To the Blogger Team...
I just wanted to publicly THANK YOU for your assistance with my technical problem.
I accidentally deleted this blog, which contains almost TWO YEARS of posts that are very significant for me. When I realized I had deleted it by mistake, I was literally stunned...speechless...I couldn't even panick! ...lol
I eventually thought to contact Blogger Help, but read in one of the Help Forum posts, that there were no "live persons" to contact, and that Blogger was run basically by "robots"....but I left a message in the forum anyway. In the meantime, I started an arduous process of trying to piece the blog back together from the Google "cache" pages, but who knows how long that would have taken!
You guys, specifically "Gatsby", really came through for me...and I am truly Grateful!
God Bless and Keep you!
RM
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
"No White Heroes?"
Danny Glover's slavery film lacked "white heroes", producers said
Yahoo! News Article
US actor Danny Glover, who plans an epic next year on Haitian independence hero Toussaint-Louverture, said he slaved to raise funds for the movie because financiers complained there were no white heroes.
"Producers said 'It's a nice project, a great project... where are the white heroes?'" he told AFP during a stay in Paris this month for a seminar on film.
"I couldn't get the money here, I couldn't get the money in Britain. I went to everybody. You wouldn't believe the number of producers based in Europe, and in the States, that I went to," he said.
"The first question you get, is 'Is it a black film?' All of them agree, it's not going to do good in Europe, it's not going to do good in Japan.
"Somebody has to prove that to be a lie!", he said. "Maybe I'll have the chance to prove it."
"Toussaint," Glover's first project as film director, is about Francois Dominique Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), a former slave and one of the fathers of Haiti's independence from France in 1804, making it the first black nation to throw off imperial rule and become a republic.
The uprising he led was bloodily put down in 1802 by 20,000 soldiers dispatched to the Caribbean by Napoleon Bonaparte, who then re-established slavery after its ban by the leaders of the French Revolution.
Due to be shot in Venezuela early next year, the film will star Don Cheadle, Mos Def, Wesley Snipes and Angela Bassett.
"I wasn't the first one who had this idea," he said. "Sergey Eisenstein had the same idea, Anthony Quinn had this idea, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and this goes on."
The "Lethal Weapon" co-star, just turned 62, finally raised 18 of the 30 million dollars needed from a Venezuelan cultural body set up in 2006 by his friend President Hugo Chavez to counter what he termed "the Hollywood film dictatorship". Venezuelan filmmakers last year slammed the investment.
"It is Mr Glover who should be bringing dollars to Venezuela," the National Association of Film Makers and the Venezuelan Chamber of Film Producers said in an open letter.
Glover, a longtime activist, has supported Chavez's political revolution since he was first elected in 1998.
After making his debut with a bit role in 1979 movie starring Clint Eastwood, "Escape From Alcatraz", Glover played in films such as "Silverado" and "Witness" but grabbed wide attention after Steven Spielberg's 1985 movie "The Color Purple". He is probably most widely known as "Lethal Weapon" co-star with Mel Gibson.
Born in San Francisco, he enrolled at the Black Actors Workshop there and is known for his stand against discrimination as well as for his activism against the Iraqi war and anti-personnel mines.
An admirer of the Senegalese writer-filmmaker known as the father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembene, Glover has helped produce African films, including the recently-acclaimed arthouse movie "Bamako" by Abderrahmane Sissako.
"The first African films that I saw were films that portrayed Africans as savages, ignorant and uncivilized, and I wanted to know something else," he said. "I was very fortunate, I had the chance to read writers like Mariama Ba, Aime Cesaire ... and Leopold Sedar Senghor. I read him when I was 20."
"When I saw Sidney Poitier on screen, I was probably 10 or 11," he added. "That was a different image, an image I had never seen before, on screen.
"The African-Americans I saw, they danced, they were buffoons, that was the image. So Sidney brought another image." History, Glover said, had enabled him to play a wide range of roles because of the changes taking place in society. "I think cinema has played a great role in our re-imagining ourselves," he said.
