PROTO-TYPICAL URBAN SKYSCRAPERS IN SUDAN AND CAMEROON

Ancient African architecture has always  been one of my fascinations.  Somebody did not just say, "hey get some stone and chisels and lets build the glorious and eternal temples of ancient Egypt."  These higly refined structurres were the culmination of thousands, perhaps even millions of years of experimentation with the science of building... a saga that began millions of years hence with some of the oldest huminoids, Zinjanthropus and Australopithicus fossils found in Oldivai Gorge.  These early humans and their descendants must have made some kind of shelter, structure.  The art of construction began on the African continent millions of years ago.  Whether these early humanoids mimicked natural structures made by animals or innovated their own permutations is a mystery of time but eventually they began to fashion structures designed to serve the specific needs of men.  Early experimentatation with reeds, plants, rocks, sediment and mud were passed down from generation to generation.  As men spread out over the continent so did the technology of construction. 

In traditional Sudanese architecture the engineering challenges of the modern skyscraper were solved millenia ago using mudbrick and timber.  Similar sturctures were built in ancient Egypt over 4,000 years ago. Perhaps the most famous is the mastaba called the bent pyramid but this structure was monolithic and did not achieve interior articulation of space.  These structures utilize ecomomy of mass becoming smaller and thinner as they rise.  More than any other form of ancient structure excepting Hatshepsets mortuary temple in Egypt and the palace at Knossos in Crete these structures anticipate the urban skyline that became the trademark of Modern twentieth century cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco. 

The hyperbolic parabola formed by the mud and thatch structure below is an even more ancient form typical of traditional dwellings in Cameroon.  These structures predate heroic Egyptian architecture by many millinia and are oddly enough, are the only round structures ever built in ancient Egypt an only then as granaries  typically used in necropolis and palace compounds.  One wonders if they were vented at the top to prevent combustion. 

The hyperbolic parabola first used in central ancient African architecture appears to have moved northward and westward toward Egypt, Sudan, Morrocco Constantinople, etc, then islamic, oriental and moorish design.  Borrorrmini borrowed it to build the dome of the Cathedral of Milan.  The form adorns St. Pauls in London and the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.  Even in modern architectural books due credit is not given to the ancient african architects and engineers who pioneered the engineering challenges which made the modern marvels we all love possible.  Redefining the continuity of architectural history does not negate anything from being the true marvel that it is but it clarifies the continuum of design and innovation properly connecting pieces of the larger puzzle.  Scholars of design can clearly see fundimental elements of Egyptian architecture originating much further south of Egypt in regions heretofore never associated with Egyptian culture. 

The Niagara Movement

The Niagara Movement

W.E.B. DUBOIS EXPOUNDS VALUES AT THE SECOND NIAGRA MOVEMENT

http://www.wfu.edu/~zulick/341/niagara.html

TURNING SAWDUST INTO GOLD: The Struglle of Inner City Educators

Sawdust unlike gold is an organic compound, composed of molocules and atoms of many materials, the residual of shaven wood inanimate it has no mind, feelings or thoughts.  Gold is a precious metal a pure element composed of nothing save itself... pure...but dead.. without emotion or any human sensibility.  Students are living, thinking, impressionable humans shaped and defined by their environment they can change, they can grow, they are infinitely more miraculous than wood or gold.  An artisan can craft wood or gold into wonderous things but they can never talk to us or fell our emotions...they will remain cold and unresponsive.  Students can not be carefully shaped through love and education but at some point they will begin to take our teaching and transform them into newer more intricate ideas...  Wood and gold can be subjected to tests that define their strength, purity, weight and value but humans must interpret the data... wood and gold will never have the capacity to analyze or communicate in the sense that we do.   Students can be tested to determine how much knowledg they have retained and how they can manipulate knowledge to solve problems and they can communicate this knowledge in various ways.  A student who reads, writes, thinks and performs on a 5th grade level will read, write and perform on a 5th grade level.  A Student in the 10th grade reading, writing and performing on a 5th grade level will read, write and perform on a 5th grade level...  Teachers are knowledgeable superheroes who fight in the trenches of Americas inner city schools without any support and with sqalid pay.  Of the many miracles they perform daily they cannot turn wood into gold nor can they majically endow a 10th grader reading, writing and performing on a 5th grade level  with 10th grade reading, writing, and performance skills during a semester of 45 minute classes...  Can you?  Can the Principal?  Can the Superintendant? We all know that the answer is NO!  So what is the moral of this story?

DID THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION DELIBERATELY PLANT THE SEEDS OF EMANCIPATION?

George Washington, John QuincyAdams and Thomas Jefferson all enlightened luminaries who's thinking saw centuries into the future, planted the seeds of emancipation cleverly into the very fabric of the American Consitution and Declaration of Independence.  I think that these men cleverly embedded language into The Constitution like a timed alarm that would chime at a later time when America would be amenalble to cultural change.  Surely the founding fathers knew slavery was far too imbedded into the fabric of Post-Colonial socioeconomics for change in their lifetime.  But they engineered the genes of freedom to manifest in a more settled and mature America.

'You Got To Go Down' REVEREND GARY DAVIS, Blues Guitar Legend

LAUNCH OF "LAMOUR EST BLEU" SELECTED BLUES AND JAZZ

I have decided to create a weekly musical selection called. L'AMOUR EST BLEU.  Musi'c will range from early 1900's vaudeville, ragtime and burlesque in the blues tradition to the present... please do provid e suggestions especially for new music.. I hope you will enjoy...

2-28-11  Update on L'Amour est Bleu:  I promised to feature a daily show but realized that it would be most effective if presented weekly... This revealation was made apparent while doing research for the first show.  The purpose is to create a thematic wave of music such as several versions of the same song by the same artist but at different times in their career... the example that first comes to mind is Billie Holidays, "Ms Brown"... I have been looking for a very hot ragtime version she recorded sometime in the late 30's or early 40's... I had it on cassette years ago... I do have the original vinyl but it is deep in storage now.... please check my facebook page for updates to my vinyl collection, I have featured pictoral shots of the record and album covers along with a brief description of the artists and date... no where near complete but it does take time to shoot and upload... I also realized the need to do a seperate show specifically to showcase blues... I have not come up with a name for the show yet but am open to suggestions...

THE STATE OF BLACK MEN 25 YEARS AFTER "SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT"

Spike Lee's legendary 1986 film, "She's Gotta Have It," was one of the first serious examinatons of the real psyche of African American men to gain popularity in mainstream America.  Aside from popularizing the creative use of candles as a keepsake boudoir skill, the movie exposed the often one-dimensional character of black men and encouraged them to become well rounded.  Nora Darling was compelled to bed three men simultaneously in order to combine artistic creativity, humor and friendship, and refinement with econmic stability.  Then as now black men as well as all brothas are challenged to "Upgrade" themselves. 

What do we men really bring to the table in our relationships?  Here are some general qualities I feel all gentlemen sshoud bring to the table:

• Interest in and knowledge of Art including painting, sculpture, architecture, literature/poetry, and landscape
• Interest in and knowledge of Performing Arts including theatre, dance, opera, music and cinema
• Interest in and knowledge of history, science, economics, technology, philosophy and cosmology
• Interest in and knowledge of sports, health and personal hygene, spa and theraputic aids
• Interest in and knowledge of business principles, personal finance and investment strategies
• Interest in and knowledge of charitable endevours, animal husbandry, sustainability and green theory
• Interest in and knowledge of culinary technique, food, wine and spirits
• Interest in and knowledge of personal style, mens fashion trends and standards, basic etiquette and protocol
• Interest in and knowledge of other cutures, languages, communities, sexual diversity and socioeconomic stratification and issues
• Interest in and knowledge of sexulity, sensuality, eroticism, sexual techniques, toys, games, human interaction and communication strategies

Well, I think I covered it all or at least its basic macro-categories.  How do you fare against this impressive agenda? Do you feel that you are a well rounded gentleman?  Do you feel that most men score high in the areas listed above?

The Socioeconomic Divide between African Americans: Freeing Ourselves!

African Americans have always maintained the optomistic belief that they can uplift themselves as a peoples but even after decades of social welfare programs designed to equalize the socioeconomic divide including free and subsidized housing, food, education, healthcare and other support designed to uplift the poor and uneducated we find that a vast portion of the African American community has not been able to utilize these unprecedented in order to decrease or even erase the socioeconomic divide.  There is a growing conscienceness among intellectuals and hard working folks that it may be time to make a departure from this all inclusive pholosophy and leave those who do not strive behind.  Now, I said to uplift those who, in spite of their socioeconomic present or past truly demonstrate the instinct and desire to strive!  How do we measure this? How do we or how can we differentiate who these strivers are or may be? More ironically, how do we determine who they are not? That is the most difficult question because to deny assistance to those in need is and has never been part of the humanitrian and American psyche and in my opinion should never be.  We must always aid those in need and those who strive!

