Friday, April 28, 2006

Though I was tempted to write about Le Toya Luckett's comeback and how great she looks, I believe this is a much more worthy cause:


More than 400,000 people have been Killed in Darfur

SAVE DARFUR
What Happened:
Open warfare erupted in Darfur in early 2003 when the two loosely allied rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), attacked military installations. This was followed closely by peace agreements brokered by the United States to end the twenty-year-old civil war in the south of Sudan which allocated government positions and oil revenue to the rebels in the south. At that time rebels in Darfur, seeking an end to the region's chronic economic and political marginalization, also took up arms to protect their communities against a twenty-year campaign by government-backed militias recruited among groups of Arab extraction in Darfur and Chad. These "Janjaweed" militias have over the past year received government support to clear civilians from areas considered disloyal to the Sudanese government. Militia attacks and a scorched-earth government offensive has led to massive displacement, indiscriminate killings, looting and mass rape, all in infringement of the 1949 Geneva Convention that prohibits attacks on civilians. The war, which risks inflicting irreparable damage on a delicate ethnic balance of seven million people who are uniformly Muslim, is actually multiple intertwined conflicts. One is between government-aligned forces and rebels; a second entails indiscriminate attacks of the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia on civilians; and a third involves a struggle among Darfur communities themselves. Its implications go far beyond Darfur's borders. The war indirectly threatens the regimes in both Sudan and Chad and has the potential to inspire insurgencies in other parts of the country.

What's Happening Now:
Nearly three years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order. The humanitarian, security and political situation continue to deteriorate: atrocities continue, people are still dying in large numbers of malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared. According to reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur thus far. The international community is failing to protect civilians or to influence the Sudanese government to do so.
Rape has become a hallmark of the crimes against humanity in Darfur. It has proven one way for the Janjaweed militias to continue attacking Darfurians after driving them from their homes. Families must continue collecting wood, fetching water or working their fields, and in doing so, women daily put themselves or their children at the risk of rape, beatings or death as soon as they are outside the camps, towns or villages. It is assumed that the hundreds of rapes reported and treated grossly underestimate the actual number committed, as victims of rape in Darfur are often too scared or too ashamed to seek help. In a culture where rape draws heavy social disgrace, victims are often ostracised by their own families and communities. These women and children have been forced from their communities and even punished for illegal pregnancy as a result of being raped. As need far outstrips the ability of agencies to deliver aid, it is not too soon to sound a famine alert. Relief workers on the ground are convinced that few if any of the nearly 2 million IDPs will return to their homes in time for the next planting season, thus ensuring at least longer term food insecurity. The onset of the rainy season in late May will further restrict access.

On January 9, 2005, a peace deal was signed to end the long war between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLM). This war, which has raged for the past 20 years, is commonly referred to as the North-South conflict and is often confused with the violence in Darfur. This peace deal signed earlier last year did not address the issues in Darfur, where the genocide continues.

How you can help:
http://www.savedarfur.org/home
http://www.bet.com/News/tlscott_howtohelp.htm?Referrer={1CF4E9E6-0EA9-4CB9-BA8A-2896AEAC8BB5}


Le Toya's comeback doesn't seem so important anymore, does it?


Now Playing: So Much Trouble in The World, Bob Marley

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Just Because I'm a Journalist
...an email I received earlier today. I'll choose not to believe the message below just cuz' I think the girl is flyy.

From: Hate (Blank) Add to Address Book
Date: 2006/04/27 Thu AM 04:11:30 EDT
To: A WHOLE Bunch of People
Subject: If you know that SLUT (Blank)


Fuck (Blank). I just went to the doctor today and he told me I have fucking HPV and the only person I’ve had sex with was that bitch (Blank). She is a fucking whore. Don’t fuck with her. Please. For your health and for the sake of humanity. She won’t admit she has it but when I called her and asked her about it she fucking hung up in my face before I even said I had it. I just said the word “HPV” and she hung up the guilty bitch. Oh, but she was more than happy to call (Blank's friend) a “dirty slut” and a “nasty hoe” in November when (Friend) had just found out SHE had HPV and it was causing her problems. But now that (Blank) has it she won’t say shit.

Her and her fucking roommate are whores. They have this thing where they bring home two guys together and both fuck. If one is fucking they’re both fucking. (Blank) told me about it. Ask (Guy1) and (Guy2). They did it with me and my roommate. They are sluts who KNOW they have this STD and they keep slutting around. Fuck these whores.

PLEASE don’t fuck with (Blank). HPV can be passed even through a condom!!! You are not safe if you have sex with this slut or her slut ass roommate. They are dirty sluts who are obviously trying to pass on this disease because they are upset at the world.

These two bitches are sluts and I will hate (Blank) until the day that I fucking die. She did a credit card scam, she tricks niggas into buying her stuff, she fucks over her “best friends” and she gives niggas HPV. This bitch is SICK, DISGUSTING and a TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING!!! HPV is forever. If you are a guy you are FUCKED UP if you think you are safe. FUCK YOU (Blank)!!!

