Kwanzaa 101 2007

Hetep and Respect every holiday is a Cultural Health opportunity. If you have never seen the seven principles of Kwanzaa take a look. If you have seen them and need a refresher here it is. One of the nice things about the holidays is that we get a chance to learn about each others holidays.





Kwanzaa is the most widely celebrated original African American holiday. “The Father of Kwanzaa” is Maulana Ron Karenga, an African American scholar and social activist. The celebration runs from December 26 to January 1. Kwanzaa (First Fruits Festival) is in the best spirit of Cultural Literacy in that it is a synchronization of African values at home and abroad. This remarkable blend of African and African American values is a major force in the fight to improve Cultural Health in our community by raising Cultural Literacy and reducing Cultural Poisoning here in America

Kwanzaa is anchored by its seven guiding principles, known as the Nguzo Saba. Each principle is denoted by one word from the pan African language known as Swali, as reproduced below. I have added the pronunciation.

Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles)

1.UMOJA (Unity) [oo-MO-jah]
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and ethnic group.

2.KUJICHAGULIA (Self-determination) [koo-jee-cha-goo-LEE-ah]
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves instead of being defined, named, created for and spoken for by others.

3.UJIMA (Collective Work and Responsibility) [oo-JEE-mah]
To Build and maintain our community together and make our sister's and brother's problems our problems and to solve them together.

4.UJAMAA (Cooperative Economics) [oo-jah-MAH]
To Build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

5.NIA (Purpose) [NEE-ah]
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

6. KUUMBA (Creativity) [koo-OOM-bah]
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

7.IMANI (Faith) [ee-MAH-nee]
To believe with all our hart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Maulana Ron Karenga

Note: In the interest of Cultural Health, the word "race" has been changed to ethnic group in the first principle ("race" is a doublespeak word).

New Orleans Police Brutality

NOPD this week, attacked Blacks in City Hall who were trying to secure their right to return in Bush's America. Just in case you  don't  know  the reality of being Black in New Orleans pay close attention to this video.

To see my newsvine article the City Hall Attack Click Here

Are Bush and His Followers Ready for his "Indian" War?

We know that Bush's Cultural illiteracy and that of most Americans enabled his government's ill conceived attack on Iraq. Do you think bush and the American people have sufficient Cultural Literacy to conduct his "Indian" war.


citation">What do you think?

Bush Restarts “Indian”/American War

Bush and the anti-humanist Republicans have caused the restart of the “Indian” War in America. During King George’s rein the Lakota “Indians” declare their formal separation from the United States of America.



Modern day decedents of the indigenous greats like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse of Turtle Island, commonly known today as America, re-declare their freedom and seventy.

This declaration of unilateral preemptive withdrawal from unjustly imposed United States treaties was delivered to the U.S. State Department earlier this week. The Newly energize Lakota Nation declared that 33 treaties have been broken. To my surprise, there were no media reports of any mention of the other 300 or so “Indian”/American treaties that seem to be hidden in the basement of the U.S. Congress.

This action puts the status of northern Turtle Island (The Dakotas, Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming) back into dispute. We can assume from this action that the Lakota Nation will not be adapting the new Bush concentration champ cards (“National ID Card”), as they will be providing their citizens with their own drivers licenses and passports.

As I reflect on what has happened from a Cultural Health point of view, the words that come to mind are – Talk about chickens coming home to roost --. Was it not Bush, who unilaterally withdrew from international treaties. Seceded from the United Nations and unilaterally preemptively attacked Iraq. Was it not Bush and the anti-humanist republicans, who attacked African Americans by suppressing 1 million plus votes. Was it not the now disgraced, lawless Republican Supreme Court, that declared, that all American votes will no longer be counted. Is it not Bush’s government, that is building walls and turning a blind eye to Latino American and Arab American harassment?

Remember the drowning Blacks, Latinos, Native and other Americans, while Dr. Rice went shoe shopping and Bush stayed on vacation. Remember out of control police and the record breaking rise in police brutality with these new electronic wipes (tasers) Native Americans watch African American progress rolled back with the Republican/Libertarian reversion to European American Affirmative Action. From Juliani’s New York to LA. We see police shooting Blacks 20 to 50 times with no justice, or Jena 6 Justice.

Bush was part of baseball leadership that perpetuated the culturally poisoned denigration of Native Americans with “mascots”. Right in his back yard the Boston “Red Skins” sit, and he has not raised one, single, word of moral outrage. Not to mention, White House connected Republicans (now convicted criminals) banding together to continue to steal the Native Americans blind on his watch.

Speaking of “chickens coming home to roost” What should we Americans due about all this. If we put our heads in the sand, or fall asleep at the switch, while bush and the crime family rob our treasury blind, kidnap and torture human beings at will and generally tear up the only thing that holds all of us ethnic Americans together, the constitution. Then as oldfogy said, “…we are, I am afraid, selling ourselves to the Devil and he may be collecting soon…”

The wheels have come off Iraq a long time ago, they are now coming of America. First our economic wheels start getting wobbly with the dollar sinking like a rock and the mortgage bubble about to blow up into recession. In addition, Bush made the social wheels wobblier then they need to be by attacking African and Latino Americans and putting them in voting cages. Now this, with the Native Americans, I respectfully suggest, that the few of us Humanist Americans left, circle the wagons, impeach Cheney and open negotiations with our brothers and sister of the Lakota Nation.










What can you do? Help eliminate indigenous related Cultural Poisoning you come in contact with, from sports CP to Black Hawk Helicopters.

Police Shoot Unarmed Women in the Street

Out of control Miami Police shoot  unarmed  female protester, then laugh about it, another police outrage.

When any person in the society is not abused by police we are all abused. The only reason this is going to see the light of a court is that the person shot is part of the "justice" system. It It was you or I that was shot, you would never hear about this again.

I recommend the following, put shooting cop in jail. If the cop does not step forward, suspend all officers who could have shot the woman or saw or heard the shooter. If the shooter still does not come forward, fine all involved 6 months pay and fire the police chief.

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Woman Set Themselves on Fire to Protest Racism

What could cause a women in a modern "civilized" city to set themselves on fire? (Video) I still can not get my head around these pictures. 


A Senegalese woman set herself on fire at Rome's city hall on
Friday. Click here for more information


Let's Go to the Video Tape




A Congolese woman also set herself on fire in another European city not long ago, Click here for more info.

The question is, what is causing Black woman to set themselves of fire to protest racism and how do we prevent it.

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Ever Been on a Train This Nice?

believe it or not, the photo above is of a train interior in japan.

with the results looking nicer than most nurseries, the japanese
have taken the idea of ‘child-friendly public transport’ to the next
level with these 2 beauties, both designed by eiji mitooka. he was the
artistic force behind ‘omoden’ (toy train) and ‘ichigo ec’ (strawberry
train), a couple of regional trains which travel on a daily basis on
the 14.3km kishigawa line in japan.

When leaders are truly concerned about their people, children benefit. If you want a non-spin understanding of a nation's cultural Health look at how they treat their children, poor and elderly.

http://www.youtube.com/v/_KiMrBJzqaI

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