WHEN RAFA WINS - THERE IS ONE THING I REALLY TRULY LOVE - THE SMILE

RAFA NADAL WON ON CLAY IN ROME AFTER RAIN DELAYS

Source unknown

I retreived this photo from
Rafa's Babolat-sponsored forum
Thread:
ROME 25TH APRIL-2ND MAY-2010-PICTURE AND VIDEO THREAD
page 5

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Rafa's final point of the Championship Match - Rome Masters 2010
Uploaded by yutuve66

Rafael Nadal celebrates
Getty Images

Rafa's celebrative reaction was a bit subdued...less of a reaction than the semi final match reaction, probably due to the size of the crowd and the person on the other side of the net was his friend David, but still Rafa's smile is one of my favorite things about him winning.

It was a small crowd of fans due mostly to the second rain delay that saw the end result live. Hopefully those who went home were able to see it on television or online. '

Rome Masters
Final Match - Championship Match
Rafa Nadal defeated David Ferrer
7-5, 6-2
Rafa's 17the Masters 1000 title

25 pictures of the Rome Final 2010

Daylife photos of Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal of Spain thanks the fans after defeating David Ferrer of Spain in the final during day eight of the ATP Masters Series - Rome at the Foro Italico Tennis Centre on May 2, 2010 in Rome, Italy. Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

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Uploaded by VideoTVnewsTENNIS

Press Q & A translating English into Italian

Highlights

Spanish TV interview after the Final Rome Masters May 2, 2010
by gandaines

May 2, 2010

SMILING NADAL SAVOURS HISTORIC MOMENT

'The thing is to maintain high motivation to keep winning' Spraying the ball-kids with champagne, speaking Italian at the ceremony and laughing all the way through-Rafael Nadal had won the title and he was going to enjoy it!

The joy he radiated came in stark contrast to the broody figure he cut before the tournament began, when despite coming off an incredible tournament in Monte Carlo, he seemed as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

When you have some bad moments and every week you are trying to be there and try to win, said Nadal, before going through a litany of missed opportunities between May 2009 and April 2010 when he failed to win a tournament. The semi-finals in Miami, the finals in Doha, in Australia the quarter-finals last year I played badly for the last six months of 2009 and so lots of times I was there but I wasn't ready to win important matches. But I was there, so when you lose the semi-finals or the finals it's hard to accept, but at the same time, I worked a lot and started working towards the next tournaments. So, it's a nice moment now and I'm winning after 11 months of not winning a title.

Much of the Majorcan's lack of success for that period was down to injuries, particularly with his knees, but here in Rome he was feeling 100% fit, even as the clay got heavier after the two rain breaks which interrupted the final. I didn't have any problems with my knees the whole week which is unbelievable for me, for the last two tournaments, and so that is very important for me. But now is not the moment to talk about my knees. The important thing is that I've won a very important tournament and I'm very happy. Probably I didn't play as well as Monte Carlo, but the important thing is winning. Winning a tournament like Monte Carlo and losing 14 games doesn't happen every week. Can you remember lots of Master 1000 tournaments where (the winner lost) that many games? I can't. I lost one set and had a very difficult match yesterday (against Ernests Gulbis in the semi-final), a very difficult set against Wawrinka and a difficult first set (today). I am probably more happy winning without playing my best because it's more a mental thing.

Talk, as always, turned to his seeming invincibility on clay and his amazing consistency, but again Nadal was both humble and realistic. I've had a lot of bad days in the past five or six years. The thing is to maintain high motivation to keep winning. The important thing is to have enough motivation to want to improve all the time - this is the main thing for me, all of my career and all of my life and it's something that I'm still doing. For about eight months or longer I didn't win a tournament and then I won some in the past two months. Every time I go on court I try my best and I try to do this all the time.

And with that, he smiled. And when a supremely gifted player is finally fit enough to try his best all the time and explore the limits of his enormous potential, then tennis fans the world over can afford to smile as well. Source

Website of the tournament:
www.internazionalibnlditalia.it


Fan Support Sites ~ Great sources of information

vamos brigade
Wonderful pictures on page 17 of thread:
2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia - Pics

Rafa's Babolat-sponsored forum

For future reference
Online viewing (for free)

www.fromsport.com

www.atdhe.net

For a fee
www.tennistv.com

RAFA NADAL - HE EMBODIES THE SPIRIT OF "I CAN, I WILL AND I DID"

Photo credit: Terra
All photos from the Madrid Open Semi-Final Match
Nadal Vs. Djokovic
May 16, 2009

I shouldn't be here, but for the Rafael Nadal Madrid Semi-Final Match with Novak Djokovic

I am here to say WHAT A MATCH!

