Moving on...From NAHB to Be The Change, Inc.

Over the last year or so, I've been working at the National Association of Home Builders as a Developer.  Tomorrow will mark my last day there.  For me, NAHB was the perfect second job out of school.  While there,  I had the opportunity to work with some great people and develop my technical skills as well as my interpersonal skills.  Everyone in my department took great pride in servicing our clients, which were the various departments, and working harmoniously with our vendors and vendors selected by our clients. Moreover, I moved closer to reaching an equilibrium between life and work or as the girlfriend would probably say "between work and more work." I will truly miss working with the people at NAHB

As of Monday, I will be employed with Be The Change, Inc. as Director of Web Technology.  Be The Change is a startup non profit focused on public service and was founded by Alan Khazei who also founded CityYear.  The Organization's two key missions are:

Crafting a bold and innovative policy agenda that is rooted in the practical experience of social entrepreneurs and civic leaders and sets a pragmatic ten-year time horizon for major systemic change.

  and

Building a broad-based, web-fueled, citizens’ movement that will campaign for better public policies, promote active citizenship and citizen democracy, and give Americans who are frustrated with the status quo a place to channel their ideas and activism.

I was introduced to Be The Change, Inc. through a friend and I have been working with them as a "pro-bono consultant," for a lack of better word since the summer.  I have an understanding of where the organization is, what it aims to become and how I can help. Needless to say I still have a lot learn about the organization and the rest of the team.  And as with any new endeavor, there will be challenges.  Regardless, I'm very excited for this opportunity and ready for my first week¹.

 

1. I will be slightly distracted on Tsunami Tuesday.  Are you registered to vote?

 

Technorati Tags: NAHB,Be The Change,Career

Volunteering for Obama in SC - The Memorable encounters

This the second article of a three part series that I'm doing on my experience volunteering for the Obama Campaign. You can read the first article here.

While in SC, I have several interesting  encounters that I thought I'd share.  For the purpose of this article, we will refer to my friends as "John" and "Meg". I did not ask for approval to use their real names therefore I feel that it would be inappropriate to do so.  It is worth noting that John is black while Meg is White.

The first of these encounter happened at Huck's post-primary party.  John, Meg and I exited from the ballroom and into the main corridor.  Unfortunately, there was not sighting of the legend that is Chuck Norris.  John decides to stop to purchase a couple of Huckapins.  Disinterested, Meg and I continued to walk down the main corridor.  About half way down the hall, a white lady(WL) approach us and the conversation goes something like this:

WL: Excuse me (This was directed in my direction and she got up to started walking towards me. so I stop)
ME: Yes?
WL: Are you for Gov. Huckabee?
ME: <at this point I think I know enough for talk about the Gov. standing on the issues, so why not go along? plus I'm at his party> Yea I am.
WL: Can you tell me why there are not more of your kind here? 
<The audience at the party was very diverse in age but not in race. Is she talking about my race? Is this lady serious? At this point I'm trying to figure what to say.  First thought that came to mind was to pretend that I'm dating Meg and claim that she dragged me to this all white event.  But Meg was so offended by the question that she ran back to John who was still purchasing Huckapins.  Left with no witty comebacks, I decided to not be offended and address the question. I can't remember what exactly what I said but it was something like the following>
ME: Well we have one our own running right now and his message is appealing and that's very exciting. Also, while The Gov's message does resonate with some conservatives black community but post-primary parties are not exactly the most advertised event on TV.
<She asked about to which church I belong to, to which I answered that I was in from DC to see the Huck speak. But I am attending church up here. She asked a couple more questions that I'm answered.  The end of the conversation went something like that this.>
WL: Blacks are going to be important in one and Gov has a nice message.
ME: Yea we are.  have a good one.
<exit stage right>

When I twittered about having an O'reilly moment that is the conversation I was referring to. It was very surprising that the woman felt comfortable enough to approach me and asked me a question worded in such a manner.  The lady was not trying to offended or insinuate anything negative about the African Americans.  Moreover, I truly believe that the question itself was relevant however the manner in which it was asked displays some sort of ignorance about race relations in that part of the country. More surprising than the actual question was the genuineness behind the question. Part of me wanted to shake her and ask her what hole she had been living in. Regardless, I hope she learned something, because I know I definitely did.

My second encounter was with two older gentlemen at the MLK march. I ran into a small coffee shop to get some coffee and tea. While waiting for my beverages, I asked two gentlemen what they thought about the speeches given by the NAACP representative. Basically, they told me they had conflicted feelings. They said that they appreciated that the NAACP was pointing out some of the discrepancies that exist is South Carolina today. They felt that a lot of the younger generation are not exposed to the history of the state to comprehend some of the subtleties of the racial tensions that still exist today. However, they felt that the NAACP would not do much. They felt that its leaders are more selfish than they have been in the past. Moreover, they felt the leaders were using the MLK holiday, along with the presence of Presidential candidates to get their 15 minutes of fame.  They rebuke the NAACP leader for constantly evoking, King's name and ideals while falling well short of them. For me, this encounter presented a new perspective because I always thought that only young people like myself think that the NAACP is losing its greatness by the hour.

