As the July temperature cools down and daylight battles night, I find myself at home with a simple dilemma. What’s for dinner? On a whim I top off some bread with olive oil, diced tomatoes and herbs, throw it in the toaster oven, and pour myself a glass of chilled Pinot… all performed to the sounds of Lions, Fires & Squares accompanying me in the background. That’s the title of the upcoming EP by the talented jazz vocalist, hip hop lyricist, spoken word extraordinaire, and smart chicks heavy hitter Carolyn Malachi.

Starting with an African savannah-themed intro, the EP transgresses into the smooth, soothing, and romantic sounds of Orion, elevating lovers into a carefree flight, asking for more than just another relationship, yearning for something new, different, exciting, but most importantly genuine and righteous. The singing turns into a shower of words near the middle of the track, skillfully merging soulful vocals with strong lyrics, reminiscent of Floetry, but unique on its own right. The EP includes another remixed version of this track.

Influences from her trip to South Africa can be heard with the upbeat track Textual, featuring the country’s popular rapper HHP (Hip Hop Pantsula, aka Jabba), and by the words in her lyrics on the Dumela track.

Textual is a versatile, funky, party track with a masterful lyrical delivery by HHP that brings it home. Carolyn teasingly drops a hint of jazz by morphing one of the hooks into a vocal piece and brings it back to the normal hook we’re used to, thus covering peaks and throughs in this diverse musical wave. This track also has a more upbeat club remix version for the dance floor savvy.

The mood shifts in Dumela, a very powerful and uplifting piece. It starts slow with Carolyn singing to a little girl going through hardship, then the vocals rise with words of empowerment and wisdom, molding the girl into womanhood. This track also gave me the interpretation of South Africa’s youth forging the country to a new direction, but that could just be due to such common themes in my blog posts, .

Overall, this EP continues to be dynamic like her previous work. For those that are familiar with Carolyn’s past, you’ll notice that this production skillfully infuses jazz and electronic music. If asked about which track is my favorite, I’d have to go with Orion, but like any other Malachi production, this one leaves me anxious for more. A release party for the Lions, Fires & Squares EP will be held at the U St. Music Hall on July 30th at 7pm. Check Carolyn’s homepage for tickets and other details, and I definitely hope to see you there.

I meant to write something for Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change, but I’ve been overworking myself lately (so much for tryin not to sound like a broken record). However, I did come across this picture as part of the material I wanted to use for my post. Since I don’t have a post, I will just share the picture. It’s by Shepard Fairey… of course.

NOTE: Before you jump to conclusions and label me an Obama-hater, please read my earlier post titled “The Day and the Day After.” Thank you.

I’ve been meaning to post these thoughts for a while, but I’ve been busy. Finally decided to let it out, so here it is. We all heard about how controversial the award of the Nobel Peace Prize was for Barack Obama.

Many talking heads on TV said it was good for the administration, while others opposed it saying he did not deserve it because he hasn’t accomplished anything yet. Did Obama rally the world with hope for a new day? Yes. Did he push for a stop on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Yes. Did he sign an order to close Guantanamo Bay? Yes. Are the 2 wars still on-going? Yes, look at the recent military assault by Pakistan into the Taliban stronghold near its borders with Afghanistan. Pakistan is not doing this alone, the Obama administration is helping/pushing them into this large scale “all-out” massive attack. It’s hard to assess the civilian casualties because not many journalists have been given access to witness the situation first-hand. Is Guantanamo open? Yes, and the US government is dragging its feet in trying to accomplish this task. So much so in fact, that REM, Pearl Jam, and Nine Inch Nails, after learning that their music was used to torture Guantanamo prisoners, have joined forces in a campaign pressuring the US government to shut down the prison by January 2010, as originally promised. Is the hope for a new day still there? Yes, but the mission is still unaccomplished! Which is why I fall in the other camp and yell “HE DID NOT DESERVE IT (YET)!” Let’s not even get started with how he was nominated after being 12 days in office. A friend asked if getting an award for something that wasn’t accomplished cheapens the award, and I quite frankly have to agree with him. I get it, it was a popularity contest, and he was the world’s homecoming king at the time.

I’m sorry, this post should not have been about my frustrations with the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decisions. This is a toast to the overshadowed peacemakers that could have, and should have won it. Of course the problem here is the fact that the Nobel Foundation does not disclose all the 205 nominees until 50 years after their nomination. However, that doesn’t mean they can stop you from announcing who you are nominating for a prize, so from the people that were shared to the public by their nominators, we have a list of interesting candidates.

