Hey, Poughkeepsie! What do you want?

Yes, I see you.  [Eagle and Tulsa, I see you two are back to camping out here, too.  Don't y'all ever want lives of your own?]

Look. I am not going to have you stalking me like you have these past weeks. Come correct or get the hell out.

Med stuff rescheduled, thanks to flu shot reax. Lots of looming expenses. Sales/shares needed consistently.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

Water level's dropping again. Supposedly snow tomorrow night and Thursday; we'll see.

But first off, shout-out to Upstate New York (waaaay upstate)! Whassup? Yeah, you. You wanna know something, ask. This? This is just creepy.

Y'all make me so tired. Your behavior is apparently endless. 

No appointment today, after all. Flu shot reacted badly; might as well have the flu itself. Ugh. Also really, really tired; new chest pain on top of the existing chest pain isn't something I needed, exactly, right now. Hasn't reduced my stress levels any, because everything just gets rescheduled, and there's seemingly no end in sight, nor any DX, either. And since I have to swallow my stress and get basic stuff done yet tonight, the rest is cut-and-paste.

All of this means that we still need sales, which means we need shares. Badly. Again, if you're thinking about donating, DON'T. Give it to Bobby to help get Don Feliberto back into a real home. Here's the latest update. We know what it's like not to have one; we have one now, and donations need to go there to get this elder safe again. I posted a second piece at my other site a couple of nights ago about Bobby's efforts in Puerto Rico, including his adoption of Don Feliberto to get this abandoned elder into safe space again. That will tell you what he's up against, and my e-mail's in my Blogger profile here (or you can DM at Twitter/FB); hit me up for his addresses if you want to contribute, either cash (most needed) or household and other items, some of which you can purchase outright via the Amazon Wishlist Bobby's set up here. He's added a bunch of new items, all badly needed, and I can testify to the fact that need for the power cords, the tools, and the solar lights and equipment is probably exigent at this point. That said, when you're in a situation like Don Feliberto is, it's amazing how wonderful clean clothes and good coffee can make you feel, too.

What we need are SALES. Please. Spread the word. I know it's now too late to ship in time for Valentine's Day, but people have birthdays, anniversaries, I-love-you days; there'll be other holidays and seasons coming up before you know it. Please spread all of our links around on FB and Twitter and other social media, via e-mail and word-of-mouth, to your family and friends and colleagues and whoever. The O2 issue is now solved, but there are all the ongoing regular expenses, the astronomical medical expenses, and of course, someday we'd like to be able to get the house finished. I have no hope of that happening anytime soon; I don't know how we're going to get through the rest of this winter, given current circumstances. So here are the links: 

• Tonight's post elsewhere (bluebirds and sunflowers);
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to She-Wolf's & my medical bills);
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. There are new kitchen-y things on it now, stuff that I didn't realize we'd need to replace (either because the RV ruined it or because we gave it away when we had to downsize).
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. There are some things left on both registries that I thought by now I might be able just to buy outright, but medical bills (mine and She-Wolf's both) have to come first.

I had planned to some new stuff to launch at my new site today (or, rather, long before today), but between lack of money and technical issues, that's still on hold. This business of ignoring my symptoms and my pain  and discomfort does seem to be helping my brain and body both find some sort of accommodation with this oh-my-god-you're-going-to-die thing that keeps happening, which is to say, every time it crops up, I smack it ruthlessly back down and force myself to sit and breathe through it. I dunno how long this will keep working, but I'm going to bulldoze my way through it as much as possible, DX or no. Thanks, everybody, from both of us, for everything. 



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Eagle, CO. Enough.

You want to come at me, then woman up and do it directly; e-mail's down there in my profile.  But knock off this passive-aggressive sneaking stalking shit.  It's tiresome.  Nobody got time for your white nonsense.

[Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know who you are. "Enlightened being" you are not.]

Hey, Eagle!!!

Got your attention?

What the hell do you want?

Stalking's a bad look.

Hey, Stalkers!

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

Yeah, you new ones, in addition to the Pennsylvania fake. You from Massachusetts, and you from Oklahoma, and ESPECIALLY you from Colorado, all these obsessive weeks, day after day after freaking day.

