I AM
... a dark indigenous ark. We were just so much full of perfect superior light.
[literary influences: Maori - NZ's dna wairua blue-print currency of 'waka vikings of the sunrise' ancestral knowing, (more…)
NEW ZEALAND & ZIMBABWE HAVE A CHAT – 25th JULY 2012
Here’s a very cool story of how New Zealand is working together with Zimbabwe to tidy up human rights bans from the IMF in Zimbabwe’s history’s dark past.
New Zealand’s PM John Key is considering dropping financial and travel sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai asked NZ to. The sanctions were introduced in 2002 in response to human rights abuses under the regime of President Robert Mugabe and is seen as being ”very important as the IMF, the World Bank will not deal with us,” says Mr Tsvangirai. Furthermore, Mugabe and Tsvangirai share leadership.
TVNZ also note: He says he is hopeful the reward of sanctions being lifted will be enough of an incentive for Mugabe to play fair. Yet another dispute is hoped to be avoided, if Mr Tsvangirai can get the pass. Mr Key says he wants to have a korero to Aussie about it. He accepts Mr Tsvangirai has a compelling case. (more…)
THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING – MANDIBA NELSON MANDELA – 94th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS, SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa’s first democractically elected black President turned 94 yesterday. He is the man who insighted the world to see beyond color and unfair laws that once supported apartheid’s economic flows certain ways.
As a child, his name is significant to me as my Aunty Awa and her sister marched on rugby stadiums with young activists making a point in those days with other New Zealanders of the calibre of fiery activists like Ripeka Evans and filmmakers like Merata Mita (her filmmaking friends) and their many Pakeha New Zealand friends too. They united as one people, to show solidarity towards a cause of a long walk to freedom.
His name as we know, is Mr Nelson Mandela, a man who inspired Maori and Pasifika children in particular in New Zealand and the South Pacific to hold on to an enduring dream just as he had. Although we had advanced and conscientious school teachers at the school I went to (Barbara Stuthridge-Rudolph being one and Eileen Parore and Jewish-Kiwi, sports obsessed Steven Cohen beingothers), our Pakeha friends, saw us in a different light because of this man’s unusual story.
How would I describe him? He is a vessel of brokenness whose life is filled with the fragrance of humane wisdom, deep gratitude in life; more precious than saphire, he is a gem smith’s diamond cut for freedom’s wider purposes in the world, that makes us look at things beyond the price of oil, in a brighter light of justness towards the gift and maximum miracle of healthy change by being more fair.”
In my childhood in Whangarei City, the most economically oppressed city in those years of NZ - the cry for freedom and change from little ‘ole New Zealand was like a resounding declaration that change was upon us. New Zealand sensed this early and mobilized in response. The cry from Aotearoa New Zealand was:
“the whole world is watching.”
My own mom, to be fair – not only supported her whanau (family) protesting for change, she also invited the South African rugby football team home for lunch from The Grand Hotel. They were so thankful to be invited home. Mom wanted to ensure they experienced Maori manaakitanga amidst the Springboks rugby Tour that would change New Zealand in hard-fought ground for the good. These lessons were stepping stones and milestones of New Zealand culture, that our peace must be founded upon strongly. Some of New Zealand’s most important stories have happened against the backdrop of a sporting context’s profile as was the case when we protested apartheid for people like Mandiba Mandela. It is what we do well. In him and peple just like him, we saw our own redemption.
That day, although we were poor and my missionary parents who once had struggled like the people of the South Pacific do in Island paradise Isles like Samoa, Tonga and Fiji – had lived in a State-bought house they paid off, that was originally built for a Maori radio jockey. He abandoned the home last minute when his marriage unexpectedly dissolved and we were lucky to be moved into it. On the day the Springboks team came home, mom cooked curry with rice in the kitchen - just how she’d learned to in Fiji, that day. Her cooking was a big hit.
Mandela’s name and presence was ever-present in the room on this day too with some of South Africa’s best rugby football stars in our humble Northland home. The moment was surreal yet normal too.
Perhaps as a credit to their own statespersonship and humility caught up in the cross-fire, they were relieved to be welcomed into a Maori-Kiwi cross-cultural home to experience a form of real New Zealand life as it really was. No pretense, a real home with a real young family.
Back to the birthday boy. He is also one of the world’s most favorite anti-apartheid activists towards Peace. In one of the two video clips from South Africa, his angel (a messanger) of hope is one of my favorite American Presidents, Mr Bill Clinton. Not perfect, yet the President with the most personality, love of fun and imbued pizazz – the world has always looked to the USA to provide as an entertaining nation working in tandem with our founding ties and high regard of British culture too. Our indigenous people signed an agreement with Queen Victoria many years ago. We are stil working on getting this right 171 years on since the ink dried. A signed deal for equality means that between our indigenous people and The Crown that represents this agreement. Mandiba Mandela’s story, helped bring this agreement more to the forefront of New Zealand cultural life. He, a bright angel of hope all of those years ago.
