After arrest of Darko Šarić’s partners, Serbian and Italian media report that his gang has even managed to push the Italian mafia out of the drug business.
Belgrade-based daily Blic writes that the fugitive’s gang managed to push the most powerful Calabrian criminal organization Ndrangheta out of the cocaine business.
TOUR KICKS OFF FEBRUARY 4 2011 IN TORONTO;
NEW ALBUM OUT JANUARY
25
 Gang of Four |
Gang Of Four are proud to
announce a headlining tour of North America beginning February 4 in Toronto, ON. The band will tour in support of
their upcoming album, Content, their first new material in 16 years. Set for a January 25
release on Yep Roc Records, fans can hear a track off the new album, “Never Pay for the Farm,” here
TOUR DATES:
February 4 Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, ON
February 5 Theatre of Living Arts Philadelphia, PA
February 7 Paradise Boston, MA
February 8 Webster Hall New York, NY
February 9 9:30 Club Washington, DC
February 11 Metro Chicago, IL
February 12 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN
February 15 Venue Vancouver, BC
February 16 Showbox @ the Market Seattle, WA
February 17 Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR
February 19 The Fillmore San Francisco, CA
February 20 House of Blues Anaheim, CA
February 21 Music Box Los Angeles, CA
Gang of Four
Tour Dates
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Gang of Four News
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Gang of Four
Concert
Reviews
Producers of the hit box office franchise Twilight may abandon plans to shoot scenes for the series finale Breaking Dawn in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro after a deadly shootout there last weekend between police and a gang who took hostages in an upscale boutique hotel. The two-part, Bill Condon-directed epic was set to [...]
An alleged member of a gang of international jewel thieves known as the Pink Panther gang has been extradited to Japan from Spain over a 2007 robbery in Tokyo. Rifat Hadziahmetovic, 42, from Montenegro, is suspected of involvement in the theft of a tiara and other jewels from a jewellery shop in Tokyo.
So there I was, cruising along the freeway at 110 kph (70mph) on my big, comfortable Suzuki, complete with the electric (up/down) screen to deflect wind and rain, full-face helmet (which covers the entire head, including face), waterproof jacket (with body-armour inserts) and waterproof gloves, when a guy on a Harley passes me doing around 120 kph (75 mph). Gotta say, he looked much cooler than me. Complete with open-face helmet (no face protection), a pair of teeny tiny sunglasses, no gloves, no screen (to deflect wind), some ripped jeans and an old leather jacket (not waterproof) with his gang symbol on the back. He probably thought I was just another big tosser on a Japanese bike. He may have been right.
With the wind nearly blasting his head off (courtesy of his open-face helmet) , the cold giving him frostbite on his fingers, face and knees and the combined noise of a Harley with shotgun exhaust pipes (that means loud!!) and an open-face helmet at 120 kph deafening him, I had to respect his commitment to his gang, the uniform and the code.
The code that says: no synthetic blue jackets with body armour (they are for sissies like me), no full-face helmets (also for girly-men) and gloves are only to be worn in snowstorms. The code that says, ‘this is our uniform’. Looking at his contorted face (courtesy of the wind) as he flew by, I began to think about the way we humans love to belong and the price we’re prepared to pay for that membership. To our gang. Our group. Our church. Our click. Our team. To something bigger than us.
But what I really pondered as I cruised along (it was a long ride) was whether belonging was more likely to be a positive or a negative in our lives over the long term. Is it always good to belong? When isn’t it? What compels so many of us to ‘join’?
Part of it is that we’re social creatures, and on a level, we love being in a ‘family’. However, sometimes in our efforts to belong, we compromise our values and beliefs, we lie to ourselves and we do anything we can to be accepted. Belonging (to something) can make us feel better about ourselves. If only for a while. It can also make us feel trapped.
Sometimes being a member of a group means security. Sometimes it means pressure. Sometimes it means ‘keeping up’, conforming and ticking the boxes. Sometimes belonging to a group can define us. It can also be where we lose ourselves. Sometimes in an effort to find ourselves we actually become a clone of others.
Many people want to belong to something, no matter what. The thought of not belonging terrifies them. Somewhere and somehow they have learned that they’re not good enough, worthy enough or valuable enough on their own. They’re deficient unless they’re part of a collective.
I’m not against belonging to a group (I’ve been involved in many) but I think once we all start to look, sound, walk and talk the same, alarm bells should ring. I don’t think my purpose is to be a replica, cyborg or mouthpiece for someone else’s ideas, message or mission. I think my purpose is to live a life in alignment with my core values. Whatever that means and whatever that requires.
If you belong to a group and you can honestly say that your life is better for the ‘membership’, then my advice would be to stay. If your membership (involvement in, or obligation to, the group) means something not quite so positive, then maybe it’s time for you to discover who you are beyond the group identity, the collective mindset, the gang rules and the weight of expectation.
It might just be the most liberating and empowering thing you ever do.
