The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became the dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of “Beat It”, “Billie Jean” and “Thriller”, were credited with breaking down racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped to bring the then relatively new television channel MTV to fame. With videos such as “Black or White” and “Scream” he continued to innovate the medium throughout the 1990s, as well as forging a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot, and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop, and rock artists.
Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. His other records, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world’s best-selling. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first and only dancer from pop and rock music. Some of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; 26 American Music Awards, more than any other artist, including the “Artist of the Century” and “Artist of the 1980s”; 13 number-one singles in the United States in his solo career, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era; and the estimated sale of over 400 million records worldwide. Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. In what would have been Jackson’s 52nd birthday on August 29, 2010, he became the most downloaded artist of all time. Jackson constantly traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism and the 2000 Guinness Book of Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities.
While preparing for his comeback concert series titled This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson’s death triggered a global outpouring of grief and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world.
I grew up listening to his music. From the ballads of the Jackson 5 “I’ll Be There” and “Got to be There” or the danceable “Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough” to the wonderhits “Thriller”, “Billie Jean” or “Moonwalker “, and this is how I will always remember him. The kid, the joy, the music. The eternal King of Pop.
Probably the most famous speech of the 20th century by Martin Luther King on Wednesday, August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Watch on YouTube:
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Everyone in the world still is dreaming with this day. May it come soon. Peace and hope.
Read the full original speech:
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Kenny Baker, the legendary actor inside R2-D2 turns 79 today. Happy birthday, Artoo!
Kenneth George “Kenny” Baker (born 24 August 1934) is an English actor and musician, best known as the man inside R2-D2 in the popular Star Wars film series.
Kenny Baker, at 3 feet, 8 inches (112 cm) tall, was a circus and cabaret performer with entertainer Jack Purvis when George Lucas hired him to be the man inside R2-D2 in “Star Wars” in 1977. Though both he and his wife have dwarfism, their two sons do not. Baker appears in all six of the Star Wars films, although stock footage was used for much of R2-D2’s role in “Revenge of the Sith”.
Kenny even played an additional role in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi” as Paploo, the Ewok who stole an Imperial speeder bike. He was originally going to play Wicket W. Warrick, but he fell ill, and that role was handed over to Warwick Davis.
Baker has also worked with George Lucas outside of the Star Wars films. Baker had an uncredited role as R2-D2 in Star Tours and an uncredited role as a Nelwyn band member in “Willow”, as well as a role as the Goblin Corps in “Labyrinth”.
Baker’s other films include 1980’s “The Elephant Man”, 1981’s “Time Bandits”, and the 1986 Jim Henson film “Labyrinth”. Baker played harmonica with the James Coutts’ Scottish Dance Band at Hugh McCaig’s Silverstone Party in July 1997. Baker currently resides in Preston, Lancashire. While both he and his wife have dwarfism, their two sons do not.
In November 2009, his biography entitled “From Tiny Acorns: The Kenny Baker Story” was made available through his website and at conventions and book signings. It was written with Ken Mills. Text from: Wikipedia.
*Dear non-Brazilian friend, please read this post carefully.
One more time, please help us and stay at safety! Don’t come to Brazil! Don’t come to Brazil now neither to the World Cup 2014. We are living under an exception state. There’s no more human rights or freedom of speech. The mask of the false democracy that ruled the country since the end of the militar dictatorship fell at once. We are living now under a Fascist government.
Policeman attacks journalists and lawyers in Catete, on this Monday, 19th July.
AMARILDO AND THE BRAZILIAN NEW ORDER
War in Rio – Fascism in Brazil
We are living, indeed, under a state of exception. No more human rights or freedom of speech in Brazil. The mask of false democracy that ruled the country since the end of military dictatorship fell at once when the first rubber bullet, the first jet of pepper and the first tear gas were launched at the beginning of the popular movements that erupted in June. For those who still act as zombies enslaved by the system, nothing has changed. For all those who finally woke from the lethargy and thought they had some right guaranteed in a constitution whose text is rewritten and amended every week, they finally realize the reality around them. We are living in a fascist state. We’ve always been.
There never was democracy in Brazil. For longer two decades we lived under one of the most bloody dictatorships of the 20th century. But the dream of the democracy was over now. We are living a nightmare. Our friends and family are desappearing and many others are being killed. The number of missings is biggest than in the time of the dictatorship. In 2012, only in Rio de Janeiro, 2 000 people disappeared without trace. People like the bricklayer Amarildo de Souza.
Amarildo is now a symbol of a cruel reality. Just another number to contribute to a frightening statistic. More people were arrested, killed or are missing now in the slums after the implementation of the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) than when these communities were controlled by drug trafficking and organized crime. The military police that controls these places, now plays the role of the militia and trafficking, extorting, assaulting, raping, robbing and killing its residents.
