Live Exercising

 

Q: Is it okay to exercise during Ramadan?

AM: There is nothing wrong with exercising during Ramadan, as long as you exercise during the earlier morning hours so you have time to drink some water before the sun comes up. Or you may choose to exercise after the sun goes down. I definitely wouldn’t recommend exercising at 8 in the morning and then not drinking water after your workout. You risk dehydration and harm to your body if you do not replenish what is lost after your body has released fluids through sweat. So you can get an early start, turn off the TV and exercise.

Exercising early in the morning may mean you will have to spend from 8-9 p.m. or 9-10 p.m. reading your Qur’an before going to bed. Also utilize times that you would normally drink something during the day and your breaks at work as a time to read the Qur’an–study and reflection, instead of sport and play. Keep in mind that Ramadan is a cleansing time to also give our bodies a mental and spiritual workout. It is a time to discipline ourselves by abstaining from food and drink during the daylight hours. Nevertheless, if we practice Ramadan properly, drinking a couple glasses of water in the morning to help us get through the day, we should have no problem performing our basic daily activities.

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Ramadan also helps us, as followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, to get back on track (if we have strayed) to our one meal a day and practicing “how to eat to live.” We are exercising and strengthening our will during this time. Let us use it wisely. May Allah bless us all with success in our righteous endeavors.

Please consult a physician before beginning any new workout or dietary plan.

Decipher Ancient Texts

 In October 2023, an email arrived on papyrologist Federica Nicolardi’s phone with an image that would transform her research forever, according to Nature. The image showed a fragment of a papyrus scroll that had been burnt in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The latest results revealed a strip of papyrus packed with neat Greek lettering, glowing bright against a darker background. “It was incredible. I thought, ‘So this is really happening’,” said Nicolardi, according to a report by Nature. She knew right then that papyrology would never be the same.

The breakthrough was part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a project that utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to decipher ancient texts that had remained unreadable for centuries. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, and his colleagues tackled the task of reading the Herculaneum scrolls, which could not be seen at all, utilizing neural networks to detect ink patterns on the fragile scrolls, according to gadgets360.com. The Herculaneum scrolls were part of a cache of papyrus rolls buried and carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which wiped out the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 CE. The scrolls were discovered in the remains of a luxury Roman villa in Herculaneum in the eighteenth century, as reported by National Geographic.

In the spring of 2023, a college student named Luke Farritor, now 22, found himself riveted by a podcast as he drove to his SpaceX internship in Starbase, Texas, according to National Geographic. The podcast hosts were describing a competition with the goal of reading a 2,000-year-old scroll without physically unrolling it. “A lot of things about it were really compelling, the biggest one being that you're going to potentially discover a new library from the ancient world, and that's a big deal,” stated Farritor, according to a report by National Geographic. While focusing on space travel in his day job, Farritor, a computer science major, devoted his nights and weekends to the Vesuvius Challenge.

Contestants in the Vesuvius Challenge had to develop their own programs to interpret existing 3D scans of the coiled scroll, with the virtual-unwrapping step being the bottleneck currently limiting the data they had to work with, as reported by Nature. The main challenge in reading the Herculaneum scrolls was to virtually flatten the documents and distinguish the black ink from the charred remains to make the Greek and Latin writings legible, requiring the charting of subtle physical variations to detect writing on the charred material, according to Mundo Deportivo. The scribes of Herculaneum used carbon-based ink, invisible in scans because it had the same density as the papyrus, as noted by Nature.

In February 2024, a grand prize was awarded: computer science students Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger received $700,000 for producing 16 columns of clearly readable text, as reported by Nature. The winning team used a TimeSformer model, a variant of the transformer model usually used for videos. They relied on this neural network to reveal text attributed to an ancient Greek philosophical work. “We will have 400 columns of Greek text to read,” said Nicolardi, noting the challenge for papyrologists in managing the volume of text produced, as reported by Nature.

Scholars who study ancient societies oscillate between enthusiasm and doubt regarding the use of artificial intelligence to translate documents written thousands of years ago, according to Folha de Sao Paulo. There is no doubt that the technology can already do a lot and will advance enormously. The debate has focused on the technical potential of AI and whether it can substitute human work.

Researchers are using neural networks to tackle ancient languages for which only a small amount of text survives. Katerina Papavassileiou at the University of Patras and her colleagues used a recurrent neural network to restore missing text from 1,100 Mycenaean tablets from Knossos, Crete, as reported by Nature. Papavassileiou hopes to use models trained on Linear B to tackle Linear A, a script used by the Minoan civilization that shares many symbols with Linear B but has never been deciphered.

