Kano, Nigeria (CNN)—The attackers sped into a Nigerian town with grenade launchers — their gunfire and explosions shattering the early morning calm.

As terrified residents scattered into bushes in Baga town and surrounding villages, the gunmen unloaded motorcycles from their trucks and followed in hot pursuit.

Residents hid under scant brush. Bullets pierced them.

Some sought refuge in their homes. They were burned alive.

Many who tried to cross into neighboring Chad drowned while trying to swim through Lake Chad.

By the time the weapons went quiet, local officials reported death tolls ranging from hundreds to as many as 2,000 people…

Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches and civilians, and bombing government buildings. The Islamist group has said its aim is to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.

The group’s brutal tactics have shocked and stunned the world.

It has kidnapped students, including more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in April — and remain missing.

On Saturday, explosives strapped to a girl detonated at a crowded marketplace in Nigeria, killing at least 20 people. Although no one has claimed responsibility, Boko Haram militants are the main suspects.

In France, fanatics kill 17 civilians. The world mourns. The media coverage is non-stop. Hundreds of thousands people march in solidarity against terrorism. Dignitaries from around the world participate.

On the other hand, in Nigeria, another group of fanatics destroy an entire town and kill up to 2,000 children, women and men. The world barely notices. The media coverage is scant and sporatic. Compared to the France story, Nigeria is a footnote, an afterthought. 200 Nigeria girls remain missing. Despite last year’s popularity, the slogan #BringBackOurGirls has been tossed in the wind and forgotten. Sadly, we are reminded again that black lives don’t matter.

The post Nigeria: Nigerian Lives Don’t Matter, Apparently appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Three people have contracted Ebola, only two of them while in the United States. Both of those people are nurses that had direct contact with the man who died. That’s it. Yet, there are screams for travel bans and paranoia over how easy it is to contract the disease. None of it is based in reality, just fear and of course crass politics.  And hey right wingers..don’t tell me about Obama’s “late” response to Ebola when your hero Reagan let over 40,000 Americans die of AIDS before he would even mention the word!

What is really killing Americans at an alarming rate is obesity, alcohol and cigarettes. This is reality, but all we hear about is how frightened Americans are over Ebola. About as frightened as they are over ISIS. Neither poses any imminent threat at all. AT ALL. But they want travel bans as well as boots on the ground in Iraq so more strangers can die in the name of “freedom.”

It’s not freedom at all but fear. They are afraid so they want others to protect them from their uniquely American fears. Notice how most other nations including Canada have no such fears. They don’t worry about ISIS or Ebola the way Americans do. Maybe the real fear should be with Texas and its health care system. A place where they send you home from the hospital with 103 fever and a free cowboy hat and an autographed Rick Perry head shot.

It’s stunning how Americans have the inability to look around them and see how other countries handle things. It’s like they live in a vacuum. The first reaction to any crisis is fear. Not a common sense solution or a dialogue but outright hysteria. There is no weighing options because that would take brains and courage. Two things that too many Americans are lacking. Stop flights! Don’t allow them damn foreigners in our schools, to learn or teach! Doesn’t matter if you aren’t from anywhere near West Africa or Africa for that matter…you look foreign so you must have the Ebola! You must be feared!

It’s fucking pathetic. It continues generation to generation because kids see their parents being afraid so they become afraid. Speaking of the children, an 11 year old shot and killed an albino deer with a crossbow and now feels like a “rock star” according to his wonderful father. Albino deer are so rare that I didn’t even know they existed. They are also beautiful. They don’t inspire fear at all. They inspire hope about nature and what evolution has given us. Yes evolution. Because if they were created by the lord why would most Christians not be up in arms about the murder of one..right?

The murder took place in Howell, Michigan. Mostly Michigan is fine, but not Howell.  It is a right wing shit fest. Home to the KKK. No wonder this kid is a hero there. So are guys in sheets. Now I don’t want to be too hard on the kid. I do however despise his parents. Instead of teaching their son about empathy and concern for weaker creatures, they have taught him to kill and to love it. To bask in it. Maybe a school or a politician can be his next target? For this there should be a nice place in hell prepared for them. The same can be said for the right wing propaganda rag USA Today that actually glorified the killing.

