9 Parts of Speech: NAP VIA CAP

NAPVIACAP

9 parts of speech

It is easy to remember them using this acronym (by Hamza Yusuf) 

N:     Noun
A:     Adjective
P:     Pronoun
V:     Verb
I:      Interjection
A:     Adverb
C:     Conjunction
A:     Article
P:     Preposition

the source for NAPVIACAP idea is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuQFoYavWyg&t=5566s

at hour and a half into the video 1:32:00

Title is: Ramadan Book Club, and discussing the new translation of Quran by Thomas Cleary

Ode to Punk Rock and (old) Hip Hop

Ode to Punk Rock & (old) Hip Hop

I remember delving into punk rock in the early 1980's when a co-worker at Magic Pan restaurant in New Orleans introduced me to "the Clash". Their music became mainstream later with songs like "Rock the Casbah". Like you, Punk rock for me also was an outlet of expression which helped me explore spaces and approaches outside the dominant culture. I really liked the political edge in the music, and the importance of the lyrics. For example in a speech class, I talked about another song by the Clash "Know your rights, all 3 of them". In some of the songs, the Clash (band from UK), mixed Spanish lyrics, like in the song "Spanish Bombs". This multi-cultural approach was very rare in those days.

Moving from New Orleans to Los Angeles in late 1980's, it seemed like gradually Punk Rock became more influential and moved into the mainstream. Mohawk type haircuts, hydrogen peroxide streaks in hair, sleeveless T-shirts and ear piercing became more common and then fashionable. Vietnam was fresh in the minds of Californians, so the mistrust in government and anti-war sentiments were still felt in the local culture. One demonstration of this was a bumper sticker a classmate displayed, "Question Authority". Those were the good old days. Especially after 9/11, the masses became increasingly docile, passive, apathetic and a-political. (Foucault talks about Disciplinarity and Docile bodies). In a complacent and obedient society, powerful, political and empowering music with balls, seems very rare now. And its impact is painfully missed.

In the early 1980's, on WTUL, an ad-free college radio of Tulane University in New Orleans, they started playing rap music with Run DMC's, "You Be illin'". It took 6 or 7 years for this genre to become mainstream. But the beginnings of rap music was passionate, heartfelt and powerful statements from the grassroots, on the status quo of America, including social issues, political impacts on daily life, racism, poverty, inequities, etc. It is a tragedy that rap and hip-hop mostly devolved into glorification of gangs, crime, narcissism, showing off, competition, violence, guns, drugs, pimps and "ho's".

In retrospect,  the Punk rock I was exposed to was political, leftist music predominantly from White musicians. Which later influenced the birth of a new genre of Music of the 1980's, called "New Wave". Today, Punk rock is no longer significantly popular. The other genre which started becoming popular also from the 1980's, rap / hip-hop, has been mostly music made by Black people. It has become mainstream and seems to be mostly serving the purpose of entertainment (and glamorizing the prison industrial complex). It rarely seems to make any meaningful statements, like it used to, 30 years ago. For example, Ice-T who used to sing about police brutality in 1992, now seems to be promoting thug life? Rap / Hip Hop misses countless opportunities to incorporate social and political content into the music. For example, among my frequent sources of inspirations are  amazing Black authors and researches  like Joy DeGruy, Cornell West, Alice Walker, and Black Panthers like professor Angela Davis of UC Santa Cruz. Resmaa Menakem's powerful line "Black bodies are not defective" can easily be incorporated in a good rap song.

But even popular musicians with million$ in resources, rarely employ, or get inspired by, or incorporate the work of famous Black (and other) researchers and authors. When uplifting and empowering ideas are incorporated in music, it ripples and has a moving effect which resonates and reverberates in the heart of society. For example the work of the rap artist "Immortal Technique" is a breath of fresh air. It can be said that a band like "Rage Against the Machine", draws from the elements of Punk Rock and Hip Hop. That amazing band is also painfully missed (since it broke up a few years ago). It was the voice of for example, social justice and the anti-war movement. Thank God for Music. In Urdu there's a saying: Music is Nourishment for the Soul. In addition, when music also packs a punch, it can not only move the body to dance, it can also empower a person with constructive energy, and  can light up a community to impact positive movements. In the meantime, music helps us relax and chill out

 

