text:
Progress 58 Docks to Station's Zvezda Service Module
There are now four spacecraft docked to the International Space Station including the newly arrived ISS Progress 58 space freighter as Feb. 17, 2015. Credit: NASA
Traveling about 257 miles above the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Puerto Rico, the unpiloted Progress 58 Russian cargo ship docked at 11:57 a.m. EST to the rear port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station. The craft is delivering three tons of food, fuel, supplies and experiment hardware to the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory. Progress 58 is scheduled to remain docked to the space station until August.
Meanwhile, astronauts in the U.S. segment of the station are reviewing procedures for a trio of spacewalks. The first is set to begin Friday at 7:10 a.m. Spacewalkers Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts will exit the orbital lab to set the stage for a pair of new commercial crew vehicle docking ports to be installed later this year.
Outside the station on Sunday, robotics controllers on the ground maneuvered the Canadarm2 with the Dextre attached to remove and replace a faulty Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM). The RPCM provides backup commanding capability to the port Thermal Radiator Rotating Joint.
For more information about the current crew and the International Space Station, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/station.
Author Mark GarciaPosted on February 17, 2015 February 17, 2015 Categories Expedition 42Tags European Space Agency, Expedition 42, International Space Station, NASA, progress, Roscosmos, Soyuz
5 thoughts on "Progress 58 Docks to Station's Zvezda Service Module"
Brian M says:
It was really neat to see the progress 58 ship dock at the ISS. Will the spacewalks starting this Friday be on NASA TV ?
Watch the U.S. Spacewalk Briefing live on NASA TV starting at 2 p.m. EST today. NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts are scheduled to exit the space station Friday at 7:10 a.m. beginning the first of three spacewalks to set the stage for a pair of new commercial crew vehicle docking ports later this year… https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
Paul Rathmill says:
Hi wondering when you will be fitting a bigelow habitat to he station.
gregg r emerson says:
We ( USA ) need own transport to ISS. Space X seems to be the best bet so far. Space X will soon be the new taxi to the Station, maybe first trip to Mars. G
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text:
RetailRetail Hub
Bulkhouse brings e-commerce community on single platform
The website will use advanced technology to enable buyers and suppliers spread across the country to come on a single platform where they can choose to buy or sell
Bulkhouse Trading India, an e-commerce platform, plans to launch a portal to bring together manufacturers, wholesalers and traders in direct contact with buyers for transactions on products made or value added across the country.
According to a PTI report: The website will use advanced technology to enable buyers and suppliers spread across the country to come on a single platform where they can choose to buy or sell.
It will bring the complete e-commerce community on one single platform for the first time. To ensure efficiency, the company plans to build its own back-end support system.
Bulkhouse will have its own logistics and also warehouse facility for faster, easier and cheaper shipping of all the products.
The portal will bring together international and domestic buyers in direct contact with the small, medium and large businesses to meet their sourcing requirements.
This would encourage the SMEs and MSMEs to expand their business across domestic as well as international market by choosing to export their products across the globe via Bulkhouse.
"This advanced trade platform will offer end-to- end value-added services. Bulkhouse is not just a directory of suppliers, wholesalers, manufacturers or dealer. Here you can negotiate, buy or sell on a single advanced online platform with secured payment gateways. Be it a small package or a truck load of products, our logistic partners will pick up the product from the seller and deliver it to the buyer's door step," Trading CEO, Bulkhouse, Adarsh Chilukuri was quoted by PTI as saying.
Adarsh Chilukuri
Bulkhouse
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In Focus Indiaretailing Bureau - January 25, 2023
Croma infiniti-Retail to take up rapid expansion in next FY
In Focus PTI - January 24, 2023


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Q: Doing calculations in gnuplot's plot command The following gnuplot code works good:
plot 'data.txt'  using 2:4  '   %lf %lf %lf %lf' title "1 PE" with linespoints;

In the following code, I want to say: "Use the number from column 4, but then divide it by the number from column 3". Or: "Use the number from column 2, but divide it by the constant 2.0". The following code demonstrates what I try to achieve, but it does not work.
plot 'data.txt'  using 2:4/4  '   %lf %lf %lf %lf' title "1 PE" with linespoints;
plot 'data.txt'  using 2:4/2.0  '   %lf %lf %lf %lf' title "1 PE" with linespoints;

Is something like this possible?

A: I don't usually work with datafiles formatted like this, but I think you're looking for something like:
#divide column 4 by column 3
plot 'data.txt'  using 2:($4/$3)  '   %lf %lf %lf %lf' title "1 PE" with linespoints

#divide column 4 by constant 10.0
plot 'data.txt'  using 2:($4/10.0)  '   %lf %lf %lf %lf' title "1 PE" with linespoints

As a side note, I don't think there's any reason for passing the format portion to using here.  Gnuplot splits the datafile on whitespace just fine:
plot 'data.txt'  using 2:($4/$3) title "1 PE" with linespoints

Should work just fine.

A: Just to add to the given answer, if you prefer to use column names (when your data has headers) then the following syntax can be used:
plot 'data.dat' using 'header1':(column('header2')*column('header3')) with lines

Edit
I have received some downvotes for my answer, but I have no clue why. While I could easily find how to do calculations with numeric column references, the trick with named columns was almost impossible to find in the documentation or on SO, so I still hope my answer can help others.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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'It's up to us': How the MSC Cornish hake fishery is ensuring fish for the future
Blog 'It's up to us': How the MSC Cornish hake fishery is ensuring fish for the future
As the seas got rougher and nights got darker last month, something to celebrate appeared through the looming fog of winter; Cornish hake won the Ocean Hero award, which recognises leadership in furthering the sustainability of fisheries.
We spoke to fisherman Andrew Pascoe, who accepted the award on behalf of the fishery and has been involved in its progress over the years, to understand the work that went in behind the scenes and why in particular, as he said in his acceptance speech, "the story of the Cornish hake fishery is one this industry can be proud of".
"Getting the MSC accreditation itself was three or four years of hard work" Andrew began, "which is where most of the work that went into the award has come from". The fishery was first accredited MSC status in 2015 and then re-certified to the latest version of the MSC fisheries standard in December 2020.
However, before this period, Andrew painted a picture of a different landscape.
Towards the late 90s, hake stocks were low and in need of new management measures to allow populations to recover. This fishery was under pressure and recognised the need to collaborate with the fishing industry and scientists to make a change. The European hake recovery programme came into effect during the 2000s which, according to Andrew, was "probably one of the biggest other aspects to the stock recovering" and introduced regulations to increase fishing net mesh sizes for the first time. This ensures only the larger fish are targeted, giving younger fish a chance to breed.
This accompanied the introduction of the MSY, or Maximum Sustainable Yield, which has helped populations of hake recover and measures the largest catch that can be taken from a species' stock over a certain length of time. Andrew said, "The science has really improved over the years and makes it a lot easier to base the quotas on, which get changed each year depending on what biomass is there". This ensures the hake stock is well managed and continue to be sustainable.
"It's up to us to manage the hake fishery in a way that's going to be sustainable for years and generations to come"
Sustainability is at the heart of how the fishermen manage the hake fishery, so it's no surprise that they go the extra mile, or mesh size, to protect future hake populations. One of the fishery's strengths is the use of gillnets, which have a larger mesh size than the legal requirement.
"The minimum fishing net mesh size you are allowed to use to target the hake is 120mm" Andrew told us, "The smallest any of our boats are using at the moment is between 124-130mm, and I suppose the average is probably 126mm. So we're voluntarily well above the minimum mesh size, which has helped the recovery of fish populations. The smaller fish can get through then and maybe breed for one or two more years before we actually catch them."
A gillnet in use onboard an MSC Cornish hake vessel. CREDIT: Marine Stewardship Council
The fishermen aren't just conscious of what they want to catch. Looking beyond their target catch and working to protect the wider ecosystem, Cornish fishermen collaborated with St Andrews university to trial and pioneer new, effective technologies to prevent dolphin interactions with fishing nets.
"This was a big part of getting an MSC label in the first place" Andrew said. In 2019, the fishery reported zero interactions with marine mammals.
"The demand for fish domestically has really put people's hopes up in the industry and kept people going"
The catch sector has had a rough 18 months, navigating the stormy seas of Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic, but Andrew says from this turmoil some optimism has sprung.
"One of the things we have seen from Brexit, which has really got people's hopes up, is the amount of fish being eaten in this country now, which is a phenomenal amount."
About 15 years ago the Spanish market dried up, Andrew said, which was a huge loss: "95% of the hake went to Spain. We've been promoting hake in this country now for over 10 years which has slowly built up a good market."
"But now everybody's on holiday in this end of the world and eating fish while they're here. The domestic market has really taken off for all fish, especially hake, which has been a saviour really."
CREDIT: Marine Stewardship Council
For the fishermen involved in the vital improvements at the fishery, Andrew said the award is a very welcome recognition of their efforts.
"It's great recognition for the work and the effort they've put in. Fishing in general seems to get bad press quite easily. The good press never really gets out and there's plenty of it in industry!
"At the end of the day, it's our future and we're the ones who will be around in 10, 15 or 20 years' time and need fish to be in the sea. So it is up to us to be able to manage it or help manage it in a way that's going to be sustainable for years and generations to come."
Of course, we couldn't let Andrew go without asking for his favourite way to cook hake!
"Just simply pan fried." He said, "But another favourite would be baking it in the oven with a little bit of milk and a few onions on top of the fillet in tin foil. That's quite nice. That's something that we used to do quite a lot when I was younger. That's a really nice, simple, quick recipe."
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In my research I apply genomics to problems in infectious disease and public health. Part of the inherent challenge of infectious disease is it extends beyond specific scientific disciplines, occurring at the interface of human behavior and ecology as well as molecular biology and evolution. Solutions therefore demand an innovative pairing of theory and fundamental science with applied research toward evidence-based policy-making.
Martin Lukindu, Christina M. Bergey, Rachel M. Wiltshire, Scott T. Small, Brian P. Bourke, Jonathan K. Kayondo and Nora J. Besansky. "Spatio-Temporal Genetic Structure of Anopheles Gambiae in the Northwestern Lake Victoria Basin, Uganda: Implications for Genetic Control Trials in Malaria Endemic Regions." Parasites & Vectors, vol. 11, no. 1, 2018, doi:10.1186/s13071-018-2826-4.
Matthew Chung, Scott T Small, David Serre, Peter A Zimmerman, Julie C Dunning Hotopp. "Draft Genome Sequence of the Wolbachia Endosymbiont of Wuchereria Bancrofti w Wb | Pathogens and Disease | Oxford Academic." OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 Nov. 2017, academic.oup.com/femspd/article/75/9/ftx115/4584485.
Cannon, Matthew V., Joseph Craine, James Hester, Amanda Shalkhauser, Ernest R. Chan, Kyle Logue, Scott Small, David Serre. "Dynamic Microbial Populations along the Cuyahoga River." PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0186290.
M. V Cannon, J. Hester, A. Shalkhauser, E. R. Chan, K. Logue, S. T. Small, and D. Serre. In silico assessment of primers for eDNA studies using PrimerTree and application to characterize the biodiversity surrounding the Cuyahoga River. Scientific reports, vol. 6, p. 22908, Jan. 2016.
S. T. Small, L. J. Reimer, D. J. Tisch, C. L. King, B. M. Christensen, P. M. Siba, J. W. Kazura, D. Serre, and P. A. Zimmerman. Population genomics of the filarial nematode parasite Wuchereria bancrofti from mosquitoes. Molecular Ecology, Feb. 2016.
Logue K, Small ST, Chan ER, Reimer L, Siba PM, Zimmerman PA, Serre D. Whole-genome sequencing reveals absence of recent gene flow and separate demographic histories for Anopheles punctulatus mosquitoes in Papua New Guinea. Molecular Ecology. 2015 Mar;24(6):1263-74.
Small ST, Tisch DJ, Zimmerman PA. Molecular epidemiology, phylogeny and evolution of the filarial nematode Wuchereria bancrofti. Infection Genetics and Evolution. 2014 Dec;28:33-43.
Small ST, Ramesh A, Bun K, Reimer L, Thomsen E, Baea M, Bockarie MJ, Siba P, Kazura JW, Tisch DJ, Zimmerman PA. Population genetics of the filarial worm Wuchereria bancrofti in a post-treatment region of Papua New Guinea: insights into diversity and life history. PLoS Neglected Tropical Disease. 2013;7(7):e2308.
Logue K, Chan ER, Phipps TC, Small ST, Reimer L, Henry-Halldin C, Sattabongkot J, Siba PM, Zimmerman PA, Serre D. Mitochondrial genome sequences reveal deep divergences among Anopheles punctulatus sibling species in Papua New Guinea. Malaria Journal. 2013 Feb 14;12:64.


