Save The Poor Brown Children Solidarity Blog

Baroness Von Flavell: One of The 11 'Land-Lords' That Absurd Rules Allow to Dodge Justice.

2010-06-05T14:07:00.001-07:00

Photo: No Charges yet. Baroness Von Flavell: One of the 11 landlords worldwide able to escape justice.

Carol Payne Flavell, also known as Baroness Von Flavell, is somehow managing to once again escape criminal charges. The complaint was that she claimed a flat in Olympia, Washington as her 'main home' from August 2008 to December 2010 when in fact she lived in Africa. While in Africa she illegally worked for the Government as a USAID/PEPFAR member while also illegally working for herself in a corporation called 'Thunderbolt Enterprises, an unethical transporter of sweat shop merchandise that had no fair trade certification from the same Africa region where she was supposed to help. She is the landlord of widespread disrepute who owns many flats around the world including a fourplex flat at 7924 3rd Ave, SE Olympia, WA 98503-1601 and a flat at 113 18th Avenue SE, Olympia, WA 98501 for a few weeks out of the year when not traveling around the world with Andre N., her boyfriend who is currently married to another women who lives overseas. She is but one of 11 landlords worldwide who have recently received international media attention for her infamous ability to use her lawyers to find ways to claim tax money on flats and crime expenses which she should not receive. She is by far the worse of the 11. The international anti-sleaze campaign issued a press release stated:

'Baroness Von Flavell has a powerful network of active accomplices in the crime of expenses rip-offs. PEPFAR's dismal lack of progress in cleaning up their employees expenses rip-off is a disgrace, second only to the 'Land-Lords' shamelessness in milking the system for money that could have helped to save the lives of thousands of AIDS medicine recipients.'

Below is a special report by the UK Daily Mail about the other 10 'land-Lords' who have managed to escape justice in the crime of expenses rip-offs.

Peers accused of milking tens of thousands in expenses will escape criminal charges after a change in the rules left prosecutors at war with Parliament.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said Labour's Baroness Uddin will not face prosecution thanks to a last-minute change in the guidelines on second homes.

He declared that it was 'absurd' for the Lords authorities to claim the move had not scuppered the case against her.

The 50-year-old peer had been accused of wrongly designating a flat in Kent as her main home - even though neighbours said she was never there - so she could claim overnight allowances payable to peers living outside London.

Photo: No charges: Baroness Uddin (centre) outside her east London home yesterday

The claims of several peers have been called into question over recent months.

Peers with homes in London have variously claimed their main address is a Welsh or Cornish holiday home, a rarely used flat in Bath, a property in Normandy, converted stables or a parent's house.

But it has emerged that there was no definition of 'main address' in any of the guidance to peers - meaning they were free to nominate any property they like.
Then, in guidance produced only last month, the Clerk of the Parliament Michael Pownall, a senior Lords official, suggested that visiting a property once a month was enough to qualify.
The move was agreed by the House Committee chaired by Speaker Baroness Hayman.

Photo: Lady Uddin said this flat in Maidstone, Kent, was her main home

Mr Starmer could barely disguise his frustration as he explained that the rule change meant he could not authorise charges against Lady Uddin.

He said the guidance would inevitably have been seized on by defence lawyers.
Critics said it meant that no peers accused of abusing their second home expenses would face justice in the courts.

A Tory spokesman said: 'It is outrageous that peers are able to use this loophole to avoid prosecution. We strongly support moves to tighten the rules as soon as possible.'

Defiant over expenses scandal: (from top to bottom) MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine outside court this week

Former social worker Lady Uddin was accused of falsely claiming £100,000 in allowances - far more than the total allegedly obtained by three Labour MPs who appeared in court this week.
The complaint was that she claimed a flat in Maidstone as her 'main home' when in fact she lived in east London.

Police obtained evidence from neighbours and from water, gas and electric companies supplying the flat in Maidstone. Last night they said privately they were astonished that she had escaped prosecution.
Yvonne Adams, who has lived next to the flat for three years, said: 'I can't emphasise enough how no one has lived there. I know that for a fact. There has never been a stick of furniture in there.'

Before Mr Starmer's announcement, many Westminster pundits had speculated that Lady Uddin would face criminal charges.

Lady Uddin - a married mother of five born in Bangladesh - is not yet completely out of the woods. Her case is to be investigated by a House of Lords sub-committee chaired by former MI5 director general Lady Manningham-Buller.

In a brief statement, Lady Uddin said she was relieved her ordeal had finally ended, adding: 'I only wish now to say thank you to everyone who supported me through a very difficult time.'

Juliet Samuel, of the anti-sleaze campaign group the Sunlight Centre, said:

'The Lords authorities are active accomplices in the crime of expenses rip-offs.

'Parliament's dismal lack of progress in cleaning up the second chamber is disgraceful, second only to the Lords' shamelessness in milking the system for all it is worth.'

Getting off scot-free, Baroness and ten other cheating Lords

The announcement that Baroness Uddin will not face prosecution for fiddling her expenses means a string of peers will escape censure for their own claims.
Here we list ten whose claims will face no further police investigation

Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe, LABOUR

Pocketed more than £140,000 of overnight subsistence allowance in seven years by claiming for his mortgage-free house in Brighton instead of his £700,000 townhouse in Battersea, South London.

Viscount Falkland, LIB DEM

Hereditary peer registered a two-bed house owned by his wife's aunt near Maidstone in Kent as his main residence, paid no rent but spends most of his time at £500,000 townhouse in Clapham, South London.

Lord Rosser, LABOUR

Received £50,000 in overnight subsistence allowances since buying a flat in Chippenham, Wiltshire, in 2007 and 'flipping' his main residence from £750,000 four-bedroom home in Uxbridge, West London.

Baroness Neuberger, LABOUR

Claimed £80,000 overnight subsistence allowances in five years by designating £237,000 flat in Leamington Spa instead of family's £2.3million townhouse in Regent's Park, central London.

Lord Taylor of Warwick, TORY

The peer claimed £70,000 over six years by saying his main residence was his dead mother's house in Solihull - which had been sold - then his nephew's friend's house in Oxford, all while living in family home in Ealing, West London.

Baroness Goudie of Roundwood, LABOUR

Claimed £150,000 over eight years by saying her main residence is a Glasgow flat she bought for £200,000 in 2001, not the £1.5million mews house in Belgravia she shares with her husband.

Lord Paul, LABOUR

Claimed £38,000 in less than two years by telling the Lords his main residence was the one-bed manager's flat attached to a hotel owned by one of his companies in Chesterton, Oxfordshire, not his central London family home.

Lord Sheldon, LABOUR

Claimed £130,000 over six years. Despite living in a mortgage-free £1.3million flat in central London, he told authorities his main residence was a house in Manchester, which he in fact gave to his son in 2003.

Lord Bhatia, LABOUR

Claimed more than £20,000 in two years by flipping main residence from £1.5million family home in south London to a two-bed rented flat in Reigate, Surrey, occupied by his brother.

Lord Clarke of Hampstead, LABOUR

Admitted he had claimed up to £18,000 a year despite often staying with friends for free or going back to his home in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1257391/Absurd-rules-allow-expenses-fiddling-peers-dodge-justice.html#ixzz0q0sgpuq0

Electronics Maker Promises Review After Suicides

2010-05-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

Bobby Yip/Reuters

Ma Zishan, Gao Zhaoying and Ma Liqun, the mother, father and sister of Ma Xiangqian, who jumped to his death in January, mourn outside a Foxconn factory in southern Guangdong province on Wednesday.

By David Barboza DAVID BARBOZA

SHENZHEN, CHINA — There were bows and an apology from Terry Gou, one of the richest men in Asia and chairman of Foxconn Technology.

With about 800,000 Chinese employees, revenue of about $60 billion a year and a reputation for military-style efficiency, Foxconn is possibly the world’s biggest electronics maker. It is now also the focus of troubling questions about a wave of suicides among its workers at a pair of factories here that serve as major suppliers to global brands like Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

As part of a hastily assembled, carefully orchestrated news conference and tour led by Mr. Gou on Wednesday, Foxconn executives defended their labor practices, even as they vowed to do everything possible to prevent more young people from taking their own lives. And the company presented a panel of mental health professionals to discuss the likely causes of suicide in China generally.

And perhaps in a sign of desperation, the company said it had even begun putting safety nets up on factory buildings to deter suicide attempts. (Not soon enough in at least one case, apparently. Hours after the news conference, another Foxconn employee fell to his death from one of the complex’s buildings, according to the official news agency Xihuan, although it was not immediately known whether it was an accident or suicide.)
“We’re reviewing everything,” said Mr. Gou, whose Taiwanese company controls Foxconn Technology, which operates two sprawling factories here with about 420,000 employees.
Sensing a public relations fiasco and questions from Foxconn suppliers, Mr. Gou traveled here Wednesday from Taiwan on what company executives said was an emergency trip. “We will leave no stone unturned and we’ll make sure to find a way to reduce these suicide tendencies,” Mr. Gou said.
Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, whose own corporate images are at risk from the suicides, say they, too, are now investigating conditions at Foxconn.
Mr. Gou, the 59-year-old founder of Foxconn and its Taiwanese parent company, the Hon Hai Group, sought to calm growing concerns that Foxconn’s labor practices and highly regimented operations are to blame for the rash of suicides on its two Shenzhen campuses this year.
The most recent confirmed suicide took place early Tuesday, when a 19-year-old employee fell to his death here. It was the 9th Foxconn suicide this year, police officials say, and the 11th time an employee at one of Foxconn’s two Shenzhen campuses attempted suicide. Two workers who survived suicide attempts suffered serious injuries.
In an interview Wednesday, Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said his company was “saddened and upset” by the suicides and that Apple was determined to ensure that Foxconn workers were treated with respect and dignity. The company, whose popular iPod is among the products made by Foxconn, has conducted labor audits of the company in the past and sought improvements.
But questions about Foxconn’s labor practices have lingered. At a separate news conference late Wednesday, Shenzhen city officials suggested that the company was partly to blame for the accidents, although they offered few details.
And several labor rights groups are calling for an independent investigation into the deaths and labor practices at Foxconn. Workers are paid about $32 for a regular 40-hour work week, which is above minimum wage in the area, and often seek to work large amounts of overtime.
“Foxconn’s production line system is designed so well that no worker will rest even one second during work; they make sure you’re always busy for every second,” says Li Qiang, executive director of the China Labor Watch, a New York based labor rights group. “Foxconn only values the enterprise benefits but totally ignores the social benefits.”
Those claims have been bolstered in recent weeks by some of China’s state-run newspapers, which have published a series of sensational reports about the suicides, alongside exposes detailing what they claim are the harsh conditions inside Foxconn factories.
Some articles have described the company’s authoritarian management style, the heavy burdens workers face in trying to meet Foxconn production quotas. Others say the company has cramped dormitories that sometimes house 10 to a room.
But at Wednesday’s press conference, Foxconn executives extolled Shenzhen campus amenities that they said included modern dormitories, swimming pools and other recreational facilities. The company also said it had regularly passed stringent social audits conducted by Apple and other major customers, although some of those audits have cited labor infractions.
And while executives acknowledged a sharp rise in the rate of suicides on the Shenzhen campuses this year, they said there was no single or clear-cut cause. They insisted that personal problems and social ills, like the nation’s rising income gap, were largely to blame for the deaths — not what some say is the company’s authoritarian management style.

“There is a fine line between productivity and regimentation and inhumane treatment,” said Louis Woo, a Foxconn executive. “I hope we treat our workers with dignity and respect.”

Foxconn executives say they have invited several groups of sociologists and mental health experts here to study the suicides and offer advice about how to prevent additional deaths.
Jing Jun, a sociology professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing and one of the experts Foxconn invited here, dismissed the idea that the company’s labor practices were to blame. He said the victims were young people, aged 18 to 24, almost all of whom had recently moved to Shenzhen from rural areas. He said he believed they struggled with personal problems and the challenges of adjusting to factory life.
Professor Jing also offered a theory that widespread reports about the earlier suicides at Foxconn this year had created a contagion of copycats, particularly after rumors spread about the high compensation the company was paying some of the victims’ families. Some families had received about 100,000 renminbi, or a little more than $14,600, according to several Foxconn employees.
“We don’t know everything yet, but this almost seems like an infectious disease,” Professor Jing said. “And paying high compensation to some may have played some role.”
Health experts say the suicide figures from Foxconn, while troubling, actually remain far below the national rate of about 14 per 100,000 in China, as calculated by the World Health Organization — a figure that compares to about 11 per 100,000 in the United States. Some independent studies, though, say suicide rates in China are higher than reflected in the WHO figures.
In any case, Foxconn has drawn growing scrutiny with the sudden surge in suicides at a pair of factories here that company executives say recently hired about 100,000 workers to help meet growing demand for electronics.
Last year, a 25-year-old worker killed himself after he was accused of stealing an iPhone prototype. In e-mail and text messages to friends he said he had been beaten by the company’s security officers.
Mr. Gou rarely grants interviews and almost never allows journalists onto the Foxconn campus. But Wednesday he made an unusual show of concern, bowing several times at the news conference and apologizing for the tragedies.
And he promised to scrap recently announced plans to have all employees sign a form acknowledging that their relatives would only get basic, government mandated compensation — and nothing more generous — if they took their own lives.
The company said it originally released the form, which has been widely criticized here, after consulting with the government and worrying about whether rumors about high compensation was a contributing factor in some of the suicide attempts.
Mr. Gou even led dozens of journalists on a tour of Foxconn’s campus, visiting dormitories, a campus hospital, a production line and a center meant for helping employees with personal problems.
And he appealed to the media to be careful in its coverage of the suicides at Foxconn, which he said could fuel even more suicide attempts.
“I’m appealing to the press to take social responsibility: do not sensationalize this,” he said. But he also said the company was re-examining its own operations. “We can be a better company.”

Bao Beibei contributed research.

NYT Article: At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart. Is Carol Payne Flavell Part of the Crisis?

2010-05-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

“there is a major black market scam being worked on
the $30 million a year in HIV/AIDS drugs we
finance... I could easily name the in-house folks but
my lips are sealed.”

- Email sent from Africa by Carol Payne Flavell, Administrative
Employee of United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and Administrative Employee of
President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as
Pepfar. Currently residing in Olympia, WA. ”

At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart,

Published May 9th, 2010

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

KAMPALA, Uganda — On the grounds of Uganda’s biggest AIDS clinic, Dinavance Kamukama sits under a tree and weeps.

Her disease is probably quite advanced: her kidneys are failing and she is so weak she can barely walk. Leaving her young daughter with family, she rode a bus four hours to the hospital where her cousin Allen Bamurekye, born infected, both works and gets the drugs that keep her alive.

But there are no drugs for Ms. Kamukama. As is happening in other clinics in Kampala, all new patients go on a waiting list. A slot opens when a patient dies.

“So many people are being supported by America,” Ms. Kamukama, 28, says mournfully. “Can they not help me as well?”

The answer increasingly is no. Uganda is the first and most obvious example of how the war on global AIDS is falling apart.

The last decade has been what some doctors call a “golden window” for treatment. Drugs that once cost $12,000 a year fell to less than $100, and the world was willing to pay.

In Uganda, where fewer than 10,000 were on drugs a decade ago, nearly 200,000 now are, largely as a result of American generosity. But the golden window is closing.

Uganda is the first country where major clinics routinely turn people away, but it will not be the last. In Kenya next door, grants to keep 200,000 on drugs will expire soon. An American-run program in Mozambique has been told to stop opening clinics. There have been drug shortages in Nigeria and Swaziland. Tanzania and Botswana are trimming treatment slots, according to a report by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

The collapse was set off by the global recession’s effect on donors, and by a growing sense that more lives would be saved by fighting other, cheaper diseases. Even as the number of people infected by AIDS grows by a million a year, money for treatment has stopped growing.
Other forces made failure almost inevitable.

Science has produced no magic bullet — no cure, no vaccine, no widely accepted female condom. Every proposal for controlling the epidemic with current tools — like circumcising every man in the third world, giving a daily prophylactic pill to everyone contemplating sex or testing billions of people and treating all the estimated 33 million who would test positive — is wildly impractical.

And, most devastating of all, old-fashioned prevention has flopped. Too few people, particularly in Africa, are using the “ABC” approach pioneered here in Uganda: abstain, be faithful, use condoms.
For every 100 people put on treatment, 250 are newly infected, according to the United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency, Unaids.

That makes prospects for the future grim. Worldwide, even though two million people with the disease die each year, the total keeps growing because nearly three million adults and children become infected.
Even now, the fight is falling short. Of the 33 million people infected, 14 million are immuno-compromised enough to need drugs now, under the latest World Health Organization guidelines. (W.H.O. guidelines are conservative; if all 33 million were Americans, most clinicians would treat them at once.)

Instead, despite a superhuman effort by donors, fewer than four million are on treatment. Just to meet the minimal W.H.O. guidelines, donations would have to treble instead of going flat.

Uganda is a microcosm of that: 500,000 need treatment, 200,000 are getting it, but each year, an additional 110,000 are infected.

“You cannot mop the floor when the tap is still running on it,” said Dr. David Kihumuro Apuuli, director-general of the Uganda AIDS Commission.

Some battles will still be won. Middle-income countries with limited epidemics, like India, Brazil and Russia, can probably treat all their patients without outside help. China almost certainly can. South Africa might; it has a raging epidemic but is rich by African standards.

But for most of Africa and scattered other countries like Haiti, Guyana and Cambodia, it seems inevitable that the 1990s will return: walking skeletons in the villages, stacks of bodies in morgues, mountains of newly turned earth in cemeteries.

As he tours world capitals seeking donations, Dr. Michel D. Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said he had become “hugely frustrated.”

“The consistent answer I hear is: ‘We love you, we hear you, we acknowledge the fund’s good results, but our budget is tight, our budget is cut, it’s the economic crisis.’ ”

No commander in the global fight openly concedes that the war is over, but all admit to deep pessimism.
“I don’t see the cavalry riding to the rescue,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an AIDS researcher who leads one of the National Institutes of Health.

“I’m worried we’ll be in a ‘Kampala situation’ in other countries soon,” said Ambassador Eric Goosby, the Obama administration’s new global AIDS coordinator.
“What I see is making me very scared,” agreed Michel Sidibé, executive director of Unaids. Without a change of heart among donors, Mr. Sidibé said, “the whole hope I’ve had for the last 10 years will disappear.”

Donors give about $10 billion a year, while controlling the epidemic would cost $27 billion a year, he estimated.

His predecessor, Dr. Peter Piot, said he had seen optimism soar and then fade.
Hopes rose from 2001 to 2003 when cheap generic antiretroviral drugs became available, Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations formed the Global Fund and President George W. Bush initiated the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or Pepfar.

“Then, we were at a tipping point in the right direction,” Dr. Piot said. “Now I’m afraid we’re at a tipping point in the wrong direction.”

AIDS2031, a panel he convened to look ahead to the epidemic’s 50th anniversary, issued a pessimistic report in November that concluded: “Without a change in approach, a major epidemic will still be with us in 2031.” Because of population growth, it said, there may still be two million new infections a year even then.
According to the Uganda AIDS Commission, the lifetime bill for treating one Ugandan AIDS patient, counting drugs, tests and medical salaries, is $11,500.

Donors have decided that is too much, that more lives can be saved by concentrating on child-killers like stillbirth, pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles and tetanus. Cures for those killers, like antibiotics, mosquito nets, rehydration salts, water filters, shots and deworming pills, cost $1 to $10.

Under its new Global Health Initiative, the Obama administration has announced plans to shift its focus to mother-and-child health. The AIDS budget was increased by only 2 percent.

The British government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also said they would focus support on mother-child health.

“The political winds have changed,” said Sharonann Lynch, chief author of the Doctors Without Borders report. “And I don’t believe for a minute it’s just the economic downturn. I think world leaders feel the heat is off and they’re fatigued.”

American taxpayers have been particularly generous to Uganda, paying for 88 percent of its drugs; Ugandans know it.

Karen Morgan, an American who runs a laboratory at the hospital where Ms. Kamukama was turned away, said: “Just today, a patient came up to me in the parking lot and said, ‘Thank you, American.’ I said, ‘For what?’ He said ‘For my medicine. You care if I live or die.’ ”

Nearby, in a tent on the hospital lawn, Moses Nsubuga, a D.J. known as Supercharger, rehearsed his troupe, the Stigmaless Band, composed entirely of teenagers on AIDS drugs.
One of their songs is “America, Thank You So Much.”

Dr. Peter Mugyenyi, the hospital’s founder, helped the Bush administration form its AIDS plan and sat beside Laura Bush during the State of the Union address as it was announced.

The loss of donor interest “makes me frantic with worry,” Dr. Mugyenyi said. “Once word spreads that there is no treatment, people do what they did in the past: go to the witch doctors and buy fake treatments.”
He offers copies of e-mail messages he exchanged with American aid officials. One reminds him that he has been instructed to stop enrolling new patients and asks for an explanation of reports that he is treating 37,000 when only 32,000 are authorized. Another asks him not to announce publicly that his funds have been frozen.
He admits slipping pregnant women and young mothers like Ms. Kamukama into treatment slots “contrary to instructions.”

“Morally, I can’t turn them away,” he said.
He has another reason. Family members like Ms. Kamukama and her cousin will often share one set of pills, an act of love that leads to disaster. Incomplete treatment means both will probably die, but may first develop drug-resistant AIDS and pass it on.

American officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the financing freeze.
“The decision was made late in the Bush administration to cap Uganda at $280 million,” one said. “That’s an industrial amount of money.”

United States Embassy officials debated adding $38 million, he said, but cabinet-level Ugandan ministers had been caught stealing from other donors and, though forced to repay the money, were not jailed. The government “hasn’t shown the leadership or commitment to transparency to earn additional funds,” the official added.

Also, he said, Uganda contributes too little. Oil was recently discovered near Lake Albert and the government promised to spend the royalties on roads and electricity, but did not mention AIDS.

“And now the paper says they’re buying Russian jets,” another official added with obvious disgust. Uganda is negotiating for a $300 million squadron of Sukhoi fighter-bombers.
For doctors on the front line, the frustration is palpable.

