Somali pirates drown with ransom

Somali pirates drown with ransom A $3m ransom is believed to have been parachuted onto the tanker [GALLO/GETTY] Six members of a group of Somali pirates who hijacked and later released a Saudi-owned oil tanker are reported to have drowned along with their share of a $3m ransom. The pirates were among eight men whose boat overturned off the coast of Kenya in a storm as they left the Sirius Star following a two-month standoff that ended on Friday, a pirate and a relative of one of the dead men said. “Six of our boys perished at the sea while coming from the  released Saudi supertanker,” Mohamed Said told the AFP news agency. “The small boat that was carrying those killed and eight who survived was overloaded and at high speed, we have been told by the survivors. “They were afraid of a chase from outsiders [foreign naval forces] who invaded Somalia waters,” he said. The group’s $300,000 share of the ransom was also lost, he said. Three pirates reached shore after swimming for several hours, pirate Daud Nure said on Saturday. “There has been human and monetary loss but what makes us feel sad is that we don’t still have the dead bodies of our relatives. Four are still missing and one washed up on the shore,” Abukar Haji, the uncle of one of the dead men, said. Piracy increasing The Sirius Star, owned by the shipping arm of oil giant Aramco, was carrying crude oil valued at $100m when it was hijacked on November 15. Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi said on Saturday that the crew was safe and returning to the Gulf coast city of Dammam. An Iranian-chartered cargo ship was also released by pirates, Iran’s state television reported. It said the ship Delight was carrying 36 tons of wheat when it was attacked in the Gulf of Aden on November 18 and seized by pirates. All 25 crew are in good health and the vessel is sailing toward Iran, the TV report said. The US Navy announced this week that it will head a new anti-piracy task force after more than 100 ships were attacked last year. Other countries, including Russia and India, have sent naval ships to patrol waters around the Horn of Africa as acts of piracy increasingly threaten the safe passage of maritime cargo through the Gulf Aden towards the Suez Canal. Somali pirates are holding 17 ships and more than 250 crew members hostage, and have carried out more than 100 attacks in the last year. Source: Agencies

New York by the Numbers

New York by the Numbers – A Snapshot of Changes in New York’s Neighborhoods Since 2000 – NYTimes.com

New York by the Numbers

Neighborhoods, Up Close and Personal

By SAM ROBERTS
Published: January 9, 2009

EVEN if the latest economic slump stunts the explosion of New York’s population before the end of the decade, you can count on the fact that the city’s proverbial changing neighborhoods will keep changing.

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Neighborhoods, Up Close and PersonalGraphic

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www.socialexplorer.com

Detailed census figures released last month and analyzed for The New York Times by Andrew Beveridge, chairman of the sociology department at Queens College, reveal just how vividly many neighborhoods have changed since 2000.

Through 2007, more whites moved to Harlem.

More young children live in Lower Manhattan, the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side.

In Flatbush, 40 percent fewer residents lacked a high school diploma in 2007 than in 2000.

The rich got richer: In 2000, the richest neighborhood was the Upper East Side; in 2007, it was the bottom tip of Manhattan. The poorest, both years, was the South Bronx, which got even poorer.

The Rockaways registered the biggest percentage gain in population. Coney Island had the biggest loss.

The number of blacks in southern Staten Island grew by half; Elmhurst lost 1 in 3. Asians recorded the greatest gains in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and Hispanics in Bay Ridge.

Among people who don’t speak English at home, the Upper East Side lost the largest share, while southern Staten Island gained the most.

The accompanying graphic shows other highlights of how each neighborhood has changed since 2000. The districts correspond to the community districts created by law in 1975; a few are combined because the data were released by the Census Bureau for areas of at least 100,000 in population. All percentages have been rounded off to the nearest whole number.

Analysis by Social Explorer from census data: www.socialexplorer.com www.socialexplorer.com
More Articles in New York Region » A version of this article appeared in print on January 11, 2009, on page CY6 of the New York edition.