Seales noted that the success of AI in these applications underscores its role as a complement to human expertise. “What AI is doing is giving the papyrologists data to work on which they could not otherwise have,” stated Richard Ovenden, head of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, as reported by Nature. He added, “It's making their work more important than it has ever been.”

As AI continues to evolve, its impact on science and technology promises to reshape our understanding of the world, with potential breakthroughs in decoding lost languages and exploring underground libraries, as reported by Nature. Researchers emphasize the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and open-source data to ensure transparency and replicability in AI applications for ancient texts, according to gadgets360.com.

In archaeology, AI models have accelerated the discovery of geoglyphs in Peru’s Nazca Desert, including symbols that had gone unnoticed by archaeologists.

Gerrard Skillz

 

Micky - Best ft. R-One

President Bush in

GAY MEN IN HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES

 

Source: Facebook photo

An Introduction

My client sat in the chair looking down at the floor, glancing up briefly to make eye contact, then darting his eyes back to the carpet. He spoke quietly, as if almost afraid to be heard. He clutched his hands throughout the session, displaying all the markers of an anxious man in the throes of shame. He was a new client to my practice: a married, middle-aged, suburban dad with a high-powered career. A colleague had given him my number months before. It took him a long time to muster the courage to call and make an appointment. Towards the end of our first session he looked up at me and said, “I think I’m in love…with another man. I’m scared and I don’t know what to do.”

I have worked with hundreds of gay men in heterosexual marriages struggling with being in the closet or wanting to emerge from it. There is so much about these men that is misunderstood and very few studies or little literature to provide insight. I decided to share my thoughts and research about these men and their struggles at a conference a few years ago. That presentation led to other opportunities to tell their story and of my work with them. Those presentations prompted men to write to me looking for guidance and support. My work with these men is informed by my own research, the experiences of my friends, but largely from over 20 years of working with men living two lives. Many of these men have been on a quest for an authentic life. These are some of the most courageous people I have encountered. They have decided to leave their secret selves behind and in the process heal old wounds, recover from past traumas and live wholeheartedly as gay men.

Maybe you are a man struggling with these issues and have no one to talk to and feel alone. I hope this blog series will provide some solace to let you know that you are not alone. Perhaps you are a therapist seeking to help your clients with these issues. I hope this series of blogs will be a resource to you and to those you are helping.

For those of you who want to understand more about these men, I’d like to give you some insight into their interior lives. Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine living your life with a secret, one that you have guarded closely for many, many years, possibly starting from childhood. A secret you keep from your spouse, your children, family, friends and co-workers. You may have built a whole life on top of and around this secret. You fear that if you reveal this hidden part of yourself you will be harshly judged, shamed, ostracized or abandoned. You believe you have a lot to lose. At times you may contemplate embracing this hidden self, living as a whole, authentic person. But with that contemplation comes the fear that if you embrace this part of yourself your world could unravel and come crashing down around you.

If you are a gay man in a straight marriage you are not alone. Let’s look at some numbers: In the 1970’s, Masters and Johnson discovered in their research that 23% of gay men and women had previously been in a straight marriage. Recent studies conducted by the Family Pride Coalition reveal that 20% of gay American men are married to a woman. In 2011, demographer Gary Gates found that of the 27 million American men married at that time, 1.6%, or 436,000 identified as gay or bisexual.

Since they were little boys, these men have been conditioned by their parents and society to try and fit into a straight mold. These boys often recognize that there is something different about them as compared to their male peers. Other boys may notice this too, leading to bullying and harassment. This leaves the gay youth feeling deep shame which becomes unexpressed and internalized. Parents often initially make the assumption their son will be straight. The programming and conditioning begins early. Parents may recognize that little Timmy is “different” yet not know how to respond to him or reject him. A father may distance himself from his son. Consider that the father is the first man the young gay boy will fall in love with and want to become attached to. If the father emotionally rejects him, it will be the boy’s first emotional betrayal. Some boys may then bond deeply or become enmeshed with mothers who overcompensate in protecting the boy. If the gay youth has no mentors, role models or people that accept him as he is, he will further wall off his homosexuality or only allow that part of himself to come out in secret.

Over the course of this blog series, I will bring some clarity and insight about this population. For those gay men in straight marriages I hope this series can offer some validation to your experience.

I will explore the reasons why gay men enter into heterosexual marriages, look at the dynamics of mixed orientation relationships and how to begin to help lead a more integrated and fulfilled life. A series on this subject would be sorely lacking if it did not address the trauma and complex emotions that the wives of these men experience once there has been a discovery or a disclosure that a husband is gay.

In the next blog in this series we will look a bit more into who these men are and why they choose to marry women.

