Minister Faust's Blog, page 12

MARTIN BERNAL ON BLACK ATHENA, THE AFROASIATIC ROOTS OF GREEK CIVILISATION (MF GALAXY 051)

Ground-breaking Egyptologist on Cheikh Anta Diop, connecting Senegal to Ancient Egypt, Plato as the student of African-Egyptian ideology, and the link between philosophy and mummification
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Across the world, modern peoples look towards the great civilisations of antiquity of their continent for answers about who they are now, and from what greatness they have arisen. East Asians gaze toward China; indigenous Americans recall the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca; Europeans remember Greece and Rome... and Africans remember Nubia and Egypt.
Yet despite the obvious Africanity of Egypt, for more than two hundred years, Europe has taught an imperial racist mythology that erased who the Egyptians truly were, and thanks to Hollywood, has pinkwashed them into Europeans, a depiction never created by any ancient Egyptian painter or sculptor.
To re-establish Egypt, or Kemet, literally, the Black Land, as an African society and civilisation populated and led by racial Africans is a complex task, due to the crushing weight of more than two centuries of racial brainwashing. Doing so requires a multidisciplinary approach engaging Archeo-Linguistics, Philosophy, Comparative Religion, Physical and Cultural Anthropology, and blood-type analysis, to name only a few.
Few scholars were better suited to such labour than the late Dr. Martin Bernal, author of the monumental series Black Athena: The Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilisation.
A maverick academic and historical investigator, Dr. Bernal employed thousands of modern and ancient documents, and addressed innumerable cultural, philosophical, scholarly, and scientific issues in order to re-establish what the Greeks and other ancient Europeans said: that the Egyptians were dark-skinned Africans whose vast genius formed the basis of Greek religion, philosophy, art, architecture, mathematics, science, and civilisation.
Bernal was a professor of Government at Cornell University. His career began in Chinese studies, but grew into the tradition of groundbreaking African scholars such as George G.M. James, St. Clair Drake, and Cheikh Anta Diop. While Bernal is primarily interested in understanding Greece so as to understand Europe, his work in clarifying the Egyptian influence on Greece has required him to establish Egypt’s Africanity.
I had the privilege of interviewing Martin Bernal in person way back in November 2000 in Edmonton, when he spoke at Edmonton Public Library Stanley Milner Branch. He was the guest of the Living History Project of which I was a member, a committee of the Council of Canadians of African & Caribbean Heritage. He die on June 9, 2013. He was a delightful man, and a brilliant scholar. I’ll always be grateful for his time.


In this edition of MF GALAXY, Martin Bernal discusses:
Why the ground-breaking Senegalese Egyptologist Cheikh Anta Diop, author of The African Origin of Civilisation, didn’t receive more credit in Black AthenaHis surprising turn-around on Diop’s linguistic analysis connecting Senegal to Ancient EgyptHow Ancient Egyptian language connects with southern African Bantu languages, and West African languages such as HausaThe preservation by Freemasonry of knowledge connecting Greece as a student to Egypt as a masterPlato as the student of African-Egyptian ideologyHis reactions to claims that Ancient Egyptians were incapable of developing philosophy, and the claim that philosophy and rational thought are exclusively Greek inventions, andHis bold assertion of the link between philosophy and mummification


To hear the 90-minute-long patrons-only BONUS CONTENT EDITION of my conversation with Martin Bernal, visit mfgalaxy.org to click on the Patreon link to become a sponsor for a dollar or more per week.
By funding MF GALAXY, you get access to all extended editions of the show, plus video excerpts from selected interviews as they become available. This extended edition includes Martin Bernal discussing:

His responses to the anti-Afrocentric work of Mary Lefkowitz, author of Not Out of AfricaThe reasons why Eurocentric scholars faked data through infamous hoaxes as the Piltdown Man fossilThe degree to which the Eurocentric academic establishment in the US accepts the Africanity of Ancient Egyptian people and civilisationThe continuing blight of Eurocentric racism on US cultureThe Eurocentric Aryanisation of ChristianityThe European cult of Black Madonnas, and the backlash one student faced for wanting to study themThe anti-African nature of Stargate and Erik Von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods, andThe Eurocentric fantasy of Classical Zimbabwe being the product of Phoenicians
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BLACK SPARK, WHITE FIRE – DID AFRICAN EXPLORERS CIVILISE ANCIENT EUROPE? (MF GALAXY 050)

