UNDOCUMENTED, not illegal, immigrants

the largest misconception on immigration is that people who are here without documents do it as a disregard to US laws. the fact is that not only is immigration a difficult and long process, not everyone is able to immigrate "legally." thousands of people are turned away from the whole process because honestly, you won't get papers to become a resident unless you are at or above US middle class standards. the only other way is to claim to be a political refugee; seeing as how many 3rd world countries are deemed "free" countries because they allow for sweatshops and worker exploitation how many people can fit under that? look to the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act for who is allowed to come here and who isn't. it is highly hypocritical for a country to claim to be about Freedom and democracy yet turn people away from citizenship.

foreign worker programs are also cop outs as well, the message that sends is "we want your labor, but we don't want you to become citizens."

the thing about the new immigration bill is that it leaves many situations for family separation. there are families with undocumented parents whose children are legal citizens; the parents are deported and the children are left to be raised by foster homes? or a citizen who married someone who was a legal resident for a while but stopped with their paper work and didn't tell their spouse. not only is the person deported, but the citizen is deported as well for housing an "illegal" immigrant (doesn't matter if they knew or not.)

also the immigration issue has been painted as a mexican issue. yet pilipinos have their "tnt"s, there are chinese immigrants, koreans, south east asians, not to mention eastern europeans, as well as the fact that the people coming from mexico are not just mexicans but people from all over latin america. after 9-11 many filipinos who had worked in the airports for over decades in the bay area were deported because they posed a "threat" to national security, many of these workers were 40+ year old women (yeah terrorist if i ever saw one). there are also the situation of the Aganda family in 2003, as well as the Cuevas family that was deported in 2004 who were "illegal" cause they were living on expired visas yet they've been applying for residency since 1996. frankly, there's a bunch of "natural born" people we waste our citizenship on, folks that don't know jack shit about this country yet wave flags and pander on and on about being "American." i'd rather deport them and give their citizenship to all the hard working "illegal" aliens at the drop of a dime.

however, the biggest root of the problem is American/corporate Imperialism across the globe. if not for worker exploitation, the stealing of resources from other countries, etc; there would be no "3rd" world nations meaning there wouldn't be so many people from other places seeking to find opportunity in the US. there would be no "brain drains," no sex industries, no broken families with parents working overseas. people would be able to make decent livings in their own countries. the only illegal immigration are corporations and nations muscling their way into the other countries to exploit both the land and their people.

my first writing journal

junior year i started to keep a physical journal. i kept this practice up for three years. in it i would right random jibberish thinking finding my voice would finish. the first piece i wrote was about the ambercrombie and finch shirts. it was pretty shitty, no nothing "pretty" about it, it was really shitty in hindsight. but that's alright.

i would write poetry to a lover i've only met in my dreams. however in actuality, these were merely re-written songs of emotions based upon relationships i've managed to destroy myself. but that's alright.

my background in writing began as an

3/22/06

"I have paraded as a poet for years now. In the process of parading I may have actually become one, but that's another story, another book."

time remains the flame
to which i explain
how the wind and rain became
the waves of eternity's brain

co-dead language reads what i see
reverbs burn and turn concerned
of vernaculars manslaughter
mans daughter taught her
how to read smiles in similes
and mysteries of light
your wind beneath my wings
propels other things such as kites

why is it we call the sun bright?
moon beams sing
reflected off tear drops of amethyst rocks
cocked glock propels vocal artilery
shot at me for merely speaking of eternity
how long til we reach infinity?

with each minute we come closer to one

Scattered Moments of Memories Past (complete 3/02/06)

