"Statistics"
"SEX"
<div style="background:#000000;width:600px;height:370px"></div><div style="font-size:12px;">Lyfe Jennings - S.E.X. (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Lyfe Jennings</div>
"Hypothetically"
Reflection Eternal - "Ballad of the Black Gold"
Reflection Eternal - "Back Again"
<p>Reflection Eternal - Back Again [Talib Kweli] from Radio Planet on Vimeo.</p>
Talib Kweli - "Get By"
June/July Contest . Guidelines:
Category: Write a story with a mystery twist. 1000 Word Limit
Entry Deadline:July 30, 2010.
Entry fee: $10.
$100 first prize
$50 second prize
$25 third prize
. Manuscript must be typed and double-spaced
. Staple all entries in the upper left hand corner
. Include your name, address, phone number, e-mail address on cover page only
. Do not put your name, or any other form of identification, on the manuscript
. Entries will not be returned without a SASE and sufficient postage
. Entry fee must accompany each entry
. Winners will be notified by e-mail on August 6, 2010. Winners will also
be listed on our home page: http://www.windmilwomenwriters.org
. Include a SASE if you want a list of winnersSend entries to:
Windmill Women Fiction Contest
PO Box 181541
Fairfield, Ohio 45018
Erskine J. Poetry Prize
ALL SUBMISSIONS
All poems submitted for the prize will be considered for publication in Smartish Pace. Therefore, it is possible to have your poems selected for an issue of Smartish Pace even if they do not win the Erskine J. Poetry Prize. Deadline: August 15, 2010 (submitted via e-mail or postmarked). Winning poet receives $200. Top three poets and all finalists (usually about 10) are published in Smartish Pace.
REQUIREMENTS
Online Submissions:
STEP 1:
Submit 3 poems along with a $5 entry fee via a secure, online debit transaction (select PayPal PAYMENTS button on left.)Additional poems may be submitted for $1 per poem. No more than 15 poems may be submitted (maximum submission: 15 poems= $5 + $12 = $17). To submit additional poems, click on the PAYMENTS button on left AFTER clicking on button above. Note: select number of additional poems you will be sending via email in the "Qty" column after clicking button.
STEP 2:
E-mail poems and bio by attaching a Word, Wordperfect, or RTF file to: sreichert@smartishpace.com.Include your name, address, e-mail and telephone number (preferred but not required) on each page of poetry submitted.
Postal Submissions:
Submit 3 poems and bio along with a $5 entry fee. Entry fees can be paid with a check or money order made payable to Smartish Pace. Additional poems may be submitted for $1 per poem. No more than 15 poems may be submitted (maximum submission: 15 poems= $5 + $12 = $17).
Include a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with your entry. SASE is for reply only as we recycle all manuscripts.
Include your name, address, e-mail and telephone number (preferred but not required) on each page of poetry submitted.
Write or print "Erskine J." on the top of each poem submitted and send to:
Smartish Pace
P.O. Box 22161
Baltimore, MD 21203Stephen Reichert looks forward to reading all of the poems submitted for the Erskine J. Poetry Prize!
via smartishpace.com
Submit 45-80 pages of poetry with a $25 reading fee (personal check only, please; no money orders), a cover letter with your bio and your manuscript's acknowledgments, and your email address for results (no SASEs please; manuscripts will be recycled. Check website for winners.) Please do not bind, fasten, or clip your manuscript in any way.
IMPORTANT: Checks payable only to "TNPR"
ENTRY ADDRESS FOR BOOK PRIZE ONLY:
THE NATIONAL POETRY REVIEW
PO Box 2080
Aptos, CA 95001-2080
Postmark Deadline : September 30, 2010.
The winner of The National Poetry Review Book Prize will receive $1000 plus publication and 15 copies of the book. All entrants will be considered for publication. In 2006 two runners up were given publication contracts in addition to the winner. In 2008 one runner up was given a publication contract in addition to the winner.
Previous Winners:
Bryan Penberthy, James Haug, Dorinne Jennette, Ravi Shankar (2009)
Previouse Runners-Up: Dan Kaplan, Karl Elder, Sarah E. Barber, James Grinwis (2009)
Please note that students, close friends, and family of the editors are not eligible for the prize. We believe that this policy promotes objectivity in judging and fairness in publication.
The National Poetry Review is a non-profit organization.
wanjiru kairu > must be a god fearing christian girl
i had a fun fourth of july weekend. we threw a graduation party for my sis then watched fireworks in the bronx. it was really hard to come in to work today, not to mention it's 104 degrees outside and the air conditioning in my office doesn't work. see me sweating bullets in a pair of slacks and boots (what was i thinking?).i'm gonna be doing some volunteer work with maisha film lab this summer. came across this vid from one of their filmmaking lab alumni, wanjiru kairu. the acting is a little splashy, but the story tickled me. enjoy! --AL.