text:
Dentatisyllis är ett släkte av ringmaskar. Dentatisyllis ingår i familjen Syllidae.

Kladogram enligt Catalogue of Life:

Källor

Havsborstmaskar
Dentatisyllis

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text:
The Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Use in Systematic Reviews: Addressing Questions of Prevalence
Zachary Munn
Sandeep Moola
Dagmara Riitano
Karolina Lisy
The Joanna Briggs Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
10.15171/ijhpm.2014.71
Recently there has been a significant increase in the number of systematic reviews addressing questions of prevalence. Key features of a systematic review include the creation of an a priori protocol, clear inclusion criteria, a structured and systematic search process, critical appraisal of studies, and a formal process of data extraction followed by methods to synthesize, or combine, this data. Currently there exists no standard method for conducting critical appraisal of studies in systematic reviews of prevalence data.
A working group was created to assess current critical appraisal tools for studies reporting prevalence data and develop a new tool for these studies in systematic reviews of prevalence. Following the development of this tool it was piloted amongst an experienced group of sixteen healthcare researchers.
The results of the pilot found that this tool was a valid approach to assessing the methodological quality of studies reporting prevalence data to be included in systematic reviews. Participants found the tool acceptable and easy to use. Some comments were provided which helped refine the criteria.
The results of this pilot study found that this tool was well-accepted by users and further refinements have been made to the tool based on their feedback. We now put forward this tool for use by authors conducting prevalence systematic reviews.
Critical Appraisal
Disease Management & Surveillance
Evidence-Based Policy
Webb P, Bain C, Pirozzo S. Essential epidemiology: an introduction for students and health professionals. New York: Cambridge University Press; 2005.
Munn Z, Tufanaru C, Aromataris E. Data extraction and synthesis in systematic reviews. Am J Nurs 2014; 114: 49–54. doi: 10.1097/01.naj.0000451683.66447.89
The Joanna Briggs Institute. Reviewer's Manual. Australia: The Joanna Briggs Institute; 2014.
Pearson A, Robertson-Malt S, Rittenmeyer L. Synthesizing Qualitative Evidence. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2011.
Noyes J, Popay J, Pearson A, Hannes K, Booth A. Qualitative research and Cochrane reviews. In: Higgins J, Green S, editors. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Version 5.1.0 [updated March 2011]. The Cochrane Collaboration; 2011.
Pearson A. Balancing the evidence: incorporating the synthesis of qualitative data into systematic reviews. JBI Reports 2004; 2: 45–64. doi: 10.1111/j.1479-6988.2004.00008.x
Pearson A, Jordan Z, Munn Z. Translational science and evidence-based healthcare: a clarification and reconceptualization of how knowledge is generated and used in healthcare. Nursing Research and Practice 2012; 2012: 792519. doi: 10.1155/2012/792519
The Joanna Briggs Institute. Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewers' Manual: 2011 edition. Adelaide: The Joanna Briggs Institute; 2011.
Sawyer A, Ayers S, Smith H. Pre- and postnatal psychological wellbeing in Africa: a systematic review. J Affect Disord 2010; 123: 17–29. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2009.06.027
Mirza I, Jenkins R. Risk factors, prevalence, and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders in Pakistan: systematic review. BMJ 2004; 328: 794. doi: 10.1136/bmj.328.7443.794
Van Lancker A, Velghe A, Van Hecke A, Verbrugghe M, Van Den Noortgate N, Grypdonck M, et al. Prevalence of symptoms in older cancer patients receiving palliative care: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Pain Symptom Manage 2014; 47: 90–104. doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2013.02.016
Klaassen KM, Dulak MG, van de Kerkhof PC, Pasch MC. The prevalence of onychomycosis in psoriatic patients: a systematic review. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 2014; 28: 533–41. doi: 10.1111/jdv.12239
McGrath J, Saha S, Welham J, El Saadi O, MacCauley C, Chant D. A systematic review of the incidence of schizophrenia: the distribution of rates and the influence of sex, urbanicity, migrant status and methodology. BMC Med 2004; 2:13. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-2-13
Goto A, Goto M, Noda M, Tsugane S. Incidence of type 2 diabetes in Japan: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS One 2013; 8: e74699. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074699
Bahekar AA, Singh S, Saha S, Molnar J, Arora R. The prevalence and incidence of coronary heart disease is significantly increased in periodontitis: a meta-analysis. Am Heart J 2007; 154: 830–7. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2007.06.037
Centre for Evidence-Based Management. Critical appraisal of a survey. [updated 2014 June 5]. Available from: http://www.cebma.org/wp-content/uploads/Critical-Appraisal-Questions-for-a-Survey.pdf
Loney PL, Chambers LW, Bennett KJ, Roberts JG, Stratford PW. Critical appraisal of the health research literature: prevalence or incidence of a health problem. Chronic Dis Can 1998; 19: 170–6.
Vandenbroucke JP, von Elm E, Altman DG, Gøtzsche PC, Mulrow CD, Pocock SJ, et al. Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE): explanation and elaboration. PLoS Med 2007; 4: e297. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040297
National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH). A Primer for Evaluating the Quality of Studies on Environmental Health Critical Appraisal of Cross-Sectional Studies. [updated 2014 June 5]. Available from: http://www.ncceh.ca/sites/default/files/Critical_Appraisal_Cross-Sectional_Studies_Aug_2011.pdf
Hoy D, Brooks P, Woolf A, Blyth F, March L, Bain C, et al. Assessing risk of bias in prevalence studies: modification of an existing tool and evidence of interrater agreement. J clin epidemiol 2012; 65: 934–9. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2011.11.014
Munn Z, Moola S, Lisy K, Riitano D. The Systematic Review of Prevalence and Incidence Data The Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer's Manual 2014. Australia: The Joanna Briggs Institute; 2014.
Lim ES, Ko YK, Ban KO. Prevalence and risk factors of metabolic syndrome in the Korean population--Korean National Health Insurance Corporation Survey 2008. J Adv Nurs 2013; 69: 1549–61. doi: 10.1111/jan.12013
Verhagen AP, de Vet HC, de Bie RA, Boers M, van den Brandt PA. The art of quality assessment of RCTs included in systematic reviews. J Clin Epidemiol 2001; 54: 651–4. doi: 10.1016/s0895-4356(00)00360-7
Naing L, Winn T, Rusli BN. Practical issues in calculating the sample size for prevalence studies. Archives of Orofacial Sciences 2006; 1: 9–14.
Daniel WW. Biostatistics: A Foundation for Analysis in the Health Sciences. 7th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1999.
Receive Date: 18 June 2014
Revise Date: 07 August 2014
Accept Date: 11 August 2014
Article View: 21,488
PDF Download: 10,940
Munn, Z., Moola, S., Riitano, D., Lisy, K. (2014). The Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Use in Systematic Reviews: Addressing Questions of Prevalence. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 3(3), 123-128. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.71
Zachary Munn; Sandeep Moola; Dagmara Riitano; Karolina Lisy. "The Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Use in Systematic Reviews: Addressing Questions of Prevalence". International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 3, 3, 2014, 123-128. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.71
Munn, Z., Moola, S., Riitano, D., Lisy, K. (2014). 'The Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Use in Systematic Reviews: Addressing Questions of Prevalence', International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 3(3), pp. 123-128. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.71
Munn, Z., Moola, S., Riitano, D., Lisy, K. The Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Use in Systematic Reviews: Addressing Questions of Prevalence. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2014; 3(3): 123-128. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.71


