Word AID’s Day 2009

Until their is a cure, all of us are affected.

With Aids many things are hidden. It is a disease of whispers and shadows. Ruled by a rough, ruthless life, it’s victims do not say what is on their minds. I (among others) try to give glimpses into their lives, half-heard, often unclear conversations. “I can see in your faces how different you are from those who aren’t affected,” I said to a victim. It’s been over 3-years now since I’ve decided to educate people on the disease. “When you talk freely, your heart is cleansed. If you can’t your heart is closed.” I have chosen to learn about the disease directly from HIV/AID’s affected victims through talking to them directly. I speak privately to these people and educate those who want to know more, know very little, or nothing at all.

33 Million people worldwide have HIV and most of them say that they “cannot enjoy the freedoms that most people can.”

Orphan Epidemic: Some 2.5 million children have watched at least one parent die from HIV/AIDS. But for all of this week’s talk, there is little focus on the plight of orphans.

I first became interested in the topic of HIV when (a then) 21- year old young lady told her story of when she was just 9 years old and her father was diagnosed with HIV. She didn’t really understand what it was back then, but figured it must have been bad. Since her neighbors and relatives refused to go near her father. She told of how money began to dry up because of his health-care costs and how he slowly wasted away from a disease he refused to speak about.
This young lady spoke to me about how she had no one to turn to and how the fallout was shattering. She spoke on how she was suicidal and how she thought about it EVERY DAY, And thought that if she were dead she wouldn’t have to face the fact that her father was dieing of something that she wasn’t able to speak about!
This now 25-year-old young lady now runs AIDS prevention outreach programs for her country’s health ministry, where she often goes to communities and meets with children who, like her, lost one or both parents to AIDS/HIV.

It is said that there are 2.5 million children orphaned by AIDS, and by 2010, it’s estimated that that number will grow to at least 2.8 million.

Since there hasn’t been much talk about the traumatic amount of stress that children around the world face with this issue. I try to exhibit them. It’s hard to think of a little child having to go through something like that and worse…
I think that when you look at the issues that affect orphans and vulnerable children, your dealing with an entire lifetime right there.

I don’t think that it’s right that ANYONE feels that because they have AIDS/HIV that there different from anybody else or can’t enjoy “freedoms”. Love itself is a disease and I wouldn’t look at anyone who has it any differently than I look at someone who does have it!… I think that we should all be able to speak freely about AID’s
The only way right now to slow it down since there is no cure (YET) is to speak about it, Be open about it, But proud about it if you have it, and just be careful if/when you chose to have sex.

How can you contribute in raising awareness about AIDS?

• Find out facts about HIV and talk to your friends, family and colleagues about HIV- make sure they know the reality, not the myths.
• Know your HIV status: get tested if you have put yourself at risk.
• Talk to all new sexual partners about using condoms. Using a condom during sex is the best way to protect yourself and your partner from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
• If someone tells you they are HIV positive, treat them with respect and don’t tell others without their agreement.
• Wear a red ribbon as a symbol of your support for everyone affected by HIV< and to raise awareness.

Don’t be discouraged…

suc·cess
The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted.

Don’t be discouraged if people try to talk you out of living your dreams.

Some history on Darfur

Does it matter what we call it? Genocide or Erasure of a ‘country of the blacks’ 

Imagine the Gods of history looking down on us all after our failure of protecting millions of innocent human lives from their own governments, and imagine them saying to us “well give you another chance, but this time so as to be sure you get it right we’ll do it in slow motion and we’ll call it Darfur.”

More than 2,000,000 lives hanging by a thread, abandoned by their government, attacked by brutal militias. My interest took me through a lot of research and here I am along with all those others raising awareness to save those before their is nothing left to save. I believe that if people knew what was happening that they would do something about it. But because of the geography of the region and the resistance of the Sudanese government it makes it difficult to report on the violence in Darfur, but the occasional story does get out.

