Idol Worship

Several years ago, an employee of the city of San Francisco dumped an old concrete traffic barrier in a secluded part of Golden Gate Park. The barrier was a four-foot tall cylinder with a rounded top, and its phallic shape and sylvan setting convinced some loonies that this was a sacred manifestation of the Hindu god, Shiva. The traffic barrier soon became a shrine, attracting pilgrims from as far away as India. It also attracted crazies and bums who threatened the worshipers and stole the coins they left as offerings.

The city’s Recreation and Park Commission was not pleased to find itself the proprietor of a religious shrine, and decided to get rid of the “Shiva Linga.” This infuriated the loonies, who launched a federal law suit to keep the site undisturbed. A compromise was reached when the city offered the traffic barrier to what news reports call a New Age Hindu, named Kali Das. Mr. Das now displays the sacred block of concrete in his studio, where it is available for veneration. Meanwhile, the bums and crazies have erected an imitation Shiva Linga on the old site in the hope that the faithful will continue to leave offerings. [Philip Matier and Andrew Ross, New Age Shrine Moved from Park, SF Chron, 1/21/94, p. A17.]

Muslim Muzzled?

Khalid Abdul Muhammad is the spokesman for the Nation of Islam who has recently been in the news because of his virulent anti-white outburst at a New Jersey college (see Letters, Feb. 1994). He has been honored with a unanimous vote of condemnation by the U.S. Senate, and was even rebuked by his boss, Louis Farrakhan, who approved of his message but not of his choice of words.

It is surprising — and gratifying — that Mr. Muhammad’s views received some publicity. The Nation of Islam has been preaching white extermination for years. Extermination is a logical policy for a religion based on the view that whites are devils, created in a laboratory by a mad black scientist named Yacub. This little experiment is said to have taken place 6,000 years ago on the Isle of Patmos, of all places.

Although he is now technically on suspension from his post as “Minister of Defense,” Mr. Muhammed is one of the Nation’s most popular speakers. Many young people call him “the new Malcolm X,” and he schedules speaking engagements so that he can fit two or three into a single day. He was paid $2,650 for the speech that made him famous.

Mr. Muhammad claims to have a PhD from Dillard University and to have taught African studies at California State University at Long Beach. Dillard says Mr. Muhammad attended classes but never got a degree; California State has never heard of him. His followers refer to him as Dr. Muhammad.

Mr. Muhammad, whose real name is Harold Moore Vann, was convicted of fraud in 1987. He spent three months in a Georgia prison and was on parole for two years. [Jeremy Milk, Inspiration or Hate-Monger? Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 19, 1994, p. A33.]

London Lunacy

Jane Brown is the 36-year-old director of a London school for children under the age of eleven. Recently, she refused an offer of cut-price tickets for her students to see the ballet “Romeo and Juliet” at Covent Garden. She explained that the story is too heterosexual, and that until books, movies, and the theater reflect the full range of sexuality, she did not wish to promote traditional love stories. Miss Brown has been rebuked by the chief of education for the district of Hackney, and has apologized.

‘Mass Graveyard’

Ivory Coast, like most of black Africa, is a prolific breeding ground for AIDS. Some 12 to 20 percent of the population is thought to be infected with the virus, and an American doctor was so concerned about the health menace that he closed his private practice in Atlanta and opened a clinic in Ivory Coast. With funding from the Church of Christ, Dr. Mark Ottenweller concentrates on telling Africans how to avoid AIDS. He uses video tapes, charts and pamphlets, and sponsors intensive group counselling. He is disappointed that all this has so little effect. Even after months of counselling sessions, many of his clients still do not understand how AIDS is spread. “Within the next seven years, [Ivory Coast] is going to become a mass graveyard of AIDS patients,” says Dr. Ottenweller. [Amba Dadson, African choose to ignore advice on fighting AIDS, (Associated Press) 12-2-93, no paper given.]

Canadian Update

Canadians may be even more determined than Americans to destroy their society. Taxpayers are required to pay for the legal fees of criminal aliens who apply for refugee status. A recent case is that of Suchart Areepham from Thailand, who was caught in 1990 trying to smuggle in $100 million worth of heroin. Although he was sentenced to 15 years in jail, Mr. Areepham is now out on parole after claiming refugee status from his jail cell. He is entitled to welfare while he waits for a hearing, and immigration officials estimate that his legal expenses will cost Canadians about $25,000.

Another seeker of refuge, this one from Nigeria, has been caught renting out his subsidized apartment at market rates. Joseph Obazee was paying the refugee rate of $120 a month to the Toronto Housing Authority, while collecting $600 a month from tenants. Mr. Obazee has also been found to be applying for credit cards under a variety of different names.

