Kemet1luv's article
Check out these black-owned hand bag brands by both African and African-American designers:
#1 - Minku: Minku is considered the Hermes of Africa when it comes to handbags. They are all handmade and can take up to 50 hours to complete and are lined with repurposed items of Yoruba ceremonial dress. The Nigerian company was started by founder Kunmi in 2011 and is a family-run business.
#2 - ZAAF: ZAAF offers handcrafted luxury leather handbags made in Ethiopia. They are crafted with the finest materials and produced in a remote Ethiopian village. The company was founded by Abai Schulze, a remarkable CEO who is under the age of 30.
#3 - Gregory Sylvia: This designer handbag company was co-founded by Gregory and Terri “Sylvia” Pope. The husband-wife team started their company in Charlotte, North Carolina and are known for their luxury, elegant handbags crafted from fine leather.
#4 - Adela Dejack: These African-inspired designer handbags are made in Kenya. Their collection of handbags, jewelry and other accessories are inspired by African shapes, textures and techniques. Designer Adèle Dejak had plenty of design experience in England and Italy before moving her company to Nairobi, Kenya in 2005.
#5 - Christopher Augmon: Christopher Augmon high-end luxury designer handbags are made in New York and reflect the richness of various cultures. His distinctive handbags can be found in boutiques around the United States and online.
PLUS HERE TWO MORE (CLICK HERE)
Here are the top 10 Black and minority business expos across the country:
#1 - Southern California Black Business Expo: An advertising, information and marketing resource that focuses on helping promote and increase the sales of black businesses to black consumers in southern California.
#2 - Indiana Black Expo Business Conference: founded in 1970 to support the accomplishments and achievements of African Americans throughout the state of Indiana. The highlight of the organization is the annual Indiana Black Expo Business Conference.
#3 - Memphis Black Expo Cultural Festival & Black Business Showcase: established in 1999 to provide an annual 5-day cultural celebration where local and national business owners can gather to showcase their products and services to consumers.
#4 - Madison Black Business Expo: supports black owned businesses, clubs, organizations, and service providers throughout Madison, Wisconsin, by an annual community event that creates space for networking among black business owners.
#5 - Jackson Black Business Expo: provides a working network between the community and black-owned businesses in the Jackson, Mississippi, metro area.
#6 - Lexington Minority Business Expo: established in 2002 to help build business opportunities for black-owned businesses in the Lexington, Kentucky area.
#7 - Virginia Minority Business Expo: an annual trade show for Richmond, Virginia black-owned businesses that provides a central location for minority owned businesses to showcase their product, services or innovations.
#8 - Boston Minority Business Expo: provides an annual forum for minority business owners to meet and exchange ideas as well as increase their business by networking with customers and other small businesses in the Boston area.
#9 - WRMSDC Minority Business Expo: the largest and longest running minority business expo in Northern California. The annual expo connects suppliers, buyers, and corporate representatives from across the states of California, Nevada, and beyond.
#10 - Triad Minority Business Expo: services minority-owned businesses across Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Southeast Region of the United States.
Her web site, reparations.me, is essentially a public forum where white people can offer their belongings or services, and people of color can request help for a specific need.
The site, which began as a social media experiment on Facebook, has garnered a lot of national attention. Some, of course, are criticizing the idea, but others are embracing it. Natasha says she has received both racist and negative responses, and has even received death threats. But this has not deterred her.
According to her web site: “For every malevolent, racist, post submitted via this website, a dollar will be donated to Reparations.me for folks who have specifically requested financial support. The time you invest in spewing hate could be spent supporting someone who needs you in your community. But maybe you have nothing of value to offer your community except a vile contempt for creativity, compassion, and human connection?”
She says she plans to continue allowing people to pay and solicit reparations in what she calls “an organic manner without the regulation of government or committee.” She explains, “[Reparations] is a word that means repair. And I feel like many people feel broken.”
Meanwhile, the site has stirred up and renewed the controversial ongoing debate about “white privilege” and “white guilt”. It has also sparked a heated national debate about whether or not descendants of slaves deserve reparations.
For more details about the site, visit www.reparations.me
“At a time when there are many reasons to be sad, we are still joyful,” says Kiddada Green, executive founding director of the Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association in Detroit and a co-founder of BBW. “The satisfaction of giving your baby the healthiest start at life with the preventative health benefits of breastmilk is one way to feel joy. Fathers, family members and communities experience this joy too when they support mothers to successfully breastfeed,” Green says.
Breastfeeding may not always feel joyful when you consider the many structural and cultural barriers such as the lack of a federal paid maternity leave policy to give mothers ample time to establish their breastfeeding routine before returning to work or the “shaming” of mothers who nurse in public in a society that uses breasts to sell chicken wings and beer yet makes women uncomfortable for using their breasts for their natural purpose. But, the co-founders of Black Breastfeeding Week note, those barriers are exactly why breastfeeding successfully for whatever personal goal women set, is such a joy.
'Mo' money
Basically, wealth is the accumulation of resources, like stocks, bonds, real estate, and money. A new study of the racial wealth gap by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and the Corporation For Economic Development (CFED), which studied trends in wealth from 1983 to 2013, released its findings, and it wasn't pretty. It showed that, indeed, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
During the 30-year-study, the rich -- members of the Forbes 400 list -- experienced a 736 percent increase in their wealth. While the average white household experienced a 84 percent gain in wealth during that time period, this increase was 3 times greater than what blacks experienced.
The problem grows
Starting with one factor, income, it's clear to
see how the gap grew. Income was 50 percent higher in 2011 for whites than it
was for blacks and Latinos, but the median household wealth for white households
was around 16 times greater. How can that be? More earnings equates to more
savings, and greater opportunities to build wealth. In addition, disasters like
the real estate crash have a much greater affect on blacks than on whites.
What about government programs?
The study shined a
not-so-flattering light on government programs that are supposed to help build
wealth. Here are some of the highlights:
- Government spending on wealth-building has more than tripled since 1994 but mostly helps people who already have wealth
- 77 percent of the home mortgage tax deduction benefits households with annual incomes between $75,000 and $500,000
- Two-thirds of all public subsidies for retirement savings go to people whose incomes are in the top 20 percent
Bottom line
Unless
things change, the study predicts that in the next 30 years, the average white
family’s net worth will grow by $18,000 per year, but growth for black and
Hispanic households will be only $750 and $2,250 per year.
(WSJ) JOHANNESBURG—China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday pledged $60 billion in financing for development across Africa, aiming to reaffirm his country’s commitment to the continent despite the economic turmoil caused by slowing growth of the world’s second-largest economy.
Mr. Xi told dozens of African leaders at a summit in Johannesburg the funds would be invested in 10 projects over three years. The Chinese leader didn’t specify which of Africa’s more than 50 countries would receive the aid.
“These plans are aimed at addressing three issues holding back Africa’s development,” Mr. Xi said to warm applause from the presidents and prime ministers of Africa’s largest economies. “Namely inadequate infrastructure…professional and skilled personnel, and funding.”
an News) The Eastern Africa debt stocks have risen rapidly over the past five years, but debt ratios appear to remain manageable, according to the Economic Development in Africa 2016 Report on “Debt Dynamics and Development Finance in Africa” which was released in July in Nairobi.
Between 2011 and 2014, the annual growth rate of external debt in Eastern Africa has been higher at 13.3% than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa at 9%.
However, the debt levels are still sustainable, with only two countries in the region Burundi and Djibouti currently being deemed at high risk of debt default, according to a recent evaluation of the joint World Bank and International Monetary Fund Debt Sustainability Framework.The report further estimated that an additional 600 billion USD is needed in Africa every year until 2030 in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The body has now suggested to the East African countries to stem out illicit financial flows in order to increase domestic resource mobilisation.
The new technology called Urine Test for Malaria (UMT), is a non-invasive bloodless rapid test that can diagnose malaria in less than 25 minutes.
UMT uses a simple dip-stick and unlike the old method which requires health personel, people can self-diagnose for the disease at home.
Eddy Agbo, is a biochemist, and the founder of Fyodor, the biotechnology firm that developed this urine test kit. He says that the technology that took him 8 years of research and development, detects malaria parasite proteins in a patient’s urine.
“Urine is acidic sample , usually when a protein is present in an acidic enviroment, it unravels, it becomes difficult to detect by conventional approach, so we had to re-engineer the tool so as to be able to fish it out be it even in that unconventional state,” says Dr. Agbo.
(Pan-African Alliance) It was the vision of Marcus Garvey, Henry Sylvester-Williams, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Kwame Nkrumah and millions of other Pan-African’s past and present to bring a United States of Africa to life. Today, we are politically, economically, socially and geographically separated from our brothers and sisters engaged in the fight to liberate our homeland and complete that vision.
A United States of Africa would be the third most populous state after China and India, would have the largest total territory of any state on Earth, and the most powerful economic and military force in the history of the world. Realizing that vision will mean the unification of Africa’s political bodies, infrastructure, currency and resources, and armed forces. But as you will read below, this vision is not without its challenges.
Cairo (AFP) - The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is showcasing for the first time the earliest writing from ancient Egypt found on papyrus, detailing work on the Great Pyramid of Giza, antiquities officials said Thursday.
The papyri were discovered near Wadi el-Jarf port, 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of the Gulf of Suez town of Zafarana, the antiquities ministry said.
The find by a French-Egyptian team unearths papers telling of the daily lives of port workers who transported huge limestone blocks to Cairo during King Khufu's rule to build the Great Pyramid, intended to be his burial structure.
(Atlanta Black Star) Iyore Olaye reached a major milestone. She recently graduated from Ivy League Cornell University with a unique achievement. She was the only Black female in the 2016 chemical engineer class.
The Hillside, New Jersey native finished school in May and shared her accomplishment on Facebook Tuesday.
“Three months ago I graduated from one of the best schools in the world, the greatest engineering program in the Ivy League, in one of the most rigorous majors at Cornell,” she wrote in her post. “There were moments of defeat and moments of victory through it all. I am thankful that I had continuous love and encouragement from friends and family who went out of their way to see me through to my success.”
According to her LinkedIn page, Olaye served as an undergraduate researcher, an engineering admissions diversity fellow, and president of the National Society of Black Engineers during her time at Cornell.
Using the gross domestic product at the end of 2015 published by the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg reported that the size of South Africa’s economy is $301 billion at the rand’s current exchange rate, while Nigeria’s GDP is $296 billion.
Bloomberg noted that the rand has gained more than 16% against the US currency since the start of 2016, while in contrast, Nigeria’s naira has lost more than a third of its value.