Make no mistake, this isn’t the first Genocide, but it is the first Genocide of the 21st century and if it continues unchecked it will not be the last. April 1994 the world thought they had learned a lesson in Rwanda when 800,000 people were killed in 100 days. But when it happened again, the world just sat back and watched as 400,000 people got killed, 2,500,000 people lost their homes, 1,000,000 close to death from lack of food and from disease in Darfur. 500 people continue to die each day. Most killed by the Sudanese governments militia the Janjaweed.

In early 2003 the Sudanese had completed the settlement of a large civil war between the North and the South, dividing in the settlement was the oil wealth and positions in a new government and for a Darfur neglected region they were left out, they said “we weren’t even at the table,” and they began a rebellion to gain access to both power and wealth.

It’s genocide when little children cry because belligerent armed men intimidate them, intimidate their family and ultimately run them off; they scare the people away, poison their wells, rape their women and make them leave.

The Darfur villages have become caught in the cross fire of a struggle between the Sudanese government and rebel forces. Hundreds of thousands have been forced off their lands reduced only to the basics of existence in refugee camps. 

These people only have a fragment of the human rights of a normal human being. When one ask five years in “why is Darfur being left to it’s own devices?, 

 

Why are all of those people simply being fed and not protected and not being returned to their home?” The answer is everyone wants them to be safe, but nobody wants to make them safe. (The dots on the map represent the villages that were destroyed)

RATED NEXT: James Morrison

James Morrison
Interscope Records
Undiscovered
☆☆☆☆☆

Why this album was never heard by almost all of North America remains one of the great mysteries of major-label decision making. Long awaited, Undiscovered captures the melodic genius James Morrison; who invites comparisons to John Mayer and James Blunt, recording what is unequivocally from beginning to end, an undeniable profound debut album.
The emotions in these songs is as clearly visible as the green t-shirt Morrison wears on the album cover.
“I’ve been twisting and turning in a space that’s too small” a forlorn James Morrison sings on the track from his debut album. “Well I can’t explain why it’s not enough” The stripped-bare, acoustic song sets the tone for an album in which an emotionally naked Morrison packs bizarre metaphors.

James Morrison has “success story” written all over him, the British singer-songwriter went on to sell over 3 million copies of his debut, and gained the first Platinum Europe Award. The hit single was the ‘harsh love song’ “You Give Me Something,” but there’s impressive variety here: contemplative ballads (“Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore“), impressionistic epics (“The Last Goodbye”) and a great paean (“Better Man”), written in style that resembles Stevie Wonder – and that is what makes the album unforgettable.

James Morrison sounds like a star, not an aspirant ready for their money shot.

RAPHAEL SAADIQ “The Way I See It” -Album Review

RAPHAEL SAADIQ
Columbia Records
The Way I See It

☆  ☆ ½

Though he’s often labeled as a singer, songwriter, musician, producer and arranger, Raphael Saadiq is talented period. In the late eighties/early nineties this California native was the lead vocalist and bass player for one of the number one groups in America; Tony! Toni! Tone! While it’s obvious that most of Raphael’s charm lies in his production skills, this award winning producer has produced hits for such artists as Joss Stone, The Roots, Snoop Dogg, John Legend, Keisha Cole and many others. He was also the same person who created the “super group” Lucy Pearl, with En Vogue’s Dawn Robinson and A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

Now, after four years and on his third solo album and first for Sony BMG, Raphael Saadiq said that The Way I See It” is “the culmination of a lifetime of experiences informed by the music I grew up on.” It took him four months to record the album in his LA studio. His inspiration to make this album you ask? Well, it came while he was vacationing in Costa Rica and the Bahamas; he noticed that everybody was listening to classic 60’s and 70’s soul music and when he had gotten back home “the music for this album flowed organically, naturally.”

Check out “Staying In Love,” his ode to his ex-lover: “You know I love/the way you hold my heart/I tell all the girls don’t even try.” You can also catch Joss Stone on :Just One Kiss,” And on “Let’s Take A Walk” he embraces his freaky side: “This place is crowded/Don’t know bout’ you/I need some sex/Some sex with you…” 

“The Way I See It” hits stores September 16th

RATED NEXT: Karina Pasian

Karina Pasian
First Love
Def Jam
☆  ☆  ☆  ☆  ☆

For anyone who can’t remember the last time they listened to a whole album without skipping a track or feel as if record deals are being given away, help has arrived.

New York born singer Karina Pasian is offering an astonishing perfect debut album entitled “First Love,” arriving in stores August 19th. “It’s taking a look at the world from the point of view of a 16-year-old,” she says. Musical savvy than most her age Karina’s album is truthful, funky and real. Taking you though a range of emotions this is truly one of the finest debut discs in years that will make fans of golden-age music crack a smile.          

Karina has been compared to Alicia Keys, and has worked with some of the biggest names to produce her debut album, including: Gordon Chambers, Carlos McKinney, Lil Mama (who duets on “Baby Baby”), and The Dream and Tricky Stewart, who’s best known for their work with Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Madonna’s “Me Against the Music”.

The first single released was “16 @ War,” while sounds like nothing else on the radio, it describes a scene in which “ain’t no daddy’s where I’m from just mad mothers.” More than half of the album’s tracks are relatable, while others just make you want to get up and dance. If you’ve never heard about Karina Pasian before, you better get familiar.

Powerful Cyclone Hits Myanmar

 

A devastating cyclone struck on May 3, 2008 in Myanmar leaving an estimated (what is said to now be) 100,000 people dead and up to two million in need of aid. Cyclone Nargis has destroyed thousands of homes and affected those already living in poor conditions.

Many organizations are in on the ground in Myanmar, working with the national government, to distribute clothing, blankets, food and emergency shelter material to those in the hardest hit areas. Thousands have lost their homes and are in need of assistance.

Most of the organizations are appealing to Canadians in an effort to raise $3 million. Your generous gift will help provide shelter, clean water, food and emergency supplies to the people of Myanmar.

Listed below are just some of the organizations that you can donate to:

Red Cross
Foster Parents Plan
Word Vision

PLEASE DONATE NOW!

41st TORONTO CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL (CARIBANA) FESTIVAL

It began as the Toronto Caribbean community’s salute to Canada’s Centennial year. Now in its second millennium, its fifth decade and its 41st year, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana) Festival is one of North America’s greatest celebrations, attracting an estimated 1.2 million participants annually. Rooted in Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, it has become an international festival where you experience Jamaican reggae, Brazilian samba or African djembe rhythms alongside Latin salsa, Haitian zouk or urban sounds, all blended with calypso and soca vibes.

***Saturday August 2nd is the best day to turn out

Official CARIBANA 2008 Schedule

Luminat’eau: Carnival H2O (formerly “Carnivalissima”)
Friday June 13 – Sunday June 15, 2008; Noon – 6:00 p.m.
Harbourfront Centre
Luminato month long event closing at Harbourfront.

Calypso Tents Music Series
Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays from June 13 – July 13, 2008; 8:00 p.m. – Midnight
De Great Iron Pot, 55 Nugget Avenue, Scarborough Calypso City, 25 Cecil Street, Toronto
This is an exciting annual showcase of Canada’s best Calypso and Soca original music for the Caribana Festival. The series runs three nights each week (Friday Sunday) at various venues in Toronto, each night featuring a different cast of singers and ‘live’ bands performing Calypso in its best storytelling tradition: social and political commentary, humor and wit.

Scotiabank CARIBANA™ Official Launch
Nathan Phillips Square, City Hall
Tuesday July 15, 2008; Noon – 2:00 pm
This official ceremony launches the activities for the 2008 Caribana Festival Season. Patrons can meet and mingle with Federal, Provincial and Municipal officials, Caribana representatives and sponsors while sampling Caribbean and international cuisine. It is a snapshot of what’s in store over the coming weeks.

