ICONIC IMAGERY

"You can tell a trailblazer by the number of arrows in her back." (NativeMoon aka SeverinaSnape)

"Please fix your own lie before you start attacking Mine. Thank you very much." (Matt Nathanson)

"Don't think, feel. It is like a finger pointing a way to the Moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory." (Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon)

The end is near… the day-to-day beckons as of tomorrow



Well, today is the last day of what has turned out to be quite an extraordinary break for me. From December 12th through the 15th (Tuesday through Friday) I was in Geneva, Switzerland for work. Having been to the elite headquarters of the private investment bank that I work for, I have a new appreciation for it that just isn’t possible here in London. I found the people to be far more welcoming and gracious than I am used to experiencing on a day-to-day basis. There were great nights out as well and the affability and sociability of the people who took us out was just tremendous.

As of December 18th I was on my annual break until January 3rd. That’s one of the great things about living in the UK now; a minimum of 20 days paid leave every year – and two weeks have to be taken in one go. Of course some EU countries take more time than that and have a lot more Bank Holidays as well, but for an American was lucky to get 2 weeks holiday as a benefit rather than a legal entitlement – this is bliss.

So I’ve really enjoyed my time off, probably more than any other time I’ve had since I’ve been here.

I got a lot of work done on my stories and have gotten great feedback for a change. It’s nice when people really ‘get’ what I am trying to do and I don’t have to kill myself trying to make them think about what they are reading. It’s been too frustrating having to answer questions that were addressed in the content. People don’t pay attention and question things that don’t have to be questioned – and to me there is no point in reading and bothering to comment negatively if you aren’t at least going to get the facts right.

I’ve got many things to do for the Pan-African magazine I voluntarily work on with two friends and it’s a very exciting time for us. The magazine is just one small part of the services we offer, this partnership has spiralled into a little Communications group with the magazine at its centre. I wish I could be doing much more than I am, but the day job is my survival so for the moment it’s a balancing act. I have a number of my published articles online in my DeviantArt account along with 2 editorials that were strictly online content. You can see them here.

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Our tag is “Helping Africa to Help Itself”. The main focus is on Politics, Business, Economics, Sociology, Culture and Spirituality. Celebrity is not something we have a particularly strong interest in as such, but the reality is that they can help sell the magazine. But we don’t have them on the cover just for the sake of it. There has to be a feature story of relevance or interest to Africans and we don’t have them on the cover as frequently as other publications do.

Thanks to the magazine I’ve gotten to be a part of things I could have only dreamt of. A highlight of last year was MTV seeking us out to help them promote their “MTV Base Meets Tony Blair” project and the launch of MTV Base Africa. We did a couple of features which were very well received and I felt really proud that we were helping young Africans get their message across to the West about who they are and their hopes for their individual countries and for the continent as a whole. Blair was on the Hot Seat – and I have to say, I at least respected him for being willing to meeting these young people in a completely unscripted fashion in JoBurg and taking whatever they threw at him and for conceding that he doesn’t have all the answers.

We also got David Lammy, Member of Parliament for Tottenham and Culture Minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to write an article on what it is to be British if you are foreign. His article, unedited and titled by himself as “Is There Black in the Union Jack”, went down a storm with the readership.

More on Mr. Lammy here:

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Our readership are largely politicians and business people. We also make copies freely available for the Prison Service here in London – and have received grateful feedback that prisoners of all backgrounds enjoy what we do.

We also have charitable interests. It’s easier to pool resources and we are seeing a very good result. Some of you may recall that in November 2004 I helped my good friend and business partner, Isabelle Gravenstein with the charitable run she conceived in aid of the Quicken Trust for the village of Kabbubu in Uganda. There is a lot that we want to do for the poorest of Africans. See the photographs of Kabbubu in my deviantArt gallery here along with my two “daughters” whom I sponsor so that they can go to school and not have to work:

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Much time is spent trying to get anyone with a positive image and who seems to really care about people get interested in our charitable works. We’ve some great responses, ironically from many leading politicians but also some very disappointing ones. Some celebrities will not put their name to anything unless their effort can be turned into a media event that is more about them than the people they claim to want to help. We are happy to say ‘no’ and move on. We attend events, we write, we phone, we take the chance to speak to them if we are in the right place at the right time and only if people are approachable. I’ve met some more than once – sometimes you can talk to them and other times you can’t. People don’t want to hear it but it DOES depend on the situation! Some people get a bad reputation just because some zealot caught them on a bad day and couldn’t leave well enough alone. Some I am a fan of to a degree and some I could care less about. I could, as has been demanded, provide all the little details of who I am meeting and what’s going on. Not going to happen unless it’s in the context of a published story. I’ve said that I don’t know how many times and I’m saying it again. While we are not friends of these people, we certainly seem to respect their right to have some semblance of privacy more than some of their own proclaimed "friends" do…

Just because we live in an information age does not give anyone the right to know anything and everything.

