0 Poachers Hate Her, Animals Love her

image credit: cambodia4kidsorg

This year, the National Geographic Annual Award is being given to Dr. Paula Kahumbu, an elephant conservationist in Kenya who has fought against poaching of elephants for their ivory in her country.

Much of Africa's wealth lies within its hills and natural resources, including the richness of its wildlife. The elephant population on the continent was on a steady decline as the World demanded more and more ivory for ever cheaper prices and poaching was on the rise. One of the moments she hails as the proudest moments in Kenyan conservation was in July of 1989 when President Moi burned 12 tonnes of ivory recaptured from poachers.

Elephants are not her only passion. Currently involved in a battle against the use of a chemical used as an insecticide called Furadan that is manufactured in the US, she claims that the poison has slowly but steadily reduced the population of other wild life in Africa including the African Lion and the vultures. This chemical has been banned from use in the US, but is currently exported to numerous developing nations all over the World.

Dr. Kahumbu received her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University in 2002 and is the author of Owen & Mzee and Looking For Miza that can be purchased from Amazon.com. She is also a fervent blogger from the African Environmental frontlines where you can read stories of the human-wildlife conflict essential to our existance in this delicate ecosystem.

Congratulations Dr. Kahumbu!

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0 Singing Sensation of a Different Kind

Many of us would be hard pressed to find Cameroon on an African Map. This often unheard of country is nestled in (from North to South) by Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea (can you imagine what their border patrol is like?).

If you follow the Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon has the third most successful football (soccer) team in the ANC. It is also known as the minature Africa, whose borders cross land that has equatorial forests, savannah grassland, desert and mountains. It's lush and beautiful pictures can be found online. Feast your eyes!

Cameroon has also provided the World with a gem.

Qalil.com introduces you to Jacques-Greg Belobo.

Belobo was born in Cameroon and started singing lessons in Yaoundé the country's capital where he was classically trained. He continued his music education at Conservatoire National de Musique of Nice, winning a gold medal prize in 1998 and using it as a stepping stone to Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris where he earned his diploma in 2001.

His success comes as a surprise to many who do not view the people of Africa as connoisseurs of classical music, instead banding the entire group to the vibrant rhythm based music that is the gift of Africa to the World. He is one of only two black opera singers to regularly grace the Opera houses in Germany. Throughout his career he has won serveral prestigious prizes including,

• 1st Prize winner Aguimucla Yaoundé - 1997
• 1st International Competition Medal Diapason in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire - 1997
• 1st prize at the National Opera Singing Ales - 1998
• 1st Prize Contest Operetta Rennes - 1998
• 1st prize at the National Opera Singing Béziers - 1999
• 2nd Prize at the International Geneva 2000
• He won five awards at the International Belvedere Competition in Vienna, Austria - 2002

When he is not travelling the globe thrilling audiences with his voice, he spends his time promoting singing in Africa, holding concerts and leading regular vocal technique workshops in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana to name a few.

Enjoy this video of him singing the Cameroon National Anthem before a football game.

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0 Amazing Race Winners

For the third time in Amazing Race history, an African American duo has won the coveted one million dollar prize.

Image Credits

The journey that took them from Australia, through Japan, China, India, Austria, Switzerland and Brazil culminated in a heart stopping race to the finish line back in the USA.

Our first meeting with these young women had always irked me. The usual choice for representation of African American women on television is one where she is loud, angry, promiscuous and desperate. At that time, the editors of the program chose to follow the two women and depict the times that were hardest for them in the race which made Jennifer seem like a little whiner princess who bullied and abused people with disabilities and LaKisha, who was often supportive but was also the sort-of angry impatient one.

We all realize much of the editing is for the ratings and the sighs, because this time around we didn't see the spoiled girl and the angry frustrated one. Either they grew into wonderful women or we're throwing the telly out the window coz it's all LIES anyway!!! (booo hooo)

Needless to say, at Qalil.com, we love watching brown people on television and having Flight Time and Big Easy along with Jen and Kisha was fun. We chewed our nails off whenever we thought they were close to being eliminated or when they struggled with their challenges. We could finally breathe easy once their feet touched the carpet at Phil's feet. (I did love watching Mallory on the show too. How happy can a person be? That happy?)

The previous African American winners of the challenge were

Chip & Kim - Image Credits

&

Uchenna & Joyce - Image Credits

Congratulations to the winners. We hope we'll see you out there doing fabulous things! Hurrah!

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0 Spike Lee: Use Mapquest to find Hell

Image Credits

Sigh.

Once again the news headlines and blogosphere are a-buzz with Tyler Perry news, different sources (Clutch Magazine Online) citing the comments Perry made about Lee and the things he was saying. Here are some commentaries:-

• Ta-Nehisi Coates offers, Tyler Perry has the right to make movies we don't like just as much as Spike Lee does.
• Politics from the Eyes of an Ebony Mom says Spike may end up seeming like a crab in a barrel.
• The Savvy Sista just wants us all to get along.
• My personal favorite is Black & Bougie's prayer that we all realize he ain't Jesus, nor is he Satan.