Another aspiring refugee, Ouebigue Tagui from Chad, was recently denied a government loan by a female lending officer. He promptly walked into the Montreal subway and pushed the first woman he could find onto the tracks in front of a train. Mr. Tagui has been charged with first-degree murder. Canadian women’s groups have been silent about the case.

The Canadian government recently took a secret poll on immigration, but the results were leaked. The poll found that “attitudes to immigration levels appear to be hardening, with significantly more Canadians feeling there are too many immigrants coming to Canada.” This deeply upsets the government, which worries that “Canadians seriously underestimate the number of immigrants arriving annually. It is unclear how their attitudes to immigration would change if knowledge of the number of immigrants were more accurate.” [Canadian Immigration Hotline, Jan. 1994, No. 52.]

On the contrary, it is perfectly clear how their attitudes would change. The government keeps quiet about the figures (about 220,000 a year) as it promotes a policy directly opposed to the interests of the dwindling white majority.

Vox Populi

According to a recent poll, 86 percent of Californians think that illegal immigration is a problem and they want less of it. More than half want less legal immigration, too. When they were asked to name immigration’s greatest benefit to America, 43 percent of respondents couldn’t think of anything. Seventeen percent said “cheap labor” and an equal number said “cultural diversity.” [Dianne Klein, Majority in state are fed up with illegal immigration, LA Times, 9/19/93, p. A1.]

Model Mayor

David Dinkins, former mayor of New York City, has taken some souvenirs with him. In his last three weeks in office, Mr. Dinkins’ spokesmen repeatedly rebuffed requests for a list of gifts and other equipment that are ostensibly given to the mayor but belong to the city. When Rudolph Giuliani, the new mayor, moved into the office, it was bare — Mr. Dinkins even took expensive gifts inscribed to his predecessor, Edward Koch.

Early in his term, Mr. Dinkins was criticized for having the city carve a $11,400 headboard for his bed at the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion. Last December, the Gracie Mansion curator informed him that the headboard belongs to the city and was to stay at the mansion. Ever a credit to his race, Mr. Dinkins took that with him, too, after paying the city $1,400 for the cost of the wood. [Dan Janison, Dave’s team packs it in — including Ed’s tiffany bowl, NY Post,Jan. 3, 1994, p. 4.] This sort of thievery appears not to bother Columbia University, which has offered the former mayor a professorship.

New Form of Female Sterilization

Widespread testing overseas has demonstrated the effectiveness of a new, non-surgical form of female sterilization. The method involves the insertion of a drug called quinacrine through the cervix into the uterus. Quinacrine briefly irritates the skin and prompts the formation of harmless scar tissue that blocks the openings of the Fallopian tubes into the uterus. This prevents eggs from being released and fertilized.

Quinacrine, which has been used since before the Second World War as an anti-malarial drug, is injected with a modified inserter for intrauterine devices, and must be introduced in two doses, one month apart. The procedure is about one-thirtieth as expensive as surgical sterilization and causes only one-fiftieth as many complications.

Carefully supervised clinical trials of the new procedure are under way in eleven countries, including Chile, Iran, Pakistan, and Venezuela. So far, 80,000 women have been sterilized by using quinacrine. Since the drug already has FDA approval, it would be legal to use it for sterilization in the United States. [Center for Research on Population and Security, Box 13067, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, Press release titled “Major advance in non-surgical sterilization,” (no date). Also The Lancet, July 24, 1993, p. 188, “Family planning in Vietnam.”]

DC’s Finest

Last December, at about 3:00 a.m., two black Washington, DC police officers stopped a 39-year-old white woman on suspicion of drunken driving. They then made her sit on the ground in near-freezing weather with her hands cuffed to the leg of mailbox. She sat like this for nearly twenty minutes screaming for help, while the officers talked and laughed.

A photographer for the Washington Post happened to be driving by and found the situation odd. He started taking pictures and the officers wrenched the camera from him. When police supervisors arrived, they returned the camera and freed the woman, who was later found to have drunk more than the legal limit. The arresting officers are being investigated for violating rules that prohibit handcuffing suspects to inanimate objects and that require them to cooperate with the press. [Serge Kovaleski, D.C. Police Handcuff Motorist to Mailbox,” Wash Post, Dec. 19, 1993, p. 1.]

The Rest of the Story

Paul Harvey, a nationally syndicated radio commentator, had a dangerous brush with the truth in his broadcast of Dec. 27, 1993. “Are backward people backward because they’re backward people?” he asked. He went on to deny that social deprivation is the cause and called the dangerous decay that has set in in our cities “a grim, irreversible malignancy.” Mr. Harvey concluded with a question: “If backward people are backward because they’re backward people, is the condition correctable, reversible?” [Broadcast of Dec. 27, 1993, KAFF-FM.]