White conservative author Richard Poe explores the racially African reality of Ancient Egypt and the reasons the academic and publishing world want people like him to shut up   The next time you feel like starting a blood feud, go to a Classics lecture on any American campus or to any American publishing house and say the following: “Egypt was a racially African civilisation. And it conquered and civilised Greece.”
As amply demonstrated by the growth industry in anti-Afrocentric publishing, North America’s racially-poisoned debates about nearly everything have made the discussion of the racial identity of a people from six thousand years ago almost as vicious as the fight in Syria right now.
Why the controversy? Because of what Martin Bernal, author of Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilisation, described as the contest between the Ancient Model and the Aryan model of ancient Greece and Egypt. The ancient Greeks made it clear that Egypt was their instructor and inspiration for nearly all the aspects of their civilisation; Europe believed this ancient testimony up until the age of imperialism. At that point it became morally and intellectually unfeasible to consider that those who were becoming the victims of the European Holocaust against Africa and the growing White world supremacy could be the grandfathers of European civilisation itself. The racism necessary to justify that conquest was never defeated, not even after the Nazis were, who were inspired by the same racist historical revisionism.
Enter Richard Poe , author of the controversial Black Spark, White Fire: Did African Explorers Civilise Ancient Europe? , a book whose trials of publication are almost as stunning as its revelations about the ancient world.
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So, Poe must be an angry African writer with an Afrocentric spear to sharpen, right? The kind who wants nothing more than to smear and destroy the European canon? Hardly. Poe is an award-winning, pro-gun, pro-capitalism, right-wing American journalist, part Russian-Jewish, part Mexican, and best-selling author. So any notion that Poe is pandering to Black radicalism couldn’t be further from the truth. So is the idea that Poe cynically wrote the book to cash in on the Afrocentric movement.
In fact, Poe had a hell of a fight to get his book in print. White editors and publishers he approached either didn’t want a White writer to write the book, or didn’t want the book written at all. Some were upset of baffled by the notion of a African Egypt; one made bizarre reference to her fear that her mother might be mugged by Black criminals--as if this were relevant to an ancient civilisation thousands of kilometres away.
Some academics didn’t want to touch the issue--as Poe makes clear, established academics are sometimes professionally and personally vicious enough to young mavericks to destroy their careers; perhaps only a journalist, argues Poe, has the freedom to write such a book.
Some freedom--Poe ended up forking over $30,000 US of his own money to get the book researched, including the creation of artwork to display the forensic reconstruction of the face of an ancient Egyptian skull. And perhaps if famed Afrocentrist* professor, Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, head of Temple University’s African Studies Department, hadn’t written the introduction to this book, few Africans in the US might have taken the book seriously.
Neither White liberal nor Black radical, Poe is also unlike many Afrocentric Egyptologists in that he doesn’t regard the Greeks as mere historical plagiarists of greater, more ancient Egyptian genius. He is concerned neither with racial solidarity nor a political-academic agenda--his sole concern seems to be the truth, hence his sacrifices.
Highly accessible and jargon-free, Richard Poe’s Black Spark, White Fire is a dazzling voyage through the genealogy of human civilisation with forays into race, mysticism, science, philosophy, culture, and technology that one needn’t be a specialist or a classicist in order to follow.
I went far below the pharaoh’s chamber in the Grand Lodge of Imhotep archives for today’s conversation. Richard Poe spoke with me by telephone way back in April, 2000. He discussed:
His reactions to the attacks against Afrocentric historiography by people such as Mary Lefkowitz, author of Not Out of AfricaThe relevance of the classic text Stolen Legacy by George G.M. James, andWhy there’s a pyramid on Greek soil, whom the ancient Greeks say is responsible for building it, and why most of us have never heard of it.
We began by discussing the eternal relevance of history.
*Molefi Kete Asante is the author of the classic book Afrocentricity. Many who identify with his work and ideology are called Afrocentrists. Critics of their inquiry mislabel the movement as Afrocentrism. Any use in this blog entry of the prefix “Afro-” refers to Asante’s work or his movement. I use the term “Africentric” simply to mean “centered on Africa and from an African perspective.
To hear the hour-long, patrons-only extended edition of my conversation with Richard Poe, visit mfgalaxy.org to click on the Patreon link to become a sponsor for a dollar or more per week.
By funding MF GALAXY, you get access to all extended editions of the show, plus video excerpts from selected interviews as they become available. This extended edition includes Richard Poe discussing:
The Egyptian pharaohs named Senwosret who had a huge impact on Ancient EuropeThe African colonists of Egyptian descent who settled around the Black Sea in ancient timesHis take on the work of Martin Bernal, author of Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical CivilisationA forensic reconstruction of a high-ranking Ancient Egyptian named Natsef-Amun that casts light on his raceThe extreme and often emotional resistance of Eurocentric academics to acknowledging the Africanity of Ancient Egypt’s populationThe Afroasiatic language family that includes Ancient Egyptian, Ethiopian languages, and Hebrew and ArabicThe extensive cultural similarities between Ancient Egypt and other African civilisationsThe publicity freeze-out against Black Spark, White Fire, andThe reaction of the Oprah Book Club against the book
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HOW TO BREAK INTO COMICS AS AN ARTIST (MF GALAXY 049)

