Blog

Haiti is shaken!
The poorest–yet first– country in the Western Hemisphere to gain full independence from colonialsim, experienced an earth-shattering (literally) earthquake on Tuesday afternoon. The tremblor happended circa 16:43 while inhabitants on the island were unsuspecting of what devastation was portending.However we hear, as most times we do following these tragic calamities that are beyond human comprehension and coping, that scientist predicted such a cataclysmic event could occur. At the 18th Caribbean Geological Conference that was held in May 2008–in Santo Domingo (the other half of the island that shared by Haiti)–scientist... Read more...
New Year’s plans burgeoning
Sorry about the short hiatus, I was sedulously tending to academic matters that consumed the majority of my time and research effort. However, due to such absence, a plethora of topic opportunities have amassed that require my essaying about here, in this forum, where matters that have an intimate or remote inkling as to ethnic orientations are handled in a real, raw, and uncensored manner. With the real, I’ll try to promise a little more of the raw. Read more...
Eid Mubarak!!!
While this blog post is a couple days late–although technically, I am still in bounds due to the typical three days commemoration of celebration that is practiced in various Islamic cultures–I extend the heartiest of well wishes to the brethren and sistren the worldover. Eid Mubarak!!! Read more...
Human Gorillas in our midst? Guerilla scholar debunks that myth!
The dialectical process of dialogic exchange purports that the convening of a consensus of thought–that is, a synthesis of opposing terms or ideas–is contingent upon diametrically opposed elements of argumentation occurring. One critical element, the thesis, is a statement, utterance, even an idea that assumes one side of a conversant coin. Its opposing conception, though seemingly operating parallel to the initial conviction itself, represents the antithesis of such articulated ideological construct. The proverbial giving and taking; the parrying and countenancing; the steely-eyed visual exchange in the mirror involving both spheres... Read more...
“Pedagogy of a Presidential Address”
Amidst all of the rhetorical rancour that has of late been strewn across the political landscape, the anxiety leading up to the Presidential discourse with the nation’s school students has been just that–anxiety-laden chatter. Now, after a review of the transcript that was judiciously provided to the citizenry, as a means, presumably, to quell the conservative consortium ribaldry, what now could be the objectives proffered by the host of parents who have threatened that the Presidential telecast was at least going to be subliminal indoctrination, or at worst, subversively socialistic?... Read more...
“Great White Hope,” or “Great White Hype?”
Atop the inner front doorway of my father’s house was a card-stock sign that posted a rather peculiar, yet, presciently profound aphorism that–although amusing–befuddled me in my youth. Whenever I glanced up at that sign before crossing the threshold of the doorway before departure I was reminded of the putative relationship that exists between spoken words and cognitive origin. The adage read: “Make sure that brain is engaged before putting mouth into gear.” The profundity of such metaphor has earned my unwavering respect in the years since, however, there may... Read more...
Breaking bread with The Organization of Romanian Americans
On the night of the 28th of August, I had the distinct pleasure and honor of being invited to attend a general fund-raising dinner for the Organization of Romanian Americans. While I had initially been invited under the aegis of perhaps giving a little presentation concerning the historical contextuality surrounding larger issues of nativism, and how such a perniciously time-honored, yet American tradition, has recently jaundiced some peoples perspectives on particular individuals in the immediate California Romanian-American community regarding issues of immigration, such talk had to capitulate to an otherwise... Read more...
Ramadan Mubarak!!!
After a short hiatus from dropping a blog or two, I have returned with something to stir the spiritual soul and provide nourishment for the cerebral employer.Beginning on the 21st or the 22nd of this month, 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide will be engaging in one of the quintessential tenets and articles of their faith–the month-long period of fasting that is observed this ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. “O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may (learn)... Read more...
Ancient Africans engineered pyrotechnology in tool making
In 1961, while delivering a set of lectures at the University of Oxford, Dr. L. S. B. Leakey–renowned and foremost social-anthropologist of the time–questioned the insidious notion that was entertained by some that while the human physiognomical form may have originated in Africa, the mind and its cognitive properties developed in Europe. Leakey intimated that in all the destinations one may travel to, and enter into discourse about Africa, “the question is regularly asked by people who should know better: ‘But what has Africa contributed to the world progress…not this,... Read more...
“White supremacism and latent violence” hallmarks of militia groups
According to an unnamed federal law enforcement official, while remarking on the resurgence and seemingly parallel nature of militia groups growing now, and their virulent activities in the early to mid-1990’s, the potential for relived violence is there, but “[a]ll it’s lacking is a spark.” While being tentative on when such recurrences might break loose, the official averred that he “think[s] it’s only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.”Such was an excerpt from the latest reports issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center–an organization started in... Read more...
Attempted Secretary of State verbal smackdown in the Congo
Now, really, what was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thinking would be the misconstrued hearing of the question pitched to her by the member of the audience while in Congo?; on her whirlwind tour through Africa. She apparently misperceived the question as everyone buying into that anachronism of President Obama’s selection of his cabinet members… you know, the one where everyone vigorously tried to tell Obama that if he selected Hillary for a prominent position among his cabinet, he would be in essence accepting a “two-fer.” The “two-fer” being referred... Read more...
“A wise Latina” surmounts the Sisyphean task of proving why she is to be considered, “honorably judicious”
“A wise Latina” surmounts the Sisyphean task of proving why she is to be considered, “honorably judicious”
Clenching the senatorial confirmation by an ostensible partisanship-divide of 68-31, Judge Sonia Sotomayor has procured the honorable position of becoming the 111th Supreme Court Justice. And to think, all of... Read more...