A Minneapolis, per non so quale strano scherzo del destino, vive la più grande comunità somala al di fuori dei confini del Corno d'Africa. E vivono tutti a circa trecento metri (cento piedi?) da casa mia. Un pezzo di Africa al centro del Midwest: negozi somali, cucina somala, facce somale.

Insomma, si è staccato un bottone dalla giacca, e avevo bisogno di ago e filo.

Quale migliore occasione per girovagare tra i miei vicini?

E così, seguito dai commenti negativi del mio coinquilino portoghese (che dell'avventuriero portoghese, come si può intendere, ha ben poco) mi sono diretto verso un negozietto di tessuti a due isolati da casa.

Fuori: Midwest. Dentro: Bazar di Addis Abeba.

Mi accoglie un vecchio signore, enorme, seduto su una minuscola sedia di paglia. Sembra disturbato e allo stesso tempo stupito della mia presenza, i suoi occhi quasi dicono: "Ma tu, che vuoi?". Io sfodero il sorriso magico e gli faccio: "Che per caso ha un set da cucito?". Poveretto, immaginate la scena: ha dovuto lasciare la sua terra, i suoi affetti, il suo deserto in Somalia per trasferirsi in uno dei posti più freddi d'America, ha chiesto soldi in prestito alla mala per aprire un negozietto e non essere disturbato mentre legge il suo giornaletto africano di quindici anni fa, e un ragazzotto bianco (seppur simpatico e piacente, nevvero) gli si para davanti e gli chiede un set per cucito...

Che poi alla fine, il benedetto set per cucito lo aveva anche, in un anfratto del bazar di Addis Abeba! Io e il mio amico ci guardiamo con aria soddisfatta. L'enorme signore ci osserva come a dire "Questi due sono scemi" e ci dirigiamo verso la cassa. "Two bucks". Tiro fuori una banconota da cinque. "No change". "Complimentoni, gli affari girano alla grande, eh? Pedro, mi presti un dollaro?".

La mia Africa.

PS: Che poi, la capitale della Somalia è Mogadiscio, ma non mi va di tornare a correggere l'errore...

Domestically:  The 6 October deadline for " the return to  constitutional order through the unconditional restoration of Mr. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, in his functions" passes with an indignant shrug.

The political discussion is increasingly gravitating towards a scenario in which Abdallahi would be returned to office so that he can redact his decree sacking the military and resign soon thereafter. Taking his place as interim president for 45 days, constitutionally, would be Ba-M'bare, the head of the Senate, who would call for new elections. All of this would go on with HCE still in operation and no prosecution would take place either for them or for Abdallahi and his wife. The HCE members would even be allowed to keep their positions in the armed forces.

Even after the junta banned protests, the FNDD went ahead with one anyhow, netting about 50 people. (Abdallahi's son, about 34, was arrested at the protest for driving a government vehicle on which he had changed the license plate.) It should be noted that the pro-restoration protests following the 2005 coup against Tayya numbered in the hundred -- which should say something about Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi.

In Nouakchott, it is being said that many Mauritanians are reacting to talk of sanctions by hoarding dollars and euros and preparing to move their cash overseas, if they've not started to already. In a cash economy where most things are paid for up front and in cash, this is not a good thing.

Geopolitically:

The Americans and Europeans have passed authority for the coup on to the AU. Algeria has taken the lead in pushing for a forceful, if unproductive, response. The Algerians are, as I have said before, using the Mauritania situation as ammunition against Morocco. At the same time, they may be using it as a diversion from their efforts in Sudan (they are working to get Bashir off the hook with the ICC/ICJ), which says something about the broader AU process. Bankrolled by Qaddafi and a country club for ineffectual bureaucrats and dictators, the AU comes with little authority to Mauritania. It is being used as a tool in Algeria's rivalry with Morocco, and at least in part to obstruct the Sudanese process. The 6 October deadline is likely to go un-enforced. Mauritanians seem quite peeved by the African effort to reverse the coup, for reasons that will be mentioned later. In general, the attitude goes something like this: If the AU is so eager to put Sidi back in power, then take him and make him president of Somalia or any other country they like. Reinstatement is not a popular idea. As a Mauritanian put it, abdication of activity on African affairs to the AU is proof of laziness and hypocrisy on the part of the West ("Where was this concern for democracy when Tayya was beating and jailing us?" as one put it). Mauritanians wonder if their country's political jumble is more important than Darfur or Somalia or Zimbabwe. In any event, the Moroccans seem to have recognized that they were out maneuvered by Algeria, and have quite diplomatically said that they are looking to find a way to meet the bare minimum of continental and world demands for Abdallahi's return while still preserving the meat of the coup (i.e., they would like to see "appropriate conditions" before a return to constitutional order, after meeting with the FNDD).

The US has kept to the African line, and has embraced the idea of sanctions. The Americans have reduced "democracy in Mauritania" into a synonym with "Sidi ould Shekih Abdallahi" and their policy has succeeded in privileging this misconstruction over the facts of Mauritania's politics and culture. The Americans ignore the means and extent to which Abdallahi's political career was fabricated by the military. Abdel Aziz, Vall, Ghazouani and all the rest practically made this man president in after 2005. Before becoming president he had been a man begging leaders in the Brakna region because he had no natural political constituency, no political party, no charisma and no political vision to speak of. His party (Adil, for those who may have forgot, since it disintegrated rather quickly) was made up of former Tayya lackeys -- kleptocrats, thieves, etc. -- who had become "independent" MPs, and his ascendence and election engineered by the very military men that deposed him (he said as much on Aljazeera even before the coup). His party abandoned him when things got rough. And when he was left to decide whether  to call for new elections or to sack the military chiefs, he opted for the later.

This selective memory is part of a broader problem in which policy makers lack serious knowledge of Mauritanian politics and its context. As late as 2004, the West Africa desk chief for Mauritania was refusing to admit that slavery existed in the country and continued to do so up until the practice was criminalized in 2007 (this during meetings with anti-slavery activists no less!). The State Department seems to miss the backdrop of Mauritanian politics in a "who's who" kind of way (from talking to people in the DoS and in Mauritania). Though the US has yet to provide anything resembling leadership on the Mauritanian file, its stance remains consistently rigid and misinformed nevertheless.

The EU, too, has shied away from leadership and has managed to irritate Mauritanians with its heavy handed and stiff approach. Talk of targeted sanctions is popular among all the primary external actors, and the major opposition parties (except for Spain, who opposes sanctions because it wants access to Mauritanian fisheries). This talk is dangerous. Mauritania has two primary institutions: the first being the military and the second being the state-owned iron ore company. Targeted sanctions on the wealthy praetorian class, or on the caste of oligarchs that bought up most of the privatized industries under Tayya (e.g., Abolallahi Ould Noueigigh, Abdallahi Ould Abdallahi, Sidina Ould Berrou, etc.) would paralyze the economy. Severe enough sanctions and stubbornness (on the military's part) could destroy the country's economic infrastructure, which would destroy the political structure. There are few places that Mauritania could fall back on in the event of sanctions. The tribal business networks (the Ideiboussat and Tajakanit ones in particular, who are very active in import-export transactions) would end up relocating and moving their money abroad, ceasing to bring goods into the country. These networks are the second tier of the economy and hold much of the country's wealth. Targeting the super rich would have a terrible effect on the local economy. Phrases such as "they're trying to starve us" or "we're going to sink" frequently come up when talking to fearful Mauritanians. Ahmed Sidi Camels is quite happy to say "tiyer" at the mention of European sanctions, which he sees are being intended to starve, crumple and kill him. The Europeans are not prepared to deal with the consequences of sanctions, the flow of people, the power vacuum, the collapse of Mauritania and the prospect of two gaping holes on opposite sides of the geopolitical map of Africa.

Since no thinking person would desire a Saharan Somalia, one must hope that the Europeans are bluffing, at least in part. If they are not, the sanctions centered policy bodes to do more harm than good for all those concerned. The French compromise would somehow place Vall in the presidential palace, but feasibility of that is difficult (a typical line in Nouakchott is that he lied to every one of those million poets before he left office). This is the best idea France has come up with. Increasing one hears Mauritanians say that they created this pickle and that they can get themselves out of it, and that external efforts to solve the crisis may prolong it. That is highly debatable, especially if the half-way Moroccan plan mentioned above goes through and soon. But the alternatives to clear and workable internal compromise are bound to make the situation unworkable and most undesirable.