Top Cow President, Tumble Creek Publisher, Midnight Tiger creator, and the MadTwiins Davis Brothers talk breaking in and staying in comics <![endif]-->
While comic books pay creators nowhere near what most professionals get in movies, television, or video games, countless comic books fans yearn to be creators and spend years honing their skills, creating characters and stories, and sometimes even publishing entire works online or in print.

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For a determined, highly-skilled, and lucky few, the result is getting hired by the major publishers or long-term success as an independent backed by crowdfunding, great sales, or both.To stay determined and rack up skills, one needs a strategy, and that’s where our guests come in, who comment on how to do the job, and how to get the job.
Matt Hawkins, president and chief operating officer at Top Cow productions, discusses:The must-own books on how to create comics artHow to take feedbackThe need to go to conventionsWhy you need to have an online portfolioHow not to talk about colleaguesHow to improve your art skillsThe personal demands of the jobThe etiquette for contacting editors, andThe art of the pitchDani Dixon, a creator and publisher at Tumble Creek Press, discusses:The importance of listening to editorial restrictions when submitting your workThe risk of keeping not-safe-for-work content in your online portfolio, andThe need to pick a social media platform that represents your professional interests the bestRay Anthony Height, creator of Midnight Tiger, discusses:What it takes to stay in the businessThe need to continue learningThe paramount significance of deadlines, andThe three things you need to know to succeed in comicsMark and Mike Davis, also known as the MadTwiinz, are the creators of Blokhedz, a four-issue indie comic limited series from 2004 and its 2009 companion webisode series that includes voicing by Talib Kweli and Dorian Harewood. They’ve gone on to freelance for Sony, Fox, and Disney, and have worked on The Boondocks, Black Dynamite, and GI Joe. They discuss how they co-created Blokhedz. 

All of this episode’s guests spoke on a panel at Eagle Con in May, 2015 at California State University at Los Angeles, except for the Davis Brothers, who spoke with me at San Diego Comic Con in July 2004. 

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CHUCK D ON FEMALE HIP HOP PRODUCERS, REPARATIONS, THE WIRE, MALCOLM X, AND GURU (MF GALAXY 048)

Legendary PE front discusses “hip hop is dead,” racism in Canada, and why PE let Arrested Development make the Malcolm X  movie theme song  
Chuck D. is the leader of Public Enemy, one of the contemporary music’s most influential acts, and creator of two of hip hop’s most powerful albums: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back from 1988, and Fear of a Black Planet from 1990.
Born in 1960 in Long Island, New York, Chuck D. attended Adelphi University where he contributed poster artwork to the growing hip hop scene, and where he hosted a hip hop radio show on WBAU.
Forming Public Enemy with collaborators Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, DJ Terminator X, and the martial artists the Security of the First World, Chuck D. led a bold new aesthetic into hip hop, combining the look and messages of the Black Panther Partyand the Nation of Islam.
The group enjoyed enormous success and weathered enormous controversy, creating classic anthems such as 1989’s “Fight the Power” and 2004’s “Son of a Bush.” Chuck D. became a pioneer of digital music distribution, launching SlamJamz and HipHopGods to help artists free themselves from corporate control, bad contracts, and terrible pay.
Just as Public Enemy has toured widely and performed thousands of concerts, Chuck D. lectures widely at universities around the world. He was also a guest on my CJSR FM Edmonton radio show The Terrordome in 1999 and in 2005. The last time Public Enemy came to the Big E was 2010, and that’s when I caught up with Chuck D, at the Edmonton Event Centre, which was the exact place I’d met to interview him in 1999. He discussed:

