Happy Easter

I take this time to wish all readers, a Happy Easter!

Learn Swahili

This is a new book available at Lulu.com

swahili grammar in use

by elizabeth mahenge

A book exposes simplest ways and methods of learning Swahili language as a second language. It exposes a learner to equivalent meanings which makes sense in his or her language, and then it gives a communicative translation which will help you to learn the language in a smooth way. So in a couple of days you will find yourself speaking standard Kiswahili language and you will wonder yourself how competent you are. In addition it give exercises at the end of every session along side answers at the back of the book to enable self-teaching of the Swahili.

The President and First Lady of Rwanda

photo from Bongo Celebrity Blog

Pictured are the President of Rwanda, the Honourable Paul Kagame and his wife, First lady Jeannette Kagame nee Nyiramongi.

Rwanda was the site of the horrific genocide of many Rwandans particulary of Tutsi origin. Almost 1 million people were killed as the West stood by. Today the country is prospering. We pray that the beautiful country of Rwanda never sees a genocide again.

The Race Problem in America Can't be Ignored! Today even though things are better for black people, the repercussions of slavery and the ensuing racism are still felt.

I watched parts of Senator Obama's speech on race and his Pastor yesterday. Kudos to the Senator for speaking out on what he thought was wrong. But I also give him kudos for not abandoning Pastor Wright. He has been part of his life for 20 years.

I was watching Fox News last night and was appalled at the level of hate and fear mongering that Bill O'Reilly, Greta van Susteren, and Sean Hannity were spewing. Hannity even said that in his heart Obama wa anti-semitic! How does he know what is in anyones heart? The three should have gotten out their Grand Wizard cone hats and worn them.

They accused Senator Obama of being a racist for failing to denounce his Pastor. They asked, "Is this the type of man we want to run our country".

I can't condone Pastor Wright for saying D-word America. But some of what he said is true whether we want to admit it or not. Hillary Clinton will never know what it really is to be a black man in America. When they wrote in the Constitution that "All Men are created equal" They did mean only white men were created equal. Remember women weren't even allowed to vote and blacks were considered animals. The proof is that in the slave masters holdings he listed the slaves with his horses, pigs and other property.

Then O'Reilly even had the nerve to condemn black churches and ask what's going on in them. Need I remind these bigots that Black Churches were formed because white churches wouldn't let blacks in!

Senator Obama, spoke of hearing his own white grandmother using the N-word. His father is a black African Kenyan and his mother white so in America Obama is Black! No question about that. Let's remember that in the USA it was said that if you had a drop of black blood in you then you're black! So many white looking black people were forced to 'Pass' in order to live a decent life in America.

It should be mandatory for everyone in the USA to get a DNA test and find out their real ancestry! A lot of people who think they are 'white' would find that they are black uder that old code! Even Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Susteren might find they had a black ancestor. I remember watching a show in which a white college professor took a DNA test. It indicated that he had a West African ancestor. He was 1/8th black. He said he went to ask his mother about it and she told him not to talk about it.

There's a lot more that I can say but for now, I am glad the Sen. Obama spoke about race. The issue needs to be addressed in this election.

The killer truck

The backwheels where the poor man met his fate
A policeman measures the distance between where he was struck and where it stopped. Note the trail of blood and flesh.
Front view of the truck
Flesh and blood was under that sheet. I almost threw up when the cop lifted it!
Where the truck stopped. The truck is registered in Maine.

This morning a Harvard University Graduate student was run over by a big rig truck on its way to Shaw's Supermarket at MIT. The incident happened at the intersection of Masscahusetts Ave. and Western Ave. The student died at 12:20pm today and has been identified as 28 year old Isaac Meyers.

I was on my way to work this morning when I came upon this horrific scene. I took the above photos. I talked to some people who witnessed what happened. They said that Meyers was in the crosswalk when the back wheels of the truck struck him and dragged him to the next crosswalk where it came to a halt only after people flagged the driver down!

The police were measuring the scene and I saw blood, human meat and bone spread on the street. People said that Meyers was still alive when he was put in the ambulance but it did not look good.