Yes I am touching on very sensitive ground here.  But we have to face these realities they will not solve themselves! We have three tiers of education and reform to focus on; first our children and second our incarcerated women and men.  Thirdly, a whole population of general citizens who are either illiterate or profoundly uneducated.  We must both prepare our children to become productive, responsible and ethical citizens and rehabilitate adults who have somehow missed out on the process, this includes those who have been imprisoned. Admittedly, it is a large task but we have allowed it to become a monster and now it is time for restorative action on a massive scale.  This is a task that, once given proper attention is obtainable but it is a community effort and must be undertaken in small part by everyone in order to be sucessfull.  The common phrase, "conscienceness must be raised," is a gross understatement but it is also a theme.  One those who have followed the saga from slavery to the present know well...

The African American community, or its remnants, is assaulted continually by the eroding effects of ignorance, crime and apathy from which it cannot seem to recover.  Some say that its due to a constant influx of criminals into our community but not all criminals who have been released return to our communities to victimize them.  However, the constanct recidivism in our community does have an adverse affect on our ability to keep the stigma of criminalism away from our youth who often see this as an alternative to mainstream professionalism.  This self-destructive cycle must be reversed.  Remember that there are thousands of men and women who upon being released from prisons become model citizens and it is these men and women who we so much need to, "Preach the Word" to our youth before they make decisions which will take them from us.   We have to talk about what to do with those who fall through the cracks... uncomfortable as it may seem.  Let us focus on those who have pulled themselves up from their bootstraps rather than those who have returned to lives of crime. 

The current social trend of penalizing ex-convicts by refusing to hire them based on crimes they have paid for in full is a serious offense to the American way of life!  We must allow everyone a chance... a second... a third... a fourth... whatever it takes.... We are obligated to provide meaningful employment to those whom we have detained if we are telling the public that they are now ready to join society! Longer sentences for recidivists who have been given proper training and support but returned to criminal activity would ensure that those who had no desire to reform themselves would not victimize our communities again.  Permanant sentences, when applicable to the crime, would allow generations of poor and honest citizens to take a breath and heal. 

And what about our inner city schools?  These school systems have struggled for over 3 decades to educate within a climate of growing disdanin for education.  From the 1970's on, sitcom and hollywood classrooms were portrayed more as vaudevillian reviews than places of serious and meaningful learning where casts of rude and rebellious students turned the classroom into a comedy show demeaning and undermining the roles of the teachers and school administrators.  Having taught in public schools for many years I personally experienced the results of this media hype come to full fruition.  Striving but poor inner city parents cannot trust public schools to educate their young because they have largely become overrun by undisciplined students who significantly exhaust the system with disciplinary problems.  When I was in school there may have been one or two rowdy students but today there will be at least 5 to 10 or more per class period.  This number is not manageable within a 45 minute class period.  We cannot blame children because adults have allowed them to overrun the schools.  We cannot blame teachers because inept administrators have failed to address the growing anarchy within their halls.  Teachers cannot teach because they are policing the classrooms in order to survive the savvy of dissident students.  Public Schools lie to taxpayers rather than admit that schools dont work and that they are fearful of challenging the very children  they are payed to shape into responsible citizens, that they have horribly failed at this task. 

A large population of African Americans do not seem to value education as much as they say and romanticise a lifestyle of crime, homicide, sex and gangsterism. The entertainment industry which hevily influences our young and which enjoys immense profit from our community perpetuates negative images and pholosophies that erode our efforts at creating a civilized one.  Not enough money is spent on rehabilitation of incarcirated men and women including teaching skills and providing meaningful employment.  Taxpayers must pay to train and employ ex-cons, they cannot simply push them out of jail and expect a miracle to happen.  Parents must learn to spend their hard earned money to support  reputable media that does not undermine the parental respect they wish to instill in their children.  Giving money to institutions that promote ideas that undermine the tradition of respect for responsible parents, adults, and figures of authority is like feeding a monster you know will ultimately consume you...

The phenomenon commonly refferred to as "Ghetto Culture" has created toxic communities besiged by ignorance and apathy.  Criminals who use their own neighborhoods as their places of business have  fostered a culture of fear and terrorism where citizens are afraid to challenge and remove bad seeds.  They have created bastions of crime, impenetrable to forces of good.  By involving the community in the financial rewards of contraband they earn fealty or threaten those who refuse to join in. The American right to free speech has been reduced to, No-Snitiching.  In this twisted ghetto hell a good ethically stable citizen is labeled as a snitch.  How did this come to be?  Easy answer... the citizens of these communities who chose not to resist have created them by allowing them to exist unchallenged!  Our police system cannot truly be effective if they do not have cooperation from the community, they share many of the same frustrations as inner city teachers. 

