So it's been a while since I had anything to say outside of the reviews. I still have PILES of albums to get through, but I wanted to take a break from that for a minute and share some thoughts with you all. First off, TO has been a real hot spot lately in terms of hip-hop acts, both local and visiting.

All summer, there have been a number of hot concerts. The Illamental concert series brought a number of talented artists to the Comfort Zone on Wednesday nights. I missed Pumpkinhead and Word A Mouth *grrrr* because I thought the Spitkicker Tour was actually going to come, and missed Fatlip (with Kamau) opening because I was simply too tired. Working full-time as a software engineer with an hour commute each way doesn't leave me a lot of free time. To compensate, I sometimes sacrifice sleep. That week, I had gotten almost none. I really wanted to catch that one too.

One thing I have noticed lately is the crowd at lots of the hip-hop jams. It consists of a bunch of slack-jawed people who don't seem to want to get live at all. Now, granted, not everyone who has been on stage begging for crowd support has been good, but even good acts have had a hard time getting any love lately. Hip-hop is NOT a spectator sport, damnit! At least the headliners have been getting the crowd to show up (sometimes). Phife had the whole place rocking, and the Comfort Zone is WELL hot when everybody's jammed in like that.

Totally switching tracks, I read the other day about how retired Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire of the Canadian Armed Forces (OK, you can stop laughing now) and head of the UN's peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in 1994 accused the UN of racism in its prioritization of peackeeping duties. According to Daillaire, "I believe that we are going to see a continued scenario of disasters in regions that are not of great interest to the white man." Anybody surprised? I didn't think so. What does surprise me is that Dallaire, a retired white man (no doubt with a fat military pension) had the guts to speak out about it. He deserves big ups for that at least.

That does bring one issue to the forefront though. The UN is led by it's 5 permanent members - the US, Britain, China, France and Russia. None of these countries have good records in dealing with minorities, so is it any wonder that the institution they control has the same problems? Of course, there will be a lot of official denial of any such policy, and since no such policy is actually on the books things will be swept under the rug and the running of the UN will go back to the status quo. Why were soldiers of a force intended to keep peace in the region ordered to more or less sit back and watch as Hutu extremists killed 800,000 Tutsis and even moderates of their own tribe? Had it been Kosovo, there probably would have been an intervention. As it is, there was barely an investigation.

The UN, formed as a body to help ensure a better life for people of all nations, and intended to stop atrocities such as those committed during the second World War is really no longer concerned with the well-being of human beings, or stopping the suffering. Instead, it has become a body which looks out primarily for the economic interests of its permanent members. How sad.

I leave you with a few words excerpted from His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie's October 4, 1963 speech to the United Nations which strike me as particularly relevant now:

That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; that until there are no longer any first-class and second-class citizens of any nation; that until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; that until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race -- until that day, the dreams of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained. And also, that until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding, tolerance and good-will; until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men as they are in Heaven -- until that day the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.

The UN needs to be taught to remember its goal of "lasting peace and world citizenship." These are impossible if tragedies like that in Rwanda are allowed to happen while the rest of the world simply stands by and watches.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke