Wednesday, 5 November, 2008 6:18 AM From: "Barack Obama" To: "Ana Santana"
Ana --
I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.
We just made history.
And I don't want you to forget how we did it.
You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.
I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.
We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.
But I want to be very clear about one thing...
All of this happened because of you.
Thank you,
Barack
Watch/read herehis victory speech, where he says, as if singing with Otis:
Wednesday, 5 November, 2008 6:18 AM From: "Barack Obama" To: "Ana Santana"
Ana --
I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.
We just made history.
And I don't want you to forget how we did it.
You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.
I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.
We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.
But I want to be very clear about one thing...
All of this happened because of you.
Thank you,
Barack
Watch/read herehis victory speech, where he says, as if singing with Otis:
PREPARING FOR TOMORROW...
[First posted 03/11/2008]
Barring an extraordinary shock, Barack Obama will win more than 270 electoral votes on Tuesday, giving him the White House. Hours before voting starts, John McCain has no clear path to reaching that goal. In fact, interviews with political strategists in both parties and election analysts and advisers to both presidential campaigns — including a detailed look at public and private polling data — indicate that an Obama victory with well over 300 electoral votes is a more likely outcome than a McCain victory.
In the two years since Sen. Barack Obama announced his bid for the presidency, black Americans have been on an emotional roller coaster. Only recently have many of us allowed ourselves to envision what once seemed impossible: A U.S. president who is a person of color. With Obama leading in national pre-election polls, the suspense has become nearly unbearable.
Even deeper at the center of our current anxiety are at least two questions that carry all the complexity of black Americans' history in this country: What will it mean personally to us if he wins? And how will it affect the future of African Americans?
Win or lose, how will we cope?
Barring an extraordinary shock, Barack Obama will win more than 270 electoral votes on Tuesday, giving him the White House. Hours before voting starts, John McCain has no clear path to reaching that goal. In fact, interviews with political strategists in both parties and election analysts and advisers to both presidential campaigns — including a detailed look at public and private polling data — indicate that an Obama victory with well over 300 electoral votes is a more likely outcome than a McCain victory.
In the two years since Sen. Barack Obama announced his bid for the presidency, black Americans have been on an emotional roller coaster. Only recently have many of us allowed ourselves to envision what once seemed impossible: A U.S. president who is a person of color. With Obama leading in national pre-election polls, the suspense has become nearly unbearable.
Even deeper at the center of our current anxiety are at least two questions that carry all the complexity of black Americans' history in this country: What will it mean personally to us if he wins? And how will it affect the future of African Americans?
Win or lose, how will we cope?
As I was musing about the issue of “child soldiers” in the Angolan context – first here some weeks ago and here in the last few days – I was totally unaware of the global phenomenon the video below by charity Invisible Children (IC) on Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda has recently become, first on the social media and then on mainstream media, rising up the the American Congress and the Internacional Criminal Court.
I heard about it for the first time yesterday on this programme at BBC Radio 3, where a Ugandan journalist made a number of critical points to dispel the prevailing notion that this is a one-dimensional problem and urged the IC campaigners to dig deeper in their research and place the blame where it really belongs (if not entirely, at least shared with Joseph Kony and the LRA): on Yoweri Museveni and the Ugandan Army.
He also brought to the fore the ethnic dimensions of the problem, e.g. how the North of the country, where the LRA has its stronghold, has been historically ‘segregated’ from the rest of the country. That ‘segregationism’, he argued, takes such forms as naming a so far unexplained disease that has been ravaging the country “the Northern disease” for no other reason than that there is no known cure for it. Which led me to draw a parallel to the ‘stigma’ attached to the North of Angola over the past decade for a number of outbreaks of strange or unexplained diseases in that part of the country and also to the ethnic dimension of the Angolan war – something strongly dismissed by the official line, as recently stressed by President Jose’ Eduardo dos Santos and an Angolan journalist, both quoted here .
But the controversy sparked by the IC video and ongoing campaign doesn’t stop there and I am just catching up with it – a particularly interesting article on the issue can be found here .
"The 70 million plus who have watched the Invisible Children video need to realise that the LRA – both the leaders and the children pressed into their service – are not an alien force but sons and daughters of the soil. The solution is not to eliminate them physically, but to find ways of integrating them into (Ugandan) society. Those in the Ugandan and the US governments – and now apparently the owners of Invisible Children – must bear responsibility for regionalising the problem as the LRA and, in its tow, the Ugandan army and US advisors criss-cross the region, from Uganda to DRC to CAR. Yet, at its core the LRA remains a Ugandan problem calling for a Ugandan political solution." [Here]
After catching up with the full story, pondering all the arguments and balancing out the pros and cons, I decided to support the 'Kony 2012' campaign. It became, over and above its political dimensions, a matter of conscience for me.
As I was musing about the issue of “child soldiers” in the Angolan context – first here some weeks ago and here in the last few days – I was totally unaware of the global phenomenon the video below by charity Invisible Children (IC) on Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda has recently become, first on the social media and then on mainstream media, rising up the the American Congress and the Internacional Criminal Court.
I heard about it for the first time yesterday on this programme at BBC Radio 3, where a Ugandan journalist made a number of critical points to dispel the prevailing notion that this is a one-dimensional problem and urged the IC campaigners to dig deeper in their research and place the blame where it really belongs (if not entirely, at least shared with Joseph Kony and the LRA): on Yoweri Museveni and the Ugandan Army.
He also brought to the fore the ethnic dimensions of the problem, e.g. how the North of the country, where the LRA has its stronghold, has been historically ‘segregated’ from the rest of the country. That ‘segregationism’, he argued, takes such forms as naming a so far unexplained disease that has been ravaging the country “the Northern disease” for no other reason than that there is no known cure for it. Which led me to draw a parallel to the ‘stigma’ attached to the North of Angola over the past decade for a number of outbreaks of strange or unexplained diseases in that part of the country and also to the ethnic dimension of the Angolan war – something strongly dismissed by the official line, as recently stressed by President Jose’ Eduardo dos Santos and an Angolan journalist, both quoted here .
But the controversy sparked by the IC video and ongoing campaign doesn’t stop there and I am just catching up with it – a particularly interesting article on the issue can be found here .
"The 70 million plus who have watched the Invisible Children video need to realise that the LRA – both the leaders and the children pressed into their service – are not an alien force but sons and daughters of the soil. The solution is not to eliminate them physically, but to find ways of integrating them into (Ugandan) society. Those in the Ugandan and the US governments – and now apparently the owners of Invisible Children – must bear responsibility for regionalising the problem as the LRA and, in its tow, the Ugandan army and US advisors criss-cross the region, from Uganda to DRC to CAR. Yet, at its core the LRA remains a Ugandan problem calling for a Ugandan political solution." [Here]
After catching up with the full story, pondering all the arguments and balancing out the pros and cons, I decided to support the 'Kony 2012' campaign. It became, over and above its political dimensions, a matter of conscience for me.
To mark this year’s Black History Month, I invite you for a journey inside this book:
While at it, let us bear in mind that this is essentially what can rightly be called a 'time capsule': there is no before or after, just that moment in History that came to define the Black Panthers Party (BPP), founded two years earlier, in 1966, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale – what was it all about, what made it thick.
