taylor, owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves is worth 2.2 billion

·      Michael Heisley, who owns the Memphis Grisley, is worth 2.1 billion

·      The Los Angeles Lakers are owned by Philip Anschutz, who is worth 7 billion, and Jerry Buss, who as of 2005 was worth 380 million

·      James Dolan, the fearless leader of the Knicks, made 15.33 million in 2010, making him only the 55^th highest paid CEO in America

·      Mark Cuban  = 2.3 billion

·      Ted Leonsis, owner of Washington Wizards, is worth 1 billion

·      Not be left out, Herb Simon (Pacers) 1 billion, and E. Stanley Kroenke (Denver Nuggets) 1.8 billion. 

 

Compare this to the NBA’s top players: Kobe Bryant (140 million), Shaquille O’Neal (140) LeBron James (120 million); even Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, both long retired and focused on various business ventures, aren’t part of the billionaire club, worth an estimated 500 million each.  In other words, to paraphrase Chris Rock, if any NBA billionaire owners woke up with Kobe or LeBron’s net wealth, they would not be happy.

 

The billionaire owners, along with its other owners, mere high millionaires, all possess huge amounts of assets and wealth.   Yet, this only tells part of the picture given the amassed wealth of the teams themselves.  For example, the Mickey Arison purchased the Miami Heat in 1988 for a mere 33 million dollar; today the team is worth 425 million dollars. Similarly the Lakers and Mavericks, which were purchased 20 million (1978) and 280 million (2000), are respectfully worth 643 million and 438 million.  Even the Knicks, who haven’t won much of anything of late, has seen its value increase 300 million (1997) to 655 million. 

 

What is striking about the overlap between NBA owners and Forbes richest people in the world is the level of wealth and capital possessed by many of these owners.  Dave Zirin describes Ted Leonsis wealth as transcending the numbers of zeros next to his name:

 

Ted Leonsis also claims to be losing money by the boatload. The problem is that it’s all an artfully crafted lie. Leonsis and other NBA owners might be losing money on the team, as bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell recently explained, but that’s just one part of the story. It doesn’t take into account the mammoth tax breaks, the publicly funded arena, and the immediate real estate that surrounds their home base.

 

Factor those in and, well, there’s a reason why Ted Leonsis is a billionaire. To create the Verizon Center in the heart of DC’s Chinatown, residential housing was razed, businesses were shuttered and families were priced out of the neighborhood. Now instead of Chinese families, we have Starbucks and Chipotle with Chinese lettering above their blaring signage. As for “carrying the country” on his back, Leonsis might want to thank his army of minimum wage Verizon Center workers for keeping his ample frame in fancy suits.

 

He similarly documents the political and economic power amassed by Magic owner, Ted DeVos:

 

As co-founder of Amway, the 83-year-old DeVos has amassed a fortune of more than $4.4 billion. Through Amway, he popularized the concept of what is known as network marketing, where salespeople attempt to lure their friends and neighbors into buying products. Sixty percent of what Amway salespeople traffic are health and beauty products. The rest of their merchandise is a veritable pu pu platter of homecare products, jewelry, electronics and even insurance. To put it mildly, DeVos doesn't do his political business off company time. Amway has been investigated for violating campaign finance laws by seamlessly shifting from network marketing to network politicking.

 

DeVos has used not only his company but his own epic fortune at the service of his politics. He could be described as the architect, underwriter and top chef of every religious-right cause on Pat Robertson's buffet table. The former finance chair of the Republican National Committee, DeVos is far more than just a loyal party man. For more than four decades he has been the funder in chief of the right-wing fringe of the Christian fundamentalist movement. Before the 1994 "Republican Revolution" made Newt Gingrich a household name, Amway contributed what the Washington Post called "a record sum in recent American politics," $2.5 million. In the 2004 election cycle Amway and the DeVos family helped donate more than $4 million to campaigns pumping propaganda for Bush and company, with around $2 million coming out of Devos's own pocket.

 

The NBA’s ownership group exists in a world apart from the players, and most certainly the many workers who make the NBA experience happen.  The exist apart because of the wealth they have amassed (on the backs of the players and many others) and how that wealth translates into cultural capital and political power that not only impacts the NBA but illustrates their reach into all walks of life. 

