#808 Fearless_Hopeless_Hearts          “Tell me storytime!”          She curls up on me_her ethonol engine exausted.         I want to fly us_so far away:  This cab is now a magic carpet for a story cabaret.             Using-a-punchdrunk-kitten in the back seat of a  Breuklyn-southbound-gypsy as my muse. One doesn’t choose,      _the muse they use. Or when.      There were worse assignments. Given to more cowardly men! And my constitution is and always will be_a wide canvas for futurist painting_  My-heart-when-fainting_ Is grinding, then breaking it_causes Brighton to flood and post Haitian earthshaking:       My soul is for barter_sign the dotted line,  I’m a phantasm now-shaking … Continue reading Hopeless, Fearless Hearts (Poem 808)

Lavalas: Completing the Revolution of 1804 Walter Sebastian Adler 28 February 2014 Social Movements for Emancipatory Development Abstract: In 1986 a social movement based in the Little Church (Ti Legliz) used liberation theology gospel, strikes, demonstrations, and targeted assassinations in an uprising referred to as the Dechoukaj to force Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) to flee the nation of Haiti. Led by a Salesian Priest named Jean-Bertrand Aristide this movement succeeded in dismantling a hated seemingly intractable regime, carried out the nation’s first and only democratic elections and dissolved the army that had since the time of the American occupation had … Continue reading Famni Lavalas

What is Neo-Colonialism?  Walter Sebastian Adler Colonialism in Literature     What is Colonization? To agree on what it is not: neither evangelization, nor a philanthropic enterprise, nor a desire to push back the frontiers of ignorance, disease and tyranny, nor a project undertaken for the greater glory of God, nor an attempt to extend the rule of law. To admit once and for all, without flinching at the consequences, that the decisive actors here are the adventurer and the pirate, the wholesale grocery and the ship owner, the gold digger and the merchant, appetite and force, and behind them the … Continue reading What is Neo Colonialism

Over 33,000 New Yorkers have died so far during the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of bravery, heroism and inter-agency cooperation has ensued for the worst four weeks of the pandemic. The virus is here and will be for some time. My EMS brothers and sisters will continue to help hold the front lines.  But when the coughing stops and the fevers cool, will the inequities be addressed? EMS workers need profession-wide protections. We need to be compensated in parity with policemen and with firefighters. We need leadership to bring the disparate sectors of the field together in common purpose to … Continue reading Need More than Applause

Mehlella (Ge’ez: ምህልላ, lit. ‘Supplication’), also Amata Saww (ዐመተ ሰወ, ‘Grouping Day’) or Sigd (ሰግድ, ‘Prostration’, Hebrew: סיגד‎, also romanized Sig’d), is one of the unique holidays of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) community, and is celebrated on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Marcheshvan. Since 2008, it has been recognized as a state holiday for all Israelis.Quick Facts: Official name, Also called … Date Previously, Sigd was celebrated on the 29th of Kislev, and after a calendar reform in mid-19 century it was moved to its present day, 50 days after Yom Kippur. Etymology The word Sigd itself is Ge’ez for “prostration” and is related to Aramaic: סְגֵד‎ sgēd “to prostrate oneself (in worship)”. The Semitic root √sgd is the same as in mesgid, one of the two … Continue reading Sigd