Archive for July, 2009

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Wing-nuts and our Ju-Ju

By Jackie May | 31 July 2009

Obama got himself into a spot of trouble last week. It was a week which ended with a chat over a beer or two. The American president said in taking his friend Professor Gates into custody police had “acted stupidly.” The political fire storm created by his comment and by Gates’s arrest (while trying to get into his own house) has been illuminating.
Firstly, the approval ratings of America’s first black president have fallen to the lowest readings to date in his presidency. The dip most probably begun before the Gates’ arrest but one poll found that 41 percent of people asked disapproved of the way Obama handled Gates’ arrest.
Secondly, the American “wing-nuts”, those crazy guys with crazy things to say, have been having a field day. Let it all out. All that pent up anger, resentment and racism, let everybody know about it. Go guys! Mad and bad public statements on race are always good for a country with lingering racial tension.
One police officer, in an email, described scholar Gates as a “banana-eating jungle monkey”. Another “wing-nut”, the commentator Glenn Beck, said on national television that the first black American president has exposed himself as a person with “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.” Defending his opinion, Beck explained that “I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people. He has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.” Read More…

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Gates and Crowley share DNA. Distant cousins.

By Jackie May | 30 July 2009

A few weeks ago I heard for the first time, at a party, of a service through National Geographic which traces your DNA ancestry and can link you to various and many people. It sounded intriguing. But apparently this kind of thing is hugely trendy. So no surprises then that Professor Gates, the black scholar has been linked to Sergeant Crowly, the officer who arrested him while he was trying to enter his own home in Boston last week. They are “distant cousins”. They are related through their DNA. It’s “one of the more extraordinary aspects of the incident that has sparked worldwide headlines” says ABC.

[Gates] and the Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested him, Sgt. James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages.

In a PBS series on African-American ancestry that he hosted in 2008, Gates discovered his Irish roots when he found he was descended from an Irish immigrant and a slave girl.

He went to Trinity College in Dublin to have his DNA analyzed. There he found that he shared 10 of the 11 DNA matches with offspring of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the fourth century warlord who created one of the dominant strains of Irish genealogy because he had so many offspring.

Ironically, James Crowley, whose name in Gaelic means “hardy warrior,” is also descended from the same line as Gates, having very close links to Niall of the Nine Hostages.

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Desmond Tutu’s tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi

By Jackie May | 30 July 2009

suu

“I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Every day I ask myself: have I done everything I can try to end the atrocities being committed in Burma? And I pray that world leaders will ask themselves the same question. For if they did, the answer would be “no”, and perhaps their conscience will finally force them to act.”

Read the full tribute here.

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Blood on the streets in Iran.

By Jackie May | 30 July 2009

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America and Race. Gone mad?

By Jackie May | 30 July 2009

Obama is “fanning the flames of race”…

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Today in Tehran. 40 days since Neda died.

By Jackie May | 30 July 2009


It’s been 40 days since Neda Agha-Soltan was killed in Tehran. Today thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of protesters took to the streets. This video was shot earlier today. I found it here.

Here’s another one uploaded to the internet later than the one above: Read More…

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Prof Gates. A”banana-eating jungle monkey”.

By Jackie May | 30 July 2009

This story is getting worse and worse. Perhaps the beer (which beer?) will sort it out. Nothing better than a good drink at the end of the day to alleviate any tensions…Or perhaps not.
Here is AFP’s story about the latest part of the tale:

Boston police said Wednesday they had suspended an officer for a racist email likely to renew tensions over the recent arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.
“Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis placed Officer Justin Barrett, 36, on administrative leave pending the outcome of a termination hearing,” a spokesman for the force told AFP in a statement.
“Commissioner Davis was made aware of a correspondence with racist remarks and yesterday removed the officer of his gun and badge.” Read More…

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Tsvangirai. Grief.

By Jackie May | 30 July 2009

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife, Susan, died in a car accident earlier this year. His three-year-old grandson drowned a month later. This is what he told Time:
“It has been a terrible personal loss. It has an effect on your personal stability. I lived with somebody for 31 years, someone who was a pillar through all the trials and tribulations. It [the loss] is not something you can explain. You just live on a daily basis. You experience daily loss. The fount of grief has been lessened by the amount of support and grieving by the whole nation. It relieves you. It is not only your loss. And you throw yourself into your work hoping that you are able to suppress these emotions. But they keep returning.”

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Betty Hankin. Beautiful old woman.

By Jackie May | 30 July 2009

Betty Hankin attended the funeral of her father Henry Allingham, in Brighton, England, this morning. Henry Allingham, a British World War One veteran who was the world’s oldest man aged 113.

old-lady

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Jackie O.

By Jackie May | 29 July 2009

Jackie O would have been 80 yesterday.

jackie-kennedy2

In this Reuters file picture, her son John Kennedy Jr. plays with his mother’s string of false pearls in August 1962.

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