Scotiabank CARIBANA™ Junior Carnival
Shoreham Drive Yorkgate Mall
Saturday, July 19, 2008; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Junior Carnival provides festival-goers and the surrounding community the opportunity to experience the thrills and joys as young masqueraders participate in their early festival years

Roots to Rhythm – Art Exhibition
Royal Ontario Museum
Thursday July 24 – Monday Aug 4, 2008; Noon – 9:00 pm
A Visual Art Exhibition – COLOURblind International – ‘Roots to Rhythm’ produced by the Association of African Canadian Artists. An intriguing collection of over 60 works that have been influenced by our journey.

Scotiabank CARIBANA™ Caribana Gala
Liberty Grand – Exhibition Place
Friday July 25, 2008; 7:00 pm – 1:00 am
An elegant evening of style and glamour, celebrating Caribana and paying tribute to its pioneers. Proceeds from this event will be directed to a Caribana Foundation.

‘Kaiso 365′ Calypso Monarch Finals
Leah Posluns Theatre, 4588 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Saturday July 26, 2008; 8:00 pm – 1:00 am
This is where the Calypso Monarch is crowned. Come and see the best and biggest Canadian Calypsonians battle for the crown. From the topical to the lyrical, the sweet Soca rhythms will lift you out of your seat and get you moving.

King & Queen Show
Lamport Stadium
Thursday July 31, 2008; 7:00 pm – Midnight
On the Thursday evening before Caribana Day the Kings and Queens of the Bands meet to do battle. Like peacocks they will primp and preen, eliciting “oohs” and “aahs” from the audience. It is an honour for any participant to be enthroned the King or Queen of Scotiabank Caribana 2008. The King and Queen symbolically have the keys to the city, freedom of the streets. Their movements are supposed to be uninhibited. Band members and onlookers alike are to give them the respect, even if mockingly, usually accorded to real-life royalty

Pan Alive
Lamport Stadium
Friday August 1, 2008; 7:00 pm – Midnight
A thrilling evening showcasing the musical and tonal qualities of the steelpan as members of the Ontario Steelband Association compete before a panel of judges. This Panorama of the North is the biggest opportunity to hear this wonderful instrument in all its glory. The evening is devoted entirely to the capturing rhythms of the steelpan.

Scotiabank CARIBANA™ Parade
Exhibition Place (Lake Shore Blvd)
Saturday August 2, 2008; 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
This showcase event features an incredible display of colour and pageantry, commencing at Exhibition Place and proceeding west along Lake Shore Boulevard. Exhibition Place and Lake Shore Boulevard will come alive with the sights and sounds of Carnival!

De CARIBANA™ Lime — Island Festival
Olympic Island
Sunday August 3, 2008; 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
This event features a full day of performances from a variety of artistes, highlighting the diverse cultures of all the Caribbean people. Activities include a food competition, song, dance, theatrical drama and storytelling.

HOW TO BE CONFIDENT

People spend far too much time trying to figure out what other people are thinking of them. They tend to forget one very basic fact:

people are social creatures, and as such, they’re always trying to figure out what everyone else thinks about you so they can decide if they themselves like you or not! If other people seem to like you, they’ll assume the other people have a good reason, and they’ll go along with it. Here are some easy ways to ‘trick’ people into liking you:

1) Act confident. Even if you sometimes aren’t really feeling it, act (without being an arrogant asshole) like you feel great about yourself. Although I’m insecure I don’t ever come off as someone who is. So don’t fret about minor inconveniences, don’t get embarrassed about things that happen to everyone, don’t stress out when people see you make a mistake. Chances are, they’re all worried about the same things day-to-day, and if you make them feel more comfortable by not worrying, they’ll relax and enjoy your company more. Just c h i l l o u t . . . relax, do whatever feels natural, and enjoy yourself. Besides, if you fake it long enough, you might actually start to really feel more confident!

2) Don’t freak out over things other people do. You can’t be relaxed and confident and then start howling with laughter when someone else trips and drops their lunch all over themselves. It’s hard to balance being a jerk with being low-key, since jerks tend to put way too much effort into adding social distance between themselves and the person they’re making miserable. Besides, why would you want to be a jerk anyways? You can be nice to everyone and still be yourself and relaxed– if you’re confident, are you really going to care if someone snickers because you’re being nice to the biggest loser in the school? Hell no! You’re just doing your thing, and who cares what they think.