Este grupo de Cape Town, se caracteriza por mezclar el pop con un distintivo sonido africano y aunque sus letras son predominantemente en inglés, de forma esporádica usan lenguas africanas, que suenan increíbles en la suave voz de su vocalista principal Zolani Mahola y gracias a sus fonemas distintivos llegan a ser parte de la instrumentación de las canciones.

Su música es positiva, alegre y colorida, te atrapa te sube el animo, pocas personas conozco que se hayan resistido al encanto de este grupo y la verdad con el nuevo álbum superaron mis expectativas, tomaron lo mejor de Nomvula y lo convirtieron en un nuevo trabajo, que si bien conserva el mismo estilo, sorprende, convence y deleita.

Si bien puede decirse que no es un trabajo musical apto para "diabéticos emocionales", puede llegar a ser un delicioso "guilty pleasure", y aunque no era el momento ideal en mi vida para escuchar la canción Potbelly, Ma'Cheri quedará entre esos álbumes dignos de atesorar, y cada vez que escucho me hacen reflexionar: ¿por qué, a pesar de todo, no puedo dejar de pensar en vos?

"I can't escape the thought that maybe we were destined too be together. The easy way we love confirms the fact -, It's just getting better. Dance with me. Flirt with me. Have a little fun. I'm glad to see you are here with me. Let's have a little fun." Potbelly

Potbelly (Ma'Cheri)

Doo Bee Doo (Nomvula)

(Photo Credit: bbc.co.uk)

Sept. 26, 2008

Piracy is a booming industry off Somalia's dangerous coast, and an ongoing civil war isn't helping. Yesterday pirates captured a Ukrainian freighter carrying 30 Russian-built tanks. Last week two other ships were taken. The town of Eyl in the Puntland region is being used as their base of operations. It doesn't look like much, though. The Gulf of Aden is where most of the captures have been made. According to one discussion thread I found, "So far in 2008, 61 vessels have been hijacked, 14 are still being held together with 300 crew members." (Unsourced, though.) Or if you like your piracy with a more international flavor check out the Piracy Report. (Which is awesome/horrible! Look at the list of reported incidents in the Somali regions just this month. 8!)

Sept. 29, 2008

This is about an Iranian freighter captured earlier this month. From the article:

The RNC filed a complaint today alleging that Obama's presidential campaign has received illegal contributions from foreigners and donations that exceed federal limits.

News accounts suggest that roughly 11,500 donors who gave a total of $34 million to the campaign may be citizens of foreign countries, who are not allowed to contribute to U.S. elections, the RNC said.

Cited in the complaint was a Newsmax.com article that asserted "questionable overseas donations that contains more than 11,500 contributions totaling more than $33.8 million." in an FEC records database.

According to Newsweek  two donors using the names "Doodad Pro" and "Good Will" gave Obama more than $11,000 in increments of $10 and $25.

Something the press didn't cover last June were two huge campaign fundraisers in China on his behalf. Interestingly enough the few obscure press releases from last june have been scrubbed. One fundraiser was at the home of a Coca Cola executive in Bejing. The other fundraiser was at the Shanghai home of an executive of a company that manufactures electronic components for cell phones and the like (Richco). There are old blogs still available for view.

There are strict rules that candidates can only receive monies from American citizens. (The FEC  prohibits contributions from corporations and labor unions)

Another press release passed over this last August was the corruption probe in Nigeria for the "Africans for Obama" fundraiser. $630,000 in fundraiser money was seized. The organiser of the August 11 event, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, chair of the Nigerian stock exchange, was questioned by corruption investigators but was cleared of any wrongdoing because no Nigerian laws were broken.

The press has also overlooked the website supporting Obama in Nigeria. The site address is www.obamanigeria.org

Obama, mentioned in an op-ed by economics professor Jay Mandle in the Washington Post:

The Obama campaign has repeatedly touted their financial gain from small donations. About $200 million has come from small donations.

During a Feb. 26 debate in Cleveland, for example, Obama said that "we have now raised 90 percent of our donations from small donors, $25, $50."

Mandle's op-ed notes "Contributions of less than $200 do not have to be itemized in reports to the Federal Election Commission, so we have no idea how many are made."