Yeah, you're completely transparent. You've got one option: Woman up and contact me personally to get the answers you so desperately don't want. Otherwise, get lost.

There aren't even cobwebs for you here.

You know what? I think Imma leave this pinned to the top here. That way y'all can't miss it.


Edit:  Told you I would pin it.  Do you see me now?

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

My stalkers are reeeeeeeally special.

The personal stalker? She's taken up these Buzzfeed-style quizzes, and taken to posting the results. With her photo. Today's quiz told her what her supernatural power is. She's informed the world that she "is a messenger of Heaven who was sent to earth to deliver God's message!" Next to her name and photo. Exclamation point in original.

No, I'm not kidding.

Of course, a few weeks ago, it was ripping off "The Buddha" (it's always someone), announcing that "faithfulness is the greatest love." This, from the broad who's spent a smooth decade trying to destroy Wings and me. That doesn't even begin to get into how she literally stole my life (even my chronic health conditions, going back to childhood) to remake her "personal story" completely for the latest incarnation of her twinkie "shamanic healing" business. And people wonder why I side-eye anyone who says "love and light" in my presence. Boiled Bunny meets Single White Female, menopausal version.

Then there's the one who steals my words for the express purpose of competing with Wings's work and business. Directly. On both counts. Busted. Again. At some point, this is gonna hit the fan, too.

[Sigh] no, you can't have my identity, my Nativeness, my life, my existence, either of you. Can't have Wings, either. Or his art.

Get lost. 

Tomorrow will be better, right?

Right?



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

It's "Giving Tuesday." Beware Fake "Native Charities."

I'm starting to feel like this logo needs a "buster" symbol through it.

So I guess this is really a thing: "Giving Tuesday." Because we go from Thanksgiving [Thurs]Day to Black Friday to Small Business Saturday to . . . what's Sunday? Is there a [Something] Sunday? . . . to Cyber Monday, and I guess we have to keep the theme going as long as possible. Or something.

But it does bring up an issue that troubles me, especially at this time of year. 

'T'is the season when "charitable" organizations of all colors and stripes launch their year-end fundraising push: at least equal parts greed and guilt, a stick trying to snare and tug at those heartstrings while holding out the carrot of a nice fat tax deduction, for those with enough income to itemize in the first place.

It's also the season when unscrupulous groups make a killing.

It's worse when they make their killing on the backs of our peoples, using, exploiting, robbing, and even shaming them.

It happens all over the country, and it needs to stop. But it won't stop as long as well-meaning white folks, susceptible to sad stories, allow themselves to be manipulated into parting with their dollars under the guise of "helping poor Indians."  

Courtesy of my friend Neeta, comes now news of a particularly scandalous turn of events involving one of those organizations that's long been on my "never give under any circumstances" list.

CNN reported on it a couple of weeks ago, and it's truly sickening. It involves the so-called St. Joseph's Indian School, which pretends to be affiliated, and likewise pretends to "help," Lakota children and their families from a variety of reservations, including Pine Ridge, which represents one of the single most economically stricken demographics in the entire country. With a median income of $3,750 annually, an unemployment rate that exceeds 85%, and a life expectancy that parallels that of Somalia, people there need real help, not more colonialist exploitation.

So what's the problem? Well, the threshold problem is that the school even exists. Native children should be in their own communities, in schools run by their tribal nations, not in white-run private schools that exist to profit (both financially and psychically) their white overseers. Schools like St. Joseph, which reportedly sucked up a whopping $51 million in charitable contributions last year alone, divert attention, resources, and desperately-needed funds from actual tribal programs that should be not merely in place but thriving and supporting their communities in traditional ways.

Second, In places like Pine Ridge,Rosebud, Crow Creek, Cheyenne River, and other area tribal communities, tribal members badly need a better economic base, and broader opportunities to support themselves. Many are talented artists, writers, people with all sorts of skills and expertise who could benefit greatly from having their work highlighted and sold. Mass-produced items of often seemingly-questionable provenance, with no artist named and clearly no Native artisan earning either the promotion from it or the profit is not "supporting tribal artists" (or writers, or musicians, or whatever).

But worst is the latest: outright fabrications. I've always suspected this, because their fundraising appeals have never been anything more than what I've long called poverty porn, a term echoed in the CNN piece by Michael Roberts, president of the First Nations Development Institute. CNN uncovered a couple of clear examples of such "appeals" in the form of "letters" written by "children at the school . . . children who don't exist.

From the fictional Josh Little Bear:

"My dad drinks and hits me ... my mom chose drugs over me ... my home on the reservation isn't a safe place for me to be," wrote Josh Little Bear. His request seems reasonable -- send a few dollars to help St. Joseph's Indian School to keep "kids like me safe ... so we don't have to live this way anymore."

This . . . .  This is obscene. It is racist. It is one of the most repugnant bits of exploitation by white people that I have had the misfortune to see in a long time.

This is evil.

These sorry excuses for human beings at St. Joseph's are willing to dummy up accounts of fake children designed to appeal to the bases, most poisonous, most viciously racist stereotypes in order to line their own damn pockets and flulff their own damn reputations.

The drunk Indian?  The drug-addicted Native mother? Domestic violence against our children?

REALLY?

In what conceivable universe does this actually help Indian children?

Here's a newsflash for you fat-taking bloody-knifed assholes: It doesn't. It hurts our children (and our adults, too).

There's nothing Christ-like about what you're doing; it's criminal, and it's evil.

According to CNN, they think the money is actually being used properly, saying that the children at the school "seem happy, well-fed, and housed." Well, that's a pretty damn low bar. Of course, the CNN piece is done by white folks for white folks, people with no knowledge of our histories, much less our present, and who have not the slightest comprehension of our cultures and identities.

This genocide by other means. It is stealing our children's identities, their souls and spirits, selling them for profit and selling them out for personal self-aggrandizement.

Sadly, this is the norm when it comes to so-called "Native charities."

What to do? Here's what we do. It's really pretty basic, and astonishingly easy. The first step is the most important of all:

1. DO NOT EVER, AND I MEAN EVER, GIVE TO AN ORGANIZATION THAT BILLS ITSELF AS NATIVE OR "FOR NATIVE" IF IT'S FOUNDED AND.OR ADMINISTERED BY WHITE PEOPLE.  

This is non-negotiable. If it's not Native-founded and Native-run, it's by definition a hindrance and not a help. Yes, in every case. And, yes, I'm saying "white people" straight out, because in my experience, they're not founded and run by other people of color; this is entirely a colonialist mindset, and colonialist exploitation.

2. Only give to actual Native-founded and Native-run programs.

This can get trickier, because many non-Native programs hire figureheads or token officers to make it appear that they are Native programs. Do your due diligence.

3. Check into actual tribal programs FIRST.

Who is it that you want to help? Is it just "Indians generally?" Then take the time to do a little research. What tribal nations are in your area, and what are their needs? Most tribal nations today have some sort of Web presence, at a minimum; many will have fairly sophisticated programs of their own. Some cannot accept outside support for various reasons, but this is not true of all of them. And sometimes cash is less important to these programs' survival than is in-kind help: driving people to medical appointments; delivering food; organizing propane drives.

4. ASK.

Always, ALWAYS ask first. Do not charge in headlong, attempting to be yet another in a long line of Great White Saviors. Contact the tribal administration and find out what help they need — and what help they want. There are some things outsiders cannot do, and that's a good thing. Don't argue; just ask what they do need, and go from there. 

And, as always, give for the right reasons. After all, the ultimate recipients of your help very likely have never asked your for a cent. Give to help, not for thanks or public credit or to get something in return. We've had more than enough of the other kind of "giving" over the last 500+ years to last us all an eternity. And then some.

 

Kim:

Also, too:  "Go away."

#stalker #fakeshaman #racistculturalappropriator #fedup

Since this day seemingly will never end, . . .

I need something fun.  Or at least funny.

It also has a certain . . . applicability to certain other persons right now.