3) Always be true to yourself. It sounds like a Celine Dion song, but keep an ear out for your own thoughts and feelings. Are you really feeling okay about certain things? What would make you the most comfortable? What do you really want? There’s no point in walking around acting like you think one thing if you really feel completely the opposite. This sounds like a contradiction with all I’ve said so far– why tell you to act like you’re confident when you don’t think you are, then tell you not to do things that you aren’t?– but remember that confidence isn’t who you are, it’s how you project who you are. You already know if you’re an anime geek, a football-obsessed sports nut, a nihilistic. In high school everyone-Thought-I-Had-The-Perfect-Life-When-Really-I carried the weight of the world on my shoulders… confidence is your body language and your attitude saying,‘This is who I am, and I’m okay with that.’ Don’t forget that one basic fact: if you act like it’s true, people will generally believe it! No 17-year-old who’s been beaten down by peers for years and years will act confident, right? People will assume that other people have treated you well because they liked you, and that is the reason why you are so confident.

There’s just one side effect: it may be catching, and you may find yourself with a chronic case of Feeling Better About Things.

This is the one thing I wish I had told everyone when I was in high school.

-GOODNIGHT!!!

Excerpts from “The Confession,”

“The closet starves a man, and when he gets a chance he gorges till it sickens him,”

New York magazine published excerpts from “The Confession,” an autobiography by former Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey, who resigned from office in 2004 after saying he had had a gay affair with Golan Cipel, an Israeli national whom he appointed as the state’s homeland security adviser.

“nauthenticity is endemic in American politics today. The political backrooms where I spent much of my career were just as benighted as my personal life, equally crowded with shadowy strangers and compromises, truths I hoped to deny. I lived not in one closet but in many.

Ironically, the dividing experience of my sexuality helped me thrive in that environment. As I climbed the electoral ladder — from state assemblyman to mayor of Woodbridge and finally to governor of New Jersey — political compromises came easy to me because I’d learned how to keep a part of myself innocent of them. I kept a steel wall around my moral and sexual instincts — protecting them, I thought, from the threats of the real world. This gave me a tremendous advantage in politics, if not in my soul. The true me, my spiritual core, slipped further and further from reach.

There were moments when the ripping misery of this life became too great, moments when I thought about “becoming gay” and all that that entails. One of these moments came after I lost my first race for governor to Christine Todd Whitman in 1997. I thought to myself: You’re at a fork in the road. You could give this up and be yourself. This is your last chance. But I felt compelled to keep running for governor.

I craved love. For years sex had been all that was available to me. From the time in high school when I made up my mind to behave in public as though I were straight, I nonetheless carried on sexually with men. I visited bookstores in New York and New Jersey and had sex in the small booths there until I became too famous to risk discovery. I lurked around parkway rest stops, exchanging false names and intimacies with strangers. But there never was an emotional meaning to these trysts, even the few that were repeat engagements.

The only place where I had ever found any real pleasure in these encounters was in Washington, during my law-school years. At the juncture of Sixth and I Streets, just around the corner from Judiciary Square, there was an abandoned synagogue and a narrow alley leading to the long-forgotten gardens in back. Every night, rain or shine, this hidden pocket of Washington filled with men just like me — almost all of them wearing business suits and, on most of their left hands, proof that they’d made the same compromises I had. We were the power brokers and backroom operatives and future leaders of America. We just happened to be gay.

I felt as though I’d come upon a sanctuary — it was a churchlike, almost spiritual place.

Moonlight squinted through the stained-glass windows into our garden, catching an inviting eye or a face stretched in ecstasy. I looked forward to my visits there, sometimes two or three a week. I quickly learned whom to approach and whose advance to wait for, when to move quickly, which posture said “no thanks” and which said “please.” One evening, as I stood on one of the metal platforms back there, a word came to me: liberated. Standing there in full sight of this group of men, I’d finally found a way to show who I was. I am finally free, I told myself. When of course I was just in a bigger cage.