This is an all American story for sure. If the obstacle is tough and powerful like ISIS or Ebola, we cower. If it’s an easy target like a poor Albino deer we shoot to kill and show off. What courage! I know what…let’s sing “God Bless America” one more time! Notice how they don’t have the need to sing about blessing Canada in the middle of every hockey game? But Americans wouldn’t notice that, they never notice anything outside their own little universe. Other nations advance while we are stuck in the dark ages.

How to deal with terrorism or a disease? Fear and discrimination. How to raise a child? Violence and power is good, honorable. Dress them up in camo (what war are they fighting?) and send them out to kill nature, destroy the environment, hey it’s OK, you are an American son!

Fear the unknown and the strong, bully the weak and the defenseless. Makes my skin crawl.

(Update: A fourth person, a doctor in New York City has been tested positive for Ebola. Of course more mass hysteria and fear without thinking for a second that any disease in which we know the names of EVERY person that has it, can’t be too dangerous.)

The post America: Afraid of Ebola But NOT Them Albino Deer! appeared first on Madness & Reality.

I’m posting this because there is a petition out that needs to be signed and it needs to be signed immediately. I will a quick copy and paste breakdown of what needs to happen:

In Nigeria, over 200 girls were recently abducted from their boarding school and plans are reported of them being selling them as brides for $12 each. I am calling on the world to unite and save them.

The abducted young girls are being affected by a conflict they did not create, and their voices need to be heard. I can only imagine what these 200 girls have been through, and their government is not doing nearly enough to save them.

#BringBackOurGirls

The group Boko Haram has repeatedly said girls should not be educated. I am a young Nigerian woman pursuing my education in Germany. I believe the Nigerian government must do more to ensure the safe return of these girls.

By signing this petition we declare our solidarity with the kidnapped girls and call upon the world not to forget them, support all efforts to ensure their safe return, and ask all international agencies, organizations and groups to support Nigerian efforts aimed at rescuing them. We also ask that all schools are safe places to learn, protected from attack.

With that said, I would implore that we sign the petition. This situation, as I have written about before, is a travesty and a humanitarian level abomination. Kidnappings are never something to scoff at. However, a terrorist group kidnapping over 200 school girls is something altogether inhumane. Thus, we cannot be silent about this situation.

#BringBackOurGirls – Sign the Petition

All I ask is if you sign the petition. We should be unified on this matter. It may seem small and insignificant to many of us. However, our collective voices need to be heard. Think about it: would you not raise hell if someone kidnapped a young female member of your family? Of course you would. So, a professional “hell raising” of sorts is in order.

The petition is here. Put your signature in unless it won’t allow you to.

#BringBackOurGirls

The post Bring Back Nigeria’s 234 Missing School Girls #BringBackOurGirls appeared first on Madness & Reality.

#BringBackOurGirls

For people in the U.S., this event is nothing short of bizarre. For those in Nigeria, this is an extreme version of a common practice.

Nigerian Girls Stolen by Boka Haram

This heinous act of terror happened at the hands of the Boko Haram. Boko Haram is anIslamic jihadist and takfiri militant and terrorist organization based in the northeast of Nigeria, north Cameroon and Niger[1]. Their purpose is straight forward Islamic purity powered by sharia law. With an estimated 10,000 declared by their actions over the last decade, Boko Haram is known for attacking Christians and government targets, churches, schools, police stations, and even western tourists[2]. In short, Boko Haram ain’t nothing to mess with.

Oh, and Boko Haram means “Western education is sinful” in their local language. You cannot make this stuff up.

All that is happening to these girls is nothing short of disgusting capitalism. The students are being sold for 2,000 naira — about $12 — to marry the fighters [3]. There have been mass weddings within the Sambisa Forest. Pogu Bitrus , a community elder of the town where the girls were abducted (Chibok), told the BBC that some of the girls “have been married off to insurgents [in] a medieval kind of slavery [4].” If there is anything more motivating than religion, it would have to be cash.

