Ishmahil Blagrove

International Court of Justice (ICJ) Judges!!!They do not look very representative of the word “international” to me.

When we consider that the World bank has 189 member states and that every President of the organisation since its inception in 1944 has been a US citizen - and likewise, that every head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also founded in 1944 and with an equal number of member states has been a European citizen, it doesn’t take much to recognise the workings of the Western cartel and the fact that the deck is rigged.

No wonder there is no justice for non-white people in this world and the wording of the ICJ ruling tiptoes around the crimes of Israel and amounts to nothing more than warning the criminal to be careful when committing crimes.

I think it is fair to say that Israel’s crimes have been white-washed!

Not even Orwell could have imagined a dystopian future so F’ed up that people who shout for a ceasefire and peace in times of war are portrayed as the enemy.

The corrupt and manipulative influence of Zionist lobby groups on Western governments and lawmakers has delivered us to a miserable place where we are watching a genocide live-streamed into our homes by the perpetrators and told that the people being slaughtered and robbed of their land, identity, nationality and dignity, are the evil-wrongdoers.

We arrived at this position because over the years we have allowed corrupt politicians to silence any criticism of Israel and to label any opposition to the Israeli occupation and their barbaric crimes as anti-Semitic.

Have we not shout loud enough! Have we not stamped our feet hard enough! What do the people of the Western world have to do in order to be heard by their governments?

Only a Revolution will recalibrate the injustices of this world!

FREE PALESTINE!

I was just accosted by an American Israeli Jew on the streets of Havana for wearing a “FREE PALESTINE” T-Shirt.

He assumed I was Cuban and stopped me in the street and began an unsolicited lecture on how Israel is the land of the Jews. When I proceeded to engage him in the discussion, he became heated, aggressive and loud - angrily shouting, “We (Israel) are going to kill every Palestinian.” Fortunately, I have the same arsenal of weapons at my disposal and the confrontation ended with him running through the streets screaming for the police.

Zionists around the world have become emboldened and arrogant by virtue of the unwavering corrupt support they receive from the United States, European governments and the Western media.

Lest we forget this genocide and the people and nations that have been complicit and have facilitated it.

VIVA PALESTINA!

Heard the news that African Dave has made his journey to the ancestors this morning.

He was a true soldier and a notable face and character not only in Notting Hill but on the underground circuit across the country. If he had your back you knew about it.

He wasn’t dealt the best cards in life - or perhaps didn’t make the best choices, but he took the consequences of holding a poor hand on the chin.

He was born in the Gambia, West Africa in 1948 and emigrated to Britain with his family in 1952.

He lived a full and adventurous life. Those who knew him will know of his colourful exploits and legendary reputation that need not be repeated here.

As a young man he appeared in Horace Ové’s seminal movie “Pressure” and is pictured in the middle.

Walk good my brother. Whenever we touched base you always came with good vibrations and a tale of one of your wild and crazy exploits.

Sending my condolences to his daughter Tallia and the extended family!

(CORRECTION: For many years people have assumed the character in the Pressure photo to be African Dave. It has been confirmed that it is in fact Dave Kinoshi who bore a striking resemblance)

Tell me it isn’t so. Tell me I have not just heard that Claire Shepherd has joined the ancestors. I had no idea she was in poor health.

She was a writer, creative and all-round wonderful human being, who was an avid supporter of the “arts” and was included in Margaret Busby’s recent edition of New Daughter’s of Africa.

The following was her entry bio:

“Born in Bequia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, she came to England as a child with her parents in 1960. She later became involved in the Keskidee Centre in Islington, the first Black arts centre in London, doing theatre arts. She studied at Goldsmiths College, University of London, obtaining a BA in Anthropology/Sociology and an MA in Communications, Culture and Society. She worked as a journalist on several of the first Black British newspapers, including the West Indian World, Caribbean Post, Voice and Caribbean Times, and has written for a number of other publications, among them, African Woman, Happy Home and London Arts. She was also a researcher on a number of documentaries, including The People’s Account, a film commissioned by Channel 4 from Ceddo Film and Video Workshop on the 1985 uprisings in Birmingham, Brixton and Tottenham.”

Claire’s omnipresence in both the UK and Caribbean Black arts scene will be sorely missed. She tried to be everywhere at once and lent her support and encouragement to so many good causes and righteous battles.

This is the only photo I could find to honour her. She is standing third from left in blue.