My last encounter was with a gentlemen protesting that the confederate flag should stay up. John and I had a discussion about the flag the night before.  We have a different stance as the what the faith of the flag should be.  Regardless,  John first approached and asked about the gentlemen stance on the issue.  The gentleman stated he wanted the flag flying over the state capitol building like it used to.  I tend jumped and asked why?  his answer was something like "because that's were it belongs."  I told him he was wrong for unconditionally wanting to flag to stay up, and the NAACP was wrong for unconditionally wanting the flag to come down.  The fact of the matter is that the flag means  different things to both groups and neither group should impose its will on the other.  I continued by stating that since both party would back down from their current position, it would be much useful  approach the problem from another angle.  I suggested forming an education panel comprised of people from both camps, that would talk about how schools in SC should teach the about the flag.  And in that process, they may come with a solution about the faith of the flag.  Another gentleman protesting with the gentleman I was talking to agreed with my point.  As for the gentleman I was talking to, he took a second to think about what I said, and then presented another argument which I then countered.  Eventually, we said  goodbye and left.  I doubt anything will come of that conversation.  That being said, it showed me if you come open minded about issue and are willing to offer an alternative way to look at problem, they will listen.  And that's the first step to solving any issue.

While not very memorable as the title would suggest, these encounters brought home the reality of racial tensions in certain parts of the country. Living in a city such as Washington, DC and being in an inter-racial relationship often makes it easy to lose sight of what some parts of the country are still going through.   That's being said, I believe that there things we can do to soften those tensions, like talk to each other and instead of yelling at each other and being offended by every thing we see.

 

Technorati Tags: election 2008,South Carolina Primary,NAACP,Confederate Flag

Volunteering for Obama in SC - The itinerary

I've been following the primary on both side for what seems like forever now.  So when a friend who is involved for MD for for Obama group called me to ask to go volunteer for Obama in South Carolina I jumped on the chance.  We agreed to go down on MLK  weekend.   We left Friday after work, drove down to NC and spent the night at my friend's uncle place near Raleigh, NC.   Saturday, we left around 2 pm and headed down to Columbia, SC.  We checked in the most ghetto hotel available. The TV didn't work in the first room and we were moved to another.  Since we had not contacted the Obama campaign before going down, we did not know what they had planned for the evening.  We decided to watch some political shows.  After about 2 hours, we were bored and I suggested that we go party hop around all the Republican primary parties.  We started at Fred Thompson's Headquarters then to his party.  Fred's Party was really sad.  They were about 30 people there  and at least 10 of them were members of the Media.  My friend and I provided all the diversity for that party.  When we were  there we could Fred was going to drop-out  of the race.  As we were leaving, a Giuliani aide/volunteer was recruiting one of Thompson aide for Florida. 

Rumors of the street had it that Mike Huckabee's (a.k.a "The Huck") party had good cookies and brownies, so we decided to head there next.  The Huckaparty was much more happening then Fred's.  The Huckabus was huge, although the C-SPAN bus held its own.  We barely missed the Huck's speech but managed to get a few pictures as he exited stage right.  Since McCain was in Charleston and the rest of Republicans were to lazy to compete in SC, that was all she wrote for that night.  We got some food and headed to the ghetto hotel only to find 10 cops in the hallway.

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to run some errands only find out that county law does not allow for sale of general goods before 1:30 PM on Sunday.  No lie.  We headed to Obama's headquarters.  As soon as we walked in a gentleman said that we would be volunteering at an event where the senator was to speak.   GREAT!  At the event we were assigned to be Press volunteers or Press chaperone and bouncers as I called it.   We help set up, we regulated rowdy photographers with the help of secret service, but mostly we took pictures and help ADA individuals.

On Monday, We woke up bright and early to march in the freezing cold and listen to Clinton, Edwards and Obama speak as well as some less than impressive NAACP leaders.  At the end of Clinton's  speech we bolted out of there.  The trip felt a bit rushed, I wish I could have stayed a bit longer, maybe till the primary.  Unfortunately work and other obligations called. I would def do it again. Although, I think I would have to be at least sympathetic to majority of the the candidate's views.  It's just too much work for someone whose idea you disagree with.

 

Technorati tags: Election 2008, Obama, South Carolina

Restaurant Review: Ceiba

This week is Restaurant Week here in DC. If you're not familiar with the concept, a bunch of DC's fancy restaurant's agree to do a 3 course meal for cheap--$20.08 for lunch and $30.08 for dinner. It is a funny way to get to eat at some restaurants that are clearly out of our price range on a daily basis. To take advantage of that, one night we dined at a restaurant called Ceiba. It's a Latin American restaurant, seeming to specialize in seafood.

The only reservation we could get was for 5:30, earlier than a normal dinner. This was only odd because there were empty tables the entire time we were in the restaurant, so clearly we could have gotten a later seating. But regardless, we ate early. The ambiance of the restaurant is nice, very soothing, with lots of mirrors that make the several small dining rooms seem bigger. The meal began with some pita-like chips and a dip that resembled a spicy hummers. We quickly devoured two baskets of the chips, so clearly they were good. For cocktails, my friends chose a Mojito and a beer, but I decided to be daring and chose a drink called a pisco sour, which involved many things, including egg white powder. A little strange, but actually quite good.