Yahoo! News Article
US actor Danny Glover, who plans an epic next year on Haitian independence hero Toussaint-Louverture, said he slaved to raise funds for the movie because financiers complained there were no white heroes.
"Producers said 'It's a nice project, a great project... where are the white heroes?'" he told AFP during a stay in Paris this month for a seminar on film.
"I couldn't get the money here, I couldn't get the money in Britain. I went to everybody. You wouldn't believe the number of producers based in Europe, and in the States, that I went to," he said.
"The first question you get, is 'Is it a black film?' All of them agree, it's not going to do good in Europe, it's not going to do good in Japan.
"Somebody has to prove that to be a lie!", he said. "Maybe I'll have the chance to prove it."
"Toussaint," Glover's first project as film director, is about Francois Dominique Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), a former slave and one of the fathers of Haiti's independence from France in 1804, making it the first black nation to throw off imperial rule and become a republic.
The uprising he led was bloodily put down in 1802 by 20,000 soldiers dispatched to the Caribbean by Napoleon Bonaparte, who then re-established slavery after its ban by the leaders of the French Revolution.
Due to be shot in Venezuela early next year, the film will star Don Cheadle, Mos Def, Wesley Snipes and Angela Bassett.
"I wasn't the first one who had this idea," he said. "Sergey Eisenstein had the same idea, Anthony Quinn had this idea, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and this goes on."
The "Lethal Weapon" co-star, just turned 62, finally raised 18 of the 30 million dollars needed from a Venezuelan cultural body set up in 2006 by his friend President Hugo Chavez to counter what he termed "the Hollywood film dictatorship". Venezuelan filmmakers last year slammed the investment.
"It is Mr Glover who should be bringing dollars to Venezuela," the National Association of Film Makers and the Venezuelan Chamber of Film Producers said in an open letter.
Glover, a longtime activist, has supported Chavez's political revolution since he was first elected in 1998.
After making his debut with a bit role in 1979 movie starring Clint Eastwood, "Escape From Alcatraz", Glover played in films such as "Silverado" and "Witness" but grabbed wide attention after Steven Spielberg's 1985 movie "The Color Purple". He is probably most widely known as "Lethal Weapon" co-star with Mel Gibson.
Born in San Francisco, he enrolled at the Black Actors Workshop there and is known for his stand against discrimination as well as for his activism against the Iraqi war and anti-personnel mines.
An admirer of the Senegalese writer-filmmaker known as the father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembene, Glover has helped produce African films, including the recently-acclaimed arthouse movie "Bamako" by Abderrahmane Sissako.
"The first African films that I saw were films that portrayed Africans as savages, ignorant and uncivilized, and I wanted to know something else," he said. "I was very fortunate, I had the chance to read writers like Mariama Ba, Aime Cesaire ... and Leopold Sedar Senghor. I read him when I was 20."
"When I saw Sidney Poitier on screen, I was probably 10 or 11," he added. "That was a different image, an image I had never seen before, on screen.
"The African-Americans I saw, they danced, they were buffoons, that was the image. So Sidney brought another image." History, Glover said, had enabled him to play a wide range of roles because of the changes taking place in society. "I think cinema has played a great role in our re-imagining ourselves," he said.
Monday, July 21, 2008
"He Looked Beyond My Faults..."
Originally Posted: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 22:11:47 -0700 (PDT)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful...the Best Knower.
As-Salaam Alaikum, Family.
While engaged in a rather deep discussion with [my Mother], on the Goodness of God, something was said that started me thinking about the words attributed to a Christian hymn: "He looked beyond my faults, and He saw my need."
As my [Mother] continued talking on the point that sparked that thought in my mind, I continued thinking about the Light that was just turned on in my head.
"He looked beyond my faults, and He saw my need."
In our prayers, as Muslims, we say, "..I have been greatly unjust to myself and I confess my faults, so please grant me protection against my faults, for none grants protection against faults but Thee."