I find myself locked in a dream upon scattered moments of memories past
But the thing is…they’re not my memories
Voices, people, places I’ve never been to
Other worlds, ways of thought
Waves of sound, colors never before seen
The other side of the mirror
The day mare to the night dream
It all seems so ridiculously curious
So where am i?
I wake up sprawled across a bamboo mattress
As I step off the bed a pain stems from
My heel as I feel the grains of sand between my toes
I know that this pain, is from a rock
As I remove the sharp pebble the blood drips onto
The fresh soil that my family has tiled for generations
And yet that land, is not our own
As I look at my blistered worn hand I realize that I am six
I am six
And already I’ve give up the hopes of school to help till the earth till I’m now
But these thoughts are superceded by another pain
It’s been seven days and we’ve eaten no more than three meals
Dad explains that even after all the work we do harvesting the sugar cane
After the company deducts from his paycheck that’s all that’s left
In a country where 10% of the people own 90% of the land
It seems there’s little that demands can do to change what the dealer calls our hand
But our parents say the future is ours to do
And they look into our eyes and say: we’ll change the stars for you
I am seven
It’s been a year since mom and dad started to help organize the other workers
But they’re more than just others, we’re like family now
And when one of my aunties or uncles gets killed
A chill runs down my spine
And there’s little I can do to stop from crying
This state of emergency has me worrying whether or not they’ll come home tonite
As me and my sisters weave baskets to sell on the streets
We hear a knock on the door
And we know the worst is yet to come
And they’ve come to take mom and dad away
But he argues they’ll be no one to take care of the children
So they try to grab mom but he lunges at them
And someone starts shooting
DON’T SHOOT THE CHILDREN she says DON’T SHOOT THE CHILDREN she says
But they start shooting at us
One by one, two by two, three by three, four by four, five by five, six by six,
And they turn to me: seven by seven

Bayan bayan ko hindi pa tapos ang laban mo
My people my people the struggle ain’t over
Bayan bayan ko hindi pa tapos ang labon mo
My people my people the struggle ain’t over
My eyes open and I’m in the middle of a crowded street
I hear chants and screams as banners wave among clear blue skies that are streaked
As smoke from tear gas canisters rise
With the hopes of enveloping our lungs and burning our eyes
We are surrounded by police and military in riot gear
Cutting through this urban concrete jungle with water hoses
As if bolo knives and we are the vines and booby-trapped mines protecting our freedom from those who dare steal it
And while I’m afraid there’s not time to feel it
MAKIBAKA HUWAG MATAKOT
And as we stand tall the heavens shook
I looked on fists rise in solidarity
And the batons swung like pendulums strung on clockwork oranges
As the police begin the riot all of a sudden I fall down
And it starts to get quiet
As the blood flows from my head to my cheeks I see it start to spill onto the streets
Bayan Bayan ko hindi pa tapos ang laban mo
My people…my people

The sun creeps through the blinds and I open my eyes
And behold the most beautiful woman in the world
Her long disheveled hair bears platinum streaks
As her sun worn cheeks speak of the 32 years we’ve spent together
Time’s magic marked her
But as I look at her closed eyes I’m reminded of her
Kneeling alongside the nuns praying the rosary
Amidst the roaring sounds of tanks and a million people
As she opened her eyes and looked at me
I saw a truth so deep I could not bear it’s weight
We knew each other for ten years but it was only then that I knew I loved her
She was spiritual she would lend her hand to those in need
And was quick to speak out against injustice and greed
Yes time’s magic marked her, yet her eyes always shown that fire within
And with that thought I begin to cook breakfast for us
I crack some eggs and I hear some glass shatter above in our room
And as I run I see my love and I see her wound
And I run to her and grab her
As I feel her life drip through my hands
I feel a quick sudden heat at my temple

So where am I
Finally a familiar scene that I seem to recognize as my own
But as I look at my reflection once again I can’t recognize my face
And so I continue to race through these dreams
These scenes
These memories I’ve seen
All thses beings
Just trying to retrace back to where I’ve been
And I’m lost

KRS-One Lecture

three things i wanna take back from the lecture

-Hip Hop begins with the courage to be one's self
-You are only composed of the stories about you that you believe to be true
-You at 15 depended on you at 10, your future self at 40 depends on how you are now, so live today for your future self

2/22/06

Ain't no such thing as "poplockin"

Ain't no such thing as "poplockin"

very difficult to explain this to other people, found a pretty good article that does the job...

G-boogie, the boogiewalker

Locking and Popping: a brief history (sorry for any historical errors)

Locking is a dance that was originated by a man named Don Campbell in LA during the early 70's. Don was an art student at Trade Tech college in LA; every day, he and his buddies would get together in the cafeteria for lunch. There would always be a bunch of people dancing to soul music around a juke box in the cafeteria. Don used to sit there and just draw the dancers, but then he started to learn some of the soul steps. However, Don had a more "jerky" style of dancing and he wasn't particularly smooth. He would often pause between moves to think of what he would do next.