Seriously, that crosswalk where Meyers was hit is DANGEROUS! Yes, people are allowed to cross and cars are allowed to turn right at the same time. So many times I have seen impatient drivers nearly run over people. They even honk at people in the crosswalk to hurry up. They even have no pity on the elderly or those pushing baby strollers! Sometimes the cars speed in front of you or behind you. I cross there almost everyday, its a horrible crosswalk.

This is the second horrific accident in Central Square I remember over the past years. In the last one, a woman was riding her bike when the driver of a parked car opened its door. She ran into the bike door and got thrown into the path of an oncoming MBTA bus and was crushed to death. She was riding in the bike lane.

So, today I ask will it take the death of this young man, to allow people to cross the street in Central Square safely?

Rest in Peace Issac Meyers.

From ippmedia.com

US Govt eases travel conditions for Tanzanian

2008-03-11

By Lydia Shekighenda

The American Embassy in Dar es Salaam has announced the softening of conditions for Tanzanians seeking to travel to the United States. Robert Hannan, the embassy`s First Secretary and Consul, said yesterday they would now be issuing entry visas to any and all prospective travellers establishing their eligibility.

In remarks at roundtable talks with journalists, he said the embassy would provide prompt and responsive service by reducing the waiting time for visa interviews, online scheduling and application for longer visas in a bid to reduce bureaucracy.

`Our country encourages legitimate visitors and students. We are doing everything possible to help applicants fulfil their mission,`` explained the consul, adding that they were out to cut the time for waiting for interviews to two days.

Elaborating on the new arrangement, Hannan said visa applicants would be able to schedule their appointments with the embassy directly on-line. He said Tanzania had reached an agreement with the US on the extension of visa validities from three months to one year.

``Frequent travellers need to apply for new visas less often?More Tanzanians are travelling to America each year; we expect to issue over 5,000 visas this year. This is great news for both countries,`` he noted further. Hannan said the most popular

Photo from Mzee wa Sumo blog

In Tanzania, most children don't have the luxury of playing in fancy playgrounds, or with nice toys from Toys R Us. They play with empty bottles, lids, things you might consider trash. Here some Tanzanian children turn a cocunut tree trunk into a jungle jim. It looks its on the edge of a cemetary.

TODAY IS March 8th, 2008, is

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Lyrics to Helen Reddy's song (1972)

I AM WOMAN!

I am woman, hear me roar

In numbers too big to ignore

And I know too much to go back an' pretend'

cause I've heard it all before

And I've been down there on the floor

No one's ever gonna keep me down again

CHORUS

Oh yes I am wise

But it's wisdom born of pain

Yes, I've paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to, I can do anything

I am strong (strong)

I am invincible (invincible)

I am woman

You can bend but never break me'

cause it only serves to make me

More determined to achieve my final goal

And I come back even stronger

Not a novice any longer'

cause you've deepened

the conviction in my soul

CHORUS

I am woman watch me grow

See me standing toe to toe

As I spread my lovin' arms across the land

But I'm still an embryo

With a long long way to go

Until I make my brother understand

Oh yes I am wise

But it's wisdom born of pain

Yes, I've paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to I can face anything

I am strong (strong)

I am invincible (invincible)

I am woman

Oh, I am woman

I am invincible

I am strong

FADE

I am woman

I am invincible

I am strong

I am woman

BETTY NYAKU-WHAT A WOMAN!

BETTY Nyaku, a resident of Ullepi sub-county in Arua, Uganda looks after 13orphans. Frank Mugabi tells us how she has managed to build one happy familyof people from different backgrounds In the thickets of Ullepi sub-county in Arua district stood a four-year-oldboy.

The grass so high and thick the boy could not see which direction totake. "I was young and I do not remember what happened, but I have been told thatI was found crying with swollen eyes.

The people who were taking care of me left me and disappeared in the thickets as we grazed cattle," says Ronald Candia. "I had thought that was the end of the world, but God sent Maama Betty Nyaku just in time to rescue me.

She took me to her place and made me one of herchildren. She gave me food, clothing and now education." Nyaku narrates: "I had gone to collect firewood. It all felt as if some invisible power was telling me to venture further into the bush and pick aspecially reserved gift for myself."