Except for brief references in the biographical notes at the end of the book, there is no account, for instance, of Eldridge Cleaver’s prior imprisonment for rape, in 1957 –- even when his acclaimed book written in prison Soul on Ice is mentioned, nothing is said about his own account on it of his experience as a rapist: “starting with black girls for ‘practice’ and then going on the serial rape of white women, as he put it, as an ‘insurrectionary act’” (before settling for an 'almost white' lady, I should add..).
Nor is there any account of his later time in Argelia – having got there with his wife Kathleen via Cuba –, where he was reported to, at some point, have organised a stolen car ring from Europe to Africa, allegedly to garner financial support for his followers from America who had hijacked planes there to join him in Argelia, before moving on to Paris.
Or of how, back in America a few years later, he renounced his radical views, became a born-again Christian and then, among other things religious, a Mormon, before eventually running for office as a member of the Republican Party.
Actually, for some reason, looking at Eldridge’s life trajectory brings to mind this poem by that other Black Knight of the time, Gil Scott-Heron, and associated with it, interestingly enough, the fact that both ultimately had their lives shortened by drug addiction…
There are no images of a more aged Kathleen Cleaver when, except for the dreadlocks, she looks 'whiter than white' and, without her ‘60s almost ever-wearing black sunglasses, 'clearer-eyed' than any average white woman, or of her later divorce from Eldridge amid stories of him discovering that she had a lover who he made sure was killed, or of her subsequent notable academic career either…
... just the absolutely striking images of a stunning 23 year-old beauty sporting a mighty afro and a demeanour fit for a princess, except that instead of a bunch of flowers in her hands she held, if not a cigarette, a gun, even if not showing...
... by the way, these, the guns, the very raison d’être of all the BPP self-defense posture (its original full name was Black Panthers Party for Self-Defense), although referred to in great detail in one paragraph, never appear in the pictures in this book, except in the hands of the “pigs”, i.e. the police.
And that’s just to mention that most charismatic couple around whom, at least for Bingham's cameras, everything seemed to gravitate during those months in 1968, with the “Free Huey” campaign serving as a galvanizing, yet somewhat backgroundish, motif.
But, perhaps it is all these abstractions that make this book so remarkable: it enables us to live that defining moment as if we were there and then; it shows us the very essence of the BPP and the Movement around it during the year when it captured the imaginations of men and women, old and young, black and white and grabbed all attentions in American society and beyond.
And all that while managing not to be obfuscated by other momentous social movements of the time, such as the May 1968 in Paris or the anti-Vietnam war protests, or even the Civil Rights Movement in America.
In fact, it brings us something that was perhaps unique to the BPP at that particular moment in time: alongside the engagement of the 'hippies', 'xicanos' and anti-war protestors, the ideological allegiance (albeit tactical and circumstantial) by such America's foes as Mao’s China and Guevara’s Cuba, as well as anti-colonialist, anti-Apartheid and pan-Africanist movements and governments in Africa.
It is thus a moment in History encapsulated in its time, but so powerfully so that it still resonates in our minds and consciousness (almost) 45 years later...
While at it, let us bear in mind that this is essentially what can rightly be called a 'time capsule': there is no before or after, just that moment in History that came to define the Black Panthers Party (BPP), founded two years earlier, in 1966, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale – what was it all about, what made it thick.
Except for brief references in the biographical notes at the end of the book, there is no account, for instance, of Eldridge Cleaver’s prior imprisonment for rape, in 1957 –- even when his acclaimed book written in prison Soul on Ice is mentioned, nothing is said about his own account on it of his experience as a rapist: “starting with black girls for ‘practice’ and then going on the serial rape of white women, as he put it, as an ‘insurrectionary act’” (before settling for an 'almost white' lady, I should add..).
Nor is there any account of his later time in Argelia – having got there with his wife Kathleen via Cuba –, where he was reported to, at some point, have organised a stolen car ring from Europe to Africa, allegedly to garner financial support for his followers from America who had hijacked planes there to join him in Argelia, before moving on to Paris.
Or of how, back in America a few years later, he renounced his radical views, became a born-again Christian and then, among other things religious, a Mormon, before eventually running for office as a member of the Republican Party.
Actually, for some reason, looking at Eldridge’s life trajectory brings to mind this poem by that other Black Knight of the time, Gil Scott-Heron, and associated with it, interestingly enough, the fact that both ultimately had their lives shortened by drug addiction…
There are no images of a more aged Kathleen Cleaver when, except for the dreadlocks, she looks 'whiter than white' and, without her ‘60s almost ever-wearing black sunglasses, 'clearer-eyed' than any average white woman, or of her later divorce from Eldridge amid stories of him discovering that she had a lover who he made sure was killed, or of her subsequent notable academic career either…
... just the absolutely striking images of a stunning 23 year-old beauty sporting a mighty afro and a demeanour fit for a princess, except that instead of a bunch of flowers in her hands she held, if not a cigarette, a gun, even if not showing...
... by the way, these, the guns, the very raison d’être of all the BPP self-defense posture (its original full name was Black Panthers Party for Self-Defense), although referred to in great detail in one paragraph, never appear in the pictures in this book, except in the hands of the “pigs”, i.e. the police.
And that’s just to mention that most charismatic couple around whom, at least for Bingham's cameras, everything seemed to gravitate during those months in 1968, with the “Free Huey” campaign serving as a galvanizing, yet somewhat backgroundish, motif.
But, perhaps it is all these abstractions that make this book so remarkable: it enables us to live that defining moment as if we were there and then; it shows us the very essence of the BPP and the Movement around it during the year when it captured the imaginations of men and women, old and young, black and white and grabbed all attentions in American society and beyond.
And all that while managing not to be obfuscated by other momentous social movements of the time, such as the May 1968 in Paris or the anti-Vietnam war protests, or even the Civil Rights Movement in America.
In fact, it brings us something that was perhaps unique to the BPP at that particular moment in time: alongside the engagement of the 'hippies', 'xicanos' and anti-war protestors, the ideological allegiance (albeit tactical and circumstantial) by such America's foes as Mao’s China and Guevara’s Cuba, as well as anti-colonialist, anti-Apartheid and pan-Africanist movements and governments in Africa.
It is thus a moment in History encapsulated in its time, but so powerfully so that it still resonates in our minds and consciousness (almost) 45 years later...
I was in Africa: Gaborone, Botswana. Didn’t know anything about it until I entered in what was at the time the biggest general store in town, Game, where I found a group of europeans gathered in front of one of the large TV screens on the walls. It was tuned into a live broadcast from New York by CNN showing the first tower up in smoke and flames. Before I could understand what was going on, the second tower was also hit by a plane and started burning. Some among the group of europeans started clapping and cheering – they were French, I could understand from the language they spoke.
Later that day, I went with an Angolan acquaintance to visit a couple from some Muslim-dominated East African country doing business in Botswana. At some point in our conversation, I said that I was thinking about sending a message of condolences to my American colleagues with whom I worked in a team of international consultants throughout Southern Africa for a project called Regional Activity to Promote Integration through Dialogue and Policy Implementation (RAPID) - by the way, thiswas the kind of work we were doing there at the time.
My companions were not enthusiastic about my idea, to put it mildly; the Angolan actually cautioned me against it. There was among them a overwhelming sense of “celebration” for what was there generally perceived as a lesson from the now called “Global South” that “the (arrogant, imperialist) Yanquis” and the West in general long deserved…
My personal feeling, however, was that no ideology or religion should arrogate to itself the “right” to cause so much pain to so many people in such a split moment of time – and I would feel and say very much the same if, as it happened here and there along history, the damage had been inflicted by “the Yanquis” or any other Western power upon any other country in the world. I was just moved by human empathy towards my American friends and colleagues. Yet there was still that strange sense of “grandeur” and even “sinister beauty” about all that spectacle, which somehow managed to subdue our reasoned thoughts about what was developing in front of our eyes.
