Speaker 1: What's up, family, I'm your girl to meeke A D.
Speaker 1: Mallory's your general. We are host of street politicians, the
Speaker 1: place for the streets and politics meet. We have such
Speaker 1: a such a show today with so many, so many
Speaker 1: powerful individuals and things we have to talk about, um
Speaker 1: and so I do not want to have a long
Speaker 1: introduction today. If that's okay with you, you know, I listen, man,
Speaker 1: we got we got a long show. We've got a
Speaker 1: lot of people who you need to hear from, some
Speaker 1: good topics, our friends, some people that we just respect.
Speaker 1: So we got to talk. We have to talk long.
Speaker 1: So you're okay with because you said I tell you
Speaker 1: what to do and then they said, yes, bullying, Yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all just be bullying me to hold Look, you don't
Speaker 1: understand this whole Thing's a bunch of women in here,
Speaker 1: and that's men. There are men in the room today today.
Speaker 1: We have an out number. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: I'm bullied. Are you trying to get your message across
Speaker 1: to the world? Do you see their laughing because they
Speaker 1: know what's going on? You know what? And I'd be
Speaker 1: like yo in the street, like I'm like ge like
Speaker 1: you y'all can't treat me like this. We'll just make
Speaker 1: you better. People crazy, whatever, we just make you better.
Speaker 1: So I think we can just jump right into my
Speaker 1: father to death says. My thought of the day is
Speaker 1: that when you know you're gonna talk too much, don't
Speaker 1: talk too much in the beginning. Talk later. So I
Speaker 1: already thought about it, and I think we should go
Speaker 1: right into our That's so we're gonna go straight into
Speaker 1: the guests. Y'all make sure that you're tune in. Twenty
Speaker 1: one years ago, Uh, gentleman that is coming to the
Speaker 1: show today put out an album called Shine Um that
Speaker 1: was his historic I mean, I don't know how many
Speaker 1: millions of downloads now at that time and in the
Speaker 1: record sales right millions that that Shine was able to
Speaker 1: accomplish here in America. Um someone that we love and respect.
Speaker 1: And I don't know too many Black people that don't
Speaker 1: say Shine was the absolute, absolute man and he still is.
Speaker 1: He is the tenth opposition leader for the House of
Speaker 1: Representatives in Belieze. After completing a ten year sentence for
Speaker 1: an incident that happened in the New York City club
Speaker 1: he was deported to believe Um. People thought he would
Speaker 1: never make it back to the state side, but he
Speaker 1: is here. He's been coming back to America and working
Speaker 1: with government officials and community leaders to try to bridge
Speaker 1: a gap between his country and this country. And we
Speaker 1: are super, super super super excited to have Shine with
Speaker 1: us today. Also, today we're talking to uh Dr Lilia
Speaker 1: Celano from Columbia, who does piece work and fights for
Speaker 1: justice in Colombia, working specifically with young people. She has
Speaker 1: been acknowledged by the United States for her peace work
Speaker 1: in Columbia, and we're gonna have a conversation with her today,
Speaker 1: this humanitarian, this activist. We're gonna be talking to her
Speaker 1: about the issues in Colombia and how it relates to
Speaker 1: what we deal with and what we fight for right
Speaker 1: here in the United States. So we have two really
Speaker 1: really powerful guests coming up today, and we decided to
Speaker 1: cut down some of the pieces of our regularly scheduled
Speaker 1: programming because we really don't want to rush these interviews.
Speaker 1: We want to get really, really into it, and I
Speaker 1: certainly want to hear what Brother Sean has to say,
Speaker 1: So stay tuned. It's gonna be a good one. So
Speaker 1: once again we are joined by another one of our friends,
Speaker 1: um someone who respect. You know, we came through the
Speaker 1: ranks together through hip hop, and just to watch his
Speaker 1: evolution from a hip hop artist is just phenomenal. He
Speaker 1: is the tenth opposition leader of the House of Representatives
Speaker 1: in Belize, the former whip He sits on so many
Speaker 1: different stages and levels of government in Belies, and he's
Speaker 1: a dope rapper. My brother, my friend Jamal Shine Barrow.
Speaker 1: How are you doing today, King, I'm doing great. Thank
Speaker 1: you for that drum roll, A wonderful introduction. Yes, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being with us today. How are
Speaker 1: you feeling, man? You know, it's you know, it's always
Speaker 1: it's always great to be in New York City. Um,
Speaker 1: it's my second trip, you know, I'm here. It's only
Speaker 1: a second trip. Yeah. Yeah. I came in August. I
Speaker 1: went back to Belize to get back to work, and
Speaker 1: then I came back to the United States on Friday,
Speaker 1: and I came to New York City on Sunday night,
Speaker 1: and I was, you know, to meet with Lieutenant Governor
Speaker 1: Brian Benjamin and uh Congressman Series, who is the Chairman
Speaker 1: of the House of Representatives Western Hemisphere. I have a
Speaker 1: few other meetings schedule, so you you out here to
Speaker 1: do a big on behalf of beliefs. You know. You know,
Speaker 1: certainly I commend you and Mice for the work that
Speaker 1: you guys do, are serving your country and your communities.
Speaker 1: And there's no difference in what I'm doing. You know,
Speaker 1: I really think it's all about service. So whether or
Speaker 1: not you are a politician or a street politician, you
Speaker 1: know the purposes service and helping people and making the
Speaker 1: society be living better. So you know, Mice and I
Speaker 1: used to do that in our raps and it's really
Speaker 1: no difference. When I first got into politics, I used
Speaker 1: to go to every rally and you know, watch the
Speaker 1: speakers speak. And I used to laugh to myself because
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I used to perform in front
Speaker 1: of tens of thousands of people, and you know, because
Speaker 1: it's a it's an art. You know, there's a method,
Speaker 1: is a rhythm. Um. But the difference is for them,
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know what their purposes, because you know,
Speaker 1: politicians can be scurvy and lack ethics and morals and honor.
Speaker 1: But for me, there was always purpose. When I was rapid.
Speaker 1: If you listen to my first album, you know the intro,
Speaker 1: the first thing I said was, you know, day, America,
Speaker 1: please save me. I'm only what you made me young
Speaker 1: and crazy. Bill schools instead of prison, and I'll stop
Speaker 1: living the way I'm living. Um, teach me a craft
Speaker 1: or trade and I wouldn't be on the block every
Speaker 1: day serving that. Yeah, the reason I mentioned that stands
Speaker 1: a right, you know that. So I'm just saying that
Speaker 1: is the I'm the embodiment of that. As a member
Speaker 1: of the House of Representatives, that's my platform. That's what
Speaker 1: I fight for every day to create a better reality
Speaker 1: for the disenfranchise and the disinherited. So the transition is
Speaker 1: seamless because basically what I was rapping about I was
Speaker 1: giving a voice to the voiceless. Now, as a member
Speaker 1: of the House of Representatives, I am responding to that
Speaker 1: voice because I still hear that voice because I was
Speaker 1: that voice. And so I'm very in tune and pay
Speaker 1: keen attention to those voices, and I want to change
Speaker 1: the reality so those voices don't have to make those complaints.
Speaker 1: So this is dope, you know what I'm saying, Watching
Speaker 1: you evolved, coming from where we come from, both of
Speaker 1: us changing our perspectives and understanding our calling, and our
Speaker 1: purpose is to do something higher. You know. Music is
Speaker 1: the foundation. You know, it was our way of voicing
Speaker 1: our struggles. It was our way of describing the pain
Speaker 1: in our community. So watching you seeing that and and
Speaker 1: just understanding what it is for me, you know, it's commendable.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of kids, right that's probably
Speaker 1: sixteen and seventeen. It's like, who shine? I heard? But
Speaker 1: who is he? I want you to give like a
Speaker 1: brief synopsis of from your time getting signed until now
Speaker 1: so people can kind of understand this briefly. I don't
Speaker 1: want you to go through the whole thing, but just
Speaker 1: give a synopsis, a little bit of a story, a
Speaker 1: little bit of history, so that they can understand exactly
Speaker 1: who you are. Because I know the full show. We
Speaker 1: was in studio, it was everything, so I know the
Speaker 1: full shine. But just give them a little you know,
Speaker 1: usually on our show we get upset because our segments
Speaker 1: are so short with our guests. You would be the
Speaker 1: first guests that we actually are like, let's get deep
Speaker 1: into I'm honored. I'm honored and it's a privilege. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm a kid from Belize. You know, my mom immigrated
Speaker 1: from Belize, which is in Central America, Paradise UM, back
Speaker 1: in the eighties. And you know, I was just an
Speaker 1: immigrant kids, single mother that was fortunate enough to sign
Speaker 1: to bad Boy Records back in UM. You know, after
Speaker 1: b I g passed away and Mace became religious and
Speaker 1: the Locks went to rough Riders. Uh. You know, basically
Speaker 1: it was you know shine. You know, I was like, uh,
Speaker 1: I would say maybe Kobe Bryant, you know, Uh, I
Speaker 1: don't know who who to really rookie to really describe it.
Speaker 1: But everything was really on my back, and um, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of expectations. UM. But I was very
Speaker 1: fortunate to get it togevernment had some great friends such
Speaker 1: as Mice gave me some great learning lessons. I never forget,
Speaker 1: you know, being for Brooklyn. I think it's just a
Speaker 1: New York thing was certainly Brooklyn. We got a lot
Speaker 1: of confidence, overconfident, super confident, and I had one of
Speaker 1: the most humbling experiences. And uh, PUFF used to have
Speaker 1: a restaurant called Justine's. And you know, I was young,
Speaker 1: nineteen years old, you know, new millionaire, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: driving six hundreds and you know Rolli's and you know
Speaker 1: that era of living and you know. So we were
Speaker 1: in the parking lot of Justine's and it was like, listen,
Speaker 1: you know, Mice is better than you, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: and so we started rapping and he smoked me. And
Speaker 1: I say all that to say that humbling experience allowed
Speaker 1: me to work harder and to dig in and to
Speaker 1: realize that it wasn't about the material things. It was
Speaker 1: really about the purpose, and the purpose was being a
Speaker 1: voice for all my friends that were still in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: still struggling, still having a difficult life, and really giving
Speaker 1: them a platform and giving us story a platform. That
Speaker 1: was when rap was wrapped. That's when you had to battle,
Speaker 1: like you know, like shot like he says, he's he's
Speaker 1: being honest. He was the top person. Like everybody in
Speaker 1: the hood was here, and Sean just got this million
Speaker 1: out the record. He's the man, you know, He's the
Speaker 1: next biggie. Everybody. So I'm hungry. I'm coming from the block.
Speaker 1: I ain't got nothing, I got holes in my shoes,
Speaker 1: you know. My man tone picked me up off the block.
