Ideaswithoutborders

By Mohamed Ahmed

There has been a boom in crimes in the last 40 years. in 1970 there were 280,000 prisoners in the U.S. by the new millennium there were 2 million prisoners. In the early 1980’s Tennessee investors with close friends in the legislative branch saw a business opportunity in privatizing prisons. Their plan was use venture capital ( its a financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies) to build new prisons and to lease them to states like a hotel for a profit-making endeavor.

There has been severe criticism from human rights’ activists, accusing these companies of corruption, corrosive incentive and resemblance to racist practices in the old Confederate States of America i.e. convict leasing ( this is where you use prisoners for free labour).

% in U.S. Population % in prison, jail

Whites 66% 34%

Blacks 13% 40%

Latino 15% 20%

Other 6% 6%

Truth is there will always be crimes, but that doesn’t make it justifiable if the system is working for generating revenue and not for correctional purposes. The danger behind this that todays prisons work like a hotel. hotels make money by the number of beds they lease every night. The more the empty beds the more you lose money. Good hotels also make sure you come back frequently and stay as long as possible. If a prison is run under these same policies then it doesn’t take a genius to notices the faults. This has to be brought to light. To have a better future for the next generation we have to solve these problems now.

To stop this from happening please petition this issue through online petitions or call your local legislators because trust me these companies have people lobbying these law makers everyday and even though the public doesn’t have the money to hire lobbyist, we do have the votes and we can threaten to deny them those votes.

By Jeremy Patterson

The United States government once served as the center of white supremacy, but do these Eurocentric racist ideals still exist in our criminal justice system. Our nation has deep historical roots of policing, prosecuting, imprisoning, and executing Black Americans. The criminal justice system was originally created in response to the abolishment of slavery. The south wanted to develop a penitentiary system that could legally nullify the 13th amendment (Abolishment of slavery and involuntary servitude). Directly after the Civil War, Black Americans were often imprisoned (for little or no reason) and sold by the government to private parties such as plantation owners, railroad and coal companies for their sentence length. This system was called convict leasing and ended in only 1928.
The progression of time led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed major forms of discrimination such as Jim Crow laws and Black Codes. As a result, a colorblind society has been created and the notion of the removal of race rhetoric in policy and institutions is the removal of racist ideals. The dramatic escalation in criminalization and incarceration is the start of the association of Black America and the word ex-convict or criminal. The reproduction, recirculation and reception produced by institutions, such as media, acts to reinforce and normalize the portrayal of Black Americans as criminals. The ability to critically think has been blocked by colorblind lenses that accredit the high presence of Black Americans in the penitentiary system to an individual problem vs. structural or systematic.
The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world (over China). There are a total of 3,300 jails, 1,500 state prisons and 100 federal prisons. The annual average cost per inmate is $47,000. Inmates are often given the opportunity to work for 25 cents to one dollar per hour. One in every eight Black men between the ages of 25 and 34 is in prison or jail. One in three Black American men are under some sort of correctional supervision and approximately 50% of all prisoners are Black, 30% are White, and 17% are Hispanic. More than 90,000 prisoners are women, and they are overwhelmingly women of color. Black American women are 3 times more likely than Latinas and 6 times more likely than White women to be in prison. These Incarceration rates are negatively correlated with employment rates of Black America. The $146 billion dollar per year criminal justice system is a self-perpetuating system of profits from cheap labor, private and public supply, job creation and media profits from exaggerated crime reporting and crime punishment entertainment. Politicians and lawmakers have ensured an endless supply of clients from the disproportionate police presence, racial profiling, decreased funding for public education combined with zero-tolerance policies and mandatory three-strike sentencing. As a result the consequence of a felony can result in the loss of an individuals 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment rights, which is the same rights as a slave. So is slavery over for Black America?

Unlike you’re average descriptor, whose description of the Horn of Africa is the customary doom and gloom, I’d like to simply address assertations of the so-called failed state in the far East of Africa from the perception of a Somali-born 18 year old.
I have two aims in writing this. First, that little is written to understand the failure of Somali Peacebuilding efforts which equally also make the nation a byword for the term “failed state”. And also ranks highest at that according to what they call the ‘Failed States Index’ in some magazine columns.
Second, news of wars and pictures of civilian victims have always aroused my emotion and many others might share this sentiment and would therefore merely like to recognise the grievances of a people that I deeply associate with in Language, religion, culture and much more.

It’s safe to say that too often we casually use the term “failed state” without grasping the true meaning and nature of phrase and most importantly what constitutes as a failed state. Many readers would be quick to react and fairly enough with the fait accompli comments: Well yes, Somalia is ranked as one of the world’s poorest, most violent countries, plagued by warring militias, bandits, and pirates. Accurately enough, this is true.
Now, I do not intend to get into the literal analysis of the phrase itself, but that’s always an open-discussion.
Failed state or not this, in regard to Peacebuilding efforts, brings us to the matter of the recently held London conference 2012 on Somalia that took place in the British capital of London. Which also frankly left many Somalis, I included, unconvinced. The international community’s approach to building peace in Somalia is confused. Thus, Peacebuilding efforts have been based on organising Peacebuilding conferences outside the country and often before the outcomes of a peace conference have been implemented the next one is being organised!

In many of the previous countless peace conferences nothing of substance has been done to construct the Somali state. And it is of course this statelessness that is the source of the country’s conflict and grievance.
Shortly after the beginning of the crisis the international community abandoned Somalia at a time when a major famine was building up and people were dying in large numbers and this, I can openly say, exposed absence of good will on the part of faction leaders, and lack of genuine and active involvement from the outside world.
I understand it is not fair or reasonable if you may say, for me to express a cynical attitude towards Peacebuilding efforts in my country but I can undoubtedly only put across a popularly held notion among many Somalis eagerly awaiting the outcome of the London conference. Of course the major concern with the conference being, legitimizing a parallel intervention whereby, the EU, African Union, and other faces of the international community each do their own thing which would only increase the confused approach towards Somalia and further destroy the little ‘Soomalinimo’ (Somali nationalism) left.

The existing fact of the common corruption of the leadership of Transitional institutions, namely the current TFG in Somalia, is also one that many of us choose to overlook. But it is these people who will attend and did attend the conference at Lancaster house earlier this week. At the same time we are aware that in much of Somalia our cultural traditions are not compatible with the constructs of a modern state and there are many highly respected elders, men and women, in different civil society organizations. They, however, will not be invited.
It should therefore come as no surprise to the international community that its continued failures and efforts towards re-establishing a viable Somali state over the last two decades are neither accidental nor due to bad luck!
So perhaps what these great conferences should focus on is bringing in some Somalis who essentially represent the real interests of the country and the grievances of the people and usher off politicians into luxurious hotels or better yet, out of the scenery.

-Naima Ali

Beautiful black bodily outline

Goddess like gifts bestowed upon her

Like a burden or a curse.

To hide or to accentuate the curves?

She exudes confidence in every single stride of her walk

While inwardly battling her image.

From her “pointy” hair down to her uncolored toe nails

She is a walking controversy.

The men! They do not understand the appreciation of woman.

That it should not come from the “intelligence” of their extra extentions

but from the genuine sincerity of their heart

That it should overlook the “size of her melons” or the firmness of her posterior.

Are they scared to immerse into the reality of her being?

That would make them cowardly!
Contrary to the oh-so-important image they would like to preserve.

Are they blind?

So blind that they are oblivious to the lining of strength in her eyes,

The taste of compassion in her food,

The feel of love in her tears?

Are they stupid?

Do they not understand that in that pretty little head lies intelligence,

And cunning beyond imaginations?

Are they naïve?

Can they not see that her way, the innocence of her motives,

Paves the way to the creation of a more peaceful society?

No! They are just unaware

Of the meaning of woman,

Of the impact of woman,

Of the importance of the womb,

Of the pain of the monthly drip,

Of the beauty if it all.

By Tsedenia Tewodros.

