Nation of Islam Leader Minister Louis Farrakhan Visits Memphis

MEMPHIS, TN – Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan visited Memphis on Sunday to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. He spoke to a packed house inside the Cook Convention Center, telling the crowd that the message of responsibility that he preached then is just as necessary now. “We must accept responsibility to build our own communities,” said Farrakhan, whose speech was the keynote address for the Nation of Islam's "Holy Day of Atonement" to honor the Million Man March. "How do you expect others to care more for you than you are willing to care for yourself?”

He said 14 years after the Million Man March, America faces the same crossroads, even with Barack Obama in the White House.

"We have to be careful the masses of the people are not being pacified by the fact that the first black president sits in the White House,” he said. "This can pacify you, and lull you to sleep in a dangerous time, making you think we live in a post-racial America when the opposite is true."

Farrakhan told the crowd that Obama “is the American president, not the black president.”

“So don’t expect for him to do for us what we’ve got to marshal our energy and our talents to do for ourselves,” he said, adding that he sympathized with Obama.
“If he decides to stay in Iraq, I don’t think it will come out right for him or our children that will be sent to be slaughtered in that land,” Farrakhan said. “And that land is Afghanistan.

“What our brother is attempting to do is to bring America back from the brink of destruction, but the reality is it may be too little too late,” he added.

Farrakhan's message of self-reliance resonated with the crowd.

“Now he's trying to re-spark that same enthusiasm and perpetuate the same movement and the same truth and energy that spawned the million man march,” said Charles Dallas, who called Farrakhan’s visit to Memphis an inspiration. “For the minister to even consider stopping by Memphis is prestigious because he could have said ‘Memphis is not a big enough crowd for my celebrity.’ But he didn’t. So it’s a big honor.”

His friend James Pampley agreed.

“He was saying us as a people, we have to pick up the responsibility and rebuild our community,” Pampley said. “And that really hit me.”
Farrakhan said that message is universal.

"It's not about the color of your skin, it's about the way you think, and the way you act, and the ruling idea that's in your heart and your mind,” he said.

Commemorating the Million Man March 14th Anniversary

(FinalCall.com) - Those living in Memphis, host city for this year's Oct. 16-18 annual Holy Day of Atonement commemoration, have been working around the clock for several months as many travel to the capitol of the mid-south to mark the 14th Anniversary of the Million Man March.

The Honorable Minster Louis Farrakhan, scheduled to deliver the keynote address marking this year's Day of Atonement commemoration, told The Final Call the focus will be on pooling resources, to do what needs to be done to produce that which is needed for the Black community to survive these tough economic times.

“We hope to gather many, many people from Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, and the Deep South to come up to Memphis. We need land. Since America is being bought up by forces outside, we need to pool our dollars to buy huge tracks of land that we can begin to build an economy for ourselves. We need to think about how to fulfill the prophecy (Isaiah 61:4) where it says, ‘And they will rebuild the wasted cities.' We need to be prepared to build our communities,” said Min. Farrakhan.

“If there are ten million or more people out of jobs or six million or five million, President Obama is trying to create jobs, but for whom? Will we be able to fit into the green economy?” the Minister asked.

“So if we don't get busy producing jobs for ourselves, we will be lost as a people. My focus on the Day of Atonement has to be on building the ministries and why the building of these ministries is the proper answer to the problems that we face now and will face in the immediate future.”

Memphis prepares

Memphis, located in the southwest corner of Tennessee, has an estimated population of a little under 670,000. It is the largest city in Tennessee, and the 19th largest in the U.S.

Student minister Anthony Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 55, the hosts of the commemoration, told The Final Call they are looking forward to seeing everyone's safe journey by bus, car or airplane for a weekend of problem solving, fellowship and culture.

“We are very excited, honored and looking forward to seeing all of the Believers coming here from all over the country,” said Anthony Muhammad, adding that with the help of a committed cadre of Muslims, they have worked with city officials for the last eight months to plan the weekend of events.

