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(CNN) — It’s the staple of almost every kung fu action film ever made: the hero is targeted for revenge after teaching the deadly and closely guarded secrets of the martial art to outsiders and, even worse, foreigners.

But ask Lam Chun-fai Sifu — the 73-year-old practitioner of the 300-year-old kung fu style known as Hung Kuen — and he will tell you that making the martial art accessible to foreigners is the only way to save it from extinction.

The son of a student to Wong Fei Hung, one of the legends of the fighting style and the subject of countless films, Lam Sifu (sifu is a Cantonese term that means ‘master’) says the fighting art may be growing fast overseas, but struggles in the region where it was born.

To counter the decline, he has co-authored the world’s first English-language manual on the ancient kung fu style that he has taught for 60 years and has been his family’s trademark for more than three generations.

Called Hung Kuen Fundamentals: Fok Fu Kuen, the manual outlines scores of moves and stances that were hitherto only taught and transmitted orally.

While there are dozens of fighting styles in kung fu (the northern styles represented by fast, high kicks and rapid, fluid movements), Hung Kuen is a southern Chinese fighting art characterised by strong stances and fast footwork. One practitioner famously destroyed the bamboo planks in a demonstration platform simply by shifting his feet in the ‘hard stances’ of Hung Kuen.

Bringing Bruce Lee to the stage

Russian bear was kung fu fighting

Lam Sifu, meanwhile, teaches a steady stream of foreigners the ancient fighting art in the cramped living room of his tiny apartment on the 7th floor of a tenement block in Hong Kong’s North Point.

In terms of Hong Kong kung fu, it’s about as traditional as it gets, right down to the name ‘Di Dat Clinic’ which translates as ‘Hit Fall Clinic’; a name unchanged from the days when kung fu masters, so used to treating the training accidents of their students, were the first stop for neighborhood trauma injuries and broken bones.

Using a spear against his sword-wielding son Oscar, Lam Sifu is a blur of threshing weapons amid the armchairs, ornaments and computer printers in his urban home.

“Training in a small area like this is very good for control,” he says in a space so cramped it looks like two men having a knife fight in a telephone booth. For his long-standing foreign students — Hung Kuen teachers from Italy, the Czech Republic and Germany — the turn of fighting speed still draws a gasp of admiration.

“Many students in Italy like traditional kung fu and especially this style which is the origin of the martial art,” said Massimo Iannaccone, who runs an academy in Rome but perfects the art in Lam Sifu’s living room on trips to Hong Kong.

Pavel Adamek, who teaches Hung Kuen in Prague, Czech Republic, says his students are drawn as much by the Eastern philosophy associated with the martial art as they are by learning a fighting style.

“It’s very popular in the Czech Republic — people there are really looking for something more than fighting arts. They want to train their bodies and their minds — this style is really very good for that,” he said.

While there may be more dedicated practitioners overseas than in Hong Kong, Lam Sifu’s co-author Hing Chao, who also studies the Hung Kuen style, said that the form remains a potent cultural symbol in Hong Kong.

“It’s rooted in a very specific Hong Kong identity as well,” Hing said. Both he and Lam Sifu believe the style is so important as a cultural symbol, the government should recognize it as part of Hong Kong’s intangible cultural heritage.

Hing, who has studied the interaction between the media, entertainment and the martial arts, says that Hollywood sometimes gives a lopsided view of Chinese martial arts, focusing on various personalities such as Ip Man, Bruce Lee’s famous teacher, to the exclusion of all other equally famous teachers and styles.

Despite this, he says its popularization in film sometimes unconsciously transmits positive aspects of kung fu culture.

“Besides the fighting, one of the reasons that Bruce Lee has been such a global celebrity until to today is because a lot of messages strike a chord and resonate among the marginalized,” Hing says.

“Why would, for instance, a Black African community in the U.S. look on Bruce Lee as a hero? Because embedded in these films are messages of righteousness. Of someone who is disadvantaged but through dedication to kung fu can become empowered and through his own empowerment help the rest of the community.

“This is very positive and I would say the Bruce Lee path represents one of the best interactions between film and martial arts — it’s something we don’t often see these days.”

While foreigners may be beating a path to the kung fu clinic’s door, local interest in Hong Kong is only just gaining ground after a long hiatus.

Lam Sifu says modern distractions like videogames are sapping young people of the ability to focus on demanding martial art forms like Hung Kuen which can require learning as many as 300 movements in a single set.

“These days pupils can’t stand any hardship. They say practicing is tiring and they give up easily,” he says.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/20/world/asia/hongkong-kungfu/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/23vQXFZK-5I/bible-of-hong-kong-kung-fu-published

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RipleysStuff/~3/909rVCqvVrs/bible-of-hong-kong-kung-fu-published

(CNN) — Ever gotten on a plane and wound up in the wrong city? How about the wrong continent?

According to a Los Angeles Times report, that’s the travel nightmare story Sandy Valdivieso and her husband, Triet Vo, will get to tell for the rest of their lives.

The couple boarded a flight in Los Angeles booked by Turkish Airways, intending to travel to Dakar, Senegal, in western Africa. Instead, they got off the plane in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in South Asia, almost 7,000 miles away.

The culprit was apparently a mix-up between the similarly pronounced cities and the three-letter code used by airlines to distinguish airports.

The three-letter airport code on the tickets issued to the couple by the airline read DAC, the code for the airport in Dhaka. The code for the airport in Dakar is DKR. The couple simply assumed that DAC was the code for their airport.

“Even after they’d settled into their seats — 33A and 33B in economy class — they had no idea anything was amiss,” according to the Times.

“When the flight attendant said we were heading to Dhaka, we believed that this was how you pronounced ‘Dakar’ with a Turkish accent,” Valdivieso told the Times.

After connecting through Istanbul, the weary couple fell asleep on their next flight. When they awoke they began sensing a problem when they looked around to see a plane full of Asian faces, not African ones. A check of the inflight video map confirmed their fears.

“That’s when we knew a serious mistake had been made,” Valdivieso told the Times.

After landing in Dhaka, the airline flew the couple to Dakar via Istanbul, about a six-hour trip. It took two more days for the pair’s baggage to catch up to them.

The couple booked their tickets in December; the report didn’t say when they traveled.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/20/travel/turkish-airline-mistake/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/AE3aM3jGpXU/oops-couple-flown-to-wrong-continent

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Researchers at the University of Texas are warning that the invasive species from South America, “tawny crazy ants.” has the potential to change the ecological balance in the southeastern United States.

