THE MOVIE 13TH - REVIEW

                                                       

I could not bring myself to watch this documentary at once. I had to watch it in bits. It is an emotionally draining one.

In this documentary, young black men and women were beaten, handcuffed violently, old men were beaten, pushed and shoved by white policemen without any form of empathy.
This documentary is mainly, Ava DuVernay's way of linking the past and current mass incarceration of black men in relation to slavery before it was abolished. Extensive research went into the making of this movie and there were evidence to back them all up to prove that slavery has been replaced by mass incarceration of black people. Contributors in this documentary ranged from formerly incarcerated men and women, former and present congressmen, activists, journalists.
Ava DuVernay brings to our consciousness the loop hole in the 13th amendment - a law that was passed to abolish slavery.

The 13th amendment law states that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a  punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.....shall exist within the United states, or any place subject to their jurisdiction". The part of the law in bold italics is the loophole Ava sheds more light on in this documentary. It's being greatly exploited by those who benefit from it.

At the beginning of the documentary, we hear President Obama saying "5% of world population are in America, 25% of world prisoners are in America, think about this". 2.3 million Americans are presently in prison and of this number 40.2% are African-American men. I was shocked when it was pointed out that African- American men make up only about 6.5% of the America population. More Shocking was when Cory Booker (New Jersey Senator) explicitly said "Right now, we now have more African-Americans under criminal supervision than all the slaves back in 1850s" - Let that sink in.

The documentary traced the inception of mass incarceration of African- Americans to the 1915 movie by D.W Griffith titled 'The Birth of a nation'. This film portrayed black people as criminals and it got great reviews by critics and white communities leaders. President Woodrow Wilson requested for a private viewing and described it as 'History written with lightening'. In that movie, black men were lynched and were associated with menace. It also encouraged the resurgence of the KKK(Kuh Klux Klan) - who lynched and murdered black men. This movie also made black men to be treated as permanent second class citizens. This prompted a peaceful protest by black men wearing a placard that read "I am a Man"

Black men and women activists were thrown into jail for even peaceful protest and speaking up against police brutality and segregation. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X,  Angela Davies and other activists were declared the most dangerous men and women in the world by FBI Chief at that time J. Edgar.

As Van Jones, CNN political analyst Puts it - "You can tell the story of white leadership in America and never mention the FBI one time, you can't tell the story of black leadership not one without having to deal with the full weight of the criminal justice system weaponising this black descent"
Fred Hampton the leader of the Black Panther was killed at age 21. The policemen who carried his dead body were even pictured laughing. It seemed like a sort of relief to them that a young man whose only weapon of fighting oppression were through his speeches and protest was dead. The system was so afraid of Black men.

The Justice System was so afraid of black leaderships and groups no matter how small they were. So these groups and it's leadership were criminalised, thrown in jail or killed. This coincided with the government plans to rebuild the post-abolition southern economy. Prisoners built and reconstructed the prisons at cheap labour of course.

In the documentary was a video clip of Black Panther Assata Shakur who predicted that "In the next five years, something like three hundred prisons are in the planning stages. This government has the intention throwing more and more people in prison"


This documentary also highlighted how Presidents Nixon and then Regan heightened the problem of racial profiling of black people by starting a war on drugs lending credence to Shakur's prediction. This war on drugs was a subtle way of starting a war on black and brown people. They even used the slogan in their campaigns using it to appeal to more southern white people.

A Regan adviser  - Lee Atwater was quoted as saying "Y'all aint gonna quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying nigger. By 68, you can't say nigger - it huts you, it backfires. So you say stuff like forced bussing states rights and all that stuff and you're getting so abstract. Now you're talking about cutting taxes and all of these things are totally economic things and a by products of them is - blacks gets hurt worse than whites"

So it has always being in the plan for white leadership to destroy black men in any way possible, criminalising black men was the way to go for them.
The years of the civil rights movement saw an increase in incarceration of black people and black people began to see being arrested as a noble thing.

The 70's recorded mass incarceration based on the war on crimes spearheaded by past presidents. Black men and women got jail sentences for the possession of cocaine no matter how small, while white people got a judgement that can be described as a slap on the wrist.

It is not as if Black people didn't commit crimes, they did but so did white people. But more attention and publicity was put into the arrests and trials of Black people so even Black people were of the notion that there Brothers ans Sisters were criminals. They were scared and wary of one another.

Then came President Bill Clinton in the 90's, surprisingly his policies birth the current prison system. A crime bill that birthed the expansion of the prisons. He was also responsible for the three strikes law which allowed for repeat offenders to be sentenced to life and to be made to serve 85% of their jail terms.

The three strikes law includes even being arrested for theft or possession of drugs. Clinton's policy in addition to Regan's  mandatory jail sentences for drug crimes saw a large number of black people arrested and jailed. Hilary Clinton supported her husband's three strikes law. I could not help but think that maybe, that act of showing support for her husband's policy contributed to her loss.
Hilary and her husband have both publicly said they regretted that law.

Some black teenagers were wrongfully arrested for raping and leaving a lady jogger for dead in 1989. Donald Trump was  shown in this documentary saying the death penalty should be brought back. He campaigned hard for these teenagers to be killed. He even bought a full paper advert asking that the Death penalty should be brought back. These teenagers were eventually acquitted after serving part of their jail terms thanks to DNA testing.

The thing about been formerly incarcerated is that, it is hard to get a job. Formerly incarcerated men and women are mostly on benefits. The systems was tweaked in a way that once they are out it became hard for them to be employed.

I also wondered why Donald's Trump role in this didn't come back to bite him. He was forgiven for what he did, if not he would not have being voted in - White male privilege maybe.


The concluding part of this documentary also showed Donald Trump while he was campaigning clamouring for the good old days where protesters were carried out in stretcher and criminals beaten. One could not help but think that criminals was his subtle way of referring to Black people.
Police brutality to black people was shown in videos and pictures.Very horrid I must say.


On the whole, if you are interested in the America's prison system, slavery and the injustice meted out to African- Americans, then this is for you. Ava Duvernay covers all aspects of these topics extensively.

FAREWELL TO A PHENOMENAL WOMAN - MICHELLE OBAMA

                                                                         
Prior to 2007/ 2008, I had never heard of the name OBAMA. I was not really conversant with world politics. An excuse I tend to give was that - I was too preoccupied with Nigeria's politics.

I am a huge fan of Hillary Clinton and I wanted the Democratic party nomination for Hillary. It will be great for a woman to become the  president of the most powerful country in the world- I remembered saying to myself.

One day in December 2007 my dad and I were talking about US politics and I told him, I wanted Hillary Clinton to get the nod for the Democratic party presidential primaries. He knows I am a huge fan of Oprah and he said 'Oprah endorsed the other candidate - Senator Barrack Obama'. That was the first time I heard his name. I remember looking disappointed as I asked my dad why Oprah would endorse a man over Hilary, aren't women supposed to support one another?

My dad said something to me then and over the years, I have come to understand the statement he made. My dad said 'When someone like Oprah is asked to choose between supporting one candidate from either her gender or race - (and her gender and race are in minority), I guess the right call will be to choose race because men and women of her race stand to benefit if Obama becomes the president'  I remembered just shrugging. Suffice to say I switched allegiance to Obama because of Oprah. I saw Michelle on the campaign trail but never thought anything about her.

On the night of the election, when Obama walked to the stage to give his victory speech was the day I fell in love with Michelle, she oozed of class, charisma and elegance as she walked out holding the hand of her eldest child. Her smile looked genuine.

I love intelligent and successful women. Michelle ticked those boxes perfectly.

