2002, Astrology and Pluto: The Year in Review

[Guest guest]

2002, Astrology and Pluto: The Year in Review

 

2002: The Year in Review

Tuesday, December 31, 2002

 

All,

So, here we are, another year gone by; and while many

of us prepare for

that great and grand party that we'll attend later

this evening, and

others prepare to attend the religious service of

their choice, and

still others will cuddle up near the TV to watch the

Ball come down in

New York City (Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve), I thought it

would be a good

idea to consider some of the big events and people who

made the

headlines in 2002. Such an exercise is of particular

import for us

stargazers, for it gives us yet another opportunity to

learn more from

the language of the heavens, and gives us insight into

the times that

await us.

 

First, there was the Corporate Scandals that involved,

among many

others, Enron, Tyco Systems, WorldCom, and Martha

Stewart. Still under

investigation at the time of this writing, it has been

discovered that

many of these companies have had direct ties into the

Halls of Power in

Washington, DC. For example, it is public knowledge

that Enron was a

heavy campaign contributor to the Bush bid for the

Presidency in 2000;

VP Dick Cheney has had known ties to yet another

company, Halliburton,

and to this day he remains silent and exactly what he

and Enron heads

discussed behind closed doors in terms of US Energy

Policy. It is

unlikely that any of us will know what was said

either, as a panel of

Federal judges recently ruled that VP Cheney does not

have to divulge

such information.

 

Not to be outdone, DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe was

also brought under

scrutiny for both the Democratic Party meltdown, as

well as his

involvement with Global Crossing, yet another company

that went under

amid scandal.

 

Of course, these scandals, couples with the Terror

Attacks on Sep 11,

2001, have combined to bring the worst Holiday

Shopping Season in over

30 years; the Dow Jones continues to flounder at just

above 8,000

points, and an estimated 1,000,000 laid-off workers

will lose their

unemployment benefits.

 

Yet, George W. Bush continues to be immensely popular

among the American

Electorate, as evidenced in the mid-term Nov 5

elections, where the

Republicans, for the first time in Modern History,

have taken control of

both Houses of Congress as well as the Presidency

itself. Bush now has a

clear mandate to enact the Republican Agenda.

 

But with the recent Trent Lott Scandal, Bush's efforts

to build bridges

into African American Communities across America, has

become that much

more complicated, and difficult. Lott's remarks on the

100th birthday

celebration of Sen. Strom Thurmond, brought up painful

memories for

African Americans, and also brought a swift rebuke and

calls for ouster

from Right Wing Neo-Conservatives, anxious over its

Party's racist past.

Although Lott has been removed from the Senate

Leadership post, and

replaced with a more moderate Republican with strong

ties to Bush, it is

clear that the Democratic Party, suffering mightily

from the Elections,

will try to make this a strong campaign issue in the

year 2004. But the

Democratic Party faces major challenges ahead, from

refocusing its

message, to energizing voters in general, tom somehow

building

coalitions of Black inner-city and White suburban and

rural voters, to

finding someone credible and charismatic enough to

legitimately

challenge Bush for the Presidency. With former VP Al

Gore dropping out

of the race (and please allow me to state, in an

article written in

2000, that I predicted that Gore would NOT seek

another Presidential bid

in 2004!) and with a lukewarm pool of candidates to

choose from, early

rumors are strong that New York Senator Hillary

Clinton could be

selected as the Party's Nominee. It would, at least in

theory, give the

Democrats a much-needed edge in terms of White women

voters, a

significant voting bloc in the United States. Rep.

Nancy Pelosi has

already been selected to head the Dems in Congress, to

succeed Dick

Gephardt after his term ends. Clearly, Clinton has

more credibility and

charisma than all of the early runners on the

Democratic side, and she

has been one of the outspoken voices in the aftermath

of the Trent Lott

Scandal, speaking on his resignation from the

Leadership. It remains to

be seen if she will indeed heed her Party's call and

run for President.

 

The Catholic Church, one of the oldest and most

powerful religious

institutions in the world, saw its very foundations

shaken earlier this

summer when its own Sex Scandals became public. This

is just one in so

many areas that the Church simply must change (please

see Tyl,

Predictions for a New Millennium) its ways, to get

with the times, to

modernize. Whether it will live up to this challenge,

this de-facto

mandate by the leity, remains to be seen, and probably

in all likelihood

will not happen until a new Pope takes his oath.

 

On the Entertainment front, Fact is indeed, stranger

than Fiction; the

King of Pop, Michael Jackson has had an

extraordinarily difficult year.

His latest CD, "Invincible" sold all-time lows for the

Pop Legend, and

signaled perhaps the End of an Era for Jackson. His

bitter battles with

Sony, his troubles with the public over his treatment

of his children,

and his continued ridicule over his appearance, a

failed bid to look

White, has all had their toll on him. Interestingly

enough, a new crop

of entertainers have emerged, their look and sound

coming directly from

the Michael Jackson School of Pop - Usher and Justin

Timberlake to name

but a few. Perhaps, in a way, Jackson's influence on

the World of Pop

Music will be felt forever.

 

And then, there are the ongoing trials and

tribulations of Whitney

Houston. Appearing on ABC with Diane Sawyer a few

weeks back, Houston

defiantly defended both her expensive and destructive

drug habit, and

her marriage to Bobby Brown. It remains to be seen how

well he recent

CD, "Just Whitney" will do on the charts, and it is

clear that Houston

is trying hard to win back some level of public

support. But until she

is able to truly get a handle on her drug demons, and,

some say, dump

her hubbie, it is unlikely that no more than the

fan-faithful will

support her most recent studio effort.