So, I just kept quite afterwards sinking it all in and recalling the day, ten years earlier, when I had been to the World Trade Centre with a group of German economics students and the pictures we had taken on the top of those towers… I don’t know where they are now – they seem to have disappeared just like the Twin Towers.
I was in Africa: Gaborone, Botswana. Didn’t know anything about it until I entered in what was at the time the biggest general store in town, Game, where I found a group of europeans gathered in front of one of the large TV screens on the walls. It was tuned into a live broadcast from New York by CNN showing the first tower up in smoke and flames. Before I could understand what was going on, the second tower was also hit by a plane and started burning. Some among the group of europeans started clapping and cheering – they were French, I could understand from the language they spoke.
Later that day, I went with an Angolan acquaintance to visit a couple from some Muslim-dominated East African country doing business in Botswana. At some point in our conversation, I said that I was thinking about sending a message of condolences to my American colleagues with whom I worked in a team of international consultants throughout Southern Africa for a project called Regional Activity to Promote Integration through Dialogue and Policy Implementation (RAPID) - by the way, thiswas the kind of work we were doing there at the time.
My companions were not enthusiastic about my idea, to put it mildly; the Angolan actually cautioned me against it. There was among them a overwhelming sense of “celebration” for what was there generally perceived as a lesson from the now called “Global South” that “the (arrogant, imperialist) Yanquis” and the West in general long deserved…
My personal feeling, however, was that no ideology or religion should arrogate to itself the “right” to cause so much pain to so many people in such a split moment of time – and I would feel and say very much the same if, as it happened here and there along history, the damage had been inflicted by “the Yanquis” or any other Western power upon any other country in the world. I was just moved by human empathy towards my American friends and colleagues. Yet there was still that strange sense of “grandeur” and even “sinister beauty” about all that spectacle, which somehow managed to subdue our reasoned thoughts about what was developing in front of our eyes.
So, I just kept quite afterwards sinking it all in and recalling the day, ten years earlier, when I had been to the World Trade Centre with a group of German economics students and the pictures we had taken on the top of those towers… I don’t know where they are now – they seem to have disappeared just like the Twin Towers.
The Department of State released on July 26 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume XXVIII, Southern Africa
OVERVIEW
The volume contains four chapters (entitled Regional Issues, Portuguese Africa, Angola, and Independence Negotiations), each documenting a segment of U.S. policy toward Southern Africa during the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. The documentation reveals that both presidents pursued policies designed to maintain stability in the region and to avoid domestic and international criticism of U.S. ties to the white minority regimes in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia.
The chapter on Regional Issues covers South Africa, which both administrations viewed as a bulwark against Communist expansion in the region. The documents illustrate the tensions between the Nixon administration and the Congressional Black Caucus and between the administration and the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs in dealing with South Africa’s apartheid regime. They also show a preference by Nixon and Henry Kissinger to avoid direct involvement in the growing unrest.
The chapter on Portuguese Africa reflects the evolution of U.S. involvement in Angola and Mozambique. Anxious to avoid alienating a key NATO partner, the Nixon administration sought to persuade the Portuguese Government to address the grievances of the black nationalist movements, while quietly granting limited assistance to the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile (GRAE) and National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) leader Holden Roberto. U.S. involvement increased dramatically in January 1975, when Portugal granted independence to its African colonies. Concerns about Soviet expansion and Cuban involvement led the United States to provide covert support to anti-Communist forces in Angola.
The chapter on Angola chronicles the continuation of U.S. support to anti-Communist forces after the Portuguese departed in November 1975. Despite substantial assistance and support from South Africa, Zaire, Zambia, and others, the U.S. was unable to turn the tide in Angola. Congressional passage of the Tunney Amendment in December 1975 cut off aid to Angola and effectively ended U.S. support.
The chapter on independence negotiations chronicles Kissinger’s effort to broker a negotiated settlement to the conflicts in Namibia and Southern Rhodesia.
The Department of State released on July 26 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume XXVIII, Southern Africa
OVERVIEW
The volume contains four chapters (entitled Regional Issues, Portuguese Africa, Angola, and Independence Negotiations), each documenting a segment of U.S. policy toward Southern Africa during the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. The documentation reveals that both presidents pursued policies designed to maintain stability in the region and to avoid domestic and international criticism of U.S. ties to the white minority regimes in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia.
The chapter on Regional Issues covers South Africa, which both administrations viewed as a bulwark against Communist expansion in the region. The documents illustrate the tensions between the Nixon administration and the Congressional Black Caucus and between the administration and the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs in dealing with South Africa’s apartheid regime. They also show a preference by Nixon and Henry Kissinger to avoid direct involvement in the growing unrest.
The chapter on Portuguese Africa reflects the evolution of U.S. involvement in Angola and Mozambique. Anxious to avoid alienating a key NATO partner, the Nixon administration sought to persuade the Portuguese Government to address the grievances of the black nationalist movements, while quietly granting limited assistance to the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile (GRAE) and National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) leader Holden Roberto. U.S. involvement increased dramatically in January 1975, when Portugal granted independence to its African colonies. Concerns about Soviet expansion and Cuban involvement led the United States to provide covert support to anti-Communist forces in Angola.
The chapter on Angola chronicles the continuation of U.S. support to anti-Communist forces after the Portuguese departed in November 1975. Despite substantial assistance and support from South Africa, Zaire, Zambia, and others, the U.S. was unable to turn the tide in Angola. Congressional passage of the Tunney Amendment in December 1975 cut off aid to Angola and effectively ended U.S. support.
The chapter on independence negotiations chronicles Kissinger’s effort to broker a negotiated settlement to the conflicts in Namibia and Southern Rhodesia.
Tofo Tofo is the name of a group of African dancers from Mozambique. The name means “body shaking.” The choreography in Beyonce’s song, “run the world,” was inspired and replicated from the dance moves of Tofo Tofo. In the short mini-documentary named “Beyonce: Year of 4.”, Beyonce describes how she felt that “run the world” reminded her of Africa and how she locked away a YouTube video of Tofo Tofo in her mind when she first saw the video a couple of years ago. Replicating Tofo Tofo’s dance moves was not easy. As she says in the documentary “I had every talented dancer and choreographer trying to do the dance but they just couldn’t do it like Tofu Tofu.” So what did Beyonce do? She flew Tofo Tofo out of Mozambique to the States!
Tofo Tofo is the name of a group of African dancers from Mozambique. The name means “body shaking.” The choreography in Beyonce’s song, “run the world,” was inspired and replicated from the dance moves of Tofo Tofo. In the short mini-documentary named “Beyonce: Year of 4.”, Beyonce describes how she felt that “run the world” reminded her of Africa and how she locked away a YouTube video of Tofo Tofo in her mind when she first saw the video a couple of years ago. Replicating Tofo Tofo’s dance moves was not easy. As she says in the documentary “I had every talented dancer and choreographer trying to do the dance but they just couldn’t do it like Tofu Tofu.” So what did Beyonce do? She flew Tofo Tofo out of Mozambique to the States!
Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign.
We're doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you -- with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build.
So even though I'm focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.
We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. It never does. But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we've made -- and make more -- we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest.
