MADEA GOES TO JAIL

Schumer Says Inauguration Giveaway Isn’t Done Yet!

Schumer Says Inauguration Giveaway Isn’t Done Yet! – Gothamist: New York City News, Food, Arts & Events

Schumer Says Inauguration Giveaway Isn’t Done Yet!

Were you one of the 150,000 New Yorkers who came up on the short end of the stick in the statewide lottery drawing to determine who would get tickets to the inauguration next week? Well, Senator Schumer is giving you a second chance. Schumer is giving out another 100 tickets to President-elect Obama’s swearing in on the 20th. Thus far, 128 winners have been selected from the city and another 91 from the surrounding areas—including one adorable 4-year-old girl. And for everyone who still can’t find a way down to DC to celebrate in all of the festivities, we’re still crossing our fingers for Central Park Jumbotrons.

TEARS FOR ONION MAN

TEARS FOR ONION MAN

AP

January 10, 2009 –

Alan Geisler, the man behind the tasty red-onion sauce many New Yorkers love on their hot dogs, has died. He was 78.

The sauce, a New York culinary delight, is commonly used by street vendors throughout the five boroughs.

Geisler, who lived in Mahwah, NJ, died Tuesday at his winter home in Hernando, Fla., after a battle with a protein disorder, according to the Chas. E. Davis Funeral Home in Inverness, Fla.

He concocted the sauce 44 years ago at the request of hot-dog maker Gregory Papalexis, whose Englewood, NJ-based Marathon Enterprises now owns the Sabrett brand.

Papalexis told The Bergen Record that he approached Geisler about making an onion sauce to sell to New York’s pushcart vendors, who back then made their own.

Geisler’s recipe – a patented mix of onions, tomato paste and olive oil – is marketed nationwide as Sabrett’s Prepared Onions.

[NYP]

Immigrants See Charter Schools as a Haven

Immigrants See Charter Schools as a Haven – NYTimes.com

Immigrants See Charter Schools as a Haven

By SARA RIMER

MINNEAPOLIS — Fartun Warsame, a Somali immigrant, thought she was being a good mother when she transferred her five boys to a top elementary school in an affluent Minneapolis suburb. Besides its academic advantages, the school was close to her job as an ultrasound technician, so if the teachers called, she could get there right away.

“Immediately they changed,” Ms. Warsame said of her sons. “They wanted to wear shorts. They’d say, ‘Buy me this.’ I said, ‘Where did you guys get this idea you can control me?’ ”

Her sons informed her that this was the way things were in America. But not in this Somali mother’s house. She soon moved them back to the city, to the International Elementary School, a charter school of about 560 pupils in downtown Minneapolis founded by leaders of the city’s large East African community. The extra commuting time was worth the return to the old order: five well-behaved sons, and one all-powerful mother.

Charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently run, were conceived as a way to improve academic performance. But for immigrant families, they have also become havens where their children are shielded from the American youth culture that pervades large district schools.

The curriculum at the Twin Cities International Elementary School, and at its partner middle school and high school, is similar to that of other public schools with high academic goals. But at Twin Cities International the girls say they can freely wear head scarves without being teased, the lunchroom serves food that meets the dietary requirements of Muslims, and in every classroom there are East African teaching assistants who understand the needs of students who may have spent years in refugee camps. Twin Cities International students are from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan, with a small population from the Middle East.

Amid the wave of immigration that has been reshaping Minnesota for more than three decades, the International schools are among 30 of the state’s 138 charter schools that are focused mostly on students from specific immigrant or ethnic groups. To visit a half-dozen of these schools, to listen to teachers, administrators and parents — Somali immigrants who are relatively new to Minnesota, as well as the Hmong and Latinos who have been in the state for decades — is to understand that Ms. Warsame’s high educational aspirations for her children, and her fears, are universal.

“The good news is that immigrant kids are learning English better and faster than ever before in U.S. history,” said Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, the co-director of immigration studies at New York University and co-author of “Learning a New Land — Immigrant Students in American Society” (Harvard Press, 2008). “But they’re assimilating to a society that parents see as very threatening and frightening. It’s anti-authority, anti-studying. It’s materialistic.”

