Happy new Year . The salutes 2021

 

Gondolas waiting Venice

 

Goree Island House of Slaves

 

Goree Island House of Slaves

Goree Island was used as a slave trading post by the Portuguese from as early as 1536. The island is tiny and lies three kilometers south of the Senegalese coast. Its tiny size of about eighteen hectares and deep costal water made it easy for merchants to control their captured slaves. There are many estimates as to the amount of slaves that passed through Goree, probably twenty six thousand, even more than a million. The Africans passed through a single door to board slave ships destined for the Caribbean and the Americas.

The French called the island Goree which meant “good harbor” but the name was a far cry from what took place on this tiny island, between the sixteenth and nineteenth century. Many wooden ships sailed from this island with a cargo of human beings chained in their holds. This was the House of Slaves as Goree Island was also called.

Connect Pan American Highway across Darien Gap: Fiat Money

Connect Pan American Highway across Darien Gap: Fiat Money:   Fiat Money Building the Cash Economy Chartalism is a theory of  money  which argues that money originated with a state’s attempt to di...

Fiat Money

 

Fiat Money

Building the Cash Economy

Chartalism is a theory of money which argues that money originated with a state’s attempt to direct economic activity. Money is not intended to be a solution to the problems with barter or as a means with which to monetize debt. Fiat currency or money has value in exchange because it empowers the sovereign state to levy taxes on economic activity.  The taxes are payable in the currency they issue. Fiat money is a currency without intrinsic value.

Fiat money has value because a government maintains its value or because parties engaging in exchange agree on its value. Fiat is a binding edict issued by a person in authority. It was introduced as an alternative to commodity money and representative money. Commodity money is created from a good, often a precious metal such as gold or silver, which has uses other than as a medium of exchange. Representative money is similar to fiat money but it represents a claim on a commodity which can be redeemed to a greater or lesser extent in value.

Beautiful day 18℃ on the Champs Elysees in Paris

 

Mighty London and her Idyllic Thames waiting to be explored

 

Queen Catherine Parr Woman Activist early 16th century

 

Queen Catherine Parr Woman Rights Activist

In England the very first battle to establish the rights of women was started by Catherine Parr the sixth wife of Henry VIII. Catherine Parr  (1512) (1548-09-08)was the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII and the final Queen consort of the House of Tudor. She married him on July 12, 1543 and outlived him by one year. She was also the most married English queen consort, she had four husbands. Henry VIII was her third husband.

Catherine's initial education was similar to other well-born women. She was fluent in French, Latin and Italian. She began to learn Spanish after becoming queen consort. Catherine was an ambitious woman and always aimed high, she felt that she was ordained to touch crowns and scepters. She developed a passion for learning which would continue throughout her life. She built a warm relationship with Henry's first wife or Queen Catherine of Aragon. Catherine also took the opportunity to renew her own friendship with the Queen's daughter, Lady Mary. By February 1543, Catherine had established herself as part of Mary's household. It was at this household that Catherine caught the attention of the King Henry VIII and accepted Henry’s marriage offer.

Catherine was well informed about Henry VIII’s attitude towards women. Catherine provoked the enmity of palace bureaucrats with her maturity and cunning. The officials despised her and they turned the King against her. They influenced the King to issue a warrant for her arrest and it was drawn up in 1545. However, she was able to use her strength of character, dignity and religious convictions to reconcile the enmity Henry VIII had felt towards her. The warrant was removed. This terrifying experience gave Catherine Parr the foresight to seek the protection of future Queens. Catherine built a close relationship with Henry's three children and was personally involved in the education of Elizabeth and Edward.

Knowing that a relationship was not sufficient protection for the royal women she sought to have a stronger form of security. She was influential in the forming of the Third Succession Act in 1542. The Third Succession Act was drafted to ensure that Mary and Elizabeth were in the line of succession to the English throne. Catherine influenced Henry VIII to approve The Third Succession Act and this he did. The Act was passed by the Parliament of England in July, 1543. The Act ensured that both Mary and Elizabeth were in the line of succession to the throne of England, behind their half-brother Edward. Mary and Elizabeth would no longer hold the title of queen consort but now the title queen regnant.

A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's social rank and status. She holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles, but historically, she does not share the king's political and military powers. However, a queen regnant is a queen in her own right with all the powers of a monarch. The regnant usually becomes queen by inheriting the throne upon the death of the previous monarch. Congratulations to a woman who followed her dream for the rights of women in a violent misogyny era.