Female music producers in hip hop His reactions to the frantic cliché “hip hop is dead”His thoughts on the arrest of African-American one-percenter Henry Louis “Skip” Gates who was also the head of African American studies at Harvard, and the degrading content of Gates’s series The Wonders of the African WorldHis perspective on reparationsfor the descendants of the prisoners of the centuries-long, continent-wide American rape gulagHis reactions to the HBO series The Wire and to the comments of one Wire writer who claimed that middle-class African-Americans face no racist barriers to their quality of life or advancementHis thoughts on the education of African children and teens and US President Barack ObamaThe differences between Canadians and AmericansHis comments about his wife and daughters and thoughts on the problems facing teensThe personal and political reasons why Public Enemy let Arrested Development create the anthem for Spike Lee’s 1992 feature Malcolm X, instead of doing it themselvesWhether PE will eventually make a Malcolm X tribute song, and why Malcolm X would not have existed without MontrealOne of Chuck D.’s favourites writers and favourite books, andHis thoughts on the then-recent death of Gang Starr’s legendary MC GuruWe began by discussing how his then-new music portals She Movement and Hip Hop Gods innovated upon the work he began with SlamJamz.
Public Enemy’s latest album is Man Plans, God Laughs.
PublicEnemy.comSheMovement.com HipHopGods.rapstation.com
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To hear the ONE HOUR LONG patrons-only extended edition of my conversation with Chuck D. of Public Enemy, visit mfgalaxy.org to click on the Patreon link to become a sponsor for a dollar or more per week.
By funding MF GALAXY, you get access to all extended editions of the show, plus video excerpts from selected interviews as they become available. This extended edition includes a further interview with Chuck D. and with the legendary Public Enemy S1W Pop Diesel.
Chuck D discusses:

Whether Public Enemy’s pan-Africanism includes working with continental African musiciansHow US President Barack Obama functioned as a weapon of mass distractionThe challenges and rewards of Paris’s unprecedented artistic collaboration with Public Enemy on the 2006 album Rebirth of a NationProfessor Griff’s phenomenal production work on PE singles “Son of a Bush” and “Revolution”Chuck D.’s perspective on his leadership in digital distribution and his rationale for the “micro-niching” of SheMovement.com and HipHopGods.rapstation.com, andHis thoughts on his friend Bono editing the “Africa” issue of The Globe & Mail and racism in Canada
S1W Pop Diesel discusses:The history of the S1Ws and their origins with the Fruit of Islam, the security force of the Nation of Islam, and the organization called Unity Force, and the leadership of the S1Ws under Professor GriffHis own martial arts relationship with GriffPop Diesel’s non-PE career in his company First World Security, and how their force provides safety in dangerous areas of Baltimore and other areas without its staff being armedHis thoughts on whether the Baltimore-set TV series The Wire is excellent, or exploitativeHis most profound experiences during his more than two-decade career with Public EnemyHis cultural experience of learning and mastering martial arts before the era of UFC, andHis own strategy for a healthy mind and body

DR. GANZ FERRANCE ON THE VULNERABILITIES AND STRENGTHS OF AFRICAN-CANADIAN FAMILIES (MF GALAXY 047)

Dr. Ganz Ferrance is a psychologistspecialising in human potential, and family and marriage therapy.


