A Liberian Family Blames Their 8 yr. Old Daughter For Being The Victim Of A Gang Rape!

What has happened to a little 8 yr. old Liberian girl in Phoenix,Arizona is absolutely deplorable!She was gang-raped by 4 teenage boys at the apartment complex that she lives at.

As if that was not horrific enough,her parents have placed the blame for this awful incident squarely on her shoulders.Apparently,they feel that their daughter's rape brings shame to the family name.

Here's more on this incident from azcentral.com:

"The summer scene at a west Phoenix apartment complex was tranquil Wednesday evening. Parents and children chatted on their stoops as the sun set. They bought ice cream from a vendor's push cart.

One week ago, around the same time of day, residents of the complex were startled by the screams of a partially clothed 8-year-old girl who ran screaming from a storage shed at a vacant unit.

Phoenix police on Wednesday announced that they arrested four neighborhood boys in connection with the incident, in which investigators said the group lured the girl into the shed with chewing gum, held her down and sexually assaulted her.

Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill, a longtime public-information officer, described the case as "one of the worst crimes we have come across in Phoenix in quite some time," given the ages of the victim and the suspects, as well as the circumstances of the reported attack.

The girl and the four suspects are refugees from the war-torn West African country of Liberia, which, according to investigators, would complicate authenticating names and dates of birth.

Arizona Child Protective Services took custody of the girl after the July 16 incident at the apartment complex after her parents disowned her.

Hill said the parents blamed her for being victimized and bringing shame to the family."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Changing some Liberian's attitude toward rape is an ongoing process.There are some activists who are working diligently to do just that!Here's more info on what they doing about the extremely serious rape issue in Liberia from HULIQ:

"Chief prosecutor for the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia, Esther Seton Cee, says many rape victims and parents of rape victims are discouraged from reporting the crime because the overworked court system is slow to prosecute.

Cee says she believes the answer is to create a new court for rape cases.

"We have advocated for a specialized court that would be able to carry out judication faster. That is what we are waiting on," she said.

Cee says parents of rape victims often settle out of court for money with the accused rapist because they believe they are protecting their child from public embarrassment. She says this slows down and undermines the judicial process.

Cee says sensitizing parents to the true nature of rape could encourage them to push forward with prosecutions. Groups have used public awareness campaigns, including radio jingles, aiming to empower women, girls and families against sexual abuse.

"When the parents understand the nature of the crime that is involved, they will stop compromising," she said.

During the country's civil war many young girls and women were forcibly taken to act as cooks, cleaners and sex slaves for the fighters.

Liberia's rape law has been a focus point for President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has said that no rapists would go unpunished. Human rights organizations say the ineffective implementation of the rape law reflects badly needed reform in the entire judicial system."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the whole article here.

The Oldest Woman To Give Birth Dies & Leaves 2-yr. Old Twins Behind!

A 66 yr. woman who gave birth to twins has died.The oldest woman to give birth has left behind 2-yr. old twins.She created a lot of controversy because people did not believe that she would be around long enough to raise those twins into adulthood.

But,Maria del Carmen Bousada lied about her age & received fertility treatments because she thought that she would live for a long time.After all,her mother died at 101.So,there is some logic behind her reasoning.Unfortunately,she was wrong.And now there are two more orphans in this world when there did not have to be.

Like octomom,this is another case where fertility treatments should not have been administered!

Here's more on this story from The AP:

"When she revealed last November she had stomach cancer, Bousada said she did not regret having children late in life and that her sons would be well-cared for no matter what happened to their mother.

Addressing her mortality and her children's tender age, she told Spanish television station Antena 3: "I hope God does not ... I want to hang on at least until they are 18."

But, she added, the boys would always have "their godfather, their custodian."

Women undergoing in vitro fertilization have their hormone systems manipulated by doctors, typically injecting themselves with hormones several times a day. The procedure increases the chance of a multiple birth, which heightens the risk of complications during pregnancy.

Bousada lived with her mother most of her life in Cadiz and worked in a department store before retiring. She decided to have children after her mother died in 2005 and initially kept her plan secret from her family.

She sold her house to raise $59,000 to pay for in vitro fertilization in Los Angeles, she told the News of the World.

Spanish law on assisted reproduction sets no age limit, but state-funded and private clinics have an informal agreement establishing 50 as the cutoff, based on recommendations from the scientific community, according to the Health Ministry.

There is no U.S. law regulating the age of in vitro candidates, but Sahakian said his clinic won't take older women because "I would like the mother ... to basically survive until the kids reach 18."

When Bousada told her relatives she was two months pregnant, they thought she was joking, she said.

"Yes, I am old of course, but if I live as long as my mom did, imagine, I could even have grandchildren," she said after the birth.

Allan Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society, said the organization recommends that assisted conception generally not be provided to women beyond the natural age of menopause at about 50.

"The rationale ... is that nature didn't design women to have assisted conception beyond the age of the natural menopause, he said. "Once you get into the mid-50s, I think nature is trying to tell us something."

"I think many people would worry about providing fertility treatment to women in their 60s. I think as a general rule, to embark on pregnancy when you may not see your child go to university is potentially a very difficult situation."

Adriana Iliescu, a Romanian who also gave birth at 66, although she was 130 days younger than Bousada, said she was pained to hear of the Spanish woman's death and what it would mean for her sons.

"It is a great sadness when kids are orphans but civil society will help these children," she told the AP."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the entire story here.

CNN Talks About The Cultural Differences Between African-Americans & Africans

As an African-American,I can totally relate to certain aspects of the article(and this video) that CNN did on the cultural division between Africans & African-Americans.I have experienced firsthand the disdain that some Africans feel towards their American counterparts.

For instance,I once was on a date with a very successful African man who seemed to think that most African-Americans are champions of failure.I mean,we had an intense conversation about whether or not African-Americans hung out in front of liquor stores all day gambling,drinking 40's,& smoking weed.

He spent our entire time together trying to convince me that I was lucky that he had even bothered to pay attention to me at all.Because according to him,African-Americans are the dregs of society.It was like being on a date with a white supremacist.Needless to say,that was the last I saw of him!

Of course,there are a lot of blacks who do not want to be associated with Africans at all.They carry their own stereotypes,which the article on CNN.com discusses,about Africans.Some African-Americans really do think that all Africans are primitive,tribal peoples who have yet to enter into modern society.

It really does go both ways.And this great article that I have posted an excerpt from talks about the divide between Africans & African-Americans.Here's more from CNN:

"Nkosi's American classmates acknowledge their misconceptions. Cydney Smith, 17, of Nashville, Tennessee, said she once believed Africa was populated with "uncivilized tribes."

Raphael Craig, 17, of Hyattsville, Maryland, said the television misinformed him as well.

Before Craig visited the continent in 2005 and 2006, he thought of Africans as "half-naked, running around with tigers in the jungle," Craig said, confessing he was unaware tigers roam only Asia.

But in Ghana and Nigeria, Craig saw children playing the same games he and his siblings played. He saw many signs of modernity, including Mercedes and other brands of cars found in the United States.

"OK, this country is running how we're running, just two different schools," Craig recalled thinking. "It really opened my eyes to the point that everything you see on TV is not always the actual thing."

If the Western media are doing Africans no favors, then the African media are also a disservice to African-Americans because it portrays them as criminals, some immigrants say.

Sandi Litia, 19, a Piney Woods graduate from Limulunga, Zambia, said she was initially scared of African-Americans because the African media show them "wearing clothes like gangsters and killing each other."

Nkosi concurred that African media "made it seem as if they were these aggressive people that did nothing constructive with their lives except occupy prison space."

Trying to fit in

Chinedu Ezeamuzie, 21, of Athens, Georgia, arrived in 2003. He had spent the majority of his life in Jabriya, Kuwait, and came to the U.S. to pursue his education.

The recent Georgia Tech graduate said he considers himself Nigerian because his parents -- both from the village of Uga -- instilled in their four children strong Nigerian values of family, community, spirituality and self-betterment.

In Athens, Ezeamuzie found his ideals at odds with those who shared his skin color at Clarke Central High School, his first stint in a public school."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the article in its full context here.

Jeff Sessions Is The Last Person That Should Be Questioning Sonia Sotomayor About Racist Statements!

If you follow politics at all,you have probably heard about Sen. Jeff Session's racist statements.So,isn't it hypocritical of him to question Sonia Sotomayor about her remarks?He is the last person that should be jumping down anyone's throat regarding racism!