I get it. When we have a small measly handful of black directors filming black shows and movies in Hollywood, it is very easy to get protective of them, pick sides, set up the cannons and

Image Credits

I'm a Mr. Tyler Perry fan. I may not have loved all his movies, but then again there is no artist (except myself) whose work I love all the time. I'm not a Spike Lee fan and loved Malcolm X but wanted to peel his skin off slowly for She Hate Me. See how it is done?

At Qalil, we have covered our own appreciation of the Tyler Perry Phenomenon. His story is the story we like to hear, that if we dream, work hard and chase our dreams we will eventually realize them all. It is the quintessential all American dream - which many of us have.

I think the important thing for us to remember - even as we debate their conflict and TP showing SL the yellow brick road to the fiery smoldering sulphuric pits of Hell - is that it is quite okay to love Spike Lee and enjoy Tyler Perry's movies. It really is.

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0 The talented April Parker-Jones

April Parker-Jones first caught my eye in Jericho (2006-2008). A striking actress with tremendous talent, I have since followed her television career through a number of shows including NCIS, Lost, Lie to Me, and The Unit. According to her website's bio:

"A native of Durham, North Carolina, April Parker Jones studied theatre at N.C. Central University before moving to New York City in pursuit of a professional acting career. While in New York, she was cast in many productions at The Billie Holiday Theatre. Parker Jones received two Audelco Award Theatre nominations for Best Actress for the production Plenty of Time."

Ms. Parker-Jones' performances are subtle, dramatic, and poignant. Despite the formulaic nature of television's hour-long dramas, she manages to capture your attention with her delivery and powerful screen presence. She appeared recently on NCIS: Los Angeles.

I would love to see April Parker-Jones in a leading role on television (perhaps next season?!) and in films as well. Given her presence on-screen, it would not surprise me if she becomes one of the best in her generation.

Image courtesy of www.aprilparker-jones.com

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0 Pure Vanity (on my part)

I found this picture on Kissing In The Dark on an excellent post about black women's sexuality in art. With the recent attacks on black women, their lives and their sexuality one cannot help wondering if the focus is not altogether reminiscent of the gawking that happened to Sarah Baartman.

No matter.

I'd like to celebrate instead and show you some really powerful looking arms on the bodies of some beautiful and strong black women. YAY!

FLOTUS is my personal favorite. I cannot say that I view her in the same light as Gloria Akalitus, but I'm pretty close.

The ever gorgeous Angela Bassett is my second pick. Those guns always look good exposed. Thank you Ms. Bassett!

 Ms. Rice who appeared on Oprah's Master Class series on OWN, has been in the news recently because she gets to be on 30 Rock. I was pleasantly surprised when I found this picture.

It is important to keep these images in our minds when we think of our sisters, beautiful and strong in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Today I celebrate you!

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0 Jill Scott & Eve - Shame

Enjoy!

Jill Scott - Shame (feat. Eve) (Behind The Scenes) (2011)

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0 Lookout: New Music

Mara Hruby

If you like this, you'll love the rest of her music that you can download here for free!

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0 Tyler Perry Phenomenon

Tyler Perry on the Oprah Show

How many of you got to watch Tyler Perry bare it all on the Oprah Show? Was that as painful for you as it was for me? My heart broke for the kid in the picture who was being tortured. Sigh. But that is a conversation for another time.

What really had me going was the title Oprah gave him at the beginning of the show.

"The Second Most Highly Paid Man in Hollywood"

Yo! I don't think I really grasped what that meant until an hour after I watched it.

After David Cameron, the director of Avatar who made 8 billion dollars off ONE movie, Tyler Perry is number 2.

A lot of people within and without the black community consider his form of art "coonery and buffoonery" and either refuse to watch his movies and/or plays or go to watch them just to give them bad reviews, but let me reiterate,

After David Cameron, the director of Avatar who made 8 billion dollars off ONE movie, Tyler Perry is number 2.

Most of Tyler Perry's work is consumed by the black community so in essence we are the ones fueling his rise in Hollywood. Us.

Rather than looking at it as "we made him rich" it should be "look at the power of our dollars". When people make movies, write books, do documentaries, print magazines, create TV shows, make clothes, the last factor they think about is African American dollar.

And yet here is Tyler Perry, whose art is mostly consumed by the black community and he is the second highest paid man in Hollywood.

(Have I made my point yet?)

I am proud to know all of you, reading this post, and all my African American brothers and sisters whose statement with their dollar shows what they want to see. Images of redemption, of themselves on the screen living robust and full lives and figuring things out just like everyone else on the planet.

Kudos!

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