Some critics argue that these kinds of charter schools are contributing to a growing re-segregation of public education, and that they run counter to the long-held idea of public schools as the primary institution of the so-called “melting pot,” the engine that forges a common American identity among immigrants from many countries.

“One of the primary reasons that American society supports public schools is to give everyone a solid civic education,” said Diane Ravitch, an education historian, “the sort of education that comes from learning together with others from different backgrounds.”

But Dr. Suárez-Orozco says the reality is that most new immigrants become isolated in public schools, and that large numbers of them become alienated over time and fail to graduate.

A place like Minnesota, with its strong charter-school movement, offers immigrant parents, who have long been conflicted about their children becoming Americanized, a strong voice in their children’s education, Dr. Suárez-Orozco said, and shows their eagerness to participate in democracy.

“What the parents are saying,” he said, “is, We want our children to assimilate, we want them to acculturate, but we want to be proactively engaged in shaping that process.”

Ali Somo, a 70-year-old father of three children at the International Schools, put it this way: “We bring our children here because we want them close to us so they don’t get lost.”

It was a weekday morning, but Mr. Somo and Ms. Warsame and a group of other parents, some holding down double shifts as cabdrivers, hotel housekeepers, and parking lot attendants, were squeezing in a meeting in the school library, with its shelves lined with “Huckleberry Finn,” “The Red Badge of Courage,” “Little House on the Prairie” and other American classics.

Getting lost in America, Mr. Somo explained, means losing your culture, your language, your identity. It means acting like the teenagers the parents see on the street — wearing baggy jeans, smoking, using drugs, disrespecting elders.

“I have been in America, and I have observed,” Mr. Somo testified. “I have seen children with their pants falling off. I have seen them doing drugs.”

The parents around him nodded. Another father, Jelil Abdella, talked about how it saddened him that his two grown children, who had attended large district schools, did not know how to speak Somali. “They’re neither American, nor Somali,” Mr. Abdella said.

As a newcomer, he said, he was too busy going to school and earning a living — driving a taxi, cleaning floors, working in a factory, picking blueberries — to supervise their educations closely.

“I don’t want to make the same mistake with my younger children,” he said. “I want them to keep the good things we used to have back home — respecting their parents, helping each other, respecting their elders.”

Another father, Mahamaud Wardere, said: “It is important that they all know they’re American. It is equally important that they know they’re Somali.”

It is this dual identity that the International Schools work to encourage. There are lessons in snowshoeing and baseball, and field trips to the Mall of America, where instead of shopping, the students participate in another American ritual, the charity fund-raising walk. There are also teen-agers complaining that their parents worry too much.

“I can at least account for more than 200 lectures I’ve had from my mom and dad about American culture here,” said Omar Ahmed, a 14-year-old eighth grader. “My dad always says, ‘Back in Somalia, when I was 14, I could see myself running my own business, having my own children. You’re 14, you can’t get your studies done.’ ”

“Every time my mom sees something bad about teens in the news,” Omar said, “there’s another lecture on that subject.”

Perhaps nothing more vividly demonstrated the students’ enthusiasm for American democracy than a debate this fall in Elizabeth Veldman’s eighth-grade social studies class about the presidential race. The two teams of students had spent days preparing.

“Look at our history — look at what happened with the Vietnam War,” said Yaqub Ali, 13, a fervent supporter of Senator John McCain who arrived four years ago from a Somalian refugee camp in Kenya, knowing no English. “Do you want to lose a war?”

“Sit down, Yaqub!” commanded Ridwa Yakob, who describes herself as “a girl who loves to talk.” She argued that Senator Barack Obama would fix everything from education to the economy.

Yaqub, wearing a dark suit for the occasion, rose again. “John McCain is old,” he said. “It is better to be old.”

At the International school, where elders are revered, even Ridwa was silenced.

