As I patiently but anxiously wait for my Kindle Touch 3G to arrive in the mail, I realize I have surrounded myself with a couple of nifty tools to make my content consumption addiction easier, faster, and more efficient. Although I consider my self the Jamaican Muslim version of Henry Bemis from the Twilight Zone, I still need a little bit more than just a “brick and mortar” Library to satiate my diverse content consumption needs.

You are probably already familiar with many of these apps, but I have found them extremely helpful in covering 3 simple areas:

1. How do get access to tons of content?
2. How do I organize all this great content?
3. What type of tools will help me organize all this audio and textual content?

Instapaper. This app has been around for a while but I only recently started using it about 3 weeks ago. Instapaper is a simple app that allows you to save web article pages from any web browser, Smartphone, Tablet, E-reader and just about any other device. Any article that you “Read Later” with Instapaper (irrespective of what device you used to save the article) goes into the “cloud” and you can then access that web content from anywhere that is connected to the internet. All your devices that are connected to the internet do a short sync via Instapaper and now you have all that content stored on your device locally. Once the content is on the device, no internet connection is needed. It’s all on the device. You can read content on any one of the devices that have downloaded the web content from Instapaper’s cloud. With my third content device (Kindle Touch) on the way, I can now sync content from my IPhone, Mac Book, and Kindle Touch. (or any other computer that is connected to the Internet). It really makes it easy to consume a lot more long form article content online, or maybe I should say offline.

Goodreads. Yet another “cloud” content based app, Goodreads has several Android and IPhone apps that compliment the goodreads.com website. Goodreads is basically Amazon’s book recommendation engine, wishlist, and book reading history turned into a full blown website. They are not affiliated with Amazon, but it’s probably where Amazon should have taken their recommendation/wishlist app. The site allows readers around the world to share books they’ve read, books they want to read, books they are currently reading while allowing users to rate, review and comment on any book. The site (and the complimentary phone apps) have a wonderful recommendation engine that is separated by a variety of categories (they call these categories Genres). You can then customize this Genre list and Goodreads will select books that match these Genres. The more you submit to Goodreads the better it gets at giving you books that match your interests. The site is extremely social. You can read books from your friends and share your book lists. Once again all this activity is synced between all your devices that are using the Goodreads app and website.

Calibre. Actually found this app searching for an article Bookmark app that would sync with a Kindle device. Calibre is basically the ITunes version of e-book management tool. It allows you to update the covers of e-books, titles, topics, categories, publisher date and tons of other meta data. It also syncs and converts all your e-book files to the appropriate format for your e-reader device. For those who want to fine tune their e-book library I really don’t know another piece of software that is more easy to use and efficient than Calibre. It covers just about all e-book devices and it’s…wait for it…FREE.

Flipboard. Yet another recent addition to my content consumption tool kit, Flipboard has really transformed how I consume content. It was initially built for the IPad, but now it’s available for the IPhone (sorry folks, no Android yet but I’m sure it’s coming). It’s a social magazine app that allows you to easily flip (literally) through tons of content from hundreds, if not thousands of publishers. You can also pull content from your Twitter and Facebook feed. This app is all about making content beautiful while making it easier to share that same content on your favorite social networks. Like an infographic that visually beautifies raw data to make it easier to consume, Flipboard is no different.

Audible. I think audible.com has been around long enough for most people to be familiar with the website and the complimentary app for Android and the IPhone. Getting into audio books via audible has allowed me to consume so much more content. The best thing about audio books, is unlike regular books you can listen to these books while being somewhat idle with other things. Whether you are washing dishes, cutting the lawn, going for a walk or run, or just listening to an audio book at work. (of course while doing work). Other than the standard audio player options, you have the ability to bookmark (somewhat of an electronic dog ear) any part of the audio so you can refer back to it later. What is truly missing from Audible is the ability to sync your e-bookmarks with an audible app or maybe an Audible plugin for ITunes. All your audible purchases are still in the “cloud” which makes for an easy way to download your audible files to your phone or computer.

This blog post below was a comment I posted from an article my wife shared on her Facebook wall. My boy Clarence, suggested I turn the comment into a blog post. The article, Black Unemployment Highest in 27 Years appeared on Roland Martin’s magazine/blog website. It seems like you have three typical responses when someone sees these type of “Blacks have a more destitute situation than __________ (insert race of choice here)” articles. The first response is “America is racist, ergo if there wasn’t racism we wouldn’t have such high unemployment”. The second response is, “Blacks are a bunch lazy fry chickin’ eating watermelon cologne wearing, hip hop lovin’, overspending, loud mouthin’ government lovin’, drag on the economy havin’ monkeys that are unemployable who will continue to be the last hired and the first fired.” The third response is, “Oh these ____________ (insert race of choice here) keep taking our jobs. They’ll take so much less to work ______________ job”.

These absurd responses don’t get us any closer to solutions. They are simple knee-jerk reactions to a long-standing problem. I have seen these types of “high unemployment among blacks” headlines since I graduated from college (and before college) and it’s getting worse. The technology shift was supposed to be our golden parachute into prosperity. Didn’t happen. Happen for some but not many and clearly not enough. I wish I finished my If I Had My Own Black Leadership Forum series, but I still have 2 parts left to do. If you’re interested in reading the first 3 parts, you can start here However, I give you My Thoughts on Black Unemployment.

There are no short turnarounds for the high black unemployment rate but at the root of our problems is a misallocation of economic resources. Whether you believe the misallocation of economic resources was driven by a bunch of klan sympathizing racists in corporate america (and the general workplace) and our political system or self inflicted by the black community, we are clearly dealing with a misallocation of economic resources in the black community. This situation has been going on since our “inclusion” into the main economy. Many of you have heard me say this before (and I’ll say it again):

The total GDP of the African-American community makes us the 13th largest economy in the world. That’s right, only 0.6% of planet earth (African Americans) represents the 13th largest economy in the world. The African American/Black Market profile from the Magazine Publishers of America has slated the purchasing power of African Americans to hit the 1 trillion dollar mark by 2012. How can the 13th largest economy in the world, have one of the highest unemployment rates in America? Umm..misallocation of economic resources. (I said it in my quiet e-typing-voice so you don’t get annoyed by me saying this a billion times. I might say it a couple more times)

There are only a few individuals that have actually outlined real solutions and they are the following:

• Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America by Dr. Claud Anderson
• Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown by Tony Brown
• Blueprint for Black Power: A Moral, Political, and Economic Imperative for the Twenty-First Century by Amos N. Wilson
• The Entrepreneurial Secret To Starting a Business: Without A Bank Loan, Collateral or Revenue (Volumes 1, 2, 3) by Cedric Muhammad

Although I have huge issues with their past prejudice/religious theology, the other organization is the Nation of Islam. With all it’s past faults, prejudices, and warped theology, Message to the Blackman by Elijah Muhammad was the first book that had me thinking about how my income and productivity in the economy made other folks rich and not my local community. I repeat, the book’s religious theology is rife with shirk, misinformation, hatred and black supremacist theology. However, it’s economic prescriptions are 21st century. The book should be republished, minus the hatred. If I was part of the NOI, I would include a public apology in the introduction of the book.