 

In a brilliant article about the NBA, economics, and the New Jersey Nets, Malcolm Gladwell summarized the larger issues at stake here:

 

We have moved from a country of relative economic equality to a place where the gap between rich and poor is exceeded by only Singapore and Hong Kong. The rich have gone from being grateful for what they have to pushing for everything they can get. They have mastered the arts of whining and predation, without regard to logic or shame. In the end, this is the lesson of the NBA lockout. A man buys a basketball team as insurance on a real estate project, flips the franchise to a Russian billionaire when he wins the deal, and then — as both parties happily count their winnings — what lesson are we asked to draw? The players are greedy.

 

Yet as evident in the NBA, the process of blaming, scapegoating, and constructing the players as greedy emanates from a white racial frame just as public policy debates about welfare and the housing bubble have sought to demonize and identify blackness as the source of larger problems.  The nature of that inequality is in many ways cut along racial lines.  According to a recent Pew Research Study, white families have amassed wealth rates 20 and 18 times of black and Latino families.  The NBA lockout doesn’t merely point to wealth inequality and the failures of public discourse to move beyond individualize narratives that blame the other 99% for not being part of the 1% but highlights the ways in which anti-black racism and the structures of racial inequality operate within and through these realities.

 

Over this past summer, Michael Tillery masterfully laid out the plans for the formation of the National Players Association, which would turn “Kobe and his peers would go from 40 Million Dollar Slaves to billionaire owners.”  Tillery provides a roadmap to forming a league that “will undoubtedly revolutionize sports.”  Yet, more than providing a plan to bring basketball back, one that would change the sporting landscape, Tillery elucidates the larger potential in converting millions of dollars into wealth, power that transcends the game.  As Chris Rock reminds us, “wealth will set us … free.  Wealth is empowerment; wealth will uplift communities from poverty.”  The lessons of the lockout are not only the disparities of wealth, but the power differentials that exists between those with wealth and those without. The NBA lockout is not battle between billionaires and millionaires but one where the wealthy are trying to exert its will and power against not only its rich players but the thousands of workers who are neither rich or wealthy.  “Not talking about rich, but wealth”

 

***

 

David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. He is the author of Screens Fade to Black: Contemporary African American Cinema and the forthcoming After Artest: Race and the War on Hoop (SUNY Press). Leonard is a regular contributor to NewBlackMan and blogs @ No Tsuris.

Shell accused of

fuelling violence in Nigeria

by paying rival militant gangs

Oil company rejects watchdog's claims that its local contracts made it complicit in the killing of civilians

• David Smith

• The Guardian, Sunday 2 October 2011

Militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta travelling between camps. Photograph: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images

Shell has fuelled armed conflict in Nigeria by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to feuding militant groups, according to an investigation by the oil industry watchdog Platform, and a coalition of non-government organisations.

The oil giant is implicated in a decade of human rights abuses in the Niger delta, the study says, claiming that its routine payments exacerbated local violence, in one case leading to the deaths of 60 people and the destruction of an entire town.

Platform's investigation, which includes testimony from Shell's own managers, also alleges that government forces hired by Shell perpetrated atrocities against local civilians, including unlawful killings and systematic torture.

Shell disputes the report, defending its human rights record and questioning the accuracy of the evidence, but has pledged to study the recommendations.

In Counting the Cost: Corporations and Human Rights in the Niger Delta, Platform says that it has seen testimony and contracts that implicate Shell in the regular awarding of lucrative contracts to militants. In one case last year, Shell is said to have transferred more than $159,000 (£102,000) to a group credibly linked to militia violence.

One gang member, Chukwu Azikwe, told Platform: "We were given money and that is the money we were using to buy ammunition, to buy this bullet, and every other thing to eat and to sustain the war." He said his gang and its leader, SK Agala, had vandalised Shell pipelines. "They will pay ransom. Some of them in the management will bring out money, dole out money into this place, in cash."