Video of the Day: N-Word Parody
Friday Jul 16, 2010 – By ClutchHappy Friday folks! There’s nothing like comedy that gives us something to think about. This YouTube video posted by Foreign Image offers both a hilarious and fascinating commentary on the Black community’s use of the n-word. The video shows a group of Asian friends generously using the n-word with each other –comparable to the Black community. Except, they replace it with “Ninja.” Watch for the moment at 1:08–very interesting.
“What’s up my Ninja!”
“Yo! What a Ninja gotta do to get some orange chicken around here?”
This is a must-see video. Share your thoughts with us!
— Updated: 2:33 pm -->France Will Not Repay Haiti Reparations
By ROBERT MACKEY
Video of a person pretending to be a French foreign ministry spokesperson, posted on a fake Web site on Wednesday.Updated | Friday | 9:13 a.m. Some Haitians suspected the announcement was too good to be true: that France would pay their nation $22 billion to make up for forcing the former French colony to pay an equivalent sum in exchange for its independence in the nineteenth century. Well, those who were suspicious were proved right Thursday when an elaborate hoax was revealed.
The French government confirmed on Thursday that the statement, in the form of video and text posted a day earlier on a Web site that was a near replica of its official foreign ministry site, was a prank, Agence France-Presse reported.
The fake site, diplomatiegov.fr — which looks similar to the official site, diplomatie.gouv.fr — includes a video in which someone posing as a ministry spokesperson announced that France had decided to repay “the historic debt of 90 million gold francs Haiti paid to France following the former’s independence at the dawn of the 19th century.” The actor impersonating a French official added, “the 90 million gold francs, which Haiti paid France from 1825 until 1947, will be reimbursed in a yearly budget over the course of 50 years. Economic advisors working with the Ministry have calculated that the total sum amounts to €17 billion including adjustments for inflation and a minimal interest rate of 5 percent per annum.”
According to AFP, “France has no plans to repay Haiti this sum, and a foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that the press release, video and website were all fake.” The spokesman, Bernard Valero, told reporters the hoax site, “broadcasts false news and fraudulently copies the foreign ministry site.” He added, “We are studying what legal steps we can take to remedy this situation.”
Several hours later, both the video and the complete text of the hoax statement, with English translation, were still available on the fake Web site.
Whoever is responsible for the hoax might have been inspired by a real attempt to get France to repay the debt Haiti was forced to pay to reimburse the owners of French plantations whose property was seized in the successful slave revolt that earned Haiti its independence in 1803. Seven years ago, during the nation’s bicentennial celebrations, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s government asked France to right this historical wrong.
As The Los Angeles Times reported from Port-au-Prince in 2003:
France owes this country exactly $21,685,135,571.48, the government figures — not counting interest, penalties or consideration of the suffering and indignity inflicted by slavery and colonization.
Paris swiftly rejected the demand for restitution when Haiti raised the issue in April, on the 200th anniversary of the death of Toussaint Louverture. A revered figure here, Louverture led fellow slaves in throwing off their French colonial oppressors.
Haiti is making a bicentennial spectacle of refusing to take no for an answer. In one of the most colorful campaigns to galvanize citizens in years, the country is awash in banners, bumper stickers, television ads and radio broadcasts demanding payback.
Update | Friday | 8:52 a.m. The French newspaper Libération reported that the Web site Whois offers these clues about the fake site: it was created on June 21 by someone using the name of the Haitian revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture and an address on Quai d’Orsay in Paris, where the French foreign ministry is located. For readers of French, Libération also offers details about the debt Haiti was forced to pay in the nineteenth century in exchange for the lifting of an international embargo after it won its independence from France. A reader points to a video report from France 24’s English-language site on the “ransom” Haiti was forced to pay to deposed French slave-owners, starting in 1825. The same reader notes that there is an online petition movement calling on France to pay back this debt.
It remains unclear who was behind the stunt, but in its precise execution and spirit it is not unlike similarly pointed pranks carried out by a group that calls itself the Yes Men. This trailer for a documentary on the group includes a selection of some of their hoaxes:
Last October, as The Times reported, “the group held the fake press conference at the National Press Club, where an activist posed as a spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and announced that the business lobby had changed its position and would no longer oppose a Senate climate change bill.” Video of that fake conference is featured on the group’s video site.
http://theyesmen.org/
Identity Correction
Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Our targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.
Who were the 'animals' after Hurricane Katrina?: Jarvis DeBerry
Published: Friday, July 16, 2010, 7:00 AM
On Sept. 26, 2005, The Times-Picayune published a report by Gordon Russell and former reporter Brian Thevenot that disputed the prevailing idea that New Orleanians at the Superdome and Convention Center after Hurricane Katrina preyed on one another with impunity.
Romell Madison, whose brother Ronald was killed by officers on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina, looks on as U.S. Attorney Jim Letten talks to reporters about a police officer's guilty plea.
The headline read "Rape. Murder. Gunfights. ... much of the violence NEVER HAPPENED," but in my mind, I always applied my own, more defiant headline: "We are not animals!"
Nobody was killed at the Louisiana Superdome. One person was killed at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Even so, there was a story that circulated there about a 7-year-old whose throat was slit after she was raped. There was another story about 30 to 40 slain bodies in a Convention Center freezer. The soldiers who did clean-up duty in New Orleans recovered six bodies -- none of them homicides -- at the Superdome; they found four -- one of them a homicide -- at the Convention Center. They'd been made to expect a battlefield littered with bodies.
What did Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney think about all the atrocities that had been attributed to New Orleanians stuck in the city? Lachney, a National Guardsman who helped with security at the Superdome, told Russell and Thevenot, "I think 99 percent of it is bulls---."
Civilians may not have gone on murderous rampages after Hurricane Katrina, but federal prosecutors say some members of the New Orleans Police Department did. Officers stand accused of unleashing a bloodbath on the Danziger Bridge that killed two people and wounded four. Other officers stand accused of shooting a man, driving his body to an Algiers levee and setting that car on fire.
There are other allegations of New Orleans police violently attacking citizens. While driving past the Convention Center, police fired a shotgun and killed 45-year-old Danny Brumfield whose relatives said he was trying to flag the officers down. Despite all the rumors of civilians running amok at the Convention Center, could it be that the only person killed there was wrongly killed by the police?
Could it also be true that the police became unhinged because they were convinced -- to use the words of then Mayor Ray Nagin -- that people in New Orleans had devolved to an "almost animalistic state?"
Mayor Mitch Landrieu wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in May. In his request for help, the mayor said that he had inherited what "has been described by many as one of the worst police departments in the country."
The federal grand jury that indicted four current and two former New Orleans police officers this week must agree. The grand jury accuses Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officer Anthony Villavaso of fatally attacking 17-year-old James Brissette on the Danziger Bridge. Former officer Robert Faulcon is accused of killing the teenager and Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man who had stayed during the storm to care for his dachshunds Bobbi and Sushi.
Madison and Brissette were walking across the bridge separately, authorities say, and both were unarmed and posed no threat to the officers who confronted them. Homicide investigator Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and former Sgt. Gerard Dugue are accused of conspiring with the above officers to cover up what the government says was the unprovoked killing of innocents on the bridge.
Jose Holmes, who was walking with Brissette, spent years wearing a colostomy bag after police shot him. His aunt, Susan Bartholomew, had part of her arm blown off. Her husband, Leonard Bartholomew, was shot in the head. The couple's daughter, Leisha, was wounded.
Five former police officers had already pleaded guilty in conspiring to cover up what happened on the bridge. Their testimony will be crucial if the government is to prove its case against the men indicted this week.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said that his office has pursued its investigations against the Police Department "so that no one ever has to fear those whose duty is to protect them."
Fearing the police would have made good sense after Katrina.
We are not animals. Even if some officers attacked us like we were.
Jarvis DeBerry is an editorial writer. He can be reached at jdeberry@timespicayune.com. Follow him at http://connect.nola.com/user/jdeberry/index.html and at twitter.com/jarvisdeberrytp.< a>em>
via nola.com
Oil Spill Takes a Toll on All, but Gulf Minorities Feel Marginalized Again
23 hours ago
Although the BP oil spill may finally be stopped for good, there is no gush of relief and jubilation in southeast Louisiana. Months if not years of expensive and arduous cleanup remain to be done, and no one knows when, if ever, the commercial-fishing economy will return to pre-spill levels.The entire populace -- every racial, cultural, ethnic, neighborhood and socio-economic group -- has been seriously affected. In response, every group with a sense of self-identity has rallied to its own defense. But variances in political connections, education, money, organizational skills and media savvy have led to widely differing levels of attention, coverage and perceived credibility. As a result, some communities with a historic sense of alienation are feeling marginalized yet again.
The very existence of an African-American commercial fishing community, for instance, has seemingly surprised some local and national media outlets. As Byron Encalade, the African-American president of the Louisiana Oystermen's Association, put it, "Until [U.S. Reps.] Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee came down recently to check out the spill situation first-hand, hardly anyone knew that African-American and Native American oystermen and fishermen even lived in Plaquemines Parish." (Encalade has also testified about the spill before the House Judiciary Committee.) "The black community has been here for generations," he said, "and my ancestry is also part Native American, just like practically everybody else here. Those native people aren't highly visible anymore, but they didn't just vanish. They were absorbed.
