Physics of the Impossible

Jobs, Journalism, Justice

Contributing Writer

Articles by Joe Beaumier

Father of the Red, Black, and Green

By Joe Beaumier | March 24, 2009

Had he been successful in all his aspirations everyone would know the story of Marcus Garvey, a founder and leader of the Pan-African movement and expounder of ideals similar to Booker T. Washington. Colin Grant's Negro With a Hat gives a deep and rich rendering of the man known as Black Moses. ...

Rock-Steady Women Build Africa’s Villas

By By JULIEN PRETOT, Reuters | March 17, 2009

Standing in scorching heat, Mansa waits for the stone breakers to fill a large metal bowl with more than 66 pounds of stones and places it on her head.

She carries it about 100 yards, climbs two flights of stairs of a house under construction, empties her bowl, and walks back for more stones -- used to build new villas along Ghana's Gulf of Guinea coastline.

Mansa, a frail 23 year old, repeats her short but arduous journey time and time again, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., six days a week. Sundays are for church. ...

Rock-Steady Women Build Africa’s Villas

By By JULIEN PRETOT, Reuters | March 17, 2009

Standing in scorching heat, Mansa waits for the stone breakers to fill a large metal bowl with more than 66 pounds of stones and places it on her head.

Mansa, a frail 23 year old, repeats her short but arduous journey time and time again, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., six days a week. Sundays are for church. ...

Taking a Close-Up look at Torture

By By Jay Thiemeyer, Street Roots, Portland, Oregon | March 17, 2009

The other night the Veterans for Peace, Local 72, in Portland, OR, screened Taxi To The Dark Side, the stark, unforgiving documentar y recognized even by Hollywood with an Academy Award. It was made by Alex Gibney, who also laid things bare in Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, and was involved with the excellent film by Charles Ferguson, No End In Sight, about the debacle in Iraq.

There are a rash of excellent, insistent films putting the lie to the White House's lonely denial of the massive atrocity they triggered and continue to stoke. ...

The Housing Crisis that Jackson Built

By Streen Roots | March 17, 2009

Sure, Alphonso Jackson gets to leave. He walks away from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with a fat wallet and fatter cronies, a portrait on the wall, and the seemingly requisite cloud of future indictments overhead.

It would be nice if he could take the department's policies with him. But at least for the time being, it appears we're stuck with the same institution of exploiting housing as a commodity for developers and speculators. ...