Speaker 1: And you see Sean, he outed him, and don't real's
Speaker 1: just wrapping. You don't think you got a deal after that,
Speaker 1: Like I literally got some because that's what it was like.
Speaker 1: You actually had to compete, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and don't have the shooting. You had to wrap and
Speaker 1: everybody in the industry. And then I was like, this
Speaker 1: is my time. It's now know but never so like
Speaker 1: how does that work? Like so then because now if
Speaker 1: you have a battle and one person wins another, then
Speaker 1: the teams kill each other. So real like that, I think,
Speaker 1: not bad. No battle rappings, no battle rap right now
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest form of hipper Like shout
Speaker 1: out to my brother Goods. You're told on this year,
Speaker 1: now that you told what you're talking about real beef,
Speaker 1: Like now beef has transferred. Yeah, it's battle rapping. Son
Speaker 1: people again signed based off beef. You're getting beef. You
Speaker 1: put it on the record. You talk about how you
Speaker 1: shot at somebody and they give you a million hollars. No,
Speaker 1: before it was actually the scale level of battle and
Speaker 1: who came over, the real punch lines and who came
Speaker 1: up and we was gladiators, man, you know, And it
Speaker 1: was just like and we grew with respect, we became
Speaker 1: really good friends. Definitely studio with respect to tone and
Speaker 1: to Nagel and too you know the guys that we
Speaker 1: know from back in that era. So twenty one years
Speaker 1: ago on September six, for all of you young uh
Speaker 1: young bucks out there, um, young ripper snappers. Uh one
Speaker 1: years ago, on September twenty six, I put out my
Speaker 1: first album, Shine cons debut albums Shine and sold over
Speaker 1: a million records. Um was number two on the Rap
Speaker 1: Billboard R and B Billboard. Um and yeah one I
Speaker 1: think um Nellie oh man that Nelly was a night man.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they was doing. Like every week
Speaker 1: they were selling two hundred thousand records for like for
Speaker 1: like a year straight. I've never seen anything like that
Speaker 1: in my life. Um yeah, so so yeah, that's who
Speaker 1: I am. I put out another album, also, Godfather, Bury
Speaker 1: the Live UM that was the number one R and
Speaker 1: B rap album in two thousand four. You know. And
Speaker 1: why was it called Godfather Because I was buried alive,
Speaker 1: you know, again for you for the younger generation. You know,
Speaker 1: I had spent about ten years in prison because of
Speaker 1: an unfortunate incident in the club where you know, someone
Speaker 1: was trying to kill my friends, kill me, and I
Speaker 1: defended my friends, and unlike some of the young rappers,
Speaker 1: today who have no morals and no ethics and absolutely
Speaker 1: no integrity for me, you know, and for mice and
Speaker 1: for the generation that we come from. That's that's everything,
Speaker 1: you know. If you don't have integrity, you have nothing. Um.
Speaker 1: So I refused to cooperate and try to get my
Speaker 1: friends in trouble to get myself out of trouble. Um,
Speaker 1: you know. And and so I had to. I had
Speaker 1: to pay my debt to society, you know, because I
Speaker 1: did have an unlicensed gun. But I was defending myself,
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't causing any trouble. Um. And I
Speaker 1: put out another album. I was fortunate to do a
Speaker 1: distribution deal with UH def Jam during that time, and
Speaker 1: we put out Godfather Bury Alive one number one. Only
Speaker 1: Tupac was the only other person to do that. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and here I am now over forty million records sold
Speaker 1: as a writer, UH publisher and performer. You know, I
Speaker 1: did usher. We want to grant me for that album
Speaker 1: of confessions. They called me while I was at Clinton
Speaker 1: Dennymore in the same place Tupac was. Um was there
Speaker 1: at the same time. I was about to say, you
Speaker 1: might be you might be from that young generation before
Speaker 1: you yeah, because I was about to say when you
Speaker 1: said that, it just no, no, no, yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Well yeah yeah, so um yeah, so so we want
Speaker 1: to grab me for for us your Confessions remix which
Speaker 1: I recorded in the yard and Clinton Denimore. I had
Speaker 1: to go to the box for that because you know,
Speaker 1: I was pulling a lot of fast ones on governing
Speaker 1: up attacking he was a governor back then. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: so so that's who I am. You know, I'm considered
Speaker 1: hip hop legend for you young guys. That sound better
Speaker 1: if Mike said he's a hip hop legend. Man, He's
Speaker 1: somebody who turned his passion in his pain and his
Speaker 1: trauma and then came out even after being honorable. And
Speaker 1: I say this all the time, like he said, it's
Speaker 1: about integrity and morals, and this is what we stood
Speaker 1: on and rather than involved with somebody else and get
Speaker 1: somebody else in trouble for things that we then we
Speaker 1: responsibility for our own situations and we handled that, We
Speaker 1: paid our death society, and we came out and that's
Speaker 1: legendary for me. And and the skill level that you possess,
Speaker 1: you know, and then seeing that you came home right,
Speaker 1: and it's so and I know it's hard because it's
Speaker 1: you come home and people have this expectation for you
Speaker 1: to stay the same person. I want you to be
Speaker 1: your Sean bust is gone. He just in that and
Speaker 1: to come home evolved and say nah, it's you know,
Speaker 1: and change that, knowing that you can grab onto that
Speaker 1: whole energy and live all for that. We're saying to yourself. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna change that, and I'm gonna utilize what y'all
Speaker 1: celebrate me for, and I'm gonna change the perspective. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make sure their kids this nineteen and twenty don't
Speaker 1: do the same thing that I'm gonna lead into a
Speaker 1: different direction. And that's legendary. You know that, And the
Speaker 1: self is legendary. So right now, what's your position to gain?
Speaker 1: You are the temph Well, I I was an opposition
Speaker 1: leader of the House of Representative the tenth You know,
Speaker 1: I've been succeeded recently by another member of the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives, but I'm still a member of the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives. You know, I sit on the Foreign Affairs
Speaker 1: and National Security, and Education House committees, to name a few.
Speaker 1: Um you know, I represented great people from Mesopotamia constituency.
Speaker 1: And you know, my constituency is filled with young shines
Speaker 1: who you know, due to a lack of financial resources,
Speaker 1: a lack of you know, family structure, um, you know,
Speaker 1: just disinherited, disenfranchised. So for me, every time I go
Speaker 1: to the House of Representatives and I stand up in
Speaker 1: the House, I'm fighting uh for you know, uh, eradicate poverty,
Speaker 1: you know, to bridge the gap between the rich and
Speaker 1: the poor, to create a system of the ability to ascend. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know right now is rich or poor, snow working class,
Speaker 1: no middle class, no upper middle class. And so those
Speaker 1: are the things that I'm fighting for uh in Belize.
Speaker 1: And so certainly when I come to the States, it's
Speaker 1: to meet with my counterparts in Congress and Senate, in
Speaker 1: the Governor's House, um, so that we could build a
Speaker 1: strong relationship with beliefes and we could get more investment
Speaker 1: in Belize and more of a recognition of beliefes, so
Speaker 1: that those young uh you know, girls and boys can
Speaker 1: have the opportunity that I had in the States, you know,
Speaker 1: because I came to believe. I came from Belize to
Speaker 1: the States when I was about eight years old, and
Speaker 1: I always feel guilty that the opportunities that I had
Speaker 1: growing up as a Belieze in American Um, my people
Speaker 1: in Belizes don't have, or at least not enough of
Speaker 1: them had. So my my purpose and commitment is to
Speaker 1: create opportunities so that girls and boys from those impoverished communities,
Speaker 1: you know, can be able to thrive. Yeah. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, it sounds a lot like America because we're
Speaker 1: quickly approaching a place where it is the rich and
Speaker 1: the poor, right like, the middle classes is really being
Speaker 1: gutted by all of what I'm sure you watch happening
Speaker 1: from from there to here. Uh. We just and of
Speaker 1: course the pandemic has done nothing but made it worse,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, But I want to go backwards a
Speaker 1: little bit so that we can come back to what
Speaker 1: your purpose is there in Belize. But I want to
Speaker 1: just because I know there are so many people that
Speaker 1: want to understand what happens. So it's time for you
Speaker 1: to be released from prison. And do you know already
Speaker 1: as you're getting to the point of release that you're
Speaker 1: going to be deported or well, you know the way
Speaker 1: I got deported, They actually had me down as an
Speaker 1: American citizen, you know, but being corocerated as a nightmare.
Speaker 1: No matter how, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, so enduring that nightmare becomes unbearable at times.
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to just go back to Belize um.
Speaker 1: And there was uh exchange that they had on on
Speaker 1: the books where you know, they would send you back
Speaker 1: to your country um, based on certain criterias um before
Speaker 1: your time, so you could serve your time there um.
Speaker 1: And so once I did that, that's when they realized
Speaker 1: that how it was a Beliezing citizen, right, I was
Speaker 1: a permanent resident, you know, but when I went into
Speaker 1: the system, I went into the system as an American citizen.
Speaker 1: So so I knew I would have been deported. When
Speaker 1: time came for me to be deported, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I had a bunch of people telling me, no, you know,
Speaker 1: let's get a lawyer, let's fight it, and I refused.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be free, you know. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to sit in an immigration out for another day
Speaker 1: two years, forget about. I just wanted to be free. Um.
Speaker 1: So when the time came out, willingly said, please, you know,
Speaker 1: let me go. Let me go to my home. That's
Speaker 1: where I was born. I'm okay with that, and if
Speaker 1: if it's God's will, then I returned to the United States.
Speaker 1: That happened. When it happens, I just want to be
Speaker 1: free ago, okay. So now when you're in Believe, how
Speaker 1: does politics become your passion? Well, you know, when I
Speaker 1: first went back to Belize, I wasn't interested in politics.
Speaker 1: I was just interested in being free. But interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: everything that I did then it is consistent with what
Speaker 1: I'm doing now. When I landed after you know, my
Speaker 1: mom and my dad and family met me at the airport.
Speaker 1: Um the first thing I said was take me to
Speaker 1: the children's home, take me to the Forester Home, take
Speaker 1: me to wherever the trouble kids are. I want to
Speaker 1: go speak to them. Now they're like now, I'm like yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: So I didn't. I didn't go get anything to eat.
Speaker 1: I didn't go check into my hotel. Nothing. I went
Speaker 1: from the airport to the children's home and to the
Speaker 1: to the troubles youth home. So that's so service was
Speaker 1: always on my mind. Giving back was always on my mind,
Speaker 1: using myself as an example as a deterrent as to
Speaker 1: what not to do. So you don't get yourself in
Speaker 1: trouble as a young uh you know, boy or girl,
Speaker 1: and as an inspiration, asked to how you could overcome
Speaker 1: and endure and have integrity and character, um, once you
Speaker 1: do face an obstacle. So that's what I was doing.
