A dream is something one really wishes for, from the heart. If I have the opportunity to ever do something for the world as a leader, i would make my dream a reality. Here is my dream: to educate the people of my country.

The reason why I want all the children to be educated is because when they grow up, they can contribute to the world in a positive manner. They can become pilots, doctors, scientists, engineers, journalists, authors, writers, poets, singers, dancers, actors etc. instead of just carrying guns, to spread violence. This way the world can be a more peaceful place.

Besides this, if everyone is educated, there will be no poverty or joblessness. in order to make my dream come true, I will need to be brave. Only then can I see the world I have dreamt of. The way I would like it to be is racism and discrimination should never remain a part of human nature.

On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a historic and important address that we have since come to know as the “I Have a Dream” speech. During that speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King called for the people and the government to bring racial equality to reality and to end discrimination in the United States of America. To commemorate Dr. King’s important, sensational and inclusive speech, the divisive and hostile opportunist, right-wing nut Glenn Beck, plans to exploit the great things that Dr. King fought for to advance his bigoted points of view and make a few bucks selling books.

Here is the entire text from the “I Have a Dream” speech (I put it all here because people need to see the entire speech and not just the selected excerpts):

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³

So now we go from the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the greatest men who ever lived, to someone like Glenn Beck who is set to spit in the faces of black people by holding his rally on the anniversary of “I Have a Dream” and in Washington D.C.

Here is a Facebook comment from CNN contributor Roland Martin, ”Guys like Beck HATE that speech. It was about demanding the govt. do what it’s supposed to do. This is an attempt to rebuke MLK’s vision.”

Roland is correct. Men like Beck selectively quote Dr. King by taking out of context bits and pieces of his speeches to slap down people of color. A lot of people have been conditioned to like Dr. King. Many of these people who have been conditioned to like (or grudgingly accept) Dr. King would be badmouthing him if he were alive today.

From the disgraceful Glenn Beck’s Web site:

- I have begun meeting with some of the best minds in the country that believe in limited government, maximum freedom and the values of our Founders. I am developing a 100 year plan. I know that the bipartisan corruption in Washington that has brought us to this brink and it will not be defeated easily. It will require unconventional thinking and a radical plan to restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting, using only the battlefield of ideas.

- All of the above will culminate in The Plan, a book that will provide specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps that each of us can take to play a role in this Refounding.

- On August 28, 2010, I ask you, your family and neighbors to join me at the feet of Abraham Lincoln on the National Mall for the unveiling of The Plan and the birthday of a new national movement to restore our great country.

This is an intentional insult to Dr. King and to black people. It is not an accident that Beck has chosen this date. Gleefully, Beck is exploiting the great deeds of Dr. King to insult black Americans, disrespect Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to make money selling a book.

From the Daily Kos:

When Glenn Beck called for his national rally at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 2010, he twisted the memory of the day for a country that has evolved from slavery to elect it’s first black president. MLK gave his “I Have a Dream” speech there 46 years ago. President Obama accepted the Democratic nomination last year. Tsk, tsk, ego issues, Glenn?

This is no accident and it speaks lowly of a man with a dark heart and a mean streak when it comes to minorities who don’t fit his vision of what people of color should be like in the United States of America.

This is a jab back and black people.

This is disgusting by Glenn Beck’s standards (and that is saying a lot).

Martin Luther King once said that he became a criminal in the eyes of the FBI since his birth on 15th January 1929. Probably he never has been convinced of the contrary in his lifetime. Shortly after Martin Luther King got informed that he had won the Nobel Prize for Peace, he could read in the newspapers an interview with J. Edgar Hoover, the former FBI department chief. In this interview Hoover designated King as “the most notorious liar of the United States”. Also at a press conference Hoover spoke clearly out, what he was thinking about the black SCLC Leader. He promised that he just started with revealing “the truth” about Martin Luther King. J. Edgar Hoover wanted to uncover King as a Citizen Right Leader under the influence of the Communist Party with the aim of destroying the democratic system of the U.S.

Why was J. Edgar Hoover so sure he could inflict damage on the charismatic Martin Luther King?

After the famous “I have a dream“speech, the FBI was afraid of the “black Messiah”. They called him “the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country“[1]. These times are well known in the United States as the anti-communistic containment policy. The FBI feared any possible influence and believed in the domino theory. In result of that fear Hoover wanted to install bugs in King’s House and bureau. No one less than Robert Kennedy gave in 1963 the permission for the technical surveillance. Kennedy who always was shown as a great ally of King allowed the FBI to break into Kings private rooms. Moreover Kennedy added a proviso – he always wanted to get immediately informed of any pertinent information. However, at first sight the technical surveillance was not a success. No demo tape gave any proof of a communistic influence in Kings Work. Furthermore the FBI bugs “never picked any evidence that King himself was a Communist, or was interested in toeing the party line”.[2]

So the bugs couldn’t give any concrete evidence. King was not a Communist, even when he had friends and associates of the Communist Party. Stanley Leviston was one of them. He was one of the immediate advisers in Kings personal environment. Also he was under steady technical surveillance but no evidence was found. King once said about the communist reproaches that “there are as many communists in this freedom movement as there are Eskimos in Florida“. But Hoover did not believe him and searched forward to find other information to inflict damage on King. And he did. The memo tapes gave evidence that King had many affairs- probably with four other women. Maybe today nobody would make a big deal about that- not after the Monika Lewinsky affair. But at these times an extramarital affair was a pretty big scandal- moreover for a Baptist pastor. Even when King affirmed his affairs and said he would have to pass God’s judgment he also knew that the general public would not be so merciful. King and Hoover met once privately to discuss this topic. Afterward King called the meeting a friendly and understanding conversation among two people. King added that all problems should be solved right now. Most probably neither King nor Hoover believed that. J. Edgar Hoover’s private contempt for King was big and he had embarrassing and private details about Kings love life- no doubt he would reveal them.

After King came back from Oslo he received anonymous and ominous letters. “You are a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that.” Or “The American public (…) will know you for what you are — an evil, abnormal beast,” (…) “Satan could not do more.” (…) “King you are done.” Some people have the theory, which says that the intent was to get King to commit suicide. “King, there is only one thing left for you to do,” (…) “You know what it is … You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.”[3] A draft of one letter was later found in the FBI files. King did not commit suicide but continued his work. Maybe at first sight Hoover did not win the fight with King but surely at the second sight. When King planned the march in Memphis he booked a room in a hotel of a better standard than usually. Hoover immediately began his harassment once again. From his point of view it was hypocritical to fight for the poor and to live in a well-standard hotel. Furthermore Hoover approved an FBI plan to use “friendly press contacts” to pressure Martin Luther King into staying at the Lorraine Motel.

Dr. Martin Luther King bended to Hoover’s will and moved to the Lorraine Motel. At exactly that place he got assassinated- less than 24 hours later.[4]

written by Agnieszka Goździelewska©2009

Further Reading (extract):

Presler G., Martin Luther King, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1984.

Waldschmidt-Nelson B., Gegenspieler, Frankfurt am Main 2000.

Zitelmann A., Keiner dreht mich um, Berlin 1985.

[1] Christensen, Jen „FBI tracked King’s every move” on cnn.com http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/31/mlk.fbi.conspiracy/index.html [31.03.2008].

[2] Ibidem.

[3] Ibidem.

[4] More Information at http://www.africawithin.com/mlking/assassination.htm.

10 facts about dreams

10. Blind People Dream

People who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion. It is hard for a seeing person to imagine, but the body’s need for sleep is so strong that it is able to handle virtually all physical situations to make it happen.

9. You Forget 90% of your Dreams

Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream if forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone. The famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, woke one morning having had a fantastic dream (likely opium induced) – he put pen to paper and began to describe his “vision in a dream” in what has become one of English’s most famous poems: Kubla Khan. Part way through (54 lines in fact) he was interrupted by a “Person from Porlock“. Coleridge returned to his poem but could not remember the rest of his dream. The poem was never completed.

8. Everybody Dreams

Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder) but men and women have different dreams and different physical reactions. Men tend to dream more about other men, while women tend to dream equally about men and women. In addition, both men and women experience sexually related physical reactions to their dreams regardless of whether the dream is sexual in nature; males experience erections and females experience increased vaginal blood flow.

7. Dreams Prevent Psychosis

In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis after only 3 days. When finally allowed their REM sleep the student’s brains made up for lost time by greatly increasing the percentage of sleep spent in the REM stage.