Tawny crazy ants are omnivores that can take over an area by both killing what’s there and starving out what they don’t kill, said Ed LeBrun, a research associate with the Texas invasive species research program at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in the College of Natural Sciences.

“The whole system has changed around fire ants. Things that can’t tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished. New things have come in. Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that,” said LeBrun.

The crazy ants nest in walls, crawl spaces, house plants or empty containers in the yard, researchers said.

Scientists are unsure how far the ants, which are native to Argentina and Brazil, may spread in the United States. They have been found mostly in wetter environments with mild winters in parts of Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

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(CNN) — Beware the “crazy ants.”

Researchers at the University of Texas are warning that the invasive species from South America has the potential to change the ecological balance in the southeastern United States, largely because the ants can wipe out colonies of what’s been widely considered the insect villain of the region, the fire ant.

The crazy ants, officially called “Tawny crazy ants,” are omnivores that can take over an area by both killing what’s there and starving out what they don’t kill, said Ed LeBrun, a research associate with the Texas invasive species research program at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in the College of Natural Sciences.

“Perhaps the biggest deal is the displacement of the fire ant, which is the 300-pound gorilla in Texas ecosystems these days,” LeBrun said in a press release. “The whole system has changed around fire ants. Things that can’t tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished. New things have come in. Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that.”

Beyond the troubles they cause for the environment, the crazy ants can be a big headache for people because their populations are so dense, LeBrun said.

The crazy ants nest in walls, crawl spaces, house plants or empty containers in the yard, researchers said.

“They don’t sting like fire ants do, but aside from that they are much bigger pests,” he said. “There are videos on YouTube of people sweeping out dustpans full of these ants from their bathroom. You have to call pest control operators every three or four months just to keep the infestation under control. It’s very expensive.”

The crazy ants are going so crazy, in fact, that some people want their fire ants back, LeBrun said.

“Fire ants are in many ways very polite. They live in your yard. They form mounds and stay there, and they only interact with you if you step on their mound,” he said.

U.N.: Eat insects, save the world

Scientists are unsure how far the ants, which are native to Argentina and Brazil, may spread in the U.S. Since being first seen in Houston in 2002, they’ve been found mostly in wetter environments with mild winters in parts of Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

And while they can quickly overwhelm a small area, the reproductive members of the species don’t fly, so to move over large distances, they have to hitchhike — in your stuff.

“If people living in or visiting invaded areas are careful and check for the crazy ants when moving or going on longer trips, they could have a huge impact on the spread,” LeBrun said.

Giant tire-puncturing African land snails invade Florida

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/17/us/crazy-ants/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/PTTmIB68buk/crazy-ants

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RipleysStuff/~3/n5mBRlq7h8g/crazy-ants

Editor’s note: Victor Ehikhamenor is a visual artist, photographer and writer. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, AGNI, and Premium Times. He is the author of the non-fiction book on Nigeria, “Excuse Me!” and is a resident of Nigeria and the U.S. Twitter: @victorsozaboy

(CNN) — The corpse of another man’s mother always looks like firewood from afar, so says an African proverb. Until recently, terrorism, war and the accompanying human carnage in far-away countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and many other troubled countries meant just more news of the crazy world out there. Not because of my lack of empathy, but distance can be a ready-made palliative for pain.

Now, that distant and macabre dance of death that once seemed so far away on TV has come upon my country, Nigeria, with a big bang.

Suicide bombing, towns and villages getting blown up, allegations of extra-judicial killings by the police and the military, kidnappings, terrorist attacks on government establishments — total confusion and a lack of solutions to the violence is no longer just news, but a terrifying daily reality show.

In the current wave of violence, especially in the northern and middle belt of the country, which has culminated in President Goodluck Jonathan declaring a state of emergency in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, one is at a loss as to where the country is headed in its near future.

Nigerian forces tout ‘massive deployment’ against insurgents

2012: Who are Boko Haram?

Obasanjo: Boko Haram undermine security

Nigerian president: Boko Haram ‘threat’

What has happened in Borno, a state in the northern part of Nigeria, in the past weeks is like full-scale war. A local official said recent attacks there, in the border town of Baga, left more than 185 inhabitants dead in unclear circumstances involving the military Joint Task Force (JTF), the peace-keeping government outfit that has been effectively inefficient in all the troubled zones. The army, however, said no more than 36 people were killed.

The burning embers of the Baga massacre had hardly cooled off when another attack was carried out in Bama, another town in the same state. According to the army, 55 people were killed by Boko Haram; casualties including women and children were burnt alive.

Watch this: Who are Boko Haram?

Following these deaths came yet another wanton killing of policemen and soldiers in another state. The dead, as usual, are a mixture of innocent civilians, military personnel, policemen and members of Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group that has been carrying out attacks since 2009.

The total break down of law and order and daily carnage made the governor of Borno, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, put the blame squarely on the doorsteps of his fellow politicians and the Nigerian government as the primary cause of thecountry’s state of insecurity.

According to the governor, “Underneath the mayhem of Boko Haram lies the underlying cause which is extreme poverty and destitution … until we address some of these issues the future is very bleak for all of us as the current crisis is just an appetizer of things to come. Very soon the youth of this country will be chasing us away.”

Read more: ‘Massive’ numbers of Nigerian troops target insurgents

The governor also gave his view of the current mindset of Nigeria’s political ruling class: “The most important thing in Nigeria is about the last election and the next election, the only thing that is agitating our minds is how we can perpetuate ourselves in power. How much we can steal, how many mansions we can buy in Florida, Dubai and London, this is what agitates the minds of the elites of this country.”

To hear this kind of finger-pointing and chilling words from one of those the rest of the country expects to resolve the conflict and bloodletting is quite enervating.

A previously proposed panacea to the madness was the proffering of amnesty to Boko Haram members by the federal government, which it has so far refused.

The whole amnesty idea to many observers bordered on the line of insanity and inanity. Two things — the amnesty program that was first introduced to curb violence and pacify militants in the Niger Delta by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and continued by Jonathan, cannot be said to be successful, as insurgency is still very much a clear and present danger in the Niger Delta. Secondly, it looks like crime pays in Nigeria when criminals and murderers are getting rewarded in the name of “amnesty” every time they put a gun or bomb to the government and people’s temples.

Boko Haram blamed for attacks in Nigeria

Spreading the wealth in Nigeria

Wealthy Nigerians and multinational expatriates have become prisoners in a supposedly free country, constantly moving with heavily armed guards. For most, this has not proven effective as some of their armed guards have been outgunned by terrorists and criminals who mean business.

Politicians are sometimes the worse off, and one cannot help but reason that the poverty planted by the rich and the ruling class over decades of misrule has yielded thorns in the flesh of our country.

