Was going through a mile of SL correspondence this morning, and found this… probably months old, but still powerful for me. Thought I’d share with ya’ll this rainy Saturday morning…

The Black Mother

Where can I find love that never changes
Smiles that are true and always just the same,
Caring not how the fierce tempest rages,
Willing ever to shield my honored name?

This I find at home, only with Mother,
Who cares for me with patient tenderness;
She from every human pain would rather
Save me, and drink the dregs of bitterness.

If on life’s way I happen to flounder,
My true thoughts should be of Mother dear,
She is the rock that ne’er rifts asunder,
The cry of her child, be it far or near.

This is love wonderful beyond compare;
It is God’s choicest gift to mortal man;
You, who know Mother, in this thought must share,
For, she, of all, is Angel of your Clan.

My Mother is black, loveliest of all;
Yes, she is as pure as the new made morn;
Her song of glee is a clear rythmic call
To these arms of love to which I was born.

I shall never forget you, sweet Mother,
Where’er in life I may happen to roam;
Thou shalt always be the Fairy Charmer
To turn my dearest thoughts to things at home.

– Marcus Garvey

While shooting the breeze with a friend in Second Life about two years ago, I was given a link to the poet Khari Toure’s mySpace page where I immediately fell in love with the tracks, “Beauty Queen” and “Thickness”, two tracks he streamed for free. This began a passionate appreciation and love of Khari’s style as a poet and a performer that outlasted the friendship of the person who actually introduced me to him.

I haunted his mySpace page for a long time, and followed him to facebook (along with his legion of fans) because his poetry is a real glimpse into the mind of a man–not one of these Step N Fetchit’s from JigabooTV, but the mind of a real man.

Read more…

This is all too familiar. Aboriginal people’s ousted from their traditional living spaces, destroying culture, sacred spaces, dividing families… just too familiar.

We in the world must recognise, these evils are happening thousands of miles away, but what happens to the least of us, happens to all of us. We all pay the price.

“Indigenous Landowners have been stripped of their Constitutionally-protected land rights by the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Without any warning or consultation, on 27 May 2010, the government of PNG introduced emergency legislation that dissolves the Constitutional rights of all landowners in PNG, including the right of Indigenous People to own land, challenge resource projects in court and receive any form compensation for environmental damage.

‘The legislation was passed by Parliament without anybody being allowed to see the Bill before it was presented’, comments ACT NOW!, an independent organization based in PNG. ‘Nobody was allowed to read or comment on the text. There was no scrutiny by a Select Committee and not even a Parliamentary debate.’

The driving force behind the legislation and its secrecy–like pretty much every draconian measure ever introduced into law–is ‘National Interest.’”

(Via Papua New Guinea: Indigenous People stripped of land rights : Intercontinental Cry.)

I’ve been re-watching “Taken” a 2002 mini-series, and I’m having a blast picking out minor characters from “Battlestar Glactica”.

Clearly Sy Fy (formerly Sci Fi and known fondly as Skiffy) has a pool of talent they dip into for everything.

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I’ve spotted Fergersky, Zak Adama, Socinus, the woman, King and Felix Gaeta (traitorous jackass), the doctor who see’s Allie in Part 10 of the series… did anyone else spot any others?

You might of missed this mini-series, but it’s pretty good. Dakato Fanning’s Allie, and her monologues are very good. I quite enjoyed it, and I watched the whole thing on the then-Sci Fi channel. One thing, I cannot stand the performance of the actress who plays Mary Crawford. She overacts and her attempts at ’sultry maniacal vixen’ miss the mark so often. A very hollow performance. Yet, overall, the series is very well acted and the special effects pretty good for television and 2002.

So they use

the most tender weapons to fight with

joy stealers

hate mongerers

to break down our will

yet step by step;

We remain undeterred.

We do not subscribe to the malcontent

malicious intent

hell bent

pent and trapped

the definition of misery.

We do not deter.

We choose love.

We choose life.

We choose to keep this bitch moving.

I do not deter.

© 2010 N’Delamiko Lord

Every so often, some stupid shit pops up and I find the contrast between sense and nonsense just so glaring and pronounced, it warrants a comment. Fireal…

Me ain’t know about you, but apparently a furor has been brewing for a week or so about a ‘racist’ KFC ad aired in Australia. Being interested in Down Under (have no idea why, but I love the country, the Aborigines, the accent, and the insouciance of the Aussie character) and having several friends either originating from there, or currently residing there, I clicked this link in @mashable’s twitter timeline, and read their non-commentary about KFC’s embroiling by the American public taking offense to this ad.
Read more…

Excellent article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown examining the underbelly of modern self-hatred among women of colour around the world.

She asks some pertinent questions about why we are continuing to spiral into forced de-racialisation and assimilation, without adequate social fight-back.

Come on sisters, stay away from the media’s grape kool-aid.

I know that I am consistently disturbed by the prevalence of these issues among my sisters, and I guess this is why I stopped wearing makeup, went back to my dreadlocks, and have largely eschewed all fashion.

I just can’t buy media images of what I am supposed to be. I refuse to be defined that way, but alas… I am unusual in the world and not the norm.

Back in the Sixties, the Black Is Beautiful movement in the U.S. spread across the world and made us proud to be who we were, even in Uganda, where I was growing up.

I stopped ironing my hair to try to make it look like Jean Shrimpton’s, and my African college room-mates let their hair go naturally Afro again. No more burnt hair in the sink, and a new dawn, we thought.

For a few decades, yes. But now we have a world where American morality and media impose their standardised Western notions on every corner of the globe. And a surge in ‘ethnic’ self-loathing and self-mutilation has emerged in its wake.

What is different now is the absence of any political or social fightback against this. The message seems to be that race is dispensable, can be wiped out if you can pay for the privilege. Then what?

Do Jet and Umi and all those other young women think they will be good enough to please the bigots of the BNP?

When, oh when, will we stop being our own worst enemies?

via YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN: Why are so many black and Asian women desperate to be white? | Mail Online.

Although I know many of you within Barbados (possibly the Caribbean) and who are slaves to C&W cannot access this content, I still want to share it with you. Anyone watch this one as a child? My brother and I were g.l.u.e.d. to the TV on Saturday afternoons, engrossed in this story (told cheesily, I admit) and I still remember the plot (if not all the details) very well. Fascinating that this show is being revived…

As a side note: Can I just say, that any reason whatsoever to see more Morris Chestnut on my screen is a good reason. From first time, to last time, I think that man is just delicious to the eye.

Hulu – V: Pilot – Watch the full episode now..

Uncle Elton has started a campaign to get better programming on Caribbean televisions, especially multi-channeled public television where the local island stations are available on every television across the region.

I signed the petition, I think as many of us should add our voices as possible. Support the effort.

My name is Elombe.  I am a Bajan living in Jamaica.  There has been a lot of talk recently about stagnation of the Caribbean Integration movement.  I am of the opinion that it is not purely the fault of the bureaucrats and/or the politicians. What they do is important, but their perspective is conditioned by their training, their ambitions and the helplessness and stagnation they have to endure.  They need help.  They need people’s support to make what they have done work. The political leaders have two jobs of which the substantial one of Prime Minister is by far more important. But indecision comes in many disguises.

Let us help.

I want you to shift your focus from politicians and bureaucrats to us, the people, and what we can do.  My experience has shown me that when you create opportunities for people to let their imagination soar, they will soar.  I will outline my analysis of the situation and strategy to make something happen with your help.

This strategy is called MUSTCARRY.

via TV NETWORKS MUST CARRY CARIBBEAN CONTENT.

Click the above link to read the entire appeal, and get more details on the petition.

Publisher: Xcite Books
http://www.xcitebooks.com/
Editor: Adam Nevill

Cocktales – is a mini-series of 6 collections, with 4 or 5 erotic tales included in each volume. Two titles will be published each month until the series concludes:

- Between The Sheets
- Sex on the Beach
Pub Date May – Subs by 1st Jan 2010

- All Night Long
- Screaming Orgasm
Pub Date Jun 2010 – Subs by Feb 2010

- Kiss in the Dark
- Temptation
Pub date July 2010 – Subs by March 2010

[Writing to the theme is not essential with Cocktales, though feel free to have a go if inspiration strikes, but these collections intend to cover a wide range of sexual fantasy from dirty vanilla to kink. We pay a flat fee of £50 providing your story is 3 - 4000 words in length. Payment is made on publication; letter of acceptance is issued one month prior to publication].
##

As from August 2010 we will be publishing four new collections of original erotic short stories.

Themes:

- Threesome: When One Lover Is Not Enough. An Xcite Collection:
Theme: threesomes to group sex.
Deadline for stories April 1st 2010. Publication Sep 2010

- Kinky Girls: An Xcite Collection of Women on the Wild Side.
Themes: role-play, bondage/restraint, domination and submission, spanking, kink.
Deadline for stories May 1st 2010. Publication Oct 2010

- Sex at Work: An Xcite Collection of Inappropriate Behaviour on the Job.
Theme: I hope it’s self explanatory (Ed).
Deadline for stories June 1st 2010. Publication Nov 2010

- Indecent proposals: An Xcite Collection of Sexy Propositions.
Theme: swapping, sharing, escorting, and other curious offers.
Deadline for stories 1st August 2010. Publication Jan 2011.

Submission guidelines: your short story should not already be published anywhere in the world. Thematically, it should be written with the Xcite guidelines in mind. Obviously you will not be tied to having to provide detailed plot, numerous characters and enough varied types of sex to fill a novel, but the story should be about more than ’some people having sex’. The emphasis is on intensity, imagination, erotic tension, pleasure and explicit action and what’s-at-stake for the main character. We want to position these as suitable for the general reader as well as erotica fans.

We pay a flat fee of £50 providing your story is 2 – 4000 words (though 4K is preferred). Payment is made on publication; letter of acceptance is issued one month prior to publication.
##

In addition there are three other collections already scheduled that are still taking submissions:

- Ultimate Spanking – pub date April 2010 (best to get a story to us by Jan 2010
- Ultimate Uniforms – pub date August 2010 (subs to us by March 2010 ideal)
- Boy Fun – pub date Oct 2010 (subs by May 2010)