Suddenly, Nyaku heard a child crying. She says she first ignored it,thinking if truly it was a cry then that child had to be with an adult, who was collecting wood. "The cry persisted and, although I was frightened, Imoved closer. What I saw was shocking - a little boy of about four years, all by himself in the thickets. His eyes were swollen because of crying,"she says, adding that she picked the boy and, fortunately, when she took himhome, her husband welcomed the idea of keeping the child until a relativeturned up looking for him.

That was about 10 years ago. To date, no one has turned up looking for the boy. Instead, Nyaku, who is in her late 50s, has had the number of abandoned children and orphans in her custody increase.

This turned Nyaku from being a mere housewife into a woman who struggled to sustain her family and support needy children. She named the boy Ronald Candia (Candia is Lugbara word for 'in trouble'). Nyaku later learnt that Candia had actually been abandoned by his guardians who were normadic pastoralists from western Uganda. They had been in the area to graze cattle and when the dry season set in, they moved away. "I think I had become a burden to them. My parents had died and left me in their care. Because they moved from place to place, they found it difficultto take care of me," Candia says.

He says Nyaku took him to Kati Primary School, one of the best schools in the neighbourhood. He is now in S.2 at Ullepi Secondary School. Another boy Nyaku saved is Bosco Adriko, 23. "I was only 10 years old when my father died. After his death, things athome became bad and I decided to go away. I walked to Arua town where Istayed on the streets. It was there that Mama Betty found me and took me toher home."

Nyaku says she had gone to buy seeds when she saw a boy crying helplessly."I asked him what the matter was and he told me he was an orphan and had nowhere to go." More tragedy strikes In 2005, Nyaku lost her eldest son to AIDS.

As if that was not bad enoughthe deceased's wife disappeared, leaving her six children, five of whom werealready in school. Nyaku took them in. Today, Nyaku looks after 13 orphans. In 2006, her husband Michael Edoni, who is a retired teacher and partiall yblind, was crippled in a motor accident. This left Nyaku the solebread-winner for the family.

One happy family Nyaku's home is in the remote village of Muni in Arua district. "In thishomestead, all of us live in harmony as a real family. The boys have theirown house and the girls theirs," she says. Although they are in a rural setting, the children are provided with all thebasic necessities and none of them is left wanting.

Several granaries filled with different foodstuffs are found in the backyard, a sign of food security. "She is our mother. She gives us everything and treats us like her own children," one of the children says. Stuck, but pushing on Two of the orphans completed Senior Four, but they are still at home due tolack of fees.

Fiona Anguparu, another of the orphans who is in Primary Six at Kati Primary School is afraid her future could be bleak. "I may fail to join secondary school, like my brothers, because of lack o fschool fees. So, I might never realise my dream of becoming a universityprofessor," Anguparu says. Others share the same fears. A sack of cassava for fees Nyaku says her only source of livelihood has been a five-acre piece o ffarmland. "

We grow cassava, millet and groundnuts for sale. Part of the money goes into paying school fees and buying scholastic materials," she narrates. Sometimes, the school authorities allow Nyaku to settle school dues in kind.A 40-50kg sack of cassava flour is equivalent to one term's dues. The children also sell mangoes to raise school fees.

However, sometimes they are sent away from school due to lack of school fees, which has affected their performance. "We want to study so that we can have a better life and also be able to carefor those in need as Maama Nyaku has done for us," said Bosco Adriko.

In Ullepi sub-county Nyaku is known for her big heart. The sub-county chief,Elijah Matua, said orphans and vulnerable people are a big challenge to thelocal authorities. "We have been trying to cater for these groups of people in our budget, but the lack of resources has impeded our efforts to implement the plans," Matua noted.

He commended Nyaku for taking care of the orphans despite her minimal income. "It takes a big heart to love and share with the needy and Nyaku is a good example.