While he's grilling Judge Sonia Sotomayor about her level of fairness,many have questioned whether Sessions can be impartial & fair towards her.Here's more on that from NPR:

"In July, Sen. Jeff Sessions has a chance to pass judgment on the nomination to the Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor, whom several conservative pundits have criticized as being racist. The lines at issue are from a speech Sotomayor gave back in October 2001, when she said:

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

But some wonder whether Sessions can evaluate Sotomayor fairly.

In 1986, then-U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions was himself in the hot seat after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan for a federal judgeship. His nomination was later rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee, in part because of testimony by J. Gerald Hebert, a former senior trial attorney in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice.

The 'Communist' NAACP

In a recent interview with NPR's Michel Martin, Hebert, who had several encounters with Sessions prior to his nomination by Reagan, recalls:

"When the NAACP would come up, he [Sessions] would snidely remark that it was a 'pinko' organization, or communist inspired," recalls Hebert. "[Sessions] seemed to have a unprogressive attitude toward race and equal opportunity."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest of this insightful article here.

Men like Jeff Sessions drive most minorities as far away from the Republican party as they can get. Because it's so obvious that he still holds the same views that got him into trouble before.

The Valley Swim Club Incident Is Yet Another Example Of Racism!

Despite their apologies,I would never go back to the Valley Swim Club if I had been discriminated against!And that is exactly what happened to a group of very young & impressionable black kids in Pennsylvania!You don't have to go down South to experience racism because it is everywhere!

Unfortunately,I have been called a "monkey" & a "nigger" right here in the so-called liberal California.This mental disease that compels one to hate another solely because of the color of their skin runs rampant throughout America!

Apparently,some of the folks,if not all, who patronize the Valley Swim Club are racists.They did not want black children at their exclusive club.It might mess up the "complexion" of the club!

That is exactly how the president of the club initially put it when asked why these kids were treated so horribly by the club's patrons.How horrific that this stuff still goes on in what some people naively call a "post-racial" society!

Here's more on this sad incident from Yahoo! News:

"More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.

"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.

The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.

"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.

"I said, 'The parents don't want the refund. They want a place for their children to swim,'" camp director Aetha Wright said.

Campers remain unsure why they're no longer welcome.

"They just kicked us out. And we were about to go. Had our swim things and everything," said camper Simer Burwell.

The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Now,this racist swim club is facing a lawsuit.If anybody should get sued,it's these people!They are getting exactly what they deserve.Because these kids will be grappling with this incident long after they have left childhood behind.

That "Wise Latina" Will Be Confirmed As A Supreme Court Justice!

Yes,Sonia Sotomayor said that she is a "wise latina" & I think that she demonstrated that in her carefully constructed introductory speech at today's Supreme Court confirmation hearing.She clarified for those who didn't know just how she rose from some projects in the Bronx to where she is today.Sonia Sotomayor's life is an inspiration to those who have to work hard to get everything that they have got.

She was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth.This Bronx-bred Puerto-Rican brings street smarts to the table as well as some serious intellectual chops!I believe strongly that is what she meant by referring to herself as a "wise latina".Sonia Sotomayor wanted to make the point that she was just as qualified to judge as a white male is.What she meant was quite clear to me. I didn't interpret her remarks as being racist in anyway.

You see, most minorities feel that they have something to prove to the majority or the ruling class.If everyone was truly treated & regarded as equals in this world,there would be no need to even have phrases like "identity politics".Or "wise latina" for that matter.Words like "class" & "race" would have no meaning in a world that operated the same for every individual.

Here's more on how Judge Sonia Sotomayor became that "wise latina" who will be confirmed from her mentor at Princeton,courtesy of The Washington Post:

"Had I known in the spring of 1973 that this hesitant freshman from the Bronx would be nominated to the Supreme Court 36 years later, I would have taken detailed notes on our conversations and filed them away in anticipation. Unfortunately, all I have are my memories. But Sonia made a strong impression. She was not the best student I taught in my seven years at Princeton -- though she certainly was high on the list -- but she was the one who took greatest advantage of the opportunities there and emerged most transformed by her experience.

