Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

By Errol T. Louis
Knight Takes Pawn?
James Davis, the slain city councilman, is surely spinning in his grave right now. His brother, Geoffrey Davis, has made just about every rookie mistake it’s possible to make in politics.
Geoffrey stumbled out of the starting gate when he fired several key people who were managing his brother’s reelection campaign. Now most of them are working against him. Then he got into some kind of street altercation with a rival campaign, and the incident resulted in a complaint filed with the local precinct.
Worst of all, Mr. Davis didn’t capitalize on the wave of sympathy generated after the assassination by swiftly locking down campaign contributions from the raft of pols who spoke tearfully at his brother’s funeral. Too bad. The money would have come in handy.
 Clarence Norman, former Brooklyn Democratic boss,  and a great many council members, have nominally endorsed Mr. Davis, but have done little or nothing to actually support his campaign. As a result, it’s entirely possible that the council seat that James Davis spent years diligently working to capture will pass into the hands of the Working Families Party candidate, Letitia James, who represents everything the councilman fought against during his brief turn on the political stage.
Davis battled the Kings County machine and its leader at every turn. What irony that Ms. James is a product of that machine, and was handpicked by Mr. Norman to run for the council in 2001. Indeed, Mr. Norman’s support that year was widely viewed as repayment for the many years Ms. James spent dutifully knocking insurgents and other would-be candidates off the ballot, at the behest of the county organization.
The Working Families Party – which mostly backs Democratic incumbents and only occasionally takes real risks for political reform- is attempting to repackage and sell Ms. James to the neighborhood as an independent voice for progressive politics.
That may work with some voters, but for real reformers – people who have expended time, treasure, effort and reputation in the long battle to open up the party and dislodge its do-nothing incumbents – a victory by Ms. James would represent little more than the arrival of yet another political functionary eager to carry out someone else’s orders.
Ms. James – Tish, as she is known in the neighborhood – always gets angry when I refer to her as a political hack. I only wish I had a better term.
In my political dictionary, a hack is a pawn of the machine, a rubber stamp, a person who always does as she’s told and never, ever, refuses to carry out instructions sent by her political higher-ups (or “hire-ups”, as the case may be).
When I think about the various young, progressive candidates who have tried to contribute to this community by running for office – Pete Williams, Hakeem Jeffries, Barry Ford and James Davis himself – Tish was always on the other side, working against them in some fashion.
Behaving, in other words, just like a hack. Should Ms. James prevail on Election Day, I challenge her to get the last laugh by proving me wrong.
Anthony Herbert, the Republican candidate, is busily calling in favors and contributions from Republicans all over the city, and from friends and neighbors in the Prospect Heights area where he grew up. A portion of the Lubavitcher vote in the district is likely to support Abraham Wasserman, the Conservative Party candidate from Crown Heights who got 1800 votes in 2001. And don’t count Geoffrey Davis out.
Like his brother, Geoffrey is a quick study when it comes to politics.
When I ran into Geoffrey at a rally recently, he seemed happy and at ease. “You play chess, right?” He said. “Keep watching. I’m moving my knights into position.” Then he held up his hands, like a boxer, and started humming the theme from Rocky.

by  Stanley Kinard
My condolences go out to the natural and cultural family of Baba Ishangi who made his transition in Gambia, West Africa last week.  This was a very shocking loss to the African cultural community of which Baba Ishangi served as a spiritual leader, performing artist, and educator. He was as much a dancer as he was a drummer excelling in both disciplines.  Baba Ishangi had a major influence on the development of most of the cultural leadership of Central Brooklyn, in particular the East Cultural Center and Dance Africa.  In losing this icon we have gained another powerful ancestor to join this year’s African ancestral orchestra, joining ranks with Nina Simone and Baba Olatunji.  Baba Ishangi was buried in Gambia; however, a memorial service is being organized here.
Randy Weston, another Brooklynite and African elder is currently serving as an Artist in Residence at NYU. He recently hosted a series of cultural events as part of this residency of which, I attended a forum on African Drums. The forum was well attended and it brought together for the first time in the same room master drummers from throughout the diaspora including the United States, Cuba and Ghana.  The panelist included Chief Bey, Abraham Adzenyah, Candido, Dr. Joe Gaines, Danny Dawson, and Randy Weston. Neil Clarke, a panelist, needs to be acknowledged for his work in coordinating this event.  It was the first that I have ever attended an event where we heard directly from the drummers. The African drum was banned in certain parts of this country for a period of time. Drums were not allowed in certain places because the slave masters understood the power of the drum and its importance as a tool of communication. There was also some controversy surrounding Baba Olotunji development as a drummer. The panelist attempted to clarify this development however, because of concerns around how African drumming began in this country another forum will be planned in the near future to address African drumming in the United States, its origin and pioneers.