And the drama of the fact that the crowd was pro-Rafa to put it mildly just added to the whole experience. I mean it was Spain and Rafa against Novak.

They both - Rafa and Novak - gave us something to sit on the edge of our chair's and sofa's to watch.

I had to leave the house in the third set to go to choir rehearsal and I have to miss the final match tomorrow unless it gets started late or goes long enough for me to come home and watch it after our concert. Today, I sat my movie camera on the tripod in front of the live streaming and at least got to watch the match when I returned, even though the video quality was poor. And what is up with www.TennisTV.com? The sound was on "real time" and the video was lagging behind - way behind.

The men's final match follows the women's final, Sunday May 17, 2009. The men's match is scheduled to start not before 10:00 a.m. USA EST/DST.

Rafa came out the winner score wise today in the Semi-Final against Djokovic. Rafa is vulnerable right now with some knee problems flaring up, however... which always concerns we enthusiastic fans of Rafa.

The Semi-Final
Rafa lost the first set. 3-6, then he won the second set 7-6 with a tie breaker (7-5) and Rafa then won the third set 7-6 with a tie breaker (11-9). Something special.

Some comments of the commentators:
After Rafa won a point during the third set tie break at 7-6 going to 7-7:
I'm running out of superlatives. The quality of the tennis is spectacularly good. Especially considering the (length of the match, the altitude and the energy exerted up to this point). What these two guys are able to do with the tennis ball..it's mind-boggling. These two players are bringing out the best in one another. It's wizardry from both players."

After Djokovic won a point during the third set tie break:
What a shot! Tennis out of this world. It was incredible.

Photo credit: Sports/YA EFE

Above four photos credit: Daylife

Photo credit: Terra

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Semi-Final Match in Madrid May 16, 2009 Nadal Vs. Djokovic
Uploaded by merikob

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Rafael Nadal's Press conference after his SF match in Madrid
in Spanish
Uploaded by merikob

Rafael Nadal on court Thanking the crowd - in Spanish

Rafael Nadal Beats Novak Djokovic in the Longest Masters Series Match in History

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/176889-rafael-nadal-beats-novak-djokovic-in-the-longest-masters-series-match

There are times when you are watching a tennis match, and after a period, you just stop passing comments, and succumb to its excitement. You do not have anything left to say, because, even as a spectator, you are emotionally drained by the quality, excitement and drama of the match.

On one hand, you desperately want the underdog to win so there is a change at the peak, but at that very moment, the top dog comes with something so phenomenal that you cannot help but admit that the latter deserves to edge through.

On the other hand, you want the contest to get over, so that your heart can take some rest from the excessive pounding it has endured during the match, while at the same time, you do not want it to finish because the quality of tennis cannot, possibly, reach better heights.

Ultimately, you are in a very confused state of mind and just wait for the inevitable to happen. Once it happens, though, you feel every moment of your time or money worth spent, and happily savor the memory of something special that you had the fortune to witness.

This was precisely my state of mind as Rafael Nadal edged through Novak Djokovic, 3-6 7-6(5) 7-6(9), in the longest three set match in a Tennis Masters Series history, at the Semi Finals of the Madrid Masters 2009.

The Serbian did everything that a human could possibly conjure up to try and dismantle Nadal's supremacy at this surface. He took the bull by the horns by giving Nadal a dose of his own medicine, and breaking him right away to race up to a 3-0 lead.

Nadal, who was out of sorts with his forehand, has never looked under more pressure, and in a state of panic, than in the opening set of the game.

Djokovic pushed Nadal back off the baseline, and for most of the first set Nadal retorted to his old style of play by looping in high shots towards Djokovic’s backhand from six feet behind the baseline.

Djokovic, surprisingly, obliged by beating Nadal in his own game. He attacked, he defended superbly, played drop shots and volleys which would even make Stefan Edberg proud.

There was a deafening silence among the twelve thousand spectators, as Djokovic prevailed by taking the first set 6-3. An upset looked very much on the cards.