The gang became locked in competition witha rival group over access to oil money, with payments to one faction provoking a violent reaction from the other. "The [rival gang] will come and fight, some will die, just to enable them to also get [a] share. So the place now becomes a contest ground for warring factions. Who takes over the community has the attention of the company."

Platform alleges that it was highly likely that Shell knew that thousands of dollars paid per month to militants in the town of Rumuekpe was used to sustain a bitter conflict. "Armed gangs waged pitched battles over access to oil money, which Shell distributed to whichever gang controlled access to its infrastructure."

Rumuekpe is "the main artery of Shell's eastern operations in Rivers state", with aroundabout 100,000 barrels of oil flowing per day, approximately10% of Shell's daily production in the country. Shell distributed "community development" funds and contracts via Friday Edu, a youth leader and Shell community liaison officer, the report said, an exclusive arrangement that magnified the risk of communal tension and conflict.

By 2005, Edu's monopoly over the resources of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) had sparked a leadership tussle with Agala's group. The latter was reportedly forced out of the community and a number of people killed. Dozens of gang members and residents reportedly died in counter raids by Agala.

The inter-communal violence killed an estimated 60 people, including women and children, from 2005-08. Thousands more were displaced by fighting that left homes, schools and churches in ruins. Many still suffer severe malnutrition, poverty and homelessness.

Platform says the local conflict soon created regional instability. Displaced villagers were hunted down in the regional capital, Port Harcourt, and killed in their homes, schools and workplaces. Gangs active in Rumuekpe collaborated with prominent criminal networks in Rivers state and doubled as Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) militants.

Mend's activity in Rumuekpe seriously disrupted Shell's operations and sent shockwaves through world markets, the report notes, yet Shell paid little heed. One of the corporation's managers was alarmingly candid: "One good thing about their crisis was that they never for one day stopped us from production."

Platform interviewed Ex-gang members claimed Shell exacerbated the conflict by providing regular funding to both factions throughout.

In 2006, Shell is alleged to have awarded maintenance contracts relating to its oil wells, the Trans-Niger pipeline, its booster station and flowstation to Edu's gang. But after Agala's counter-raid left Rumuekpe "littered" with corpses, Shell apparently switched sides and started paying Agala. It paid whoever controlled access, even if they were known criminal gangs, Platform claims.

The allegations of ex-gang members were largely substantiated by the testimony of a Shell official, Platform claims. A manager confirmed that in 2006, one of the most violent years, Shell awarded six types of contract in Rumuekpe. Thousands of dollars flowed from Shell to the armed gangs each month.

The company eventually terminated some, though not all, of the contracts. But by then the violence had reached the Shell flowstation. A Shell manager, whose name has been withheld, is quoted as saying: "Somebody came in [to the flowstation] and cut off somebody's hand. We had to vacate the place. We stopped the contract entirely."

Other contracts to "maintain the pipeline right of way" continued throughout the entire conflict, as did one-off contracts created in response to specific threats, the report found.

Matthew Chizi, a local youth leader, said: "[Shell] were going to their job, doing their operation, servicing their manifold. They never cared that people were dying. They never did anything to call the crisis to order. Rather they were using military to intimidate the community."

Platform's report offers a damning assessment: "Shell was highly likely to be aware that it was helping to fuel the conflict in Rumuekpe, since company workers visited the community on a regular basis. Even if Shell was somehow unaware of the violence, media reports were publicly available.

"Members of the community reportedly wrote to Shell to request that the company stop awarding contracts to gang leaders such as Friday Edu. Through Shell's routine practices and responses to threats, the company became complicit in the cycle of violence."It adds: "The Rumuekpe crisis was entirely avoidable... Shell operated for decades without an MoU, polluted the community and distributed 'community development' funds through an individual who had lost the confidence of the community. Once conflict erupted, Shell paid the perpetrators of gross human rights abuses as long as they controlled access to oil infrastructure. The cumulative impact of Shell's mistakes was devastating."

Rumuekpe is just one of several case studies examined by the report which alleges, that in 2009 and 2010, security personnel guarding Shell facilities were responsible for extra-judicial killings and torture in Ogoniland. Platform calls on the corporation to break ties with government forces and other armed groups responsible for abuses, and to clean up environmental damage.

