NFL Deal May Bring Positivity to Jay-Z’s Message

I have the utmost respect for law enforcement, but I don’t think I would want to be a cop in any of the major American inner cities given our current anti-cop environment. Imagine having to patrol the streets of Chicago where there are almost 8 people shot per day.

Or what about Philadelphia, where a recent mass shooting of six police officers making a drug bust resulted in officers being harassed by the locals they were there serving.

In Baltimore, where it’s common to have double-digit shootings on a weekly basis, it can’t be easy for law enforcement families to send out their loved ones to patrol the streets everyday.

Let’s not forget to mention the increase in sex trafficking and drug dealing which is leading to an overwhelming expanding organized crime culture.

It’s not surprising that some of these cities are having a very difficult time recruiting quality police officers to protect their citizens.

As the National Spokesman for the Police Athletics Leagues, my heart goes out to the good officers who wholeheartedly seek to serve American communities.

This deeply effects our young minorities the most as they are losing their Police Athletics Leagues and community centers which are so crucial to helping us fill the voids of fatherlessness and underserved families.

Allowing the Pig Culture

As a black man, I’ve had my run-ins with nasty cops who acted like pigs during routine traffic stops or minor incidents. It’s a helpless feeling that I don’t wish on anyone.

Too many bad people are allowed to wear the badge as the demand for careers as police officers in some cities grows. To think that we allow normal citizens to train for six months and then get awarded the authority to enforce laws in America is as backwards as it gets. We have to find a more comprehensive way to train and certify our law enforcement officers.

A high school diploma and making it through police academy is just not enough to hand someone the ultimate authority. When you watch most of the police shootings of unarmed black men, you typically see a “scared cop” and definitely a situation that could be avoided.

Recently, a racist and sick Michigan cop was suspended after citizens found that he was allegedly a member of the KKK. The same cop had been cleared of any wrongdoing after killing a black man years prior. The crazy thing is that they “suspended” him instead of locking him up. These stories often causes good cops to get profiled with the bad guys.

It’s time for a Trump Executive order to call for more comprehensive training of police officers as well as for federal legislation that enforces minimum sentences for police officers who shoot unarmed civilians without probable cause. These cases should be determined by a third party review board that has no ties to the city or police department.

If Jay-Z and the NFL are listening, this is how we put substance to an otherwise symbolic protest started by Colin Kaepernick. In that same breathe, we must stand up to support the vast majority of cops that are serving their communities with dignity and respect. I have had the pleasure of meeting several when working with the Police Athletics Leagues across America.

The anti-cop culture that has begun to boil over in America is dangerous. When I saw my black brothers throwing water on cops in New York, I was at a loss of words. We are creating the shallow culture that our kids and grandkids will be forced to live in. One lacking basic respect. When Colin Kaepernick decided to begin his kneeling protest of the American flag, he made a major mistake which turned off many who otherwise would strongly support him and completely agree with his stance on police brutality.

Now enter the pig socks. Not only did Kaepernick’s socks depict cops as pigs, but he wore them on multiple occasions to drive home his point. Even though I get just as upset as Colin when I see an unarmed black man shot, I could never fully support Kaepernick’s approach while beginning his protest by painting a negative wide brush on all cops.

Most sensible people will agree that overly aggressive rogue cops should actually be called something worse than a pig. This leaves no tolerance with making blanket statements on the men and women that we all call on when things go bad for us and our families. I mean, I hope that all cops won’t label all black people for the actions of the citizens of Philadelphia who were harassing them as their fellow officers were under gun fire from a drug lord.

Enter Jay-Z

It’s now been 3 years and Kaepernick hasn’t taken a snap in the NFL.

Despite being considered a cultural icon by many, his erratic arm and limited production in his last two seasons didn’t mesh well with his off-the-field distractions. Kap has recently made a plea to get back into the League which he sued — and received a settlement. How ironic.

Now, Jay-Z, the hip-hop and business mogul, has switched from protesting the NFL Halftime shows in support of Colin Kaepernick, to now working for the NFL as their producer of the Super Bowl Halftime shows. You can’t make this up.

Jay-Z may be the most iconic trendsetter in Black American history. From clothes, to jewelry, to bags, to food, Jay-Z has used his music and fame to promote brands while setting trends.

The one thing that’s a little disturbing about the NFL partnership with Jay-Z is the history of anti- police rhetoric by the rap mogul. One of his most recent platinum hits includes a chorus that slanders the “Po-Po” and further pushes the anti-cop narrative to young minorities, encouraging many in our inner city streets to hate all cops.

“I hear the po-po behind me, woo, ain’t gon’ stop (rrt, skrrt)/ I see the po-po behind me, rrt, ain’t gon’ stop (skrrt, skrrt)/ I see the po-po behind me, rrt, ain’t gon’ stop (rrt, skrrt)/ I dropped the top off the Maybach, rrt, f*** these cops (rrt, rrt, rrt, rrt).”

I pray that the NFL deal with Jay-Z will be enough to wake him up and try to bring some balance and respect to the social justice conversation. Our black and brown babies need it.

