Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas 2007

By Brenda Norrell
Narcosphere

The Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas 2007 will be held Nov. 7 --10, 2007 at the San Xavier Distrct on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Narco News
By Brenda Norrell

SAN XAVIER, Ariz. -- The Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas will be held at San Xavier District on the Tohono O'odham Nation near Tucson, November 7 -- 10, 2007, Wednesday through Saturday.
Opposition to the militarization of the borders in Indigenous territories, including the US/Mexico border wall and the United States spying on private citizens, is a focus of the summit.
The foundation of the discussion will be the sacred duty to protect Mother Earth.
Indigenous rights of passage, Indigenous deaths in the borderzone and the universal rights of Indigenous Peoples will be discussed.
The United States' new border crossing requirements will be on the agenda, with Indigenous pressing for the recognition of tribal identification cards, as opposed to U.S. passports, for American Indian tribal members.
Land and water rights and human rights in the Americas will be the focus of sessions.
Special invitations are extended to the spiritual leaders, chiefs, tribal leaders and other Indigenous Peoples from Alaska, Canada, Central America and South America.
The first planning session for this year's summit was held on Friday, August 31, with Tohono O'odham from Arizona, O'odham from Mexico, Salt River Pima, Navajo and Hopi/Pueblo tribal members attending.
Tohono O’odham Mike Flores is organizing the summit.
The San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation passed a resolution on July 10, 2007 to host the summit again this year.

Points of Discussion: Human rights/Humanitarian aid; Know your rights workshop; Militarization/Surveillance on border; Political prisoners/Detention centers; Environment/Lands territories, natural resources; Women and the border; Traditional mobility/Immigration. There will also be a concert at San Xavier.

Watch for updates:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Photos of the planning session by Brenda Norrell. More photos:

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/09/indigenous-border-summit-of-americas.html

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Once again I was mentioned in the "TV Extras" column by David Bianculli, TV columnist for the New York Daily News:

The USA series "Burn Notice," if my electronic mailbag is any indication, is popular among viewers who hunt for hidden jokes. Many caught one from an early episode, including Eddie Rabinowitz of Brooklyn, Tricia Metts of Dumont, N.J., and Marc Lighter, also of Brooklyn.

Lighter writes, "In the episode called 'Identity,' Bruce Campbell identified Gabrielle Anwar and himself as 'Detectives Cagney and Lacey.' Sharon Gless, who was Christine Cagney, is also a member of the series, playing Jeffrey Donovan's mother."

Referring to Gless' role on the classic 1980s CBS cop show was good enough to earn Extra points, but Toby O'Brien of Manhattan did even more by putting the playful prank into context.

"Using the TV show for their cover names was funny enough as an in-joke," he writes, "but it's been done before.

"Working undercover in a gated community on an episode of 'The X-Files,' Mulder introduced himself and his partner Scully as 'Rob and Laura Petrie'" - a nod, of course, to the roles played by Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore on "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

The full article can be found here.

By my records, Bianculli has published over 70 columns dedicated to TV in-jokes over the years. Looking through my copies of them, I see that I've contributed about 16 of them - that made it to print, that is. You should see how many that never saw the light of day in the Daily News! (Bianculli probably sees me as some kind of nut job by now; but then, why should he be any different from the rest of you?)

But this time out, this may have been the last publication of the TV Extras column - at least in the New York Daily News. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it appears that he and the paper's editor-in-chief came to an impasse over money with a new contract. So it's likely that Bianculli will be moving on.

I just hope that with the world so connected via the Internet, I'll be able to follow his work to wherever he ends up. I know there'll be plenty of new TV in-jokes out there in the future with which I can pester him.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

'KIDNAPPED': THREE IN ONE

There will be a few spoilers in this essay regarding 'Kidnapped', so if you have plans to one day watch the series on DVD, (and I suggest that you do), then come back after you've done so.......

For me, 'Kidnapped' was one of the better series of the 2006 TV season, and it was a crime that it never got to play out its freshman year on the air. But at least the production was finished so that an audience could watch the entire storyline and not be left dangling - like those suckers who were watching 'Reunion'.

I like to think Mr. Knapp is still out there in NYC, with his sexy sidekick Turner and former FBI Agent Latimer King now working with them. And what if he crossed paths with Detective Cyrus Lupo this coming fall? That should prove confusing for Lupo's partner, Detective Ed Green! (And then if Knapp runs into the new Executive Assistant District Attorney, who's the spitting image of the late FBI Supervisor Andy Archer.....)

It was a very self-contained season for 'Kidnapped'. Had it gone into a second season, maybe we could have seen such a crossover with 'Law & Order'.

Here's an interesting pozz'bility for a theory of "relateeveety" in connection to one of the supporting characters. FBI investigator Vance, who worked for Internal Affairs, could have been the identical half-brother to Mike Giardello. Giardello used to an FBI agent as well, but he transferred out to join the Baltimore Police Department like his father, Lt. Al Giardello.

Here's my theory: Mike was Al's son in name only; let's face it, there didn't look to be much between them to suggest a similar DNA match. And in Toobworld, tele-genetics are strong enough to create nearly exact duplicates from one generation to another.

But Alphonse Giardello was the man who raised him, so in more than just name he was Mike's father. However, Mike was the result of an affair between his mother and a man named Vance whose son by his own wife also grew up to join the FBI. Perhaps their father was an FBI agent as well - his son joined to follow his father's footsteps, and Mike Giardello joined to rub salt in G's wounds over the affair once Mike found out. (It would at least give a clearer reason as to why they had a falling out years earlier.)

I have one final Toobworld pozz'bility to suggest: In the penultimate episode of 'Kidnapped', we met a shady operative named Kurso down in Mexico, who helped Knapp with information and a supply of guns.

It's my contention that we've seen Kurso before in Toobworld, but that's not the name by which we knew him.

A lot can happen to a man in fifteen years. That's a lifetime in which one can drop out of society in one identity, only to rise again with another a world away (in more ways than one).

I think Kurso was Jerry Horne, younger brother to the powerful Ben Horne of 'Twin Peaks'. For one reason or another, he had a final falling out with his brother, perhaps in connection with something illegal in nature. Going underground, he possibly dabbled in arms dealing and being an informant to the FBI, which is probably what brought him into contact with Knapp in the first place.

A search of Google for "Kurso" shows it to mean "course" in the designed language of Esperanto. Jerry Horne could have been the type of man who learned how to speak Esperanto; perhaps he took the pseudonym of "Kurso" to suggest that he had something to teach others. Perhaps it was even loftier, part of some grand design to suggest that he was the course, the Path to some goal. But his dreams of being some kind of Messiah must have gone awry and now he was a low-life on the periphery on the shores of Mexico. It wouldn't be too out of the loop for someone out of 'Twin Peaks'.....

Who knows? If Kurso really was Jerry Horne, it's not like we'll ever see him again in Toobworld, save in flashback. Kurso never survived Knapp's assault to find and rescue kidnap victim Leopold Cain.

So.

A Theory of Relateeveety, a Double Vision/Wishcraft combo, and a Nom de Toob. Not bad for a post about a show which lasted only one season....

BCnU!
Toby OB