At their meeting, the parents talked of the importance of speaking English at school — and Somali or Oromo at home. At other charter schools, Hmong refugee and Latino parents expressed the same wish, the difference being that they want their children to speak Hmong, or Spanish, at home, the other difference being that many of their children are already so Americanized that they are learning their parents’ languages in school.

“The other day a spider fell from the roof and my son picked it up,” Mr. Somo said, referring to his 13-year-old, Hussein. “What do you call it in English, I asked him. He told me. How to say it in Oromo — I told him myself. How to say it in Arabic and Somali — he learned it himself. He was able to say the word for “spider” in four languages.”

With that kind of linguistic talent, Mr. Somo said of his son, “he can work for America anywhere in the world.”

Dr. Suárez-Orozco said: “What these parents are doing, in taking ownership of their children’s schools, is as American as apple pie. They’re doing what soccer moms and dads in Lexington, Mass., and Concord and Cambridge do day in and day out. They’re modeling for kids the story of acculturation and how it works.”

WANTED: NUTTY MASCOT

WANTED: NUTTY MASCOT

By TODD VENEZIA

January 12, 2009 –

Watch out, Mr. Met, the city Parks Department is looking for a new mascot that could become the hottest character in town.

The public is being asked to come up with ideas for a figure to represent the city agency, and cartoonish creations have already begun to flood into the department’s Central Park headquarters.

“Who – or what – should be the official mascot of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, and what is its name?” the agency asks on its Web site.

“Is it Nutty the Squirrel, Hudson the Hawk or Parker the Leaf? Is it another animal, person or object, or a previously unknown creature that emerged from the depths of New York City’s 29,000 acres of parks, gardens and forests?”

Some of the ideas Parks officials have already batted around include a duck with a ranger’s hat and a squirrel that unzips its fur to reveal a shirt with the Parks logo of a white leaf on a green background.

The department couldn’t say how many entries have already come in, though there is in terest in the contest even be fore an official launch of the mas cot search sched uled for later this week.

It’s also not been announced how the entries will be judged and how long the contest will last, a spokesperson said.

But the department has already set a few guidelines.

The mascot idea must be able to “be produced into a costume that can be worn by an adult between 5-foot-6 and 6 feet in height and up to 180 pounds,” the department said.

Would-be mascot creators need to be in it for just the civic pride, since no prize has been announced and the department will get all rights to the winning mascot.

Hopefully, the department will have less trouble with this mascot than their last good-luck charm.

Back in the 1990s, then-Commissioner Henry Stern declared his golden retriever, Boomer, to be the department’s unofficial mascot. The dog lived occasionally in a Central Park garage and regularly went to events hosted by the commissioner.

Stern even tried to use Boomer to break the Guinness world record for dog petting by sending him to city parks to be petted by passersby as a park worker counted each rub. Boomer was eventually petted about 10,000 times, though it was still 415,000 short of the record.

Then-Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and the city Department of Investigation criticized Stern for having workers chauffeur the dog around town, mascot or not.

todd.venezia@nypost.com

New York City Council Seeks Grace Period for Parking Violations

New York City Council Seeks Grace Period for Parking Violations – NYTimes.com

New York City Council Seeks Grace Period for Parking Violations

By FERNANDA SANTOS

Several City Council members announced on Sunday that a bill had been introduced that would create a five-minute grace period before drivers are issued summonses for parking violations like expired meters and alternate-side parking rules.

The bill addresses a longstanding pet peeve among many city lawmakers, whose constituents often complain of feeling victimized by unforgiving traffic agents.

“When people park, they shouldn’t have to feel that there are vultures, certain agents, waiting to give them a ticket the moment they are in violation,” said Councilman Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored the legislation, which was introduced on Wednesday.

The grace period would apply to parking meters and to places where parking is prohibited during certain times of the day — when streets are being cleaned, for example, or when school is in session — and in periods when parking is allowed only for commercial vehicles or for loading and unloading.CLICK HERE FOR MORE [NYT]

Urban Gardens and Community Roots

Seeds of Change: Urban Gardens and Community Roots

By Suemedha Sood, WireTap

Posted on June 5, 2008, Printed on January 12, 2009

http://www.wiretapmag.org/rights/43579/

The local food movement is blossoming all around the country. Communities are developing food economies based on self-reliance and sustainable practices as awareness spreads about what goes on behind the scenes of commercial production, and the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of those processes. But one problem remains: Not everyone can afford to care.