6. We Only Dream of What We Know

Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts – did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces – they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember? The evil killer in your latest dream may be the guy who pumped petrol in to your Dad’s car when you were just a little kid. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces through our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.

5. Not Everyone Dreams in Color

A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. People also tend to have common themes in dreams, which are situations relating to school, being chased, running slowly/in place, sexual experiences, falling, arriving too late, a person now alive being dead, teeth falling out, flying, failing an examination, or a car accident. It is unknown whether the impact of a dream relating to violence or death is more emotionally charged for a person who dreams in color than one who dreams in black and white.

4. Dreams are not about what they are about

If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. The unconscious mind tries to compare your dream to something else, which is similar. Its like writing a poem and saying that a group of ants were like machines that never stop. But you would never compare something to itself, for example: “That beautiful sunset was like a beautiful sunset”. So whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.

3. Quitters have more vivid dreams

People who have smoked cigarettes for a long time who stop, have reported much more vivid dreams than they would normally experience. Additionally, according to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology: “Among 293 smokers abstinent for between 1 and 4 weeks, 33% reported having at least 1 dream about smoking. In most dreams, subjects caught themselves smoking and felt strong negative emotions, such as panic and guilt. Dreams about smoking were the result of tobacco withdrawal, as 97% of subjects did not have them while smoking, and their occurrence was significantly related to the duration of abstinence. They were rated as more vivid than the usual dreams and were as common as most major tobacco withdrawal symptoms.”

2. External Stimuli Invade our Dreams

This is called Dream Incorporation and it is the experience that most of us have had where a sound from reality is heard in our dream and incorporated in some way. A similar (though less external) example would be when you are physically thirsty and your mind incorporates that feeling in to your dream. My own experience of this includes repeatedly drinking a large glass of water in the dream which satisfies me, only to find the thirst returning shortly after – this thirst… drink… thirst… loop often recurs until I wake up and have a real drink. The famous painting above (Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening) by Salvador Dali, depicts this concept.

1. You are paralyzed while you sleep

Believe it or not, your body is virtually paralyzed during your sleep – most likely to prevent your body from acting out aspects of your dreams. According to the Wikipedia article on dreaming, “Glands begin to secrete a hormone that helps induce sleep and neurons send signals to the spinal cord which cause the body to relax and later become essentially paralyzed.”

Extra Facts

1. When you are snoring, you are not dreaming.
2. Toddlers do not dream about themselves until around the age of 3. From the same age, children typically have many more nightmares than adults do until age 7 or 8.
3. If you are awakened out of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, you are more likely to remember your dream in a more vivid way than you would if you woke from a full night sleep.

Source : forward mail
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Plus de 20 ans après, où en est-on de la misère en France ? Régression sociale, régression économique, régression des libertés individuelles …

Les restos du coeur sont toujours là, ceux qui les fréquentent n’ont jamais été aussi nombreux.

I have a dream ! Je rêve que les banques et autres établissements financiers, les golden boys et autres traders, ouvrent, avec les miettes qui tombent de leurs tables, d’autres restos, d’autres lieux sociaux, de convivialité, de chaleur humaine, puisque de toute façon, nos politiques ne sont pas d’accord de “prendre le taureau par les cornes” pour endiguer la misère !

But I had just a dream …

Le réveil est brutal ce matin …

Je me souviens avoir fait un rêve, lorsque j’étais tout petit garçon.

Je rêvais que nous vivions, ma famille et moi, dans une société idéale. Les rues étaient incroyablement propres, les gens courtois. Dans mon rêve, nous portions tous – hommes, femmes et enfants – la même tenue vestimentaire: une combinaison couleur argent à densité thermique variable, un col en V et des bottes munies d’un système d’aération intégré. Les gens que je croisais dans la rue étaient tous aimables et sentaient bon le milk shake vanille. En fin de compte, mon rêve ressemblait à la Suisse.