No wonder middle class and working class African Americans and other groups who are revising the urban fabric are laying quiet while the ghettos are being moved out of their cities, a late 20th and early 21st century phenomenon and reaction to the suburban flight of the 70's and 80's during the height of the crack era.  The African American Community needs to come up for air.  They want to come home to clean, quiet and safe neighborhoods after a hard days work.  They are tired of their children being victimized by ignorance and fear unable to get a valuable education in public schools their tax dollars finance.  Gentrification is clearly not the holistic solution to the issue of the socioeconomic divide, it is a strong-arm approach to force out the poor.  The problem still exists...

The African American community has to become really serious about education and not just offer lip service! This means we must take prison reform seriously so that when people are released back into citizenry they will have marketable skills, a work ethic and jobs to earn a living wage. No man or woman that is released from prison shoud be denied employment because of their past record if the state has deemed they have payed their debt to society and duly reformed!  This means we must elevate education to the highest of priorities in our communities... closing the socioeconomic divide that has haunted the African American community since the bullwhip days!

THE PROTOCOL OF THE GENTLEMENS HANDSHAKE:

High among the treasury of antique but not necessarily antiquated mens traditions is the gentlemans handshake.  In courteous company a gentleman extends his hand in a purely formal  and nonverbal gesture to be succinctly aknowledged by another gentleman who extends his hand in kind; the act of mutual respect and aknowledgement is quick and a man should never hold another mans hand any longer than a couple of seconds or seize it in a vice-grip as this is highly impolite.  Many gentlemen have altogether replaced the handshake with the gesture of pressing  the flat sides of their clenched fists, this toot must be done gently so as not to intimidate the other party or cause them discomfort with an overly aggressive manner. 

Remember, the purpose of the handshake, no matter what form it takes, is to act as a friendly greeting.  The gesture of opening ones hand to another is one of humility, friendship and graciousness it is not a wrestling match or a darwinian and macchiavellian power struggle.  Take it easy, unless you are well aquainted with the gentlleman and have an established tradition of aggressive handshaking. 

The handshake is typically used when two gentlemen do not have time for a protracted verbalized greeting be it introductory or a departure.  It is used to quicky aknowledge other men in large noisy crowds. In todys rapidly moving world a gentleman should never assundsme anyone has more than a cople of seconds to say or gesture the aknowledgement of hello and goodbye.  Detaining another man by refusing to release his hand during an extended greeting without allowing him the opportunity to move on shows disrespect of the gentlemans time.  Although you may have time to chat when another gentleman has business pressing it does not mean he is not happy to see you or disinterested in your well being, it simply means he is in a hurry. 

In a time when people are concerned with manual transmission of germs the handshake has been replaced by other less tactile forms of mutual aknowledgement and greeting.  The handshake can be a very quick and formal motion or a complicated assortment of manual manuvers similar to fraternal handshakes and handshakes popularized during the jazz era and 70s involving complicated synchronized hand and body motions and verbalizations, expressions, etc.  Be careful about adopting rude customs such as squeezing a mans hand too tight as a show of machismo, this is a common street trend but has no place in a true gentlemans repertoire unless he is reacting to a milieau into which he has been thrust where such vulgarities are mistakenly believed to be copasetic.  When another gentleman who you are not aqinted with or know only superficially politely extends his hand in greeting grip his hand pleasantly and briefly.  Save firm, lengthy and aggressive grips for close friends and pals. 

The ultimate form of disrespect is when a gentleman refuses to extend and open his hand in the friendly and humble gestrure of a gracious handshake.  Due to cultural differences, some men may not be familiar with the vrarious, diverse forms and so if they do not reciprocate do not take offense the first time but do mind this oversight if a second time should happen upon you.

African Americans Must Embrace the unpleasantness of our past enslavement!

For most African-Americans slavery is a legacy they are either ashamed of and or afraid to explore, they would rather put it off under the guise of, "Just moving foreward."  Understanding the details of our "struggle" and transforming them into a tradition with wich we celebrate our earned freedom will both preserve the history of our struggle and teach each new generation coping and survival strategies. 

When I was young attending an all white private school I was ashamed of my legacy as the descendant of slaves.  It was not until I became obsessed with this historical period in my college years that I truly began to revere the struggle behind the long centuries during the period of African American Enslavement.  As a teacher I read slave stories to my students.  These chronicles were often compiled by abolitionists who interviewed slaves and former slaves.  They were also compiled from interviews of freedmen after emancipation such as the accounts in the novel, "Bullwhip Days."  These accounts are not unlike the interviews of our Jewish brothers and sisters describing their experiences during the Holocost at the Second World War. 

The purpose of these slave interviews is not to insight anger and hatred of whites, rather it is to inform us of the true nature of struggle and to identify the reality that both wihtes and blacks shed sweat, blood, tears and sacrificed their lives and comfort for the greater good of human equality and freedom.