Safat: The KuwaitBlogs’ Aggregator

“HOLY COW!” I shouted at AdventureMan, as I am already digging for my camera. He hates it when I do that, he things maybe I have spotted some danger or something and it gets his adrenaline going. I couldn’t help it. I was shocked, and I said “There’s a CHEETAH in that car!”

We love cheetah. Anyone who has ever seen a cheetah in the wild knows the awesome measure of God’s creativity and wonder. The cheetah is a speed machine, a glorious hunter, born to run. The cheetah is a glorious creation.

AdventureMan didn’t believe me, not for two or three full seconds and then – he saw it, too:

The man with the very young cheetah on a leash under very loose control was having a ball. The cheetah looked very happy to be out in the car with him, even on a leash.

It is a shame, and it should be a crime.

A cheetah, even when snatched away from his mother early in life, is not a toy, not an accessory. A cheetah can eat your innocent babies. A cheetah can bite you or scratch you badly, and think it is just playing. Taking a cheetah out of the wild is probably not a really good thing for the cheetah. How long with this man find him novel and fun and pay attention to him? And then what?

This is what a cheetah is meant to do, and this is how a cheetah is meant to live:

My friends, if you love wildlife, no matter how rich you are, leave the wildlife in the wild. Please.

It’s not the same Aya that we’ve grown to love with her breezy beats and lounge aura, but it’s a new jazzy Aya fro South Africa. She just released her debut album A State Of Aya and it’s sounding good right about now. South Africa seems to have a great niche for jazzy wander. We’ll keep an eye out for her.

Posted in Beats, Clip, Mother Afrique Tagged: a, africa, aya, download, new, of, shame on you, south, state, video

What gets me about this article I found on BBC News is buried way down is a detail that a 13 year old girl was recently stoned for adultery. What does a 13 year old know? Some say she was raped. What kind of protection is this, for a little girl, to be stoned for something over which she had no control. Oh? She was just so tempting, she must be punished?

Somali adulterer stoned to death

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.

Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka.

An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.

Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital.

This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year.

Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala Mohamed said Mr Abdirahman had confessed to adultery before an Islamic court.

“He was screaming and blood was pouring from his head during the stoning. After seven minutes he stopped moving,” an eyewitness told the BBC.

The BBC’s Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says that if the woman is also killed, her baby would be given to relatives to look after.

Meanwhile, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has accused al-Shabab of spoiling the image of Islam by killing people and harassing women.
“Their actions have nothing to do with Islam,” said the moderate Islamist during a ceremony at which he nominated a new administration for the capital, Mogadishu.

“They are forcing women to wear very heavy clothes, saying they want them to properly cover their bodies but we know they have economic interests behind – they sell these kinds of clothes and want to force people to buy them.”

Last month, two men were stoned to death in the same town after being accused of spying.

A 13-year-old girl was stoned to death for adultery in the southern town of Kismayo last year.

Human rights groups said she had been raped.

Another man has also been punished in this way in the Lower Shabelle region.

Mr Sharif, a former rebel leader, was sworn in as president after UN-brokered peace talks in January.

Although he says he also wants to implement Sharia, al-Shabab says his version of Islamic law would be too lenient.

The country has not had a functioning national government for 18 years.

What gets me about this article I found on BBC News is buried way down is a detail that a 13 year old girl was recently stoned for adultery. What does a 13 year old know? Some say she was raped. What kind of protection is this, for a little girl, to be stoned for something over which she had no control. Oh? She was just so tempting, she must be punished?

Somali adulterer stoned to death

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.

Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka.

An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.

Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital.

This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year.

Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala Mohamed said Mr Abdirahman had confessed to adultery before an Islamic court.

“He was screaming and blood was pouring from his head during the stoning. After seven minutes he stopped moving,” an eyewitness told the BBC.

The BBC’s Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says that if the woman is also killed, her baby would be given to relatives to look after.

Meanwhile, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has accused al-Shabab of spoiling the image of Islam by killing people and harassing women.
“Their actions have nothing to do with Islam,” said the moderate Islamist during a ceremony at which he nominated a new administration for the capital, Mogadishu.

“They are forcing women to wear very heavy clothes, saying they want them to properly cover their bodies but we know they have economic interests behind – they sell these kinds of clothes and want to force people to buy them.”

Last month, two men were stoned to death in the same town after being accused of spying.

A 13-year-old girl was stoned to death for adultery in the southern town of Kismayo last year.

Human rights groups said she had been raped.

Another man has also been punished in this way in the Lower Shabelle region.

Mr Sharif, a former rebel leader, was sworn in as president after UN-brokered peace talks in January.

Although he says he also wants to implement Sharia, al-Shabab says his version of Islamic law would be too lenient.

The country has not had a functioning national government for 18 years.

What gets me about this article I found on BBC News is buried way down is a detail that a 13 year old girl was recently stoned for adultery. What does a 13 year old know? Some say she was raped. What kind of protection is this, for a little girl, to be stoned for something over which she had no control. Oh? She was just so tempting, she must be punished?

Somali adulterer stoned to death

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.

Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka.

An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.

Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital.

This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year.

Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala Mohamed said Mr Abdirahman had confessed to adultery before an Islamic court.

“He was screaming and blood was pouring from his head during the stoning. After seven minutes he stopped moving,” an eyewitness told the BBC.

The BBC’s Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says that if the woman is also killed, her baby would be given to relatives to look after.

Meanwhile, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has accused al-Shabab of spoiling the image of Islam by killing people and harassing women.
“Their actions have nothing to do with Islam,” said the moderate Islamist during a ceremony at which he nominated a new administration for the capital, Mogadishu.

“They are forcing women to wear very heavy clothes, saying they want them to properly cover their bodies but we know they have economic interests behind – they sell these kinds of clothes and want to force people to buy them.”

Last month, two men were stoned to death in the same town after being accused of spying.

A 13-year-old girl was stoned to death for adultery in the southern town of Kismayo last year.

Human rights groups said she had been raped.

Another man has also been punished in this way in the Lower Shabelle region.

Mr Sharif, a former rebel leader, was sworn in as president after UN-brokered peace talks in January.

Although he says he also wants to implement Sharia, al-Shabab says his version of Islamic law would be too lenient.

The country has not had a functioning national government for 18 years.

LLOOLL @ 100% legitimate and risk free!

Dear sir,

I am Mr.Kumalo Donald a transfer supervisor on investment in HSBC Bank,United Arab Emirates , I have a transaction of 50/50% mutual benefit worth $9.5 million dollars, If interested please respond to my personal e-mail ( kumalodonald@aol.com ) for more detail and processing. is 100% legitimate and risk free.

Best Regards !

Kumalo Donald
United Arab Emirates

On my Christmas wish list, LLOOOLLLL!

From BBC News

One of the largest, high quality diamonds discovered to date has been found at a mine in South Africa, mining group Petra Diamonds has revealed.

The 507 carat stone, which could be worth in excess of $20m (£12.5m), was found with three other large diamonds.

They were discovered at the famous Cullinan mine, where the largest diamond in history was found more than 100 years ago.

The new find is being analysed by experts to determine its true value.

A 480 carat diamond found at the end of last year fetched $18m.
“The Cullinan mine has again given the world a spectacularly beautiful and important diamond,” said Petra’s chief executive Johan Dippenaar.
“Initial indications are that it is of exceptional colour and clarity, which suggest extraordinary potential for its polished yield.”

Petra said the stone is one of the 20 biggest, high quality diamonds to have been found.

A 168 carat stone was also discovered, alongside one of 58 carats and another of 53 carats.

The largest diamond to be discovered, named the Cullinan, was 3,106 carats. It was cut into nine separate stones, many of which are in the British Crown Jewels.

From The New York Times, where you can read the entire article on exporting trash by clicking here

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: September 26, 2009
ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands — When two inspectors swung open the doors of a battered red shipping container here, they confronted a graveyard of Europe’s electronic waste — old wires, electricity meters, circuit boards — mixed with remnants of cardboard and plastic.

“This is supposed to be going to China, but it isn’t going anywhere,” said Arno Vink, an inspector from the Dutch environment ministry who impounded the container because of Europe’s strict new laws that place restrictions on all types of waste exports, from dirty pipes to broken computers to household trash.

Exporting waste illegally to poor countries has become a vast and growing international business, as companies try to minimize the costs of new environmental laws, like those here, that tax waste or require that it be recycled or otherwise disposed of in an environmentally responsible way.

Rotterdam, the busiest port in Europe, has unwittingly become Europe’s main external garbage chute, a gateway for trash bound for places like China, Indonesia, India and Africa. There, electronic waste and construction debris containing toxic chemicals are often dismantled by children at great cost to their health. Other garbage that is supposed to be recycled according to European law may be simply burned or left to rot, polluting air and water and releasing the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.

While much of the international waste trade is legal, sent to qualified overseas recyclers, a big chunk is not. For a price, underground traders make Europe’s waste disappear overseas.

After Europe first mandated recycling electronics like televisions and computers, two to three tons of electronic waste was turned in last year, far less than the seven tons anticipated. Much of the rest was probably exported illegally, according to the European Environment Agency.

Paper, plastic and metal trash exported from Europe rose tenfold from 1995 to 2007, the agency says, with 20 million containers of waste now shipped each year either legally or illegally. Half of that passes through this huge port, where trucks and ships exchange goods around the clock.

When we were blogging about pirates in Somalia, a Somali wrote in that part of the problem was that rich western countries were dumping toxic trash off the coast of Somalia and damaging the traditional fishing wealth of the country. Once trash is exported, there is no telling where it will be dumped, or what problems we are causing for our descendants down the road. I can’t help but think that we reap what we sow – and that we need to be paying attention to what we are dumping and where we are dumping it.

South African chanteuse and one of Loft965.com favorite artists at the moment – Lira – is about to release a a live album titled Live In Concert: A Celebration on October 5th.  The live album is to be followed with a DVD sometime  in December. The album is bound to include raw renditions of her greatest songs. Click here to purchase it. If you pre-order the DVD now, it will be personally autographed by Lira herself.

