Volume 6 Issue 3…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…January 24, 2003

By John Burl Smith

Continuing his assault on the poor on Tuesday (1-14-03), George Bush lectured them on the dignity of hard work. He disparaged welfare mothers that do Herculean jobs raising children and holding families together. Forced to accept minimum wage jobs, they struggle under conditions comparable to the1930s and 40s, when poor women were raised to be maids and field hands.

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Bush insinuated that second and third generation families were on welfare because they never learned the value of hard work. An affront to the poor and blacks that survived segregation in the face of the "Great Depression," Bush moralized about welfare mothers' dependency, without recognizing the nation's responsibility for creating the conditions that keeps them in poverty. A man that spent his youth drinking, taking drugs and cavorting and who never held down a real job, Bush's welfare message was a cynical sinister maniacal race-baiting photo opportunity.

The record shows slave descendants inherited a legacy of backbreaking work building America. Emerging from over 300 years of forced servitude, blacks endured defacto-slavery. Segregation deprived them of all socioeconomic and political rights. In Southern states, whites terrorized and lynched blacks to keep them working like slaves and accepting mere pennies for their "hard work." Poor whites were also exploited.

Black children worked on sharecropping plots like grown-ups. Education was forbidden in many cases. For the vast majority, acquiring labor skills and professional training for better paying jobs were out of the question. Reserving the most menial and degrading jobs for blacks and treating them with total disrespect killed any sense of pride and dignity normally associated with "hard work."

Following the civil rights and black power movements in the late 1970s, black and white signs came down and "Equal Opportunity Employer" signs went up. Overnight, everyone forgot descendants of slave masters and their lackeys used segregation to keep blacks penniless, landless, ignorant, terrorized and powerless.

Now, it is as though blacks magically overcame 150 years of discrimination overnight. Maintaining power, as they did following the Civil War, whites remain in power and continue fighting equal access and opportunity, while engaging in racial discrimination. By 1980, Republicans had adopted Strom Thurmond's 1948 southern strategy of race baiting. Obviously, Bush's 2004 reelection strategy entails using welfare as a race-baiting code. On Tuesday, Bush dragged out a single black former welfare mother to tout the advantages of "hard work," as if she is the face of welfare recipients. In reality, the real face of welfare in the US, based on the majority of individuals living on the dole, is white. John Burl Smith Essays

Exploiting Ethiopia

Nestlé, the world's leading coffee processor, has been harshly criticized by humanitarian organizations for demanding that AIDS/famine-stricken Ethiopia pay more than $6 million to settle a compensation claim from nationalizing Ethiopia Livestock Development Company (ELDICO), a subsidiary of the Schweisfurth Group. The military government of Mengistu Haile Mariam nationalized ELDICO in 1975. Nestlé acquired the claim on purchasing the German company in 1986.

More than eleven million Ethiopians are at risk of starvation. Coffee is Ethiopia's principal export. War with Eritrea (1999-2000) and recurrent drought decreased coffee production. The collapse of coffee prices exacerbated its economic conditions. Faced with international condemnation, Nestlé pledged to plough the proceeds from its claim into food aid for starving Ethiopians, rather than abandon it. Blah on Nestlé! (Sources: www.allafrica.com and www.nation.com) Kudos and Blahs

Bit of History

Haile Selassie I (1892-1975)

Born July 23, 1892, a descendant of Solomon, a general's son and grandnephew of Emperor Menelik II, Ras Tafari Makonnen was a brilliant student. A favorite of Menelik, he was made a provincial governor at age 14.

In 1916, Menelik's successor and grandson, Lij Yasu, who had been excommunicated by the Abyssinian Church for his conversion to Mohammedanism, was deposed. Menelik's daughter, Zauditu (Judith, 1876-1930) was proclaimed empress and Ras Tafari appointed himself regent. His diplomatic prowess saved Ethiopia from being dissected among the great powers after WWI. Tafari used economic concessions to France and Italy to gain Ethiopia's admission into the League of Nations (1923). Without international incident, regent Tafari exposed and chastised Britain and Italy for efforts to exploit Ethiopian "spheres of influence" (1926).

Crowned king of Ethiopia (1928), Tafari became emperor (1930). Assuming the name Haile Selassie I, "Power of the Trinity" was the last emperor (1930-74). Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God and King of Kings, Time Magazine named him the 1935 Man of the Year. According to Time, "Many white men familiar with events in Ethiopia say the Emperor for years played Italian and other foreign concessionaires for suckers until Benito Mussolini gradually evolved his theory that the white race is being aggressively menaced and must recover the dynamic attitude of Victorian England or ultimately suffer eclipse."

Selassie twice applied to the League of Nations for protection against Italian aggression. Despite the League's sanctions, Italy invaded and annexed Ethiopia (1936). It combined Ethiopia with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland to form Italian East Africa. Selassie fled to England. Guerilla warfare continued and thousands of Ethiopians died. With British military assistance, the emperor reclaimed Ethiopia (1941) and declared war against Japan, Italy and Germany (1942).

