Katrina: Two Years Later
Filed under: Blog Entries, Community, General, Society & Culture
Yesterday was the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and I couldn’t let too much time go by with out blogging about it. I’ve been listening the different commentaries and have seen the news highlights and I’m amazed at the amount of work left. I haven’t been to any of the areas affected, but I’ve talked to those who have. I can’t image what must have transpired that day and it pains me to hear the stories of those who lost loved ones. In listening to those who have recently returned, they tell me not much has changed. Very few houses have been rebuilt in the lower income parts of town and the situation doesn’t seem to be getting better. FEMA trailers are still the primary residence for most and there is still a lot of clean up to get done. I’ve also heard there’s a lot of bureaucracy that also keeps things from getting done.
While I may seem a little pessimistic about the whole situation, but it has brought out the good in a lot of people. I admire those who have willingly given their time, money and efforts in getting the city rebuilt. They are the unsung heroes of Post-Katrina. I hope to talk to some on future podcasts, so if you know someone who would like to share their story please let me know (podcast@theotalks.net). It’s important that we don’t forget what is happening and continue to shed light issues at hand. I found some links that I thought you all might be interested in seeing.
USA.gov Hurricane Recovery Info
Bitterness Lingers 2 Years After Katrina
National commemoration of the 2nd Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane & Disaster Recovery
Hurricane Katrina: Two years later – Photos
Two Years Since Katrina – Photos
Kanye’s Fight to Improve the Drop Out Rate
Filed under: Black Blogger Postings, Blog Entries, Community, Education, General, Society & Culture
With so many people bashing hip hop artists, it’s good to hear some good news every now and then. The Kanye West Foundation is working with Ariel Capital Management and Strong American Schools to improve the high school drop out rate among African American and Latino students. Kanye will be working to get the presidential candidates to make education a top priority on their list of campaign promises. I feel it’s the least they could do. Our government has shown where their priorities lie and it’s not with our students. We talk a good game about being competitive with other countries when it comes to education, but we’ve fallen short of the mark.
The blackgivesback blog has a really good post about the benefit concert and the other events that took place. Check it out.
Hip Hop Superstar Kanye West Combats School Drop Out Rate Through Hip Hop Music
Business: The Black Way
Filed under: Blog Entries, Business, Education, Personal Finance, Society & Culture
by Cameron W.
Some people might say that business the black way is not business at all but more of a black hole that sucks all the resources of the Black man into the obis. Sadly, in many ways those people are correct. Black Americans spend a higher percentage of their income on depreciable items than any other ethnic group. What that means in laymen’s terms is that homie over there would rather spend his hard earned McDonalds pay check on gold teeth than to invest that money in a savings or money market account. The Ariel Mutual Funds/Charles Schwab 2003 Black Investor Survey found that when comparing households where blacks and whites had approximately the same household incomes, whites saved approximately 20% more per month for retirement. It also found that 30% of Black Americans earning $100,000 a year had less than $5,000 in retirement savings. While 79% of whites invest in the stock market, only 61% of Blacks do. Furthermore the Black community is still grossly underrepresented in the business community. According to the U.S Department of Commerce out of all businesses in the United States 4% are owned by Blacks. Out of minority owned businesses 27.1% are owned by Blacks with the lion’s share of businesses going to Hispanic/Latinos at 39% followed by Asians at 30%.
Read more
J. Anthony Brown’s Next Big Thing
J. Anthony Brown of The Tom Joyner Morning Show is providing an opportunity for budding fashion designers to be the “Next Big Thing”. They are down to the three finalists and, coincidentally, one of the finalists is a friend of mine. Below is a link where you can go support Doc Adams or any of the other two finalists. Good luck to Doc and congrats to all of the finalists for their accomplishments.
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/promos/janthony
Also, visit Doc’s webpage at http://www.docadams77.com/
The Million Father March 2007
Filed under: Blog Entries, Community, Education, Society & Culture
Before leaving on my trip to Chicago, I heard about this program on a local Dallas radio station. The Million Father March 2007 is a program developed by the Black Star Project to get African-American men to take their kids to school on the first day. The goal is to get 500,000 men in 200 cities to participate in the education of their children.
The first day of school is a big deal when you’re a kid and I feel a lot of times we leave it up to the mom to make sure they get started on the right foot. This is cool, but I feel it’s important for the father to be just as involved in their education. While the program was created for black men, everyone is asked to participate. Fathers, mothers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, step-parents, etc. It shows the school district, faculty and staff that we are ready to support and ensure that child is successful in school. It also gets the parents involved early and the student will realize there are expectations from the parent/guardian and teacher. But please note, this first day march is only the beginning. We need to be involved in every aspect of a child’s education at all times. So if you can’t make it for the first day, get involved when you can and make it a priority. These are our future leaders and they need this from us.