Speaker 1: You know, I would go to the prisons and I
Speaker 1: would try to speak to uh the incarcerated, you know,
Speaker 1: women and men and boys and girls, uh to stop
Speaker 1: recidivism and you know, to try to encourage them to
Speaker 1: transition when they get out to be product the citizens. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's what I was doing, was doing a lot
Speaker 1: of charity work. But I wasn't doing it for politics.
Speaker 1: I was just doing it to be a humanitarian. And
Speaker 1: that's just the way I grew up. That's just what
Speaker 1: you do. You know, once you get there, you help
Speaker 1: everybody else. And so I was traveling. I was in
Speaker 1: North Africa, Egypt, Israel, Paris, all over the world, and
Speaker 1: I came to believe for my mother's sixtieth birthday. And
Speaker 1: you were traveling as a humanitarian. I was trying. I
Speaker 1: was just trying. I want to be free. It's part
Speaker 1: of freedom process. So so you know what when I
Speaker 1: wasn't believed, I did those things. But you know, my
Speaker 1: life wasn't to be mother Teresa. I wanted to be free,
Speaker 1: So yeah, do that when I come home, But I
Speaker 1: need to travel the world. I want to just get
Speaker 1: on the plane and just go. I just want to
Speaker 1: be free. So I came back to Believe for my
Speaker 1: mom's sixtieth birthday. And you know a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: you know, she was a senator, you know, um, very
Speaker 1: strong political person. The name is Julia Timbrough, Senator Timbrough.
Speaker 1: She is the one that said to me, you know,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Like what's going on? Like I'm
Speaker 1: just traveling, just being free, just you know, enjoying my life.
Speaker 1: And she's like, man, you know it's a lot going
Speaker 1: on here and Believes and you know things about to change,
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be a transition. You have a new
Speaker 1: set of leaders that are coming up, and I'm not
Speaker 1: really confident in them. You know, you ever thought about
Speaker 1: getting involved? Why don't you know? What are you doing
Speaker 1: out there? Like you know, I don't see you making
Speaker 1: any records. I don't like what's going on. Why don't
Speaker 1: you come back here like we need you? You know, um,
Speaker 1: come back here, go to law school. You know, getting
Speaker 1: involved in the community like you did when you first
Speaker 1: came out. And I was like, you know, I never
Speaker 1: thought about being anything other than a musician, um, you know,
Speaker 1: other than an entertainer and entrepreneur in music. Um. But
Speaker 1: when she told me that, you know, I was like, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I hear you. And every time I would go to Belieze,
Speaker 1: I would spend time in these communities that I serve now.
Speaker 1: And when you would see the poverty, when you would
Speaker 1: see the burdens, when you would see the challenges, the obstacles,
Speaker 1: Like there's people that live in a place called like
Speaker 1: London Bridge, where they got a bunch of crates and
Speaker 1: you gotta walk on crates and it's just water all around.
Speaker 1: People that live in a house that they made with
Speaker 1: plywood and they put like they don't even have zinc.
Speaker 1: They don't even have a roof. That was the original
Speaker 1: yeah right, um. So when you see people living like that,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, whatever I've been through, whatever losses
Speaker 1: I've taken, whatever devastations I've suffered, at least I had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to make millions of dollars and sell millions
Speaker 1: of records and flying private planes and you know, accomplish
Speaker 1: my dream as a musician, and what do they have?
Speaker 1: And I felt as I felt when I first got
Speaker 1: off the plane, that responsibility to do something and to
Speaker 1: give something to my people. I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: that's what I need to do. I don't need to
Speaker 1: be in Paris, you know, uh, with Jay and with
Speaker 1: Drake and you know, being an entertainer. I need to
Speaker 1: be in Belize with these people that are suffering because
Speaker 1: I have the vision, you know, I have the desire
Speaker 1: to make their lives better. Like that's what I want
Speaker 1: to brag about. I don't want to brag about a
Speaker 1: Wraith or fifty million dollar earbus. I want to brag
Speaker 1: about transforming beliefs and creating a climate so that there
Speaker 1: there could be opportunity for success for these kids the
Speaker 1: same way I had it. And that's when, you know,
Speaker 1: seven or eight years ago, I said, you know what
Speaker 1: time for me to go back home. I got into
Speaker 1: I didn't go to law school. I got into foreign investment,
Speaker 1: and I just became a community servant. You know. I
Speaker 1: was like the vice chair of the constituency and I
Speaker 1: just started getting into education funding for kids that couldn't
Speaker 1: afford to go to school. Um, you know, parenting classes
Speaker 1: because when you look at the crime, a lot of
Speaker 1: these kids that are committing crimes, they come from broken homes.
Speaker 1: Either their fathers were committing crimes, or you know, their
Speaker 1: moms were addicted the drugs, or you know, come from
Speaker 1: you know, just very very broken. Uh. You know family structures. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I would do things like that, you know, leadership classes,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship classes, small business development because I didn't believe in
Speaker 1: I didn't get into it to be famous or to
Speaker 1: be rich. Uh. I got into it to to lead
Speaker 1: and to serve and to be able to have the
Speaker 1: power to encourage my colleagues. Let's get together, and you know,
Speaker 1: we recently celebrated our forty uh birthday and belieze the
Speaker 1: next forty years has to be better. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't know if we've done enough in the last forty years.
Speaker 1: I think not, Um, but the culture has to change.
Speaker 1: We need different leaders. We need leaders that are not
Speaker 1: trying to be Oh I'm the minister. Oh I'm from
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives, But what are you doing for
Speaker 1: your people? What are you doing to change the lives
Speaker 1: of belief ins and make it better? Has to be.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, like Senator Timbero told me eight years ago,
Speaker 1: there's too many of those politicians. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: rather than to win your election, Well, I started to
Speaker 1: work eight years ago because someone asked me that today
Speaker 1: I don't believe in you know, when's the w's the election? Okay,
Speaker 1: that's when I'll get in. No, I believe you serve
Speaker 1: your community. You want to, you want to be elected
Speaker 1: serve and so I started serving. People would tell me
Speaker 1: you're wasting your money. You know, you're doing it too early.
Speaker 1: You know. Uh, my predecessor they said that, you know,
Speaker 1: he would never retire. They said that they have to
Speaker 1: bury him in the House of Representatives. So I'm wasting
Speaker 1: my time. And I said, you know, um, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter because I'm still helping people. So whether I get
Speaker 1: elected or not, you know, I'm blessing people. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'll be Okay, it's not about getting elected. I'd like
Speaker 1: to because then I could, you know, take my actions
Speaker 1: and put it into policy and put it into legislation
Speaker 1: and create a system. See for me, I don't want
Speaker 1: it to be. I don't want to be a neo
Speaker 1: colonial master. You know, I don't want my people to
Speaker 1: be dependent on me or a politician. So I want
Speaker 1: to create systematic change, so you don't need to go
Speaker 1: to a politician, right So so so it's going to
Speaker 1: outlive me and and the society that we live in
Speaker 1: is gonna work for everyone, not just the people that
Speaker 1: vote for me, or not just the people that I liked.
Speaker 1: So I started doing that eight years ago. So in
Speaker 1: they had the elections, and the political party that I'm
Speaker 1: from UH had about twenty one seats, twenty or twenty
Speaker 1: one seats. We lost every seat except five, and that
Speaker 1: says to me it was a complete swing tsunami. Had
Speaker 1: I not done the work for the last seven or
Speaker 1: eight years, I would have lost two. Because people want
Speaker 1: to change, They just want to do something different. We
Speaker 1: tired of those guys. But I did so much work
Speaker 1: that you know, people, man, we can't do that to him.
Speaker 1: You know, he's been there for us. Like if he
Speaker 1: did all this for us for the last eight years,
Speaker 1: imagine when you get selected and that. And that's what
Speaker 1: I've been doing with my own resources, because as an
Speaker 1: opposition member of the House of Representatives, you get nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, if I told you how much we made
Speaker 1: you laugh, and we don't. You know, we get like
Speaker 1: us dollars for constituency development. That's nothing you can't help,
Speaker 1: you know, but a few people with that. So I
Speaker 1: find the resources the same way I've been doing for
Speaker 1: the last eight years, UM and I and I speak
Speaker 1: on the policies and the legislation that needs to take
Speaker 1: place so that there can be systematic change. You know.
Speaker 1: So this is listening to you. It's purpose, you know,
Speaker 1: not your purpose. It's not driven by accolades, not driven
Speaker 1: by a position, is driven by just doing the work.
Speaker 1: Our goal is that were not needed. Look, they said,
Speaker 1: so what do you want? We want that the fight
Speaker 1: that we fight in is we win and we don't
Speaker 1: have to do none of this. Amen, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. We don't. We're not trying to be full
Speaker 1: time activists. We don't want to be out here risking
Speaker 1: our lives and our freedom all time. We want whatever
Speaker 1: it is we're fighting against to be right so we
Speaker 1: can go and be peaceful and do all those things.
Speaker 1: You know, just listening to you mirrors what it is
Speaker 1: that we're saying. So what can we do, like what
Speaker 1: can we do to help on your past? Like you
Speaker 1: come you in beliefe. You know, you're making this transition
Speaker 1: back and forth to America. Like, what is it that
Speaker 1: you want to see? I want to see more people
Speaker 1: visit beliefs. I want to see you guys come down
Speaker 1: the Belieze, invest in belize, you know, come down mentor
Speaker 1: you can mentor some girls you can mentor some guys um.
Speaker 1: You know. Just I want believes to be a bridge
Speaker 1: between you know, the United States and the Africans here
Speaker 1: and the Africans and Belieze and all people in beliefs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, so I just want to see you guys,
Speaker 1: you know, because once you do that, then you're spending money,
Speaker 1: You're any time, you're giving your your expertise. You know,
Speaker 1: you're sharing you know, um your life experiences. And you know,
Speaker 1: one girl wanting to be you know, Tamika, you know,
Speaker 1: is enough, but maybe we could get ten, fifteen, twenty,
Speaker 1: a hundred, you know, all of them. I want to
Speaker 1: create a culture of empowerment where our girls and our
Speaker 1: boys um believe that they're more than the current status quo.
Speaker 1: And you know, the current status quo is if you're poor,
Speaker 1: you stay poor, you go to jail, you be a
Speaker 1: gang leader. You know, you support the gangs, and that's it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll give you an example. They try to
Speaker 1: recently pass the law to disqualify me from the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives, saying that if you committed the crime, and
Speaker 1: you were convicted of any crime, you can't serve in
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives. They've pulled it back. But what
Speaker 1: that says is that the only people that have interaction
Speaker 1: with the criminal justice system are the poor people because
Speaker 1: the wealth the people could afford to getting lawyer, they're
Speaker 1: politically connected, and that those charges are never even materialized.