One of the nice things about Ceiba is that for Restaurant Week, instead of having a limited number of dishes to choose from, they let you pick any entree off the menu. It's a nice touch. For my dinner, I had a ceviche to start, and a crispy whole red snapper as my entree. The ceviche was delicious, a bit spicy while still having the great taste of the fish. The snapper was also cooked very well. I was a little nervous, as they literally brought the entire fish to me in a platter, head and all (pictured right).....yikes. But, under the skin, the fish was very moist and the accompanying sauce and vegetables were great as well (although I was nervous about accidentally eating the fish's brain).

My dining companions both chose different meals. One friend, a vegetarian, had a mixed green salad to start and some sort of vegetable tamale. She said both were quite good. My other dining companion chose a shrimp cocktail (which he said was very good and spicy) and an Mahi tuna dish. Despite a little nervousness regarding the rawness of the tuna, and a general dislike of mashed potatoes, he also enjoyed his meal. Dessert was also quite good, with two of us choosing a guava cake (more like a banana bread) that was served with a cream cheese panna cotta, and the third choosing a Brazilian carrot cake served with chocolate ice cream. It was certainly a filling end to the meal.

Overall, I think we all agreed that Ceiba was quite a good restaurant. Of course, it was not a place to eat everyday, but it was a good Restaurant Week choice.

 

~ The GFF

Technorati Tags: Restaurant Week,eating out,Ceiba

2008 Resolutions

1.  Maintain a GPA above a 3.5 - I'm enjoying my classes in my MBA program.  I've learned a great deal and hopefully I will continue to do so.  With Law school as a possibility after my MBA, I need to maintain the highest possible GPA to help me get in the best law schools.  It's true that my LSAT score will probably be a bigger factor than my GPA, but It doesn't hurt to keep it high.

2.  Read 6 books (outside the classroom) and write about them on here  - This is important to me. I've found that I enjoy reading and it's relaxing.  The girl, as it turns out, has superb taste in books.  I love borrowing the books that's she's read.  Moreover, It's refreshing not to be reading on a computer screen.  Between twitter, coding, blogging, and typing papers, I'm constantly in front of PC.   A change of scenery for my eyes can't be that bad.

3.  Reconnect with 5 or more family members back home - I want to continue to build on the progress that I made last year.  I was able to reconnect with some family members and actually talk to them on a regular basis.  This has still not brought any closure to some unfinished business that I left but its good to know how every one is doing what they are up to.

4.  Record all financial data for the entire year - I'm always good for this till about June or July.  Around then, I usually go some big spending spree and get lazy about recording it.  Next thing I know it's been three months.  My goal is to keep up with this all year.  I think it will be beneficial to financial planning and all that good jazz.

5.  Bring in 10K to 15K through freelancing - This is an interesting goal.  I've recently partnered with a friend under the b•seen communication & media umbrella.  She does the graphics (print and web) and I do the programming.  We are mostly looking for small to medium size projects.  If you know anyone who needs some work done, contact me.

6.  Open an IRA or Home buying fund - By all measurements, I've been pretty good about the 401k thing.  Now it's time to expand.  The end goal is to buy an overpriced condo either now or when I retire.  Regardless, the to get there, I need open an investment account outside the work place and contribute to it on a regular basis.  This is what happens when you read too many PF blogs.

7.  Go to 12 museums - I've come to the realization that while a live in a city with a million museums, I can only recall going to two.  Since they are open 364 days of the year (according to my sources, they close on Christmas), there is no reason why I can't go once a month.  Clearly, the gff will be in charge of making this happen (She doesn't know that yet).  Mostly because I don't even know what museums are around... I KNOW...very pathetic.

8.  Learn Ruby on Rails - It's the new hotness.  I only do hot things. 

9.  Be a better boyfriend/Better Work life balance - This is going to be a tough one.  By all accounts, I'm workaholic who barely sleeps or eats. Between school, work, freelancing, and other engagements, my relationship and friends sometimes takes a backseat.  This is clearly unfair the lady friend and my crew.  Moreover, while it would be great to be big time, it really would not be good to lose any more hair due to stress.   So we need to work on remedying this.  If it means cutting back on some commitments so be it. 

10. Get Management Position in IT or Public Policy - By the end of the year, I will be about 60 percent done with my program.  With under my belt and my work experience, I feel like I'm ready to test the waters with management.  With all these theories going on in my head now, I feel that it's time to apply them to the real world.   While exploring that I will also be looking to get into public policy since I'm addicted to all things politics.  My only dilemma there is that I have to narrow down my interests.  The world can only be fixed one issue at time.

 

Technorati Tags: 2008 resolutions

Who cares about Scoble's facebook account?

