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Showing posts from December 21, 2008

Fourth in a series on the 7 Principles of Kwanzaa : Ujamaa is a relic of the past?

Well, surely one isn ’t talking about the Black community when the phrase cooperative economics is mentioned, that’s Ujamaa in Swahili ? ... there are successful businesses owned by Blacks, but normally it has nothing to do with community cooperation ... When this writer thinks about cooperative economics, the groups that come to mind are Asian-Americans, along with Jewish-Americans, then Polish-Americans, then Latin Americans. Get my drift? Of course we can say that there are successful businesses owned by Blacks, but normally it has nothing to do with community cooperation, or cooperative economics within the Black community. Not even the Black churches have a history of working together except when the recognition is nondescript, meaning that it is deemed advantageous to have your name somewhere when you realize that you can't be the only dog in the game. Take the HIV epidemic, one outreach worker is quoted as saying “Trying to bring churches together for a compassionate cause

Third in series on the 7 principles of Kwanzaa: Ujima means support when you need it!

I cannot reach fulfillment without "thou." The self cannot be self without other selves. Self-concern without other-concern is like a tributary that has no outward flow to the ocean. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ujima (Collective work and responsibility). It is building and maintaining our community together and to make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together. ( Official Kwanzaa Site ). I heard people recently saying things like: “I have enough problem of my own”. Another said, “They brought it on themselves”. No this is not ' drug addicts or criminals huddling over a piece of find and talking about self preservation. People with similar downfalls do have a tendency to help one another even if it’s in mischievous conditions. No, the former words and phrases were prevalent in a adult Christian Sunday School class discussion. It would appear that Christians have had enough of wayward members of society, and, each other. But somethin