Sonia became a frequent visitor to my office, our conversations ranging from the finer points of grammar to the lack of Latino studies at Princeton and the status of Puerto Rico. She ended up taking five courses with me, including her senior thesis. I became her mentor, and I watched her grow into what one might well call a "wise Latina woman." At Princeton, a tentative teenager -- so intimidated that she never spoke in class during her first semester -- became a poised young woman who negotiated successfully with top university administrators on contentious issues such as minority hiring practices. It was also there that Sonia Sotomayor more fully explored her ethnic identity.

After conquering Princeton, she is unlikely to be fazed by another institution legendary for its white alpha males -- the Supreme Court.

My first impressions of Sonia were mixed. She did not radiate charm or magnetism, nor was she polished or cool. But she had an appealing sincerity and directness, and there was something centered about her that was unusual among first-year minority students at Princeton. There were few Hispanic women on campus in 1973 -- the school had begun admitting women only a few years earlier, and Latinos of any gender were rare -- so she was doubly an outsider.

Sonia's intellect had allowed her to excel at the Bronx's Cardinal Spellman High School and gain admission to Princeton, but there was a big gap between her skills -- particularly in writing -- and those of the best students at the university, who had attended elite high schools. She was determined to close the gap. That became our project.

With most students, the time I spent marking up papers was largely wasted. But Sonia took the comments seriously. She sought me out to go over her essays. In each paper, I would focus on a different shortcoming: Spanglish, tenses, passive voice. Taking such constant criticism could not have been easy, but Sonia kept coming back. She even read grammar books during her summer breaks.

Gradually, her essays improved, and by the time she wrote her senior thesis, Sonia had no need to apologize for her writing. Years later, she told me that she was particularly proud of how the second reader of her thesis -- a professor who had not worked closely with her -- had told her it was the best-written senior thesis he had read.

Hispanic students at Princeton in the 1970s had it even harder than black students. The university was confronting its troubled history with African Americans but had no real Latino history. And the town of Princeton had long had an African American community but no Latino community.

Individual Latino students had attended the university before 1972, but Sonia's incoming class contained the first self-consciously Latino cohort at Princeton. They were few in number, young and homesick, without the sounds or tastes of home. All students complain about cafeteria food, but the Latino students' complaints were about identity, not quality -- about how alien Princeton felt to them. Sonia told me she had never been so aware of being different.

In the spring of 1974, she and other students asked me to help create a seminar on the history and politics of Puerto Rico and mainland Puerto Ricans. I was not the ideal person to teach it: I was neither Puerto Rican, nor Latino, nor an expert on Puerto Rico. But Sonia knew I believed that college students should have a role in shaping their education, and I was moved by her blend of reason and emotion."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest of this insightful article on Sonia Sotomayor here.

A Poem On The Frequency Of My Blog Posts!

It's been hard for me to update my posts
When being an unpaid blogger is one of my boasts
My readership has hardly grown
Who my readers are is unknown
Being that I have no job as of late
Creating a blog seemed to be an escape
From the mundane tasks of my life
For this unpaid blogger,I struggle to write
Freely and for free,this blog does not pay
That is why for me,it's hard to do it everyday

Written by Tamu Taylor

Just a quick poem on the frequency of my posts that I thought of!

Steve McNair May Have Been The Victim In A Murder-Suicide!

Sahel Kazemi is the woman that former NFL quarterback,Steve McNair,was apparently having an affair with.The married father of four was found shot to death alongside his mistress.Steve McNair's death has already been classified as a murder.But,the police are still investigating how Ms. Kazemi died before they determine how to classify her death.From the information that has been released so far,this may have been a murder-suicide that resulted from a lover's quarrel.

Man,I feel so sorry for Mechelle McNair (pictured above).Even if she knew that her husband was cheating on her,it sure sucks to have the affair revealed to the world in such a horrific manner.And if she didn't know,her grief must be compounded with anger.What a way to find out about your husband's mistress!


Police have said that Ms. McNair was extremely distraught & she is not a suspect at this time.I don't think that she was involved with her husband's murder.Steve McNair may have been killed by his mistress before she committed suicide.He had been shot multiple times while Ms. Kazemi had only been shot once.

Here's more information from Yahoo! News:

"Friends declined to describe the relationship between McNair and the woman, Sahel Kazemi, who was a waitress at a restaurant quarterback and his family frequented. Police only described her as a "friend."

A man who answered the door at a house in the Jacksonville, Fla., suburb of Orange Park said it was the home of Kazemi's family, but said her relatives did not want to comment.