It’s time to build bridges between law enforcement and the community, versus burning them down. It’s time to stand up and call out disrespectful behavior, even if it causes some of our young, lost black men to call you a sellout or boycott your music.

We are grown men Jay, let’s rebuild our fathers in Black America.

Eric Reid recently tweeted, “Jay-Z doesn’t need the NFL’s help 2 address social injustices. It was a money move 4 him & his music business.”

Now I hope that Jay Z’s perceived money move is more than that and will translate into him standing up to help influence our kids to re-establish respect for law enforcement, teachers, and their elders.

Jay has already poured a lot of resources into social issues around criminal justice. Now hopefully it’s time to end the music that promotes and normalizes activities that put our black brothers behind bars.

Jay, you have promoted and supported enough music that doesn’t feed positivity to the souls of our innocent black babies. You must stand against the satanic music of artist like 21 Savage and Drake, not standing up for him to continue poisoning our kids’ minds.

I dare anyone reading this to read the lyrics that some of these men copyright and promote to our kids, you will understand why our culture has become numb to blacks killing blacks.

Jay we need your help to bring back peace, love, and faith in God to our culture. This can be your most profound cultural trend that will define your legacy.

Jack Brewer possesses a unique combination of expertise in the fields of global economic development, sports, and finance through his roles as a successful entrepreneur, executive producer, news contributor, and humanitarian. Currently serving as the CEO and Portfolio Manager of The Brewer Group, Inc. as well as the Founder and Executive Director of The Jack Brewer Foundation (JBF Worldwide), active Shriner and Ambassador and National Spokesperson for the National Association of Police Athletic/ Activities Leagues, Inc. Other key roles include regular contributor to CNBC, Fox Business, and The American City Business Journals, Ambassador for Peace and Sport for the International Federation for Peace and Sustainable Development at the United Nations, Senior Advisor to former H.E. President Joyce Banda of the Republic of Malawi, and three time National Football League (NFL) Team Captain for the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, and New York Giants. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.

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Addressing Gender & Protection Issues During Humanitarian Emergencies

Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Development & Aid, Editors’ Choice, Featured, Global Governance, Headlines, Human Rights, IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse, Regional Categories, TerraViva United Nations

Opinion

Nimarta Khuman is a Gender and Protection Advisor at UN Women under the Australia Assists Program, managed by RedR Australia. Her role involves supporting the Vanuatu Government’s Department of Women Affairs and Gender and Protection Cluster to address gender and protection concerns related to the Ambae emergency and other natural disasters.

PORT VILA, Vanuatu, Aug 19 2019 (IPS) – Vanuatu is among the world’s ‘most at-risk’ countries to natural disasters. In the last 12 months alone, the country has faced multiple volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, cyclone and tsunami.


The largest humanitarian emergency was caused by volcanic eruptions on the island of Ambae which resulted in the evacuation of over 8,000 people. Some displaced communities have resettled in the islands of Santo and Efate, but land ownership is a contentious issue.

Vanuatu also has the lowest rate of women in parliament and ministerial positions globally and high rates of gender-based violence. Cumulatively, these issues increase the risks affecting women and girls in humanitarian emergency and recovery periods.

In an interview with UN Women, Nimrata Khuman explains what it means to incorporate gender and protection in humanitarian action and why it’s important.

Excerpts from the interview:

What is meant by “Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action”?

When we talk about gender and protection in humanitarian action, we need to ask the questions about whether we have addressed the different needs of women, girls, men and boys in our humanitarian response, because there is no “one size fits all” approach that works.

Every context in which a disaster has happened is different and women and girls may have unique risks, vulnerabilities and capabilities. There are other factors that can contribute to their marginalization and vulnerability, such as disability, age, sexual orientation, income and location.

The Department of Women’s Affairs leads the Gender and Protection Cluster in Vanuatu in partnership with CARE and Save the Children. The Cluster works to promote women’s voice and leadership, prevent and respond to gender-based violence, and ensure child protection and disability inclusion in any humanitarian response is designed and implemented for the affected population.

During the humanitarian response to the Ambae disaster for example, referral pathways for gender-based violence and child protection services were developed and Gender and Protection Cluster partners raised awareness within communities about violence prevention and where to go to access assistance.

Partners also developed and disseminated information for communities about their rights during evacuation and resettlement, conducted leadership training for women involved in humanitarian response, provided psycho-social support services and child-friendly spaces to help children cope with the effects of the disaster.

Volcanic eruption in Vanuatu

How did you incorporate gender and protection in the humanitarian response in Vanuatu?

The Gender and Protection Cluster ensures that people’s rights are protected and respected, and they can access services across all sectors safely and with dignity. This involves assessing needs, referring concerns and raising awareness among communities and service providers (such as agencies involved in food distribution, shelter, education and water, sanitation and hygiene).

It also involves advocating with other ministries to include gender and protection concerns into their response. During the Ambae State of Emergency, a joint Gender and Protection and Health Cluster was established to provide services across sectors for people with disabilities.

The Gender and Protection Cluster worked with the WASH Cluster to raise awareness on issues such as safety, lighting and privacy for toilet and shower facilities. During the Ambae and Ambrym responses, partners also integrated information on gender equality and menstrual hygiene management when speaking to communities.

We have also drawn attention to the lack of access to land and income for displaced communities, exposure to violence and delays in children’s education, when advocating with the Government.

We are now in the Ambae recovery phase and have been working with the Prime Minister’s Office to ensure all sectors include relevant actions and budgets for gender and protection in the programmes under the Ambae and Affected Islands Recovery Plan.

What has been the role of women in the different crises in Vanuatu in the past year?

Women are a vital part of humanitarian response and the ongoing emergencies have presented an opportunity to increase women’s participation and leadership in humanitarian action. In the Department of Women’s Affairs for example, seven of the ten staff who have been involved in leading response in different provinces are women.

The National Disaster Management Office and NGOs have involved senior female staff members in coordinating and responding to emergencies. The Vanuatu Women’s Centre has also been very active in efforts to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in emergencies and has provided support for life-saving counselling, health, legal assistance and access to justice services for survivors of violence.

At the community level, women are pivotal to disaster preparedness, and for designing response and resilience activities that meet the needs and realities of their communities. Gender and Protection Cluster partners are implementing programmes involving women in Community Disaster and Climate Change Committees and increasing women’s voice in decision-making at the local level.

But we need more women in leadership positions within communities, in the humanitarian sector and in Ministries and Departments which make decisions on policy, planning and financial resource allocations.

What are the biggest challenges that you are facing in your work in Vanuatu?

Since I arrived in Vanuatu a year ago, there have been five natural disasters due to the volcanic eruptions in Ambae, volcanic eruptions and earthquake in Ambrym, a tsunami affecting Aneityum, Tropical Cyclone Oma, and most recently, the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle, which has the potential to destroy livelihoods of tens of thousands of people if left untreated.

These disasters have caused people to leave behind their homes, their land and jobs. Integrating into new communities has also not been an easy process for the displaced. Some are still living in tents in Santo and there is tension between displaced people and host communities due to the lack of essential services and resources in resettlement sites.

Some of the key issues that the Gender and Protection Cluster addresses in times of emergencies include violence against women and children, family separation, inclusive response for marginalized groups and ensuring that people can access services across sectors.

Although we have been able to shape policies, we need them to be implemented down to the community level. For this to happen, we need increased awareness that addressing gender and protection in humanitarian action is lifesaving and planning and budgeting needs to reflect that.

More initiatives are also required to prepare communities for the effects of natural disasters and to ensure that they are supported in the recovery phases.

What innovative approaches have worked so far?

Listening to communities and community-led solutions have been key in the programmes developed by the Gender and Protection Cluster partners. In Vanuatu, we have very strong church and chief systems and the Gender and Protection Cluster has been working with both in disaster preparedness, emergency and recovery.

Partners have trained church leaders and chiefs in community-based protection, peacebuilding, violence prevention and referral pathways. Churches are often used as evacuation centres and in the recovery phase, the Vanuatu Christian Council has mapped churches and assessed inclusivity of design in different islands.

The Vanuatu Women’s Centre has trained church leaders and chiefs to become male advocates and other partners have included local chiefs in their awareness-raising activities to ensure women’s leadership and voice is factored into response programmes.

The joint Gender and Protection and Health Cluster for the Ambae State of Emergency was also the first of its kind in Vanuatu and demonstrated that collaboration across different sectors and ministries can increase access to services for the most vulnerable.

Building upon lessons learned from recent disasters, in the next year we will be working on strengthening preparedness and response at the local level and developing protocols for elimination of violence against women and girls in emergencies.

We will also be training government, NGO partners and community leaders in Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action and setting up Gender and Protection Committees in each of the six provinces of Vanuatu.

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The Role of Women’s Organisations in Crisis-Settings

Aid, Civil Society, Development & Aid, Editors’ Choice, Featured, Gender, Global Governance, Headlines, Human Rights, Humanitarian Emergencies, IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse, TerraViva United Nations

Gender

Marcy Hersh, is the Senior Manager of Humanitarian Advocacy at Women Deliver & Cecilia Chami is the Programs Director of Lebanon Family Planning Association for Development and Family Empowerment (LFPADE).

BEIRUT, Aug 19 2019 (IPS) – To mark World Humanitarian Day, we celebrate the overlooked women leaders who are first responders, unwavering advocates, and powerful change-makers in humanitarian emergencies.


Yet to truly power progress, we can’t stop at celebrating their efforts – we must also push for the support and investment women humanitarians need to continue their vital work.

Women Deliver spoke with Cecilia Chami, Programs Director for the Lebanon Family Planning Association for Development and Family Empowerment (LFPADE)  on what women-focused civil society organisations (CSOs) need to maximise their impact.

World Humanitarian Day also coincides with a special milestone for LFPADE: today, August 19, marks their 50th anniversary as the first and oldest family planning organisation in Lebanon.