Rumuekpe is just one of several case studies examined by the report which alleges, that in 2009 and 2010, security personnel guarding Shell facilities were responsible for extra-judicial killings and torture in Ogoniland.

Shell insisted that it respected human rights and was committed to working with Nigeria to ensure that the country benefited from its natural resources. "We have long acknowledged that the legitimate payments we make to contractors, as well as the social investments we make in the Niger delta region may cause friction in and between communities," a spokesman said. "We nevertheless work hard to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of the benefits of our presence.

"In view of the high rate of criminal violence in the Niger delta, the federal government, as majority owner of oil facilities, deploys government security forces to protect people and assets. Suggestions in the report that SPDC directs or controls military activities are therefore completely untrue."

He added: "It is unfortunate that Platform has repeated several old cases, some of which are unsubstantiated and some proven inaccurate, because doing so obscures the good work which has been going on for many years. However, we will carefully examine its recommendations and look forward to continuing a constructive dialogue with the Nigerian government and other stakeholders to find solutions to these issues."

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• 
• • John Vidal in Bodo
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 August 2011 07.23 EDT
  • Article history

An oil wellhead in Ogoniland, Niger delta. Photograph: Amnesty International UK

The air stinks, the water stinks, and even the fish and crabs caught in Bodo creek smell of pure "sweet bonny" light crude oil. The oil has found its way deep into the village wells, it lies thick in the mudflats and there are brown and yellow slicks all along the lengthy network of creeks, swamps, mangrove forests and rivers that surround Bodo in the Niger delta.

The first oil ever exported from Nigeria was found just five miles away from Bodo in 1958. But chief Tella James, chair of Bodo's maritime workers, says life for the 69,000 people who live in the vicinity changed dramatically in August 2008 when a greasy sheen was first seen deep in the Bodo swamps miles from the nearest houses.

Shell disputes that, saying that a weld broke in September 2008 in the 50-year-old trans-Niger pipeline that takes 120,000 barrels of oil a day at high speed across the Niger delta. Either way the spill was not stopped until 7 November 2008. By that time, as much as 2,000 barrels a day may have been spilled directly into the water.

A month later in December 2008 the same pipeline broke again in the swamps. This time Shell did not send anyone to inspect or repair it until 19 February 2009. According to oil spill assessment experts who have studied evidence of the two spills on the ground and on film, more than 280,000 barrels may have been spilled.

Bodo is at the epicentre of several pipelines that collect oil from nearly 100 wells in the Ogoni district and there have been plenty of minor spills in and around the communities over the years. But this was far more serious, says Nenibarini Zabby, head of conservation at the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development in Port Harcourt.

"This was an exceptionally sensitive ecosystem," said Zabby. "The spill lasted a very long time and it spread with the tides. The health of people is at risk. The company needs to compensate the people but they must also recover the environment," said Zabby.

Chief James, assistant secretary to the Bodo council of chiefs and elders, said every family had been affected by the disaster.

"Nowhere and no one has escaped," he said. "This has caused serious poverty to everyone. Nearly 80% of people here are fishermen or they depend on the water. They have lost their livelihoods. People are leaving the community in their hundreds to search for greener pastures. We used to live beautifully. People caught so much fish we could sell it to the cities. Now we have no hope," he said.

A Bodo woman said social problems had followed the environmental ones. "People go hungry, there is more petty stealing," she said.

According to the community leaders, youths from the area started to steal oil and refine it in illegal camps only after the two spills occurred. "It was the negligence of Shell which compelled people to steal. When our livelihoods were destroyed the youth went to places where they learned how do bunkering. They were desperate. They learned from others to steal. It was to survive," says Groobadi Petta, president of the Bodo city youth federation.

Sylvester Vikpee, a barrister and legal adviser to the council of chiefs, said Shell had not responded humanely to the disaster. "They do not know the scale of the devastation. One of the richest companies in the world has done this to us. We have tried to talk to them and asked them what they plan. They have told us nothing."

The Niger delta is one of the most polluted regions in the world, withmore oil spilled across the region each year than spilt in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. According to Nigerian government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillage sites, many going back decades, with thousands of smaller spills still waiting to be cleared up.

