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September 9, 2008
SouthAmerica: Reply to Nutmeg
The race subject is something that I did not want to go into detail, but people could not read between the lines and I had to spell it out.
I am not mentioning this from a racist point of view â first I had direct business relationship with Angola for many years., and when I made a proposal for economic development plan for Angola I had to learn a lot about the history of that country.
I made an honest effort in trying to help the Angolans improve their country and in an article that I wrote about Angola a few years ago I said that Brazil had the obligation to help Angola get back on their feet after the civil war ended in Angola.
When I was researching to write my two history books I learned a lot about slavery and the slavery trade. I understand the impact that slavery had in the African Continent and the connection to the Americas.
Even today many countries in Africa probably would melt into chaos and they are dependent on the Chinese and Indians from India to keep the business structure of many countries going forward â the Chinese and the Indians are the business and traders who keep the economy of many African countries from total collapse.
And you canât blame it on lack of money, and just look at Nigeria that country had a good cash inflow from oil revenues for a long time and that country still is a basket case.
Last Sunday I spent about 2 hours talking on the telephone with my cousin in Brazil, she is 90 years old, and she is a historian and she just published her 9th book about the history of our family in relation to the history of Brazil.
Her mind is like an encyclopedia and she remembers a lot of information about the history of Brazil.
She owns with 2 other cousins a famous farm around Barbacena, state of Minas Gerais. Her cousin lives on the farm and she goes and visits on a regular basis. The farm is considered a historical landmark and they are not allowed to change much regarding the various buildings that they have in that farm, and they have many people who comes to visit it like a museum.
On our last conversation she gave me a private lesson on the subject of slavery in Brazil â not only about the past but also the influence that still going on on the current generation of descendants of slaves. I learned a lot from her and I told her that she should write a book on that subject before the information is completely lost. It was very interesting a lot stuff that she told me.
Let me bring on another point. In Brazil soap operas are very popular and for many years these soap operas have been exported to many countries around the world.
A Brazilian soap opera usually last one year, then they start another story. Some of these soap operas are about Brazilian history and some of the stories are about the subject of slavery.
People watch these soap operas day after day and they enjoy these stories, but at the same time the subject of slavery is being reinforced night after night. In these stories the black person is the slave and the white folks are their masters.
Without realizing these soap operas are reinforcing on peoples' minds not only the subject of slavery, but also the racial divide between the two segments of the population the blacks and the whites.
My ancestors were the most influential people in Brazil regarding the process of ending the slavery system in Brazil.
Maybe because I have been exposed to all this material and experiences that I can see things that other people canât see it.
When the subject of race comes up if you say anything then people call you a racist because in the world of most of these people only racists talk about that subject and that subject is considered Tabu.
But as you mentioned above that Barack Obama has a degree from Harvard University.
You are missing the point here. We are talking about image, and perception here. Let me give you an example.
The last trip that George W. Bush made to the African Continent and visited various countries. Every night the cameras were following him to document his trip and everywhere he went There were a few white folks including George W, Bush but the majority of the people were black since he was visiting these African countries.
A Barack Obama administration probably would send on a daily basis similar images around the world, but this time the images would be coming from Washington D.C.
Basically the rest of the world would look at the United States as if the US was just another African country.
For all practical purposes the image that the United States would be projecting to the rest of the world on a daily basis would be that the US is a country with a black majority population.
In a nutshell: A picture is worth a thousand words.
.
September 9, 2008
SouthAmerica: Reply to Nutmeg
The race subject is something that I did not want to go into detail, but people could not read between the lines and I had to spell it out.
I am not mentioning this from a racist point of view â first I had direct business relationship with Angola for many years., and when I made a proposal for economic development plan for Angola I had to learn a lot about the history of that country.
I made an honest effort in trying to help the Angolans improve their country and in an article that I wrote about Angola a few years ago I said that Brazil had the obligation to help Angola get back on their feet after the civil war ended in Angola.
When I was researching to write my two history books I learned a lot about slavery and the slavery trade. I understand the impact that slavery had in the African Continent and the connection to the Americas.
Even today many countries in Africa probably would melt into chaos and they are dependent on the Chinese and Indians from India to keep the business structure of many countries going forward â the Chinese and the Indians are the business and traders who keep the economy of many African countries from total collapse.
And you canât blame it on lack of money, and just look at Nigeria that country had a good cash inflow from oil revenues for a long time and that country still is a basket case.
Last Sunday I spent about 2 hours talking on the telephone with my cousin in Brazil, she is 90 years old, and she is a historian and she just published her 9th book about the history of our family in relation to the history of Brazil.
Her mind is like an encyclopedia and she remembers a lot of information about the history of Brazil.
She owns with 2 other cousins a famous farm around Barbacena, state of Minas Gerais. Her cousin lives on the farm and she goes and visits on a regular basis. The farm is considered a historical landmark and they are not allowed to change much regarding the various buildings that they have in that farm, and they have many people who comes to visit it like a museum.
On our last conversation she gave me a private lesson on the subject of slavery in Brazil â not only about the past but also the influence that still going on on the current generation of descendants of slaves. I learned a lot from her and I told her that she should write a book on that subject before the information is completely lost. It was very interesting a lot stuff that she told me.
Let me bring on another point. In Brazil soap operas are very popular and for many years these soap operas have been exported to many countries around the world.
A Brazilian soap opera usually last one year, then they start another story. Some of these soap operas are about Brazilian history and some of the stories are about the subject of slavery.
People watch these soap operas day after day and they enjoy these stories, but at the same time the subject of slavery is being reinforced night after night. In these stories the black person is the slave and the white folks are their masters.
Without realizing these soap operas are reinforcing on peoples' minds not only the subject of slavery, but also the racial divide between the two segments of the population the blacks and the whites.
My ancestors were the most influential people in Brazil regarding the process of ending the slavery system in Brazil.
Maybe because I have been exposed to all this material and experiences that I can see things that other people canât see it.
When the subject of race comes up if you say anything then people call you a racist because in the world of most of these people only racists talk about that subject and that subject is considered Tabu.
But as you mentioned above that Barack Obama has a degree from Harvard University.
You are missing the point here. We are talking about image, and perception here. Let me give you an example.
The last trip that George W. Bush made to the African Continent and visited various countries. Every night the cameras were following him to document his trip and everywhere he went There were a few white folks including George W, Bush but the majority of the people were black since he was visiting these African countries.
A Barack Obama administration probably would send on a daily basis similar images around the world, but this time the images would be coming from Washington D.C.
Basically the rest of the world would look at the United States as if the US was just another African country.
For all practical purposes the image that the United States would be projecting to the rest of the world on a daily basis would be that the US is a country with a black majority population.
In a nutshell: A picture is worth a thousand words.
.