Drawing from LFPADE’s five decades of experience, Chami highlights the power of women-focused CSOs, and what the world can do to help continue their vital work.

Excerpts from the interview:

HERSH: Women make up a large part of LFPADE’s team, including in leadership positions and as direct service providers. How does having strong women on your team help advance LFPADE’s work and mission?

CHAMI:  LFPADE works to empower women in all aspects of their lives to achieve gender equality – so having strong women on our team is essential. Women are the best experts on our lives, so we understand what women in our communities need, can relate to the challenges they face, and appreciate the quality of services they deserve.

 For example, we know from experience that access to family planning and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services improves lives and futures of girls, women, and their whole communities. So, while these services might be sidelined in many traditional humanitarian responses, we prioritise a woman’s ability to control her fertility at the core of all our work.

 As women from Lebanon, we also know the contexts and entry points to deliver services most effectively. We work with anyone who influences the lives of girls and women – including boys, men, community leaders, and mothers-in-law – to help girls and women make more autonomous decisions about their lives and bodies. We are only able to form these partnerships because communities know us, trust us, and believe in us.

HERSH: What can the world do to better support women and women-focused organisations in humanitarian action?

CHAMI: International actors wield so much power in humanitarian action – and it’s time they share more of that power with women-focused CSOs.

First, international organisations must work hand-in-hand with women-focused CSOs as equal partners, designing programs together that really respond to the needs of girls and women in our communities.

Often, local and national organisations like LFPADE are only seen as implementing partners that can execute the projects envisioned by foreigners. We bring grassroots expertise and community voices to the table – so we must actually be engaged at the outset.

Resources are key to maximising our impact, too. We often rely on unreliable funding streams and short-term grants to sustain them, which makes it very hard for us to work. Long-term investment in women-focused CSOs is the fuel we need to achieve results that have a real impact.

HERSH: LFPADE has worked to provide SRH services to women throughout Lebanon for 50 years, including Palestinian and Syrian women. When you reflect on the organisation’s history, what have been some of the biggest successes and lessons learned?

CHAMI: The biggest success of LFPADE was pushing for the removal of regressive laws which forbade talking about family planning and contraceptives in Lebanon. By doing so, we made it possible for us – and other women-focused organisations across the country – to advocate for family planning and the sale of essential contraceptives. This also made it possible for the government ministries to begin to implement SRH programs nationwide.

Another success was our ability to mobilise quickly to ensure that refugee responses prioritise SRH services for all girls and women. We worked with the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNWRA) to provide their medical and paramedical staff with training on how to provide these services in their clinics.

Since 2013, we have also dedicated a large part of our efforts to meeting the needs of Syrian refugees who have fled from home – and to date have reached over 30,000 Syrian men, women, and children with SRH awareness campaigns and programs.

One big lesson learned throughout all these successes is that girls and women must be included in the design of all projects for them. When we take the time to speak with girls and women about their needs and challenges at the outset, we be sure to design programs to fit their realities.

HERSH: You work you do is often difficult and tiring – but you continue to be an inspiring change-maker in Lebanon. What motivates you to continue your important work as a Program Director for LFPADE, even during the most challenging times?

CHAMI: What motivates me to continue working is the impact our programs are achieving. When I meet and talk to girls and women, I see firsthand how our efforts improve their lives and the lives of their children.

One quote that will always stay with me comes from a woman who attended a course LFPADE runs on women’s leadership: “You gave us self-confidence and knowledge, and we know now that we too can make a difference.” When every woman in Lebanon realises their power to make a change, my job will be done.

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9 African Podcasts That You Are Certainly Going To Enjoy

African Podcasts

With the continued rise of reliable internet, free audio programmes, popularly known as podcasts, are making a buzz on the continent.

Here are few podcasts we really think you should check out.

Chicken and Jollof Rice

African Podcasts

Get a bunch of first generation African Americans who hold both black, African, and American experiences, get them to talk about all important social issues ( like Beyonce’s album and American cop killings) then you have the Chicken and Jollof Rice show. The podcast takes “both humorous and serious slants on a bevy of topics. With the continual global experiences by many Africans, the podcast is surely a good base to get different outtakes into the global African experience.

Africa Tech Round-Up

African Podcasts

Produced in Johannesburg, South Africa,  African Tech Round-Up covers technological innovation on the continent. With a rapidly growing fan base, the podcasts which is hosted by Andile Masuku, could best be described as a mix of cool, geeky and informative. With diverse content from “Medical Drones in Rwanda” to the war between“ Uber and taxi drivers.” If you are too lazy to avoid keeping many tech tabs open in your browser, Africa Tech Round-Up is a good podcast to keep you abreast of the different innovations on the continent.

Talking heads

African Podcasts

Talking Heads podcasts aim to give a fresh approach to identify, showcase and create opportunities for African thought leaders. The show profiles some of the extraordinary Africans making a meaningful and affirmative contribution to their communities, cities, countries, the continent and the world. These individuals are also profiled through a series of short videos that highlight the African Innovations that have the potential to solve the challenges of our continent, and are already doing so. Surely a great listen if you are all about Africa’s bright future.

