Playahata

The questionable, unchecked, speculative practices of large financial institutions that sent the world into a near-calamitous economic recession recently are being repeated in Africa through land-grabbing deals, The Oakland Institute, a California-based think tank, said in a recent report.

Hedge funds are partaking in “largely unregulated land purchases” throughout the continent that essentially amount to “the conversion of African small farms and forests into a natural-asset-based, high-return investment strategy” and are often nothing more than “land grabs,” the report states.

Additionally, several American universities, including Harvard, Vanderbilt, Spellman, and Iowa universities, are also taking part in or providing funds for the practice that “is resulting in the displacement of small farmers, environmental devastation, water loss and further political instability such as the food riots that preceded the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions,” the reports states. (more…)

“I always loved being fat, obviously. I’m Fat Joe” the rapper told the newspaper. “If I could gain 1,000 pounds and be healthy, I would love to do that. The biggest killer of people is food. It kills more people than AIDS or gun violence or war, anything you can name. Eveybody keep catching strokes and heart attacks, and what happened to me was, like seven of my friends passed last year from heart attacks, and they were all 32, 34 years old, 35. And I said, ‘I got kids, I can’t leave ‘em like that.’ This world is too hard for me to leave my kids, without me supervising and being there for them.”

Earlier this week Fat Joe’s image shocked fans, the new image may take his fans some time to getting used to. A recent video for the track “Drop A Body” showed a severely slimmed down Don Cartenga in contrast to the New York native rap fans alike have grown to love for the past two decades. According to Joe’s reps, the candid MC went on a massive diet plan shedding over 80 lbs after a wake up call following a number of his friends deaths last year.
see video here (more…)

Sunday, June 5, 2011, Creflo Dollar said that Eddie Long is “STILL saved!” and STILL going to heaven!” He also told former New Birth church members the following: “If you from that church that you know what I’m talkin’ bout and you tryin’ to join here? I don’t want you here! That is my friend! That is my brother in The Lord! And if you came from there, you get on back over there where you s’posed to be and do what you s’posed to be doin’!”" – YouTube’s “NotYourTypicalNegro” and PimpPreacher.com

after the death of Randy Savage, older wrestlers feud and air it out

Hole In the Head: A Life Revealed

Vertus Hardiman hid a shocking secret under a wig & beanie for over 80 years. He was experimented on at age of 5 by a county hospital in Indiana during 1927. Vertus was one of ten children, all experimented on with radiation that day.

FOR MORE INFORMATTION ON MOVIE AND PRINT RELEASES, PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE AND SIGN UP. http://www.smithleonardproductions.com

A few weeks ago, the political right criticized President Barack Obama for having Common, a Chicago-native rapper, to the White House for a poetry reading. Now, the situation’s turned on its head, as a Chicago rapper is attacking the President for being too far right in his foreign policy.

In an interview on “What’s Trending,” a CBS News video segment, Lupe Fiasco — a rapper known for his socially conscious and politically charged lyrics — had some harsh words for the president.
“In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama, and the United States of America,” Lupe told host Shira Lazar. He went on to explain the comment:

“I’m trying to fight the terrorism that’s actually causing the other forms of terrorism. You know, the root cause of terrorism is the stuff that the U.S. government allows to happen, and the foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists. And it’s easy for us because it’s just some oil.” (more…)

Pattie LaBelle Sued Over Vicious Airport Beating of West Point Cadet
‘Lady Marmalade’ singer and R&B queen Pattie LaBelle has been accused of ordering the beating of a West Point cadet at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas on March 11. According to the Houston Chronicle, Richard King, 23, was talking to his brother on his cell phone while approaching the airport’s passenger pickup area where Labelle’s limousine happened to be parked.

In security-camera footage of the incident, King is suddenly struck and thrown against a concrete pillar by LaBelle’s body guards and an unidentified woman. King subsequently tries to get up and leave the area but he falls continuously.

“Apparently, defendant LaBelle believed King was standing too close to her (no doubt expensive) luggage, even though he was oblivious to her presence and the danger he was in,” King’s attorney John Raley said in the lawsuit filing. “LaBelle lowered the window of her limousine and gave a command to her bodyguards. They sprang into action.”

Watch Raw Footage of the Violent Altercation

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Homeowners Foreclose On Bank Of America
Sweet justice.
That’s how foreclosure defense attorney Todd Allen described the feeling of going to a Bank of America branch in Naples, Fla. to seize their assets. (more…)

Shep Smith ended an interview abruptly after his guest revealed he had a big conflict of interest.

Smith was discussing the recent hacking of Gmail, which Google has said likely came from China. His guest, an executive at security firm Symantec named Francis Desouza, began praising Google effusively for its handling of the matter. Smith cut in, asking if Desouza did business with Google. When Desouza said that he did, Smith ended the interview after just a minute-and-a-half.

“Okay, that’s it. Thanks for coming on. Thank you very much,” Smith said.

Last week, Cuéntame launched a powerful animated video exposing private prison corporations. The first of a sustained documentary campaign to expose the greed and the abuse by CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporations – which combined currently profit more than $5 billion a year at the expense of the detention and abuse of our immigrant community.

Already media outlets have taken notice and our video has been played in full on MSNBC, The Nation, Hola TV, The Huffington Post among many others. It won’t be long before private prison corporations begin retaliating and will put their unlimited resources in efforts to derail our powerful exposé.

This is why we need your support today! Here are two ways you can help us prepare for the battle ahead and continue producing our documentary:

Donate $20 that will go directly to our efforts and make sure we continue making a powerful impact.

We need you to recruit at least 5 of your friends by sharing our animated video on your Facebook wall or by forwarding this email and letting us know what your friends thought by posting a comment on on our Facebook page wall.

The battle ahead won’t be easy but with your support and building strength in numbers we will be ready to take it on. We hope you enjoy our latest work by checking out some of our videos below.

Zoe Kravitz was reading playahata.com and learned about Xmen relationship to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

By TOM ODULA Tom Odula
Fri Jun 3, 11:18 am ET

.NAIROBI, Kenya – Former Black Panther Party leader Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, whose murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years in prison for a crime he maintained he did not commit, died early Friday from a medical ailment, an associate said. He was 63. (more…)