Whats a brother got to do to get some respect?

When is nonsense like this going to end? The New Yorker magazine has just released a cartoon cover depicting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama in traditional Muslim garb and his wife Michelle as a terrorist. This is after Fox News refered to Michelle (Barack's wife of 15 years and mother of his 2 children) as his "Baby Mama").



Obama has had to finance a website out of his campaign funds to correct some of the more vicious rumours about him and his lifestyle. Heard the one about how he is really a moslem? One minute he is facing all the flack about his 'racist' pastor of 20 years and now all of a sudden he is Moslem?



When he first launched his campaign, CNN went to great lengths to show us how close his name was aligned to enemies of America in Saddam and Osama (Barack Hussein Obama). Then later we are told that he is only highly rated cause he is African American? Has everyone forgotten all the other African Americans that ran for the White House and didn't make a dent? (Carol Moseley-Braun, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson etc). When is this man going to get some respect?

A friend of mine recently when speaking of Obama said be careful what you wish for as you might get it. Should Obama win the election in November the bashing will probably get a whole lot worse.

Eye Adaba

Beautiful in its simplicity...

Eye Adaba Lyrics:

Ojumo ti mo ojumo ti momini ile yi o

Ojumo ti mo.. mo ri re o

Ojumo ti mo ojumo ti momini ile yi o

Ojumo ti mo.. mo ri re o

Eye adaba eye adaba

Eye adaba ti fo lokeloke

Wa a balemi o

Ojumo ti mo.. mo ri re o

Ojumo ti mo ojumo ti momini ile yi o

Ojumo ti mo.. mo ri re o

Ojumo ti mo ojumo ti momini ile yi o

Ojumo ti mo.. mo ri re o.. o ya

Eye adaba eye adaba eye e e e

Eye adaba ti fo lokeloke

Wa a balemi o o o

Ojumo ti mo.. mo ri re o.. o ya

Eye adaba eye adaba eye e e e

Eye adaba ti fo o n fo n fo

Wa a ba lemi o

Ojumo ti mo ..mo ri re o

E wi kin gbo se

Eye adaba eye eee

Eye adaba ti fo lokeloke loke ode orun

Wa ba le mi o o...Ojumo ti mo mo ri re o

O o o o ye e

Eye adaba eye eye... oo

Eye adaba ti fo n on fo o nfo

Wa bale mi oo

Ojumo ti mo.. mo ri re o

O o oo oo ooo O o oo o

Ewi kin gbo se O o oo o

Aah o o o oo o Oo mo ri re o

O o o o ooo o

Mori re o

Ire ire ire ooo

O o o o o

Mori re o

Eye adaba eye adaba

Eye ti fo lokeloke ode orun

Wa ba lemi o

Ojumo ti mo mo ri re o

Is this for real?

I saw the below extract from the Nigerian Guardian on nairaland.com. Apparent the Lagos state government are imposing fines for drivers and passengers for in vehicles committing traffic offences. A whopping £1,000 fine for driving the wrong way down a one way road? Wow! (Click on the image for a larger view).

Jill Scott in Allure

Jill Scott is one of five actresses (did I just call Jill Scott an actress?) who are posing nude for the May edition of Allure magazine. Now I don't even know if I had ever heard of Allure Magazine prior to 15 minutes ago but come tomorrow morning I'll be straight down to WHSmith to seek its april copy.

I must admit I'm no great fan of celebrity female nudity in film or print as I think it sets back the feminine movement about 20 years, but when it comes to my Jill all bets are out the window.

I watched the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency shown last month on the beeb and I was really impressed by her portrayal of the lead character Mma Ramostwe and I look forward to the sequels. I am still hoping to get tickets for her show in the Brixton Academy in July (hint, hint babe if you haven't got my birthday pressie yet). I'm her No1 fan (visions of Kathy Bates in Misery come to mind).

In the accompanying article Jill says "No, Naked? You mean 'naked' naked? No Way," she says. "It was a frightening concept, and I had to be convinced." At the shoot, the Grammy Award-winning singer and star of the upcoming movie and TV series, "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" (she plays the full-figured Mma Ramostwe) was apprehensive. "I didn't sleep the night before. I love to be naked when it's just me at home, but I had no idea what it would be like to take my clothes off for the camera," she says. Turns out, "it took a lot of stand there naked in front of strangers and try to be comfortable and carefree. But I did it - and I'd do it again." As for the picture, "I'm blowing it up and putting it in my house," she says. "Just not where the cable guy can see it."

Can Muslims trust Barack Obama?

The City Circle invites you to "Can Muslims Trust Barack Obama?", a conversation with Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, Blackamerican Muslim Leader and Chair of Government Relations at the Muslim Alliance of North America.

The event is organised with the Radical Middle Way.

Venue: Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, off Edgware Rd, London W1H 4LP

Time/Date: 6.45-8.45pm, WEDNESDAY 16 April 2008.

"I have never been a Muslim... am not a Muslim." That's what Barack Obama had to say after the "Muslim Smear" campaign seemed to damage his campaign earlier this year. But what if he was a Muslim? Would that be so wrong? How have American Muslims, particularly Black American Muslims, responded to Obama? With his call for change, Obama has captured the imaginations of people the world over. Is he really the one who can set America on a progressive new path - at home and abroad? With the economy in decline, Iraq in flames and the "war on terror" becoming a "war without end", the eyes of Muslims the world over on the results of Election 2008. Imam JohariAbdul-Malik will discuss these issues and more.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik is a scholar and Director of Outreach at the Dar AlHijrah Islamic Center near Washington, D.C and former Muslim Chaplain at Howard University. He is the Head of the National Association of Muslim Chaplains in Higher Education and chair of government relations for the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), an organisation committed to addressing the social, economic, political and spiritual needs that especially impact African American and indigenous Muslims. MANA has brought together for the first time the most influential Black American Muslim leaders, scholars and activists onto one platform.

Free entrance. All welcome.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti - Music is the Weapon

I remember when Fela came out of Prison in the eighties. His first release after spending 20 months in prison was Teacher don't teach me nonsense proving he was still defiant, despite all the attempts of succesive Nigerian Governments to keep him quiet.

Where man and governments failed to keep him gagged, AIDS succeeded. In 1997 at the young age of 58, Fela passed away and his brother the former Nigerian Minister for health announced his death to the Nation and the World.

I wish Fela had lived another 20 years to excite us with his defiant songs and potent lyrics. I wonder what he would have made of Obasanjo & Yar Adua's regimes.

BFI Southbank are showing the movie "Music is the Weapon" tomorrow from 1:30pm. The film is a documentary featuring interviews with Fela and some of his performances at the "Shrine". For more information about the showing click here. I certainly recommend you make it down there if you can, in memory of the legend that was Fela Anikulapo Kuti - Baba 70.

Australian Apology to the Aborigines

A week has now passed since the Austalian apology by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the Aborigines and I am amazed at how little news coverage the event seems to have garnered in the UK.

Most of us will remember the Toyin Agbetu fuelled controversy in the UK at a service in Westminster Abbey last year to commemorate the bi-centenary of the abolition of the slave trade.

Kevin Rudd says the symbolism of an apology is important, but my guess is that the british government disagrees for as far as Britain's involvement in the transatlantic Slave trade is concerned all they are willing to give is an expression of deep sorrow. Its still so hard to apologise.