Every African child in the public school system should have access to the history of the African drum.  In the same way that drumming was forbidden in churches and public facilities has never been included the public school curriculum. In a prior article I spoke of the need to take a spiritual and cultural approach to education.  Well the drum is a cultural spiritual tool that has been taken out of the learning equation in the public schools.  We intend to put it back in.  Let’s fight for Drums in Schools and declare 2004 the Year of the African Drum.  I know some of you think I must be kidding but really I am dead serious.  The African drum is the most powerful tool we have, so let us use it.  It can be used to teach, discipline, math, culture, rhythm, history, etc.  Any educators interested in sponsoring a drum program should contact me.
2003 marks the 100th year since Dr. WEB Dubois wrote his seminal work The Souls of Black Folks where he stated that the problem of the 20th century is the color problem. As we approach 2004 we have still not addressed the color problem within the Department of Education, which has yet to acknowledge slavery as a crime against humanity. There is still no substantial dialogue or policy in place to address the issue of racism, which should be a responsibility of the school system, which faces racially sensitive issues on a daily basis. African children make up more than 40% of the school system and suffer more than any other group because of this racism and because of the post-traumatic slave syndrome. Given our history the idea of African people calling each other niggers is an example of low self-esteem and self-hatred. This problem is of epidemic proportions however to date neither African educators nor ministers have collectively stepped up to address this issue.  There is no call for an African Centered Educational strategy, which, in my opinion is the only way that our children will get the intellectual development and cultural healing that they are in need of.
“Nappy Hair”, “Nigger”, “Jew Boy”, and “African” are words that have triggered mass reactions, firings and protests that have spanned over a 30-history in the New York school system.  The following are four examples of racial tension in response to these words used by educators in the New York City school system.
Recently, a white woman training a group of English teachers read from a short story, written by an African male, which she referred to the word nigger on multiple occasions.  The African Educators in the room got angry and walked out.  They are calling for her resignation while Regional Superintendent Farini says she won’t be fired.  The question is should she be fired because she is a white woman that read from a story that said nigger while we say it all the time. Also, is there a double standard for African Educators and White Educators?  I believe that there certainly is.  Finally, does the discussion need to take place and who is qualified to lead it?
1. Over 30 years ago an African educator read a poem on WBAI written by one of his students called “Jew Boy”.  He was labeled anti-Semite and his career as a brilliant educator was set back significantly.
2.  A distinguished African master teacher who had received outstanding evaluation for many years was unjustly fired because she told her students that they were Africans.  A white substitute teacher took offense to this when he asked one of her students to play the role of a thief.  The student refused and informed the substitute that he was an African and not a thief. 
3. The African community took offense several years ago when a white teacher read the book Nappy Hair written by an African author.  Our community hosted rallies and demonstrations demanding that this teacher be fired and demanding our apology.
Someone needs to call a conference or host a weekend retreat to deal with the impact of racism in New York City schools. The current reform effort fails to address the issue of racism subsequently continues the perpetuation of the post-traumatic slave syndrome.  We cannot continue to cover-up this festering wound.  It needs to be healed.
The Center for Law and Justice hosted a conference at Medgar Evers College calling for a People’s Education Commission.  This commission will monitor the affairs of the Department of Education as well as establishing an educational agenda.  The People’s Commission will hopefully give a voice to communities that are currently voiceless.  Congressman Owens, City Council members Barron, Clarke and Vann were all in attendance and appeared to be supportive.  Education Activist Michael Hooper, Jitu Weusi, Agnes Greene and Basir McHaw were also supportive.  Our Brother Sam Anderson should be commended for keeping us all of this updated of the changes in the system and for coordinating this event.  Let’s continue to build, stay spiritual and let’s spark the African genius.

The Internet & New Media
By Akosua Kathryn Albritton
Ebooks
Do you notice people reading from their Pocket PC devices-they look like sophisticated Gameboys?  Depending on the part of New York you are in, Pocket PCs are either everywhere-on the subway, in the park, at the laundry or at the outdoor bistro-or nowhere.  What people are doing is “e-Reading” their “e-Books”.  The words found in a hard or soft cover book are digitally converted to bits and bytes so that consumers can download them into the Pocket PC from the Internet.  They take up little memory space so a consumer may have dozens of titles in her purse.  Talk about a revolution on top of a revolution: First, e-Commerce facilitates purchasing over the Internet by securing sales transactions and now, books and images are securely transmitted from producer to consumer over the Internet.  Do engineers and marketers ever rest their inventive minds?
