TAN – The Afro News

Hey, Connect!

Hey, Connect!  By Jack Toronto

Do you need more joy in your life?

Would you like to increase your effectiveness at work, at home and at play?

No more lonely nights sitting all alone, All you go to do is…GET OUT THERE AND CONNECT! Continue Reading

Pensioners Beware

In May Publisher/Editor Honoré passed along a letter from a TAN reader concerned about regulations which govern Canada’s two income plans for seniors, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Old Age Security Program (OAS). Continue Reading

Vancouver Canucks Fan

I was shocked when violence broke out after Vancouver’s game seven Stanley Cup loss to the Boston Bruins. Shock turned to anger when I saw images of the senseless mayhem. The indignant parent within me railed against the young idiots who destroyed my city and theirs. No punishment could be too strong. Continue Reading

Temporary Foreign Workers Vulnerable to Abuse

May 17, 2011 headline in The Vancouver Sun: “B. C. woman charged with human trafficking. West Vancouver resident allegedly forced African woman to work 18 hours a day, 7 days a week.” A young woman was allegedly brought over from Africa and forced to work in demeaning and slave-like conditions in a lavish West Vancouver home for about a year. Continue Reading

Candus Churchill Shines the Light

Singing or acting, Vancouver’s Candus Churchill’s got soul. It don’t mean a thing if it doesn’t swing from deep inside up and out to embrace audience and performer in the creative instant. Dedication to integrity guided her artistic journey from Kentucky, where she was raised in a musical family, to Washington D.C, Los Angeles and Japan before her 1980 arrival in Vancouver with rock funk group Dragon Fly. Continue Reading

Who is Black ?

Who Is Black?  “Who Is Black?” this question was a sub-theme that ran throughout “As The Spirit Moves: Connecting Through Art and Conversations” on February 20th at the SFU downtown campus. It arose when I met 101 year-old Rose Landers (The Afro News, April 2011). To a casual observer Rose is black but in her own mind and under the racial distinctions of South Africa she is coloured because some of her ancestors were white. In the United States she would be regarded as black because some of her ancestors were black. Continue Reading

Remarkable Rose Landers with her granddaughter, Marion

When I met Rose Landers at As the Spirit Moves: Connecting Through Art and Conversations, a National Congress of Black Women Event at the downtown campus of SFU on February 20, she was 101 years and three weeks old. She was born on February 1, 1910 in Cape Town, South Africa, right by Table Mountain. To all appearances Rose could be Desmond Tutu’s mother. Continue Reading

AGING : Know About Getting Older.

I was told in school, “Write about what you know.” I know about getting older. We all do, actually, but turning 67 this month means I can’t dismiss the effects of aging. I have tried. After a diagnosis of coronary artery disease angioplasty restored a healthy flow of blood to my heart and with regular exercise I’m in better shape than most men my age. Continue Reading

Roots

I’ve just returned from an amazing three week trip to Scotland and England to reconnect with friends I made seven years ago when volunteering for The Iona Community on the Isle of Iona, one of the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. Continue Reading

Idi Amin Addressing the United Nations

Idi Amin Hero Or Villain ? His Son Jaffar Amin and Other People Speak by Jaffar Amin and Margaret Akulia.  575 pages.  Published by  Millennium Global Publishers.!Available for purchase at https://www.createspace.com/3452322  Reviewed by Jack Toronto Continue Reading