How do you live with such shame? How do you accommodate your own revulsion with whom you have become? You do it by splitting in two. You rescue part of yourself, the half that stands for tradition and values and America, the part that looks like the family you came from, the part that is acceptably true. And you walk away from the other half the way you would abandon something spoiled. You take less and less responsibility for the abandoned half, until it seems to take on a life of its own — to become something you merely observe. And when you’re on the other side, in the shrubbery or behind the synagogue, you no longer recognize your decent self. Years later I realized I’d become both Gene and Phineas from “A Separate Peace”: the soul and the body, the person who tumbled from the tree and the person who made him fall.

An intense and inevitable thing happens after you win a big election. The jostling for power is wild. Republicans had controlled the governor’s mansion for sixteen of the past twenty years, and now we were overwhelmed by pressure to bring Democrats and their supporters in from the cold.

All my financial contributors were vying for payback as well. My goal had been to raise $40 million for the campaign, which, unless you’re a Clinton or a Bush, is an obscene amount to pull out of pockets. You can’t take large sums of money from people without making them specific and personal promises in return. People weren’t shy about saying what they expected for their “investments” — board appointments to the Sports Authority or the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, for example, which were coveted not just for their prestige but because they offered control over tremendously potent economic engines, with discretionary budgets in the tens of millions. The plum was the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; directors there controlled a multibillion-dollar budget. I tried to stay as naïve about this horse trading as possible. But I allowed my staff to intimate things to donors. This is the daredevil’s dance every politician faces.

Some appointments drew quick criticism.

Republicans were all over my decision to appoint Charlie Kushner, who with his family and business had donated more than $1 million to my campaigns, to the board of the Port Authority.

They complained it was political payback, but that was wrong. Kushner refused my appointment three times before finally accepting.

I think Golan expected me to end up in the White House. Maybe that’s what he loved about me — my potential to bring him to Washington. If he was using me as the engine driving his own ambition, I didn’t mind. I liked seeing myself reflected in his eyes.

One afternoon in May, after a meeting at Drumthwacket, Golan stayed behind in the rather uncomfortable library on the first floor as the other state officials left. Dina was upstairs with Jacqueline. I looped through the kitchen and dismissed the cook and building manager, returning to the library with two cups of tea.

Behind the library was a more intimate study, a small room lined with historic books and oil paintings.

Golan was frustrated. He felt that I was freezing him out of my inner circle. It had been weeks since we’d seen each other.

“Of course, I want to be with you — selfishly,” I told him. “But my time is fully regulated now. The scheduling process is brutal.”

I closed the blinds. We kissed. There was a feeling of doom, as if we both knew this was the end. The thought made me crazy.

“I love you, Golan,” I said. “You make me so happy. I’ve never, you know … ” He looked so sad just then; I knew he understood.

“I could leave all this behind. I could leave the governor’s office and the career in politics. I would. I would leave it all for you if you told me we’d be together forever.”

He seemed shocked. “Do you mean that?” he asked.

I did mean it. But looking into his eyes I could see that life ever after was not a possibility.

He was not willing to walk into the sunlight with me if it meant walking out of politics. He was like me that way — desperately wanting two things that could never fit together.

“Yes,” I answered.

He didn’t reply.

Although we never said a word about it, we both knew this was the end of our affair.

“You said you’d give it all up for me,” he threw back at me.

“Golan, I said I’d give it all up if you were with me. If we’re together as two individuals in love, that makes sense. But I’m not surrendering government for the sake of your job.”

In August, he finally agreed to resign. But almost immediately he began demanding his job back. He found me on my cell phone at all hours, interrupting everything from daybreak trips to the gym to late-night dinners with Drumthwacket staffers. He felt tricked into quitting, he said. I sometimes thought his desperate sadness was about losing me, about losing our love. But that was just self-flattery. I think he hated losing access to power.

If my relief at finally coming out made me momentarily ebullient, I soon sank into an agonizing depression. A week before the press conference I had enjoyed a relevance and influence. Now I was trivial and inconsequential.”