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I'm midway through this book, so we can start this discussion on January 15 - if that works for folks who chose to read this one after they read Small Island. If others want to go ahead and start because they've read this book already, then please feel free to do so, and I'll join you all in progress. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
I've read this book...I'd like to be "in" on the discussion. I'll have to see if our library has "Small Island"
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
Dis one miss mi. That's because mi mostly read while catching a breeze outside an it's been to chilly to catch breeze and thus to read. So I only manage Small Island.
Looking forward to reading what unu ago write an maybe read it later.Comment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
"African Americans, perhaps still placated by the fool's gold of integration as an endgame achievement, seem not to have noticed our worsening condition with any alarm. At some point beyond the peak civil rights movement, we lost our bearings, as if sleepwalking. When we thought about it all, we reckoned that we were forward of where we had been before. But if we had progresed, it hadn't been by much. Our longtitude had changed but our lattitude was virtually the same. If the new social terrain looked unfamiliar, it was only because we had drifted sideways, if not backward as well."Comment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
doesn't he make u stop an think? the writing is insightful indeed...especially as we go into MLK's month...because wen it is all said an done, that is wat the month has become...the most palatable subject matter that they want to constantly regurgitate...another example of allowing others to choose which pawt of our history we want to hold up ...an this goes on while the unit that is Black people, continues to fail...the UNITComment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
i'm just past halfway through this book. when i finished the part where he criticized Mandela and the ANC - it took my breath away, i had to put it down and think about it.
i'm in the Haiti section now. it's a great book, i'm glad i'm reading it and look forward to more in depth discussion.Comment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mountaingal</div><div class="ubbcode-body">i'm just past halfway through this book. when i finished the part where he criticized Mandela and the ANC - it took my breath away, i had to put it down and think about it.
i'm in the Haiti section now. it's a great book, i'm glad i'm reading it and look forward to more in depth discussion.
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an it is not that he has to be right in wat he criticises, but the fact that he questions and in turn has u thinkingComment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
I'm feverishly re-reading so I can join the discussion.
Mr. Robinson reminds me of my father in the fact that he grew up poor in the south and has had many of the same early experiences with racism that have permanently scarred him and left him "regarding white people, before knowing them individually, with irreducible mistrust and dull dislike."
Also, he breaks down US foreign policy for those of us that don't know much about the details and makes it clear that the US does things to benefit the wealthy here and not for any altruistic reasons...
...eye opening...more later...Comment
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Re: Defending the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
I just picked it up this morning [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70361-embarassed.gif[/img]....Comment
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Re: Defending the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
cools, you can join us in progress. it's an easier read than Small Island (well, if you don't count speedreading, lol!).Comment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mountaingal</div><div class="ubbcode-body">i'm just past halfway through this book. when i finished the part where he criticized Mandela and the ANC - it took my breath away, i had to put it down and think about it.
i'm in the Haiti section now. it's a great book, i'm glad i'm reading it and look forward to more in depth discussion.
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to say that he criticised Mandela is a bit misleading...i prefer that he recounted his disappointing experience with Mandela's behaviour towards the black Americans who had helped him to achieve his freedom....the further behaviour of the ANC towards all other freedom fighters wasn't shocking to me...afta all, it is one of them who refuses to acknowledge the real tragedy of AIDS in South AfricaComment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
[img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70402-thinking.gif[/img]Comment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
to say that he criticised Mandela is a bit misleading...i prefer that he recounted his disappointing experience with Mandela's behaviour </div></div>
but vannie, isn't that criticism by another name? [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img] part of me is glad to see that Mandela has a bit of clay feet, because, like many people, i tend to get suspicious of those who have been as canonized as Mandela is. i like my heroes to have some flaws.
which is not to say I excuse Mandela's behaviour - if in fact it happened the way Robinson outlines. I don't have the book at work here with me, but what I remember of what Robinson writes rings true in my little experience of community politics and advocacy. You try to hitch your wagon to the people you think will take you furthest. In one sense, it was to be expected that the ANC would disregard the black Americans who worked hard to break down apartheid in South Africa, because as Robinson himself says, black Americans remain decidedly disregarded by the power structure in their own country. The influence of public opinion can be so fleeting, and advocacy successes can easily slip out of sight and out of mind when some new issue takes effect.
i've finished the book, and confess that it left me feeling a bit blue. I'm trying to rally my thoughts about it, but it's taking me a little time. Randall Robinson is a poetic writer, and I love the passion and anger that comes out of the book, but I am also a little discouraged by the faint hope it ends on about African American political power.Comment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
<span style="color: #3333FF">Still working on this, back soon. I was already saddened by page 4, I think, though, when he spoke of Mark Green. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif[/img]</span>Comment
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Re: Defining the Spirit by Randall Robinson discussion
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mountaingal</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
to say that he criticised Mandela is a bit misleading...i prefer that he recounted his disappointing experience with Mandela's behaviour </div></div>
but vannie, isn't that criticism by another name? [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img] part of me is glad to see that Mandela has a bit of clay feet, because, like many people, i tend to get suspicious of those who have been as canonized as Mandela is. i like my heroes to have some flaws.
which is not to say I excuse Mandela's behaviour - if in fact it happened the way Robinson outlines. I don't have the book at work here with me, but what I remember of what Robinson writes rings true in my little experience of community politics and advocacy. You try to hitch your wagon to the people you think will take you furthest. In one sense, it was to be expected that the ANC would disregard the black Americans who worked hard to break down apartheid in South Africa, because as Robinson himself says, black Americans remain decidedly disregarded by the power structure in their own country. The influence of public opinion can be so fleeting, and advocacy successes can easily slip out of sight and out of mind when some new issue takes effect.
i've finished the book, and confess that it left me feeling a bit blue. I'm trying to rally my thoughts about it, but it's taking me a little time. Randall Robinson is a poetic writer, and I love the passion and anger that comes out of the book, but I am also a little discouraged by the faint hope it ends on about African American political power.
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ANC official released from prison
Former ANC parliamentary whip Tony Yengeni has been freed from prison in South Africa after serving just five months of a four-year fraud conviction. Dozens of local ANC officials welcomed him as he left the jail near Cape Town. As part of his parole, he will remain under virtual house arrest.
His sentence was cut on appeal and further reduced by a general amnesty.
He resigned after it emerged he received a big discount on a luxury car as part of a controversial arms deal.
"It's a great day for me and my family and for the movement, in that I'm now walking out of the gates of the prison, a place I was not supposed to be in the first place," Yengeni said as he left prison.
But some have criticised his early release.
"The Department of Correctional Service and the ANC have made a complete mockery of his prison term," said opposition Inkatha Freedom Party spokeswoman Sybil Seaton.
"Every rule in the book has been changed or bent, it seems, to accommodate Mr Yengeni."
The BBC's Mohammed Allie in Cape Town says an animal is to be sacrificed as part of a cleansing ceremony at his parents' house in the Cape Town suburb of Guguletho.
Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and parliamentary speaker Baleka Kgotsile were among a large crowd of party officials who accompanied him to Pollsmoor Prison last August.
Our correspondent says Yengeni will need permission from the minister of correctional services if he wants to leave his house and will have to perform 16 hours of community service a week for a year.
The flamboyant Yengeni, known for wearing designer suits, is banned from holding public office for five years, but serves on the ANC's ruling body.
He is also banned from consuming alcohol and hosting parties.
He was convicted in 2003 after it was found he had received a large discount on the purchase of a Mercedes four-wheel drive vehicle, from a firm bidding for an arms contract.
He then initially lied to parliament about receiving this benefit.
Yengeni was convicted over the same arms deal, for which former Deputy President Jacob Zuma was last year put on trial for corruption.
The trial was stopped but the prosecution said new charges could be laid at a later date.
dis is why u have rampant AIDS widdout medication and why Oprah had to build har schoolComment
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