text:
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Home Public School Shakedown Yeshiva Fever: Religious Schools May Portend What DeVos Wants for the Nation
Yeshiva Fever: Religious Schools May Portend What DeVos Wants for the Nation
A number of New York's ultra Orthodox Jewish schools, accused of academic neglect, are a shocking example of what happens when 'school choice' is prioritized over all else.
by Jake Jacobs
On a recent trip to New York City, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited two schools—not the public schools her agency is charged with overseeing, but two Orthodox Jewish yeshivas.
DeVos used the opportunity to advocate for her lifelong crusade, "school choice." As head of the Education Department, she's proposed vastly expanding vouchers for private religious schools using public education funding, shattering the Constitutional barrier between church and state.
While fourteen states allow tax dollars to fund religious school vouchers, thirty-seven state constitutions contain Blaine Amendments, limiting state funding to religious schools. Many states have enacted policies that contravene or chip away at the Blaine protections, to the delight of DeVos, who has urged such restrictions be "assigned to the ash heap of history."
DeVos used her yeshiva visits to advocate for her lifelong crusade, "school choice."
Nowhere is this more evident than New York, as a bitter dispute has escalated over the lack of academic instruction offered by yeshivas, which accept state funding but reject state education laws. DeVos came to New York to court the monolithic ultra-Orthodox vote. She is also backstopping a single state senator, Simcha Felder, who alone has tilted the balance of power toward public funding of religious education in the state.
Should DeVos and other "school choice" advocates get their wish, New York's experience with yeshivas may portend what is to come as public education budgets are hijacked to fund private religious schools in many more places.
Over the last few years, former students and parents have gone public to expose yeshivas that do not provide required secular studies. This includes basic English instruction. Generations of children who attend these schools were born and raised in New York, yet only speak Yiddish. Preventing children from learning to fully assimilate, speak English, or attend college helps religious leaders and educators keep their rapidly growing community close to home. The nonprofit Young Advocates for Fair Education, or Yaffed, has led the campaign encouraging whistleblowers to step out of the shadows. Posted on Yaffed's website are unnerving testimonials describing a culture of dictatorial control, total academic neglect, peer pressure, censorship and even racist indoctrination. As Yaffed activist Naftuli Moster writes in a post on Medium:
"In most Hasidic elementary schools, boys receive just 90 minutes of instruction in secular studies. That usually consists of just English and math. In most Hasidic high schools, boys receive no secular education at all. They spend up to 14 hours a day in Yeshiva, but study exclusively Judaic studies."
Also emerging from the debate are shocking demographic statistics, with insular Hasidic communities in Rockland County qualifying as the poorest in the state with poverty rates over 70 percent, and others in Orange County close behind. With a general poverty rate of 15.4 percent statewide, census data show approximately 43 percent of Hasidic households in poverty, with greater percentages receiving cash assistance, food stamps, public health care, and Section 8 housing. These trends owe to extremely large family sizes, a tradition of young marriage, and a distinct lack of marketable skills.
Because so many yeshivas do not "register" with New York state, they do not issue official high school diplomas or offer Regents exams. In Rockland County, only about 23 percent of boys and 42 percent of girls in Jewish religious schools are eligible to graduate with state-recognized diplomas, compared to about 94 percent in other nonpublic schools.The projections for growth in the ultra Orthodox community have also stirred concerns over economic sustainability, infrastructure, housing density, and overdevelopment.
Because so many yeshivas do not "register" with New York state, they do not issue official high school diplomas.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who resigned last May amid misconduct revelations, was regularly apprised of the non-compliance in the yeshivas, as were his deputies in the civil rights division and public integrity bureau, to no avail.
A long-promised investigation by New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has suspiciously stalled out. Asked about the controversy, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer advised advocates to press the mayor to complete the investigation as only sixteen of thirty-nine yeshivas have been investigated in almost three years.
State education law says non-public schools receiving public funding must offer academic instruction that is "substantially equivalent" to public schools. Religious groups have applied political pressure to convince officials to ignore the law, using campaign cash and public relations to deflect from the basic legal question, for example saying parents have a right to choose religious instruction for their children.
Such is the power and influence of the Orthodox Jewish bloc, represented ably by the national organization Agudath Israel. New York City councilman Daniel Dromm, who chaired the education committee for years, recently noted that no one with statewide political aspirations dares to cross this constituency.
Many from the community have observed that parents and students want the secular studies but face heavy social pressure to not make waves and stay in the school associated with their particular sect. Naftuli Moster, the founder and executive director of Yaffed, has been subjected to public smears, intimidation and even death threats as his organization has worked to garner attention to the issue.
The politics that enable New York's radical yeshivas trace back to manipulative redistricting in 2011. Empowered by a group of breakaway Democrats, Republicans created a state senate district in Brooklyn sometimes referred to as the Jewish "super-district" because it is so densely populated with Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, and Hasidic Jews. This led to the election of a not-so-loyal Democrat, state senator Simcha Felder, who used his pivotal position in an evenly divided senate to hand control to the Republicans.
East Ramapo, a school district in the New York City suburbs, has about 8,500 students in public schools and almost 28,000 in private Jewish religious schools. The ultra-Orthodox community won a majority on the school board in 2005, and began to defund public schools. Layoffs followed, with deep cuts to arts, sports, clubs and high school electives. They even eliminated kindergarten classes mid-year, leaving the predominantly minority public school parents in the lurch.
In 2017, state education commissioner MaryEllen Elia doled out millions in taxpayer dollars for non-mandated religious school transportation in exchange for baseline budget approvals.
Worse still, the school board began closing schools and selling the property to the yeshiva network. One public school was closed and offered for sale to a yeshiva group at millions under market value, prompting an investigation from the office of Attorney General Schneiderman.The story of the East Ramapo school board includes years of contentious votes, protests, scandals and lawsuits, chronicled thoughtfully in 2014 by the public radio program This American Life. But the adversity continued, by 2015 resulting in the appointment of state monitors and new oversight duties for the state education commissioner.
But the monitors had their veto power stripped away in legislative wrangling, and in 2017, state education commissioner MaryEllen Elia doled out millions in taxpayer dollars for non-mandated religious school transportation in exchange for baseline budget approvals.
Earlier this month, however, East Ramapo voters failed to pass a school district budget, meaning the district will be run on a contingency budget for the next school year and again face "dire" cuts.
Commissioner Elia has drafted guidelines for curriculum compliance that have angered the yeshivas. Sensing that Elia is poised to impose new enforcement regulations, the Orthodox bloc called in favors. Last April, Senator Felder again leveraged his one decisive vote to hold the budget vote hostage at the last second, demanding a carve-out of the education rules for yeshivas. The incident generated statewide and national attention, exemplified by a series of revealing videos released by Fox News.
DeVos's visit made clear her strong bias for religious schools.
In the final days of the 2018 legislative session, New York state senate majority leader, Republican John Flanagan (who ostensibly owes his leadership position to Simcha Felder), proposed a bill that would to strip authority away from the Commissioner in favor of "local control," making the state defer to "curriculum experts" familiar with the yeshivas unique brand of instruction.
Predictably, the bill was considered "dead on arrival" in the Democratic-led state assembly and never got a vote, so the session ended without resolving the issue. Democrats seem confident they can take back the state senate in November, in which case Felder has sold his tie-breaking vote for the last time.
But Betsy DeVos's visit made clear her strong bias for religious schools. Under her leadership, the Trump Administration seeks less government oversight for private religious schools, perfectly content to deny fundamental courses like social studies, science, history, civics, physical education, health and geography to students who invariably grow up to bloc-vote in lockstep behind their religious leaders.
Jake Jacobs is a New York City school teacher and education blogger. He has written for Washington Post, Diane Ravitch's Blog, AlterNet, the BAT Blog and elsewhere.
Public School Shakedown Religion Education
Jake Jacobs
New York City school teacher and education blogger.
Read more by Jake Jacobs
UPDATE: Lawsuit filed July 23, 2018
On the third anniversary of the original complaint filing, the whistleblower group YAFFED has filed a lawsuit against the governor, education commissioner and Board of Regents:
"The suit alleges that on April 12, 2018, when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a budget that included an amendment to New York Education Law, Section 3204, section 2, known as the "Felder Amendment", New York created a carve-out to the statutory requirement of substantial equivalent instruction in non-public schools that applies to and is intended to benefit only certain ultra-Orthodox non-public schools. In doing so, New York violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution."
By negitioating NYS Senator Simcha Felder's carve-out amendment, the state is effectively treating students in Jewish yeshivas differently, based on religious affiliation.
https://www.yaffed.org/lawsuit1
Jake Jacobs 359 days ago
School vouchers
Thank you Progressive for continuing to expose the kind of education taking place in tax supported parochial schools. Clever politicians like Scott Walker and his cronies find ways to craft legislation that funds religious education. As a result parochial schools are free to teach Creationism as science and to reject any scientific knowledge that conflicts with their religious dogma. In 2005 (?) Wisconsin passed a law (125)requiring all voucher schools to be accredited by one of approximately twenty accrediting agencies named in the law. All but a few were affiliated with particular religions - the Evangelical Lutheran Association, the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee for example. In effect therefore the legislature gave the parochial voucher schools the ok to be accredited by their own religious authorities and to center their curricula around their own dogma. And this is supported by public funding. My hope is that eventually those in political power will realize that the kind of education being supported by vouchers is inadequate even undemocratic. The rejection of science - a school culture that overtly and covertly emphasizes their religious superiority is not only undemocratic but fosters a rejection of belief in the common good - the "other" who is a non believer is not worthy. Again thank you for continuing to expose the outrageous results of the tax-supported school choice debacle.
Thomas Grotelueschen 361 days ago
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Comet uses Virgin Radio for positioning and response
In 2004 Virgin Radio was the most popular commercial radio station in the UK. Its web site receives over 1,000,000 unique visitors per month. The Comet campaign is a typical cross-media campaign that uses on-air and web site messaging and interaction.
Campaign objectives
• Support awareness of Comet's Price Promise that they provide low prices all year round.
• Communicate that Comet has great Christmas gifts for all the family.
• Drive traffic to Comet's gift finder at comet.co.uk.
• Create competitive standout through engaging activity.
• Listeners were invited to play 'The Price is Right' with Comet in a weeklong Drivetime Show promotion.
• Each day, a prize package demonstrating Comet's wide product range was up for grabs with a higher than normal starting price.
• Two listeners then guessed ever-decreasing prices to guess the package's true low Comet price.
• The first listener to get the price right won, or the first to get the price too low lost (and the other won by default).
• On-air mentions directed listeners to Comet's Gift Finder which was built into a co-branded micro-site on virginradio.co.uk.
• Banner ads and a competitions area on the web site were used to direct visitors to Gift Finder.
Source: Virgin Radio (www.virginradio.co.uk)
Radio has always been a good brand builder for the marketer. Now it is beginning to offer additional routes via new syndication and content deals which, in turn, may mean new programmes which means new sponsorship opportunities, and even new radio station opportunities. Some radio stations now offer audio ads with a banner ad or 'buy now' button when listening to web radio - you hear the ad, you click the button. Web radio also offers to do partner deals delivering niche radio to other web sites. This adds to the branding and also offers new revenue-generating channels as affiliates share ad revenues and merchandise sales from the partner web radio company.
Another benefit of web radio is that, as with traditional radio, there is already a dialogue - people phone in, e-mail in and snail-mail in. Today, they can click and respond instantaneously, continuing the conversation later or joining in a group discussion.
Advertising With Circulars
Co-op Mailing means that two or more businesses share in the cost and distribution of a direct mail campaign. It's kind of like having you and another non-competing business split the cost of printing, assembling and mailing an advertising flyer to a shared same market base.
Global Variation