If you look at many black media communication vehicles, including Black Enterprise mag and BET (Viacom), many of them [black owned or not] have never mentioned any of these individuals. If they mentioned them, there hasn’t been any real effort in promoting their ideas. The average black person has no idea who these individuals are. That is not a simple oversight. It’s intentional. Not in a conspiratorial way, but in a “these individuals will upset the apple cart” type of way. Unfortunately, Amos Wilson has passed on but his rich wealth of economic information lives on in his seminal work, Blueprint for Black Power. It might be tempting to dismiss many of these individuals as a bunch of black supremacist separatist who long for a day when the black seperation movement will transform itself into a 21st century authoritarian movement. No, this is a immature characterization of their intent and economic ideas. They were concerned with the flimsy social contract that America promised it’s black citizens and wanted to usher in a concrete economic platform which we could depend on with certainty. Clearly we are in uncertain times and the social contract that America had with it’s black citizens is gone.

If Black America studied these ideas in these books with vigor and dedication, I believe we can significantly lower black unemployment into the lower single digits in about 20-30 years while becoming a viable and powerful economic engine for growth. There are no easy answers. It’s going to take time, skill reallocation, and a lot of money from those wealthy black individuals to invest in this plan. The government and non-black corporations have already moved on. This is what many of the individuals I mentioned above were trying to say 50 years ago. There will come a time when African Americans will be completely on their own. No jobs programs, no social institutions, no nothing. So in short, they were saying we have to build our own institutions and local economies of scale because the “support window” is going to eventually close. Now that the American economy is in such disarray, its going into hardcore economic Darwinian mode.

Obama and any other government employee can do very little for the black community. His jobs bill cannot overturn hundreds of years of economic mismanagement and social degradation. The government and too many “black leaders” are absentee landlords, time to look within our own community for answers. If they had your back, you would of been out of this mess a long time ago. We are on our own.

If there is any one question that was asked (or implied) before I left, it was “Is it Safe?”. Some other more indirect rhetorical questions/responses sounds like this:

– Really? Wow (But like Wow, as in “He’s sending his family to the equivalent of Iraq)
– Are you sure? (translation: Are you sure you want to work in a war zone?)
– I’ve even had folks suggest that they fear being kidnapped or forced being wrapped in a burqa like Taco Bell wraps burritos. Just to be clear, I don’t have a problem with the burqa or the niqab or any other covering. Women have the freedom to wear what they want, but they shouldn’t be forced or unduly prohibited from wearing these types of coverings. For more information on this. go here.

I have no idea what other warped ideas swirl in people’s minds when you mention any country in the Middle East, but the ones above are the more obvious fears. At the same time I can’t be too hard on folks being that their main intention is concern for my safety. But like an over-protective parent can be for their children, some of this concern is grounded in a bit of fantasy, xenophobia and misinformation.

I do realize that there are a lot of revolutions/upheavals going on in the Middle East, but we have to be able to distinguish one county from another and one region from another. Yes the Arab Awakening (known in the states as the Arab Spring) is in full effect. Yes there are wars and civil wars going on in Iraq, but that doesn’t mean it’s happening all over the Middle East nor does it mean that these skirmishes have the potential to bleed everywhere in the Middle East or North Africa. I’m going to address two things in this post. The proximity of some of these skirmishes and some basic demographic data of Qatar.

Although there have been other incidents in Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, the main players in the Arab Awakening have been Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain. Now keep in mind that the Arab Awakening is about reforming policy in the Middle East and North Africa. People are fighting for their right for freedom and the pursuit of happiness just like any American during the American Revolution. However, the whole entire region is not going up in smoke which might be the perception being that the MSM (Main Stream Media) presents just the conflicted areas of the Middle East without presenting the areas that are politically and economically stabilized.

So now to answer the million dollar or riyal question: Is it Safe?

Yes. It’s extremely safe. People leave their cars running while they hop inside and outside of stores. Yes gas is $1.00 a gallon and yes it’s really hot (people keep their cars running to keep the A/C on), but the safety is there. You guessed it, the country with the highest per capita income is Qatar and has been for the last 10 years. And can you take a wild guess which country has one of the lowest crime rates in the world? Um..Qatar again with a score of 1.0 while United States has a score of 5.0 and has a higher homicide rate that close in numbers to such countries as Yemen and Ukraine. Iraq, a U.S. occupied country, has a score of 7.3.

If you look at the 10 most dangerous cities you’ll be surprised by the cities that made the list. You can go here, here, and here. Although the list is different for each site (in regards to which city is the most violent), there are two American cities that make the list. Detroit has 43.7 murders per 100,000 and New Orleans has 52 per 100,000

If you take the distance between Qatar and Libya we are looking at a distance that reaches from New York to Las Vegas. [2233 miles] [show diagram]. If you take the distance between Qatar and Tunisia you are reaching a distance that almost spans the entire length of the United States of America.

Distance statistics:

• Distance between Qatar and Libya [2100 miles]
• Distance between Qatar and Tunisia [2500 miles]
• Distance between Qatar and Cairo, Egypt [1300 miles]
• Distance between Qatar and Bahgdhad, Iraq [680 miles]
• Distance between Qatar and Bahrain [70 miles]

Below you can click on the map below to get a sense of where Qatar is located and it’s proximity to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. I specifically highlighted those countries that are tied to the Arab Awakening.

Now when so-called “super powers” share a list with such countries like Mogadishu, Somalia, Karachi, Pakistan and Baghdad, Iraq (650,000 civilians dead since 2003), Cape Town, South Africa (50 murders a day) in regards to the most violent cities, you have to wonder who is really safe? I do understand that the proximity of many of these awakenings or uprisings are probably closer than any one individual would like but I can assure you, I do not see burning tires and bellowing smoke from my window. I don’t hear gunfire and I don’t see a legion of militias driving banged up Nissans pickups with AK-47s. The only Nissans pick ups I see are from construction workers. The only thing that lights up the sky is the moon, not tracer fire from a machine gun. Notice that the only Middle Eastern country that made the most violent city list is Iraq and this is an occupied country. The countries violence is attributed to U.S. occupation and not necessarily something inherently violent in Iraq. Suicide bombing didn’t start until the 2003 invasion of Iraq. More on that that here.