Dans mon rêve, le brossage de dents du soir était passible de lourdes peines de prisons pour les parents qui auraient eu l’inconscience d’y acculer leurs bambins et regarder le film de 20h50, pour ces derniers, constituait une activité extra-scolaire hautement recommandée par le corps enseignant. A l’école, le rapport classe/récréation était inversé dans sa répartition: six heures de ballon prisonnier pour une heure d’histoire des civilisations extra-terrestres (mon hobby d’alors). A la cantine, nos repas ne se composaient plus de purée grumeleuse et de quenelles insipides, mais des mets les plus exquis: kobeba, mlukheya et baklawa pour le dessert (les spécialités de ma grand-mère).

Mais la chose la plus importante résidait dans le fait qu’en dépit de tous les signes de bonheur et d’harmonie que me renvoyaient les autres, nous n’en vivions pas moins sous une dictature.

Et le despote, c’était moi.

Les lois étaient dictées par moi. Et pour moi. Celle dont j’étais le plus fier, celle que j’avais imposé à mon Parlement fantoche, celle là même qui avait faillit déclencher une guerre civile entre les mioches et les schnoques, je l’avais baptisé Loi Suprême: l’interdiction formelle pour des adultes, sous peine de mort par contumace, d’administrer la moindre fessée à un enfant et cela, quel qu’en soit le motif (je continue de penser que la contumace est un effroyable engin de mise à mort).

Puis le songe prit fin, et le réveil fut douloureux. L’impitoyable autocrate redevint un simple morveux parfaitement vulnérable et sans la moindre assise politique. J’émergeais dans un monde où la fessée était religion d’état; les adultes ne juraient que par elle, et chaque jour, mes semblables et moi vivions sous la terreur de cette menace potentielle qui faisait de nous de pauvres créatures apeurées, cantonnées aux activités les plus basses.

Certes, une poignée d’entre nous, tenta bien, à une ou deux reprises, de se soulever. Ceux là clamaient qu’il nous fallait répliquer coup pour coup; bien des coffres à jouets furent, à cet effet, réquisitionnés et utilisés comme caches d’armes. D’autres, au contraire, pensaient que nous devions résister pacifiquement et emprunter les voies légales contre cette pratique moyenâgeuse. Une Grande Marche contre la Fessée faillit voir le jour, mais elle n’eut finalement pas lieu pour des raisons de logistique.

Plus de 20 ans après cette époque troublée, j’apprends qu’Edwige Antier, députée UMP et pédiatre de son état, a l’intention de proposer une loi interdisant l’administration de la fessée et je sens les larmes inonder mes joues. Je pense à toutes ces générations de martyrs au cul rouge qui espéraient que leur complainte soit un jour entendue.

Alors oui, cette loi n’en est pour le moment qu’à un stade embryonnaire mais elle n’en représente pas moins un gigantesque pas pour tous les braillards de la planète.

Même si je ne serai probablement plus de ce monde le jour où celle ci sera votée et bien conscient que Madame Antier n’évoque nullement la douloureuse question des réparations financières pour les descendants des victimes du martinet et de la ceinture, qu’il me soit néanmoins permis de rêver à un monde débarrassé une fois pour toutes de cette pratique d’un autre temps.

Happy birthday Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad.

I have a special fondness for the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, a small outpost of the big brand located a short drive from where I live. The museum used to have a running loop of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as part of their main display, and it was there that I was first impressed by the remarkably capitalist rhetoric of that text:

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

I visited the museum during the inauguration week festivities for Barack Obama and listened to the speech once more in the midst of the growing financial crisis with new ears. I wondered, at the time, if King really thought in the terms of this metaphor, or if he chose it because it rationalized his cause in the eyes of a pragmatic, essentially conservative society.

I also love the museum because you can almost always have it pretty much to yourself, it’s so far removed from the main paths of the Washington tourist circuit. But they now have an exhibition that should change that. “The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present” is a traveling show, first seen at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago in 2006, but it’s not to be missed. It documents, methodically and with historical detail, the presence and absence of people of African descent in Mexico over the past 500 years. The disappearance of Africans as a “third root” of Mexican identity was a complicated and ambiguous project, which the exhibition explains with nuance and precision. I wrote about the show for the Post, and I recommend it to anyone within striking distance of Washington, DC. And don’t forget to pay a visit to Frederick Douglass’s house, nearby, which at this time of year, with the leaves down, has one of the best views of the city.

J’ai acheté ma Xbox 360 un peu avant la mi-mars, uniquement pour jouer à Street Fighter 4. En presque 9 mois, j’ai essayé de me rendre aux principaux tournois organisés lorsque cela était possible.

