I’ve been such a lazy blogger.  I said blogger!!  It’s been nearly two years since I last posted a blog entry and boy does that seem like long time ago now.   Tony Blair was Prime Minister, bankers were revered and celebrated and Jose Mourinho and Martin Jol were respectively the managers of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.  So much has happened in the last 20 months, in the world and in my own life, that it’s hard to take in.  The biggest thing undoubtedly has to be the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.  So much has been said about that historic decision of the American people that I will not add to it here, but back in June 2007 I did not in my wildest dreams believe it was possible.

The highlight in the Griot’s life has to be being awarded an OBE in the 2008 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.  People’s reactions were very interesting, most were absolutely overjoyed for me and to be honest I found the out-pouring of joy and congratulations overwhelming.  So many people said so many wonderful things, mainly along the lines of how richly deserved it was, that I spent the majority of June 14 in tears (yes, I cried).  I received excited phone calls from all over the place, including Nigeria, the US and Acton.   There were a few alternative reactions however, one was a fella who said that as far as he was concerned OBE stood for “Other Buggars Efforts” and there are two people I considered close who have still yet to acknowledge the award in any way.  Then there was my own reaction to the fact that I had been nominated to become an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.  I loathe the idea of empires, the vast majority of people that are absorbed into them suffer.  So how was I to reconcile myself to it?  The first thing was to recognise that it was not just an award for me, but also for my magnificent colleagues who have worked so hard to create a truly exemplary organisation.  LEAP is special, I have not yet learnt how to describe it to do it justice and it is a place that you have to visit to understand.    I often tell my colleagues that they are heroes and I wanted them to know that I knew that they contributed to all the charity’s achievements, so in a way,  the “Other Buggars Efforts” man was right.  The other thing I did was to make an adjustment in my mind, to the title.  By considering it the Order of British Excellence as opposed to Empire, I was comfortable with it and then wished only that my mother was alive to see it.  The whole thing was the culmination of quite some turnaround.  Here was the man formerly known as Darkie Duper (4^th choice MC of Danny King Hi-Power sound system), Stretch from Acton and someone who as a teenager was once told by a foaming at the mouth Policeman that I was “nothing and would always be nothing,” up for a gong.  All of this preamble leads me to my main point which is my life has changed from back in the day, I’ve moved forward, not in turns of financial attainment necessarily, but amongst other things in terms of circles that I am able to access.  I have gone from moving with the “man dem” to having met the last 2 Prime Ministers, more Ministers of State than I can remember and his HRH Prince Charles 3 times.

Tuesday this week was a perfect example.  I was invited to a dinner in a private room in an extremely expensive restaurant in Mayfair. The place was outstanding in every way but it was over-shadowed by the quality of my company for the evening.  I very much felt like the odd one out around the table.  Try and picture it.  There’s me (and if you know me you’ll know I have quite a broad London accent and have still not learnt to be completely comfortable in environments that do not see a lot of Black people), there is a brilliant 25 year old woman who is the head and founder of a foundation that is raising governance standards across a continent and has on her Board people of the quality of the former President of Ireland; there is one of the founders of the world’s first online bank , a man whose new venture has been selected as 2008 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in Davos and then there is our host, the man who is paying the really expensive tab (thank you, mate) who runs an exciting new media company that has access to the corridors of power and who is primed for real success after spending years as a journalist at national newspapers and also being an editor. 

It is so obvious why I was the odd one out, right? Absolutely, I was the only one of the three that worked for a charity. It was lovely to be around the table with them, discussing amongst other things Mr Pioneer’s plans to develop and support millions of the brightest children in Africa so that they can achieve their potential.  All of us around the table were British and, as I’m sure you guessed, all of us around the table were Black.  The strides that have been made by Black people in this country have been huge, and this dinner reminded me of that.  Yes, there is still a way to go, but we all too often focus on what we don’t have and therefore forget what we do have…many shiny examples of what hard work, talent and focus can achieve.  It is the like of my dinner companions that lead me to refuse to accept the “I can’t do that, because I’m Black” mantra that I often hear from some of the young people I encounter in the course of my work.  I refuse to collude with their belief that their hue is in and of itself a barrier to them progressing, it is not, despite the existence of racism.  Young Black people in Britain have something that we never had, which is living proof in whatever field that they may choose to think of, of Black British achievement.  A firm foundation has been laid and I both encourage and expect our young people build upon what has gone before and take the progress to new heights.  I look forward to it.

Peace

The Griot

Besides issues that directly affect the Black community in Britain, of which of course there are many, one of the things that I find myself most passionate about is the Middle East.  Its probably because it’s the region of the world, where I can see strong parallels between the behaviour of the West now, to that of their predecessors in relation to Africa half a millennia previous.  In the year or two leading up to the invasion of Iraq, I found myself riveted to the 24 news outlets on satellite or the internet.  This interest led me to conclude, well over a year before the actual invasion and with the US and UK denying that they wanted to invade, that Iraq indeed would be invaded and occupied.  I have maintained a watchful eye on Iraq, although not with the intensity of before, because I think it’s the biggest British foreign policy disaster of my lifetime and that it will have an effect on the lives of all Britons for years to come.