One day, he paused in a certain position while trying to do the funky chicken. Pretty soon, every time he would try to do the funky chicken, he would end up in the same pause. Pretty soon, Don's buddies would cheer him on, saying, "yo, Don! Do that funky lock you do, man!" As Don got better and better, the "lock" became his signature move. Pretty soon, he became known around school as "Don Campbellock". He began developing his own style and it was radically different than the smooth soul steps, but it still incorporated elements of many of them.

His dance became highly improvisational. He would play with anything he had at hand and do tricks with it while dancing (e.g. his hat, a handkerchief, a cane, etc.). But he would always end up in his signature lock pose. He would also twirl his wrist up towards his head (these later became known as "wrist rolls"). One day, he was dancing and saw a friend in the crowd around him. He pointed at the friend. Then he pointed at another friend. Soon, the point (also known as the "Uncle Sam") became another part of the idiom of Don's dance.

After a while, Don was regularly winning dance competetions at many of the black nightclubs in LA, most famously, the Crenshaw Flats Club. It was here that Don met Fred "Mr. Penguin" Barry, later known as "Rerun" on the 70's sitcom, "What's Happenin'?". Don taught Fred how to do his dance. Soon, they were a team, doing highly improvisational and acrobatic forms of dance at these clubs. Don soon met a group of other dancers and formed his first group, "the Campbellock Dancers". The members of the original Campbellock Dancers included: Don "Campbellock" Campbell, Greg "Campbellock Jr." Pope, James "the Original Skeeter Rabbit" Higgins, Leo "Fluky Luke" Williamson, Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quiñones (O-zone from the Golan-Globus movies, "Breakin'" and "Breakin' 2: The Electric Boogaloo"), Toni "Ruby" Basil (world-reknowned choreographer; known for her hit 80's single, "Mickey"), Charles "Slim the Robot" Williams and Fred "Mr. Penguin" Barry (Rerun from "What's Happenin'?").

A short while later, they were contacted to perform on Soul Train. Their exposure on nation-wide television created a dance craze. Before the Lockers, almost all dances had been regional: what was done in NYC stayed in NYC and its surrounding areas; what was done in Chicago stayed in Chicago and its outlying suburbs. But now, Locking exploded in major black urban populations across the country. The "Campbellock Dancers" also had a new named coined for them by Network Television producers (who found "the Campbellock Dancers" to be too clumsy to pronounce on-air): they simply became, "the Lockers". They appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Carrol Burnette show, Soul Train, Saturday Night Live, 90-Minutes Live on CBS, a couple of episodes of "What's Happenin'?" and even had their own NBC Saturday morning Cartoon Special.

By the mid-70's, the Lockers were having some trouble maintaining their media exposure. Locking had started to get "played-out": it was "old hat". But Don revamped the Lockers and they appeared again in the late 70's. But they were eclipsed now by another West Coast dance style which involved illusional movements and waves and muscular "pops".

In the mid 70's, Sam Solomon was a teenager growing up in Northern California near Sacramento. One day, while he was dancing around his house to some music on the radio, his uncle said to him, "yeah boy! Do that boogaloo!" Sam replied, "what's a "boogaloo"?" His uncle told him: "it means you're gettin' down!" Sam's style involved large rolling hip movements and jerky stops. He would take inspiration from different motions, even developing one floor move while immitating the stiff walk of a senior citizen (this move is now known as the "old man").

Sam became one of the founders of the "Electric Booalaoo Lockers", a group inspired by the Lockers and their dance style. But soon Sam started winning dance competitions by simply doing an "old man" across the floor! While in Long Beach, CA in 1977, Sam taught his style to his cousin, Pete. Pete added muscular pops on the beat with his arms and his chest. He became known as "Poppin' Pete". Soon, the Electric Boogaloos were no longer doing the Locking style. They called their style "Boogaloo" and dropped the "Lockers" appendage from their group's name. They still exist as the "Electric Boogaloos" (check out their website: electricboogaloos.co . . .). Their current members include mostly OG's, including "Boogaloo Sam" Solomon, "Poppin' Pete" Solomon, "Suga Pop", "Skeeter Rabbit" (NOT James Higgins of the Campbellock Dancers) and, from New York City, one of the OG members of the Rocksteady Crew, "Mr. Wiggles".

Anyway, that's a basic overview of Locking and Popping's related history. Collectively, the two styles are known as "West Coast" styles (as compared to B-boying/Breaking/Uprocking, which are East Coast/NYC-based in their origins) or "Funk Styles", since both "Popping" and "Locking" were originally done to live funk music in the 1970's.