Dr. Natasha Astill is a British AIDS specialist working at a hospital on the edges of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, in a mountain valley with pygmy settlements close by fancy gorilla-tourist lodges. It is so remote that the drugs that reached Kampala in 2003 did not get here until 2007.

After a long day in which she and a nurse saw 118 patients, many huddling together in the examining room to avoid the storm pounding on the tin roof, she broke down in tears. All day she told subsistence farmers she could not, for example, treat the white fungal thrush filling their mouths unless they could pay $1 a day — more than they earn.

She can still give free antiretrovirals to a few; while her hospital’s American funds are frozen, it still gets some drugs from the Ugandan Ministry of Health and cash gifts from wildlife tourists and the singer Elton John. But soon this hospital, too, will make a waiting list.

“It makes me angry,” she says. “It feels horrible. Sometimes you wonder if you’re doing people favors. You start them on drugs, you give them hope, and then you’re not sure you can keep it up. We all knew these drugs are for life.”

--------------------------------End of Article.

Click here to see to see the video.

Click here to see over 16 more photos of the AIDS crisis in Uganda.

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Update! Over 3,000 People have signed the Petition to Stop the Black Market Sales of AIDS Medicine in Africa! Please Join them!

Carol Payne Flavell. Charles Ble Goude, Andre Nkouaga. Petition the United States government for a redress of grievances

2010-05-06T22:51:00.000-07:00

To: U.S. Congress

WE THE PEOPLE of the United States of America, pursuant to the Bill of Rights, Amendment One, which gives the right of the American people to petition the United States government for a redress of grievances, hereby state the following:

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell's name is found in numerous Internet search results listed as the "Deputy Director at United States Agency for International Development, Washington, DC." Her name also appears with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, created by George Bush in 2003 and her name appears with the Hoops4Africa and Hoops ForAfrica program. She has been very active in a large variety of recent activities involving moving money across international borders as can be seen by a large variety of her emails published on the Internet.

WHEREAS, the United States Agency for International Development” (USAID) website states:

"In broad terms, USAID focuses on corruption as the misuse of public office for private gain. It encompasses abuses by government officials such as embezzlement and nepotism, as well as abuses linking public and private actors such as bribery, extortion, influence peddling, and fraud. Corruption arises in both political and bureaucratic offices and can be petty or grand, organized or unorganized. Though corruption often facilitates criminal activities such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and prostitution, it is not restricted to these activities."

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has written numerous emails that have been widely published detailing her activities in her own words that warrant a full investigation into her financial holdings.

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell is the mistress of Andre Nkouaga, a currently married man and a citizen of another country here on a permit which strictly forbids him to work and earn money, who shares many of Carol Payne Flavell‘s finances and business transactions with him.

Carol has stated that she is trying to hide Andre’s funds from his current wife in email statements such as “he has a lot…at third locations in Berlin. She is apparently quite an internet sleuth (I imagine she does intelligence work and she is a diplomat). At any rate I had all 4 of the sites blocked to her and pretty restricted to other users. Somehow she got my voodoomama appellation and... ...has reportedly sent out private investigators, threatened a "diplomatic incident." …that won't make a big splash, but I've warned Andre repeatedly that the money we have sitting in his account in Paris is at tremendous risk if she wants to make an issue of it. He doesn't seem to understand the legalities of shared property, particularly if one person has the funds to hire a good lawyer in her home country (fortunately, they were married in Paris many years ago). Her name is Veronika Marz (or Marx)(or Mars), I've never seen it in writing though she used to work at OECD [OECD stands for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] */Paris and I could probably dig it up from there, she lives in Berlin now).

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has written numerous emails stating such things as “they asked our "affiliation" we said US Embassy.”

WHEREAS, Andre Nkouaga is not an employee of the US Embassy.”

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell, has made reference to Charles Blé Goudé and referred to him as (among other things) “he controls the oil. What can I say? Except that I'm intrigued” and referred to Charles Blé Goudé in emails as “a friend in very high places.” [ Email sent by Carol Payne Flavell on Thu, Nov 12, 2009]

Charles Blé Goudé (seated, center) with supporters of the COJEP after their storming of RTI studios in Abidjan.

WHEREAS, Charles Blé Goudé has been involved in countless violent activities leading to the death of countless innocent men, women and children.

WHEREAS, “Charles Blé Goudé is the founder and current leader of Congrès Panafricain des Jeunes et des Patriotes (COJEP). Set up in June 2001, the group has attracted controversy and international condemnation due to its alleged involvement in extra-judicial killings and demonstrations organised by the group which have often turned violent. The organisation is strongly nationalist and has even been accused of racism and Islamophobia” [Reference pages] “

WHEREAS, Charles Ble Goude has been described as one of three people placed on the list of “COTE D IVOIRE: Profiles of three facing UN sanctions.” The Global Security article states: “The United Nations has placed individual sanctions on political figures in Cote d’Ivoire. [One of the] three who...face an international travel ban and assets freeze... [are] as follows:

“CHARLES BLE GOUDE: The...UN Sanctions Committee UN statement (found here), says he was listed for sanctions for "public statements advocating violence against United Nations installations and personnel...direction of and participation in acts of violence by street militias, including beatings, rapes and extra-judicial killings... [and an] obstacle...to the peace process." Charles Ble Goude...has been nicknamed 'The General' for his ability to bring thousands of youngsters onto the streets within hours.”

WHEREAS, Charles Blé Goudé has stated, on Adolf Hitler: “I've gotten to the point today where I don't believe anymore that Hitler was bad, or that Milosevic is bad.” [Le Patriote, Newspaper of the RDR), 12 May 2004]

WHEREAS, Samuel A. Weems, who was elected as one of the one hundred delegates to rewrite the Arkansas Constitution and once held the office of prosecuting attorney has written a widely published article condemning Carol Payne Flavell’s support of violent activities and terrorists. Among his many statements to her which he forwarded to numerous politicians and published many places, he said: “Shame on you Ms. Flavell. Read the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights report on their web site www.mnadvocates.org Ms. Flavell-I am certain that you are aware of the fact that the United Nations voted not once but on five different occasions demanding…withdraw from its unlawful occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh because they have illegally invaded 20% of Azerbaijani lands. These United Nations resolutions can be verified in their yearly reports. Therefore, I am amazed that you should allocate $15 million dollars of my tax money to help such acts of terrorism against Muslims and Jews. The United States "claims" to be fighting against such terrorist acts that your agency is encouraging and supporting. Consider what the United Nations says…Ms. Flavell”

WHEREAS, Samuel A. Weems, who was elected as one of the one hundred delegates to rewrite the Arkansas Constitution and once held the office of prosecuting attorney has written a widely published article condemning Carol Payne Flavell’s support of violent activities and terrorists. Among his many statements to her which he forwarded to numerous politicians and published many places, he said “Consider this fact Ms. Flavell. The United States is a co-chair with Russia of what is called the Minsk group. This is an organization of countries who claim to be fair and who "claim" to be working to help…work out a peace settlement. How can the United States be fair when you are giving $15 million dollars this time to an…organization to rebuild only…losses in this region and nobody knows if this money will not be spent to support the 50.000…terrorists occupying Karabakh?”

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has stated, in regards to her dealings with Armenia. “Andre and I were talking about all this for the third time tonight and something "clicked." It was that line about they already know about YOU that was riding under my skin all day. Shit, it is all coming into focus. It was already clear to me that this guy plays an intelligence function here, they often get placed in consular. The key phrase in all of this is "they already know all about YOU." I imagine he already knows about me from the Armenia files... ” [Email sent by Carol Payne Flavell on Nov 5, 2009]

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has stated, “...guy with locks is going to cart a suitcase full of cocaine to the U.S. I had never formally met this shit-head until I walked up and introduced myself this morning. But we've run into each other a lot and he's about my age and has definitely given me the eye on more than one occasion, some very warm greetings. his little wet dream got a nasty wake up call this morning when mssr. very black with dreads showed up at his counter. fuck that sonofabitch. I probably can't get it into his personnel file but I can make some loud noise. Fuck... I don't let these guys mess up my day. As I told Andre, they don't want you or me dead, they want us very much alive because they know we both have extensive networks at many levels and they want entree to those contacts. That was the message I have heard a number of times, most recently.... But shit, they never let a trail go cold. We got through today's events and are laughing about it, that's a good thing. I will make sure Andre has a visa in hand before I make waves, and I'm going to make some very big waves. Perhaps it goes back to the dream, these little assholes get wiped out, I hope it goes that way. love, Carol” - [Email sent by Carol Payne Flavell on Nov 5, 2009]

WHEREAS, Samuel A. Weems, who was elected as one of the one hundred delegates to rewrite the Arkansas Constitution and once held the office of prosecuting attorney published his article condemning Carol Payne Flavell’s support of violent activities and terrorists in October 20^th and within 4 months he was found dead.

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has stated, in regards to her private business known as Thunderbolt: “Micah [Jones] and Andre [Nkouaga], the other two directors of Thunderbolt.”

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has stated: “Most of my available funds have now moved to an account in france to transfer here for the club/business. This was an act of faith on my part, I like having a nest egg, and there's a good chance that money could go down the drain if the political situation goes sour again (which is going to happen if you read the latest UN report on CI). Meanwhile we have the children issues...”

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has stated, in numerous emails written by her that have been widely published, that she and her fellow directors of Thunderbolt, “Micah [Jones] and Andre [Nkouaga]," have current, legal troubles all over the world. Carol Payne Flavell stated: “Then another thing hit this week. You probably remember my stories about the problem employees... well that has gotten very ugly, both are threatening me with lawsuits. ...they are coming after me with both barrels blasting to the point where our... lawyer is out doing research on civil cases in foreign courts and referring me to private lawyers, even he admitted that it is... possible... to file a civil case that will be decided by... court. I would have laughed about this a week ago but it's no longer a laughing matter. These two...want revenge. So no matter how frivolous, I'm likely to end up spending lots of money on counsel to try to "fight" a case in a court that is controlled by one of the plaintiffs. I would laugh but it's no longer funny. The allegations are really about him, she is peripheral to it, but she has a green card and says she has high-level political connections (Hillary) and so is cleaning up behind him, saying that she is the one who has been "harmed" by it all. On Tuesday... we thought the coast was clear. Wed morning, an email went out that she was sick (he asked an admin assistant to send the message), then he came in and asked for 3 days off, next thing we hear, she is "hospitalized..." they immediately insert an IV drip line... ...the two heads of agency go to visit her at the hospital and he is there holding her hand when they walk in. He is a doctor. It is clear... that they are trying to document "physical harm" for a future court case; and they are also playing the "sympathy" card. If it weren't bad enough already, he called in today that his house was burglarized last night and all the portable phones and his wife's jewelry was stolen... some of that stolen property might be thrown into my yard shortly.” [Email sent by Carol Payne Flavell on Thu, Oct 29, 2009]

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has repeatedly stated her experience in being able to move government money in statements such as “I...then headed to a 2 hour policy agenda meeting I was chairing, went well except that my nemesis was present and making comments to the effect that I'd screwed up actions for which he was responsible. Cockroach. Cafard in french and it has a particularly ugly meaning here, even 35 years ago the ivorians were calling the Burkina "les cafards" because they were entering the country to get a job. Next, I move immediately to a two person meeting with the head of data collection for the government, to discuss next year's workplan and how to move the money. My masters is in nutrition and I have years of experience... and I know how to move the money, so that was an interesting meeting." [Email sent by Carol Payne Flavell on Nov 4, 2009]

WHEREAS, Carol Payne Flavell has paid for luxurious travel and Penthouse Suites for her 'business meeting' which can be proven when she stated: “We are staying a second night and will be coming back tomorrow (Sunday). -- the manager was VERY impressed. I would like to have the annual business meeting (required) of Thunderbolt Enterprises here over New Year's. I have...booked the penthouse unit...for December 30/31 and January 1. I wanted to invite the folks who had helped us most, I am happy to do it and would plan to have a few hours of serious business discussion and then ….just head out and play. ...this place is...luxurious, with a gorgeous look out over the water and the cascades, mother mountain prominent, in the distance. If I wanted to do it near Oly, I'd just do it at the house. I want to get everyone "away" from the house and Oly, Also, I can't hold off until next year, I need to hold this meeting this calendar year, darn those state business folks. Here's the score. This place has...two suites on the third floor lower level...Andre and I will take one...the other two beds are on the upper "crows nest" level, they are also separated in space. There is a huge conference space beside the kitchen on the main level...there is certainly lots of room. I am happy with inviting all with exception of DJ Dave, neither of the muscians thought he was worth the investment, he is a nice person but I don't think he will be part of future productions...there are also conference facilities, including speakerphone in the unit, so we can "conference" and there is DSL internet and an open access machine in the lobby.” [Email sent by Carol Payne Flavell on Sat, December 26, 2009]

THEREFORE, it is concluded that Carol Payne Flavell and Andre Nkouaga’s finances all over the world warrant a full investigation.

FURTHER, the United States government has allowed, and is continuing to allow, Carol Payne Flavell to benefit and/or direct the American people’s tax money.

THEREFORE, it is up to the American people to exercise their rights and hold Carol Payne Flavell and Andre Nkouaga accountable for financial irregularities which may or may not lead to the support of other friends in high places of Carol Payne Flavell.

CONSEQUENTLY, the people of the United States of America declare the following,

TO THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT: Pursuant to the Bill of Rights, Amendment One, we, the people of the United States, declare that we are grieved over the actions of Carol Payne Flavell and Andre Nkouaga and hereby petition the United States government to take immediate action to cease funding Carol Payne Flavell with any taxes from the United States of America in any way, manner of form until Carol Payne Flavell and Andre Nkouaga’s finances receive a full financial investigation. This includes past, current and future finances in the USA, France, Berlin and worldwide.

We, the People, further DEMAND an immediate, thorough and honest investigation by the US Government into Carol Payne Flavell and Andre Nkouaga’s finances.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

-------------------
Due to Carol Payne Flavell’s affiliation with violent individuals when you click on this link please fill in your name and we will add it to our private petition which will not be published online and sent to the US Congress. Thank you.

Meta tags and Keywords: Andre Nkouaga, Carol Payne Flavell, narcotics, underage, minors, bounced checks, smuggling, Olympia, Paris, Berlin, hospital, Washington, Government, Zaire, Amsterdam, voodoomama, Carol Flavell, Carol P Flavell, Customs, Interpol, International Police, Customs Patrol, HoopsForAfrica, Hoops4Africa, criminals,

Côte d'Ivoire Time Line.

2010-05-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

Côte d'Ivoire Time Line

Last updated 1 June 2007

A chronology of key events:

Sources: http://www.acig.org/, http://www.irinnews.org/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/

1637 French international workers landed at the inhospitable coastline near Assignee.
1843-1844 Admiral Bouet-Williaumez signed treaties with the kings of the Grand Bassam and Assinie regions, placing their territories under a French protectorate.
1893 Côte d'Ivoire made into a colony.
1904 Côte d'Ivoire becomes part of the French Federation of West Africa.

Independence

1944 Brazzaville Conference granted French citizenship to all African "subjects," the right to organize politically was recognized, and various forms of forced labor were abolished.

Felix Houphouet-Boigny
first president
from 07 Aug 1960
to 07 Dec 1993

1945: Elected deputy to French National Assembly
1946: Founds Côte d'Ivoire Democratic Party
1960: Elected as president
1990: Won first contested presidential election

1944 Felix Houphouet-Boigny, later to become Côte d'Ivoire's first president, founds a union of African farmers (Syndicat Agricole Africain), which develops into the inter-territorial African Democratic Rally (RDR) and its Ivorian section, the Côte d'Ivoire Democratic Party, known in French as the Partie Democratique de la Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI).
1946-1959 Felix Houphouet-Boigny was elected to the first Constituent Assembly, and represented Côte d'Ivoire in the French National Assembly.
1947 The colony of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) was separated off from Côte d'Ivoire.
1956 The French Overseas Reform Act (Loi Cadre) transferred a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa and removed some voting inequalities.
1958 Côte d'Ivoire becomes an autonomous republic within the French Community. This was a result of a referendum that brought community status to all members of the old Federation of French West Africa except Guinea.
1960 Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent. Houphouet-Boigny, who was elected the first President of the republic.

Ban on parties lifted

1990 Opposition parties legalized; Houphouet-Boigny wins Côte d'Ivoire's first multiparty presidential election.

Henri Konan Bedie (HKB) Dec. 1999
President
from 07 Dec 1993
to 24 Dec 1999

1993 Henri Konan Bedie becomes president following the death of Houphouet-Boigny.
1995 October Bedie re-elected in a ballot that is boycotted by opposition parties in protest at restrictions imposed on their candidates.
1995 December Bedie's Democratic Party wins parliamentary elections by a landslide.
23 December 1999 23 December Mutiny by soldiers demanding payment of allowances owed to them for peacekeeping duty in Central African Republic.
24-25 December 1999 A former army chief of staff, Gen Robert Guei (1990-1995), announces the destitution of the government of President Henri Konan Bedie, the dissolution of parliament and other state organs, and the formation of the National Public Salvation Committee (CNSP Comite National de Salut Publique). Leaders of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR), detained since October, are freed. Bedie is evacuated by the French military to Lome, Togo, before continuing on to Paris.

Popular Uprising

27 May 2000 The Higher Council of Imams (Conseil Superieur des Imams) complains that security forces have been abusively withdrawing ID cards from Muslims and sometimes destroying them.
31 May 2000 Ouattara calls on his supporters to vote “Yes” at the constitutional referendum, while deploring the fact that the draft contains certain “ambiguities and incoherence” relating to the eligibility issue.
3 June 2000 Côte d’Ivoire’s bishops warn at their plenary assembly that the specter of civil war looms over the country.

General Robert Guei
President
from 25 Dec 1999
to 25 Oct 2000

4-5 Jul 2000 Mutiny by soldiers demanding payment for their participation in the December 1999 coup d’etat. Guei hints that the RDR was behind the mutiny which, he claims, was really a coup d’etat.
17 Jul 2000 The government announces that both parents of a presidential candidate need to be born Ivorians.
24 Jul 2000 Referendum on the constitution. ‘Yes’ votes: 86.53%; participation: 56%
4 Sep 2000 Six presidential guards detained since 1 September are charged with endangering the security of the state. The six are reportedly close to Master Sergeant Ibrahim Coulibaly, known as I.B, a former bodyguard of Ouattara’s children.
18 Sep 2000 A group of soldiers attack Guei’s residence in Abidjan. Two loyalist soldiers are killed. The minister of communication indirectly accuses the RDR, which denies the accusation. About 20 members of the presidential guard are arrested.
October 2000 Guei proclaims himself president after announcing he has won presidential elections, but is forced to flee in the wake of a popular uprising against his perceived rigging of the election result.

Laurent Gbagbo
President
from 26 Oct 2000
to present

October 2000 Laurent Gbagbo, believed to be the real winner in the presidential election, is proclaimed president. Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, who had been excluded from running for president, calls for a fresh election.
October 2000 Fighting erupts between Gbagbo's mainly southern Christian supporters and followers of Ouattara, who are mostly Muslims from the north.
December 2000 President Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) emerges as the biggest single party in parliamentary elections though on a low turn-out of 33%.
January 2001 Attempted coup fails.
February 6 2001 Two generals Lassana Palenfo and Aboulaye Coulibaly accused of trying to assassinate the former military ruler, General Robert Guei, appear in court to face an additional charge embezzling more than three million dollars belonging to the country's national lottery and the port of Abidjan.
14 February 2001 A key opposition leader, Henriette Diabate with the Rally of the Republicans party, is charged with a number of crimes, including illegal arms possession and destabilizing the country.
27 February 2001 US ambassador to Côte d'Ivoire accuses the security forces of arresting citizens arbitrarily, torturing detainees and acting with impunity.
10 March 2001 Ivorian government says it has obtained massive price cuts from international pharmaceutical firms for Aids therapy drugs. The cuts would reduce the monthly cost of treating a patient by over 80%.
19 March 2001 President Gbagbo and opposition leader Ouattara meet for the first time since violence erupted between their supporters in October 2000 and agree to work towards reconciliation.
2001 Child slavery under the spotlight following reports of a child slave ship off the west coast of Africa. Growing allegations of child slavery in cocoa plantations strain relations with international community. Government moves to tackle the issue, US House of Representatives passes funding bill providing for voluntary "no child slave labor" labels on cocoa products.
March 2001 Calls for fresh presidential and legislative elections after Alassane Dramane Ouattara's party gains majority at local polls.
June 2001 Amnesty International criticizes government's human rights record over the alleged extra-judicial, revenge killing of 57 northerners during presidential election campaign in October 2000. Eight gendarmes accused of the killings are cleared in August.
Ouattara accuses government of manipulating ethnic problems, especially between the several million Burkinabe immigrants and locals, to retain power.
July 2001 Former foreign minister Amara Essy is appointed as Secretary General of the newly formed African Union.
July 2001 Pascal Affi N'Guessan elected to replace President Gbagbo as head of the ruling Ivorian Popular Front to rejuvenate the leadership of the party.
October 2001 Gbagbo sets up a National Reconciliation Forum. General Guei refuses to attend in protest against the arrest of his close aide Captain Fabien Coulibaly. UN insists on reconciliation before it will resume aid.

Alassane Dramane Ouattara
Prime Minister
from 07 Nov 1990
to 11 Dec 1993

November 2001 Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara returns to Côte d'Ivoire, ending a year-long exile in France and Gabon.
January 2002 The "big four" President Gbagbo, opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, former military ruler General Guei and deposed president Bedie meet for long-awaited talks on resolving their differences.
June 2002 Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara a non-native is granted nationality papers. Supporters celebrate in the streets and say the move will allow him to contest future presidential elections.
August 2002 Ouattara's RDR opposition party is given four ministerial posts in new government.