It’s time to separate fact from fiction. Many people are doing themselves a disservice by limiting their world view to the border of the United States of America. Com’ on over to the Middle East where the sun is always shining and the diversity is as beautiful as the people who live here. I’m not here to spin away the problems from the region, but put some context and clarity as to what is going on in the Middle East and North Africa. In the next installment of Qatar Times, I’ll give a bit more detail about the people of Qatar and how our experience has been.

Bonus Infographic

If you want to get a sense of the size of the North Africa and Middle East, click on the image below. I’ve layered the United States of America over the map. The length of the United States is about 2900 miles across. Depending on where you are measuring it could be less or more. I tried to scale this as best I could. Enjoy!

This post was inspired by Langton Hughes’s A Dream Deferred.

Rather than go through the typical romanticization of our founders on July 4th while gushing over the 1st Amendment like a first born son, I’m going to write about some of the pressing issues of an America that has broken it’s promise with it’s citizens. Some contemporary patriots might scoff at me for suggesting such a thing, but my audience are for those who have been left behind, and not those how have fortunately benefited from the American fruits of liberty. Contrary to popular belief, everyone has not reached the promise land. Let me be careful with that last line. I’m not suggesting we start helicoptering pallets of money down to the masses. I’m suggesting that upward mobility is becoming more elusive and contrary to popular belief America does not have more mobility than other nations. In fact it has one of the lowest.

Some might say I’m being too hard on America and I should tone the “anti-patriotic” language down. When your country is at Defcon 1 in regards to social and economic issues, you have to ring the alarm to let everyone know that that we have a 10 alarm fire. Why should I save “patriotic” face when we are not living up to what this country has promised since the ratification of the Constitution? I see America as a country that is slowly losing it’s way. We hear a lot of lofty speeches from politicians, but when the citizens are asked to make hard choices we fall back to our ideological political camps.

Below you’ll find a video that is extremely telling in regards to the current economic shift that is happening globally. James Wolfensohn, former president of The World Bank and CEO of Wolfensohn and Co. does an eye-opening presentation for Stanford Graduate School of Business students on the coming global economic shift. In short, America and some of it’s Western compatriots are running out of time. It has debt to it’s eyeballs and waning political leverage on the global stage. It has financial obligations (Healthcare, Social Security, etc) that’s depressing it’s ability to leverage it’s internal resources. China, India, Africa and many other GCC countries are gobbling up global GDP faster than the cookie monster disintegrates cookies. If that wasn’t bad enough, we have a populace that does not have the 21st century education and skills needed to complete on a global scale.

Without further ado I give you James Wolfensohn, who asserts that in the next 40 years, a global power shift will see today’s leading economic countries drop from having 80% of the world’s income to 35%.

• Documentary: Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip
• Half of Americans say that they definitely or probably couldn’t come up with $2,000 in 30 days
• Van Jones Launches Movement To Rebuild The American Dream
• Think Again: American Decline by Gideon Rachman
• Busts Keep Getting Bigger and Bigger. Why? by Paul Krugman and Robin Wells

So who are the “Bickersons”? (the first time I heard this used is from the book Spousonomics) In my view this is any couple who quarrel a lot. It’s like walking around with steel shoes through a field of egg shells laced with magnetic dynamite. No matter what the topic, an argument is going to pop off and more than likely it will be explosive. It’s taking the most nuanced issues and blowing them up into stellar battles of galatic proportions. In most instances the root of the “bickering” is something else, but these smaller issue serve as “death by a thousand cuts” to the relationship which can leave both people extremely unhappy.

I’m reaching the last couple books to round out my research on my beige paper (We’ll it’s actually a white paper but I’m not a professor or a man with a P.h.d so it will be a beige paper for now) on the Science of Relationships. What started out as an idea for a blog post on some of the neurology and psychology behind how men and women interact in their relationships eventually grew into a “beige paper” on this same subject. One of the books is called Spousonomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage, and Dirty Dishes by Paula Szuchman. Wait…now before you run to the hills and say “There’s no way I’m taking relationship advice from some economist”, you should realize that out of the 15-20 books that have contributed to my research over the last 3 years, this book is one of the most pragmatic and helpful books on rooting out some of the underlying dysfunctions of many relationships. I’m not saying this because I love economics, I’m saying this because the information is very straight forward, honest and pragmatic.

Many of the problems that are identified in this book have been painstakingly researched over decades and although the book has a “economics” wrapper, you don’t have to know anything about economics to understand how to run your relationship like an economy that is experiencing robust growth instead of a depression (which unfortunately many relationships are). Below you’ll find two audio snippets from the book that highlight a couple issues that bring about much angst in too many relationships. Suprisingly one of the biggest pain points for most relationships (that eventually lead the decline of the relationship) is household chores. Before you dismiss this as some strange aberration, check out this quote from the book Spousonomics:

If arguing over chores seems petty to you, consider this: In 2007, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey that asked “What makes a marriage work?” The number one answer was faithfulness, followed by sex. Makes sense. But third, ahead of everything else, including kids, money, and religion: sharing household chores.

Other research backs this up. According to a 2009 survey of working women by the Boston Consulting Group, the second most common thing people argue about with their partners are household chores. That’s behind money but ahead of sex, work, and raising kids. In our own Exhaustive, Groundbreaking, and Very Expensive Marriage Survey, 73 percent of women said they did more than 50 percent of the housework, whereas only 40 percent of men said they did more than half the housework (you have to a least give the men credit for honesty)

A couple days ago I was on a thread talking about relationships and many of the complaints were related to the roles and responsibilities of the house. To be honest, that was about 50% of the complaints. There seemed to be a wide dichotomy (of Grand Canyon proportions) on who should do what in the house. However, enjoy the audio snippets:

50/50 Household chores vs Comparative Advantage

The importance of changing the Rules in your relationship

Use History as Guide to Help Your Present Situation

If you’ve made it this far, then I applaud you, and if you haven’t then I applaud you anyway. In today’s modern day junk food culture it’s extremely difficult to keep anyone’s attention-even when the information is ripe for the picking, like picking a succulent mango off a tree on a hot day in Kingston. Su, whua yu a wayt fa, pik it, nuh man? (patois translation: What are you waiting for, pick it?)

Knowing the TRUE history and it’s related value is like having a homing beacon in the vast darkness of unchartered space. It’s there as guide to direct you to safety. Why? Because history is a set of examples that that give you a foundation to build an intelligent blueprint for self-mastery and cultural development. As Malcolm X so eloquently stated:

History is a people’s memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals.

I have broken this post up into 3-mini parts. This is 3a and 3b/3c will be coming in the next couple weeks. I’m trying break up this post into smaller chunks to make it more digestible. In this very integral part of the BLF, we are going to utilize this segment to enlighten people with the seeds of historic truth. We will bury the hear-say and uproot the facts based on empirics. We must all remember that no matter how wise we think we are we will always be students. In this segment we will not only expound on cultural history, but economic, religious, mass-media and nation-state history.