Building the Cash Economy

 

Building the Cash Economy

Chartalism is a theory of money, which argues that money originated with a state’s attempt to direct economic activity. Money is not intended to be a solution to the problems with barter or as a means with which to monetize debt. Fiat currency or money has value in exchange because it empowers the sovereign state to levy taxes on economic activity.  The taxes are payable in the currency they issue. Fiat money is a currency without intrinsic value.

Fiat money has value because a government maintains its value or because parties engaging in exchange agree on its value. Fiat is a binding edict issued by a person in authority. It was introduced as an alternative to commodity money and representative money. Commodity money is created from a good, often a precious metal such as gold or silver, which has uses other than as a medium of exchange. Representative money is similar to fiat money but it represents a claim on a commodity which can be redeemed to a greater or lesser extent in value.

Building Pan America Highway across Darien Gap

 

It cost a camper vehicle over 3500.00 US DOLLARS to cross the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia. This took more than a week to process. This does not take into account the cost of rooms and food on both sides of the borders.

There were other losses pilferage from the vehicle and the extensive amount of hands that you have to grease (bribe) to get the papers in order to board the vessel, at Colon Panama and then to Cartagena Colombia.

There is no Highway across the Darien Gap. Building this road has been a point of weak discussion for over 100 years. Excuses, hoof and mouth diseases, rebels, smugglers would make the road building along the borders very difficult. With our medical, military and security abilities this cannot be a hindrance to the development of the entire continent of America.

The ferry crossing cannot be destroyed with this transport improvement. There will always be the need to transport special cargo. Thinking outside the box, the ferry service can be extended along the coast of Venezuela and Colombia and can continue to be used by the residents and tourist.

Humans can be provided with more meaning full jobs. By just manning the  Darien Gap crossing professionals and lay people can be employed. A toll can be charged to use the crossing. America will be connected, trade and commerce will be enhanced. Americans let’s treat ourselves well and bring the west into the twentieth century.

Edmund Despot 09/11/2020

Liberty for humanity Paris

 

El Darien Gap separa a América

 La brecha del Darién ubicada entre el sur de Panamá y el norte de Colombia tiene aproximadamente cincuenta (50) millas de ancho. Este tramo faltante de la carretera, si se completa, conectará América, desde Alaska en el norte hasta Argentina en el sur de América.

Sí, la zona boscosa tiene un entorno natural que hay que proteger. Es cierto que con la tecnología de hoy, ingenieros inteligentes y ambientalistas este proyecto es muy posible. La ruta de la seda une a China con el mundo. Estados Unidos está completando una barrera entre ellos y Sudamérica. Las carreteras que unen a los seres humanos y las barreras que separan a las personas son aceptables. América tenemos que completar esta carretera, que es una visión indígena americana centenaria.

Por Edmund Despot.

The Darien Gap separates America

The Darien Gap positioned between Southern Panama and Northern Colombia is about fifty (50) miles wide. This missing stretch of highway if completed will connect America, from Alaska in the north to Argentina in the south  of the Americas. 

Yes, the forested area has a natural environment that has to be protected. True, with today's technology, intelligent Engineers and Environmentalist this project is very possible. The silk road links China to the world. The United States is completing a barrier between themselves and South America. Roads linking humans and barriers separating people are acceptable. America we need to complete this highway, which is a centuries old American Indian vision.

By Edmund  Despot. 

Hello Paris

 

Connect Pan American Highway across Darien Gap: Complete the Pan American Highway and Connect Nort...

Connect Pan American Highway across Darien Gap: Complete the Pan American Highway and Connect Nort...: Complete the Pan American Highway By Edmund Despot from Trinidad and Tobago. “A system so vast, so incomplete, and so incomprehensible it ...

Election Day August 10, 2020

Trinidad and Tobago 

Vote wise. Vote smart. Vote safe. 

Vote for our future prosperity. 

Connect Pan American Highway across Darien Gap: Emancipation Olaudah Equiano

Connect Pan American Highway across Darien Gap: Emancipation Olaudah Equiano: Olaudah Equiano Day The citizens of Trinidad and Tobago celebrate Emancipation day a national holiday proclaimed on August 01, 1985. To be...

Emancipation Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano Day

The citizens of Trinidad and Tobago celebrate Emancipation day a national holiday proclaimed on August 01, 1985. To be free from restraint and control by another person is worth celebrating. Some black men recognized what freedom meant to all peoples. African descendants celebrated freedom in Trinidad from as early as 1793. Emancipation was delivered when the economic and political environment in England was in an economic transformation. The legality of slavery was tested in the court of the British law Lords. When judgment was delivered it began to shake the very institution of slavery. The legal vibrations in England began to open the independent ideals of the British colonist in America. To recognize yourself as being black in the western diaspora you have made a commitment to regain the freedom that you once had and lost.

