Brooklyn Bedouin

American Muslims

Building with Usama Canon, Mikael Pittman, and Shawn talking organizational management, structure etc... It's late but hanging on the wall is what you see in this picture. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and Allah on the right in a voluminous script fit for a commoners and royalty. Currently in Fremont, CA

Junot, Jamaica, And snow in The City

Good morning lovelies. The snow fell last night in a gentlly day altering angelic earth embrace. Mind you, not long ago a heavy snow was more than just the pedestrian 1-3 inches the radio keeps bellowing. So, what you see is the accumulation from the vantage point of a ground level apartment in Bed-Stuy, and what you see is the evidence the two days ago I was in the auditorium at the 92 St. Y listening and seeing Junot Diaz and Jamaica Kincaid and the woman whose face you cannot see is Tiphanie Yanique is a woman who you will one day most likely know in a literary sense. Now, just now, the snow is furious. Like life is. We accept it all. The grand and the grimy. Enjoy the amaIng weather. Know that the temp is set to ride, snow to sleet, rain, freezing etc... It's gonna be a precarious stepping out there. Wear wool, fleece, and be safe! Sorry, the Junot pic is not loading... blame iPhone

Geek About » Top 10 beaches with WiFi internet access

I had a serendipitous moment. it seemed the whole earth, in all its magesty and resevoirs of hidden blessings, opened up to me a pathway that was illuminiated and filled with wonder.

that night, or nights, or moments, or eons of existance that i traveled in a spare moment of time, colliding with elvish charachters that occupy stations of merit because of their scholarship and areas of expertise, looking me face to face, adding in the extra effort that scholars take to answer their students...

i usually learn best by the visceral. but in those times that those lessons are best learned prior to the stung handed backslap that happens when life happns... there are relevant sounding out-takes, and back roads. consider these Top 10 beaches with WiFi internet access as evidence of investigation, observation and the value of for-thought... do not, however, be confused that there is a sense of serendiptity in the technologically insatiable... perhaps just the opposite, but in a true seachers stance i will claim half of knowledge: I do not know.

happy beaching and check out the surf...

Global Warming?

how strange. within weeks of being in brooklyn with 72 degree weather, and in the mountains of Vermont with confused bears and early budding trees, and in washington DC with premature cherry blossoms and pleasant summer-like evenings...

then LA with this Rare snow fall in Malibu near LA , wow!

i know some people think that this is global warming... to me its more like GLOBALLY WARMED.

read:

LOS ANGELES: Snow has fallen briefly in normally sunny Malibu, and west Los Angeles saw hail in the first sighting in 20 years of a white winter. The mountains behind Malibu – a celebrity enclave that hugs the Pacific Ocean – got a dusting of snow that brought traffic chaos to a region where rainfall is usually headline local news. Snow plows were sent out to clear a major road through the Malibu mountains and at least one car crashed, highway police said. "I lived in Malibu in 1978 when snow fell," said California Highway Patrol officer Patrick Kimball. Rain showers in unusually cold conditions turned to hail and sleet in parts of the beach city of Venice and in inland west Los Angeles, giving cars and rooftops a sprinkling of white. In Valencia – 48km north of Los Angeles downtown – some residents rushed outside with video cameras to capture rare snowflakes descending on their gardens. Meteorologists said it was the first time in more than 20 years that snow had fallen there. The unusual cold snap in the land of palm trees and blue skies followed several nights of freezing conditions in northern and central California that have caused $1 billion in losses among crops of oranges, strawberries and avocados.

The Vast Left Wing Conspracy.;.;.