Speaker 1: So again it's a it's an effort to keep you
Speaker 1: where you are rather than opening doors. Because the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives is the people's house, so everybody belongs there.
Speaker 1: But it just shows the mentality of some people. So again,
Speaker 1: I want, uh, you know, all of you, all of
Speaker 1: your listeners to visit belies, to invest in beliefs, and
Speaker 1: let believes, you know, be your second home. You know,
Speaker 1: That's what I want because our GDP is driven by tourism,
Speaker 1: so the more people that visit beliefs, you know, the more.
Speaker 1: But there could be other things, you know, trade, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I want uh aggro trade. You know, there
Speaker 1: could be countless opportunities. You can build a movie studio
Speaker 1: down there. Um, there's just so much to do and beliefs.
Speaker 1: I just want people to visit belives, appreciate beliefs and
Speaker 1: how to help with everything else. You know. When so
Speaker 1: you're in Belize, now you are a member of the
Speaker 1: House and Represents Natives, you're in the political party doing
Speaker 1: the whole thing. When do you find out that it's
Speaker 1: okay for you to return to the US, that you've
Speaker 1: been granted the ability to travel back. Well, no, I'm
Speaker 1: here as as a member of the House of Representatives. Um,
Speaker 1: all members of the House of You didn't even know
Speaker 1: that at the time when you started running for office,
Speaker 1: you weren't even thinking about No, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: because you know, I have a good relationship with the
Speaker 1: State Department that I've developed over the years. You know.
Speaker 1: But you know, the Americans, like any other country, could
Speaker 1: decide who will enter their country and who won't. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter whether or not you're a member the
Speaker 1: House of Representatives. You know, there's certain members of the
Speaker 1: House of Representatives who can't come to the United States.
Speaker 1: This is one thing that America got right, like one
Speaker 1: thing that this country has finally done that we have
Speaker 1: a lower yeah. So so um yeah, so as a
Speaker 1: member of the House of all members of the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives, um, you know, get a diplomatic passport and
Speaker 1: can travel for official purposes. And so, you know, leading
Speaker 1: up to the elections, I was telling you know, Diddy,
Speaker 1: I was telling everybody, you know what my vision is
Speaker 1: for beliefs the same way I just explained. And so
Speaker 1: you know, one of the asks that I made was
Speaker 1: to please put me in the room with Congressman Meeks.
Speaker 1: You know, God bless him. He was so gracious received
Speaker 1: me while he was voting on the John Lewis um
Speaker 1: Bill rights bill. Uh. You know, Congresswoman, you've met Clark,
Speaker 1: Congressman Haakim Jeffries, who was a big hip hop fan. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, so getting in the room with these people
Speaker 1: not just for photo opportunities, but to have these discussions
Speaker 1: that we're having about you know, the Caribbean, about believe
Speaker 1: it's very important. You know, we haven't had an embat
Speaker 1: a stuld in belief since President Obama. We've never had
Speaker 1: a president of the United States visit beliefs. I hope
Speaker 1: to change that. You know, I believe relationships is everything.
Speaker 1: You know, if if if I don't talk to you,
Speaker 1: and if we don't communicate, how can anything happen? And
Speaker 1: so I believe, you know, being able to get into
Speaker 1: these rooms and have these conversations can only benefit believes,
Speaker 1: you know. So definitely I had the vision as the
Speaker 1: elections were coming closer, to start making calls and letting
Speaker 1: my guys know j Prince, you know, uh Killer Mike,
Speaker 1: you know, Maxine Waters, all these people listen. You know,
Speaker 1: I want to set up meetings as soon as I
Speaker 1: get elected so we could talk about believes. And so said,
Speaker 1: so done, Thank god. You know Erica Thomas, she's the
Speaker 1: House of Representatives member in Georgia. You know, Senator Leicester Jackson.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a whole crew of from down there
Speaker 1: to rebel uh Park Cannon, you know, she she got
Speaker 1: arrested for protesting that the government's uh the Governor's office.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, you know, so um yeah yeah, so yeah, man.
Speaker 1: We we just want to say thank you for coming
Speaker 1: to the show, celebrating this is your twenty one year
Speaker 1: one anniversary of the Shine album. That's not why I'm
Speaker 1: hearing the States, it's not, but we just we still
Speaker 1: listen hip hop. You know. We want to thank councilman
Speaker 1: um Robert Carnegie who honored me, uh, you know for
Speaker 1: the the fine arts, the contributions that the Shine album
Speaker 1: that's twenty one years Yeah, September. I have an amazing
Speaker 1: divine daughter by the name of Naomi. She's three and
Speaker 1: a half going on. And my wonderful wife Catherine, who's
Speaker 1: you know, taking care of her? And I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, women mothers. I don't know what
Speaker 1: we would do without doing certainly you know, but we
Speaker 1: don't know what we would do without the fathers, men
Speaker 1: who are out here making history. So while we're ending this,
Speaker 1: I just have to ask because every all my friends
Speaker 1: would be really upset if I did not, um, excuse me,
Speaker 1: if I did not dig into the voice. We've got
Speaker 1: to talk about the voice. The voice. So is that
Speaker 1: what really got you sort of noticed? Was it your
Speaker 1: voice or was it something different? Was my my bar?
Speaker 1: I mean, of course the bars, but you know, the
Speaker 1: girls are attracted to other things. And how I got
Speaker 1: successful or how I got discovered to get suned. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's see what it's a little combination of both, you know.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, after I got signed, because you know,
Speaker 1: even though Mike smoked me, I would have at the lyrics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was a combination. And I'm gonna be honest
Speaker 1: because he had bars, Like definitely had bars. So like,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to acknowledge dum pooh um manny
Speaker 1: Manny Hally Mark Pitts. So like as soon as I
Speaker 1: went in front of him, there was like, hold up, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: let's let's call puff, Let's call you know. And it
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they was thinking. You'd have to
Speaker 1: ask them what. But I thought I thought I thought
Speaker 1: it was I thought it was the bars, you know,
Speaker 1: because in the barbershop. In the barbershop, nobody has any
Speaker 1: foresight of vision. They just you know, either you whack
Speaker 1: or yeah. The barbershop is the place of truth. So
Speaker 1: in the barbershop, I was winning. I was that guy.
Speaker 1: It was like, man, listen, I'm telling you you better
Speaker 1: than all them guys on TV. When did you know
Speaker 1: you had a special voice. You know, my my father
Speaker 1: has the same voice. If you ever listen to my
Speaker 1: father speak, you know, um, but I never thought I
Speaker 1: had a special voice. I just you know, my content.
Speaker 1: It was really about the content. It was really about lyricism,
Speaker 1: you know, really about putting it together. And I just
Speaker 1: love music, and so for me, it was always about
Speaker 1: creating something that would live forever. And you know, people
Speaker 1: still love that Shine album and that Godfather Buried the
Speaker 1: Live album. And that's what I wanted to accomplish. Like
Speaker 1: you know, when you listen to Only Built for Cuban Links,
Speaker 1: when you listen to the Chronic or All Eyes on Me,
Speaker 1: A Doggy Style of Life after Death or No Way Out,
Speaker 1: those are albums that captured the emotions, you know, the
Speaker 1: vibration of frequency at that time, so you live in
Speaker 1: their moments and their truths, and regardless of whether you
Speaker 1: agree or disagree, I just wanted to be able to
Speaker 1: capture my truth and my energy and my frequency and
Speaker 1: make you allow you to feel me. Always wanted you
Speaker 1: to feel me, Like I never wanted to create anything
Speaker 1: just for the sake of creating it. And so you know,
Speaker 1: when I got discovered, that's the energy that I came with,
Speaker 1: Like you know, I made you. I had such a
Speaker 1: conviction like I could run through this ball, and so
Speaker 1: when I spit it, you felt it. So that's why
Speaker 1: I thought, yeah, no, But I want you to know
Speaker 1: that while you was running through the wall and doing
Speaker 1: the thing, your voice was speaking to us. And you
Speaker 1: said earlier because I didn't know about the Tupac jail
Speaker 1: time or whatever, that maybe I'm one of the young Bucks.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't so much that I was a young
Speaker 1: Bucks that pregnant. Yeah, well I'm not, but I was.
Speaker 1: I was eighteen, I was having a baby. There's a
Speaker 1: lot going on, you know what I mean. I didn't
Speaker 1: have time to really focus as much on what was
Speaker 1: happening in pop culture because first I was having a baby,
Speaker 1: and then two years later, my son's father was murdered.
Speaker 1: So it was a lot happening transitionally in my life.
Speaker 1: But I know there was this guy that sounds really
Speaker 1: really good on the ray Deo. Amen, Amen, Amen, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Listen, you heard what she said. You know,
Speaker 1: women get to control what's going on. Bonnie and Sean,
Speaker 1: Bonnie and Sean, that's my record right there. All the
Speaker 1: guys love bad boys, but my favorite record is Bonnie
Speaker 1: and Shan because that's the record that the women like
Speaker 1: and and can't believe what Carl Thomas. You know, I
Speaker 1: tell you. So I went to UM to see Jay
Speaker 1: jay Z at his eighteenth anniversary, and so it was
Speaker 1: older together, that's right. So listen. Yeah, So so before
Speaker 1: you guys came in, I walked in right to the
Speaker 1: back and as I walked into the back, I can't
Speaker 1: believe comes on what an intro? So it was great
Speaker 1: and I said, homes to be clearing. Nothing happened, and
Speaker 1: I did I didn't pay that. I didn't pay the
Speaker 1: DJ because you can't pay the DJA before they saw him.
Speaker 1: But listen, this is after you come in. You already
Speaker 1: came in. You're taking your drinks, you know. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying the moment that I walked and I haven't
Speaker 1: seen you know, Jay and years since we were in Paris.
Speaker 1: It was just a magical moment. So that's that's that.
Speaker 1: That's a great. It was great to see you there, man,
Speaker 1: it was anybody was there man. Once again, man, we
Speaker 1: just want to say we appreciate you, just just listening
Speaker 1: to you and seeing how focus and how driven you
Speaker 1: are to really make change, you know, just to contribute
Speaker 1: your life for something you know, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: people would do things for a purpose and the reason
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get some money, and that's cool. But
Speaker 1: when you have a purpose and it's driven by just
Speaker 1: wanting to do the right thing, it's just different and
Speaker 1: people feel that and they can see that it's authentic. Man.