Then it occured to me. God is Just and True, and His Judgement is Righteous. If He wanted to condemn me for my FAULTS, He is certainly Justified, because I am certainly FAULTY...lol. But He doesn't do that. He looks BEYOND my faults...and Sees my NEED.
Why does He do that? Why does He look past my faults, my foolishness, my evil? Why does He spare me His Judgement when He and I know I am worthy of His Judgement? Why does He grant me protection from my faults?
Because He knows that at the ROOT of ALL my Faults is a NEED that has gone unmet. He knows that I'm a mess - not because I WANT to be a mess, but because I have been MADE a mess by a "messed up" world.
He looked beyond my faults, and He saw my NEED.
He does it because of one simple, yet severely misunderstood word...LOVE.
I so need LOVE. I so need Compassion. I so need Mercy and Patience. I so need. So He looked beyond my faults - He looked past the stains on my Heart, and looked into the Heart, itself - and He saw my NEED.
It was this little bit of introspection that literally had my eyes welling up with water; and if that wasn't enough, after I fought to keep the water from leaving my eyes, I realized that the same was true for my family, my friends, my neighbors, loved ones, ex-lovers...all of humanity. We all have faults, and at the root of our faults are NEEDS that have gone unmet - needs for KNOWLEDGE, LOVE, COMPASSION, UNDERSTANDING, INTIMACY, MERCY, etc.
Then it became clearer to me that everyone who ever hurt me was in pain themselves, but because of the pain they caused me, I was unable to look past their faults to see THEIR need. Instead, I looked past their NEED and focused on their FAULTS. And these were not strangers, but people very near and dear to my heart; but because I, myself, am flawed, I couldn't respond to their insults with Compassion, or reward their attacks with Understanding. A hurting person hurt me, and I responded by hurting them again. I failed. In that instance, I failed to do by them what I constantly ask Allah to do for me and by me, to "Look past my Fault, Lord, and See my need."
I am so sorry.
If there is anyone...and I know some of you are out there..lol...but if there is anyone whom I have ever offended, who came to me for help and got what felt like judgement, if I looked past your NEED and focused on your FAULTS, I am truly sorry, and I ask your forgiveness. I ask you to do for me what I failed to do for you, if you can, and that is to try to...
Look past my faults, and see my need.
I love you all.
RM
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful...the Best Knower.
As-Salaam Alaikum, Family.
While engaged in a rather deep discussion with [my Mother], on the Goodness of God, something was said that started me thinking about the words attributed to a Christian hymn: "He looked beyond my faults, and He saw my need."
As my [Mother] continued talking on the point that sparked that thought in my mind, I continued thinking about the Light that was just turned on in my head.
"He looked beyond my faults, and He saw my need."
In our prayers, as Muslims, we say, "..I have been greatly unjust to myself and I confess my faults, so please grant me protection against my faults, for none grants protection against faults but Thee."
Then it occured to me. God is Just and True, and His Judgement is Righteous. If He wanted to condemn me for my FAULTS, He is certainly Justified, because I am certainly FAULTY...lol. But He doesn't do that. He looks BEYOND my faults...and Sees my NEED.
Why does He do that? Why does He look past my faults, my foolishness, my evil? Why does He spare me His Judgement when He and I know I am worthy of His Judgement? Why does He grant me protection from my faults?
Because He knows that at the ROOT of ALL my Faults is a NEED that has gone unmet. He knows that I'm a mess - not because I WANT to be a mess, but because I have been MADE a mess by a "messed up" world.
He looked beyond my faults, and He saw my NEED.
He does it because of one simple, yet severely misunderstood word...LOVE.
I so need LOVE. I so need Compassion. I so need Mercy and Patience. I so need. So He looked beyond my faults - He looked past the stains on my Heart, and looked into the Heart, itself - and He saw my NEED.
It was this little bit of introspection that literally had my eyes welling up with water; and if that wasn't enough, after I fought to keep the water from leaving my eyes, I realized that the same was true for my family, my friends, my neighbors, loved ones, ex-lovers...all of humanity. We all have faults, and at the root of our faults are NEEDS that have gone unmet - needs for KNOWLEDGE, LOVE, COMPASSION, UNDERSTANDING, INTIMACY, MERCY, etc.