Rebellion

19 September 2002 Rebellious exiled military personnel and co-conspirators in Abidjan simultaneously attacked government ministers as well as military and security facilities in Abidjan, Bouake, and Korhogo. In Abidjan, government forces stopped the coup attempt within hours, but the attacks resulted in the deaths of Emile Boga Doudou, Minister of Interior, and several high-ranking military officers, including General Guei and his family. The failed coup attempt quickly evolved into a rebellion, splitting the country in two. The rebels, calling themselves the "Patriotic Movement of Côte d'Ivoire" (MPCI), retained control in Bouake and Korhogo, and within two weeks moved to take the remainder of the northern half of the country. Soon, they were advancing towards Abidjan. The presence of French soldiers between Bouake and Yamoussoukro stopped the rebel advance to Abidjan.
October-December 2002 Paris forced the MPCI to sign a ceasefire with them in October, as well as an agreement for French forces to monitor the ceasefire line. Later there were clashes and a battle for the key cocoa-industry town of Daloa. Previously unknown rebel groups, the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West (MPIGO) and the Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP), seize towns in west. MPIGO and MJP were allied with the MPCI, and The three groups began calling themselves the "New Forces."

Linas-Marcoussis Agreement

January 2003 The ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) placed 1,500 peacekeepers in Côte d'Ivoire, including units from Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal and Togo. These troops and political pressure from Paris resulted in the French-brokered Linas-Marcoussis Agreement. All the major political parties agreed to a power-sharing national reconciliation government, which was to include New Forces as well. The parties agreed to work together on modifying national identity, eligibility for citizenship, and land tenure laws, which many observers see as some of the root causes of the conflict. The Linas-Marcoussis Agreement also stipulated a UN Monitoring Committee to report on implementation of the Agreement.

Power-sharing

Seydou Elimane Diarra
Prime Minister
from 10 Feb 2003
to 04 Dec 2005 and
from 8 May 2000
to 27 Oct 2000

March 2003 Political parties, rebels agree on new government to include nine members from rebel ranks. "Consensus" prime minister, Seydou Diarra, tasked with forming cabinet. President Gbagbo formed a government of national reconciliation with 41 ministers, but this did not meet until mid- April, when international peacekeeping force was finally in place to provide security for New Forces ministers. President Gbagbo accepts peace deal at talks in Paris. Deal proposes power-sharing government.
May 2003 Armed forces sign "full" ceasefire with rebel groups to end almost eight months of rebellion.

UPRISING

July 2003 At a presidential palace ceremony, military chiefs and rebels declare war is over.
August 2003 Group of suspected mercenaries and their backers detained in France; said to have planned to assassinate President Gbagbo.
2003 September Rebels accuse President Gbagbo of failing to honor peace agreement and pull out of unity government.
30 November 2003 a group of "young patriots" supported by some 100 government troops (FANCI) attempt to forcibly cross the ceasefire line in the area of Mbahiakro, east of Bouake. Their goal is to launch an attack against the New Forces in Bouake. The group is stopped by the French Licorne forces. A FANCI armored personnel carrier is destroyed during the ensuing exchange of gunfire. This incident constituted a grave violation of the ceasefire agreement.
11 December 2003 Nineteen are killed in armed attack on state TV building in Abidjan. It is between Government forces and a militia group calling itself "the Ninjas". This aggravates concerns regarding the safety of the New Forces cabinet ministers and prompts a decision by the New Forces to delay their return to the Government.

Rebels rejoin government of national unity.

March 2004 The government says 37+ people were killed on Thursday when police and the army prevented a march to call for the full implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis peace Accord. Opposition leaders say the death toll had risen to 162. They claim many had died in reprisal killings after the aborted rally. They accuse the military of rounding up dozens of their supporters. The violence was the most severe in a series of setbacks to the peace process in Côte d'Ivoire. An international committee supervising the peace process said it was concerned about reports of abuses and raids carried out by security forces in Abidjan.
A 2004 A United Nations force begins deployment.

Jules Yao Yao

Spokesman of the
armed forces

June 2004 Ivorian Mi-24s flew their first strike against rebel positions near the village of Mamimigui, in the centre of the country, some 370km NW from Abidjan. Five government soldiers and 15 rebels were killed. Spokesman of the armed forces of Côte d'Ivoire, Col. Jules Yao Yao, specified that Mi-24s were sent to attack several rebel positions. This was confirmed by rebel spokesman, Sidki Konate, who stressed that this was a violation of a ceasefire from 3 May 2003, and that an outbreak of a new civil war was now imminent.
31 July 2004 Accra III peace summit in Ghana. Reforms agreed upon include the adoption of laws foreseen under a tattered Linas-Marcoussis Agreement signed in January 2003 to end the civil war and the amendment of a constitutional provision dictating who is eligible to stand for president. A timetable for disarming the paramilitary and militia forces on all sides of the conflict, including the rebels who retain control of the north, was also hammered out during the marathon summit.
29 September 2004 Ivorian parliament fails to agree citizenship laws, which were a key requirement of the January 2003 peace deal.
13 October 2004 Ivorian rebels say they will not disarm, as planned, until immigration laws are changed.
28 October 2004 Vendors selling newspapers accused of supporting the opposition are attacked by pro-government militants in Abidjan and southern towns. The New Forces order eight rebel ministers to return to the rebel-held north, saying it had discovered the government smuggling arms across its territory.

Government launches air strikes

4 November 2004 The air strikes are on New Forces camps in Bouake and Korhogo in the rebel-held territory in north.
5 November 2004 Government continues air strikes and clashes on the ground in north.
6 November 2004 An Ivorian air strike, delivered around 1:30 PM, hit a French position near Bouake. The bombing kills nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker. In less than one hour, French peacekeepers destroy almost all the country's air force. This caused an outburst of anti-French feelings in Côte d'Ivoire. Within 48 hours no less than five French schools are burned in Abidjan and Yamoussoukro. Homes are looted and dozens of French shops destroyed.

Charles Ble Goude

November 2004

9,000 traumatized foreigners including 8,000 French and 200 Britons, as well as Lebanese, Moroccans, Spaniards, Italians, Canadians, Americans and Belgians are evacuated after Ble Goude, the leader of the "Young Patriots," called on Ivorians to take to the streets to confront French troops. The "Young Patriots" loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo are blamed for much of the violence.
9 November 2004 French soldiers fired to disperse protesters after days of rioting in the main city Abidjan. French troops deployed in Abidjan, said their only aim was to protect French citizens and property. Ivorian militants accused them of planning to topple President Laurent Gbagbo. Demonstrators ransacked the Hotel Ivoire after French troops pulled out and smoke rose into the sky.
December 2004 Parliament passes key reforms envisaged under the 2003 Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, including abolishing need for the president to have both Ivorian mother and father.

The Pretoria Agreement

6 April 2005 Government and New Forces declare an "immediate and final end" to hostilities. The move follows talks in Pretoria, South Africa.
June 2005 Massacres in western town of Duekoue: President Gbagbo says more than 100 people were killed, but contradicts widely-held view that ethnic rifts lay behind violence.
October 2005 Planned elections are shelved as President Gbagbo invokes a law which he says allows him to stay in power.

Charles Konan Banny
Prime Minister
December 2005

December 6, 2005 The head of West Africa's Central bank(BCEAO), Charles Konan Banny named as transitional prime minister of Côte d'Ivoire until October 2006.
January 2006 Young people, who support President Gbagbo, closed the streets in Abidjan for five days. They were protesting against what they see as UN interference in internal affairs. Ruling party (FPi) temporarily pulled out of transitional government and peace process. United Nations vehicles, bases, and buildings were attacked in Abidjan, Daloa, and Guiglo.
February 2006 The UN secretary general sent a $3.5 million bill to Ivory Coast's president, Laurent Gbagbo, for damage caused to UN property and equipment during last month's anti-UN riots.
Main political rivals meet on Ivorian soil for the first time since the 2002 rebellion. They agree to meet again to iron out differences.
June 2006 Militias loyal to President Gbagbo miss disarmament deadlines.
September 2006 Political, rebel leaders say they've failed to make any breakthrough on the main issues standing in the way of elections - principally voter registration and disarmament.
The government resigns over a scandal involving the dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan. Fumes from the waste kill three people and make many more ill.
November 2006 UN Security Council resolution extends the transitional government's mandate for another year until October 2007.
March 2007 After multiple peace accords and postponed national elections, Ivorian President Gbagbo and the New Forces rebel leader, Guillaume Soro, signed a peace agreement that established a new transitional government with Gbagbo as President and Soro as Prime Minister.
UN and French peacekeepers remain in the country. The new government is tasked with disarmament, demobilization, reintegration of former combatants, creating a national identification system, and organizing elections by early 2008.

Sources: http://www.acig.org/, http://www.irinnews.org and http://news.bbc.co.uk

Côte d'Ivoire news and Côte d'Ivoire demographics

Carol Payne Flavell and Andre Nkouaga Criminal Alert: Community Crisis: Check Bouncing Ring in Olympia! Petition the government for a redress of grievances

2010-04-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

News reporting, teaching, scholarship, research and much more.
——————————————————–
Dear friends,
Every four months we take on a new injustice that someone in the Cascadia region is facing that is making a mess of their life. We titled this: Love and Kind Mess.
This Month, the ‘Love and Kind Mess’ investigative article is about a severely disabled, minority and long time community organizer in Olympia (who chooses to use the name Johnathan). Johnathan has volunteered with many not-for-profit groups including A World Beyond Capitalism Conference all five years, and many more groups for many years. In addition he has organized fundraiser events for non-profit groups starring Kimya Dawson and he has helped to set up websites and social networking sites for non-profit student groups and helped to advertise events for groups such as the Evergreen Women of color Coalition and helped them to set up their twitter account.
He was recently illegally evicted from his home in the middle of winter.
By clicking on this link you will find the entire, extremely criminal lease that Carol Flavell Payne (owner of the home) had her lawyers create and send to Johnathan. Carol P Flavell goes by several names including Carol Payne, Carol Flavell If the entire lease takes too long to open, you can click here to just see page three of the lease which mentions the $2,000.00 per month rent increase requiring an advance payment of $3,224.81. Only Johnathan’s name has been changed in the lease for privacy and his email address have been removed.
Johnathan had occupied the home Since August 2008 (almost a year and a half) on a work trade agreement in which he received free rent. He recently helped Carol to organize a show at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts on Dec 22 and Dec 23. Directly afterwards Carol took a trip to Port Townsend and rented the Penthouse Suite at the Swan hotel, bought a new two seater Red European Sports Car, a van, booked a month long trip for countries around Europe for her adult son, Micah Jones and her boyfriend Andre Nkouaga (to start in February 2010) and then told Johnathan that she is poor and that Johnathan should continue to work for free… in addition to paying rent. When Johnathan informed her that it was illegal to raise the rent without advance notice, Carol contacted a lawyer.   On January 15th, 2010 using a crafty legal trick, Carol used her law firm to send Johnathan a criminal lease attempting to raise his rent by $2,000.00 per month, for a tiny room in her basement, with less than one day’s notice.
You will see that the $2,000.00 per month rent simply covers the rent for the smallest room (about the size of a walk in closet with two ground level windows) in the house in the basement that Johnathan occupied…and you will see on ‘Section Eight – Utilities’ in the lease that the $2,000.00 per month does not cover utilities.
Johnathan contacted several volunteer lawyers to ask questions and all the lawyers stated it was completely illegal on many levels and that Johnathan should contact the police if evicted as an ‘Ejectment’ order would be needed to legally evict someone.
When Johnathan got home at 113 18th Avenue SE he found that he was locked out. Not only were the doors locked but the screen doors were locked as well. He called 911 to notify the police as he had been advised and Officer Brown informed Johnathan that it was a Civil Case and the police could not help because they would be held liable. The phone call was police 911 case number 100150440.
All of Johnathan’s food, clothes, medicine and life’s belongings are in the his small room in the home.
on January 15th, 2010, Johnathan called Carol’s law firm to ask them why Carol had done this illegal action of locking him out and evicting him. Jay Goldstein of Jay A Goldstein law office laughed a little and then informed Johnathan “…She wants you out of her home…”
So the action of raising the rent to over $2,000.00 with less than one day’s notice and less than one day given to urn the form in was simply a legal trick to illegally evict Johnathan.
This is the Love and Kind Mess investigative report. If you want to report an injustice that has happened to you and made a mess of your life to be featured on the WeAReCascadia.org website, please send it to us with as much details as possible.   If selected, we will feature it on this website for four months.
Please send email for information about this case to the following address:

Excerpts of Self-incriminating emails from Carol are below:
from   cp flavell
to    [Jonathan]
cc   andre.nkouaga,
Micah Jones
date   Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 9:40 PM
“I’ve reviewed your two messages with Micah and Andre, the
other two directors of Thunderbolt,”
-Crime – Andre is on a temporaryVisa from overseas and Carol has been illegally employing him in the Thunderbolt business not only as an employee but as a Director of the business.
————————————————–
Quote From Carol
“You were brought on as an unsalaried
caretaker and agreed to cover the utilities in exchange for the use of the house. This does not constitute a
tenant arrangement (at least according to my lawyer). It did, in fact, constitute a work agreement”
-Crime – Carol has illegally evicted Jonathan from her home. Jonathan in fact is a Tenant-At-Will. To read the Wikipedia definition of Tenant-at-will please click here.
Quote from Carol:
From: clflavell
Sent: Jan 7, 2010 11:40:23 PM
Subject: Fw: Forwarded Contact:Phone call
Dear Amazon,
I have just reviewed the message that you sent to [Johnathan]
and I want to clarify the situation and see how we can resolve it.
[Jonathan] manages my house and parts of my business when I
am out of the country (I was working in Ivory Coast for most of 2009. [Jonathan] is authorized to use both my credit card and checking account in my absence.) … [Jonathan's] purchases were
not fraudulent, he had authorization to use my credit card
-Crime – Carol has sent emails to Johnathan stating that she will falsify a police report if Johnathan will not work for free and do 20-40 hours of inventory work for her on the thousands of dollars of Amazon.com purchases that Carol authorized.
from    cp flavell
to    [Johnathan, member of MALU]
date    Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 4:24 PM
subject    Re: Proposal
signed-by    yahoo.com
Dear     [Johnathan, member of MALU],
Don’t worry about me, as I said in the first para, we might be using the same word in a different way.
[The neighbor across the street] is supposed to water every other day at a minimum and that means a real good soak, not a quick spray. He is paid through mid September (I paid him $10 a week for 10 weeks in early July).
Here’s what I’d like to suggest… You can have 25% of any rent for any additional tenants you screen and invite to live in the house. The rest of the rent would go to my funds…    Micah is not coming back for at least a year, so his room is also available. Also, just a fine point, if you decide to do things like insulate windows with plastic for window or purchase household use cleaning supplies once the initial clean up is over, those costs should be at your (or household member shared) expense. I agree it is important to put things in writing, and that was my expectation and understanding when we discussed your management. I think we agree on this but just want to make sure.
One note on tenants: fine to put your expectations in writing but please do not execute an official lease. The terms of my house and furnishings insurance do not permit me to operate the house as a rental, it will put me at great liability and also since the insurance on the furnishings there is linked to the insurance on my stuff being shipped, I would have a big problem. So you can’t write anything that resembles or could be construed as a rental agreement or contract, even if you don’t sign it. Make sense? If you want me to review it in advance I know a lot of real estate law and can provide insights.
If you can look in the box in the front upstairs bedroom and find a gas/electric bill, let me know the billing cycle and then I’ll look up my bank account to figure what is being debited and when. For water, sewer, garbage, the bill is consistently $180 to $190 every two months so just use half of that for monthly budget balancing.
[Johnathan, member of MALU], I know you are doing a top-notch job and appreciate that you are not in transition, I feel like I can depend on you for as long as I need a caretaker, and just so you know that could well be a substantial amount of time. So settle in and enjoy yourself. If we move back to the house, assuming Andre agrees (and I’m sure he would) you are welcome to stay on with us. it is wonderful to have such positive energy in the house.
Things are really, really moving forward quickly on the music scene so once Andre gets here next week you will probably hear from us within a month or so about web site development needs.
best,
Carol
——————-
-Crime – Carol has sent emails to Johnathan asking him to participate in her home owners insurance fraud. When Johnathan informed her he did not want to participate she evicted him.
——————-
———————————————————————
from   cp flavell
to    [MALU]
cc    Andre.Nkouaga,
Micah Jones
date   Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 9:40 PM
“I’ve reviewed your two messages with Micah [Jones] and Andre [ Nkouaga], the
other two directors of Thunderbolt,”
——————————————

from    cp flavell
to    [Member of MALU]
date    Thu, Oct 29, 2009
subject    Re: Christmas
Hey [Member of MALU],
“I haven’t mentioned this, but Micah got himself in deep shit back east that has cost about $10K a month [in legal fees] for the past few months, and he is probably also coming here.”

———————————————————————
Carol has stated that she paid $10K a month in legal fees for Micah because Micah was reported for fraudulent checks on the East Coast.
The Checks numbers of the checks that were illegally bounced in Olympia are below:
#1472 the names printed on the Checks were Carol Flavell and Andre Nkouaga
#1475, the names on the Checks were from Carol Flavell and Andre Nkouaga.
#1478, the names on the Checks were from Carol Flavell and Andre Nkouaga.
#1486, the names on the Checks were from Carol Flavell and Andre Nkouaga.

——————————————————————–
Is Carol Payne Flavell using her position for corruption?
When you google the name Carol Payne Flavell this is what comes up: “United States Agency for International Development” (USAID)” and “

Deputy Director at United States Agency for International Development, Washington, DC –

The following names appear beside Carol’s name on this page. United States Agency for International Development.

Jay Knott
Mission Director
Mauricio Vera
Director, OSDBU
John Tsagronis
Policy Implementation and Execution Senior Director
Randy Smith
Managing Director
Theodore Grolimund
Information Technology and Special Audits Division Director

Jenny Pascua
Technical
Li-Ping Lin
computer Specialist
Oscar Pereira
Computer Specialist
Jeff Markovitz
SRA Contractor
Dewey Perks
DART Operations Leader

Is Carol Payne Flavell using her current or past position with the United States Agency for International Development” (USAID) to pay for private trips and private expenses?

This page lists her as retired in the following list:

RetiredMaribess Armstrong
Wanda R. Dixon
Carol Payne Flavell
Donald M. Harrison
Ronald D. Harvey
Joseph F. Lombardo Jr.
Carol A. Peasley
Paulette M. Prestwood
Gerald C. Render
Christine M. Wegman

More importantly, is Carol Payne Flavell using her position to pay for music videos for Andre, her boyrfriend?
This is what the United States Agency for International Development” (USAID) website states:

In broad terms, USAID focuses on corruption as the misuse of public office for private gain. It encompasses abuses by government officials such as embezzlement and nepotism, as well as abuses linking public and private actors such as bribery, extortion, influence peddling, and fraud. Corruption arises in both political and bureaucratic offices and can be petty or grand, organized or unorganized. Though corruption often facilitates criminal activities such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and prostitution, it is not restricted to these activities. For purposes of understanding the problem and devising remedies, it is important to think of crime and corruption as two separate problems.
Corruption poses a serious development challenge. In the political realm, it can seriously undermine democracy and good governance. Corruption in elections and in legislative bodies reduces accountability and representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary suspends the rule of law; and corruption in public administration results in the unequal provision of services. More generally, corruption weakens government institutions by disregarding official procedures, siphoning off the resources needed for development, and selecting or promoting officials without regard to performance. At the same time, corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance.
Corruption also undermines economic development. In the private sector, corruption increases the cost of business through the price of bribes themselves, the management cost of negotiating with officials, and the risk of breached agreements or detection. Although some claim corruption reduces costs by cutting red tape, an emerging consensus holds that the availability of bribes induces officials to contrive new rules and delays. Corruption can also shield companies with connections from fair competition, thus allowing inefficient firms to survive.
Corruption also generates economic distortions in the public sector by pulling public investment away from education and into projects where bribes and kickbacks are more plentiful. Corruption also lowers compliance with construction, environmental, or other regulations; reduces the quality of government services; and increases budgetary pressures on government.

To read a list of Carol’s emails in which she specifically takes money and raises money for the music video projects of her boyrfriend, Andre Nkouaga please click here.

The First Amendment consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances
The right to petition the government for a redress of grievances is our first Amendment right and we are entitled to use it for government employees!

Please send emails about Carol Flavell and Andre Nkouaga in this ongoing investigation to the following address:

—————————————————————-
Legal Notice for Journalists Contributing information to the PeaceCommunitiesSolidarityBlog at www.SaveThePoorBrownChildren.org news organization

The Penal Code states that “no warrant shall issue for any items”, which protects information obtained in protection of a news organization. The Court of Appeal has previously found that these protections apply to online journalists (O’Grady v. Superior Court).

Copying, modifying, displaying, performing or distributing another’s work beyond the suggestions of the Fair Use Rules of Thumb may still be a fair use, so we suggest you use the four-factor fair use test to determine that. You may confer with the Office of General Counsel or follow the published procedures for making fair use determinations. There is one special provision of the law that allows a court to refuse to award any damages at all if it so chooses, even if the copying at issue was not a fair use. It is called the good faith fair use defense [17 USC 504(c)(2)]. It only applies if the person who copied material reasonably believed that what he or she did was a fair use – as would likely be the case if you followed this Policy! If you qualify for this defense, it makes you a very poor prospect for a lawsuit

First amendment: an overview
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference. See U.S. Const. amend. I. Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief. The Supreme Court interprets the extent of the protection afforded to these rights. The First Amendment has been interpreted by the Court as applying to the entire federal government even though it is only expressly applicable to Congress. Furthermore, the Court has interpreted, the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as protecting the rights in the First Amendment from interference by state governments. See U.S. Const. amend. XIV.

Two clauses in the First Amendment guarantee freedom of religion. The establishment clause prohibits the government from passing legislation to establish an official religion or preferring one religion over another. It enforces the “separation of church and state.” Some governmental activity related to religion has been declared constitutional by the Supreme Court. For example, providing bus transportation for parochial school students and the enforcement of “blue laws” is not prohibited. The free exercise clause prohibits the government, in most instances, from interfering with a person’s practice of their religion.

