Zambian, ex slave of US religious businessman, tells his story

Posted on March 25, 2007 by petrel41

Zambian A Cappella Boys Choir

Zambian: ‘I was a captive choirboy’

By Rob Reynolds in Dallas

Two hundred years since slavery was abolished in Britain [no, the British trans Atlantic slave trade was abolished then], a Zambian is trying to draw attention to the modern day trade in human beings.

Captured by rogue missionaries, Given Kachepa, was brought as a boy from his home in Africa to the United States and made to sing in a choir to make money for his captors.

Now, Kachepa is a young man with a mission: to put an end to modern day slavery.

“I’ve made it a goal of mine to do anything I can to fight human trafficking”, he told Al Jazeera.

He said his message to people who don’t believe slavery still exists is “look at me”, he says.

Growing up an orphan living in crushing poverty in Zambia, Kachepa was taken to the United States at the age of 11 after his family were told that he would be given an American education while raising money for good causes.

He was part of a Zambian Boys Choir that performed for churches and Christian organizations all over the US.

Kachepa said: “We sung four to seven concerts a day, going to churches and schools, parks, any avenue we could find to sing.

“And the advertisement was we are building schools in Africa. So people were willing to give a lot of money.”

Global enterprise

The group’s organiser, an American preacher named Keith Grimes, promised the choirboys the money they raised would go to build schools and help their families in Zambia, and their educations would be paid for.

“The modern contemporary slave trade dwarfs the historic Atlantic slave trade”

Ethan Kapstein, Centre for Global Development

But it was all a lie – the money, estimated at over a million dollars, was never used for those purposes.

Kachepa said: “My family was supposed to be getting money for food, I was supposed to be getting an education in the United States and when all of those are not happening, at the age of 11, what are you supposed to do?”

Kachepa had become caught up in the modern day trans-national slave trade – a global criminal enterprise that touches virtually every country on earth.

The UN and US State Department estimate 800,000 slaves are trafficked every year.

Nelson Mandela boycotts Bristol’s slavery commemoration

Posted on March 25, 2007 by petrel41

This 9 June 2020 video from England says about itself:

Plaque dedicated to slaves taken from their homes replaces Colston statue

A makeshift cardboard plaque has been erected in Bristol reading: “This plaque is dedicated to the slaves that were taken from their homes”.

This comes after Black Lives Matter protesters toppled a statue of 17th-century slave trader, Edward Colston, before throwing it in the city’s river.

From The Independent in Britain:

Mandela boycotts Bristol’s slavery commemoration

By Kim Sengupta

Published: 25 March 2007

Nelson Mandela has boycotted plans to commemorate the bicentennial of the Act abolishing the slave trade in Bristol after hearing of bitter divisions within the community and accusations of racism and intolerance.

Mr Mandela had been invited to Bristol, once one of the busiest slave ports in Britain, by the Lord Mayor, councillor Peter Abraham, for a service of remembrance due to take place today.

But South Africa’s former president declined the invitation after local black organisations contacted him to say his presence would be seen as condoning an overwhelmingly white city council which is accused of riding roughshod over the wishes of the city’s black population.

The Consortium of Black Groups, which sent the message, plans to hold demonstrations outside the service.

Spokeswoman Hilary Banks said: “We pointed out to Mr Mandela that Bristol is not quite the liberal, multi-racial place it pretends to be.

We said that if you do come to Bristol, we’d like your visit to change the position of the black people in the city. We did not tell him not to come; that was obviously his own decision.

“We are going to hold a protest at the service because the venue is wrong for something like this.

The church in Bristol had traditionally justified slavery and benefited from it.”

St Mary’s Radcliffe is one of the landmarks of the city.

Pointing at the spire, Ms Banks continued: “Slaves were kept in dungeons under the church and there were tunnels to the dockside. That is how the church used to treat slaves.”

Another famous landmark is Colston Hall, named after Edward Colston, a merchant who made his money out of slavery.

The Bristol band Massive Attack has always refused to play there.

Black groups say a fitting way for the city to acknowledge a part of its shameful history would be to change the name, which the council has refused to do.

Painting and digital media

Posted on March 25, 2007 by petrel41

Paintings by Astrid Moors and Marja van Putten Today, in Haagweg 4 in Leiden, was the last day of an exhibition on the relationship between painting and digital media.

The exhibition was by three artists: Astrid Moors, Marja van Putten, and Arjo Rozendaal.

Digital images have obvious advantages, as in multiplying images fast, and then maybe making small individual modifications.

There were also lectures on the subject of the exhibition.

A thesis was that digital images have freed photography, similarly to the way that the rise of photography liberated painting some 150 years ago (from the “duty” of painting “realistic” (or not realistic, but idealistic) images in a time when there was no photography yet).

Digital images are not used only by artists.

For instance, Photoshop and similar programs were used in the infamous speech by then George W. Bush’s Secretary of State, Colin Powell, at the United Nations, seeking to “prove” by images the existence of non existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

There was a link to art, then, as the reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s anti war painting in the UN building was covered, as its message would have contradicted Powell’s message.

Roman and Germanic gods

Posted on March 25, 2007 by petrel41

Today, Dr Ruurd Halbertsma of the archaeological museum told about Roman and Germanic religions in what is today The Netherlands (I have to note that is still uncertain whether tribes living there in Roman times spoke Germanic or Celtic languages).

According to Halbertsma, the Roman empire was quite tolerant towards non-Roman, mainly polytheistic like themselves, religions in conquered regions.

Though it did suppress human sacrifice in regions like Carthage and Gaul.

And people had to swear allegiance to the emperor (a religious problem with Jews, and later with Christians).

There was mutual influence between Roman and Germanic religions, which expressed itself, eg, in gods with two names, a Latin and Germanic one.

An example was identifying the Batavian god Magsan with the Roman demigod Hercules, as Hercules Magusanus.

Also, gods from other Roman provinces were worshiped in The Netherlands.

Like Isis from Egypt, of whom an image was found.

Also images were found of animals sacrificed to the gods, including chicken, sheep, and dogs.

Archaeologists have found altars with inscriptions (Germanic people made practically no inscriptions before Roman times).

Like with much else in antiquity, there used to be images in bright colours in those altars.

However, these are lost now.

The goddess Nehalennia, worshiped by traders and sailors going from the Dutch province of Zealand to England, was not identified with a Roman deity.

Nevertheless, traders from all over the empire worshiped her.

The face of mock battles – images of Roman cavalry helmets from Germania Inferior (periklisdeligiannis.wordpress.com)
Roman Aqueducts (briannafelix.wordpress.com)
Time Travel – There’s an App for That; New iPad App Opens Virtual Window to World’s Best Roman Ruins (prweb.com)
Romans ‘destroyed Portus palace as barbarians approached’ (telegraph.co.uk)
Roman History Printable Resources (amyswandering.com)

Dutch nazi Ms Rost van Tonningen dies

Posted on March 25, 2007 by petrel41

Ms Rost van Tonningen celebrating her 88th birthday, 88 standing for Heil Hitler in nazi numerology

From Associated Press:

Wife of Dutch Nazi Collaborator Dies

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – The wife of one of the most prominent Dutch collaborators during the German occupation of Netherlands in World War II has died, her son said in a statement Saturday. She was 92.

Florrie Rost van Tonningen was a supporter of the Nazi party in the Netherlands during the 1930s, and her husband Meinoud -the second highest-ranking member of the Dutch Nazi Party– ran the Netherlands’ national bank during the occupation.

He was killed or committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial after the war.

Florrie soon earned the epithet ‘the black widow’ due to her continued adherence to Nazi ideology and involvement in Dutch white supremacist circles after the war.

She was convicted several times for spreading Nazi literature, made anti-Semitic remarks in her memoirs and held meetings for neo-Nazis in her home.

As recently as 2000 she discussed the value of having “white skin” in a television interview.

And as recently as a later 2004 TV interview.

Both she and her husband were from the richest layers of Dutch society, connected to banking and exploitation of Indonesia as a Dutch colony.

Though some assets were seized after 1945, Ms Rost van Tonningen continued to be high income, getting a government pension as her husband had been a member of parliament, and owning an electric appliances business.

She was sponsor of Dutch extreme Right parties Nederlandse Volksunie (NVU), Centrumpartij, Centrumdemocraten, and lately, NVU again.

She lived for the last years of her life in Waasmunster in Belgium, where she had connections to extreme Right party Vlaams Belang.

Dutch xenophobe Wilders invites French fascist Le Pen (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
‘German neo-nazis murdered 152 people’ (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
New Israeli film on nazi history (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
Dutch bounty hunters preyed on Jews during Holocaust, study shows (jta.org)
Bieber leaves ‘dumb’ message at Anne Frank’s house (abc.net.au)

The unique flora and fauna of Socotra island, Yemen

Posted on March 25, 2007 by petrel41

Socotra

From the New York Times in the USA:

The Wonder Land of Socotra, Yemen

… Until that moment I’d had no clear idea what exactly frankincense was; nor that it derives from the sap of a tree; nor that, as Ahmed explained, Socotra is home to nine species of the tree, all unique to the island. …

Some 250 million years or more ago, when all the planet’s major landmasses were joined and most major life-forms were just a gleam in some evolutionary eye, Socotra already stood as an island apart.

According to Wikipedia, Socotra detached ca 6 million years ago.

Ever since, it has been gathering birds, seeds and insects off the winds and cultivating one of the world’s most unusual collections of organisms.

In addition to frankincense, Socotra is home to myrrh trees and several rare birds.

Its marine life is a unique hybrid of species from the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific.

In the 1990s, a team of United Nations biologists conducted a survey of the archipelago’s flora and fauna.

They counted nearly 700 endemic species, found nowhere else on earth; only Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands have more impressive numbers. …

Encouraged by a United Nations development plan, Socotra has opted to avoid mass tourism: no beachfront resorts; instead, small, locally owned hotels and beachfront campsites.

The prize is that rarest of tourists, eco-tourists: those who know the little known and reach the hard to reach, who will come eager to see the Socotra warbler, the loggerhead turtle, the dragon’s blood tree — anything, please, but their own reflection.

Socotra Island, Yemen (vivalavisa1.wordpress.com)
TRAVEL: The Mystique of the Socotra Islands (sierraclub.typepad.com)
Invasive Rats to be Exterminated in Galapagos Islands (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)

USA: George Bush’s little brother Jeb denied honor at University of Florida

Posted on March 25, 2007 by petrel41

Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign, cartoon

Associated Press reports:

University of Florida faculty vote to deny former Gov. Jeb Bush honorary degree

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida President Bernie Machen says he was “tremendously disappointed” with the school’s Faculty Senate vote to deny former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree.

The Senate voted 38-28 Thursday against giving the honorary degree to Bush, who left office in January.

…

Some faculty expressed concern about Bush’s record in higher education.

“I really don’t feel this is a person who has been a supporter of UF,” Kathleen Price, associate dean of library and technology at the school’s Levin College of Law, told The Gainesville Sun after the vote.

Bush’s approval of three new medical schools during his tenure has diluted resources, Price told the newspaper.

Bush has also been criticized for his “One Florida” proposal, an initiative that ended race-based admissions programs at state universities.

…

University officials said they could not recall any precedent for the Senate rejecting the nominees put forth by the Faculty Senate’s Honorary Degrees, Distinguished Alumnus Awards and Memorials Committee.

The committee determines whether nominees deserve consideration according to standards that include “eminent distinction in scholarship or high distinction in public service.”