Student Debt

 

https://marynesther.wordpress.com/2025/01/01/minister-don-muhammad/

Senior citizens with student loan debt traveled from around the country for the second time to tell President Joe Biden to cancel student loan debt for borrowers over 50 years old before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

This group faces significant financial challenges,  many delay retirement, neglect health concerns, and can’t pay their bills.  Many older Americans feel embarrassed, ashamed and hopeless about their mounting debt. According to the Biden administration, a third of seniors with student loan debt were in default. 

Millions of seniors took out student loans to pay for their education as they changed careers. Increasing numbers of parents, especially those who are Black, rely on Parent PLUS loans to finance their children’s college education.

Direct PLUS (Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students) loans, commonly called “Parent PLUS” loans, make up $104 billion of the total federal student debt.

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Detroit resident, Becki Wells, attended the December protest at the Department of Education.  She has student loan debt at over $230,000 from sending two children to college.

Concept of financial literacy and education. Graduation cap on gold coins and rising red arrow isolated on white background.

Speaking at the demonstration, Ms. Wells told the crowd, “We hail from Detroit’s inner city. Yet, I successfully raised two responsible, healthy individuals who contribute positively to society and are now productive, tax-paying citizens.”

The protesters believe President Biden can easily cancel this debt before he leaves office.  The Federal Claims Collection Standard Act, under Section 902.2, authorizes the Department of Education to forgive loans for elderly borrowers, considering their age and the probability of repaying the debt during their remaining years.

The combined federal and private student loan debt in the United States amounts to $1.75 trillion, spread across approximately 42.8 million federal borrowers and an estimated three million private borrowers. Many voted for President Biden because he pledged at least $10,000 in student debt relief for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year.

The government tried to fulfill this promise, but in June 2023, the Supreme Court stopped the program. Despite this setback, the administration provided student loan debt relief through focused initiatives rather than a broad-based approach. These efforts resulted in nearly $175 billion in debt relief for 4.8 million borrowers.

However, little, if any, of that relief came to seniors. The protesters are all members of the Debt Collective, the first union of debtors in the country. In September, the group protested outside the White House.

They contend that death should not be their only option for debt relief. While in Washington, they also spoke with various congressional representatives and officials from the Department of Education.

Maddie Clifford, creative media strategist for the Debt Collective, has over $120,000 in student debt.  She stood in front of a group of senior student loan borrowers and told the crowd in front of the White House, “The fastest growing demographic of student debtors right now are borrowers that are 50 and older.

This issue, the student debt crisis, is affecting people from multiple generations. I’m standing here (in front of the White House) because behind me, we (other protesters) collectively owe over a million dollars in student debt. What have we done? We decided to go to college.”

She continued, “That was our only decision. We decided we wanted a piece of an American dream, and we’re being penalized for it. We’re being punished.  These are really important issues because we also know that older debtors have contributed so much to the community.

They are beacons of light in their communities. They have sacrificed to keep their communities afloat, and yet they’re worried about how they’re going to make these student loan payments.

Sometimes they’re $1,000 a month. Sometimes they’re $1,500 a month. There’s no way they can pay them, so sometimes they have to default.  Older borrowers, 50 and older are also more likely to default on their student loan payments.”

She explained that for seniors, death is the only comprehensive student debt relief plan.  Further, “the federal government doesn’t even need these payments. They know that they won’t be able to collect the debt from these borrowers, and yet they’re still punishing them. 

Student loan borrowers represented by the people behind me are also overwhelmingly women, are also disproportionately Black women,” said Ms. Clifford.

A study conducted by the Urban Institute revealed significant racial differences in student loan delinquency rates among older adults. The research showed that older individuals residing in predominantly American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), Black, or Latino communities were more likely to fall behind on their loan payments.

While the overall delinquency rate in the representative national sample stood at eight percent, it was considerably higher in communities with a majority of AIAN (15 percent), Black (13 percent), and Latino (10 percent) residents.

Fundamental systemic obstacles play a significant role in perpetuating these inequalities. Despite achieving equivalent educational qualifications, people of color often fail to reap the same financial rewards from their academic accomplishments as their White counterparts.

Notably, women from diverse ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately concentrated in positions offering lower wages and inferior working conditions compared to White males with similar educational backgrounds. This pattern results in a compounding disadvantage that persists throughout their lives.

At 52 years old, Tricia Louise Keffer traveled from Niceville, Florida, to Washington, D.C., to participate in the protest. She explained to Truthout and In These Times that she has accumulated $200,000 in student loans from a landscape architecture master’s program that was advertised to only cost $35,000. 