Ode to the Social Work Student / Intern

May you get a scholarship to a good university

May you learn in a school which uses Critical Race Theory

May you find professors who care about your well being

May you meet social work professionals who become your friends

May you get mentors who give you wings

May your training empower you to be of service where needed

May you be deemed worthy of the privileges of an intern's bill of rights

May you be protected from humiliation and oppression in your internship

May you receive fair labor wages for every hour you work as an intern

May you be assigned a supervisor who will value and honor you

May you not be made invisible because of the label "intern" applied to you

May your "superiors" not be in denial that interns are a marginalized community

May you survive the implicit and explicit biases against you

May you have realistic expectations about other social workers

May the disappointment by other social workers not cause you resentment

May you be an agent of change starting at your own university

May you get fired up and inspired in classes

May you engage in nourishing dialogue with professors and schoolmates

May you find a refuge from discrimination

May you enjoy a sanctuary free from White Supremacy

May your lived experiences be deemed as valid

May your voice be heard loud and clear

May your feelings be considered as legitimate

May your heart and soul be acknowledged

May you leave your positive mark on the lives you touch

May the hypocrisy in the field not leave you disillusioned

May the double-standards applied to you, not leave scars

May the lack of social justice in the field, not make you quit

May the travails and tribulations of the work not cause you to lose hope

May the pain not leave you drained

May the tears not blur your vision

May the burdens placed on your shoulders not get you burned out

May your sacrifices be never in vain

May you truly be an advocate for change

May you throw a monkey wrench in every system of White Supremacy

May you not become a tool of the systems of oppression

May the lack of ethics by others not extinguish your passion

May you never be made to feel like a nobody

May you be the somebody who advocates for the nobodies

May you never let the bastards get you down

May you find a circle of support where you are loved

May your reduce the gap between knowledge and implementation

May you remain steadfast and resilient in your commitments

May you advocate and educate

May you graduate and celebrate... with honors

May you be fulfilled and enriched by social work

May you serve a higher purpose through your job

May you always take the high road

May you make our world a safer place

Production of Your Generous Hate

(as Martin Luther King Jr. said: Hate can not take out hate... darkness can not take out darkness, only light can do that)

 

You hated my nation, so your country I didn’t like

You said my homeland was not sacred, so your barren territory I didn’t like

You stoned us, calling us infidels, so your idols I didn’t like

You remained ignorant of my mountains, so your desert dunes I didn’t like

You laughed at my country’s passport, so your elitist nationality I don’t like

You paid me low wages based on my race, so your employment apartheid I don’t like

You never appreciated the fruit of my Indus soil, so your sand land I don’t like

You lied that I’m Hindu, so your subjective religion I don’t like

You force the women to hide so kids get molested, your deviant sexuality I don’t like

You made me beg to not void my visa, your exclusive citizenship I don’t like

You say you own the two holy cities, your puppet kingdom I don’t like

You pretend to the world as if you’re holy, your unholy beliefs I don’t like

You fund gullible extremists around the world, your fanatic dogma I don’t like

You claim your tribe is divine, your thuggish theocracy I don’t like

You act like my people are your slaves, your archaic fiefdom I don’t like

You prostate at the feet of white skins, your shattered moral compass I don’t like

You wish to imprison my heart and soul, your twisted shariatic laws I don’t like

You use religion to hold me hostage, your gangster mentality I don’t like

You want followers to kill for your fatwas, your mass manipulation I don’t like

You claim only your sect is legit, your fundamentalist patriarchy I don’t like

You tell me to shut my mouth and thoughts, your form of enlightenment I don’t like

You use fear of retribution to terrorize our souls, your godly wrath I don’t like

You kill any rival at will, your justice of mass executions I don’t like

You lack the power to hear scrutiny, your inferiority complex I don’t like

You drench yourself in gold from head to toe, your self-aggrandizement agenda I don’t like

You think we are pee-ons and subhuman, your self-proclaimed royalty I don’t like

You demand my blind faith in you, your cult of mind control I don’t like

You can’t tolerate any voice of dissent, your pigheaded arrogance I don’t like

You built a clock high-rise to overshadow the Kaaba, your tower-envy I don’t like

You sear every mosque and sajda with your footprint, your spiritual mutilation I don’t like

You obey as a willful american slave, your sense of freedom I don’t like

You waste billions on yachts and palaces, your black gold oil companies I don’t like

You segregate men and women into silos, your one-eyed godheads I don’t like

You were installed as fake kings by the Brits, your sham monarchy I don’t like

You stockpile weapons to bomb fellow Muslims, your anti-Ummah psychology I don’t like

You wage war on the poor of Yemen, your misguided jihadi’s I don’t like

You preach that all Saudi’s are holy, your White Supremacy agenda I don’t like

You flex your power upon the weak, your perpetuating the American empire I don’t like

You worship the dollar as your number one god, your corrupted faith I don’t like

You will never be my leader, your feudal oil cartels I don’t like

You feel superior to hate me, I don’t copy what I don’t like

 

(by Fazeel Chauhan, a poet or Pakistani origin who lived in Saudi in the 1970's and now resides in Los Angeles. 3-20-21. Disclaimer by poet: The points illustrated poetically are not meant to stereotype a group of people, but instead this is using a critical (CRT) lens to examine the policies made by those in power. In summary, when I was the target of injustices, I did not like it, and decided to not copy those harmful behaviors and instead learned to empathize with exploited peoples)

  

"Corporal" Punishment by Teachers, Parents, Preachers, VIP's and Landlords

When i lived in Saudi Arabia in the 1970's, my father said he had seen public executions after Jummah. He also said that some people were "whipped" with branches of the date tree. He was born in 1923 and had also been in the British army in WWII. I think this practice of whipping and caning, and "corporal" punishment is also coming from the west, and specially from colonization. "Corporal" after all is the lowest rank in the military, so I guess they become the "whipping boys" or scapegoats for sadistic bosses. 

The wikipedia article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporal_punishment

states that in some traditional and native societies, corporal punishment was not used, because there was no private property in those societies. If there is no property, it can't be stolen, thus no need to punish people for stealing. Also, in indigenous cultures, property is often shared with the community, so less likely would have involved punishment. They did however shun people out of the tribe, if a person would become a menace to society. 

My father copied what the british army had done to him: Line people up, question them one at a time, and cane them. Since first grade, starting with "good" Catholic schools, our teachers used to cane us, pretty ruthlessly. All the teachers there were women. One even did kicking and slapping. In other pakistani schools of Saudia and Pakistan, hitting students on the palm or back of hand was common, using tools like canes, a foot ruler's flat or thin edge. A couple of my teachers in boarding school, sent boys to the hospital, by beating them severely, including with punches. Two of the students were top of their class, academically. The third was the top athlete of the school. These were good kids, not troublemakers. 

We grew up witnessing that it was common for preachers like "molvi saheb", or imam or qari, to beat kids for not memorizing a surah, or for not pronouncing the Arabic words of Quran, properly. Where did those religion teachers learn that method of "discipline". Yet we are told that Islam was not spread by the sword. At least in the subcontinent, many indigenous people become Muslim due the the kindness, honesty and spirituality of the sufi teachers. I can't imagine sufi masters beating anyone. It's doesn't seem feasible their lessons to parents about tarbiya, they were told to beat their children, over the heads and on the faces, using shoes, sandals and flip flop chappals. 

In the 1970's (at least), it had become normalized, for the teachers, preachers (imam, qari), and parents to beat kids. We see this still going on today, though it seems less prevalent. 

In the above wikipedia article, it also mentions that master's used to beat their servants. In places like Pakistan, that abuse of maids and servants being treated like slaves, still happens today. The master and slave history of United States is often forgotten or whitewashed, but that is a connection we need to make.

A very different kind of beating is described in the best selling book "My Grandmother's Hands", which talks about healing trauma and how it's passed on to future generations, in their bodies, souls and DNA. The (Social Worker) Author, Resmaa Menakem states that some African American parents use a flexible branch of a tree, called a "switch" or a braided switch which looks like a whip. He states that in slavery times, an African American parent might whip their child with that stick, so that the child would become more "obedient" and keep his head low, thus not get in trouble with the master, who would get the child whipped by a "cat and nine tails" type of massive whip, which literally tears the flesh of the person and leaves them wounded and scarred for life. Those African American parents were not being cruel, but instead were trying to protect their children to prevent them becoming the victims of the slave master's beatings and lynchings. Menakem explain it as a father saying to a son, "I would rather have you hate me today, than to have you be dead" [due to police brutality, etc]. 