Over my decades of radio broadcasting and now podcasting, I’ve spoken with scores of people about the structural and systemic barriers to the freedom, prosperity, and happiness of Africans and other groups.
On this episode of MF GALAXY we’ll hear about another set of barriers, which, while being influenced by the structural and the systemic, are a distinct problem unto themselves. They’re also usually more difficult to perceive and define. I’m talking about psychological barriers inside the human community generally and African-Canadian communities specifically, barriers which have been passed intergenerationallyand are the legacy of the horrors of colonialism across the African continent, and of the continent-wide rape-gulag in the US and in the Caribbean.
Ganz Ferrance is ideally suited to discuss these intergenerational barriers to our individual and collective health and success, and the means to overcome them. He’s been teaching mind-body health for over two decades in Canada and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology from Andrews University in Michigan and an MA in Educational and Developmental Psychology.
He’s also an increasingly well-known media figure, having appeared on CBC Radio, CHED Radio, CTV Edmonton and CTV’s Good Morning Canada, ByuRadio, Canadian Learning Television, and Sirius XM, and in the pages of P&G Every Day, Our Weekly, and Ebony Magazine.
In this episode of MF GALAXY, Ganz Ferrance discusses:

What Eurocentric psychology misses about the profound, cumulative, psychological impacts of the lifelong experience of enduring racism   The significance of what sociologists call “stereotype threat” How people in societies that are free on paper but racist in reality can achieve strong mental health How “purpose tremor” relates to the well-intentioned but counter-productive messages that African parents give their children The danger of waiting for saviours The effects of the competing values of community versus the individual, and Whether African celebrities have an obligation to Africans across the world


Today’s show comes from deep inside the archives of the Grand Lodge of Imhotep. Ganz Ferrance spoke with me at his office in Edmonton in September, 2008.

To hear the exclusive patrons-only extended edition of my conversation with Ganz Ferrance, visit mfgalaxy.org to click on the Patreon link to become a sponsor for a dollar or more per week.
By funding MF GALAXY, you get access to all extended editions of the show, plus video excerpts from selected interviews as they become available. This extended edition includes Dr. Ganz Ferrance discussing:

The benefits of chess, horse-riding, golf, and other non-stereotypically African activities for African-Canadian families The fluidity of racial stereotypes and how they limit people’s futures The “racial solidarity” reasons why some people defend corporal punishment, and How people can change from focusing on defeat to focusing on victory

To contact Dr. Ganz Ferrance, book him for counseling or a speaking engagement, attend his classes, or to purchase his CDs and DVDs, visit doctorganz.com.
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CHARLIE KERNAGHAN ON THE SWEATSHOP EMPIRE THAT SEWS YOUR CLOTHES, AND HOW TO FIGHT IT (MF GALAXY 046)

Veteran labour crusader on the 35 million Brown women and girls who clothe the world by being forced to live and work in appalling conditions for sub-poverty wages
Charlie Kernaghan is the executive director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, a Pittsburgh-based NGO of global labour advocates. They risk their own safety in pursuit of justice for some of the most exploited workers in the world through exposing human and labour rights abuses perpetrated by US companies producing goods in poor countries.
Kernaghan has made his living as furniture mover, carpenter, cab driver, and university instructor, but he began his crusade for workers’ rights in 1985 after participating in a peace march through Central America. In 1990, he became the director of the US-based National Labor Committee, the fore-runner to the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights.
Kernaghan’s international fame came from rattling the chains of one particular celebrity: Kathie Lee Gifford of Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Gifford’s name was on a line of clothing from whose profits a portion of proceeds was used to aid disadvantaged American children. The problem? The clothes were made in Honduran sweatshops. By thirteen year-old girls working thirteen-hour shifts for 31 cents an hour. Under armed guard.
After Kernaghan broke that story, Gifford broke into tears on North American television, and she threatened to sue him and the tiny NLC. Her threats crumbled into defeat when she was eventually forced to sign a code of conduct that included independent monitoring, a story detailed in the Canadian documentary The Corporation(http://www.thecorporation.com).