The issue of key importance is copyright protection.  How do you stop people from distributing free copies of the book or reselling the book or making modifications of the text?  E-Books are encrypted before transmission and the purchaser has software that proves their identity and reassembles the bits into readable form.  The purchaser won’t be able to make a copy of the e-Book and give to another person because the sale was made to a particular consumer to be downloaded into a particular device.  Similar PDF or “Read-Only”, the buyer won’t be able to modify the eBook.
E-Books are an emerging industry.  In three years, the International Ebook Association was formed to oversee its development.  Microsoft is emerging as the leader of the pack.  Microsoft developed Microsoft Digital Asset Server or “DAS.”  DAS copyright protects, does content key storage, authenticates the consumer and ensures the privacy of the consumer during the transmission.  A consumer needs only download and activate MS Reader.  Microsoft explains that activation is a registration process that identifies your computer as yours alone.  It is required to purchase and read digitally secured MS Reader e-Book titles.
Starting in 2000, corporations like Palm, MobiPocket and Microsoft advanced on the technology of PDF to e-Books.  Back then; the focus was on the Pocket PC.  People loved it and in 2000, 4 million copies of MS Reader alone were distributed.  In 2003, registered and activated MS Reader owners may read an eBook across platforms, meaning read on Microsoft Tablet, PC, laptop, or a Pocket PC device.  To make this happen, Microsoft did its usual partnering with smaller firms that specialize in one of the following areas: digital conversion and imaging, content management, hosting, storage or print-on-demand, copyright protection and encrypted distribution of eBooks.  This sounds technical but in a nutshell, it’s the proverbial “no ticket- no laundry” concept.
E-Books present, a great opportunity for writers to sell direct to the consumer.  It’s possible to write your manuscript, convert it and post it to your Website or to a publisher’s Web-site.  The writer must still do meticulous proofing, editing and learn online marketing techniques.  To get details on how to crack the e-Book field, visit ebooksnbytes.com, ebooks123.com, ebookmagic4U.com or Microsoft.com/reader.  To see the numerous titles that are available as e-Books visit xdrive.com, nextag.com, emedia-traders.com, fictionwise.com, netlibrary.com or Amazon.com.
Question and Answer
Q: When using my color ink cartridge, I don’t get the color I selected.  For example, I may select brown, but what prints out is orange.  What do I have to do get the color that I want?
A: This to may indicate that you’ve used all of one color in the color ink cartridge.  The spectrum of colors is made from three basic colors: red, blue and yellow.  The color ink cartridge is larger than the black ink cartridge because it holds three chambers for these three colors.  If in past printing you’ve used a color that relied heavily on one color to produce the desired color, that chamber within the color ink cartridge is consumed.  If you have an ink monitor, it will not show the individual ink levels within the color ink cartridge.  Rather, it gives the total fluid left in that cartridge.  Using your example of selecting brown but getting orange, this probably indicates that you’ve consumed much of your blue.  You need red, yellow and blue to make brown.  Red and yellow make orange.
Have a technical question, visited a great Web-site or know of a technology breakthrough?  e-mail me at akos_a@juno.com

By Eric Adams
President of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care    
It Takes a Village to Support a Mother
in a Fatherless Family
Eleven year-old Sandra recalled watching her mother leave their modest home in South Jamaica, Queens, to travel across town to her evening job that consisted of cleaning medical offices. Her mother would routinely turn around as she exited the gate and reminded Sandra not to open the door for any strangers. Sandra nodded in agreement to the all too familiar instruction, that she received from her mother. She and her other five younger siblings, ages 10 to 3, would stare out the window until their mother would fade from view in the night darkness. This nightly ritual was part of the awesome load that young Sandra had to carry as a child. She reminded me of those days when she called and shared her concern for Mrs. Kim Brathwaite, the Brooklyn mother who lost her two children, 9-year-old Justina and 1-year-old Justin, in a Brooklyn fire. Sandra told me during our phone conversation that she and I knew all too well the difficult decisions that a mother has to make in providing for a fatherless family.
