THE RASTAFARI COLLECTIVE--JANUARY ARCHIVES

The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST

Sunday, December 30, 2001 to Saturday, January 5, 2002 Volume 2 No. 6 WEEKLY EDITION

FREE AFRICA

FREE THE WORLD!!!

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As InI Black Africans are prepared to forward into 2002 in the West, InI The Babe and Suckling again repeat, Africa needs and demands all of her children's strength.  It is our aim and duty to manifest whatever is possible to see the day Africans will take their rightful position as balance for all on planet Earth.  The focus of yesterday had to be fulfilled today, so our tomorrow can remain progressive.  Little strength and big strength alike has and will continue what has been started by our great and glorious history of pain and prosperity.  

Jah RastafarI guide and protect all those who accept the blessings they have received.

THE NEGRO SHOULD BE A PARTY TO THE COMMERCIAL CONQUEST OF THE WORLD

WAKE UP YOU LAZY MEN OF THE RACE---THIS IS THE TIME OF PREPARATION FOR ALL

[[Baltimore, Maryland, 31 January 1919]]

"Fellowmen of the Negro Race:

Greeting:--It is expected that the Peace Conference will adjourn about late spring, at which time the representatives of the various nations of the world, now in France, will return to their respective countries.  They will take back with them the new thought, the new hope--industrial and commercial expansion and conquest.

England is preparing for a great commercial warfare; so is America, Japan, France, Germany and the other nations.  The next twenty-five years will be a period of keen competition among people.  It will be an age of survival of the fittest.  The weaker elements will totter and fall.  They will be destroyed for the upbuilding of the greater powers.

As a Negro, I would be untrue to myself and would be untrue to you, if I, from my observation, fail to prepare the mind of the race for this titanic industrial and commercial struggle that is in the making.  This era has forced out the best races and nations.  The white people have risen to the occasion.  In Europe they are presenting to the world their keenest and best intellects.  In Asia, the Japanese and Chinese are presenting on the stage of world affairs, men, who are as big as the age.  America is also presenting extraordinary big men to meet the situation.  The Negro can do no less than rise also to the occasion to produce of his best.

This commercial rivalry that I speak of will send the representatives of all these people into all parts of the world to conquer trade.  As Germany sent out her commercial agents to conquer the trade of the world and had become so successful up to the time when war was declared in 1914, so must the Negro be prepared to play...[remainder of sentence missing].  If we are to rise as a great people to become a great national force, we must start business enterprises of our own; we must build ships and start trading with ourselves between America, the West Indies and Africa.  We must put up factories in all the great manufacturing centers of this country, to give employment to the thousands of men and women who will be thrown out of work as soon as the nation takes on its normal attitude. In these factories we must manufacture boots, clothing and all the necessaries of life, those things that the people need, not only our people in America, the West Indies and Africa, but the people of China, of India, of South and Central America, and even the white man. He has for hundreds of years made a market for his goods among Negroes and alien races; therefore, Negroes have the same right to make a market among white people for his manufactured goods.

The time has come when the Negro must take his stand as a man.  If the white man is manly enough to put up a factory, the Negro ought to be manly enough to do the same thing.  If he can, as a white man, manufacture things that other people need, then Negroes ought to be able to do the same thing.  There is absolutely no monopoly in knowledge today.  The equality of men has been proved and in this recent bloody conflict, and in this period of reconstruction, when all men are endeavoring to take their stand as equals, the Negro would be less than a man if he were to allow all the other races within another generation to present to the world the results of their efforts in rising to the ordinary human plane without his achieving a modicum of success.

The vision of some of us today is as penetrating as that of the great economists of Europe and Asia.  When we can as a race settle down to business with honesty of purpose, we will be on the way to the founding of a permanent and strong position among the nations and races of the world.  Commerce and industry were the forces that pushed the great German Empire to the front.  As is can be remembered, during the first Napoleonic era, Germany was regarded as the pauper nation of Europe, whilst England and France had reached a high state in commerce and industry, having their merchant marines sailing to and anchoring in every port of the world; Germany was without steamships.  The German was looked down on then, even as the Negro of the South is looked down on today; but the Germans of...[mutilated] about and applied themselves assiduously to the...[mutilated] of these two forces.  They...[several words missing] Bismarck.  From then up to 1914...[several words missing] that two hours before war was declared German manufactured goods, were underselling in England goods manufactured in England, America, Japan, Canada and Australia.

These are fair examples of how a people can rise to greatness when they apply themselves to any one good thing without faltering.  The Negro should not falter, and, economically and industrially today, he should endeavor to lay a good foundation and continue to build and until the structure becomes impregnable.

