Issuu

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

MISSION: To Educate, Entertain and Empower

FunTimes Magazine is poised as the predominant culture and lifestyle magazine for the African American, African and Caribbean communities in the Mid-Atlantic States

TO ADVERTISE CALL 215.954.6300 www.funtimesmagazine.com

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

FunTimes Magazine, LLC Publisher

Fashion Editor

Design

Eric John Nzeribe, MS

Aisha Al-Muid, M.Ed.

Edward Richard Ubong, BS

Editor

Production Manager

Cheri Black, MA

Adedoyin Otolorin, BA.

Associate Editor

Staff Writers

Joseph Warkeh T-Toe

Rayna Weddington

Associate Editor John K. Smarth, MA

Copy Editor Cheri Black, MA

Linear Concept

Intern Diamond Jones Wenhan Tan Nahomie Laurore, BA

Khadijah Ndiaye Saudia Durrant , BA

Photographers

Cokie Nanka, BA

Andrew Smith

Angira Pickens, MA

Leona Dixon

Account Executive Mini Blamo*

Contributors Chieke E. Ihejirika, Ph.D., Victoria Yancey, Ph.D., Samuel Quartey, DPM., Camille Ragin, Ph.D., Emeka Nwadiora, Ph.D, Randy Giancaterino, Bea Joyner, Dr Stephen Jones, JoAnn Hodges, Tamika Williams, Ernesto Velazquez, Ayana Jones, Bobbi Booker, Okechukwu Nzeribe, Lydia Henry, Bridgett Battles, Nana Ama Addo, Bill Allen and Mariam Dembele.

Liberia Representatives Siatta Scott-Johnson, BA. +231 88 657 4931 Payneslville, Redlight, Monrovia Bridget O. Nzeribe, BA +231 88 665 7026 Bong Mine Bridge, Monrovia

London Bureau Ifeanyi Anyibo, MA. 32 Wood End Green Road Hayes London UB 3 2SH

Nigeria Representatives Belinda Nzeribe, MPIA Banex Plaza, #57 Ikorodu Rd Lagos, Nigeria Contact: 234 803 794 6831

Mission Statement Celebrating Africa and the Diaspora. We Educate, Entertain, and Empower. FunTimes Magazine (ISSN 2163-7806) is published bi-monthly by FunTimes Magazine LLC, P.O. Box 21799, Philadelphia, PA 19146. For new subscription or change of address call Tel (215) 954-6300. One year, six issues $27.00, single copy $5.99 FunTimes Magazine is located at 1226 N 52nd St. Philadelphia, PA 19131 Address all correspondence to the Editor or visit us on the web: www.FunTimesmagazine.com, Facebook or Twitter—FunTimesMag: Email: letter@FunTimesmagazine.com or info@FunTimesmagazine.com •

FunTimes magazine is not responsible for the contents of advertisements or errors therein and the loss of unsolicited materials. FunTimes Magazine is also not liable for published opinions of authors.

•

The advertiser agrees to indemnify FunTimes against claims arising from their advertisements.

•

The publisher’s prior consent is required to reprint or reproduce any part of this publication.

FunTimes Magazine is the trademark of FunTimes Magazine LLC. © FunTimes 2018 www.funtimesmagazine.com *Nons de plum

SEPA

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

growth. So when

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

have been Vice President of this Synod for five years. I have been a Lutheran for almost 42 years. So as an African American woman growing up in this church, to see and to be a part of the historic installation of Bishop Davenport words just cannot describe how I feel. It does my heart good to know that the Synod I belong to, elected the first female African American Bishop. It just shows how diverse our Synod really is. My heart is just so filled that we now have seven newly elected female bishops in the ELCA. What does being a V.P. Involve? It involves a couple of things. I am chair of the board of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod which has about 35 board members. We have about six meetings a year. The V.P. has the chance to address the body at our annual assembly which about 400-500 people attend each year.

The biggest responsibility is that if anything should happen to Bishop Davenport, I would be the acting Bishop until our Presiding Bishop Eaton appoints an interim Bishop. The position is a four-year term elected by voting members who attend the Assembly. What are the reasons to give praise? What immediately comes to my mind is one of my favorite songs “Praise is What I Do.” For me it means: He woke

you up this morning, “Praise Him”; You have food on your table, “Praise Him”; clothes on your back, “Praise Him”; when things are not going well, “Praise Him”; SEPA Synod has elected the first female African American Bishop who is from and knows the Synod, “Praise Him”! God is an Awesome God! How did you get the call to be V.P.? The call as a Lay person to be a leader came at a young age. I came to the Lutheran church when I was eight years old. People like Pastor Sue Ericsson and Mother Marge Henshaw saw the calling on my life to be a leader in the Lutheran church. They encouraged and pushed me to be on every youth board or committee there was, to get the training that I needed from the church, and just to show up at different things that may be happening around the Synod. They saw the passion I had to proclaim the Gospel as a lay person, which helped me to see my growth to be a V.P., which is the highest lay position in the Synod. What is your wish list? My prayer is that now SEPA Synod has elected Bishop Davenport that we all have her “back’ in doing Kingdom work. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for Bishop Davenport and SEPA Synod. To God be the Glory!

