Obama's Emerging Legacy: Wars, Bankers and For-Profit
Healthcare
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
The first Black president has
racked up some impressive victories. Barack Obama has quarantined single-payer
healthcare advocates, crushed dissent against the war in Congress, and
transferred more money to the finance capital class than at any time in planetary
history. Not bad for just five months in office. "At some point in the
near future Barack Obama will become inextricably associated in the public mind
with Big Capital - and deservedly so."
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more
Darfur "Genocide" Lies Unraveling - Only 1,500
Darfuris Died in 2008, Says African Union
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
For more than five years, the Save Darfur Coalition has used a
slick and star-studded multimillion dollar ad campaign to paint a horrific
vision of 400,000 dead in a black vs Arab war of extermination. No historic or
political causes are offered for this scenario; it's genocide a case of good
vs. evil demanding our attention and action. But the big lies underpinning the
Save Darfur campaign are coming undone. Reporters, scholars and even US envoys
are returning from the region affirming that if there ever was a genocide in
Darfur, and there may not have been, there isn't one now. The British
government has even ruled that Save Darfur cannot, in that country, use the
figure of 400,000 dead which it throws around in all its US advertisements,
cause it just ain't true.
McKinney Rejoins Voyage to Defy US-Israeli Blockade of Gaza -
"Sink Us or Arrest Usl"
by
The Editors
When the Free Gaza Movement attempted to send a boatload of
supplies to Gaza last December, the Israeli Navy rammed the vessel, the
Dignity, almost sinking it. This week, activists will send two boats on the
voyage from Cyprus to Gaza, carrying cement, toys and 38 passengers, among them
former U.S. Rep. Cynthia Mckinney, who was also aboard the Dignity. Ms.
McKinney sent a letter to President Obama, filling him in on the Gaza mission.
Freedom Rider: Selective Sympathy for Iran
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
The United States reserves for itself the right to say what and
when the world should be watching. "People who work for peace and
justice must show skepticism when the media tell them who deserves their
attention and advocacy efforts." The world, as defined by U.S. Corporate
media, turned its head when "1,400 Gazans were killed so that Israel might
inflict collective punishment on a civilian population." The U.S. Feigns
great concern for the human rights of Iranians, but continues threaten a military
attack. Real human rights proponents "must always keep in mind that
warfare is the worst human rights abuse of all."
Letter to Obama: Blacks Fear Shut Out of Highway Stimulus
Contracts
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Glen Ford
Click the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.
The "rising tide" of
economic stimulus that President Obama promises will "lift all boats"
from the depths of economic crisis, may leave Blacks at the bottom, once again.
"Black contractors and elected officials now fear that African Americans
will be cut out of the huge, one-time increase in federal highway money under
the economic stimulus program passed this year." In a letter to
administration officials, the National Black Chamber of Commerce warns that
stimulus money is flowing down the "same racist channels" that have
denied highway contracts and jobs to African Americans.
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more
Puppet Government of Somalia Invites Everybody to Invade
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Glen Ford
Click the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download
an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.
In what should be its last gasp,
the regime that claims to govern Somalia, "huddled in a corner of
Mogadishu," the capital, has "called on 'Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti,
Yemen' - anybody! - to save them from what it called 'terrorists.'" The
Ethiopians, who installed the mini-state after invading Somalia with U.S.
support in 2006, are already on the move in the country - whose soil they never
left. But a larger invasion to beat back Islamist/nationalist fighters can only
occur with "active U.S. coordination and logistical support."
President Obama may get a war of his own in Africa.
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more
Stanford U Study Shows Charter Schools Perform Worse Than
Comparable Public Schools
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Glen Ford
Click the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download
an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.
The myth has been shattered: a new study shows charter schools
perform worse than traditional public schools. In only 17 percent of charter
schools do students surpass their demographically matched regular school peers
in math and reading. More than twice that many charters rate worse than
traditional classrooms, while close to half are about equal. Despite the data,
the Obama administration "continues to demand that 5,000 schools be shut
down, and their teachers fired" - a disproportionate share of them
Black. Their "position is based on ideology, not empirical
data."
Jamaica Broadcasting is Born: A fi we! A no fi dem!
by John Maxwell
Veteran journalist John Maxwell was there at the beginning: 1959,
the start of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. "For the first time at
last, it wasn't really necessary to listen to the BBC." Successive
governments, especially those of the Jamaica Labour Party, attempted to varying
degrees to shape the JBC to their own political purposes. But, says Maxwell,
"It is my opinion that in its short periods of independence, the JBC
helped begin the transformation of Jamaica from an ignorant colonial backwater
into a civilized society."
Tradition of Same Gender Marriage in Igboland, Nigeria
by Leo Igwe
Black homophobes often invoke "African" culture to
buttress their arguments against gay rights, including the right to marry. But,
according to the author, a native of southern Nigeria, the Igbo culture has
long nurtured same-sex couples consisting of "woman-husband" and
"woman-wife." The practice is entirely indigenous. "This
marriage practice pre-dates Christianity and the so- called western culture which
most people today blame for all the moral and cultural wrongs in Africa.
Bruce A. Dixon
Managing Editor,
Black Agenda Report
www.blackagendareport.com
Skype me at bruce.a.dixon
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