Here in nYc, with the folks at Young People For and my own org, the Movement Strategy Center – and for a cool idea of one of the freshest expression of our work check OPEN : Oakland Progressive Empowerment Network…

Anyways, YP4 has been battling the right on college campuses for the past number of years. In an effort to prepare a generation of youth to govern – with progressive, community first politics and practice…

This has been both a visioning and team building meeting, here are some shots:

Web of Change Boondoggle

Where i am at RIght NOW took a flight inot vancouver yesterday and landed in the middle of the day, ate  wonderful sushi lunch with animator nadie-ah, roamed the downtown and skid row of this frontier city, the city was sunny unsual they said and so everyone was happy...

then i stayed at the home of the Hollyhock  founder Joel that overlooked the city from the EDge....

anyways, there was a bumpy island hopper plane and a bumpier prayer inducing, tummy tickling choppy on a scale of 6  out of ten water taxi..

and now we are here. in a beach house... this is cortes island in british columbia, elvish land... resonating earth, alive and full, lush, fiery in its dampness...

A boondoggle!

First female space tourist blasts off

Anousheh Ansari, 40, an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, joined a Russian cosmonaut and a US astronaut in the Soyuz TMA-9 for a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday.
The Soviet-designed spacecraft lifted off into a clear blue sky at 0409 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
"The flight is normal, the crew feel fine," a flight controller at mission control near Moscow said.
Unlike American Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian Mikhail Tyurin, who are starting a six-month stint in space, Ansari will return to earth in 10 days with the outgoing US-Russian crew.
Ansari, a US citizen based in Dallas, Texas, who left Iran in 1984, has said she wants to be an example to her compatriots.
"I think my flight has become a sort of ray of hope for young Iranians living in Iran, helping them to look forward to something positive, because everything they've been hearing is all so very depressing and talks of war and talks of bloodshed," Ansari said last week.
Flag off
But she was told to remove an Iranian flag from her spacesuit and, at the insistence of the Russian and US governments, promised that there would be no political messages during her trip
Looking relaxed and smiling at a pre-launch news conference at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday, Ansari said she would still pack an Iranian flag for her trip.
Ansari has not said how much her ticket cost but previous space tourists have paid the Russian space programme about $20 million.
She had originally been scheduled to join a later Soyuz mission but took the place of Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto when Russian space officials said last month he was not able to fly for unspecified medical reasons.
Several hours before the Soyuz blast off, the US space Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the ISS.
The Soyuz craft will dock with the space station early on Wednesday. Atlantis is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida a few hours later.

Aljazeera.Net - First female space tourist blasts off.

Wherever You Are you its NOt the ONLY place for you to be -- in fact you can be anywhere you Want to be - just decide it and Do it!!!

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once told a companion: "Help the weak or do some good for a person who cannot work for himself." His companion replied: "(But what) if I cannot do that?" The Prophet said: "(Then at least) refrain from harming others, for this will be regarded as a charitable deed (on your part)."

Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Hadith 694

July 4th Wish

I want places where workers work to be places where they can play and live too!

That comment was inspired by a rust-belt politician, a savvy young player in his local scene, as I write this the sound of sirens rings in my eastern urban perch.

They’re having a Janitors Golf Classic in that particular city and in the back of my head I think – they get it.

And it is somewhere between a monk and a prostitute only because between the two freedom surely exists – as it exists with both.

Looking for that uncharted progressive majority, we are more powerful than we know.

i want a Progressive Fellowship

and i want to re-write the constitution.

from the south east social forum- 2006

pedestrian lament

not all the time do i feel so emotional. given, this world is in a state of flux, as we all are. and i as much as any feel right on the brink.

last night we had a wonderful turnout for the 3 year anniversary rudemovements party. this collects a melange of the world that i have been connected to with all of the strangeness one can muster from a night out in nYc.

with some serious music and bright eyed looks we spent the evening dancing. while there were some barbs, it was a blessing to be able to bring many lovely folks into one place at the same time. truly a blessing, indeed.

my east coast swing was incredible. here are some shots from boston. my cousin hanifa and her husband rob from ladder company # 7 in Boston. family is where its all at. we gotta supprt each other through thick and thin.

i am overjoyed at the calm that being home brings. being around the bricks and concrete that know your movements, pitter, patter and all. and feel slight sadness as i return. but as i say, i feel on the brink, poised to make reality some of the deepest and most sincere intentions i hold close to my heart.

message for the day:

let all the events unfold. and in the minds eye you will find, the same slivers of emotion from the start.

peace and blessings to all - jazakAllah khairun

salih