In a word, my message to you for this week is: "Develop yourselves into a commercial and industrial people, and you will have laid the foundation for racial greatness."  

Yours fraternally,

MARCUS GARVEY"

Printed in the NW, Saturday, 1 February 1919.    

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FREE AFRICA

FREE THE WORLD!!!

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YOUTHS WALKING OUT OF THEIR MIND

A SERIOUS EPIDEMIC

Though modern day chaos has brought about the destructive present, how it is dealt with is still an individual process.  The strong and the weak find different ways of survival. Based on experience, age, and self-motivation, the results vary greatly from person to person.  What has become commonplace is that youths are struggling while gaining experience, age, and self-motivation.  

The force of the youths compliments and contradicts those who have become elders or who have lost their youth.  With overstanding and acceptance, it is a ying-yang that can uplift any community who strives for progress.  While, with outside interference, the contradictions can become major enough to cause self-destruction, which work in the favor of people like Willie Lynch.  

Preparedness is the only factor that can influence the inevitable outcome.  In a time when youths are not only blinded with the works of man, they are forced to find sight and learn how to focus. When the focus becomes clear, some realize what they are seeing is not real. What complicates it more is those who pointed them in the direction were unclear themselves, or down right deceitful. This can corrupt a youth's innocence while others mark it as experience.  After becoming M. Ali in the present day movie and after the self-realization of being "the most worthless human being", Will Smith has chosen to move to Africa to educate himself and his youths.  Those in the West have seen Will Smith grow from a young rap artist to a youth with a positive TV show.  In the West, he has been seen as a successful Black American, which he himself is now beginning to contest with.  

On the other hand, there are youths who awake to the reality and have become very distraught. Those who crack under pressure usually have no support system, are in the worst environments, and become the targets of society.  The rate in which young Blacks are being institutionalized or worse being left out in the cold, needs to be a great concern. The tragedy of such betrayal in the youths' mind and the worthless feeling is what creates youths who are willing to commit suicide or suicide bombings.  

The parable of the mustard seed has to be one of the greatest explanations of what is a natural cycle.  The truth stands that some will make it and some will not.  The chances are greatly improved or diminished depending on the individual situation.  Still, as human beings who are able to have more control than a mustard seed, have the responsibility to see that everyone has a chance to grow in a healthy environment.  Youths, honor thy mother and thy father as the Good Book says, if they are worthy to be honored. Questioning and learning helps to develop a strong mind that works in connection with a righteous heart, and never forgetting that Jah Jah loves all his children.         

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The RastafarI Collective: An Interactive Paper Made by InI The People, For InI The People. "...learning only stops at the grave." H.I.M EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I THE FIRST

Sunday, January 20, 2002 to Saturday, January 26, 2002 Volume 2 No. 9 WEEKLY EDITION

FREE AFRICA

FREE THE WORLD!!!

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NO SERVICE FOR CONGOLESE RUNNING FROM VOLCANO

The lack of infrastructure in Africa, generally, is one of the main obstacles in its growth path.  After Mount Nyiragongo erupted on Jan. 19, 2002, people trying to avoid the lava flow had to be careful of where they were running.  The relentless war in the Congo creates another danger for the fleeing people.  In other words, they would have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  Also, there are no supplies and no assistance in that region for the previous stated reasons.  The U.N. is holding meetings now to pull together assistance for the Congolese, but in the meantime the people are being forced to drink polluted water and they have even returned to the devastated area.  

Natural disasters are just what they are, but the unnatural destruction caused by mans' hands complicates the situation ten-fold.  Being that the Congo has been in the news lately for its political situation, it seems that "GOD has spoken" and through that voice maybe a feasible dialogue can begin.  No people should be stuck with the choice of running from one danger to no safety at all.    

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Scotland Returns Stolen Artifacts to Ethiopia

  Addis Tribune (Ethiopia), Jan 14, 2002

An editorial in an Addis Ababa newspaper, the Addis Tribune, praises the return to Ethiopia of an important religious artifact looted by British troops from Emperor Tewodros' capital at Maqdala in 1868.

The artifact, a Holy Tabot or symbolic representation of the Ark of the Covenant, was found by a priest in a church in Edinburgh, Scotland 130 years after British soldiers looted it in a bloody battle after a diplomatic dispute between Ethiopia and Great Britain.

"The decision to return the Tabot from Edinburgh was taken by St. John's Episcopal Church at the suggestion of the Rev. John McLuckie, a staunch friend of justice, whose action we warmly commend," said the editorial.

The Tabot is a six inch square wooden tablet representing the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments. The belief that the Ark came to reside in Ethiopia is the distinctive trait of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church to which 40 percent of the Ethiopian population belong.