She believes President Biden’s refusal to follow through with his campaign promise to cancel debt felt like being ​“thrown out in the cold, into a freezing iceberg of death. … We don’t know what’s going to happen with the next administration. Am I going to be thrown into a debtors’ prison?”

Leahy Law

 

Palestinians and Palestinian Americans on Dec. 17 filed a lawsuit accusing the U.S. State Department of creating a “loophole” allowing Israel to skirt federal legislation barring American military aid to foreign militaries that violate human rights law.

The lawsuit, which was filed by five individuals and supported by the group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), accuses the State Department and Secretary of State Antony Blinken of violating the Leahy Law, legislation passed in two parts in the late 1990s that built on the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961’s proscription of U.S. military aid to foreign security forces that commit gross human rights violations.

According to DAWN, the suit “documents how the State Department has created unique, insurmountable processes to evade the Leahy Law requirement to sanction abusive Israeli units, despite overwhelming evidence of their human rights violations” including “torture,

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Prolonged detention without charge, forced disappearance, and flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, and security, such as genocide, indiscriminate and deliberate killings, and deprivation of items essential to survival, including food, water, fuel, and medicine.”

Case plaintiff Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American from the southern Gazan city of Rafah who has lost numerous relatives in Israeli attacks, told Zeteo’s Prem Thakker, “I’m hoping, through this action, through this lawsuit, that we can just call out the federal government to begin to enforce American laws.”

The State Department has sparked international outrage by repeatedly finding that Israel is using U.S.-supplied arms in compliance with domestic human rights law, citing the key ally’s right to defend itself and the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

However, Israel’s 438-day retaliation has left more than 162,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing in Gaza and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened. Thousands more have been killed or maimed in the West Bank.

South Africa is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Both men have been warmly welcomed in Washington, D.C. Congress and the Biden administration have approved tens of billions of dollars in arms transfers to Israel. U.S.-supplied bombs have been used in some of Israel’s most notorious airstrikes. The U.S. has also vetoed numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding a Gaza cease-fire.

“This lawsuit demands one thing and one thing only: for the State Department to obey the law requiring a ban on assistance to abusive Israeli security forces,” DAWN executive director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement on Dec. 17.

“For too long, the State Department has acted as if there’s an ‘Israel exemption’ from the Leahy Law, despite the fact that Congress required it to apply the law to every country in the world. As a result, millions of Palestinians have suffered unimaginable, horrific abuses by Israeli forces using U.S. weapons.”

Stephen Rickard, a former U.S. official who helped pass the landmark legislation, said that “long-standing concerns that the State Department was not cutting off aid to specific Israel units as required by the Leahy Law … have been given dramatic urgency by the tragic ongoing crisis in Gaza.”

“If the State Department will not comply with the law, then it is time for the courts to vindicate the rule of law and order it to do so,” Rickard added.

The new lawsuit came a day after relatives of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi—the Turkish American woman who, according to witnesses, was deliberately shot in the head while peacefully protesting the expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank in September—met with Blinken in search of justice and accountability for the activist’s killing.

Referring to another American activist killed by Israeli forces while defending Palestinian homes, Hamid Ali, Eygi’s widower, said that Blinken “was attentive in listening to us, but unfortunately repeated a lot of the same things that we’ve been hearing for the past 20 years, particularly since Rachel Corrie’s killing.”

Ali called Blinken “very deferential to the Israelis,” adding that “it felt like he was saying his hands were tied and they weren’t able to really do much.”

A journalist asked State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller during a Dec. 17 press conference why the U.S. has not suspended arms transfers to Israel by invoking the Leahy Law and citing the cases of victims like Eygi or Shireen Abu Akleh—

The Palestinian American Al Jazeera correspondent who, according to witnesses and several independent probes, was deliberately shot dead by an Israeli sniper in the West Bank in May 2022.

“We have taken those cases extremely seriously,” Miller claimed. Referring to Eygi, he added that he made it clear to Israel that “her death was unacceptable, that it should have been avoided, it should have never happened in the first place, that we want to see the results of their investigation, and we want to see them change their rules of engagement.”

In October, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin threatened to cut off weapons to Israel if it did not dramatically improve human rights conditions in Gaza within 30 days. Thirty days came and went with no discernible improvements, yet the arms flow continued.

On Dec. 17, 20 progressive lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives led by Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas) sent Blinken and Austin a letter arguing that “the United States government must suspend offensive weapons” shipments to Israel due to its violation of federal and international law.

“U.S. law is clear: If the Netanyahu government does not allow sufficient food and medicine to enter Gaza, then the U.S. cannot send weapons,” Casar wrote on social media.

