@ Pehrspace
325 Glendale Blvd. (one block south of Temple)
Los Angeles, CA 90026

New York Times Worlc Cup blog…

Background Music for T&T-England

Thanks to reader Stacy-Marie for sending us the url for a more comprehensive Soca Warriors music site at TnT in Germany. Not only can you listen to all the current Soca Warriors anthems there; you can also listen to the classics from the ë89 Strike Squad team we waxed sentimental about in a recent post. Among them: the awesome Sound Revolution soca joint ìLicks Like Fire, Licks Like Peas,î which coined the contagious singsong chant ìT ahnd T! We want ah goal!î; and the awesome Sound Revolution reggae joint ìFootball Dance,î with its poignant warning, ìEe-oo-eh, check the danger/Oh, Latapy in ah the area.î

Another ë89 soca tune here, SuperBlueís excellent ìRoad to Italy,î begins with the mournful lines ìSixteen years ago in Haiti/We were denied fame and glory/On the road, the road to Germany.î That reference is to a match infamous in the Caribbean. It was played between T&T and Haiti in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, during the Concacaf qualifying tournament for a berth at West Germany ë74. An incredible four Trinidad goals were waved off for offside or other infractions in a 2-1 Haiti victory, a result that in effect kept T&T out of the World Cup and put Haiti in instead.

The Salvadoran refereeís decisions were so bizarre that corruption was immediately suspected, a notion furthered when Haitian President for Life Baby Doc Duvalier ordered jewelry stores to open and allow the Trinidad players to have their pick of watches, rings, etc. FIFA later banned the referee and a Canadian linesman who worked the game, and the entire episode seared itself into the Trinbagonian memory forever, as this account from the T&T football federationís official history illustrates.

That ë73 campaign may have ended in deception and disappointment, but it generated another brilliant tune found at the site, from the legendary calypsonian Lord Kitchener. Itís called ìMas in Germany,î mas meaning the masquerade that takes place during Carnival in Trinidad. Lord Kitchener sings: ìThis year after Carnival, I am heading to the North/Guess where? Up in Germany ó thatís where Iím going to be/Ah just have the feeling that we should be spreading this creole bacchanal.î

Sixteen years after Trinidadians were robbed in Haiti, they were pipped at the last moment by the United States for the final World Cup berth at Italia ë90. Now itís 16 years after that, and here they are playing in the World Cup at last. For a great article full of links about T&Tís long journey to football nirvana, go to the superb blog The Global Game.

And today, as you watch the Little Giants from Trinidad and Tobago go up against England on TV, let these songs play as a soundtrack. T ahnd T! We want ah goal!

“GRIDES”
SOFT MACHINE
May 2006

RUNE 230/231

“Soft Machine were one of first and one of the greatest jazz/rock bands of all time. Their importance and influence was especially great in Europe, where they influenced several generations of bands, and their influences can still be heard to this day in bands like Jaga Jazzist and beyond. Grides presents the most famous version of the band (Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt) recorded live at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on October 25, 1970, in a high-quality, previously unreleased recording, just a few months after the release of Third and at the peak of their popularity.

“It showcases them in transition between releases, with the band performing 3 of the four works from Third, as well as some of the earliest recordings of material from the upcomming Fourth, including some very different arrangements to what would eventually end up on that release. In addition, it features the earliest recording of Elton’s Neo-Caliban Grides, which has a fairly lengthy composed section that was never heard again.

“Also included in this set is the first-ever DVD release by Soft Machine! It was recorded at the TV studios of Radio Bremen on the same date (March 23, 1971) as the radio session that Cuneiform released as Virtually, but is a completely different performance. This was the band’s final European tour with Robert Wyatt and is a 20 minute set, professionally recorded by a multicamera crew. The audio and video quality is excellent for the time period (over 35 years old now!), as we worked from the original videotape master in the archives of Radio Bremen….”

June 12, 2006 New York Times

By PETER GELLING

KINAHREJO, Indonesia, June 12 ó In this village, one of the closest to Mount Merapi’s ominous crater, sleep is often tenuous.

Darto, 50, slept only a half hour on Sunday, spending all night sitting cross-legged beneath a small window, out of which the peak of Merapi, mired in smoke and gas, glowed orange between two tall trees.

Next to him, in a jumble, slept his wife and three daughters, wrapped in thick blankets, keeping warm in the cold mountain air.

In the distance, the volcano, considered one of the most unpredictable and dangerous in all of Indonesia, thundered. Wide trails of lava and volcanic rocks tumbled down its southern slopes, sometimes coming within half a mile of Mr. Darto’s small, wood-framed house.

At about two in the morning, the crash of rocks grew loud, startling his wife, Sri Semiyati, 40, awake. With a motion of his hand and a nod of his head, Mr. Darto assured her there was no danger.