Piedad Cordoba. She is a Colombian Senator, a kidnapping victim by the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), and a victim of two failed assassination attempts. In 2007, she led the humanitarian exchange negotiations between the Colombian government and the (in)famous Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, in an attempt to free 50 FARC hostages, and a potential release of 500 guerrilla fighters imprisoned by the Colombian government. Her tireless work led to the release of several hostages that were held in captivity for over 5 years. Her efforts to find a negotiated solution to the conflict led to her being nominated as one of the contenders for the 2009 Nobel Peace Price.

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad. Aside from his prince duties, he is also a professor in philosophy. His agenda focuses on the improvement of cooperation between cultures and religions. He gave a powerful welcoming address to Pope Benedict the XVI, during the Pope’s pilgrimage to Jordan, in which he pointed out the Pope’s respect for Muslims and the Pope’s appeal for the rights of Muslim minorities. He was nominated for the 2009 Nobel Prize for initiating peaceful dialogue between cultures and religions. Imagine extending this dialogue further to open positive communication channels with conservative Muslims or what we call Muslim extremists. Dialogues within their own societies could convince them to throw down their weapons and see the changing world around them peacefully. Wishful thinking? maybe. Possible action item? I think so.

Sima Samar. She is Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan. She was the first Hazara (central Afghanistan ethnic group) woman to get a medical degree from Kabul University. She treated patients for over a decade in refugee camps and remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, while herself living in refuge from the Afghan communist dictatorship of the 80’s that arrested her husband, and the recent Taliban rule. Her decades-long fight for humanitarian rights, health care, and education for women in regions influenced by conservative Islamic laws made her a nominee for the Nobel prize.

Denis Mukwege. He is a Congolese gynecologist at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, a city near the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After witnessing many childbirth complications in Congolese women with poor access to health care, he decided to study gynecology. His recognition comes from what he did for women in war-torn Congo. He treated over 21,000 women who were victims of brutal gang-rapes during the 12-year war. Sometimes performing up to10 surgeries per day, during his 18-hr working days, he has seen first hand one of the brutal sides of the conflict, giving life and hope to many women who were left for dead. His work earned him the label “Angel of Bakavu.”

Hu Jia. A Chinese dissident, human rights, environmental, and HIV/AIDS activist. He was also involved in the protection of endangered animals like the Tibetan antelope. His father and mother were labeled as rightists during the Anti-Rightist Movement under Mao Zedong, and were assigned to work in remote areas separated from each other for almost 20 years. Hu’s all-around activism and fighting for the improvement of human rights in China has made him a strong enemy within the Chinese government, and placing him and his family under house arrest. He continued his activist work by writing articles and blogs on the internet, so much so in fact, that he was able to participate at an European parliamentary hearing in Brussels using a webcam. Hu was arrested and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. He remains in jail.

All these stories have have one thing in common. These individuals were placed into situations that required them to act on their own, to take on a struggle that is bigger than themselves. They did not have a seat as high as that of the potential president of the strongest country in the world, and that’s what makes their individual sacrifices even more worthy of our attention. Maybe with the exception of the prince, these characters put their lives at risk to stand for rights and services that many of us take fore granted. People say that Nobel Peace prize has always been awarded based on political merit, as a tool to guide the direction of values and principles for the entire world. Any one of these candidates meets that qualification by shedding light on topics like minority rights or interfaith dialogue, things that still need a lot of work. Quite frankly, any president after Bush could have come on stage and said we not doin what he did, n that’s that. That would easily repair the image of America with the rest of the world. But people’s fascination with Barack Obama won him the prize… so if it’s not the hope-based improvement of relations amongst countries (which is what he won it for, and like I said anyone else after Bush could have done that) on what other basis did he win it aside from being popular?

It’s not the first time these awards picked surprising candidates. The entire list includes people that unquestionably deserved it, such as the first recipient, Henry Dunant (formed the Red Cross), and other that came much later after him like Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, and Muhammad Yunus. It also includes questionable characters who might have done some good, but at some point in their lives they kinda contradicted themselves. I guess in the end, the decision-making is done by a small group of people, caught in the “what’s hot” at the time of their decision making, and for what it’s worth, I thank them for their work in recognizing the hope we all have in Barack Obama. Let’s focus our strength into turning that hope into a reality, and then we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Not trying to recycle the heavily discussed issue of China and Africa, but I completely forgot to update you all on a conversation I had with a former Ethiopian Airlines executive. I’ve already covered how China brings its own people to African countries to do the industrial work that African governments let them do, and I took issue with that because I felt like there was no exchange of knowledge/training between the Chinese and the Africans, thus limiting the growth/advancement opportunities that would benefit some Africans.

Chinese supervisor watches over Ethiopian worker

When I shared my concerns with the former executive, he laughed and said that it all comes back to politics and money. Basically, when bidding on a project, the Chinese will give you the cheapest costs and they will finish the project on time if they use their own Chinese workers. He witnessed that on more than one occasion, and he was impressed with the dedicated/disciplined work that the Chinese bring to any job.

When he came across projects in which Ethiopian workers were mixed with the Chinese workforce, he was amazed by what he observed. He was walking by a road construction site in his neighborhood, and as he was walking near a ditch that was dug for a foundation, he saw 3 Ethiopian workers down there playing cards. He looked around and saw all the other Chinese workers nearby hard at work. The Ethiopians, according to him, had no incentives to work hard. The reason being because they can VOTE. They can be swayed into any direction, and as long as they are capable of casting a vote, they will be taken care of, since they are assets to the local jurisdiction.

I thought that was simply amazing… and to add to it, this is just one of the funniest things I’ve heard in the history construction equipment… the shovels used for these construction jobs were cut down into shorter sizes so that the Ethiopian workers won’t lean on them and take breaks all the time… to which the workers reacted by simply creating makeshift padding of some sort so they can sit down on the shorter shovels. UPDATE: I’ve been told by a friend that recently returned from Addis Abeba, that the shovels look normal. Thank God.

And that ladies n gents, is another spin on the story of Chinese-African issues. Granted this is not something that can be used to draw a strong conclusion… not all workers act as described here, not all projects get finished on time, and sometimes there may be a cost overrun or two… but still, given similar circumstances, you can get a job done on time at low cost, or you can employ an unreliable workforce… what would you do?

Ok, I got something to share. As I sat here, late on a Friday evening, partied out from the night before, listening to Herbie Hancock, looking through some geeky pictures from a trip for work, I felt compelled to write my feelings. I recently traveled to Houston, TX for work and I must say that it was a very humbling experience.

Earthrise: A picture of the Earth taken by astronaut William Anders in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission, right after going around the Moon.

All of us have lived vicariously through the imaginations in our head from dreams we’ve had. I’m not talking about the dreams you get in your sleep, but the greater ones that don’t need sleep. We’ve ALL aspired to do something, or be someone at some point in our life. But I must admit, as time goes by, MOST of us get lost through the hustle and bustle in the game of life, and we slowly let go of those grand thoughts that kept us alive inside, thoughts that have given us sudden bursts of energy, a natural high, an urge to make things happen… just the act of remembering that we had those thoughts long ago gives us some warmth inside, even if it’s very brief.

So what does this have to do with my trip to Houston? I traveled to support the repairs of the Hubble Space Telescope. Every day I watched the astronauts get out of the space shuttle airlock and get to work using all types of tools to get the job done, surrounded by the dark gaping mouth of space, with the only signature of life coming from a huge, beautiful, round blue ball, directly below them. During my spare time, I visited the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory where the astronauts trained, inside a huge pool, for every single task that they will face during the repair job in space. I visited Rocket Park, where I saw the Saturn V, the biggest, most powerful rocket ever put into operational use, which launched several missions to the Moon and actually gave us a chance to place our feet in a world outside of ours.

Right there, in the midst of all those experiences, I felt it yet again. Many of us know this is simple and true, but few of us dare to live it. A space telescope, a space shuttle, a rocket that can send people to the Moon. All these things were dreams at some point in our history. Today they are a reality, ONLY because someone, somewhere, at some point in time, decided to draw a line and say “NO! I refuse to give up my dreams! Because I believe they are possible! …and I really don’t care what you think!” Someone dared to not only say that, but to actually live it.