Posted in Beats, Mother Afrique Tagged: a celebration, africa, cd, concert, download, dvd, dvdcd, in, leak, lira, live, new, news, rapidshare, south

This one cracks me up – the names make it sound so credible, right? WRONG!

Offer Coming From U.A.E
This letter must come to you as a big surprise,
but I believe it is only a day that people meet
and become great friends and business partners.

I am Mr.Andre Sayegh, Chief Executive Officer with a reputable bank here in U. A. E. I write you this proposal in good faith, believing that I can trust you with the information I am about to reveal to you. I have an urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. On November 6, 2000, an Iraqi Foreign Oil consultant/contractor with the CHEVRON PETROLEUM CORPORATION, MR MOHAMMAD AL NASSER made a (Fixed deposit) for 36 calendar months, valued at US$17,500,000.00 (Seventeen Million Five hundred Thousand Dollars only) in my bank and I happen to be his account officer before I was moved to my present position recently.

Upon maturity in 2003, as his account officer and as well the Planning & Financial officer, it is my duty to notify him on the maturity date so I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but the letter was returned undelivered. After sometime, I tried sending back the letter, but it was again returned and finally I discovered from his contract employers, Chevron Petroleum Corporation that .Mr. Mohammad Al Nasser died as a result of torture in the hand of Saddam Hussein (former Iraqi President) during one of his trips to his country Iraq, as he was accused of leaking information to the Americans. On further investigation, I discovered that Mr. Al Nasser’s family wife and two sons died during the Gulf War in Iraq and was the reason why he did not declare any next of kin or relation in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank and did not leave any WILL.

This sum of US$17,500,000.00 have been floating and placed under dormant/unserviceable account by my bank management since no one have heard from the owner since 2003. I wish to let you know that all the investigation I have made so far, my bank management is not aware of it, I am the only one that have the information. With the recent change of government in my country and with their efforts to support the United Nations in checkmating terrorism aid in the U. A. E. By end of this year, the government will pass a new financial control law which will give the government authority to interrogate account owners of above $5,000,000.00 to explain the source of the funds, making sure it is not for terrorism support. If I do not move this money out of the country immediately, by end of the year the government will definitely confiscate the money, because my bank cannot provide the account owner to explain the source of the money.

I cannot directly transfer out this money without the help of a foreigner and that is why I am contacting you for assistance. As his Account Officer to late Al Nasser, coupled with my present position and status in the bank as Head of Business Planning & Financial Control, I have the power to influence the release of the funds to any foreigner that comes up as the next of kin to the account, with the correct information concerning the account, which I shall give you. All documents to enable you claim this fund will be carefully worked out and there is practically no risk involved, the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law, beside U. A. E is porous and anything goes. If you accept to work with me, I want you to state how you wish us to share the funds in percentage, so that both parties will be satisfied. If you are interested, contact me as soon as you receive this message so we can go over the details.

Thanking you in advance and May God blesses you. Please, treat with utmost confidentiality. I shall send you copy of the deposit certificate issued to Al Nasser when the deposit was made for your perusal.

I wait your urgent response.
Regards,
Mr.Andre Sayegh

Got this one – as Intlxpatr – today. Hee heee heee, I grinned thinking of a big check made out to “Intxlpatr” packed in a box marked “old African cloths.”

Good Day!

I have been waiting for you since to come down here and pick your Cashiers Cheque but did not hear from you since that time. So i went to the bank to confirm if the draft is getting close to expire and the Manager of the bank told me that before the draft will get to your address that it will expire. Then I told him to help me and cash the bank draft of $1.5 million to cash payment.

However, The Bank Manager have successfully cashed the draft and packaged your Cash in a Diplomatic Cargo box and had registered it in the FEDEX EXPRESS COURIER COMPANY here in Benin Republic because i am travelling to see my boss and will not come back soon.
You have to contact FEDEX EXPRESS COURIER COMPANY to know when they will deliver your package to your address.

CONTACT FEDEX EXPRESS COURIER COMPANY WITH THE INFORMATION BELOW/
NAME: DR UGO ODILI
CONTACT PHONE NUMBERS: +229-97555256
E-MAIL: ( fedex_ccltd@sify.com)
Please, Send them your contacts information to able them locate you immediately they arrived in your country with your Diplomatic BOX.

This is the information they need from you.
1. YOUR FULL NAME.
2. YOUR HOME ADDRESS.
3. YOUR CURRENT MOBILE NUMBER.
4. YOUR VERIFICATION CODE – (PX002)

Try to contact FEDEX EXPRESS COURIER COMPANY as soon as possible to enable them release your consignment to you. I gave them your delivering address but you have to reconfirm it to them again to avoid any mistake in the delivery.

I have paid for the delivering charges. Also ask them how much the insurance fees will cost you. The only money you have to send to them is their INSURANCE FEE to receive your package which will be a token. I could have paid for the insurance fees, but due to some prevailing circumstance beyond my control.

Note; I didn’t tell FEDEX EXPRESS COURIER COMPANY that it’s money inside the box, I registered it as a package of an African cloths/Family Valuables. This is to avoid delaying or any upfront problem during the delivery, So do not let them know that the package contents money inside until you have received it in your house address, this is the code which you will send to them for verifications (PX002).
You call the Director of the company with this line:+229-97555256

Do let me know as soon as you received your package. Contact me by email as i am travelling out side the country today.