Despite the declared state of emergency (which has received a mixed reception), people are losing hope faster than a nailed tire.

The insecurity is spreading to other parts of the country. Lagos is now taking on a new look of security consciousness. Many churches in the city have fully armed policemen holding AK47s guarding entrances during Sunday services. And it is no longer odd to walk into a cafe or restaurant and find armed policemen guarding diners, with guns resting among cutlery.

The government seems to have keeled over and resorted to a full-blown military offensive, both land and air, against Boko Haram and its allies. It is too early to determine if this latest solution will abate the madness but it is horrifying for people to live with this kind of killing and uncertainty every day.

When we now appear in foreign news segments we are right there with Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq … places that are in full blown war and used to seem so far away. And the question trembling in most people’s lips now is — are we also at war in Nigeria?

‘Are you in Nigeria? Have you been affected by the violence? Do you think the country is at war and, if so, how can it be stopped? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Victor Ehikhamenor.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/20/opinion/nigeria-violence-victor-ehikhamenor/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/y78zzyaGUAY/nigeria-war

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RipleysStuff/~3/mlVfHlaO1Vw/nigeria-war

Editor’s note: Victor Ehikhamenor is a visual artist, photographer and writer. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, AGNI, and Premium Times. He is the author of the non-fiction book on Nigeria, “Excuse Me!” and is a resident of Nigeria and the U.S. Twitter: @victorsozaboy

(CNN) — The corpse of another man’s mother always looks like firewood from afar, so says an African proverb. Until recently, terrorism, war and the accompanying human carnage in far-away countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and many other troubled countries meant just more news of the crazy world out there. Not because of my lack of empathy, but distance can be a ready-made palliative for pain.

Now, that distant and macabre dance of death that once seemed so far away on TV has come upon my country, Nigeria, with a big bang.

Suicide bombing, towns and villages getting blown up, allegations of extra-judicial killings by the police and the military, kidnappings, terrorist attacks on government establishments — total confusion and a lack of solutions to the violence is no longer just news, but a terrifying daily reality show.

In the current wave of violence, especially in the northern and middle belt of the country, which has culminated in President Goodluck Jonathan declaring a state of emergency in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, one is at a loss as to where the country is headed in its near future.

Nigerian forces tout ‘massive deployment’ against insurgents

2012: Who are Boko Haram?

Obasanjo: Boko Haram undermine security

Nigerian president: Boko Haram ‘threat’

What has happened in Borno, a state in the northern part of Nigeria, in the past weeks is like full-scale war. A local official said recent attacks there, in the border town of Baga, left more than 185 inhabitants dead in unclear circumstances involving the military Joint Task Force (JTF), the peace-keeping government outfit that has been effectively inefficient in all the troubled zones. The army, however, said no more than 36 people were killed.

The burning embers of the Baga massacre had hardly cooled off when another attack was carried out in Bama, another town in the same state. According to the army, 55 people were killed by Boko Haram; casualties including women and children were burnt alive.

Watch this: Who are Boko Haram?

Following these deaths came yet another wanton killing of policemen and soldiers in another state. The dead, as usual, are a mixture of innocent civilians, military personnel, policemen and members of Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group that has been carrying out attacks since 2009.

The total break down of law and order and daily carnage made the governor of Borno, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, put the blame squarely on the doorsteps of his fellow politicians and the Nigerian government as the primary cause of the country’s state of insecurity.

According to the governor, “Underneath the mayhem of Boko Haram lies the underlying cause which is extreme poverty and destitution … until we address some of these issues the future is very bleak for all of us as the current crisis is just an appetizer of things to come. Very soon the youth of this country will be chasing us away.”

Read more: ‘Massive’ numbers of Nigerian troops target insurgents

The governor also gave his view of the current mindset of Nigeria’s political ruling class: “The most important thing in Nigeria is about the last election and the next election, the only thing that is agitating our minds is how we can perpetuate ourselves in power. How much we can steal, how many mansions we can buy in Florida, Dubai and London, this is what agitates the minds of the elites of this country.”

To hear this kind of finger-pointing and chilling words from one of those the rest of the country expects to resolve the conflict and bloodletting is quite enervating.

A previously proposed panacea to the madness was the proffering of amnesty to Boko Haram members by the federal government, which it has so far refused.

The whole amnesty idea to many observers bordered on the line of insanity and inanity. Two things — the amnesty program that was first introduced to curb violence and pacify militants in the Niger Delta by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and continued by Jonathan, cannot be said to be successful, as insurgency is still very much a clear and present danger in the Niger Delta. Secondly, it looks like crime pays in Nigeria when criminals and murderers are getting rewarded in the name of “amnesty” every time they put a gun or bomb to the government and people’s temples.

Boko Haram blamed for attacks in Nigeria

Spreading the wealth in Nigeria

Wealthy Nigerians and multinational expatriates have become prisoners in a supposedly free country, constantly moving with heavily armed guards. For most, this has not proven effective as some of their armed guards have been outgunned by terrorists and criminals who mean business.

Politicians are sometimes the worse off, and one cannot help but reason that the poverty planted by the rich and the ruling class over decades of misrule has yielded thorns in the flesh of our country.

Despite the declared state of emergency (which has received a mixed reception), people are losing hope faster than a nailed tire.

The insecurity is spreading to other parts of the country. Lagos is now taking on a new look of security consciousness. Many churches in the city have fully armed policemen holding AK47s guarding entrances during Sunday services. And it is no longer odd to walk into a cafe or restaurant and find armed policemen guarding diners, with guns resting among cutlery.

The government seems to have keeled over and resorted to a full-blown military offensive, both land and air, against Boko Haram and its allies. It is too early to determine if this latest solution will abate the madness but it is horrifying for people to live with this kind of killing and uncertainty every day.

When we now appear in foreign news segments we are right there with Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq … places that are in full blown war and used to seem so far away. And the question trembling in most people’s lips now is — are we also at war in Nigeria?

‘Are you in Nigeria? Have you been affected by the violence? Do you think the country is at war and, if so, how can it be stopped? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Victor Ehikhamenor.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/20/opinion/nigeria-violence-victor-ehikhamenor/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/QeO7fkAxe9U/horrified-nigerians-are-we-at-war

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RipleysStuff/~3/ky9tgdF0V8A/horrified-nigerians-are-we-at-war

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Researchers at the University of Texas are warning that the invasive species from South America, “tawny crazy ants.” has the potential to change the ecological balance in the southeastern United States.