I remembered when she started the initiative to address the issue of obesity in schools and encouraging healthy eating amongst school children. I thought it was brave of her to speak out concerning such an issue. The truth is obesity was and is still a huge problem in America but parents can be overly sensitive when it comes to their children and I was expecting a backlash from the parents and schools, but I guess they were swayed by her charm. Her passion to put an end to obesity was questioned by feminists. They had other expectations for her and felt she was too much of a mum as opposed to being a career woman. Her support for homeless veterans and families of military men and women, which I believed was  noble of her, was questioned as well. She was described as a 'Feminist nightmare'.

Almost everything she did was questioned. She was called derogatory names, her physique was scrutinised. Is she a woman? Is she too strong or weak? Is she feminist enough? Is she an angry black woman? ......just to mention a few. Through all this name calling, Michelle rose and came out of the mud slugged at her looking pristine.                                          
Little did we know that she was living by a motto she was kind enough to share with us at the Democratic party convention that took place last year.
Our Motto is - When they go low, we go high.
                                                                               
She remained focused on what she felt were important issues to her. She attributed this to knowing herself and not listening to distractions. She brought a human side to the office of the First Lady. A human side like we had never seen before, a human side we could relate to.
She opened the doors of the white house to everyone irrespective of race or gender. Like her husband President Obama said about her in his final farewell speech, 'You made the white house a place that belonged to everybody'

I watched in awe and admiration, the video of her 2015 University of Tuskegee commencement speech, She spoke about how she dealt with all the name-calling, how she declined to conform to other people's expectations of her by just being true to herself.

In my opinion, Michelle Obama lived her life in the public eye and still managed to live in her TRUTH.



She laughed when she wanted to, she joked about her husband, herself and even added her children to the mix. She danced, sang, rapped when she wanted to. People looked forward to her interviews on talk shows across USA, because of her fun personality.

The partnership, friendship, mutual respect and love Barrack and Michelle Obama is admirable.

Dear Michelle Obama,
In your  final speech as First lady at this year's School Counsellor of the Year,  you asked 'I hope I have made you all proud'?
I speak for myself and say that I am proud of you, your works and achievements.

Your influence has gone beyond the shores of America and people like me who live miles away have felt your impact.

Reiterating what Oprah said to you at the United State of Women Summit 2016 'The way you handled this office, the way you carried and presented yourself to the women and men of United States reminds me of a line from Maya's book - you make me proud to spell my name WOMAN

I wish you all the best as you start the next chapter of your life.

Farewell Ma'am!!!

CHEERS TO A SUCCESFULL 2017

Happy New Year!!! This is coming a little bit too late - 8 days into the new year, but work just started for me today on the blog. I have being on holiday mode. I had to take time off the blog and social media in October. I had an exam to prepare for, I started a new Job, and my son started reception class in primary school - he found settling down into the new school and adjusting to routine very difficult. All these required my undivided attention so I had to take time off.

Thank God my son is settling down well and he has adjusted well to school routines. I passed my exam, which was a huge relief. I believe I have gotten to the point in my life where Time is more difficult for me to give than money. All I kept thinking about while preparing for this exam was the fact that if I failed it, where will I get the time to retake it? Money was not an issue for me anymore - not that I have loads laying around, but time is of more value to me now. Shout out to all Parents juggling family, work and school together - You guys are the Real MVP!!

There will be few changes on the blog. I am looking to devout more time to the blog and make it more interactive. The blog will be updated every Monday. To encourage visitors on the blog to post comments, there will be 6 recharge cards to be won by active commenters at the end of this month.

All you have to do is regularly post comments on the blog, and the most consistent people get to win recharge cards for network of their choice.
There will be giveaways all through this year and they will be announced at the beginning of the month.

For the month of January, I am reading A RETURN TO LOVE - Reflections on the principles of A COURSE IN MIRACLES. I will be sharing excerpts on this book on my Facebook wall and review it at the end of the month.

As part of the changes to the blog, documentaries and movies will be reviewed on the blog too. I am currently watching a documentary titled 13th by Ava DuVERNAY and will review it sometime this month.

