Black in the Age of Obama

by CHARLES M. BLOW


A hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Dickens opened “A Tale of Two Cities” with the now-famous phrase: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. ...”

Those words resonated with me recently while contemplating the impact of the Obama presidency on blacks in America. So far, it’s been mixed. Blacks are living a tale of two Americas — one of the ascension of the first black president with the cultural capital that accrues; the other of a collapsing quality of life and amplified racial tensions, while supporting a president who is loath to even acknowledge their pain, let alone commiserate in it.

Last year, blacks dared to dream anew, envisioning a future in which Obama’s election would be the catalyst for an era of prosperity and more racial harmony. Now that the election’s afterglow has nearly faded, the hysteria of hope is being ground against the hard stone of reality. Things have not gotten better. In many ways, they’ve gotten worse.

The recession, for one, has dealt a particularly punishing and uneven hand to blacks.

A May report from the Pew Research Center found that blacks were the most likely to get higher-priced subprime loans, leading to higher foreclosure rates. In fact, blacks have displaced Hispanics as the group with the lowest homeownership rates.

According to the most recent jobs data, not only is the unemployment rate for blacks nearly twice that of whites, the gap in some important demographics has widened rapidly since Obama took office. The unemployment rate over that time for white college graduates under 24 years old grew by about 20 percent. For their black cohorts, the rate grew by about twice that much.

And a report published last month by the Department of Agriculture found that in 2008, “food insecurity” for American households had risen to record levels, with black children being the most likely to experience that food insecurity.

Things on the racial front are just as bad.

We are now inundated with examples of overt racism on a scale to which we are unaccustomed. Any protester with a racist poster can hijack a news cycle, while a racist image can live forever on the Internet. In fact, racially offensive images of the first couple are so prolific online that Google now runs an apologetic ad with the results of image searches of them.

And it’s not all words and images; it’s actions as well. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2008 hate crimes data released last week, anti-black hate crimes rose 4 percent from 2007, while the combined hate crimes against all other racial categories declined 11 percent. If you look at the two-year trend, which would include Obama’s ascension as a candidate, anti-black hate crimes have risen 8 percent, while those against the other racial groups have fallen 19 percent.

This has had a sobering effect on blacks. According to a Nov. 9 report from Gallup, last summer 23 percent of blacks thought that race relations would get a lot better with the election of Obama. Now less than half that percentage says that things have actually gotten a lot better.

The racial animosity that Obama’s election has stirred up may have contributed to a rallying effect among blacks. According to a Gallup report published on Nov. 24, Obama’s approval rating among whites has dropped to 39 percent, but among blacks it remains above 90 percent.

Also, this hasn’t exactly been a good year for black men in the news. Plaxico Burress was locked up for accidentally shooting off a gun in a club. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was locked up for intentionally shooting off his mouth at his own home. And Michael Jackson died after being shot full of propofol. Chris Brown brutally beat Rihanna. Former Representative William Jefferson was convicted. And most recently, the “personal failings” of Tiger Woods portray him as an alley cat. Meanwhile, the most critically acclaimed black movie of the year, “Precious,” features a black man who rapes and twice impregnates his own daughter. Rooting for the president feels like a nice counterbalance.

However, the rallying creates a conundrum for blacks: how to air anxiety without further arming Obama’s enemies. This dilemma has rendered blacks virtually voiceless on some pressing issues at a time when their voices would have presumably held greater sway.

This means that Obama can get away with doing almost nothing to specifically address issues important to African-Americans and instead focus on the white voters he’s losing in droves. This has not gone unnoticed. In the Nov. 9 Gallup poll, the number of blacks who felt that Obama would not go far enough in promoting efforts to aid the black community jumped 60 percent from last summer to now.

The hard truth is that Obama needs white voters more than he needs black ones.

According to my analysis, even if every black person in America had stayed home on Election Day, Obama would still be president. To a large degree, Obama was elected by white people, some of whom were more able to accept him because he consciously portrayed himself as racially ambiguous.

In fact, commiserating with the blacks could prove politically problematic.

In a study to be published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences this month, researchers asked subjects to rate images of the president to determine which ones best represented his “true essence.” In some of the photos, his skin had been lightened. In others, it had been darkened. The result? The more people identified him with the “whiter” images, the more likely they were to have voted for him, and vice versa.