That would mean 90 Percent of Obama donors had not been reported to the FEC.

According to the FEC:
$100 in currency (cash) to any political committee. (Anonymous cash contributions may not exceed $50.) Contributions exceeding $100 must be made by check, money order or other written instrument.

According to the FEC:
Contributions made in the name of another are prohibited. For example, an individual who has already contributed up to the limit for a candidate's election may not give money to another person to make a contribution to the same candidate. Similarly, a corporation is prohibited from using bonuses or other methods of reimbursing employees for their contributions.

According to the FEC:
Foreign nationals, Federal government contractors and, in some instances, minors are prohibited from contributing funds.

According to the FEC:
If you contribute more than $200 to a committee, the committee is required to use its best efforts to collect and publicly disclose on a financial report your name, address, occupation and employer, as well as the date and amount of your contribution.

So, yesterday we went to the crater. The drive in was fairly uneventful, because there was a lot of fog and cloud cover. We cold barely see twenty feet out the windows. I’d heard enough beforehand to know that coming in and out of the crater can be quite frightening. I guess the fog helped, because the only scary thing was that we could have had a head-on collision on the narrow road and barely known it was coming before the impact.

We’ve also had the chance to see some road construction, Tanzania style. You know what they use for highway cones? Rocks. Big rocks. At first I thought there’d been a rockslide, but it turns out that was just to keep the cars from driving into the people working, because it was so foggy you couldn’t see the people (or the hole in the road they were waist deep in) when you were driving around the rocks. Looking back on it, I’d say the rocks are pretty effective. I mean, you can drive over a highway cone without messing up your car. It’s tough to run over basketball size rocks without doing some damage though. Oh, and yeah, construction was all shovel powered on the crater road. Our first stop in the crater (after we checked in at the entry office) was a Masai boma. They charged $50 for the entire truckload to enter. They did some customary singing and dancing (jumping); I actually jumped with them. Obviously, these were fairly commercialized Masai, because they had all their jewelry and items spread out to buy.

They took us into one of their hats, where we saw how they lived. The smoke from the small fire really stung my eyes. The interior of the hut is all black from soot. They have about four rooms, really: one where the wife and children sleep, one for the man, adjacent is the cooking/main room, and then a room for a calf or storage near the door. The whole thing may be 150sqft. We took a couple of quick pictures, while our guide told us about their way of life. He has three wives but only one at that boma.

Masai huts are standard mud, cow crap, and stick construction. I say “standard”, because many houses in Africa are made from the same materials, but with different architecture: square instead of “beehive-esque” like the Masai huts. The house is framed up with saplings and covered on the outside with the mud/poo mixture. There are small holes for ventilation and a port for a door. Like I said, this stick/mud construction is used in a lot of housing in poorer areas, however in those houses, they have more westernized wall/roof construction. Noticing this led to my “crappy house” theory on education in Africa. That being: children are much more interested and diligent in school when they are faced with the prospect of living in a poop house if they don’t have an education. I mean… that’s solid capitalistic motivation right there. Get an education or build your house out of animal litter. You’d be amazed at how well the kids paid attention in class.

After we left the hut, we looked at their stuff for sale. Like I said, these Masai were very commercialized. Even while we were looking others would come up to sell things. Our guide tried to keep us in one section, for apparently these were the items his family had made and he would receive the money from that sale.

The prices were quite high, so I didn’t really buy much. Just two small bracelets for $20. I wanted a club, stick, blanket, or spear, but they were really high. We got the same stuff in Moshi later at much better prices. It’s funny; they yell at you if you take their picture in town, but for $50 they’ll invite you into their home, take YOUR picture in their house for you, and dance and sing. “Here, pose with the kids!” We kind of joked about the possibility of them having an RV encampment just over the ridge that we couldn’t see, with hot-tubs and plasma TVs, because there were at least four truckloads of people that stopped while we were there. I can see them all sitting on their leather couches, drinking martinis, and laughing about the stupid mzungu. It’s not that I blame them, but it does seem that money cures a lot of problems.

We proceeded on to the crater, seeing cape buffalo, wildebeest, hartebeest, jackals, various birds, baboons, elephants, gazelle, hippos, and even some lions. Rhinos were sorely lacking and dearly missed. Apparently, those are very rare and hard to see.

The massive number of animals was amazing. At one point, a herd of wildebeest (and probably various other ungulates) strung out for at least half a mile. We also enjoyed breathtaking vistas over and over as we drove past calderas with the crater rim constantly in the background. The rim gives you a sense of always being near a range of hills or mountains, and so you always have it as a back drop in your photos. Granted, the crater is something like 12 miles across, so the rim isn’t always large in the background, but it’s almost always visible.

We got to see a pride of lions fairly closely. It was easy to spot where they were because of the traffic jam of vehicles lining both sides of the road. Lions are popular. They are the jocks and cheerleaders of Ngorongoro High. I don’t even know what you’d classify a rhino as… maybe like if you went to high school with John Wayne’s kids or something. I’m not sure how anyone could ever be cooler than that.

We stopped for lunch by a lake, where there were bathrooms and hippos to watch. Oh, and birds. Lots of birds. You had to be careful, because there were apparently falcons that would take your hand off to get your sandwich if you gave them the opportunity. A lot of the little birds were really aggressive also. They would land within feet of you to try to nab a snack. Some even went inside our truck after a peanut. Funny enough, there were (crested) guineas all over the place also. I suppose they are native here.

I guess the highlight of the day would be the elephant that just about climbed into the truck with us. I now have new found respect for those things. This one was eating a thorn tree/bush. And when I say thorns, I mean thorns: four inch long wooden nails really. I don’t know how it kept from piercing its own tongue, but it didn’t seem to be bothered at all. The elephant would just reach out with its trunk, yank a bunch of thorny limbs off the bush, and chow down like it was celery or something. I must have taken seventy five pictures of it, because it was so close to us. It ended up crossing the road and moving on, barely paying any attention to us. I guess SUVs full of white people just don’t impress like they used to.

The drive out was vastly different from the drive in. The sky had cleared mostly, and we could see how close and how steep the edge was. It is a dramatic and frightening drive. We saw paint scrapes on the side of the road wall (it was cut out of the crater rim, so the sides were sheer) where vehicles couldn’t quite make the hairpin turns. You could look out the other side of the vehicle and not really see any hillside, it was too steep. You had to look ahead or behind to really see the ground fall away.

At the top, we stopped and took some photos, since its some 2000ft above the bottom of the crater. I was a little disappointed in the pictures, because the floor is so far down that it’s difficult to show in a photo. Plus, it was so hazy that it’s hard to see the details in a photo like you can in person. There were a couple monuments there for people who’d died doing research and protecting the crater from poachers. Some had died in animal attacks, or plane crashes. I think a couple were killed by poachers hunting rhinos. Poaching of large game is an act that really makes you disappointed in humanity (and aware of our real need for redemption). I’ll leave it to you to research it online (beware, the pictures can be disturbing), but it really is a stupid, petty way to make a buck.

Our drive home was mostly uneventful; we stopped at a couple of high priced shops, where barely anything was purchased. Beware, tourist traps are alive and well in those parts. If you really want to go shopping for souvenirs, do it in Moshi.

Oh, I did need to mention that we found out that the Masai spearheads are manufactured in a factory in Arusha. And after we left the boma, we stopped before entering the crater. Other Masai approached us selling their special blankets… they were still in the packages! This led to a unique revelation… the items you buy in stores in Moshi are basically just as authentic as what you buy from the Masai directly, only much cheaper. I guess it would be cool to say that you’d bought something directly from the tribe (thus the two bracelets that I paid $20 for), but that’s the only difference in the actual product. It’s funny to see “Made in Arusha” on the blanket packages though. As a comparison, those two bracelets would’ve cost probably $5-$8 in Moshi.

We got to see a lot of impressive artwork in our shopping. The woodcarvings are excellent, and some of the bowls and soapstone works are really beautiful. I wish I’d had some more space (and money) so I could’ve gotten one of the knife paintings. It’s hard to describe the style, but it’s a painting done in a way that all the figures are really vertically stretched and angular. The presentation is beautiful. Generally, the subjects seemed to be Masai people, and it accented some of the attributes you think of when you see Masai. That is, that they are tall, thin, and dominated by primary colors. It’s a great artistic representation.

