The proverb quoted below…when I read it…I couldn’t decide whether or not it was honoring or sarcastically dismissing women. This particular proverb could mean either. However, this quote may have originated in Ethiopia…but when? The ancient Ethiopia that was in what is now modern day Sudan and was known as Kush? In Kush, there was the Kandake. The Kandake was the title of the queen or queen mother and the modern name of “Candace” has its roots in that Kushite title. In Kush, women could rule and some were fierce warrior Kandakes. For example, Amanirenas, fought the Romans.
Apparently, during the reigns of the Kandakes, Kush thrived. The above proverb could mean when all seems lost, the women turn it around, work a miracle. The people did not suffer. It’s a shame that the name derived from the title of these great women has been debased by some of the women who have the name “Candace”, but today it is just a name and the bearers thereof are probably ignorant of the derivation of the name.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–I never thought what those words meant to Jefferson. Either on You Tube or in The Atlantic, don’t remember which, the pursuit of happiness meaning for Jefferson was the pursuit of riches, money. That makes sense for he was always in need of money. From the little I’ve read about Jefferson, he never had enough money, in his mind, to support his lifestyle.
Then, on You Tube an immigrant said immigrants don’t care about the United States culture, history, language…all the immigrants care about is the freedom to make money. I think I’ve written about that before. When greed is the culture, then yes the immigrants are participating in the soul destroying culture of greed. Maybe that is the reason they have no empathy, even for themselves. Greed is all-consuming and cares only for that which feeds it. Therefore, the immigrant will always vote for greed.
Greed–intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. So, one could say that power is a component of greed. Power allows one to act on one’s greed. But this is just to say that all wars fought by the United States have been based in greed. The Revolutionary War–one can talk about freedom and liberty all you want. The bottom line was that the elite in the United States, at that time, were hampered by the British, exercising its own greed, from maximizing their greed. From what I’ve read, the tea imported by the British, even with the tax, was cheaper than the bootleg tea sold by the locals. Basically, the dumping of the tea was more about getting rid of the competition than about the tax on the tea. And, the British would fight to keep and maintain a market for its goods and taxes to its Treasury. Thus…the Revolutionary War.
The War of 1812–the United States was in a recession because of its trade policies which were influenced by the war between Britain and France. The British were actively affecting the economy–so, again war. One also has to mention the greed for Native American lands. The British were arming the tribes just resistance to the white man’s expansion.
The Civil War–No war has only one cause. Let’s reach back to the Industrial Revolution that was taking hold in the United States since circa 1793. There were a group of white men in the United States that foresaw a prosperous future in the United States if it industrialized. There were also a group of white men who wanted to maintain an agrarian society in order to preserve their power. Both sides needed cheap labor. The Agrarians had their cheap labor–Slaves. The industrialists had their cheap labor–immigrants and persons that farming could not support, e.g., younger sons, daughters, widows, etc.
By the 1860s, Europe was rapidly industrializing and, with industrialization, goods were cheaper. Cotton from the southern Unites States was shipped to England, France, and the northern States to be processed. One requires government support to industrialize a nation. The southern autocrats who controlled the federal government would do nothing that would undermine that control. So war…if the North won, industrialization would proceed with full government backing. If the South won, the nation would remain agrarian. (I’ve always wondered if the South had won, would it have tolerated a free North? I doubt it as there would have then been a war(s) to decide which side would claim the lands in the West. And a free North would always be a beacon for the Slaves.)
WWI & II, Korean and Viet Nam–all these wars were about capitalism. One can frame these wars as this righteous fight against totalitarianism in its various forms, but when there are corporations selling supplies to both sides…then the righteous arguments fall by the wayside. The righteous arguments were the propaganda. There was money to made, markets to be had, and there were corporations salivating at the prospects, no matter which side won. Viet Nam oil, anyone?
From what I have read, most of the skirmishes since then have been rooted in corporate greed, either for resources or markets.