The Age of Obama, so far at least, seems less about Obama as a black community game-changer than as a White House gamesman. It’s unclear if there will be a positive Obama Effect, but an Obama Backlash is increasingly apparent. Meanwhile, black people are also living a tale of two actions: grin and bear it.


Once again the bullet is proud to present New York Times Columnist & nationally known commentator Charles M. Blow with several hundred words of blistering political commentary: I invite you to visit my blog By The Numbers, join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me at chblow@nytimes.com.

Three Classifications of Defector That You Need to Understand

by Brenda Lee


Based on the countless stories I’ve heard from those who have exited the organization, the best way to leave the Watchtower/Jehovah Witnesses, and possibly keep your Jehovah Witness family unit and friendships intact, is s…l…o…w…l…y (and methodically—i.e., have a plan). Currently, there are three categories of leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses and I have listed them from least severe to most impactful. They are as follows:


1) The Fader: Jehovah’s Witnesses are typically less hostile towards the ex-member who simply “faded away.” The reason? They consider that person the least threatening to their spirituality (i.e., indoctrination). What does it mean to “fade”? It means you simply stop associating with the congregation, forego meetings and do NOT express any opinion about the Watchtower organization’s teachings one way or the other. Once you “fade,” no matter how much you are encouraged to do so by other Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is imperative that you never share your thoughts with another Jehovah’s Witness (good or bad), unless you truly don’t care whether or not you are ultimately shunned. If you do share your thoughts or show any signs of independent thinking (i.e., too many questions or concerns), you will find yourself being involuntarily moved by Watchtower elders into category #2, below. In category #1, as a fader, your family typically will NOT be expected to shun you.


2) The Disassociated One: This is the person who innocently answers the elders’ inquiry: “Do you still want to be known as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses?” The thing you must understand is, in asking this question, the elders are trying to determine if you are disassociating yourself so that they take action to instruct the congregation to shun you. Above all else, do NOT respond to any questions like this. If you answer “no,” that is all they need to adversely impact your life. In this category, your family is expected to shun you. Whether or not your family shuns you (or gets away with not shunning) depends upon how closely your family follows the nuances of the organization’s changing rules and how well the leaders within your home congregation monitor your family dynamics. Still, The Watchtower organization expects family members to shun loved ones whether that person ‘disassociates’ or gets kicked out for some perceived sin.


Here’s the thing most Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t even realize: The whole shunning policy wasn’t that stringently enforced prior to 1981. Since then, however, and subsequent to the whole shakeup at headquarters involving the disfellowshipping of Governing Body member Ray Franz (author of “Crisis of Conscience”) Jehovah’s Witnesses have been taught that there is no difference between being disfellowshipped for “sin” and disassociating from the organization. The expectation is the same—shun your beloved family member. Confused? It simply means this:


DISASSOCIATED=DISFELLOWSHIPPED. CONSEQUENCE FOR EITHER=SHUN.


For any Jehovah’s Witness who challenges this policy, refer to the September 15, 1981 Watchtower magazine (p. 23-24): "Persons who make themselves not of our sort by deliberately rejecting the faith and beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses should appropriately be viewed and treated as are those who have been disfellowshipped for wrongdoing." This was the very magazine my family used to justify their shunning of me back in 1981.


Also refer to the more obvious and current April 15, 1988, Watchtower magazine which states: "By also avoiding persons who have deliberately disassociated themselves, Christians are protected from possible critical, unappreciative, or even apostate views." "shunning would be appropriate... for anyone who rejects the congregation [of Jehovah's Witnesses]."


3) The Disfellowshipped One: This is the person who is kicked out of the Watchtower organization (excommunicated), i.e., removed involuntarily. The justification for this usually involves some perceived ‘sin’ incurred by the now-defunct member (what constitutes a ‘sin’ is determined by the leaders and can include challenging their authority related to policies of sexual abuse, shunning, etc.). In this category, your family WILL be expected to shun you. If they do not, they too can be disfellowshipped from the organization and find themselves being shunned by other Jehovah’s Witnesses.


In the case of #2 and #3 above, congregation elders are instructed to “mark” you as trouble at the first sign of doubt or outright rebellion and disfellowship/shun you quicker than you can say, “OK, OK, I repent already.” Marking is a technique the organization uses to ensure other members begin avoiding you. You, essentially, are seen as a leper. You are always free to TRY to return to the Watchtower organization, but if you want to return, it involves you jump through some major emotionally abusive hurdles (that requirement alone is another topic for discussion).