Best Regards,
Mr Melvine Parker (ESQ)

This spunky journalist has chosen to go to jail in the Sudan instead of paying the fine. Her lawyer is aghast, but Lubna Hussein says it will give her material to do a series on Sudanese jails, LOL! The judge had the option of sentencing her to flogging, but, wisely, abstained. You can read the entire story on AOL News

This is a follow up to an earlier story Whip Me if you Dare

Journalist Escapes Flogging in Sudan
By MOHAMED OSMAN and SARAH EL DEEB, AP

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Sept. 7) – A Sudanese judge convicted a woman journalist on Monday for violating the public indecency law by wearing trousers outdoors and fined her $200, but did not impose a feared flogging penalty.

Lubna Hussein was among 13 women arrested July 3 in a raid by the public order police in Khartoum. Ten of the women were fined and flogged two days later. But Hussein and two others decided to go to trial.

The female journalist on trial in Sudan for wearing trousers in public was convicted Monday for violating the country’s indecency law. A judge ruled that Lubna Hussein, seen above outside the courthouse after the verdict in Khartoum, will not be flogged, but must pay a $200 fine. The case has made headlines around the world.

“I will not pay a penny,” she told the Associated Press while still in court custody, wearing the same trousers that had sparked her arrest.

Hussein said Friday she would rather go to jail than pay any fine, out of protest of the nation’s strict laws on women’s dress.

“I won’t pay, as a matter of principle,” she said. “I would spend a month in jail. It is a chance to explore the conditions in jail.”

The case has made headlines in Sudan and around the world and Hussein used it to rally world opinion against the country’s morality laws based on a strict interpretation of Islam.

Galal al-Sayed, Hussein’s lawyer, said he advised her to pay the fine before appealing the decision. She refused, he said, “She insisted.”

The lawyer said the judge ignored his request to present defense witnesses.
“The ruling is incorrect,” he said, adding that the prosecution witnesses gave contradictory statements.

Al-Sayed said the judge had the option of choosing flogging, but apparently opted for fine to avoid international criticism. “There is a general sentiment in the world that flogging is humiliating.”

Ahead of the trial, police rounded up dozens of female demonstrators, many of them wearing trousers, outside the courtroom.

The London-based Amnesty International on Friday called on the Sudanese government to withdraw the charges against Hussein and repeal the law which justifies “abhorrent” penalties.

Human rights and political groups in Sudan say the law is in violation of the 2005 constitution drafted after a peace deal ended two decades of war between the predominantly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south Sudan.

The Amnesty statement said Sudan had been urged to amend the law which permits flogging, on the grounds that it is state-sanctioned torture, after eight women were flogged in public in 2003 with plastic and metal whips leaving permanent scars on the women. The women had been picnicking with male friends.

Early early in the Seattle Friday morning, I was doing my readings from The Lectionary when I noticed that today was the Feast Day of St. Moses the Black.

St. Moses the Black? I had NEVER heard of St. Moses the Black.

Here is what it says in The Lectionary:

Saint Moses the Black (330 – 405), known as the Ethiopian or the strong, was a slave of a government official in Egypt who dismissed him for theft and suspected murder. He became the leader of a gang of bandits who roamed the Nile Valley spreading terror and violence. Attempting to hide from local authorities, he took shelter with some monks in a colony in the desert of Scetes, near Alexandria. The dedication of their lives, as well as their peace and contentment, influenced Moses deeply. He soon gave up his old way of life, became a Christian, was baptized and joined the monastic community at Scetes.

And, intrigued, I followed their link to Wickipedia where I read:

Saint Moses the Black (Coptic; 330 – 405), known as the Ethiopian or the strong, was a slave of a government official in Egypt who dismissed him for theft and suspected murder. He became the leader of a gang of bandits who roamed the Nile Valley spreading terror and violence. He was a large, imposing figure. On one occasion, a barking dog prevented Moses from carrying out a robbery, so he swore vengeance on the owner. Weapons in his mouth, Moses swam the river toward the owner’s hut. The owner, again alerted, hid, and the frustrated Moses took some of his sheep to slaughter. Attempting to hide from local authorities, he took shelter with some monks in a colony in the desert of Scetes, near Alexandria. The dedication of their lives, as well as their peace and contentment, influenced Moses deeply. He soon gave up his old way of life, became a Christian, was baptized and joined the monastic community at Scetes.

Moses had a rather difficult time adjusting to regular monastic discipline. His flair for adventure remained with him. Attacked by a group of robbers in his desert cell, Moses fought back, overpowered the intruders, and dragged them to the chapel where the other monks were at prayer. He told the brothers that he didn’t think it Christian to hurt the robbers and asked what he should do with them. The overwhelmed robbers repented, were converted, and themselves joined the community.

Moses was zealous in all he did, but became discouraged when he concluded he was not perfect enough. Early one morning, Saint Isidore, abbot of the monastery, took Moses to the roof and together they watched the first rays of dawn come over the horizon. Isidore told Moses, “Only slowly do the rays of the sun drive away the night and usher in a new day, and thus, only slowly does one become a perfect contemplative.”