It is the duty of every human to make an effort to obtain economic, political rights and eventually social equality. This is specifically true for disenfranchised black people. This is a painfully slow process, it is the peaceful way but this road widens as technology changes. When freedom is felt the sensation is like liberating a child from an abusive parental authority or to be free from someone with strong hands. In the countries that exploited the spoils from slavery their citizens enjoy equal status. They have equality before the law, regardless of religion, property or other private characteristics that may reside within them. In societies such as these it is difficult for that race, to see others who look different, as equals. When an era of suppression ends the many variations of freedom can suddenly be shared, this is the understanding of what emancipation can bring to humans.

Thirteen current and former British colonies commemorate Emancipation Day including Canada and South Africa. Two groups of black warriors who fought on the side of the British during the American war for independence were settled in Trinidad between 1793 and 1815. They were Muslim soldiers born in Africa and the Merikins from the southern states in America. The Merikins settled in Princess Town and Moruga, the Muslims in Comuto, Manzanilla and Valencia. Antigua and Barbuda freed their slaves upon the declaration of emancipation in 1834. The other territories had to endure a period of apprenticeship before full emancipation in 1838. Their lobbyist in Britain argued that the slaves had to be trained to be free. Whilst black people agitated for a shorter period of apprenticeship, their white masters were negotiating compensation for his property. The British government agreed to purchase the slaves from the white planters.

To seal the deal they borrowed £20 million pounds to recompense their slave owners. The loan amounted to 40 percent of the treasury’s annual income and was paid out in1835. The debt was finally paid off in 2015, about a hundred and eighty years later, by the British tax payers. The loan was the largest in British history. Not a penny was awarded to those who were enslaved and brutalized.  The conditions that continued after slavery were now one of marginalization and racial segregation. Today the black man in the western world is for the most part penniless, as the elitist continue to extract his sweat and blood. It is time for some form of compensation to be forwarded to the patient black man. It is never too late we must push on with our demands.

One hundred and fifty years later, on August 01, 1985 the government of Trinidad and Tobago was the first country to declare Emancipation Day as a national holiday. This activity has blossomed into celebrating African culture in the colonies, many with weeklong celebrations. This freedom quest had begun centuries ago, the light of emancipation always burned; it began with the first abduction in Africa. When the opportunity for freedom presented itself, the African, against all odds always grabbed at the opportunity. In 1771 the course of slavery was triggered by events far from North America. It took place in Great Britain when a very brave black man, Olaudah Equiano ran away from his master Charles Stewart. The master had returned to England in 1769, accompanied with him was his black slave Olaudah Equiano also called James Somerset.

Having a black slave in England represented high status and was generally accepted in English society. Equiano was born in the Eboe province in southern Nigeria. He was kidnapped at the age of eleven and sold in Barbados and then to Virginia. He loved the name Equiano. His story is extraordinary. Although he was in the company of the abolitionist he was a black man in a strange land. This was eighteenth century England, where the black needy would freeze or starve to death on the streets. These wretched black souls were reduced to begging or stealing. To steal was not a good idea because in the eighteen hundreds it was a hanging offense. If you escaped the gallows, you were thrown into a private overcrowded prison with no bed, no heat, little food, and less sanitation.

It was within this existing situation for black people in London that Equiano decided to escape from his master. Equiano was recaptured and Stewart had him imprisoned on a ship bound for Jamaica and to be sold as slave labour. Equiano courageously submitted his life to his godparents and Granville Sharp, the abolitionists who took charge of his quest for freedom. Sharp decided to make a test case of Equiano’s plight. He used the writ of habeas corpus to have Equiano removed from the ship. On December 09, 1771 Equiano appeared before the Court of King’s Bench. The case revolved around his presence in England. Sharp contended that once Equiano was on English soil he was a free man. The case took many months before Chief Justice Lord Mansfield and drags into 1772.

After many months no legal precedence could be found to decide the case either way. Finally Mansfield frees Equiano on the grounds that slavery is so odious that the benefit of doubt must prevail on Equiano’s behalf. The newspaper response in America was hostile in response to the judgment delivered by Mansfield. Equiano willingness to sacrifice his life for freedom triggered the American War of Independence against the Kingdom of Great Britain.  This great African sowed the seed of obtaining legal freedom at a dark and almost hopeless time.  His struggle for equality must be seen as a beacon of hope for black people around this earth. He must be honoured and remembered by his people. Thanks to Olaudah Equiano the light of equality burns brightly, he is the absolute sole of emancipation.  Happy Olaudah Equiano day to all peoples.  2020 emd.