John Henrik Clarke 20th Century Griot

By Marimba Ani

(Read at the Luncheon Tribute to Prof. John Henrik Clarke, Saturday, September 13, 1983.)

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   The life of John Henrik Clarke exemplifies those values upon which the victorious movement of our people depends. His work and his character together have created a symbol that inspires greatness.

    Born in rural Union Springs, Alabama, he was reared in Columbus, Georgia at a time when American racism was not subtle, but overtly oppressive. His intellectual curiosity and initiative were resources which allowed him to circumvent the authorities In a society which denied to people of African descent library privileges which those of European descent enjoyed. This proved to be the beginning of a productive life in which there would be countless hours spent In libraries all over the world.

In these early days research into the African past was indeed an uphill struggle for several reasons:

• 1) As a Black man, he was denied access to most facets of the scholarly community
  
• 2) Africa herself was not considered worthy of serious study, (except perhaps by anthropologists in service to their colonial sponsors; but certainly not worthy of the attention of an historian)
  
• 3) Most African-Americans, philosophically, were not ready to embrace their Africaness.

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     It was in these times that courage, and determination were needed to study African history, and what kept young Brother Clarke going was the conviction that he had come from a great people and so was himself capable of great things. What better example for our students.

     The life of John Henrik Clarke illuminates the special way in which stature and humility combine in African-American life. He reminds us that these characteristics are not opposites for us. His humble beginnings are for him a strength which has helped him through Harlem’s own unique depression, as he and other Black writers lived a precarious existence during the decade of the late 30’s and early 40’s. He is special to us also because he has never “left” us to become part of a distant elite.

    It is a testament to Brother Clarke’s brilliance and intellectual independence that he has achieved such a formidable degree of learning primarily as a result of his own effort through informal means. His vast knowledge has come from intensely motivated research, long hours spent in libraries, and voracious reading. What better model for our students!

Inspired by the knowledge of a great past, he set out first to learn, then to teach others as he continued to learn. His success as an educator is an example for all of us who would seek to ignite the flame of a burning desire to know the truth among those whose minds and hearts are in our trust.

    He has taught us that Pan-African scholarship does not have to be, indeed, cannot afford to be uncommitted . . . uninvolved. His life continues to be that of an impassioned warrior. It is because of his efforts along with those of a handful of other dedicated scholar-activists that African studies is now a part of the American academy. We must diligently work to establish it there permanently, if indeed we want to pay tribute to John Henrik Clarke

In this regard, his life also says something of greater importance. We see in his life his achievement that the system” academic or otherwise must not be allowed to define our standards or to limit our horizons. His life demonstrates to us what can be accomplished outside of the system as well. It says that we must always determine our own symbols, images and values. We must build our own institutions, and value them when they are deserving. He has shown us that while African Studies can be academic, in part its essence will never be.

    Perhaps no other member of our community embodies the links of the Pan-African world as coherently John Henrik Clarke has lived Pan-Africanism, and in his personality, his work and his travels, he brings together people of African throughout the world. His concrete involvement in over a dozen international organizations, is a testament to his personal commitment to Pan-African unity and to the recognition and fellowship afforded him by Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora. At the same time he continues to spearhead struggles in his own community of Harlem. Indeed, he connects microcosm to macrocosm.

    ”Professor Clarke,” as we call him, has always been and continues to be constantly accessible and responsible to those of us who need him. His home is open to those who seek his wisdom. His cooperation is available for those in the community who ask even to his own detriment, he has difficulty saying no. His life has been one of participation and involvement in the organizations, battles and continuous struggle of his people. And his personal being is an expression of African Humanism.

    His life presents an image which has become a symbol of the qualities we wish to claim, to emulate, and to engender: commitment, self-reliance, communalism, intelligence, scholarly excellence, determination, discipline, conviction and achievement.