On a historical day in the history of this nation, much of the talk in the tech blog world was about how Robert Scoble, a prominent tech blogger, lost access to Facebook while testing a beta version of Plaxo pulse, which is a script that will allow you harvest contact information of all your friends to store them elsewhere.  Too see how many other  bloggers beside Scoble that covered the story, just Google "Robert Scoble and Facebook."  I was really disappointed to find the day of the Iowa primary this was much of the talk in the tech blog world.  The result of this presidential election will affect the future of the Internet will greatly affect the future on the Internet and how technology as a whole will be viewed/used in this country and by the government.  Aside from TechCrunch, none of these other tech bloggers have interviewed any of the dozen of presidential hopefuls on either side of the isle.  If these candidates can pander that to every other constituency in the country to get their vote, why isn't the geek community, with the exception of the Google, Microsoft and Yahoo of the worlds, also demand the attention of the future president.  Net Neutrality, Identity Theft, Use of voting machines, How to address the technology divide in our public school system, media consolidation, upgrading federal government IT infrastructure are just some of the few issues that the next president will have to address.  Without the bloggers and the rest of the tech world exercising any pressure or forcing the candidates to be better educated about these issues, big tech companies will be only ones to have a say on how these issues unfold. 
Moreover, since this election has be dubbed the "technology election", I would imagine on the day of the first caucus the tech blogging world would be a conversation about creating objective measures that could be used to examine exactly what affect technology will have and has had on the election.  More frustrating than not being able to vote in this election, to no fault of my own, is people squandering the opportunity to bring important issues to the light before it's too late.  Today's coverage of "Scoble-Facebook gate" was would be equivalent to something like CNN covering Britney's latest night of debauchery instead of covering Bhutto's assassination.

Sorry Scoble but I really don't care that Facebook banned you for breaking the rules that you agreed to uphold in the first place.

 

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Election 2008,blogging

Pro-bloggers should be more professional

Over the years the number of blogs I read on a regular basis has increased. However, the quality of the posts and the quality of the writing has remained stagnant.  Why is that?  I don't  have the answer.  If I did, I'd write a book and try to get deal for it.  Maybe it's just me but I think that if you're going to call yourself a professional blogger your writing and your research should be at the level of a professional.  Over the last two days, I've watched an interview on a profession tech blog where the interviewer was irritating. I'm not going to link to it because it's a new venture and I've the pleasure to meet the gentleman who is behind it.  Nice guy.  His niceness aside, his interviews are terrible.  On the ones that I've watched the questions were similar to that of five-year old interviewing his/her parents for a school project.  What made the recent interview even more unbearable to watch was the fact that interviewer kept interrupting the interviewee and made "huh-uh" noise after every sentence.  Now to be fair to him, he is not the only guilty of crappy interviewing of the web.  There are many more out there.   I wouldn't have such a problem with this if these people would refer to themselves as amateur bloggers as opposed to professional bloggers. To all who claim to be professional bloggers; please take a writing class, an interview class and a research class.  Calling yourself a professional requires more than the ability to copy and paste from a site larger than yours (with or without two lines of your own) or post low qualities videos and call them interviews.  To put out such crappy work, undermines your blog and insults your readership.  Then again it's  very possible that I have a twisted definition of  the word "professional."

 

Technorati Tags: blogging,new media,bloggers

Another African nation takes a step backward in its pursuit of "Democracy"

At some this morning I receive the following e-mail from a friend who knows I am interested in African politics...

For those of you who do not know, Kenya had an election on Thursday. It will be in the media very soon. It has taken a turn for the worse. In fact, if I could have predicted a worse scenario, I would have been stumped to come up with a clusterfuck like what they have right now. Because you will have many media sources now barraging you, I just wanted to give you all a quick run down, since I've been glued to the media coverage, including watching Kenyan television live online (which is really cool - for the commercials) for the last few days. 

Basically, and it's tough to make this basic, the election began with two major contestants. The incumbent, Kibaki, was down by about a million votes two days ago, with the challenger, Raila Odinga, leading promisingly from throughout the country. The president only seemed to garner support from his home Central Province.  In the last 24 hours, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), has announced results that have put Kibaki suddenly in the lead by 200,000 votes. Despite riots and cries by the ECK's own officials that there was considerable rigging involved, including a 115% voter turnout (think about that) in one of the president's primary support areas, the ECK went ahead this morning and announced Kibaki the new president. His party was solidly defeated, with his VP and 20 of his 24 ministers having been defeated by the challengers, ODM, who took 100 parliamentary seats to the president's 20. [Last reliable report was ODM had 95 seats out of 210, but only 185 districts were reporting.] However, as soon as the election results were declared, only one station, the government station, was allowed to broadcast. They then immediately cut to an inauguration ceremony where Kibaki was immediately sworn back into power. A delay of maybe one hour between the results being announced and the president being sworn in. Despite all international election observers and and ECK itself admitting that there are serious problems with the vote counting and that there was serious fraud in regions supporting the president, Kibaki was officially sworn in.

What happens next? At least 10 different towns in Kenya erupt in flames and violence. Gikuyus (of the president's ethnic group) are being lynched around the country. Good friends of mine cannot go home because their neighborhoods are in flames. It gets worse - the government immediately ordered all live media broadcasts cut, forbid all reporting of politics (making political reporting therefore illegal in Kenya), and even phone interviews with Kenya. Hence, this email is revolutionary in a sense. I've been on the phone with Kenyans, who are living in an utter blackout, with no media broadcasts and gunfire and flames everywhere. And it's the middle of the night there. All opposition leaders, including Odinga and the other ODM leaders have reportedly been arrested. [Although now it looks like they may not have, although they have definitely been publicly threatened with arrest if they go through with their planned protest on Monday.] Nairobi is in fire. People are running out of food in their houses, stores have been looted, and nobody has money because banks are closed. My friends are mostly safe. Most are planning to flee to Tanzania as refugees if things get any worse.

[....]

...this is political violence, NOT TRIBAL. Although, unfortunately, people are apparently currently being butchered based on their ethnic background.