To shorten up the post I have added show/hide buttons on the details of the Forum Participants. Just toggle on/off the more button to see the participants for a particular topic.

A Brief History of African Civilization

Unfortunately, there is no way we can cover the 10,000 years of African Civilization in one segment, but what we can give is a window into some of rich cultural history that Africa has laid for present day societies. Contrary to popular belief, Africa is not only the starting point for civilization, but has contributed an immense dearth of cultural and spiritual enlightenment for today’s societies. This segment is not about “Africanizing” areas in history where there was no African contribution, but to simply give credit to where credit is due. We must understand that Africa was not at the foot of civilization, but one of many heads of civilization that help lay down advanced societal frameworks. Some might scoff and say “Yeah right, look at Africa today, no way a continent like this was part of anything great”. Under this same upside-down logic we can use that same yard stick for many Westernized nations today.

Look at the current economic state U.S, Japan, and many European countries. Currently saddled with so much debt they have to print fake currency and maintain their fiat based scam economy to pay their bills. All your hundreds of years of resource plundering, cheap labor (and slave labor), financial schemes, ponzi political system, draconian usury system, ethnic supremacist legal system and “crony capitalism” cannot save your economies. Where are you now? These are advanced civilizations? Inflating away your problems by printing money out of thin air? Imploding the global food supply by subsidizing your failed agricultural infrastructure with more printed money? Is this what you call a “free market”? Creating financial schemes and hiding behind debt with your off-balance sheet antics? Murdering people in other oil rich countries because you don’t have the courage or the brains to revamp your current energy needs? This is civil? Here’s a reminder from Dr. Henrike Clark on what civility is all about:

Civilization is the art of being civil. The word civil means being peaceful, and there’s nothing peaceful about aggression.

Presently there are many areas of Africa that are going through an economic revolution. All is not well, but there are power centers that’s transforming the entire continent. Now that the past IMF and World Bank loan schemes of gargantuan debt have been forgiven for some countries (rightfully so, because these were draconian and unjust sovereign debt schemes in the first place), many African countries have a bit more wiggle room to use that extra capital to rebuild their country. The goal of this segment is to put the history of African civilization in it’s proper context.

The History of Race and it’s Socio-economic Impacts

Although many would like to deny the acute relationship between race and economics and the rampant level of inequality that still exists today, this section is by far the most insightful. Why? One of the most important systems for wealth preservation is a system known as “generational wealth transfer”. Unfortunately this is social structure that African Americans have been privy to only in last 50 years, and by comparison to other cultures are generational wealth transfer capacity is extremely weak. In short, wealth that was generated at one point in history is systematically transferred to future heirs and family descendants so they can use that same wealth and generate more wealth. A colloquial term for this is “old money”. Old money has been sloshing around for hundreds of years-earning interest and being re-invested in the economy within certain cultural circles. Although many would like you to believe that everyone who is in power today “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps”, I believe that certain circles have “pulled themselves up”, but have hidden the story of how they received the bootstrap in the first place. Some might bask in the self-serving glow of this idiom, but let’s remember that someone needed to produce that “bootstrap”, so you could pull yourself up in the first place.

In this segment we dig in on several types of history-ranging from religious history, history of wealth generation, socio-cultural history, and how the power of media transforms cultural identity. In order for any individual to understand the cultural and social paradigms of today, you HAVE to go back hundreds of years. There is no way around it. However it does not have to be a precarious “Where’s Waldo” approach. History leaves it’s cultural imprint on the minds and behaviors of the masses. It’s akin to tracking your lineage, but instead of “DNA” the empirical imprint is left on the people that you interact with on a day-to-day basis. The people of this world are a dynamic and living embodiment of history in action. We just have to pause and identify why and how we got into our present day situation.

Any questions, comments, or suggestions for this series are welcome. If there are subjects that you believe should be included, let me know. Thanks for reading.

Below is a letter that I would like to send to a Masjid that I have frequented for several years. I wrote this post right after last year’s Eid Al-Adha because my experiences at a particular Masjid have become so frustrating. For the sake of privacy I have blocked out those areas of the letter that would give any indication of the Masjid I’m referring to. This particular Masjid has done lots of good work. They provide a house of worship for Muslims, Eid, Taraweeh, Arabic classes for children and adults, not to mention do lots of charity. They have done many good works (fisabilillah), but have unfortunately come up short in binding the congregants together across ethnic and or racial lines. Although this letter was spawned from my experiences at this Masjid, this is a problem at many Masjids. Whether the Masjid is in the U.S. or abroad. I hope that this letter reaches as many people as possible (inshallah), especially those leaders (Imams) of certain Masjids. As believing Muslims we cannot choose to ignore this problem as being silent on this issue is akin to being an enabler of this problem of cultural nepotism.

As Salaam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah.

It is with great sadness and frustration that I write these words. I have been frequenting this Masjid at

As a person of African descent (African American/West Indian) I have never felt completely welcome at this Masjid. I realize that the majority ethnicity is Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and this monolithic South Asian community has intentionally or unintentionally created a wall of “ethnic Islam” that does not bode well for those individuals who are of a different ethnicity. I’ll explain.

Several times during the closing of the Eid Khutbah and many brothers are giving their well wishes, I have found myself completely by myself and somewhat ignored. I have had congregants look away from me and bypass me to give their well wishes to others. I have also observed this ill-loving behavior towards other brothers of African descent. This might seem trivial at first glance, but I have experienced this behavioral phenomenon in this center for several years. In addition, many times during the closing prayer and the Khateeb is rattling off countries of concern, I’ve yet to hear the Khateeb mention Africa. You hear Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Middle Eastern countries etc, but never Africa. You know where one of the largest populations of Muslims are? Africa. Over 30% of the global Muslim population lives in Africa. And considering all the issues that are going on in Africa (with such a large Muslim population), this continent should be on our Islamic radar.

Not that this is merely a numbers game, but I’m bringing this to your attention because there are many brothers and sisters of African descent (whether born in America or abroad) who feel ostracized and this cognitive dissonance towards ethnicities outside of your own needs to be addressed. Ignoring the problem will deepen the cultural fault lines in the Masjid. Even a simple As Salaam Alaikum to many other brothers is often ignored. The salaam rebuttal is robotic at best. I want to make it clear that this monolithic cultural problem is an issue at many Masjids. A very good and dear family member of mine who runs several Masjids in NY) frequented a Pakistani Masjid this past Eid (Eid Al –Adha 2010) and was given the same ill-loving treatment. After the Eid Khutbah not one member gave him and his brother well wishing nor shook his hand. No Salaams and no Eid Mubarak whatsoever. Completely ignored as if he and his brothers were the invisible men in the Masjid.

The Messenger of Allah [s] further guides us by saying:

“Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should be hospitable with his or her guests.”

This monolithic cultural problem is not exclusive to just South Asian or Middle Eastern dominated Masjids. I have many close friends of mine who are of Pakistani and Middle Eastern descent who have frequented majority African Masids and have been given the same cold treatment. This is a problem in many Masjids, not just yours. Several years ago I visited Dubai and attended a Khutbah were the Khateebs’s main focus of the lecture was this same ethnicity issue. Although Islam makes it clear that we are all brothers and sisters in Islam, irrespective of ethnicity, I don’t believe that many people take this important message to heart, not to mention carry it out in their day-to-day lives. I want to be very clear on this issue, I’m not looking for some type of “charity love” from this Masjid. Patronizing me or others, with guilt driven acts, condescension, or empty or contrived intentions is just as dangerous. This is an issue that has to be fixed over time. Here are a couple of suggestions. These suggestions are based on successes from other Masjids that have had this problem:

1. Do more Khutbahs on the roots of racism and indifference. By not highlighting the problem this will not build awareness among the Ummah. Hear no evil, see no evil.
2. You should seek a more diverse group of Khateebs for your Khutbahs. Get groups from every walk of life. Young, old, converts to Islam, different ethnicities (especially those ethnicities that the congregants seldom see or talk to), etc so the congregants can see the Masjid demonstrating a core part of Islam, diversity.
3. Participate in helping countries that are outside of your culture and make it clear to the congregants that the Masjid is apart of this effort. One of the Masjids I volunteer at not only help countries in Bangladesh and India, but they do a lot of work in Africa too. Keep in mind that the Masjid is not run by Africans or South Asians. Yes, there are floods in Pakistan, but there are also floods in Dakar and Benin too. We need to step out of our comfort zone and lend a hand to all in need, not just those that have the same cultural background.
4. Get the congregants of the Masjid to meet up with other Masjids that are of a completely different ethnicity and/or Madhab and utilize the common ground that all Muslims have, the Quran and related Hadiths. There is no doubt this will help to melt away some of the perceived cultural differences.

Very similar to your point in the Khutbah you did for this past Eid-Al-Adha, we have to do more than just talk. Just like our children will be watching our actions, so will the congregants monitor the actions of the Masjid. With the Masjid being a central part of the community, it is critical that we remove this oppressive disease from our hearts (Allahualim). There is a perverse level of otherness and xenophobia that exists in our Masjids. This type of behavior would be unacceptable during the days of the Prophet (PBUH), and it is unacceptable today.

Before I bring this letter to a close, I will leave you with a reminder from our glorious Quran, a paragraph from the Prophets Last Sermon and related Hadiths which specifically touches on this subject:

Surat Al-Hujurat:
“O Mankind, We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous of you” (Quran 49:13).

From the Prophets Last Sermon:
“All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not, therefore, do injustice to yourselves.

Remember, one day you will appear before ALLAH and answer your deeds. So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone.”

This is a very eye-opening Hadith on the evils of discrimination, prejudice and racism. The explanation below is pulled from a lecture by Shaykh Muhammad Hannini from his lecture Loss of an Ummah by the An-Nahda Institute.
It was also transmitted, in two different versions, by Ibn al-Mubarak in his two books, Al-Birr and As-Salah, that a disagreement occurred between Abu Dharr and Bilal. The context of this hadith is Abu Dharr and Bilal were having a discussion among the other companions about the war. Abu Dharr mentioned something and Bilal corrected Abu Dharr. Abu Dharr got extremely upset and said “Even YOU, son of a black woman is going to tell me that I am wrong?” After hearing this Bilal was extremely upset and said to Abu Dharr, “By Allah, I will complain to Rasulullah (PBUH) to tell him about what you said.” Bilal went to Rasulullah (PBUH) and said Rasulullah, “Did you hear what Abu Dharr said?”. The Prophet responded, “What did he say about you?”. Bilal then explained the incident between him and Abu Dharr. Rasulullah (PBUH). After hearing this, the honorable face of Rasulullah (PBUH) changed. With Abu Dharr using skin color he was threatening the bond of the brother’s and sisters.

The identity of emaan is being threatened. When you call someone the son of a black woman, this is not something light. After the news had spread about the incident, he went to the Rasulullah (PBUH) in the Masjid and said to The Messenger (PBUH) The Messenger (PBUH), “As Salaam Alaikum”. Abu Dharr later reported that he wasn’t sure if the The Messenger (PBUH) answered him back. The Messenger (PBUH) of Allah (saw) was extremely upset by Abu Dharr’s comment, so he (saw) rebuked him by saying, “That is too much, Abu Dharr. He who has a white mother has no advantage which makes him better than the son of a black mother.” In addition to this he said to Abu Dharr, “Did you tell him (Bilal) about his mother ? Did you put him down because of the color of his mother? You are a man who has jahiliyyah (kuffur) [disbelief] in him”. Abu Dharr cried. He went to Rasulullah (PBUH), “Forgive me, and ask Allah (SWT) to forgive me.” He left the Masjid weeping with tears. This rebuke had a profound effect on Abu Dharr, who then put his head on the ground (dirt) swearing that he would not raise it until Bilal had put his foot on his face. He said to Bilal, “You are the honorable person, and I am the humiliated person”. Bilal cried, and then came close to the cheek of Abu Dharr and hugged him, then said “Abu Dharr, a forehead that does sujud to Allah, does not get stepped on, but rather gets kissed”.

As quoted in Islam The Natural Way by Abdul Wahid Hamid p. 125

A man once visited the Prophet’s Masjid in Madinah. There he saw a group of people sitting and discussing their faith together. Among them were Salman (who came from Persia), Suhayb who grew up in the Eastern Roman empire and was regarded as a Greek, and Bilal who was an African. The man then said:

“If the (Madinan) tribes of Aws and Khazraj support Muhammad, they are his people (that is, Arabs like him). But what are these people doing here?”

The Prophet became very angry when this was reported to him. Straightaway, he went to the mosque and summoned people to a Salat. He then addressed them saying:

“O people, know that the Lord and Sustainer is One. Your ancestor is one, your faith is one. The Arabism of anyone of you is not from your mother or father. It is no more than a tongue (language). Whoever speaks Arabic is an Arab.”

These proofs and evidences demonstrate that tribal ties, exclusive ethnic allegiances and blind nationalism have no place in Islam. Muslims are commanded to stick together and not disassociate themselves from each other because they come from different ethnicities. I’m not naïve to believe that JUST one cultural center is the core problem, it’s the lack of good manners, etiquette, and a need to reinforce a lovingly brotherhood/sisterhood which seems to breed in certain Masjids. The cultural polarization that is created from this behavior is like acid being poured on the bonds of the believers.

With much sincerity and respect,
Malik

• Loss of An Ummah by Mohammed Haninini
• Falling in to the Trap of Nationalism or/racism
• VIDEO: Explaining the Hadith Series 2 – (Racism & Tabari)
• 33 Tips to launch your personal Jihad against Racism and Nationalism
• Hospitality towards Guests
• Prophet Muhammad: The Hospitable

Don’t Believe the Hype. Healing comes first.

Hopefully you had a chance to read Part 1 of this series and get an idea of why I’m creating this series. if you haven’t I would suggest you read Part 1 first. so to continue the Forum I would start of with the first segment Don’t Believe the Hype. Healing Comes First.

So what exactly does this mean? Here is a re-cap from the first post:

Without the proper spiritual and mental healing, the next 3 parts of this post won’t mean much. This is about cleaning the mind, body and soul of all the toxic psychological and lifestyle impurities that divert us from greatness. So many of us talk about being powerful and independent but forget about having the proper dignity, candor, and humanity about themselves and the world around them. I believe this will help folks remove the self-hatred, spiritually deadening and self-defeating attitude that undermines our future.

In my eyes, outside of the most obvious barriers to proper self-development (institutional racism, poverty, inequality, pollution of religion, etc), there are three areas that I see have pinned the black community against itself:

1. Self-hatred
2. Loss of cultural history
3. Assimilation

I wish I had time to explain every single area but this is the top three:

Self-Hatred

The weird thing about self-hatred is it can take many forms. Some forms of self-hatred are more muted, while others are move obvious, like changing your skin color or getting a nose-job that reflects the ethnicity of another race. Some forms of self-hatred can take the form of socially or culturally distancing yourself from the ethnic group that you consider is a reminder of “your perceived” inferiority. Notice how I said, “your perceived” inferiority. It’s not that the inferiority actually exists, but that is how the dominant group has made you feel. Like a young women who considers herself inferior because her natural body weight is 160 pounds and anyone below that weight makes her feel like her body is inadequate. The brand of self-hatred I’m referring to is physical self-hatred. Like repressing the hatred you have for your nose, hair texture, skin color, lip size, or even how your body is shaped. These physical forms of self-hatred transform themselves into behaviors called “racial tweaking”. Racial tweaking is not redefining the whole self. It’s just changing a part of the self. Just changing enough to get beyond their own lack of self-esteem. Not necessarily by their own doing, but they have been cultured by the dominant social cultural paradigm to feel inadequate. The mechanism for identity change can be your social environment, entertainment, and other forms of “stereotype threats“. Now self-hatred is not a zero sum game. It’s extremely difficult to address, not to mention realizing you actually suffer from any form of self-hatred. It’s not like you can go to the doisufferfromselfhatred.com and take a test to score yourself. Not easy to tackle and usually requires years upon years to identify. Many of the individuals in this segment of the forum are experts at not only identifying the roots of self-hatred, but offering a plan to remove these mentally unstable stereotype threats.

In short, self-hatred pulls the community apart. Self-hatred does not allow the community to rise to it’s highest potential. Self-hatred breeds other bi-products like mistrust, low self-esteem, and in some extreme instances the coveting of the cultural traditions outside of your own, irrespective if that outside cultural tradition is destructive to you and your surrounding community. Self-hatred raises doubts about what you are personally capable of and the people you consider similar to you in culture, behavior, and tradition. I’ve seen it too many times to dismiss it as some psychological aberration that seldom invades our social space.

Loss of Cultural History

A person who doesn’t know their history is like a fish out of water. History serves as a guide to show you how to handle the future. The beautiful thing about history is we can learn from our ancestors on what worked and what didn’t work. In many instances, we can learn from the mistakes and triumphs from past civilizations while duplicating what worked and abandon what failed. In many instances I see problems of today, that were problems centuries ago. We ignore the past while trying to plant seeds of the future that are dependent on the lessons of the past. We have to recognize that history serves as a blueprint to master self-development. Many of you have heard me say, there is history, then there is “his-story”.

For many years I was a victim of “his-story”. For many years the only thing I was taught about my history was that people of African descent were “willing” slaves and then Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, the Black Reconstruction happened, and then Civil Rights, then Black Power Movement, and then Black people assimilated into America and everything was great. I’m sure for many black students today, you can add Obama is the First Black President then “everything is great”. My first introduction to real “Black History” was in college. After getting in to the specifics of the real history of people of African descent from the Mali and Songhai Empire, to the Universities of Timbuktu, our inventions and cultural footprint, the close ties to Islam and Africa, Kemet and it’s cultural contributions to the world stage, slave rebellions, the entrepreneurial and social successes of Tulsa, the thousands of inventions that created by inventors of African descent, and the list goes on, I was transformed.

Now some might say, ‘Well many ethnicities aren’t aware of their contributions of their ancestors and where they contributed in history”. They seem to be doing fine. That’s easy to overlook when you “haven’t” been implicitly or explicitly written out of the halls of historic significance. When the presidents of the most powerful country are your ethnicity and the faces that appear on one of the most powerful currencies are your ethnicity, and that same ethnicity has reaped the monetary gains for hundreds of years, it’s easy to say, “What’s the big deal?”. This is not an attack on any ethnicity, but a reminder of how history does play a role in how you see yourself. After getting the “Real Story” of what happened over thousands of years leading up to today, I was transformed. I wasn’t the same person I was before. My outlook on what was possible had changed forever. I’m mentioning this because there was a significant change in my social identity which impacted my sense of self. I now knew my place in the world stage and no one could take that away from me again. (inshallah)

Assimilation

Some might say assimilation is all bad. Like most things in life, it depends on where you are standing in the pool. If you are in the shallow end you are okay, but if you are in the deep end (and you can’t swim) you are going under. At the root of assimilation is identity. Who am I and Who do I want to be? The part of assimilation I’m referring to is culture and tradition. What type of social cultural constructs and traditions have we inculcated in our day-to-day life? What are the long term impacts of these decisions? Are these choices to our benefit or our demise? What are the historic roots of these traditions and practices that we’ve chosen or have been subtly coerced to chose? Who are the owners of these traditions and practices and who is the supreme beneficiary if I decide to inculcate a particular behavior into my life? In addition, what are the incentives to abandon my own set of principle for something else? Because the benefits and/or consequences of assimilating is not a zero sum game, you can see that there are a variety of questions one should ask as they develop their cultural and social identity. I don’t have a smoking gun, but I would encourage everyone to incorporate a reductionist approach about where you get your cultural values and social cues from. Seek out the root and sources of your behavior and traditions. Why do you associate yourself with certain cultural ideas? How have you been socialized or in some instances conditioned to believe a particular social idea? How is your identity tied to your social and cultural environment? Once again I have more questions than answers, but this reductionist exercise will serve as path to revealing who you are and to a certain degree, why you are?

Forum Participants:

Dr. Joy Degry Leary – Author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing.
Forum Topic: Self-Hatred, Assimilation, Loss of Cultural History
The first time I heard the term Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS), was I skeptically curious. In my head I felt, “Well slavery was a long time ago, and something that happened hundreds of years ago couldn’t possibly have any significant impact on my behavior or how I see things culturally?”. Well I’m here to say, I was wrong. Props to my home girl Melissa Alvarado for blessing me with this book. Dr. Joy Degry Leary’s books and related media have had a dramatic impact on my life that I now buy this book for different friends and family, and yes, not just black people. All my friends, no matter what their ethnicity, have been introduced to this book. As I said in the past, this book could very well be called “Why Slavery in America has Subconsciously Impacted Everyone in the Country, but Because We (Everyone) Had Cognitive Dissonance About the post-impacts of Slavery, We (Everyone) Thought the Long Term Psychological Collateral Damage did NOT Exist”.

Dr. John Rich – Author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men
Forum Topics: Self-Hatred
I read John Rich’s book a couple months back and what I found was a window into some of the psychological trauma that is endured when black men our held hostage by the violence that surrounds them. In some instances, these incidences of violence became the accepted norm. Now we’ve all heard about the bad news about violence in the black community, but is there any good news? The good news is that we can address this psychological trauma but it’s not easy. Being in an environment of violence creates a lingering feeling of Post-traumatic stress disorder. Like a soldier who has come back from war, it’s hard to turn off that heightened state of awareness and caution because this feeling of insecurity/fear/rage has been baked into the wiring of the mind. What Dr. Rich does is “levels” with us on the severity of violence and cautions us by explaining how dangerous it is to blame the victim. The community has to rally around and support our friends and families who have been victims of ultra-violence.

Sandra L. Bloom – Author of Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies
Forum Topics: Self-Hatred
I have not read this book yet, but Dr. John Rich was inspired by Sandra Bloom’s work which eventually led to Wrong Place, Wrong Time. What I really like about Sandra Bloom work is she’s attempting at resolving past social and psychological conflicts that destroy communities and tear way at human bonds. Nothing clearly demonstrates what she is trying to accomplish than the description from her book:

“Bloom and her colleagues have come to believe that unresolved, multi-generational, often forgotten trauma leads to a compulsion to repeat that is a powerful force in individual and social history. Because of this unresolved legacy of trauma, all of our social systems are “trauma-organized,” producing institutions which are unresponsive to and often directly counter to human needs.”

Tim Wise – Author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
Forum Topics: Assimilation, Loss of Cultural History
When it comes to articulating the depth, complexity, and history of inequality it doesn’t get better than Tim Wise. Obviously Tim Wise being white and having such a honest approach towards understanding the roots of ethnic privilege in America gives us an an insider view that we seldom hear about. In short, where does ethnicity play a role in the policy choices of America? Where does ethnicity play a role in the control of scare resources on planet earth? How are we all impacted by this “chess game” of self-interest and modern day tribal lines that in some instances fall along ethnic alliances? Tim Wise’s insight is akin to a placing a high powered microscope on racial and ethnic lines that have grown out of the imbalanced and often oppressive roots of America. Our cognitive dissonance about these critical matters is a form of self-medication. If I don’t think about it, it doesn’t exist, but Tim Wise shines a big ole introspective bright light on that dissonance and breaks it down in areas where many so-called “social inequality” commentators fall short.

Dr. Claude M. Steele – Author of Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us (Issues of Our Time)
Forum Topics: Assimilation, Self-Hatred
The one thing that is really amazing about life, is you reach a point where you think you have absolute insight into a particular area, then someone comes along and knocks you out with a perspective that changes your life forever. Dr. Claude M Steele did that for me. His insight into the roots of what he calls “Stereotype Threats” and how they impact our behavior is worth it’s weight in gold. If the Board of Education had any heart they would make this required reading for every single teacher. I’m actually going to suggest this book to the Board of Education. It should also be required reading for students. The biggest problem with identity dysfunction and how we’ve been culturally socialized, is the roots of our issues are repressed. We wrap these foggy layers of repression around our identity problems in hopes that we can cloak them indefinitely. Once again, more dissonance. It’s extremely dangerous and can have long term effects on how we see ourselves in this grand social experiment, called life. Dr. Steele identifies these stereotype threats with clarity while offering honest solutions. Many of the authors and doctors in this forum offer answers. We are not left holding a bag of problems without having the proper solutions to help us to remove the items in the bag and putting them in a safe place so we are not directly impacted.

Before i get started, I created the image on the left myself, but I jacked this idea from Cafe Press. Just want to give props to those who deserve it. Creative capital is just important. One other very important point. The intent of this post is not to shame anyone. These are ideas and resources that I have accumulated over the last 15 years of my life, and were extremely helpful in my personal development. My intention is to spread useful information. Okay, now lets get started.

Over the last 10 years of my life I have seen a slew of “Black Leadership Forums” (BLF) or Black Agenda Forums (BAF) come and go. By far the “Bentley” of BLFs has been Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union or Round table. Although there has been recent pull back as people from the black community have questioned the “intentions” of his forums, nevertheless it has been seen as the “Lets Find Out What’s Happening With Black Folk Nationally” forum in regards to economics, politics, and various social issues. Even MSNBC and CNN have jumped into the BLF frey with their forums and specials. Al Sharpton just had his BLF last year, and the NAACP had one in July of 2010. Nevertheless, I’ve watched most of these forums, often with hope and weariness.

The total GDP of the African-American community makes us the 13th largest economy in the world. That’s right, only 0.6% of planet earth (African Americans) represents the 13th largest economy in the world. The African American/Black Market profile from the Magazine Publishers of America has slated the purchasing power of African Americans to hit the 1 trillion dollar mark by 2012. Now that’s not to say that all is well, but we clearly have something to work with.

I will break up this post into 5 parts. My hope is that I will be able to finish this before the end of Black History Month 2011. The first part (what you are reading now) is an explanation of my intent and what topics my fictional BLF will contain. In the middle three parts I will explain the the 3 areas that I deem extremely critical to what I will call Black Reconstruction 2.0.. The last part will have resources to every piece of media (books and film) that’s related to this topic. In each area I will list a group of individuals that I believe are the thought leaders who can offer Ideas that lead to solving critical problems, instead of people who give lip service to ideas that go nowhere. These are critical thinkers who continue to think outside of the box while not falling into the “arrogant trap” of their own egos and personal accomplishments. Bless those individuals who taken the time, effort, and necessary sacrifices to live by the creed of “each one teach one” and “am I my brother’s keeper”. Often said by many, but seldom done.

So lets get down to the nitty-gritty on what would my BLF look like, who would be there and what my agenda would be?