   The life of John Henrik Clarke is one that should serve as an inspiration to students everywhere, and so we, on behalf of the Pan-African community, take this opportunity to establish a scholarship in his name, so that they may be reminded of the implications of his life and work for time to come.

 

Tours at Two

Date: Saturdays
Time: 2:00pm
Location: The Hispanic Society of America (613 West 155th St)
Cost: Free

The Hispanic Society offers free 45-minute tours of the building and collections given by Museum Curators or the Education Department every Saturday at 2:00pm. “The collections of the Hispanic Society are unparalleled in their scope and quality outside the Iberian Peninsula, addressing nearly every aspect of culture in Spain, as well as a large part of Portugal and Latin America. The Society offers a comprehensive survey of Spanish painting and drawing from the Middle Ages to the present, with particular strengths in the Spanish Golden Age (1550-1700), the nineteenth century, and the early twentieth century. Works by Velazquez, El Greco and Goya are amongst the Society’s priced possessions.” All Ages.

Supreme Court considers challenge to Voting Rights Act

Supreme Court considers challenge to Voting Rights Act   By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY   WASHINGTON — The question of whether America needs the Voting Rights Act now that a black man has won the presidency looms over a major appeal the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider in its private conference Friday. The justices could say as early as Friday if they will hear a challenge to the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act renewed by Congress in 2006. Their decision could impact federal power to oversee state election practices and to ensure racial minorities have as much of a chance as whites to elect candidates of their choice. The law in dispute was overwhelmingly approved by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2006. Yet the Supreme Court in recent years has found some U.S regulation of the states too intrusive. “If the court takes the case, it has the potential to be the most important election case since Bush v. Gore,” says Richard Hasen, an election-law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, of the 2000 decision that ensured Bush the presidency. He notes the court has earlier upheld the disputed provision. “The question is whether the role of race in American politics has so changed … that remedies that were once constitutional are now impingements on state sovereignty,” he says. A Texas utility district says the provision known as Section 5, which gives the U.S. government authority to oversee state electoral-law changes, is no longer needed. “The America that has elected Barack Obama as its first African-American president is far different than when Section 5 was first enacted in 1965,” say lawyers for the utility district. Section 5 covers nine mostly Southern states and several counties and municipalities where, as Justice Department lawyers note, race discrimination “has been most flagrant.” Texas utility district lawyer Gregory Coleman says the continued use of that section attaches a “badge of shame … based on old data” and should be lifted. Civil rights advocates, backing the Justice Department’s defense of the renewed Voting Rights Act, stress that parts of the nation still vote along racial lines and argue the law that opened the door to widespread black voting four decades ago is needed. The act ended literacy tests and other state measures that had kept blacks from the polls. “Obama’s election reflects an enormous advancement in race relations in the United States,” says Laughlin McDonald of the American Civil Liberties Union. “But voting, particularly in the South, remains significantly polarized.” Exit polls from the Nov. 4 presidential election showed whites in many Southern states heavily favored John McCain to Obama. In Texas, 73% of whites favored McCain, in Georgia, 76%, and in Alabama, 88%. Nationally, the percentage of whites for McCain was 55%, exit poll data show. The utility district’s appeal of a special three-judge court’s decision upholding the law requires a resolution. Unlike the vast majority of petitions that come before the justices and can be turned away without ruling on the merits, this appeal must either be affirmed or overturned. The justices could affirm the lower court’s decision without a hearing, as the Department of Justice has urged. That might be the most cautious route in a case that, in Hasen’s view, offers a “powder keg” of divisive issues. Yet the complex question might warrant a full briefing, as might a majority’s uncertainty about the lower court decision. The court is split on questions of racial policies. In a unanimous ruling last May, the lower court said Congress had documented extensive evidence of “contemporary racial discrimination” and had grounds to renew the law for 25 years. States covered by Section 5 cannot alter electoral laws without approval from the Justice Department or a U.S. court in Washington. The provision is designed to bar laws that dilute minority votes.

Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-01-08-court_N.htm