As we take this step, I'd like to share a video that features some folks like you who are helping to lead the way on this journey.
In the coming days, supporters like you will begin forging a new organization that we'll build together in cities and towns across the country. And I'll need you to help shape our plan as we create a campaign that's farther reaching, more focused, and more innovative than anything we've built before.
We'll start by doing something unprecedented: coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying ourselves for next year's fight.
This will be my final campaign, at least as a candidate. But the cause of making a lasting difference for our families, our communities, and our country has never been about one person. And it will succeed only if we work together.
There will be much more to come as the race unfolds. Today, simply let us know you're in to help us begin, and then spread the word.
Thank you,
Barack
Mon, 4 April, 2011 11:15:27
Ana --
Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign.
We're doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you -- with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build.
So even though I'm focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.
We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. It never does. But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we've made -- and make more -- we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest.
As we take this step, I'd like to share a video that features some folks like you who are helping to lead the way on this journey.
In the coming days, supporters like you will begin forging a new organization that we'll build together in cities and towns across the country. And I'll need you to help shape our plan as we create a campaign that's farther reaching, more focused, and more innovative than anything we've built before.
We'll start by doing something unprecedented: coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying ourselves for next year's fight.
This will be my final campaign, at least as a candidate. But the cause of making a lasting difference for our families, our communities, and our country has never been about one person. And it will succeed only if we work together.
There will be much more to come as the race unfolds. Today, simply let us know you're in to help us begin, and then spread the word.
One permanent focus of attention, and controversy, in Women’s History has always been their body. Most prominently their body shapes and sizes, but also other issues surrounding it, such as their control over it and the perceived notions of its femininity and fecundity, or lack thereof. Underlying these issues (some of them recently raised here) is, alongside those of 'elegance' and 'respectability', the always present notion of ‘decency’ and the moral values upon which it is set and conceived, which may (or not) vary from one society to the other.
Therein lies the crux of the matter of what can, or not, be considered acceptable, i.e. ‘decent’, public (or, indeed, private – as in “private dancer”) display of the female body. Dance being, par excellence, the main 'artistic' vehicle through which all these themes, issues, notions and questions come to public consciousness and discussion, it is all too common to find it at the centre of 'moral judgments' about a woman’s ‘character’, or lack thereof…
I bring this subject a propos of some highly controversial music and dance fads apparently springing ‘out of the blue’ within some segments of Angolan society, especially in the capital, Luanda. Kuduro– at its best (as in here) dubbed “the darling of some European DJs” and, at its worst, as something akin to “the music/dance of the devil” (as in here) – might be the most widely spread and generally known outside the country, but there are others, especially in dance form, succeeding each other in recent years and, apparently, each one ‘worse’ than the previous.
They come with sexually-suggestive names like “kambwa” (something dog-related), "tchuku", "windeck", "xupa-la’", etc., and are generally thought of, and perhaps rightly so (I can’t really join in any “judging bandwagon” as I haven’t seen any of them yet - in fact, I'd rather do as Toni Morrison on the face of it: hum...), as ‘obscene’, ‘indecent’, ‘immoral’, ‘pornographic’, etc., by some commentators in the Angolan media – in a society, it must be said, which cannot exactly pride itself in having much of a solid moral values system, after the degradation and erosion of traditional values and customs wrought in by centuries of colonialism and assimilacionist policies under the colonial and the post-colonial regimes, followed by decades of a fratricidal war and destruction of the country’s already damaged and fragile social fabric amidst, up until recently, the all but total prohibition of religious beliefs and practices under a Marxist regime in the three decades since independence…
Is there any wonder then that such a rather permissive , superficial, materialistic, physically, psychologically and sexually violent (Luanda, the capital, is reportedto register at least 8 cases of rape daily!), yet highly hypocritical, society - where sex became the main, if not the only, 'driving force' behind all sorts of social, including professional, relationships (as discussed here) would somehow produce "loose women"?!
[This being said boldly here by a black woman who comes from a strong Christian background and has been struggling to overcome the moral, psychological, professional and material damage inflicted upon her in various ways, including relentless sexual harrassment and pornographic attacks and attempts at tarnishing her public reputation, for no other reason than having had the ‘audacity’ of denouncing such attacks, by "respectable" members of that same society, especially some in the media– and, prominently among them, a white blond sex kitten, who also happens to be a bloggerand dancer (profiled in the text on this post) that, in a bid to protect her own turf, hypocritically pretends to be 'outraged' and 'disgusted' by these new ‘dance trends’ (performed predominantly by young black females), while (after allowing herself practices such as desecrating the deepest intimacy of a group of older traditional African dancers - a practice that I strongly condenmed hereonly to get from her as a response the most sordid, demeaning, anti-personal campaign) appearing half-naked in one of her so-called contemporary dance shows (she actually happens to think that her blood was made bold by classical ballet and coronets and piano keys... yes, she claims that kind of power!), which, interestingly enough, she only managed to put together after a decade of idleness thanks to unashamedly aping the "mermaid pose" of a black artist, Cassandra Wilson, in the cover of her album New Moon Daughter, and appropriating herself of that image only to totally decontextualise and denigrate it, as denounced here…]
Having said all that, perhaps it should not strike us as surprising that what seems to be generally lacking in most 'judgements' of these trends coming to light recently from Angola - which do not go beyond blaming and criminalising the young women who practise them - is something that, for instance, Toni Morrison, skilfully, sensibly and maturely does in the opening of her novel Love [*]: while decrying it, the factoring in, even if only briefly, of the emotional, psychological, sociological, historical and even political dimensions of such phenomena. She does so in relation to some observed trends of ‘female body exposure’ in American society up to the 1990s – and since then, based on the echoes I get from time to time through the media, I surmise that they may have evolved to even ‘worse’ forms. Nevertheless, I never got news of a ‘total breakdown or collapse’ of the moral and spiritual backbone of America’s mainstream values system (or, for that matter, of that of any other society where such phenomena may occur), because of those fads - which is not meant, of course, to condone them.
So, without further ado, here are some extracts from the introductory pages of Morrison’s said novel:
The women's legs are spread wide open, so I hum. Men grow irritable, but they know it's all for them. They relax. Standing by, unable to do anything but watch, is a trial, but I don't say a word. My nature is a quite one, anyway. As a child I was considered respectful; as a young woman I was called discreet. Later on I was thought to have the wisdom maturity brings. Nowadays silence is looked on as odd and most of my race has forgotten the beauty of meaning much by saying little. Now tongues work all by themselves with no help from the mind. Still, I used to be able to have normal conversations, and when the need arose, I could make a point strong enough to stop a womb - or a knife. Not anymore, because back in the seventies, when women began to straddle chairs and dance crotch out on television, when all the magazines started featuring behinds and inner thighs as though that's all there is to a woman, well, I shut up altogether. Before women agreed to spread in public, there used to be secrets - some to hold, some to tell. Now? No. Barefaced being the order of the day, I hum. The words dance in my head to the music in my mouth.
(...)
What's the deep in you? It's way down below, and has nothing to do with blood made bold by coronets and piano keys, does it? Of course, I don't claim that kind of power. My hum is mostly below range, private; suitable for an old woman embarrassed by the world; her way of objecting to how the century is turning out. Where all is known and nothing understood. Maybe it was always so, but it didn't strike me until some thirty years ago that prostitutes, looked up for their honesty, have always set the style. Well, maybe it wasn't their honesty; maybe it was their success. Still, straddling a chair or dancing half naked on TV, these nineties women are not all that different from the respectable women who live around here. This is coast country, humid and God-fearing, where female recklessness runs too deep for short shorts or thongs or cameras. But then or now, decent underwear or none, wild women never could hide their innocence - a kind of pity-kitty hopefulness that their prince was on his way. Especially the tough ones with their box cutters and dirty language, or the glossy ones with two-seated cars and a pocket-book full of dope. Even the ones who wear scars like presidential medals and stockings rolled at their ankles can't hide the sugar-child, the winsome baby girl curled up somewhere inside, between the ribs, say, or under the heart. Naturally all of them have a sad story: too much notice, not enough, or the worst kind. Some tale about dragon daddies and false-hearted men, or mean mamas and friends who did them wrong. Each story has a monster in it who made them tough instead of brave, so they open their legs rather than their hearts where that folded child is tucked. Sometimes the cut is so deep no woe-is-me tale is enough. Then the only thing that does the trick, that explains the craziness heaping up, holding down, and making women hate one another and ruin their children is an outside evil.
*[Thus presented by its publishers (Chatto & Windus, 2003): "This audacious vision of the nature of love - its appetite, its sublime possession, its dread - is rich in characters and dramatic event, and in its profound understanding of how alive the past can be. Compelling, sensual, elegiac, unforgettable, a major new work by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, its narrative reflects the different facets of love, shifting from desire through lust, obsession, yearning, and ultimately comes full circle to that indelible, overwhelming first love that marks us forever."]
One permanent focus of attention, and controversy, in Women’s History has always been their body. Most prominently their body shapes and sizes, but also other issues surrounding it, such as their control over it and the perceived notions of its femininity and fecundity, or lack thereof. Underlying these issues (some of them recently raised here) is, alongside those of 'elegance' and 'respectability', the always present notion of ‘decency’ and the moral values upon which it is set and conceived, which may (or not) vary from one society to the other.
Therein lies the crux of the matter of what can, or not, be considered acceptable, i.e. ‘decent’, public (or, indeed, private – as in “private dancer”) display of the female body. Dance being, par excellence, the main 'artistic' vehicle through which all these themes, issues, notions and questions come to public consciousness and discussion, it is all too common to find it at the centre of 'moral judgments' about a woman’s ‘character’, or lack thereof…
I bring this subject a propos of some highly controversial music and dance fads apparently springing ‘out of the blue’ within some segments of Angolan society, especially in the capital, Luanda. Kuduro– at its best (as in here) dubbed “the darling of some European DJs” and, at its worst, as something akin to “the music/dance of the devil” (as in here) – might be the most widely spread and generally known outside the country, but there are others, especially in dance form, succeeding each other in recent years and, apparently, each one ‘worse’ than the previous.
They come with sexually-suggestive names like “kambwa” (something dog-related), "tchuku", "windeck", "xupa-la’", etc., and are generally thought of, and perhaps rightly so (I can’t really join in any “judging bandwagon” as I haven’t seen any of them yet - in fact, I'd rather do as Toni Morrison on the face of it: hum...), as ‘obscene’, ‘indecent’, ‘immoral’, ‘pornographic’, etc., by some commentators in the Angolan media – in a society, it must be said, which cannot exactly pride itself in having much of a solid moral values system, after the degradation and erosion of traditional values and customs wrought in by centuries of colonialism and assimilacionist policies under the colonial and the post-colonial regimes, followed by decades of a fratricidal war and destruction of the country’s already damaged and fragile social fabric amidst, up until recently, the all but total prohibition of religious beliefs and practices under a Marxist regime in the three decades since independence…
Is there any wonder then that such a rather permissive , superficial, materialistic, physically, psychologically and sexually violent (Luanda, the capital, is reportedto register at least 8 cases of rape daily!), yet highly hypocritical, society - where sex became the main, if not the only, 'driving force' behind all sorts of social, including professional, relationships (as discussed here) would somehow produce "loose women"?!
[This being said boldly here by a black woman who comes from a strong Christian background and has been struggling to overcome the moral, psychological, professional and material damage inflicted upon her in various ways, including relentless sexual harrassment and pornographic attacks and attempts at tarnishing her public reputation, for no other reason than having had the ‘audacity’ of denouncing such attacks, by "respectable" members of that same society, especially some in the media– and, prominently among them, a white blond sex kitten, who also happens to be a bloggerand dancer (profiled in the text on this post) that, in a bid to protect her own turf, hypocritically pretends to be 'outraged' and 'disgusted' by these new ‘dance trends’ (performed predominantly by young black females), while (after allowing herself practices such as desecrating the deepest intimacy of a group of older traditional African dancers - a practice that I strongly condenmed hereonly to get from her as a response the most sordid, demeaning, anti-personal campaign) appearing half-naked in one of her so-called contemporary dance shows (she actually happens to think that her blood was made bold by classical ballet and coronets and piano keys... yes, she claims that kind of power!), which, interestingly enough, she only managed to put together after a decade of idleness thanks to unashamedly aping the "mermaid pose" of a black artist, Cassandra Wilson, in the cover of her album New Moon Daughter, and appropriating herself of that image only to totally decontextualise and denigrate it, as denounced here…]
Having said all that, perhaps it should not strike us as surprising that what seems to be generally lacking in most 'judgements' of these trends coming to light recently from Angola - which do not go beyond blaming and criminalising the young women who practise them - is something that, for instance, Toni Morrison, skilfully, sensibly and maturely does in the opening of her novel Love [*]: while decrying it, the factoring in, even if only briefly, of the emotional, psychological, sociological, historical and even political dimensions of such phenomena. She does so in relation to some observed trends of ‘female body exposure’ in American society up to the 1990s – and since then, based on the echoes I get from time to time through the media, I surmise that they may have evolved to even ‘worse’ forms. Nevertheless, I never got news of a ‘total breakdown or collapse’ of the moral and spiritual backbone of America’s mainstream values system (or, for that matter, of that of any other society where such phenomena may occur), because of those fads - which is not meant, of course, to condone them.
So, without further ado, here are some extracts from the introductory pages of Morrison’s said novel:
The women's legs are spread wide open, so I hum. Men grow irritable, but they know it's all for them. They relax. Standing by, unable to do anything but watch, is a trial, but I don't say a word. My nature is a quite one, anyway. As a child I was considered respectful; as a young woman I was called discreet. Later on I was thought to have the wisdom maturity brings. Nowadays silence is looked on as odd and most of my race has forgotten the beauty of meaning much by saying little. Now tongues work all by themselves with no help from the mind. Still, I used to be able to have normal conversations, and when the need arose, I could make a point strong enough to stop a womb - or a knife. Not anymore, because back in the seventies, when women began to straddle chairs and dance crotch out on television, when all the magazines started featuring behinds and inner thighs as though that's all there is to a woman, well, I shut up altogether. Before women agreed to spread in public, there used to be secrets - some to hold, some to tell. Now? No. Barefaced being the order of the day, I hum. The words dance in my head to the music in my mouth.
(...)