“I guess it is a heavy responsibility,” Mr. Darto said. “But I don’t think of it like that. This is my family and these are my neighbors. I simply have to protect them.”

Earlier in the evening, after a simple dinner of noodles and tea, Mr. Darto’s wife swept the kitchen, his son tinkered with the engine of his motorbike and his daughters studied for today’s final exams. Mr. Darto, a tiny man with a big smile, one that rarely leaves his face, sat watching the volcano, drawing on a hand-rolled cigarette.

“Merapi’s activity is not that high compared to past years,” he said. “But with all the media attention, people are becoming panicked. I think it’s been exaggerated.”

With that he stood up, his smile quickly departing and his eyes glaring at Merapi. His wife wandered out of the kitchen, his son looked up from his bike and his daughters abandoned their books. Together the family stood in the dirt courtyard, ash heavy in the air, watching to see which way a freshly ejected hot cloud would travel.

It went west, and without a word they all returned to their activities.

“The worst of it is over,” Mr. Darto said. “Merapi will begin calming down now in the next few weeks.”

Scientists, who are often at odds with mystics like Mr. Darto, seem to agree that the danger around Merapi is receding.

Subandriyo, head of the Merapi division of Yogyakarta’s Volcanology Center, said the alert remained at its highest level, but could be reduced if activity continues decreasing over the next few days.

Volcanologists have long feared an unstable lave dome, forming around Merapi’s peak, could suddenly collapse, sending millions of cubic meters of volcanic rock, lava and hot gas down the mountain’s slopes, threatening nearby villages like Kinahrejo.

Last week, however, a large piece of the dome slowly began to crumble, triggering a series of small eruptions. Its reduced size is now less of a threat, said Subandriyo who, like many here, uses only one name.

Mr. Darto’s family, along with about 100 other families living in this village, which is about three miles from the teetering lave dome ó well within striking distance ó have refused to heed government warnings to evacuate for months now.

Merapi first started showing increased activity on April 13.

The villagers believe they are well acquainted with Mount Merapi’s character, and will know when it is time to leave. And so they remain in their ash-covered houses, tending to livestock and guarding their homes from looters, lying awake at night, eyes and ears trained on the mountain.

Mr. Darto, one of the village elders who is respected for his intimate connection with the spirit world, is entrusted with the task of sounding the alarm in the event of danger, which would most likely arrive in the form of a fast-moving cloud of superheated gas, exceeding temperatures of 540 degrees Fahrenheit.

One such cloud, which Mr. Darto and his family remember well, burned 66 people alive here in 1994.

The villagers must depend on Mr. Darto, they said, because the government’s alarm ó which sounds like an air-raid siren echoing off the mountain’s valley walls ó comes too late.

The last time Mr. Darto hammered his steel bell, drawing everyone out into the street, was May 15, when numerous hot clouds danced around Merapi’s southern and western slopes.

In the street, the villagers quickly debated the seriousness of the situation and radioed for a flatbed truck to move the elderly, women and children to the safety of refugee camps, a mile and a half below, Mr. Darto said.

They all returned later that afternoon.

Many of the families living in this village have been here for generations. Fathers and grandfathers taught their sons how to read the signs of a coming eruption. Mr. Darto now teaches his 16-year old son, Mulyadi.

“Most importantly I teach my children to meditate, to exercise their spiritual power, so they will be better in tune with the nature around them,” Mr. Darto said.

Although most Javanese are Muslim, many still practice ancient animist beliefs. The kingdom atop Mount Merapi is considered one of the most important symbols in all of Javanese culture.

According to Javanese mythology, history is now entering a time of great torment, a time of darkness and evil. This explains, Mr. Darto said, the May 27 earthquake about 25 miles south of Mount Merapi that killed about 5,800 people, as well as the 2004 tsunami, claiming 170,000 victims in Aceh, Indonesia’s northernmost province.

Early Sunday evening, Mulyadi rushed into the kitchen to inform his father that the full moon had arrived ó a dangerous omen, the son said.

Indeed, scientists say the gravitational pull of a large moon can disturb the volcano’s liquid magma bubbling inside, increasing the chances of an eruption.

Nevertheless, Sunday night passed without incident. After morning prayers today, Mr. Darto crawled under a blanket beside his daughters and managed his half-hour nap, while Merapi continued to smolder outside the small window.

“We cannot protect ourselves from death,” Mr. Darto said later. “That is God’s will. We can only nurture our soul, respect our environment and pray that God will bless us in return.”

May 1, 2006 Chicago Sun-Times

BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter

The Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and Vice Lords were born decades ago in Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods. Now, their gang graffiti is showing up 6,400 miles away in one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods — Iraq.

