Music is a Positive Force

I had the pleasure of catching afrobeat star Femi Kuti in concert this week at the Highline Ballroom in New York. He's on tour with his Positive Force band to promote their new album Africa for Africa.

Femi is the son of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the legendary musical pioneer and political activist who stirred up Nigeria in the 1970s and 80s. Fela's music embodies the universal struggle for rights, recognition, and an end to corruption. His lyrics are fiery even when his grooves remain mellow, blending psychedelic rock with James Brown, jazz, and West African high life.

Fela's songs confront the ills he observed in Nigerian society under repressive regimes: Political conformity is ridiculed in "Zombie" and "Mister Follow Follow," peace and resources run through "Water No Get Enemy," and the spirit of resistance animates "No Agreement."

Femi upholds a lot of his father's legacy—he leads the band from behind a Hammond organ and he solos on sax and trumpet when he isn't roaming with the microphone, delivering sweet songs as well as political lectures. What really sets Femi apart from his father is the more muscular, aggressive sound he has cultivated. His compositions blare with tight, punchy horns, and crisp drumming. The tempos are mostly up, breaking only rarely into an island lilt. Femi's body vibrates with the extra energy he couldn't cram into his songs, and even his audience banter hits like a confident staccato hammer of pidgin and English.

Femi also picks up his father's political messages, which continue to resonate in Nigeria some 14 years since Fela died from AIDS complications. The demands in "E No Good" are simple: electricity, drinkable water, housing, good health care, and good pay for doctors, teachers, and police. The afflictions are laid out in equally clear terms: corruption, lies, and inequality.

"Dem Bobo" [They Misinform]

So we struggle suffer dey [here]
For this new democratic change
But the truth of the matter be say
Dem disguise another way
To continue their crooked ways
Oh yes, dem bobo

"It Don't Mean"

When you are walking down the street
Or feeling cool in your brand new Lexus jeep
Because you got money, you feeling rich
Don't mean that the poverty does not exist

As a musician who has toured, Femi sees the pattern across Africa, the same problems and same pains in different countries, as well as the luxuries like social security considered common in rich countries. Generals oscillate with presidents yet the suffering and mago mago [illegal deals] remain. Goons are interchangeable.

"Africa for Africa"

Brothers and sisters
Our countries are colonial structures
Borderlines to keep us forever separated
We must love Africa
We must care for Africa
War and conflicts will only bring suffering and hunger
African leaders must bring us together

All these songs lean more to the descriptive than the prescriptive, which is often where the artist must pass the baton. So what are the good solutions? Can countries shed "Bad Government" without shedding blood as in Northern Africa?

Femi drew a diverse crowd here in New York, with the peoples of no particular continent dominating the mix. This testifies both to the universal power of music and to the potential of cities and democracies to help people live in harmony.

Neuroscientists have discovered that brain cells fire at the exact frequencies our ears hear. What better evidence could exist that reason will eventually prevail over the petty rivalries that divide us? The vibrations outside our bodies are matched in abstract purity inside our minds, and thus shared alike from mind to mind. Pair this with an inspiring message and the people become an unstoppable positive force.

Musicians have a serious responsibility when choosing the tones and stories with which to fill their listeners. Femi Kuti honors this sacred duty, and the legacy of his father, by building a musical shrine for free spirits.

Living Like a Refugee Is Not Easy

I had the luck to catch the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars band last night in Manhattan. They formed in the refugee camps during the civil war of the 1990s, using their musical talents to stay alive and keep spirits high. They have since toured all over the world spreading their bright positive sound, which draws on a mix of influences from reggae to Nigerian high-life and American rap.

A pair of documentary filmmakers captured their story, and the band today leverages its success to help Sierra Leone recover and develop. When times are tough you have to dance, dance, dance.

Arabian Gulf, Home or no Home ? Globalization Par Excellence

So you’ve been born in an Arab gulf country but yr not a “local” or “citizen” Yr Arab or say from the Indian Sub Continent you are basically confused about your identity about your belonging you can either pin point home as where you were born and raised or you can point it out to where your parents were born and you occasionally go every summer to visit relatives among other things.

Yup You may have been to Arab schools in the countries of the Arab Gulf or lets say Indian or Pakistani schools chances are you are much easier to re-integrate back into your “original” society and you have a much easir time saying am fully Egyptian, Indian or Pakistani and people don’t find you that much different or odd or guess yr not really a local of your parents origin.
It gets more complicated if you have been studying in what so called is “international schools” which are actually most likely either American or British schools with the same curriculum Americans and Brits study in their countries. You use to listen to American or British music or both watch their movies not only speak their language but also with the same accent that’s if you were to walk in a grocery store in there the cashier wont think twice you were born in there or least brought up from childhood there. Those folks tend to be the ones more open to other cultures and more likely to have been hanging out in school with a more culturally diverse group with in school.

Other teenagers who tend to relate more with where their parents come from and perhaps don’t have that perfect westen accent and tend to have hung out n groups with people of their nationality say the Egyptian group or the Indian folks or the Pakistani lot, then they are more likely to have it easier when they get back “home”.

Its tough since you were born in the Arabian Gulf it becomes even tougher if you can speak the dialect perfectly well and on the street people would think yr a “local” or “citizen” at least that’s from my experience which partly because my khaleeji (Gulfi) like complexion. Its way tougher when you say Home is in that khaleej country but you have no rights there once yr pops retires you can never go back unless on a contract or perhaps as a tourist but unlikely since the passport owners of the countries I have mentioned have different arrangements.

Im not saying that countries of the Arab Gulf should just give citizenship to folks like us that’s would mess things up, the social political and economic characteristics of these countries. Am Just trying to show this emotional and if you may humanitarian dilemma that am partly caught in and am sure many others are caught in it like myself. Sad reality is our parents in the eyes of these governments (as a whole or as a system or in a purely technocratic vision) are only here to serve a function for material return and once yr contract is done or time to retire your function no longer exists and so you too ought to seize exiting on their lands.

And even worse the those who grew up there their entire lives who are also looked at differently in their “home countries” whom could be pretty much culturally confused or least if they are conscious of it. Then you are torn apart where am I from ? Where is Home? Ironic its probably easy for those who lived in such contexts to settle some where in the English speaking west.

And on a side note Even much more pathetic when say to Egypt your parents have been paying “Taxes” or remittances to the government ( one of Egypt’s top sources of income along with tourism and the Suez Canal) and then when you come back yr expected to sever in the military .. As “paying back your country.” when I havent been using any of their crappy pathetic worthless government provided services and my parents paying their corrupt behinds.

Perhaps this is Just my own experience and am trying to be all generalizing about it, at least am pretty sure it is absolutely the case with Arab folks as much more is culturally common with folks of the khaleej. Alhamdullelah my parrents still work Home or if you want to critically call it my “home”

I think this could open up major issues of research for specialists and students of the social sciences but this is mostly my thoughts with a twist of ranting.

peace

a Talk with a lil bitty keed in de geeym

Yah !

Alhamdullelah I love helping out folks in the gym giving them tips, adjusting the way their doing sets etc. Im more keen on folks more than their trainers that they get sometimes, who dont know shizzle or simply dont care.


This little kid came and stood beside me, as I was doing a set of cable rows, his EYES WIDE OPEN,, and saying "yanhar eswed" ( ya Black morning) sort of like OMG, and i am done as I wipe sweat of my forehead dripping a few over the bench, he s like show me your muscles,, so I laugh it off,, hes like show me your muscles .. so I bounce my pecs,, hes like waaaawww..lol ,, then hes like do like this (and he flexes his biceps) am like noooo,, bass.. he s like i what should i do here in the gym? .. am like how old are ya ? he said 12.. and i want to become tall and slim..am like drink milk and eat eggs lol.. hes like huh.. no nooo seriously.. am like yeah do that.. i do that too you know!.. hes like what do i do here ? am like nothing, go do swimming or football.. yr still young to bodybuild.. he wasnt satisfyied. i told him when r 16 come here and start.

then he feels my shoulder and says yanhar eswed again.. i tell him say mashaAllah! LOL,

which makes me wonder now.. why on earth a 12 year old wants to be tall and slim!?
when i was 12 what did I want ? I cant remember.

people usually think big guys are like nasty, when thats not the case, the biggest dude in our gym is like one of the kindest folks ever ! his arm is probably 22 inchs ,, thats like bigger than your thigh probably!

there were to girls 16 or 17 year olds makin fun of me as i was doing standing calf raises as i was growling. not to mention that the weight i had on was the heaviest the machine can sport. saying whats going on,, and teeeeeeeehehehe. I dont shout out like all of the gym can hear me but i i produce some scary noise on my heaviest sets, sort of like bruce Lee going WAAAAAAAKAAA and WOOOGGGGOOO, its to release energy, it helps!


moral of the post.. ?
BIG GUYS are not FREAKS and are NOT nasty, they are just like any other folks of which some are nasty and some are freaks.

Bizarre But True; Hijabis Join the Force

Check This Out …. (its pretty short) Muslim PoliceWomen in London can now wear hijab as part of their uniform.

I never really thought much about it, till I read the police in hijab thing, women arent really suppose to be cops anyway. Imagine women cops in Kuwait or in Dubai, the Shabab (youth) would probably just go speeding right in front of their patrol car just to get a ticket from the policewomen. Or perhaps make themselves get chased to get “Arrested” ...
Or in Cairo ? Maybe a mother in law policewoman like figure from Egyptian black and white movies would be freaking out all deh wrongdoers from doing wrong..(sarcasm)

Maybe it works in the west, It certainly would never work out here in the Arab World. Even in fairly recent years I’ve seen Law enforcement women in the Kuwaiti airport that seemed like they were more so of models.

So what exactly are those two sisters going to do when some bum snatches the handbag of a nice old lady, run after him each with a hand holding their hijab and another lifting up their abaya ??
furthermore bros could go check out the cute police sisters deliberately steal something off the street when close to them so they get chased and arrested, then tell em all about their plan, get their pop’s number and convince her later to join the housewife force?

Some sisters/folks are just so quick to put anything in "hijab" in positive light, we have now “hijabi” swimmers, Olympic runners, mountain climbers and other athletes, maybe in the future God Forbid we’ll have hijabi bodybuilders hitting the back double biceps and side chest pose ?
hijabi this hijabi that hijabi models, hijabi fashion. blah blah blah..

Unfortunately Hijab these days has been watered down to something it is not.

The prophet salla Allahu 3alayhi wa salam said;

لتتبعن سنن من كان قبلكم شبراً بشبر وذراعاً بذراع حتى لو سلكوا جحر ضب لسلكتموه" قلنا يا رسول الله اليهود "

والنصارى قال "فمن" ؟

"You will follow the ways of those before you arm by arm and hand-span by hand-span, even if so they entre the hole of a lizard you join them"They said (the Companions) the Jews and Christians? the Prophet PBUH said "then who?"

(Bukhari and Muslim)

Feminism,Counter Culture, health and looking good

I was watching Aljazeera, then I decided let me check out the Religious channels, And I came through Iqra, There were a bunch of hyper women in their mid/early thirties others a bit older in a Salon.

I was about to switch the utter shameless disgrace and tabaruj they attribute to Islam. But then, just a few words listening to them, I realized they were talking about health and weight etc…Interesting.. ?

Most of them married and were talking about how its good to look nice for hubby and what not and another older and obviously more full woman was saying NO!.. you don’t have to look great, we are being sold (by the west) that we ought to be satisfied by what we look…the culture of being satisfied by our bodies… ( as if we endorse the culture of being satisfied with not being satisfied with out bodies) we cant hormones make us like that ( FAT)…… she starves her self to diet….

WHAT UTTER DONKEY PLOP!!! Making excuses to be FAT and out of UTTER IGNORANCE !.. She got me pissed !

And then this other woman bragging about how she was always from 60 to 62 kg and when she exceeds she fixes her meals and doesn’t eat Dinner !

THEY JUST DON’T GET IT…

If you don’t eat you lose muscle too.. And yeah who said Muscles aren’t important ? They are they boost your metabolism which in return makes you burn more fat.. If you don’t eat your body simply goes into starvation mode and uses up every calorie as efficiently as possible and starts burning muscle as it slows your metabolism down and thus burn less fat in the process…am not talking about Arnold muscle am talking about descent size muscle not ping pong shoulder muscles covered with a 6 inch fat loaf.

Eating is not the problem.. Its eating the right stuff in the right quantities in the right time and you HAVE to exercise other wise yr wasting your time.. That older woman said.. They diet and then they become fat again.. And keep doing that.. Its hormones.. that’s coz they starve themselves then they give up and eat it all back again…. Exercising boosts your metabolism and allows you to eat since you burn it faster.. So you can enjoy what you eat from now to then even fatty stuff and just calorie loaded foods..

And why do they have to relate it to gratifying Hubby’s needs! As if its like bad to look nice and the big bellied perv that married me demands that I look good incase his wolverine eyes sway and look for other meat.
Not that I personally favor the model-ish sister over a more plump one.. But being healthy is a good thing and that means not having too much fat and having some muscle and working out, watching what you eat…
For those who want to get started I always say bodybuilding.com is great has a lot of info.. Often the basic principles of bodybuilding can be used to look like whatever you want.

Check this out its just on the front page of today =====>