Local, organic, sustainably produced food is expensive. For low-income communities, it’s prohibitively expensive. The plain and simple truth is that farmers’ markets cost more than Wal-Mart or McDonald’s. And in some urban areas, where fast food chains and liquor stores outnumber grocery stores, low-income residents don’t even have access to healthy food, let alone locally grown, organic produce.

But all that is beginning to change. A number of enterprises across the countries are closing the gap that separates poor communities from sustainable food. They’re doing it by growing solutions right inside low-income neighborhoods.

Co-Op Model

In Charlottesville, Virginia, a public housing project called Friendship Court is leading the way. A year ago, it looked like any other Section 8 public housing development — apartments, a parking lot, and a courtyard. Now there’s a farm in the center of the development, growing rows of various crops.

“The farm creates a way to bring the local food movement to a population that hasn’t been very involved,” says Karen Waters, executive director of the Quality Community Council, the group behind the operation. “Our garden is physically located in a low-income community. QCC is an organization led by low-income folks and we work on creating bottom-up solutions to local problems.”

The QCC’s Urban Agriculture Project is an inner-city farm run by neighborhood residents who volunteer their time to grow fresh, organic produce for distribution throughout their community. The project has successfully distributed hundreds of baskets of free food to 41 families so far.

The idea is to foster community building, raise nutrition awareness, promote environmental sustainability, create economic opportunities, and improve the overall health of Charlottesville’s low-income citizens.

Eight-year-old Tayshaun Fortune lives in the neighborhood. On any given day, he might be planting seeds, watering crops, making compost — or just eating melons.

“The best part about the farm is you get to eat the crops you work on,” he said. “Like, if you volunteer for a week, you get to take home the foods that you worked on.” Fortune doesn’t realize that he just explained the business model for a cooperative enterprise — one that he has a hand in owning.

Feeding Self Suficiency

City Slicker Farms in West Oakland, California, is also based on a model of self-reliance. West Oakland is an area characterized by poverty, unemployment, and poor health. Health problems in the area are at least in part attributable to a high level of food insecurity — the community has just one grocery store, which most residents don’t have access to.

That’s where City Slicker comes in. In addition to six urban gardens, the organization has a “backyard garden” program in which it helps low-income neighbors grow their own produce. City Slicker mentors teach participants the skills they need to maintain their gardens and to use the produce for cooking.

“Poverty is a problem and Type 2 diabetes is a problem in these communities. So we know that there’s a need for healthy food,” says Logan Harris, program assistant for City Slicker Farms. “The backyard garden program is saying, not only is there the need, but there’s also the resources that already exist in this community.”

Harris points out that low-income communities, even in the inner city, already have the basic resources, the motivation, and sometimes even the knowledge to grow their own food. City Slicker just picks up some of the slack by providing seeds, soil, tools, and training.

If enough residents get involved with urban farming, Harris says, City Slicker Farms could eventually be able to meet almost half of the food needs for the whole community. “As our long-term goal, I believe we can provide 40 percent of our food for the community right here if we just take advantage of the land,” she said. “It’s definitely about self-sufficiency.”

Youth Sow Seeds of Change

In Birmingham, Alabama, a different kind of urban farm project has been growing over the last few years. While Jones Valley Farm is also located in a low-income area, its focus is on education. Jones Valley works with the Alabama School of Fine Arts to offer a high school class on sustainable food systems. The group has a farm on the school’s campus that serves as both an experiential tool for students and as a source of fresh, healthy produce for the school’s cafeteria.

Jones Valley also works with elementary schools across Birmingham to coordinate farm field trips. Those field trips involve lessons in gardening, cooking, and nutrition. The kids help grow crops on the farm, harvest the food, and take that food to the YMCA kitchen next door to cook. All the while, they learn about nutrition and how to eat healthily.