The genius of Tony Allen as a writer, comedian, public speaker and creative had no bounds. I don’t like to use the word artist, as everything in creation is art and the label is but a phoney pretentious marketing gimmick - but Tony truly was a paradigm of what an artist should be and represent. He pushed the boundaries of convention, he deliberately broke the rules, rebelled against conformity and as an avowed anarchist, loathed the Establishment.

I once saw Tony engaged in a debate where he lacerated a young heckler to the point where the heckler was foaming at the mouth and had to be physically restrained. Tony with his sharp wit and cool demeanour, calmly advised the humiliated heckler to evaluate the situation. “Look mate! You are young muscular and fit. If you beat me up people are going to say look at him, he beat up an old man. But think about this scenario. What if I get a lucky punch and knock you out. People are going to say you were beaten up by an old man. If I were you I’d be on my way as the odds ain’t looking too good for you!”

RIP Tony Allen, the sage, the great speaker, the raconteur and my friend of many decades. I am sorry I didn’t get to see you on my last visit but we did speak on the phone.

Sleep well my friend, you left an indelible mark that can be imitated but not replicated. You were a true genius and creative.

The West has shown the world that brown babies do not have the same international currency as white babies.

Do you think Western leaders and their complicit media would be silent if these were white babies being murdered on such a scale?

Don’t tell me about Hamas and terrorism. I know who the real terrorists are. The world has bore witness to them terrorise an entire population for over a month!

Brown Lives Matter Too!

Just as the League of Nations before it, and it’s failure to morally condemn certain wars and to mediate disputes - the United Nations has reached a crossroads in its existence.

It should either be reformed or disbanded. Any new body should ensure that corruption is rooted out, that Western governments and powerful nations cannot manipulate or hinder the process or Resolutions passed by its General Assembly, and that the power of veto on the Security Council is scrapped for the big 5.

The United Nations in its current form is morally destitute, impotent and not fit for purpose. It has been reduced over the past 30 years to nothing more than a rubber stamp and an instrument of Western imperialism. After all, the West no longer needs the UN, it has now firmly established the presence of NATO on the world stage!

Earlier this year Israel granted oil exploration and drilling licenses to a company connected to Dick Cheney, Jacob Rothchild and Rupert Murdoch for the exploration of oil in the illegally occupied Golan Heights.

Now in the middle of its genocide against the Palestinian people, it has issued licenses for British Petroleum and other Western companies to explore for Gas off its coast. The Western media slow dripping headlines that legitimise the grand ambitions of the Greater Israel project.

And right on cue, the vultures begin to circle overhead and stake their claims over the swooning carcass of Palestine.

We saw it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya - and still we pretend that racist colonialism and Western imperialism is a thing of the past!

Israel hands out gas concessions to BP, ENI as Gaza war drags on Israel is determined to project a "business as usual" stance despite the conflict with Hamas claiming the lives of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians.

I have heard a considerable number of Western journalists and politicians refer to the deaths of Palestinian civilians as collateral damage.

Never once have I heard a Western journalist or politician refer to the deaths of Israelis as “COLLATERAL DAMAGE”.

We continually heard this dehumanising reference when the US invaded both Iraq and Afghanistan. Non-white lives reduced to nothing more than a collateral loss.

We have to be very mindful of the subtle propaganda and gymnastics of language by which the Western media dehumanise non-Westerners in order to devalue their lives and make certain human deaths palatable for their audiences!

Imagine hosting a music festival outside the walls of a concentration camp!

Thousands of partygoers, many high on drugs and alcohol revelling to music without a care in the world and oblivious to the suffering and trauma of a people languishing in the distance. The contemptuous idea in it itself is obscene - totally lacking of any compassion or empathy for the 2.3 million captives held in the most atrocious conditions on its fringes. I can only wonder what kind of depraved and malevolent thoughts the starving, desperate and miserable occupants of Auschwitz would have been thinking had they heard dance music bellowing in the distance of their barbed wire prison!

35 UN staff have been killed in the murderous Israeli assault against Gaza, with numerous UN facilities targeted - as well as an untold number of NGO and aid workers delivering relief. And still Western governments refuse to call for a ceasefire. The deaths of these UN staff and aid workers barely warrants a mention in the Western mainstream media because to do so would be to highlight the impunity and protection with which Israel is allowed to commit its crimes against humanity.

Had these UN staffers been killed by Hamas, they would have been humanised by the Western media, their names immortalised, their heroism retold, and their gruesome deaths used to expose the barbarity of Hamas. Instead, the complicit Western media remain silent and continue their smokescreen reporting of an unfolding genocide.