The U.S. State department has issued a statement congratulating the Kenyan people and Kibaki on the voter turnout and calling to stop to the unrest.

As the email, says current coverage has been spotty. The best I could find was on BBC.

Once again this is a sad day for the entire African Continent. Unfortunately this is not a rare occurrence throughout the continent. In my own country, Paul Biya, president since I've been alive, won stole another election. For those of us who see the potential of Africa and African people news like this is very confusing and frustrating. Leaders that brought the continent out of colonialism are now the same one that taking it back by decades because they do not want to leave power.

 

Technorati Tags: Kenya,Kibaki,Africa

2007 Goals Reviewed...

At the end of every year, I like to go back and look at the goals set for myself at the beginning of the year and see how I did. In 2007 I set 10 goals for myself and I think I can do pretty well.

1. Start a Grad degree program or Take the LSATs - I accomplished this goal.  I enrolled at UMUC's MBA program.  So far the program has been very interesting and I've learned a lot. 
2. Volunteer 100 hours - This goal is  a bit hard to quantify.  The girl and I volunteered at WAMU's spring fundraiser early in the year.  Since then I've done tons for pro-bono work for Future Leaders for America and new start up non-profit named "Be The Change" headed by the founder of City Year.
3. Read 6 books - I only partially accomplished this goal.  I read To Kill a Mocking Bird, Kite Runner, Between Worlds The Making of an American Life and currently finishing All the President's Men.  I also read multiple books for class, but those don't count towards this goal. Unfortunately, I did not read any books in French
4. Increase my Net worth by 25% - I don't know that my net worth increased by 25% since I did not do a good job  keeping track on my finances this year.  However, my school loans and car loan significantly decreased.
5. Visit 5 new places/Visit friends in other cities - I went to San Diego,CA, Woodstock, NY and Nashua, NH. I also went camping but I did sleep in the car.  Nothing exciting but a good break from the city.
6. Reconnect with my family abroad - Thanks to Skype, I made great progress on this goal.   That's being said, there is still a lot left to do.
7. Create 2 Commercials Websites/Freelance More - I did some freelancing this year.  However,  most of it related to the pro-bono work that I mentioned in goal # 2. 
8. Be better a friend - You win some, you lose some.  Made new friends and lost touch with some old friends, but overall I feel good about the friends that I've made and the one's I have been able to keep in touch with.
9. Not to buy a bigger TV - Yeap, we still own a 27" TV.  But at least it's HD.
10. Monthly update on my goals on [my blog] - I completely failed at this.  No more comments needed.

Overall I feel good about the way 2007 went down.  Things weren't always easy or pleasant, but I feel that I held my own and I've grown stronger and wiser for it.

Time to refocus

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  I went up to New Hampshire to celebrate the holiday with the gf and her family.  Needless to say it was freezing.  Beside that, I had very pleasant experience.  It was def to refreshing to be out of the city and not check my email on a hourly basis even if I have a blackberry.  The holiday was full of cooking, eating and conversation.  The highlight of the trip was by far learning how to play chess.  Despite my abysmal record of 2 and 15, I still think I'm hot issh for learning how to play.

Being in NH for the last couple of days, made me realized that I've spread myself to thin and I lost focus on what I want to do and what's important.  I enjoy being busy and having a lot to do and being constantly on the go.  However, I've come to the realization that it's not really leading me anywhere fast.  So I will take the remainder of the year to close up and a couple of outstanding projects on focus most, if not all, my energy on breaking in the public policy field while staying financially afloat and Class.  Web Dev has been great and I learned a lot from many people.  In reality, I will not be completely out of Web Dev for while.  Since entry level jobs in public policy don't pay much,  I will probably continue to do work on freelance basis.  That being said, short of starting my own company, I've lost the interest to do it full time for an extended period of time.  I enjoy  being a geek on  my own time much more than in an office.  It's time to commit more time and energy to  my other passion, politics.  Wish me luck.

My first time in a Synagogue

This past weekend I got a chance to a attend a Jewish service for the first time.  Although I have a number of Jewish friends and I've dated several Jewish girls (I can hear you saying it DK4), I've never attended to a Jewish service.  Over the weekend, the gff's grandfather celebrated his 83rd birthday and decided to have a second Barmitzvah.  I was invited along and decided to go.  For starters, Upstate NY is beautiful in the fall.  I could have spent all weekend walking around and taking pictures. If you haven't done  Upstate NY in the fall, I highly recommend it before it becomes beach front property.  The service itself was nothing like I've experienced.   It is hard to put into words what made it so different.  I've been to church where there is descent amount of singing and I've attended church in Latin so the Hebrew didn't really get to me even though it was a bit a difficult to read and sing along. I think the atmosphere is really what made an impact on me.   Everyone seemed genuinely happy and not just relieved and putting up a front, which is a feeling I often get when I attend church. The relative lack of curiosity about me and my background, though I stood out, was very refreshing.  Two parts of the service that stood out the most were when the gff's granfather mentioned me as part of the family in his remarks, tough I've yet to be receive a ring from a certain someone, and when he read a story he had written about the death of his mother when he was 14.  It was a very touching piece.  It brought a tear to my eye -- there goes all my manliness.  All in all, it was good a experience and I would do it all again. I'm not sure it's for everyone but I do encourage visiting a place of worship outside your religion. However I've been warned not all synagogue are as "liberal" as the one we attended.  Next stop: a Mosque.