The most basic component of freedom of expression is the right of freedom of speech. The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without interference or constraint by the government. The Supreme Court requires the government to provide substantial justification for the interference with the right of free speech where it attempts to regulate the content of the speech. A less stringent test is applied for content-neutral legislation. The Supreme Court has also recognized that the government may prohibit some speech that may cause a breach of the peace or cause violence. For more on unprotected and less protected categories of speech see advocacy of illegal action, fighting words, commercial speech and obscenity. The right to free speech includes other mediums of expression that communicate a message. The level of protection speech receives also depends on the forum in which it takes place.

Despite popular misunderstanding the right to freedom of the press guaranteed by the first amendment is not very different from the right to freedom of speech. It allows an individual to express themselves through publication and dissemination. It is part of the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. It does not afford members of the media any special rights or privileges not afforded to citizens in general.

The right to assemble allows people to gather for peaceful and lawful purposes. Implicit within this right is the right to association and belief. The Supreme Court has expressly recognized that a right to freedom of association and belief is implicit in the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. This implicit right is limited to the right to associate for First Amendment purposes. It does not include a right of social association. The right to associate also prohibits the government from requiring a group to register or disclose its members or from denying government benefits on the basis of an individual’s current or past membership in a particular group. There are exceptions to this rule where the Court finds that governmental interests in disclosure/registration outweigh interference with first amendment rights. The government may also, generally, not compel individuals to express themselves, hold certain beliefs, or belong to particular associations or groups.

The right to petition the government for a redress of grievances guarantees people the right to ask the government to provide relief for a wrong through the courts (litigation) or other governmental action. It works with the right of assembly by allowing people to join together and seek change from the government.

Please keep in mind that the information presented here is only general information. True legal advice must be provided in the course of an attorney-client relationship specifically with reference to all the facts of a particular situation. Such is not the case here, so this information must not be relied on as a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a licensed attorney.

The Awesome ARUNDHATI ROY at Town Hall Seattle Tonight, along with ARUNDHATI ROY videos

2010-03-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

MP3 File

As many of you know, I quote one of Arundhati Roy's quotes all the times at the end of my blog and podcast posts which is:

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy

So it goes without saying that I encourage you to see her tonight...or forward this to your friends who may be in the Pacific Northwest!

The below Excerpt is from elliottbaybookwebsite:

Co-presented with SEATTLE ARTS & LECTURES. We are delighted and honored to again help present one of the most vital, arresting writers at work in the world today, Arundhati Roy. The Booker Prize-winning author of the 1997 novel, The God of Small Things, and the author, since, of a series of compelling, political non-fiction books, it is with the most recent of these, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers (Haymarket Books), that she visits Seattle this evening. "After so much celebratory salesmanship about India the 'emerging market,' Roy draws us into India the actual country, peeling away the gloss until we are confronted with perhaps the most challenging question of our time: who and what are we willing to sacrifice in the name of development? Roy is one of the most confident and original thinkers of our time." - Naomi Klein. "Arundhati Roy, the direct descendant of Antigone, resists and denounces all tyrannies, pleads for their victims, and unflinchingly questions the tragic. Reflect with her on the questions she receives from the political world today." - John Berger. Tickets and information are available via Seattle Arts Lectures at www.lectures.org or (206) 621-2230. Town Hall Seattle is at 1119 Eighth Avenue (at Seneca).

Location:

The Elliott Bay Book Company

101 S. Main St.

Seattle, Washington 98104

End of Excerpt.

Videos

====================

One of my personal favorites ---> video Public Power in the Age of Empire: War, Resistance and the Presidency (Democracy Now! / August 23rd 2004)

video Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent

(Democracy Now! / May 23rd 2006)

video Baby Bush Go Home: Arundhati Roy on Massive Protests Against Bush's Visit to India

(Democracy Now! / March 3rd 2006)

video Crashing the Party: Famed Indian Writer Arundhati Roy Goes Inside the RNC (Democracy Now! / September 2nd 2004)

video Arundhati Roy and David Barsamian at Seattle Town Hall (August 2004)

video Arundhati Roy, Hans Von Sponeck Respond to Bush's State of the Union on Iraq (August 2004)

video Indian Elections, Her Support for the Iraqi Resistance & the Privatization of War (Democracy Now! / January 21st 2004)

video Arundhati Roy Addresses Tens of Thousands At World Social Forum in Bombay (Democracy Now! / January 20th 2004)

video

Speech: “Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free” (Democracy Now! / October 24th 2003)

audio Come September: Arundhati Roy Speaks Out On Iraq, U.S. Foreign Policy, Palestine & Corporate Globalization

(Democracy Now! / October 15th 2002)

Arundhati Roy, Author of the God of Small Things, Faces Prison for Speaking Out Against the Privatization of Rivers, Energy, and Other Essential Resources in India (Democracy Now! / March 4th 2002)

audio Arundhati Roy Speaks On War, Terror and the Logic of Empire (Democracy Now! / October 19th 2001)

The direct web address for the discussion forums is here: http://tinyurl.com/mutualistproject

As always, to Leave a Comment about this blog post, please place it on my Peace Community Profile page found by clicking here (where you'll see my huge smile and I'd love to see your smile too! *happy laughter*).

Love for the people,
-T

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

Highly Recommended: Search For Missing Women Website

2010-03-09T00:27:00.001-08:00

www.SearchForMissingWomen.org

Highly recommended. Enough Said.

-------------------

Actually, lets give an excerpt from a recent post:

Eleanor Salotto, Update: Among List/Map of Many Recent Missing Women In Virginia

Two different posters on the Find Morgan [Morgan Dana Harrington] forum, give detailed information on some recent unsolved murders and missing persons in Virginia. One gives a map and another gives a list of names.

————————–
Important Side Note: Zorina Rose Williams also should be on the map and on the list but is not. Her name and photo are listed on the Virginia Police Department missing persons page, as seen here.

Age: 41
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Black Eyes: Brown
Height: 5′4″
Weight: 154lbs
Missing From: Newport News, Virginia
Missing Since: 02/04/2010

Details: Zorina was last seen on February 4, 2010.
She has a birthmark on the left side of her face.

Contact:
Newport News Police Department
Officer Pointer
757-247-2500

Zorina is included in our Film, The Search For Missing Women Film Series, Eleanor Salotto, Film 1, but we have been unable to locate a single newspaper article about her despite very extensive searches. Zorina is Black, and her social class and racial background may have something to do with the unfortunate lack of media coverage that her disappearance is unfortunately receiving, as explained in vivid detail on the Black and Missing But Not Forgotten Website at BlackAndMissing.org in regards to Cassandra Morton, also Black, who also had great difficulty getting media coverage when she disappeared from Lynchburg, Virginia. For a map that includes Zorina Rose Williams please click here.

Eleanor Elizabeth Salotto, 47, was last seen in Lynchburg around 4 p.m. Thursday, [Feb 11th, 2010] officials said in a press release. Salotto was described as 5’7” and approximately 130 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a lavender baseball cap, a lavender sweater with a red shirt underneath, black pants, and tennis shoes.

Police ask anyone with information to call the Lynchburg Emergency Communications Center at (434) 847-1602 or (434) 847-1603 or the police department at (434) 455-6041.

Important: Only after you contact the police with research and tips, please also email your research and tips to us about Eleanor Salotta, Zorina Rose Williams and other missing women in the Virginia area for this film series.

The map and list below was not created by anyone affiliated with this Film Series and website.

———————————

This map, found by clicking here, was created by a poster on the find morgan forum.

—————————
Below is an excerpt from a different post originally Posted on 2-18-2010, 04:56 PM

Sent the following email to local television stations and newspapers today. I can find no updates or no additional information on any of the missing women at this time.

Copy of Email…..

Good afternoon,

Just inquiring if there are any updates or anyone following any of the current missing people in our area? The ones highlighted in [bold] below are the ones I’m referring to. I just can’t understand that there doesn’t seem to be much interest in them. Probably the police are not releasing much information but are there reporters assigned actively to get any stories on these women?

Thanks for your time
Deborah _____________
Resident of Bedford County Virginia
Employed in Roanoke County Virginia

Looking back into some Va missing person/murder history – we had issues during the 29 stalker and the Parkway Murders. Now, we have a rash of missing people. Here is a VERY rough draft of recent murders/missing.

August 28 2009 Body of Heidi Childs and David Metzler found murdered in Montgomery County
VA. Heidi was 18 and a VT student. Both Heidi and David were from Lynchburg and both were VT students

Oct 10, 2009 Cassandra Morton of Lynchburg VA is missing. 23 years old. 5′6″ and 125lb
Her remains were discovered on Candlers Mtn / Liberty University Property on
11/29 Her death ruled a homicide

Oct 17, 2009 Morgan Dana Harrington went missing from Charlottesville VA 20 years old
5′ 6″ 120lbs VT college student. Her remains were discovered on Anchorage Farm, Albemarle County on 1/26/10 Her death ruled a homicide

Dec 9 2009 Laticia “Tish” Faust of Patrick County VA 5′4 155lbs missing from Floyd Co VA
(she lived in Patrick County) 50 years old
Car found in Franklin County Va – on the Blue Ridge Parkway. LE has searched a nearby pond and wooded areas. One of her sandals was found by a cadaver dog.
Dec 30 2009 Kristan Fox Louisa County VA 26 years old. College Student. Suspicious death
Taken to a hospital in Charlottesville the night she died.

Jan 15 2010 Kelly Catalano of Chesterfield Co VA Missing 40 yrs old 5′9 145lbs
active on companys softball team

Jan 24 2010 Joan Renee Cook of Roanoke Co VA Missing 45 yrs old 5′6 120lbs
no info yet of her activities – has a seven year old daughter.

Jan 25 2010 Jill Edmonds 40 disappeared from Richmond. Her vehicle was found abandoned on the shoulder of the northbound lanes of the Powhite Parkway as it crosses the James River. described as a black female, 40 years old, 5’4” tall, 1 57 pounds with straight, shoulder-length black hair.

Feb 11 2010 Eleanor Salotta of Campbell Co (Lynchburg) VA Missing [47] yrs old
5′7″ 130 lbs Professor at Sweet Briar College located off rt 29 between Lynchburg and Charlottesville.

Very Special thanks, 90+ photos and slideshow, upcoming East Coast meet-up event coming up

2009-06-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by BlackManFluff at www.BlackManFluff.org

MP3 File

Dear friends, compañeras, allies, and friends who I will come to know soon who are working for a better world,

Special thanks to everyone who came out to the Radical Media Convergence event (either in person or by spirit *happy laughter*) organized by the Freeschool, the Radical road trip and folks at PeaceCommunities.org! You rock!

You will find over 90+ photos of the event here:
http://radicalevents.slide.com

A direct link is here:
http://www.slide.com/r/WPVXXTJ3sj_r1wQnQ3xAMZEjgModzl1Q

Special thanks to everyone who helped take photos. :)

Make sure you have your computer speakers on because there is music in the slide show (though very corny I must admit, the other selections I had to choose from were far worse I assure you!) *happy laughter*.

There will probably be more photos added later. John has some more photos and will send me a disc plus Pamela had a bunch of photos and I'll add a few of those too. :)

On another note...

I invite everyone to the Reuniting, Recreating and Relocalizing 2009 (East Coast Meet-up) taking place June 12-14th, 2009 in West Virginia. There will be workshops on creating multicultural communities, workshops on various systems used on the conference site such as rainwater collection, mini-solar power: small scale gardening; food preservation techniques; wild edibles; heating with wood; water conservation techniques and much more.

I will be giving the following workshop:

Workshop: Beyond Reporting the News. Is the second stage of the progressive movement to help create independent, self-sustainable activist communities rather than to simply criticize our oppressors?

Lauren, Bonnie, Fraanc, my friend Charles and many more wonderful folks, activists and couchsurfers will be coming from around the country to be there! We will leave the Baltimore area on the morning of June 12th to head to West Virginia by car and we invite everyone to caravan down with us. We would definitely like more drivers with cars to help out with the Rideshare if possible. :)

The new website is here: http://www.eventsforfree.blogspot.com

Free food, camping, workshops music and more! :)
Bring your instruments!

WooOOoooo HOOoooooooooooeyy!

Love ya'all!

Love for the people,
-T

For updates on our other events, please subscribe to our radical road trip couchsurfing group found here:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=5982

Or better yet, join the Peace Communities, online community with discussion forums about these events found here:
http://www.PeaceCommunities.org

Keep working for a better world everyone. :)

As always, to Leave a Comment about this blog post, please place it on my Peace Community Profile page found by clicking here (where you'll currently see another photo of Emily's huge smile! *happy laughter*).

Love for the people,
-T
You can also search for the short version of this episode in Itunes under the podcast title: 'Volunteers for Three Groups: A World Beyond Capitalism Conference, The Freeschool Community and The Peace Communities' or click here: http://tinyurl.com/link2itunes

Dare to dream of a better world!

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

2009 Radical Media Convergence Schedule! Join me!

2009-05-20T03:45:00.000-07:00

MP3 File

2009 Radical Media Convergence Schedule:
All workshops and meals are free.

Breakfast- [Seattle]
8am-9am - Free Breakfast
Time and Date: 8am-9:00am on Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Title: [Seattle] Radical Healthcare Justice and Media Empowerment. Presented by Dr. Pamela Wible, radical activist doctor from Eugene, Oregon
Time and Date: 9am-11:30am on Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Photo: Pamela and Angel inside the AstroDome shortly after Hurricane Katrina

Pamela Wible, a practicing radical doctor from Eugene, Oregon, will give a remarkable presentation. She has merged health care empowerment with radical media in every manner including videos, itunes, website publishing, social bookmarking, search engines and soon a nationwide book tour. She has given workshops around the country including at the Gesundheit Institute (as featured in the movie Patch Adams) and at Andrew Weil's Center for Integrative Medicine: "Burnout to Bliss: How Patients are Healing Physicians and Changing the Face of Medicine." She has also volunteered during the Hurricane Katrina at the AstroDome among other places and later given presentations on "Googling My Way to Katrina: Breaking Rank When Necessary" and "Community-Designed Ideal Medical Care: The Grassroots Health Care Revolution." She was also in the middle of the 1999 protests that successfully shut down the 1999 WTO in Seattle and found herself surrounded by police shooting people at point black range with rubber bullets while the police threw concussion grenades at people

and she decided, in her words "to engage in my own form of protest." Her love-centered work combined with her radical experience and workshops have resulted in inspired audiences throughout America. She has helped to give people the tools and the resources they need to start their own grassroots community medical practice. She continues her medical practice in Eugene, Oregon at the Ideal Medical Practice. http://www.idealmedicalpractice.org

Lunchtime- [Seattle]
11:30am-1pm Free Pizza

Title: [Seattle, WA] Networking and Participatory Society Open Forum
11:30am-1pm on Thursday, May 28th, 2009.
Presented by Joel Isaacs, Z Media Institute Alumni from Los Angeles, California

Title: [Seattle] Tour of the Emma Goldman Finishing School
2pm-3:30pm on Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Title: [Olympia, WA] Informal Schedule and Various workshops on Media, Solidarity and Creating Participatory Societies at the The Latin American Solidarity Conference held at Evergreen College
[Olympia], Friday -Sunday, May 29th-31st, 2009

What started out as the Z Media Institute Reunion has now grown into the Radical Media Convergence! Everyone is welcome and This is a free event.

For more detailed information please visit the Radical Media Convergence at

go here: http://www.peacecommunities.org/5001.html

The direct web address for the discussion forums is here: http://tinyurl.com/mutualistproject

As always, to Leave a Comment about this blog post, please place it on my Peace Community Profile page found by clicking here (where you'll currently see another photo of Emily's huge smile! *happy laughter*).

Love for the people,
-T
You can also search for the short version of this episode in Itunes under the podcast title: 'Volunteers for Three Groups: A World Beyond Capitalism Conference, The Freeschool Community and The Peace Communities' or click here: http://tinyurl.com/link2itunes

Dare to dream of a better world!

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

My friend Emily graduated from Medical School (this week) and she is now officially 'Dr. Emily.'

2009-05-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

My friend Emily graduated from Medical School (this week) and she is now officially 'Dr. Emily.'
Check out her blog here: http://emilyblockgeib.blogspot.com

Cool. She also got officially engaged to another doctor within the last couple months. Above is Emily with the 'Congratulations on Graduating/Happy Engagement/Happy marriage' *happy laughter* flowers and dog I sent! :)

Below is her Graduation Photos.

happy days. :)

As always, to Leave a Comment about this blog post, please place it on my Peace Community Profile page found by clicking here (where you'll currently see another photo of Emily's huge smile! *happy laughter*).

Love for the people,
-T

Vote For The Rebels! Daisy's Dead Air Blog & For Renee of WomanistMusings in the Feminist Awards. Send this on Twitter: http://bit.ly/DaisyAndRenee

2009-04-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by BlackManFluff at www.BlackManFluff.org

MP3 File

Ay friends,

Canadian F-Words is having their Blog Awards.

There are two blogs I want to encourage you to vote for.

Vote for Daisy's Dead Air in the International Category- it is great blog and more importantly, she has great comments on other blogs.

She had a great blog post on that guy who was beat blind by Police, plus a lot of great comments in the Digital Colonial issue blog post.

Vote here:

http://acreativerevolution.ca/phpQ/fillsurvey.php?sid=46

Vote for Womanist-Musings - it is great blog. I sent her an article about Police mysteriously killing a Black guy (that the NAACP have stated was not a suicide as the cops want people to believe) and she published it and there are a lot of feminist and progressive blogs that do not publish guest post blog issues about people of color injustices.

Vote for her in all these categories:

http://acreativerevolution.ca/phpQ/fillsurvey.php?sid=44

http://acreativerevolution.ca/phpQ/fillsurvey.php?sid=55

I wanted to encourage my readers to not only vote for them... but to encourage them to send out a message on their Twitter accounts encouraging their friends to vote for them.

I'm not affiliated with the awards in any way, manner of form but I think they deserve more credit than they get for speaking up for so many marginalized groups and people of color.

Keep up the great work! :)

Love for the people,
-T

p.s.

Twitter this message:
Vote 4the rebels! Daisy's Dead Air Blog &4 Renee/WomanistMusings in Feminist Awards http://bit.ly/DaisyAndRenee -Share #rebelleft #woc #fem2

or twitter this message:

Feminist Blog Awards: Vote 4 women who speak up 4 LGBTQ, poc & marginalized http://bit.ly/DaisyAndRenee

.

SouthPark made KanyeWest reform. Southpark should address free healthcare and free college!

2009-04-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

Ay friends,

Did you see the recent South Park episode? Me neither... til it made the news because Kanye West finally decided to check his ego because of it! *happy laughter*

Wow! A SouthPark episode about... *gasp*... about Black person......and *gasp*...Gay people... that causes real reform! We need to get south park to mock more self-righteous politicians who refuse to give us free healthcare and free of charge college education! *happy laughter*

The episode found by going here < http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/224099 > and click on 'Watch This Full Episode'

Or (if they pulled that one like they pulled the Youtube ones) you can see it here:
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=AOB20NA8

or here

http://2dopeboyz.okayplayer.com/2009/04/08/kanye-west-on-south-park-video

Kanye's response on his blog afterwards (which made the whole thing most interesting) is here:
http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/?em3106=227887_-1__0_~0_-1_4_2009_0_0&em3298=&em3282=&em3281=&em3161=

One of many news links about it is here:
http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/04/kanye-south-par.html?iid=top25-Kanye+West+responds+to+%27South+Park%27+mockery

Yea, I know, I usually don't go for the whole celebrity news thing, but the idea of a cartoon with Black people and extremely inappropriate and politically incorrect jokes was just waaaAAAAAAy too much to resist for a Black clown like myself! *happy laughter*

Love for the people,
-T

Reasons Why Capitalism is Terrible- Reason # 1,234.678

2009-04-05T01:48:00.000-07:00

Photo Submitted by Jame R

Red & Black Cafe - April Communique, RIOT FOLK CD RELEASE SHOW

2009-04-05T01:22:00.000-07:00

I love the Red and Black cafe. They hosted an event free for the Radical Road Trip last year. Plus RIOT FOLK CD RELEASE SHOW is 4.16 and they always support the Freeschool in Olympia. I am cofounder of the Radical feminist Distro for music made by Brenna of Riotfolk. Please support them all.

Love for the people,

-T

Red and Black Cafe Communique - April

author: Red and Black Cafe, Booking Committee e-mail: redandblackbooking@yahoo.com

Red & Black Cafe - April Communique

Greetings, Comrades! This is the fourth intentional communication from the Booking Committee at the Red and Black Café!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Red and Black Café Communique
3/31/09

Greetings, Comrades! This is the fourth intentional communication from the Booking Committee at the Red and Black Café! After a long, hectic March full of schizophrenic weather, we approach April with some weariness. There are still some fantastic things happening, though, so please check out the full list of events and come out! All events stat at 7pm unless otherwise noted.

CASCADIA RISING TIDE PRESENTATION // 4.05

Cascadia Rising Tide has an event at the café on the first Sunday of every month. It is typically a film screening, but it can also be another kind of presentation, reportback on a conference, or something else related to the issue of climate change and ways to fight it. Come on down!

ANTI-IMPERIALIST FILM SCREENING // 4.07

The Anti-Imperialists have their film screening the first Tuesday of every month. Films are followed by a facilitated discussion. Come check them out!

THE RED AND BLACK CLOSED ALL DAY // 4.08

Okay, so this isn't exactly an event. But it's worth noting that the café will be closed on April 8th for a staff meeting and cleaning day. Sorry. We'll put out some free coffee for you.

GRETNA GREEN, CAMPING PARTY, TONIGHT WE LAUNCH // 4.11

This is going to be a great music show. Gretna Green is on tour from Canada and can use the support! Please bring some money to donate, if you can, since touring can be grueling and expensive.

RIOT FOLK CD RELEASE SHOW // 4.16

Tansy & Tarweed will be playing this show with Aryeh Gorif in support of their split CD release. Riot Folk are always a good time, so come show some support.

