Life is all about family!!

At a time when infants under 1 year were dying at a rate 800 a year in Barbados James Sisnett was born.

He is now 111.

The CBC program spoke of his mother and father.

His sister made it to 102.

Longevity may be all about genes, what you eat and exercise but it sure helps to get past that first year, well nourished and well protected and two parents have a better chance of getting a child past that first year than one.

Today, we have a sound water supply and good public health practices.

Most infants make it past their first year.

Malnutrition in Barbados is a thing of the past.

The need for two parents to nourish, protect and guide becomes even greater now to give children the chance to develop into meaningful contributors to a population whose size is no longer limited by public health issues and whose demands continue to increase.

Is “Black History month” officially acknowledged or celebrated in Barbados?

it most certainly isn’t! we have regressed at a rate of knots! jes look at what most black people look like these days, not to mention their behaviour! an WOMEN r the main determinants!

Why two parents is certainly preferable and indeed a boy does need a father-figure, society generally must take some of the blame.

Society’s elders must be role models, society’s sportsmen and sportswomen must be role models, as should teachers, musicians etc.

The behaviours of many of these individuals has been found wanting in the past few years.

While parents may dissent and explain to children the folly of certain behaviours, they are hamstrung if the society seems to generally accept negative actions which cause no obvious retribution or censure by such ‘role models’.

Indeed, who is to blame for selling drugs to the youth? Do the youth import these drugs, or are they imported by lords who have both bagmen and distributors, pushers?

While the pushers in schools may be children, certainly the lords and bagmen are not.

As such, the usual greed and money are the root cause of society’s illness.

While I support the call for a two parent family, many great people have come from being foster children.

But, alternate parenting and a caring society are the required for ‘fostering’.

Children are very perceptive and understand what they see and hear.

From that, they learn quickly as to the do’s and don’ts. One person’s child is not only taught by his/ her parents, but by spending much time at school or university with other’s who have been taught different values that have been left to fester, by the same school system etc.

It is a long road, but Random Thoughts/ Carson raised good points including that children have children and cannot cope.

But, society’s leaders need to stand up and make principled stands, unfortunately, some do not have too much principle.

As close followers and imitators of things Uncle Sam, we should be aware that according to a recent report out of the USA, the biggest cause of death among black women in the USA is Abortion.

Black is still beautiful but like T&T within another decade or two pure blacks will be hard to find. The Indian race is mixing extensively with the blacks and forming a new race that will take over most if not all of the region. the pure Indian will show his/her predudice more in an effort to strengthen their race. As far as I’m concerned, Indians are much more predudice than whites. Look at the attack on the W.I cricket term today, the Indians would not have reacted like that had England beat them that way, there was no mistaken identity of the coach as reported. Some of the most beautiful women in biblical times were BLACK.

‘Watchful’, I was merely indicating that, in my experience, MOST black MEN still look reasonably normal. I say MOST. I don’t see the majority of them wearing makeup, wigs, n all the other rest of junk which black WOMEN insist on putting on in order to make themselves look more ugly (although THEY think they’re beautiful) LOL! Thus, lack of lack of pride in self and thus THEIR obvious belief that BLACK, MOST CERTAINLY IS NOT BEAUTIFUL! I answer de man question!!

Dedicated to resident crackers like CHARLES KNIGHTON.
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL.

African tribe populated rest of the world

” The entire human race outside Africa owes its existence to the survival of a single tribe of around 200 people who crossed the Red Sea 70,000 years ago, scientists have discovered.
Research by geneticists and archaeologists has allowed them to trace the origins of modern homo sapiens back to a single group of people who managed to cross from the Horn of Africa and into Arabia. From there they went on to colonise the rest of the world.

Genetic analysis of modern day human populations in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America have revealed that they are all descended from these common ancestors.”

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
THE TELEGRAPH
9:00PM BST 09 May 2009.

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin
Washington Post ^ | December 16, 2005 | Rick Weiss

Posted on Friday, December 16, 2005 1:35:07 AM by RWR8189

” Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology’s most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity’s greatest sources of strife.

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person’s offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world’s races …………”

@ CHARLES KNIGHTON.
Is black still beautifil?

MUTANT SLC24A5 GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY!
by H. Millard , 2007

” There is a very high incidence of hereditary whiteness among those who received two mutated copies of gene SLC24A5, if recent research is correct. In fact, approximately ten percent of all humans on earth carry this mutation–the entire white race, to be exact.

No one knows exactly when the mutated gene entered the human population, but those with the gene interbred constantly so that it spread throughout whole families, then communities, then nations and then all of northern Europe. It then jumped to the North American continent with the Europeans who left Europe to settle here.”
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….When European skin became white

” Modern humans did not begin to lighten in skin color immediately after entering Europe some 35,000 years ago. In fact, these ancestral Europeans remained brown-skinned for tens of thousands of years. This is the conclusion now emerging from studies of skin color loci.