"My family, in particular, has been in the fishing business here going way back to when everyone spoke French," Encalade continued. "Those people didn't learn English till they started school." Perhaps it is this linguistic consciousness, in part, that prompts Encalade's organization to advocate, too, on behalf of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian fishermen. Many in such Asian communities speak little, if any, English.
The Asian community, fishermen included, is also ably represented by Father Vien Nguyen. Formerly the priest at Mary Queen of Vietnam, a Catholic church in the Versailles section of the far-flung neighborhood called New Orleans East, Nguyen now works in the central office of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He also serves as chairman of the Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corp. In this latter role Nguyen has shown extreme grit and skill as a community organizer. One of Nguyen's many successes was spearheading a campaign of demonstrations that stymied construction of a huge landfill in Versailles.
His many current projects include the Viet Village Urban Farm. The MQVNCDC office -- in a commercial strip on Alcee Fortier Boulevard, where every sign is in Vietnamese -- is a constant beehive of activity. The MQVNCDC has also joined with the South Bay Alliance of Alabama and the Mississippi Coalition for Vietnamese-American Fisherfolk and Families to support those affected by the spill. (Nguyen estimates that the Vietnamese community in metro New Orleans numbers 20,000, with another 20,000 in rural South Louisiana. Some 70 percent of these people are Catholic, he added.)
Meanwhile, Byron Encalade's main mission of late (in a sentiment echoed by Nguyen) is keeping a vigilant eye on BP. Encalade wants to make sure that the company will not back out of its promises to pay restitution -- either overtly or by hamstringing people with endless and ever-changing paperwork.
"We all went through hell here with the Road Home" -- a state-run Katrina relief program that was notorious for maddening bureaucracy -- Encalade said with a countenance both world-weary and angry. "We can't go through that again." Frustrated that he has "already been to the BP claims office 15 times," the burly boatman added: "I refuse to go any more. It's ridiculous. What more do I need to show, besides that I have a license, and tax records to prove what I grossed? I tried to explain to BP that with the seafood industry, one hat's not going to fit everyone." There are fin fishermen, oystermen and shrimpers, Encalade pointed out. Some own their own oyster beds. Some own their boats. Others are simply employees. "And some companies like mine" -- Encalade Trucking, in the small town of Pointe a la Hache -- "are in boats (I lost three in Katrina) oyster beds and transportation."
"There are guys like me," he went on, "who have invested over $100,000 in boats, and I was just starting to earn that money back. It's supposed to be tax deductible because it's an investment back in your business. So to be compensated by BP in a way that doesn't give consideration for all the funds spent on reinvestment, that's wrong.
"I am trying to do things that are decisive and positive, to keep down the mental anguish that people are suffering. But it seems that's just the direction where BP is taking this." BP's plan, he said, is "to discourage and frustrate people so that they'll just back away. But BP has to understand that, even when they're upset, these people on the bayous are very resilient."
Striking a similar chord, while sitting next to an out-of-work fisherman named Thiet Tran, Father Vien used a religious metaphor: "We in the Vietnamese community been crucified on many Good Fridays. But, always, Easter has come."
Encalade is particularly concerned about the African-American community, because "with so many generational injustices, some black people become mental victims. They tend to draw back with an attitude of 'what's the use of trying; we'll just get the same old thing again.' But this fight is not just about African-Americans. If that door opens for me, everyone else will be able to come through it, too. Many others, including plenty of white people, are suffering these injustices, too." Encalade went on to describe Plaquemines Parish as "a classic American melting pot, a true gumbo," proudly noting his military service in the Wolf Hound Regiment of the 25th Infantry.
Alongside his disdain for BP, Encalade also had some harsh words for opponents of the oil-drilling moratorium. "It's not that damn simple," he said emphatically of the argument that jobs will be lost. "What sense does it make to lift the moratorium and then get it straight? No! If a truck I own falls into violation and becomes a safety hazard, I have to fix it before I can put it back on the highway! And the department of transportation doesn't play, either; they pull you over and put you the scales." Encalade asserted that the same approach must apply to the oil industry. "Fix the damn problem, then you can go back and drill! The oil companies are trying to hold us hostage again. We still don't know how much damage this spill caused.
"People say that if you support the moratorium then you are disloyal to Louisiana. Well, when is Louisiana going to be loyal to its own? And why should the poorest people always pay the consequences for the wealthiest?"
