Colombian Superstar Shakira and soccer star boyfriend Gerard Piqué are hosting a virtual baby shower which will allow people to donate life-saving items to impoverished children. (Google Images)
by Nsenga K. Burton
Rolling Stone is reporting that celebrated singer Shakira is hosting a virtual baby shower with soccer star boyfriend Gerard Piqué. The singer who is expecting a son with Piqué has asked for virtual attendees to donate life-saving supplies instead of gifts like vaccines and mosquito nets to children living in some of the world’s poorest countries. Rolling Stone reports:
Dubbed the “Inspired Gifts” program, the couple set up a “virtual living room” through Unicef – Shakira is an ambassador for the charity – where users can donate and purchase items such as a mosquito net for $5, polio vaccinations for 17 children for $10 or, for $110, a peanut-based food paste that can save an acutely malnourished child.
Comedian/activist Dick Gregory slams filmmaker Spike Lee for refusing to see Quentin Tarantino’s film ‘Django Unchained.’ (Google Images)
by Nsenga K. Burton
In a video (audio recording) hosted by WeAllBeTV’s YouTube channel, activist and comedian Dick Gregory calls out Spike Lee for being hypocritical in his stance on Quentin Tarantino’s film Django Unchained. He slams the filmmaker calling him a ‘thug’ and a ‘punk’ and chastises Lee for his representation of Malcolm X in Lee’s film. Mr. Gregory says that he has seen ‘Django Unchained’ 12 times and says, “never in the history of Hollywood have I seen a film that freed the inside of me.” Check out Mr. Gregory’s comments below:
TLC’s show ‘The Best Funeral Ever Made,” plays into stereotypical representations of blacks on television and film. (Screen shot)
Writing for TheRoot.com, the BurtonWire’s Editor-in-Chief Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. discusses the horrible representations of blacks in the latest reality programming featuring black casts. Check out an excerpt below:
While we’re spending hours upon hours debating one film on social networks and in the media, tomfoolery is raging on TLC and Oxygen in the form of reality-television programming that has little to no entertainment value and is more exploitative than any Tarantino film could ever be. As my late grandmother would say, we are “focused on the wrong thing.” The images of blacks as buffoons, jezebels, coons and Aunt Jemimas are circulating through our living rooms on a daily onslaught in the form of reality-TV promos, reruns and marathons.
As if trying to survive the damage done to our televisual images by Real Housewives of Atlanta, Basketball Wives and Love and Hip Hop franchises isn’t enough to manage, here comes a slew of shows that would make the “ladies” of those shows gasp and swoon.
In all honesty, I could barely get through the first episode of Best Funeral Ever, a reality show highlighting the Golden Gate funeral home in Dallas, where the narration proclaims, “You may be in a casket, but it can still be fantastic.” The funeral home will do any funeral service one can imagine.
In the first episode, someone who loved Christmas and “bopping” (dancing) is being laid to rest, so the relatives decide to give him a Christmas-themed funeral. Fast-forward to the funeral planners, who are in a costume shop bopping around wearing a snowman head throughout the store.
Surprise, surprise: The funeral planners become engaged in a power struggle over the planning, which appears to be going off budget, with one planner saying that she can’t be “undisciplined.” Undisciplined? You’re bopping around a costume shop wearing a snowman’s head in preparation for a funeral, and you’re worried about the budget?
The mPedigree Network was established to end corruption and the trafficking of counterfeit medicine in addition to empowering consumers with information to make good decisions. (Ustr.gov)
In an Op-Ed for AllAfrica.com, Bright B. Simons discusses the development of mPedigree Network, a network that connects principal telecom operators in Africa, leading pharmaceutical industry associations in Africa and Fortune 500 technology powerhouses in empowering African patients and consumers to protect themselves from the fatal effects of pharmaceutical counterfeiting. Approximately 25 percent of the total trade of pharmaceuticals in Africa are counterfeit. Add that figure the inability to track medicines through supply chains, thefts, diversions, corruption, trafficking and the widespread abuse of medicine, and significant problem that has to be addressed emerges.
According to the mPedigree website, counterfeit medicine kills nearly a million people a year, and maims countless more, in vulnerable parts of the world. mPedigree was developed to solve problems of corruption, trafficking and abuse while empowering consumers in the process. Simons, who is president of the mPedigree Network writes:
Our approach was simple: build software tools and create partnerships that will enable pharma companies to tag each individual pack of medicine with a unique ID that the patient can text-message to a special hotline for an instant response about the medicine’s authenticity and latest status.
Given the extraordinary limited resources we had at our disposal (by this time, even the small team we began with had shrunk further), it was not until 2007 that, having now relocated from Europe to Ghana, we were able to launch the world’s first, free, multi-country shortcode to address a social problem that is genuinely global in scale and character. Until we showed up, no such uniform toll-free SMS hotline across national borders had ever been attempted.
It is quite remarkable then that 5 years after our first public pilot we are now expanding beyond Africa to South Asia. For the first time, an African innovation is being aggressively imitated worldwide, with copycats being reported in the specialised press monthly.
Through our pioneering advocacy and lobbying efforts, two countries in Africa – Nigeria and Kenya – with more poised to follow, have integrated mobile telephony based consumer verification into their safety regulations, and in the case of Nigeria made it mandatory for malaria medicines.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is the nation’s oldest sorority for college women of African descent.
by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D.
Happy Founders Day to the ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.* Founded on January 15, 1908 on the campus of Howard University, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is the first Greek-letter organization founded for black college women. Today, the sorority celebrates 105 years of leadership, sisterhood, education and service to communities of color throughout the world.
Alpha Kappa Alpha has 260,000 members in graduate and undergraduate chapters in the United States, the U. S. Virgin Islands, the Caribbean, Canada, Japan, Germany, Korea and on the continent of Africa. Program initiatives include The Emerging Young Leaders Initiatives which enhances the lives of 10,000 girls in grades six through eight by providing leadership development, civic engagement, enhanced academic preparation and character building. Health initiatives include asthma prevention and management, environmental stewardship and sustainability, an initiative to end global poverty and hunger, economic development and security, and addressing social justice issues including human trafficking and domestic violence, services for children with incarcerated parents, youth aging out of foster care and children in homeless shelters. The sorority also works on voter empowerment, lobbies for access to technology, trains parents as advocates of healthcare and educational needs of children and is a strong supporter of the arts. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. founded the job corps, eventually partnering with the U.S. government to make it a national program for the benefit of the U.S.
Happy Founder’s Day to an illustrious organization of women of the African Diaspora committed to serving all mankind.
To see photos of famous members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., visit Huffington Post.
*In the interest of full-disclosure, The Burton Wire’s founder and editor-in-chief has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. since 1991.
The Burton Wire is proud to announce the addition of The Akosua Report: Facts on The African Diaspora, written by Akosua Lowery. The Akosua Report will outline historical facts of importance about descendants of Africa throughout the Diaspora. We thought it fitting to launch this column on the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the world’s leading philosopher, scholar, peace activist and change agent, was born. With the same spirit of education, community, change and connection, we bring you The Akosua Report, where you will find informed facts (based on research) about the African Diaspora.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s actual birthday is January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Ga. His birthday is celebrated as a national holiday in the United States on January 19. (Google Images)
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
“It [Ghanain Independence] renews my conviction in the ultimate triumph of justice. And it seems to me that this is fit testimony to the fact that eventually the forces of justice triumph in the universe, and somehow the universe itself is on the side of freedom and justice. So that this gives new hope to me in the struggle for freedom as I confront it.”
–Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Interview with Etta Moten Barnett; Accra, Ghana (March 6, 1957)
On January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr., clergyman, activist and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was born in Atlanta, Georgia. King entered Morehouse College at the age of 15 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 1948. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951 and a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and in 1957 helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, serving as its first president. King was the 1957 recipient of the NAACP Spingarn Medal.
In 1963, Dr. King led the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Dr. King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means in 1964. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1971, Dr. King was posthumously awarded the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. In 1980, the Department of Interior designated his boyhood home and several nearby buildings the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.
On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King and on January 17, 2000 Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time. More than 750 cities in the United States have streets named after King. A memorial to King sits at the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Iconic film director Allen Hughes discusses his latest film ‘Broken City’ and his relationship with the late rapper Tupac Shakur with media personality Sway. (Screen shot)
by Nsenga K. Burton
Allen Hughes, one half of the iconic Hughes Brothers film directing team (Menace to Society, Dead Presidents, American Pimp, From Hell and The Book of Eli) is finally speaking about what happened between Tupac and him on the set of the film classic Menace to Society. Hughes is currently promoting his latest film, Broken City, starring Russell Crowe, Jeffrey Wright, Mark Wahlberg and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Hughes directed the film without his brother Albert.
In a thoughtful and insightful interview, Hughes discusses his friendship, brotherhood, fallout and reconnection with the late rapper Tupac whom he spoke about with honesty, reverence and humility. This is the first time that the director has discussed his relationship with Tupac on-air. Media personality Sway conducts the interview, which demonstrates that Hughes is a master storyteller and that there are many sides to one story. Please watch the interview below in its entirety. It is worth every minute.
Iconic film director Allen Hughes discusses his latest film ‘Broken City’ and his relationship with the late rapper Tupac Shakur with media personality Sway. (Screen shot)
by Nsenga K. Burton
Allen Hughes, one half of the iconic Hughes Brothers film directing team (Menace to Society, Dead Presidents, American Pimp, From Hell and The Book of Eli) is finally speaking about what happened between Tupac and him on the set of the film classic Menace to Society. Hughes is currently promoting his latest film, Broken City, starring Russell Crowe, Jeffrey Wright, Mark Wahlberg and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Hughes directed the film without his brother Albert.
In a thoughtful and insightful interview, Hughes discusses his friendship, brotherhood, fallout and reconnection with the late rapper Tupac whom he spoke about with honesty, reverence and humility. This is the first time that the director has discussed his relationship with Tupac on-air. Media personality Sway conducts the interview, which demonstrates that Hughes is a master storyteller and that there are many sides to one story. Please watch the interview below in its entirety. It is worth every minute.
Islamist rebels have taken over Diabaly in Mali. French troops have arrived to help Malian troops drive out the extremists. (Google Images)
The BBC is reporting that Islamist fighters in Mali have seized a town in government-controlled territory amid a military intervention by France.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Diabaly, 400km (250 miles) from the capital, Bamako, was taken in a counter-attack on Monday.
Mr. Le Drian insisted France’s campaign was “developing favourably”.
He said Islamists had retreated in the east but admitted French forces were facing a “difficult” situation against well-armed rebels in western areas.
Aid workers said many people had been fleeing areas targeted by the French. The U.N. Security Council is meeting to discuss Mali as France’s intervention intensifies.
CBS News is reporting French forces led an all-night bombing campaign over a minuscule Malian town, not even big enough to appear on most administrative maps, in an effort to dislodge the Islamic extremists who seized the area, including its strategic military camp.
Meanwhile, a convoy of 40 to 50 armed trucks carrying French troops crossed into Mali from Ivory Coast, where they were stationed, as France prepares for a possible land assault.
Meagan Good and Laz Alonso star in NBC’s Deception which airs tonight at 10 p.m. EST on NBC. (Google Images)
by Nsenga K. Burton
Must-see Thursdays has turned into Must-see Mondays for the African Diaspora. NBC’s ‘Deception’ starring Meagan Good and Laz Alonso is airing tonight at 10 PM EST/9 Central. PBS is also airing Byron Hurt’s documentary ‘Soul Food Junkies‘ tonight. Thank goodness for DVR technology because it is possible to watch one and then the other. After watching TV One’s critically acclaimed series Find Our Missing on TV One at 9 p.m., make sure you turn the channel to NBC or PBS and set your DVRs for both shows.
‘Deception’ is a classic whodunnit with a high-profile murder, multiple suspects with motives, two detectives (that also happen to be black and beautiful), a ridiculously wealthy and complicated family and characters who are not what they seem.
On the other end of the spectrum, there is Byron Hurt’s ‘Soul Food Junkies,’ a personal documentary about the cost of soul food on the lives of people of African descent. Hurt (Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes) made the film after his father, a lover of soul food, passed away at age 63.
Why should you watch ‘Deception?’ Besides the talents of Good and Alonso, it is a classic whodunnit with potential to resuscitate the genre while proving that folks will watch a drama with two African-American (and Cuban in the case of Alonso) leads. As we know, the show needs an opportunity to grow and develop, and that is largely based on the number of viewers early on.
Why should you watch ‘Soul Food Junkies?’ Hurt fought hard to get this film made. After losing funding, Hurt launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the remaining $25,000. He raised $30,000, moving the project forward and making the deal with PBS. Now that’s a whole lot of soul.
Set your DVRs and make sure that you tune into at least one of these shows tonight. If we want more quality programming that appeals to the African Diaspora, then we’ll have to tune our channels to where our mouths are and make sure that we keep shows like ‘Deception’ and documentaries like ‘Soul Food Junkies’ on our radar.
Check your local listings for channel information.