More than 1,000 spill cases have been filed against Shell alone, but while the company has been been fined many times by courts in Nigeria for pollution incidents, appeals can take years and communities complain that proper clean-ups and compensation money never reaches them.

"For decades claims have swirled around in the Nigerian courts getting nowhere. Having a venue to bring claims in a proper structured way will revolutionise the process and hopefully ensure that the Nigerians who have suffered loss from the many, many spills, will have a much more ready outlet for their grievances and claims," said Martyn Day of Leigh Day and Co.

Shell, which admitted to spilling 14,000 tonnes of oil in 2009, works in partnership with the Nigerian government in the delta, but argues that that 98% of all its oil spills are caused by vandalism, theft or sabotage by militants and communities and only a minimal amount by deteriorating infrastructure.

No one from the Shell petroleum development company in Nigeria was available to comment on the Bodo spills this week, and a spokesman forRoyal Dutch Shell in London said the company could not say anything while the case was ongoing.

"That Shell has now accepted responsibility for the massive spill at Bodo is surprising only in the sense that it is out of place for polluters of this sort to bow to the truth. We only hope that now they will wake up and accept responsibility for other places in the Niger delta," said Nimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International from Lagos.

Map: Ogoniland in Nigeria Photograph: Guardian

>via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/03/shell-oil-spills-niger-delt...

MUSICIANS

OCCUPY WALL STREET:

Saturday, October 15 –

Protests Worldwide + Party

October 14, 2011 Posted by: vanessawithoutborders

Music has long been the soundtrack of protest: Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Mos Def, Rage Against the Machine, Saul Williams, Public Enemy, Tupac, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Dead Prez – the list of musicians fighting on behalf of the people goes on and on and on and on.

And in the past few weeks, musicians from all walks of life have signed on to support the #Occupy movement, standing in solidarity with the protesters on Wall Street and around the country who are demanding change. Above (and here), a few folks you may recognize – ?uesto, Moby, Kweli, Kanye, Russell, Bilal, Angelique Kidjo, and Gbenga Akinnagbe (from The Wire!) (and many more vids from others coming soon!) - are asking you to help support this movement that grows more powerful each day.

Yes, it’s a rare moment when a grass roots protest movement takes over the national – and international – conversation. And on Saturday, October 15th, over 858 cities in 78 different countries will host demonstrations – including, just FYI, more than just a few on the Bright Continent itself.

What do the protesters want? A more equitable world. For people to be valued over money and corporate interests. For the human race to halt their rampant destruction of the natural earth. Specifically, in the U.S., they want money to be separated from politics. They want leaders who are not owned by corporations, but instead fight for the people’s well-being and rights. They want a more equitable distribution of wealth.  (For some seriously deep statistical legitimacy for the protesters’ complaints, check out this slideshow from Business Insider.)

For those of you here in the Okayafrica HQ city of New York, it’s our time to shine. On Saturday dozens of community groups, unions, student organizations and lots and lots of regular folk are taking to the streets in a mass protest  – of tens of thousands – that will culminate in Times Square. In collaboration with a whole host of New York City’s movers and shakers, Okayplayer and Okayafrica will participate in the  The Occupation Party as it rocks the protest with music, performance and a street party in support of the actions of Occupy Wall Street.

For those of you not in New York or unable to come out and protest – there are so many ways to help. They are enumerated here.

FIND FULL DETAILS FOR THE PARTY HERE. We hope to see you there…We are the tipping point.

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MUSICIANS

OCCUPY WALL STREET:

Kanye + Russell Work It Harder,

Make It Better

Editors- Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm

Founded on March 16, 1827 as a four-page, four-column standard-sized weekly, Freedom's Journal was the first black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States, and was established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York State. Begun by a group of free black men in New York City, the paper served to counter racist commentary published in the mainstream press. Samuel E. Cornish and
John B. Russwurm served, respectively, as its senior and junior editors.

Freedom's Journal was similar to other ante-bellum reform papers in that its pages consisted of news of current events, anecdotes, and editorials and was used to address contemporary issues such as slavery and "colonization," a concept which was conceived by members of The American Colonization Society, a mostly white pro-emigration organization founded in 1816 to repatriate free black people to Africa. Initially opposed to colonization efforts, Freedom's Journal denounced slavery and advocated for black people's political rights, the right to vote, and spoke out against lynchings.