The destruction of Gaza is a familiar sight. We have seen it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen, all countries where the United States and Western governments have perpetrated their evil.

This is not a war and so we should refrain from describing it as such; this is simply part of the Western mainstream propaganda to present the idea of two equal opposing sides fighting it out. One side has the worlds fourth largest army, an airforce, a Navy, nuclear weapons, sophisticated surveillance systems and military technology, F16 fighter jets, Apache helicopter gunships, bombs, missiles, white phosphorus and the military and financial support and protection of Western governments. What does the other side in this supposed “war” have?

This is a massacre, the annihilation of an oppressed people, a forced exodus, the Palestinian Holocaust. The real face of terrorism!

Does the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes within 24 hours look familiar?

Well, we know where the blueprint for that idea came from.

LEST WE FORGET!

October 7th 2023 was Israel’s Nat Turner moment. The indiscriminate barbarity is condemnable - but the objective was righteous.

The very idea that there is a music festival and partying within a few kilometres outside the walls of a concentration camp is in itself obscene.

New seeds of resistance will be fertilised in the rubble of Gaza and the cycle of violence will continue.

A free, independent and sovereign state of Palestine is non-negotiable. It isn’t Palestinians who want to wipe Israel from the face of the earth - it is Israel who have systematically exterminated the Palestinian people and have over the last 75 years threatened their existence!

We know who the real terrorists are. We know who the real aggressors are. We know who the sponsors are. We know who has stalled the peace process. We know who will try to connect the dots to Iran so that they can expand their geopolitical objectives for the region. They are the worlds number one sellers of arms and weapons of mass destruction - supported by its minions and a propaganda machine that as Malcolm X said: “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

How quickly we seem to have forgotten the murder, slaughter, carnage and terrorism perpetuated by the United States against the people of Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and so many other countries. How many millions of civilians have died as a result of US sponsored state terrorism? Yet no one in the media dare call it out. And most of the Western public are too drunk on coca-cola, intoxicated by US culture and hypnotised by their media to even recognise the tyranny of their own governments.

After their acts of barbarism and destruction are committed, Hollywood arrives on the crime scene to sanitise the carnage, with their obscene obfuscation of truth and reality. What do the people of Somalia think of “Black Hawk Down”? What do the people of Iraq think of ”American Sniper”? It doesn’t matter. The propaganda was not created for their consumption. The Avengers, Captain America, the X-Men and the rest of the Marvel franchise does its job in painting the picture of the US as the defender of good against evil.

The reality is, the greatest threat to world peace is the United States of America. No nation has committed more crimes against humanity, destabilised more countries, overthrown more democratically elected governments and carried out more acts of terrorism in the 21st century than Uncle Sam.

If we really want world peace and to challenge terrorism, then it is the United States government and its maniacal ambitions that need to be stopped. They have corrupted the world and the international political and economic institutions that are supposed to protect us!

Israel is following the same model of annihilation and extermination used against Native Americans, supported by the very people who perpetuated that genocide and the genocide of the people of Tasmania. They use the exact rhetoric, lies and propaganda that they used to demonise Native Americans who fought valiantly to protect their homeland. It was said that the only good Indian is a dead one. Language that has been repeatedly echoed by Zionists in regards to Palestinians.

Native Americans were ultimately herded into reservations where they were given blankets contaminated with small pox and systematically eliminated to create the America of today. All we are left with are the lies immortalised by Hollywood with their cowboys and Indians trope.

What will the state of Israel do in a hundred years time after their genocide is complete, create some tourist attractions where Westerners can ogle at the last few remaining Palestinians huddled on a few hundred acres of land where they are allowed to open a couple of casinos?

The United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa… the architects and supporters of the Israeli experiment have a history of tyranny, depopulating territories for their exclusive use and dividing and creating divisions amongst indigenous populations.

Lest we forget the history of the division of India, the partition of Africa, the creation of the Middle East… How many millions have died as a result of White Supremacy and their ambitions of Western global hegemony!

We are all passive witnesses to a Palestinian genocide in slow motion - perpetrated by racist Zionists and Western governments over a 75 year period. The systematic erasure and eradication of a people, the destruction and displacement of historic Palestinian towns and villages to create a greater Israel - all under the watchful eye and cover of international political and economic institutions that are controlled and manipulated by corrupt Western governments and their media.