Nigerian Girls Stolen With Little Response

With all of this said, it makes me want to ask this question: where is the unified, American led/influenced response that would include armed soldiers?

I am not trying to imply that the United States (or any other powerful nation) have the responsibility to help. As much as this situation is an outrage, it is still a Nigerian problem. Whatever it is they need to do should be worked out from within.

However, have you ever noticed that America has the tendency to declare itself the “police of the world”? I know that I am not the only one that has noticed this. Anytime that some worldwide act of madness occurs (albeit it manmade or natural), the United States is quick to respond. It will either send some support or send its soldiers to try and rectify the situation. Wanted or unwarranted, the U.S. is good at international intervention.

So, why is there no intervention in this international situation?

The US did not intervene because; by large, interfering/helping does not benefit the United States in the long run. Is there any oil coming from Nigeria for us to plunder and sell at immense prices? Is there some type of inside business deal going on? Is there some sort of set up that leads Americans in full support of whatever underhanded/secret plot to reap revenue? To be fair, we have to remember that many of the U.S.’s military excursions are supported and motivated by monetary units.

In the end, those 230 young ladies deserve to be free. There is much more that the Nigerian government could do. Then again, there is much more the world could do. It should be saddening that a group labeled dangerous by the US Department of justice has run amok. However, being involved does not benefit “US”. So, “US” will do very little until that benefit is seen.

America: a country that, by far, knows how to be consistent in its priorities.

#BringBackOurGirls

The post 234 Nigerian School Girls Kidnapped and No US Military In Sight appeared first on Madness & Reality.

I posted a video a few days ago that in the Jewish state of Israel, the racism against African immigrants has reached violent proportions. Israeli citizens vocally and physically expressed their disdain for the African community and for Africans who continue to enter their borders for asylum from their native homelands conflicts. They hoped to live in a land where they would find peace and prosperity. So, they’ve turned to Israel whose image to many – especially here in the West where there are people in high places who refuse to see how venomous the small nation truly is – is that it is a leader of democracy in the Middle East.

Yeah, right. Tell that to the Palestinians.

It’s no different than the white racist shitheads who proclaim that Jews are a race and not a people who worship Judaism.

And speaking of shitheads. A White Australian woman has been causing quite a buzz in the news. She recently turned 21 years-old and decided to celebrate by having a party. Not, just an ordinary party, but one where the theme was ‘Africa’.

So, how many of you think that the shindig was filled with a celebratory tribute to the continent, its people and its various cultures? If you think that, well, you’re WRONG!

It was exactly like the MLK day parties put on by white college students across the nation wearing black face, dressing up like mainstream rappers and having who-knows-what stuffed in the seats of their pants to make their flat asses look abnormally huge.

The Australian woman took photographs of the party and posted them on her Facebook page, refusing to take them down after confronted by someone who told them how racist they were. (You can peep the photos at Buzzfeed.) But she didn’t know what was so offensive about it, as she made a Tumblr page explaining her ignorance:

“Okay don’t even know how to use tumblr but wanted to clarify this.

It was my ‘African themed’ party and it was honestly made that theme because I have always wanted to go to Africa (to teach english) but haven’t made it there yet. In no way was this party intended to hurt anyones feelings or upset anyone at all. In fact as you can tell from the photos I dressed up as cleopatra, whilst MAJORITY of my guests came as animals, that can be found in africa or wore traditional african clothes or even dressed up as famous people who come from africa. If anything this was to celebrate the amazing country and people. However, some guest did decide to paint themselves, although this was in no way my intention or encouraged in the slightest. I understand that this has offended some people and I have no idea how these photos have even been seen, they were simply put on facebook for my guests to see the photos of themselves. I am 100% sure that parties would be held that would be ‘Australian themed’ or American themed or even countries of the world, and in that instance I don’t believe anyone would be offended. People wear oktoberfest cotumes to parties and no one cracks it that they are not German? So what I am saying is I do understand the people who have painted themselves have offended people, although none of them intended that…. but how can people be annoyed that the majority of the people at the party were celebrating another countries culture.