Anyway, we did stop on the way home for Kim to buy some red bananas in the town that had trees covered in crane poop near Lake Manyara. It still stank. The bananas were great though. The red ones don’t taste any different. The little stubby bananas are the best. Tastey.

The biggest scare (of the entire time in Africa, I think) was driving through Arusha at night. People are everywhere. We saw one man that looks like he was struck by a car. Bicycles come out of nowhere. It’s hard to see anyone in the dark, and the street lighting is really poor. All of us were cringing so much, I think it would have been easier if I would have just closed my eyes and not known about it. Really scary, but we made it home ok. We unloaded, said goodbye to Daniel, and went to bed following some discussion and prayer. We also prayed over the items we purchased, just in case.

Let me start by saying that she is a deeply disturbed Souf Efrikan. She does things that makes us just shake our head and go... "What is happening to the youth of today". Or in a more pure Souf Efrikan way, "Wat are heppening to duh yoof off twodey?" She is a wild one... But don't believe just old me. I have photo evidence. And more than one photo...

You think her name SanityFound has something to do with finding her "inner" self? Her deep side? Haha! Suckers. Not even close. It's about her journey from Pretoria to Cape Town. About love found and lost. And found again and lost again and found again. And then lost again. I give to you SanityFound's journey as a Souf Efrikan.

Her real name is Ossewania Smit. (To non-Souf Efrikans... It's something like Oxwagonia and the most common surname you can get.) Born and bred in Snor City (Moustache City) - Pretoria. She went to a girls only school - Langkloof Hoerskool (no umlaut & too rude to translate!) She was Miss Langkloof even with the braces and thick glasses. Because she was still the best looking one at school. Yeah, the competition was really weak. She was the only one with her own teeth. And without a cauliflower ear. And the only one to actually make it to her final year at school. And then she was set free...

Okay, she left school and went to a party in Joburg.

And there it all started with some trouble with the law...

The whole gang (Jannie, Sannie and friends) went to the park in Joburg to celebrate their freedom. They went to the beach - Benoni. No sea in a 1,000 miles, but it had a swimming pool and all the stuff you find at the beach. Fat guys with long socks and beer. Women with two beers in their hands and a swimming costume 4 sizes to small. Sand that got stuck in your underwear. And, that Souf Efrikan speciality, a mugging to go with your shopping at the boerie stand (hot dog stand). Oh, they had so much fun...

But Ossewania had too much fun. Taking drinks from Jannie who always had the hots for her. She didn't realize that they ran out of beer hours ago, but Jannie kept on filling up her glass... Jannie was known t be 100 per cent proof.

The problems started when she decided to chat up the tall handsome dude she was leaning against. It was early morning so she couldn't see that well. She thought he was a bit of a stiff, but she always liked tall guys.

So she started catching a vry (smooch) with this guy. She thinks he said his name started with an S. But she couldn't be sure. It could have been the wind. His lips were a bit hard. But she put that down to inexperience. Or that it was her first time without her braces. She lost that opening the last bottle of beer with her teeth. But at least he had strong solid arms. Like tree trunks. (Oh, she also lost her glasses somewhere during the party. And the bottom of the Coke bottles didn't work as well as before.)

And then she heard it... "Freeze you woman!" She froze. Threw her arms up in the air. And her date just stood there behind her. He didn't do a thing to protect her. He stood there like a piece of wood. Almost like he was rooted to the spot.

But she made a dash for it. She headbutted the guy she thought was the cop. Ouch. That hurt...

But she made it. She was free. She ran and ran her little legs off. Even changed her name. To Eeufesia Smythe (Centuriafestivalia and fancy surname - these are real names by the way!) It sounded so much fancier.

She got lost somewhere between Joburg and Cape Town. In the Karoo. A dry desert area. They say the f*ck-all grows 6 feet high there. And that it is so quiet and dead that f*ck-all happens there every hour and that it goes on for days. It was just our little Eeufesia and her friend Saartjie Visser. Stumbling along in this dry country. And then she saw him... She fell for him... really hard... She knew it the moment she fell over him... Her one true love...

And I mean literally fall over him. He was that short. But like a little rock.

Her little Rhino she called him. Rhino Post. (Where rhinos rub their butts. Serious. They must be men.)

She loved her little Rhino. He was short. He was smelly. He wasn't much of a kisser either. But he was her little Rhino. Her rock.

But she lost him somewhere during the night. She had to go pay "beer rent". And couldn't find him in the darkness. She wondered around shouting his name. "Rhino! Rhino! Where art thy Rhino!" But he didn't answer. He was the quiet type. She sulked in the arms of Saartjie. Cried her little heart out. Because she missed him so.

Oh where could he be? Her man. Her little Rhino Post. She could still smell him on her clothes. Her fingers. Her hair. Her lips. Ewe! Aargh! It smelled really bad. But still. Her heart belonged to him and only him.

And then she saw him. Her little man. Her rock. Her smelly rock. Her Rhino Post butt rock.

I wish I could tell you that it had a happy ending. It didn't. Eeufesia went for a walk one day and came back only to catch him cheating on her. With a Rhino. And she found her glasses.

But there you go. That's our SanityFound. Down in Cape Town now (or close enough). Still sulking about her Benoni lover and about her little Rhino. She's getting better now. But we think it is time for her to leave. The rocks in South Africa isn't good for her. But at least she can tell her children one day about her journey of love. Her life of love found and lost. And her life story as a Souf Efrikan.

It's a shame it didn't work out though. Rhino Post and Eeufesia would have had beautiful kids. Okay, scrap the beautiful part. A rock is a rock.

_______________________

(For those non-Souf Efrikans - We call really stupid Souf Efrikan men "rocks". They are that dense, thick and hard headed.)

The chaos continues in Somalia. Heavy fighting rages on, anarchy is widespread, many people are dying, many people left refugees.

Add to that the UN has signaled it's pulling its staff out. While out to sea, a stand-off continues with pirates holding a Ukrainian ship, loaded with military hardware.

The World Have Your Say team talked about Somalia in their meeting on Monday. Its sister programme The World Today has taken on the baton.

Our correspondent Mark Doyle has just returned from a rare visit to Mogadishu. He'll be in the World Today studio between 0600GMT and 0730GMT, taking your questions.

What can be done for people like Isa? Who should be fixing the "ultimate failed state"?

Send us your points and questions.

I thought about this the other night, as I once again left the water running while I was brushing my teeth. The fact that having clean water is not an issue for our family is one of the key evidences that I am rich.  The most important physical need in the lives of most people in Africa is clean water. Here are some things that you may not know about the issues of water in Africa:

Water-related diseases is the single largest killer of infants in developing countries.

1.8 million children die each year from diarrhea, which is 4,900 per day

The average American uses 150 gallons of water each day to cook, clean and drink. The average African person struggles to find 5 gallons of water each day.

Only 61% of Kenya's population has access to an improved drinking water source

On average, women in rural Africa spend 26% of their time each day collecting water, often walking more than five miles each way to the nearest water source, which prevents many of them from working or attending school and puts them at greater risk for sexual harassment and assault

When you would talk to people you realized that the thought of getting water was always on their mind. Notice that I said water and not clean water. The water that most people labored to retrieve reminded me of what the tea looks like from Chick-Fil-A. How could you possibly be motivated to think or do anything else without water? The distance and risk that ladies go to secure dirty water is baffling. In one village the doctors told the mothers with HIV that it would be safer for them to breast feed their babies than to risk giving their babies water. Just let that thought sink in for a moment. A doctor tells you that you have a choice to let your baby die of AIDS or die due to diseases from unclean water and yet the water flows in our house almost without a thought. Below I have included a few pictures of the path that the ladies traveled 3-4 times each day to collect drty water. I struggled making the trek down this path as tears kept coming to the surface with the thought of my wife having to carry 30-40 lb jug of water up and down this path.

So God's Spirit is heavy upon me and I am praying that He would use my income and leverage my gifts make a difference. All I know is that I cannot be the same person anymore. Below is a set of pictures of the path the ladies had to travel to get water. The second picture is me halfway down the path looking back up.

This gives hope that we'll be able to detect other such events as well. Hopefully, with more than the six hours advance warning that they were only able to offer this time around. It's due to arrive 10:45 EDT just prior to dawn in Sudan.