Never really watched Charlie Chan movies. Today, some Charlie Chan movies were playing in the background when I noticed that the Black actors in the role of chauffeur/assistant were named Birmingham and Chattanooga, respectively. Brown was their last name and they were cousins. Mantan Moreland was Birmingham and Willie Best was Chattanooga. They were stereotypical Black characters of the era–cowards, exaggerated/emotive eye and body movements, wise and wise cracking, and comical relief. However, they had dialogue and had scenes in which they played a substantial part and, because of that, they were paid, I hope well, for that era. (An aside, Mantan Moreland was really good at what I term the I-hear-what-you’re-saying-but-I’m-not-comprehending-the-context dialogue. You know like the Who’s on First routine made famous by Abbott and Costello.)
Long, long time ago, I went snorkeling…I think in St. Lucia. That was when I was taking swimming lessons and figured out I could swim on my back. I got pretty good at it and I remember that under water, my vision didn’t seem as myopic. I could clearly see the fish, the seabed, and the barracuda. At the time, I didn’t know it was a barracuda. I saw this big fish heading my way and I got out of the water as fast as I could. Later, on the beach, I noticed that I must have grazed a toe while in the water. I wonder if that was why this big fish was heading in my direction. It sensed the blood? Someone told me that evening that a barracuda had been sighted in the bay where I was snorkeling. And the only constant memory I’ve had of that trip is that I got sun poisoning, but today I saw a movie and the couple was snorkeling and the underwater scenes triggered that particular memory of that long ago trip.
Recently, I was searching for an old obituary and, while going through the obituaries, many of which were from the 1970s and before, I noticed that some of them were imprinted with the white Jesus that was so ubiquitous on those paper fans from the local funeral home. How can we free ourselves if we believe in the white god created by the white man to subjugate us? The people asking Chat GPT about our name and what people “God” would choose to be, don’t seem to realize that AI as created by the white tech boys is a tool of white supremacy. They don’t seem to realize that the algorithm was changed when Chat GPT’s sycophancy outweighed its inherent racism.
What is so wrong with the spirituality that served us well the thousands of years before the white man handed us a bible and stole our land? What is so right about a “God” that has been used to oppress us and trivialize our humanity? Why don’t we understand that any answer from a tool created by white people about our identity will be filtered through the lens of white supremacy? Do you really want to be the Jew/Hebrew referenced in the white man’s Bible? (Historically, there is no concrete evidence that a group of people with their origin story existed. However, if one understands how to create a group identity, their story makes sense. Every group, in order to cohere, creates a grandiose story of their beginnings. Because of the story, the group believes they are special and endowed with a singular purpose.)
In a way, it’s pathetic. All Chat GPT is now saying is we are a people who were meant to be treated cruelly by the group of people that named itself “white”, that we exist for their benefit. Suck it up and you’ll get your reward in the white man’s heaven, while we, the white man enjoy the fruits of the earth while we live because we don’t believe in heaven after death. You know, if you’ve read the Bible, most of its wisdom is the wisdom of the “Black” people who inhabited the region at the time. That wisdom has been so twisted and upended that I doubt they would recognize the current interpretation and they would certainly disavow how their wisdom has been corrupted.
White people honestly think that they, the ultimate hypocrites, murderers, thieves, liars, just plain evil, will be the ones “raptured” into some heaven or Eden on earth, so they’re trying to force their God to commence the end times. Delusional, but their entire identity is based in delusion. So nothing new. Force God…how does one do that? In their religious teaching, God’s plan is not man’s plan and cannot be foretold by man. Probably, the only thing that will come of their forcing is the devil who will be glad to wreak havoc and become stronger–all because of their arrogant, narcistic, evil delusions.
Women can change the narrative, the course of our path on this Earth, but not women who are invested in the patriarchy. And, those are the women whose voices are promoted by the patriarchy. The women who have gone to the same plastic surgeon to create the patriarchy’s vision of the perfect woman. Those women will be left behind and we have to be okay with that. They will always be the traitors, the ones who act against their own self-interest. We the egg bearers can be the Aquarius water bearer, washing away the old so the new can thrive.
Where a woman rules, streams run uphill. Alkebulan Proverb
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