Nadal rejuvenated and again looked like the Rafa that we know. Both players served immaculately and the first few games went like a breeze as they held serve comfortably.

The pressure was surely mounting on both players as Nadal took a short medical timeout after the fourth game, although no damage was done. Djokovic, meanwhile, was matching Nadal-of-the-old in defense and the semi-finalists were battling through some breath taking rallies.

The definition of the word athleticism was assuming a different meaning altogether.

Nole used his improved defensive skills to good measure and Nadal found himself in a scary position at a set and 15-40 down. It was then, it seemed that Pete Bodo’s

comparison of Nadal with Pete Sampras proportioned its full meaning.

Nadal fired down an ace and service winner to get back to deuce, saved two more break points with precise serving and survived the toughest service game of the set to lead 5-4.

Both battled for three more tough service games to get to the tie-breaker at 6-6.

Even though Djokovic survived those close sets, his body language was starting to deter. Nadal took full advantage of it and breezed through the tie-breaker to level the match at one set all!

The third set became a matter of will, rather than skill, as we witnessed the BEST tennis of the match—and possibly the year—with every possible strategy being worked out. Winners were struck out of nowhere and inhuman passes were made which fondly reminded of the epic five hour match at Melbourne.

The set also showed that the Novak Djokovic of May ‘09 is a much fitter and mentally stronger player than the Djokovic of Jan ’09.

Djokovic suffered from cramps right after breaking Nadal to get to 3-1, and took a full medical timeout during the process.

He played the rest of the match in pain, and got broken immediately after, but showed resolve of steel—being attended by the physio after during every changeover—to fight point to point against the Spaniard, and still managed to hold many break points in between.

Both players held serve to go on to 6-6, and produced one of the best tie-breakers of all times in the deciding set of the semi-final. There was never a relaxing moment during the tie-break, and each point looked like an uphill journey.

Each held match points, trading several mini-breaks, and ultimately Nadal got that additional mini-break of Djokovic’s serve at 9-9 with an outwordly passing shot that even he would be proud of!

He closed out the match on his serve, and fell to the ground as the LONGEST match in a Masters Series ended at 4:02 hours.

Twelve thousand Spaniards rose to give Novak Djokovic a deafening, and well deserved, applause as he, visibly heartbroken, guided himself to the dressing room.

Much can be said about Djokovic’s inability to convert break points (he could convert only two out of eight opportunities), or his visible fatigue due to injury in the decider, but it was evident that he was the better player for most of the match.

He was ahead of Nadal in all the statistics (even broke Nadal more) producing more winners, lesser unforced errors, higher number of breaks, and total number of points won.

But it was Nadal who prevailed during the most important points of the match and proved just how difficult it is to beat him on any surface, leave alone clay.

My salute to Nadal and Djokovic. Too bad there was only one person walking out as the winner.

The following is from http://www.madrid-open.com/site/news/6/3181

Speaking after beating Novak Djokovic in what was the longest three-set tour match (in minutes) since the ATP Tour began keeping records in 1991, Nadal said his focus was on recovering from his marathon semifinal.

“First of all I am very happy to be in the final,” said the top seed. ”I’m not too worried who else is going to be there, I just want to be there and I’m there. Whoever is playing best on the other side of the draw is going to be there. The tough thing for me to do it going to be recovering from the tough match of today, that won’t be easy.

And he said that the phenomenal support from his countrymen in the stands could be what pulled him through his third-consecutive clay court final for the season.

“I’ve said it before and ill say it again, I’ll always say it. The public here is very special, they are very much on the side of the Spaniards and we all appreciate that,” said the 22-year-old.

“It’s important to here the ambiance of the people and the encouragement they give you to overcome the most difficult moments is essential. It is because of them I’m in the final, for sure.

Stunned Djokovic seeking positives in Nadal defeat

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/8511246

MADRID, May 16 (Reuters) - A stunned Novak Djokovic was left licking his wounds on Saturday after coming within a whisker of inflicting a rare claycourt defeat on world number one Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals of the Madrid Open.

Spaniard Nadal battled back from a set and a break down and saved three match points for a dramatic 3-6 7-6 7-6 win in the longest three-setter ever at over four hours in a Masters Series event.

It was the third time in a month he had beaten Djokovic following his victories in the finals at the Monte Carlo and Rome Masters and he improved his record against the Serb to 14 wins and four defeats.

"I don't know what to do," a shattered-looking Djokovic said at a news conference.