African Justice

Nairobi, Kenya is going through a lynching boom. In 1992, 431 suspected thieves were summarily murdered by screaming crowds, and by last October, the figure for 1993 was 354. What most strikes foreign observers is the eagerness with which people from all walks of life — ladies in high heels, men in business suits, bums in rags — participate in rough justice. When the cry of “Thief!” rings out, virtually everyone in earshot runs after the suspect. Most thieves are beaten to death, but some are burned. No one keeps track of lynchings in the country as a whole, but in Nairobi the number has risen eight-fold in less than a decade. [AP, Lynchings increase in Kenya as daily life becomes struggle, Birmingham News, Oct. 14, 1993.]

Red Carpet for Blacks

Vidor, Texas, had a brief moment of press attention last year, when an attempt to integrate its all-white federal public housing project failed. The Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a few blacks to live in the 74-unit project, but white residents made life uncomfortable for them. The last black to leave, William Simpson, was shot dead by a black robber less than 24 hours after he left the all-white project.

Under Henry Cisneros, HUD is determined to integrate the Vidor complex. This time, at least 15 black families will be moved in at once and there will be extra security to protect them from harassment. The department has also decided on a huge, $1.8 million upgrade, or the equivalent of $24,000 per unit. Besides a top-to-bottom face lift, the project will get central heat and air conditioning, a new recreation center, laundry rooms, and a leased van to carry residents around town. A local university and the Vidor school system have promised to host programs to help residents finish high school. Long-term residents shake their heads in wonder at the efforts the government is making to make the place comfortable for its new residents. [Richard Stewart, Vidor prepares for new wave of desegregation, Houston Chronicle, Jan. 2, 1994, p. 1D.]

Getting a Grip on Tenure

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education is currently exploring the idea that the tenure system may have to be abolished because it is an obstacle to giving professorships to blacks. In a letter to academics, the magazine’s managing editor, Robert Slater, argues that because “underperforming senior scholars can’t be dismissed or retired,” the tenure system may be keeping blacks out of jobs. He also argues that scarce academic resources may be going to “traditional, and perhaps unneeded, courses” being taught by senior faculty, which should be done away with to make room for black studies. [Letter dated Jan. 15, 1994 from Robert Bruce Slater]

Swayed by Peppermint

Joycelyn Elders is the first black woman to be Surgeon General of the United States. Her recent call for the legalization of drugs was given an ironic backdrop when her 28-year-old son was arrested for selling cocaine a few weeks later.

A recent New York Times profile of the Surgeon General brought to light a little-known fact. She was originally named Minnie Lee Jones (Elders is her married name), but decided to change her name at about age fifteen. She saw the name Joycelyn on a peppermint-candy wrapper and thenceforth became M. Joycelyn Jones. “It was the best peppermint candy in the world,” she explains. [Isabel Wilkerson, The surgeon general has people thinking, NYT, 12/31/93, p. A1.]

County Needs Green

In a most unusual move, the IRS has put a tax lien on Greene County, Alabama. For several quarters running, the county failed to pay federal withholding and social security taxes on its employees’ salaries. County employees have started receiving reduced paychecks in an attempt to pay off the debt. Greene County is 85 percent black and gets most of its revenues from a greyhound race track. [AP, IRS puts tax lien on Greene County, Birmingham News,10/22/93.]

Happy Motoring

People who rent Hertz automobiles in Florida get a list of safety tips, including the following:

• “If you become lost, do not pull over to the side of the road to read a map or directions.”
• “Avoid traveling in curbside lanes whenever possible.”
• “Do not idle your car in neutral. You may need to accelerate quickly should someone approach you.”
• “As you approach your car, check inside and beneath your car to make certain no one has hidden in or near your vehicle.”

The pamphlet, written in French, German, English, Spanish, and Japanese, omits the most important safety measure of all, especially for foreign tourists: Stay away from non-whites.

Fighting Back

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is the accrediting body for all universities in California, Hawaii, and Guam. It is relentlessly “multicultural” and puts great pressure on schools to hire and admit non-whites. When a school is up for reaccreditation, WASC drums up minority grievances and demands that they be redressed.

Aquinas College in Santa Paula is a small, private Catholic college that teaches the Great Books. It does not categorize students or faculty by race for any purpose and refused to produce non-whites for WASC to interview. This tactic worked and Aquinas was reaccredited. The school is now leading the fight against “diversity” standards for accreditation. [The Diversity Standard, WSJ, 12/29/93, p. A8.]