Armored vehicles, concrete barricades and bathroom walls all have served as canvasses for their spray-painted gang art. At Camp Cedar II, about 185 miles southeast of Baghdad, a guard shack was recently defaced with “GDN” for Gangster Disciple Nation, along with the gang’s six-pointed star and the word “Chitown,” a soldier who photographed it said.

The graffiti, captured on film by an Army Reservist and provided to the Chicago Sun-Times, highlights increasing gang activity in the Army in the United States and overseas, some experts say.

Military and civilian police investigators familiar with three major Army bases in the United States — Fort Lewis, Fort Hood and Fort Bragg — said they have been focusing recently on soldiers with gang affiliations. These bases ship out many of the soldiers fighting in Iraq.

“I have identified 320 soldiers as gang members from April 2002 to present,” said Scott Barfield, a Defense Department gang detective at Fort Lewis in Washington state. “I think that’s the tip of the iceberg.”

Of paramount concern is whether gang-affiliated soldiers’ training will make them deadly urban warriors when they return to civilian life and if some are using their access to military equipment to supply gangs at home, said Barfield and other experts.

Jeffrey Stoleson, an Army Reserve sergeant in Iraq for almost a year, said he has taken hundreds of photos of gang graffiti there.

In a storage yard in Taji, about 18 miles north of Baghdad, dozens of tanks were vandalized with painted gang symbols, Stoleson said in a phone interview from Iraq. He said he also took pictures of graffiti at Camp Scania, about 108 miles southeast of Baghdad, and Camp Anaconda, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. Much of the graffiti was by Chicago-based gangs, he said.

In civilian life, Stoleson is a correctional officer and co-founder of the gang interdiction team at a Wisconsin maximum-security prison. Now he is a truck commander for security escorts in Iraq. He said he watched two fellow soldiers in the Wisconsin Army National Guard 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, die Sept. 26 when a roadside bomb exploded. Five of Stoleson’s friends have been wounded.

Because of the extreme danger of his mission in Iraq, Stoleson said he does not relish the idea of working alongside gang members, whom he does not trust. Stoleson said he once reported to a supervisor that he suspected a company of soldiers in Iraq was rife with gang members.

“My E-8 [supervising sergeant] told me not to ruffle their feathers because they were doing a good job,” he said.

Stoleson said he has spotted soldiers in Iraq with tattoos signifying their allegiance to the Vice Lords and the Simon City Royals, another street gang spawned in Chicago.

“They don’t try to hide it,” Stoleson said.

Christopher Grey, spokesman for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, did not deny the existence of gang members in the military, but he disputed that the problem is rampant — or even significant.

In the last year, the Criminal Investigation Command has looked into 10 cases in which there was credible evidence of gang-related criminal activity in the Army, Grey said. He would not discuss specific cases.

“We recently conducted an Army-wide study, and we don’t see a significant trend in this kind of activity, especially when you compare this with a million-man Army,” Grey said.

“Sometimes there is a definition issue here on what constitutes gang activity. If someone wears baggy pants and a scarf, that does not make them a gang member unless there is evidence to show that person is involved in violent or criminal activity,” Grey said.

Barfield said Army recruiters eager to meet their goals have been overlooking applicants’ gang tattoos and getting waivers for criminal backgrounds.

“A friend of mine is a recruiter,” he said. “They are being told less than five tattoos is not an issue. More than five, you do a waiver saying it’s not gang-related. You’ll see soldiers with a six-pointed star with GD [Gangster Disciples] on the right forearm.”

Fort Lewis offers free tattoo removal, but few if any soldiers with gang tattoos have taken advantage of the service, Barfield said.

In interviews with the almost 320 soldiers who admitted they were gang members, only two said they wanted out of gangs, Barfield said.

None has been arrested for a gang-related felony on the base, Barfield said. But some are suspected of criminal activity off base, he said.

“They’re not here for the red, white and blue. They’re here for the black and gold,” he said, referring to the gang colors of the Latin Kings.

Barfield said most of the gang members he has identified are black and Latino. He has linked white soldiers to racist groups such as the Aryan Nations.

Barfield acknowledged that the soldiers he pegged as gang members represent a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of soldiers based at Fort Lewis in the period he reviewed. But he stressed that he only investigates a fraction of the soldiers on base.

Barfield said he normally identifies gang members during barracks inspections requested by unit commanders. He interviews them about possible gang affiliation when he sees gang graffiti in their rooms, photos of a soldier flashing gang hand signals or a soldier with gang tattoos.

“I know there is a lot more going on here,” he said. “I don’t inspect off-base housing or married soldiers’ housing.”

The Gangster Disciples are the most worrisome street gang at Fort Lewis because they are the most organized, Barfield said.

Barfield said gangs are encouraging their members to join the military to learn urban warfare techniques they can teach when they go back to their neighborhoods.

“Gang members are telling us in the interviews that their gang is putting them in,” he said.

Joe Sparks, a retired Chicago Police gang specialist and the Midwest adviser to the International Latino Gang Investigators Association, said he is concerned about the military know-how that gang-affiliated soldiers might bring back to the streets here.

“Even though they are ‘bangers, they are still fighting for America, so I have to give them that,” Sparks said. “The sound of enemy gunfire is nothing new to them. I’m sure in battle it’s a truce — GDs and P Stones are fighting a common enemy. But when they get home, forget about it.”

Barfield said he knows of an Army private who fought valiantly in Iraq but still maintained his gang affiliation when he returned home.

The private, a Florencia 13 gang member from Southern California, spoke to Barfield of battling a 38th Street Gang member when they were civilians.

Then the 38th Street Gang member became a sergeant in the Army and the Florencia 13 member became a private. They served in Iraq together, Barfield said.

“They had exchanged blows in Inglewood [a city near Los Angeles], but in the Army, they did get the mission done,” he said. “The private is a decorated war veteran with a Purple Heart.”

The private still has his gang tattoos and identifies himself as a Florencia 13, Barfield said.

Barfield said a big concern is what such gang members trained in urban warfare will do when they return home.

He pointed to Marine Lance Cpl. Andres Raya, a suspected Norteno gang member who shot two officers with a rifle outside a liquor store in Ceres, Calif., on Jan. 9, 2005, before police returned fire and killed him. One officer died, and the other was wounded by the 19-year-old Raya, who was high on cocaine. Raya had spent seven months in Iraq before returning to Camp Pendleton near San Diego.

Photos of Raya wearing the gang’s red colors and making gang hand signs were reportedly found in a safe in his room.

Hunter Glass, a Fayetteville, N.C., police detective, said he has seen an increase in gang activity involving soldiers from nearby Fort Bragg. A Fort Bragg soldier — a member of the Insane Gangster Crips — is charged with a gang-related robbery in Fayetteville that ended in the slaying of a Korean store owner in November, said Glass, a veteran of the elite 82nd Airborne based at Fort Bragg.

He estimated that hundreds of gang members are stationed at the base as soldiers.

“I have talked to guys who say ‘I’m a SUR 13 [gang member], but I am a soldier,’ ” Glass said. “Although I see the [gang] problem as a threat, I do believe the majority of the military are good people and that many of those [military officials] that I have made aware of the situation have expressed concern in dealing with it. It is safe to say that I am less worried about a gang war in the sand box [Iraq] but more about the one on our streets upon its end.”

Glass has given presentations to military leaders in Washington, D.C., about gang members in the military.

A law enforcement source in Chicago said police see some evidence of soldiers working with gangs here. Police recently stopped a vehicle and found 10 military flak jackets inside. A gang member in the vehicle told investigators his brother was a Marine and sent the jackets home, the source said.

Barfield said he knows of civilian gang members in the Seattle area who also have been caught with flak jackets that he suspects were stolen from Fort Lewis.

Barfield said he has documented gang-affiliated soldiers’ involvement in drug dealing, gunrunning and other criminal activity off base. More than a year ago, a soldier tied to a white supremacy group was caught trying to ship an assault rifle from Iraq to the United States in pieces, he said.

In Texas, the FBI is bracing for the transfer of gang-connected soldiers from Fort Hood in central Texas to Fort Bliss near El Paso as part of the nation’s base realignments. FBI Special Agent Andrea Simmons said gang-affiliated soldiers from Fort Hood could clash with civilian gang members in El Paso.

“We understand that [some] soldiers and dependents at Fort Hood tend to be under the Folk Nation umbrella, including the Gangster Disciples and Crips,” Simmons said. “In El Paso, the predominant gang, without much competition, is the Barrio Azteca. We could see some kind of turf war between the Barrio Aztecas and the Folk Nation.”

FBI agents have visited Fort Hood to learn about the gang activity on the base, Simmons said.

“We found most of the police departments say they do see gang activity due to the military — soldiers and dependents,” she said. “Our agents also have been in contact with Fort Bliss to discuss the issue.”

Simmons said investigators may conduct background checks on soldiers relocating from Fort Hood to Fort Bliss to assess the level of the potential gang problem.

Barfield said he welcomes the FBI’s scrutiny of gang members in the Army.

“Investigators as a whole across the military aren’t getting the support to remove gang members from the ranks,” he said.

But Grey, the spokesman for the Criminal Investigation Command, said the unit is open to any tips about gang activity in the Army.

“If anyone has any information, we strongly recommend they bring it to our attention,” he said.

Courtesy D. Reeves!