"Next time I'll probably take two rackets on the match point and try to hit with both of them. It's frustrating that when you play so well you can't win."

Djokovic has had a fine clay season, also winning the title in his native Belgrade last weekend, and said his recent meetings with Nadal had boosted his confidence.

"I'm taking positives from the last couple of matches we played on this surface," he said. "And the positives are that I was one point away from the victory."

At a separate news conference, Nadal said he had congratulated Djokovic for his performances on clay and for the way he played on Saturday and had also wished him luck for the French Open starting later this month.

"He's probably feeling down now but when he analyses the match in the cold light of day he'll take positives out of it and see he was very close to beating me," he said.

"It will definitely give him confidence for Roland Garros and he's been having a spectacular clay season.

"He's a great player, he always has been. It seems to me he's getting better with every game."

Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Dave Thompson

Play-By-Play of f Nadal Vs. Djokovic Instant Classic
at...
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/176923-play-by-play-of-a-nadal-vs-djokovic-instant-classic

May 3, 2009 Rome Final Ceremony

Monte Carlo Masters 2009 Trophy Ceremonay- April 19, 2009
Nadal capture the 5th consecutive title in Monaco beating Djokovic 6-3 2-6 6-1

The Official Website of Madrid Open
www.madrid-open.com/site/results/orden_de_juego

Watch Live Streaming of Match
www.tennistv.com

Fan Sites of Rafa
http://vamosbrigade.com
The original forum from Rafa's Website:
www.activeboard.com/forum

HONORING MY DAD'S SISTER - EVALYN HAMMEL WOHLFORD

Tennis

Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open 2009
Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew May 14, Thursday, 2009. Therefore, Rafa had a walk-over into the quarter finals, where he will face fellow countryman Fernando Verdasco.

The match will be at 2 p.m. USA EDT/DST
Friday, May 15, 2009

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TRIBUTE to EVALYN JANE HAMMEL WOHLFORD

My dad's sister, the only surviving sibling of five children, and the only girl, has retired from her beloved music - her beautiful piano playing - due to physical limitations. A day she never wanted to come. Upon her retirement after 67 years of sharing her gift of music in the church I grew up in - in Huntington, Indiana - the church is honoring her soon.

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I Surrender All - hymn
Uploaded by WorshipVideo

This is a note I mailed to her recently...

May 10, 2009

Dear Evalyn,

Something dear to me is the wonderful heritage that I carry with me from the days of sitting in the old sanctuary of the East State Street Church of God (the one with the sanctuary that included the sections that could be closed off for Sunday school classes and the nursery in the balcony). The most wonderful memories that are with me today, come from the music, the beautiful “old” hymns that you played and we sang. Thank you, Evalyn, for the gift of music you developed, cherish, nourished my heart with and shared with us all. I owe you a debt that I can never repay ~ I can just be grateful and pass on the blessing.

Also, very meaningful to me were those Sunday nights that the congregation spent the whole evening just singing hymns. I remember Deeny, Stanton and Melba’s daughter, and Karen, Vic and Frieda’s daughter, singing the descants to the congregational singing of He’s the Lily of the Valley. And Vic and Stanton singing the lines to Peace Like a River. I just loved the singing! I could sit as a child, let my mind wander during the sermons, but the music is what always brought me back into the service. A verse of Just As I Am, Softly and Tenderly, I Surrender All or It is Well With My Soul touched my soul where just words never could reach. The music of these hymns still affect me in a very special way.

Please accept my appreciation and gratitude for helping bring music into my life.

With love

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Another hymn I grew up with....Softly and Tenderly
Used in the movie A Trip to Bountiful - (which I recommend)
Uploaded by RRRGroup2

And I sent the following to her inside a card via the church, which is honoring her on May 31, 2009:

The Gift of Music

Dedicated to Evalyn (Hammel) Wohlford

by Sandra Hammel


Music reaches places in us that words just can’t.

Ah, yes, words can lift, inspire, summon us;

But what can wash over us like music?

Enter our inner most sanctuary and become one with our being?

Permeate our mind, our heart, our spirit

and be present with us in our hour of joy,

need

or sadness?

And never fail to be there for us?

Nothing better for the hungering soul

or brimming delight is the music that is always

there for the simple taking and giving.

