Category Archives: Social

Attitudes & behaviors in society; looking at the past, present, and future characteristics among people.

Created Nostalgia

November 11, 2007 d dot b 1 Comment

Created Nostalgia
Virtues: homesick, condition, feelings

Nostalgia is defined as the state of being homesick; a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or or irrecoverable condition. Well, that is what is defined in the Webster dictionary, and we all have feelings of nostalgia when we hear a certain song, watch a movie, or read a certain magazine or article. I was talking recently with an older lady at my workplace in her 50’s/60’s about seafood or something; something dealing about cooking (don’t ask why we were talking about that) and that conversation triggered nostalgia for her and took her back to a time of racial/social injustice in 1960/1970’s U.S.A. (don’t be shocked), specifically to the coastline towns of Massachusets. I won’t get into the socio-racism part, because it is nothing new, but what triggered the memory for her was a diner in this coastal town that served up all kinds of seafood and delicacies – which actually was a positive memory for her as she recalled her friends and all of the good times she had there, but it seemed that she was looking at the ‘optimistic side’ of her memory as she didn’t get into it deeply, but she recalled the overt and non-overt racism that was still fresh in the air. Looking at her face, she was deeply affected by this instance of nostalgia as she was a little emotional and overwhelmed – but she was trying to focus on the ‘good’, even though the ‘bad’ was much more emotionally moving.

After this event, I asked myself if it is possible that people try to create their own nostalgia – especially from negative and tormenting experiences. I imagine that they’re a whole generation of peoples that have created their own nostalgia that focuses on the positivity – that is wrapped in a cocoon of hate, discrimination, and prejudice. I guess this is a coping mechanism for us to deal with the deep pain, hurt and suffering that some have experienced during this thing called life – I can’t recall that I have done such thing, consciously speaking, but maybe I will know when I hear that classic song or read a certain book. I want to see if I will create my nostalgia; or if I will allow my nostalgia to embody its true form.

Enter cliche; I guess time will tell.

Peace.

Hip-Hop, Social

Dont impress me kid

June 29, 2007 d dot b 1 Comment

Don’t Impress Me Kid

Virtues: self-monitoring, respect, accolades, getting ‘gassed’, hype, tolerance

Excerpt – Look at me, look at me. I am the ish, I do this, I do that – join MY team. I AM doing so well, I AM ballin’ – you gots to believe ME! Or is it believe IN me??? …. — Behavior of the ‘Gassed’ Individual

Ever had this happen to you? I’ve had plenty of times – you see an old acquaintance/friend from your past; high school, college, old neighborhood or just from around the way. Now, personally I rarely need accolades from others to build my self-confidence or self-esteem; I use rarely because I can admit that ‘yes’ it feels nice to be praised every once in awhile, but I feel it is only valid if I’m not looking for the accolades …. Enter the main theme of this piece. I’m referring to that dude or girl who you see every once in awhile whom tries to get your respect & praise from what they are doing in their own lives. They try so hard to persuade you to say ‘wow’ ‘ooh’, and ‘ahh’; they may do this with over exaggerating situations, showing you pictures & images to show proof of what they are doing, or by even telling you to talk to a mutual friend to verify/solidify their prominence. I’m not hating one’s hustle or grind, get money & stay true.

But, one should not need the approval of others, or try hard to make others feel impressed because that comes off really shallow; one’s self-worth isn’t much. I’ll use the term ‘gas’ to describe these people as they try to fill-up their ego with high-octane so that they can feel that they are ‘somebody’; and yes, we are all ‘somebody’, but those that need ‘gas’ are NOT happy with that ‘somebody’ whom they are.

I guess the ‘gas’ is propelling them to their ideal ‘somebody’ … but I ain’t gonna help the process, ya dig?

.:: Peace ::.
http://www.vacantlot.org/

Social

Street Land Savvy

June 14, 2007 d dot b Leave a comment

Organized Street Crime

“Almost 100 people — including 69 men, 21 women and five people under 18 — are appearing in court today to face charges ranging from possesssion of stolen property to drug and gun trafficking and gangsterism charges after yesterday morning’s raids targeting members of the west-end Toronto street gang Driftwood Crips.

In total, 88 search warrants were executed on residences, vehicles and lockers. Warrants are still outstanding for nine people.

Hundreds of police officers executed 37 search warrants in the Jane and Finch area — the epicentre of Project Kryptic, so named for sounding a little like Crips. The Driftwood Crips were the main target of the investigation that began almost a year ago.

After spending the night in custody, the suspects are being paraded into Etobicoke court where they will be identified and their fate determined so far as bail is concerned.

As part of Project Kryptic, which began 11 months ago, police seized 24 handguns, four sawed-off rifles, four replica guns and 900 rounds of ammunition.

Police also seized 30 kilograms of cocaine, 20 kilograms of marijuana, hash oil and close to a quarter of a million dollars in Canadian and U.S. currency”

—
My commentary on this event in Toronto is that every year or so, the police announces a big raid/bust that dismantles a street gang — which is good for the community and city. Most street gangs have two elements: white-collar crime & violence. White-collar crime in the form of money laundering and transnational schemes/hustles. Violence can be defined as confrontations between rival gangs vying for street superiority. I understand that the media pays toooo much attention to violent acts. White-collar crime is more costly and harmful not only to the direct parties involved, but to regional/national economies and markets. White-collar crime is committed by organizations that are kinda above the ‘street gang’ label – but police do not seemed to be so determined to catch/raid these organizations as much as the street gangs. When was the last time the mafia was raided with such a big sting? Is it because they are more sophisticated than street gangs or is more attention/resources put towards street gangs??