Amarildo was taken from his home to a police station in the Favela da Rocinha by military police on 14th July and then he was never seen again. As Amarildo, dozens of people simply disappear every day in Rio de Janeiro and other cities of Brazil. Military Police – which should protect us – is the greatest scourge of the population. With its archaic structure and hierarchy forged in the times of military repression, the military is armed to protect corrupt governments as Sergio Cabral in Rio de Janeiro and Geraldo Alckmin, in São Paulo.
Emotionally uncontrolled, heavily armed and equipped with weapons and vehicles of war, the military policemen were trained to develop an unhealthy desire for violence. Owners of a psychotic illusion of power, they spread fear among the population with the arrogance of those who believe it holds the power over the life of the population and the certainty that their crimes and abuses will remain without any kind of punishment.
The testimonies of abuse of authority, crimes, violence and cowardice committed by police is increasing every day since the protests began in June. Ordered by corrupt rulers, military policemen not only fulfill the orders that are given to repress any popular demonstration, as most of them seem to rejoice with violence they practice against citizens defenseless and helpless.
Who left to defend the citizens and their constitutional rights if the first institution that should protect the citizen is rightly his most ruthless executioner? People are afraid to go to the streets to go to work or go to school. Popular demonstrations that came to gather a million people for the well being of the society, today not join more than 200 people. Governments imposed a state of panic in the population through police violence so intense that people think twice before approaching of any conurbation.
Traditional media is tasked not only to defend their own economic interests but also to defend the privileges of politicians and capitalists who keeps the media itself in a vicious cycle of exchanging favors, and manages to hide and manipulate all kinds of information to alienate most of the population, making them believe that every police action is legitimate and that protesters are thugs who wish to establish a state of chaos in society, as already said the governor Sergio Cabral of Rio.
There is no class or institution in Brazil interested in defending the rights of the population. The few agencies that try to act against violence and fascism of the police and political suffer straight defeats. The Public Prosecutor and the Order of Lawyers of Brazil stumble in the bureaucracy and slowness of the Brazilian justice or end up trapped by the gaps in the constitution and absurd laws that were created to protect only the corrupt and criminals.
The Government and its representatives living of privileges ever increasing and the constant joy of having totally destroyed his opponents. The political class finally declared peace among themselves in favor of a generalized robbery in which among the dead and wounded all they can quit profiting. Meanwhile, the population remains exploited by one of the world’s largest tax burden and is daily victim of shoddy public services.
If any citizen dare to stand up against the feasted Brazilian democratic state of law, the powerful military police, the armed branch of terrible governments, with his army of psychopaths and armored vehicles of war soon take the charge to silence his voice and not leave any trace of his passage on earth. The New Order is definitely established in Brazil, solidified into its deepest roots and supported by corruption in the three powers, and more the media.
To me probably, maybe to you that in the absence of anything better to do are reading this text, but certainly to all other excluded from the Brazilian system, left only to play the main role – the scapegoat to be sacrificed in this fiendish feast. Nothing else to do but to resign yourself, accommodate and alienate with frivolous things while we wait for the moment of the sticking.
Where’s Amarildo? I also would like to know, but who cares? We are the generation of Amarildos.
mkenobi
AMARILDO E A NOVA ORDEM BRASILEIRA
Guerra no Rio de Janeiro – Fascismo no Brasil
Estamos vivendo, de fato, sob um estado de exceção. Não há mais direitos humanos ou liberdade de expressão. A máscara da falsa democracia que governou o país desde o fim da ditadura militar caiu de uma só vez quando a primeira bala de borracha, o primeiro jato de pimenta e a primeira bomba de gás foram lançadas no início do movimentos populares que eclodiram em junho. Para os que continuam como zumbis escravizados do sistema, nada mudou. Para todos aqueles que acordaram da letargia e acharam que tinham realmente algum direito assegurado em uma folha de papel cujo texto é reescrito e emendado a cada semana, estes perceberam enfim a realidade à sua volta. Estamos vivendo em um Estado fascista. Sempre estivemos.
Nunca houve democracia no Brasil. Por mais de duas décadas nós vivemos sob uma das ditaduras mais sangrentas do século 20 e conseguimos sobreviver graças ao ideal cívico de sermos uma nação unida. Mas o sonho da democracia que tanto festejávamos acabou. Estamos vivendo um pesadelo. Nossos familiares estão desaparecendo diante de nossos olhos. Nossos amigos e pessoas que conhecemos estão sendo mortos. O número de desaparecidos hoje é maior do que no tempo da ditadura. Em 2012, apenas no Rio de Janeiro, mais de 2 000 pessoas desapareceram sem deixar pistas. Pessoas como o pedreiro Amarildo de Souza.