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An die musik ~ To Music
Composed by Franz Schubert

Lyrics
O gracious Art, in how many grey hours
When life's fierce orbit encompassed me,
Have you kindled my heart to warm love,
And charmed me into a better world!

Oft has a sigh, issuing from your harp,
A sweet, blessed chord of yours,
Thrown open the heaven of better times;
O gracious Art, for that I thank you!

May 10, 2009

Dear Evalyn,

You have nurtured your gift of music and shared it with so many of us. I want you to know how it touched me and helped me find my own personal relationship with the gift of music. A Chinese grandfather of one of my students once said to me, that a music teacher gives of her soul to her students. We have all been your students in a way. And we have all benefited from you as you have given of your soul to us. I can’t imagine life without the communion music provides for my best self. Music is a sacred gift and it was entrusted to you and you let it sing out beautifully.

With love and affection

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Softly and Tenderly - another version
Uploaded by hoover4000


Evalyn is the girl in the middle
My dad is the one holding the ball.


Ferne Wiles Hammel
Mother of Evalyn, my dad, Mark, Harold, Jerald and Richard

In a portion of a tribute to her mom, Evalyn wrote this:

...Mom walked with me to Salamonie Avenue to Bessie Branstrator’s home for my piano lessons, which was about 3 ½ miles one way. (Before this, Bessie came to our house.) Mom’s day was busy, but she still took the time and would wait for me, and we returned home and she never seemed to mind the walk. She sat beside me while I practiced because I wanted her there, not because I wouldn't practice, which Mark tells folks. She played hymns, but I don’t recall her helping much with the music.

I enjoyed helping Mom wash clothes because we had a wringer washer, and it was fun sending those sheets, etc., through, but Mom was always watchful that I didn’t get my hands caught in the wringer.

Pop was busy earning a living for his family, and Mom would walk to Grandma and Grandpa Wiles’ home on Walnut Street which was about four miles, and we all walked to church, but I don’t remember minding this. But maybe, my brothers were afraid to say if they did. We had no car, and we attended revival meetings for two weeks, every night except Saturdays, and then sometimes we had church on this night, also. Church was 1.8 miles, and some nights were mighty cold or hot. One cold, cold day, Mom walked to John Tipton school with extra blankets for we kids and then while some of us got rides home, Mom walked back to our home in the frigid weather. I never understood where the other coats came from. This brings back sad memories to me, thinking how cold Mom must have been!

Mom was the buffer between we kids and Pop who was always serious; at least, this is my recollection of him. The summer before I entered high school, Mom made an appointment for me to get my pigtails cut and permed. A cab brought me back to Grandma and Grandpa Hammel’s who lived next door to our house, and as I stood on their sidewalk, Pop asked Mom who that was standing over there. I never knew what Mom told our Pop, but he never said a word to me about me shorn locks.

....our Pop ...said to me as we stood by Mom’s casket, "There lays an angel!"

I’m sure there was mental as well as physical suffering when Mom’s body was taken over by acromegaly (caused by dysfunction of the pituitary gland) which made here bones grow. She told me this happened when she was pregnant with our brother, Mark, so this was the way I always knew her...

...Mom loved to work outdoors and especially in her flower gardens. She had a beautiful variety of Iris, and I wish we still had the yellow rose bush which grew by the sidewalk in the back. She also, mowed the lawn with a push mower, and she would say she walked to Mt. Etna and back when she completed this job. I remember how she would rinse out her wet clothes and hang them on the clothesline to dry before they were laundered.

Evalyn's mom - my Grandma Hammel

On May 10, 1963, Mom had been working in her flower garden in the front of the house, and Pop had been working in his shop in the garage when he looked out and couldn’t see Mom. He found her in the house where she had laid all of the grandkids pictures down, face up. We think she had a premonition that she was not going to be here very long. Pop asked Mom if she would like to ride along to Baer Field to get some lumber. On the way Mom gasped a big breath and was gone just that quickly. Pop said he thought she was choking on her tongue so he tried to get hold of it to help her but with no success. Pop called me from Ft. Wayne with the news. I had lost my best friend and my precious Mom. Our pop was a very distraught and lost man after the death of our Mom, or Mother, as Mark always called her.