8-BIT REVOLUTION: BENEFIT FOR JEFFREY LUERS // 4.17

Remember Jeffrey "Free" Luers? He's in jail for setting some SUVs on fire. But he'll be out really soon, and doesn't want people to forget him! He also needs some money to buy some necessities once he's out.
This will be a bleep-bleep-blip-blip dance party courtesy of Waxin' Wary, Spamtron and Cupcake Island. All money raised will go to Free's "getting' out of jail soon" fund.

STUMPTOWN STRUGGLERS, HAZEL AND LILA // 4.18

The Stumptown Strugglers are back from tour! Hooray! And you can see them play at the Red and Black. Also playing will be the amazing Hazel (of the Dapper Cadavers) and Lila. Olde tymey bliss.

QUEER MOVIE NIGHT // 4.21

Yep, Queer Movie Night is happening this month! For reals, it will hopefully be happening on the third Tuesday of every month. Come check it out!

BENEFIT FOR UTAH AETA DEFENDANTS! // 4.24

The support has been overwhelming for the six activists (four in California and two in Utah) being tried as "terrorists" for violating the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The combined benefits for the AETA 4 have thus far raised more than $1300! And there's still two left!

Please come to this show and throw a little more down for Alex, BJ, and Jordan (the grand jury resistor). There will be music by Coffin Ship, Slow Teeth, and Cory Sabin. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Solidarity!

PRISONER LETTER WRITING - GET A DISCOUNT // 4.28

And speaking of political prisoners, did you know that we have a prisoner letter writing night on the LAST TUESDAY of every month? Also, did you know that if you write a letter and turn it into a worker, we will give you 10% off your bill? Please, no blank letters or ranting about how good your sandwich is. Everything else is fair game.

We'll provide pens, stamps, a list of prisoners. All you have to do is show up. Not too much to ask, right?

Keep an eye out for the printed calendars around town. You can't miss them. Also, we're now booking for May. Want to book an event? Email us at: redandblackbooking@yahoo.com - and remember, the deadline is April 25th!

In Solidarity,
Red and Black Collective

homepage: http://www.redandblackcafe.com
phone: 503-231-3899
address: 400 SE 12th avenue at Oak, Portland, Oregon

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Circulate the below message on Twitter. It is less than 140 Characters:

I love the Red&Black Cafe - R&B Cafe April Communique w/ 8 Awesome Events - http://bit.ly/RedAndBlack1 Share #rebelleft #portland

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Immigrant Ally Workshop- 6PM @ Cascade People's Center - No Human is Illegal

2009-04-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Interesting event below.

Love for the people,
-T
----------------------------------------

author: Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites

Believe in better rights for immigrants but aren’t sure how to make it happen? Come to the Immigrant Ally Workshop!
Wednesday April 8th
6 PM Potluck, Workshop at 6:30
at Cascade People's Center (309 Pontius Ave N)

The Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites invites you to a workshop that will explore immigration history and analysis of race, class and whiteness as they influence immigration politics and policies. Best of all, we’ll present practical ways white people can advocate for improvements in immigrant rights within our own communities. The material for this workshop is designed for white folks who are interested in using privilege to support immigrant rights. All people are welcome to attend. The workshop is a great way to get ready for the May 1st march for immigrant rights!

Immigrant Ally Workshop
Wednesday April 8th
6 pm potluck
6:30-8:30 activities and discussion
Cascade People’s Center ~ 309 Pontius Ave N (near REI)

CARW is a group of white people in the Seattle area working to undo institutional racism and white privilege through education and organizing in white communities and active support of people of color-led organizations. We support the self-determination of people of color, honor their leadership and are held accountable to people of color-led organizations. More info at http://www.carw.org

Open Letter and Petition: Please Don't Allow Bias, Homophobia and Transphobia to Influence the Off Our Backs Collective

2009-04-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

Dear friends at Off Our Backs and friends around the world,

Hello. First I want to say that I love your magazine and have loved it ever since I found out about it many years ago. I encourage people to read it every where I go and have copies in my house displayed at all times.

Second, I want to ask that you and all people sign the Petition titled:

Save Off Our Backs Magazine - Please Don't Allow Homophobia, Transphobia and all Bias to Influence the Off Our Backs Magazine Collective

The link to the petition is here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/saveoob/petition.html

I write for several blogs one of which is called: Black Man F.L.U.F.F a feminist blog found here: http://www.blackmanfluff.org

I have been a feminist for most of my life, traveling the country giving workshops about Patriarchy at conferences such as Z Media Institute, the Annual International A world Beyond Capitalism Conference and many more and have had my writing appear in numerous activist publications, feminist blogs and radical activist publications such as Slingshot, as found at the following link in the current article of Slingshot: http://slingshot.tao.ca/displaybi.php?0099015

I recently published an article by Heart (also known as Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff) on my blog and promoted it on my podcast and online radio show, which eventually led into discovering her website, and then starting a conversation in which I asked her several questions about her transphobic activities and although she left many comments on my blog, I received no answers at all in regards to the questions about her involvement with transphobic activities as you will see on the below link:

http://bit.ly/post_swiper

I also asked her several questions about her habit of cultural misappropriation and using women or color photos for her blogs without giving credit to the photographers or attribution. Once again although she left many comments on my blog, yet I received no answers at all in regards to the questions about her involvement in cultural misappropriation and using women or color photos for her blogs without giving credit to the photographers or attribution(and she continues the habit) as you will see on the above link.

I recently learned on Heart's Blog at womenspace.org that she is now a volunteer for Off Our Backs. If Heart was not involved in transphobic activities, and not involved in using women or color photos for her blogs without giving attribution even when requested by the photo owners, I would think that is a good thing.

However, I personally think Heart being part of the OOB collective and influencing OOB articles is a grave error for many reasons, one of which is because she is very actively involved in transphobic activities and many people of color, including prominent feminist bloggers and feminists of all sexual orientations and of many races (even people within the Radical Feminist movement) have spoken out against her activities. This includes her transphobic RadFem carnival as you will see on the below 350+ comment link that was published to the website of Renee, a woman of color womanist (Renee chooses not to use the title feminist due to reasons of race and lack of solidarity within the feminist movement):

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/02/radical-feminism.html

Heart states on her blog on April 3rd, 2009:

"While I will continue to blog, publishing paper issues of oob will be my focus in the coming months and will occupy a lot of my time."

I also went to the new Oob blog at http://oobtalk.wordpress.com

and it states:

the off our backs team

At the bottom of the list of the Women's Space blog. I have noticed the 'Radical Feminist Carnival' tab at the top of her 'Women's Space' website...so I am very interested in knowing the OOB thoughts about the sexist, “transphobic screed” (as Renee of Womanist Musings calls it) that many people in the Radical Feminist Carnival support as made very evident on the 352+ comment blog posts at womanist musings found at the above link titled 'radical feminists'

Here is a better article that Renee of Womanist musings wrote:

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/02/radfem-carnival.html

Here is how here the article starts off:

“It was brought to my attention that a post of mine has appeared in the latest Radfem carnival. I was alerted yesterday morning via twitter. Much to my horror, when I went to check for myself, it was buried in the middle of their usual transphobic screed. In all honesty I cannot remember submitting to the carnival. Even if I did submit a post, the kind of disgusting trans hatred that these women adhere to is something that I could never support.”

And when you click on 'Radfem carnival' (as I just did) this is what it states at the top:

“Many thanks to all the contributers with a special thank you to Carnival organiser, Heart, at Womensspace.”

That is, Heart, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, of womensspace who is now listed as a member of OOB.

It is clear that such Transgendered Bias is dividing the women's equality movement when reading the below post by Transgendered woman of color feminist who was involved in the 350+ confrontation of prejudice with Radical feminists:

The article is titled: "Journey To Womanist-hood published in March 2009"

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/03/journey-to-womanist-hood.html

This is how that article, posted March 31st, 2009 starts out:

"As a transwoman of African descent I've developed during my 15 plus year transition a distaste for feminism. Much of that dislike of it is multifaceted, but has its roots in the virulent disco-era hatred still expressed by some rad fem drones. It's also fueled by witnessing the lack of support, disrespect, back stabbing and drama given to Black women to the point that they left the movement."

So I would like to respectfully ask two questions:

#1. Is the OOB collective aware of the Transphobic position and Transphobic organizing activities that Heart, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff participates in and actively promotes?

#2. Is the OOB collective aware that Heart, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff participates in taking women or color photos for her blogs without giving attribution even when requested by the photo owners?

#3. I searched the OOB website hoping to find a solidarity statement in regards to Transgendered people. Can you please tell me the OOB position on Transgendered people solidarity?

I am publishing this as an Open Letter, rather than sending it to your contact email for the following reason:

When I went to your website at OffOubacks.org at the bottom it states "Questions, queries, comments? Please email." and when you click on the email address this is the email address that comes up: cheryllindseyseelhoff@gmail.com

So, as you can imagine I am concerned that my email may not be delivered to you if I sent it to cheryllindseyseelhoff@gmail.com

Thank you for your time,

Thank you very much for your thoughts, Keep up the great work,

Love for the people,

-T. Love

Free Open House at Emma Goldman Finishing School

2009-04-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

-----------------------------------------

What: Open House at the Emma Goldman Finishing School

When: Sunday, April 5, 6-8 p.m.

Where: 1309 13th Ave S., Seattle WA. 98144

How: bus #36 or #60; drive if you must:c)

Help: call 206/324-6822 for directions.

We are our having our monthly open house on Sunday, April 5, at 6-8 p.m.

Please bring your friends & family, a vegetarian dish or
beverage to share, and your own sweet self . . . .

Check us out @ our website: http://egfs.org

One Love! from the folks at the Emma Goldman Finishing School

Online, Printable Copy of Emma Goldman's 'Living My Life'

2009-03-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

Very powerful and inspirational. :)

Love for the people,
-T

"I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to
beautiful, radiant things." Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live
it in spite of the whole world--prisons, persecution, everything. Yes,
even in spite of the condemnation of my own comrades I would live my
beautiful ideal."

-Emma Goldman
[Living My Life (New York: Knopf, 1934), p. 56]

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Living My Life

Volume One

In Appreciation
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38

From the Anarchy Archive

To share this page with others the permanent link is
http://bit.ly/EmmaGoldman

Volume Two

Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52 (pp. 726-749)
Chapter 52a (pp. 749-802)
Chapter 52b (pp. 802-851)
Chapter 52c (pp. 851-899)
Chapter 52d (pp. 899-927)
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56

"It is no longer a question of whether we'll continue to have capitalism. It is a question of what will replace it"

2009-03-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

"It is no longer a question of whether we'll continue to have capitalism. It is a question of what will replace it."

- Immanuel Wallerstein, keynote, Yale, Mar 28, 2009. Neo-imperialism in post-independent Africa conference.

Via: The Third World View

Economic Survival Fair assists those affected by economic downturn

2009-03-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by BlackManFluff at www.BlackManFluff.org

MP3 File

The slumping economy has had a ripple effect on Thurston County families at all economic levels. The Economic Survival Fair, hosted by the Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties and sponsored by United Way of Thurston County, will provide options for alleviating the devastating financial impact on individuals and families.

The fair will include job search assistance from interview skills to clothing tips, classes on cooking healthful meals on budget and parenting skills as well as free services such haircuts, screening for important tax credits and legal advice. Participants are invited to stay for the free community meal at the end of the fair. And free onsite child care will be provided.

The free fair runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 4 at Olympia High School, 1302 North Street S.E., Olympia.

The community can support individuals and families by donating new or used and dry-cleaned men’s and women’s suits, new makeup, new nylons, slightly worn dress shoes and ties that can be dropped off at Hot Toddy, 410 Capitol Way S., Olympia, WA 98501.

In addition to free clothing, attendees can meet with representative from more than 30 community organizations which will be on hand to talk about services they provide. Those organizations include: Thurston County Food Bank, Safeplace, YWCA, BECU, O Bee Credit Union, Intercity Transit and many others.

Community partners for this event include CHOICE Regional Health Network, St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church, 2-1-1, and Family Education and Support Services.

For more information about the fair call 360-741-2622 or visit visit the Web site at http://www.volunteer.ws

The short URL for this event is: http://bit.ly/SurvivalFair

=================
=================
=================

This event/class is being publicized free-of-charge by the Freeschool Community and the Peace Communities.

The Freeschool invites you to contact us about other free of charge local events that take place in Olympia, Washington or that take place in the several states of the Pacific Northwest region.

To learn more and to find out our contact information please visit the Freeschool Community at: http://www.freeschoolunity.org

The Freeschool Community and Peace Communities Twitter account with class update is found here: http://www.twitter.com/lovepeaceandjoy

The Freeschool Community is a member of the PeaceCommunities Progressive Coalition.
http://www.peacecommunities.org

Invitation to Recorded Teleconference Interview about Transphobia

2009-03-25T13:16:00.001-07:00

Dear friends,

I would be very interested in doing a recorded teleconference interview for use as an unedited podcast/online radio show with any people who do not support Transphobia within the Progressive Movement and/or within the Feminist Movement. The interview will then appear on this website as a podcast for all to hear.

If there is enough interest we could also possibly do a Simultaneous Twitterchat but only if there is enough interest.

Please contact me by leaving a comment or clicking on the 'contact' link found at the top of this website or by calling (206) 337-1556, 24 hours a day and leaving a message.

Thanks.

Love for the people,

-T

The permanent link web address for this page is -
http://bit.ly/transphobia
- Please circulate and share it. Thanks.

“The experts of psychology, sociology, economics, biology, even the new feminism experts, are still engaged in the old battles, of women versus men. The new questions that need to be asked - and with them, the new structures for the new struggle - can only come from pooling our experience…”

- The above quote is from Betty Friedan, from ‘The Second Stage.’ Betty Friedan was also the author of ‘The Feminine Mystique’ and the founder and first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Wikipedia describes Betty Friedan as:

Betty Naomi Friedan (February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist activist and writer, best known for starting the "second wave of the Women's Movement" through the writing of her book The Feminine Mystique in 1963, which attacked the 1950s notion, spread through society by advertising and strict enforcement of traditional gender roles, that women could only find fulfillment in child bearing, doing housework, and serving husbands.[1] The book's success, and the reaction from dissatisfied middle class women, led to the launching of consciousness-raising groups among women and the formation of grassroots women's groups. Friedan joined other leading feminists, such as Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bella Abzug, and Myrlie Evers-Williams in founding the National Women's Political Caucus

All Time Low: Transphobic, Womanist-Musings Post-Swiper Accuses Other People of Post-Swiping - When Will We Start Pooling Our Experience?

2009-03-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

All above work is from royalty free clip art websites.

Betty Friedan, from ‘The Second Stage.’ Betty Friedan was also the author of ‘The Feminine Mystique’ and the founder and first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

Update: The permanent link web address for this page is here:

http://bit.ly/post_swiper

=====================================================

First of all, before I begin, let me make it clear to readers unfamiliar with the original article (found here: http://bit.ly/linkbias ) that Renee at Womanist Musings is not a post Swiper. She is an awesome blogger who I highly recommend who has posted an article to her website for me and I highly recommend you check out her super-awesome website and blog.

=====================================================

Dear Heart/Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff,

I titled this article "Womanist-Musings Post-Swiper Accuses other People of being a Post-Swiper" because you and/or your group swiped a post from the Womanist-Musings website and yet you make an accusation on your blog, structured in the 'women versus men' method, that this website is a Post-Swiper in your latest blog post despite the fact that you left not one, but two, thank you comments (one found here) on our blog on a prior blog post of mine for posting the current article that you are speaking about that you allege was 'post swiped.' This is what we call a head-spinning situation. You causing drama for the sake of drama.

Several times before writing this follow up article, during it and afterwards I wondered if it is worth it to address the Infighting and I have decided, Yes it is, because this example is like a case study in the old 'women versus men' infighting within the feminist blogosphere.

I chose the title because you titled your recent blog post 'Post-Swiping' and had a lot of negative words to say.

Before I get into the details of that I want to start off, as I left off in my last original article (as I try to do for all people), trying to accentuate the positive and put aside the negative.

First, I received the Thank you for the words of thanks that you posted to the comment section of one of my past articles found here.

Your kind words of thanks were appreciated and make all the work and the drama (ironically, some of which you are now causing) worth it.

Great article you wrote. Very well researched. I tried to leave a comment asking you how you wanted to be credited but you closed the comments off on the article. So I linked to your website with admin (as you placed it on your website) and even used your name in the podcast and even mentioned your writing in Off Our Backs in the podcast and then encouraged people to visit your website and then you still attack me with your blog post.

The truth of the matter is I was reluctant to include the photos (but I did, as the other person who posted your article did not) because when you posted a photo of a world famous social justice activist and feminist without crediting the photographer, as you did, that is called thievery or, in your words, 'photo swiping' when done without attribution as you have done several times throughout your website, but I did not want to change your article, or insult you, so if I am guilty of anything it is that I cam guilty of facilitating your photo swiping without attribution to the photographer. I just hope it wasn't a female photographer, or a person of color (which is likely given that area of the world) female photographer because then you would indeed be guilty of the colonizing of the feminist blogosphere as you accuse others.

The morale = no one is perfect.

So, now we get to to see if you are willing to give attribution to others (rather than simply photos without attribution) the way that you made a point to attack others on your blog. I took a quick look on Google Images for the name 'Vandana Shiva' and I only had to look through two pages before finding the photo that you photo swiped without attribution. The photo was part of the Press Release package for a film so the website had permission to use it, but you did not. Therefore you should give attribution to that website, it is here:

http://www.wholesomegoodness.org/pressroom.html

Their 'about page states that they accept tax-deductable donations so I'm guessing that you took the picture from a not-for-profit group, and it is clear it was a production still from their award winning movie. I know enough about Vandana Shiva - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva > that I don't think she would be happy about your transphobic activities and transphobic reputation and I don't think she'd necessarily want her photo as part of your blog but I encourage you to contact her and find out.

[Side Note to Readers: Check this website, http://www.womensspace.org/phpBB2/2009/02/26/the-colonizing-of-the-feminist-blogosphere-why-feminists-should-have-boycotted-fem-20 - to see if womenspace website and blog gave proper attribution to the Wholesome Goodness website even after this article]

My guess is that you will not give proper attribution. That is the way real stubborn hypocrisy works. The Good news is that I sent the folks an email today asking is it OK that the photo is used on this website so we do not continue on the legacy of stealing photos without attribution the way you do because it only promotes the worse kind of digital colonialism that you seem to promote despite accusing others of it.

Update:

[After publishing this article on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 it was on Thursday March 26th, 2009 that I heard back from the folks at Wholesome goodness and they said they would "prefer if you give credit or a link." Don't worry, we didn't use your name, we just mentioned an anonymous blogger so that you have the chance to do the ethical thing and contact them yourself. So we will give credit and a link on our website under that photo...so the question to you Heart/Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, womensspace blogger... are you going to give them credit or even a link as attribution? Or will you continue with your digital colnialism of taking the work and photo of others without attribution... despite the fact that you accuse others of it?

And I did not, and would not include the Burger King logo on this website (in an article condemning multinational corporate ads) for numerous obvious reasons that I hope I don't have to explain because again, it would be hard to say without insulting you. I recommend you read the book titled 'No Logos' by Naomi Klein to fully understand it.

Incidents like this is why persons of color and Black feminists don't want to be a part of the feminist blogosphere. Because no matter what we do, no matter how much solidarity, no matter how many links, no matter how many compliments... still people find reason to attack us and we are attacked...and then they turn around and say 'who me, racist? Colonial? NoooOOOOoooooo.'

This whole attack is something I did not expect from you who wrote:

"And instead of fighting these guys, nobody is paying attention, instead, feminist bloggers are fighting one another!"

And you here you are, attacking me and starting fights at the first chance you get.

If you want me to delete the entire article of yours, I'll be happy to do it. The only time I ever use someone's article is when at least one or all of the below situations are in place:

a. When it is submitted to this blog for posting as many guest bloggers have done

b. when it has creative commons license, as yours had.

v. When I credit them and link to them as I used the exact link and the exact name on your article that you had on your own article.

How was I supposed to know that it is not the exact link that you preferred? And still I am attacked. I am just so tired of fighting and being attacked. Just give me the word and I will indeed take this article off my website.

I posted my article at 12:10am on Tuesday, went to bed, and then did work and finished the podcast around 1:30pm on Tuesday and then you posted your thank you regarding the article here and then you left a comment at 2:21pm. I saw your comment on this blog at 5:10pm. So you gave me less than 3 hours to make the URL changes that you requested before going on the war path and posting blog attacks?

Wow.

I wasn't sure if you wanted to be known as 'Heart' or 'admin' because I originally saw the article on a different website with 'admin' (which I kept the link as you had it) and then I also saw it on your website (at the link you provided on website) with 'by admin' so I wasn't sure. I personlly thought maybe you were going by admin because you din't want to use your real name as is very common with many bloggers (if for no other reason so that there name doesn't come up when Googled by the friends, family, employers and enemies). I also included a bunch of links to your website throughout the article and then I even added more links to your other articles.

I did indeed credit the name Heart in the podcast and mentioned the women's space website in the podcast Mp3.

But none of that was enough to stop an attack by you on your blog.

Nevethless, I'm very glad you spoke up about the whole issue and researched it so thoroughly. The more I learn about it, the worse it becomes.

Do you have any interest in being part of the interview of recorded teleconference about this?

I also noticed the 'Radical Feminist Carnival' tab at the top of your website...so I've be interested in knowing your thoughts about the sexist, “transphobic screed” (as Renee of Womanist Musings calls it) that many people in the Radical Feminist Carnival support as made very evident on the 352+ comment blog posts at womanist musings found at the below link titled 'radical feminists'

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/02/radical-feminism.html

Oh, and here is a better article that Renee of Womanist musings wrote:

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/02/radfem-carnival.html

Here is how here the article starts off:

“It was brought to my attention that a post of mine has appeared in the latest Radfem carnival. I was alerted yesterday morning via twitter. Much to my horror, when I went to check for myself, it was buried in the middle of their usual transphobic screed. In all honesty I cannot remember submitting to the carnival. Even if I did submit a post, the kind of disgusting trans hatred that these women adhere to is something that I could never support.”