Being known as “the man who made Kathie Lee cry” is enough to endear Kernaghan to many; he’s been written up in Mother Jones magazine, been featured on David Barsamian’s Alternative Radio and gives somewhere around seventy speeches a year while he and the Institute maximise their pressure against plutocrats such as the owners of Wal-Mart and the NBA to ensure justice for the people who make the the products that elevate them to the global top 1% inside the global 1%.
In today’s episode of MF GALAXY, Charlie Kernaghan discusses:

The typical, miserable working and living conditions for the 35 million women and girls in 2004 who sewed the clothes of the world in sweatshopsHis reaction to the much-repeated lie that transnational sweatshops are improving the quality of life wherever they goHis advice on how to make your Christmas or year-round shopping less globally exploitative and more justWhat’s far more powerful than mere individual consumer choice on the path to global labour justice, andThe strategic and moral value of boycotting companies versus boycotting entire countries
Today’s conversation is from sub-level ten inside the archives of the Grand Lodge of Imhotep. Way back during the Christmas shopping rush of December 2004, Charlie Kernaghan spoke with me from his office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by telephone. Please note that back then, his organisation was called the National Labour Committee.
I began by asking Kernaghan about the amount of money US consumers spend on others and themselves to purchase their Christmas cheer, and how little reward would go to the people who actually produced those gifts.
The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
News links from the Institute’s website:
HBO’s John Oliver Excoriates Fashion Brands' Race to the BottomGOOD NEWS in Bangladesh: Unprecedented Turnaround at Jeans PlusInternational Label Children’s Clothing Made Under Slave-like Conditions in BangladeshUpdate on Century Miracle Factory in Jordan[Mic] 14 Powerful Photos Show What Your Smartphone Is Really Doing to the World[The Guardian] The Trans-Pacific Partnership will lead to a global race to the bottom
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ANN VRIEND’S LONG ROAD (MF GALAXY 045)

SUPERB SONGWRITER-MUSICIAN ON THE CRAFT OF WRITING AND EDITING, THE TEN THOUSAND OUR RULE, AND WHY PASTRY CHEFS DON’T WANT YOU TO EAT THE DOUGH
Ann Vriend is a superb, independent songwriter-musician who’s toured the world and has created six albums including her most recent and critically-acclaimed release, For the People in the Mean Time.
Her vocals are a fusion of Dolly Parton and Aretha Franklin, and her lyrical skill is a standout for her generation. She’s the winner of the 2013 Canadian “She’s the One” contest. In today’s episode of MF GALAXY, Ann Vriend discusses:

Her approach to the craft of songwriting, including the work of editingThe influence of Paul Simon and Leonard CohenThe importance of endless effort and the ten thousand hour rule Why pastry chefs don’t want you to eat the doughBeing true to one’s artistic vision, andThe true meaning of limitations

Throughout the show we’ll hear excerpts from the album For the People in the Mean Time, specifically “A Long Road,” “A Need So Wide,” “The Greatest Killer,” and “Wonder Why.”
I spoke with Ann Vriend in her home in the McCauley neighbourhood of Edmonton on September 20, 2015. You’ll hear ambient noise throughout our conversation, including at one point a dishwasher running, so I apologise for the below-average sound-quality of this episode. And now on MF Galaxy, my conversation with Ann Vriend.
Buy Ann Vriend’s singles and albums
To hear the full 80 minute, patrons-only extended edition of my conversation with Ann Vriend, click on thePatreon link to become a sponsor for a dollar or more per week. By funding MF GALAXY, you get access to all extended editions of the show, plus video excerpts from selected interviews as they become available.
This extended edition includes Ann Vriend discussing:Business advice for musicians, including how to manage enthusiastic fansThe need for business education for musiciansThe influence of learning French on her personal developmentThe effect on her outlook and songwriting of living in Edmonton’s McCauley neighbourhood,Her reaction to her conservative upbringing, and her thoughts on art versus propaganda, andThe global African songwriters and novelists who’ve had the most powerful impact on her.You’ll also hear an excerpt from her song, “Those Records.” And now, the extended edition content of my conversation with Ann Vriend. UPCOMING GIGS:
Friday, October 2, 2015EdmontonBlue Chair Caféwww.bluechair.ca
Saturday, October 3, 2015CalgaryNickelodeon Folk Clubwww.thenick.ca/NewCrescent Heights Community Hallwww.brownpapertickets.com/event/2267201
Wednesday, October 21, 2015TorontoMusideumwww.musideum.com
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YVES ENGLER ON THE TRUTH ABOUT CANADIAN WAR AND THE SINISTER GOALS OF CANADIAN “PEACE” (MF GALAXY 044)

AUTHOR OF CANADA IN AFRICA: 300 YEARS OF AID AND EXPLOITATION ON CANADA’S ILLEGAL WARS, MINING EXPLOITATION AND DESTRUCTION, AND THE SELF-SERVING LIE OF CANADA’S GOOD-TWO-SHOES SELF-IMAGE Yves Engler is the author of eight books exploring injustice, Canadian-style. His latest is Canada in Africa: 300 Years of Aid and Exploitation . The book explores Canadian and proto-Canadian involvement in the European holocaust against Africa, support for apartheid in South Africa and Idi Amin’s coup in Uganda, support for overthrowing independence leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Patrice Lumumba of Congo, and destructive corporate exploitation across the continent today.