Anyway, in the last few months, the intense seeking of news has been back.  Not on Iraq, but on the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.  This has been going on since last year and culminated in fierce fighting last week and Hamas eventually routing a numerically superior and better armed Fatah in Gaza.  I couldn’t tear myself away from the TV over the weekend watching the events unfold and President Abbas setting up a new emergency Government of Fatah supporters and independents, which was immediately recognised by the US and others.

What one thinks of Hamas is irrelevant, the elections were ajudged to have been fair by international observers.  The Palestinian people elected Hamas and the US and the international community have punished them ever since.  It seems that democracy is only respected if the ballot results in a winner acceptable to the West.  But why did the Palestinian people elect Hamas?  They did so because they were fed up with the corruption that was endemic under Fatah.  None of this matters to the West and they have continued to try and circumvent the will of the Palestinians and impose Fatah on them.  They even took to arming Fatah to try and assist a military coup over Hamas, but contrary to the script Fatah lost in Gaza.  The vast majority of the media have reported things rather differently, Hamas’ election victory is never mentioned nor is the fact the West ensured that Hamas could not properly use their mandate by starving them of funds.  What we are presented with is a story of Hamas being the ones who tried to stage a coup, for which they will be punished with further isolation and starvation, while the West will present Abbas as a true democrat and his new and subsequent governments as legitimate. We are also presented with a picture of Palestinians as a people who are their own worst enemies, who would rather fight each other rather than concentrate on trying to secure a State for their people. Unless one has paid particular interest to the situation over a long period, it is easy to accept this as the truth.

It’s not hard to imagine how these geo-political machinations would have been played by the world powers of 500 years ago.  Let us move from the Middle East to Africa.  Its easy to see how one African leader would be set up against another, how the favoured leader would be given weapons to defeat his rivals and capture prisoners of war who would be sold to the sponsors, how the overwhelming majority of the population would suffer from and despise the internecine fighting and how the world powers would not care less, being concerned only by what they wanted in Africa, slaves.  Such world powers would not admit to their populace, their downright greed and wickedness and would instead spin a version of events that saw the Africans themselves take a disproportionate share of the blame for their own enslavement, leading to their descendants being divided spiritually and emotionally, as well as geographically.    Nah!  Don’t be stupid, Griot, they’d never be able to manage that.

Peace

The Griot

I’ve never known a year like it.  Knife crime and gun crime are both increasing on the Britain streets with devastating consequences. Young Black males being killed by young Black males on London’s streets has now become a dreadfully common occurence.  What’s it all about? Territory? Poverty? Lack of role models or as PM Blair says “a  distinctive Black culture”?

All of the above play a role, in my opinion, although I’m uncomfortable with agreeing with the Prime Minister, because I feel we are likely to be coming from different places even if the headline may be the same.  The particular Black culture that is being glamourised and promoted on media outlets that are not Black owned, so its not just our responsibility.  The Black community has to go to Government for the resources which are necessary to address this complex issue, so the Government cannot just increase Police patrols to deal with the aftermath, the causes have to be identified and addressed by society as a whole.  Although, the vast majority of the victims are Black, it is the same madness that resulted in the senseless and brutal murder of Tom ap Rhys Pryce, so it is not just our problem.

I believe that there is one thing that should be included in any serious discourse about the destructive and violent thread running through the Black youth culture in Britain’s streets, yet is, for the most part, absent.   In my opinion, any honest discussion on the greater propensity of Black youth to kill each other than other communities, would have to consider the affects of chattel slavery on the Black psyche.   Having a common enemy, and in our case that should be racism, is usually enough to bind a community together however tenuously.  It doesn’t do that, for young Blacks, even though they share a greater likelihood of being excluded from school, being unemployed or imprisoned.  I refuse to accept that we are genetically predisposed to be this way, but instead its something we learn, we learn that our greatest enemy is someone who looks just like us and is just as low on the foodchain as we are.

I am including a link to a brilliant short film that will give you an insight in the self loathing that Black people have, that contributes to Black youth killing each other so readily.  I know this is an American piece and that it focuses on young females, but it is equally relevant to Black people (males and females) in Britain.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk_x7s3QiYk

Lets get that discussion going.

Peace

The Griot

I have a lot to say and I’m taking my opportunity to say it.  I am very interested about things that affect black people in Britain, but I am also interested about other things too.

I’m starting a journey today and its going to take me to many places.   As we say round my way, “I’m trying a ting”.  I hope some of you come along for the ride, your participation and comments will be what make this happen.

Peace

The Griot