DAMN, that's got to suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For More Information about HPV (The Human Papillomavirus)

Please Go To:http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm

Friday, April 21, 2006


The closer I get to reaching the 'real world' the more I realize that all that I want in life may not be as easy to achieve as I once believed. While I'm so enthused to have met so many successful women in the field of journalism, I have come to the conclusion that many of those womene have no personal life. Most of them work and then come home to a New York loft apartment and an animal (cat or dog, depending on their personal preference). Besides Angela Burt-Murray, none of the women I have come encounter with have a man, children, or homes. They're all cat ladies!!!!! And I don't want that life. I want to have a husband, 2.5 kids, a white picket fence (well more like a brownstone with a picturesque stoop), and a cool job with a nice paycheck. I really want the perfect life, and I truly thought I was on the track to acquiring it, but the closer I get to leaving Howard, I realized just how hard things really are and how that man shortage everyone keeps talking about might just affect me too. I have friends from high school who are already getting married and having kids. In my mind I'm still an awkward 13 year old, but truly I'm not....I'll be 20 this year! And while I don't forsee any kind of commitment as deep as marriage for another 6 or 7 years, I am still just a wee bit concerned about obtaining the life that I have created for myself in my own mind about 10 years ago.

Now Playing: I Want You- Floetry

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Lucky Bitch!
Actually, I'm a blessed young lady, but "lucky bitch" is what one of my friends (though I'm rethinking that one currently) referred to me as. In the span of two weeks I've been able to interview two BLACK movie directors, Chris Robinson and Nnegest Likke (thanks Jendayi:), had tons of fun with my friends, aced a midterm, gone shopping and networking in NYC, and have my family by my side rooting me on.
Though it's looking like I need to drop my Economics II course, my life has really been without fault this semester. Sure I've had major dissapointments along the way, but nothing I can't recover from.
Today I had the most inspirational conversation with one of my favorite people on Howard's campus and a personal mentor, Nicole Marie Melton. God, I love that woman! Talking to her makes you realize that you can do anything in this world and broad horizons lead to a successful life!
This weekend I'm going to Georgia, not home, but to Brunswick...a little beach town on the coast near Jacksonville, Florida. It's my father's hometown and where my paternal grandmother resides. She's turning 80! That sounds soooo old, it doesn't seem like my Grandma Winnie should even be that old. She's so young and lively...well, she is the more strict grandparent, but she still doesn't act like an old lady. My grandma is still very active in her church's woman's group, her sorority (which she has been an active, due paying member of 60 years!), and travels more than any old lady I know. Birthdays are a blessing, and I'm blessed to be able to call a woman of her caliber "Granny." No, forreal my Grandma is bad ya'll ...She was asked to start the Jack & Jill chapter in Brunswick (said she was "too" busy...forreal Grandma?)....Was invited to The Links, Inc. but refused their invitation (the members of which were all of my the other "accomplished" family members coinsedentally) because they did not allow her best friend to join. That's what I call a REAL woman...she has never allowed organizations to forget what she stands for, and while all our views aren't the exact same- that's one quality that I pray I inhereted.
I'd like to think I have, maybe that's why I'm a "lucky bitch".

Now Playing: Like a Movie- P$C (pimp squad clique) ft. Lloyd

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Doing it, Doing it, and Doing It Well...
I thought this might be a good time to write, an mini update in the world of Me. The situation that I talked about in my previous post *the one where I called the chick the B-word* is resolved. She ended up in tears after the meeting was over and profusely apologized, so I couldn't ask for me. All is forgiven- I just hope nothing like that happens again.
This evening I'm interviewing Negest Likke, the writer/director of the new movie, Phat Girlz, staring the large and lovely comedian, Monique. I'm very excited, she's a graduate of Clark Atlanta, and also a Delta, so she's like the around the way girl who made it big.
School is becoming so overwhelming...and I'm not sure if I should drop my Economics II course...I dropped a course last semester and I don't want too many Ws on my transcript even though I'm taking summer school at UDC this summer. I was thinking about trying to have a journalism internship this summer as well, but I actually think I'm going to wait and do that second semester of next year because I don't want to have any distractions when it comes to making this fashion show the hottest it can be. I really want to work at a hair salon anyway...don't ask me why, but it's my favorite place to be. I just love the atmosphere and the constant transformation of women. They come in looking a mess and leave looking like goddesses.
And BAS I dont know if you read this homie, but if you do...us dressing alike (3 days in a row!) just means we have the same frame of mind and thats never be a bad thing. While it might look a little corny, it's so endearing that you find it just as humorous as I do.And it's true...I still think you are the shit boy! I'm ready to get this poppin' when you are :)

Now Playing (Double Feature): I Love You, Cheri Dennis & When Can We Date, Dem Franchize Boys