And when you click on 'Radfem carnival' (as I just did) this is what it states at the top:

“Many thanks to all the contributers with a special thank you to Carnival organiser, Heart, at Womensspace.”

That is you, Heart, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, and your website, womensspace.

Isn't that strange? So your group took Renee's article, without her being able to remember giving it to you,... and she was so upset about it, that she thoroughly cursed you out about it in numerous blogs posts on her very high traffic blog... and yet here you are attacking me because I posted your article with numerous links to you, with credit to you in my article and podcast, with numerous compliments to you, and received a thanks from you... and you are upset and attacked me in a blog post because... I didn't link to the proper URL. Unbelievable.

Radfem took the work of a woman of color blogger and placed it on a website that the women of color feminists blogger outspokenly detests in every way, manner and form and yet you accuse others of digital colonialism?

Thats enough hypocrisy to make a person's head spin right off!

Much like Renee, I really don't like blog carnivals that are Transphobic, homophobic hypocrites, who treat LGBTQI feminists as less than equals, but no one, including you, or I, is perfect.

I also agree 100% with Renee when she states "the kind of disgusting trans hatred that these women adhere to is something that I could never support.”

I don't support your hatred or your transphobia or any of your LGBTQI bias, yet I would be very interested in doing a recorded teleconference interview for use as an unedited podcast/online radio show with several of your members who also detest Transphobia. After reading the 352+ comments on the 'Radical Feminism' article I am aware that there are several admirable members of the Radical Feminism crew who also do not support the Transphobia, despite the fact that it seems to be very common within the Radical Feminism mindset. That way, if you really believe that you are not the transphobic, hate-spreading individual that so many people have described you and your RadFem Carnival as being... you can clear your own name for everyone to hear.

Renee thoroughly cursed your Radfem carnival out, with no apologies about it...as a matter of fact she immediately wrote another awesome article thoroughly describing why she had to thoroughly curse out various members of the Radfem carnival and described why various words she chose to use were not sexist when coming from a woman.

I haven't cursed you out and have no intention of doing so.

But if we're going to fight like children and accuse each other of the greater evils and hypocrisy and make each other look as stupid as possible we might as well go all the way so that way when Right wing people, and anti-feminist people and multinational corporate supporters sit back and laugh at us at least we know we gave them a really good show while the earth is being flushed down the drain and my mother, sisters, aunts, grandmom remain victims of an institutionalized patriarchal system while we as feminist find faults with each other.

My sister died in horrible pain when her heart stopped on a hospital operating room table due to Lupus, but you know what? Maybe we should keep fighting one another until my other two sisters die from this patriarchal system that denies adequate healthcare...and then my mom dies..and then all other women of color until we are all back in the chains of slavery. Then maybe it will be a good time to stop fighting one another and work together?

I'd definitely like to keep this issue of digital colonialism at the front of people's mind because otherwise it will only get worse.

Still, If you want your article deleted from this website let me know and I will do it in a second just let me know.

Let me repeat that for everyone to hear:

Still, If you want your article deleted from this website let me know and I will do it in a second just let me know.

Who knows, maybe you're attacking me, a Black male feminist, because choosing to...

'launch attacks on feminists...is always a good way to drive up hits and linkage”

....for your website. That quote is from your article, by the way.

It is clear you were thankful and appreciative for the article being posted.

Here is your first comment on this blog at
on March 24, 2009 at 1:41 PM....

Heart said...

Thanks for circulating my blog post, "Feminists Should Have Boycotted Fem 2.0...

Thanks.
Heart/Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff
Women's Space

And your second comment with Thanks and suggested changes in the article configuration was
on March 24, 2009 at 2:21 PM....

So I would think that if you were upset youwould have at least waited for me to reply to your comment or send me an email. This group blog and my personal podcast are one of the few that I know of that have a 'contact' link at the top and in the case of my podcast, I also have a 24 hour telephone number at the top and my email address so if you wanted to contact me to make any requested changes you could have done so in any number of ways. But you didn't even though you told people you sent an email to me, which I did not receive and I honestly don't believe you did. I believe you chose to go on the War Path and that is hurtful.

You post multiple words of thanks on this blog for the article and then post nothing but 100% words of hatefulness and attack on your blog. Why not even say one kind word on your blog? That is what my Granny often described as:

Ruthless Twofacedness

Personally, I'm tired of the Drama. I've worked my entire life as a Feminist and the idea of having my reputation dragged through the mud simply because I'm a Black or because I'm a male (yes you did bring up the 'male' issue on your post) feminist actually trying to support the positive work you do is too much. Again, I want people to read the article about how the Good Ole' Girl's Network and how Frederick Douglas, a Black male feminist gave everything to the Feminist movement and received a back stab from fellow feminists based on his race and based on being a male. I've been pulling a lot of knives out of my back and still I think working for a better world that gets ride of patriarchy is worth it.

Oh, and for those who think that I, as a person of color feminist, describing the treachery within the progressive social media world and the feminist blogosphere as 'Back Stabbing' is 'too harsh' then perhaps you should read Renee's beautiful and eloquently description of this type of race-based treachery in her blog post titled "Backstabbing Feminism."

This is a very small blog just starting out hoping to get more guest blog posts from people and the idea of you trying to drag our name through the mud is hurtful.

Heart/Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, I hope things work out for you.

Love for the people,

-T

“After fifteen years of the women’s movement, the gap between women’s earnings and men’s is greater than ever, women earning on the average only fifty-nine cents to every dollar men earn, the average male high school drop-out today earning $1,600 more a year than female college graduates.”

“We must take a fresh look at work and the demands made by corporations, schools and government, and recognize the possibilities of flextime, part-time, job-sharing, and split-shift work and education. We must think in terms of restructuring the home itself, so that it can be made more suitable to the demands and diversity of our new families.”

“I believe that we have to… move into the second stage… …the second stage involves coming to terms with the family - new terms with love and with work. The second stage may not even be a woman’s movement. Men may be at the cutting edge of the second stage. The second stage has to transcend the battle for equal power in institutions. The second stage will restructure institutions and transform the nature of power itself.”

“For there is a real backlash against the equality and the personhood of women - in American, as in Islam and the Vatican. Dangerous reactionary forces are turning women back to the old dependence, silencing women’s new voice …in ways we do not clearly understand. In the name of the family, they would destroy the new equality that gives the family strength to resist dehumanizing forces that are emerging in the seeming impotence of capitalist America, in the resurgence of fundamentalist religion, in neofascism and in autocratic communism, and in the chaos of the Third World. We must ask new questions or we could lose in the economic and emotional turbulence, the measure of equality that is essential to strengthen human life - and the future of the family. The first stage, the woman’s movement, was fought within, and against, and defined by that old structure of unequal, polarized male and female sex roles.”

Betty Naomi Friedan (February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist activist and writer, best known for starting the "second wave of the Women's Movement" through the writing of her book The Feminine Mystique in 1963, which attacked the 1950s notion, spread through society by advertising and strict enforcement of traditional gender roles, that women could only find fulfillment in child bearing, doing housework, and serving husbands.[1] The book's success, and the reaction from dissatisfied middle class women, led to the launching of consciousness-raising groups among women and the formation of grassroots women's groups. Friedan joined other leading feminists, such as Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bella Abzug, and Myrlie Evers-Williams in founding the National Women's Political Caucus

.

Social Media & Blog Awards Based on Link Authority Are Killing The Progressive Movement - or - Why Feminists Should Have Boycotted Fem 2.0 Conference

2009-03-24T00:10:00.000-07:00

--------------------------------------

MP3 File

You can also search for the short version of this episode in Itunes under the podcast title: 'Volunteers for Three Groups: A World Beyond Capitalism Conference, The Freeschool Community and The Peace Communities' or click here: http://tinyurl.com/link2itunes

-----------------------------------

The permanent link web address for this page is
http://bit.ly/linkbias - Please circulate and share it. Thanks.

Update: The permanent link web address for the follow up article about
'Post Swiping' is
http://bit.ly/post_swiper - Please circulate and share that too. Thanks.

Update: Also, The permanent link web address for the additional follow up article about
an 'Invitation to Recorded Teleconference Interview about Transphobia within the Feminist Movement, the Radical Feminist Movement and the Progressive Movement is here- http://bit.ly/transphobia

Dear friends,

The below article, orginally titled. 'The Colonizing of the Feminist Blogosphere: Why Feminists Should Have Boycotted Fem 2.0,' has, by far, the most detailed background information to Why Feminists Should have Boycotted Fem 2.0 Conference. As many of you know, I have written a great deal about my thoughts on the The Colonizing of the Feminist Blogosphere, my thoughts about the Good Ole' Girl's Network and my thoughts about the Fem 2.0 Conference endorsements of pimps. However, the below article is an absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful and amazingly well researched article about how corporate interests are sucking the life out of the feminist movement and using feminists to promote corporations and give awards to corporate-friendly so-called activist bloggers.

Just in case you don't read the entire article below, I want to share with you my favorite paragraph within the below article:

Finally, “Linkfluence” is invited, you know, the company that offered us the “Top 30 Feminist Blogs”. Linkfluence’s goal is to “make finding influential communities and following their conversations easier for the greatest benefit of corporations, consultancies or survey institutes.” Just what we need! An organization working to make our feminist conversations most beneficial to corporations! As references, Linkfluence lists multinationals Nestle, Nike and Roche, among others. So I suppose we should not be surprised that among the “Top 30″ are pimps, procurers and those who blog for them, anti-feminists and misogynists. All of that notwithstanding, when companies like this create lists like this, the naive and trusting as well as the anti-feminist and capitalist are going to LINK to them which is what the real goal is. The goal is not to carefully study the influence of feminist bloggers. The goal is to rank blogs according to how dogged they are in linking — who cares WHY they are linking; perhaps they are linking in order to repeatedly launch attacks on feminists, as is very true of several on the “Top 30 list”, and which is always a good way to drive up hits and linkage; blogosphere attacks on women are such good times – because that way companies like Linkfluence and Fem 2.0 garner maximum linkage to themselves and therefore they begin to gain exposure and to influence in heretofore untapped markets.

I hope you read that paragraph twice to truly gain an appreciation for the insight.

For those unaware, and for those who have never clicked on 'The History' tab at the top of this blog, you will understand that part of the reason this blog was created was because of so many activists who are just completely selling-out to Nike, a multinational corporation that has only increased their worldwide oppression of women, children and the entire earth while a select few profit at the expense of millions.

If that doesn't convince you that these pro-Corporate Feminist Blog Awards Need to be boycotted, please consider the comments (found here) of two of the people who won awards at “Top 30 Feminist Blog” Award:

Lauren [of fauxrealtho blog]

My question is how the hell my personal blog can be one of the top thirty. I barely write on it, and moreover, almost none of my posts there have anything to do with feminism. I feel like someome looking for feminism showing up on my personal site would be confused, AND including it bumped someone whose blog is more worthy.

Below is the second comment by another Top 30 Feminist Blog winner:

Hugo Schwyzer [of Hugo Schwyzer blog]

Yeah, it’s really a strange list, if you think about it... ...there’s some pretty major stuff missing, and some clear non-blogs included.

This was indeed very awesome and very courageous of Lauren to admit what she said and awesome for Hugo to speak out about the non-blogs that were included on the list, much like it was awesome for Renee (the only woman of color chosen as a top 30 feminist Blog award winner) at Womanist Musings to question, in detail, the entire awards process as it regards racism. The answer for why Lauren won an award, even though she admits that:

a. she barely writes on it, and
b. most of her posts have nothing to do with feminism

...is simple: The 'goal is to rank blogs according to how dogged they are in linking — who cares WHY they are linking'

In Lauren's case, the reason why people are linking to her personal blog, is clear when you look at the 'about page' of her personal blog that won an award, you will see that she is "the founder of Feministe and designed Pandagon, Hugo Schwyzer, Bitch PhD, Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, and Republic of T, among others."

So of course, they are all going to link to her personal blog.

What is my point? What is the reason I keep speaking up about this?

Until all Blog Awards and especially Feminist Blog awards stop determining their 'winners' based on 'how dogged they are in linking' (meaning their Technorati linkage/authority numbers) then we, who are part of the feminist movment will continue to overlook...

a. People of Color and LGBTQI feminists
b. Actual feminist blogs, rather than blogs that admittedly don't talk about feminist issues, as Lauren mentioned is the case with her personal blog
c. Actual blogs, rather than easily identifiable non-blogs, as Hugo Schwyzer mentioned
d. Entire groups of radical, feminist blogs who are extremely controversial, who speak up on behalf of LGBTQI, third world people (who are victimized by corporations like NIKE) and thus don't receive links by the Good Ole' Girl's Network.

There are a lot of Feminists Bloggers, including the below author, who have stated that 'feminist blogging, so far as the potential...it once had for advancing feminist goals, is history' and there are women of color like BFP, and Black Amazon who have spoken passionately about their pain and victimization from many folks ijn the feminist movement (several of whom were prominently given awards in the Top 30 Feminist Blog Awards).

But you know what? I'm not going to give up on Feminist blogging. There is too much at stake. Too many newspapers have gone bankrupt all over the country and blogging is possibly our last avenue to have our voices heard about Feminist issues.

And I want to urge all of you to Keep working for a better world everyone and to keep working for solutions.

Love for the people,
-T

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

The below article was originally posted by Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff or Heart

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

: Heart said:; Kindly credit me.

This is my work and can be found here:

http://www.womensspace.org/phpBB2/2009/02/26/the-colonizing-of-the-feminist-blogosphere-why-feminists-should-have-boycotted-fem-20; Thanks,

Heart/Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff
http://www.womensspace.org/phpBB2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the sturm and drang over the blog post What if the Feminist Blogosphere is a Form of Digital Colonialism, which resulted in the post’s authors, Brittany Shoot and Mandy Van Deven issuing this apology today, nobody seems to have taken a close look at the event itself, and especially, its sponsors — the real colonizers — who I believe are the people who should rightfully be apologizing to all of us. I think those who supported this event or advertised it should also be apologizing to all who have made the feminist blogosphere the occasionally-effective vehicle for positive change for women that it has been in the past.

Turner Strategies sponsored Fem 2.0. This is a public relations, advertising and marketing company run by people long in the employ of Fortune 500 companies, which, in itself, ought to have given feminists considering participating in this event some pause. Of more concern, Turner Strategies has a multitude of connections with biotechnology multinationals. Some of its top level management are or have been biotechnology entrepreneurs. Ben Carlson, Operations Vice President, was a spokesman for a California Company, Genetic Savings & Clone, that is in the business of cloning kittens and dogs, retailing them to the tune of $50,000 each. He appears to continue to head up another cloning company, Clone Safety, and in that capacity he wrote a press release not long ago thanking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his support of genetically engineered seeds and cloned livestock. Here is a list of Carlson’s press releases in support of livestock cloning and eating food derived from cloned livestock. At the end of this post there is information about why supporting by far most biotechnologies cannot be consistent with feminism, or for that matter, with any sort of reverence for human or animal life or the earth itself.

According to the Turner Strategies website, President Suzanne Turner’s ”communications campaigns have helped pass more than 40 pieces of legislation. She has worked for Fortune 500 companies, devising branding and marketing campaigns that have moved millions of dollars worth of products.” Nowhere did I see a listing of the 40 specific pieces of legislation Turner’s company helped to pass. But her current projects offer some clues. Turner speaks regularly at conferences on the topic of “how to effectively communicate food and agricultural biotechnology messages to consumers and opinion leaders using new media strategies.” According to the description of one such conference where Turner was a speaker:

Many activist groups have capitalized on using new media strategies including blogs, vlogs and social networking that create a “viral” spread of both information and potential misinformation thereby confusing the consumer and perpetuating negative opinions in some cases. The panel will delineate the issues surrounding credible, science-based messaging on food and agricultural biotechnology using new media strategies, including case examples and insights for both domestic and international audiences.

In other words, Turner offers seminars on the internet promotion of biotechnologies to consumers. This press release describes Turner’s involvement in forming a company that “will manage and license a broad portfolio of intellectual property rights related to animal reproductive technologies [including] the foundational nuclear transfer cloning technology that was developed at the Roslin Institute for the cloning of Dolly the sheep. “ In other words, one of Turner’s projects is the patenting of biotechnologies, particularly odious in what these patents mean for the world’s food supply (more about that at the end of this post).

Sascha Burns, Turner’s Vice President, Political Strategy, is a one-time drug industry lobbyist employed by Bristol-Squibb. Lisa Dry, listed as “Of Counsel,” is a former Director of Communications for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). She had responsibility for ”representing foods and crops derived through biotechnology to the media and the public”.

Nachison and Peskin, sponsors of Fem 2.0

Then there is the sponsor “IFocus,” a media think tank, which is the brainchild of Andrew Nachison and Dale Peskin (above) and which was formed to ”establish partnerships with individuals and organizations around the globe to create next-generation media projects that foster an informed society, as well as create new opportunities in the marketplace.” Prior to IFocus, Nachison and Peskin ran WeMedia. A recent NPR feature goes straight to the heart of what this organization and these men are all about (bolds mine):

Thanks to the audience taking control of their media experience and creating their own media in blogs, podcasts, video and social networks, the people who are losing control have decided to meet — and meet, and meet again — until they figure out how they can take back some control of this uncontrollable situation. That’s the rub in Miami today and tomorrow at the We Media conference, a high-end schmooze-fest sponsored in part by Reuters, Washington Post, Newsweek Interactive and the Knight Foundation…. First up was the “Community Forum,” which included representatives from MTV, Topix.net and BlogHer leading a discussion about the new ways people are using news and information in their communities. Ian Rowe from MTV noted how his younger audience is changing the dynamic in how MTV covers issues.

“They want to get their content when they want it and how they want it, and that also goes for issues in their life,” he said. “It used to be top down where we chose one or two issues for them. Now our audience is telling us it’s great you are focusing on issues, but I want to deal with issues that are important to me, and I want to connect with people around the world to talk about issues I care about…We see great opportunities in the media revolution that’s now in the hands of young people.”

…What’s left largely unsaid (at least until the afternoon “Investment Forum”) is what MTV and other media companies think these “opportunities” are. Is it an opportunity to cash in on the idea of citizen media? Is it an opportunity to change their own top-down culture?

Jan Schaffer, who runs the J-Lab at the University of Maryland, pointed out that grassroots media sites don’t necessarily play by the corporate media rules of money first, community service second.

A recent survey by the lab of 191 citizen media sites found that they were largely shoestring operations with content coming from volunteers. Here are some eye-opening stats from that study:

51% said they didn’t need to make money to continue.
82% said they planned to continue “indefinitely.”
73% of respondents said their sites were a “success,” based on the impact in their communities

NPR quoted the CEO of Topix in an excellent blog post he wrote about the work of IFocus’s Nachison and Peskin:

There is actually a media revolution in the works. So what’s going on here? By implicit definition, participatory media is non-commercial. If it’s commercial, someone owns it, and it’s not “we” anymore.

Furthermore, as soon as a new media venture crosses the line and tries to become a business, it either becomes a successful business or a failed one. Businesses aren’t about ideology, they’re about getting a job done and earning revenue to keep the thing going. Even wild success tends to leave ideology behind. Ideology is the realm of nonprofits and failures…
Yes, there is a media revolution in the works. But it’s messy, it’s nasty videos on YouTube, not the neat & tidy civic Welcome Wagon of citizen journalism. You can’t quit your job as a journalist and replace your salary with AdSense on your blog. You’ll be lucky to make beer money, let alone pay COBRA and fund your SEP-IRA.

And big media has been watching, and buying the winning ventures, and building their own platforms to — yes you’re right! — exploit the new models.

Gloria Pan, Vice President of Internet Communications at Turner Strategies, is described as “a driving force in its annual We Media conference, a must-attend event for the media vanguard.”

Pan was also in charge of “Sponsorships” at Fem 2.0. This is how and why of things like ”sponsorships” and similar colonization rackets. Some big company or a couple of big companies, in this case Turner Strategies, IFocus, and George Washington University invest a lot of money in creating a conference in order to make money, advance their own ideologies, companies and olitics, and to, as I blogged about earlier, get a piece of some potentially lucrative action that is going on, in this case, to get a cut of the feminist blogosphere. They then invite people they figure might have some credibility with feminist bloggers to be “sponsors.” Here is a list of “sponsors” who donated money to make this conference happen. Here is a list of “conveners” and people who attended. Take a look. You’ve got NARAL, Bitch, Ph.D., The New Agenda, On the Issues and RH Reality Check all sending in feminist money that ultimately supports capitalist, colonizing, imperialist, endeavors of multinationals, Big Pharm and biotechnologies. Did any of them ever bother to do any investigation before signing up? To, for example, find out who the sponsors of this thing really were? They are joined by a motley crew of random entrepreneurs looking to make a buck off of the hard work and free labor of the feminist blogosphere. Look here, here, here and here. The last link is to the “Mom 2.0 Summit”, which appears to be similar to Fem 2.0, but Mom 2.0 is sponsored by the likes of Weight Watchers, Burger King, Sony and Walt Disney. Yeah, that’s all about feminism.

Finally, “Linkfluence” is invited, you know, the company that offered us the “Top 30 Feminist Blogs”. Linkfluence’s goal is to “make finding influential communities and following their conversations easier for the greatest benefit of corporations, consultancies or survey institutes.” Just what we need! An organization working to make our feminist conversations most beneficial to corporations! As references, Linkfluence lists multinationals Nestle, Nike and Roche, among others. So I suppose we should not be surprised that among the “Top 30″ are pimps, procurers and those who blog for them, anti-feminists and misogynists. All of that notwithstanding, when companies like this create lists like this, the naive and trusting as well as the anti-feminist and capitalist are going to LINK to them which is what the real goal is. The goal is not to carefully study the influence of feminist bloggers. The goal is to rank blogs according to how dogged they are in linking — who cares WHY they are linking; perhaps they are linking in order to repeatedly launch attacks on feminists, as is very true of several on the “Top 30 list”, and which is always a good way to drive up hits and linkage; blogosphere attacks on women are such good times – because that way companies like Linkfluence and Fem 2.0 garner maximum linkage to themselves and therefore they begin to gain exposure and to influence in heretofore untapped markets.