Loose Talk

African Podcasts

Loose Talk is a podcast hosted by three influential Nigerian arts journalists, Osagie Alonge, Steve Dede and Ayomide Tayo. In the podcast, they discuss trending topics happening all around the world; Media, Celebrities, Lifestyle, Sex, Sports, Politics, Tech, Religion, Movies, TV, Radio, Music and much more. A good show if you are between a connoisseur and critic of African pop culture.

Afropop worldwide

African Podcasts

Afropop Worldwide is an award-winning podcast dedicated to music from Africa and the African diaspora. Hosted by one of Africa’s best-loved broadcast personalities, Georges Collinet, the show is for both the curious and the connoisseur, and takes listeners to dynamic music capitals such as Dakar, Senegal; Johannesburg, South Africa; Cairo, Egypt; Havana, Cuba; Salvador de Bahia, Brazil; New York and Paris. Listeners meet the leading stars as well as emerging artists. Live concert recordings of world-class artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Cesaria Evora, Gilberto Gil, Baaba Maal, Kanda Bongo Man and others are also featured on the podcast. The podcasts vision is to increase the profile of African and African diaspora music worldwide. If you are looking to go on the biggest African music journey you have ever embarked on, Afropop Worldwide is a great place to start.

Bad Missionary podcast

African Podcasts

Gret Glyer grew up as a privileged, suburban, private-school kid in America.

Prince Inglis grew up in a rural Malawian village living on a dollar a day. They both now live in Lilongwe, Malawi and do development work together. Every week they answer your questions about life in Africa and talk about the biggest news story from both the U.S. and Malawi! An insightful and helpful show especially if you are into development work on the continent.

The  Africa Show ( formerly my African Passport)

African Podcasts

The Travel Africa Show is a weekly show on the award-winning Colourful Radio (www.colourfulradio.com). The show is produced and created by My African Passport. The show offers insights, ideas and inspiration to travel Africa every Saturday from 4pm GMT.

The hosts, Lyande Kaikai and Yolisa Segone, both have a passion for African travel, food and music. The vibrant duo share travel experiences with an aim to encourage travel to Africa. If you are interested in the people and sights this continent has to offer, The Travel Africa show can be your weekly guide.

Sound Africa

African Podcasts

Sound Africa aims to be a space for narratives that capture the dizzying complexity of the world’s second most populous continent. Trying to avoid the one dimensional coverage of the continent, Sound Africa aims to amplify the important yet ignored voices from all over the continent. “We want to help fill the gap by telling the types of stories that rarely make it onto the network news, from quirky and obscure to hard-hitting and thought-provoking. We’re not talking about glossy postcard portrayals of the continent. We’re talking about stories that capture the intricacies and multiple sides of life and society,” says the show’s editor, Rasmus Bitsch.

Knowledge Bandits

African Podcasts

The Knowledge Bandits podcast is a show that aims to interview successful and innovative entrepreneurs working in Africa. According to Arum Galadima, who produces and hosts the show, “the Knowledge Bandits philosophy is that with the right mentorship, advice, work ethic and motivation anyone can achieve a certain level of greatness. Knowledge Bandits wants to figure out what makes these entrepreneurs tick and model a blueprint of their success to show the world that entrepreneurship in Africa is alive and kicking.” If you are looking for some entrepreneurial inspiration, Knowledge Bandits is exactly what you need.

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Democrats Working to Deflect Attention From Their Own Racist History

My father taught me as a kid to stand up against any racist, specifically anyone who called me the “N” word. So growing up in Texas in the 80’s and 90’s, let’s just say I got into a few brawls in school.

After each altercation my Dad asked me one question, “Did you win?” From some of my earliest memories, the realities of racism and white supremacy were real in my world. Once I made it into eighth grade, the word “racism” took on a whole new meaning. I was a standout athlete, active student council member, and honor roll student.

None of that stopped me from being harassed and bullied by the “white supremacists” known as skinheads, whom I proceeded to battle with for the next few years. My friend Phillip eventually ended up shooting one of them in the neck, which lead to national media attention and heightened racial tensions across my town.

The Brewer’s have a rich history in my hometown of Grapevine, where my great grandfather was the first black man to migrate as a sharecropper in 1896. We have a small street that bears our name and my father’s long career working for the City of Grapevine Public works department as well as coaching countless kids has earned my family a lot of goodwill and demanded the respect of the white community around me growing up.

During the height of my racial issues, my father armed up and walked into the middle of a Ku Klux Klan rally in search of the group of white supremacists who had been harassing me. Just like a scene from a movie. My family went on to work with other families in my community, lobbying to change the school districts rules which had originally tolerated the systematic racism which allowed skinheads and white supremacists to wear swastikas and known skinhead attire while at school.

We stood up against systematic racism and focused our energy on changing policy, not words. The year was 1994, the same year the Democratic-led Clinton Administration was pushing the policies that led to the mass incarceration of millions of blacks in America.