Trials

 

It seems as though when Allah (God) wants to elevate you, He first tries you with tribulation, with suffering and with deprivation. You may ask why would Allah (God), who loves us, try us like this? You would think that if Allah (God) is your friend and you are the friend of Allah (God) that He would make your life easy.

But He does the very opposite. There is no prophet that has ever been sent into this world that has not had a life of suffering and not a life of ease. If you tell me that you believe in Jesus, and I know you do, and you declare to the world that Jesus is the Son of God, and I know you declare that, then what father would treat his son in that manner?

You wouldn’t do that to your son. But Allah (God) saw fit to do that for a big purpose. The religion doesn’t start at his (Jesus) birth and it doesn’t start during his ministry. We take the calendar from the time of his suffering.

We don’t start the calendar of Islam with the birth of Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH) or even from the day of his first revelation of the Qur’an. It starts from the time of a death plot and his flight to escape death. It seems that Allah (God), in His wonderful way of doing things, puts on us affliction.

He wants to know, do you love anything or anyone more than you love Him, since He is our Creator. And since everything we have is from Him, not from ourselves, then He will try us by whatever we have that we love and put before Him.

He tried Abraham by his son: Take him up on the mountain, Abraham, and plunge a dagger into his heart. I don’t know what Abraham went through to decide to obey Allah (God). But his obedience to Allah (God) made him the friend of Allah (God). Abraham loved his son but he didn’t love his son more than he loved the Father, the God, the Creator, so he took his son up on the mountain.

I read something once where Satan came to Ishmael (Abraham’s son) and said, “boy, he’s not planning to sacrifice a ram up there—it’s you.” But the boy never rebelled. He said if that’s what pleases Allah (God), that’s what pleases him. He didn’t fight his father; He laid on the alter.

As the father was about to plunge the dagger into his heart, Allah (God) stayed his hand and He said, here is the father that loves Me enough to kill a son that he had been longing for. And here’s a son that loved Me enough that if the father said that this is what (God) wanted my father to do, it’s all right with me.

Then Allah (God) said His covenant would not only be with the father; His covenant will also be with the son. He used them as a sign of a Father who would sacrifice a son and make him a redeeming agent for humanity.

Trials are necessary to bring out of you what is hidden within you. What Allah (God) has put within each human being does not come out without struggle. If you think life should be easy, you need to rethink your position.

If you think that because you go to church and tithe that Allah (God) shouldn’t bring misfortune into your life, yet the prophets that went before you and were greater than you and I, had misfortune in their lives.

When affliction comes, you wonder, why me? Why should I have cancer? Why should my child die in an accident? Why should these children have died in the fire? You (God) could have stopped it. Why did you (God) let it happen?

We have to rise above our emotion and question Allah (God). He’s the teacher. He said, didn’t I give you authority over all my creatures? The chicken wants to live; the lamb wants to live; the cow wants to live.

Maybe the horse doesn’t want to be ridden today, but you ride it. So are you any better? If Allah (God) puts the lower lives under our subjection, then our lives are for Allah’s (God’s) purpose and will. There is no life that leaves here that doesn’t leave with a purpose.

I believe that from Mississippi will come the greatest leaders, the greatest teachers and the greatest preachers because you are victims of the greatest tyranny and oppression in the history of the United States of America. Out of that suffering, Allah (God) brings greatness.

It is out of suffering that the creative power is unleashed. If you don’t suffer, you can’t create. So don’t run from your pain, run to it. Don’t run from your trial and don’t turn your back on your struggle. Allah (God) says in the Qur’an that He created man to face difficulty.

If you turn your back like a coward because you don’t want to face the trials and tribulation that life comes up with—you’d rather drink yourself under or smoke yourself under, you’d rather commit suicide rather than to face difficulty—then you disbelieve in the Power of Allah (God) to change any reality, no matter how harsh that reality may be.

Allah makes the righteous

Everybody is not a child of Allah (God). Satan has children here, too. We hope that Allah (God) is our Father, but he doesn’t have to be. Mother, you can’t make a righteous child.

I don’t care how good you are, how good your husband is or how much Bible you read, you cannot make a righteous child. All you can do is put the tools there. Only when Allah (God) steps in and takes your child does your child become a child of Allah (God).

Jesus had an argument with some Jewish people in that day, according to the Bible, and they were claiming that “Allah (God) is our Father. Even Abraham is our father.” And Jesus said: “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” (St. John 8:39)

They said to Jesus, even God is our father. And Jesus said: “If God were your Father, you would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.” (St. John 8:42)

He told them: “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.” (St. John 8:40) “Ye are of your father the devil … He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (St. John 8:44)

He’s separating children from a father by means of their work. So don’t say you are a child of Allah (God) until you start doing the work of your Father. Then you can claim Him because he’s already claimed you. That’s your Bible.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” If blessed are the peacemakers, then cursed are the warmongers for they shall be called the enemies of Allah (God), the children of Satan.

