Trip to Aruba (Continued)

"The tour bus pulled up alongside a beach, so I came outside and made myself a comfortable seat in front of the blue façade that surrounds this small land mass. The refraction of the sun on the bleached sand has given me a headache so I become warm and irritably restless. It could also be because my thoughts are just as confused as the fourteen languages they speak here.

But I know the secrets of this island, because the voice of this place has spoken through the very mouths of its people and they have whispered these unspoken invisibilities to my consciousness."

Excerpt from- Trip to Aruba July 2007

“On the sixth day I found myself in a place where it was so quiet that it spoke only with the voices of dead Amerindian men, women and children. The thing is, we were the ones who did it. So the fossilized blood found here has stained my feet, and the weight of it slows my steps down.

They say that this is a place of rock formations and that behind these walls, peace and tranquility are to be found. But I know better than that. Much better. For these things are neither tangible nor a receptacle for acquired tastes. Internal and somewhere that my mind does not allow me to be right now. Here the trees blow to accommodate the wind’s direction…but I am unlike these.”

Queen Mother

The heights of feminist ideology,
And as pure as such schools can get
She is beyond all earthly example of beauty
Her soul, solely immaculate.
Of motherly instinct amplified,
An agonized womb of a most rare pain,
Her radiance brighter than morning suns
Standing on the moon, she stands a Queen.

Blessed Mother, Queen of Peace, Pray for us.

-Arielle John

copyright 2007

Blog Action Day

In commemoration of Blog Action day, the issue I have decided to highlight is that of illegal cell towers...an environmental threat. The photo shown in this post was taken this morning while sitting at my bedroom window which shows the close proximity of this cell tower to my home, moreso, my room.

In the efforts of taking legal action against the erection of this tower, the courts are yet to call the case, which shows the efficency of our legal system...

Below is a list of the risks that are faced by persons in my neighbourhood, myself included... the human/animal environment.

Internationally acknowledged experts in the field of RF research have shown that RF of the type used in digital cellular antennas and phones can have critical effects on cell cultures, animals, and people in laboratories and have also found epidemiological evidence (studies of communities, not in the laboratory) of serious health effects at "non-thermal levels," where the intensity of the radiation was too low to cause heating. They have found:

Increased cell growth of brain cancer cells(4)
A doubling of the rate of lymphoma in mice(5)
Changes in tumor growth in rats(6)
An increased number of tumors in rats(7)
Increased breaks in double and single stranded DNA, our genetic material(8)
2 to 4 times as many cancers in Polish soldiers exposed to RF(9)
More childhood leukemia in children exposed to RF(10)
Changes in sleep patterns and REM type sleep(11)
Headaches caused by RF exposure(12)
Neurologic changes(13) including
Changes in the blood-brain-barrier(14)
Changes in cellular morphology (including cell death)(15)
Changes in neural electrophysiology (EEG)(16)
Changes in neurotransmitters (which affect motivation and pain perception)(17)
Metabolic changes (of calcium ions, for instance)(18)
Cytogenetic effects (which can affect cancer, Alzheimer's, neurodegenerative diseases)(19)
Decreased memory, attention, and slower reaction time in school children(20)
Retarded learning in rats indicating a deficit in spatial "working memory"(21)
Increased blood pressure in healthy men(22)
Damage to eye cells when combined with commonly used glaucoma medications(23)

Taken from: http://www.cyburban.com/~lplachta/safeweb2.htm

Another dimension of population control maybe..

Under full crescent moons...

There’s a crescent moon tonight

To cradle a North Star.
Fixed and proportionate
Like infant Child and Mother,
Green like New Life,
Green like new birth,
Watchful like planted seeds
That will rise from this earth
As foreheads do,
From a carpeted ground,
Chants and mantras,
Bearing the sound
Of awaited relief.
Devotion lives here
Though Iraq’s streets
Are littered with corpses,
These symbols lay as
Collected losses
Though never too heavy
To be carried on crosses,
But that of course is
Already understood.
But by name,
It is a brotherhood.
Not that any brother would
Shed the blood of his kin,
So rites of blessing,
Help take away
Appearances of
Sin.
There’s a crescent moon tonight
To cradle a North Star,
And my head also bows in prayer,

May you soon find truth

Sister and brother.

Amani daima.

-Arielle John

Copyright 2006

Revolutionary Dreams

Another beautiful piece from Nikki Giovanni:

i used to dream militant

dreams of taking

over america to show

these white folks how it should be

done

i used to dream radical dreams

of blowing everyone away with my perceptive powers

of correct analysis

i even used to think i'd be the one

to stop the riot and negotiate the peace

then i awoke and dug

that if i dreamed natural

dreams of being a natural

woman doing what a woman

does when she's natural

i would have a revolution.

Woman

This poem has been a favourite of mine for a while now...

Woman

she wanted to be a blade

of grass amid the fields

but he wouldn't agree

to be the dandelion

she wanted to be a robin singing

through the leaves

but he refused to be

her tree

she spun herself into a web

and looking for a place to rest

turned to him

but he stood straight

declining to be her corner

she tried to be a book

but he wouldn't read

she turned herself into a bulb

but he wouldn't let her grow

she decided to become

a woman

and though he still refused

to be a man

she decided it was all

right.

-Nikki Giovanni