today marks the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of malcolm x
forty years ago, malcolm was shot several times as he began delivering a speech
if malcolm were alive today he would be 79, about to turn 80 soon (in may)
there’s a lot i want to say but i don’t think i’ll be able to make a coherent statement anytime soon
malcolm x, el-hajj malik el-shabazz (may 19, 1925 – feb. 21, 1965)
rest in peace
here’s this great speech that spider-man made in amazing spider-man #135, published in august 1974 (written by gerry conway, illustrated by ross andru) — while and after he was fighting the tarantula, essentially a political assassin/terrorist/mercenary
one of my favourite quotations (it’s the last line) of all time comes up in this comic
Tarantula: Mockery? You dare mock me? Don’t you realize who — what — I am?
Spider-Man: Sure I do, buster — you’re a first class creep — a traitor to your own friends, men who were trying to free their people from a dictatorship — heroes whose boots you aren’t fit to shine!
You know something, “amigo” — it’s bums like you who give revolution a bad name.
Sick little criminals — who don’t give a hang about the cause they’re fighting for — who only care about themselves — and their own twisted egos.
Sure, I know who you are … and punk … so do you.
Punisher: That was quite a speech, my friend.
Spider-Man: Punisher…? When did you sneak up?
Punisher: Right after “heroes whose boots he isn’t fit to shine“. Do you believe all that, Wall-crawler? Are you truly that idealistic?
Spider-Man: Yeah, I’m idealistic — and I’ll stay idealistic until something better comes along.
(while he was making the “speech” he was wiping the floor with tarantula’s face)
daily dose of sanjeyan, as quoted by saqib:
ksnite says:
you know something … if you really pay attention, you can kind of notice that noaman is into spider-man — just kind of though…
Comments off
i got to the e.j.pratt library at about 10:00 am, as stated earlier it is probably the most aesthetic library on campus (next to gerstein) — for one thing, you actually get natural light coming in, as opposed to sitting in a fluorescent atmosphere that resembles a fort more than it does a library (although pratt looks like a pillbox from the outside)
i ended up catching up on homework (and i’m still not anywhere near done) till 10:00 pm, leaving the library twice — first to get that water english toffee and crappy boston cream then later to grab a sandwich from subway
so sometime later (after 10:00 pm) i enter the subway and i’m going eastbound — at yonge these rowdy black kids come in to the car (four rowdy girls and one laid-back guy)
from yonge to victoria park (when they sat down) the girls were jumping around and disrupting people, being ostentatious, singing songs (ashanti) and dancing … one girl went to the front of the car and did her beyonce impression as she walked forward
people got up and moved away from them, some people smiled and were kind of enjoying it
finally at warden station i got up and went up to them and told them that (apologizing to the crowd for the upcoming profanity), when i asked them a question they ought to say “they schools don’t teach us shit”
then i asked them “why haven’t you learned anything?”
and they more-or-less replied “they schools don’t teach us shit”
(that’s from a dead prez song)
i then asked them if they knew who malcolm x is and they responded loudly in the affirmative
i then asked them if they knew that forty years ago malcolm x was shot dead
that quieted them down, and i said, that’s right — they schools don’t teach you shit
that’s when a man came up to me and shook my hand and so did one of the girls
i asked if they knew who the dead prez are, and two of the girls said no — but the guy and a girl said yes so i gave them props for that
i then told them to listen to mc nomes, captain nomes, to me:
you put down virtue and you promote vice
then you turn around and say you’re for the passion of the christ
i don’t give a **** about the qur’an or the bible
as far as i’m concerned it’s the fittest who see survival
but drinking, smoking pot and shooting shit in your veins
that ain’t survival of any kind you’re just ****ing your brains
but the corporations love it ’cause they’re making big profit
and your mind is so gone it’s easier keeping you down in shit
and all the while you light up thinking you’re so revolutionary
but you’re just a dumb **** and you’re slowing the evolutionary process….
i ended off telling them to stay away from drugs, to stay in school and get an education because brother malcolm said “without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world” and that’s about when the train got to kennedy
i did all that without being patronizing or condescending, and at the end i got respect from the guy and the girls, and all those people who were at first put off by the rowdiness of the girls seemed to have gained some kind of awe for/wonderment about me (i was quiet the whole time until the train got to warden)
that’s what i would mark as the return of the ttc mc, and i think i’m going to look forward to doing more of it…
(the above entry is disjointed and lacking lucidity because i’m tired from over twelve hours of studying on little sleep)
and speaking of the subway, here’s today’s daily dose of sanjeyan:
ksnite says:
today, i was in the subway
nomes says:
how was it
ksnite says:
kinda tubey
with a (small) cup of (watery) english toffee and a boston cream donut (with barely any cream) in the basement of the (second?) most aesthetic library on campus (alone) in the (eternal) winter (of perpetual discontent) wondering why the hell don’t these chairs have lumbar support?
