Arrowroots International

My grandpa was probably born on December 3, 1926. No one knows for sure because he changed his birthdate to enlist in the army. There's no official record. Sometimes his birthday is in November and once it was in February. In his lifetime he's been a logger, farmer, and bootlegger. Alcohol was illegal in Walker County Texas until 1971. And even after, it was more profitable to bootleg instead of paying taxes on his business. My town also had the first prison in the State of Texas. Death Row inmates are executed a couple of blocks away from where I went to junior high. There are seven prisons in my town that over 5,000 inmates call home. Growing up, I'd always see the trustees playing baseball in a field. It looked fun and the games would start early in the morning and go until sunset. My grandpa said that he was the owner of a minor league baseball team and he paid the inmates to play for his team. Here's a conversation: Grandpa: You know Lela Mae (my grandmo

Open letter to the Rockets: GM Dear Mr. Daryl Morey, I have been a Houston Rockets fan since I was five years old. I proudly remember Hakeem Olajuwon and company bringing back to back championships to Houston in the early nineties. I have rooted for the Rockets win or lose and supported the team faithfully over the past decade. Jeremy Lin is an outstanding basketball player.  I have followed his career since he played at Harvard. My first encounter with Lin was in passing my freshman year at Brown University in 2007. I was leaving track practice as Harvard’s basketball team was arriving to play Brown. I remember smirking to myself on the way out and thinking, “Harvard would have an Asian basketball player…” I did not stick around to watch the game but over the next couple of years I heard locker room gossip about a Chinese player at Harvard that could play ball. Then in December 2008, I received a frantic call from my younger brother (a freshman at Rice) about thi

Poutine from Chez Schwart's 3899 St-Laurent Boulevard, Montreal  For Memorial Day Weekend I drove up to Canada with a couple of my classmates. They had planned this trip for a week. I got in at the last second. Two things will forever be ingrained in my memory from my first time in Canada. One: So much French. A ridiculous amount. Stop signs in Montreal don't say STOP they say Arrêt! Stop is universal! Even in France, some Asian countries, and Russia the signs read STOP... Fortunately, we had one Frenchman with us and I also have a rotation of French words and phrases I feel comfortable using. I even picked up a couple of new words while I was there. The second and most beautiful part of my visit was poutine. For the uninitiated, poutine is the greatest thing Canada has ever developed. It's french fries topped with gravy and cheese (meat and other toppings optional) There are photos below. I'm so happy that I had the chance to experience this wonderful

Talking with a group of international students at the Harvard Kennedy School, I was asked where in Africa my family was from. I had no idea, I said; for generations my family had lived in Texas. I was then asked if I considered myself to be African American. My response was that my entire life I had always considered myself to be a Black American. This response simultaneously amused and dissatisfied the small group of highly educated wealthy foreigners. After a brief exchange of words and our opinions someone asked, why is it that Americans are so obsessed with race? Why can we not just see people as people? In the perfect world I would just be seen as a person. A human being. A carbon based life form. An American. However, in the United States, skin color has always determined so much about the type of life a person lived.   From 1619, when the British brought the first enslaved Africans to Jamestown and 231 years after being Black essentially meant you were a slave. In fact, it

Have you ever tried counting raindrops? Whether in a light afternoon drizzle or late night thunderous tempest. It's not easy. Tracking individual, countless splashes. Counting in rhythm is one approach. Quantifying one of the most beautiful forms of Mother Nature. Each drop falls a long way to a temporary destination. A splash. The long drop from the sky is less than half of the journey. Rain then seeps into soil, flows into streams, rivers, subterranean reservoirs, gutters, and city storm drains. Each drop counted ultimately adds up to an ultimate sum. Count splashes. If lulled to sleep count sounds. How many raindrops descend from the heavens to the ground? 

Crude oil in Nigeria is being stolen, refined, and sold on an industrial scale. This vast shadow industry has given rise to a new breed of criminal in the Niger Delta. Malcontent, desperate individuals emboldened by the promise of an easy dollar have transformed the scope and scale of environmental degradation of the region. In addition to crude oil theft, bribery, kidnapping, and murder are endemic to this business. These criminals are supported and protected by politicians and armed forces that swore to keep them in check. The oil thieves, refinery operators, and politicians that protect them make up a complex underground network of petroleum production. This industry has made many rich and it continues to attract more participants daily. Robbing the Nigerian government of billions in tax revenues and destroying the environment.

“The grave phenomenon of oil theft and its global support system represents another face of terrorism counteracting our efforts at sustaining the trajectory of our high-growth economy, the stability of our society, and the enhancement and wellbeing of our people” Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke The illegal oil industry in Nigeria is a direct result of years of corporate irresponsibility. For decades large multinational oil companies operated in Nigeria with little regard for the environment, life, and property of the communities. After years of government neglect, population growth, and underdevelopment the locals started to steal the oil from the pipelines and production facilities of the companies. In recent, years the illegal oil industry has become much more complex and sophisticated. There are jobs available in extraction (stealing oil from companies), transportation (navigating boats and barges loaded with stolen crude oil), and ref

Many countries have problems with how they value their natural resources.   The undervaluation of natural resources often leads to large scale, irreversible environmental damage. For example, forests are frequently clear cut to make room for crops or livestock. The landowner is compensated quickly via the “stumpage” price for the timber harvested from his land. He is then able to enjoy quick returns from crops or livestock. In developing countries, the undervaluation of natural resources has resulted in catastrophic environmental degradation. The same undervaluation of forestlands can also be applied to other natural resources as well. For example, a growing number of inhabitants in the Niger Delta are getting involved in the illegal oil refinery business in Nigeria. Oil is stolen from facilities of corporations working in the region on an industrial scale, processed into fuel in illegal refineries, and sold across West Africa. [1] Oil leaking from pipes after illegal extraction f