I write this as a way of pushing my own self to live my dreams. I am at a critical point in life, after working hard in school for a dream, and after being thrown into the “real world” for five years, and counting. I am at a point where I feel like there’s a war going on, and my mind and heart are caught right in the middle of it. My hands are pulling hard, but not hard enough. My fingers are clinging on, but I feel the finger tips slowly giving away valuable millimeters of space. I can’t let this happen. I must fight harder… and so should you. Let’s keep the spirit alive.

In addition to the uber-cool coffee maker that we got my mom (see previous post), we decided to cook her dinner, a three-course meal to be exact. I was dying for some ceviche the past couple of days, so I figured why not make something Peruvian? The whole execution side from deciding what to cook, to actually procuring ingredients was kinda late in the day, around 5pm to be exact, so my younger brother and I had to move fast in order to eat dinner while it was still Mother’s Day. The following took place after the ingredients were obtained:

Step 1: Lock mom out of the house by comfortably placing her on the porch w/a good book, a drink, and a blanket.

Step 2: grab trustworthy assistant (bottle of pilsner) and start cooking. My younger bro was the assistant chef, and he does rank much higher than the pilsner in case you were wondering…

Step 3: Add some controlled chaos, give it some time, and serve (3 hours later, around 10pm):

Appetizer: Simple Peruvian ceviche, made with Tilapia, marinated in limes, lemons, garlic, habanero peppers, and onions. Served over a bed of baby greens, with chunks of avocado and mashed sweet potatoes on the side.

Main Course: Peruvian Arroz “Verde” con Pollo… (hard to beat the appetizer before it if you ask me, but it came out really well). Basically some yellow rice with corn, green and red peppers, garlic, chicken, Guiness Stout (ooo yeaah), and a lonely, impractical green leaf for the look… which was the only thing that made it verde, lol we couldn’t find the right ingredients to make the dish look green.

Dessert: And the Peruvian theme stops here…there is absolutely NOTHING Latin American about this… we just gave up on finding something simple and Peruvian, so we made some Blackberry Cobbler and served it w/vanilla ice cream.

So how was it you ask? My mom has an issue with things not being fried/boiled/grilled/smoked, so she put her best actor face and acted out how much she loved the ceviche (which we saw right through, by the way)… even after we begged her to say she didn’t like the ceviche, she still wouldn’t come clean. Aside from that the rest of the stuff was delicious. Holy crap I am soooooo hungry after writing this post. Enough.

Why am I up this late when I should be resting and getting better? There’s only one reason, and it’s simple: caffeine. For mother’s day we decided to give my mom a Keurig coffee maker, which arrived a day early, and I must say that this thing is amazing! The package came with an assortment of single-cup “k-cups” of tea and coffee. The brand selection is pretty decent, and I would only imagine that it will continue to grow. I first tried a cup of Gloria Jean’s hazelnut coffee and a couple hours later decided to have some Celestial Seasonings mandarin orange herbal tea. And here I am. Thank you Keurig, and most of all thank you Andreas!

I read a story today that filled me with joy inside, but towards the end of it, I kinda felt a little disappointed: KBR pleaded guilty to bribing Naija officials $180 million! HALLELUJAAAAHHH!!!!! They were caught bribing officials so they could win a $6 billion contract for the construction of a natural gas liquefaction plant in Bonny Island, Nigeria… Najia officials n your families, my condolences go out to you… yea right… I hope at least some of that money made its way to people that really need it.

Anyway, KBR will pay a $402 million penalty and go under the watch of a court-appointed monitor for 3 years… but get this, Halliburton will pay $382 million of the total amount and let KBR pay the rest. In addition, Halliburton will also pay $177 million to settle civil complaints against both companies by the Securities and Exchange Commission, for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, without admitting or denying wrongdoing… I don’t get it, did you do it or not do it? who came up with that freakin legal clause? Halliburton is doing all this because Halliburton is responsible for covering, and I quote “certain contingent liabilities” related to any fines that come out of the case, according to filings by both companies… and this is after KBR was spun-off from Halliburton in April 2007… I get it… KBR is the street soldier that does the dirty work, while Halliburton shows up when necessary… gotta keep the money flowin in, any means necessary right?

Kellogg Brown & Root! WHY/HOW are you STILL in business?! you definitely must be doing something right… I mean c’mon, you’ve tried to over-charge the US gov’t (a math error? y’all make all them millions and y’all can’t freakin add shyt up? get a mathematician!), you gave un-tested water to US troops, you’ve had several rape charges, you’ve had a US soldier electricuted to death, and you’re still somehow in business…. impressive.