If you will like to review anything of interest to you on the blog, please send me an email or a Facebook message. Suggestions on books, movies and documentaries are welcome.

I will like to end this post with this message that was shared by a friend on Facebook, Number 6 resonated with me. I hope this message resonates with you too and help you in your journey on becoming the best version of yourself.





No matter what you are going through, God's got you!!

Have a Prosperous and Fulfilled 2017

Best Wishes
Bola Awe

HOPE IS BEAUTIFUL THING

I love the run up to Christmas and I look forward to it with so much relish. I get so busy preparing for it so hard that it takes my mind of things that are normally bound to ruin my mood.
I get to indulge in shopping, cooking, baking, binge watching the food channel and derive pleasure from comfort food.

After the Christmas celebrations, say 29th or 30th of December, my emotions start to get the better part of me. It always seems as if the lack of preparing for the Christmas celebration has left a void in my life. I start thinking about the loved ones I have lost during the course of the year, wishing they were alive to see this day. Another factor that brings my emotion to the surface is my level of accomplishment.

At the beginning of every year, I have set goals that I hoped to achieve before the end of the year, now the end of year is near, I begin to take stock of the year and most of the times I realise I have fallen short of my expectations. This disrupts my mood a great deal and my emotions tends to be all over the place.
I have come to realise that quite a number of people feel this way too.
If you ever feel this way, then this message is for you.

Hope is a good thing. I heard this statement in a movie titled Shaw shank Redemption. I changed the statement to suit my state of mind at that time to 'Hope is a beautiful thing' and I added 'hope is for the living, in all things choose life, choose to live and not exist'.





You might say which dumb person if given an option to choose between life and death will not choose life, well let me explain it.
If you do not learn from past mistakes and keep repeating them, you are not choosing life. If you choose to live in the past, allow fear, shame and guilt to rule over you, you have not chosen life. If you thrive in negativity, pity party, being the victim always, never owning up to your own responsibility then you have not chosen life.

You might not have expressly chosen death but you have chosen to exist instead of living, instead of dusting yourself, pick yourself up from the ground and move on.
If you go into a relationship pretending to be what you are not, you have not chosen life.
If you keep seeking validation from people, you have not chosen life.
If you hold on to relationships that are bound to ruin your life or any part of it, you have not chosen life.

That you have not achieved your set goals is not the end of the world and does not make you a failure.

There are several definitions of hope but I love this more
Hope is that beautiful place between the way things were and the ways things are yet to be.

Being hopeful is being optimistic that things will get better. Being hopeful is a choice one has to make and you can't just chose hope and go lay down, It is not enough to just write down new year resolutions and hope to achieve them all. You have got to put in the work towards achieving your set goals.
                                      
                                                        


As this year is coming to an end don't allow fear, shame, regret, guilt, hate, lack of accomplishment, resentment to pull you down, take solace in the fact that Hope is a beautiful thing and it is for the living. That you are alive is something you should be grateful for and with hard work, diligence and perseverance, you will accomplish your goals.


As 2017 beckons, I hope that it will be a great year for you. I hope that if given an opportunity to choose between life and death - you will choose life.

I hope you never take being alive for granted

If given an opportunity to choose between living and existing - I hope you choose to live.

If given an opportunity to choose between sitting it out and dancing - I hope you choose to dance.

If one door closes, I hope that another door opens

I hope you fulfil your destiny and accomplish your set goals.

Above all, I hope you experience True Love.

PS - This is the third year in a row  that I have stopped feeling sad at the end of the year not because I have achieved all my goals but because I have replaced being sad with being hopeful. Hopeful that the coming year will be better. I always take solace and comfort in these words by Oprah Winfrey

I do not know what the future holds, but I know him who holds the future. I always add this and He's got me.

God's got you.
2017 will be a great year for us all

Best wishes
Bola Awe