Moses proved to be effective as a prophetic spiritual leader. The abbot ordered the brothers to fast during a particular week. Some brothers came to Moses, and he prepared a meal for them. Neighboring monks reported to the abbot that Moses was breaking the fast. When they came to confront Moses, they changed their minds, saying “You did not keep a human commandment, but it was so that you might keep the divine commandment of hospitality.” Some see in this account one of the earliest allusions to the Paschal fast, which developed at this time.

When a brother committed a fault and Moses was invited to a meeting to discuss an appropriate penance, Moses refused to attend. When he was again called to the meeting, Moses took a leaking jug filled with water and carried it on his shoulder. Another version of the story has him carrying a basket filled with sand. When he arrived at the meeting place, the others asked why he was carrying the jug. He replied, “My sins run out behind me and I do not see them, but today I am coming to judge the errors of another.” On hearing this, the assembled brothers forgave the erring monk.

Moses became the spiritual leader of a colony of hermits in the Western Desert. Later, he was ordained a priest. At about age 75, about the year 405 AD, word came that a group of Berbers planned to attack the monastery. The brothers wanted to defend themselves, but Moses forbade it. He told them to retreat, rather than take up weapons. He and seven others remained behind and greeted the invaders with open arms, but all eight were martyred by the bandits on 24 Paoni (July 1). A modern interpretation honors Saint Moses the Black as an apostle of non-violence. His relics and major shrine are found today at the Church of the Virgin Mary in the Paromeos Monastery.

I think I would have liked this guy. I’m glad to know about him!

Don’t know about you but this ancient Egyptian statue looks like the legend himself!

Posted in Beats, Mother Afrique Tagged: africa, ancient, egypt, jackson, like, looks, michael, mj, statue

Posted in Clip, Meanies, Politik Tagged: africa, african, all, america, apologize, apology, arab, bay, biggest, bill, bruce, bush, care, cars, cocaine, coke, conrad, control, cup, democrat, doctor, dollar, e-mail, electric, empathy, female, food, founders, gender, george, god, gravy, guantanamo, gun, health, hitler, interment, jackson, japanese, jay, jenner, john, lasic, lazik, leno, liberal, maher, male, mccain, michael, microsoft, mistakes, mitt, money, murray, new, no, palin, paper, pee, real, reply, republican, romney, rules, runner, runners, rwanda, sarah, sex, slavery, south, sphincter, standing up, time, torture, usa, vagina, value, w, week, with, Wrong

It took me 20 days, but I finished Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father. I didn’t read it because he is President of the United States, although that would be a good reason, but I read it because our book club is reading it, and I know how busy the next few months are going to be, so I read ahead during the slower times of summer.

And the trick to finishing it was not allowing myself to read anything else until I had finished – I had a stack of really intriguing books to urge me on. “As soon as I finish, I can read . . . ” Even with all that incentive, Obama’s book is a slog.

He is a gifted orator. He is a plodding writer. There is also a problem I find with autobiographies by anyone – we all fool ourselves, we all position ourselves in a better light, and we have no idea how transparent we are when we do so. Fellow bloggers, do you ever read anything you have written a couple years ago and squirm with embarrassment, or even delete? To be an author is a very very brave thing, when you have a book published, there is no going back, your transgressions are all right out there, and the public can be cruelly critical.

What I liked about the book is Obama-as-Third-Culture-Kid, a man of mixed identity. Most kids who have grown up moving or grown up in different countries from their own, or who have immigrated, can tell you, being an alien is no fun. Obama learns how to adapt, how to look for clues to fitting in, how to pass. It’s a common theme in Third-Culture-Kids.

My favorite part of the book was his return to Kenya, his openness to his African roots, the open-armed love with which his Kenyan half-brothers and sisters welcome him and his response. He had some truly extraordinary adventures, working out just who his father had been as a person. He was blessed to recognize the richness of his inheritance.

The book plods along, but it was worth the time. For all it’s flaws, I find I like that man, and I understand more about where he is coming from. (for grammarians, I understand more about from where the man is coming.)

The first time I ever saw these prickly pears was in Tunisia, where they were a by-product of huge prickly pear fences that kept roaming sheep, goats, even cattle out of the living areas. The prickly pear fences were everywhere. Some people made jam out of the fruit, but now, the fruit is bringing in big bucks to Moroccans.

To read the entire story, please click BBC News Africa

By Sylvia Smith
BBC News, Sbouya, Morocco

It is just after dawn in the hills above the Moroccan hamlet of Sbouya and a group of women are walking through the thousands of cactus plants dotted about on the hillside, picking ripe fruits whenever they spot the tell-tale red hue.

But these woman are not simply scraping a living out of the soil.

The cactus, previously eaten as a fruit or used for animal feed, is creating a minor economic miracle in the region thanks to new health and cosmetic products being extracted from the ubiquitous plant.

This prickly pocket of the semi-arid south of the country around the town of Sidi Ifni is known as Morocco’s cactus capital.

It is blessed with the right climate for the 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) of land that is being used to produce prodigious numbers of succulent Barbary figs.

Every local family has its own plot and, with backing from the Ministry of Agriculture, the scheme to transform small scale production into a significant industry industry is under way.

Some 12m dirhams ($1.5m) have been pledged to build a state-of-the-art factory that will help local farmers process the ripe fruits.

The move is expected to help workers keep pace with the requirements of the French cosmetics industry which is using the cactus in increasing numbers of products.

Lucrative
Izana Marzouqi, a 55-year-old member of the Aknari cooperative, says people from the region grew up with the cactus and did not realise its true benefit.

“Demand for cactus products has grown and that it is because the plant is said to help with high blood pressure and cancer. The co-operative I belong to earns a lot of money selling oil from the seeds to make anti-ageing face cream.”

I know I have seen these growing in Kuwait – are they growing in Qatar, too?

As if the poor grammar and spelling weren’t enough to give this scammer away, the line “to reduce the economy meltdown posed on the continent in general” seems overly generous for a bank, especially a bank I don’t have an account with who is willing to give me 5K, LLLOOLLL.

All I have to do is send him my financial particulars – to South Africa? Right? No, no thank you!

HSBC Bank plc.
ATM Card Department
HSBC Tower, 8 Canada Square,
Canary Wharf area of East London UK.

The HSBC Bank with directive from the world bank to release
funds through the ATM VISA CARD to some beneficiaries in
view to reduce the economy meltdown posed on the Continent in
general.

The HSBC Bank London working in relationship with the World
Bank has concluded to issue you a VISA CARD with which you
can access your contract amount 5,000,000.00 USD. This card
center will send you an ATM card which you will use to withdraw
your money in any ATM machine in any part of the world, but the
maximum is FIVE Thousand Five Hundred United States
Dollars($5,500) per day. So if you like to receive your fund in this
way,please let us know by contacting the ATM payment department.

To file for your claim, please contact our ATM Dispatch personnel,
Contact Person: Mr. Dave Walker .
Email: ( hsbcatm_davewalker@yahoo.com.hk )
Tel: +44-703197-9789
and also send the following information as listed below:

1. Full name
2. Phone and fax number
3. Address were you want them to send the ATM card to (p.o box
not acceptable)
4. Age
5. occupation
6. Nationality
7. country of residence

However for the purpose of proper verification of your Identity,
and other relevant information and release of your HSBC Visa ATM
Card to yo.

NOTE: You are not to reply this sender, you are to reply directly to
hsbcatm_davewalker@yahoo.com.hk with all you information for claims.
It is important you contact the office of the Director,
Debit Card Dept for a special payment at the above listed address or
directly reply to this Email.

Sincerely,
PAUL BRIAN THUSTON
MANAGING DIRECTOR
(c) HSBC BANK 2009.

This message and attachments are subject to a disclaimer. Please refer
to www.it.up.ac.za/documentation/governance/disclaimer/ for full
details. / Hierdie boodskap en aanhangsels is aan ‘n vrywaringsklousule
onderhewig. Volledige besonderhede is by
www.it.up.ac.za/documentation/governance/disclaimer/ beskikbaar.

This woman doesn’t have to take the whipping – she was a UN employee, and could claim diplomatic immunity. She wears a headscarf, she wears modest clothing. She could have quietly escaped. But like Rosa Parks, the black woman in segregated America, who refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus, Lubna Hussein has chosen to take a stand, even take a whipping, rather than back down.

Do you think it is un-Islamic for women to wear pants?

‘Whip me if you dare’ says Lubna Hussein, Sudan’s defiant trouser woman
Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese woman who is daring Islamic judges to have her whipped for the “crime” of wearing trousers, has given a defiant interview to the Telegraph.

As the morality police crowded around her table in a Khartoum restaurant, leering at her to see what she was wearing, Lubna Hussein had no idea she was about to become the best-known woman in Sudan.

She had arrived at the Kawkab Elsharq Hall on a Friday night to book a cousin’s wedding party, and while she waited she watched an Egyptian singer and sipped a coke.

She left less than an hour later under arrest as a “trouser girl” – humiliated in front of hundreds of people, then beaten around the head in a police van before being hauled before a court to face a likely sentence of 40 lashes for the “sin” of not wearing traditional Islamic dress.
The officials who tried to humiliate her expected her to beg for mercy, as most of their victims do.

Instead she turned the tables on them – and in court on Tuesday Mrs Hussein will dare judges to have her flogged, as she makes a brave stand for women’s rights in one of Africa’s most conservative nations.

She has become an overnight heroine for thousands of women in Africa and the Middle East, who are flooding her inbox with supportive emails. To the men who feel threatened by her she is an enemy of public morals, to be denounced in the letters pages of newspapers and in mosques.
As she recounted her ordeal in Khartoum yesterday Mrs Hussein, a widow in her late thirties who works as a journalist and United Nations’ press officer, managed cheerfully to crack jokes – despite the real prospect that in a couple of days she will be flogged with a camel-hair whip in a public courtyard where anyone who chooses may watch the spectacle.