HOMM Real Estate Services is a boutique-style, full-service real estate agency located in Brandon, Florida. Pronounced just like HOME but spelled H.O.M.M., our focus is Helping Others Make Moves. We offer the personalized real estate experience you need for buying, selling, or renting real estate, with a particular specialty in property management services.


2) Personal data will be stored until the vacancy you apply for is opened or the vacancy corresponding to your professional qualification is announced. In case if the vacancy is not announced at the moment of sending the CV, SQUALIO will store personal data for 3 months from the date of sending CV.
4) Only employees of the SQUALIO group companies who are authorized to use these personal data have access to the personal data contained in your CV.


If you have a rat, eventually you'll need to know what to do when your rat's life is ending or needs to be ended. Please read Mary Ann Isaksen's article on euthanasia, to find out why depending on a vet to do it humanely might not always be the best idea, and other very helpful advice for when that difficult time comes.
Pierre - He was big-boned at 2 lbs. He was gorgeous but a breeder's cast-off since he bit some family members. I almost reluctantly took him in at a year old. But with a lot of patience, love, and a few scars, Pierre came to be incredibly loving and even stopped biting anyone. He became a one-person rat and acted as my bodyguard. I euthanized with chloroform at the painful stages of Pneumonia from Mycoplasmosis. He was at least 3 years old when he died March 5, 2002.
Willy See Xmas photo - Everyone loved Willy. He was friendly, smart, and enjoyed a strong shoulder to sleep on. Died from Mycoplasmosis but didn't need euthanizing since the kidneys shut down first (relatively painless). The myco affected his breathing, he wasn't gasping from pneomonia like many rats do, which is painful for them and painful for us to watch them die from. DOB March 2000 - February 24, 2002.
Emilio See Xmas photo - Blue Berkshire. Litter box trained, Emilio was dignified and proud of his alpha rat status as pal to Willy. He lived his motto, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." Emilio was fastidious about his living quarters, which included an open cage (as with all my rats) and my desk drawer. Euthanized with chloroform at the painful stages of Pneumonia from Mycoplasmosis. DOB Unknown (2 years+) - August 14, 2001.
Weezer - My beige-hooded rascal who put the fear of God and rodents into my cats and relatives. Expertise: Teeth cleaner and fond of arranging pots and pans during midnight sprees. Traces of "Weezer was here!" can still be found throughout the house. Died of kidney failure from Mycoplasmosis. August 17, 1997 - December 19, 1999.
Teddy - Gentle and shy, he looked like a cute, black Teddy Bear, hence his name. Expertise: Housekeeping and defensive martial arts maneuvers. Such a sweet soul, he was no match for arch-enemy Weezer. When Teddy died, I caught Weezer trying to nudge his body off the counter. Teddy died of kidney failure from Mycoplasmosis. July 31, 1997 - July 7, 1999.
Willow - My chocolate-hooded Dumbo, all-business, sweet-natured Capricorn girl. Expertise: Building homes and babysitting. Underneath her don't-mess-with-me attitude with her buddy, Bouncer and everyone's nemesis, Weezer, she became a loving caretaker to fear-laden Teddy. Died of Uterine Cancer. January 17, 1996 - July 30, 1998.
Bouncer - My first rat, my handsome, loving, blue-hooded Leo boy. My love for him began a wonderful phase of appreciation and love for all rats. Experise: Spreading love, joy, and laughs. Died of Pneumonia from Mycoplasmosis. August 14, 1995 - October 25, 1997.


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Q: org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener I have been facing this error despite of having the spring-web jar. May you guys please help me to solve this.
SEVERE: Error configuring application listener of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1680)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1526)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4149)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4705)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1057)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:840)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1057)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:463)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:525)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:754)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:595)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:289)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:414)

A: In deployment environment, just make sure your server classpath has included the Spring jar library
For Spring3, ContextLoaderListener is moved to spring-web.jar, you can get the library from Maven central repository.
<dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.5.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>

for Debugging environment check here


Hot Mess is a PBS Digital Studios show about how climate change impacts all of us, and about how we can create a better future for our planet and ourselves. Our hosts are Miriam Nielsen, Talia Buford, and Joe Hanson, from It's Okay to Be Smart.
Could climate change make you allergic to meat?
Disease carrying critters now have more space and time to take a bite out of you and me.
What's actually the worst greenhouse gas?
Which of the many greenhouse gases are heating Earth the most?
Climate change will push millions out. Where will they go?
Many need to leave their homes to escape climate impacted disasters. Where will they go?
Why Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger?
Lets look at how a warming planet and warming oceans amplify our worst storms.
Could Space Mirrors Cool The Globe?
What if we could reflect some of the sun's energy with space mirrors!?
Who Should Pay To Fix Climate Change?
The majority of greenhouse gas emissions are now coming from large developing countries.
Beef Is Bad For The Climate. Can We Make It Better?
What can we actually do to make beef less bad for the environment?
What If We Burned All The World's Fossil Fuels?
We have enough fossil fuels to make Earth intolerable so we must not burn them all.
Why Don't We Hear About the Ozone Hole Anymore?
Can we learn anything from almost fixing the hole in the ozone layer that will help us?
Would Your Neighbors Save You From a Flooding Home?
Building stronger relationships might be one of the best ways to prepare for a flood.
What can the adorable pika teach humans about adapting to global warming?
What Can You Actually Do About Climate Change?
What can you do to make a meaningful difference in decreasing the carbon footprint?


Located five miles North of Winchester, South Wonston is a large village of some 1,500 properties that range from bungalows to detached houses. South Wonston Primary School is situated in the centre of the village where there is also a shop and post office. Although there is no pub in South Wonston there is a lively social club hosting numerous events for all ages.


Visiting Cancun and looking for something to do besides the beach? How about zip lining upside down, cliff jumping into a cenote, riding ATVs through the mud, feeling weightlessness on a bungee swing and more? If yes, let me show you how Selvatica may be the place for you!
Deciding to visit the Gran Porto Resort in Playa del Carmen, MX? Let me help you decide on which suit you might be interested in staying in and what to do while you are there!


For many people who are on the heavy side of the scale, losing weight is more than a matter of aesthetic: It's a question of survival, both physically and mentally. Obesity is the second cause of death in the USA that could be prevented with a careful health recovery plan. But it is much more than just that: It's a permanent companion that eats away your happiness and your self-confidence, making it harder to find the strength and the willpower to lose weight. Thankfully, there are some tips that you can use to make of your body what you have always dreamed of and to find your courage back.
There is no denying that weight loss and fitness program go hand in hand in our modern society. However, there is a variety of fitness programs and diets around, so it is best to discuss your options with a doctor before you pick anything. For example, there are plans that can help you to shred up to 20 pounds in a matter of weeks which are great to get started. Indeed, as you will get to see a difference rapidly, you are more likely to stick to a fitness plan! However, this crash diet is not healthy in the long term! Some people find it easier to work with a meal replacement diet that enables them to replace one or two meals a day with a high-protein shake for example. This diet too can be dangerous, so don't decide without medical advice! A great tip, though, is to use smart food storage solutions such as keeping your junk food out of sight and propping healthy vegetables and fruits at the front of your drawers and in the middle of your kitchen table.
When your life is at risk, it's not the time to feel too embarrassed to look for active support. Obesity can and does kill, and therefore you shouldn't feel ashamed about asking for help. After all, at the end of the journey is a healthier and fitter you, and this is worth it! There are a variety of operations that can be done to help you lose weight, such as a sleeve gastrectomy for example, which in essence removes a large portion of your stomach – up to 85% !- and shapes the remaining part into a sleeve-like structure, hence the name. This will help you to feel full faster and for longer periods of time. Additionally, you could also use a coach, such as on an online weight loss community to help you stay strong and motivated.
It's difficult not to hate oneself as you might feel as if you had let yourself down. But refrain from negativity! Your body is changing as you go on a weight loss journey and, even if it's a slow process, it is important to stay focused and take care of yourself. Additionally, keeping a diary of your meals will help you to keep your portions small and healthy. You can also use a calorie-counter app to make sure that you are not over- or under-eating as this will not be helping your self-confidence.