The reality of the moment struck me and I quickly recalled the many days of looking out the window and wishing my mother did not have to leave on those cold and dangerous nights. If my oldest sister Sandra did not sacrifice her childhood to embrace the nightly duties of surrogate motherhood, I don’t know where our family would have ended up. Each one of us had to also take upon the dual roles of being a child and a responsible individual. In Sandra’s absences, the next child in age order would take over the leadership role. We all knew our tasks. Although many would look at my mother’s actions and retrospectively state that she jeopardized her children’s safety, I know a different story. And it does not start with child endangerment. The story begins with the fact that as a first-generation New Yorker from the corn fields of Cecil, Alabama, mother brought with her many southern values. They included the normal chore of an older sibling assuming part of the supervisory task of taking care of their younger brother or sister.
This form of family values was also prevalent for those in our community that come, from the West Indies, Central America, South America and other areas of the globe where the culture embracing the concept of childhood roles include, sharing the responsibility of raising younger siblings. The only difference between then and now is the role of the community in the equation.
The absence of community participation should be part of our dialogue when we discuss what Mrs. Brathwaite did correctly or incorrectly. If this is not done, then we are failing to acknowledge the important role that the community support mechanism plays in this entire scenario.
Community involvement was not omitted from the family environment. We knew as children that if a problem occurred in the home, we could go to anyone of our many supporting neighbors to get assistance. If help was not there, then we could call any member of our small store front church to get emergency assistance. All of these phone numbers were readily available for our use.
It appears that somewhere along the line this support system has been regulated to wishful conversation. The countless number of times that we hear those in and outside our community talk about “It takes a village to raise a child.” The death of young Justina and Justin must inspire those words to become a reality. We can start by using our houses of worship to screen young students who are looking for part time work and pair them up with a system of emergency day care service. Senior citizen centers that housed capable women and men who successfully raised families can be used to field telephone calls from those young parents that are having emotional difficulties. The ideas are endless and there are many grants that are available to help fund these endeavors. In cases where the funds are not readily available then we must find it within our own excess. This is what our organization has done for the last 11 years as we donated 12,000.00 annually to small community causes.
This case is now in the hands of the Kings County District Attorney’s office. They have the awesome task of balancing between setting the tone of zero tolerance for child abuse/neglect and understanding the difficult decisions that a parent must make in a one parent household. I know the Assistant District Attorney that is in charge of the District Attorney’s office Crimes Against Children Bureau. The Bureau Chief Ama Dwimoh is a compassionate competent professional that takes her job serious. I believe that she would do what is best for all parties involved. Now it is time for us as a community to do the same.

By Iris Hoskins
Broadband Realty opened a few months ago and Irsa Greene, owner and founder, already has a  number of satisfied clients on her list. Located in Bedford- Stuyvesant, she educates and informs people from  Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan on how to invest in homes.
Irsa and her staff of eight people are there to help people prepare for all of the do’s and don’ts in buying and selling homes. They are able to offer service in areas including: consulting, property evaluations, property management, maintenance, financial, tenant relations / communications, mortgages, special programs and notary public.

Irsa’s education and background in marketing, architecture and interior design along with her three-years experience working in a major realty company, has given her the edge she needs with her competitors.  “She brings a lot of knowledge to the table,” said client Bryon Rumph, a project manager who bought a home through Greene and now lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.  
“It is not always about getting a house,” said Greene, “sometimes it is about helping people design a plan.”  Beverly Dunn, speech language pathologist, experienced first hand what making plans with Greene consists of.  With the price range and the location Dunn wanted, Greene knew Ms. Dunn would not be able to afford a house in the community she preferred.
Greene suggested buying a house in another area or buying a condo or co-op in the community she wanted to live in. Now Dunn is happy living in her co-op in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. She is enjoying her neighbors and has a five-year plan for something better.
Getting the best results is something Greene is known for. Keith Bishop was able to get a buyer within three weeks at the price he wanted, Phelik Dadaille house was sold the weekend that it was displayed on the Bedford Stuyvesant  Open House tour. “She works promptly in getting property advertised, ” said Evette Simons.
Greene’s continue success stories have been passed through word of mouth and she has been the talk of the community and quickly becoming the talk in real estate. She gives credit for her success, to her ability to serve people. No matter who walks in her office they can feel like they are gaining something. Knowledge about real estate, a home or and investment. She does not discriminate, a problem she knows exists in real estate and one of the reasons she decided to open her own company. Now she is serving hundreds of clients offering a range from section 8 apartments to $550,000 homes. “It’s about servicing the community, it’s our mandate to make sure that our clients achieve their goals,” Greene said.
Broadband Realty
801 Halsey Street
Brooklyn, NY 11233
Contact person: Irsa Greene
(Phone) 718-443-2255 (Fax) 718-443-4363.
www.broadbandrealty.biz/mortgage.htm