And if you were wondering, I wore a yamaka too.

The .CM scam

It's always good when your country of origin makes it around the blogsphere for a scam the government agreed to be a part of.   I first saw the story on Michael Arrington's TechCrunch.

The .CM pages are served based on a wildcard. If the domain has not been registered, the user is redirected to agoga.com. Since the redirects are taking place via a wildcard, and domains are not actually being registered, there is little trademark holders can do to fight this (other than register the domain themselves).

It seems the big companies are the ones that are most affected/annoyed by this scam except for one: Yahoo.  It  seems that Yahoo was actually smart enough to buy yahoo.cm domain.  You can read more about the guy behind the scan CNN money article.  I think this is deplorable and it's really shows how easily government in developing countries can be taken advantage of.  Hopefully, the Cameroonian government will move away from this deal as soon as it can.

Technorati tags: Cameroon, Internet

More on Immigration

Unless you've been living under rock over the last week, you're probably aware of the new immigration bill that will be debated on senate floor over the coming weeks.  Although I feel that we are moving in the right direction when it comes to immigration reform, this bill is not enough.  I could sit here and list out everything that I think is wrong with the bill, but every media outlet has already covered that part since the announcement of the bill last week.  This bill is not enough because the bill fails to address why people come to the U.S. and why they stay.   Before Congress passes any sort of immigration reform, the president should ask congress to commission a nationwide study/survey on immigration, preferably by an organization with no political agenda but I would settle for a bi-partisan committee. Before the survey is conducted, its design (and including the questions) should be scrutinized by 10 randomly chosen research universities of top 100, of which no more than 5 should be private institutes and no more than 3 should be ivy league schools (No offense to ivy league school but they have the reputation of being too liberal).  This would be give more credibility and it will be withstand more criticism after the results have come out.   The survey should aim to provide answers to the following questions: 

1. What are the reasons why people come to the U.S.?  2. 
2. How do immigrants, both illegal and legal, get here?
3. How do immigrants gain employment?
4. What are illegal immigrants' wages compared to U.S. citizens?
5. What is the cost of an U.S. Citizen worker compared to a illegal immigrant worker?
6. What are industries that attract the most illegal immigrants?
7. What are the reason why these industries are attracting so more immigrants?
8. What is the percentage of illegal immigrants that use public services?
9. What is the percentage of illegal immigrants that pay taxes?
10. What is the percentage of illegal immigrants that would want to reside here permanently? (if they could travel more freely back to country of origin)

Based on the result of the survey, congress should then pass laws that would address the situation accordingly.  The laws should be passed and implemented gradually. For example, if the survey/study shows that a guest work program is necessary, we should pass a law to introduce one, get it up and running (well as well as anything in the fed gov can get up and running), before passing another law.  The gov is having problems enforcing the laws on the books as it is, passing new laws will not not make the immigration problem disappear.

This plan of mine seems a bit unrealistic and would take a while to implement, but we have to start thinking of immigration the same way we think of terrorism.  It's always going to be around all we can do is curtail it.  Short term and reactionary thinking is not the way to go.

Currently listening to: The Swell Season

I fumbled on today's album while listening to a review  of the movie once (IMDB, Trailer) on NPR.  The music in the background caught my fancy so I decided to Google the movie and find out if it had a soundtrack.  I found that it did, but it will not be released till Tuesday.  Clearly I didn't want to settle for that.  After a bit more digging, I discovered that the main characters of the movies, played by Glen Hansard of The frames and Marketa Irglova, had previously collaborated on an album titled The Swell Season.  As always, I used good ' ole Rhapsody to find the album and take a listen.  After all that digging around, the album did not disapoint.  It's pretty much the type of music I enjoy listening to at all times.  It's very Damien Rice-esque.  Great Lyrics, great accoustic guitar play accompanied with various instruments.  The voices on both artists compliment so well to create soothing and relaxing music that would leave you feeling very composed in the middle of a hurricane.  I enjoyed every track on the ablum but my favorites were Falling Slowly and This Low.  I would def recommened buying the entire CD.  It's worth mentioning also that The frames stuff is also good.

NPR Says:

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova never set out to make a record: The two musicians had toured Europe together on and off, but that was mostly to provide a break from Hansard's long-running main band, The Frames. Then Hansard and Irglova were approached to record a pair of songs for a Czech film -- and given four days in the studio, which they spent recording enough material for a full record, complete with the accompaniment of strings.

The result is 10 quietly brilliant songs, each built around piano, acoustic guitar, violin, cello and the two headliners' soft, sweet voices. Serious emotion bubbles beneath the melodies: The songs are optimistic in spots, but more often somber or desolate. Named for a work by one of Hansard's favorite Czech authors, The Swell Season is a lovely sleeper -- and a must for Frames fans as they await the 2007 release of the Irish band's The Cost.

[David Dye]

Technorati tags: music, Glen Hansard, Marketa Irgolove, Once, The swell seaon

Currently listening to...

I would like to apologize for the not doing an entry the past two Fridays. Commitments...well not this week. 