Although today, I think South Africa could do with gun reform laws (a notion formerly put forward by New Zealand for South Africa years ago by a leading judge and ignored at home by short-sighted arrogant oversights of governance at the time); an idea that would have made South Africa as a nation safer for its citizens today; this man’s birthday is a very special occasion.
The remarkable footage of 12 million students celebrating the birthday of South Africa’s “Mandiba” Nelson Mandela reminds us that inside prisons sits like deep reservoirs – a living resource, more precious than oil, where some of our most remarkable citizens on earth are found. Prisoners: Real people with bright futures needing rehabilitation, restoration and grace. Nelson Mandela’s life story is a living symbol of this fact. So today, I bow to his legacy and early years as a leader and thank him and his family and friends for what they endured as our teachers.
Euronews reported: “”If was not for him, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t even be smiling again and saying we are one as a rainbow nation,” said Sello Sebogwane.
“When I talk about you (Mandela) I feel like crying. I’m talking about the hero. The man who has spent years in jail for us. You worked for the nation, you helped black people spending 27 years in jail at Robben Island. You did not enjoy your life. God bless you, we still love you and wish you a happy birthday,” added Salome Makgamatho, who was overcome with emotion.”
Grandson Mandla Mandela, said he inspires the idea of “being of greater service (in daily life) and to the nation at large.”
In South Africa: “Mr Clinton, accompanied by his daughter Chelsea, opened a new library for the No-Moscow Primary School in Qunu, ahead of his meeting with Mr Mandela. “When I think about Mandela I always think about someone committed to the future,” Mr Clinton said.
Former President Bill Clinton also said: “He was very pleased the way the people celebrated his birthday with sixty-seven minutes of service.” How sweet… the sound… of South Africa today.
Photos: BBC. Nelson Mandela‘s granddaughter, Ndileka Mandela in a cute Halle Berry reference and nod to Hollywood-Brit, Oscar’s star system said, “he can charm bees out of their beehive.” I think she was referring to Bill Clinton on that one – who does the exact same cheeky thing.
[Photo caption: Graca Machel (left) walks with Chelsea Clinton (second left) and her father, former US president Bill Clinton, as they arrive at a party to celebrate Nelson Mandela's birthday in Qunu. Part 2: Bill Clinton & supporter Mr Robert Ellis and friends].
[Birthday - postcard from New Zealand for Nelson Mandela's 94th birthday... coming up soon. God bless you, your family and your dreams still being fulfilled. Thank you.]
~Posted by Horiwoodblog, Aotearoa New Zealand, Polynesia Asia-Pacific. 20.7.12~
SONGWRITER TAMA PIRI – FROM PRISONER TO A GLADIATOR OF SOULFUL REGGAE SONG
Some of my best future friends are rehabbing prisoners. And I don’t even live in Orange County or Keri Keri.
Tonight, the gorgeous Pippa Wetzell, brought the story of Tama Piri‘s journey from prison to reggae praise songwriting. The story reminds me of just what redemption looks like. A step by step daily process, onto a good path.
Redemption after prison, looks like Tama Piri experiencing grace at home base. Can a bad man turn good? is the angle of this story. A good one! (more…)
REDEMPTION SONGS MEDICINE @ THE 3,119,362 MILESTONE
Redemption is the art of redeeming or buying back.
When I think of redemption, on a pop cultural level, I think of Bob Marley‘s classic waiata (song) Redemption Songs. I do not share Bob’s religious views, yet his song I love. “Emancipate yourself from mental [ideological] slavery” was this masterful poet/ songwriter’s heartening and universal message.
Whatever we lust unhealthily after, we are a slave mentally of it. Be it money (economic status), fame (a desire for recognition), sex (an illusion of love in a touch), these things can make us slaves if we are not in balance. That’s been my life experience to date.
Being more honest is also what I seek to be, at this point in my life. Part of my redemption involves people who care asking questions. Here’s some of those I got back to from friends when hitting Aotearoa New Zealand’s magnificent alluvial and minerals rich soil.
What is a blog?
Do you blog for attention? (more…)
HOW KIRK DOUGLAS HELPED TO BREAK BLACKLIST
ABC’S David Muir zooms viewers in to celebrate the life of Kirk Douglas, as a Hollywood light who stood against censorship in a culture where politics was too heavy-handed and blacklist occurred from government. A friend and mentor named Robert, who is 91 and lives in Beverly Hills, once got black-listed because he worked as a journalist who would socialize with black people in Los Angeles when reporting.