By Mohamed Ahmed

Never has war been about protection of citizens in any country, it has always been business and business only. First of, it takes money to hire soldiers to buy guns, ammunition, food, and transportation etc pretty much everything that has to do with war costs money. The sole reason why war comes about is money anyway. Never in the history of mankind has there been disagreement between two parties that was over legit reasons. The U.S. government says they went to Iraq because Saddam Hussein was about to posses weapons of mass destruction, but the only way the American public would buy that was there to be an attack on American soil. They had the public scared and angry to support them. Now i’m not saying 9/11 was an attack perpetrated by the U.S. government but you wouldn’t put it passed them either. The lives lost on both sides were really tragic and my condolence to all the people who lost loved ones.

In addition to the 150,000 troops the U.S. had in Iraq there were 100,000 shadow army troops, a company called ‘Blackwater’ was the supplier. I could tell you all about Blackwater but I would rather you watch the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqM4tKPDlR8

If 40cents of every dollar goes to private military contractors and the U.S. defense budget is just under a trillion dollar, well that means blackwater gets just under $400billion. A close friend of the Bush administration is the head, he is a right wing conservative named Eric Prince. I guess its alright to kill people so long as you get 2/3 of the U.S. congress to approve it.

I am not accusing anyone of anything I just chose to think independently and not rely on the mainstream media whom are useless. I just chose to think outside the box.

We take in one long, deep breath…collectively

Hold hands in remembrance of our troubles

Afraid to let out the smallest sigh…

We watch!

We watch as Africa struggles to prove a point

For this is more than just football

For WE are more than just fans.

We are blood, joined by the common understanding

that winning is not about putting a rubber ball inside a net

That vuvuzelas are not just about the nuisance they produce

Joined by our understanding that this depicts our progress,

Our step by step catabolism; from soil to statue.

The players tell the stories with their movements,

The fans with their tears,

The children with their dances!

We are here to stay.

Written by Tsedenia Tewodros,

Photos By Mohamed Ahmed.

Does the sun set, no son…the sun just left.
You’r moving too slow so it left your ‘behind’ behind.
Ungracious mind never makes up time, time just winds, it creeps up like a mindless child, so move your behind its already quarter past nine,
get on that train and make that dime.
The wind just blows and let the fruits ripe slow, life hands me blows right down low.
My eyes start to glow, I wonder if i’m starting to grow?
Water is so sweet but yet cleans your butt cheeks, grows the good trees and washes the bad deeds,
water is life indeed,
I wonder why people starve to death so much water why the greed?
water runs steep but blood runs deep so i’ma stand for my own until I stop to breath!

By Mohamed Ahmed

This is a reflection of personal experiences and feelings about the occupy movement. My interactions with my peers and family members have lead me to believe that there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about this movement. I want to start by operationalizing a definition of the occupy movement, what is the occupy movement and what is it about? . It is humanities united struggle for real democracy, individual rights and the respect for human life and living conditions, including our own environments. This mass direct action started as a fight against corporate banks charging people for debit cards and checking accounts and led to the bigger picture of the battle of the 1% vs. the 99%. Also people often ask well who are the 1%, the 1% are a household that make 375 K or more per year. The 2.5% are a household that makes 175k annually. The average household income in the United States is 45k annually. This common theme of the rich dictating decisions that affect our rights, environment and life has started an array of different occupy movements. These movements range from occupying for clean air, education, immigrant rights, foreclosures on homes, prison system to the policies that influence structures and institutions we all deal with on a everyday basis. The inequalities and health disparities that still exist due to socioeconomic status and race or ethnicity need to come to an end. The subtleness of structural and institutional racism are underlying affects from the 1%. We as humans are often told we are so many things, often creating separation between us from the categories that we are placed in. The occupy movement breaks those boxes and limitations of working with people for greater standards for people everywhere. The title of this article is occupy your life, whether you have joined or criticize the movement, there is still a need for you to stand up for your morals, your rights and break free from an individualistic approach. Sometimes in our life we need to stand up and break laws that bring inequality to create equality. Be conscious of the world around you and its influences and work to make your community, your world a better place. Occupy your life.

By Jeremy Patterson.