Now 27 years later I am watching many in our nation normalize “white supremacy,” one of the most evil characterizations in the world. Ironically, the vast majority of those throwing out this narrative have never actually experienced white supremacy and most have turned a blind eye to policies and agendas that have defined the very term that they are normalizing.

Does Conservatism Equal Racism?

Most Americans unfortunately do not know their political history despite an abundance of access to instant information.

Democrats have been able to cover up their party’s bigoted history of fighting to keep American Blacks enslaved, to keep schools segregated, to push Jim Crow, as well as creating the policies that mass incarcerated more blacks than any country on the planet. How do you explain that the Democrats have hypnotized their supporters to truly believe that they are the symbols of racial equality in America? Let’s dive into some quick history.

In 1868, Republicans elected the first black person to represent our nation in Congress. 23 more black Republican legislators succeeded him. Yes, immediately following slavery all black U.S. congressmen and senators were Republicans.

There were no black Democrats in Congress until 1935 and for almost seven decades Republicans were the only party electing blacks to the U.S. Congress. Despite what you hear, Republicans pushed to allow blacks to have representation in our government, just as they fought to set the black slaves free, led by Abraham Lincoln and other noble Republicans.

Frederick Douglas, the legendary black abolitionist, was also a strong Republican, and was the first black man to ever receive a caucus vote for president in 1888.

As you can imagine, the conservative Frederick Douglas was very active advocating for policies that make a positive impact on blacks in America and he went on to become the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, the world’s first free Black nation.

Given its rich history of civil rights, it’s not surprising that the Republican-led Trump Administration is the party who finally overturned the Democratic-led federal law on mass incarceration of blacks.

We can’t leave out our nation’s two largest anti-AIDS initiatives starting with PETFAR with George Bush, who has saved over 18 million blacks in Africa, and now recently the Trump Administration’s initiative which targets the end of this disease that devastates America’s Black community by 2030.

By most estimates, over 75% of the global AIDS population is black and almost 45% of all Americans with AIDS are black. These were urgently needed to combat a major health crisis for the entire black population. Let’s not forget that George Bush was seen as a racist by many liberals, including myself. I was rudely awakened from my hypnosis following one of my eye opening missions to Africa.

When you study the policies, it’s easy to understand why the Democrats have worked so hard to deflect and normalize the meaning of white supremacy and racism away from their very own evil and racist history. To understand their strategy, just follow the money.

The New Democratic Strategy

As we go into another election cycle, the race card is being played more than anytime in my 40 years on earth. Whether it’s a “white supremacy” border debate or an anti-women of color narrative, the Democratic fundraising depends on it.

Highly intelligent liberals pound their hands on the table to stand up against our president’s racially insensitive rhetoric, while ignoring and oftentimes supporting actual systematic racist policies. The worst part is that our poorly run local governments are unanimously run by Democrats, who have all colluded to focus on illegal immigration and racism claims instead of addressing the inhumane conditions in the districts and towns that they represent. Weekend after weekend dozens of blacks are shot and killed in their communities without a memorial service or a single mention to bring federal resources in to stop the carnage of their constituents. But then again, poor blacks don’t donate and they don’t get the same attention as an immigrant kid separated from their parent who enters our country illegally.

It’s sickening actually. The Democratic strategy to focus on illegal immigration is the widely accepted new strategy for the party, which has recently attempted to move away from their mass incarceration and welfare dumping strategy of the 90’s and 2000’s.

Remember, dozens of Democrats didn’t even vote for the First Step Act which has already freed and reduced the sentences for over 4,000 black men. Now, Joe Biden, the author and chief advocate for Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill, was not only a beloved Vice President, but he now has the approval of almost 50% of blacks. It’s jaw dropping, I know. The white man who mass incarcerated blacks is now the symbol of equality and the white man who passed the policy to free and lower the sentencing for blacks is the “white supremacist.” Only in America.

Think about it, the Obama Administration at the direction of Bill and Hillary Clinton took advantage of the poorest black nation in the Western Hemisphere, which is also the first ever independent black nation in the world. Despite their money-led racist and white supremacist agenda, no major Democrat has stood up against them or called for a thorough investigation of the $14 billion pledged to Haiti. I suggest you all watch “Clinton Cash.” I just returned from Haiti this week and the realities of the largest humanitarian robbery in American history continues to take a toll on this ailing black population.

Though Obama refused to aggressively prioritize the black population in his home town of Chicago, or really any black area in America, the new Democratic strategy issued him the ultimate pass on race. It’s unacceptable that Obama left office after 8 years without reforming Clinton’s ’94 Crime Bill, never bringing major national resources to ending the war-like violence in American inner cities, and then stood idly by as the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation was hijacked by Democratic-led greed. But at the end of the day, we must remember that Obama is just as white as he is black. And no Democrat has dared to call this out.

Loving Your Oppressor

The ability for Democrats to hypnotize their base to faithfully love their oppressor is a disturbing example of how a house slave respected and loved their slave master.