With the coming out of the Spiderman 3, I figured I should check out the album.  Say what you want about big production movies, but I like them because they come with video, soundtrack, happy meal toy and fashion items all at the same time. Now that's marketing... With the line up including the Snow Patrol, The Killers and Jet, I really expected more from the album.  These groups pulled up their weight and made a great half of the soundtrack but the rest of the bands definitely dropped the ball.  The black Mountain and The Flaming Lips sounded high and like they were preaching hippie love of the sixties. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just not what I'm looking for a in a superhero soundtrack.  The most out of place song on the album is The Twist by Chubby Checker... yes, it's the song you're thinking of.  My favorite son on the soundtrack has to be Signal Fire by Snow Patrol (youtube video. same as below).  I wouldn't recommend this CD. Just get the good tracks on Itunes or something. Complete let down compare to the soundtrack of the Spiderman 2.  

Rhapsody says:

Spider-Man 3 touches on the subject of duality. When a mysterious black suit brings out the evil side of our hero, he is caught between two opposing personas. Fitting then that the soundtrack features a similar duality. Sensitive-guy anthems like Snow Patrol's "Signal Fire" and introspective ballads like Simon Dawes' "Scared Of Myself" provide an emotional side to the soundtrack. This contrasts nicely with a harder-rocking selection of songs including "Pleased To Meet You," a meaty new tune by Wolfmother, and the Killers' muscular "Move Away."

[Eric Shea]

Currently listening too...

Swizz beats' latest single. It just matches my current mood. I've been listening to it all aftertoon.

Don Imus part 2...

Go grab some snacks this is a long one...

As I do most Sunday mornings, I woke up to  watch the Sunday morning political TV shows. Clearly the big topic on hand today was the Don Imus/Rutgers controversy. Everyone, from Russ Parr ( a Nationally Syndicated black DJ) to Gwen Ifill of PBS (including the sport reporters from ESPN) got a chance to share their two cents about the subject. What I heard today on the various shows left me speechless and frustrated.

Most of the discussions lacked sincerity and were full of hypocrisy. First of all most than half the people on these shows have been on the Don Imus' show multiple times over the course of his 20 years of tenure to promote books, organization, causes and etc... They have come to know Imus are have befriended him. Asking these people to then discuss this issue, is in essence asking them to participate in a public lynching of a "friend." If my friend messes up, although I may tell them in private they screwed up pretty bad, I will go to bat for them in the public arena. That's what friends do. To ask this journalists to do otherwise is asking a bit much of them, especially after the guy lost his job.

These discussions were too politically correct. First off, the token black analyst, be it Ifill, Donna Brazile (whom i have a great deal of respect for), Clarence Page or Colby King (very impressive resume) gets the first crack at the issue. Just because they are black doesn't mean they should get the first say on the issues. I think this actually frames the discussion as a black issue, which is not. This is a NATIONAL issue. As Imus showed us, blacks are not the only using these derogatory terms, they are not the only ones purchasing the CDs, and they are not the only giving a platform to hip hop artists. I also felt that discussions were not genuine from some of the participants as they should have been. David Brooks of the New York Times went out this way not to step on Ifill's toes while discussing this (see transcript starting the bottom of page 2). One can argue that Brooks did it out of courtesy to her since she had been personally "attacked" by Imus, which would be a refreshing change in today's world of personal attacks politics. However until we can have an honest conversation, one in which every side can express than views and opinions without fear of offending any other side, we are just going to sweep this issue under the rug and come back to it in a couple of months, best case scenario-- in a couple of years.

Two names that were in every one of these panels were Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Sharpton and Jackson are men whose accomplishments and work should be heralded in American history. These two men have fought valiantly for civil rights of black Americans and for that we should forever be grateful. However, the fight has changed and you can't teach old dogs new tricks. No longer are their tactics and goals in sync with the ones of the rest of the African American community. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that most of the blacks in the country no longer consider these men to be leadership figures. The mainstream media is one of the reasons why these men have stayed in the forefront of the news. The media has failed to introduce any new voices to racial debates. Your guess is as good as mine as of why this is the case. Moreover, the mainstream media has failed to accurately represent the diverse views and opinions within the black community itself when having these discussions. The other reason why these two have been able to continuing to "speak for" the blacks in the country is lack of new leaders to step up to plate and fight the hard fights. An example of this would be Harold Ford Jr., former Congressman of Tennessee. Ford ran for Senate with an endorsement from Imus (interview transcript), but when Imus was under fire Ford was no where to be found. If you're going to ask black Americans and the rest of the country to take you seriously as leader, you must be able to fight tough fights. Harold could have have help framed the debate on race,sex, and language in the country and propel himself in the national spot light as an alternative to Sharpton and Jackson. To be fair to Ford, just because you're running for office doesn't mean you want to be seen as spokesperson for the entire black community. Look at Condie Rice. Needless to say that Ford and I will no longer friends on Facebook.

Lastly, although he doesn't play nice with other reports sometimes, I want to leave you with this article and video from Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star (formerly of ESPN). I clearly don't agree with every word he says, but I agree with his main points.

What are your thoughts on the subject?  I'm really interested in hearing what my peers have to say on this issues. If you don't feel confortable leaving a comment, feel free to shoot me an email at policts  at makembe dot com.

Sorry for the Novel.

UPDATE:  Knojo Nnamdi had a show today about the future of the NAACP.  Take a listen.  It's about time this discussion reaches the public.

