Quote of the Week

"Only people with hope will struggle. The people who are hopeless are grist for the fascist mill. Because they have no hope, they have nothing to build on. If people are in trouble, if people are suffering and exploited and want to get out from under the heel of oppression, if they have hope that it can be done, if they can see a path that leads to a solution, a path that makes sense to them and is consistent with their beliefs and their experience, then they'll move. But it must be a path that they've started clearing. They've got to know the direction in which they are going and have a general idea of the kind of society they'd like to have. If they don't have hope, they don't even look for a path. They look for somebody else to do it for them." ~~Myles Horton in The Long Haul (1990)

Fire in the Delta

Fire in the Delta
Uploaded by Ndelta

Sokari at Black Looks tells us:

"In 2005, the High Court declared gas flaring illegal yet both the Nigerian government and oil multinationals have ignored the court ruling. Last year the Nigerian government once again promised to stop all gas flaring on the 1st January this year - a promise that goes back nearly 40 years. Companies defying the order were to be shut down. Once again the government has shown complete disregard and insensitivity to the communities in the Niger Delta and given into pressure from Shell, Chevron, Elf etc. The date has now been set for the end of the year but no one really believes that the government will once again bow to the oil multinationals.

"Inemo [Ndelta] has put together this short video [see above] which shows the environmental damage (gas flares both on the ground and those that burn up in the sky; old leaking pipes across farmlands and homes; oil filled creeks and ponds; oil fires which burn the land and people; across the region)."

So, in solidarity with the people of the Niger Delta, I just cut my Chevron gas card in half (even though that's the only local station I have a card for) and I'm mailing it back to the company with my explanation as to why. Our brothers and sisters are specifically asking us -- the heaviest users of gasoline in the world -- to bring pressure on the companies that are causing them to suffer: Shell, Exxon, Mobil and Chevron. Are you in?

A Drum Major For Justice

Some things to think about today.

Passin' It On

I'm tired from reading for the new semester and for the paper on bloggers I'm working on. I'm crabby because I'm back in the office tomorrow morning and, despite the fact that I love what I do as a teacher, it eats me alive. I mean, how am I going to accomplish all the things I want to be doing, if I'm spending fifty hours a week on the campus (the way I usually do)?

Anyway, I made my blog rounds today as I always try to do on Sundays and came across more than a few things I really should pass on. Here are the ones at the top of the list:

For starters, Sokari over at Black Looks turned me onto a film that's in the making. It's called "The Naked Option" and tells the story of a small group of African women who brought Chevron to its knees. I can hardly wait to see it in its entirety, but in the meantime, the trailer alone is electrifying.

Secondly, both Sylvia at Problem Chylde and Kai at Zuky tipped us to to the fact that former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown, another extraordinarily strong woman of color, has announced that she is not going to run for President on the Green Party ticket after all and for reasons of which we need to be aware.

Maxjulian, The Free Slave, is giving us yet another election issue to re-consider, since it seems we've put it on the back burner now that campaigns are heating up on the front of the stove.

And Professor Zero has issued a Chiapas Alert related to apparent governmental threats to the people of that region in Mexico. I understand that duties on U.S. agri-products were dropped as of January 1st, so I was expecting some backlash from indigenous people with their already poverty-stricken backs pushed even harder to the wall. It seems the government has similar expectations and is preparing to respond to them as they usually do.

Finally, Theriomorph at Creek Running North initiated a truly excellent thread on being an ally to people of color, especially to women of color. It will likely inspire me to write another in my series on How To Be An Ally (see the top of the link list to the right), but until that happens, you'll have plenty to read. Because even when I'm tired and crabby, when it comes to my faithful readers, love is spoken here.

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The poster above is a product of the highly respected Syracuse Cultural Workers.