Amarildo é agora apenas um símbolo de uma nova e cruel realidade. Apenas mais um número a contribuir para uma estatística assustadora. Mais pessoas foram presas, mortas ou estão desaparecidas agora nas favelas após a implantação das Unidades de Polícia Pacificadoras (UPPs) do que quando essas comunidades eram controladas pelo tráfico de drogas e o crime organizado. A polícia militar que controla essas localidades, agora faz o papel da milícia e do tráfico, extorquindo, agredindo, estuprando, roubando e matando seus moradores.
Amarildo foi levado de sua casa para um posto policial na Favela da Rocinha por policiais militares no dia 14 de julho e depois disso nunca mais foi visto. Assim como Amarildo, dezenas de pessoas simplesmente desaparecem todos os dias no Rio de Janeiro e em outras cidades. A polícia militar – que deveria nos proteger – é o maior flagelo da população. Com sua hierarquia forjada na estrutura arcaica dos tempos da repressão militar, a polícia militar é o braço armado a proteger os governos corruptos e fascistas como o de Sergio Cabral no Rio de Janeiro e de Geraldo Alckmin em São Paulo.
Emocionalmente descontrolados, fortemente armados e equipados com armas e veículos de guerra, os policiais militares foram preparados para desenvolver um desejo doentio pela violência. Donos de uma psicótica ilusão de poder, eles espalham o medo entre a população com a arrogância de quem acredita que detém o poder maior sobre a vida humana e a certeza de que seus crimes e abusos vão permanecer sem qualquer tipo de punição.
Os testemunhos de abusos de autoridade, crimes, violências e covardias cometidos por policiais está aumentando a cada dia desde que os protestos populares começaram em junho. Ordenados por governantes corruptos, os policiais militares não apenas cumprem as ordens que lhe são dadas para reprimir toda e qualquer manifestação popular, como a maioria deles parece se regozijar com a violência que praticam contra o cidadão indefeso e desamparado.
A quem resta ao cidadão violentado em seus direitos constitucionais básicos recorrer se a primeira instituição que deveria proteger esse cidadão é justamente o seu algoz mais implacável? As pessoas têm medo de sair às ruas para ir ao trabalho ou para ir à escola. As manifestações populares que chegaram a reunir um milhão de pessoas em prol do bem estar geral da sociedade hoje não conseguem juntar mais de 200 pessoas. Os governos conseguiram impor tamanho estado de pânico na população através da violência policial que as pessoas pensam duas vezes antes de se aproximarem de uma aglomeração qualquer.
A mídia tradicional se encarregou não apenas de defender seus próprios interesses econômicos mas também em defender os privilégios dos políticos e dos capitalistas que mantém a própria mídia em um círculo vicioso de troca de favores, e consegue esconder e manipular todo tipo de informação para alienar a maior parte da população, fazendo com que acreditem que toda ação policial é legítima e que os manifestantes são vândalos que desejam estabelecer um estado de caos na sociedade, como já afirmou o governador do Rio Sergio Cabral.
Não há qualquer classe ou instituição no Brasil interessada em defender os direitos da população. Os poucos órgãos que tentam agir contra a violência e o fascismo do sistema policial e político sofrem derrotas seguidas. O Ministério Público e a Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil esbarram na burocracia e na morosidade da justiça brasileira ou acabam aprisionados pelas lacunas na constituição e em leis absurdas que foram criadas para proteger apenas os corruptos e os criminosos.
O Governo e seus representantes vivem de privilégios cada vez maiores e na constante alegria de terem destruído totalmente seus opositores. A classe política finalmente declarou paz entre si em prol de uma roubalheira generalizada em que dentre mortos e feridos todos saem lucrando. Enquanto isso, a população segue explorada por uma carga tributária das maiores do mundo e vítima diária de serviços públicos de péssima qualidade.
Se algum cidadão ousar se levantar contra o festejado estado democrático de direito, a poderosa polícia militar, o terrível braço armado dos governos, com seu exército de psicopatas e blindados de guerra logo se encarregará de calar a sua voz e de não deixar qualquer vestígio de sua passagem sobre a terra. A Nova Ordem está definitivamente estabelecida no Brasil, solidificada em suas raízes mais profundas e amparada pelos três poderes, mais a mídia.
A mim provavelmente, talvez a você que na falta de algo melhor a fazer está lendo esse texto e com certeza a todos os demais excluídos do sistema, restou o papel principal – o de bode expiatório a ser sacrificado nesse festim diabólico. Nada mais a fazer além de se resignar, se acomodar e se alienar com coisas fúteis enquanto esperamos pelo momento da degola.
Cadê o Amarildo? Eu também gostaria de saber, mas no fundo quem se importa? Nós somos a geração dos Amarildos.
mkenobi
Interview video with the sons of Amarildo de Souza:
All That I Love 