1. Tournoi Fnac Odeon (début mars 2009), le tournoi du lag. Je n’ai pas encore la console, mais je me suis entraîné chez Powa les précédents jours. Je meurs au 1er tour -_-
2. Tournoi Fnac La Defense (11 mars 2009) , le tournoi où je confirme que je suis vraiment un sac. J’ai acheté la console il y a quelques jours. Ce qui ne m’empêche pas de mourir au 1er tour. L’honneur du sac est préservé.
3. Trophées Fnac, les tournois bidons gratuits (Avril 2009). Epuisants et  décevants. Je ne parviens pas à remporter une seule Xbox -_-. 1 fois 2ème, finale perdue face à Alioune et 3 fois 3ème… Arg.
4. Bushido Nibaï Impact (12 Avril 2009), le 1er vrai tournoi de l’année. Il me semble que je finis 1er ou 2ème de ma poule. Envoyé en Losers par Yamazaki93 dès le 1er tour des Winners, Alioune me tue définitivement au 2ème tour des Losers -_-.
5. Stunfest (10 Mai 2009), le tournoi de la malchance. Mort en poule. Egalité aux points avec deux autres personnes, mais je suis 3ème au goal average. Ryan Hart et Showking sont les deux qualifiés de ma poule.
6. Gnouz Ressurection (24 Mai 2009), ma meilleure performance >____<. Finale perdue face au Honda grassouillet de Lorddvd.
7. Tournoi Capcom France (22 Juin 2009), Eldruz stoppe mon parcours en 1/4 de finale à l’issue d’un mirror match >_<.
8. SF4 Summer Clash (15 Août 2009), je me pointe au tournoi un peu en touriste. Je meurs en 1/4 de finale contre Kilivan.
9. Gnouz Ranking Battle 2 (6 Septembre 2009), le tournoi de la rentrée. Je meurs encore en  1/4 de finale… Cette fois-ci contre Yamazaki93.
10. Micromania Game Show (1er Novembre 2009), conjurer la malédiction de l’éternel 1/4 de finaliste. Raté. Pour le tournoi de dimanche, je perds une fois de plus en 1/4 de finale face à Fox.

Bref je n’ai gagné aucun tournoi. Et vu comment les choses sont parties, ce n’est pas prêt d’arriver >_____(infinite lose)_____<…

J’ai un rêve.

Celui d’un MMO, que nous connaissons tous, dans lequel chaque individu vaut autant que son voisin, dans lequel chacun a droit à la parole, peut s’exprimer sans contrainte et sans crainte de représailles.

Je rêve d’un jeu, n’oublions pas que c’est un jeu, dans lequel il n’y aurait pas de pouvoir, mais des compétences et de bonnes idées. Chacun y participerait selon son talent et ses connaissances.

Je rêve d’un jeu où le temps passé à jouer, où les actions réalisées et les projets à développer ne seraient pas contrôlés par d’autres mais par chacun d’entre-nous, selon nos ambitions et disponibilités.

Je rêve aussi d’un jeu dans lequel les gens qui s’impliquent font eux-même ce qu’ils exigent des autres et ne se contentent pas d’inventer des lois dont ils s’excluent eux-même.

Enfin, je rêve d’un jeu sans hiérarchie dans lequel seules les fonctions comptent.

Ouais je sais, je rêve ^^

Je pense que je vais me mettre aux échecs…

Bon jeu !

-Cc

I have a dream, that is just want to rest in eternal peace.

I just want to be away from all sorts of worries and stress that pull my nerves to extreme limit for most of my life. Love, mercy and peace, these are the attributes that I am looking for.

I tried hard…again and again to love, to show mercy, and to be spiritually become a better person. Now it seems  that I am fighting a loosing battle.No matter how much I try to be away from mental torture, I feel like being trapped in a cubicle with little air to breath.

But, no one will get a sense of my inner frustration as I am still working twelve hours a day dealing with people, of course. with meaningless smile.

I have a dream,…but when it will become real?