An example of a modern Democratic slave master is Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who has numerous pictures of himself and his grad school classmates dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits as well as other photos of them dressed in blackface. I would refuse to be in his presence if I was a black Virginia law maker. But as you probably guessed, the Democratic free pass on racism was in full effect for Governor Northman, as he is still in office and wasn’t forced to resign. In his first interview following this outrageous event, the Governor went on to refer to slaves as “indentured servants” only to have his ignorance be corrected on national television. Can you imagine if this was a Republican leader?

When I met with President Trump a few weeks back, I pleaded with him to start addressing the crisis happening in our American Black inner cities. He listened.

After bringing my American Heroes Program to work with the beautiful children of Baltimore and several other U.S. inner cities, I was disgusted. I had watched the Congressman Elijah Cummings continue the new Democratic strategy of advocating for illegal immigrants’ rights while his district was on fire with gang wars and countless shootings to go along with the filth and poverty that is suffocating his people.

Of course, Elijah Cummings has been a strong voice in the racism and white supremacist normalization in America. Congressman Cummings has focused his efforts in congress around immigration, Russia collusion, and gun control when it affects white Americans. But this should be expected, as these are the core Democratic issues that bring in the most fundraising dollars. He called the President of the United States “racist” for his comments on Baltimore, despite video tapes and a history of him saying the exact same thing about his district in the past — all but ignoring all of the black lives lost and living in third-world conditions as well as the over $14 billion which has gone into the city over the past two years. As head of the House Committee for Oversight and Reform, he has refused to investigate the Democrats for the billions stolen from Haiti following the earthquake as well as the billions put into Baltimore with no sign of major development in the most underserved areas. Yet liberals around the country stand up for these types of leaders because of his civil rights work 30 years ago. Imagine having 20 people shot in your hometown in a weekend and not making a major national address or initiative to take on the root issues. Or at least demand your Congressional colleagues call the nation to pay respect to the victims? Well, Cummings was front and center when my town of Parkland, Florida, was rocked by a school shooting. Another example of the civil rights leader mourning for white kids, while remaining silent for the black lives in his community who’s fate can’t lead to fundraising.

This is the same mentality that has enslaved and oppressed blacks for hundreds of years.

In many African Nations, black leaders are called Chiefs, not Congressman. If you study African history like me, you may be aware that these same Chiefs are the very people who captured and brokered the slaves from 1450-1800’s and proceeded to sell them to the white men from the United States and Great Britain.

This reality was front and center in 1998 when Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, told an audience including then President Bill Clinton: “African chiefs were the ones waging war on each other and capturing their own people and selling them. If anyone should apologise it should be the African chiefs. We still have those traitors here even today.”

And I say American inner cities have a lot of these same realities as our brothers and sisters in Africa. Hopefully African Americans will wake up and call out the traitors amongst us in our most underserved communities. It’s no surprise the Democrats call our president a white supremacist despite him passing more legislation targeted at helping blacks than any U.S. President since Lyndon B. Johnson. They have embraced the love of the oppressor which has hypnotized their black base to maintain the long standing slave mentality manifested by the Africa Chiefs centuries ago.

Jack Brewer possesses a unique combination of expertise in the fields of global economic development, sports, and finance through his roles as a successful entrepreneur, executive producer, news contributor, and humanitarian. Currently serving as the CEO and Portfolio Manager of The Brewer Group, Inc. as well as the Founder and Executive Director of The Jack Brewer Foundation (JBF Worldwide), active Shriner and Ambassador and National Spokesperson for the National Association of Police Athletic/ Activities Leagues, Inc. Other key roles include regular contributor to CNBC, Fox Business, and The American City Business Journals, Ambassador for Peace and Sport for the International Federation for Peace and Sustainable Development at the United Nations, Senior Advisor to former H.E. President Joyce Banda of the Republic of Malawi, and three time National Football League (NFL) Team Captain for the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, and New York Giants. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.

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Five Million Palestinians Deserve Better!

Civil Society, Editors’ Choice, Featured, Global, Headlines, Human Rights, IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse, Middle East & North Africa, Migration & Refugees

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Ian Williams is a former President of the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) and author of “UNtold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War

Secretary-General Guterres can still ameliorate the crisis—first, of course, by inviting Krähenbühl’s immediate departure, but then by a resounding public declaration of how essential UNRWA’s work is

Credit: UN

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2019 (IPS) – An old adage passed on by veteran U.N. staff to younger recruits is, “Do nothing whenever possible. It’s safer.” For a junior officer that might indeed be career-enhancing. 


But—in the face of persistent hostility from the U.S. and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s friends around the world—for the secretary-general of the U.N., or even the commissioner general of UNRWA, it is a recipe for disaster.

And sometimes doing a little is even worse.

Antonio Guterres announced the appointment of Christian Saunders as deputy commissioner general of UNRWA but the U.N secretary-general failed to explain what had happened to Saunders’ predecessor,  Sandra Mitchell, let alone the chain of circumstances that led to her departure.

Saunders is experienced and well-respected, but making him deputy commissioner general while leaving Pierre Krähenbühl, the person primarily responsible for the scandal, as commissioner-general for UNRWA is like throwing a sardine into a school of sharks. It has, predictably, just whetted the appetites of UNWRA’s enemies—but has not provided sustenance for its friends.