“We are trying to provide sources of education and information for everybody in the community,” said Edwin Marty, director of the farm project. “We specifically say that because we want to include everyone regardless of what your income is. We make sure that it’s equitable so that everyone can participate. “

Marty says the farm is adjacent to what used to be one of the worst housing projects in all of Birmingham. In the early days of the farm, that project was all Section 8 housing. The development has since been transformed into mixed-income housing. “While our farm was on-site,” he said, “twenty-five blocks were torn down and rebuilt. The neighborhood has gone through an entire transformation.”

He isn’t sure what kind of impact the change has had — or will have — on the farm education project. Jones Valley’s education programs continue to attract all different kinds of young people. “We don’t serve one community. We have some of the richest kids, who do have access to healthy food, and some of the poorest kids who don’t have access…There are certainly neighborhoods in Birmingham where people don’t have access to fresh healthy affordable food — and wouldn’t know what to do with it even if they did.”

Urban farming is catching on in many cities across the country. But programs that directly involve low-income communities are succeeding in bringing local food to areas with the least access to it. Urban farm advocates are showing that one little farm can be a source of food, health, economic stimulation, education, and most importantly, the self-esteem that comes with self-reliance.

For more information on how youth can get involved with urban farming groups, visit Growing Power. To learn more about the local food movement, check out Slow Food USA.

Suemedha Sood is a 2007 fellow in the Academy for Alternative Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The former assistant editor at the Center for American Progress, she is a frequent contributor to WireTap.

© 2009 Wiretap Magazine. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.wiretapmag.org/rights/43579/

Black Men Take Off The Dress

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Black Men Take Off The Dress

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2008/12/black-men-take-off-dress.html

Reading the commentary on the article I wrote about Medea another issue reared its ugly head. What is up with the black male fascination of playing black women? We are told that this is done in homage to our great strength.  In actuality these women are ridiculous caricatures of black women. 

                             

                                                      

These women are always purposefully obtuse even though we are meant to believe that they are sharing pearls of wisdom with the world.  Our first response is to laugh, because after all this meant to be comedy, righteous satire.  When black women are routinely portrayed as obese, coarse buffoons it ceases to be comedy and instead stands for a reflection of the ways in which we are understood by black males.   What can be positive about the above display?

I would bet money that these same men, who love to wear frocks for comedy would absolutely loose their mind to see a white man dressed in black face.  They would deem that racist and therefore demeaning, but what is their performance  but a genderized minstrel show?  When one group is routinely the butt of the joke, they are being laughed at and not laughed with. 

Black men often view the world through a lens of race and class because these are the factors that work to stigmatize them.  What they routinely fail to see are the ways in which they can be the oppressor by engaging in sexism.  The shared race between black women and black men is used to justify this kind of genderized minstrel show.

The behaviour of black men in the genderized minstrel show legitimizes the work of Charles Knipp, who performs Shirley Q Liquor.  Kripp takes the diminishment of black women to new heights with his portrayal of Liquor and her 19 chiren.   It is offensive on many levels.  There is no difference between the the shows Kripp performs and the crass stereotypes acted out by Perry et al.  They are all meant to show the world that black women are of little value and therefore can function as comedy. 

Perry has repeatedly said that Medea is a tribute to the black women in his life. If this is meant to be honour; a woman that shoots guns at people, cannot control her temper, and is constantly in trouble with the law, what would be considered a debasement?  Black men cannot continue to engage in such purposeful character assassination and then expect black women to stand beside them in solidarity.

The genderized minstrel show is the perfect example of the ways in which race and gender intersect.  It is the visible representation of the oppressed becoming the oppressor.  What black men who perform the minstrel show fail to understand is that the same power that allows them to demean women in this manner is what allows whiteness to perform racist acts.  One ism supports and maintains  another   If black men wish to be seen as whole beings,  worthy of respect they need to begin by supporting and respecting black women.

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2008/12/black-men-take-off-dress.html