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B/K is for Bukusu in Kimilili: a love story
Posted by molisa under hadithi, the Q/T werd | Tags: a history of the abaluyia of western kenya, abakabarasi, abakhayo, abamarachi, abamarama, abamateka, abanyore, abasamia, abashisa, abatachoni, abatiriki, abatsotso, abawanga, abisukha, abitakho, ali mazrui, bagirwa, bantu, binti zion, black jesus, britannia zimeisha, bukusu, bungoma, burundi, circumcision, class wars, colonel richard meinertzhagen, colour spill productions anitafrika dub theatre, dedan kimathi, dini ya musambwa, DRC, egypt, eleggua, elijah masinde, elimu sanifu, eshu, ethiopia, falasha, field marshall muthoni, folktales, friends church, from our mother's hearts, gideon were, gulu, healing wisdom of africa, henry okello ayot, indaba my children, kaimosi, kenya, kimililili, kintu, kizuizini, koitalel arap samoei, lake victoria, luhya, maina wa nalukale, makila, makmende, makmende returns, maragoli, masaba, masinde muliro, mau mau, mbira, michael wamalwa kijana, misri, mount elgon, mount kenya, mount kilimanjaro, mumbo, musikari kombo, mwambu, myths of origin, nambi, nandi, ngugi wa thiong'o, oghun, osain, oshun, oya, petals of blood, polygamy, post election violence, prophecy, quakers, queen of sheba, raila odinga, rwanda, sela, selected pan-african postcards, shango, simiyu barasa, sirikwa, speaking truth to power, stella chiweshe, story moja, tajudeen abdul raheem, talking drums, talking mbira, tanzania, the q/t werd, the river and the source, the river between, the wizard of the crow, toto's millionaire, uganda, webuye, wele khakaba, western province, word! sound! powah!, yemoja |
Blogger's note: In memory and honour of Elijah Masinde's anniversary, we dedicate these stories to (deepening our connection with) our ancestors, bredrin, dadas en pikney.
The Bukusu are one of the seventeen Kenyan sub-tribes of the Luhya (Bantu group of) East Africa.
Calling themselves 'BaBukusu', they are the largest single ethnic unit among the Luhya nation, making up about 17% of the whole Luhya population.
The other Luhya groups in Kenya are ABaTiriki, Maragoli, ABaNyore, ABaKhayo, ABaMateka, ABaNyala, ABaSamia, ABiSukha, AbiTakho, ABaShisa, ABaMarachi, ABaTsotso, ABaKabarasi, ABaTachoni, ABaWanga and ABaMarama.
The Bukusu myths of origin state that the first man, Mwambu (The discoverer or inventor), was made from mud by Wele Khakaba at a place called Mumbo (which translates to 'West'). God then created a wife for Mwambu, a woman called Sela.
Mwambu and his descendants moved out of Mumbo and settled on the foothills of Mount Elgon, from where their descendants grew to form the current Bukusu population.
Other traditional stories relate of a place of origin called Misri, from Mizraim (Hebrew for Egypt).
Anthropologists believe that the Bukusu did not become a distinct grouping apart from the rest of the Luhya population until, at the very earliest, the late 18th Century.
They moved into Central Uganda as part of a much larger group of people, many forming the eastern extension of the great Bantu migration out of central Africa.
(See Origins of the Luhya.)
Together with other Luhya groups, the Bukusu are thought to have first settled around the foothills of Mount Elgon. This area was already inhabited by Kalenjin warrior tribes, and the Bukusu and their neighbours had to build fortified villages to ward off the attacks of these tribes.
The first fortified villages were built at a place called Silikwa (sometimes called Sirikwa). Following repeated attacks and unfavourable weather conditions, folklore has it, a council was held at Silikwa and it was resolved to migrate south and east, where spies are said to have reported large, unsettled lands. However, a section of the population was reluctant to move and stayed behind when the main tribe moved.
Those who stayed behind are said to have become the Ugandan BaMasaaba tribe. Those who left moved into what is now Bungoma district of Kenya, to become the ancestors of the current Bukusu people.
Currently, the Bukusu mainly inhabit Bungoma district of Western Province, which is bordered by Kakamega District to the east, Busia District to the south, Mount Elgon to the north and Uganda to the west.
A large number of the Bukusu are also found in the Kitale area of Kenya's Rift Valley province, as well as in Lugari-Malava district.
The BaMasaaba of Uganda are very closely related to the Bukusu, with many shared customs and a common dialect of the Luhya language.
Previously, the Bukusu were referred to as the 'Kitosh' by the neighbouring Kalenjin community, a name they despised. The reasons for this are not very clear: in some Kalenjin dialects, "Kitosh" means "people of the earth". This could have been a reference to the agricultural Bukusu, or to the fact that they lived on the lower foothills of Mount Elgon. Following vigorous campaigns by community elders, the name Kitosh was eventually substituted with Bukusu in the mid 1950s.
A replica of a Bukusu hut at the Sarova White Sands Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.
Traditional life
The Bukusu lived in fortified villages, and did not have a structure of central authority. The highest authority was the village headman, called Omukasa, who was usually elected by the men of the village. There were also healers and prophets who acquired great status because of their knowledge of tribal tradition, medicines, and religion. Elijah Masinde, a resistance leader and traditional medicineman, was revered as a healer in the early 1980s.
Bukusu family structure was traditionally modelled on the generic Luhya family structure. Families were usually polygamous, with the first wife accorded a special status among her co-wives……….
Children inherited the clan of their father, and were not allowed to marry spouses from either their own clan, or their mother's clan. The first son of the first wife was usually the main heir to his father, and he had a special name denoting this status: Simakulu.
At birth, children were usually named after grandparents or famous people, or after the weather. Male and female names were different: male names frequently began with 'W', while female names usually began with 'N'. Thus, for example, a boy born during a famine would be named 'Wanjala', while a girl would be named 'Nanjala'. Both names share the same root word, 'njala', from 'eNjala', the Bukusu word for hunger.
The Bukusu practised (and still practise) male circumcision. It is thought that they adopted the practice from contact with the Kalenjin at Mount Elgon. Others argue, however, that the presence of the practice in the other Luhya tribes indicates an earlier adoption, before the Bukusu settled at Mount Elgon. In ceremonies that were spaced about two years apart, young boys of a particular age (usually about 15 years of age) would, on getting the go-ahead from their parents, invite relatives and friends to their initiation.
The initiation was a public event, witnessed by all. Going through the operation without showing any sign of pain was (and still is) thought to be an indicator of bravery. Once circumcised, an initiate became a member of an age-group. There are twelve age-groups, forming a cyclical system, with each age-group lasting for 8 years. Once the last age-group has been reached, the first is restarted, and so on. For example, the "Bachuma" age-group lasted from 1980 to 1986: every Bukusu circumcised within this period (that is, in 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1986) belongs to that age-group. In 1988, the "Basawe" age group began, and lasted until 1994.
F emale circumcision was widely practiced among the Bukusu, until government campaigns put an end to the practice in the 1980s. However, some clans still continue the practice in secret. [depending on where you look at it from, it could also be that the practice died a few generations ago]
This is especially the case around Mount Elgon, where the neighbouring Kalenjin tribes also practice a form of female circumcision. [fafanua.]
Although circumcision was universal among the Bukusu, the form of the ceremony varied according to the clan. In particular, the festivities and ceremonies accompanying the final stage of initiation, when the now-healed initiates came out of seclusion to rejoin their families as 'men', were specific to clans, and have been handed down largely intact to the present day.
Young men got married at about the age of 18-20, while girls got married at about the age of 16. There were two types of first-time marriage: arranged marriages and enforced eloping. If a young man came from a well-to-do family, he would ask his sisters to find a girl for him to marry. The ability of a potential wife to cook well, bear children and work in the fields were the main attractions in a girl. Once a girl was identified, an emissary was sent to her parents to ask for her hand. The girl had no say whatsoever in the whole matter: bride price would be discussed, and then once it was paid she would be sent off to live with her new husband. This form of marriage is still common in traditional households today.
In some cases, however, the young man would be from a poor family and could not afford to pay the likely bride-price. Traditional society allowed such young men to abduct the girls they intended to marry. (The girl had to present an opportunity to be 'abducted', so her cooperation was essential!) The couple would then leave their home to live with a far-off relative for a while, until the young man acquired enough wealth to pay the original bride price, as well as a fine, to the parents of the girl. This practice has since died out.
The Bukusu highly approve of intermarriages between themselves and BaMasaaba. This is because they have quite a number of similarities in their codes of conduct, marriage customs, circumcision traditions and even folklore. Among the most famous of Bukusu marriage customs is the immense respect accorded one's in-laws. A lady, for example, treats her father-in-law with a lot of deference and respect, and they are not allowed to make physical contact in any way. The same is true of a man and his mother-in-law……
Cattle were very important: they were the main means of exchange, alongside cowrie shells (chisimbi). Most values, from the beauty of a girl to the price of a field of land, were expressed in terms of head of cattle. Possessing cattle wealth and prosperous agriculture, the Bukusu were sometimes not only admired but also envied by neighboring communities.
Occasionally intermarriages used to take place between them and the other communities. It was common practice for Kalenjin neighbors to give Bukusu their sons to look after their herds of cattle. In times of famine, which are said to have been frequent amongst their Kalenjin neighbors, the latter used to even sell their children to Bukusu. Bukusu also used to send their own young boys to grow up with Kalenjin or Maasai families, in some cases for espionage purposes.
Being sedentary pastoralists, they had time to care for their sick and bury their dead. A sick person was looked after till he recuperated or died. When a person died, he was buried in a grave with a warrior's weapons if he was an elder. Several functions were performed during and after the funeral ceremony. Ordinarily, burial pits ranged from 3-4 feet in depth, much shallower than today's. Sometimes wild animals like hyenas exhumed corpses from graves and ate them. Should such an incident occur, people looked for the presumed skull of the desecrated body, and when they found it, they hung it in a leafy tree.
When the family of the deceased migrated, they brewed beer (kamalwa ke khuukhalanga) for the ceremony of transferring the skull with them to the new home or settlement. An old woman was entrusted with the responsibility of conveying the skull to the new site. Burial of the dead was thus, to say the least, ingrained in the Bukusu traditions.