In 2005, a team of Japanese researchers found that the depigmentation of European skin was partly due to a relatively recent allele at the SLC45A2 (AIM1) gene. They dated the allele to c. 11,000 BP and concluded that it had rapidly supplanted the original allele through positive selection (Soejima et al., 2005).

Then last year, at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, a molecular anthropologist at the University of Arizona, Heather Norton, presented evidence that Europeans have a similarly recent allele at another skin color gene, SLC24A5. The new allele is dated to 12,000 – 3,000 BP. As she stated during her talk: “The [evolution of] light skin occurred long after the arrival of modern humans in Europe.” (Norton & Hammer, 2007).”
(Peter Frost’s anthropology blog).
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” Solute carrier family 24 member 5 (SLC24A5) regulates calcium in melanocytes and is important in the process of melanogenesis. The Thr111Ala allele (rs1426654[17]) has been shown to be a major factor in the light skin tone of Europeans in a number of studies.It is virtually non-existent in Asian and African populations and is found in about 99.9% of Europeans. It is believed to represent some 25–40% of the difference in skin tone between Europeans and Africans,and appears to have arisen as recently as within the last 10,000 years.

Solute carrier family 45 member 2 (SLC45A2 or MATP) aids in the transport and processing of tyrosine, a precursor to melanin. It has also been shown to be a major factor in the skin color of modern Europeans through its Phe374Leu (rs16891982[24]) variation. Like SLC24A5 it is ubiquitous in European populations but extremely rare elsewhere. ”
(Wikipedia).
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Genetic mutation makes those brown eyes blue
By Jeanna Bryner
updated 1/31/2008 , MSNBC.

” A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, so before then, there were no blue eyes.

“Originally, we all had brown eyes,” said Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.

The mutation affected the so-called OCA2 gene, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes and skin.
“A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a ‘switch,’ which literally ‘turned off’ the ability to produce brown eyes,” Eiberg said.

The genetic switch is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 and rather than completely turning off the gene, the switch limits its action, which reduces the production of melanin in the iris. In effect, the turned-down switch diluted brown eyes to blue.

If the OCA2 gene had been completely shut down, our hair, eyes and skin would be melanin-less, a condition known as albinism.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….
” Blonde or fair-hair is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin.”

” Natural lighter hair colors occur most often in Europe and less frequently in other areas. In northern European populations, the occurrence of blond hair is very frequent. The hair color gene MC1R has at least seven variants in Europe giving the continent a wide range of hair and eye shades. Based on recent genetic research carried out at three Japanese universities, the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blond hair in Europe has been isolated to about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age.”
(Wikipedia).
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
” Professor Jonathan Rees conducted a study of redheads at Edinburgh University.He identified the”gene for red hair” the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), found on the 16th chromosome. He found that this single gene was responsible for red hair.

Red hair is a genetic mutation.

Red hair is seen on the heads of only four percent of people. Most of these exist in the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, and Australia.

The highest percentage of natural redheads in the world is in Scotland (13%), followed closely by Ireland with 10%. In the US, about 2% of the population are natural redheads…”

” Harvard Dermatologist Madhu Pathak calls redheads “three-time losers” because their red pigment is an inadequate filter of sunlight and their skin is more susceptible to sunburn, skin cancer and wrinkling with age.”
(ELIZABETH johansen , 2005).
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Risk factors for ocular melanoma: Western Canada Melanoma Study.

Gallagher RP, Elwood JM, Rootman J, Spinelli JJ, Hill GB, Threlfall WJ, Birdsell JM.

Individuals with blue eyes had a significantly greater crude risk of ocular melanoma than those with brown eyes .Subjects with red or blonde hair were at higher risk of having ocular melanoma than those with black or dark-brown hair …”
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Blue Eyes Face Higher Cancer Risk
September 26, 1985,
United Press International,

” Exposure to sunshine increases the risk of eye cancer, with blue-eyed people more at risk than those with dark eyes, doctors reported Wednesday.

A team led by Dr. Margaret Tucker of the National Cancer Institute said a recent study suggests exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun increases the risk of intraocular malignant melanoma — a tumor that tends to spread to other organs.”
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Health and Hair: The Color Connection
What Your Natural Hair Color Says About Your Health

By Gina Roberts-Grey,
Published December 08, 2011.

Higher risk for Parkinson’s
” Redheads have nearly a 50% greater chance of developing Parkinson’s than people with other hair colors, according to a 2009 Harvard Medical School study. People with black hair have the lowest chance, followed by brunettes, then blondes, researchers found.

The gene responsible for fiery hair hues is headquartered close to a gene that, if mutated, can increase the risk for Parkinson’s disease. And proximity can be all it takes to make one gene affect another.