NADAL MEETS KOHLSCHREIBER IN MADRID'S ROUND 3 - OBAMA LETS US DOWN RE HUMAN RIGHTS - AMERICAN GENOCIDE

Rafa and Spain's Royalty

Above three photos credit: Pure People

Rafa practicing in Madrid
Above two photos credit: Oscar Gallardo/Enfoque/Cameleon/AbacaPress.com

Photo credit: Marca

Rafa at press conference
Photo credit: Corbis

Tennis - Clay Court Season Continues in Madrid, Spain This Week
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Photo credits: AS, Belga, Daylife, el mundo, Getty, JAMD, Marca, Yahoo
Round 2 Madrid Rafa Nadal vs. Jurgen Melzer

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Marca - Screen Caps by rafafanatic of www.vamosbrigade.com
Press in Madrid

Rafa Nadal defeated Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-1 May 13, 2009
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Interview with Rafa Nadal in Spanish after Round 2 match with Melzer
Uploaded by luneworld

ORDER OF PLAY FOR DAY Thursday 14

ORDER OF PLAY - THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2009
MANOLO SANTANA start 10:00 am
A Chakvetadze (RUS) vs A Bondarenko (UKR) - WTA

Not Before 12:00 PM
[16] T Robredo (ESP) vs [4] A Murray (GBR) - ATP
[14] J Blake (USA) vs [2] R Federer (SUI) - ATP

Not Before 4:00 PM
[1] D Safina (RUS) vs L Safarova (CZE) - WTA

Not Before 8:00 PM [1] R Nadal (ESP) vs P Kohlschreiber (GER) - ATP
This is 2:00 pm USA EST-DST

Source: www.madrid-open.com/site/results/orden_de_juego

For a fee, watch the match live at

www.tennistv.com

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Sudanese Government Forces Bomb near North Darfur - UN

Source: www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis

Wed May 13, 2009 12:48pm EDT

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 (Reuters) - Sudanese government forces on Wednesday carried out a bombing raid near a town in Sudan's western Darfur region that has been the scene of recent fighting, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

"UNAMID forces observed Sudanese government aircraft bombing targets north of Umm Baru, a North Darfur town that has been the scene of recent fighting," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters.

She was referring to the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, known as UNAMID.

Montas said UNAMID troops and police had heard several explosions early on Wednesday.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, was not immediately available for comment.

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels said on Saturday that they had fought off an ambush in Umm Baru by Sudanese armed forces and troops loyal to former rebel Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only Darfur rebel to sign a peace deal with the government in 2006. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Sandra Maler)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BAM'S DARFUR SINS

LIBS' OUTRAGE OVER BROKEN VOW

By Kirsten Powers

Source: http://www.nypost.com/seven/05112009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/bams_darfur_sins_168603.htm

OFTEN accused of taking on too many issues, President Obama is catching flak from some of his most ardent liberal supporters, who say he's neglecting the paramount international human-rights crisis -- the Darfur genocide.

So they're fasting, writing letters and posting videos on YouTube pressing him to take a leadership role he promised he'd take on Darfur.

The Web site "Darfur Fast for Life" showcases the frustrations of Pam Omidyar, who, with her husband Pierre, the founder and chairman of e-Bay, was among Obama's top supporters. Joining Omidyar in her fast are such activists as Gabriel Stauring, founder of Stop Genocide Now, and Shannon Sedgwick Davis, a supporter who calls Obama's inaction "unbelievably disappointing." Actress Mia Farrow initiated the fast, but was advised by her doctor to stop after 12 days of consuming only water. British billionaire Richard Branson has taken over for her.

They've watched as Obama has tackled the economy, health care, global warming, the tax system, financial regulations, education reform, embryonic stem-cell research and more. Sadly, human rights don't seem to have made the cut. (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shocked many when she asserted recently regarding China that human-rights issues couldn't interfere with such other issues as solving the economic crisis).

During his campaign, Obama raised expectations among human-rights activists that he'd place Darfur at the top of his agenda. He highlighted a "passion in bringing an end to this crisis." Calling genocide "a stain on all of us," he claimed that "the United States has a moral obligation any time you see humanitarian catastrophe."

On a 2007 visit to the region, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called Darfur "one of the most awful places in the world." In March of this year, it got even more awful. That's when the Sudanese government kicked out 13 international aid organizations that provided almost two thirds of the sustenance in the refugee camps, threatening the lives of an estimated 1 million people.

Says one activist, "These camps were already abysmal. Now just ratchet that down 60 percent."

The White House's response has been disheartening. By the time it got around to saying anything on the situation, the aid groups had been forced from the country. Some activists felt that had they spoken up earlier and more forcefully, it could have made a difference.

Speaking of Darfur during the campaign, Obama said: "As president of the United States, I don't intend to abandon people." Yet he is. About genocide, he said, "We can't say 'never again' and allow it to happen again." But it is happening again.

Worse, some worry that the mastermind of all this suffering, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is manipulating Obama's special envoy to Darfur, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration. Bashir has charmed outsiders who believe (erroneously) that he sincerely desires to work to end the suffering. Activists were especially alarmed when Gration provided an overly sunny report of Darfur's ground situation and told some privately that it could be time to ease sanctions and remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Activist Shannon Sedgwick Davis dismisses the idea that Obama is too busy with the economy to address Darfur. "That's an easy out," Sedgwick Davis says. "He has an amazing team that surrounds him for issues just like this and he needs to empower them to do much, much more. That's what they are there for. Hillary Clinton isn't sitting in her office trying to balance the budget."

Gabriel Stauring of Stop Genocide Now has visited the Darfur refugee camps seven times and despairs over the rapidly worsening conditions. He says of those suffering there, "They put so much hope in America. They have this idea that America stands for the right thing and that help is going to come. When Obama took office their hope shot through the roof. They are waiting."

How much longer will they have to wait?

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You can write to President Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

or at

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Call him at 202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE

Send a post card to President Obama
AddYourVoice.org

He is not going to act for Darfur
without you and without me pressuring him.

In this way, he is no different than other politicians.

JOIN THE FAST FOR DARFUR
fastdarfur.org


www.savedarfur.org
www.stopgenocidenow.org
www.standnow.org

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The Homestake Gold Mine
By Steve Melendez

Used with permission.
Source http://www.aigenom.com/homestakegoldmine.html


The Homestake Gold Mine, in Lead, South Dakota, operated for 125 years and produced 41 million troy ounces of gold(over $24 billion at today's gold prices of over $600 per ounce). In the summer of 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was sent into the Black Hills by Gen. Philip Sheridan to search for gold. This was in direct violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868. Today, there is a large photograph at the mine of Custer and his entourage entering the Black Hills. The caption information tells us that after gold was discovered, many miners came into the Black Hills in defiance of the army and the Indians but fails to mention that Custer’s army was violating the 1868 Treaty. Neither does the caption information remind visitors to the mine that article 6 of the U.S. Constitution calls a treaty the supreme law of the land.
Custer came into the Black Hills with 1,000 soldiers, over 100 covered wagons, 2 or 3 gatling guns, a cannon, a 16 piece brass band mounted on white horses, and two prospectors who were the experts on gold. On July 30th 1874 Custer sent a dispatch to Ft. Laramie which read: “Gold has been found in paying quantities. I have upon my table 40 or 50 small particles of pure gold. In size averaging that of a small pinhead. And most of it found today from one pan full of earth.” Today, the area where the placer gold (gold carried by mountain streams) was found , is the town of Custer, South Dakota.
Probably the most significant bit of information absent from the Custer photograph at the mine is what the President of the United States said to Congress the following year: “…The Discovery of gold in the Black Hills, a portion of the Sioux Reservation, has had the effect to induce a large immigration of miners to that point. Thus far the effort to protect the treaty rights of the Indians to that section has been successful, but the next year will certainly witness a large increase of such immigration. The negotiations for the relinquishment of the gold fields having failed, it will be necessary for Congress to adopt some measures to relieve the embarrassment growing out of the causes named. The Secretary of the Interior suggests that the supplies now appropriated for the sustenance of that people, Being no longer obligatory under the treaty of 1868, but simply a gratuity, may be issued or withheld at his discretion.” President Ulysses S. Grant’s entire message can be found in Messages and Papers of the Presidents Vol. 9 Pg.4306.

AIGM President, Steve Melendez, and his children at the site of the Homestake Gold Mine. The mine is an open pit 1250 ft. deep and a half mile across. (Summer 2006)

The fact that President Grant would suggest that a starvation policy should be implemented may be difficult for most Americans to believe but the attitude of that day can be found in the words of another President whose image is carved 40 miles south of the Homestake Mine on Mt. Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore in South Dakota

"The Most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war with savages. The rude, fierce settler who drives the savage from the land lays all civilized mankind under a debt to him...it is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races."The Winning of the West Vol. 4 The Indian Wars Page 56 by President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt


Wounded Knee

If you ever have the opportunity to visit the mass grave site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, you must reflect on why such a thing happened. It was the 7th Cavalry that did it, so the average American is led to believe that it was revenge for Custer’s Last Stand at the Little Big Horn. But knowing President Grant’s words to Congress is to know that the gold was on the Sioux Reservation and that Custer was there in violation of the Treaty of Ft. Laramie of 1868. And to know President Grant’s words to Congress is to know that he called on America to starve the Indians off their land.

Wounded Knee, December 1890.
Courtesy of the Denver Public Library

Wounded Knee Memorial Site, 2006.

When a president of a country openly calls for the
deliberate and systematic destruction of a people,
what other conclusion can be reached? If you ever
visit the mass grave site at Wounded Knee on the
Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, know that
the men, women and children who were thrown into
this trench, were the victims of genocide.

American Indian Genocide Museum - website

THE TRUTH REMAINS TO SET US FREE IN THE USA

THE DENIAL OF TRUTH

Human nature often includes the denial of truth because we are uncomfortable with the truth. So we live with our lies. Suppress our knowledge of truth.

WE SHALL REMAIN on TV PBS' American Experience
Five episodes about the indigenous people - the Native Americans

I finished watching all five episodes last night. It will be repeated on TV and you can watch full episodes online . I encourage you to watch. This is a part of our history that needs to be told. It needs to be integrated into our conscience. In my mind, it needs to be formally acknowledged by our government that we have repeatedly done wrong to the native peoples. The land now called the United States of America was stolen by the immigrants. Our government legalized criminal acts against the people named by the immigrants as Indians (so-named because the immigrants thought they had arrived in India).

As someone who has been watching the internally displaced Darfuri people forced to leave their homes by their own government, have their land stolen, and now - especially since March 4, 2009 - have starvation, dehydration and diseases become part of the way to kill off the Darfuri people, I see striking similarities of what the white immmigrants did to the people already here in the United States of America.

It is wrong what was done to the Indians. The one race of people that remains to be discriminated against in the USA that pretty much is not talked about is the discrimination of the Indians - the Native Americans.

The United States of America declared independence while robbing independence from the Native Americans. Not only robbing independence, but institutionalizing racism.

The "land of the free" was built from the land that wasn't theirs. Many people who are not engaged in the lives of the Native Americans choose not to see how the nation was started. Our past affects what we are today. The truth remains to set us truly free.

WHAT "WE" - "OUR" ANCESTORS DID - WAS NO DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IS BEING DONE TO THE DARFURI PEOPLE OF SUDAN BY THEIR GOVERNMENT for the past six years.

Treaty after treaty, promise after promise has been broken by the USA government with the Native Americans. This treatment continues today. Another related link: Native American First Nations History

It is time to acknowledge the truth. The United States of America will never be based on values until it formally acknowledges what it did to the Native peoples. Until we can accept what is wrong as wrong, mistreatment and injustice will continue.

Denying truth doesn't make truth less true.

“I was ready to do whatever it takes for change. I didn’t care. I had children, and for them I figured I could make a stand here.”

— Madonna Thunder Hawk (Two Kettle Lakota) More about the film Download the Episode Transcript

• 1 After the Mayflower
• 2 Tecumseh's Vision
• 3 Trail of Tears
• 4 Geronimo
• 5 Wounded Knee

Previous posts of mine regarding Native Americans


justice-too-long-delayed-is-justice-denied

genocide-by-united-states-of-america

neglected-story-of-discrimination

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The hypocrisy of the document below is transparent
if read with even small bits of knowledge of the history of the Native Americans.

The Declaration of Independence
of the United States of America

Source: www.wfu.edu

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

Charges

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

[Excised passagte on slavery]
see Jefferson's draft He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidels powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. He has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren.

We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.

We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

........................

Links of interest

American Indian Genocide Museum


A troublesome report by the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8046516.stm

To voice concern over the BBC report
use this link and the information provided below:
http://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/questions/contact/complaint

The Facts about Darfur
United Nations say
2.7 Million Darfuris are displaced internally in camps
300,000 more are displaced to camps outside of Sudan in bordering Chad

4.7 Million need humanitarian aid such as food, water and medical help

The number of dead has been between 300,000 and 400,000 for a few years, now.