Bukusu accounts indicate that both agricultural and pastoral economies have been practiced by the tribe for as long can be remembered. This is authenticated by the vast amount of knowledge they have about farming practices, rich pastoral vocabulary and the broad variety of legends connected with pastoral life. Today, they farm mainly maize for subsistence and sugar cane as a cash crop in the Bungoma area, as well as wheat in the Kitale area. Cattle and sheep are universally kept, cattle mainly for milk, and sheep for meat and ceremonial functions (when a sheep usually has to be offered to elders for sacrifice). Larger or polygamous families will usually have a team of oxen for ploughing and hauliage within the home. Chicken, a traditional delicacy, are nowadays reared on small to medium scales for commercial egg production.
The Bukusu currently form one of the main support bases of the governing coalition in Kenya, through the Ford-Kenya political party. Previously, they were mainly associated with opposition to the Kalenjin-dominated reign of former President Daniel Arap Moi.
Notable Personalities
Among the more notable Bukusu personalities past and present:
Maina wa Nalukale, a seer who was reputed to have foretold the coming of the British colonialists
Elijah Masinde, resistance and religious leader
Michael Wamalwa Kijana, former vice president of Kenya
Masinde Muliro, former minister and opposition leader
Musikari Kombo, current leader of Ford Kenya
Ayot, Henry Okello (1977) History Texts of the Lake Region of East Africa. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Literature Bureau.
Barker, Eric E. (1975) The Short History of Nyanza. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Literature Bureau.
Makila, F. E. (1978) An Outline History of Babukusu of Western Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Literature Bureau.
Were, Gideon S. (1967) A History of the Abaluyia of Western Kenya: c. 1500-1930. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishing House.
© The Wikipedia
Elija Masinde (also spelt Elijah Masinde) was a traditional leader of the Bukusu people of western Kenya.
Born around 1910 – 1912 in Bungoma district, Masinde started out as a footballer, going on to play for Kenya against Uganda in 1930. By the early 1940s, he had risen to the rank of a junior elder within his community in Kimilili area, and became increasingly anti-colonial. In 1944, he led a number of localised defiance campaigns against the colonial authorities, and was imprisoned as a result.
Dini Ya Musambwa
While in jail, Masinde claimed to have been given divine interpretation of the Old Testament of the Bible, and proclaimed that a "Black Jesus" would come to liberate the people of Kenya from colonial oppression. When he was released, he formed a sect called "Dini Ya Musambwa" (Bukusu for "following of spirit[s] of the ancestors"), and gained huge followings in western Kenya.
Detention, old age, and death
Upon Kenya's independence, Masinde was detained by the government of Jomo Kenyatta for almost 15 years. He had been accused of formenting religious hatred. He was released by the government of Daniel Arap Moi in 1978, and lived quietly in his native Kimilili area until his death in 1987.
It is reported that, before his death, Masinde pointed out to his family the spot where he wanted to be buried – he wanted a huge sycamore tree uprooted to make way for his grave. The family decided to bury him elsewhere, though, but were thwarted when a spot they chose for his grave turned out to be a hidden grave. They took this to be an omen and proceeded to bury him in the spot where the sycamore tree had been.
*Makila, F. E. (1978) An Outline History of Babukusu of Western Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Literature Bureau.
*Alembi, Ezekiel. (2000) Elijah Masinde: Rebel with a cause". Nairobi, Kenya: Sasa Sema Publications Ltd.
http://experts.about.com/e/e/el/Elija_Masinde.htm
BLOGGER'S NOTE:
this post is a(nother) preview of the Q/t werd: a (real/raw en) mystic, organic, us-people driven caravan of pan-afrikan myths, legends en our (kinda) super/s/heroes….we're celebrating and (re) mapping the intersections of our diversity with werd! Sound! (en di) Powah! (of love)
These are some stories we know, that (not only) I heard (en read) many times before, from many different (kinda) folks,
you can do anything that you want with these hadithi, share them with others, cry about it, get angry or forget it, but don't say you'd have lived your life differently if only you'd heard this story, now you know….
[We warn you, we have not only just begun! 😉 ]
http://www.kenyaimagine.com/Social-Issues/Literature-Blood-and-Doves.htmlLiterature, Blood and Doves
As the media went into a frenzy celebrating the '5th Anniversary of the Iraq War', my friend Jackie via chat asked why they were saying this like it was a happy event, like a wedding anniversary or something.We quickly came to the Kenyan situation and said next year we shall probably have our first Anniversary frenzy celebrating the post Election violence that was ethnically motivated and marked our descent into hell. Some people will actually be celebrating killing of others like it is a happy Birthday celebration. My friend aptly summarized it – "it will be warm and syrupy and Julie Gichuru will preside over the televised version on a talk show."
But what lessons does it teach us, we practitioners and consumers of literature? It teaches us that from the roots, the development, and the eruption of the violence, literature (like other Kenyan institutions) was misused to fuel the ethnic violence. ('Literature' is here used loosely to mean the written, the spoken, and – as recently redefined by technology – the blogged, the SMSd, the graffitied, the rapped, the sung, the videoed.) Literature in all the variety of its forms was abused to propagate negative tribalism and ethnocentric hatred of others, as well as misused by its practitioners, (lecturers, students, readers, editors of literary columns and internet bloggers,) to mis-interpret what are otherwise noble folktales, as well as to disparage fellow literary icons simply because they were from the 'other tribe'. There was also the noble opposite, especially in the aftermath of the outbreak of violence, when writers and practitioners of literature used literary works and personalities in an attempt to address the violence, hatred and propaganda being bandied about by agents of ethnic hatred hiding under the veil of democracy.
The process of slanting the ideological and thematic strands in stories for political expediency was similar to the Nazi effort of the early 1930's when the NSDAP sponsored the research and publication of folklore that had Nordic-Germanic symbols and themes of German supremacy, which they then used to galvanize the peasantry, and the population at large, in the belief that they were a pure master race. Alfred Rosenberg's Kulturgemeinde issued in its two main journals, Kunst and Volc and Volskum and Heimadt, folktales with that intent. German Literature professors, especially in folklore, were pressured to align their research findings with the National Socialist Weltanschauung. An innocent story like Little Red Riding Hood, in the Grimm brothers' Children and Household Tales (1812), was, for instance, turned by the propagandists of the Third Reich into a symbol of the German people, saved from the evil Jewish wolf. In this way, Adolf Hitler spread his hate against Jews, homosexuals, clergymen, gypsies, mentally challenged people, and all those not of (what was thought to be) pure German blood. In Rwanda, hate publications, stories and folktales were similarly mis-interpreted to propagate Hutu and Tutsi animosity.
Likewise in Kenya, from smoky rural huts to the Kenyan web. In one of the hate mails that circulated in the Rift Valley and on the internet, a section of the Nandi invoked the legend of Koitalel Arap Samoei, a brave son of the Nandi community, and one of the great freedom-fighters, who valiantly led the (unfortunately, seldom credited) longest resistance against the British colonialists, until he was tricked and killed by Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, after which the community divided once again. His heroism is one of the defining hallmarks of Kenyan nationhood: he proudly and honourably resisted imperialism and the oppression of a people by another. On the internet, as on the ground, however, the exploits of Koitalel were used to inspire the Nandi to rise up against the Gikuyu who had 'occupied their land'; the Gikuyu it was alleged, were latter-day imperialists. It claimed the re-birth of Koitalel through Hon. Ruto, who shares the name Samoei name with him, urging the community to rally behind the reborn Orkoiyot. The brothers of the Nandi were urged to raise arms against the Gikuyu, ostensibly because whereas Kibaki was a Gikuyu and unreachable, they could get to his tribemates. The rest is history.
Similarly, a section of the Gikuyu, since the sunset years of the Moi regime, have rallied round the myth of Mugo wa Kibiru, a great soothsayer in Gikuyu land, who visioned the coming of the white man and urged his people to prepare to oppose the raider. The Gikuyus also invoked another legend, Dedan Kimathi Waciuri, widely seen as a symbol of the courageous struggle for Independence. With these two, united by the clandestine religio-socio-political Mau Mau movement that led the anti-British rebellion in Gikuyuland, a few young men claimed visitation by Mugo wa Kibiru, in which they were exhorted to lead the community against oppression by the Moi regime and his Kalenjin tribemates.
In the guise of returning Gikuyus to their pure cultural practices, the group widened and grew, eventually morphing into the well-organized Mungiki gang. When it was clear, according to the 2007 polls, that Mwai Kibaki was trailing Raila Odinga, and that, even among Gikuyu peasants, he was not a favourite due to the perceived favouring of his elitist moneyed friends, elements within the Gikuyu hireachy invoked tribal unity using the image of Dedan Kimathi: 'we fought for Kenya's Independence while they lazed around the lake', there is no way 'we the circumcised can be led by the uncircumcised', it was said. Loose talk of 'Kenya is ours' was heard.
From Kenyatta's speeches, where he is supposed to have told told MPs opposing his seemingly tribalistic governance that "My people drink milk in the morning, your people in the afternoon" to imply that former had a right to the cream of Kenya's resources, such proverbs, and metaphors were used to spite other communities. Modern metaphors were dragged into the fray, equating the murderous mission with Christian evangelism. In an interview with Dennis Itumbi of AfricaNews, posted on kalenjin.net, a Mungiki leader (who studied at Kangaru and Mangu high schools, did a BA in Philosophy with a bias in (Religious) logic at the University of Nairobi and a Masters Degree at St. Paul's Theological College in Limuru specializing in African Theology), a Mr Mathenge aka Mnyama, says Mungiki is "political and religious. Look when Jesus came on earth he said he was the King of the Jews. That is political. Then he said he has come to restore salvation. That is religious and that is our mission. You don't even need to ask that question. Remember the recent meeting in Michuki's office. Why were these politicians meeting?" The rest is history.
Among the Luhya, particularly the Bukusu, one of their freedom fighters and legendary icons, Elijah Masinde, was invoked. The Bukusus, in an apparent bid to make them ignore the dangling of one of their own, Musikari Kombo, by Kibaki as a possible future president once Kibaki had served his full term, were reminded of a prophecy uttered by Elijah Masinde to the effect that 'The throne would only come to Bukusu land through the path of the lake' i.e., only Raila, being from the Lake region, had the duty to serve as Kenya's president and pave the path to a Luhya once he retired, a fact hammered in by Raila's choice of Mudavadi, a Luhya, as his running mate. What followed was major battle, with the differing political groups trying to outdo each other in the 'best interpretation of the Elijah Masinde prophecy', a resuscitation of Bukusu folktales urging caution against the Barwa (Nandi enemies), the Mango myth of Circumcision as well as Maina Wa Nalukale's tales of Bukusu supremacy over the Luhya nation. It all culminated in a tussle of comic proportions when each group visited the grave of the legend to pay homage, donating blankets and other goodies in efforts to appease his spirit and counter the other groups appeasing efforts as a sacrilageous soiling of his name. All this for a man who, until last year, was largely forgotten in Kenya's history outside Bukusuland.