One piece of advice I always give Jehovah’s Witnesses who are thinking of leaving is: Make sure you establish some outside friendships before you fade away. That way, you will have a lifeline when the waters get turbulent. In addition, read everything you can so you can educate yourself about this organization. Google words such as “spiritual abuse,” “thought reform,” “cult dynamics,” and “former Jehovah’s Witnesses.” It will help validate whether or not you’re making the right decision. Understand what a dysfunctional church looks like.


Your family may try to impose guilt, induce shame, and levy threats to get you to return to the Kingdom Hall (KH). Don’t fall for any of it. You have the right to question what you are being taught. Remember, all cult leaders say that they have The Truth, The Way, The Light, the Sole Channel to God.


Just to show you how ridiculous the criteria for excommunications have become, in 2005 Joel Jahn, Washington (USA), was disfellowshipped because he questioned the validity and morality of the organization’s policy that there must be two eye witnesses in order for the child to be believed if the child makes sexual abuse accusations against another member. His concern seems reasonable, doesn’t it? What child has two eye witnesses around when they are being sexually abused?


Consequently, Jahn’s family shunned him. His sister-in-law is reported to have said in the Oct. 17, 2005 Davenport Times: “I pretend he’s not there, like he’s someone I don’t know…We have beliefs that we know are in the Bible, but he caused you to doubt what you think. When we had get-togethers, I really didn’t want to be with him because of his attitude…I feel protected now.”


Joel described shunning as “religious abuse.” Joel’s wife, Linda, who wasn’t disfellowshipped is also feeling the effects of being shunned because her family sees her as a woman married to a man they consider a sinner. Linda remarked, “We’re supposed to be dead in their eyes. Why can’t we have the freedom to change our religion without losing our family?”


It is shocking, then, for former members (like me who has been shunned by my mother, sister, brother and nephews/niece for nearly 30 years) to read something so blatantly hypocritical from the Watchtower. I’m referring to the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society’s July 2009 Awake! magazine in which the Watchtower writes in an article titled, “Is it Wrong to Change Your Religion?”


Lee is a regular bullet columnist who has appeared as a regular on the TV documentary The Secret Lives of Women "Cults" segments. She has written several pieces in our starting rotation but her first essay for the bullet was on Mothers Day "An Author's Reflection on Mothers Day..." She overcame her mother's (mis)using religion like a scalpel in a power-mad effort to break her will, only to write a powerful book of revelation and triumph.

Psalm 151: A Prayer for Jamaica

Psalm 151, A Responsive Reading for the New Year (2010)
















Basil Waine and Stephanie Hisako Kong


Leader: O LORD God of hosts, how majestic and magnificent is Your name.
Congregation: Our father, strong and mighty, incline Your ears and hear our prayer.

Leader: We stand in awe of Your miraculous creations, particularly the splendour of the Island we call home. You are our light and salvation.
Congregation: In our distress, we cry unto You because our souls are hungry for Your wisdom, guidance and intervention.

Leader: Trouble is everywhere and we are consumed with grief. The wicked kill innocent men and women. Our land is polluted with blood. A stubborn and rebellious generation who do not keep Your commandments torment us.
Congregation: All night long we flood our beds with weeping and drench our couches with tears. Our eyes grow weak with sorrow.

Leader: We are desolate and afflicted as desperate violent men have united against us.
Congregation: Leave us not to our oppressors. Deliver us quickly out of the hands of the wicked and declare Your glory among the unbelieving. But instead of turning your hand against our adversaries, we ask that you forgive them and turn their hearts and minds from crime.

Leader: Let those who hate You submit to Your commandments. Let them be born again, never to return to folly.
Congregation: Bring us out of our distress. Have compassion on Your affliction and deliver us Almighty God, We put our trust in You.

Leader: You keep your promises Almighty God and You said the needy will not be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish. You are a refuge for the oppressed, the ever present stronghold in times of trouble.
Congregation: Your promise is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our paths. Your words are sweeter than honey to our mouths!

Leader: You promised that You would never ignore the cry of the afflicted and that those who know Your name will never be forsaken.
Congregation: We shall wait on You and not be weary. We shall be of good courage as we lift our hands to You in supplication. Let not evil triumph.