Tawny crazy ants are omnivores that can take over an area by both killing what’s there and starving out what they don’t kill, said Ed LeBrun, a research associate with the Texas invasive species research program at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in the College of Natural Sciences.

“The whole system has changed around fire ants. Things that can’t tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished. New things have come in. Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that,” said LeBrun.

The crazy ants nest in walls, crawl spaces, house plants or empty containers in the yard, researchers said.

Scientists are unsure how far the ants, which are native to Argentina and Brazil, may spread in the United States. They have been found mostly in wetter environments with mild winters in parts of Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

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2

3

4

5

(CNN) — Beware the “crazy ants.”

Researchers at the University of Texas are warning that the invasive species from South America has the potential to change the ecological balance in the southeastern United States, largely because the ants can wipe out colonies of what’s been widely considered the insect villain of the region, the fire ant.

The crazy ants, officially called “Tawny crazy ants,” are omnivores that can take over an area by both killing what’s there and starving out what they don’t kill, said Ed LeBrun, a research associate with the Texas invasive species research program at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in the College of Natural Sciences.

“Perhaps the biggest deal is the displacement of the fire ant, which is the 300-pound gorilla in Texas ecosystems these days,” LeBrun said in a press release. “The whole system has changed around fire ants. Things that can’t tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished. New things have come in. Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that.”

Beyond the troubles they cause for the environment, the crazy ants can be a big headache for people because their populations are so dense, LeBrun said.

The crazy ants nest in walls, crawl spaces, house plants or empty containers in the yard, researchers said.

“They don’t sting like fire ants do, but aside from that they are much bigger pests,” he said. “There are videos on YouTube of people sweeping out dustpans full of these ants from their bathroom. You have to call pest control operators every three or four months just to keep the infestation under control. It’s very expensive.”

The crazy ants are going so crazy, in fact, that some people want their fire ants back, LeBrun said.

“Fire ants are in many ways very polite. They live in your yard. They form mounds and stay there, and they only interact with you if you step on their mound,” he said.

U.N.: Eat insects, save the world

Scientists are unsure how far the ants, which are native to Argentina and Brazil, may spread in the U.S. Since being first seen in Houston in 2002, they’ve been found mostly in wetter environments with mild winters in parts of Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

And while they can quickly overwhelm a small area, the reproductive members of the species don’t fly, so to move over large distances, they have to hitchhike — in your stuff.

“If people living in or visiting invaded areas are careful and check for the crazy ants when moving or going on longer trips, they could have a huge impact on the spread,” LeBrun said.

Giant tire-puncturing African land snails invade Florida

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/17/us/crazy-ants/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/SBxrmvNjTRs/crazy-ants-a-threat-in-south

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RipleysStuff/~3/o2clm0xexdY/crazy-ants-a-threat-in-south

Editor’s note: Victor Ehikhamenor is a visual artist, photographer and writer. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, AGNI, and Premium Times. He is the author of the non-fiction book on Nigeria, “Excuse Me!” and is a resident of Nigeria and the U.S. Twitter: @victorsozaboy

(CNN) — The corpse of another man’s mother always looks like firewood from afar, so says an African proverb. Until recently, terrorism, war and the accompanying human carnage in far-away countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and many other troubled countries meant just more news of the crazy world out there. Not because of my lack of empathy, but distance can be a ready-made palliative for pain.

Now, that distant and macabre dance of death that once seemed so far away on TV has come upon my country, Nigeria, with a big bang.

Suicide bombing, towns and villages getting blown up, allegations of extra-judicial killings by the police and the military, kidnappings, terrorist attacks on government establishments — total confusion and a lack of solutions to the violence is no longer just news, but a terrifying daily reality show.

In the current wave of violence, especially in the northern and middle belt of the country, which has culminated in President Goodluck Jonathan declaring a state of emergency in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, one is at a loss as to where the country is headed in its near future.

Nigerian forces tout ‘massive deployment’ against insurgents

2012: Who are Boko Haram?

Obasanjo: Boko Haram undermine security

Nigerian president: Boko Haram ‘threat’

What has happened in Borno, a state in the northern part of Nigeria, in the past weeks is like full-scale war. A local official said recent attacks there, in the border town of Baga, left more than 185 inhabitants dead in unclear circumstances involving the military Joint Task Force (JTF), the peace-keeping government outfit that has been effectively inefficient in all the troubled zones. The army, however, said no more than 36 people were killed.

The burning embers of the Baga massacre had hardly cooled off when another attack was carried out in Bama, another town in the same state. According to the army, 55 people were killed by Boko Haram; casualties including women and children were burnt alive.

Watch this: Who are Boko Haram?

Following these deaths came yet another wanton killing of policemen and soldiers in another state. The dead, as usual, are a mixture of innocent civilians, military personnel, policemen and members of Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group that has been carrying out attacks since 2009.

The total break down of law and order and daily carnage made the governor of Borno, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, put the blame squarely on the doorsteps of his fellow politicians and the Nigerian government as the primary cause of the country’s state of insecurity.

According to the governor, “Underneath the mayhem of Boko Haram lies the underlying cause which is extreme poverty and destitution … until we address some of these issues the future is very bleak for all of us as the current crisis is just an appetizer of things to come. Very soon the youth of this country will be chasing us away.”

Read more: ‘Massive’ numbers of Nigerian troops target insurgents

The governor also gave his view of the current mindset of Nigeria’s political ruling class: “The most important thing in Nigeria is about the last election and the next election, the only thing that is agitating our minds is how we can perpetuate ourselves in power. How much we can steal, how many mansions we can buy in Florida, Dubai and London, this is what agitates the minds of the elites of this country.”

To hear this kind of finger-pointing and chilling words from one of those the rest of the country expects to resolve the conflict and bloodletting is quite enervating.

A previously proposed panacea to the madness was the proffering of amnesty to Boko Haram members by the federal government, which it has so far refused.

The whole amnesty idea to many observers bordered on the line of insanity and inanity. Two things — the amnesty program that was first introduced to curb violence and pacify militants in the Niger Delta by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and continued by Jonathan, cannot be said to be successful, as insurgency is still very much a clear and present danger in the Niger Delta. Secondly, it looks like crime pays in Nigeria when criminals and murderers are getting rewarded in the name of “amnesty” every time they put a gun or bomb to the government and people’s temples.

Boko Haram blamed for attacks in Nigeria

Spreading the wealth in Nigeria

Wealthy Nigerians and multinational expatriates have become prisoners in a supposedly free country, constantly moving with heavily armed guards. For most, this has not proven effective as some of their armed guards have been outgunned by terrorists and criminals who mean business.