You’ve got to call it like it is or get out of the pulpit if you’re going to preach half-truths. No weak-kneed coward can preach Jesus. Do you think Minister Carthan is calling you into a work that will be easy?

Jesus said that if any man would be his disciple, he’d have to first deny himself, pick up whose cross? Your cross. Then what? Follow him. Jesus didn’t say worship him; he said follow him. That means that where Jesus puts his foot down, you walk where he walks. You do what he did. And Allah (God) will give you the same blessing and power that he gave to him.

Purpose of church, mosque and synagogue

This is a church, a building of stone, mortar and wood that Brother Minister Carthan and his family have the keys to in order to do a good work. What is the purpose?

Why did Allah (God) even allow a church or a mosque or a synagogue or a cloister or a cathedral or a temple to be formed? All of you go to some church, some mosque, some synagogue, some temple, but what are you there for?

Is it a social meeting place where you go to check out whose wearing what? Do you go there to gossip, to talk about your neighbor and what you heard that they got into last night or last week? What do you come here for?

It is because Allah (God) knew that Satan was going to be in power for a period of time until the coming of Allah (God). If Satan were going to rule the world for a season, then how would the people of Allah (God) be able to live in Satan’s world unless they had a place to go, a place of repair? It’s like an automobile mechanic shop.

When something goes wrong with your car and you don’t know how to fix it, you take it to the mechanic. He may ask you to leave it a day or two. And you come back and get your car and drive on.

That’s what these houses (of worship) are for. They are for you to come out of the world ruled by Satan and come into a house that’s supposedly ruled by Allah (God)—I say supposedly because everybody talking about heaven is not going there.

If the kingdom is here (within you), then it’s buried under the rubbish of what you think and how you act. When the rubbish is cleared away and the Kingdom of Allah (God) is resurrected in you, then Allah (God) starts moving in you.

When Allah (God) starts moving in you, you get a self-accusing spirit that begins to tell you, I shouldn’t have done that. Why did I do this? Oh, Lord, have mercy on me.

The self-accusing spirit wakes you up in the night and keeps you upset where you can’t sleep because you’ve been wrong and your own self is accusing you. Then you know the spirit of Allah (God) is working in you.

Alb Micky - Paradize

Scramble for Africa

From the left, Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema, Angola's President Joao Lourenco, President Joe Biden, President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Vice President of Tanzania Philip Isdor Mpango pose for a photo during the visit to the Carrinho food processing factory near Lobito, Angola on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

 Economic, political and social developments in Africa in 2024 were extensions of previous years. “The Scramble for Africa,” was a period in which nearly all of the continent was brought under the control of European powers.

Today, there has been a change in how the European powers seek to exploit the continent of Africa.

Today, with the alleged decrease of Africa’s oil as a major energy source, Western powers through multi-national corporate interests are now transitioning into exporting and exploiting the raw minerals needed for electric batteries, to maintain their global dominance, while feigning a reduction of their carbon footprint.

The Hollywood film “Blood Diamonds,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, brought light to Sierra Leone’s civil war (1991-2002) and still stands as a revelation of how armed insurgents, in many cases child soldiers, are utilized to extract and export Africa’s raw mineral reserves.

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And, despite the Democratic Republic of Congo’s estimated $24 trillion in mineral resources that are being mined and turned into consumer electronics and batteries in electric cars for Western industrialized democracies, the population of the DRC is one of the poorest in the world.

While the DRC may be home to a wealth of mineral and precious metal deposits its extractive industries comprise nearly 90 percent of the country’s exports and nearly half of its government’s revenue. Chief among those exports is cobalt, copper, gold, diamonds and coltan, which is an ore of the metals of niobium and tantalum.

CNBC’s business channel’s news site called the African country’s mineral resources “conflict minerals.” All the country’s minerals, including tantalum, tungsten and gold are found in the electronics manufactured in Western nations, “and all are considered conflict minerals, due to their potential origin in the DRC,” the news site noted.

While the African country contains an estimated $24 trillion in untapped mineral resources, it remains mired in poverty and violence, and mining these four metals can help fund armed conflict in the region, CNBC reported.

While Western media frames the natural resources of the DRC as a source of conflict, it simultaneously reports that Western nations depend on these mineral resources to maintain their industrialized societies.