To set the stage of my fictional BLF, I would not have a BLF until I actually owned the building where the conference/forum would happen. What is the point of giving lip service to “being independent”, where you have to pay others to have a conversation about “being independent”. In addition to that, the hotel and related eateries would have have to be owned by me. If this option was not financially feasible, I would have each speaker give a 1-2 hour explanation on the topic via video stream and providing resources (books, articles, websites, etc) that detail the presentation they just gave. I would more than likely opt for this virtual option, because asking people to fly all over the world and drive to your event is a waste of time, money and resources that can be better spent toward the actual conference itself. All these hotel fees, gas, food, and travel time is a waste. No audience, no grand standing, no ham-bonin’, and definitely no moon shinin’. Stop showing your teeth!. This is “straight up” information that you can use. Raw and uncut.

There are three sections to my BLF and they are following:

1. Don’t Believe the Hype. Healing comes first.
Without the proper spiritual and mental healing, the next 3 parts of this post won’t mean much. This is about cleaning the mind, body and soul of all the toxic psychological and lifestyle impurities that divert us from greatness. So many of us talk about being powerful and independent but forget about having the proper dignity, candor, and humanity about themselves and the world around them. Not to mention being extremely humble about our accomplishments and fortune. In this section I will have a select group of doctors (some) who I believe have experience in helping folks remove the self-hatred, spiritually deadening and self-defeating attitude that undermines our future. They are the following:

2. Use History as Guide to Help Your Present Situation
One of the biggest issues I see in our communities (not that these issues are exclusive to our communities) is an unwillingness to immerse ourselves in the necessary information to help us address our present problems. I have seen this at all class levels, from the poorest of the poor to the the so-called “talented 10th”. There are so many lessons from past events that serve as a guide for the future, that we often have circular conversations on problems that have already been solved. In this section the participants will give us a brief history in the following areas. Each speaker will be given 2 hours, then provide the necessary resources to help break-down their 2 hour presentation. Now some of the individuals I’ve mentioned have passed on, so I would play certain films and have a panel discussion after to talk about the film:

3. Talk is Cheap. Action Speaks Louder than Getting on Your Soapbox and Doing Absolutely Nothing
One thing I realize about people, is they like to talk. It’s so easy, just open your trap and stuff starts coming out. To be honest, if we got charged a financial penalty every time we said erroneous, propagandized, or unusable information you’d probably hear a couple thousand people talk on television around the globe. Unfortunately, we have a sea of information that does not maximize our spiritual or human capital. Most of it is junk-food nonsense that gets regurgitated over an over again. Like the way a fly eats it’s food. It has to take in food, vomit on it, then slurp it back up. Do you really want to eat like that? Well chances are, you are. They have repackaged, dyed it, seasoned it with fragrances, and sold you something that appears useful, but is as efficient as Ford Model T racing in the Indianapolis 500.

This last segment of my fictional BLF is very important. These individuals will give you the tools. You’ll actually get the hammers, and wrenches to get to work. The first two segments focus on actionable data. This segment focuses on the tools that you need to take advantage of that data. Although this list could reach well over a thousand, I have specifically picked these individuals based on their willingness to be prudent and forthright in their approach to business, socio-economic circumstances, and human enlightenment. Here is the group that would master this segment:

Well folks, that’s it. The following 3 parts will delve into why I believe that each of these individuals offers something that we can benefit from while explaining why they are experts for each segment. The last part (part 5) will be my conclusion on where we are at and where we are going. Look out for the next parts over the next couple of weeks.

Well..to be honest…not a lot. Sike!. Well, I’ve learned quite a bit. I’ll try to make this short and sweet. Who am I kidding? This ain’t gonna be short. (but it won’t be terrible long either)

First, lets get the generic “This year I’m going to do ________________” type of resolutions out of the way.

2011 Resolutions (yuck, just using this word made me squirm, so typical)

• Learn Arabic (by the end of the year have a basic conversation in Arabic with my wife)
• Get back on the P90x grind and get deezed (that means getting jacked…oh that means getting big..oh…that means..get your swole on..oh that means increase my muscles by a certain number..okay when I look in the mirror I can’t stop looking in the mirror)
• Lead at least 5 financial seminars at 5 different universities and colleges. while introducing folks to the specifics of the ABCT (Austrian Business Cycle Theory)

So what have I learned

What have I learned about America
This year I’ve spent a considerable amount of time learning about how Americans have been bamboozled and hoodwinked by the political oligarchy. This pattern will continue, unless we step out of our ideological comfort zones. We spend too much time interacting with our “choirs” and less time utilizing actionable data. At this present moment, I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

What have I learned about about me
Whenever I talk about me, that means Islam. They really go hand in hand. Every year I get deeper and and deeper into Islam, and often I find something very refreshing and enlightening. Personally, I must remain on the straight and narrow, while being balanced on a humble path. Without Allah I’d be lost.

Dignity and humility is priority no 1.

What’s Next

In my heart I believe 2011 is going to be a big year, inshallah. I have lots of ideas and plans for the future. Some plans are more covert than others, but nevertheless are being planned out strategically and methodically.

The time is now to Rework.

Book Suggestions

You know I can’t finish this post until I throw some books out there. Here are a couple of “big idea” books.

It’s unfortunate, but too many Americans suffer from the disease of “over-optimism”. There is a big difference between calculated optimism, and divorcing yourself from reality. Like doing crack and expecting not to be an drug addict. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America delivers a powerful book on how America has evolved into one of the most optimistic countries, but rife with countless examples of failure. I’m not saying that being optimistic is a sin, it isn’t. it’s the cognitive dissonance that’s a problem.

This book was given to me by my boss. Well, that’s not exactly true. It was given to our team, which includes me. It’s really a wonderful book. Want to be start your own business? Want to be learn how to be a starter? If anything, this book helps you to be a productive individual within your business organization. Although the folks at 37signals are steeped in technology innovation, it’s a book that can be applied to any industry. A must read for those who are looking to be better workers and more productive. I’ve come across a lot business books, and I have not read a book like this before. Clear, concise, and full of nuggets of information that you can apply to your professional career. As Seth Godin, says, “Ignore this book at your own peril”.

Many of you have seen this book as my FB profile image. One of the reasons why America has such health problems and costs, is Americans forgot how to eat well. A culture of food production convenience has resulted in ballooning waistlines and healthcare costs. 50 percent of bankruptcies in this country are due to medical expenses. Walter Bortz attempts at asking the biggest questions about our health problems. How did we get here? Why did we get here? And how do we solve these health issues and costs? Another book that complements Next Medicine, is Micheal Pollan’s Food Rules: A Eaters Manual. Now you have healthcare policy and culture in one hand (Next Medicine), while having a guide on how to eat better in the other (Food Rules). Keep in mind that America is the only industrialized country that has such health problems. It’s not just government and medical firms screwing with you, the American public have very poor eating and lifestyle habits.