Mexican Swine Flu Virus Week.

It is spreading. It is like no other. It is caused by swines. Swines! Of all creatures, swines are turning out to be what they really are, swines! How did we get here? Where did we go wrong? What are we to do? No one has an answer, yes including the renowned WHO, which supposedly is our last line of defence. In Mexico people are now wearing masks. Yes, masks! Schools have been closed. Over 100 people infected. I shudder to think what will happen if the virus spreads to, say London, Lagos, Rio De Janeiro. Cities with multitudes of human habitations. Cities that can be brought to their knees, by a virus. In Mexico the government has asked people to keep reporting for work. Its a nightmare. One more week with industries shut, and Mexico will spin nicely into economic catastrophe.

So what is the link between the Avian virus, Swine Virus, September 11, London Underground bombings, Mumbai terror attacks etc. Fragility! That is the answer. The world is now more fragile than ever before. One small explosion, or virus in one small corner of the world can cause untold suffering in the whole wide world. The four corners of the earth are loosely strewn together by an old decaying cord called development. It can be broken by a swine. It can be broken by one Afghan man with a bazooka. Do you not find it funny that after all our investment in medicines, high tech medicine, nuclear power, war planes faster than sound and so forth, we are helpless against a mere swine. Where are we going wrong? How did we get here? What shall we do? Do you have the answer? Tell me.

The dirty.com

The dirty is a reality gossip blog and I aint trying to make this the same. I like to speak my mind, throw tantrums, and raise dust. But not in vain. This lonely voice is for the voiceless, for the speechless, for the down trodden. I do not own a carbon car, perhaps never will. I have not been to the glass slipper project. I am not showy, never have, never will be. I am just an African, trying to correct, or just crying out over so many wrongs, against people, against the land, against the sea.

I sympathise with the victims of the Myrtle Beach Fires, I sympathise with victims of piracy off the Gulf of Aden, I sympathise with political victims in Madagscar. I respect the freedom of choice as expressed in South Africa today, I hate terrorists. I am who I am, and no one can change me, even by threats!

World Earth Day 2009

When I was young, we would plant a tree each, on this wretched earth, on a day we called national tree planting day. Nowadays, we only have leaders, who care about the type of cars they drive, how many storeys their mansions have, how many wives they have, how many people they should kill to safeguard their power, how many diamond mines they should allot to their cronies....

In Africa environment is taking the back seat, the earth is crying, the rivers are choking, the seas are black, the animals are dying, children are smarting from industrial smoke, old people are coughing blood...

Today is world earth day! What have you done about it?

The power of language

When the colonialists set foot on this gene-rich but technology-deficient continent ages ago, they started taking away more than just our resources. They took away our languages, and with it our culture. I always get irritated when you read or hear international news media saying "...Portuguese speaking Mozambique or Angola, French speaking Cameroun or English speaking Uganda..." The connotations behind these labels reach far beyond merely labelling one sovereign country with a language of an erstwhile forceful colonial master. It represents, me thinks, a perpetual, permanent and irreversible mark which we are being made to carry for centuries to come.

Africa has so far managed to unlock political free will, independence which to some extent now encompasses economic sovereignty and other freedoms to the exclusion of our freedom to our languages. I remember when I was in Primary School in the 1980s, our teachers suddenly passed a rule that all indeginous languages had been banned from the school grounds, and we were expected to start speaking in English. Those found wanting were sent for punishment which often included hard labour. When I look back now, I get the feeling that we have been battered so much that we are no longer proud even of our own selves.

In the United Kingdom alone, I know of many African families whose kids cannot speak any word of their mother toungues to the total preference of English. In Africa, you still get respect and high societal positions by being merely eloquent in English, or French, or Portuguese. The more you "break" your own language the better.

Language encompasses more than just a means to pass messages from one person to another. Language is a heritage. Language is culture. You are who you are because of where you came from, and where you came from is characterised by language. We must begin to be proud of our languages, our cultures, our heritage. I have heard of the argument that you cannot express certain scientific methods or processes in some languages, but that argument falls flat if you look at the Chinese, the Japanese, the Asians, and the Arabs. Language, like culture is dynamic, it evolves and adapts to circumstances.

Be proud of who you are!

Dragging Mandela out of his cocoon...

Yesterday was the last day for campaigning in South Africa. The South Africans go to arguably their most important poll since the new constitutional dispensation in 1994 on Wednesday.

I was not amused at all when Jacob Zuma dragged poor old Mandela from wherever he was resting to a rally in Johannesburg. I respect the old man so much that I felt a lump on my throat seeing through what was happening. Zuma does not need Mandela to help him on anything. The old man must be left out of the shenanigans of these blood thirsty leaders of todays ANC.

Zuma sings about getting his "Machine Gun" each time he is confronted by any of his misdemenours. The new ANC Youth Leader, a school drop out called Malema, was successful in constructing one English sentence when he unashamedly announced that "We are prepared to kill for Zuma" Now for any one mortal soul, to drag Mandela from wherever he was with his private life to be paraded with these blood thirsty hounds, is surely taking our elder African statemen for a ride.

The ANC should not have allowed this to happen, regardless of how desperate it is for Wednesdays vote.

Vote Rigging and India.

My greatest fear came to be. The USA went on to shoot the poor Somali Pirates to rescue their beloved Captain. The French killed them too. All this happened over Easter, a time we should all have been "celebrating" the Death of Christ! Death begets Death! The Pirates have vowed to "kill" any captured US or French seamen. I told you so. It will get worse, not better.

So I will take you all to India this week. The World`s Oldest Democracy is going to the polls. And guess how many elligible voters are there? Yep, a cool 700 million. SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION VOTERS! God! Just imagine what African incumbent leaders who like to rig their way through would have done. They would have declared 100% victory, all 700 million voters claimed to have voted for them.

Mobutu was once asked about a 100% vote he had just amassed in poor Congo, and he replied that some people wanted to vote for him 110%, some 120% and so on, if the electoral laws had permitted them. The man was chased out of Congo like a dog barely 18 months later.

There is a cruel joke I heard from a Zimbabwean friend. The joke goes like this: One day Robert Mugabe, his wife and 3 kids decided to play a game of voting. To be fair he called in his Registrar General, who was then the Chief Elections Officer, to administer the election and count the votes. After casting the votes in a simple hat, and the RG went into the next room to count, he came back a few minutes later and announced that Mugabe had won a landslide with a total of 7 votes. There were 5 voters in the room!

We should look, listen and learn from India.

Not Hung Over!

I am not hung over.
I am back from Easter.
It was a good holiday.
Yes I had fun, thank you for asking.
How was yours?