As a final note: "Popping" is a much broader stylistic umbrella term than is "Locking". "Popping" can mean many different smaller, incorporated styles: waving, tutting, popping/hitting, ticking, strobing, dime stoping, strutting, fillmore (named for an area in SF where this style oringated), "sac"-ing (named for Sacramento, CA, where this style came from), boogaloo, electric boogie (east coast variation), animating, gliding, abstract/liquid, Cobra-style, etc.--sorry if I've left any out; there's ALOT of styles!)

Ok, well I hope this helps!

peas,


G-boogie, the boogiewalker

2/25/06 KIWI statement on Crisis in the Philippines

As some of you probably know by now, a "State of Emergency" was declared in the Philippines by President Gloria Magcapagal-Arroyo. This declaration includes the ban of rallies (including peaceful protests), allows arrests without warrant, and it gives the president permission to call in the military to intervene and take over facilities — such as media outlets — that may affect "national security." Though stopping short of calling it "martial law," it gives the President similar powers, and essentially could be a pre-cursor to an eventual declaration of martial law.

from wikipedia.org:
"Martial law is the system of rules that takes effect (usually after a formal declaration) when a military authority takes control of the normal administration of justice. Usually martial law reduces some of the personal rights ordinarily granted to the citizen, limits the length of the trial processes, and prescribes more severe penalties than ordinary law. "

Though she claims that everyone from the extreme left to the extreme right are conspiring to bring down her government, the bottom line is that the people who will be affected most by this are the poor and suffering masses, the workers and peasants, the indigenous people and the urban poor, who have been struggling for TRUE equality and reform since waaaaay before she even took office.

It is no secret that the Philippines has been in a crisis situation for a long time now. Most of the nation lives in poverty. Peasants don't even own the land they work on. Workers are exploited by multi-national corporations looking for cheap and 'union-free' labor. School tuition fees increase regularly. It's gotten so bad that the Philippines' main export is PEOPLE! Overseas contract workers who end up in places like Singapore and Saudi Arabia working all kinds of jobs, often getting exploited and abused by their bosses. And so on...

And even though we live thousands of miles away in the U.S, we are still deeply impacted by what's going on back home. The fact that huge numbers of Filipinos, our own families included, have had to leave their homeland to seek a better life elsewhere, to me, is telling enough. But no matter how many Filipinos here live the first world life, we'll never be TRULY free. Our identity, culture, and spirit has been tainted because of colonialism and displacement. And no matter how much money Filipinos send back home, the Philippines will still be in a state of crisis as long as other countries (see: the U.S) continue to influence the politics and economy, as long as 10% of the rich elite own 90% of the land, wealth, and resources, and as long as people like President Arroyo continue to use political bureaucracy to put more money in their pockets and the pockets of the Philippine elite.

As Filipinos overseas in the U.S, we have a crucial role to raise awareness about the impact that this has on our community. The movement for social change and national democracy in the Philippines is strong and resilient, and we need to mirror that voice over here in the states. We need to let the world know that we exist, that we know what's up with our folks both here and back home, and that we are willing to do whatever it takes to create a genuine democracy, REAL justice and equality in OUR homeland. Right here. Right NOW.

As you may know, I'm with a hip hop group called Native Guns, which is funny because, I'm not very gun-literate at all. All I know about is the guns people talk about in rap songs, or in the movies. But there is this particular bullet I've heard about called the 'hollow point.' When entering one's body, a hollow point bullet doesn't just fly out the other side, but is designed instead to explode inside the body, causing significant damage to one's insides.

Now in the Philippines, they have this saying for Filipinos in the U.S fighting for social change. They call us the "bullet in the belly of the beast." And today, more than ever, we have to be that bullet, that hollow point, exploding inside this belly of the beast, bringing this imperialist monster down, and tattooing our voice in the pages of history. Forever.

I normally don't put out statements like this, but I felt compelled to put away my 'artist' hat for a second and make a personal plea to my folks, filipinos and filipino allies, to my family and friends who don't even normally head out to rallies or community events, to anyone who feels like a more just world exists out there, please come out. Learn about what's going on back home and why those conditions exist. And let's come together to fight for our community, for our people, and ultimately for oppressed and exploited peoples all over the world.

Serve the People
Kiwi