And only $20 million in penalty charges? At a recent conference call, KBR’s CEO William Utt said that “the payments will reduce earnings by 12 cents per share for the fourth quarter of 2008, but otherwise won’t significantly affect the company’s financial performance” …12 cents… KBR is expected to make an estimated $1.68 per share for FY2008, so that penalty is less than 10% of their annual earnings! Man, even when the economy is good a company’s annual earnings can go down 10%, in other words, that penalty amounts to nothing. Also, the 3-year monitor may cost the company $3 million to $5 million per year… Utt alone made almost $3 million in FY2007. Utt also said that the settlement should not hurt KBR’s ability to contract with state or federal governments… but of course Utt… please forgive me for expecting anything less than that.

The guy taking the actual charge, Albert “Jack” Stanley, is scheduled for sentencing on May 6th… I’m really curious to see what happens to him.

With the latest corporate fashion trend of going “green” and being all about “sustainability” springing up across thousands of offices, you would think that it’s about time we take such initiatives as recycling seriously. But, and you know there was a “but” coming… do you know where that old PC or laptop that you begged IT to replace goes?

African children on a hustle at a local e-waste dump site

I can speak for my company, well only for the 2 events over the last 4 years in which our IT department gave us “old” (still Pentium 4) working PCs and laptops for free… but still though, what happens to the stuff that doesn’t work, or the stuff that is too old to find a nice, warm, cozy, happy home on a wooden table in someone’s basement or apartment? Well, given the theme and issues discussed in this blog, it should come as no surprise to you that the junk ends up in Africa… West Africa… Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana, among other places I’m sure (Guiyu, Guangdong Province, China was featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes as one of the places).

The 60 Minutes piece above did well illustrating how hundreds of people in the U.S. drove up to recycling centers with their electronic trash thinking they were doing good for the environment, while in reality some of their stuff ended up at toxic dump sites in poor areas of the world. Poor men, women, and children struggling to make a living break down these computers, burn the circuit boards and try to extract chips and various other components for re-sale, while directly poisoning themselves with lead, mercury, and other hazardous materials, and weakening their communities in the process. Here we are thinking we’re helping the developing world by giving them old electronics that they can use at schools, etc, while in reality, it’s estimated that less than 25% of the electronics we recycle actually work, meaning that the rest ends at dumps for the poor to scavenge through. Local governments at these dump sites get rewarded for looking the other way while gangs  run the operations, even though there are explicit regulations and initiatives from as far back as the early 90s (check out BAN for more), prohibiting the dumping of toxic components in “someone else’s backyard.”

This type of stuff makes me feel paranoid about playing “Captain Planet” and dropping off my old cell phones or batteries at recycling bins at my local electronics or hardware store. Companies use the whole “green” movement to improve on their corporate image, while their motives are anything but altruistic. This e-waste is sold and re-sold in a process that can be easily interpreted as the childish action of brushing something under a carpet and calling it clean.

By no means do I want to appear like I got the solutions to all the world’s problems, but I think we can do so much better. Organizations like e-Stewards are already creating ways to identify ethical recyclers, so let’s continue to push for more transparency in the recycling industry. Don’t tell me your old Gateway or Dell is going to be crunching away numbers at a village in Kenya or Tanzania unless you are 100% certain about its destination and its intended use. There are also better avenues to bring technology to the poor corners of the world. Initiatives like One Laptop Per Child are a prime example of organizations getting together to bring laptops to the under-privileged.  Other recycling alternatives can include the use of old electronics in our schools to teach kids about science and technology. Sites like Instructables have tons of cool projects that can help kids geek it up early by learning how to turn old PCs/electronics into servers, firewalls, widget frames, or even non-techy things like fish tanks, handbags, and jewlery.

Manufacturers and municipalities, from Panasonic and JVC to B-More’s finest, should try harder to make sure their stuff is recycled safely. Let’s not put people in situations where they have to choose between poverty and poison.

Some additional info: Known and suspected routes of e-waste dumping, Wiki on e-Waste

BAN’s The Digital Dump: Official Trailer also below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0xpRk7MYNg&eurl=http://www.ban.org/films/TheDigitalDumpTrailer.html&feature=player_embedded]

According to Wordle this is all I rambled about, enjoy: