Thursday, August 01, 2013

"my presence is charity...,"



counterpunch | Veteran civil rights activist and world-renowned entertainer Harry Belafonte hit a raw nerve last year when he suggested Black artists be more outspoken about their besieged communities.

“I think one of the great abuses of this modern time,” he observed, “is that we have such high-profile artists and powerful celebrities, but they have turned their back on social responsibility. That goes for Jay Z and Beyoncé, for example.”

Even though Belafonte continuously emphasizes his remarks were not intended to be personal and that he earnestly desires a private, fraternal conversation not a public dispute, Jay Z clearly took it all very personal, criticizing Belafonte in the media and on the title track of his new album, “Magna Carta…Holy Grail.”

Jay Z also responded by elaborating his own alternative version of “social responsibility.”

He told the press that “I’m offended…and this is going to sound arrogant, but my presence is charity. Just who I am. Just like Obama. Obama provides hope. Whether he does anything, the hope that he provides for a nation and outside of America is enough.”

On this point, I beg to differ. Preaching hope is not enough to solve our problems, not by a long shot. Neither do charitable donations even comes close to fulfilling basic social needs.

Leaving aside self-serving tax benefits, mostly accruing to the wealthiest donors who itemize a myriad of exemptions, individual handouts, no matter how well-intentioned and admirable, cannot solve deeply rooted problems of our day.

Plus, with a July 28, 2013 AP wire service report indicating four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, there is absolutely no justification for government to abandon its social contract with the people.

It would be yet another bad example of outsourcing state duties to the profit sector. Fist tap DD.

16 comments:

Constructive_Feedback said...

[quote]On this point, I beg to differ. Preaching hope is not enough to solve our problems, not by a long shot. Neither do charitable donations even comes close to fulfilling basic social needs.[/quote]


Taking the above comment into the DARK MATTER ANALYSIS domain.................................


WHAT IF their interactions with the AMERICANIZED BLACK CONGREGATION via time spent, speeches and donations were done as "little deposits of THEMSELVES" for the collection of the NEGROES VALUABLES that they tender IN RETURN, and OVER TIME - thus permitting them to look past their SQUANDERED DEVELOPMENT but remain content on INVESTING THEIR VALUABLES IN HOPE?




Do you see, Brother CNu, without MANAGED BLACK COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY the ONLY THING one needs to do is:


1) KEEP THE AMERICANIZED NEGRO HAPPY BY CONNECTING TO HIS PRESENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD
2) KEEP THE AMERICANIZED NEGRO FOCUSED ON BEING OFFENDED BY HIS ENEMY


This is the reason why - of the 3 Professional Conferences that I attended this year on WebRTC Communications, Cloud Infrastructure And Professional Business Strategy Consulting there were more BROWN SKINNED INDIANS/PAKISTANIS there than Black Americans.


If the wolf and the fox's secret goal is to KEEP THE NEGRO DISTRACTED, employing a few embedded confidence man Negroes to provide cover - THEN HIS PLAN IS WORKING FABULOUSLY.

CNu said...

without MANAGED BLACK COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY the ONLY THING one needs


Without the focused intervention of a black elite working toward specific, measurable black partisan aims, there are no black community institutions to speak of. The black elite no more identify with the tail-end of the bell curve hood denizens than chalk identifies with cheese. Consequently, it doesn't matter what either ethnic nationalist conservatives or cheshire fox progressives do to the emotionally reactive lumpen who represent nothing more than low-hanging fruit votes.

Count weevil said...

"Just like Obama." Right, Jay. Possibly the clearest mapping of the harsh border between "street knowledge" and everything else. Cuz like yeah, being Jay Z is just like being the US president. This is the logic of "pimps in fancy cars were my role model" misapplied in extreme generalization. Too late for Jay. Plus his album was lazy.

CNu said...

lol&smdh@album was lazy..., but you gotta give it to him for his distribution model and at the end of the day, isn't that what the most profitable aspect of street knowledge boils down to?

Constructive_Feedback said...

When you see the show "Scandal" and how Black Women see it as a combination of:


* A woman's struggle to balance her love life, career and POWER
* A vessel for them to project their own desires for POWER AND INFLUENCE at the highest rungs of the nation.....


It seems obvious to me that people who are inclined to attend a 'Scandal Viewing Party' are NOT going to have the consciousness of mind to PROTEST THE FOREIGN ACTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT because such a move on their part would disrupt the fantasy that they have accepted about a favorable president in real life.


WE ARE LIVING IN A PROPAGANDA AGE.
Not that propaganda is new. The media and powerful information tools are able send refined and targeted messages, compelling people to do what they prescribe.


Jay-Z is a product of the fraudulent culture, society and political realm we presently live in.


( I sat in a presentation yesterday detailing how Big Data will be coupled with a federated database that promiscuously captures your WIFI radio ID. When you walk into a store with your phone on they will know who you are and can provide targeted services to you. Or at least this is the CANDY that they are dangling as they forge yet another hook into your ability to retain your anonymity. )

count weevil said...

Doooood the Samsung data slurp??? Though it reminded me of those anonymous African chiefs who sold their subjects to slavers, this was absolutely *brilliant* capitalism. "Let me hook these boys up with personal data in exchange for something people are going to get for free anyway ... meanwhile I'll make the RIAA change it's system for the next go round." Pretty close to a Steve Jobs level judo move. I have nothing but fascination for Jay's hustle.


But when he looks up from his "grind" and attempts to engage stuff like history and ancestral imperatives he shows a core of deep immaturity.

Ed Dunn said...

This wifi-tracking was already done earlier this year by two major retailers. In fact, we are hearing unverified reports the wifi tracking data may have been used to identify the Boston bombers who were in vicinity of the Nordstrom store.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/05/09/how-nordstrom-and-home-depot-use-wifi-to-spy-on-shoppers/

CNu said...

I work very closely with a multinational company that periodically leases a global database of the streetview equivalent of private wi-fi networks and this muhhuggah is sufficient to take you directly to the person who stole your iPad/iPod/iPhone/Android/MacBook/Windows XP/7/8 device within a foot or two of where they stand.


The fact that their technology is hardware persistent and can't be rooted/overwritten or otherwise subverted makes it just ever so much sweeter than just about any other security technology I've ever gone to the trouble of obtaining high-level certifications in...,

Constructive_Feedback said...

Brother Ed:


Imagine if every single gas station, convenience store and local government video camera's content was NETWORKED together?


Imagine if all of the local "Wi-Fi hotspots" reported the MAC addresses of all of the mobile radios that came into its presence.


I am not discounting your report on the retailers. I am only EXPONENTIALLY EXPANDING your vision to include a nefarious force that wants to control you AND who has the power to shut down your access to the financial resources that you own.


All of this is par for the course of the society that we are living in.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE - is to be aware of all of the tracking that this "Big Data" / "Analytics" offers up as I play defensively to protect my privacy.


We are screwed as a society and will one day have to retreat from the trajectory that we have adopted.

Constructive_Feedback said...

The presentation that I sat through sold the "Benefits" of this promiscuous MAC address collection based on offering "Concierge Service" .

They don't talk about how this same technology and interconnecedness can be used to "Cut A Ninja Off!!!" if the "Matrix" so chooses to do so.

Ed Dunn said...

This was already possible for years. Which made me confused why some guy named Eric Snowden acted like he had something to tell the world and now facing lifetime membership to club SuperMax when the private sector has more nefarious technology already in place, without any government intervention...

CNu said...

1. Pan-optic video surveillance systems are not tied together, though the data gathering is certainly taking place.


2. Wi-Fi networks have been and are being continuously mapped, but not gathering all that detailed device information and or sharing it with anyone at this juncture.


At this time, you or the carrier has to load apps that do this dirty work on your mobile device. The nefarious piece comes in when it's no longer possible to root a device. Samsung, for example, has entered into an arrangement to outfit all of its products with hardware persistent "services" which even after you root the device, is capable of locating and bricking you device, no matter where it connects and calls in from, and, is capable of surreptitiously reloading apps that do all kinds of nasty business in your business. Lenovo also has this hardware persistence built into all its devices.



So, in order to be safe and private going forward, you need to drive a pre-PC automobile and you need to stay strictly away from certain manufacturers wildly popular products.

CNu said...

Um..., why characterize the intensively eusocial GATTACA mode of your species unconscious collective operations as "screwed"?

Constructive_Feedback said...

I am going to get one of those new Ubuntu Edge devices (Mobile Linux)

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/02/ubuntu-edge-crowdfunding-prediction-miss

Right now My #1 point of research is a mobile personal WiFi hotspot with CHANGEABLE MAC ADDRESSES!!!!

* If you use your cellular radio - they know who you are and were you are.

* If you use the "out of the box" WiFi radio on the average Smartphone - they can aggregate info based on your WiFi MAC

* The only way to anonymize yourself as you use wireless devices is to do WiFi data with a MAC that you can modify into a random sequence. (Clear all cookies off the device after each session)

CNu said...

T-Mobile better kick in a bit more than moral support if this is gonna happen http://www.zdnet.com/t-mobile-backs-ubuntu-smartphone-7000018916/

Right now, it's not looking very promising. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge

BigDonOne said...

http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-asks-public-schools-to-ingore-bad-behavoir-by-black-students

Master Arbitrageur Nancy Pelosi Is At It Again....,

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