Freedom's Journal provided its readers with regional, national, and international news and with news that could serve to both entertain and educate. It sought to improve conditions for the over 300,000 newly freed black men and women living in the North. The newspaper broadened readers' knowledge of the world by featuring articles on such countries as Haiti and Sierra Leone. As a paper of record, Freedom's Journal published birth, death and wedding announcements. To encourage black achievement it featured biographies of renowned black figures such as Paul Cuffee, a black Bostonian who owned a trading ship staffed by free black people, Touissant L'Ouverture and poet Phyllis Wheatley. The paper also printed school, job and housing listings.

At various times the newspaper employed between 14 to 44 agents to collect and renew subscriptions, which cost $3 per year. One of its agents, David Walker from Boston, eventually became the writer of "David Walker's Appeal," which called for slaves to rebel against their masters. Freedom's Journal was soon circulated in 11 states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada. A typical advertisement cost between 25 to 75 cents.

Russwurm became sole editor of Freedom's Journal following the resignation of Cornish in September 1827, and began to promote the colonization movement. The majority of the newspaper's readers did not support the paper's radical shift in support of colonization, and in March 1829, Freedom's Journal ceased publication. Soon after, Russwurm emigrated to the American Colonization Society of Liberia, and became governor of the Maryland Colony. Cornish returned and attempted to revive the newspaper in May 1829 under the new name "The Rights of All," but the paper folded after less than a year. Freedom's Journal's two-year existence, however, helped spawn other papers. By the start of the Civil War over 40 black-owned and operated papers had been established throughout the United States.

FURTHER READING

Books

Dann, Martin. The Black Press, 1827-1890: The Quest for National Identity. New York: G.P. Putnam Sons, 1971.

Penn, I. Garland. The Afro-American Press and its Editors. Salem, New Hampshire: Ayer Company, Publishers, Inc., 1891.

Article

Jacobs, Donald. David Walker: Boston Race Leader, 1825-1830. Essex Institute Historical Collections 1971 107 (1): 94-107.

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African-American

Newspapers and Periodicals

Freedom's Journal

OCLC#: 1570144
LC card #: sn83-30455

"We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us."

Thus declare Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm on the front page of Freedom's Journal, the first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States. The Journal was published weekly in New York City from 1827 to 1829. Samuel Cornish served as co-editor with John B. Russwurm between March 16, 1827 and September 14, 1827. Russwurm became sole editor of the Journal following the resignation of Cornish in September 1827. Freedom's Journalwas superseded by The Rights of All, published between 1829 and 1830 by S. E. Cornish. Learn more about history of the Journal and its editors on the PBS website.

Freedom's Journal provided international, national, and regional information on current events and contained editorials declaiming slavery, lynching, and other injustices. The Journal also published biographies of prominent African-Americans and listings of births, deaths, and marriages in the African-American New York community. Freedom's Journal circulated in 11 states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada.

The newspaper employed subscription agents. One of these, David Walker, in 1829 published the first of four articles that called for rebellion.  Walker's Appeal stated that ".it is no more harm for you to kill the man who is trying to kill you than it is for you to take a drink of water," this bold attack was widely read. Walker distributed copies of his pamphlet into the South, where it was widely banned.

View Freedom's Journal

All 103 issues of the Freedom's Journal have been digitized and placed into Adobe Acrobat format. PLEASE NOTE: Each file is over 1 megabyte in size, refer to the file size information next to the link before clicking on the link.

• Volume 1 (March, 1827-March, 1828)
• Volume 2 (April, 1828-March, 1829)

The digital Freedom's Journal was prepared by:
Peter Schroepfer - Student Assistant
Heather McCullough - Digital Librarian
Wendt Engineering Library

• Volume 1 (March, 1827-March, 1828)
• Volume 2 (April, 1828-March, 1829)

• PBS film: The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords
  • Full transcript of the film
  • Biography ofFreedom's Journal
• David Walker's Appeal

>via: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/aanp/freedom/