Vandana Shiva

The original author of this article did not give photo attribution but the Peace Communities Solidarity website at www.savethepoorbrownchildren.org gives attribution for this photo to WholesomeGoodness found at: http://www.wholesomegoodness.org/pressroom.html

It is in this way that ativist movements are assimilated into patriarchy, then systematically gutted of any effectiveness or power they might ever have had to change the world. This is what it means for a movement to be colonized. This is what I was talking about when I blogged about the end of feminist blogging. If you are not aware of the threat corporate multinationals, biotechnologies, the World Bank and other of these organizations’ agendas and politics are to the world’s women, land, creatures, the earth itself, read here, here, here. Read this and go here. Read everything on this page written by Vandana Shiva (above), and consider her words (bolds mine):

‘The “Green Revolution” was supposed to bring Western technology to the aid of Third World farmers. But instead of wealth, the new high-yielding seeds brought poverty and environmental destruction. These capital-intensive technologies also led to an economic monoculture. Institutions like the World Bank loaned money around the world to every developing country to do the same thing.
‘But uniformity is not nature’s way; diversity is nature’s way,’ she explains. Soon, she adds, there was a backlash. ‘When Third World farmers began to grow single crops, plants that for centuries had provided communities with essential vitamins were suddenly declared “weeds” and doused with pesticides. In some villages in India blindness increased severely because the so-called “weeds” had been the community’s only source of Vitamin A… Genetic changes to shorten the height of grain and increase yield led to a scarcity of straw; that meant less humus, depleted soils and eventually fewer grazing animals.

The end result of all this was not more but less food. Reducing the financial support for farmers will only make it easier for multinational corporations to tighten their grip on global markets.

‘Open-door policies,’ she says, ‘will remove all restrictions on imports and exports, inevitably converting Third World’s subsistence food production into a market for big business.’ It’s not surprising that peasant movements worldwide oppose these kinds of open markets. ‘For them maintaining diversity is a matter of survival. There will be no Indian culture if there are no Indian farmers to regenerate and continue that culture.’

Diversity, she insists, cannot be maintained by foreign corporations whose main aim is optimum yield from one product in order to gain maximum profit. The names of the six corporations that control the global grain trade roll off her tongue: Cargill, Continental Grain, Louis Dreyfus, Bunge, Andre and Mitsui Cook. These companies market the high-yielding seeds that are the heart of the ‘Green Revolution’.

Ms Shiva argues that these new seeds are not all they’re made out to be. ‘In India I’ve discovered that farmers can grow more grain and lose money. In the group of farmers I worked with those planting their own seeds earned 3,000 rupees a year. Others planting Cargill’s “new improved” hybrid seed netted only 297 rupees after the harvest because most of their earnings were used to pay for inputs like fertilizer and pesticides.’

Relaxed rules on biotechnology will allow companies to genetically engineer, patent and sell new organisms without having to account for their long-term effects on health or the environment. ‘The hazards of biotechnology will not be like the hazards of the chemical industry.” Ms Shiva warns.

Such threats cannot be treated casually ‘Whether it’s in the technological or economic domain, we are constantly being tricked into seeing growth where there is actually the production of scarcity. We have become totally numb to what disappears. By flattening the world to economic values we devalue ourselves. We assume there is only one economy - the market place. We forget that people have their own economies - taking care of themselves. Biodiversity is related to cultural diversity because cultures are also systems that renew - systems of value, of perception and of lifestyle. Human beings need a social economy that exchanges things other than money and that produces for reasons other than profits.’

She is working with Indian farmers to re-build seed banks in the hope of strengthening biodiversity. And to pursue sustainable farming techniques without expensive inputs from the agro-chemical companies. But if push comes to shove she argues that creative non-cooperation - ‘creating conditions for survival while rejecting an imposed system of authoritarianism’ - is the only way forward.
It may seem an impossible task to change such a powerful global system. But Ms Shiva is undaunted. ‘It’s not the first time we have tried to change a global system. Fifty years ago people were doing it all over the world and they succeeded. That time the political system was the colonial empires of Europe. When small steps are taken by large numbers of people momentous things can happen.’

Fem 2.0 was in fact the brainchild of the kind of corporate multinationals, marketing firms, “internet communications firms” Shiva is talking about who stand in direct opposition to everything feminists and progressives, revolutionaries, have given our lives for. Here they are, sponsoring conferences for feminists, moving in on the feminist blogosphere, and taking money from feminists. Worst of all, we have feminists stepping up to support them, advertising them throughout the blogosphere, and treating them for all the world as if they are not the colonizers and imperialists they truly are. And instead of fighting these guys, nobody is paying attention, instead, feminist bloggers are fighting one another!]

As I’ve written, I have been here before, many times in my activist life. I have seen this many times. The creative and potentially revolutionary energy of the feminist blogosphere, fragile as it may have been, is history now. From this time forward, barring a miracle, nothing will be the same.

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The permanent link web address for this page is http://bit.ly/linkbias - Please circulate and share it. Thanks.

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The 2009 North American Free Skool Conference with the Santa Cruz Anarchist Convergence

2009-03-22T00:57:00.001-07:00

Dear friends, compañeras, allies, and friends who I will come to know soon who are working for a better world,

The Freeschool Community in Olympia received the below email today. I suggested that they turn at least one or two classes into a twitter class so that others can take part across the world.

My suggestion was inspired after reading a powerful article titled 'If You Are Doing An Event, Bring Twitter Into The Room' found here: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/03/if-you-are-doing-an-event-bring-twitter-into-the-room.html

I am a member of the Peace Communities , a group desiring to help network the social justice and the free school and free healthcare movement.

Solidarity for a better world.

-T. Love
http://www.blackmanfluff.org

You can also search for us in Itunes under the podcast title: 'Volunteers for Three Groups: A World Beyond Capitalism Conference, The Freeschool Community and The Peace Communities.'

Member of the The Freeschool Community Collective

To learn more about the Freeschool Community please visit: http://www.freeschoolunity.org

The Freeschool Community is a member of the PeaceCommunities Progressive Coalition.
http://www.peacecommunities.org

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

------------------------
Start of Email below
------------------------

Hey, friends. We've been working on a Free Skool event this spring. For a while now, we've been excited for an opportunity to get us all together to share free skool successes, challenges and ideas. We'd like you to come. Check it.

The 2009 North American Free Skool Conference
Santa Cruz, California
May 7th to 11th

The first ever North American Free Skool Conference happens in conjunction with the Santa Cruz Anarchist Convergence. The conference will focus on building support networks between far-flung free skool projects, building the strength of the free skool movement, and exploring broader free skool ideas.

Activities will include speakers, panel and group discussions, a free skool community picnic, and a campfire. Discussion topics may include starting and running a free skool, forming mutual support networks, how free skools contribute to the broader anarchist project, and free skools for kids. This is an amazing opportunity for free skools from all over to get together, exchange ideas, and make ambitious plans.

The convergence will also feature an anarchist bookfair, discussions and speakers on other anarchist topics, a kick-off performance event, a dance, music, games, and other events.

More information about the anarchist convergence and free skool conference: http://santacruzanarchist.org

Bring yourselves, your radical ideas, your passions, your comrades, and whatever you need to self-sufficiently take care of yourself and your crew. We will try to provide housing and food to those who need it.

More than just show up, we want you and your fellow free skoolers to participate. We'd like to see lively discussions, and challenging panels. If you are interested in speaking, or being part of a workshop, panel, or discussion, please contact us soon as you can..

Will you consider joining us?

Wes
Free Skool Santa Cruz

Free SkillShare - food justice: a growing movement medicinal/edible plants workshop *zine making and much more!

2009-03-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by BlackManFluff at www.BlackManFluff.net

MP3 File

Dear friends,

I put together this post from a number of different places including a Guest post, the Vera Project (especially for the exact address which was tricky to find *happy laughter*), a couple of independent pages, Seattle Skillshare and a couple of others.

Leave comments with additional notes here please: http://bit.ly/skillshare

Love for the people,
-T

For up to the minute class update follow the Freeschool's Twitter account at:
http://twitter.com/lovepeaceandjoy

The Freeschool is currently accepting classes for the Spring Quarter.

To learn more about the Freeschool Community please visit: http://www.freeschoolunity.org

The Freeschool Community and Peace Communities Twitter account is found here: http://www.twitter.com/lovepeaceandjoy

The Freeschool Community is a member of the PeaceCommunities Progressive Coalition.
http://www.peacecommunities.org/

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

Winter Skill Share!
COME ON MARCH 21ST AND 22ND FOR TWO DAYS OF TEACHING, ORGANIZING, DANCING AND MAKING.
Where? the vera project! - "VERA's office & show/art space is located on the corner of Warren & Republican Ave N, next to the Key Arena in Seattle Center. (we're tucked back under the awning.)"

“There is nothing more inspiring to me than seeing young individuals working and playing passionately in an arts community that is truly their own. It is rare to find a place where kids can govern and learn with the support of adults, rather than the adults dictating their course. The Vera Project is a breeding ground for these young artists, engineers and musicians to grow into leaders of our community and beyond.”
Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam

When? Doors open at 10:30am both days and workshops start at 11 sharp.

Call us at 206.325.0054 So far we have these classes lined up: *food justice: a growing movement *medicinal/edible plants workshop *zine making *FOR CUMMING OUTLOUD-for crying outloud's coming out party *transformative justice *Chickens for Idiots *Natural Home Cleaning Products *Mold making and Casting *Beekeeping *Linoleum Cuts *Home Made Tooth Powder *Improvised BLING brooches *Hollow Earth radio class *Composting *bucket panniers *Healing Touch *Candida Diet *Transgender People and the PIC *Stick'n'poke tattoo *The Foundation of Mediation *Screenprinting *Harness Making *Underwear with Robin *Fingerweaving *How to plugged into the Food Justice Movement *Intro to Kung Fu

What is a skillshare? Well, it's a free conference for radical learning put on by people in the community. The prominent educational ideology suggests that only experts have the authority to teach and that education is typically validated through institutions. BOGUS! we hella disagree, the skillshare organizers feel that life experience is more rich than a powerpoint presentation. We all have incredible knowledge to bring to our communities, households, city etc. and this is a forum intended to bring us together to learn from one another. So cheers, we'd love to see you, hear from you, and get a chance to learn something new! The skillshare space is dedicated to an anti-oppressive space--if you're not down, stay out!

*food justice: a growing movement *medicinal/edible plants workshop *cake decoration *FOR CUMMING OUTLOUD-for crying outloud's coming out party *transformative justice *Chickens for Idiots *Home-Decor *Mold making and Casting *Beekeeping *Linoleum Cuts *Home Made Tooth Powder *Improvised BLING *Hollow Earth radio class *Composting *bucket panniers *Healing Touch *Candida Diet *Transgender People and the PIC *Stick'n'poke tattoo *The Foundation of Mediation *Screenprinting *Harness Making *Underwear with Robin *Fingerweaving *How to Get Plugged into the Food Justice Movement

Pamela Whible: The Electric Doctor! "...some of the best medical, motivational presentations and videos I have ever seen." Electric! No joke.

2009-03-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

MP3 File
.

Dear friends,

Just so you know, I'm listening to 'Forty Six & 2' by Tool while I type this...and that is the pumped up song you should imagine while reading this! Yeahhhh! Oh, and then I'll be listening to 'Black (LIVE)' by Pearl Jam on their 'Live at Benaroya Hall' CD. Good, magical music for a magical blog post and podcast I'm about to give ya! :)

Above and below are videos of Pamela, a good friend of mine. We both gave workshop at the Healthcare Justice Gathering at the Gesundheit Institute (as featured in the movie Patch Adams). She was friggin' electric... figuratively and literally...because she instructed everyone, including many medical students, how to remain a practicing, social justice, doctor without burning out and going into debt...and even gave everyone electric flashing glow in the dark steel blue and red earings! Why? Because healthcare Justice was meant to be fun, friends! Hell yeah! It was awesome later that night at the dance party with all the lights out watching red and blue faces flashing in the dark! Hella'cool! She has given some of the best doctor presentations and videos I have ever seen. No joke. The above one and the below two are just a sample and are short.

The wildest things happened too. When we both left the Healthcare Justice Gathering from West Virginia... She on an Amtrak train, I on Greyhound... I headed for Olympia... she headed for Eugene, Oregon.... The Greyhound had a lay-over in Portland...and I decided to walk around outside the Greyhound and maybe catch a later bus to Olympia, Washington later... and guess who yelled out my name? Pamela! No way! Yes way! Pamela had overslept and got off in Portland to Stretch.

She called my name, we hugged and were both bewildered by the whole thing. It was wild. Went and got something to eat and I saw her off on her train to Eugene and then jumped back on Greyhound later headed to my beloved Olympia.

A month ago or so I also sent her the hard-core, uncut Oscar Grant article that I wrote (found by clicking here) that I wrote...and ya know what she did? She loved it and sent it to all of her patients and friends! And I know she did it because she kept me on the CC email list! Now that is solidarity for a better world!

So as I encourage you to check out her videos... it actually makes me happy to do it! Because she is awesome!

I'm trying to convince her to do an in-person interview on our radio show. It will be the event of the year, friends! Look forward to that possibility friends!

Keep working for a better world!

WOoOOoooooooo Yeah!

-T. Love
http://www.blackmanfluff.org/

You can also find this as an Mp3 audio recording and on my podcast or click here to subscribe to the Itunes subscription : http://tinyurl.com/link2itunes

p.s.
Here is recent video to another doctor, who I love dearly, who I met at the Gesundheit Institute and is now a Board member of the Freeschool Community: Dr. Bonnie Gifford instructing you on how to eat locally.

Want to leave comments? Leave them on my profile page found by clicking here.

Member of the The Freeschool Community Collective

To learn more about the Freeschool Community please visit: http://www.freeschoolunity.org/

The Freeschool Community is a member of the PeaceCommunities Progressive Coalition.
http://www.peacecommunities.org/

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize
Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

The permanent link and short URL for this page is: http://tinyurl.com/3videos
The short URL helps you to circulate this via twitter and share with friends. :)
Hint Hint ;)

.

The Love-Intense Motivational Anti-Depression Podcast -The Freeschool Loves You, Personally, Individually & So Do I! Rewind & Replay til' you're happy

2009-03-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

This is the world famous Love-Intense Motivational, Make-Ya-Happy, Anti-Depression, Podcast, Online Radio Show broadcast that everyone is talking about! -The Freeschool Loves You, Personally, Individually & So Do I! Rewind & Replay til' you're happy! :)

Click here for the MP3 File

Love for the people,
-T

T. Love
Black man f.l.u.f.f.
You can also find this as an Mp3 audio recording and on my podcast or click here to subscribe to the Itunes subscription : http://tinyurl.com/link2itunes

Time To Say Goodbye.... to My House mate...and time to say good bye to 1 in every 31 people..in the American correction system

2009-03-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

The Podcast, online radioshow and MP3 File is found here.

Dear friends,

Tonight is Time to say Goodbye. My house-mate, an intern who was only going to stay one month, but wound up spending several months, is spending the last night tonight as my house mate. One of the first house mates I ever had who I (and everyone one else in our house) never had one single argument with ever. Not even one argument. Amazing. This is devastating for me and a personal tragedy for me. 'Fuck', describes my sentiments a bit *happy laughter*..., but even better I say: 'I wish you well where ever you go, cool house mate.' :)

Fuck. You know what? Cool, non-argumentative, non-power tripping, happy, kind, pleasant, house mates (like my house mate who is leaving) are hard to find. Ouch. The pain.

On a national and international level...it is also time to say goodbye....to 1 in every 31 Americans...who are in the American corrections system. The Prison Industrial System in the United States is an abomination and it brings me even more pain to know that so many people must suffer in prison. Read more below.

I am not affiliated with the International Socialist Organization but I encourage you to attend their Public Forum on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 titled Institutionalized Racism & The Struggle for Black Liberation.

Love for the people,
-T

T. Love
Black man f.l.u.f.f.
You can also find this as an Mp3 audio recording and on my podcast or click here to subscribe to the Itunes subscription : http://tinyurl.com/link2itunes

-----

The below excerpt was copy and pasted from this website: http://isoseattle.blogspot.com/2009/02/public-forum-3pm-saturday-march-14.html

PUBLIC FORUM:

3pm, Saturday, March 14
Yesler Community Center, 917 E Yesler Way

FEATURED SPEAKERS:

Gloria Briggs, parent and employee at the African American
Academy, activist in Educators, Students and
Parents for a better Vision of public schools (ESP Vision)

Jesse Hagopian, teacher, activist in Educators, Students and
Parents for a better Vision of public schools and more
Read Jesse's latest article on commondreams.org.

Bonnie Wilson, PTA member and activist in Educators, Students and
Parents for a better Vision of public schools (ESP Vision)

More speakers TBA

Obama's election dealt a historic blow against racism. An African-American has been elected president in a country built on slavery. Yet there are still more Black men in US Prisons than there were slaves in 1840, and over 50 years since Brown vs. Board, the nation's schools are more segregated than ever. Despite this, the city of Seattle is making plans to build a new jail while at the same time it is closing public schools that disproportionately affect minority and low income families.

How can we take advantage of a new era in US politics to organize a challenge to the institutionalized racism which continues to plague our city and nation?

What kind of movement would it take to end racism?

Join us for this urgent discussion on the future
struggle for black liberation in the U.S.

Sponsored by:
Haymarket Books

Seattle International Socialist Organization
Educators, Students and Parents for a Better Vision of Public Schools
Public Health Against Institutionalized Racism at the University of Washington

To endorse this event or for more info, please contact info@seattleiso.org.

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I, T, do not agree with some of the dumb and oppressive opinions of the Pew Center regarding their ideals that prison is necessary for 'certain criminals' (I do agree with the 'Visions Statement of Critical Resistance' to abolish prison found far below) but I included the Pew Center's fact-based research anyway as it shows why the Prison Industrial System is out of control. The below excerpt was copy and pasted from this website: http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=49398).

1 in 31 U.S. Adults are Behind Bars, on Parole or Probation

Release Type: Pew Press Release

Pew Contact: Jessica Riordan, 215-575-4886 | jriordan@pewtrusts.org; Andrew McDonald 202-552-2178 | amcdonald@pewtrusts.org

Washington, DC - 03/02/2009 - Explosive growth in the number of people on probation or parole has propelled the population of the American corrections system to more than 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S. adults, according to a report released today by the Pew Center on the States. The vast majority of these offenders live in the community, yet new data in the report finds that nearly 90 percent of state corrections dollars are spent on prisons. One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections examines the scale and cost of prison, jail, probation and parole in each of the 50 states (please see the 50 state factsheets), and provides a blueprint for states to cut both crime and spending by reallocating prison expenses to fund stronger supervision of the large number of offenders in the community.“Most states are facing serious budget deficits,” said Susan Urahn, managing director of The Pew Center on the States. “Every single one of them should be making smart investments in community corrections that will help them cut costs and improve outcomes.”

In the past two decades, state general fund spending on corrections increased by more than 300 percent, outpacing other essential government services from education, to transportation and public assistance. Only Medicaid spending has grown faster. Today, corrections imposes a national taxpayer burden of $68 billion a year. Despite this increased spending, recidivism rates have remained largely unchanged.

Research shows that strong community supervision programs for lower-risk, non-violent offenders not only cost significantly less than incarceration but, when appropriately resourced and managed, can cut recidivism by as much as 30 percent. Diverting these offenders to community supervision programs also frees up prison beds needed to house violent offenders, and can offer budget makers additional resources for other pressing public priorities.

One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections provides a detailed look at who is in the corrections system and which states have the highest populations of offenders behind bars and in the community. Key findings include:

• One in 31 adults in America is in prison or jail, or on probation or parole. Twenty-five years ago, the rate was 1 in 77.
• Overall, two-thirds of offenders are in the community, not behind bars. 1 in 45 adults is on probation or parole and 1 in 100 is in prison or jail. The proportion of offenders behind bars versus in the community has changed very little over the past 25 years, despite the addition of 1.1 million prison beds.
• Correctional control rates are highly concentrated by race and geography: 1 in 11 black adults (9.2 percent) versus 1 in 27 Hispanic adults (3.7 percent) and 1 in 45 white adults (2.2 percent); 1 in 18 men (5.5 percent) versus 1 in 89 women (1.1 percent). The rates can be extremely high in certain neighborhoods. In one block-group of Detroit’s East Side, for example, 1 in 7 adult men (14.3 percent) is under correctional control.
• Georgia, where 1 in 13 adults is behind bars or under community supervision, leads the top five states that also include Idaho, Texas, Massachusetts, Ohio and the District of Columbia.

The report also analyzes the cost of current sentencing and corrections policies. The National Association of State Budget Officers estimates that states spent a record $51.7 billion on corrections in FY2008, or 1 in every 15 general fund dollars. Adding local, federal and other funding brings the national correctional spending total to $68 billion.

While total correctional spending figures have been available before, new data collected by the Pew Center on the States for the report provides the first breakdown of correctional spending by prisons, probation and parole in the past seven years:

In FY 2008, the 34 states for which data are available spent $18.65 billion on prisons (88 percent of corrections spending), but only $2.53 billion on probation and parole (12 percent).
For eight states where 25 years of data were available, spending on prisons grew by $4.74 billion from FY 1983 to FY 2008, while probation and parole spending increased by only $652 million. This means that while prisons accounted for one-third of the population growth, they consumed 88 percent of the new corrections expenditures.
The 34 states that were able to provide data reported spending as much as 22 times more per day to manage prison inmates than to supervise offenders in the community. The reported average inmate cost was $79 per day, or nearly $29,000 per year. The average cost of managing an offender in the community ranged from $3.42 per day for probationers to $7.47 per day for parolees, or about $1,250 to $2,750 a year.

“...our research shows that prisons are housing too many people who can be managed safely and held accountable in the community at far lower cost,” said Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project, which produced the report. “New community supervision strategies and technologies need to be strengthened and expanded, not scaled back. Cutting them may appear to save a few dollars, but it doesn’t. It will fuel the cycle of more crime, more victims, more arrests, more prosecutions, and still more imprisonment.”

One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections provides states with a blueprint and specific case studies for strengthening their community corrections systems, saving money and reducing crime. Research-based recommendations include:

• Sort offenders by risk to public safety to determine appropriate levels of supervision;
• Base intervention programs on sound research about what works to reduce recidivism;
• Harness advances in supervision technology such as electronic monitoring and rapid-result alcohol and drug tests;
• Impose swift and certain sanctions for offenders who break the rules of their release but who do not commit new crimes; and
• Create incentives for offenders and supervision agencies to succeed, and monitor their performance.

Launched in 2006 as a project of The Pew Center on the States, the Public Safety Performance Project seeks to help states advance fiscally sound, data-driven policies and practices in sentencing and corrections that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and control corrections costs.

The Pew Charitable Trusts applies the power of knowledge to solve today’s most challenging problems. Our Center on the States identifies and advances effective policy approaches to critical issues facing states. Online at www.pewcenteronthestates.org.

# # #

All State Fact Sheets

ASSOCIATED REPORT:
One in 31 (report)

---------------

http://www.criticalresistance.org/article.php?id=51

Our Vision

Our

THE CRISIS OF THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Prisons and policing are destroying us. In the past two decades, the number
of people in prison in the U.S. has risen 400%. The system is filled with
68% people of color. One in three Black males born today will end up in a
cage. And an additional 4 million former prisoners in the U.S. are left
without hope or resources - barred employment opportunities,
disenfranchised, and often prohibited from getting federal loans, applying
for public housing, or getting services.

In neighborhoods where people are most affected by mass imprisonment and
policing, we see the direct effects of our society's $50 billion per year
investment in prisons and policing: schools are closing, homelessness is
rampant, basic health care remains out of reach, and poverty remains an
entrenched reality in the richest country on earth.

The prison industrial complex, or PIC, affects everyone. There have been
huge increases in police and court powers over all our lives. Poor people of
color continue to lose power. And prisons have failed to cut crime. They
have instead led to more racism, poverty, and sexism. Our communities only
become weaker when we use punishment to solve our problems.

CRITICAL RESISTANCE'S VISION

Critical Resistance's vision is the creation of genuinely safe, healthy
communities that respond to harm without relying on prisons and punishment.

We call our vision "abolition", and take the name purposefully from those
who called for the abolition of slavery in the 1800's. Abolitionists
believed that slavery could not be fixed or reformed - it needed to be
abolished. As PIC abolitionists today, we also do not believe that reforms
can make the PIC just or effective. Our goal is not to improve the system;
it is to shrink the system into non-existence.

We don't believe that we need the PIC to keep us safe. Instead, we work to
build safe and healthy communities, where the basics are provided, such as
food, shelter, and self-determination. We also work to create and promote
alternatives to the current system.

Critical Resistance (CR) is building a member-led and member-run grassroots
movement to stop using punishment to "cure" complicated social problems. We
know that more police and prisons will not make our communities safer.
Instead, we know that things like food, housing, and freedom are what
creates lasting safety. We work to prevent people from being arrested or
locked up in prison. In all our work, we organize to build power and to
stop the devastation that the reliance on prisons and policing have brought
to ourselves, our families, and our communities.

CREATING ALTERNATIVES

Even today, when so many rely so heavily on the prison industrial complex to
respond to harm, alternatives are being tested inside and outside the U.S.
Within the US, neighbors are setting up alternative neighborhood watches (or
shifting the agendas of existing ones) to support each other and provide
safe living environments without involving local police. Conferencing
circles and mediation are increasingly being used to resolve disputes. Some
organizations that work closely with survivors of sexual violence have begun
to reject intervention by the police while developing their own
community-based alternatives for safety and conflict resolution. Alternative
schools have been established that provide practical alternatives to the
juvenile justice system.

The goal of abolition pushes us to broaden our options in responding to
harm. Creating a wider spectrum for economic and political participation;
making affordable, quality housing for everyone a priority; or understanding
substance use as a health issue can help us challenge some of the
assumptions on which the prison industrial complex is based upon.

While in the long run we seek abolition; in the short run we seek
alternatives to cage based punishment and to reduce the number of prisoners
and prisons. Today, we are taking practical, small steps that will move us
toward abolition.

Government Bans Youtube After Youtube Airs Secret Mutiny Tape

2009-03-09T20:01:00.000-07:00

Watch this video from PBS site if you cannot watch it here

MP3 File

Dear friends,

Please share this article all over the world and please forward the below information and let the world know it is unethical for the Bangladesh Government to censor Free media access for their people after an incident involving the murder of over 70 people!

Love for the people,

T. Love
Black man f.l.u.f.f.
You can also find this as an Mp3 audio recording and on my podcast or click here to subscribe to the Itunes subscription : http://tinyurl.com/link2itunes

YouTube ban confirmed

It’s not possible to access the popular website youtube (www.youtube.com) from Bangladesh. From yesterday (Saturday), a large number of internet users called Prothom Alo to inform about this. A number of internet service provider in the country confirmed this. Apparently, the internet gateway that is used to access the submarine fibre optic cable from Bangladesh, controlled by the Bangladesh Telecom Company Ltd (BTCL), blocks youtube’s IP address. As a result, this popular website is not accessible from Bangladesh.

More info below:

The AFP reports:

Bangladesh blocks YouTube over mutiny tape: govt source

DHAKA (AFP) — Bangladesh has blocked the video sharing website YouTube for hosting a recorded conversation between the newly elected prime minister and the country's powerful army officers, officials said Sunday.

The violence in the capital Dhaka 10 days ago left at least 74 people dead including 56 army officers who were butchered and buried in shallow graves by mutinous border guards.

More info:

http://rezwanul.blogspot.com/2009/03/youtube-ban-confirmed.html

http://unheardvoice.net/blog/2009/03/09/digital-bangladesh-rip

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jEmHbV6SdRizcY6ZiNezWZf--0oQ

Freeschool Presents Free Art Class For All Ages Monday

2009-03-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

Starts: Monday, Mar 9 2009 - 3:00pm
Ends: Monday, Mar 9 2009 - 6:00pm

We spoke with artist and Freeschool Facilitator, Jaimie Terada (In community service requirements for Master in Teaching Program Through the Evergreen State College) and she will be giving her last art class for this Spring so I recommend everyone check it out!

For more info contact Jaimie directly.

Title: Art Making
Time: 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Exact Dates: Monday, March 9th, 2009.

Location change to:
Garfield Elementary (Music room)
325 Plymouth Street NW, Olympia, WA , 98502
Facilitator: Jaimie Terada

For more details, photo and discussion of this class please click here.

Love, peace and Joy for all, :)

-Freeschool

For up to the minute class update follow the Freeschool's Twitter account at:
http://twitter.com/lovepeaceandjoy

-----------------------------

The is the last art class of the Freeschool's winter quarter schedule,

The Freeschool is currently accepting classes for the Spring Quarter.

International Women's Week In Resistance Presented by the Evergreen Women of Color Coalition with Free Events and an Audio Interview

2009-03-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

Brought to you by BlackManFluff at www.BlackManFluff.org

MP3 File and Podcast Interview Found by Clicking here.

Dear friends, compañeras, allies, and friends who I will come to know soon who are working for a better world,

There are several awesome free events taking place over the next five days as part of the International Women's Week in Resistance. The Freeschool and the blackman f.l.u.f.f. podcast and radio show has an MP3 podcast (online radio episode) with an interview of Mao and Alejeandra, member of the Women of Color Coalition, that you can find at the above link.

It is an interview with two amazing women of color, Mao and Alejandra, just a few minutes ago on the Evergreen Campus who are part of the Women of Color Coalition at Evergreen and have free events as part of the International Women's Week - Women in Resistance.

They have some really awesome events and could really use some extra publicity so please circulate this information.

In the interview they give very exciting details about their events that are detailed below and happen over the next 4 days so you could play it on the Media Island radio anytime over the next 4 days and it will still be very relevant and timely.

The Evergreen Women of Color Coalition accepts Evergreen students and Non-Evergreen students women of color into their group. In regards to the events people of all genders, races and backgrounds are welcome at their events so everyone should feel welcome.

Even if you don't listen to the interview, please be sure to check out the Women Of Color Coalition's new Twitter page that the Freeschool helped to set up which gives details about the WOCC upcoming events found here:
http://twitter.com/evergreenwocc

You can also check out the Freeschool's Twitter page at
http://twitter.com/lovepeaceandjoy

Keep up all the great work, everyone!

Love for the people,

-T. Love
http://www.blackmanfluff.org

Member of the The Freeschool Community Collective

To learn more about the Freeschool Community please visit: http://www.freeschoolunity.org

The Freeschool Community is a member of the PeaceCommunities Progressive Coalition.
http://www.PeaceCommunities.org

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize
Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

p.s.

All these below events are free.

-------------------------------------------------------

An Intergenerational Exploration of Matrilineal history

Claiming and Reclaiming our Mother’s lived experience

Unveiling an Identity rooted in the past while grounded in the preset

Join us for an evening of story and community healing

Friday March 6th

7:00pm

Lecture Hall 1

=========================================================================

Resista’s: Claiming our experience in Resistance

Join us for a night of spoken word performance and community dialogue

Learn about the various struggles that we face as a community and how expressing our experience strengthens our ability to create change.

Tuesday March 10th

6:00pm

Lecture Hall 2

B-Girl Be

Flm Screening of Women in Hip Hop

Sponsored by Hip Hop Congress

Monday March 9th

6:00pm

Lecture Hall 2

FREE

=========================================================================

Michele (Shelly) Vendiola (Swinomish/Lummi/Filipina) gaave a workshop on Thursday night

=============================================================

Hima B.

A queer South Asian and an independent writer/director/producer whose works explore the intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, labor, & economics, especially as they impact LGBT people and women/girls.

Saturday, March 7th

Sem II D1105 from 1:00 – 3:00

The lecture will include two short films and a media training workshop:

And I Do Survive

This cinema verite documentary chronicles Michelle Lopez, a Trinidadian lesbian who pursues the American Dream & a green card in a country that denies her citizenship because she is an HIV+ immigrant. While juggling life as a single mom & devoted religious follower, she organizes to reverse this discriminatory law & other practices that infringe on the quality of life for HIV+ people. As the gay marriage becomes debated nationally, Michelle’s partner requests a commitment and their relationship mirrors the divide within LGBT, AIDS, & immigrant communities.

Sistahs Survive & Thrive:

Ten short videos portraits of Black and Latina women bring us into their worlds and reveal how they live with HIV/AIDS. The collection of videos are the launch of an interactive web-based project—a living AIDS quilt comprised of auto-biographical and biographical vignettes that reflects the feminized impact of HIV/AIDS and will include a range of women and girls from diverse ethnicities, ages, socio-economic class.

Media Training:

Learn how to use your own digital camera (and other devices) to create a documentary-style short film yourself!

Bring your digital still camera, videocam or cell phone so you can contribute your story or AIDS tips to the Quilt!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

If you desire to leave comments on this post, please do so by clicking here to visit this post on another blog.

Broadcast 1 - Five-Minutes-of-Fascinating Feminist Friday News and Reviews Podcast and Online Radio Show

2009-03-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

The short URL direct permanent link for this page is http://tinyurl.com/cf477l

Click here for MP3 Podcast Episode File

It's the "Five-Minutes-of-Fascinating Feminist Friday News and Reviews" Podcast and Online Radio episode! :)

Every Friday I will post this info on my blog and podcast, and also on the Peace Communities Solidarity blog (where comments and feedback are happily accepted), and in the Peace Communities Online Feminist News Forum (where comments and feedback are also happily accepted) and then send out a Twitter Announcement on it, collectively reaching hundreds of readers who care about feminist concerns within just the first few minutes....and reaching thousands of readers who will eventually learn about the things that we all desire to share.
------------------------------

Key

@ sign means is the twitter ID and username of the person who submitted the article for this podcast edpisode

incl. = includes

------------------------------

Thanks
@melsil

Hollywood from a feminist perspective - http://is.gd/m7G2

incl. Interviw

-----------------------------------------------

Thanks
@ehollingsworth,

'The real cost of tomatoes in March'. - http://tinyurl.com/cykuu5 -

Article written by The Nation
incl. update on Coalition of Immokalee Workers,

-----------------------------------------------

Thanks
@WomenWhoTechOn

my nptech radar - Integrated Comm Workshop, a nonprofit, doing a special feature on women in honor of International Women's Day -. http://www.frogloop.com/radar2

incl. "Panelists include Courtney O'Callaghan, IT Director at Feminist Majority Foundation at (feminist.org)"

---------------------------------------------

Thanks
Teardrops 4 Katelynn

America: 75% Of Batterers Get Custody Of The Children
http://peacecommunities.ning.com/profiles/blogs/america-75-of-batterers-get

incl. The Wellesley Battered Mothers' Testimony Project
and many amazing fact and statistics

-----------------------------------------------
Remember, Every Friday there will be a Feminist Friday News, Reviews Podcast and Online Radio episode. If you want your news broadcasted next week, just go to http://www.tinyurl.com/feministnews

===============================================
Towards an end to institutionalized patriarchy...within our lifetime.

Divided we are weak... united we are strong.

el amor,

Love for the people,

-T. Love

black man f.l.u.f.f.

"....a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it,
below it and within it is no struggle at all.”

-Arundhati Roy, Quoted from her speech: '2004 Sydney Peace Prize
Lecture' (The entire speech is available online, search for the title)

Free Landscaping Class to Protect Water, Attract Wildlife

2009-03-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

Free Landscaping Class to Protect Water, Attract Wildlife
* class
* Free
* gardening
* Native Plant Salvage
* naturescaping
* plants
* wildlife

“Naturescaping for Water & Wildlife” will be offered WSU’s Native Plant Salvage Project on Thursday, March 12, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. in North Olympia.

Participants will learn design ideas to attract more birds, butterflies, amphibians, and beneficial insects to home landscapes while reducing maintenance headaches and protecting water resources. Other topics will include minimizing lawn, hardscaping ideas, and drought-tolerant plants. Participants will receive many free handouts to help them create more attractive and sustainable landscapes. Discover easy ideas to protect your family’s health, Puget Sound, and leave a legacy of clean water for future generations. The workshop is free, but advanced registration is required. For directions and registration, contact 360-754-3588 ext. 109 or nativeplantsalvage@gmail.com

Solidarity for a better world....without Lupus... with Free Healthcare... with free everything for everyone... no one should have to suffer....

2009-03-03T12:09:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

As many of you know, my sister died of Lupus...so when I heard about this blog post ...

Help Me find a Cure for My Disease...Please.

...about a Mom who suffers from Lupus, I had to share it with you. The photo above is the Lupus constellation.

I also created a radio show, podcast about it found by clicking here: MP3 File

I Love you all.

Solidarity for a better world.

Love for the people,
-T. Love

BlackManFluff

New Aboriginal News Group! Check it Out Please!

2009-03-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

Again, The best news of the day was hearing about the Aboriginal News Groups! I encourage you to go click here and check it out! I love to see marginalized people get organized!

WOOOOooooooOOoooHOOOooo! Thats exciting!

Aboriginal spirituality as determined by the Dreaming

Alabama	Alaska	Arizona	Arkansas
California	Colorado	Connecticut	Delaware
District of Columbia	Florida	Georgia	Hawaii
Idaho	Illinois	Indiana	Iowa
Kansas	Kentucky	Louisiana	Maine
Maryland	Massachusetts	Michigan	Minnesota
Mississippi	Missouri	Montana	Nebraska
Nevada	New Hampshire	New Jersey	New Mexico
New York	North Carolina	North Dakota	Ohio
Oklahoma	Oregon	Pennsylvania	Rhode Island
South Carolina	South Dakota	Tennessee	Texas
Utah	Vermont	Virginia	Washington
West Virginia	Wisconsin	Wyoming

Save The Poor Brown Children Solidarity Blog

Baroness Von Flavell: One of The 11 'Land-Lords' That Absurd Rules Allow to Dodge Justice.

Getting off scot-free, Baroness and ten other cheating Lords

Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe, LABOUR

Viscount Falkland, LIB DEM

Lord Rosser, LABOUR

Baroness Neuberger, LABOUR

Lord Taylor of Warwick, TORY

Baroness Goudie of Roundwood, LABOUR

Lord Paul, LABOUR

Lord Sheldon, LABOUR

Lord Bhatia, LABOUR

Lord Clarke of Hampstead, LABOUR

Electronics Maker Promises Review After Suicides

By David Barboza DAVID BARBOZA

NYT Article: At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart. Is Carol Payne Flavell Part of the Crisis?

At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart,

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Carol Payne Flavell. Charles Ble Goude, Andre Nkouaga. Petition the United States government for a redress of grievances

Côte d'Ivoire Time Line.

Côte d'Ivoire Time Line

Last updated 1 June 2007

A chronology of key events:

Sources: http://www.acig.org/, http://www.irinnews.org/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Independence

Felix Houphouet-Boignyfirst presidentfrom 07 Aug 1960to 07 Dec 1993

Ban on parties lifted

Henri Konan Bedie (HKB) Dec. 1999Presidentfrom 07 Dec 1993to 24 Dec 1999

Popular Uprising

General Robert GueiPresidentfrom 25 Dec 1999to 25 Oct 2000

Laurent GbagboPresidentfrom 26 Oct 2000to present

Alassane Dramane OuattaraPrime Ministerfrom 07 Nov 1990to 11 Dec 1993

Rebellion

Linas-Marcoussis Agreement

Power-sharing

Seydou Elimane DiarraPrime Ministerfrom 10 Feb 2003to 04 Dec 2005 andfrom 8 May 2000to 27 Oct 2000

UPRISING

Rebels rejoin government of national unity.

Jules Yao Yao

Government launches air strikes

Charles Ble Goude

November 2004

The Pretoria Agreement

Charles Konan BannyPrime MinisterDecember 2005

Carol Payne Flavell and Andre Nkouaga Criminal Alert: Community Crisis: Check Bouncing Ring in Olympia! Petition the government for a redress of grievances

Deputy Director at United States Agency for International Development, Washington, DC –

The following names appear beside Carol’s name on this page. United States Agency for International Development.

This page lists her as retired in the following list:

RetiredMaribess ArmstrongWanda R. DixonCarol Payne FlavellDonald M. HarrisonRonald D. HarveyJoseph F. Lombardo Jr.Carol A. PeasleyPaulette M. PrestwoodGerald C. RenderChristine M. Wegman

The Awesome ARUNDHATI ROY at Town Hall Seattle Tonight, along with ARUNDHATI ROY videos

Highly Recommended: Search For Missing Women Website

Eleanor Salotto, Update: Among List/Map of Many Recent Missing Women In Virginia

Very Special thanks, 90+ photos and slideshow, upcoming East Coast meet-up event coming up

Brought to you by BlackManFluff at www.BlackManFluff.org

2009 Radical Media Convergence Schedule! Join me!

My friend Emily graduated from Medical School (this week) and she is now officially 'Dr. Emily.'

Vote For The Rebels! Daisy's Dead Air Blog & For Renee of WomanistMusings in the Feminist Awards. Send this on Twitter: http://bit.ly/DaisyAndRenee

SouthPark made KanyeWest reform. Southpark should address free healthcare and free college!

Reasons Why Capitalism is Terrible- Reason # 1,234.678

Red & Black Cafe - April Communique, RIOT FOLK CD RELEASE SHOW

I love the Red and Black cafe. They hosted an event free for the Radical Road Trip last year. Plus RIOT FOLK CD RELEASE SHOW is 4.16 and they always support the Freeschool in Olympia. I am cofounder of the Radical feminist Distro for music made by Brenna of Riotfolk. Please support them all.

Love for the people,

Red and Black Cafe Communique - April

Red & Black Cafe - April Communique

Immigrant Ally Workshop- 6PM @ Cascade People's Center - No Human is Illegal

Open Letter and Petition: Please Don't Allow Bias, Homophobia and Transphobia to Influence the Off Our Backs Collective

Free Open House at Emma Goldman Finishing School

Online, Printable Copy of Emma Goldman's 'Living My Life'

Very powerful and inspirational. :)

Living My Life

Table of Contents

"It is no longer a question of whether we'll continue to have capitalism. It is a question of what will replace it"

Economic Survival Fair assists those affected by economic downturn

Invitation to Recorded Teleconference Interview about Transphobia

All Time Low: Transphobic, Womanist-Musings Post-Swiper Accuses Other People of Post-Swiping - When Will We Start Pooling Our Experience?

Social Media & Blog Awards Based on Link Authority Are Killing The Progressive Movement - or - Why Feminists Should Have Boycotted Fem 2.0 Conference

The 2009 North American Free Skool Conference with the Santa Cruz Anarchist Convergence

Free SkillShare - *food justice: a growing movement *medicinal/edible plants workshop *zine making and much more!

Pamela Whible: The Electric Doctor! "...some of the best medical, motivational presentations and videos I have ever seen." Electric! No joke.

The Love-Intense Motivational Anti-Depression Podcast -The Freeschool Loves You, Personally, Individually & So Do I! Rewind & Replay til' you're happy

Felix Houphouet-Boigny
first president
from 07 Aug 1960
to 07 Dec 1993

Henri Konan Bedie (HKB) Dec. 1999
President
from 07 Dec 1993
to 24 Dec 1999

General Robert Guei
President
from 25 Dec 1999
to 25 Oct 2000

Laurent Gbagbo
President
from 26 Oct 2000
to present

Alassane Dramane Ouattara
Prime Minister
from 07 Nov 1990
to 11 Dec 1993

Seydou Elimane Diarra
Prime Minister
from 10 Feb 2003
to 04 Dec 2005 and
from 8 May 2000
to 27 Oct 2000

Charles Konan Banny
Prime Minister
December 2005

RetiredMaribess Armstrong
Wanda R. Dixon
Carol Payne Flavell
Donald M. Harrison
Ronald D. Harvey
Joseph F. Lombardo Jr.
Carol A. Peasley
Paulette M. Prestwood
Gerald C. Render
Christine M. Wegman

Free SkillShare - food justice: a growing movement medicinal/edible plants workshop *zine making and much more!