Speaker 1: So I just want to I want to say, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you man, the work you're doing. Celebrate that album.
Speaker 1: That Sean album one of my favorite albums. I remember
Speaker 1: I used to go to the studio and Sean used
Speaker 1: to play me records and I'd be like, now this
Speaker 1: is it, now, this is it. And I remember one
Speaker 1: record you was doing right if Puff got so mad?
Speaker 1: You play street Um street Life record and I love
Speaker 1: this record, So I like, yo, Sean, this record is fired.
Speaker 1: So I go somewhere else and I forgot. He like,
Speaker 1: don't tell Puff that you heard direct. So we're somewhere
Speaker 1: and I just thought, hummed. I didn't say nothing. I'm
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know what happened. He looked at
Speaker 1: me like, how did you hear that? He was letting
Speaker 1: listen to the records. I was like, my brother wanted
Speaker 1: to be the one to tell everybody. First, it's coming
Speaker 1: from him first that he was I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: you this brother, I'm talking about Papa. You know, you
Speaker 1: want to be the one to introduced it to the world.
Speaker 1: But it's really really great to see both of y'all
Speaker 1: together and to watch the chemistry and the conversation and
Speaker 1: the mind's going. I don't know, politicians, we've building something politicians,
Speaker 1: but politician six degrees we just moved into five six
Speaker 1: ft though with Jacob all right, thank you very much,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being with him. So today
Speaker 1: is really turning out to be like an international show
Speaker 1: because it just so happened. It wasn't playned this way.
Speaker 1: We had obviously our brother Shine on we've just talked
Speaker 1: to and I thought that was again such a great interview.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, twenty one years and and now we are
Speaker 1: joined by a woman who we're just becoming acquainted with,
Speaker 1: who is in Colombia. She's a professor, humanitarian and activist
Speaker 1: who works on gun violence. They're in Lumbia trying to
Speaker 1: curb gun violence and bring down, uh, the number of
Speaker 1: shootings and um and and she very much so like
Speaker 1: our brothers Shine. The reason why we were able to
Speaker 1: get both of them today is because the United Nations
Speaker 1: has been meeting and they are both attending different events
Speaker 1: and participating in the United Nations efforts UM. And and
Speaker 1: this young woman, Dr Lilia Silano is actually being recognized
Speaker 1: UM by those individuals who are attending UH the open
Speaker 1: session that is happening here at the United Nations UH
Speaker 1: this week. So folks know that we tape our shows
Speaker 1: and so you are seeing us sort of going back
Speaker 1: in time to come back to time. And Dr Silano,
Speaker 1: we are so happy that you are coming to the
Speaker 1: US and being a part of UH the efforts here
Speaker 1: to spread the message about what is happening in Colombia,
Speaker 1: but of course how it relates to what's been in
Speaker 1: here in the US. UM. My son and I work
Speaker 1: every single day on the issue of gun violence, prevention
Speaker 1: and intervention and really the larger UM conversation around peace,
Speaker 1: UM and justice, and to have other counterparts in places
Speaker 1: like Colombia, and of course our our friend who was
Speaker 1: just here with us earlier today in a place like
Speaker 1: Believe it really is giving a showing how this is
Speaker 1: a global crisis that we are all a part of.
Speaker 1: And so we are so happy to have you with
Speaker 1: us today, Dr Selano, thank you for joining Street Politicians.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. This is a really good opportunity
Speaker 1: for me to share with you about the Columbian's efficial,
Speaker 1: the many challenges the especially young people, woman indigenous people
Speaker 1: for Columbia's face, trying to UM to achieve a good luck,
Speaker 1: a better life, dignity. So we have in Colombia this UM,
Speaker 1: this bridge between the poor and the rich is a
Speaker 1: huge So this I can say this, this is the
Speaker 1: roots of of violence. So from time to time politicians
Speaker 1: as as the program is, the street politicians UM came
Speaker 1: to power, but they benefit those UH rich and with
Speaker 1: economical and political very powerful ties. And then then the people.
Speaker 1: The people are almost sevent of the population lives in
Speaker 1: poverty and they travel for education, for health, for food,
Speaker 1: for the basis, for for housing. So through the years
Speaker 1: we we have this situation where the powerful controls the
Speaker 1: politics and then they are elected to benefit UH business,
Speaker 1: international corporations, so that the people struggled so much. But
Speaker 1: it's still in the city, many people is jelling and
Speaker 1: fighting for for justice and for equality. How how long
Speaker 1: have you been doing this work, doctor? I grew up
Speaker 1: in a in a in a poor neighborhood in Cali.
Speaker 1: In another city living Bogota, I grew up and my
Speaker 1: mother was a worker and my grandma, who was a peasant.
Speaker 1: They were internally displaced by violence. So since I was
Speaker 1: at school, I learned about unjust and I learned about
Speaker 1: the need for transformation. So I went. Then I went
Speaker 1: to university, and I was I was saying as a
Speaker 1: as a humanist, but mostly as one who would fight
Speaker 1: for human rights. And in my country does a dangerous profession.
Speaker 1: M h m hmmm. So so because of your childhood
Speaker 1: and your upbringing, you learned about justice and you were
Speaker 1: you were like you wanted to get more involved, and
Speaker 1: so you started to sort of work within the community
Speaker 1: and work with people. And what did you focus on first?
Speaker 1: Was it always violent or how did you get in
Speaker 1: to fighting for justice and the rights of those people
Speaker 1: there in your community? Yes, I think true true school
Speaker 1: years at the university used in philosophy um and basically
Speaker 1: we will learn how to think, and then you think
Speaker 1: and then you you learn about critical thought. So I
Speaker 1: saw a reality. But then I go when I went
Speaker 1: to the university, I confront all these intellect theories with
Speaker 1: our realities and ended up I find a wish mixing
Speaker 1: the realities and education. So I learned to to look
Speaker 1: for the roots of unjust andally the the control of
Speaker 1: the land, the economical model, the the the interest of
Speaker 1: trnational corporations. So I I learned to to fight for
Speaker 1: the basic basic fundamental rights. And has been through my
Speaker 1: life that I especially um in in support with victims
Speaker 1: of of the what nicol state crimes, or of crimes
Speaker 1: or of economical crimes. So it's it's most I focused
Speaker 1: on on those kind of victims, women of Colombians, indigenous
Speaker 1: people and Jews. Since last year, a huge protest has
Speaker 1: been taking place in Colombia because the Jews are without
Speaker 1: education and without house and without employed, so so they
Speaker 1: just went to the streets and and then they're just
Speaker 1: jelling for for justice and justice like it sounds al
Speaker 1: much like everything here here and and and the model
Speaker 1: of most activists and humanitarians and people who focus on
Speaker 1: the work that we do understand that you have to
Speaker 1: get to the root, cause you have to be able
Speaker 1: to identify why is there violence, not because people are
Speaker 1: bad people, bowl not because they were they were born violent,
Speaker 1: But there's there's issues with society that makes people who
Speaker 1: are poor, who are hungry, who are are traumatized, mental
Speaker 1: illness and everything, it makes them violent and well. And
Speaker 1: it's like we're screaming this from America to Columbia to
Speaker 1: everywhere the same conversation because the reality is we there's
Speaker 1: a saying that I have and we've all adopted, is
Speaker 1: that poverty is violence. And everywhere that you look with
Speaker 1: there is violence. It stems from poverty. If you go
Speaker 1: to communities where people are well to do and have
Speaker 1: resources that they need, you just don't see violence. You
Speaker 1: don't see even police, you know, occupation, occupation in those
Speaker 1: communities because there's no need for that. So we understand
Speaker 1: what the correlation between violence and poverty is, why not
Speaker 1: do what necessary to eliminate the poverty, you know, because
Speaker 1: but unfortunately we live in a AOL society where people want,
Speaker 1: they need, they need poverty, They need poor people because
Speaker 1: it funds these governments with all the money that they
Speaker 1: put in and people that they pay to keep us disenfranchise.
Speaker 1: You know, that's how the government pretty run, This how
Speaker 1: economics pretty much runs. The disenfranchised people are the people
Speaker 1: that they make money off of so we understand what's
Speaker 1: going on. So you know, the work that you're doing
Speaker 1: is phenomenal and we truly appreciate. I just want to
Speaker 1: ask something. They said, there was a negotiation between the
Speaker 1: Colombian government and the far rebels that you were pivotal in,
Speaker 1: and explain to us how that came about. Well, well,
Speaker 1: through the years has been UH strong guerrilla armed group
Speaker 1: which was called FARK. So through the media and politicians,
Speaker 1: they keep telling telling us in our history that all
Speaker 1: the problems um the reason of all the problems, it
Speaker 1: was because the confrontation between the government and the left
Speaker 1: guerrilla group. So we are group of people from different
Speaker 1: UM organizations. We worked really hard to reach a peace process,
Speaker 1: a negotiation process, and then after years and years of
Speaker 1: negotia negotiations, they come up with with an agreement. So
Speaker 1: what is going on now is that the both the
Speaker 1: government and the guerilla signed agreement, but it has been
Speaker 1: not implemented. So when they told us the problems, it
Speaker 1: was because the guerrilla was fighting. So we learned that
Speaker 1: it's it's the other way around that the province are
Speaker 1: really route in the economical issues, um in in in
Speaker 1: the control of politics, and the systematical killing of opposition.
Speaker 1: So what we have none. We have an agreement that
Speaker 1: I was signed but not implemented because those of power,
Speaker 1: they they have the war is a business. Is a
Speaker 1: business better than peace. So as longer as they can
Speaker 1: um get profit for war, well, well they do implemented
Speaker 1: the word. So we struggle again and again for peace,
Speaker 1: but we say it is not any Peace is a
Speaker 1: piece that have to be rooted with justice, with social justice,
Speaker 1: and we have to change this in Colombia. They say,
Speaker 1: if it's cheaper to buy bullets than to make a
Speaker 1: structural transformation like education for all, health, house in public service,
Speaker 1: is that will be the best for a real democracy. Well,
Speaker 1: those of power, they say, the cheaper to kill the
Speaker 1: poor than to to do all these transformation. So we
Speaker 1: all start all over again jelling for peace and for
Speaker 1: democracy because we don't have a real democracy, because in
Speaker 1: a real democracy you won't be shot for po poor.
Speaker 1: But this is a reality in Colombia. So they call
Speaker 1: it terrorists, bundleros, vandalist, vandalism meandalism, yeah, vandalism yeah, no yeah,
Speaker 1: And they justify in the name of those who are
Speaker 1: um a street roberts or people. But but the reality
Speaker 1: is UM internal displacement which is huge in Colombia. Also
Speaker 1: is execute all executions UM people people have been executed,
Speaker 1: and also those who are on poverty are the greater
Speaker 1: face of the Columbian reality. And thus we are not
Speaker 1: we're not giving up. We say, um, whatever it takes,
Speaker 1: it takes your your life, it takes your courage, it
Speaker 1: takes whatever. So the young generation they saying, we don't care,
Speaker 1: we don't in during the pandemia, they didn't even have
Speaker 1: food in a country we have lots of foods and fruits.