What's the deep in you? It's way down below, and has nothing to do with blood made bold by coronets and piano keys, does it? Of course, I don't claim that kind of power. My hum is mostly below range, private; suitable for an old woman embarrassed by the world; her way of objecting to how the century is turning out. Where all is known and nothing understood. Maybe it was always so, but it didn't strike me until some thirty years ago that prostitutes, looked up for their honesty, have always set the style. Well, maybe it wasn't their honesty; maybe it was their success. Still, straddling a chair or dancing half naked on TV, these nineties women are not all that different from the respectable women who live around here. This is coast country, humid and God-fearing, where female recklessness runs too deep for short shorts or thongs or cameras. But then or now, decent underwear or none, wild women never could hide their innocence - a kind of pity-kitty hopefulness that their prince was on his way. Especially the tough ones with their box cutters and dirty language, or the glossy ones with two-seated cars and a pocket-book full of dope. Even the ones who wear scars like presidential medals and stockings rolled at their ankles can't hide the sugar-child, the winsome baby girl curled up somewhere inside, between the ribs, say, or under the heart. Naturally all of them have a sad story: too much notice, not enough, or the worst kind. Some tale about dragon daddies and false-hearted men, or mean mamas and friends who did them wrong. Each story has a monster in it who made them tough instead of brave, so they open their legs rather than their hearts where that folded child is tucked. Sometimes the cut is so deep no woe-is-me tale is enough. Then the only thing that does the trick, that explains the craziness heaping up, holding down, and making women hate one another and ruin their children is an outside evil.
*[Thus presented by its publishers (Chatto & Windus, 2003): "This audacious vision of the nature of love - its appetite, its sublime possession, its dread - is rich in characters and dramatic event, and in its profound understanding of how alive the past can be. Compelling, sensual, elegiac, unforgettable, a major new work by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, its narrative reflects the different facets of love, shifting from desire through lust, obsession, yearning, and ultimately comes full circle to that indelible, overwhelming first love that marks us forever."]
Wed, 1 September, 2010 3:15:19 Iraq From: Barack Obama To: Ana Santana ________________________________________ Ana --
Tonight marks the end of the American combat mission in Iraq.
As a candidate for this office, I pledged to end this war responsibly. And, as President, that is what I am doing.
Since I became Commander-in-Chief, we've brought home nearly 100,000 U.S. troops. We've closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of our bases.
As Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, our commitment to a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq continues. Under Operation New Dawn, a transitional force of U.S. troops will remain to advise and assist Iraqi forces, protect our civilians on the ground, and pursue targeted counterterrorism efforts.
By the end of next year, consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, these men and women, too, will come home.
Ending this war is not only in Iraq's interest -- it is in our own. Our nation has paid a huge price to put Iraq's future in the hands of its people. We have sent our men and women in uniform to make enormous sacrifices. We have spent vast resources abroad in the face of several years of recession at home.
We have met our responsibility through the courage and resolve of our women and men in uniform.
In seven years, they confronted a mission as challenging and as complex as any our military has ever been asked to face.
Nearly 1.5 million Americans put their lives on the line. Many returned for multiple tours of duty, far from their loved ones who bore a heroic burden of their own. And most painfully, more than 4,400 Americans have given their lives, fighting for people they never knew, for values that have defined our people for more than two centuries.
What their country asked of them was not small. And what they sacrificed was not easy.
For that, each and every American owes them our heartfelt thanks.
Our promise to them -- to each woman or man who has donned our colors -- is that our country will serve them as faithfully as they have served us. We have already made the largest increase in funding for veterans in decades. So long as I am President, I will do whatever it takes to fulfill that sacred trust.
Tonight, we mark a milestone in our nation's history. Even at a time of great uncertainty for so many Americans, this day and our brave troops remind us that our future is in our own hands and that our best days lie ahead.
Thank you,
President Barack Obama
Wed, 1 September, 2010 3:15:19 Iraq From: Barack Obama To: Ana Santana ________________________________________ Ana --
Tonight marks the end of the American combat mission in Iraq.
As a candidate for this office, I pledged to end this war responsibly. And, as President, that is what I am doing.
Since I became Commander-in-Chief, we've brought home nearly 100,000 U.S. troops. We've closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of our bases.
As Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, our commitment to a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq continues. Under Operation New Dawn, a transitional force of U.S. troops will remain to advise and assist Iraqi forces, protect our civilians on the ground, and pursue targeted counterterrorism efforts.
By the end of next year, consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, these men and women, too, will come home.
Ending this war is not only in Iraq's interest -- it is in our own. Our nation has paid a huge price to put Iraq's future in the hands of its people. We have sent our men and women in uniform to make enormous sacrifices. We have spent vast resources abroad in the face of several years of recession at home.
We have met our responsibility through the courage and resolve of our women and men in uniform.
In seven years, they confronted a mission as challenging and as complex as any our military has ever been asked to face.
Nearly 1.5 million Americans put their lives on the line. Many returned for multiple tours of duty, far from their loved ones who bore a heroic burden of their own. And most painfully, more than 4,400 Americans have given their lives, fighting for people they never knew, for values that have defined our people for more than two centuries.
What their country asked of them was not small. And what they sacrificed was not easy.
For that, each and every American owes them our heartfelt thanks.
Our promise to them -- to each woman or man who has donned our colors -- is that our country will serve them as faithfully as they have served us. We have already made the largest increase in funding for veterans in decades. So long as I am President, I will do whatever it takes to fulfill that sacred trust.
Tonight, we mark a milestone in our nation's history. Even at a time of great uncertainty for so many Americans, this day and our brave troops remind us that our future is in our own hands and that our best days lie ahead.
Para assinalar a passagem de mais um aniversario do historico discurso de Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" ("Eu Tenho Um Sonho" - versao em portugues aqui), parece-me oportuno trazer para aqui uma carta sua dirigida a Deolinda Rodriguesem 1959.
Recebi-a por e-mail, nao me sendo possivel identificar a autoria do texto introdutorio, mas tendo conhecimento da passagem de Deolinda Rodrigues pelos EUA e das suas relacoes com instituicoes religiosas ligadas a luta pelos direitos civicos naquele pais, creio na sua autenticidade.
Infelizmente, passadas cinco decadas desde essa correspondencia, nao so' o Sonho de Luther King continua por se concretizar completamente nos EUA, como os ideais de dignificacao da Mulher Angolana, simbolizados na luta e sacrificio de Deolinda Rodrigues, entre outras martires da causa da independencia de Angola, continuam por se realizar na sua plenitude.
Pelo que, o (meu) Sonho, particularmente no que diz respeito aos direitos inalienaveis a vida, a liberdadee a busca de felicidade referidos por Martin Luther King, Jr. no seu "Dream", (tambem) continua vivo (por entre Sabores & Odores mais ou menos amargos)...
Aqui ficam o texto introdutorio e a carta:
Deolinda Rodrigues entrou para a História de Angola como mártir da luta armada de libertação nacional. Mas até à sua morte ela foi uma combatente da liberdade, dirigente do movimento revolucionário angolano e uma activista incansável dos direitos humanos. Esteve sempre na primeira linha no terreno da luta ao lado dos seus camaradas angolanos e teve contactos com figuras de relevo mundial, como o grande líder negro da luta pelos direitos civis nos Estados Unidos.
A grande líder revolucionária trocou correspondência com Martin Luther King no final dos anos 50, altura em que ele liderava no Alabama a luta contra a segregação racial e pelos direitos civis dos negros americanos. Na carta que a seguir publicamos, Luther King faz afirmações premonitórias. Sobretudo no que se refere à “vitória certa” dos angolanos, assim que tivessem um líder a quem seguir. Esse líder na altura da troca de correspondência estava preso. Era o jovem médico Agostinho Neto que apenas três anos depois guiou o povo angolano pelo “caminho das estrelas” até à liberdade e a independência nacional.