“The lighter the hair, the stronger the likelihood of developing the ‘bad’ variant of the Parkinson’s gene,” says Svetlana Kogan, M.D., an internist at Lenox Hill Hospital …”

” Age-related macular degeneration, an eye disease that may cause blindness, strikes women more often than men, and blondes more than other natural hair colors.
“The fairer your hair, the greater your risk,” Kogan says. And if you have blue eyes too, you’ve increased the odds.
“Although the exact link isn’t fully understood, the lack of pigment to protect blondes’ eyes from the sun’s retina-damaging rays may be a cause,” Kogan says.
It’s no secret that fair skin increases your chances of melanoma, but light hair is a risk factor too.
Researchers at Harvard say that no matter your skin tone, blondes should never leave home without slathering on a full-spectrum UVA and UVB sunscreen with at least 30 SPF.

“Blondes produce less melanin, the cells that give your hair and skin its pigment. [It] can leave them especially sensitive to sunburns, sun damage and developing skin cancer,” says dermatologist Joel Schlessinger, M.D., president emeritus, American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery…”

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@ Charles Knighton .

just asking a question? if there is all this evidence to support the view that the Black Race was on this earth first and was responsible for the emergence of the other races and were the first discoverers and inventors how have we managed to find ourselves at the bottom of the social ladder by allowing the other races to surpass us in all facets of life so much so that we have to celebrate black history this and that to highlight our achievments from creation which no one seems to care about? how is it that the caucasian race and indian race if there is such a thing do not have to celebrate white this or white that? how is it that despite all our achievments we always seem to be begging for attention? why do we curse these races behind their backs but subjugate to them in front of our faces? why? Why?Why? because we say BLACK is BEAUTIFUL with our lips but rather than live and express it in our hearts we continue to mask our importance behind such smokescreens as Black History Month.It is time we stop playing catch-up but when?

Why do us blacks have to be constantly marketing ourselves through selfserving but token platforms like “Black is Beautiful”? is it because we suffer from a ingrained inferiority complex as a result of our skin pigmentation which connotes the doom and gloom which goes with darkness instead of light? If so, if we truly recognize ourselves as a race like the other races do, how can we rid ourselves of this inferoirity complex dilemna?

Unlike the other marginalised races/peoples, the educated black middleclass concentrated on carving out a class enclave for itself to separate it from their less privileged brothers. Rather than consolidating their gains in uplifhting the image of their race sought refuge in white and other mixed clubs where they were only tolerated because of what they can offer.The thought of solidyfying their racial independence and dominance like the other races do by forming exclusive clubs open to blacks only seemed never to cross their mind; rather, their spent their energies begging and protesting for acceptance in environments other peoples had carved for themselves unwittingly over the years sending the perhaps inadvertent but distinct message that ‘we as a people do not feel good about ourselves but need to be with you’. When that failed, to separate ourselves from each other by means of distinction, we sought membership in Lodges with badges and sashes and trinkets and other erstwhile endeavours like our forefathers before us had done during the years of slavery. Today we are still faced with the younger generation of blacks yearning social acceptance from without and creating stumbling blocks for less affluent blacks from within. Thus our gravitation to membership of organisations like Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary instead of tried, tested and proven organisations like Trade Unions.

Dear ac ,
Firstly this does not necessarily point to you…or anything you have posted above.Out of curosity ,we have never met. Have you ever heard the saying of a” black man wid a white man mind.” I am sure you know of these things which are one of the reminants of our colonial past.Some are able to.. while holding true to color.. be able to speak under the pretentious guise. This thus makes it even more difficult to meaningfully contribute to this post, in light of not knowing who what is what .

Ps ac are you black , white or what ?
David is that a picture of Kent Jerson’s new baby at the top ?how did you get it ?

@balance

The point you are missing is how does a race which has been indoctrinated to think in a particular way disrupt that thinking to do what you ask.

It will not happen for the majority as a result of some Damascus experience.

@balance

Again you have focused on the symptom. Carry on smartly.

@ balance.

@Bush Tea

What matters is how we disrupt the ‘progression’.

All on BU know your answer 🙂 but others who operate in the temporal realm might want to be a little more pragmatic on the issue of living life.

@ balance.

@Bushie

Understand your point well although the name you should have used is LP whose millions will probably be frittered away in ligation for as long as he shall life.

Hope you are not saying though that the acquisition of material things should not be a priority for Blacks because material wealth is a means as well to helping others achieve noble objectives – however it must be combined with other priorities.

@ bush Tea .
Please review the videos posted by taseti and seti.

” Who robbed blacks of their rightful place….? Blacks!!! ” – Bush Tea.
where is the evidents to support this statement ?

@seti

Why do you feel you have to call Bush Tea a liar for expressing a view?

Very interesting. I watched all 4 parts.

Black History :
The Moors introduced the ” common bath ” to the Europeans of southern France , Spain , and Portugal . They introduced the use of “undergarments” and ” linen wear ” from 711 C.E. ( See Jane Soames ,THE COAST OF BARBARY; deGraft-John-son, AFRICAN GLORY; Stanley Lane – Poole , THE MOORS IN SPAIN .)