Currently listening too...

A Friend of a friend that somewhat follows the blog suggested that I check out the Plain White Ts' Here There Delilah.  I liked the song so I checked out the rest of the album, All that we needed.   I was less than impressed but decided to give them another chance.  So I listened to their most recent album title Every Second Counts. This one was not much better.  But I like the tracks Making a Memory  and Write You A song.  The single Hate (I Really don't Like You) came off of this album. Although I liked Hey There Delilah, I did not much like the rest of their stuff. Their music is like Similar to Fall Out Boy, The All-American Rejects and My Chemical Romance (I only know about the last group because of one my ex). I guess that makes sense since Rhapsody lists them all under Punk-pop, which I'm not a big fan off but Enjoy the video. 

My take the Don Imus controversy

That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm going to tell you that

[Don Imus -- Video]

Don Imus has since apologized for that comment.  He's gone on the Al Sharpton radio show to, as he put it, "face the music".   But tons of people are still calling for his resignation.  What Imus was wrong, very wrong.  But that aside there are few thing that I like to point out.

• There is great hypocrisy that exist in the Black community and other minorities communities.  Chris rock has said much worse and has received standing ovations.   Carlos Mencia, of the comedy central, is so offensive that I can't give him more than five minutes of my time. The much beloved Tupac Shukar and Eminem have both referred to C. Dolores Tucker, a well known civil right activist, as "Bytch", "Slut" and "mutterfucker",  when she took a stance against using the same type of sexist rhetoric that Don Imus used to refer to the Rutgers basketball team.  The NAACP then try to award him with an image award.  Can you imagine the uproar, if any country music singer was to refer to MLK as anything but national hero and receive an award from the CMA ?  Call it edgy, call it cool, call it artistic, call it whatever you want, but the fact of the matter is that when this type of rhetoric comes from people we like, most of us don't have a problem turning our head the other way.   This can't be case.  If we allow people who are part of the community to use these offensive terms, we have to be ready to allow other people to also use them.  We can not appropriate words that have a clearly negative connotation in history, reintroduce in the pop culture vernacular and then complain when people of different race  use these same words.  No one has ever been offended by "Black is Beautiful" (Not referring to Guinness).  If we want people to stop using negative words, we have to show by example and not just complain when some we don't like uses it.  There are some (book) in the African American community that criticize the type speech no matter who it comes from and should be commended for that and also try to educate the community about why they shouldn't be used outside academia.
• For all uproar, very few people really care about the issue.  Calling for Imus' firing is the correct thing to do for at the moment.  This nation has very deep rooted racial problems that no one is ready to deal with and as longs as the right hands are greased and you're not to public about it, it's Ok.  Remember Trent Lott?

  When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either

  [Wikipedia - Trent Lott Entry]

  He resigned over that comment. But guess where he is now? Oh yeah. He is the Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate.  Clearly the people really upset about his comments made sure to keep the lid on him.  Remember George Allen and the macaca controversy? Well he is now a Regan Scholar at the Young America's Foundation.  Again what happened to all those people who were so outraged by his comments?

• This shows the failure of the NAACP as organization.  It shows how this organization has failed to evolve as racial issues in this country take on a different facade.  It's has not attempted any education campaign about the new issues facing the different races and to how to best deal with them.   This is not the first time this happens, nor will it be the last.  They could partner up with other minorities organizations, come with a curriculum, and lobby the Congressional Black caucus to have a law passed that mandates TV/Radio host must pass this class and be re-certify every so often.  Of course that means that they have to update the curriculum and I really have no faith that they can do that.  I think ESPN does more during black history month than the NAACP does all year. 
• For the bad things he said, Imus did all say the Tennessee team was "cute".  The Tennessee team is composed of 8 black females.  Was that comment racist or sexist?

If you've been following this story, what's your take?

Currently Listening too...

 I can't remember the last time Timbaland released an album.  So when I saw that he was dropping a new album titled "Shock value" this week, I was all about it.  Since the last album he dropped, he's made beats for Justin Timberlake, Bubba Sparxxx, Nelly Furtado, and countless others.  Listening to this album, the beats lived up to the hype.  They showchase Timbaland's genius for creating beats and bringing together different style, cultures and make work well  to together. However, lyrically, this was not his strongest outing. For the most part, he sings the chorus and seems to be guest artist on most of the tracks.  I guess no one ever loved him for his lyrics.  For those of you who can't get enough of Timberlake , you can find him on most of tracks.   I can seem a one or two club bangers on the album but not much more.  I was quite disappointed. I would not by the album but my favorite tracks are:

1. Oh Timbaland
2. Bombay
3. Apologize
4. Give to me.

Rhapsody says:

By 2007, Timbaland got dance-flavored pop down to a science: giant, jittery bass lines; loose, snaking melodies; a guest roster that included some of the biggest names in music. Tim's sexy surrogate Justin Timberlake pops up on a few tracks (the best of which is "Give It To Me," where Nelly Furtado stops by for a threesome), but the real shock will come later when the legendary hip-hop producer teams up with Fall Out Boy ("One and Only"), the Hives ("Throw It on Me") and Elton John (the surprisingly decent "2 Man Show").

[ Sam Chennault ]

If you've listned to the album, what did you think of it?