Then it became clearer to me that everyone who ever hurt me was in pain themselves, but because of the pain they caused me, I was unable to look past their faults to see THEIR need. Instead, I looked past their NEED and focused on their FAULTS. And these were not strangers, but people very near and dear to my heart; but because I, myself, am flawed, I couldn't respond to their insults with Compassion, or reward their attacks with Understanding. A hurting person hurt me, and I responded by hurting them again. I failed. In that instance, I failed to do by them what I constantly ask Allah to do for me and by me, to "Look past my Fault, Lord, and See my need."
I am so sorry.
If there is anyone...and I know some of you are out there..lol...but if there is anyone whom I have ever offended, who came to me for help and got what felt like judgement, if I looked past your NEED and focused on your FAULTS, I am truly sorry, and I ask your forgiveness. I ask you to do for me what I failed to do for you, if you can, and that is to try to...
Look past my faults, and see my need.
I love you all.
RM
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Barak Obama: Exposing the Insanity of Government
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful...the Best Knower.
Salaam (Peace) to all.
When I found out about recent controversy regarding The New Yoker's depiction of Sen. Barak Obama and his wife, Michelle, as "terrorists", I was hurt. "This," I thought, "is a new low for white people". But the truth is, it's not "new" at all.
The reports I have read surrounding this "event" seem to suggest that it's "not that serious", because it was simply "satire" - albeit "distasteful".
Some argue that the imagery was intended to provoke thought. Others maintain that it was a deliberate exaggeration of the position of the critics of Sen. Obama.
However, I think there is a more sinister motive at work here.
White people -- particularly those who, in their minds, "own" America, and do not want a black face on their symbol of power -- will do anything to prevent Obama from getting into that seat.
Sen. Obama has made it clear to the public that he is a Christian, on several occasions. Yet those who are blinded by fear and paranoia continue to try to associate him (and his wife) with the socially engineered "enemy" of America -- "terrorism", which is a political code word for "Islam".
If they cannot stop him by "association" with "evil" (manipulation of public opinion), they would likely then resort to attempts to physically harm him and/or his family. History is replete with examples of such tactics.
It appears that the rulers of this nation have succumbed to a sort of "functional insanity", where paranoia has taken the seat of Reason, and Reason is made to serve paranoia. The result can be no less than disastrous, for both the government and citizens of America.
America is, indeed, in need of Divine Guidance, and now faces Divine Destruction.It's going to take more than a "Black President" to save this nation.
RM
Salaam (Peace) to all.
When I found out about recent controversy regarding The New Yoker's depiction of Sen. Barak Obama and his wife, Michelle, as "terrorists", I was hurt. "This," I thought, "is a new low for white people". But the truth is, it's not "new" at all.
The reports I have read surrounding this "event" seem to suggest that it's "not that serious", because it was simply "satire" - albeit "distasteful".
Some argue that the imagery was intended to provoke thought. Others maintain that it was a deliberate exaggeration of the position of the critics of Sen. Obama.
However, I think there is a more sinister motive at work here.
White people -- particularly those who, in their minds, "own" America, and do not want a black face on their symbol of power -- will do anything to prevent Obama from getting into that seat.
Sen. Obama has made it clear to the public that he is a Christian, on several occasions. Yet those who are blinded by fear and paranoia continue to try to associate him (and his wife) with the socially engineered "enemy" of America -- "terrorism", which is a political code word for "Islam".
If they cannot stop him by "association" with "evil" (manipulation of public opinion), they would likely then resort to attempts to physically harm him and/or his family. History is replete with examples of such tactics.
It appears that the rulers of this nation have succumbed to a sort of "functional insanity", where paranoia has taken the seat of Reason, and Reason is made to serve paranoia. The result can be no less than disastrous, for both the government and citizens of America.
America is, indeed, in need of Divine Guidance, and now faces Divine Destruction.It's going to take more than a "Black President" to save this nation.
RM
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