Like the teacher, preacher and parent of the past in Pakistan, the VIP and landlord of today, still wields tremendous power, as if he owns the body and soul of the other person. As if the child or employee or "peasant" is their slave to be dehumanized. As if the master can beat "freedom" out of a person to subjugate and enslave them. This power differential is exercised in other areas of society, not to mention by politicians, governments and corporations. Any hierarchy is in place to emphasize that some people are more superior than others. With that, many people do use their position of power to oppress others, to hold others down, to treat others as hostages, to bring others to heel and kneel. A gangster is called: yeh sab ka baap hay. Or a badmaash is called: yeh sub ka dada hay. As if fathers and grandfathers are supposed to act like gangsters. And "Uncle" Sam is a our father's brother who kills millions of people around the world? Is that what uncles are supposed to do? Certainly, gangsters are bullies who only inflict terror on people who are weaker. 

What do you think are the roots of these practices, such that it has been (or was) normalized, justified and even legalized for "elders" and "respectable" or "honorable" (muslim) people like teachers, preachers and parents to beat children? 
Did colonization teach us to hate ourselves? The white supremacists beat native people around the world, like us, and we repeat their behavior and keep beating the children?
Extending these practices to force people into subjugation, are the tools of the state, including police brutality, law enforcement and (in)justice system at home... and militarism, war-profiteering and empire building to dominate and enslave the rest of the world. As Arundhati Roy says "We are all subjects [slaves] of the American Empire". 

I’m afraid of sending my Kids back to school in person

 

I’m afraid of sending my Kids back to school in person

published in Santa Monica Daily Press, August 6, 2021 (with co-authors listed at bottom)

https://www.smdp.com/im-afraid-of-sending-my-kids-back-to-school-in-person/207282

As parents, we can’t wait for our kids to go back to school. Due to the lockdown, many parents might feel like they’ve had much more responsibilities now, having to take care of children at home 24/7. For a parent who may also be working from home, it can be frustrating for having to ensure the kids have a proper internet connection to their online class, and that they are paying attention in school. The parents need a break. In the lockdown, kids miss their friends and also want to go back to school to socialize and play. We all want to return to a normal way of life, which was before COVID.

But are we really ready to send our kids back to school? There are many concerns, questions and fears. If the student is over 12 years old, they can get vaccinated. But what about the younger kids? They are at a vulnerable age, where they often get sick, and get exposed to germs by putting things in their mouth. How safe is the school campus? It is not clear what precautions the school will be taking. Will hand sanitizing stations be installed inside and outside each classroom, and in the playground? Will the kids go through some training about social distancing, wearing masks, and how to prevent the spread of COVID? Is there medical staff available at each school to take care of kids? Will each student’s temperature be checked before entering the school? On the other hand, a student can be a COVID carrier, yet not exhibit symptoms, and so they could be unknowingly infecting other kids. How safe do the school staff feel? What is the school policy on COVID testing of students? If a classmate later gets diagnosed with COVID, will any of the classmates be required to stay home for 2 weeks?

How can school staff monitor kids to make sure they wear face masks at all times? When playing outside the classroom during the breaks, kids can be expected to take their masks off. It can be difficult to breathe in a mask. When kids are running around playing, the mask can further hinder their breathing. Are the playgrounds properly sanitized every day? How safe is the classroom? Schools have installed plexiglass dividers in some classrooms, which are only about 2 feet above the student’s desk. If COVID is an airborne virus, then how effective is the short plexiglass barrier? Will the class size be reduced? Often, each desk is to be placed about 3 feet apart. Are schools really ready to open up for in-person attendance, or are our kids going to be guinea pigs in this experiment? That’s a concern for many parents. Yet, some parents already have their kids in day care. Some students have been attending class in person. There is a lot still up in the air. These are confusing times. Policies keep changing also due to the new variants of COVID. Yet, one of the solutions often available to parents is to keep their kids in online school. LAUSD and other districts are offering the option of online classes, for those students who don’t wish to come back to school in person.

Raysa Barrientos, Fazeel Chauhan, Shamera Johnson, Claritza Rodriguez, and Mariana Vargas The authors work in various capacities in social services as advocates for youth and marginalized communities, and are candidates for Masters of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach

Buy Buy versus Bye Bye

 Doing Your Part in Lowering the Risk?

(The originial author is unknown. I was inspired by their creative use of the 0%, and added the bottom part to the graphic to expand the idea of Zero percent)