All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Black Lives Matter Activists Stage Protests Across Britain – The New York Times

LONDON — Black activists, responding to calls for a nationwide protest against racial injustice, staged demonstrations in London and several other cities across Britain on Friday, in their boldest show of support to date for the emerging Black Lives Matter movement here.Black Lives Matter U.K. had called for a nationwide “shutdown” to protest an array of injustices, including police brutality; racial disparities in arrests, convictions and sentencing; the treatment of immigrants in detention; inadequate mental health services; and a reported increase in hate crimes since Britain’s decision, in a June 23 referendum, to leave the European Union.“We are here because we have no choice,” Wail Qasim, an activist and journalist who took part in a protest near Heathrow Airport, which serves London, wrote on Twitter. “We are here because this is a crisis.”The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged in the United States in 2013, has spread to several countries, including Britain, Canada and France.

Source: Black Lives Matter Activists Stage Protests Across Britain – The New York Times

Sick of TV News Channels and Shouty Newsreaders? Prepare to be Mesmerised by Real Telangana TV – The Ladies 

If, like me, the first Real Telangana TV video you watch is the one about the rising prices of groceries, you will fall in love. On screen is shot after shot of Prime Minister Narendra Modi eating at events abroad, while in the background, the anchor announces morosely, “Unho alag alag mulkon mein phirke alag alag dishon ke maze udate phire. Aate jaa rahein jaate jaa rahein [He has travelled to different places and enjoyed different dishes. He comes. He goes].”When you recover from this, you hear her saying, “Humich haule hai, jo unka matlab nahi samjhe [We were the foolish ones who didn’t understand what he meant],” referring to Modi’s promise of “acche din”, which she says applies only to him. “Pehleich ke dinaa aa gaye toh bhi achha hai [If the old days come only it will be better],” she says. If for some reason you haven’t noticed this so far, you will now realise she’s speaking in Deccani Urdu. Initially you pay attention to how she adds –ich and –aan at the end of certain words, as though this is as important as the news itself. Din becomes dinaa, dal becomes dalaa— it’s like standing in the middle of chudi bazaar in Hyderabad’s Charminar and hearing stray bits of conversation from everyone milling around.I first saw Real Telangana TV when a colleague showed it to me. None of my friends in Hyderabad seem to have heard of it either, even though it was started in 2011 by the Ruby Group of Companies, which also owns Ruby Channel.Real Telangana TV’s existence mocks other media organisations’ diversity policies. A lot of the people who work there are proudly “pakka” local Hyderabadi people with no background in journalism. “Many of them would run autos, or sell things locally, and now they help us write the script for the videos because they know the language and the accents well,” said Mohammed Manzoor, Real Telangana TV’s manager. Where else on Indian news do we see women in hijabs as anchors, or news shows created by working class writers?Manzoor gave me examples of what he meant by knowing the language well, speaking in rapid Deccani about a political leader. Real Telangana TV wants to make news engaging for people who don’t know Urdu, or who might not know the names of political leaders, but deserve to know the news. This means one wonderful thing: Real Telangana is able to reach the audience they want, simply because those who write the news belong to the same class as the audience.

Source: Sick of TV News Channels and Shouty Newsreaders? Prepare to be Mesmerised by Real Telangana TV – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Meet Jess Rizkallah: The Lebanese-American Whose Poem On Being Torn Between Being Arab & American Will Blow You Away | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

 

I’ve been into slam poetry for more than two years now and Button Poetry is one of my favorite YouTube channels. I love it so much that it’s the only YouTube channel for which I’ve enabled notifications.Late last night, Lebanon-time, I get a notification that a new poem by Jess Rizkallah has been uploaded. Intrigued by the name, I open the YouTube video to find one of the most enriching, gut-wrenching poems I’ve listened to on that website in months.In three short minutes, Jess Rizkallah was able to convey the struggles that she, a Lebanese-Arab-American woman in the United States goes through trying to juggle her Arab side with her American side, in a culture that is increasingly putting both of her components at odds. I mean just look at a creature like Donald Trump existing and at people, many of whom are Lebanese unfortunately, applauding him.