Just my two cents …

Peace

Social, Style

Stay Fly Baby

April 16, 2007 d dot b Leave a comment

Stay Fly
Virtues: Responsibility, Life, Logic

A quick and interesting story about the current state of life.

To paraphrase, basically, a 22 young black woman decided to have a baby shower. Her first one, the ‘baby daddy’ is out of the picture. Now, from what I know, when you have a baby shower, you ask for necessity items: diapers, clothing, food, wipes, and things of that nature. And you usually create a registry, so that people are not buying duplicate items. However, this young scholar did not have a registry, but requested her friends to buy everything from Rocawear sheets, a pair of Jordan’s, Sean John pyjamas, jewelery, and other foolery items – in all, she only received one package of diapers for her newborn. And this already single mother believed that she had a good shower, because her baby will look ‘fly’ – and I guess, you can’t really dispute that. But, the baby has no necessities coming into the world. To me, if I was about to have a baby, I would put items that the baby needs, in abundance, on the registry: diapers, wipes, baby food, clothing (regular). I would make sure that I have like 20 boxes of diapers; I would desire for that more than making sure my baby is iced-out. And the people who came bearing gifts, they did not think that maybe they should by necessities – but instead, they brought name brand clothes and jewellery. I strongly hope that this is an isolated incidence, and this is not the norm amongst our people.

Share your stories if you can relate.

Peace.

Social, Technology

The Good Piece?

April 13, 2007 d dot b Leave a comment

The GOOD Piece?
Virtues: positive, goodness, humanism, respect

I was reviewing a couple of my blogs that I have written, and I came to the conclusion that I have been mostly negative – I’m always complaining, bitching, or protesting about something. Am I going to stop? No. But I am going to try to write something a bit more ‘good’ – in the sense of ‘good’ being good things and events that are all around us. Even when I’m reading other blogs from members of myspace or beyond, the mood is very pessimistic/cynic-like.

So what ‘good’ is out there in the world? We can all say that God is good, family, and friends – that should be understood by all, regardless of religion, race, or creed.

The Democratization of the Internet has been good; now any mofo can expose themselves to a bigger audience, and for the most part except for Internet service fees, the Internet is primarily free, and ‘we’ the people are taking control of its direction (kind of).

Hip-Hop, be that it is at a pretty shitty state at the moment, hip-hop culture is still a creative artform and expression for many.

Open Source, a wild and radical idea that allows programmers to share their code with the world. Many corporations frown upon this (as it is their trade secrets), but open source, or at least the initiative, has created many useful applications: Firefox, Picasa, wikipedia, etc., with a collaborative effort of many people around the world.

Google, not just for their simplistic search engine, but for their user applications; specifically, Google docs (trust me, you’ll never want to use Word or Excel again).

Environmental push, thanks to man’s self-inflicted problem of global warming, and high oil prices, we have taken steps to seriously create panels to discuss the future of our environments – perhaps those panels will actually do something … we can only hope.

Goodwill, the Tsunami, Katrina have showed that even with all of the evils in the world, humans can still give and help out their fellow man in a time of crisis; whether it is food, money, or volunteering in disaster areas.

T.V., the quality of television has surpassed the whole movie medium (in my opinion). Shows confront risqué topics and push the boundaries and limits of the norm. Shows like the Wire, Sopranos, 24, Heroes, Weeds, and others make
it more worthwhile to watch a T.V box set, rather than go out to the cinemas to pay for too much popcorn and uncomfortable seats.

Stem cell research, even though Bush is against this, this research technology can eventually solve most of the world’s illnesses. The ethical issue is whether it is just to take dead cells away from an organism to help save the life of another organism (I think that is what stem cell research is, in simplistic terms).

Wow, maybe my mind is blank or that may be all of the good things that I can
think of. Can y’all help a brother out and let me know what else is really good? (No pun intended).

Popular Culture, Social

Obama this, Obama that

April 8, 2007 d dot b Leave a comment

Obama This, and Obama That

I’m all for the notion that it would be ‘nice’ to finally have a black U.S. President. To even be talking about a black U.S. president shows that society has grown enormously in the past 50 years; because not so long ago, blacks were still being lynched and according to funnyman Kramer “stuck with pitch forks up their asses”. It is quite amazing actually when you really think about it. However, Obama seems to have a very legitimate chance of getting the U.S. Democratic nomination for the 2008 election, and then, he may have a chance to get into the White House.

No more rudimentary jokes about a black president can be made, however, I feel that one must ask the question, what will really change if there is a black president? Really? Will all the ghetto black youths suddenly move to the suburbs, causing the white kids to move to farm lands? Will there be more social programs? Social welfare assistance? I hear a lot of talk that if elected, a black president will ‘look’ out for black people, but I find a fallacy in such logic. If Obama gets in, doesn’t mean that the current socio-economic status of black americans will change; one thing that we gotta understand is that even if the president is Black, the Senate still is predominately white – correlating that the senate actually passes any bills and/or spending. Further, any president has to ‘play’ to his party and their ideals; thus if one’s party is still predominately white, the likelihood that a dramatic bill will be passed that will ‘magically’ elevate the socio-economic status of blacks is bleak.

So unfortunately, I remain pessimistic that a black president will have any strong effect – except for the symbolism aspect that society has changed dramatically, but as the saying says:
“The more things change, the more they stay the same”

… but it would be nice if he got in office

— Peace

So I ask, what is your fondest memory of Christmas?

Producer of Things