Raw mineral extractions while turning a historical blind eye to regional conflicts appear to be the cost of doing business by multi-national corporate interests. Add to that, the growing mineral reserve race between China and Western nations, including the U.S.

At the heart of U.S. President Joe Biden’s long-anticipated recent three-day trip to Angola is assessing American, European, and corporate interests’ ongoing critical minerals infrastructure project that is set to see vast supplies of cobalt and copper delivered to Western nations.

This long-awaited visit to Angola’s capital city of Luanda saw Biden “focus on an $800 million U.S.-backed railway project in the Lobito Corridor,” reported Al Jazeera.

“The passage is a strategic trade route that connects the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to Angola, which hosts the port of Lobito, located on the Atlantic Ocean,” the Al Jazeera report added.

Whether it be Western interest or China’s belt and road development initiatives, neither has sought, in a meaningful way, to assist in developing infrastructure that would turn Africa’s much-in-demand mineral and natural resources into finished products to be sold abroad.

Neither has there been a sustained effort by these multinational corporations to end the conflicts that are sustained by the artisanal or subsistence mining of “conflict minerals.”

The history of colonial development that continues to this very day is building infrastructure, including railways, for extracted raw minerals, that are taken to port, shipped and then developed abroad.

According to “Africa is Powerful,” the popular YouTube channel, “The continent remains economically and politically fragmented, exploited for its resources while continuing to face immense developmental challenges. Meanwhile, African leaders are routinely summoned to Western capitals for summits or bilateral meetings often under the guise of cooperation.”

Being summoned as a group is a “troubling dynamic.” Africa, until it’s able to speak with one voice, is seen not as an equal player on the world stage, but as a continent perpetually in need of guidance, aid, or intervention. Africa, a continent of 55 nation-states, cannot similarly summon Western leaders.

“These imbalances do not foster respect but reinforce perceptions of Africa as subordinate. The most striking example of this power dynamic is the idea of a single Western nation summoning dozens of African heads of state to their country, an unimaginable scenario in reverse,” explained the commentator on “Africa is Powerful.”

Concerning the outgoing U.S. president’s recent Africa trip, “Africa is Powerful” explained it as being a part of a broader initiative to strengthen U.S.-Africa relations and counter China’s growing influence. This reveals yet another layer of the deeply entrenched imbalance between the continent and Western powers.

“Angola is a nation with vast natural resources and is a key target in the U.S. quest to outmaneuver China in Africa. Biden’s visit was not simply a diplomatic affair. What is truly astonishing is the response from Angola’s government, which declared a two-day public holiday in honor of Biden’s arrival,” noted Africa is Powerful.

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Years of ALB

 

ALBA-TCP was founded in 2004 in an attempt to counter the U.S. proposal of creating a ‘free trade zone of the Americas’

December 14 marked the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s-Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América – Tratado de Comercio de los Pueblos). ALBA-TCP was created in 2004 as a geopolitical alternative to the devastating advance of neoliberalism in the region.

The project was founded on December 14, 2004, in Havana by Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Currently, the organization has 10 member countries and four countries considered “special guests.”

In 2006, Bolivia signed its membership; in 2007, Nicaragua; in 2008, Dominica; in 2009, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines; in 2014, St. Kitts and Nevis and Grenada; and in 2021, St. Lucia. The special invited countries are Syria, Haiti, Suriname, and now Palestine.

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To commemorate the 20 years, social movements, political parties, and heads of state gathered in Caracas, Venezuela for the 24th Heads of State Summit as well as parallel meetings. The event was attended by the host, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro;

Ralph Everard Gonsalves, Pr

Bolivian President Luis Arce; Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel; Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega; Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves; Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit; and the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne.

Independence and solidarity among countries

In their addresses during the Summit on December 14, the heads of state and invited countries stressed the importance of solidarity among countries seeking alternative ways of development and the need for unrestricted solidarity among people struggling against imperialist attacks. They also demonstrated their support for Nicolás Maduro and his victory in the last presidential elections.

Miguel Díaz-Canel said “We reiterate the strongest support for the Bolivarian revolution, led by President Nicolás Maduro … . We also call for the elimination of the blockade against Cuba … .

We cry out for a free Puerto Rico and declare our solidarity with Haiti, our Cuban doctors are there … . We reiterate our demand for a ceasefire in Gaza and condemn the attacks perpetrated by Israel against Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.”

The Bolivian President, Luis Arce, highlighted the historical importance of ALBA in its fight against economic projects promoted by the United States such as the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas): “The embrace of Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro not only marked history but also manifested the defeat of the hegemonic project of the FTAA.