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

TRI-STATE

888-990-8886 www.tristatecreations.com

CREATIONS

No Down Payment Required . Low Monthly Payments Call Now To See If You Qualify

AS SEEN ON TV LOANS AVAILABLE UP TO $50,000

}

www.tristatecreations.com

Please call to see if you qualify

G STARTIN S T N E M Y Y LOW PA $ MONTHL

5ali9ty Applicants

For Qu

OUR SERVICES: Kitchens & Bathrooms All Types of Windows Vinyl Siding / Insulation Steel Doors & Storm Doors Garage Doors Carpeting & Tile Flooring

Porches & Porch Repairs Wood Deck & Patios Hardwood Flooring Cement & Stucco Awnings Rooﬁng & Gutters

Iron Railing / Fencing Plumbing / Heating ?A/C Electrical Decks Basements Laminte Flooring

100%

FINANCING AVAILABLE FREE ESTIMATES!

THE GREATER LOVE PENTECOSTAL C HURCH Inc. “Let brotherly love continue” (Hebrews 13:1).

Mission:

Reaching OuT!

LET’S HELP YOU FIND THE WAY TO JESUS CHRIST.

Evangelism, Teaching, and Fellowship.

ServiceS

Sunday Service 11:30 aM-1:00 PM Sunday ScHool 10:30 aM-11:30 aM Tel: 267 357 7442 610-461-4189 Email: johnsmarth@yahoo.com www.greaterlovepentecostal.org

John K. Smarth, Ma. Senior Pastor

520 Pusey Avenue Suite 210 Collingdale, PA 19023 Follow us on:

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

Parents/Adults should watch their language around children 64

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

Jean Rousseau

The 28-year-old

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

Naomi Carroll and Susan Murray

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

Elder Gregory Johnson (Board member), Rev. Lorina Marshall Blake (Board member), Sandy Lawrence (staff), Jackie Wiggins (staff)

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

Scions’ Shenanigans: Don’t Fall for Them

any are perplexed, shaking their heads while asking, “Don’t the wealthy elite, the 1%, have any conscience?” The truth is they are behaving according to a worldview they inherited. And it is in sharp contrast to what others value who believe in democracy. A world view is how people view or make sense of the world in relation to others/ society, the environment/nature, and creation/the cosmos. Worldviews are often unconscious or taken for granted. To make the 1%’s wealth more acceptable to the masses, many pretend it was self-made. Don’t be fooled by this myth. Chuck Collins, an heir to a family fortune who gave it up and began fighting inequality, wrote about powerful people deceiving themselves as well about how much they were helped. “If I believe that success is based entirely on personal grit,” he wrote for CNN, “then why should I pay taxes so that (others can be competitive) with quality health and mental health care, early childhood education, and low-cost college?” The 1% say: Why not refuse to regulate derivatives? The market will self-correct. Why not pour that toxic waste into a river? The solution to pollution is dilution, right? And why not invade Iraq? It will surely be easy. Why not ignore decades of warnings from climate scientists? Technology will save us. Naomi Klein describes their worldview via their responses recorded in Collin’s survey: We are entitled and deserving. We have better values and a different work ethic. We are inherently superior. We deserve our place at the top. Those not there deserve to be at the bottom. They are “bad hombres” and come from “shit-hole countries.”

The recent New York Times’ investigations show that a handful of sons and daughters of inherited wealth are battling equality, promoting the false need for deregulating markets, destroying environmental protections, lowering corporate taxes, and eliminating the estate tax. They intend this to be paid for by dismantling social services for everyone else (in the name of their code word ‘balanced budget). They convince others to support them through the emotional power of racism (“welfare queens,” and “hordes of terrorist immigrants). How do they rationalize being lifted up by supports (tutors, prep schools, connections at the best universities, entry-level executive jobs, capital to play with), and then shredding the meager safety net for those without your good luck? How, when they know their own family fortune has benefited from enormous government subsidies (cheap housing loans for the Trumps, oil subsidies for the Kochs and Scaifes, direct weapons contracts for the Olins) do they begrudge paying the same tax rate as their employees? What is the worldview that makes all this OK? They are convinced that people belong where they are on the economic and social ladder. They redistribute wealth upward to the already wealthy while kicking the ladder out from under all others; these “losers” are also good targets for degradations, assault, mocking, and having their children caged in desert internment camps. For the 1%, inequality is easy to understand, it’s preordained. They believe that success does not come because they were showered with privileges. They were showered with privileges because they are better. Colonial savagery, the transatlantic slave trade, broken treaties, and land theft

required manifest destiny and other expressions of White supremacy. Patriarchy and the subjugation of women required theories about female inferiority. The American political system from the beginning only protected propertied White men. What do their mostly middle- and working-class followers of Trump and his counterparts’ get for supporting the 1% on their mission? Wealth and power are not available. However, when elites indulge their inhumane, selfish beliefs based on superiority, it sets the tone of giving their followers the right to assume their own imagined superiority. They act on the belief that it’s us vs. them, winners vs. losers, people deserving of rights vs. everyone else. Author David Korten wrote that we have been held captive (by the 1%) through a cultural trance maintained by stories that deny the higher possibilities of our human nature—our capacities for compassion, cooperation, responsible self-direction, and self-organizing partnerships. We must not continue to be fooled by the lies, code words, and double-talk of the scions. We must become aware of the slippery slope the 1% are leading us down to fascism, oligarchy and totalitarian rule. We must wake up and stop this slide…for our survival. Read more critical details at: Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Rule of Pampered Princelings by Naomi Klein, The Intercept; iffpraxis.com/world-scanning-dominant-worldviews; DavidKorten. org; NYTimes.com/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-wealth-fred-trump.html; Chuck Collins, author and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies

November - December 2018llllFunTimesMagazine.com

100