Politicians are sometimes the worse off, and one cannot help but reason that the poverty planted by the rich and the ruling class over decades of misrule has yielded thorns in the flesh of our country.

Despite the declared state of emergency (which has received a mixed reception), people are losing hope faster than a nailed tire.

The insecurity is spreading to other parts of the country. Lagos is now taking on a new look of security consciousness. Many churches in the city have fully armed policemen holding AK47s guarding entrances during Sunday services. And it is no longer odd to walk into a cafe or restaurant and find armed policemen guarding diners, with guns resting among cutlery.

The government seems to have keeled over and resorted to a full-blown military offensive, both land and air, against Boko Haram and its allies. It is too early to determine if this latest solution will abate the madness but it is horrifying for people to live with this kind of killing and uncertainty every day.

When we now appear in foreign news segments we are right there with Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq … places that are in full blown war and used to seem so far away. And the question trembling in most people’s lips now is — are we also at war in Nigeria?

‘Are you in Nigeria? Have you been affected by the violence? Do you think the country is at war and, if so, how can it be stopped? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Victor Ehikhamenor.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/20/opinion/nigeria-violence-victor-ehikhamenor/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/NXAVp038Sk0/is-nigeria-turning-into-the-next-iraq

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It’s prom season in Birmingham, Alabama, and this year some senior citizens are joining the high school seniors. Here, Earnestine Thomas waits to get her hair done on Friday for her Class of 1963 prom.

When Earnestine Thomas was a teenager, she knew she had to live by a different set of rules than white teens. “As a child, I recognized that it was unfair, but didn’t understand that there were laws propping (segregation) up,” she said. Here, she gets her hair done for the prom.

Today, much has changed in Birmingham and this year, the city is marking the anniversary of its civil rights movement, which affected the entire nation. As part of its “50 Years Forward” celebrations, Birmingham sponsored the prom that was canceled in 1963 for five black high schools in the midst of the city’s civil rights struggle.

Eugene Arms, another member of the Class of 1963, gets his suit ready for Friday night’s prom. Arms said he attended civil rights rallies in Birmingham as a teenager, but not the pivotal Children’s March, when hundreds of children, some as young as 6, left school to march in opposition to segregation. Authorities responded with fire hoses and dogs. “All we did was give up prom,” he said.

Ethel Arms gets dressed for the prom. Eugene and Ethel were high school sweethearts.

Boutwell Auditorium is all decked out and ready for the prom to begin.

Classmates pause for a moment of prayer before the prom.

An ice sculpture greets the participants as they enter.

With her hair done and a new dress, Earnestine Thomas arrives in style. She said she can still picture the dress that she never got to wear in 1963, a long blue and green neon attention-grabber that showed different colors in the light as she moved. “Even though it was a winter dress, I was going to wear it to the prom,” Thomas said. “But in one fell swoop, that was wiped away.”

A photographer captures the special moment.

Eugene and Ethel Arms pose for their prom photo.

Bishop Calvin Woods addresses the attendees.

The prom was a celebration of what the Class of 1963 had endured and survived over the last 50 years. “As we get older, everything behind us looks greater,” Earnestine Thomas said.

Attendees enjoy a feast.

The music included songs by Aretha Franklin, Etta James, The Temptations, just what you would expect at a 1960s prom. But the song that drew the most bodies to the dance floor was “The Wobble,”
a hip-hop number with an accompanying line dance.

Shirley Holmes Sims poses with her prom date.

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Birmingham, Alabama (CNN) — The class of 1963 crowded in a rectangle on the dance floor, the memories of high school fresh on their minds as the band played in a sea of pink and blue hues.

Aretha Franklin. Etta James. The Temptations. Just what you would expect to be playing at a 1960s prom. Yet the song that drew the most bodies to the dance floor was “The Wobble.”

Until this hip-hop song emptied the chairs, it felt as if the auditorium had been transported back 50 years.

But it’s 2013, and despite the full-court nostalgia for the 1960s, that decade was one of the most difficult times in Birmingham’s history.

Societal tensions over race were so high in 1963 that the city canceled senior prom for five of the city’s segregated high schools for blacks.

Today, a half century has passed since the seminal civil rights protests that changed Birmingham and plotted a path for the nation away from segregation and toward equal rights.

Just like that path, the healing process has been a long one.

The Historic 1963 Prom, held Friday and hosted by the city of Birmingham, closed one chapter for these Alabamans.

‘A tension-filled city’

Growing up in Birmingham in the 1950s, Earnestine Thomas knew the rules of this segregated city. At a restaurant, she could pay in the front, but had to walk around the back to get her food from a cook. She could shop only in certain places; there were neighborhoods that she knew not to visit.

/

“As a child, I recognized that it was unfair, but didn’t understand that there were laws propping (segregation) up,” she said as she waited for a hair appointment before Friday’s prom.

More: Segregated prom yields to unity

She treated herself to a hair styling before donning a lavender dress with a sequined jacket and matching shoes. Lavender was a fitting color, she said, not just because it is her favorite, but because it was the school color at Parker High School.

It was a day of celebration that she and her classmates were denied in 1963.

Segregation in Birmingham permeated everything, down to the Bibles that judges used to swear witnesses in — there was one holy book for white witnesses and another for black witnesses.

Yet members of the class of 1963 recall having the same struggles as any other teenagers, then and today — parents’ rules, scrounging enough money for dates, finding reliable transportation.

As often is the case when people witness a historic period, many black high school students in Birmingham in 1963 did not recognize the moment that was upon them.

Years of advocacy by civil rights leaders had successfully chipped away at segregation, and students pushed the boundaries — as much out of teenage rebellion as a sense of justice.

Opinion: For Dr. King, everybody in and nobody out

Commemorating civil rights milestones

Who is Rosa Parks?

Selma marchers take up immigration cause

Son of MLK on Pres. Obama’s inauguration

Cynthia May and her friends were the first ones to board the bus the day that the signs relegating blacks to the back of the bus were removed, around the summer of 1962.

The teens tested the new limits immediately by sitting in the front. But when whites began boarding the bus, they stood, rather than sit behind the black teens. The teens also noticed that white riders refused to sit next to black riders, so instead of sitting two to a seat, they spread out individually to occupy the seats, leaving other passengers no choice but to sit next to them. Again, the white riders chose to stand.

“It was a tension-filled city,” May said.

It was against this backdrop that the seniors at the black high schools began preparing for graduation.

Each May, in Thomas’ neighborhood, the graduating seniors would parade down the street. And in 1963, it would be her turn.

There was also prom, an American rite of passage.

Thomas can still picture her long dress, a blue and green neon attention-grabber that showed different colors in the light as she moved.

A neighbor had bought it for her in December.

“Even though it was a winter dress, I was going to wear it to the prom,” Thomas said. “But in one fell swoop, that was wiped away.”

Civil rights come to Birmingham

There is disagreement over why prom was canceled for those five black high schools in 1963.

The civil rights movement was in full swing that year, but the high school students, to an extent, were kept at a distance from it.

This would change on May 2, 1963, when hundreds of children, some as young as 6, left school to march in Birmingham in opposition to segregation.

CNN Photo Blog: Birmingham’s civil rights crusade

Thousands of arrests were made at the so-called Children’s March, and when the marches persisted for several days, authorities responded with fire hoses and dogs.

“This was a very controversial thing,” said Glenn T. Eskew, a history professor at Georgia State University who has written a book about Birmingham during this period. “There were those who did not believe that schoolchildren should be engaging in civil rights protests. Not only was it dangerous, but they were youth and it was a very confrontational thing.”

The images of children being hosed and intimidated by police dogs renewed a level of outrage at the national level that had been flagging.

“It changed the dynamic of the protest dramatically,” Eskew said. “It encouraged other youth to participate on one hand, and on the other it ratcheted up the pressure on the forces of white supremacy.”

50 years since MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham jail

Only a fraction of students from the black high schools participated. Many were told by their parents not to participate, for fear of losing a job or other retribution.

Thomas didn’t march because her grandfather expressed concerns that he might be fired if someone saw her protesting.

But everyone would be affected by the protests, whether they marched or not.

Days after the marches, the school board announced that all end-of-the-year activities were canceled for the class of 1963. No prom, no graduation, no yearbook.

The stated reason for the cancellations was security concerns; that in such a tense racial atmosphere, a gathering such as a graduation ceremony or prom could become the target of an attack.

Yet many believe that the events were taken away as a punishment for their participation in the marches.

If the authorities were truly concerned about the safety of the black students, they would not have met them with fire hoses and snarling dogs, said Bishop Calvin Woods, director of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

It was Woods, who was a father with children at the schools, who sued to have graduation reinstated.

A court eventually ordered graduation must go on, and it did, though delayed. But prom never happened.

Shirley Holmes Sims had her copper-colored dress ready to go when she left school to participate in the Children’s March. And copper-colored shoes to match.

They would go unworn, and be lost decades later in a tornado.

“We marched down that street and we were singing ‘We Shall Overcome,’” Sims said. “You think back to it today, and it was truly worth it.”

Righting a wrong

Ethel Arms has a line she uses when the topic of high school rites of passage and prom comes up: “We didn’t have a prom because of the civil rights movement.”

It puts the memory of 1963 in perspective and justifies the sacrifice.

Yet it doesn’t change the fact that inside, she has always lamented that she never had that night.

Sure, there were more important things going on in Birmingham at the time, but she was just a teenager and wanted those experiences.

This time, Arms was on the “prom committee” that organized Friday’s event. The small group gathered in a hotel room before the dance, laughing and reminiscing about the prom they never had. There would be no prom king and queen elected this time, but the theme of the dance summed up what the night was all about: “Finally, the Prom We Never Had.”

Sims ironed her purple and gold dress as the women placed corsages on their wrists and waited for the limousines that would take them to the prom.

Amid the celebratory atmosphere, there were moments of reflection, and thoughts of those classmates who had passed away.

In a way, this party was a celebration of what they had endured and survived over the last 50 years, Thomas said.

“As we get older, everything behind us looks greater,” she said.

The prom committee held hands and said a prayer before walking out of the room. This would be their night.

The prom was especially meaningful for Ethel Arms, as she and her high school sweetheart, Eugene, had been negotiating with their parents for permission to attend the prom when it was canceled in 1963. They had been trying to figure out where to find transportation to the dance, and how to earn the money to rent formal wear or buy a dress.

They later married, and when it came time for their children to attend proms, the couple put extra effort into making them special nights.

It wasn’t until Friday night, though, in Birmingham’s Boutwell Auditorium, that Eugene Arms was finally able to take his own sweetheart to the prom.

“It’s really a much more pleasant event because we can afford the attire, we have no problem getting back and forth,” Eugene Arms said.

“It makes you appreciate everything when we were children,” he continued. “The sacrifices people made.”

Eugene Arms had attended rallies during the civil rights movement, but out of deference to his parents, he did not participate in the Children’s March.

The students that did participate in the march faced dogs and water and arrests, he said.

“All we did was give up prom,” he said.

Opinion: Historic milestone for African-American voters in 2012

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/19/living/civil-rights-prom/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/5hW1edMlzgA/high-school-dance-held-50-years-late

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It’s prom season in Birmingham, Alabama, and this year some senior citizens are joining the high school seniors. Here, Earnestine Thomas waits to get her hair done on Friday for her Class of 1963 prom.

When Earnestine Thomas was a teenager, she knew she had to live by a different set of rules than white teens. “As a child, I recognized that it was unfair, but didn’t understand that there were laws propping (segregation) up,” she said. Here, she gets her hair done for the prom.

Today, much has changed in Birmingham and this year, the city is marking the anniversary of its civil rights movement, which affected the entire nation. As part of its “50 Years Forward” celebrations, Birmingham sponsored the prom that was canceled in 1963 for five black high schools in the midst of the city’s civil rights struggle.

Eugene Arms, another member of the Class of 1963, gets his suit ready for Friday night’s prom. Arms said he attended civil rights rallies in Birmingham as a teenager, but not the pivotal Children’s March, when hundreds of children, some as young as 6, left school to march in opposition to segregation. Authorities responded with fire hoses and dogs. “All we did was give up prom,” he said.

Ethel Arms gets dressed for the prom. Eugene and Ethel were high school sweethearts.

Boutwell Auditorium is all decked out and ready for the prom to begin.

Classmates pause for a moment of prayer before the prom.

An ice sculpture greets the participants as they enter.

With her hair done and a new dress, Earnestine Thomas arrives in style. She said she can still picture the dress that she never got to wear in 1963, a long blue and green neon attention-grabber that showed different colors in the light as she moved. “Even though it was a winter dress, I was going to wear it to the prom,” Thomas said. “But in one fell swoop, that was wiped away.”

A photographer captures the special moment.

Eugene and Ethel Arms pose for their prom photo.

Bishop Calvin Woods addresses the attendees.

The prom was a celebration of what the Class of 1963 had endured and survived over the last 50 years. “As we get older, everything behind us looks greater,” Earnestine Thomas said.

Attendees enjoy a feast.

The music included songs by Aretha Franklin, Etta James, The Temptations, just what you would expect at a 1960s prom. But the song that drew the most bodies to the dance floor was “The Wobble,”
a hip-hop number with an accompanying line dance.

Shirley Holmes Sims poses with her prom date.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Birmingham, Alabama (CNN) — The class of 1963 crowded in a rectangle on the dance floor, the memories of high school fresh on their minds as the band played in a sea of pink and blue hues.

Aretha Franklin. Etta James. The Temptations. Just what you would expect to be playing at a 1960s prom. Yet the song that drew the most bodies to the dance floor was “The Wobble.”

Until this hip-hop song emptied the chairs, it felt as if the auditorium had been transported back 50 years.

But it’s 2013, and despite the full-court nostalgia for the 1960s, that decade was one of the most difficult times in Birmingham’s history.

Societal tensions over race were so high in 1963 that the city canceled senior prom for five of the city’s segregated high schools for blacks.

Today, a half century has passed since the seminal civil rights protests that changed Birmingham and plotted a path for the nation away from segregation and toward equal rights.

Just like that path, the healing process has been a long one.

The Historic 1963 Prom, held Friday and hosted by the city of Birmingham, closed one chapter for these Alabamans.

‘A tension-filled city’

Growing up in Birmingham in the 1950s, Earnestine Thomas knew the rules of this segregated city. At a restaurant, she could pay in the front, but had to walk around the back to get her food from a cook. She could shop only in certain places; there were neighborhoods that she knew not to visit.

“As a child, I recognized that it was unfair, but didn’t understand that there were laws propping (segregation) up,” she said as she waited for a hair appointment before Friday’s prom.

More: Segregated prom yields to unity

She treated herself to a hair styling before donning a lavender dress with a sequined jacket and matching shoes. Lavender was a fitting color, she said, not just because it is her favorite, but because it was the school color at Parker High School.

It was a day of celebration that she and her classmates were denied in 1963.

Segregation in Birmingham permeated everything, down to the Bibles that judges used to swear witnesses in — there was one holy book for white witnesses and another for black witnesses.

Yet members of the class of 1963 recall having the same struggles as any other teenagers, then and today — parents’ rules, scrounging enough money for dates, finding reliable transportation.

As often is the case when people witness a historic period, many black high school students in Birmingham in 1963 did not recognize the moment that was upon them.

Years of advocacy by civil rights leaders had successfully chipped away at segregation, and students pushed the boundaries — as much out of teenage rebellion as a sense of justice.

Opinion: For Dr. King, everybody in and nobody out

Commemorating civil rights milestones

Who is Rosa Parks?

Selma marchers take up immigration cause

Son of MLK on Pres. Obama’s inauguration

Cynthia May and her friends were the first ones to board the bus the day that the signs relegating blacks to the back of the bus were removed, around the summer of 1962.

The teens tested the new limits immediately by sitting in the front. But when whites began boarding the bus, they stood, rather than sit behind the black teens. The teens also noticed that white riders refused to sit next to black riders, so instead of sitting two to a seat, they spread out individually to occupy the seats, leaving other passengers no choice but to sit next to them. Again, the white riders chose to stand.

“It was a tension-filled city,” May said.

It was against this backdrop that the seniors at the black high schools began preparing for graduation.

Each May, in Thomas’ neighborhood, the graduating seniors would parade down the street. And in 1963, it would be her turn.

There was also prom, an American rite of passage.

Thomas can still picture her long dress, a blue and green neon attention-grabber that showed different colors in the light as she moved.

A neighbor had bought it for her in December.

“Even though it was a winter dress, I was going to wear it to the prom,” Thomas said. “But in one fell swoop, that was wiped away.”

Civil rights come to Birmingham

There is disagreement over why prom was canceled for those five black high schools in 1963.

The civil rights movement was in full swing that year, but the high school students, to an extent, were kept at a distance from it.

This would change on May 2, 1963, when hundreds of children, some as young as 6, left school to march in Birmingham in opposition to segregation.

CNN Photo Blog: Birmingham’s civil rights crusade

Thousands of arrests were made at the so-called Children’s March, and when the marches persisted for several days, authorities responded with fire hoses and dogs.

“This was a very controversial thing,” said Glenn T. Eskew, a history professor at Georgia State University who has written a book about Birmingham during this period. “There were those who did not believe that schoolchildren should be engaging in civil rights protests. Not only was it dangerous, but they were youth and it was a very confrontational thing.”

The images of children being hosed and intimidated by police dogs renewed a level of outrage at the national level that had been flagging.

“It changed the dynamic of the protest dramatically,” Eskew said. “It encouraged other youth to participate on one hand, and on the other it ratcheted up the pressure on the forces of white supremacy.”

50 years since MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham jail

Only a fraction of students from the black high schools participated. Many were told by their parents not to participate, for fear of losing a job or other retribution.

Thomas didn’t march because her grandfather expressed concerns that he might be fired if someone saw her protesting.

But everyone would be affected by the protests, whether they marched or not.

Days after the marches, the school board announced that all end-of-the-year activities were canceled for the class of 1963. No prom, no graduation, no yearbook.

The stated reason for the cancellations was security concerns; that in such a tense racial atmosphere, a gathering such as a graduation ceremony or prom could become the target of an attack.

Yet many believe that the events were taken away as a punishment for their participation in the marches.

If the authorities were truly concerned about the safety of the black students, they would not have met them with fire hoses and snarling dogs, said Bishop Calvin Woods, director of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

It was Woods, who was a father with children at the schools, who sued to have graduation reinstated.

A court eventually ordered graduation must go on, and it did, though delayed. But prom never happened.

Shirley Holmes Sims had her copper-colored dress ready to go when she left school to participate in the Children’s March. And copper-colored shoes to match.

They would go unworn, and be lost decades later in a tornado.

“We marched down that street and we were singing ‘We Shall Overcome,’” Sims said. “You think back to it today, and it was truly worth it.”

Righting a wrong

Ethel Arms has a line she uses when the topic of high school rites of passage and prom comes up: “We didn’t have a prom because of the civil rights movement.”

It puts the memory of 1963 in perspective and justifies the sacrifice.

Yet it doesn’t change the fact that inside, she has always lamented that she never had that night.

Sure, there were more important things going on in Birmingham at the time, but she was just a teenager and wanted those experiences.

This time, Arms was on the “prom committee” that organized Friday’s event. The small group gathered in a hotel room before the dance, laughing and reminiscing about the prom they never had. There would be no prom king and queen elected this time, but the theme of the dance summed up what the night was all about: “Finally, the Prom We Never Had.”

Sims ironed her purple and gold dress as the women placed corsages on their wrists and waited for the limousines that would take them to the prom.

Amid the celebratory atmosphere, there were moments of reflection, and thoughts of those classmates who had passed away.

In a way, this party was a celebration of what they had endured and survived over the last 50 years, Thomas said.

“As we get older, everything behind us looks greater,” she said.

The prom committee held hands and said a prayer before walking out of the room. This would be their night.

The prom was especially meaningful for Ethel Arms, as she and her high school sweetheart, Eugene, had been negotiating with their parents for permission to attend the prom when it was canceled in 1963. They had been trying to figure out where to find transportation to the dance, and how to earn the money to rent formal wear or buy a dress.

They later married, and when it came time for their children to attend proms, the couple put extra effort into making them special nights.

It wasn’t until Friday night, though, in Birmingham’s Boutwell Auditorium, that Eugene Arms was finally able to take his own sweetheart to the prom.

“It’s really a much more pleasant event because we can afford the attire, we have no problem getting back and forth,” Eugene Arms said.

“It makes you appreciate everything when we were children,” he continued. “The sacrifices people made.”

Eugene Arms had attended rallies during the civil rights movement, but out of deference to his parents, he did not participate in the Children’s March.

The students that did participate in the march faced dogs and water and arrests, he said.

“All we did was give up prom,” he said.

Opinion: Historic milestone for African-American voters in 2012

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/19/living/civil-rights-prom/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/R34ToOGh3R4/high-school-prom-held-50-years-later

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RipleysStuff/~3/Vslk9Mva0Fk/high-school-prom-held-50-years-later

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President Barack Obama delivers the commencement address during a ceremony at Morehouse College on Sunday, May 19, in Atlanta, Georgia. Morehouse is a historically black college that has Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent African-Americans on its list of alumni.

Members of the graduating Class of 2013 stand during the commencement ceremony before Obama speaks.

Obama arrives to deliver the commencement address.

Graduating students listen to Obama as the rain warps their mortarboards.

Obama is capped after receiving the honorary doctor of law degree by John Wilson, president of Morehouse College.

Wilson presents Obama with an honorary degree.

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Atlanta (CNN) — Past, present and future came together on a thunderstorm-filled Sunday, as President Barack Obama received an honorary doctorate and gave the commencement speech at historically black, all-male Morehouse College, where the Rev. Martin Luther King and many other prominent African-Americans spent their formative years.

After opening with several one-liners, and more smiles than we’ve seen from him in the damage-control-filled recent weeks, Obama delivered a serious message to the class of 2013.

During a speech rife with both personal and historical references, the president invoked a past full of challenges, often resulting from racism, but noted that African-Americans need to break free from that past to succeed in a globally competitive economy.

Hear Obama inspire graduates

“I understand that there’s a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse: ‘Excuses are tools of the incompetent, used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness,’” Obama said.

“We’ve got no time for excuses — not because the bitter legacies of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely; they have not. Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; we know those are still out there. It’s just that in today’s hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil — many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did — all of them entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything that you have not earned,” he said.

Opinion: What Obama must say to African-American grads

“Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you’ve gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured — and they overcame them. And if they overcame them, you can overcome them, too,” he said.

Morehouse valedictorian Betsegaw Tadele praised Obama for setting a strong example.

“There is no impossible. There is no unbelievable. There is no unachievable, if you have the audacity to hope,” Tadele said, paraphrasing the name of the president’s 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

Following Tadele — whom Obama jokingly called “a skinny guy with a funny name” — Obama reflected on how being an African-American has affected his personal journey.

“Whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I’ve held, have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy, the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who need it most; people who didn’t have the opportunities that I had — because there, but for the grace of God, go I. I might have been in their shoes. I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family. And that motivates me,” the president said.

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The president’s repeated mention of connection to the black community comes after blunt criticism from Morehouse alumnus Kevin Johnson, a pastor from Philadelphia, who criticized Obama in an April 14 editorial in the Philadelphia Tribune, calling him “a president for everyone, except black people.”

Johnson gave a baccalaureate sermon on Saturday as part of Morehouse’s graduation weekend.

The president’s speech on Sunday was well-received, though the crowd had to brave some thunder and lightning and endure pouring rain.

One awkward silence came when Obama slightly deviated from his prepared remarks. He was expected to say, “Be the best husband to your wife, or boyfriend to your partner.” However, instead, he said “Be the best husband to your wife, or your boyfriend, or your partner,” eliciting some clearly confused responses from the crowd.

Later, he noted that Morehouse men can set examples for other groups that have been subjected to discrimination: Hispanics, gays and lesbians, Muslims, and women.

“It is not just the African-American community that needs you. The country needs you. The world needs you. As Morehouse men, many of you know what it’s like to be an outsider; know what it’s like to be marginalized; know what it’s like to feel the sting of discrimination. And that’s an experience that a lot of Americans share,” he said.

Obama said his job, as president, is to advocate for policies that generate more opportunity for everyone, and he implored the Morehouse grads — and all Americans — to “advocate for an America where everyone has a fair shot in life.”

“There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves. There are some things, as Morehouse men, that you are obliged to do for those still left behind. As graduates — as Morehouse men — you now wield something even more powerful than the diploma you are about to collect. And that’s the power of your example,” he said.

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Obama finished his speech with another message not just to the newly minted Morehouse grads, but to all Americans — a message based on Martin Luther King’s refusal to be afraid.

“That’s what being an American is all about. Success may not come quickly or easily. But if you strive to do what’s right; if you work harder and dream bigger; if you set an example in your own lives and do your part to help meet the challenges of our times, then I am confident that, together, we will continue the never-ending task of perfecting our union,” he said.

And despite lots of big-picture talk about success and giving back, Obama made it clear that without appropriate focus on those closest to you, big-picture accomplishments mean little.

“Everything else is unfulfilled if we fail at family — if we fail at that responsibility. I know that when I am on my deathbed someday, I will not be thinking about any particular legislation I passed. I will not be thinking about a policy I promoted. I will not be thinking about the speech I gave. I will not be speaking about the Nobel Prize I received. I will be thinking about that walk I took with my daughters. I’ll be thinking about a lazy afternoon with my wife. I’ll be thinking about sitting around the dinner table, and seeing them happy and healthy and knowing they were loved. And I’ll be thinking about whether I did right by all of them.”

CNN’s Tom Dunlavey contributed to this report

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/19/politics/obama-morehouse-commencement/index.html?eref=edition

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