"Beverley Nambozo Sengiyunva
In charge of Communication and NetworkingThe East African Sub-regional Support Initiative for The Advancement ofWomen (EASSI)
Plot 87 Bukoto-Ntinda Road
P. O. BOX 24965,
Kampala Uganda
Tel: 256-414-285163, 285194
Fax: 256-414-285306E-mail: nambozo
< title="mailto:e@eassi.org" href="mailto:e%40eassi.org">e@eassi.org> @eassi.orgeassi@eassi.org

HOW TO FIGHT ROGUE DEBT COLLECTORS

By Jen HaleyCNN

(CNN) -- If you've faced a financial catastrophe -- an illness or job layoff -- and you've fallen behind on some bills, you're well aware that debt collectors are eager to collect those payments.

Some debt collectors are crossing the line into illegality according to some consumer groups.

But some collectors go over the line, threatening to have the person arrested, making improper bank withdrawals, intimidating people and making harassing phone calls.

In one case a collector threatened to call a woman's place of work "until she lost her job," according to the National Consumer Law Center.

In another case, a collector threatened to send the police to the person's workplace to arrest them, said Joe Ridout of Consumer Action.

The Better Business Bureau received a complaint about a debt collector contacting someone's grandmother four-to-five times a day, using threats like, "if she dies, then her life insurance can pay this debt off."

John Fugate, a Texas consumer attorney relates a story about a rogue debt collector. The debt collector told the "9-year-old child of my college friend, who is the victim of identity theft, that they were going to take her mommy away forever."

Complaints about debt collection agencies are on the rise. The Federal Trade Commission said they received more complaints against debt collectors than against any other industry for at least the past three years. And for the past five years, complaints are up about 43 percent according to the Better Business Bureau.

Some of the most common complaints from consumers include collectors using vulgar language, trying to collect more than they're owed, sharing the consumer's debt information with friends and family or trying to collect extra fees, like late fees or court costs.

That's not to say all debt collectors are resorting to these illegal tactics. ACA International is one of the largest credit and collection industry trade groups and it maintains a code of ethics that prohibits this kind of behavior.

And ethical debt collectors are necessary. According to a study cited by the company, the collection industry saved the average American household $351 in 2005. That is how much money households would have spent if businesses were forced to raise prices to cover bad debt. The bottom line here is that if you owe money, you should make every effort to pay off the debt.

But you still need to know your rights. "Most people are not aware of their rights. And unfortunately debt collectors take advantage of that fact," says Joe Ridout of Consumer Action.
Here's some expert advice on how to fight back against unethical collectors. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act requires that debt collectors treat you fairly. This doesn't mean you won't have to pay your legitimate debt. But here are some basic rights:

A debt collector cannot call you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., unless you agree.

You cannot be contacted at work if the collector knows your employer disapproves.

If you don't want to hear from a debt collector, write a letter telling them to stop. By law, they have to. Remember, the debt won't go away and you can still be sued.

The debt collector can contact your attorney -- if you have one. If not, your friends and family can be asked about how to get in touch with you.

A debt collector can't misrepresent the amount of your debt.

A debt collector also cannot use profane or threatening language

Debt collectors can't say that they will put a lien on your property or file a lawsuit unless the agency really means to do that and it's legal.

Collectors can't legally claim federal benefits, such as Social Security or your retirement accounts, like your IRA or 401(k).

Once you're contacted by phone, you have the right to get a notice that outlines your debt, whom you owe money to, and what action to take if you don't owe the money. Keep in mind that a debt collector can collect a debt owed by an ex-spouse. If the debt was incurred while you married, you may be liable for the debt after a divorce even if the divorce papers state your spouse is responsible for paying off the debt.

If you've been contacted by a debt collector, but you don't think you owe a debt, you must write a return letter stating that the debt is not yours within 30 days. Once a collector receives your letter, they should send you proof of the debt, such as a copy of the bill. Don't be coerced into paying a debt you don't owe. If you do pay just to get rid of the debt collectors, it's an admission of guilt, and it will have a negative impact on your credit score.

Keep in mind that some debt has an expiration date. There is a limit to how long collectors can legally collect your debt. Generally this limit - called the statute of limitations - can range from three to 15 years according to Ridout. Check with your state's attorney general's office to find out the limit in your state. You can find out who to contact at www.naag.org.

Sometimes debt collectors will try to collect on this old debt called zombie debt because it never goes away. Make sure you don't accept a new credit offer from a creditor you never repaid. Once that creditor renews your credit relationship, the clock starts ticking all over again on your state's statute of limitations.

If you think you've been treated unfairly by a debt collector, take action. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at 877-FTC-HELP or go to www.ftc.gov. You should also contact your state attorney general's office.

You also have the right to sue a debt collector in state or federal court within a year of the date the law is violated. A victory will allow you to recover money for the damages you suffered plus an additional amount up to $1,000. A group may also sue a collector and for damages up to $500,000, or one percent of the collector's net worth, whichever is less.

And the federal government plays by slightly different rules. In 1996, Congress passed the Debt Collection Improvement Act which allows the government to take a portion of federal retirement, federal salary and Social Security benefit checks to cover non-tax debts owed to the government.

There are some debts that you can't get rid of. If you don't pay your federal student loans for example, debt collectors can garnish your Social Security wages and prevent you from renewing any state licenses according to Mark Kantrowitz of Finaid.org. Debt collectors can even dip into your tax refund. Other debts like past-due child support and federal tax liens tend to stick with you.

The sign says is Swahili:

THIS WATER IS FREE

The Tap was opened/launched by the Kigogo Ward Councillor, M.H.R. Chengula

This was photographed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania by Muhidini Issa Michuzi

In Africa villages were burned, its people were captured and then enslaved. In this case they were forced to work for the colonialists! Here is a photo of Nwembe Village in Kenya being burned! It was taken around 1915.

It pretty much represents how slaves were captured and shipped to new lands. Villages and crops were burned and those who could hid in the bush and often starved to death. Slavery was one of man's greatest atrocities.

A very interesting history of Tanzanians slave

Exodus of the Zigula (“Somali Bantu”) Max Dashu, Suppressed Histories Archives

Many scholars think that the ancestral Bantu cultures were matrilineal. Even today some cultures retain mother-right traditions, in the “matrilineal Bantu belt" of south-central Africa. (The term Bantu means, loosely "the people," like so many aboriginal names, putting a humanizing prefix before the being-radical Ntu; it long predates the racist usage of the apartheid government in South Africa.)

A little-known historical pocket from this cultural line was forcibly transported into northeastern Africa. Omani slave-traders based in the Sultanate of Zanzibar carried off people from Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi, and shipped many of them for sale in the slave markets of Somalia. Tens of thousands of these southern Africans ended up laboring on plantations in south Somalia.

The major groups are the Zigula (or Zigua) and Shanbara. Zigula oral history says they escaped slavery as a group and thus preserved their language. They scorn the Shanbara who no longer speak a Bantu language, only accented Somali.

This group claims descent from “five original brothers who belonged to east African groups such as the Yao, Makua, Nyasa, Nyamwesi and others.” [Declich: online] They became farmers of the Juba and Shebeli rivers in Somalia: Shabelle, Shidle, Makanne, Eyle, Elay Baydabo.

The great hero of Zigula oral history is Wanankhucha, a mganga diviner and prophetess. She organized the escape of large numbers of Zigula people from slavery and led them to freedom in the mid-1800s. They say that her visions and power as a diviner enabled her to guide her fleeing people out of danger. She is also credited with building unity of the emancipated people by “organising repeated performances of traditional Zigula songs.”

Their goal was to return to Tanzania, but Wanankhucha's group of refugees faced great dangers in their migration, including the possibility of being reenslaved on their way through Kenya. So they settled in the lower Juba valley in southern Somalia, after Wanankhucha decided that an earthquake there was a sign.

The so-called Bantu Somali were conquered by the Oromo and later by Somali pastoralists. Some Zigula farmers adopted pastoral people who intruded on their country, after a period of clashes. There were also foragers called Bon, and various low-caste groups, either despised professions or descendants of slaves. The slaves often lost their original family names, and were left with slaveholder’s names. The pattern was pastoralists styled as nobles, and farmers as slaves or ex-slaves, so that all farmers came to be considered “freed slaves.”

All the non-elite groups got lumped together as Bantu. Italian colonialists reinforced this categorization and deepened it by forced labor conscription to their plantations, such as the Bertello farming contract. They refused to accept ethnic distinctions, outside of “pure Somalis.” “You are all Mushunguli Mayasid (Bantu).” (from a word meaning Zigula person) The Italians enlisted Somali pastoralists to round up people from farming groups to perform forced labor.

Colonization was heaped upon colonization, because the Italians also used gender divisions to defuse “Bantu” men’s resistance to their own exploitation as members of oppressed ethnic groups. “Men to be conscripted into forced labor were given the right to choose any woman they wanted as a wife, without her consent or that of her relatives.”

These men were freed from the obligation to pay bridewealth for the non-consensual wives, and fathers were threatened with conscription, for themselves or their sons, unless they surrendered their daughters. This strategy seems to have been effective, since, as people from the Juba region told Francesca Declich, “without the company of a woman most young men would have run away from conscription.

In Tanzania, East Africa wearing khanga cloth is part of our culture. We have khangas celebrating every event. This is a speacial design created for President Bush's visit to Tanzania this month 2/08.

The President will be welcomed by multitudes of Tanzanian women wearing these.

Photo from Michuzi Blog

This is a common scene in Tanzania... a python crossing the road! Yes, I have seen several in the neighborhood that used to live in on the University of Dar es Salaam campus. One would come out of the bush eat a chicken then go back in the bush! Urg!

WHY?

Why do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?

Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke?

Why do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters?

Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage?

Why do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight?

Why do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'?

Why do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering?

EVER WONDER .... Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin ?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the person who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Now that you've smiled at least once, it's your turn to spread the stupidity and send this to someone you want to bring a smile to (maybe even a chuckle)...in other words, send it to everyone. We all need to smile every once in a while.

SUPERBOWL RIVALRY!

Will the New England Patriots crush the New York Giants in the Superbowl tomorrow? We shall see.

Kelly Telighman should be Disciplined!

I don't know if I agree with Rev. Al Sharpton's call for Golf Channel lady, Kelly Tilghman to be fired, but I definitely believe she should be disciplined. The Golf Channel has suspended her for two weeks.

Kelly Tilghman is a play-by-play announcer for The Golf Channel. She has apologized for her on-air remark during last week's Mercedes Championship PGA tour event in which she said today’s young players should “lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley.”

If she just said the word lynched, maybe she could be forgiven for not understanding its meaning. But she said specifically that Tiger should be taken to a back alley and lynched. She knew what she was talking about and that is unacceptable.

Remember Don Imus called the Rutgers Basketball Team,"Nappy Headed Ho's" and got fired!

Yes, that is a severe insult in the black community and its roots go back to slavery.

Thousands upon thousands of blacks have been lynched over the years in the USA. They have been lynched for being sucessful, educated, looking at a white woman, not getting off the sidewalk to let a white person pass, talking up to a white person etc. Just browse the internet and you will see and read what lynching is.

Tiger Woods says that he is not offended. Well he is welathy and probably hasn't endured the sever racism that other blacks have. Also maybe because of his mixed heritage he feels that he would not be lynched anyway. But in the America we know, he is still a black man and should be offended.

I hope that Kelly Tilghman will educate herself on black history during the time she has off from her job. She can watch ROOTS, Mandingo, the Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Aftershock Beyond the Civil War and other films. Then seen if she can bring herself to make such a comment again.

For more information read:

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=32622&cat=6\

http://www.diversityinc.com/public/2912.cfm

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/10/tilghman.woods/?iref=mpstoryview

The Actors' Prayer

by Richard Bischoff

Oh Great Director-in-the-Sky

Do you ever look down and wonder why?

I flip them burgers night and day;

Sell appliances to make ends meet;

Hand out flyers on the street.

Help my dream come to fruition;

Let me win just one audition!

It doesn't have to be for major bucks;

But hey God, sometimes, my life sucks!

Residuals sure would mean a lot;

I'd pay back all these bill's I've got,

Buy human food instead of Spam,

Buy new clothes instead of second hand.

I'm not looking for mass adoration;

Just a little less humiliation.

And a new set of headshots so I don't look so fat...

Oh and by the way:

Would you like fries with that?

There is a new film version of

A RAISIN IN THE SUN

coming to ABC soon!

http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/araisininthesun/?hs308=email