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ALBA was born, ALBA placed the human being at the center, promoting that a better world is possible. Bolivia reaffirms, once again, its commitment to ALBA-TCP, because it is a resistance that raises its voice against the unjust and criminal blockade against Cuba … .

ALBA is also a firm voice against the arbitrary and unilateral measures imposed against Venezuela and Nicaragua, which affect the welfare of our peoples.”

Nicolás Maduro said, “We must win the battle of life and truth in the streets, networks, media, and walls, as well as in the conscience and spirituality of the people.”

He also added the importance of the struggle of the people to be masters of their destiny without imperial impositions or impositions of any kind. In the same line of discourse, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said “From Nicaragua we reaffirm our commitment to ALBA. We will continue to fight the battle.”

The Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit stated “We congratulate the electoral triumph of President Nicolas Maduro on July 28. We wish him all the best … .

We also want to reaffirm our solidarity with the people of Cuba, a brave people for whom we have our greatest respect and love; we will never cease to lend our voice against the United States to eliminate the blockade against Cuba.”

Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, harshly criticized U.S. interference in the development of the past Venezuelan elections “Perhaps [the U.S. government] thinks it is superior,”

He said in this regard. He also stressed that the creation of ALBA-TCP was a fundamental invention for the emancipation of the American people, “ALBA is the product of the geniuses of our peoples.”

Inclusion of Palestine to ALBA-TCP

At the current summit, it was announced that Palestine had been included as a “brotherly country” and was included as a “permanent guest.” According to the resolution of the Heads of State, ALBA-TCP condemns the attacks against the Palestinian population.

And the “illegally occupied territories” and rejects “the merciless and inhuman genocide committed by the State of Israel, the occupying power, as well as its plan of spoliation, invasion, and domination.”

Likewise, they denounced the support of several governments currently collaborating with the actions of the Israeli army and called for an “immediate ceasefire … .

From the heart of the peoples and governments of this alliance, we declare Palestine a brother country of the ALBA-TCP, and reaffirm our commitment to the defense of the Palestinian cause, which is the defense of humanity,” reads the resolution.

In this regard, Riyad al-Malki, advisor to the President of State for International Affairs of Palestine said “History will remember those who stood on the side of justice, ALBA’s lasting solidarity with Palestine is a testimony of freedom and collective resistance.”

Furthermore, Malki added “This Alliance is a living testimony of collective integration to challenge imperialism and ensure a just world. These values resonate with the Palestinian struggle, an end to the illegal occupation.”

A call for counter-hegemonic struggle

The joint document signed by all the countries highlights the historical importance of ALBA-TCP in the struggle for a more equitable world: “Twenty years after this giant step, we pay homage to the founding leaders, Hugo Chávez Frías and Fidel Castro Ruz, who adopted that December 14, 2004, in Havana, Cuba, the vision of the future embodied in the founding documents of ALBA.

Which have allowed us to walk united until the present, animated by the ancestral force that led our peoples to be free and that encourages us to continue integrated in this Alliance for Life.”

Similarly, it was stressed that the existence of this multilateral organization operates as a possibility to create a region that resists the impositions of the most developed countries:

“Today, we want to ratify before our peoples, the counter-hegemonic, democratic, anti-imperialist and anti-fascist nature of our Alliance and renew our commitment to help and protect each other, to continue building together a future of shared goals under the founding principles of complementarity, cooperation, social justice, defense of our sovereignty and solidarity.”

In this sense, Luis Arce stressed that “In the face of the challenges of a world threatened by fascism and neo-fascism, ALBA is not an option, ALBA is a necessity that must continue with firm steps, reaffirming the founding principles of solidarity, justice, and cooperation … .

ALBA is not only an alliance, it is a promise for the future, a living resistance, an instrument for the most dispossessed, and a reminder that together, as peoples, we are invincible.”

Objectives and principles of ALBA-TCP

According to ALBA’s official website, the fundamental objective of the project is “to achieve integral development, ensure social equality and contribute to guaranteeing the quality of life, good living, independence, self-determination and identity of the peoples.”

For this very reason, the principles of ALBA-TCP propose that political decisions be made horizontally and take into account the economic differences of its members without meaning that the importance of each of the members is underestimated.

The principles shared by the countries are “trade and investment should not be ends in themselves, but instruments to achieve sustainable development; special and differentiated treatment, according to the level of development of the various countries;

Economic complementarity and cooperation; cooperation and solidarity; the creation of the Social Emergency Fund; the integrative development of communications and transportation; the sustainability of development;

Energy integration; the promotion of investments of Latin American capital in the region; the defense of Latin American and Caribbean identity and culture; respect for intellectual property; and the agreement of multilateral positions and in negotiations with countries and blocs in other regions.”