Also one of my friends who is Mauritian painted himself white, but that photos didn’t make it to this page along with the MAJORITY of people who were amazingly detailed costumes that no one could take offense to!! I am sure that not one person at my party felt upset that said guest painted himself white as it was not meant in that way at all.

Also, I have NEVER been asked to take these photos down, however if I had of course I would have done so, as I had no idea that anyone other than friends and guests could see these photos, and to be honest I am not a racist person at all so I didn’t think anyone could possibly take it that way. I intend to spend 2 months teaching english in cambodia in January, and cant wait to do the same in Africa. If you will still have me.

To reiterate, I was cleopatra and did not encourage my guest to wear anything racist simply to come as something African Inspired, much like if you went to an australia day party (Which I am 100% sure people of all races and cultures do every year!!!)

Again I am sorry for those I have offended and the photos have now been removed now that I have eventually been made aware people were upset. For those who know me at all you would know the last thing in the world I would want to do would be to offend people.”

I’ll let you cite everything wrong with her “explanation” aside from her not knowing when to capitalize words and that she believes that Africa is a country.

Anti-African humanism is so fierce and convincing that people of color have joined in the craze. Even African and Afro-descendants have bought the hype that black skin is a sin. So, the question I keep asking myself is why are black people so hated in this world?

I know that I were to ask that to some folks – those of pale skin that I would either get transparent denials to flimsy, racist, recycled excuses. Everyone should know the score by now.

“You people commit the most crimes in…wherever! Areas with a high black population are fucked up! You have low I.Q.s! But despite it all, I am not a racist!” Blah, blah blah.

When it’s all said and done, there is no excuse why should be so hateful towards Africa, its peoples or its descendants, and no amount of denial can cover it up. I would call them ignorant, but that would make them seem like they know not what they do. Many of them do, but they really and proudly don’t give a damn.

So, what is it about us that they hate when all of the excuses and denials are thrown out the window? Are they actually jealous of us and secretly want to be like us? Do they really hate themselves and are projecting their hate to cover up their own shortcomings and make themselves feel better about themselves at such a grand scale? Is it because we remind them that not everyone in the world is the same, and for some reason, they hate it? Is it because we remind them of the sins of the past, sins they hate to face for fear of destroying the only world they know and “love”. Or is it something more sinister at work?

The post Racism: The World’s Hatin’ on Africans (Part 1) appeared first on Madness & Reality.

But anyway, So apparently a few of my cousins are upset and decided to go berserk in a mall in Nairobi. Why are they doing this I have no idea. But, for the sake of blackness and the fascination with black pathology I hope their actions have nothing to do with the release of the new Nike Air Jordans. There are reports of American citizens with ties t the terrorist organization Al-Shabab who purposely targeted non-Muslims and foreigners in the attack. But as racist Birther theories gp. now there’s talk that Obama himself is being blamed the attack by John Corsi..

This from Right Wing Watch:

Birther conspiracy theorist and Tom DeLay co-author Jerome Corsi appeared on InfoWars with Alex Jones to explain his theory that President Obama and Raila Odinga, the former prime minister of Kenya, “made this pact with the radical Islamists in Kenya that was going to allow Al Qaeda to come through the door through Somalia into Kenya,” and are therefore to blame for the Nairobi mall attack by the Al Qaeda-linked group al-Shabab.

He said Obama and Odinga “engineered” an “open door to Somali terrorists to pour into” Kenya. “This is the Saudis backing Al Qaeda, joined by Obama backing Al Qaeda,” Corsi maintained.

“This is basically Obama behind jihadis, connected to this attack,” Jones contended. “So they are using Al Qaeda worldwide as the proxy war to take over all these countries in North Africa and now into Kenya.”

“They are going to turn everything over to radical Muslims,” he continued. “So Obama is lowering the drawbridge from Egypt to Syria to Kenya to Libya to Central Asia to everywhere to bring in Al Qaeda, this is high treason.”

I feel you Mr. President – I wish these crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists would shut the fuck up too.

[…] While Corsi tried to paint Odinga as a friend of al-Shabab, in fact, Odinga called for Kenyan troops to wage an “onslaught” against the extremist group and tried to win Western aid for their fight in Somalia.