nomes says:
guess who is in a class of its own
ksnite says:
i dunno, who?
nomes says:
that’s right
how do you tell someone that the moon is beautiful?
how do you tell them the way the stars shine?
there’s more to you than i could possibly describe
i could run out of words just talking about your smile
this story i read really moved me, i’m amazed (thanks fahad)
Starting in 1951 with a tiny dispensary in Karachi�s poor Mithadar neighborhood, Edhi has steadily built up a nationwide organization of ambulances, clinics, maternity homes, mental asylums, homes for the physically handicapped, blood banks, orphanages, adoption centers, mortuaries, shelters for runaway children and battered women, schools, nursing courses, soup kitchens and a 25-bed cancer hospital.
it struck my as almost surreal that such a person could exist, that with the limited resources he has and the atmosphere in pakistan, he could do so much
it makes me wonder if we, here in the west with so much more, are doing nearly enough (and no, we’re not — the fundamental problem is not that of wealth or resources but that of distribution, and in as far as that problem exists nothing even remotely near enough is being done)
“My religion is humanitarianism�.. Which is basis of every religion in this world”. (sic)
and in other news:
nomes says:
girls come and go…
nomes says:
well, they go more often than they come
ksnite says:
actually, we come and they go
ksnite says:
why do all girls maek spelling mistakes?
nomes says:
bits me
Students rally for post-secondary education
“Education is a fundamental right, it’s not to be bargained with or traded,” Noaman Ali, 19, of the University of Toronto said. “Its shouldn’t be made into a commodity.”
today, saqib hooked up with sanjeyan and i at the rally for reducing tuition fees (or at least, against increasing them)
it was, for each of us, the first time at a demonstration, and it was a lot of fun
we were carrying ASSU‘s banner that read, “education is a right”
we started out in front of con hall, marched around king’s college circle, then went down st. george street to college, and along college to queen’s park
we took our banner and aligned it so that it was parallel to the marching, at the left side of the march — this way, the cars going on the other side of the road could see what was on it
we also made sure that when we passed by streetcars we raised the banner so that all those inside could read it (and get annoyed that we were blocking their view of what it was that was blocking them) — it was quite “in your face”
once we reached queen’s park, outside the legislature, we found a snow bank and stood atop of it holding out our banner — we sank into the snow at a rate of one inch every eight minutes — we were on the left flank of the protestors
one of the speakers was mary anne chambers (minister in charge of postsecondary education), she came up and made a speech, after which students from carleton offered her a mock-up giant “promise ring” to remind her to keep her promises
the minister refused the ring, at which point i started a chant “wear the ring! wear the ring!” — yes, i felt proud of that — but she didn’t take the ring
at one point a reporter for centennial college’s toronto observer asked me for a comment (i suppose my comments, if published, will be there in the next edition)
one of the speakers, a representative from cupe, started off with a most excellent introduction, “brothers, sisters, COMRADES!” — he was apparently an arab, very enthusiastic, with an incredible accent and booming voice that made everyone listen
we almost felt like starting a revolution right there and then
and after the protest a reporter from roger’s cable local tv (markham/richmond hill) went around looking for a student from markham or richmond hill, and it seems i’m the only one she found, so she took me away and i gave her an interview
that will be on tv tomorrow, and no one will watch it anyway
after the protest, sanjeyan and i dragged the assu banner in front of the sidney smith wraparounds (front and back) with their floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and got people inside to watch as we walked around
later, saqib, sanjeyan and i used a couple of free lunch coupons we had to get the most expensive food we could from sscaf� — a couple of subs from mr. sub — and had a feast, or a reasonable approximation thereof
after that we went around postering for ut-tern’s movie night (we’re showing big fish — two dollars — all proceeds go to tsunami relief:
monday, feb 7, six pm, ss2118
come out and support, and watch a great movie too)
and after that i went to class, and sanjey and saqib went home
it was a great day, because sanjey typically strikes me as someone who stays away from the political — and it was great to see him chanting along, and i don’t get to see saqib much (i’ve only seen him once on campus by chance before), so it was most excellent, as far as days go