No dia 21 de Julho de 1959, da cidade de Montgmoery, no Alabama, Martin Luther King escrevia à heroína angolana:
Senhorita Deolinda Rodrigues
Muito lhe agradeço pela sua muito amável carta, de data recente. Li cada linha que me escreveu com grande interesse. É realmente encorajador saber do seu interesse na libertação do povo do seu país. Estou bastante contente em receber informação em primeira-mão sobre a situação em Angola. Tive notícias a partir de outras pessoas que vivem fora do país, mas não há nada melhor do que receber notícia em primeira-mão.
Parece que os portugueses são as pessoas mais lentas a largar mão das suas possessões em territórios estrangeiros. É lamentável que lhes falte a visão para se aperceberem do que está traçado para esses territórios. É sempre trágico ver um indivíduo ou uma nação tentando impedir ou parar uma irresistível onda.
Criar uma liderança
Não sei se posso dar-lhe alguma sugestão concreta sobre o que fazer na vossa particular situação, pois muitas vezes é necessário ver com os próprios olhos antes de poder dar uma resposta definitiva. Direi, contudo, que o primeiro passo para corrigir a situação é criar uma verdadeira liderança no seu País. Alguma entidade ou algumas poucas entidades devem posicionar-se como símbolos do vosso movimento para a independência.
Logo que tal símbolo seja encontrado não é difícil conseguir que as pessoas o sigam e quanto mais o opressor procurar deter e derrotar esse símbolo, tanto mais ele consolidará o movimento. Seria maravilhoso regressar ao seu país com esta ideia na mente:
A liberdade nunca é alcançada sem sofrimento e sacrifício. Só se conquista com trabalho persistente e incansáveis esforços de pessoas dedicadas.
A senhorita Deolinda Rodrigues deve também saber que aquilo que vem acontecendo noutros países de África terá inevitavelmente repercussões no seu país. Será impossível Angola permanecer em África, sem ser afectada por aquilo que acontece na Nigéria, no Quénia e na Rodésia (referia-se à Zâmbia, então chamada Rodésia do Norte). Portanto, a vossa verdadeira esperança reside no facto de que a independência será uma realidade em toda a África, dentro dos próximos anos.
Dirijo à senhorita Deolinda Rodrigues as minhas orações e os melhores votos de bênçãos de Deus, em tudo o que estiverem a fazer. Espero que os seus estudos continuem de maneira a serem frutíferos e compensadores. Em encomenda separada envio-lhe um exemplar do meu livro “Stride Toward Freedom”. Queira aceitá-lo como oferta minha. Espero que lhe venha a ser útil este meu humilde trabalho.
Para assinalar a passagem de mais um aniversario do historico discurso de Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" ("Eu Tenho Um Sonho" - versao em portugues aqui), parece-me oportuno trazer para aqui uma carta sua dirigida a Deolinda Rodriguesem 1959.
Recebi-a por e-mail, nao me sendo possivel identificar a autoria do texto introdutorio, mas tendo conhecimento da passagem de Deolinda Rodrigues pelos EUA e das suas relacoes com instituicoes religiosas ligadas a luta pelos direitos civicos naquele pais, creio na sua autenticidade.
Infelizmente, passadas cinco decadas desde essa correspondencia, nao so' o Sonho de Luther King continua por se concretizar completamente nos EUA, como os ideais de dignificacao da Mulher Angolana, simbolizados na luta e sacrificio de Deolinda Rodrigues, entre outras martires da causa da independencia de Angola, continuam por se realizar na sua plenitude.
Pelo que, o (meu) Sonho, particularmente no que diz respeito aos direitos inalienaveis a vida, a liberdadee a busca de felicidade referidos por Martin Luther King, Jr. no seu "Dream", (tambem) continua vivo (por entre Sabores & Odores mais ou menos amargos)...
Aqui ficam o texto introdutorio e a carta:
Deolinda Rodrigues entrou para a História de Angola como mártir da luta armada de libertação nacional. Mas até à sua morte ela foi uma combatente da liberdade, dirigente do movimento revolucionário angolano e uma activista incansável dos direitos humanos. Esteve sempre na primeira linha no terreno da luta ao lado dos seus camaradas angolanos e teve contactos com figuras de relevo mundial, como o grande líder negro da luta pelos direitos civis nos Estados Unidos.
A grande líder revolucionária trocou correspondência com Martin Luther King no final dos anos 50, altura em que ele liderava no Alabama a luta contra a segregação racial e pelos direitos civis dos negros americanos. Na carta que a seguir publicamos, Luther King faz afirmações premonitórias. Sobretudo no que se refere à “vitória certa” dos angolanos, assim que tivessem um líder a quem seguir. Esse líder na altura da troca de correspondência estava preso. Era o jovem médico Agostinho Neto que apenas três anos depois guiou o povo angolano pelo “caminho das estrelas” até à liberdade e a independência nacional.
No dia 21 de Julho de 1959, da cidade de Montgmoery, no Alabama, Martin Luther King escrevia à heroína angolana:
Senhorita Deolinda Rodrigues
Muito lhe agradeço pela sua muito amável carta, de data recente. Li cada linha que me escreveu com grande interesse. É realmente encorajador saber do seu interesse na libertação do povo do seu país. Estou bastante contente em receber informação em primeira-mão sobre a situação em Angola. Tive notícias a partir de outras pessoas que vivem fora do país, mas não há nada melhor do que receber notícia em primeira-mão.
Parece que os portugueses são as pessoas mais lentas a largar mão das suas possessões em territórios estrangeiros. É lamentável que lhes falte a visão para se aperceberem do que está traçado para esses territórios. É sempre trágico ver um indivíduo ou uma nação tentando impedir ou parar uma irresistível onda.
Criar uma liderança
Não sei se posso dar-lhe alguma sugestão concreta sobre o que fazer na vossa particular situação, pois muitas vezes é necessário ver com os próprios olhos antes de poder dar uma resposta definitiva. Direi, contudo, que o primeiro passo para corrigir a situação é criar uma verdadeira liderança no seu País. Alguma entidade ou algumas poucas entidades devem posicionar-se como símbolos do vosso movimento para a independência.
Logo que tal símbolo seja encontrado não é difícil conseguir que as pessoas o sigam e quanto mais o opressor procurar deter e derrotar esse símbolo, tanto mais ele consolidará o movimento. Seria maravilhoso regressar ao seu país com esta ideia na mente:
A liberdade nunca é alcançada sem sofrimento e sacrifício. Só se conquista com trabalho persistente e incansáveis esforços de pessoas dedicadas.
A senhorita Deolinda Rodrigues deve também saber que aquilo que vem acontecendo noutros países de África terá inevitavelmente repercussões no seu país. Será impossível Angola permanecer em África, sem ser afectada por aquilo que acontece na Nigéria, no Quénia e na Rodésia (referia-se à Zâmbia, então chamada Rodésia do Norte). Portanto, a vossa verdadeira esperança reside no facto de que a independência será uma realidade em toda a África, dentro dos próximos anos.
Dirijo à senhorita Deolinda Rodrigues as minhas orações e os melhores votos de bênçãos de Deus, em tudo o que estiverem a fazer. Espero que os seus estudos continuem de maneira a serem frutíferos e compensadores. Em encomenda separada envio-lhe um exemplar do meu livro “Stride Toward Freedom”. Queira aceitá-lo como oferta minha. Espero que lhe venha a ser útil este meu humilde trabalho.
"We are rooting for your success," President Barack Obama told more than 100 young leaders from 40 African countries during a town hall meeting at the White House on Tuesday. He promised U.S. support for political and economic reforms, adding, "ultimately success is going to be in your hands." The U.S. government is also hosting an economic cooperation forum to promote increased U.S.-African ties.
Thu, 22 July, 2010 0:07:55 Change From: Barack Obama To: Ana Santana ________________________________________ Ana --
When you and I set out on this journey three years ago, we knew that ours would be a lengthy struggle to build a new foundation for this country -- one that would require squaring off against the special interests who had spent decades stacking the deck in their favor.
Today, it is clear that you have shifted the odds.
This morning, I signed into law a bill that represents the most sweeping reforms of Wall Street since the Great Depression, and the toughest consumer financial protections this nation has ever seen. I know that I am able to do so only because the tens of thousands of volunteers who make up the backbone of this movement overcame the most potent attack ads and the most powerful lobbying the special interests could put forward.
Our special-interest opponents and their Republican allies have now set their sights on the elections in November as their best chance to overturn the historic progress we've made together.
(…)
Because of Wall Street reform, we will ensure that Americans applying for a credit card, a mortgage, or a student loan will never again be asked to sign their name under pages of confusing fine print. We will crack down on abusive lending practices and make sure that lenders don't cheat the system -- and create a new watchdog to enforce these consumer protections.
And we will put an end to taxpayer-funded bailouts, giving us the ability to wind down any large financial institution if it should ever fail.
The passage of Wall Street reform is at the forefront of the change we seek, and it will provide a foundation for a stronger and safer economy.
It is a foundation built upon the progress of the Recovery Act, which has turned 22 months of job losses into six consecutive months of private-sector job growth. And it is a foundation reinforced by the historic health reform we passed this spring, which is already giving new benefits to more than 100 million Americans, ushering another 1 million Americans into coverage by next year.
But today's victory is not where our fight ends.
Organizing for America and I will move forward in the months ahead on the tough fights we have yet to finish -- even if cynics say we should wait until after the fall elections. This movement has never catered to the conventional wisdom of Washington. And we have fought to ensure that our progress is never held hostage by our politics.
You and I did not build this movement to win one election. We did not come together to pass one single piece of legislation. We are fighting for nothing less than a new foundation for our country -- and that work is not complete. As we face the challenges ahead, I am relying on you to stand with me.
"Malveaux is the most progressive critic of contemporary American life"--Cornel West.
"Sex, Lies & Stereotypes: Perspectives of a Mad Economist" (1994), is a collection of Julianne Malveaux's award winning & most popular columns on American culture, politics, economics, sexism & racism. As an economist, educator & writer, Malveaux is best known for her "tell-it-like-it-is" weekly syndicated column, her regular contributions to MS. & USA Today, & in her frequent commentaries on CNN & PBS. Malveaux transmits a steady current of outrage at injustice, inequality & foul play. Her words are heart-felt cries for justice, railing against the powers that have become indifferent to layoffs, biased law enforcement, AIDS gender & racial bias--they project a profound conviction that "the real deal is economics, about who has, who doesn't, who will & who won't" with issues of race always "lurking in the background." Malveaux also speaks for those voices we don't often hear--"home alone parents," "disposable kids" & anyone whose color, economic status or gender keeps them powerless.
Julianne Malveaux is an "angry and proud" African-American woman. She has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she has this new (1994) anthology of essays, and she is articulate on a full range of progressive social and economic issues. Her column is syndicated by King Features, she writes for USA Today, Ms., Essence, Emerge, and other newspapers and journals, and she is soon to be a regular commentator for the Pacifica radio network.
Woe unto those who get their exercise leaping to conclusions about where Malveaux will come down on an issue, including those who assert that her voice is more "African-American" than "feminist." She might view the National Organization for Women as a "white middle-class" outfit, but she is equally stern in her rebuke of middle-class blacks for the quality of their support of African-American political candidates. ("If had a nickel," she writes (1994), "for every sequin a sister wore to a fund-raiser, I could probably finance the campaign of the next President.")
All of this is fueled by Malveaux's disdain for "drive-by analysis" by conservatives and "hand-wringing liberals" who "don't understand that the real issue is economics.... Too many analysts are caught in the sex, lies, and stereotypes of the media to make public policy." She is also willing to tackle an opponent who ventures forth without supporting data--whether it's Rush Limbaugh or Shelby Steele. No one gets off lightly. In a category of one, she relegates the Ellen Goodmans and Anna Quindlens of this world to the parlor-liberal powder-puff league.
"Malveaux is the most progressive critic of contemporary American life"--Cornel West.
"Sex, Lies & Stereotypes: Perspectives of a Mad Economist" (1994), is a collection of Julianne Malveaux's award winning & most popular columns on American culture, politics, economics, sexism & racism. As an economist, educator & writer, Malveaux is best known for her "tell-it-like-it-is" weekly syndicated column, her regular contributions to MS. & USA Today, & in her frequent commentaries on CNN & PBS. Malveaux transmits a steady current of outrage at injustice, inequality & foul play. Her words are heart-felt cries for justice, railing against the powers that have become indifferent to layoffs, biased law enforcement, AIDS gender & racial bias--they project a profound conviction that "the real deal is economics, about who has, who doesn't, who will & who won't" with issues of race always "lurking in the background." Malveaux also speaks for those voices we don't often hear--"home alone parents," "disposable kids" & anyone whose color, economic status or gender keeps them powerless.
Julianne Malveaux is an "angry and proud" African-American woman. She has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she has this new (1994) anthology of essays, and she is articulate on a full range of progressive social and economic issues. Her column is syndicated by King Features, she writes for USA Today, Ms., Essence, Emerge, and other newspapers and journals, and she is soon to be a regular commentator for the Pacifica radio network.
Woe unto those who get their exercise leaping to conclusions about where Malveaux will come down on an issue, including those who assert that her voice is more "African-American" than "feminist." She might view the National Organization for Women as a "white middle-class" outfit, but she is equally stern in her rebuke of middle-class blacks for the quality of their support of African-American political candidates. ("If had a nickel," she writes (1994), "for every sequin a sister wore to a fund-raiser, I could probably finance the campaign of the next President.")
All of this is fueled by Malveaux's disdain for "drive-by analysis" by conservatives and "hand-wringing liberals" who "don't understand that the real issue is economics.... Too many analysts are caught in the sex, lies, and stereotypes of the media to make public policy." She is also willing to tackle an opponent who ventures forth without supporting data--whether it's Rush Limbaugh or Shelby Steele. No one gets off lightly. In a category of one, she relegates the Ellen Goodmans and Anna Quindlens of this world to the parlor-liberal powder-puff league.
Watch/read here his victory speech, where he says, as if singing with Otis:
(*) First posted 05/11/08
All of this is fueled by Malveaux's disdain for "drive-by analysis" by conservatives and "hand-wringing liberals" who "don't understand that the real issue is economics.... Too many analysts are caught in the sex, lies, and stereotypes of the media to make public policy." She is also willing to tackle an opponent who ventures forth without supporting data--whether it's Rush Limbaugh or Shelby Steele. No one gets off lightly. In a category of one, she relegates the Ellen Goodmans and Anna Quindlens of this world to the parlor-liberal powder-puff league. 