Not even the N***s mastered propaganda and harnessed the power of the media in the way that Zionists have in the modern age.

For Palestinians to oppose and resist the genocide they are labelled terrorists by the Western dominated mainstream media. To call out the racism and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Zionism you are labelled Antisemitic. To voice criticism of Israel on social media you face the possibility of being censored - or the internet algorithms manipulated. To support the Palestinian people in their righteous aspirations for FREEDOM and sovereignty you risk heavy sanctions, losing your job, promotion, your livelihood and even your sanity. For peace loving Jews who speak out against the tyranny of Zionism and oppose the actions of the Israeli government, they are labelled self-hating Jews. The Western mainstream mafia will do all in their power to silence, discredit and destroy you. Such is the power of Zionist propaganda, it’s lobby groups and it’s unmitigated influence over the mainstream media. FEAR and retribution are the principle weapons in its arsenal.

To challenge the destructive, divisive and murderous tyranny of Zionist apartheid - one has to confront the political and economic institutions and governments that empower it. The annihilation and genocide of the Palestinian people is a 21st century Holocaust - the Palestinian Holocaust.

Where are the United Nations? Where is the so-called International Community and the International Criminal Court? Where are all the international economic and political institutions and think tanks that were triggered into action and were so vocal about Ukraine? They are nothing more than rubber stamps, instruments of Western imperialism - bureaucratic engines that facilitate Western global hegemony. Look at the entities that comprise the Middle East Quartet, The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - not one Middle Easterner, Arab or Muslim state represented. The corruption and true intentions of this body could not have been exposed any further than when the Butcher of Iraq, Tony Blair (now Sir Tony Blair) was made Middle East Peace Envoy by them, on the very day that he resigned as British Prime Minister in 2007 - a post he held up until 2015, similar to how another Butcher of Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz was made President of the World Bank in 2005. So please, let’s stop the pretence that this quartet, the United States or any European state are independent arbitrators of peace. No wonder there has been no progress to the Palestine/Israeli question. The corrupt, racist White Supremacists have been providing Israel with the cover to execute their ‘Final Solution”.

The Palestinian Holocaust must be stopped and Israeli apartheid must be challenged. The question has always been asked: “What were ordinary people doing while the Jewish Holocaust was happening?” Well, perhaps we now have a better idea given what we are witnessing, as to how the engines of N**i propaganda actually worked at sedating public dissent.

Staying silent and “just following orders” is no defence. Neither is being a cheerleader for tyranny after swallowing Zionist sound bites and Western propaganda.

History will be the final judge of us all!

In the abject case of the slow genocide of the Palestinian people, hell and fury is a price worth paying.

Their plight has been buried by corrupt Western governments who are complicit in the destruction and annihilation of Palestinians, their identity, their sovereignty, their homeland and their dignity.

The gall of Western news anchors to suggest that this is an “unprovoked” act of aggression, demonstrates their double standards and the hypocrisy of Western governments in the case of the conflict in Ukraine.

Resistance in the face of constant Israeli provocation and tyranny is a costly yet noble step forward.

I stand full square behind the Palestinian people and their aspirations for freedom and full sovereignty!

I am not returning to FB or social media but the movements and motions in Africa over recent months cannot be ignored.

It is time to defend the Revolutionary movements stirring on the continent. It is time to lend our support, voices and resources towards empowering those brave enough to stand up to the Western powers. It is time to expose the hypocrisy and corruption of the global economic and political institutions (IMF, World Bank, ICC… et al) that have exploited Africa and siphoned its resources.

It is time to take a stand and be counted. We have to ”seize the time” as Bobby Seale once said, or in the words of Patrick Henry, “Give me Liberty or Death.”

Africa is calling. The time is now!

🇧🇫 Burkina Faso - Minister of State Addresses United Nations General Debate, 78th Session | #UNGA Bassolma Bazie, Minister of State, Minister of Civil Service of Burkina Faso, addresses the general debate of the 78th Session of the General Assembly of the...

Margaret Busby, the yardstick by which integrity and commitment to the struggle should be measured. She is without equal and one of the most inspiring and focused people that I have met in this lifetime.

In Black Britain, we tend to look to faraway shores for validation and inspiration and in the process fail to value and recognise the treasures on our own doorstep. Nowhere is this more evident than in the struggle that Black women face in being acknowledged and recognised for their intellect and creativity within the broader mainstream society and within our very own community.