Speaker 1: And so the people, the young people say, not any longer.
Speaker 1: We stand up for hunger. So we want sending better
Speaker 1: and they say and we we We went in now
Speaker 1: because has been waiting for a sations and generations for
Speaker 1: for this possibility to have a belt Columbia and was
Speaker 1: still was still fighting for that. And in the top
Speaker 1: of that we have UM international corporations interests that always
Speaker 1: came come before the national interests. So yes, like in Africa,
Speaker 1: we do have a lot of environmental sort of all
Speaker 1: sorts of rishness, but it goes everywhere but not here
Speaker 1: for the people. So I mean you mentioned UM that
Speaker 1: a part of the problems that you experienced there in Colombia.
Speaker 1: UM is also the corporate the corporate hold on society
Speaker 1: and international corporations. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 1: And then the last thing mean for me, I'd like
Speaker 1: to hear about, you know, how do people receive you?
Speaker 1: People with power, how do they receive you? Because those
Speaker 1: of us who speak like you here in America, we
Speaker 1: received death threats. UM. You know we are we are
Speaker 1: not always welcome in our own society because they want
Speaker 1: us to be quiet to you know, don't speak too
Speaker 1: much about these issues. So I wonder do you experience
Speaker 1: the same there in Columbia. So first the corporate peace, UM,
Speaker 1: and then also you know, how how what do you
Speaker 1: experience from a personal perspective being out there fighting for justice? Yes,
Speaker 1: I can give a number of examples, but I can
Speaker 1: keep one. Uh for example, with mining, UM, people in
Speaker 1: which areas of Columbia with his mining, they suffered poverty
Speaker 1: because the corporations came and take the the oil, and
Speaker 1: take the goal and take emeralds. So it's such a
Speaker 1: huge contradition. But then when people protest in Colombia, is
Speaker 1: fame that right? Right? When um guns um, I don't
Speaker 1: know how to say squads. So they came and joined
Speaker 1: with militarists. We call it paramilitarists. Militarist and paramilitarists. But
Speaker 1: one force to to eliminate people who protest, people who
Speaker 1: say no, people who who is in opposition. And also
Speaker 1: um For example, big companies they contract militaries for security
Speaker 1: and those militariest subcontract paramilitarized. So areas of lots of
Speaker 1: well are controlled by by these um by these groups,
Speaker 1: so by the these armed groups. And also here we
Speaker 1: have in the top of that a huge problem and
Speaker 1: they have to be with with drugs because Colombia sadly
Speaker 1: is a country that grow coke. So this coke is
Speaker 1: turned into cocaine. But those who are hit the moons
Speaker 1: are the peasants, the low level, low level, the low
Speaker 1: level exactly, so we maybe laid in. And another problem
Speaker 1: I can explain because I investigate those types between between
Speaker 1: the mafia's in Colombia with that with an international agencies
Speaker 1: for example in your country. So they these drug leaders
Speaker 1: and agencies like they pretend to find the drugs for
Speaker 1: example C I A and then ended up there is
Speaker 1: an alliance instead of fighting against the the drugs. So
Speaker 1: it's it's a more complicated problem problem no, black and white,
Speaker 1: the Colombians who grow and er dry dealers and they
Speaker 1: and the poor guys in the States. No, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a huge problem that has to to be taken
Speaker 1: into account in a different way, not by criminalizing Colombians
Speaker 1: and the peasants. And in this point, Um, it's very
Speaker 1: important that you will not that many many Colombians software
Speaker 1: the calls, the demand for for drugs, and those the
Speaker 1: buddhis are hit by these kind of politics. In Colombia,
Speaker 1: they fight um. North Americans fight UH, the war agains rots,
Speaker 1: the war against terrorism, and still fight the war against communists.
Speaker 1: So by fighting these three wars, those who who are
Speaker 1: hit the most are the poor, are the pleasants, are
Speaker 1: the woman and Afro Colombian communities. So UM and I
Speaker 1: and I will move to to the other question that
Speaker 1: you that you asked me, the second one about my
Speaker 1: personal experience. I've been UM threat. I've been many times. Faith,
Speaker 1: I face many times UM the anassas threats that they
Speaker 1: told me because um um insurgent, because I fight for
Speaker 1: the fool, so I always they want to be too.
Speaker 1: They want you to be objective. You fight fifty percent
Speaker 1: for this and fifty percent for that. And I always
Speaker 1: say I am totally with the victims, and I don't
Speaker 1: have to present myself as an as an objective woman
Speaker 1: because I fight for the rights, but especially for the social, political,
Speaker 1: and economical rights. That's right, Okay, So the US technology
Speaker 1: of work talk about that. Yes, I I used to
Speaker 1: say that in many, in many moments, that we will
Speaker 1: dream for a day that we will we will fight
Speaker 1: just for for other things, not just for peace, peace
Speaker 1: and peace, but an international um let's say, recognition of
Speaker 1: my work as a human rights defender in Colombia. Many
Speaker 1: of us are human rights defender. That's why this country
Speaker 1: is not in the words shape. So because my commitment
Speaker 1: to peace and human rights work, they give me, they
Speaker 1: recognize me in in a ceremony which which will be
Speaker 1: very very very important for me, for the people that
Speaker 1: I work with, and also for this strong need that
Speaker 1: we have to to connect internationally, because as you mentioned
Speaker 1: in the beginning, we fight for the same stuff in
Speaker 1: that by the end were in the same need of solidarity,
Speaker 1: in the same need of coming together for for rights
Speaker 1: and for peace. And as much as we gather with
Speaker 1: international community, I used to say that not only represented
Speaker 1: by country, is by represented by people, by movements, by
Speaker 1: by the struggle. If we're going together for the struggle
Speaker 1: for for peace and justice, there will be possibility for
Speaker 1: a better word. So in that sense, I'm so happy
Speaker 1: to go and so happy to be a face and
Speaker 1: a voice. Um. And we're still hoping that especially the
Speaker 1: North Americans, when they when they will understand the strong
Speaker 1: role they play in our countries in Latin America, but
Speaker 1: especially in Colombia, they will join for our peace and
Speaker 1: then really will be will be a step ahead. Wow. Wow.
Speaker 1: We want to thank you for your work, you know,
Speaker 1: because like you said, we do the same work over here.
Speaker 1: So to see that the same struggle just we know
Speaker 1: that it exists. Were just hearing that there are other
Speaker 1: people who have the same passion for justice and civil
Speaker 1: rights and just the one to see that the people
Speaker 1: are represented properly and people have a voice, you know,
Speaker 1: to be the voice of the voice that we wanted
Speaker 1: to say thank you and hopefully we can connect because
Speaker 1: it's the same exact struggle all over this world. And
Speaker 1: just keep doing the work that you're doing it is
Speaker 1: appreciated and we're glad that you were celebrated. And continue
Speaker 1: to do what you do. Stay safe out there. Dr
Speaker 1: Lilia Celano. We appreciate you coming on with us from Colombia.
Speaker 1: You stay safe and continue to keep fighting and know
Speaker 1: that you have friends here in the US that are
Speaker 1: here to support you. Yes. Wow, okay, what do I do? Continue? Continue,
Speaker 1: continue by, continue, take care of God bless doctor Lilia Celano.
Speaker 1: Dr Lilia Celano, I love her name. Don't work man,
Speaker 1: you know, just it's crazy just hearing that and understanding
Speaker 1: that the same it's everywhere, and then you know, basically
Speaker 1: what she's saying is that Columbia, unfortunately is synonymous with
Speaker 1: this idea of like drug culture and and the mafia,
Speaker 1: and it's unfortunate, and of course the Colombian people are not.
Speaker 1: But Colombia as a country has a history of drugs
Speaker 1: and of course the what is it, the coca cocoa, No,
Speaker 1: the coco, the coca, the coca which has been turned
Speaker 1: into cocaine. That's a fact. And unfortunately, the little people
Speaker 1: that are peddlers, sellers, they are the ones that experience
Speaker 1: the you know, enforcement and they get arrested, they get criminalized.
Speaker 1: Which I'm not saying that if you're out there selling
Speaker 1: drugs that you should just be allowed to do it,
Speaker 1: and it's okay, that's not the point. But nonetheless, those
Speaker 1: are the individuals that are criminalized, and the people who
Speaker 1: actually at the highest level of it, they just they
Speaker 1: actually at meetings with you know, the government of the US.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're distributors. The low level distributors are always the
Speaker 1: ones who get in the years. These people are sitting
Speaker 1: relaxing with millions and billions of dollars after they're doing
Speaker 1: major distribution around the world. Distribution. Yeah, it's definitely distribution,
Speaker 1: but I mean it has to be if there's a
Speaker 1: point when you're just not even like I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure out I get the distribution part. I understand, like
Speaker 1: I'm just using a movie, like I see distribution on
Speaker 1: the level of suprime. I mean, what was his name?
Speaker 1: You want to rumble, you know, you wanna rumble with me?
Speaker 1: What's his name? Scar Fades? Right, So I understand the
Speaker 1: that is a million dollar billion dollars, But that's what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. It there's a okay, So then Frank
Speaker 1: Lope has not even told my frank Lock and then
Speaker 1: they he was getting it from other distribute the people
Speaker 1: that wanted to blow up the d a person, because
Speaker 1: they were the main distribute that you never seen that
Speaker 1: he had did the investigation on. You never seen them.
Speaker 1: They had estates in different countries. They told him it
Speaker 1: was worth ten billy and this one was worth a
Speaker 1: hundred million. These were the main players, and they was
Speaker 1: giving it. Okay, I'm gonna go higher, Okay, so then
Speaker 1: who okay, that's fine. Those people are literally involved some
Speaker 1: kind of way in the distribution of drugs down through
Speaker 1: layers to the people who peddlers on the streets. But
Speaker 1: I'm saying that there is a force right, which I
Speaker 1: believe unfortunately is the government. Of course, the thing is this,
Speaker 1: but they're not distributed. They're not distributed as what they
Speaker 1: do is. And some of them are distribute this because
Speaker 1: the government has access to the place where the kota
Speaker 1: is growing. They know the main place, the main places
Speaker 1: they're going, They own the real estate and all that.
Speaker 1: So what they do is they grow it and somebody
Speaker 1: they give it to somebody else and say hey, we
Speaker 1: just need this mom back or no, you can't say
Speaker 1: that that's what's happening. No, you can't. Can't. I want
Speaker 1: to live in a world where you listen to me.
