Expressions of Oppressions

I just finished reading The Black Holocaust for Beginners and discovered the rotten roots of another commonly used expression, so I thought I would share it with you. I'll also share another one that I've been trying to educate people not to use for a few years now.  If anyone knows of others, feel free to share with me and I'll post them.

Corner the market
When the slave trade ships arrived in the Caribbean with their sick, abused and stolen cargo of Africans, merchants who were nicknamed 'Scramblers' would be the first to board. They would scramble aboard to get the first look at and the first pick of the most healthy and good looking of the captive Africans. Then they would separate them out from the rest and move them to a corner of the deck to keep them apart. They 'cornered the market'. Please try to be mindful of this expression, don't use it and let others know where it comes from.

Rule of thumb
This phrase became attributed to a judge in England in the 18th century with regards to a ruling about the permissibility of husbands beating their wives as long as the stick was no wider than (or in some accounts, no longer than) his thumb. This link is apparently not substantiated as the phrase was in use long before it, but there are many references to it over time that absolutely make reference to the practice of wife beating and domestic violence. This is a phrase to be avoided I think, in the interests of changing our attitudes and behaviours.

Hmmm...

Of Pirates & Piracy
[col. writ. 4/13/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal


In the news of late is the piracy drama off Africa's horn -- the eastern coast of Somalia.

All of a sudden, piracy is a problem, one needing military, if not global solutions.

Every petty politician is bum-rushing the mike, to spout off on how pirates are "thugs", "criminals", or the latest Western curse, " terrorists".

Such pronouncements almost always leave me cold, or, at best, ambivalent, for behind these events lie a history that cries out for clarity and perspective.

If piracy is a crime when individuals do it, what is it when states do it?

Who can deny that America was stolen and swindled from the Indians? Or that millions of people were stolen from Africa to work for them for centuries?

Is that piracy-- or just plain policy?

Piracy did occur in the 17th and 18th centuries, and this was either cases of conflict between colonial powers (where British 'privateers', for example, would target and steal from Spanish ships), or simply in pursuit of profits.

The Somali state has been absent for a generation, and as such, what is today's piracy but making a living, albeit a dangerous one?

When Ethiopia was armed and egged on to invade Somalia several years ago by the Bush administration, was that state piracy?

When the U.S. invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003, removed it's government, imposed its puppets, bombed its people, and ran a third of its population into exile, based on lies--was this piracy of one nation against another--or 'national security?'

Pirates are retail; nations are wholesale.

Who are the 'thugs', the 'criminals', the real pirates?

To my knowledge, no band of pirates has ever stolen a nation.

Guess who has?

--(c) '09 maj

Scary fascist control

So I really want to write about the implications of the way Stephen Harper completely controls his party, his MPs and his candidates. I hope Canadians understand how that does not fit with the kind of country we have evolved into. I don't have the words yet. But I'm working on it.

The Contract

The Contract says

It's a good deal for you

and it really helps us out.

The Contract says

You're so important to your country

and your country is so important.

The Contract says

We make all the rules

and we choose your rights.

if you read between the lines

The Contract says

We are your conscience

and we get to play God.

if you read between the lines

The Contract says

We don't care about your health

and we don't care about your Soul.

The contract

Your life is not worth the paper it's written on.

Friday's 'Voice'

Society dictates how power is distributed. Institutions and ideologies determine who has privilege to be dominant and who must defer. Some persons are given great power to make choices for themselves and other people and are protected from the consequences of their choices.... Religion serves to define the nature of power and its legitimate uses. Religious leaders must choose whether to collude with the dominant culture as sanctioning agents of abusive power or to be prophetic critics of the way power is distributed and defined.
- James Newton PolingThe Abuse of Power