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View From Here: Once again New York was a target of a terror attack…

David Mark Greaves
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View From Here: Once again New York was a target of a terror attack…
 Terror Attack in NY

Business Spotlight on We Define IT

Akosua Albritton
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Business Spotlight on We Define IT

By Akosua K. Albritton

Osayande Angaza is CEO and Lead Consultant for We Define IT, a managed technology services organization that started operations in 2007. It is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY and has clients located throughout the United States, Canada, Bermuda and Jamaica. The customer base includes schools, churches, law firms and households.

The business accomplishes serving its clientele through remote access. “Ninety-five (95%) percent of our work is done remotely. We give 24/7 service coverage across time zones,” explains Angaza. This technology company offers computer equipment, ongoing maintenance, professional computer security against viruses and malware and cloud backup. The current lethal attacker of computers and handheld devices is ransomware.

 

“How ransomware operates is by disguising itself as e-mail. Someone will unwittingly open the mail, then the PC is held hostage by encrypting all files on the PC.  The ransom fee will be either in the form of BitCoin (a cryptocurrency) or some prepaid card. Some cards can be loaded up to $500 to $1,000. Some ransomware attackers have been able to get $20,000 from hospitals and even Fedex.”

We Define IT has software that can circumvent the hostile takeover. If this company can install its proprietary malware and virus protection into clients’ computer systems before the attack, recovery involves restoring to the last backup and “taking a signature”. This means taking a piece of the virus and inputting it into the company’s database. Like other malicious software, ransomware is frequently being rewritten.

The reality of remote servicing reduces the firm’s costs and makes its billing affordable to its business, institutional and residential clients. The firm does on-site work as well.

The proprietary software also guards against objectionable websites. The PCs have parental controls. However, there is a tendency for teens and young adults to know more about technology than their parents. This knowledge difference can serve as a healthy challenge to parents to get current on handheld devices and computers.

We Define IT is a company of ten people. The CEO stays in the teaching mode because people will be with the organization to learn and improve skill sets. Later, many move on to other jobs. It appears the CEO is amenable to the change in staffing. At the time of this interview, three to four staff members were being trained and attending NYC College of Technology.

Rather than hire computer geeks that must be taught customer service, they hire people with “people skills” already and then train them in the technology. Angaza’s hiring rationale is that he wants “his team to think of the customers as your mother”. This approach engenders rapport. Further, this business will help customers to master word processing, desktop publishing and database management. “Most people don’t have the experience that We Define IT gives to our customers.”

Angaza is looking at the bottom line as well. His small business clientele ranges from a company of one to 1,000, though “most fall within 100 seats or less. The key product offered is Proactive Maintenance. As the name suggests, this business does not wait for clients to call about a system horror. Rather, the product searches for big and small glitches in operation and then fixes them. Discounts are offered to nonprofits, religious and educational institutions. So, it appears We Define IT seeks a balance between business viability and capacity-building for the community”.

The conversation closed by discussing the concept of The Internet of Things (IOT) and suggested career focuses. IOT is the fact that the Internet is not only accessed via PCs and handheld devices but through prescription bottle caps, stoves, refrigerators and televisions. Cyber security is needed due to the invasive technology found in these household appliances. For example, televisions can monitor rooms though it has been turned off. A bottle cap can count the number of turns to open and close it. Angaza suggests that people develop applications for the Web, cyber and mobile devices as well as the customer support.

BERNARD WHITE SPEAKS OUT ON BLACK NEWS IN THE ERA OF TRUMP

Editor, Our Time Press
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BERNARD WHITE SPEAKS OUT ON BLACK NEWS IN THE ERA OF TRUMP

 This Saturday, October 28  

Broadcaster Bernard White returns to NY to speak on the “Trumpout of Black News”, critical Black stories that are being ignored.  Also, CEMOTAP Co-Chair Dr. James McIntosh will join Bernard and give a report on the recent “Duty to Warn” meeting in NY and a dozen other cities in NY to discuss the next steps in the “Duty to Warn” actions of 66,000 psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health professionals who have signed a petition declaring Trump mentally unfit. Admission is free. Information: 347-907-0629

As Always, It’s the Boots on the Ground that Will Save Us 

David Mark Greaves
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As Always, It’s the Boots on the Ground that Will Save Us 

The all-encompassing addiction to money by the 1% and those who serve them is fully expressed in the reports coming out about the Republican budget proposals, that if enacted, would remove not only money, health, education and opportunity from the streets of Brooklyn, it would replace it with a future of personal pain and an environmental crisis.   