That is why Margaret Busby’s achievements are even more remarkable.

Congratulations Margaret - on becoming President of English PEN.

Pioneering publisher Margaret Busby named new president of PEN The editor, writer and literary critic who was the UK’s first Black female publisher will replace Philippe Sands

I am doing my best to avoid all social media but I have just received the news this morning that Roy Sawh, the Black Power activist and one of the greatest orators to have passed through Speakers Corners has made his transition to join the ancestors.

Roy Sawh was arguably one of the most important figures in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He was one of the founder members of RAAS (Racial Adjustment Action Society), alongside Michael de Freitas, aka Michael X - he was also a founder member of the Universal Coloured Peoples Association, from out of which came the British Black Panthers, the Black Unity and Freedom Party and the Black Liberation Front.

Roy was my teacher and my much loved and respected mentor as a teenager and into early adulthood. He was the King of Speakers Corner. When he retired around 1988, I was dubbed the ‘King of the Corner’. I never accepted that accolade and would always say “I’m the Black Prince” - declaring that there was only one King - the great Roy Sawh.

Roy’s passing is not something to brush over or to take lightly. He was one of the major figures who fought for the rights of Black people in Britain.

My condolences to his devoted wife Jenny and family. His place in the history of Black Britain is guaranteed!!

While I have no plans to return to Facebook, my family have asked me to announce the transition to the ancestors of my father, Ishmael “Man Man” Blagrove.

Watching an old lion lose its teeth and the ability to hunt and care for itself is a painful experience - and so I am pleased that the suffering and the journey of life is now over for him.

We have been blessed to have had our parents in our lives for so long - to have been able to share the characters of our parents with our children and our children’s children. My mother’s father died when she was two years old and my father’s mother died when he was a child - and so I am grateful to have experienced the joy of having parents in my life for so long.

Dad was the first Black man of the Caribbean that I knew who wore jeans, thick belt buckles and American baseball caps. I suppose that’s where my penchant for baseball caps come from. He also loved his khaki suits.

My siblings and I have done our father proud - particularly my sister Sharon, my brother Owen and our cousin Michelle. We went above and beyond in caring for what sometimes felt like the most argumentative and cantankerous man in the world, right up until his final moments.

My father was an old Skool traditional Jamaican from the rural countryside of St James. He didn’t take to European food and so I could imagine the bangarang that would have ensued if he were to demand cow foot, chicken foot or curry goat from an NHS Carer.

My father played the best hand he knew, with the poor cards he was dealt. He was a simple man, with simple aspirations, who desired a simple life. In the simple scheme of things - being the human experience, he was a great and overwhelming success. He lived to see his children and grandchildren become adults and to experience the joy of having great grandchildren run around his feet.

Thank you to those who have worked with me at Rice N Peas over the years, and thank you to all those who have purchased our most recent book and encouraged and supported our vision.

Without my very close friendship and support from the legendary Sonny Blacks, much of what we have achieved would not have been possible. He has been the most reliable guide and compass on this journey and I am eternally grateful.

Though I will no longer comment and engage on these threads, I will leave the account open for the next 12 months and check for messages whenever possible.

That’s it - finito, adios, au revoir, goodbye. My adventures on social media have come to an end!

(Photo: A celebration drink yesterday with Sonny Blacks. I could not have asked for a better Godfather and patron)

Please note, as from midnight tonight, 'The Frontline' will no longer be available for sale to the public through our website RICENPEAS.ORG

There are still a number of public copies available through the Tabernacle and Waterstones Bookshop - and I have retained a number of books for our archive - which will only be available to educational institutions.

RICENPEAS.ORG

It has been a hectic week after the book launch. I’ve been engaged in the distribution process and most nights have been getting to bed between 3-4am.

I will be leaving the country this week and will be closing the RICENPEAS.ORG sales link at midnight on 5th July. I am now down to the last 100 books that will be available to the public. Thereafter, anyone wishing to purchase the book will have to chase the final supplies at, The Tabernacle, Powis Square, or Waterstones.

I have reserved 100 copies of the book for educational institutions only. These will be available through our website from 6th July, priced £100.

I would like to thank all those who purchased a book and have supported ‘The Frontline’ and Rice N Peas over the years.

I will be bidding farewell to Facebook and will make my final post on Wednesday 6th July.

It has been an interesting journey. But I have arrived at my destination and it is now time to step off the ride.

To order, ‘The Frontline’ please visit our website:

RICENPEAS.ORG