While in Chicago I was able to talk on the phone with the Destination College Director, Marques Williams. He told me they are almost at their goal and hope to reach it by the time most kids are returning to school. If you would like to learn more or organize the march in your city call 773-285-9600. They will get you an organizing kit with the necessary information. to get started. As always, please spread the word on this program.
What I’m Talkin’ About – #28 – 08/15/07
Show Notes – Episode 28 – Chicago & Blog Topics
What I’m Talkin’ About
50 Million Pound Challenge in Chicago
NACo Prescription Drug Discount Program
Familywize Discount Presription Drug Program
New Online Magazine for Entrepreneurs – liberatemagazine.com
Liberate10 Questions
Lunch with JD author of the Black In Business Blog
Black History
20th Century Images of Black Chicago
Independent Music Artist Showcase
“Heartless” by Michael Burks
Chicago, Illinois
Blues
Music Website
Announcements
Pictures posted on Flickr
New Domain to Get to the Site – theotalks.net
Hear My Show on the Blubrry Network
Spread the word about this podcast
Contact Information
Feel free to leave comments on the website or call the voicemail line at 972-464-1899
Intro & Background Music
The intro & closing music clip was written and performed by PsykoSoul Music
“Family Affair” by PsykoSoul Music featuring CB Harris and Calvin
Black-Owned Private Jet Service
While I may not be able to support his business by being a client, thought I’d do my part by informing others about it. Jelani Kelley is the 23 year old African-American pilot behind the business. According to the article below, he’s been a professional pilot since 2003 and has been involved in every aspect of aviation. According to his website, Apex Flight Management Group offers a number of services to his clients from chartering a private plane to helping you acquire and maintain your own aircraft.
With the number of young millionaires growing, I’m sure this will be a good market for him to tap into. I wish him much success in this venture and will be blogging about other entrepreneurs looking to make their own mark in the business world. For more info, check out his website at www.apexflight.net.
Entrepreneur Soars With Private Jet Service
NACo Prescription Drug Discount Card Program
The National Association of Counties Prescription Drug Discount Card program was designed for uninsured and underinsured county residents. The program is open to everyone even if you already have insurance and you can save an average of 20% off the full retail cost of prescription medication. The discount cards are provided free to residents living in participating NACo member counties across the country and a national network of more than 57,000 retail pharmacies honor the card.
The only catch is your county must be a member for you to participate. Check the list of counties to see if you are eligible. If your county is not on the list, see if you can get them to fill out the Prescription Drug Discount Participation Form. It will inform NACo that they are interested. Please spread the word about this service.
Stepha Henry is still missing, please help find her
May 29, 2007 is the last time Stepha Henry was seen or heard from. Vacationing in the Miami area from New York for Memorial Day weekend, there have been conflicting reports about the last moments she was seen.Stepha is an honors graduate from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York with a promising future as a lawyer. Stepha’s mother has pleaded for her return on South Florida television news but there has been limited media coverage.
I got this information from vanessabyers.net. For more information you can visit her blog. Let’s see if we can ban together and find this young lady.
Stepha Henry is still missing, please help find her
Rent’Em Rims Part II
Filed under: Blog Entries, My Thoughts, Society & Culture
As a blogger, website owner and enthusiast, I check my statistics for the site at least once a week. You can get a ton of information about your site and the people who visit, which helps in letting me know the type of content to blog or podcast about. One of my most favorite stats is the search engine phrases. It shows what visitors typed in a search engine (google, yahoo, etc) to get to my site.
On March 27th I wrote a post about my feelings on renting rims. It was just something that had been placed on my heart and it’s pulled in a lot of traffic to the site. In looking at my stats, I noticed for the past couple of months, renting rims has been in the top ten search results for my site. If you search for “renting rims” in Google, out of 1.6 million results I’m on the first page in the top ten!
Now I have no issues with that because a brotha needs the ranking, but it did make me realize how big this renting rims thing really is. We are a society of bling (thanks CMB). If you don’t have it, there are ways to get it. It’s all about show and being the biggest baller. Is it no longer cool to save for retirement and not live in debt? Is it so important to keep up with the Jones’ and get yo shine on, that we put our fiscal priorities on the back burner?
Sure you can’t take it with you, but a lot can be done with $5000. That’s the beginning of my kid’s scholarship fund. I could invest it and have even more money in the same time it would take me to pay off leased rims. There are a lot of things I want (rims included), but I’ve also been practicing delayed gratification. Something worth having is always worth waiting for. We all want to look fly, but if the checkbook can’t handle it, I don’t need it right now. Check out the article below. I thought it was very fitting for this post. It was actually #1 on the Google search. What do you think?
cbs13.com – With Expensive Rims And Wheels Bling’s The Thing
mypaydayloan.com (They even have special loan advertisements for us)Technorati Tags: renting rims, leased, rims, savings, finances, delayed gratification
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