Luego del extraordinario éxito de “De cómo los irlandeses salvaron la civilización” y “Los dones de los judíos”, Thomas Cahill nos entrega el tercer volúmen de su serie “Los goznes de la historia”. Con la misma sencillez de los anteriores pero con el suficiente rigor histórico de un libro divulgativo como este exige.  No llega al rigor academicista del también reciente Jesús: aproximación histórica, de José Antonio Pagola (con toda la polémica que ha suscitado), aunque sí destaca en una vitalidad contagiosa (sin duda la de un creyente convencido) que genera un renovado interés por la figura de Jesús, pero sobre todo por el ambiente y atmósfera en los que vive y predica, y los afectos y reacciones de quienes lo rodean y lo siguieron en los primeros años del cristianismo.
A diferencia del de Pagola, que hace un estudio de Jesus desde diferentes perspectivas digamos sociológicas, Cahill se acerca presentando uno a uno  tanto a los apóstoles como a los evangelistas, los individualiza y analiza sus diversas aproximaciones a las enseñanzas de Jesús. Así, del apóstol Pablo, el portador del mensaje de Jesús y la figura más importante del movimiento cristiano primitivo, nos deja la inolvidable imagen de haber sido “la primera persona en la historia en creer que nada -ni el nacimiento, ni la etnia, ni la condición económica, ni la clase social, ni el sexo- hacen a nadie mejor que otro”, una perla para los críticos del santo!

El retrato que Cahill hace de Jesús evoca a una persona de carne y hueso, ingeniosa y elocuente pero a la vez dulce y afectuosa, no exenta de sentido del humor, ensombrecida hacia el final de sus días por el inevitable drama de la crucifixión. Cahill nos presenta, muy cercana a la visión de La Pasión de Cristo (de Mel Gibson), la forma más cruel de ejecución concebida por la humanidad; y el insuperable trauma que dejó en la mente de los primeros cristianos, que  hasta varias generaciones despues no fueron capaces de representarla en sus iconos y en las obras de arte. A propósito una cita de Martin Luther King que el libro nos recuerda:

“He llegado a creer”, dijo Martin Luther King poco antes de morir sobre un charco de su propia sangre, “que el sufrimiento inmerecido redime“.

No faltan en su libro críticas al “establishment religioso”, llegándolo a hablar en algunos momentos de “cristianos fariseos”. Aunque al final del libro abre las ventanas a la esperanza presentando el presente y el futuro de un cristianismo en el que, a pesar de todo, siguen brotando abanderados del Espiritu vivo.

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebbles in your shoe.”

[Pic: Kanye West’s Blog, Quote: Muhammad Ali

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it…..”

These words launch many a spy story. The key elements I would like to pick out for your consideration are:

“Your mission”

and

“Choose to accept it”

Every presentation is a mission, and for that mission to succeed you must bring your total commitment to it.  We want audiences to believe in us and the case we are making. For this to happen, we need to do two things:

• Know what our mission is
• Choose to both fully accept it, and own it

Your mission

The word “mission” sounds similar to “envision”, and we want audiences to be able to clearly envision the positive outcomes that our recommended course of action will produce.

In doing this, we can sometimes be tempted to believe we can let “the facts speak for themselves”, but this is a mistake. Facts and figures are merely secondary indicators of something else; they are evidence that we have achieved a mission, but are seldom the mission itself. For example, achieving a 100% customer satisfaction rate is a great metric, but why? What does that gain? A 50% increase in sales is very worthy, but why? How does that help the business?

Supporters rally to a flag, never to a number. What is the mission you are waving before them?

Choose to accept it

The mission must be whole-heartedly embraced. Where does this mission connect with either our organization, department, or with ourselves as unique individuals? If you share that connection with the audience then you reveal a part of your own belief system that adds tremendous weight to your message. As James Kouzes and Barry Posner state in their book “The Leadership Challenge”:

“You can’t believe the messenger if you don’t know what the messenger believes.”

The best public speaking is always accompanied by passion; and passion is conjured from mission and belief as surely as the name Martin Luther King conjures the words “I have a dream”

What a man. What a photo. What a statement.

[Image courtesy of Kanye West's blog. Headline, by Muhammed Ali].

[Posted by Horiwood in Hollywood California, 11.1.09]

One day in May, I discovered that I can do a credible Martin Luther King.