Speaker 1: What do you think what is the difference between uh
Speaker 1: a drug dealer and big pharm what's the difference. Pharmacy
Speaker 1: sells the same drugs that you said. They just said,
Speaker 1: they sell the ingredients that's in crack. Yeah, you listen
Speaker 1: to me. There are drugs that you get from the
Speaker 1: pharmacy that have maybe not crying, but I get your
Speaker 1: point exactly. They sell the same exact thing. So right
Speaker 1: now people are using prescription drugs, but that's the main exactly.
Speaker 1: So the bottom line is it comes from people somebody's cutting.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take this out of here. We're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna have this since the street value. We're gonna do
Speaker 1: this league and we're gonna give this to these people
Speaker 1: because we're gonna triple and quite druple the money over here,
Speaker 1: and we still want But that's against some kind of
Speaker 1: somebody needs something about that. I'm not really educated on this,
Speaker 1: but I know it exists. But I'm just trying to say,
Speaker 1: like they do go to jail. The person who got
Speaker 1: caught with it over there, and he can't tell you
Speaker 1: gave it to him up there because it's way too
Speaker 1: beyond him. So by the time they catch it and
Speaker 1: like where you got this from, he's just gonna say
Speaker 1: I got it from Jojo, who is just somebody else,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna say, well, I got it from such
Speaker 1: and such, and then those people somewhere of course that
Speaker 1: they don't have no distribute, They don't have no um
Speaker 1: communication not communication. You don't have authority to the US
Speaker 1: the word I'm looking for jurisdiction exactly. They don't have
Speaker 1: the jurisdiction over with that, so it just stays over there.
Speaker 1: Like the reality, if you look at all of this
Speaker 1: Pablo Escobar on them, they was they was made people.
Speaker 1: They didn't have a u S, didn't have distribution to
Speaker 1: get to padwarm they I mean exactly, they didn't have
Speaker 1: jurisdiction to get to them. And they had to form
Speaker 1: all kinds of federal task force and all types of
Speaker 1: things to work with them. But there was somebody hiring him.
Speaker 1: He was paying off government officials. He literally was paying
Speaker 1: off government officials to say, Yo, we're gonna put this
Speaker 1: on planes, Wh're gonna put this here and they were
Speaker 1: just turning their head. The whole government was correct. The
Speaker 1: whole government was correct. But those are other countries exactly.
Speaker 1: That's what I don't want to believe that my American government.
Speaker 1: I don't want to believe that my American government for
Speaker 1: the country that I fled. I don't fly to flag,
Speaker 1: but the flag is flown, and we salute the men
Speaker 1: and women. Thank Lucas. He went over across the seas,
Speaker 1: brought it back, paid people to put it on ships
Speaker 1: when it got paid the money. But this was the
Speaker 1: reality of what was going on. It's the same strategy
Speaker 1: you think that boatload. Sometimes they got to catch Remember
Speaker 1: when the bank the bank, the bank had boat the
Speaker 1: tanks or you know, what are those things called the
Speaker 1: what are those things called the trailers? When you see
Speaker 1: them in the water. They had the containers in the
Speaker 1: water with all the going and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden it just went away. I never heard what was
Speaker 1: the follow up? Who went to prison? Is nothing? But
Speaker 1: that's not my government. Oh lord, if you look at
Speaker 1: the Watergate scandal, is just thinking about like this is
Speaker 1: your government. They said that they brought drugs here to
Speaker 1: distribute here, like this is documented that the government brought
Speaker 1: drugs to our community. I mean, okay, so I understand that.
Speaker 1: And when I see that, I see it as a
Speaker 1: lower sort of level issue. What do you mean lower
Speaker 1: The government said that they intentionally put drugs into our right.
Speaker 1: So but I'm trying I'm saying that, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: they put the drugs. I get that. But what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to understand, so you're saying that basically, somewhere in
Speaker 1: the atmosphere a person or people that we don't really know,
Speaker 1: they are in relationship with and in bed with people
Speaker 1: from other countries, and that there is a distribution that's
Speaker 1: happening that's black market or underground. I mean, that's some
Speaker 1: deep ship. But that is really much pretty much converse
Speaker 1: we're not getting. We have one of the biggest intelligence
Speaker 1: in the world, and the right running down the street
Speaker 1: from robbing the store, and they liked what you telling me.
Speaker 1: They don't see hundreds of thousands of key loads of
Speaker 1: drugs just being shipped in here every day. But then okay,
Speaker 1: but my you can't see he and tell me that
Speaker 1: office is so and so who watches the screens and
Speaker 1: the things is the one that's responded not catch cops.
Speaker 1: Every day, every day you catch crooked cops who taking
Speaker 1: breaks or been distributed it. I was locked up in
Speaker 1: jail with it was ceo who was literally bringing drugs
Speaker 1: to the jail. They was they was giving it to.
Speaker 1: And when the dude got caught, he told if he
Speaker 1: told on the CEO, the CEO just be like noticing
Speaker 1: if he stopped, and they couldn't get nothing. That the
Speaker 1: person who got caught with is the only person that
Speaker 1: with the jail. The seal there' start monitoring and catch him.
Speaker 1: But once he knew that this person got caught, most
Speaker 1: of them just like I'm done. I'm done now, so
Speaker 1: he good. The little man is on the total post,
Speaker 1: the one who goes down, just like Jamiller tells about
Speaker 1: her story and she they told her how to skim
Speaker 1: the skim, skim the scim. This is what we do
Speaker 1: and she got caught with it. She said, look, this
Speaker 1: is what they've been doing. Like, no, we're good where
Speaker 1: we aren't worried about that. You though you're gonna go
Speaker 1: and get this this devil. I mean, I know what
Speaker 1: you're saying is right, I do, but sometimes I like
Speaker 1: to I want to be able to feel that. I don't.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to believe everything is just as
Speaker 1: bad as it is. Well, that's where the problem is.
Speaker 1: And you know, they said the biggest trick the devil
Speaker 1: ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist.
Speaker 1: And that's where we live, and we live in in
Speaker 1: a matrix. Right, people want to believe so much like
Speaker 1: the promise of freedom and all of this, we want
Speaker 1: to believe that, like we want to believe that that's
Speaker 1: actually what the country is. We want to vote in
Speaker 1: politicians and people and say, oh, this person really could
Speaker 1: do that. When you look at the whole infrastructure and
Speaker 1: what's based on the reality is that this country was
Speaker 1: never based on the principles that they stay understand to us.
Speaker 1: It's just even if those principles actually arrive in the
Speaker 1: beloved community we have, the whole structure of this country
Speaker 1: has to fall. It's built on capitalism. Capitalism is built
Speaker 1: on poverty is built on there being a lower class
Speaker 1: of people who need to spend everything in funnel and
Speaker 1: and pretty much fun the whole everything else. So if
Speaker 1: you eliminate poverty in the lower class, there's no structure
Speaker 1: for capitalism. M hmm, well, I'll hear you, but I
Speaker 1: just I'm like, because if you when you tell me
Speaker 1: all of this, I can't. Obviously there's not a machine
Speaker 1: that's doing it. There's a human that is involved. And
Speaker 1: we see these humans because they are not invisible people.
Speaker 1: They are they are I mean, maybe we don't see them,
Speaker 1: but they are. They are among the world, like us,
Speaker 1: the country. There's somebody who has responded school for the stuff.
Speaker 1: And it's really because and the reason why, of course
Speaker 1: it impacts us is because when you talk about Frank Lucas,
Speaker 1: it actually trickles down to mothers and fathers and children
Speaker 1: who are on drugs, who have left their families. You know,
Speaker 1: we talked about the eighties probably the only time in
Speaker 1: history where we have watched mothers sell their babies in
Speaker 1: the ways in which happened in that era, in the
Speaker 1: crack era. I mean, we just this has really hurt us,
Speaker 1: and no one is responsible for it. Because even previous
Speaker 1: governments that have had to admit to pushing drugs into
Speaker 1: our communities, they died before the there was any sort
Speaker 1: of I want to say reckoning, but they really hasn't
Speaker 1: been a reckon and there's just been some exposure of
Speaker 1: the strategy. Right when you look at tax breaks. When
Speaker 1: we talk about how Trump, I don't know it was
Speaker 1: something stupid. Think about that, right, This is a multimillionaire
Speaker 1: almost billionaire person who who is able. He said, I
Speaker 1: utilize the system. He knows the system. He utilized the
Speaker 1: system that was built for him to benefit him. You
Speaker 1: can utilize the system that the average person can utilize
Speaker 1: because they don't have any resources. They don't have anything
Speaker 1: in order to you love that. So this country is
Speaker 1: not built for the point. It's not built forever. And
Speaker 1: if everybody had the same opportunities, then it will crumble.
Speaker 1: They can't. Equality does not work for capitalism if it
Speaker 1: has to have me saying I want more than you have. Right,
Speaker 1: if we gotta work for you. You spend my money everywhere,
Speaker 1: but in my own community, I gotta do everything. I
Speaker 1: gotta get bag and a poopy tool so I can
Speaker 1: say you don't have it, and I do and I'm here. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The thing is you like it because there was a
Speaker 1: time you didn't have it, because you see it and
Speaker 1: it's a status symbol. It represents comfort. But the nice
Speaker 1: what what about it is nice. The niceness of it.
Speaker 1: It's not that it just looks. It looks nice. Right.
Speaker 1: And then when you say, well the courses this status
Speaker 1: it costs like courses. You understand what I'm saying. It's
Speaker 1: a status symbol. People recognize something that gives me some
Speaker 1: level of esteem and prestige. No, yeah, I don't see.
Speaker 1: I don't say you don't think so when you buy,
Speaker 1: so when you so, when you buy people, so listen
Speaker 1: to me, So tell me this. When people buy fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollar bags, I don't have a I'm saying when
Speaker 1: people they are people have that, I don't have that
Speaker 1: right there, People have ten thousand other bands, people have
Speaker 1: five each other like like you know, I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: comfortable because because the bottom is it's not because we
Speaker 1: understand it's a status sim When people say that, they go,
Speaker 1: whoa that course this they don't look at said that
Speaker 1: bag is just marvelous to look at. It's the most beautiful.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about, because my bags
Speaker 1: that are expensive, I'm not gonna see him a lot
Speaker 1: at an actual question, are you able to say that
Speaker 1: you have bags that courts less, that look better than
Speaker 1: so that's the best looking bag you've ever Yes, I
Speaker 1: would say that. The reason why I'm saying that to
Speaker 1: you is because I'm not motivated by the same thing
Speaker 1: that other people are motivated by. Most stuff that costs
Speaker 1: a lot of money is ugly. Not most of the thing.