Source: Meet Jess Rizkallah: The Lebanese-American Whose Poem On Being Torn Between Being Arab & American Will Blow You Away | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Daughter of murdered Guatemala journalist shot dead – IFEX

The daughter of a veteran Guatemalan radio journalist gunned down on June 25 by unidentified attackers was herself fatally shot on Tuesday, prompting the International Press Institute (IPI) to call on authorities to do more to protect journalists and bring their killers to justice. Lindaura Aceituno, daughter of Álvaro Alfredo Aceituno López and a manager at a local mall, was in her car with her young daughter in the south-eastern city of Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango department, when unidentified assailants on a motorbike shot her several times. Aceituno, 36, died after being taken to a hospital. Her daughter was also shot, but is reportedly in stable condition. The motive for the killing was not immediately known and police did not say whether it might be linked to her father’s murder. Álvaro Alfredo Aceituno López, director of local station Radio Ilusión, was gunned down while walking in a street close to his home in Coatepeque. The gunmen shot Aceituno López, 65, several times at close range, at least once in the head, before escaping in a car. The journalist was rushed to a hospital, where he died the same day. According to colleagues, he had not mentioned receiving any threats and the motive for his killing remains unknown.

Source: Daughter of murdered Guatemala journalist shot dead – IFEX

July’s Strong Job Numbers Still Don’t Match Trump’s Claims | FiveThirtyEight

Donald Trump is running for president on the idea that the American economy is stuck in a deep hole, and only he can get it out. The job-market data keeps saying otherwise.U.S. employers added 255,000 jobs in July — significantly more than economists had forecast — and job growth in May and June was stronger than initially reported, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. Wage growth accelerated, drawing more Americans back into the job market, and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent.Last month, I wrote that the economy will probably look pretty good on Election Day. Friday’s report makes that a near-certainty, at least as far as the job market is concerned. With just three more reports to go until voters head to the polls — October’s jobs numbers will be released four days before Election Day — it would require a historic collapse for the unemployment rate to be much above 5 percent in November.

Source: July’s Strong Job Numbers Still Don’t Match Trump’s Claims | FiveThirtyEight

Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only road | The Electronic Intifada

 

Eight-year-old Anwar Burqan was playing with her young sister and brothers in al-Ibrahimi Street, near their home in Hebron’s al-Salaima neighborhood on 25 July when their games were interrupted by Israel’s pervasive military occupation.The video above, filmed by local resident Raed Abu Ramileh and published by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, shows some of what happened.According to Anwar’s account, she was riding a bicycle belonging to one of her brothers when an Israeli Border Police combatant ran over, stepped on the bicycle and took it away from her.

Source: Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only road | The Electronic Intifada

A Brush with Earl, Blaming “He” and Praying Away Crime: Jamaica, Tuesday, August 2, 2016 — Petchary’s Blog

It’s August already, and I am writing this accompanied by quick bursts of rainfall and breeze (and a cup of Darjeeling tea). Tropical Storm Earl (which took a while to be named) is passing just to the south of us and getting up some steam for Honduras and Mexico. It has not inconvenienced too many […]

via A Brush with Earl, Blaming “He” and Praying Away Crime: Jamaica, Tuesday, August 2, 2016 — Petchary’s Blog

The Black Excellence of Cuban Boxing — Media Diversified

by Robert Kazandjian On 23rd June, Cuban flyweight boxer Robeisy Ramirez defeated Kenyan boxer Benson Gicharu to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio, ensuring that for the first time since 2004, Cuba would have a full complement of boxers at the Games. For someone like me, who has dedicated my best years to the […]

via The Black Excellence of Cuban Boxing — Media Diversified

Black Mothers Matter

Can’t select like – wish there was a gotta read this button. Too many mothers have to worry like this for us to think we are doing all right!

First you Survive/ Then you Thrive

My son was about to go out for a run.”Do you have your ID?”

“Don’t have your music too loud. Just wear one ear bud”
Now I am mad because some white mothers get to just be happy that their kid is healthy and active.

I gotta stress about him surviving the run because he is a 20something Black Man.

#BlackLivesMatter

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