As predicted by climate change researchers, there are more hurricanes, droughts, wildfires and population relocations because of changing weather patterns.  Added to these widescreen disasters is the unnoticed collapse of insect populations that researchers have found in measuring insect population declines of 76% over a 27-year study could lead to an “ecological Armageddon” by causing cascading losses of pollinators from food for larger animals. This explains why a drive from Montreal to New York in the late 1950’s would mean many cleanings of bugs from the windshield and now you can drive for hours with few-to-no bug hits.  This is the dying future that 37% of the nation is taking us to with their unwavering support of Donald Trump. 

And there is nothing beneath him.  A proven serial and casual liar himself, he crowns his mendacity by effectively calling the grieving widow of a soldier killed in combat a liar. He has no understanding of the concept of empathy, which is particularly dangerous in a president.  Because where others recoil with horror at the thought of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in South Korea, and even a million people on the Korean Peninsula, for a person with no soul, as impossible as it is to believe, that is a fact with no emotional impact or meaning. 

It was much-touted that four-star General John Kelly, the president’s Chief of Staff, would be the head attendant in the “adult day care center” White House, as Senator Bob Corker put it, but then he told a sinful lie on Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and revealed himself as an enabler of name-calling, lying and God knows what else.  By tradition, African-Americans fall into that “what else” category and considering the white supremacist nature of this administration, we can assume that any possibility of Gen. Kelly being a moderating influence in terms of the racism now settled into the Oval Office is gone. 

With Trump working the culture war bells and whistles and providing distractions worthy of a court jester, his minion remains hard at work changing the course of the nation by populating the judiciary with nominations like that of Thomas Alvin Farr to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.  The Congressional Black Caucus has said, “It is no exaggeration to say that had the White House deliberately sought to identify an attorney in North Carolina with a more hostile record on African-American voting rights and workers’ rights… it could hardly have done so”.  

This is an example of the judges who will be ruling on voter suppression cases brought by Black and Brown petitioners, so there will be little help coming from the judicial branch.  And the Justice Department appointments show that the executive branch will not be bringing briefs in support of challenges to voting restrictions, but will rather be challenging the challengers.  Regaining control of the congressional branch of government is the only hope of preventing the continuing destruction of the country. 

Ultimately, in order to survive as Black people in America, we have to unify not just against the Republican agenda and the white supremacist nature of institutions, but around self-empowerment and action.  And this work is best done, as it has always been, by the unnamed many who organized, marched, blocked entrances, sat in, picketed, boycotted and disrupted meetings, that by their actions changed the “facts on the ground” and caused policy to change.   The aphorism, “All politics is local”, is true.   And it is the squeaking wheel of the local activists in town halls, board meetings and on legislative trips to Albany or Washington that effect changes in agendas.   

Populism that springs from an understanding of a common humanity and the potential in its development is the populism of the 1892 Omaha, Nebraska Convention of the Populist Party with a platform of direct elections by secret ballot, graduated income tax and others that are taken for granted as understood rights rather than victories that were fought for. 

Living here in the bubble of Brooklyn, we were stunned with disbelief at the election of Donald Trump.   We can only hope that the pain his policies are causing will prompt his base to erode before the next election, which is why the pushback of the Democrats is so important.  They have to slow the Trump train as much as possible and give time for the reinforcements of sanity and legislative courage to emerge. 

To that end, some are beginning to acknowledge the obvious:  The man is unfit for the office.  Republican Senator Jeff Flake says of President Trump that “The conduct in office is not acceptable,” and he joins Republican Senators Bob Corker and John McCain in decrying Trump’s behavior as “debasing” the office of the President.  “We cannot normalize this behavior.” All three senators will not be seeking reelection and although Sen. Flake says more Republicans will be speaking out, as long as Trump maintains an 80% approval with Republican voters, we will be left waiting. 

WHAT’S GOING ON

Victoria Horsford
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 AFRICA/TRUMP/BLACKS 

 What are 1000 American troops doing in Niger, fighting also the French?  And why doesn’t anyone in Congress know about this African military adventure?  Why did ambushed troops in Niger wait for more than an hour to call for help?  A few months ago, President Trump said that he would change focus of America’s foreign policy towards Africa by de-emphasizing humanitarian aid and focusing instead on military support and aid.  Military support suggests military engagement.   President Trump also said that he would assign many of the details related to foreign policy to the generals in his cabinet.   

Trump has problems with communicating truths with people of color, and has even greater problems dealing with African-American women.   How does a rational person deal with his attacks against Congresswoman Maxine Waters and more recently Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who went public with his callous, insensitive remarks to the grief-stricken African-American widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson, an American military hero who was killed in an attack in Niger, a West African country.  Trump tells the widow of her husband, “He knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyway”.  He calls the congresswoman a liar for relating the call he initiated to Mrs. Johnson and then gets his Chief of Staff, retired General John Kelly, to engage in more character assassination of Rep. Wilson.  The Trump/Wilson/Johnson episode has become rather ugly and racist, methinks.  It is spun as another episode of the white leader taking Black people to task.  When will this national nightmare – the Trump White House –  end? 