And it’s the world of ordinary people, politicians, business and religious leaders that interests me far more than the world of celebrity. I wouldn’t be doing the things I do if that wasn’t the case. I am proud that there isn’t an African embassy in London that does not know who we are and who are happy to have copies of the magazine and actually read it. I will not deny that it is a bit of a buzz to meet movers and shakers in politics on the world stage, people who can get a different impression of how things could be done or a different way of looking at old problems just by reading the magazine and spending time with us.

I am hoping that one day I can survive by doing that rather than make rich people even richer with asset management. It’s the dream I held onto even when I was homeless – and it’s the fire in my soul that still burns brightly. I firmly believe that I was put here to do something to make this false reality that is our world a better place. It doesn’t have to be some grand thing as you see with celebrities.

It’s the little things, like what we have done in aid of the Quicken Trust, the Gulu project and on a personal level getting involved in things off our own back like trying to get the Ugandan government to meet with Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army so that this nightmare that has existed for over 20 years in Northern Uganda can come to an end. In late 2006 both parties were at least finally opening channels of communication – so only time will tell. The cream of the current regime was conveniently taking credit for efforts that had less to do with them and more to do with others who strive to make a difference. Betty Oyella Bigombe is one of those rarest of people, someone who acts for the greatest good of her people. She has been a peace activist in her country for years and it is she who sought Kony out and began the dialogue that let to the events of late last year. The Jubbu talks would not have happened without all the work she had done in the years preceding them. Ms. Bigombe is definitely someone I would love to get to know. She is a true hero. I hope to go to Uganda this year and finally meet the two girls I sponsor so we will see.

Isabelle is an angel on earth, she really is. She has complete faith that things will happen and that nothing is impossible. I really owe a lot to her. The irony isnt lost on me that where I am now and what I am doing wouldnt have come about if I hadnt been made homeless a few years ago. Isabelle is the ex-wife of the man who runs the charity that provided me with the roof I have over my head while I get back on my feet. She is a trustee and one day we just started talking - about spiritualty actually, and shes been a good friends ever since.

As I said in another post: There is no difference between the person who says "I can" and the person who says "I can't". Failure just isn't an option for some of us - whatever happens or does not happen begins with the individual. I’ve been distracted by too many of the wrong things and the wrong people and paid a price for it over the years – often a very heavy price. And when you don’t learn the lessons, they just keep on repeating.

So last year I took myself off the merry-go-round – and as 2007 takes seed I feel much better than I have in a long time.

I took a look at people who were doing what I wanted to do – and like a new hero Chris Gardener (“The Pursuit of Happyness”) whom I will be profiling for our next issue, I started asking them about their success and what they did to get there. I found a plethora of professional support over the internet, oh yes I did. And you know, nothing is stopping a lot of us from doing that. Anyone that has a decent life already has a great start. If you can dream it, then it is possible. If you don’t have the strength, inspiration to put in the work and will not make the effort to make things happen for yourself – then don’t blame anyone else for your shortcomings or resent others for what they have or the life you think they lead.

For everything I have achieved, none of it was handed to me. None of it came easily and there were times when I was deep in the abyss.

Last year I discovered I work around the corner from a prominent African children’s charity. They work through arts and crafts and I can’t tell you how inspiring that was for me as an artist. I made appointments to see the woman who set up the project – this lady has had fundraisers in the House of Lords, and did this all off her own back. Her charity might be small – but she is doing mighty big things in helping Africans to help themselves.

I thought to myself – ‘if she can do, I can do it.’

I will. I have no doubt about that.

But this year is also the true beginning of me reaching out to my own people. Native Americans are some of the most disenfranchised people in the world. It makes no sense that the American government is constantly trying to inflict its peculiar brand of democracy on the rest of the work, when it doesn’t even work within its borders. Many of my people exist in extreme poverty that is very much in keeping with a third world country. Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe is a third world country in the backyard of the most prosperous nation on earth. Unemployment on the Reservation hovers around 85% and the overwhelming majority live below the Federal poverty line. I have some things in mind besides donating to charities and sponsoring families. If one person can make a difference, just imagine what a lot of us could do.

More on that when there is something to tell.

REMEMBER:

If one is not part of the solution; one is part of the problem