Leader: Almighty God, many are our foes that rise up against us. In their arrogance, wicked men hunt down the weak who are caught in the schemes they devise. They compass us about like angry bees and wasps.
Congregation: As a nation, we have become corrupt. Criminal gangs have joined with gunmen to do abominable deeds. Their mouths are full of curses, lies and threats. Their victims are crushed under their strength.

Leader: How long shall our enemies be exalted over us?
Congregation: As our rock, our fortress, our deliverer and our strength, we call upon You to save us from our enemies.

Leader: Make the wicked come trembling from their garrisons. While we seek no personal revenge as You proclaimed with righteousness: “Vengeance is mine!”
Congregation: While You pledged unfailing kindness for your anointed, Iniquities prevail in all of us. You know our reproach, shame and dishonor. We pray therefore that You purge these sins from us.

Leader: Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses. Remember not the sins of our youth. But according to thy mercy forgive us for our many transgressions.
Congregation: We are merely strivers to be pure in heart, trying to keep ourselves from sin and to live by Christian principles.

Leader: We acknowledged our own sins against You, and our iniquity we will not hide. We confess these transgressions with the faith that you will now forgive us.
Congregation: Forsake us not O Gentle Savior. Teach us to do Your will and lead us into the land of uprightness, integrity and truth so that sinners will walk from darkness into the light and become gracious and full of compassion for our fellow citizens.

Leader: Watch over the righteous, bless us and surround us with your favor as with a shield and make the nation our inheritance.
Congregation: Defend us from those who rise up against us. Place a shield around us and restore glory on us so we can lift up our heads.

Leader: Order our steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over us. Deliver us from the oppression of sinful men.
Congregation: Let the lying lips of the wicked be silenced and call them to account for their sins so they may terrify us no more. Let those who dig holes fall into the pits they make. Let the trouble they cause recoil on them. The violence they perpetuate come down on their own heads.

Leader: For those of us who have done evil. We ask thy forgiveness and mercy. We repent of these sins.
Congregation: Take away, O Lord, the desires and propensities of the wicked to be violent and the unrighteous to give thanks unto Your name. They are also our sons and daughters and You are the father of us all. But what has a man gained if he owns great wealth and loose his soul?

Leader: O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.
Congregation: Give us relief from our distress and be merciful. Let the light of Your face shine upon us and give us peace.

Leader: We lay our requests before You and wait with expectation.
Congregation: Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Leader: If You be for us, who can be against us? You only are the strength of our lives. If we trust in You, who shall we fear?
Congregation: From You come blessings and deliverance from wickedness. We will give thanks and sing praises to You, our LORD Most High, for You have kept Your promises and dealt bountifully with us.

Leader: We make a joyful noise unto You and come before You with thanksgiving. Your mercy is everlasting; and Your truth endure forever.
Congregation: May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be forever pleasing in Your sight O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Leader: Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for You are our constant companion. We promise to never let go of your hands.
Congregation: You prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies, exalting the righteous.

Leader: Save Your people, and bless our inheritance. Feed us until we want no more. Turn our mourning into dancing.
Congregation: Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us as we put our faith and trust in You. Put off our sackcloth, and gird us with gladness. We will join all those who are upright in heart to sing a new song and shout for joy.

Leader: Let truth, peace and prosperity return to Jamaica so that the land may yield her increase and our children inherit a new land.
Congregation: You water the land and provide us with a rich harvest of fruits, vegetables and grain.

Leader: You cause the grass to grow for the animals, they multiply greatly and herb for the service of man that we may bring forth food out of the earth. O LORD, how manifold is Your works! The earth overflows with riches. So is the great sea that caresses us, full of Your bounty,
Congregation: From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. May Your mercy endure for ever:

All: Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen. Amen. Amem.


Bullet Columnist Basil Waine Kong has written several pieces for this journal and especially likes to expound on his favorite subject: his beloved Jamaica. He is a former Atlien (resident of Atlanta GA), and was the CEO of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) for 22 years before his retirement in 2008 to return to Jamaica. This article is reprinted with his permission from his blogsite; Coming in From the Cold... Bob Marley

40th Anniversary of the Assassination of Fred Hampton

Why was this young voice silenced... in such a horrible, dishonorable, cowardly way? Why was he so feared? Here are several video clips I selected to remind us he was one of the last true voices against injustice in America. Use them as a blueprint.

Where Were You on December 25th 2 B.C.E.?