Speaker 1: Listen to me, most of the ta Why are you
Speaker 1: talking to Janice all the way over there, because I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say this. I'm just being but I just cannot.
Speaker 1: Just as much as I like a broken bag and
Speaker 1: it's cute, I don't see nothing better than her Man's bag.
Speaker 1: That course, five thousand others less. I probably would buy
Speaker 1: that more. I look at louisva turn bag and I
Speaker 1: like the designs better than the bag. That course, I've
Speaker 1: seen bags. I've watched bags, of course, of course I've looked.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I'm talking about I'm talking about visually. Listen. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 1: First of all, I'm I'm the expert on this issue here, okay,
Speaker 1: and let me let me let me just let me
Speaker 1: just say, let me just say yes, say, let me
Speaker 1: just say I am definitely a high low shopper, right,
Speaker 1: So I got stuff that is all different types of prices,
Speaker 1: and I have things that have no name that are
Speaker 1: very very nice and it doesn't matter, and we can
Speaker 1: we can, we can all do that, right, So I
Speaker 1: absolutely I agree with you, But you're not about to
Speaker 1: sit here and tell me that my birkin is as
Speaker 1: is not as fancy as something that I also have
Speaker 1: a closet. That's two You're just not gonna do. That's
Speaker 1: your personal opinion. And I could say that I don't agree, right,
Speaker 1: My thing is this, This is what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: There are things in our society, right they're probably course
Speaker 1: more than yeah, of course less right, but right now,
Speaker 1: the broken is the status symbol. There are things that
Speaker 1: we don't know nothing about that people have seen that
Speaker 1: course more of course less that just look beautiful and
Speaker 1: most people don't go get it if you look at
Speaker 1: the bags that most people have. True, Okay, that's not true.
Speaker 1: Do you have do you have? I'm trying. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to ask you a question. Do you know people
Speaker 1: within the circle that by offening bags that just look cute? Yes,
Speaker 1: you want to know what the new bag is that
Speaker 1: we buy. Everything has a name, but people don't get
Speaker 1: you a Conway bag it's got a name. It's the
Speaker 1: Conway bag, and every and you feeling the Conway back.
Speaker 1: But that's what I was getting ready to tell you.
Speaker 1: The Protect Black People bag, which Dwanna Thompson bought me
Speaker 1: one and I see black people wearing them all over.
Speaker 1: It is not a big you know, it's not a
Speaker 1: birking No, it's not. And of course I understand the
Speaker 1: point of what you're saying, but I'm just telling you
Speaker 1: that that is a bag that people have bought, that
Speaker 1: is that is not a major ten thousand dollar brand
Speaker 1: that black women really like. So I'm just I don't
Speaker 1: see advert You don't see advertised advertised young in the world.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about a different type of advertisement. All
Speaker 1: I'm saying is that first of all, we we we
Speaker 1: as black people, deserve luxury, which I don't think you're
Speaker 1: saying we don't we deserve luxury. And when I walk
Speaker 1: into a store, if I'm looking for something that I
Speaker 1: need to wear to a nice event, I don't have
Speaker 1: a problem with the H and M dress that it's
Speaker 1: just fabulous, and I have pictures I can pull them
Speaker 1: up and show you that there's been my H and
Speaker 1: M dressed. Now my H and M dressed might be
Speaker 1: mixed with you know, a lube shoe, a red bottom
Speaker 1: or something like that, but I still know how to
Speaker 1: mix it all in. And I think it's all about
Speaker 1: your taste and your fashion, your style, and where you're
Speaker 1: going to find the best types of things that help
Speaker 1: you feel confident in self. But it's not Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go to the store and no matter because there
Speaker 1: are people out here like that, no matter how ugly
Speaker 1: it is or how unattractive it is. I like to
Speaker 1: use word ugly, but no matter how unattractive it is,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get it just because everybody else is getting it.
Speaker 1: That's not me and most of my friends they don't
Speaker 1: shot like but I do need another burden. I'm just messing.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying tags and ladies are pretty much what
Speaker 1: defines most of the things right, and that's the row
Speaker 1: in and that's how pretty much life is right and
Speaker 1: was high end was high end is something that's celebrated.
Speaker 1: So when we bring it back to what we were
Speaker 1: talking about, those at the top on people that are celebrated,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna get locked up, they're not gonna get
Speaker 1: facing the consequences and talking about drugs. It brings me
Speaker 1: to my I don't get it, which we did? This
Speaker 1: is what we might even have enough time for this,
Speaker 1: I don't get it. But where did they make K
Speaker 1: two at first? Of all? Who who knows what they're making?
Speaker 1: I don't know. But it's some research that needs to
Speaker 1: be done, because listen to me. I have seen in
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, in weeks, I've seen the
Speaker 1: effects of K two that are just unbelievable, like it is.
Speaker 1: It's it's a phenomenon to me. I've watched people in
Speaker 1: the corner go through whole routines as if nobody else
Speaker 1: is dead, like the high when you've seen this before though,
Speaker 1: because no heroin epidemic. It's just they're not. And I've
Speaker 1: seen you know they're not, and they almost fallen, you know,
Speaker 1: they almost no a K to person that's they do
Speaker 1: a little more completely in another world. He is in
Speaker 1: another world. She They are in completely a whole another world.
Speaker 1: They're so far from themselves that it is unbelievable, Like
Speaker 1: it is like Dr Jeko because you um, you and
Speaker 1: I and Angelo you Angel because you Angelo and I
Speaker 1: just sat the other day after leaving one your meeting,
Speaker 1: and we watched these three people do some real strange
Speaker 1: things and there was it was And I just don't
Speaker 1: get it. I don't get how is it even legal?
Speaker 1: Like you can literally by K two at a regular store. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is this is unbelieving. It's probably more dangerous
Speaker 1: than the rest of the job. I don't see a
Speaker 1: drug that it's more than It may be as dangerous
Speaker 1: as K two, but I don't see a drug right
Speaker 1: now that I've seen that has the effect on people
Speaker 1: that is worse than K too. Yeah, And I really
Speaker 1: just don't get it, man, Like somebody need to tempt
Speaker 1: you tell me where we're like, we're has does it
Speaker 1: come from? If they say it's sort of like potpourri, No,
Speaker 1: it used to sell the potpourri, but they still sell popourri.
Speaker 1: I'm sure, but that's what it is. They sm basically
Speaker 1: something like that, it's like potpourri, and then shout out
Speaker 1: to Victoria Panell and Mary foranal our friends in the movement.
Speaker 1: They've been on this fight against K two for a
Speaker 1: long time, for many years, and in fact, a lot
Speaker 1: of people, uh, excuse me, or what's his name? I
Speaker 1: can't think it's another guy that is coming not coming
Speaker 1: to my head. And then of course Kirston John Foy.
Speaker 1: There's been a number of leaders that have been on
Speaker 1: this k TO issue for years because at one point
Speaker 1: now there for people who are listening that don't live
Speaker 1: in New York. If you could just for a moment
Speaker 1: really think about this. There is a street in New
Speaker 1: York City which is Lexington Avenue and a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty street, two block, and there's a shelter that's right
Speaker 1: in the middle of it that when when it used
Speaker 1: to be a path which was path Mark would be
Speaker 1: a supermarket, but there was a there was a shelter
Speaker 1: that was there too many years ago, and they gave
Speaker 1: the top part of the shelter to my youth group
Speaker 1: at the time, the Youth Move which was through the
Speaker 1: National Action Network. So we used to be there every
Speaker 1: Friday and Saturday doing our work in the shelter that
Speaker 1: was full of people who were addicted to all kinds
Speaker 1: of things. So we got to see up close in
Speaker 1: person and to your point, still never did I see
Speaker 1: people that look like they look on the k too,
Speaker 1: so on the at the corner stores. So for people
Speaker 1: who are listening, they've never been, you don't know how
Speaker 1: twin fishy and of course for people who do you
Speaker 1: know exactly what we're talking about. There's four corners and
Speaker 1: at least two of the corners have stores regular bodegas
Speaker 1: as we call them, right, which is that's the that's
Speaker 1: the little the little street, the little corner store. You
Speaker 1: go get all your stuff, your quick purchases. The store
Speaker 1: was selling it over the count Like, but they say cigarette.
Speaker 1: They I mean, there's so many people are like, well,
Speaker 1: they sell cigarettes, they sell something, you know, they sell beer,
Speaker 1: the liquor store sells liquor. All these things are killing people.
Speaker 1: So that's the that's the balance of the conversation. They like,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of stuff that we sell in all
Speaker 1: everywhere that's killing people. That'sation because you know what I'm about.
Speaker 1: But six ft, that's all I'm gonna say. But I'm
Speaker 1: just saying this, and it's not just it's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that it's being so exactly. But to your
Speaker 1: point that you're not getting into is that there are
Speaker 1: multiple things that in our society is being sold that's
Speaker 1: harming people, right, And so folks feel like why they
Speaker 1: can't sell the k too legally walking the store and
Speaker 1: the over the counting in the they don't sell crap over,
Speaker 1: ain't selling no herond needles over, they ain't selling you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Um on thirties over the counter,
Speaker 1: He's not selling. They're just not selling it. You know,
Speaker 1: a little bit, a lot too many things. It wasn't
Speaker 1: always well. I you know, I think we have covered
Speaker 1: a lot. I think we covered too much, man, just
Speaker 1: because there's so much, too much. Shout out to our
Speaker 1: Shout out to Sean twenty one years for the Sean album,
Speaker 1: the anniversary. Shout out to him for coming up. Shout
Speaker 1: out to Doctorian work that she does Columbia everywhere. Shout
Speaker 1: out to everybody who's been watching and downloading the podcast.
Speaker 1: We're moving up to number one week. I shouldn't be
Speaker 1: laughing because we do need to move up to number one,
Speaker 1: But it's funny, because you know it's not funny. Number
Speaker 1: one podcast in the world. Number one, and all right,
Speaker 1: we appreciate y'all. Make sure that you'll keep tuning in.
Speaker 1: Let us know what you want to hear. Tell us
Speaker 1: you like us, tell us you love us, tell us
Speaker 1: you don't like us and just give us some feedback.
Speaker 1: Just turn next, just go tell me like me. I
Speaker 1: could take it. I could take it. Man. We appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: And as always, I'm not gonna always be right to me.
Speaker 1: Is gonna be wrong most of the time. Sometimes she
Speaker 1: might be right. But we were both always and I
Speaker 1: mean always, always, always. That's how we owned it. Listen
Speaker 1: to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and catch us every single Wednesday for the
Speaker 1: video version of Street Politicians or I Women dot Tv