In 1946, Selassie protested to the United Nations, of which his country was a founding member, against the proposed Italian trusteeship over Eritrea and Somaliland. On December 2, 1950, the UN General Assembly united Eritrea and Ethiopia in a federation.

In the postwar period, Selassie instituted major land reforms (1942 and 1944), emancipated slaves (1942), and revised and broadened a constitution (1955) that provided for universal suffrage. Selassie considered public education the most important of his modernization programs. "Education develops the intellect; and the intellect distinguishes man from other creatures. It is education that enables man to harness nature and utilize her resources for the well-being and improvement of his life. The key for the betterment and completeness of modern living is education." (September 23, 1963) During Selassie's reign, fully a third of Ethiopia's budget went to education.

In the 1960s and 70s, Selassie worked on Pan-Africanism, particularly through the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Domestic problems magnified by foreign intervention led to a military junta deposing Selassie on September 12, 1974. On orders of its leaders, the first Rastafarian was assassinated in prison (1975). (Sources: www.bartleby.com, www.time.com www.reggaefusion.com, and www.boomshaka.com) Bits of History

Fatal Formula

Nestlé, the Swiss multinational corporation, is accused of violating international law for infant foods marketing. The International Code for the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes was adopted as a "minimum requirement" by the World Health Organization (WHO) (1981). It outlaws all breastmilk substitutes and feeding products promotions, i.e., direct contact with mothers, incentives to doctors and free samples and supplies.

Milking Profits: How Nestlé Puts Sales Ahead of Infant Health documents Nestlé's violation of these provisions. The UNICEF State of the World's Children Report 2000 found nearly ten percent of Pakistani babies die in the first year. An Islamabad pediatrician, Dr. Asad Hafeez says, "Bottle-feeding contributes significantly to diarrhoea and respiratory infection," two leading causes of infant death in Third World countries, such as Ethiopia and India, where clean water is scare and where Nestlé markets its dry infant formula and bottled water.

The Milking Profits report recognizes that Nestlé is not the only firm "playing with the lives of babies," but Nestlé is one of the largest code violators that must be shamed into more responsible corporate conduct. In response to an international boycott of Nestlé products, which include coffee, confectionery, diary products and bottled water, Nestlé launched an expensive campaign to improve its image. (Sources: www.atimes.com/ind-pak and www.infactcanada.ca/nestlemo.htm) Hood Note Homepage

Africa Unite

By Bob Marley

Africa, Unite

'Cause we're moving right out of Babylon

And we're going to our father's land

How good and how pleasant it would be

Before God and man, yeah

To see the unification of all Africans, yeah

As it's been said already let it be done, yeah

We are the children of the Rastaman

We are the children of the Higher Man

So Africa, unite 'cause the children wanna come home

Africa, Unite 'cause we're moving right

out of Babylon

And we're grooving to our father's land

How good and how pleasant it would be

Before God and Man

To see the unification of all Rastaman, yeah

As it's been said already let it be done

I tell you who we are under the sun

We are the children of the Rastaman

We are the children of the Higher Man

So, Africa, Unite, Africa, Unite

Unite for the benefit of your people

Unite for it's later than you think

Unite for the benefit of your children

Unite for it's later than you think

Africa awaits its creators, Africa awaiting its creators

Africa, you're my forefather cornerstone

Unite for the Africans abroad,

Unite for the Africans a yard

Africa, Unite

About Me: This song is from Bob Marley's album "Survival." Marley's most political album, it debuted at a time of increased political conflict in Africa. The US leg of the "Survival" tour opened at Harlem's Apollo Theater in New York. During Black History Month, Rastafarians will celebrate the life of this gifted musician. For more about events celebrating Marley's gift of music and consciousness, see http://www.bobmarley.com. Venue for Artists' Homepage

Perrier or Pure Life?

The world's largest supply of freshwater is located in the Michigan-Great Lakes region. It is so pure and abundant, many of the state's residents draw it directly from the ground.

In 2002, water figured prominently in Michigan's gubernatorial race. Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus, the Republican candidate, and Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, the Democratic candidate, pledged to modernize Michigan water policy to block multinational corporations from privatizing, bottling and selling Michigan's groundwater. Nestlé is the 500-lb gorilla.

Nestlé, the world's largest food company, located a water bottling facility, the Perrier Group of America, in Michigan. The administration of Republican governor John Engler gave Nestlé nearly $10 million in job training and infrastructure grants and tax incentives. The company is expected to provide about 200 jobs.

On an 800-acre private hunting preserve in Mecosta County, Nestlé drilled two wells to tap Michigan's freshwater. The water is free. Once bottled under one of Nestlé's popular brand names, such as Poland Springs, Ice Mountain, Perrier, San Pellegrino or Pure Life, Michigan's free water could command as much as $8 a gallon, far more than a gallon of gasoline.

Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC), a group of angry Mecosta County residents, filed a lawsuit arguing that water, like air, should be managed for the public benefit; it should not be diverted for profit by commercial enterprises and sent to thirsty destinations on this continent and overseas.

According to Beverage Marketing Corp., a New York-based research and consulting firm, Nestlé has 75 USA bottling plants, sells 15 brands of bottled water and controls a third of the $6.8 billion US bottled water market, which has grown 18.4 percent since 2000. In India and other Third world nations, its `Pure Life' brand is set to grab a 50 percent market share in the next two years. Combined with its mineral water brands Perrier and San Pellegrino that are targeted at niche markets, Nestlé looms large in the world bottled water market.

MCWC's opposition to Nestlé's exploitation of Michigan's water makes it a member of the worldwide grassroots effort against water privatization. Boycott Nestlé and help MCWC defeat this gorilla. (Sources: www.gristmagazine.com and www.hinduonnet.com) More News

Logic and Problem Solving

By John Burl Smith

Logic dictates a particular course in solving problems. Recognition, definition, identification, hypothesis testing and evaluating results are the basic steps. Once results are assessed, solutions are obtainable. In a press briefing Wednesday (1-15-03), George Bush admitted the US has serious racial problems. Typically, he failed to acknowledge the true nature of that problem. Doing so, Bush showed the world just how divorced he is from the magnitude of the race problem in the USA.

Diversity is not the problem that must be resolved; it is institutionalized racism. Slavery and segregation were based on race. Black and white signs were displayed to make sure everyone knew it was legal to deny blacks opportunities and access based solely on skin color. Prior to Brown v Board of Education (1954), race was the only consideration. The Brown decision recognized and defined the legal responsibility of the federal government under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. It charged the federal government with correcting the inherent injustice of the segregation that it had permitted to repress generations of black citizens.

Identifying separate-but-equal as racial discrimination and the injustice to be corrected, the court specified that remedies must be employed "with all deliberate speed." Then as now, strict constructionists opposed equal opportunity and access on the grounds that Article 1 Section 2 (the 3/5 Compromise) had not been repealed. Therefore, they argued the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments are unconstitutional. This is why Bush believes that doing anything pro-active to correct the effects of racial discrimination, such as the affirmative action admissions process used by the University of Michigan, is "impossible to square with the Constitution."

This hypothesis is the foundation of Bush's judicial appointments; constitutional strict construction is his litmus test. Strict construction conservatives on the Supreme Court used Bakke v University of California to dodge the issues of "racial injustice and discrimination." By introducing "diversity" as a compelling social interest, this subtle, yet devastating, change undermined Brown. It dismissed racial injustice as the problem and the need for the court to remedy its effects. Furthermore, it diminished the impact of race when discrimination resulted from slavery and segregation by broadening the remedy to include those victimized in other ways.

Bakke shifted the focus away from the court's edict in Brown, which was designed to make up for past discrimination and the effects of institutionalized racism on individuals to that of a "compelling social interest." Making society the victim, as Bush does, absorbs whites and institutions of responsibility for having enforced and benefited from racial discrimination. Bush's opposition to affirmative action says the federal government is opposed to pro-active steps to undo past discrimination and efforts to root out ongoing institutionalized racism.

Evaluating the results, George Bush benefited from legacy. He was admitted to Yale University, when there were more qualified applicants. Logically, he and his family benefit from not solving the problem of racial discrimination and ending the white supremacy legacy. One cannot change history. Like the robber barons of Enron, WorldCom, etc., they can only lie about it!

Other John Burl Smith Essays

Disgruntled wants to know: For the record, there is no United Nations resolution establishing no-fly zones in Iraq. Each time British and US planes fly over that country's Northern and Southern regions on the pretext of patrolling these areas to protect its people, they are in fact violating Iraqi sovereignty. What would the US do, if some hostile country decided to patrol its Southern coastal waters and fly over its sovereign territory to protect, say blacks in Mississippi?

Disgruntled feels: Orwellian! Colin Powell and Condaleeza Rice are beneficiaries of affirmative action. After George Bush announced his opposition to Michigan University's affirmation action program, they were strategically deployed throughout the media to express a belief in the need for affirmative action, while supporting Bush's opposition. Like Bush calling war peace, Powell and Rice enable him to speak with forked tongue about the problems attending race in this country. Seeing these lackeys operate is pure Orwellian!

Disgruntled says: On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, blacks and whites all across the country can be seen in the same churches singing his praises and promising to make his dream of racial equality a reality. The following day, reality intrudes and King's dream is relegated to some dusty closet where it will sit until next year, when we again dust it off and make politically correct noise about diversity and racial healing. More Disgruntled Moments

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