Instead of literary scholars laying bare the selfish manipulations of these folktales and icons for political gain, they jumped onto the bandwagon, dropping their PhD degrees and pamphlets of scholarly research to prove the rightness of whichever group they supported. Professors of literature attacked each other's credibility on the basis of their tribe of origin. A major casualty, of course, was all those amazing works that were being done on the Mau Mau history. Suddenly, Mau Mau was collateral damage in the war for and against Kibaki. It was no good talking about it in serious forums. It was just a Gikuyu peasant war that had nothing to do with Kenyan History. No, it was the best example of we Gikuyu fighting the white man and now you want to say we can't rule this land we shed blood for, so please write it and garnish it with sentiments of how grateful Kenya has to be to our tribe. Literary critics led the interpretation of literary works to discredit opposing tribes. An example is one review that was an unfortunate attack on an 80-year old peasant man who had slaved for over 28 years handwriting his memoirs about his life in detention, Kizuizini (Detention life), a Swahili book which I personally edited and researched at the National Archives to verify its credibility. (I am not Gikuyu so had no tribal allegiance). Despite it being a rich source of information about our history, one self-appointed 'leading' critic termed it 'fiction' saying that since the old man had a line which he said 'we fought the white man because he had taken our land, and we wanted it back since it was given to us from the days of Gikuyu and Mumbi, our forefathers' and since he later goes on to regret that 'what we had fought for in Kenya, we never really got it, since those who supported the colonialists went on to grab land while many were left landless'. A noble book was dismissed as Gikuyu propaganda without proper consideration, simply because it was written by a Gikuyu; truly a case of a book caught in a war not of its own making.
It was also fashionable to dismiss Ngugi Wa Thiong'o as just another beneficiary of Gikuyu elevation. Years ago, when I was still a young brain, easily influenced by his egalitarian Marxism, a post-graduate student of high repute in the Institution I was at lashed out at Ngugi during a Black American Month symposium, stating that he was to blame for inventing the Mungiki Sect through The River Between; it had propagated the return of certain Gikuyu customs. I wrote a bitter defence in The Standard's Literary Forum, arguing that those who founded Mungiki probably hadn't even read the novel, and anyone who had read the novel could see that nowhere did it advocate beheading of people as a Gikuyu cultural norm. The defence sparked a barrage of hate replies and counter-replies which degenerated into tribal name-calling, after which the editor slammed shut the debate. Fast forward: Ngugi returned to Kenya after his self imposed exile; many read it as the beginning of a wider scheme of Gikuyu glorification, forgetting the return of Ali Mazrui and other fire-brands who had been demonized by the Moi Government. When the unfortunate attack on Ngugi and his wife happened, numerous emails circulated celebrating the fact with sneers of 'The Gikuyu hyenas, look how they even eat one of their own.' When the post-election violence broke in December, Ngugi's remarks that some scenarios were similar to what he had written in his block-buster novel, The Wizard of The Crow , were angrily sneered at. It did not help when Ngugi wrote a pre-lection commentary concerning his impression of Kibaki, based on the three occasions they had met. The first rejoinder to that article was an attack on Ngugi claiming that he had proven that he did not think any president fit to lead Kenya unless he were Gikuyu. That article was circulated largely to discredit Ngugi as a Gikuyu apologist.
Even the new generation of writers were not averse to attacking each other on tribal bases. Some publishing houses were accused of being slanted towards publishing people from their owner's tribal region and neglecting others in total disregard of the merit of their works. Whether that is true or not is debatable, but what is true is that the perceptions that such and such a publishing house publishes only such and such tribes were there.
Literature had squarely entered the fray of tribalism, becoming as divided as all the other institutions which had been looked upon to deliver us from this evil: The Kenya Electoral Commission, the Judiciary, The Press, and the Church. You read or misread literature and, especially folklore, according to your tribal spectacles.
There was intense rejuvenation of folk tales that portrayed the Kalenjin and the Nandi as fit only to herd cattle. The famous story in which a cow was given to a Luo, a Gikuyu and a Kalenjin, did its rounds. The Gikuyu, it is claimed, zero grazed it, pampered it by planting and cutting napier grass for it, and it gave the best quantity of milk (to say Kibaki's economic boon). The Kalenjin grazed it all over the land till he eroded the soil, and the cow gave a meager quantity of milk (a comment on the 24 years of Moi rule and the harsh economic times in his sunset years). The Luo, it was said, was too lazy to graze a cow day in and day out, so let it wander as he sat in his hut, knowing that whenever he needed food, he could walk to the lake, fish, eat, sleep and then go fish again when he felt hungry. This, you can guess, was spread by Gikuyu people. It was countered with numerous stories in print and oral narratives of stories with the motif of Gikuyu as genetically disposed towards thievery, and when the election dispute arose, the cry was 'kill all the Gikuyu since they are nothing but thieves'.
Not to be outdone, the Gikuyu, particularly the Ameru, re-ignited myths of their migration to the Mt. Kenya region from Axum in Ethiopia, with links to the Queen of Sheba; thus they claimed to be one of the lost tribes of Israel. The more educated linked the Meru, particularly the Athuci, to this claim of Jewish descent. In bars, it was said that the Biblical Eden was located in the land divided by a flowing river (the Chania in this case); and that Mt. Kenya was the seat of God, who had bestowed Kibaki with the power to lead as only the Gikuyu could reign over the rest of the country. You could not galvanise a people around their pride as the pure more strongly than this. Unless you are Hitler of course.
The folklore taught to the circumcised among the Bantu and especially among the Gikuyu were brought to the fore, encouraging distrust of other tribes as lazy. Numerous moderate Gikuyus, on trying to caution their hardliner friends about the irregularities marring the elections were taunted: 'are you not circumcised? So why fear antagonizing a kihii (the uncircumcised)?" In the post election violence, Gikuyu youth hunted down Luos in Kibera, and Naivasha, forcefully circumcising them before either beating them or killing them. Reports from Independent bodies delving into the root causes of the violence have documented the same from the Nandi community: young circumcised youths were taught folklore during their cultural lessons, slanted to provoke them into attacking the Gikuyu in the Rift Valley, now that they were warriors. In turn, stories, proverbs and writings have cropped up which encourage what I can term the 'Jewinisation' of the Gikuyu: a feeling of persecution and 'we are the hated because of being entrepreneurs' which, surprisingly, is getting encouragement from the learned and wealthy of the community. From hawkers to middle class homes, the Gikuyu feel besieged, and believe that they are being witch-hunted for working hard and prospering. With the Gospel of prosperity taught in evangelical churches, they have sought refuge in Christian stories of those persecuted by jealous people, and hence found solace by conceiving of themselves as an unfairly-persecuted minority, like the Jews. It resonates with the teaching of the bible; some religious people go further and rely on the Biblical hatred between the Jews and the Gentiles to justify hating the other tribe. Several blogs hosted by Gikuyu attest to this, one of the most prominent being one titled 'Who are the Gikuyu? The Jews of Kenya'. In Rwandesque terms, Kenyan communities claimed supremacy over others using their communal narratives, and urging the decimation of others as weeds, stains, and other negative terms. Proverbs were given tribal meanings to otherise. Communities were labeled madoadoa, stains that needed to be removed, in avenues as public as FM stations.
But fortunately most people decided to use literature in its various forms to propagate peace and provoke a re-evaluation of the whole Kenyan conflict, as well as what avenues there were to address the animosity that was fast claiming lives. The Concerned Kenyan Writers email group brought together arguably the best Kenyan writers in a dialogue of sorts, which quickly grew into a major forum for international media and literary people looking for a more authentic, alternative source of information that wasn't censored by the commercial factors that hampered the mainstream media. Writers like Binyavanga Wainaina, Yvonne Awuor, Billy Kahora, Stanley Gazemba, Muthoni Garland, Rasnah Warah, Parselelo Kantai and others wrote fiction and non fiction articles that they posted on the site and were circulated worldwide. International writers played their part in narrating the Kenyan experience, mostly because it resonated with their own countries. Gappah Pettinah from Zimbabwe, Uganda's Doreen Baingana and Kalundi Serrumaga are notable examples.
In December, before election day, Story Moja, a literary body in Nairobi, organized Kenya's first Reading Festival; a story-telling competition was held. Most of the narratives referred to the General election that was around the corner, warning against the dire consequences of tribal politics as if prophesying the violence to come. The winning narrative, almost uncannily, was about kitchen tools that engaged in animosity and fought each other in their quest for supremacy, leading to a blaze in the kitchen. It ended with a plea for Kenyans not to be like the kitchen tools. But apparently some didn't heed it. On the theatre scene, plays like Lwanda Magere which 'pimped' the legend of Lwanda Magere – the invincible Luo warrior who was invincible until he leaked the secret to a girl that only spearing his shadow could hurt him – were done with a modern political angle and toured the countryside. Youth from the Dandora slums organized by Patrick Shomba made a short film titled Ghetto President and aired it there.
After the violence erupted, writers gathered at the Sunday Salon to read stories of hope and love; all the admission money collected was donated to the Kenya Red Cross to buy food and clothing for the internally displaced. Similarly, a play was shown at the National Theater the proceeds of which were donated to charity. Many more events took place countrywide.
Despite the fact that literature was used to spread hate, it is not to be blamed. It is those who misused it who are to blame, in the same way that those who used the positive power of literature to ease the conflict are to be praised. One does not ban all water bodies simply because someone drowned in a river. With special reference to folktales, it is not that they are forms for hatred, but rather that people misused them.
At the end of World War II, Allied commanders banned the publication of the Grimm tales in Germany in the belief that they had contributed to Nazi savagery. Some even called for the banning of folktales and similar literary styles, but reason eventually prevailed: it was not the tales, but the manipulators who were the problem. It is a fact that most of the folktales and narratives in our communities extolled peace and understanding. Even those that were slanted and mis-interpreted by the warmongers to spread hate are about the virtues of Koitalel Arap Samoei, Dedan Kimathi, and Lwanda Magere, who actually had virtues we all need to emulate: prominently, self-sacrifice for the communal good. Our folktales did not advocate killing of innocent women and children, and they did not advocate killing innocent people in a room set ablaze for the sake of revenge. But like everything at this insane moment in our country, truth was lost. Literature, like a gun, depends on the hands it is in.
Simiyu Barasa is a film maker (Toto Millionaire), and a member of the Concerned Kenyan Writers collective.
a litany of survival: ya akina dada (na mama) wa Afrika
Posted by molisa under Uncategorized | Tags: AAPRP, abscondita, afra kenya, african feminism, African Liberation Day, african socialism, al jazeera, ALD, alice walker, ancient legends, angela davis, anitAfrika dub theatre, assata shakur, audre lorde, audre lorde project, bagirwa, barack obama, behind the mask, bernedette muthien, britannia zimeisha, BTM, bunge la mwananchi, colour spill productions, communities of resistance, communities of struggle, democrats, dionne brand, elijah masinde, fahamu, Farug, field marshall muthoni, fire on the mountain, fred hampton, GALCK, GEAP, george jackson, godown arts centre, great lakes, i love u people, icebreakers, indigenous myths, is the crux, jamaica kincaid, james baldwin, jesus christ, lake victoria, langston hughes, leftist movements, liberals, mad hatter, makmemnde, makmende returns, martriarchy, mount elgon, mount kenya, mount kilimanjaro, moyo kenya, moyo wa africa, muhumusa, muthoni wanyeki, MWA, nalo hopkinson, nana yaa asantewaa, notisha massaquoi, nyabinghi, octavia butler, pambazuka news, pan-africanism, paradise lost, peace theatre, POCsolidarity, rainbow nation, ras ngomeni, republicans, rick mercer, samuel delaney, sistas in solidarity, SMUG, sonia.sanchez, sons of malcolm, stacey ann chin, superstars, swagger, sylvia tamale, tajudeen abdul raheem, TEA, the l word, the people project, TIT's, TOMIK, toni morrison, un-niversary, uncle tom, unity, vandana shiva, wahu kaara, zanele muholi, zora neale hurston |
These are the true true stories of sistas.in.solidarity (SIStas.I.S) in the 'Q' werd.
Their stories are not new, en we'll share them (again en again en again) coz these are some of the one's we've been looking for, the ones holding us up (en in their/arms), who we struggle with en whose legacies we're inspired by, whose shoulders we stand on, en in whose bedrooms, farms, kitchens, business/es en classes we commune…..
these are symbols of 'when things were cool…' (as wota) [Back in the Day(when 'our' wo/men ruled Afrika)sung byErykah Badu]
sweet as honey, fine as may wine…..
A is for [Mama] Afrika….
We have a beautiful mother
Her green lap immense
Her brown embrace eternal
Her blue body everything we know
[from Alice Walker]
B is for (betwixt en between) big love (D.I.S fundraiser scheduled/for Black August month)
C is (for) the crux.
These interviews are with people we know (not well enough), that we love (en honour), that have changed not only us, but others, en throw wicked parties while they're at it, coz what's all the struggle(ing) for if you can't wind down?….
the super/s/heroes of swagger: charysse robinson & mel fernandes are on our wishlist for D.I.S
D is Dadas in solidarity, doing our best to unite our people…
E is for…elephant.memories……shine(ing).(a).light.for.the.wor(l)d
hathor: her imperial majesty
Posted by molisa under afrikan herstory, hadithi | Tags: accra, africa must unite, algeria, amilcar cabral, angola, anitafrika, asiis, auset, ayiti, b current, binti zion, black feminism, botswana, brown girl in the ring, burkina faso, burundi, cheikh anta diop, children's stories, colour spill productions, dini ya musambwa, dogon, egyptology, el hajj malik shabazz, elgon, epic of gilgamesh, eritrea, ethiopia, fairy tales, ghana, h.i.m, hadithi, harare, harry potter, hathor, holy trinity, horus, indigenous, inside out, johannesburg, kali, kampala, kenya, kilimanjaro, lukemi, maat, makmende amerudi, malidome patrice some, mami wota, marcus garvey, matrix, mbuya nehanda, mekatilili wa menza, mount kenya, mpenzi, mysteries, mythology, nairobi, namibia, nana yaa asantewaa, nanny town, new york, nigeria, not yet uhuru, nyabinghi muhumusa, obatala, ochosi, olodumare, oral tradition, oshun, oya, pan's labryinth, papyrus of ani, pleiades, pumzi, queens, rwanda, santeria, second reich, seven sisters, sierra leone, sirius, sirius b, sirus a, sistas in solidarity, solidarity, swagger, tanzania, the healing wisdom of africa, the l word, the q werd, the truth about stories, third reich, toronto, uganda, unity, walter rodney king, watermelon woman, western sahara, yemoja, yoruba, zimbabwe |
blogger's note: you probably already know this story, references to ancient Afrikan cultures are all over the net en the world….so here's another one of them…of the gran (primeval) mama of us all (emphasis on 'the capital' in the Q werd)
Adapted from http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/hathor.html
Hathor is one of the most ancient Egyptian goddesses. She was known as "the Great One of Many Names" and her titles and attributes are so numerous that she was important in every area of the life and death of the ancient Egyptians. It is thought that her worship was widespread even in the Predynastic period because she appears on the Narmer palette. However, some scholars suggest that the cow-headed goddess depicted on the palette is in fact Bast (an ancient cow goddess who was largely absorbed by Hathor) or even Narmer himself. However, she was certainly popular by the Old Kingdom as she appears with Bast in the valley temple of Khafre at Giza. Hathor represents Upper Egypt and Bast represents Lower Egypt
She was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was considered to be the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow (linking her with Nut, Bat and Mehet-Weret). As time passed she absorbed the attributes of many other goddesses but also became more closely associated with Isis, who to some degree usurped her position as the most popular and powerful goddess. Yet she remained popular throughout Egyptian history. More festivals were dedicated to her and more children were named after her than any other god or goddess. Her worship was not confined to Egypt and Nubia. She was worshipped throughout Semitic West Asia, Ethiopian, Somlia and Libya, but was particularly venerated in the city of Byblos.
She was a sky goddess, known as "Lady of Stars" and "Sovereign of Stars" and linked to Sirius (and so the goddesses Sopdet and Isis). Her birthday was celebrated on the day that Sirius first rose in the sky (heralding the coming innundation). By the Ptolemaic period, she was known as the goddess of Hethara, the third month of the Egyptian calendar.
Hathor was also the goddess of beauty and patron of the cosmetic arts. Her traditional votive offering was two mirrors and she was often depicted on mirrors and cosmetic palettes. Yet she was not considered to be vain or shallow, rather she was assured of her own beauty and goodness and loved beautiful and good things. She was known as "the mistress of life" and was seen as the embodiment of joy, love, romance, perfume, dance, music and alcohol.
Hathor was especially connected with the fragrance of myrrh incense, which was considered to be very precious and to embody all of the finer qualities of the female sex. Hathor was associated with turquoise, malachite, gold and copper. As "the Mistress of Turquoise" and the "lady of Malachite" she was the patron of miners and the goddess of the Sinai Peninsula (the location of the famous mines). The Egyptians used eye makeup made from ground malachite which had a protective function (in fighting eye infections) which was attributed to Hathor.
As the "lady of the west" and the "lady of the southern sycamore" she protected and assisted the dead on their final journey. Trees were not commonplace in ancient Egypt, and their shade was welcomed by the living and the dead alike. She was sometimes depicted as handing out water to the deceased from a sycamore tree (a role formerly associated with Amentet who was often described as the daughter of Hathor) and according to myth, she (or Isis) used the milk from the Sycamore tree to restore sight to Horus who had been blinded by Set. Because of her role in helping the dead, she often appears on sarcophagi with Nut (the former on top of the lid, the later under the lid).
She occasionally took the form of the "Seven Hathors" who were associated with fate and fortune telling. It was thought that the "Seven Hathors" knew the length of every childs life from the day it was born and questioned the dead souls as they travelled to the land of the dead. Her priests could read the fortune of a newborn child, and act as oracles to explain the dreams of the people. People would travel for miles to beseech the goddess for protection, assistance and inspiration. The "Seven Hathors" were worshiped in seven cities: Waset (Thebes), Iunu (On, Heliopolis), Aphroditopolis, Sinai, Momemphis, Herakleopolis, and Keset. They may have been linked to the constellations Pleiades.
However, she was also a goddess of destruction in her role as the Eye of Ra – defender of the sun god. According to legend, people started to criticise Ra when he ruled as Pharaoh. Ra decided to send his "eye" against them (in the form of Sekhmet). She began to slaughter people by the hundred. When Ra relented and asked her to stop she refused as she was in a blood lust. The only way to stop the slaughter was to colour beer red (to resemble blood) and pour the mixture over the killing fields. When she drank the beer, she became drunk and drowsy, and slept for three days. When she awoke with a hangover she had no taste for human flesh and mankind was saved. Ra renamed her Hathor and she became a goddess of love and happiness. As a result, soldiers also prayed to Hathor/Sekhmet to give them her strength and focus in battle.
Of course, Thoth already had a wife, Seshat (the goddess of reading, writing, architecture and arithmetic), so Hathor absorbed her role including acting as a witness at the judgement of the dead. Her role in welcoming the dead gained her a further husband – Nehebkau (the guardian of the entrance of the underworld). Then when Ra and Amun merged, Hathor became seen as the wife of Sobek who was considered to be an aspect of Amen-Ra. Yet Sobek was also associated with Seth, the enemy of Horus!
She took the form of a woman, goose, cat, lion, malachite, sycamore fig, to name but a few. However, Hathor's most famous manifestation is as a cow and even when she appears as a woman she has either the ears of a cow, or a pair of elegant horns. When she is depicted as entirely a cow, she always has beautifully painted eyes. She was often depicted in red (the color of passion) though her sacred color is turquoise.
It is also interesting to note that only she and the dwarf god Bes (who also had a role in childbirth) were ever depicted in portrait (rather than in profile). Isis borrowed many of her functions and adapted her iconography to the extent that it is often difficult to be sure which of the two goddesses is depicted. However, the two deities were not the same. Isis was in many ways a more complex deity who suffered the death of her husband and had to fight to protect her infant son, so she understood the trials and tribulations of the people and could relate to them. Hathor, on the other hand, was the embodiment of power and success and did not experience doubts.
While Isis was merciful, Hathor was single minded in pursuit of her goals.
When she took the form of Sekhmet, she did not take pity on the people and even refused to stop killing when ordered to do so.