On October 16 a leadership forum and roundtable discussion is scheduled with prominent business, political, civic and spiritual leaders from within the community hosted by former mayor Dr. Willie W. Herenton, Vice President of Operation PUSH Dr. L. Lasimba Gray, SCLC Memphis Chapter President Dwight Montgomery, Shelby County Commissioners Sidney Chism and Henri Brooks. The leadership forum will be held at the Civil Rights Museum, located at the Divine Lorraine hotel where Dr. Martin Luther Jr. was felled by an assassin's bullet in 1968. The hotel has now been converted into an historical landmark and tours will be available to the public throughout the entire weekend.

On October 17 at 2 p.m. there will be a health fair and town hall meeting discussing health in the Black community at the Memphis Cook Convention Center, and later in the evening, a free talent showcase and concert is scheduled, drawing gifted performers from all different cultural genres with entertainment appropriate for all ages.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's keynote address will be delivered from the Memphis Cook Convention Center on October 18th at 2 p.m. and will be carried live via internet webcast at www.noi.org.

Reflections on the Million Man March

The overwhelming event which took place October 16, 1995 drew over two-million Black men to the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The men who made the journey indicated that the themes of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility resonated with them, and the gathering symbolized the willingness of Black men to atone to God for shortcomings as men, husbands and fathers, and demonstrated their willingness to reconcile differences at home, school, church, organizations and in the society.

Over the years, many who attended the Million Man March have reflected on the symbolic importance of that particular day, as well as the tangible results that were manifested resulting from the massive display of Black male unity that was witnessed worldwide on that peaceful day that many referred to as “a glimpse of heaven.”

The 14th anniversary of the Million Man March comes at a time of great change in America and across the world. Leading up to the march, back in 1995, Minister Farrakhan traveled across the United States challenging Black men to stand up and strive to reclaim their families and communities. Many who participated in the Million Man March said the day, and the events leading up to it, are still etched in their memories.

“I think it is important not to view the Million Man March in a vacuum; we should put it in historical context and see it as part of a historical continuum that began long before 1995 and has continued to this day,” said Zaheer Ali, who was the assistant to the National Executive Director of the Million Man March, Dr. Benjamin Chavis.

“The Million Man March was a powerful re-articulation of the nationalist tradition in the Black freedom struggle, emphasizing self-help, individual responsibility, and community development. Those ideas, along with other strains of thought within the Black freedom struggle, will continue to be relevant as long as racial disparities exist in our country,” said Mr. Ali.

It was the state of the Black man that gave relevance to the gathering and spawned subsequent offshoots such as the Million Woman March, the Million Youth March and Movement, the Million Family March, and even the Million Worker's March and Million Mom's March.

It was the spirit of the Million Man March that resonated with the spirit of the men who responded to the call, said community leader, veteran radio broadcaster and businessman Bob Law, who served as the New York State Chairperson of the Million Man March. “The Million Man March resonates in the hearts of more than a million Black men, and it is still the rallying cry that would gather black men coming together,” said Mr. Law in a telephone interview with The Final Call.

“I saw a brother who is a derelict walking down the street near my restaurant looking for a hand-out and I gave some money and I said to him, ‘Brother, this is from the spirit of the Million Man March,' and he stood straight up, and he said, ‘The Million Man March, Yes Sir!' and there are other experiences like this one,” said Mr. Law.

Mr. Ali agreed and said the success of the march can be measured quantifiably and qualitatively in the affect on the men who attended and on the local communities.

“The number of children who were adopted, the increase in Black male voter participation in the ‘96 election, family reunions with previously absentee fathers, and the increase in Black civil participation in churches, mosques, and organizations. But just as important was the ways the Million Man March affected people qualitatively: the Million Man March represented a tonal shift, a counter-narrative to the prevailing images of the Black ‘menace to society' that were being piped through media at the time,” Mr. Ali said.

“That was one of the best days of my life,” said Student Minister Anthony Muhammad, adding that looking back fourteen years later, he is wiser and many of the men who attended were wiser.

“That march changed the lives of many men and the difference is the wisdom that comes with that—fourteen years later—I am wiser than I was then, and the one thing we failed to learn how to do is to work with one another. We wanted to but I think we have now learned that it is imperative that we learn to get along. It is time for us to work together,” he said.

For more information regarding the Holy Day of Atonement in Memphis and the weekend of events, visit http://www.holydayofatonement2009.com or call 901-523-2560.

(Brian E. Muhammad contributed to this report.)

Community mourns death of Derrion Albert

By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Assistant Editor of Final Call News
(l)Many of Derrion's friends and classmates wore clothing to mark his memory. (r) The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan speaking at the location where Derrion Albert was entombed on Oct. 3. Seated is Derrion's mother An-Janette Albert.
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The body of 16-year-old high school honor student Derrion Albert was laid to rest on October 3 following a somber funeral at Greater Mt. Hebron Baptist church on Chicago's Southside.
Many of Derrion's friends and classmates joined the procession past his casket with tears in their eyes as they looked into his face one last time.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, speaking at the funeral, told the mourners that “God is the giver of life and He is the ultimate cause of death.” While it is natural to question why God would take this young man, his death allows us to see the “horror of the senseless violence” in the streets of Chicago, he said.
Derrion's grandfather Joseph Walker, overcome by grief, crying over his grandson's casket at the entombment.

‘I ask, in the name of Derrion, who among us will go after that which is lost and bring it back to us? I believe all of our people can be saved.’
—Minister Louis Farrakhan

“His death is a call to action!” said Min. Farrakhan. “This was a special young man of righteous bearing, whom God took from us so young, but may I remind you dear beloved followers of Jesus the Christ; he too was a young man. He too was a victim of mob violence, he too was special and because he was not a wicked person, his righteous life became the redemptive power for all of humanity,” said Min. Farrakhan.

Min. Farrakhan said while some may consider Black youth “unsalvageable” and though they may appear to be lost in the eyes of some, all are redeemable, no matter how horrible they are acting at the present time.

“Whenever you get to thinking that our children are unsalvageable then death and destruction is called down upon that which you believe can never be redeemed,” said Min. Farrakhan. “How can you say that Jesus saves? Is he powerless to save our children? How can you say that he is a redeemer and then look at the condition of our people and then think that it is hopeless?”

Min. Farrakhan encouraged the clergy, school administrators and others to go after the “lost sheep” that appear to be irretrievable.

“I ask, in the name of Derrion, who among us will go after that which is lost and bring it back to us? I believe all of our people can be saved,” said Min. Farrakhan.

Questions still unanswered

Many questions remain unanswered as more details emerge providing insight into the circumstances that led to the melee Sept. 24 which resulted in Derrion's death and serious injuries to four others.

One question asked by students and parents: Could it have been prevented?

Several students who asked not to be identified told The Final Call that the day Derrion was beaten to death, word circulated around the high school's hallways that a huge fight was going to take place after school. In fact, earlier that morning, there had been gun shots fired outside the high school. Then, around lunchtime, students said another fight broke out between two boys from rival neighborhoods that was related to the earlier shooting.

Students say the shooting and the mid-day skirmish led to the subsequent brawl that claimed Derrion's life, and police and school officials should have done more to prevent it.

Friends reflect on fond memories of Derrion. Photos: Timothy 6x
“Everyone knew something was about to go down,” said a 16-year-old girl who was one of Derrion's classmates. “No disrespect to the police, but they were not on the job, and the security guards saw what was about to go down and turned the other way and went back to the school.”

Parents and students in the area surrounding Fenger High School said there exists a long-standing feud—almost two decades old—between those who live directly in the high school's neighborhood, called “The Ville” in Roseland, and students who attend the school from the Altgeld Gardens housing projects.

Andreia Dominick, 16, said violence is nothing new at Fenger.

“This has been going on over a long period of time at Fenger, two different neighborhoods getting into it. But I guess they thought it would never get to the point where someone got killed. Everybody knows there is a lot of violence at Fenger, and they fight all of the time,” said Ms. Dominick who lived a few doors down from Derrion, went to grade school with him and would often see him on the way home. Ms. Dominick said Derrion was always a smart boy. The type of person who always smiled, and was always there for her when she needed someone to talk to.

Chief Tina M. Skahill of the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategies (CAPS) office said police are working to partner with different neighborhood anti-violence organizations as well as school administrators to minimize the existing conflicts in these neighborhoods and high schools.

At Final Call press time, four teenagers, 19-year-old Silvonus Shannon, 18-year-old Eugene Riley, 17-year-old Eugene Bailey and 16-year-old Eric Carson have all been charged with first-degree murder and are in jail. Police are still asking for anyone with additional information regarding those involved in the beating death to come forward.

Responding to accusations that the police were slow to the scene of the melee and reports that the initial responders did not immediately intervene, embattled Chicago Police Supt. Jody P. Weis, said the first 911 call arrived at 2:53 p.m., a car was dispatched at 2:55 p.m. and arrived at the scene one minute later at 2:56 p.m.

At Derrion Albert's funeral, Supt. Weis told The Final Call that they are doing everything they can, working diligently redeploying officers and reorganizing patrols when needed in the area around Fenger high school and in many other areas of the city.

Eyewitnesses and law enforcement officials said up to 50 people could have been involved in the clash. Speaking to the press on Sept. 28, Chicago police spokesman Dana Starks said many high schools around the city of Chicago, including Fenger, have neighborhood rivalries that lead to these types of conflicts. Since the fight was spread over a four or five block radius, there were several different violent flashpoints, and details are still being sorted out and tensions remain high, he said.

A vigil that was to be held on Sept. 26, just two days after Derrion's death was cancelled because of fear of retaliation, and a makeshift memorial placed at the location of his death consisting of cards, posters, stuffed animals and flowers was set on fire the night after it was erected.

Nationwide attention

Hip hop artist Nas wrote “An Open Letter to the Young Warriors in Chicago” decrying the death of Derrion. Bow Wow posted a two-minute YouTube video titled “Stop the Violence and Increase the Peace.”

After watching the video of Derrion Albert being killed, in a heartfelt blog entry, actress Reagan Gomez-Preston wrote:

“Our kids are pi--ed off and frustrated. Momma is working two and three jobs, struggling to keep it together, and kids are left on their own. This isn't a new problem. We know this.” She goes on to ask, “Do we know who started the fight? Does it matter? I know what I saw on the tape. When you're in that rage, it's all, emotional. You just wanna fight the closest thing to you. And most of the time, it's someone who looks just like you. And guess what? They're going through the same thing you're going through.”

Since Derrion's death, there has been an increased police presence in the area of the high school, however, students said even with stepped up police patrols, they don't feel safe. Many believe it is only a matter of time before another chaotic and perhaps deadly brawl takes place.

“They (police) sit in their car with their sirens going off telling everybody to get away from the school but it seems like once it gets off of school grounds, they don't really care about what else happens,” said 17-year-old Fenger high school student Bonnie Fitts.

On Sept. 30, approximately 200 concerned parents met at Sheldon Heights Church of Christ which is located less than a mile away from Fenger. Parents heard from principal Elizabeth Dozier, 34th Ward Alderman Carrie Austin, Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman, Mike Shields, director of safety and security for Chicago Public Schools and Chief Skahill. Derrion's aunt, Rose Braxton, spoke briefly to the media along with Ameena Matthews of CeaseFire, a conflict mediation and prevention group. Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow/PUSH was also present to lend support to the family.

Ms. Dozier, who has been the principal at Fenger for just one month, said, “There are many kinds of facets to the solution, and we all play a really integral part.” Ms. Dozier said she will be working very closely with the parents and staff of Fenger, along with officials from the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Public Schools to maintain a safe environment for the students.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown said stopping the crime and violence in Chicago should be the “main focus” of the police department and proactive ways to maintain a safe learning environment for youth must be “stepped up” by the Chicago Public Schools.

“It is my hope that the same fervor that we sought to get the 2016 Olympics be put towards saving our youth because our youth are our future and we must do everything we can to stop this violence,” said Ms. Brown. “We are losing valuable young men and women like Derrion Albert, an honor roll student, a very sensitive young man—it is a travesty that he had to lose his life in this way.”

According to Mr. Huberman, who presides over the third largest school system in the country, more can be done in all areas to prevent these types of tragedies and officials are working hard to find the right answer. One such program is the “Safe Passage” program, launched at 38 of Chicago's high schools that represent approximately 80 percent of all incidents of violence involving students. In this plan, the Chicago Police Department, the CTA and principals of the high schools will analyze gang territories, school boundaries and police district boundaries to determine routes that students will be able to use that would be adequately resourced in order to be considered safe for passage.

Additionally, Mr. Huberman said, using portions of $30 million in stimulus money, CPS will be providing nine school buses to transport students to Fenger high school safely.

“This funeral becomes another symbol of the breakdown of society. We have failed, we all share in this failure and in this death. This is blood crying out from the ground like Abel. If we do not respond to this, then the blood of every child (lost) is going to be on our hands,” said Father Michael Pfleger of the Faith Community of St. Sabina.

Derrion's mother An-Janette Albert, speaking through tears, thanked everyone for their outpouring of love for her fallen son.

“It was beautiful; it was wonderful,” said Ms. Albert. “You just don't know how many people care about you.”

Ms. Albert says now, almost two weeks later, she still can't find adequate words to describe how she felt when she heard that her son was dead.

“I still don't know how I feel. It still hasn't really sunk in yet that he is gone,” Ms. Albert told The Final Call.

Community mourns death of Derrion Albert

Community mourns death of Derrion Albert

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Method Man arrested on $33K tax charge

Rapper and actor Clifford Smith, better known to fans as Method Man, was arrested Monday and faces charges of failing to pay taxes, the district attorney in Richmond County, New York, said.

Clifford Smith, better known as Method Man, failed to file tax returns and owes $33,000, authorities say.
Smith, 38, owes the state nearly $33,000 for New York State income tax returns that he did not file between 2004 and 2007, district attorney Daniel Donovan Jr. said in a statement.

The Grammy-winning rapper, an original member of the Wu-Tang Clan, was arrested at his home on Staten Island. He faces a felony charge of repeated failure to file taxes and a misdemeanor charge of failure to pay tax.

The felony carries a sentence of up to four years in prison.

Smith was to appear at an arraignment in Staten Island Criminal Court on Monday.

Smith's attorney Peter Frankel was not immediately available to comment

Minister Farrakhan,Jesse Jackson attend Chicago teen's funeral

CHICAGO - The funeral of a Chicago teen who was beaten to death on his way home from school drew civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan on Saturday, both calling for an end to youth violence.

Farrakhan said he came to the funeral because he was "deeply pained" by the death of 16-year-old honor roll student Derrion Albert. The boy was walking to a bus stop after school when a group of teens attacked him during a street fight late last month.

"Naturally, we wonder why such a beautiful life? Such a future we thought was waiting for this young man," Farrakhan said. "This was a special young man of righteous bearing who God took from us so young."

Cell phone video footage shows Albert being kicked and hit with splintered railroad ties. Four teens are charged in his death.

President Barack Obama is sending U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who once led Chicago Public Schools, to Chicago on Wednesday to meet with school officials, students and residents and talk about school violence.

"The eyes of the world are watching," Pastor E.F. Ledbetter Jr. told mourners at the Greater Mount Hebron Baptist Church on the city's South Side. "This has affected people all over the globe."

Mayor Richard Daley, just off a plane Saturday from an International Olympic Committee meeting in Copenhagen where Chicago lost the 2016 Summer Games, said he would work with police, the community and school officials to break the "code of silence" that happens after street violence.

Police, ministers and community leaders have been asking people to come forward with information about Albert's killing.

"The code of silence is unacceptable in this day and age where we have young children being killed," Daley said at a news conference at O'Hare International Airport.

Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis and Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman also both attended the funeral along with other city and public officials. Huberman called the Christian Fenger Academy High School sophomore a "bright light."

Jackson demanded children and teens to be given safe passage to and from school.

"Derrion didn't have to die," Jackson said. "He was murdered. His pain, his suffering, his death have shook the world."

As mourners filed into the church, video screens scrolled through pictures of Derrion as a baby and with his family, as well as photos of his academic awards. Some mourners wore T-shirts with Derrion's picture that read "We will always remember you."

The program included a poem Derrion's mother, Janette Albert, wrote to her son titled "May I Go Now?"

"I know you're sad and afraid because I see your tears," she wrote. "I'll not be far. I promise that."

Farrakhan also called for communities to support their youth.

"Let's go get our young people," Farrakhan said. "His righteousness was to serve as a redemptive force to command us to get up and get busy and save our children."

China Celebrates 60 Years of Independent Rule

BEIJING — China’s leaders marked their nation’s 60th anniversary on Thursday with a precision display of military bravado that included, improbably, a female militia unit toting submachine guns and attired in red miniskirts and white jackboots, and a fleet of floats with representations of a giant fish and Mount Everest.
China’s Next Stage
Can China spread the wealth and become a consumer society?
On Day for China Pride, Little Interest in Ideology (October 1, 2009)
China Is Wordless on Traumas of Communists’ Rise (October 2, 2009) The celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China was immense, powerful and flawless, down to the crystalline skies that, just a day earlier, had been laden with smog.

In all that, it was a fitting analogy for how China’s Communist Party leaders wanted their citizens and the world to regard them — and, perhaps, how they might be feeling themselves these days. The last such parade, in 1999, was of interest mainly to foreign military analysts and China hands. This time, the world’s news outlets reported raptly on the significance of every detail, and China’s state-run television network streamed video coverage over the Internet, in English and other languages, to viewers worldwide.

Beyond that, however, the Chinese made few concessions to their global audience. The 60th-anniversary celebration was slightly kitschy and indisputably retro, a carbon copy of the prior once-a-decade celebrations.

“On one level, they are naturally aware of the international audience, but in the end this is a parade and show for Chinese leaders and the people of China,” Geremie R. Barmé, professor of Chinese history at the Australian National University, said in an interview. “It has always been such a show. It is a display of China’s might and power. When it comes to this kind of parade, international perceptions are just not that important.”

A confident President Hu Jintao, clad in a high-collar Mao-style jacket, told the invited guests — the general public was not allowed to attend the parade — that “infinitely bright prospects” lay ahead for the world’s most populous nation.

“Today, a socialist China geared to modernization, the world and the future has stood rock-firm in the east of the world,” Mr. Hu said in a brief speech speckled with boilerplate references to Chinese-style socialism. The Chinese people, he said, “cannot be prouder of the development and progress of our great motherland.”

Mr. Hu’s review of his troops — made standing in the open sunroof of a Chinese-made 12-cylinder Red Flag limousine — echoed the reviews conducted by his predecessors in decades past. Television images showed Mr. Hu waving stiffly and calling out “Greetings, comrades!” through four large microphones attached to the limousine’s roof. Following tradition, the troops replied in unison, “Serve the people!”

The vast display of military power — according to the state-run Xinhua news agency, 52 weapons systems; 151 warplane flyovers; 12 intercontinental-range missiles; and a new missile, the Dongfeng 21-C, that one day could be used to counter American aircraft carriers — received by far the most attention. While China’s military remains well behind that of many developed nations in sophistication and firepower, analysts said, its progress since the last such parade in 1999 was impressive.

Analysts said, however, that there was little or nothing unknown in the procession of hardware.

And some of the most notable changes did not involve the military at all, but the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force that was a bit player in the past. On Thursday, the police had specially outfitted armored personnel carriers, a signal of their growing stature. The group is the government’s main internal security force and played crucial roles in suppressing ethnic disturbances in the Xinjiang region in July and in combating riots in Tibet in March 2008. Its performance in Tibet was widely criticized, and the government has since taken steps to modernize the force and train it to military standards.

To foreigners, the show of firepower and Mr. Hu’s bromide-filled speech may have evoked memories of the cold war and the former Soviet Union’s performances at May Day ceremonies. But in China, the National Day ceremony is directed mainly at the Chinese people, and particularly at the 75-million-member Communist Party, which not only runs the government but also has direct control of the armed forces.

The military journal People’s Liberation Army News said in February that the parade “is a comprehensive display of the party’s ability to rule.” And the theme of this parade, emphasized in weeks of newspaper articles and television broadcasts, is that the Communist Party has made China strong, increasingly prosperous and respected in the world — and that it is in firm control.

Those points were underscored in the procession of floats that followed the military display in the parade, with each float highlighting a Chinese province’s charms or one of China’s accomplishments. One float carrying fish and a sheaf of wheat proclaimed China’s ability to feed itself; another, holding a huge space capsule, celebrated China’s space program; another depicted the bullet trains that are beginning to link a few large cities.

Each of four floats bore a huge portrait of a Chinese leader with a trademark slogan: Mao (“The Chinese people have stood up”); Deng Xiaoping (“Pushing reform and opening up”); former President Jiang Zemin (“Adhering to the important thoughts of the Three Represents”); and the current president, Mr. Hu (“Implementing scientific outlook on development”).

BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese state and military leader Hu Jintao on Thursday inspected the country's defense forces which will also stage a massive parade in Beijing in celebration of the 60th founding anniversary of New China.

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A black open-roof Red Flag limousine carried Hu, state president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, eastward along Chang'an Avenue from the iconic Tian'anmen Square shortly after the celebration started at 10 a.m..

Tens of thousands of soldiers and militia, together with ranks of camouflaged tanks and missiles, stood along the newly widened boulevard and waited to be inspected. The whole procession stretches some three kilometers.


Fang Fenghui (L), Beijing Military Zone commander and military parade commander, reports to Hu Jintao (R), general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inviting him to inspect troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to take part in a military parade for celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in central Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2009. (Xinhua Photo)
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"Greetings, comrades!" Hu, wearing a high-collared Mao suit, saluted troops through a microphone.

"Greetings, leader!" Loudly replied the soldiers in brand new uniforms.

Hu then said "Comrades, you are working hard!" And the troops replied: "We serve the people!"

Hu's inspection of the troops, the first in the past decade, preluded a full-dress National Day military parade involving about8,000 military personnel.

Fourteen phalanxes on feet are composed of the army, navy, air force and the Second Artillery Force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the People's Armed Police Force and reserved force.

PLA's young and mysterious Special Forces made their debut for the inspection.

A total of 30 phalanxes in wheeled transport displayed more than 50 types of new weapon systems manufactured by China on its own, including the newest model of intercontinental nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.

Other cutting-edge weaponry included China's new generation of tanks, sophisticated radar, airborne early warning and control aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite communication devices. All the weapons are made in China.

More than 150 jet-fighters, bombers, helicopters and other aircraft in 12 echelons will fly over the square, packed with some200,000 people.

The parade, the 14th since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, is set to showcase China's newest weaponry and enhanced defense strength.

A black open-roof limousine carrying Chinese President Hu Jintao drove eastward along Chang'an Avenue in central Beijing amid the army song of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).
China's Hu appears at Tian'anmen Rostrum
President Hu Jintao, former President Jiang Zemin and other top leaders and celebrities showed up at the Tian'anmen Rostrum. Full