Watch the video below:

Enough with the conspiracy theories already….

The post Obama Linked to Kenyan Mall Terrorist Attack by Jerome Corsi appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Not that I know Hubbard personally, but the fact that he wrote a book in 2010 entitled Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative, tells me that he has a lot of pent-up frustrations to get off of his chest. And according to The Arkansas Times, some of it has to do with his feelings about African-Americans. In particular, it would seem that part of his frustration has to do with our lack of collective gratitude for the genocidal institution that was slavery.

Slavery was good for black people:

“… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.” (Pages 183-89)

If you think slavery was bad, you should have seen Africa:

African Americans must “understand that even while in the throes of slavery, their lives as Americans are likely much better than they ever would have enjoyed living in sub-Saharan Africa.” “Knowing what we know today about life on the African continent, would an existence spent in slavery have been any crueler than a life spent in sub-Saharan Africa?” (Pages 93 and 189)

Black people are ignorant:

“Wouldn’t life for blacks in America today be more enjoyable and successful if they would only learn to appreciate the value of a good education?” (Page 184)

You kno’ if you stop wit dat runnin’ away they’s gon’ give us BET, Kunta?

Hubbard has since come under fire from the Arkansas GOP who has decided not to continue funding his current re-elction campaign. But in true “I’m white and I can do no wrong fashion,” Hubbard says his writing is being taken out of context: “They attacked me because I’m a conservative, and they’ve taken small portions of my book out of context, and distorted what was said to make it appear that I am racist, which is totally and completely false.” Context? What other meaning is there to be drawn from his words? Surely he isn’t suggesting that slavery was atrocious, was he?

Now I don’t know about you, but if you were black like me it would be nearly impossible to “get over slavery,” as long as racist minds like Hubbard’s exist. What’s even more troubling is that this man works in Arkansas state legislature. But of course for many of you reading this, his expressed views aren’t problematic. In fact, I’m willing to bet that many of you reading this, actually agree with Hubbard’s opinion. How do I know, you ask? Because the sophistry of the position that slavery was a blessing in disguise for black folks, is one that is rooted in White Supremacy.

And of course, when you’re white, you’re right:

“If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861?” – Rep. Loy Mauch (R-AR.)

Yep, what’s a little oppression and dehumanization for centuries when it gives you the privilege of being called an American, right? After all, “the blacks” were a people who could “endure” the circumstance of slavery in the new world and should be grateful because Africa didn’t have BET.

Forgive me for being an ingrate, but I wasn’t sure whether laws permitting me to read still existed.

The post Jon Hubbard (R-AR): Slavery Was A “Blessing In Disguise” For “The Blacks” appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Another aspect of the agreement were that white government workers who did not want to work alongside blacks in federal jobs could retire with a pension for life immediately. As a result, South Africa has to fork over a chunk of its budget to a pension system that pays whites who retired from work as early as 18 years old.

Although South Africa is rich in minerals and natural resources that could balance the budget and create more wealth, the white domination, white privatization and control of the money flow has made it difficult for the upward mobility of a majority black population and increased enhancement of South Africa’s infrastructure that is dire need of a better public education and hospitals.

Whites have privatized much of their existence. Schools, hospitals, neighborhoods and businesses are in the hands of whites who were in staunch support of Apartheid. Unfortunately, when Apartheid was dismantled, their worldview did not switch; yet whites have reaped all of the rewards from the ending of the sanctions, boycotts and embargoes against South African countries during the Apartheid regime.

Today, South Africa has progressed politically, yet the wealth distribution has created bigger gaps in the haves and have-nots. Miners have not received proper increase of pay, health plans or sustainable living benefits for their families.

As well, a large sector of the labor, which is still in mining, receives pittance wages, but these mines have not been regulated for the gross environmental damage they have caused to towns who live close to the mountains of unearthed dirt that blow toxic soil on windy days, along with other issues.

What the miners of Lonmin were protesting were an increase of wages from about US $600 to $1500 a month. The average day for a miner is 15 hours underground with shadey safety conditions. Most miners still work in conditions where they are separated from wives and families who live in the rural area.