Yves Engler will be speaking at the University of Alberta in Edmonton on October 1st at 7 pm in room 158 of the Education South building (113 Street + 87 Avenue). In advance his talk, he spoke with me by Skype from his home in Montreal on September 15, 2015. Our conversation covered numerous topics including:The exploitative and destructive role of Canada as a global mining superpower, especially across the African continentThe appropriaterole, from Engler’s perspective, of natural resource developmentThe Canadian government’s manipulative domestic reasons to fund NGOsWhat mining would look like in Canada if foreigners did to us what our companies do to themEngler’s take on the “trade versus aid” debate, andThe twin sinister purposes of what people call “foreign aid.”To put foreign aid into context, here are political representatives of Canada’s most important political, economic, and military ally. As quoted by Carol Offin her book Bitter Chocolate....

US Senator Hubert Humphrey said: “I have heard that people may become dependent on us for food.... If you are looking for a way to get people to lean on you and to be dependent on you, in terms of their cooperation with you, it seems to me that food dependence would be terrific.”
US President John Kennedy said, “Foreign aid is a method by which the United States maintains a position of influence and control around the world.”
And US President Richard Nixon said, “Let us remember that the main purpose of aid is not to help other nations but to help ourselves.”

I’ll let Yves Engler explore how far from—or how close to—Canada is to those declarations of policy and morality.
We began by discussing the enormous political value of one Canada’s biggest lies about itself.

Buy Yves Engler’s booksReaders: Turning The Tide BookstoreBookstores and academics: Fernwood PublishingBulk orders for activist fundraisers: yvesengler(at)hotmail.com

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SPECIAL ONE-HOUR LONG EXTENDED EDITION BONUS CONTENT
To hear the nearly-hour-long, patrons-only extended edition of my conversation with Yves Engler, click on the Patreon link to become a sponsor for a dollar or more per week.
By funding MF GALAXY, you get access to all extended editions of the show, plus video excerpts from selected interviews as they become available. This extended edition includes Engler discussing:

The truth about Canadian backing of Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his role in the Rwandan genocideCanadian General Romeo D’Allaire’s connection to Kagame’s RPF or Rwandan Patriotic Front, andThe illegal Canadian war of aggression to destroy Libya, in the face multiple attempts by the African Union to broker peace, and in explicit violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions 1970 + 1973.To put Canada’s unprovoked, illegal war against Libya into context, we turn to the Ibrahim Index for African Governance (IIAG), the world's leading multi-tiered annual examination of quality of life across Africa's 55 countries, surveying Safety + Rule of Law, Human Development, Participation + Human Rights, and Sustainable Economic Opportunity. It’s based on 40,000 raw data points which are analysed by an international team of experts.
The 2011 report for 2010 results says, “Libya is ranked in the bottom half of the Index in 2010. [Like] Egypt and Tunisia, Libya shows [extreme] imbalance in performance between Human Development and Participation and Human Rights… [and] rank[s] in the top ten for Human Development and in the bottom three for Participation and Human Rights. Libya’s performances in Safety and Rule of Law and Sustainable Economic Opportunity are also weak in relation to Human Development.”
To be clear, the IIAG for 2010 ranked Libya as fifth from the top for Human Development and as number one in 2009. 
The IIAG defines as Human Development as:
WelfareWelfare RegimeSocial Protection and LabourSocial ExclusionWelfare Services (Health and Education)Equity of Public Resource UseAccess to WaterAccess to SanitationEnvironmental PolicyEnvironmental SustainabilityEducationEducation Provision and QualityRatio of Pupils to Teachers in Primary SchoolPrimary School CompletionProgression to Secondary SchoolTertiary EnrolmentHealthMaternal MortalityChild MortalityImmunisation (Measles and DPT)Antiretroviral Treatment ProvisionDisease (Cholera, Malaria and TB) Mo Ibrahim Foundation: Ibrahim Index of African Governance
2010 report for 2009 results
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DEWAYNE COPELAND, CO-CREATOR OF SUPERHERO WEB SERIES CV NATION (MF GALAXY 043)