Jesus was crawling, but buy your kid a toy anyway.
(article reprinted from 12/04)


















by Chris Stevenson


It's that time of the year again, the time to focus on the one man who saved the world and preached salvation and peace. Lets talk about Jesus the Christ. It always seemed strange to me that a good percentage of people on this planet are obsessed about focusing so much attention on the infancy of someone who performed all of his phenomenal tasks while in his early thirties. But I recently saw the Christmas episode of the "Bernie Mac Show," and it brought back a certain feeling in me. Coming up as a Jehovah's Witness, it's well-known we didn't celebrate holidays, I however had Christmas Spirit through the simple prohibition of Christmas-as had many other JWs-it's well known now that Jesus wasn't actually born on 12/25/02 BCE (at some point a pre-Christ-era pagan festival called "the birthday of the unconquered sun" was observed on that particular day, and was then promoted as Jesus birthday years after his crucifixion. "Unconquered sun" no-doubt becoming confused with son), and other ethnic-based movements have since made themselves a Christmas alternative, based mainly on the same principle of sharing and giving that many see as being overshadowed by selfishness and commercialism with Christmas. My feeling today simply is, who cares about the nitpicking over dates, changing Santa's name to Satan, and all the other lame excuses? Buy your kid a Big-Wheel this week and shut the hell up ya cheapskate.

I detect a little apprehension of dealing with Jesus while he was an adult. Some of this is due to the economic and educational status of those who choose to revere or worship Jesus. If I ask you to think about a car, those used to driving luxury cars will picture a Mercedes, Cadillac, Lexus, or an expensive SUV, those of us who are poor, will picture a used Ford Escort. So too with historical representations of Jesus, most people even today don't like to ponder the words of the Christ, as a result the poor will permanently relegate Jesus to permanent infancy, because in many ways most of us are permanently childish ourselves. Others among us more educated will deal with a more adult Jesus, but only on our own terms. The rich have little or any dealings with Jesus at all, except they're the ones who produced the last pigmentation of Christ.

While many issues surround Jesus in regards to his actual date of birth, the true origin of the Christmas holiday, whether Christ was a separate being or 1-in-3 of a triumvirate, and of course, what was the actual skin color of Jesus while he was on the earth, one thing is certain; Jesus walked the earth 2000 years ago, he's been White now for roughly a thousand years. Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of the Christ" was just the latest in a long line of passionately gratuitous White Christs, it made him go from playing a suicidal cop seen sticking the business end of his automatic in his mouth, to arguably one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. Few realize whose image Gibson specifically based his on-screen character on. It was Anne Catherine Emmerich's novel "the Dolorous Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ." Emmerich (1774-1824) was a 19th Century German nun.

One reviewer described "Passion" star Jim Caviezel's casting as stereotypical: "I submit to you that a White European Jesus is nothing but a sellout...Jesus wasn't a six-foot-plus White anglo-saxon male model from Great Britain... but more accurately a short-to-average height middle eastern arimitheic Jew (think Arabian in appearance), much darker skin, hair which was probably cut short, and calloused hands-a carpenter living in the Middle East 2 millenia ago." Columnist William Rivers Pitt asked a burning question: "Why would Mel Gibson make a movie about people in the ancient Middle East and cast it with so many White people?... Now to suggest that Jesus shared a genealogical heritage and physical similarity to the people sitting in dog cages down in Guantanamo is to dance along the edge of treason." One female talk radio host on Baltimore's WOLB had what I thought was an interesting Oprah-esque take on a lot of Black callers concern as to whether Jesus was Black: "Black people are not interested in seeing their own blood like that, we see it every day. Do you think Whites are interested in seeing Blacks suffer like that onscreen? Blacks weep when Whites suffer, when Blacks see Blacks suffer, we say, 'he must have done something.'" In other words the Sister enjoyed the flick, and refused to let some trivial skin color issue stand in her way.

As I've written before, Jesus skin color is not really of prime importance, except that Whites have changed it, and historically used it to add more weight to the structure of institutional racism. This is very sad when you consider what Jesus was all about, most religions like to note Jesus evangelizing skills because it benefits the churches, but Jesus never belonged to a church or religious organization. Nor was he trying to build one. Some of his more notable lesser-known qualities was that of the following, Child Advocate Jesus: (Catholic Bishops take Note) "But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Ethics Reform Jesus: "And the Jews passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting, and when he made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables, and said unto them that sold doves, take these things hence, and make not my father's house an house of merchandise." Financial Auditor Jesus: "And he saith unto them, whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him. Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." Jesus the Nationalist: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gatherest her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." And just plain Dissin' Jesus: "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?"