On 1st May 2009, I, the pasty white Irishman, possibly the whitest man in the world, so white that when I show people my tan they think that I have a normal colour…

Yes, that night, I, in all my apparent whiteness gave my interpretation of what is considered to be one of the greatest American speeches ever given. It was interesting, definitely not my typical speech. I normally give nice quiet speeches which are educational, possibly interesting or even mildy amusing, all given in soft playful tones which is why I thought it would be a bit of challenge doing a speech that was given to 250,000 civil rights marchers – it’s just not me!

It was part of my Interpretive Reading manual, project five, interpretive reading of a great speech, it meant that instead of spending time working on constructing a speech, all I had to do was work out the best way to deliver a pre-written speech…

Easy!

Or so you would think…

There is some work involved. First you need to choose a speech and I had a few in mind, nice quiet speeches that were ideal for me but then as I was browsing the internet I came across “I have a dream” and I was instantly captivated by it. It is an exercise in speechcraft, without even hearing the speech (and for some reason I had never heard the speech), I could see the beauty and impressiveness of the speech, the use of repetition, the use of familiar phrases and quotes and the use of powerful emotional language makes it a fabulous work of art.

I threw away the other possibilities and decided that this was the one.

It was a crazy decision, how could I, a novice public speaker do justice to such a great man’s word? It was probably the most difficult speech that I’ve done, it took me so far out of my comfort zone that I was not sure if I’d find my way back!

When he or his team were writing the speech I’m convinced that if they noticed they were using a word shorter than three syllables then out came the thesaurus and they found a larger, harder to pronouce word to use instead, it was hell!

My own particular nemesis was the word “unalienable”, I just couldn’t say it, my tongue would swell up and be uncoordinated and it ended up being “unblehblahable”, I discovered that the only way I could say it was to say it really really slowly, syllable by syllable, and then of course afterwards people came up and told me how much they liked the way I said “unalienable”!

The other challenge was bringing the power and volume to my voice.

That was difficult.

I felt really self-conscious, roaring out his message, even at home – I was worried I would disturb the neighbours so instead I was delivering the speech slightly louder, it wasn’t too convincing but somehow I felt that I’d be able to be loud on the night and strangely I was, it was fascinating to hear myself do it, to see that I could do it, it was intense.

It was like there was two versions of me, the usual quiet me and this total stranger who roared out an uplifting message to the suppressed masses.

I need to find that stranger again.

I have to give a humorous speech to a room much bigger than usual on Saturday, I need to get my voice all the way to the back row,  I need power, I need to be Martin Luther King, only funnier!

Above: An art piece I created. Thank you Martin Luther King, Jr. Thank you

I HAVE A DREAM

A search for brighter days
I ride through the maze of the madness
struggle is my address
where pain and crack lives
gunshots coming from sounds of blackness
given this game with no time to practice
born on the blacklist
told I’m a little average
A life with no cabbage
that’s no money if you’re from where I’m from
funny,
I just want some of yours son
dark clouds seem to follow me
alcohol that my pops swallowed bottle me
no apology
I walk with a boulder on my shoulder
it’s a cold war
I’m a colder shoulder
I fight the same fight that made Martin Luther the king
I ain’t usin’ it for the right thing
in-Between lean and the fiends
hustle and the schemes
I put together pieces of a dream
I still have one

Thank you Common

Dream big.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream”

Petar Pismestrovic - Kleine Zeitung, Austria - Click to purchase

Barack Obama is a good public speaker.  His fans praise him for it and his critics attack him for it.  A lot of people question his politics, some question his place of birth, but no one questions his ability to charm an audience with his smooth voice and rhythmic phrasing. The New York Times reports that people who barely understand a word of English buy recordings of his speeches to play as BGM!

So, just what is it about his speech pattern that makes it so listenable?  A search of the internet produces thousands of analyses of the content of his speeches, but very little that comment on the way he speaks.

One Christian blogger claims he speaks with a cadence (rhythm) like that used to read passages of the Holy Bible.  Another authority says he uses a style that is common among African Americans.  Both may be true.  I listened to Obama’s Inaugural Speech back-to-back with Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech and I could hear some definite similarities. Many of them are are both black and Biblical, but others are not so easily categorized.

- Repeats the same word or phrase often

- Highlights words by stretching them longer or with higher pitch

- Goes up or down at the end of each phrase

- Changes the speed of phrases – slow>>fast or fast>>slow

- Changes the length of phrases

- Uses parallel structure

- Stops for dramatic effect

This is a very simple and incomplete analysis, but it may be enough for you to get the idea.