INDIE NEW MEDIA FILM-MAKER EXPLAINS EXCITEMENT, RESTRICTIONS + MEANING OF HIS MISSION
DeWayne Copeland is a new-media indie filmmakerwho embodies the Marcus Garvey ethic of “do for self.” With co-creator and series writer-director Scott F Evans, Copeland and their agile team launched CV Nation in 2012, and have produced a first season of six episodes and a second season of four.
The CV in CV Nation means “costumed vigilantes,” because the show is about superheroes and villains fighting for dominance in a world in which paranormal powers are merely expensive but highly dangerous commodities.
The series is a breakthrough not only for its indie aesthetics and production, but because it’s largely about superheroes and villains of African descent. 

Copeland and Evans didn’t wait around for someone else to do what they and so many others had been craving for years—they just did it themselves.DeWayne Copeland is a remarkable artist, and a down-to-earth human being. 
He’s a key speaker in the must-see documentary Brave New Souls by Agent Carter screenwriter Brandon Easton. I met DeWayne Copeland at Eagle Con in May 2015 held at the campus of California State University at Los Angeles. We spoke at the Con’s final moments during the tear-down, so throughout you’ll hear the sounds of lifting, loading, and even lurching.
Our conversation ranged over many topics, including:How to recruit skilled artists and technicians to collaborate on indie New Media projectsThe Africentric impulsethat got him moving on CV NationHow he and co-creator Scott Evans found the money to make the seriesWhy they’re forbidden to sell DVDsof CV NationHis long-term artistic and financial objectives as a filmmaker, andHis most exciting experience in making the showBut we began by discussing Copeland’s own personal origin story. (Many thanks to Patrick B. Sharp of CSULA for making all my Eagle Con interviews possible. Attend Eagle Con 2016--if Eagle Con 2015 is an indication, it'll be outstanding.)

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CN Nation Homepage CV Nation YouTube channel with trailers and episodes CV Nation IMDB
CV NATION  trailer
CV NATION Ep 201
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BRAVE NEW SOULS trailer


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A LEE MARTINEZ – AWARD-WINNING NOVELIST OF GIL’S ALL FRIGHT DINER (MF GALAXY 042)

ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF TEN BOOKS SHARES STRATEGIES FOR DYNAMIC CHARACTERS AND PLOTS
A Lee Martinez has authored of ten acclaimed novels including Divine Misfortune, Helen and Troy’s Epic Road Quest, and Chasing the Moon . For his debut novel Gil’s All Fright Diner , he won the Alex Award, which is given to adult fiction that possesses special appeal to younger readers.
Martinez’s work mixes dynamic world-building with whimsical, hilarious, and touching storytelling. Martinez’s The Automatic Detective is one of my favourite books. It’s a noir crime thriller about a robot designed to destroy humanity, but he just doesn’t feel like it, so he drives a cab. But the work succeeds because it’s far more than just wacky—it’s got heart, and characters we can love.

In this episode of MF GALAXY, Martinez discusses:
The reasons why so many fans and teachers of so-called literary fiction dismiss the importance of plotHis approach to characterisation on the invention versus reflection spectrumThe skillset required for effective revision, and the dangers of excessive revisionWhat it’s like working with an editorThe Dallas Fortworth writers’ workshop he frequents and why he doesHis approach to wordplay and literary style, including the creation of dialogue, andThe art of world-building vs. the excesses of “world-porn,” and the world-building approach Martinez used in the robot-noir novel The Automatic Detective
We began by discussing the craft of plotting and the dangers of hewing too closely to an outline.
To download the special PATRONS-ONLY edition of this episode with A Lee Martinez, click the Patreon link below. Sponsor the show for a dollar or more per episode and access all extended edition podcasts and bonus videos. In this extended episode, Martinez discusses his business advice for writers, and the real reason to attend book signings.
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