I leave it to you to figure the scriptures I used. I really don't think any Christian or Jewish faith has the complete truth regarding what Jesus wants us to do, mainly because most religions always figure out a way to ask for more than what God asks for. These faiths are so scrambled today, that even if their basic doctrines are correct, they are losing out on the human relations end. Christmas on the other hand is constant, it never changes, only the consumer has changed. Please have a happy, and safe holiday. If you don't observe, have a happy day off.


Chris Stevenson is a syndicated columnist, his articles also appear in the Buffalo Challenger. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook, you don't have to join either. Respond to him on the link below.

Obama’s to Fix

by CHARLES M. BLOW


In October 2008, the candidate Barack Obama delivered a major economic speech in Toledo, Ohio. In it he said: “Right now, we face an immediate economic emergency, and that requires urgent action. We can’t wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling right now — who don’t know if their job or their retirement will be there tomorrow; who don’t know if next week’s paycheck will cover this month’s bills. ... We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle-class, and we need to do it not five years from now, not next year, we need to do it right now.

“So today I’m proposing a number of steps that we should take immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities and help struggling homeowners. It’s a plan that begins with one word that’s on everybody’s mind, and it’s easy to spell: J-O-B-S.”

“Right now,” “immediate economic emergency,” “requires urgent action,” “can’t wait.” Wow! He gave the impression that job creation would be his top priority, that action would be swift and effective, that his solutions would not only stanch the hemorrhaging, but reverse the trend.

Fast forward. On Friday (11/6), the Bureau of Labor Statistics released unemployment figures for October 2009. The official rate was 10.2 percent, up more than 50 percent from the time Obama gave that speech. Oops, nevermind.

(By the way, the underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who want to work full time and those who’ve given up searching, is a staggering 17.5 percent.)

Job creation has dropped from top priority to one of many, and President Obama has been remanded to pandering for patience and offering excuses. On the one hand, he argues the tortured rationale that there is good news in the awful numbers: Things are still getting worse but at a slower pace. On the other, he incessantly reminds us that he inherited the crisis. The implication: Don’t blame me, blame Bush.

But this president can’t keep deflecting to the last one. Pain is presently felt. The crisis that took form on Bush’s watch is being experienced on Obama’s. Fair or not, finger-pointing is not effective policy.

This is now Obama’s crisis, and it carries political consequences. During [Election Day's] gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, nearly 9 in 10 voters said that they were worried about the direction of the nation’s economy in the next year. And the majority of those who held that view voted for the Republican candidates. This could portend a flashback to 1994.

It isn’t President Obama’s fault that he inherited this mess, but it is his to fix, and he must make haste. To paraphrase his Toledo prelection: you need to do it not five years from now, not next year, you need to do it right now. J-O-B-S.


Once again the bullet is proud to present New York Times Columnist & nationally known commentator Charles M. Blow with several hundred words of blistering political commentary: I invite you to visit my blog By The Numbers, join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me at chblow@nytimes.com.

Land Reform in Jamaica

Can Jamaica become a major food exporter?















Basil Waine Kong, Ph.D., JD


If Jamaica is to ever to achieve prosperity, security, freedom from dependence on foreign aid and dominance from abroad, we must seize the opportunity to forge a strategy for ourselves and for future generations where the rule of civil law, not the rule of the jungle governs the conduct of our people. To this end, it is our duty to try novel social and economic experiments that allow Jamaicans to reap economic benefit from the sweat of their labour. One such “experiment” may be to bring our agrarian expertise into full swing by promoting the growth of exportable agricultural products to the world.

An abundance of vacant, fallow land is available in Jamaica and can be used to plant exportable crops and to decrease the amount of food that we buy from other countries. This precedence effectively addresses many of our social and economic ills. The planting and reaping of profitable harvests by putting more land into production with available workforce will decrease the number of Jamaican citizens who are idle in our cities. My grandmother was fund of saying: “Idle hands become the work of the Devil.” This is borne out in the high crime rate that plagues us.