All of these techniques give their speech a rhythm, make it musical. But the music is different; King croons lyrically, Obama is more staccato and sometimes sounds almost like he’s rapping.

Martin Luther King, Jr. by Yann Couedor

Why does this mean anything to you, unless you are a linguist?  Well, if you want to better understand, speak or simply enjoy spoken English, you can learn a lot from these eloquent speakers.

Sometimes the best way to tell how a celebrity sounds the way he does is to listen to a good impersonator mimic his style. Imitators have to find the speaker’s strongest characteristics and exaggerate them — highlight them just like the artist did in the caricture at the top of this article. Amplifying the speech traits makes them immediately recognizable to the audience. Watch and listen how brilliantly Iman Crosson, as Alphacat, recreates the Obama style.

Now, click here for my standard phrase formatted version of Obama’s announcement after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.  It is not nearly as dramatic as some of his other speeches, but it has the distinct advantage of being short – just 861 words.

The best way to learn from this is to take the following steps.

1 – Copy and paste your own copy and print it.

2 – Click here to listen to this speech.

3 – Write a slash (/) every place he pauses or stops.

As you do this you will see how he uses regular and irregular phrasing stops to build a rhythmic pattern and to stress key words and ideas.

© Dane Degenhardt, Monde Dane, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dane Degenhardt and Monde Dane with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

]]> http://allaussiehiphop.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/street-art-of-sydney%e2%80%99s-inner-west/ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:53:10 +0000 steps1 http://allaussiehiphop.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/street-art-of-sydney%e2%80%99s-inner-west/ http://sunshinelollipop.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/love-kinetic-typography/ Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:52:00 +0000 sunshinelollipop http://sunshinelollipop.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/love-kinetic-typography/

My first workshop for this terms project involved kinetic typography. Firstly we looked at a few little clips that our tutor had already put onto our University website. I have put up a few below to share some of the ones we watched. I really loved them, there so creative and found the Technologic-Daft Punk one really amusing. Also I like the concept of creating them to parts from films and after the lesson, this is something that I would like to develop on. Definitely take a look, at least at one, I am sure you will love them too, if you haven’t seen them already.

Originally I didn’t really know about kinetic typography, obviously I had seen work involving it but was quite ignorant of the whole subject. In the workshop we started to create our own, using Flash, in response to 1 out of 3 speeches. I chose to create mine to Barack Obama’s inauguration speech. We didn’t have too long, so mine is only at the beginning of its creation at the moment. Even though I have used Flash before I still felt that I was learning and maybe re-learning in some cases and I still have alot to learn.

Later that evening I sat at my dads showing both him and my younger sister the kinetic typography clips that we had seen in class and they both really liked them, my dad loved them. So then we started to look at more on Youtube, until we had to eventually stop as it was about time that we went home. They kind of get addictive because you see a different movie title that you know and like, which then leads you on to wanting to see what has been created in response to that film.

After this I will be having more of a look on Youtube to find some more that I like to add onto here. Also it has left me thinking, what film excerpt should I attempt to create a little kinetic typography movie for in development for my current project..

I have a dream, a place to go

A summer dream, that I wish so

We can now proudly introduce new plans and dreams of the fantastic Line, of Norway.

Jeg (skal, vil, har veldig lyst til, ønsker) å reise til NY neste sommer. Jeg er fult klar over at det er rimelig lenge til neste sommer, men planlegging er jo halve gleden av en reise.

Jeg kan allerede se for meg meg selv vandre rundt i Downtown Brooklyn, New York, the BIG apple. At SOCAPA.

Krysser alle fingre for dette! (Og hvis noen tilfeldigvis skulle ha mye cash slengende rundt som de ikke trenger, gi meg en lyd!) 

Line, lining out plans for NY

One of my paintings was featured on the homepage of www.artofobama.com yesterday [Tuesday 13th October 2009].

According to the site, they don’t normally post art that doesn’t explicitly represent the likeness of Barack Obama, however they appear to have made an exception in this case …stating; “That would have been a shame… Jump inside to learn why this image is so powerful”.

More: http://www.artofobama.com/2009/10/13/golliwogs/