He was Jewish, yet he could pass for Parsee. Robert was associated to Lena Horne‘s circle of friends, when Lena was black-listed as a communist. He was blacklisted too. They were crazy times. Robert is still a registered member of Pen America to this day, an organisation that is a global literary community dedicated to protecting free expression and celebrating literature in humane ways.
David Muir’s story goes: “In the 1950s Hollywood was consumed by the blacklist. Writers, producers and actors were called before Congress amid fear they might be Communists. The mere mention of a name was enough to end a career.
“It was the worst time in Hollywood,” Hollywood veteran Kirk Douglas told ABC News. “Everybody told me I was crazy.”
Crazy because as a producer of Spartacus Douglas put his own career on the line, his own fortune, to hire Dalton Trumbo, one of those writers on the blacklist.
“If you do it … you’ll never work in this town again. You will be declared a Communist,” Cleo Trumbo, Dalton’s wife said people told Douglas.
But Douglas, hired Dalton Trumbo anyway, and Spartacus became the top movie of the USA that year. The movie wasn’t only a box-office winner, it was also instrumental in breaking the blacklist.”
Douglas realized that within the face of Dalton Trumbo’s faceless story was his own story, that “there by the grace of God, go I.” He acted on that basis with integrity in liberty, in one pivotal action of inclusion that went beyond surface appearances of the milieu-of-the-day, thus changing history. With confidence in peace Douglas disciplined a system that had become drunk on power, elitist exclusion for personal gain and was blind to the image of itself, while being clearly unjust towards humanity. Kirk Douglas hacked the system of inequality and greed backed unjustly by a state system’s might.
The tyranny of the blacklist was broken. He was an agent of redemption, the only true firm foundation of real grace. Freedom returned, the marginalized advanced and Kirk Douglas included others more honestly with his spirit of wise compassion and fearless courage to love others as he wanted to be treated himself. He demonstrated: “there by the Grace of God, go us.”
[Photo caption: Source: Wikipedia, courtesy of Mesa County Libraries. Spartacus movie still ATTV].
[Photo selection: Author's own & Graden Carter for Vanity Fair]
To the grey-set, wise Jewish doms of Beverly Hills, California… for their humanitarian philosophical thoughtfulness… their sense of humor in displaying a wider humanitarian cause through the oft shallow glitz of show biz’s circus… we say “thank you.”
News selection: as broadcasted on air in New Zealand by Mr. Peter Williams, TVNZ.
~Posted by Horiwoodblog, Aotearoa New Zealand, Polynesia Asia-Pacific. 30.6.12~
June 30, 2012 | Categories: Action Stars, Activists, Actors, African-America, Agents, beverly hills, Blacklist, Boulder, Box Office Stars, Boxing, Censorship, Christopher Trumbo, Cleo Trumbo, Colorado, Combating Racism, Combatting Racism, Communism, Community, Compassion, Costumes, Courage, Dalton Trumbo, Democracy, Directors, Directors Guild Awards, Disabilities, Discernment, Discipline, Diversity, Empathy, Encouragement, Endurance, Entertainment Celebrity News, Entertainment Distribution, Entertainment News, Eros, Fair Partnership, Faith, Freedom, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Government Witch Hunts, Grace, Greece, Greed, Grey Power, Hacking, Halle Berry, Hats, Heritage Arts & Culture, Hollywood Entertainment News, Hollywood History, Hollywood Maori Kings, Hollywood Television Service, Hollywood Today, Hot B*tches, Hot Chocolate, Hugo Butler, Human Rights, Humanitarian Angels on Horiwood.Com, Hy Hollinger, I have a Dream, Ian McLellan Hunter, Icons, Imagination, Inequality, Integrity, Jean Rouverol, Journalists, Kirk Douglas, Lena Horne, Leon Uris, Liberty, Life, Life Coaches, Life Expectancy, MacKinlay Kantor, Mitzi Trumbo, Movie News, Nikola Trumbo, Novelists, Oscars, Otto Preminger, Paranoia, Parsee America, Pen America, Playwrights, Police Corruption, Police Rehabilitation Programs, Politics, Pop Cultural Commentary, Postcard from Hollywood, Power Struggles, Prisons, Producers, Producers Guild Awards Hollywood, Redemption, Robert Ellis, Robert Rich, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screenplays, Screenwriters, Slavery, Slavery Narratives, Spartacus, Star System - The Art of American Celebrity, Stars - Hollywood Walk of Fame, Super heroes, Talent Management, Wisdom, Wisdoms Buffet, World History, World News, World Peace, Wrestling, Writers, Writers Guild of America | 1 Comment »