Striking mine workers sing protest songs and march in a wide circle under the watchful eye of police at he Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa Monday, Aug. 27, 2012. Thirty-four strikers were shot dead by police in a three-minute barrage of automatic gunfire last week that also injured 78 others. The incident traumatized a nation that thought it had seen the last of state violence with the end of apartheid in 1994.Ten other people were killed the week before, including two police officers hacked to death with machetes by strikers who also burned alive two mine security guards. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

Lonmin is the third largest platinum mine in the world, and has been refusing to budge in the wage increase like other local mines who have responded to the national debate regarding the mines being privatized. More importantly, the now suspended ANC Youth League leader  Julius Malema was demanding that South African government nationalize the mines to bring wealth to the people rather than keep it in the hands of few.

For example, the resettlement plan of South Africa that gives land and homes to South Africans who once lived in Shanty towns, or were ripped from their homelands, is an iniative of wealth redistribution.

Nonetheless, the gap that has widened between white wealth and black poverty, added by growing costs of living in South Africa are making the average black South African anxious and disappointed. Add to the that, the ANC is weakening from within, which further makes governing and staying in power more diffcult.

Yet the cold truth is emerging amongst black South Africans through their controversial, and ineffective head-of-state, black power without black wealth is only a mere puppet to the highest bidder.

The protest that occured and the cold response by Lonmin executives is a reminder that the past is not far away, and that the past is the current. The racist, color-stratified, white racist regime is alive and kcking.

African Americans gawked at how black police officers were involved in killing their own black countrymen, but those of us who understand oppression know that all to often the oppress perpetuate their oppression better than their oppressors.

South Africa is much like the US in its racial politics and issues. Just because Obama is president and South Africa has black presidents and Mandela has been free for over 20 years, does not make any two of the countries post-racial.

Just like an ordinary day in New York, Chicago, New Orleans or Los Angeles. As Zora Neale Hurston prophetically said, ‘Your skin folk ain’t [always] your kinfolk.’

Those black officers probably really believe they were doing what was right along with white officers who are paid a little more than the miners.

The post South African Miners Protest Magnify Country’s Struggle with Wealth Distribution appeared first on Madness & Reality.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the worst place on earth to be a woman, according to the United Nations. Regional war and rape leave an estimated 1,000 or more women assaulted every day. One organization, HEAL Africa, helps women manage their traumatic injuries holistically. Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports.

The post International Women’s Day: Conflict Minerals, Rape & Healing [VIDEO] appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Can you imagine it catching on jhere?

Back To Africa, Anyone?

As if that is the latest “Sakawa” in town to aid the young guys into making some quick money, the new craze in town is that almost all the young guys who visit the nite clubs with their girl friends are trying to suck their breasts openly without fear or shyness from the public. When the first picture was sent to us we thought it was something designed to seek public attention until this writer witnessed it at a popular Nite club in Accra.

Every occasion comes with a different lifestyle but what we are witnessing this year is a mind boggling one which needs serious attention from the authorities of the Nite clubs these activities have been seen. The first one was seen at a Nite club around Adabraka and Asylum Down(Accra) during their session they call Francophone Nite which is believed to house many people from our neighboring French countries. What is still not clear was whether those who were engaged in the act were Ghanaians or foreigners. The most fascinating stuff about this breasts sucking craze is that the guys do not suck the “orange” (small) size breasts, but the “water melon” type which babies even admire. (source: Ghana Nation)

Damn, no love for itty bitty titties?

As a bonafide lover of big titties, it’s a disappointment that nothing like this ever happened when I was younger, and single, when I frequented night clubs. But then again, that might be have been a good thing. The last thing I’d like to see out the corner of my eye as I suck on some titties in a night club, is some brother getting his knob slobbed on the dance floor. That shit would be a serious health risk; but, maybe one can get paid by suing a night club for a slip and fall on the dance floor.

The post Adults Sucking Breasts In Public? In Night Clubs? The Latest Craze? Where They Do That At?!! appeared first on Madness & Reality.