It is in the best interest of Jamaica to implement significant land reform for the purpose of increasing food production and reducing poverty. The purpose of a proposed land reform should be to bring about a more equitable distribution of land ownership and access to land. This can be brought about by changes in laws and regulations as a scheme to increase the acreage under cultivation, increase output, meet the growing shortage of food worldwide and at the same time reduce poverty and crime in Jamaica? A land of abundant rainfall, sunshine, fertile soil, expert cultivators, access to huge markets and relatively cheap labor is ripe for a guided agricultural revolution. I was impressed that as a boy we could just stick a limb from a tree into the ground and it would grow into another tree.

The contrast between rich and poor in Jamaica arises mainly from the mal-distribution of land ownership and the lack of access to land by poor Jamaicans. As a result, many Jamaicans do not have access to land that would promote self employment. So, both land and an able bodied labour force are idle, kept apart by outdated laws, customs and bad tax policy. The land certainly should be taxed (site value rating) but not the improvements made to the land and the products reaped from the land for the 1st year of usage. We need to take the incentive out of keeping land out of production and create a graduated taxation or tariff on production after the immediate needs of the farmer have been considered.

Due to extremely low real estate taxes coupled with the increasing value of land, it is currently profitable for entrepreneurs to buy land, take it out of production, pay very little taxes, and eventually resell the land at a significant gain. Baring capturing the land, current landowners have little incentive to either develop their property or make it available for agricultural production or industrial development. On the other hand, potential farmers do not have access to arable land for cultivation. In their desperation and frustration, many of them move to urban areas, survive under deplorable circumstances or turn to crime to subsidize their livelihoods.
The goals of the proposed program are to:

1. Increase the acreage of land that is used for food productions.
2. Increase the number of Jamaicans willing to be farmers.
3. Provide subsidies to cultivators for seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and farming equipment.
4. Increase food production (Eat what we grow, grow what we eat) and provide an avenue for market access to farmers to sell their produce.
5. Increase food exports (a government body would guarantee the prices of various food items and prepare and package them for export).
6. Promote the production of canning and packaging plants.
7. Reduce unemployment and promote self employment through farming and provide jobs in the packaging sector.
8. Increase home ownership of the land that is used for farming.
9. Reduce crime by employing young men and women who are now idle in the urban areas.
10.Increase the quality of life for unemployed Jamaican workers through employment and financial empowerment.
11.Increase taxes after subsidizing these farmers for three years.

Further, I recommend that we examine existing laws, regulations and customs relating to land ownership and land tenure. Preventive legislation needs to be removed and new incentive based legislation introduced to:
1. Increase taxes on land that is not being used to incentivize landowners to at least rent the land so it can be productive.
2. Take land where taxes are more than three years in arrears.
3. Relocate unemployed citizens from urban ghettos by reallocating them to land that is laying waste and providing adequate housing to incentivize unemployed citizens to relocate; (Food for the Poor has demonstrated that adequate housing can be built on 10 acres of land for less than J$500,000 per unit. How much does it cost to keep a man in prison?)
4. Adjust Real Estate taxes so that existing homesteads are not adversely affected;
5. Monitor recipients of these land grants to make sure these opportunities are not squandered.
6. Favor married couples.

We have before us the opportunity to forge prosperity for ourselves and for future generations of Jamaicans. A key strategy on our war on poverty is to help individuals to own something and have an investment in a lawful society so they will have an investment in protecting the property and interests of their fellow citizens. The true test of our compassion is in the way that we care for our most vulnerable citizens. We can have a true democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both. The same law for the lion and the lamb is oppression. In order to treat some people equally, we must treat them differently. This is not a gift or a hand-out; it is an investment in our citizens.

To this end, I recommend that our government form a task force to explore the merits of this proposal immediately. The more we are able to put forth realistic ideas, the more of a chance we have for a true reformation and referendum of the current economic policies that is failing our country and our people. In the words of Franklin Roosevelt: "I see on-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished...The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

This land is our land. Let's put it into production! While I believe that property rights must be carefully safeguarded, I also believe that poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere.


Bullet Columnist Basil Waine Kong has written several pieces for this journal and especially likes to expound on his favorite subject: his beloved Jamaica. He is a former Atlien (resident of Atlanta GA), and was the CEO of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) for 22 years before his retirement in 2008 to return to Jamaica. This article is reprinted with his permission from his blogsite; Coming in From the Cold... Bob Marley