BUSINESS MATTERS 

Brian Jones is an African-American Republican and the President of the Fox Business News Network since May.  Launched 10 years ago, the Fox Business Network was dismissed as a serious ratings threat to CNBC, the long-term market leader.  Today, FBN is the number 1 business cable ratings performer.  

Hermann Colas, Jr.

Colas Construction, a Black-owned company, acquired a $27 million contract for the Oregon Convention Center, based in Portland, a city with a Black population of 6%.  Colas will serve as construction manager, general contractor for the plaza, entries and interiors project. Hermann Colas founded the company in 1997.    If this can happen in Portland, it can happen all over the US, especially in cities with larger Black populations.   

MEDIA MATTERS 

There is more bad news about Ebony/Jet magazines, where editors regularly bite the dust.  A few months ago, Ebony/Jet editor Kyra Kyles exited the company.     Ebony/Jet it is rumored owes monies to writers commissioned to do pieces for the publication, arrears spanning more than a year.   The most troubling development is that Ebony is no longer available in hard copy. The latest issue with Chadwick Boseman on the cover is only accessible digitally.   Boseman stars in the biopix, MARSHALL, about the US Supreme Court Judge.  African-Americans cannot afford to lose this iconic publication during these trying times.     

Meghan Markle

Biracial actress Meghan Markel dons the cover of October 2017 Vanity Fair magazine.   Must give credit to photographer Peter Lindbergh who captured her Black look in the spread titled “She’s Just Wild About Harry”.  I thought that it was the other way around for one of the SUIT stars, who is 36, divorced and being courted by Britain’s most eligible bachelor, Prince Harry.  Spread looks like something from the glory days of Ebony or Essence.      

ARTS/CULTURE WORLD 

FILM: Tyler Perry has a film/TV “Midas Touch”. He frequently wears many hats: producer, writer, director, actor.    His latest feature film, “BOO 2! A Madea Halloween”, was the top weekend box office grosser in the USA with receipts of $21.7 million.  “BOO 2!” is the Madea franchise’s 10th film.   Perry works as an actor with film industry colleagues.  He will play Colin Powell in a Dick Cheney biopix.      

BOOKS: THE TIES THAT BIND is a novel by Dr. Rudy Kofi Cain, a coming-of-age story set in the 40s in the American South about a young Black man who has to cope with the forces of omnipresent Jim Crow and family dysfunction.  Cain, a professor emeritus and former college administrator, has been published extensively in professional and trade journals.  A longtime resident of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, Cain wrote “Alain Leroy Locke: Race, Culture and the Education of African-American Adults”, which was the 2003 recipient of the Publisher’s Best Book Award.  

 DANCE: The American Lindy Hop Swing Competition is a landmark event now in its 20th year. The ALHC is “dedicated to the father of all swing dances, Harlem’s signature cultural dance, the Lindy Hop.”  The ALHC Convention/Competition, from October 26-29, comes to Harlem for the first time and will be held at the National Black Theater, located at 2031 Fifth Avenue, at 125th Street.  The event includes famous dance legends, dance classes, competitions, jazz and swing bands, including Glenn Crytzer’s New Yorkers, Ron Sunshine and his Orchestra, and George Gee Swing Orchestra.  [Visit   Artspectrum.org]    

PHOTOGRAPHY: The Central Library Dweck Center of the Brooklyn Public Library will host “Visually Speaking MFON and the Women Photographers of the African Diaspora”, Photographic Talk Series curated by Terrence Jennings on November 1.  The MFON co-founders Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and Delphine Fawundu will speak with Of Note magazine’s Editorial Director Grace Ali.    Event will be held at 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238 

 NEWSMAKERS 

 

FILE — Dean Baquet, currently the Washington bureau chief for The New York Times, in Washington in 2007. The New York Times announced Thursday, June 2, 2011, that Jill Abramson, a managing editor, will succeed Executive Editor Bill Keller, who is stepping down to become a full-time writer. Baquet was named a managing editor. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Who made the Vanity Fair 2017 New Establishment ranking the Top 100 innovators, moguls, titans and techies. FYI, the list is headed by Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Larry Page, Elon Musk and Robert Mueller, men who require no introduction.    Blacks who made the cut were:  Dean Baquet, NY Times Editor in Chief, the only Black in the Top 10; Dwayne Johnson, #37; Jordan Peele, comedian, director; LeBron James, #76; Beyonce Knowles, #77; Shonda Rhimes, #83; Robert F. Smith, Equity Partners, #86; Chance the Rapper, #87; and Kenya Barris, #97.  

A Harlem–based management consultant, Victoria Horsford can be reached at Victoria.horsford@aol.com. 

 

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