The editorial pointed out that ten other Tabots, also looted from Maqdala, remain at the British Museum in London. So the act of restitution raises the question of when other articles including the ones at the British Museum will be returned.

"The present British initiative, which was entirely voluntary, was motivated solely by a love of justice, also calls into question the remarkable inaction of the Italian Government in respect of the Aksum obelisk," said the editorial. The Ethiopian government and the Orthodox Church have appealed repeatedly for the return of the obelisk, but to no avail.

Compiled by Donal Brown

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FDNY STATUE CONTROVERSY

Plans to build a memorial statue for the fallen firefighters of Sept.11th has become a political correctness issue.  The statue will portray the now famous photo of 3 white firefighters raising the U.S. flag over Ground Zero at the World Trade Center.  There is now a shout by the people of N.Y., which has become a national cry, to have the statue reflect one Black, one Hispanic, and one White firefighter.  Some would like to see the statue reflect the diversity of the fire department because all risked their lives equally. Opponents of the diverse replication state it is a historical distortion.  They also feel it is not the appropriate time and place to make a political statement.  What the public should be aware of is, Black and Hispanic firefighters are a minority in the FDNY, who have in the past raised other issues about their place within the department.  

Here are a few facts: there are 11,500 firefighters...2.7% (310) are Black and 3.2% (368) are Hispanic; 343 firefighters died...12 were Black and 12 were Hispanic.   

The main fact remains, if the diversity of the Fire Department was already in place, such an argument would never manifest and that would become a historical fact.

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FREE AFRICA

FREE THE WORLD!!!

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The following news article is now historical precedence. Racial profiling has proven itself to be the major issue of this time. Since the following officers are not guilty of any crime, they can continue to persecute anyone opposite of themselves. Should any error or purposeful injustice occur, there will be no one to hold accountable. So whether we are shot 41 times, sexually abused with a plunger, or being used as target practice in a van, we, all who fit their profile have no human rights in this official police state. The issue of race in America does matter. The cycle that this court decision begins is the full opening of the oldest wound that will never heal. Will Africans in America continue to participate in a government that has the right to stop them and use deadly force at will? How can America expect to live in peace with its International neighbors when it continues to racially target the citizens of the world?

NJ Troopers Avoid Jail in Shooting

By LORI HINNANT

.c The Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Two white state troopers who avoided jail by pleading guilty to lesser charges in a turnpike shooting said they worked in an environment where they were pressured to practice racial profiling.

``I was told by senior troopers that this was the real world of policing,'' John Hogan said Monday as he and James Kenna pleaded guilty to official misconduct.

Kenna and Hogan fired 11 shots at a van they had pulled over for speeding on the turnpike in 1998. The two have said they thought the driver was trying to run them over and they feared for their lives. Three of the four young men - three blacks and one Hispanic - in the van were wounded.

The shooting on the New Jersey Turnpike exposed the practice of targeting minority motorists and forced the state and nation to confront the issue.

Under a plea bargain, Kenna and Hogan also pleaded guilty Monday to providing false information. Kenna had been charged with attempted murder, and both had been charged with aggravated assault.

They were fined $155 each for official misconduct and $125 each for giving false information, and were barred from ever holding jobs as police officers in New Jersey. The plea agreement also avoids federal civil rights charges.

Kenna and Hogan said turnpike troopers saw themselves as the most dedicated in the state police and that cutting corners to make as many arrests as possible was condoned.

``I bought into this elitist attitude,'' Hogan said. ``I wanted to fit in and I knew the only way to do so was to begin making criminal arrests.''

Kenna testified that briefings and conversations with superiors were consistently focused on ``the connection between racial identity and drug interdiction.''

Both men said they were tacitly encouraged to falsify documents to change the race of people stopped and searched.

``It was treated as a numbers game,'' Hogan said.

Minority activists who fought for legislation that would make racial profiling a crime criticized the plea deal.

``What we have just witnessed today was not justice,'' the Rev. Reginald Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey, said Monday. ``What we have just witnessed was political expedience.''

Jackson said the plea agreement should have required the two men to name those who trained troopers in racial profiling.

``Not one superior officer has been named,'' he said. ``Not one superior officer has been removed from employment with the New Jersey State Police.''

A year after the shooting, former Attorney General Peter G. Verniero admitted that troopers practiced racial profiling.

Under an agreement to prevent a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department, the state ordered reforms including steps to monitor the race of motorists stopped by troopers. The state also agreed to pay $12.95 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the four men who were shot at.

The state police force has since made great improvements, Chuck Davis, spokesman for the New Jersey attorney general's office, said Monday.

``A lot of it's been stopped. We've taken tremendous steps and initiated tremendous reforms,'' Davis said.

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