 

Rapper Eminem emerged into superstar status this year

with the release

of the film "8 Mile", and was crowned, "The Next

Elvis", noting that he

is White and is hugely successful in a field - Hip Hop

Music - that is

dominated by Blacks. His comparisons to, and

proclamation that he is the

"next" Elvis, only confirms what many of us have

always known - that the

United States has always preferred, and in all

likelihood, always will

prefer, its heroes (and anti-heroes) in a White skin.

 

And that brings us to actor Vin Diesel, who too found

superstardom this

year with the release of his film, "XXX". Diesel, a

muscle-bound former

club-bouncer from Manhattan, New York, has refused to

divulge whether he

is of African-American lineage. Rumor has it that his

father is at least

in part Black, but again, Diesel refuses to discuss

it. Perhaps he

knows, that if he were to reveal this, it could have a

debilitating

effect on his wallet. No one could ever accuse him of

being another Paul

Robeson. Now, HE was tough.

 

And speaking of films, the first two Black Leading

Male and Female

Actors awards were given out to Denzel Washington and

Halle Berry. While

Berry got much more "face time" on news channels all

over the world for

her emotional acceptance, I thought Washington's

acceptance speech was

much more profound - he seemed to have a "so what"

look about him, and

if indeed my hunch is correct, he would be right to

feel that way. While

his performance in "Training Day" was stellar,

everyone that knows of

this man and his body of work knows that his

performance in the Spike

Lee-directed film, "Malcolm X" was superhuman; that

film was summarily

snubbed at the Oscars. It is very interesting that

Washington, for all

of his many, many great cinematic roles, could only

get an Oscar for

portraying the worst that humanity has to offer, a

rogue cop, and that

Berry (who handed in a great performance as the 1950s

Black film goddess

Dorothy Dandridge) gets an Academy Award for

essentially being an

onscreen harlot. Hattie McDaniel would be probably

rolling in her grave.

 

 

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

At around the same time the Oscars were being given

out, the Grammy's

were also being handed out; Neo-Soul singing

sensation, India.Aire was

nominated 7 times for her critically acclaimed debut

CD, "Acoustic Soul"

- and was roundly beaten out by R&B/Pop phenom Alicia

Keys. This

occurred again on the Soul Train Awards a week or two

later. In an age

where so many Black women bemoan the negative image

that they see of

themselves in the media, it is totally inconceivable

why they didn't

support Aire in protest. Clearly, she is a better

singer, musician and

writer than Keys, hands-down. But, there IS a key

difference between the

two singers - Keys, while African-American, doesn't

fully "look" it;

further, her songs are the stuff of so much

urban-contemporary

playlists, while India.Aire's sound, subject matter

and look was

decidedly different. India.Aire is very dark-skinned,

while Alicia Keys

is light-skinned in complexion.

 

Again, the more things change, the more they stay the

same…

 

BET, short for Black Entertainment Television, after

being bought out by

Viacom, announced that it was ending all public

affairs and news

reporting -just before the Trent Lott Scandal broke.

Lott, seeking to

save his political hide, went on BET to give an

in-depth interview to Ed

Gordon. It is so ironic that BET would cut off any

semblance of

thought-provoking programming at the same time that

such a major event

would happen that concerns African Americans

particularly. BET will now

focus on giving what its viewers - and advertisers -

wants. Which is

24/7 coverage of music videos.

 

On the World scene, Bush's team faces some really

interesting

challenges. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages

unabated, with

absolutely no end in sight. The US prepares to go into

Iraq for a second

time in a decade to disarm it of the very weapons it

supplied to them

only 20 years earlier. North Korea, already in

possession of nuclear

weaponry, is defiant of US attempts to bully it; the

US' position is one

of "diplomacy". And Osama bin Laden, the man on whose

head is placed a

multi-million dollar bounty, remains as free as bird,

very much alive.

The Taliban is reforming, Afghanistan is about as

secure today as it was

right before the coming of the US forces, and Turkey

has cleaned house

electorally, with the rise of the AKP Party. And,

aside from the obvious

Oil interests involved, is yet another underlying

theme, a clear thread

that runs through all of this - the "clash of

civilizations" between the

White Christian West and its Jewish allies, against

the largely

non-white Muslim World.

 

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

At around the time that Strom Thrumond was born, one

of America's

greatest thinkers, writers, educators and advocates,

W.E.B. Dubois wrote

in his immortal work, "The Souls of Black Folk", that

the defining issue

of the 20th Century in America, would be that of the

color line. A

Century later, as the Dawn of the 21st Century begins,

his words have

more impact today, than they did in his time.

 

At that time, Pluto, the planet most associated with

themes of Racism,

Big Business, Politics, Nuclear Energy, Rape,

Empowerment, Perspective,

was in the sign of Gemini (Tropical), which also

happens to be the

Ascendant of the Untied States. It has come, by

transit, to its farthest

point from that position in the early 20th Century, to

the sign of

Sagittarius. In a few short years (2008) it will move

into Capricorn,

the natal position of Pluto for the United States

(which is in the 9th,

opposed Ascendant ruling Mercury, BOTH Retrograde;

Pluto rules the 6th,

servitude, slavery, etc). It will be most certainly a

time of, as

Malcolm X once said, "the chickens coming home to

roost".

 

This then, is a sneak preview.

 

Happy New Year.

 

Salaam,

Mu'Min Mustafa Bey

Dec 31, 2002

Philadelphia, PA

 

 

 

=====

Mu'Min M. Bey

Western and Vedic Astrologer

mumin_bey

AOL IM Screen Name: JediMu

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