You’re welcome. =)
Some Discussion Questions:
1. Have you ever ‘lost yourself’ in a gang?
2. Have you ever lost a friend or family member? (no naming of specific groups please)
3. Are you a member of a gang that makes your world a better place?
4. What should we consider when we’re thinking of joining a gang?
5. What advice do you have for people who feel stuck (trapped) in a gang (situation, group, organisation)?
* Feel free to answer as many or as few as you like. Or… just add your general thoughts on the post. :)
Image: f650biker
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Craig Harper (B.Ex.Sci.) is a qualified exercise scientist, author, columnist, radio presenter, television host, motivational speaker and university lecturer. For the past 25 years he has been a leading presenter, educator, motivator and commentator in the areas of personal and professional development. You can visit Craig’s blog at Motivational Speaker.FREE eBook – So… You’ve Decided to Get in Shape (Again) Craig’s FREE eBook takes 20 – 30 minutes to read, and addresses the REAL getting-in-shape issues based on his 25 years of experience. To get Craig’s FREE eBook click here, weight loss books.
The Anti-Phishing Working Group attributed 66 percent of the phishing attacks in the last six months of 2009 to a single cyber-gang known as Avalanche. The crew is suspected to be a successor to the notorious Rock Phish gang of years past.
– New research from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) ties a
single crime syndicate to more than 60 percent of the phishing attacks
in the second half of 2009.
According to the report (PDF),
a cyber-gang known as Avalanche was responsible for 66 percent of all
phishing attacks during the la…
Darko Å arić’s drug gang was planning murders of some high-ranking state officials, says Justice Ministry State Secretary Slobodan Homen. Safety of some them was raised to the highest possible level because of information that Å arić’s clan was preparing to retaliate and kill several top state officials, including the president, and those of Serbian police (MUP) and Security-Information Agency (BIA).
Gang Starr MC Guru In Coma Following Heart Attack
 Gang Starr |
According to Billboard.com, 43-year-old Gang Starr MC Guru (born Keith Elam) suffered a heart attack yesterday (02/28) and is in a coma. DJ Premier, Guru’s partner in Gang Starr, has reported that the ailing MC will have surgery today (3/01).
Following the acclaimed Jazzmatazz series, Guru released the solo album Lost and Found in May 2009. Though Gang Starr never officially broke up, their last album was 2003′s Ownerz.
Darko Å arić’s crime group was making at least one billion euros a year, Ministry of Justice State Secretary Slobodan Homen says. Å arić, a Montenegrin who was given Serbian passport in 2005, is currently at large, while his gang is suspected of last year organizing the smuggling of over two tons of cocaine from South America to Europe.
A member of teenage gang, that has been accused of robbing homes of Hollywood celebrities, revealed that they broke into the Paris Hilton’s home using a key she left under her door mat.
According to US ABC News, Nick Prugo, who is a part of the gang dubbed the “Bling Ring”, said that Hilton was their [...]
A gang of 17 Kosovo Albanians, “specializing in robbing touristsâ€, have been arrested in Trieste, northeastern Italy. Nine from the group were arrested during the past six months, while the remaining eight were detained recently, Italian police said, and added that some have international arrest warrants issued against them.
A gang armed with rifles and explosives has stolen several million euros from an armoured van which was transporting the cash to a bank in southern France. About a dozen masked robbers used several cars to block the van in the village of Gemenos, near Aubagne.
Five police officers in Mumbai have been suspended over claims that they spent Christmas Eve partying with some of the city’s most notorious criminals, the state government said. Grainy photographs and security camera footage broadcast by the Indian media appeared to show the officers
Mexico’s leaders have expressed outrage at the apparent reprisal killing of the family of an elite Mexican solider who died in a high-profile drugs raid. Four members of marine Melquisedet Angulo Cordova’s family were killed at their home in the south-eastern state of Tabasco within hours of his funeral.
Police in suburban San Francisco believe as many as a dozen people watched, laughed, took snapshots, and stole jewelry as a 15-year-old girl was beaten and gang-raped outside her high school homecoming dance without reporting it.
One suspect is in custody, but police said as many as six other men attacked the intoxicated girl over a [...]
Pakistani security forces have arrested a Taliban leader in the country’s largest city of Karachi along with three other militants, averting a major attack, police said on Monday. “The terrorists were planning for a big attack but the city has been saved from a major disaster,” said Karachi
GETTIN’ RIGHT DOWN TO IT
 DJ Premier – Gang Starr |
Hump Day Hymns is about two things: The Benjamins and The Booty. So, we dip into some hip hop gold for the real deal on both subjects with Gang Starr‘s “Work” and Ice-T‘s “Sex,” a song the other detectives on Law & Order: S.V.U. would probably frown on.
The group that hired gangster Darko Elez and his men to commit murders in Serbia is one of Montenegro’s “strongest mafias”. This is according to Saturday’s article in Belgrade daily Blic, which quotes its source “high up in MUP [Serbian police] hierarchy”.
The sixth victim of what police believe is an armed gang targeting members of Hungary’s large Roma (Gypsy) community is being buried in the country’s east. Maria Balogh, 45, was shot dead at her home in the village of Kisleta early on Monday morning.