The secretary-general is presumably aware that after Al Jazeera (and the Washington Report) began its investigation into the UNRWA Ethics Office’s report on Krähenbühl’s management (see Aug./Sept. 2019 Washington Report, p. 17), Krähenbühl in quick succession lost three senior staff members, including both his chef de cabinet and deputy commissioner.

Major donors, not least, Krähenbühl’s own Swiss government pulled their funding because of the Report, which called for his immediate dismissal.

All those countries have been loyal friends of the U.N. and of UNRWA, and their defunding shows clearly that the Ethics Office report made a compelling case to them. It is also clear that the governments concerned are trying to send signals to the U.N., whose response to the crisis has been a textbook case of complacent bureaucratic ineptitude.

After this writer’s report on UNWRA corruption came out in Al Jazeera, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki R. Haley wrote on Twitter, “This is Exactly [sic] why we stopped their funding.”

In fact, that was an outright lie. The Trump administration only did as Israel asked and pulled its contribution to UNRWA for malicious reasons having nothing to do with Commissioner General Krähenbüh’s love life or travel arrangements.

 Secretary-General Guterres can still ameliorate the crisis—first, of course, by inviting Krähenbühl’s immediate departure, but then by a resounding public declaration of how essential UNRWA’s work is

Credit: UN

Instead it was because UNRWA’s continuing existence is a persistent institutional reminder of U.S. complicity in Israel’s dispossession of some six million Palestinians. Admittedly, it was also because a particular subset of ambitious Republicans looks for large campaign donations from a coterie of very rich right-wing donors who consistently display their disdain for Palestinian rights by helping fund Jewish-only settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

There is no need for the secretary-general to take advice from countries whose oft-condemned actions created and perpetuated so many decades of misery for the Palestinians

However, knowing that both Washington and Tel Aviv entertain such sentiments makes the insouciance of both Secretary-General Guterres and Krähenbühl even more egregious.  The ethics report detailing the managerial failings and turpitude in UNRWA was delivered to the secretary-general’s office back in December 2018.

The UNRWA staff who had contributed to it fretted that no action was being taken after many of them had risked their livelihoods and pensions.

They were amazed that such a compelling dossier from the organization’s own Ethics Department would be ignored, and it was only after months had passed that some of them leaked it to me, in the hope that media inquiries about the report would prompt pre-emptive action by the U.N., and that the commissioner general would lance the boil before the pustulent Trump/Netanyahu axis began to fester on it.

Ambassadors and senior U.N. officials were approached to press the secretary-general’s office for the action necessary, but to no avail.

Faced with such a damning indictment from his own ethics office, Krähenbühl could have, and should have, resigned or stepped aside for the good of the organization.  The secretary-general could have suspended or fired him and announced a genuinely independent inquiry, enlisting donors and others concerned with the welfare of UNRWA and the Palestinians.

Predictably, the failures of the commissioner general and U.N. headquarters to take action—of any kind—has set off a feeding frenzy among the enemies of the Palestinians and UNRWA, who want to punish refugees for the ethical failings of bureaucrats foisted on them by an international community that oversaw their dispossession. 

An unannounced internal investigation by the U.N.’s own Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS)—whose reputation is far from stellar even inside the U.N.—is a politically disastrous course of action. It took repeated questioning before we even discovered the investigation was under way—at a time when the secretary-general’s office denied it had even seen the report.

It was conceivable that, without media publicity, the OIOS report could have been a bland procedural whitewash, as have been too many about recent scandals involving senior U.N. staff.

But the media exposure means that Krähenbühl has little or no support from his present and recent senior staff, and certainly not from the donors.  His rigor mortis-like grip on office is profoundly damaging to UNWRA, to the U.N., and to the more than five million Palestinians it serves.

In any case, confronted with such a manifest managerial failure, a traditional international civil servant should have accepted responsibility and resigned: by clinging to office Krähenbühl is giving succour to his agency’s enemies.

One could add that the scandal reflects an erosion of the concept of an ethical international service under a constant corrosive drip of short-term contracts and outsourcing urged by those experts who brought us the 2008 financial crisis.    

Even so, Secretary-General Guterres can still ameliorate the crisis—first, of course, by inviting Krähenbühl’s immediate departure, but then by a resounding public declaration of how essential UNRWA’s work is.

Persuading a senior diplomat or U.N. figure to take over from Krähenbühl is a bit like fitting someone for a crown of thorns, but there are people out there who care enough about the Palestinians and who are prepared to stand up to the barrage of bile from worldwide Friends of Likud.

Above all, there is no need for the secretary-general to take advice from countries whose oft-condemned actions created and perpetuated so many decades of misery for the Palestinians.

He would, however, do well to invite donors and other humanitarian organizations to examine the agency and recommend much needed managerial and structural reforms, without pandering to those whose solution to the refugee problem is to leave them homeless and hungry while declaring them no longer to be refugees.

The original story appeared in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. 

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