Chris Brown Wants The World To Know That Rihanna Hit Him First!

Who cares who threw the first punch? I didn't see one damn mark on Chris Brown & I never have for that matter! While Rihanna has had an eye patch over her eye & mysterious bruises in the past,we're learning that she may have hit him first.Well,I've got a question for Chris Brown.Why did she get pummeled & not you?That was overkill,buddy!You can't justify that by saying she hit you first.Rihanna has said that this was not the first time,just the worst time!Did she provoke you in those instances,too? Own up to what you did & stop trying to place the blame elsewhere!And Rihanna,take Oprah's advice."Love doesn't hurt!"

Here's more from The Gawker:

"As Chris Brown negotiates a plea deal, the R&B singer is making it known Rihanna struck him first that infamous night in Los Angeles. Why does he think it matters?

Because he's negotiating a plea deal, according to TMZ, and has been charged with two felonies for allegedly beating his girlfriend Rihanna. If she hit him first, his lawyers believe, it's not a felony:

Sources say Rihanna was the first one to strike — slapping and striking Brown "numerous times" while he was driving, after seeing the text message from another woman.

Supposedly, this version of events is reflected in the official police report. Floating the story publicly fits perfectly into Brown's dual PR strategy of appearing remorseful even while shifting some blame for the beating to Rihanna.

But Brown needs a swift resolution. As this story drags out in the press, the singer's onetime fans are just growing more disgusted. After seeing Rihanna's police photo, or knowing what it shows, no one really cares what she did to Brown, who emerged physically unblemished."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

It's The 40th Anniversary of Africa's Oldest Film Festival,FESPACO!

FESPACO is known as the African version of the Oscars.It is the oldest Pan-African festival which has been around for 40 yrs.now!Here's a clip from a documentary called "FESPACO".It talks about African-American filmmaker's entries into this festival.Here's more about FESPACO from artmatters.info:

"The bi-annual Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) runs February 28-March 7, 2009 for the 40th time since its inception in 1969 as a shop window for African cinema. It is hoped that the 40th FESPACO will cease being viewed merely as “a place for FESPACO civil service organisers to invite government ministers with their women to socialise at the expense of filmmakers”, to use Moroccan film director Nabil Ayouch’s words. OGOVA ONDEGO reports in retrospective on his way to Ouagadougou.

Over the four decades of its existence, FESPACO has been plagued with various ‘political’, ‘bureaucratic’ and ‘organisational’ challenges. Many players in the African audiovisual media sector, for whom the festival is meant, have over the years appeared to be getting more and more disillusioned with this festival that is billed as Africa’s largest film festival. Many of them have chosen to keep their distance from where they have thrown barbs at the festival organisers, accusing them of not just ineptitude but also of lack of respect for filmmakers.

Though having won FESPACO’s highest prize—the Yennenga Stallion—in 2001, Moroccan Nabil Ayouch kept away from the festival in 2003 as a form of protest.

Saying FESPACO was ‘disorganised’, he accused its organisers of ‘lack of respect for filmmakers’.

He was angry, he told BBC, about the treatment given to film directors by the organisers, drawn from the governnment.

He said organisers show films late—even for as late as three hours—and change screening venues without informing film directors who are expected to present their films. He said civil servant bureaucracy was spoiling FESPACO.

He had failed to collect the Yennenga Stallion for his film, ALI ZOUA, in 2001 as FESPACO failed to send him a flight ticket though having selected and put his film in competition. The organisers only realised their gaffe when Ayouch failed to collect his award.
He refused to excuse FESPACO organisers on what he termed inefficiency saying the festival was a great event 20 years earlier as “a shop window for African and Arabic cinema.”

Sometime back, I listened to various criticism of FESPACO from filmmakers drawn from across Africa and the world. They included Mahmood Ali-Balogun of Nigeria, Judy Kibinge of Kenya, Rahamatou Keita of Niger and Frances Ann Solomon of Canada.

“FESPACO organisers behave as if we don’t count,” Ali-Balogun commented. “We go to a conference and they conduct it in French while fully aware we don’t speak French. They should take cognisance of the fact that we use our own money to come here .They should translate proceedings of meetings in English besides sub-titling films in English.”

Ali-Balogun, on his third attendance at FESPACO, said the number of participants was declining instead of growing due to what he termed as ‘disorganisation’.

“FESPACO does not seem to be doing any assessment of what happens at their festivals in order to improve subsequent events. All they seem to be concerned with is that they host a festival and then go to sleep until the next one,” Ali-Balogun said.

Solomon, on her part, was disappointed that FESPACO does not readily avail information on events to festival-goers. She also expressed concern that FESPACO appears to be a mere cultural festival and not a market for selling and buying films: “Of the more than 5000 participants at FESPACO, only 23 were distributors of films,” she observed in 2003."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

The World Wide Economic Downturn Will Greatly Affect The Progression Of Africa!

The global credit crunch is causing some pretty dire predictions for the future state of affairs in Africa.The poverty rate is already the highest in the world in Africa.How will the land of my ancestors weather this evolving economic storm? Here's more from BBC News:

"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Africa's economic growth will be affected by the continuing world downturn.

It predicts that growth in sub-Saharan Africa will slow to 3.25% in 2009, half the growth rate it previously thought.

The slump in commodity prices and the credit squeeze are the main culprits, the IMF said.

The report comes ahead of a major IMF conference on Tuesday in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss how to respond.

The conference will discuss what external support the IMF and other Western donors may be able to provide to help mitigate the impact of the crisis on Africa, which has the highest poverty rate of any region in the world.

The IMF's managing director, Dominique Strauss Kahn, told the BBC that the conference would be a "milestone" and that he wanted to build a different kind of partnership with Africa, as well as providing additional funds.

In recent years, many African countries have enjoyed strong growth rates, boosted by rising commodity prices, including oil.

"The gains of the past decade, during which many countries in sub-Saharan Africa saw sustained high rates of economic growth and rising income levels, are at risk," said Antoinette Sayeh, the IMF's African department director.

Less than a year ago, the IMF's forecast for sub-Saharan Africa was economic growth of 6.7% in 2009, an increase on the 5% growth enjoyed in 2008.

Now the low growth forecast means that many African countries are likely to see very little increase in living standards, and could fall further behind in meeting poverty targets.

It says that 15 of the 21 countries which it judges most vulnerable to the crisis are in Africa."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.