Recently, as I have been saying and along with others around the globe, Earth, our planet, our only home, is for lack of a better term, dying.  We have been reminded through the species that face extinction right now, we are no better than them and that we are next.  How many known dying species are there??  44,838 species.  Do you realize that this count is truly unbelievable, considering just how much is out there! Wow! (*****Quarter of species on Earth may face extinction: expert http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081006/sc_afp/environmentbiodiversityspeciessurvey and http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081006/ap_on_sc/sci_endangered_mammals)

Scientists stumble upon “mysteries” all the time.  These “mysteries” are a small portion of a pie that makes up the whole to our environment…the environment we live in.  Sure we get up and go to school, go to work, go shopping, drive to the farthest reaches of the mountains, vacation, and all the commercialism that goes along with so called “life” now.  We did not use to live this way or be so easily lead or controlled.  A unique balance was always front and center to the way the World was created.  See it or call it what you will, but do you really think that a cubical was meant for you to live in Monday thru Friday, eight to five - five days a week?  No.  You are not an animal right?  Ever feel like one on display at your office or part time job? I mean, if you don’t, hell let us go ahead and put up museums for humans right now that work.  Ha!  Could you imagine??

According to a recent article, and I am sure I touched on this; the “herding” effect was and has taken place over Wall Street.  What does this mean?  Confirmation that yes we are apes, that have less fur, a bigger brain, and intelligence that has been misused.  Buy! Sell! Buy! Sell!  Everyone relying on the other, to get him/her on the right path, and/or direction to “lead them”, out of the storm. Continuous denial of the bigger picture, I.E. life, not a safety bubble of things, that has brought us closer to our own extinction.  Yet, as the “ruling” species, we refuse to see the damage caused.  (I say “ruling” because we have chosen not to live in balance with our Natural surroundings.  We want to “rule”, not “work with”, a simple observation.)

Again we have reports emerging of the glaciers retreating and thinning out – but in Alaska this time.  There has not been a follow up to the Greenland http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080923/sc_afp/denmarkgreenlandclimatewarmingice_080923041933
or Africa or the Arctic, but Alaska.  (****Most Alaskan Glaciers Retreat and Thin http://www.unisci.com/stories/20014/1211011.htm) Have you noticed that the dates and estimated time changes all the time?  We live unbalanced and consumed by what we do not see, because of distraction. Ah. If you really question all of the melting and rising of the global waters, seeing as how it does not effect you yet, read about **Study finds recent global warming unprecedented in 1,300 years ** http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080912/sc_mcclatchy/3043658. I like this, “The new study “establishes further evidence that the recent warming isn’t just part of a typical cycle,” said climatologist Michael Mann….

Granted he is not saying that this is due to mankind.  No. No. This study is an ongoing events of the global work that has been started by many others before him.  This is a gathering of scientists and data, in which they are finally beginning to work together.  In other words, they are looking for the patterns or “hot spots”, in which all things are, connected – basically – what I have been trying to say. 

How mad would be, seriously think about this…how mad are you and do you get when you are “invaded”?  Take the word invaded as you will.  Invasion of privacy…Invasion of having someone tell you how to raise your child/children…Invasion of the life you lead?  Does it make you mad?  Do you feel helpless and hopeless? If so, what makes you and I so different from the planet that has given us the basic needs that any man, woman or child needs?  

Conserve your resources. Educate your mind on what is going on around you and the World.  No scientist, expert, religious leader, or leader of any kind in the world, has all the answers.  All decent “things” have come from a mere person, like yourself and/or me, because of a mere idea that if really this is all there is to life – we are far worse off then the animals that face extinction – we have reached the “end” of our human development.  What happens at the end of anything?

And here is something else for all out there who look at numbers – Why is it the studies seem to start on or in, 1970?  Seems interesting – just rolling it out there. 

As always – just food for thought.  Right or wrong – at least you thinking and taking a look around.  J

"What?"

These coordinates are in Mongolia! What are the coordinates?"

That topographer was Maaouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Tayya.

They spend their nights
In jet airlines -
Would change them in mid-air
To show how much they dare

Drunk from the vertigo
Of never catching their tails
They never seem to know
When not to bite their nails

Their new addiction
Fortifies their livers
They are getting there
While the going's good
They have no time for dreamers.

Lenrie Peters is a Gambian surgeon and poet, born in 1932. Here is a bio. Here are a photo and more of his poems.

[from Poems of Black Africa, edited by Wole Soyinka.]