makeqfit

I am a black man, for those who don't know. I don't make a big deal about it, i'm hardly an exclusive commodity! I know what it means to be a black person to some people and I grew up with the message that a black person has to work twice as hard as any other race to achieve the same results/recognition. As I have said before, the history of black people in the England is not as prominent as the of our U.S counterparts and as such has had a knock-on efffect on the collective identity of British blacks, resulting in a sort of fragmented community, with those from the larger black origin communities - African and Jamacian - dominating black culture in Britain. What I really don't like is something I see as a common weakness in the black community. I routinely listen to Radio London on a sunday night, as I drive home from football, tonight was no different. They have a topical black show, which, as the you would guess, covers topics of interest to the black Brit. There are two presenters, Dotun Adebayor and Amina Taylor. Mr Adebayor rountinely says something so deliberately provocative or just plain frustrating, that I am forced to turn off the radio! Tonight they were talking about Trinidad & Tobago's battling draw in the world cup and the incomparable Pele's upcoming auto-biography. They had one of the contributors to the book in the studio, who was saying he had met the great man and had been impressed by how humble and pleasant he was. He was saying how they had complied some unseen photographs and editorial content. The book is a limited editon of only two thousand five hundred copies, each copy costing £600. After the shock and disbelief at the price of the book, Mr Adebayor asked the question that had me reaching for the radio controls. Not once, not twice, but several times! The question was:"What has he done for black people?" Pele, the greatest footballer the world has ever seen, was a sportsperson, not a activist! He may have achieved the same iconic status afforded many an outstanding sportsmen, people who transcend their sport, but why should he automatically be doing stuff for "black people"? Why can we not do stuff for ourselves? Many a "conscientious" black man/woman has "volunteered" prominent black figures to stand up for black people. We don't need people standing up for us. We need to find our own individual backbones and stand up for ourselves. Then we can stand together and stand up with the rest of the human race, without the unneccessary inferiority complex, because when each and everyone of us was born and grew in blissful ignorance as children, we had no idea that there was a "view" that seperated the races until somebody - parent, sibling, friends - told us.

I am turning into an insomniac. I was tired all afternoon but was determined not to sleep so as I would sleep tonight. Great plan that turned out to be! It's twenty-five to one in the morning and i'm typing away because I cannot sleep and the dickhead above me insist on coming in at half midnight everynight and playing god knows what kind of music! I'm feeling slightly murderous! I've got to get up in five and a half hours - and I want to train, that'll be quality! - I need to sleep! I wonder if the sugar rush from eating bakewell tarts is keeping me awake? Eating is suppose to make one tired! I even turned off the television at ten past ten! I have just wasted two hours of my life in bed! This is all turning out very positive...poo. On a lighter note the spanish teacher text me at midnight to tell me she had done my circuit and been walking all day. I'm afraid she is going to be in for a shock on thursday when I train her! It bodes well that she is determined to train, it is so much easier to get someone fit who wants to train. I'm looking forward to it. As for my own training...if I don't get some sleep - and maybe stop eating crap - I may just jack it all in and get lardy! I'm talking gut-over-belt, arse-crack-on-show, sweating-when-walking, always-got-a-donut-in-my-face, lardy! It would be a spectacular about turn:D enough already, i'm going to try and sleep....zzz:zzz:

monday has been a throughly wasted day. goodnight.

It has been a long time since I have wanted to see movies at the cinema. With the advent of large
screen televisions and films coming to dvd so quickly, not to mention the expense of a night at the flicks, there really hasnot been much reason to rush out to your local multiplex. However, there are two films coming out that I will be making an effort to go and see. The first is X-men 3: The last stand. I collected comics for years as a teen - mostly Marvel; mostly, obviously, X-men - and the first two films did not disappoint, so I am looking forward to the completion of the trilogy.
The second film I want to see is for a completely different reason. If you ask most people over the age of fifty-five, where they were when John F Kennedy was shot, they can tell you without hesistation. Even tell what the weather was like and what time they heard the news. For my generation - forty is coming - there was no JFK moment. There have of course been many tragic events; the death of Princess Diana; John Lennon getting killed; Elvis is dead, just those three events span thr last three decades. There have been wars, famines, Live Aid, sporting scandals, national scandals and international scandals. All have happened in my life time and the past few decades, impacting few, recalled by many, but with faint and sketchy detail. There was no all impacting, jaw-dropping, oh-my-god tradegy until 2001 september 11.
I hope never to see a tragic event have that sort of...there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-goes-me impression. It was a reality so surreal as to be unforgettable. And I know EXACTLY where I was when it happened. I was on holiday in Lanzarote - which added to the surrealist aspect of the events - and it was in the high twenties. We were riding from the complex to the town for our daily beer and when we reached Lucy's - the cafe we frequented every trip - everybody was inside transfixed to the televisions. That's how I first heard about the events of sept 11th. So the other film I will be going to see is Flight 93.

Here in the U.K., a mere two weeks after the local elections that yielded a eleven British National Party representatives, the far-right party, a young, fifteen year old, black kid - Kiyan Prince - was murdered outside his school. It had nothing to do with the far-right. He was stabbed by another sixteen year old - an as yet unnamed Somali kid - two lives ruined; both black.
Kiya Prince was a promising footballer and student who tried to do something many adults are afraid to do nowadays - break-up a fight. In the struggle he was stabbed. There have, unfortunately, been deaths of young people before, but Kiyan's was felt profoundly. Pictures of his school friends and associates on television showed people in shock and sadness. Flowers outside the school gets were so high, they almost obscured the gates. The emotion was real; sadness, tears, loss. The Somalian kid? Who knows. He has come to the U.K for, one supposes, a better life and now will go into adulthood a convicted murderer.