"We don't have anything to say, please leave us alone," he said.

A Nashville neighbor saw McNair, 36, at Kazemi's Nashville apartment so often — two to three times a week — that he thought McNair had moved in. McNair never tried to hide his presence but kept to himself.

Neighbor Reagan Howard said Kazemi often was dropped off in the early morning hours by a limousine and upgraded recently from her Kia to a Cadillac Escalade.

"It was pretty obvious that she was taken with him," Howard said.

McNair and Kazemi had been together just two days earlier, when she was pulled over driving a 2007 Escalade registered to her and McNair. She was arrested on a DUI charges, and he was allowed to leave in a taxi.

The bodies were discovered by McNair's longtime friend, Wayne Neeley, who rents the condo in the upscale Rutledge Hill neighborhood with McNair.

Neeley then called Robert Gaddy, who had been friends with McNair since they played at Alcorn State. Gaddy alerted authorities.

"People have certain things that they do in life," Gaddy told The Associated Press on Sunday. "We don't need to look on the situation at this time (but) on the fact we just lost a great member of society."

Cook said he was not aware that McNair was seeing Kazemi, a woman whose name the agent learned about through reports of the shooting.

"It doesn't make any sense. I don't know what to say," Cook said.

Police said a witness saw McNair arrive at the condo between 1:30 and 2 a.m. Saturday and that Kazemi's vehicle was already there. The condominium is located within walking distance of an area filled with restaurants and nightspots, a few blocks from the Cumberland River and within view of the Titans' stadium.

Autopsies were conducted Sunday with results expected later in the day.

Fred McNair, Steve McNair's oldest brother, said some family members would likely travel to Nashville on Monday to consult with Mechelle.

"It's still kind of hard to believe," Fred McNair said. "He was the greatest person in the world. He gave back to the community. He loved kids and he wanted to be a role model to kids."

McNair and his wife split their time between Nashville and their farm in Mount Olive, Miss., according to a statement from the Titans."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the article in its entirety here.

Michael Jackson Looks Healthy In This Video Of His Last Concert Rehearsal!

This footage of Michael Jackson's last rehearsal for his "This Is It" tour was shot just two days before he died.He was practicing his moves & looking quite healthy while doing it.This makes the claims that he was sickly & unable to perform look bogus.And it deepens the mystery of how Michael Jackson died even more.

Gen. Odierno Became Agitated By Reporter's Questions During A Press Conference!

Even though U.S. troops are pulling out,some are staying behind to assist Iraqi security forces. Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters during a press conference that "a small number" of troops would remain. He became visibly agitated when reporters kept pressing him for the exact number of U.S. forces who would remain in Iraq.

Here's more from The Washington Times:

"U.S. troop levels hit a peak of more than 160,000 in 2008, are now at just over 130,000, and are likely headed down to 120,000 by December, said Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq. When U.S. combat missions cease in August 2010, he said, the plan is to have a "residual force" of 50,000 troops, with the goal of a full withdrawal by the end of 2011.

White House and military officials said the rash of recent attacks - which included the death of four U.S. soldiers just outside Baghdad on Monday night, bringing the total number of U.S. military deaths since 2003 to 4,321 - does not erase the gains they've made and have not yet threatened the stability achieved in Iraq.

"There is not widespread violence here in Iraq," Gen. Odierno said during a press conference. "The problem with June is, over the last 10 days we've had a couple high-profile attacks, so ... that changes it a little bit. But if you compare it back to the dark days of 2006 and '07, there's no comparison."

He said that the attack in Kirkuk, which followed a June 20 bombing in the same area that killed 82 people, bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda in Iraq, an offshoot of the terrorist group that carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Denis McDonough, a top national security adviser to Mr. Obama, said, "As disconcerting as these attacks are, the trend lines are all quite good over the course of the last several years.

"We see the Iraqis stepping up to take charge," he said.

Mr. Obama said he was confident that insurgent, militia and terrorist groups would fail, and added that the transition of U.S. troops was "proof that those who have tried to pull Iraq into the abyss of disunion and civil war are on the wrong side of history."

Gen. Odierno said a "small number of U.S. forces will remain in cities to train, advise, coordinate with Iraqi security forces," but he grew frustrated when reporters tried unsuccessfully to pry a specific number out of him. He later apologized."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the article in its entirety here.