Her interview with The Sunday Telegraph was her first with a Western newspaper.

“Flogging is a terrible thing – very painful and a humiliation for the victim,” she said. “But I am not afraid of being flogged. I will not back down.

“I want to stand up for the rights of women, and now the eyes of the world are on this case I have a chance to draw attention to the plight of women in Sudan.”

She could easily have escaped punishment by simply claiming immunity as a UN worker, as she is entitled to under Sudanese law. Instead, she is resigning from the UN – to the confusion of judges who last Wednesday adjourned the case because they did not know what to do with her.
“When I was in court I felt like a revolutionary standing before the judges,” she said, her eyes blazing with pride. “I felt as if I was representing all the women of Sudan.”

Like many other women in the capital, Mrs Hussein fell foul of Sudan’s Public Order Police, hated groups of young puritans employed by the government to crack down on illegal drinkers of alcohol and women who, in their view, are insufficiently demure.

Despite their claims of moral superiority, they have a reputation for dishonesty and for demanding sexual favours from women they arrest.

Mrs Hussein was one of 14 women arrested at the Kawkab Elsharq Hall, a popular meeting place for the capital’s intellectuals and journalists, who bring their families. Most of them were detained for wearing trousers. The police had difficulty seeing what Mrs Hussein was wearing under her loose, flowing Sudanese clothes. She was wearing green trousers, not the jeans that she said she sometimes wears, and wore a headscarf, as usual.

“They were very rude,” she said. “A girl at a table near mine was told to stand up and told to take a few steps and then turn around, in a very humiliating way. She was let off when they ‘discovered’ she was not wearing trousers.”

After her arrest, on the way to a police station, she tried to calm the younger girls.

“All the girls were forced to crouch on the floor of the pick-up with all the policemen sitting on the sides,” she said. “They were all very terrified and crying hysterically, except me as I had been arrested before during university days by the security services.

“So I began to try to calm the girls, telling them this wasn’t very serious. The response of the policeman was to snatch my mobile phone, and he hit me hard on the head with his open hand.
“On the way I felt so humiliated and downtrodden. In my mind was the thought that we were only treated like this because we were females.”

Christian women visiting from the south of Sudan were among the 10 women who admitted their error and were summarily flogged with 10 lashes each. But Mrs Hussein declined to admit her guilt and insisted on her right to go before a judge.

While waiting for her first court appearance, she said she was surprised to find herself held in a single cramped detention cell with other prisoners of both sexes. “How Islamic is that?” she asked. “This should not happen under Sharia.”

Mrs Hussein is a long-standing critic of Sudan’s government, headed by President Omar al-Bashir, the first head of state to face an international arrest warrant for war crimes. Sudan has been accused of committing atrocities in the Darfur region.

Before her arrest she had written several articles criticising the regime, although she believes she was picked at random by the morality police.

The regime has often caused international revulsion for religious extremism. In 2007 British teacher Gillian Gibbons was briefly imprisoned for calling the classroom teddy bear Mohammed.
The government is dominated by Islamists, although only the northern part of the nation is Muslim. Young women are frequently harassed and arrested by the regime’s morality police.
Mrs Hussein said: “The acts of this regime have no connection with the real Islam, which would not allow the hitting of women for the clothes they are wearing and in fact would punish anyone who slanders a woman.

“These laws were made by this current regime which uses it to humiliate the people and especially women. These tyrants are here to distort the real image of Islam.”
She was released from custody after her first court appearance last week, since when she has appeared on Sudanese television and radio to argue her case – which has made headlines around the world.

She is not only in trouble with police and judges. A day after her court appearance she was threatened by a motorcyclist, who did not remove his helmet. He told her that she would end up like an Egyptian woman who was murdered in a notorious recent case.

Since then she has not slept at home, moving between the houses of relatives. She believes her mobile telephone has been listened to by the security services using scanners.

But she has pledged to keep up her fight. “I hope the situation of women improves in Sudan. Whatever happens I will continue to fight for women’s rights.”

This very sad, very strange story is from today’s BBC News. Parents of the girl, living in Phoenix, say she brought shame on them (eight years old) and they don’t want her back. People all over the US are sending money and offers to adopt her. Eight years old – all she wanted was a stick of gum.

Offers of help are pouring in for an eight-year-old Liberian girl disowned by her own family in Phoenix, Arizona, after being raped by four boys.

The girl is under the care of the Arizona Child Protective Service (CPS) because her parents said she had shamed them, and they did not want her back.

Phoenix police said calls had come in from all over the US offering money, or even to adopt the young girl.

The boys, Liberian immigrants aged nine to 14, have been charged with rape.

The case has sparked outrage across the US and even drawn condemnation from Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, an outspoken anti-rape campaigner.

“I think that family is wrong. They should help that child who has been traumatised,” Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf told CNN.

“They too need serious counselling because clearly they are doing something, something that is no longer acceptable in our society here,” she added.

Brutal attack
Media reports said the girl was lured into a shed on 16 July with promises of chewing gum by the four young boys. There, they held her down and took turns assaulting her for 10 to 15 minutes, before her screams alerted officers nearby.

The oldest suspect, a 14-year-old boy, will be tried as an adult on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, police said on Friday. He is being held in police custody until trial.

The other three – aged 9, 10, and 13 – are charged as juveniles with sexual assault and kidnapping.
But the police said no charges will be filed against the parents.

“They didn’t abandon the child,” Phoenix police sergeant Andy Hill told AFP news agency. “They committed no crime. They just didn’t support the child, which led to CPS coming over there.”
Sgt Hill said people from eight or nine US states had called wanting to adopt the girl or donate money.
“It has been unbelievably fantastic in terms of support for the child,” he said.

I’m hoping that this traumatized little girl gets a new family who treasures her, helps her overcome this attack, sends her to school through university and helps her to prevail.

For the most part, I have stopped even sharing these, but this one is too funny. My message to those of you who have helpful hearts – any time a person who doesn’t know you, wants to share a fortune with you, and who requests:

“also i will like you to send all your bank informations where the fund will be transfered and your internatinal passport or driving licence and also send your photograph”

DON’T DO IT! IT’S A SCAM!

Hello and Greetings to you…

I am writing this letter in confidence believing that if it is the wish of God for you to help me and my family, God almighty will bless and reward you abundantly and you would never re-great this.

I am a female student from Burkina Faso University Teachings Hospitals (BUTH) Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. I am 28 yrs old. I’d like any person who can be caring, loving and home oriented. I will love to have a long-term relationship with you and to know more about you.

I would like to build up a solid foundation with you in time coming if you
can be able to help me in this transaction. Well, my father died earlier eight
months ago and left I and my junior brother behind. He was a king, which our
town citizens titled him over sixteen years before his death. I was a princess
to him and I am the only person who can take care of his wealth now because my
junior brother is still young and my mother is not literate enough to know all
my father’s wealth.

He left the sum of $10.000,000.00US dollars. (TEN MILLION ) in a security
company. This money was annually paid into my late fathers account from Gold
Development Company (spdc) and chevron Oil Company operating in our locality
for the compensation of youth and community development in our jurisdiction. I don’t
know how and what I will do to invest this money somewhere in abroad, so that my
father’s kindred will not take over what belongs to my father and our family, which
they were planning to do without my present because I am a female as stated by our
culture in the town.

Now, If you can handle this project sincerely and also willing to assist me
in lifting this fund, kindly reach me immediately. Reasons. Please, note that
this matter is 100% risk free and i hope to commence this transaction as quick
as possible, and also i will like you to send all your bank informations where
the fund will be transfered and your internatinal passport or driving licence
and also send your photograph for me to built more trust on you. As soon i
recieve all these informations together with your photo then i will foward my
photograph and datas informations to you immediately.
yours sincerely,

Yours sincerely,
PRINCESS JANNIFA OUADRAOGO.

After all these years, we know each other so well.

“Where are we going to eat today?” he asks as we leave church.

“It’s your turn to choose” I tell him.

“No, no, it’s your turn,” he insists, “I chose Ruby Woo’s last Thursday night.”

“No. You didn’t. I did,” I tell him, and remind him that I also chose another place later in the week, but it was a place that he really likes.

What he wants me to do is to throw out my idea and then he shoots it down. Sometimes I throw out three ideas, and he shoots them all down!

“What are you in the mood for, what kind of food?” I ask him. Usually he doesn’t like a lot of meat, so I am surprised, really surprised, when he says Lebanese. When we lived in Kuwait, he almost never chose Lebanese except for Tanureen, where they had such good fish.

“Yeh, but now there is no good Lebanese restaurant near where I work,” he replies, “and I am missing Lebanese food.”

I know just the place. My two pool buddies took me to lunch there back in January when I visited. I THINK I know how to get there, and, as it turns out, I do! (It’s always a disaster trying to find a place when your husband is really, really hungry.) It’s called Assaba, and it is like entering a different world. They’ve taken a very humdrum building, and re-facaded and decorated the ground level and one flight up to resemble a Lebanese Village. It is a lot of fun.

We ordered mostly mezze (appetizers) and an order of shish taouk to share. (Shish taouk is boneless chicken pieces that have been marinated in lemon juice and a little garlic and yoghurt, for those who don’t know about it. It is delicious, and often served with a mighty garlic – mayonnaise. )

We agreed that the very very best dish of all was the Mohammara, a dish made of finely chopped walnuts, red peppers and a few other things. (Mishary, on Some Contrast, printed a great recipe.)

We had hummous with something that tasted a little like liver, and baba ghanoush, and meatless chickpea moussaka:

And this is how the shish taouk looks when it arrives, with hot bread to keep it warm:

It was a magnificent meal. We ate too much. It was just so pleasant, sitting there, great food, beautiful surroundings, us all relaxed after church and mellow. AdventureMan came back from washing his hands all excited – “You’ve got to go use the Ladies Room! See if they have a beaten copper sink! I want one of those!”

I did, and this is what it looks like:

I think we might have to take another trip to Damascus, and bring it back with us. Do you know what a designer in the US would charge us for a sink like that?? We can go, find a sink, spend time in a city we love and come back for what the cost of the sink would be in the US.

I want the door:

I think I had better have it made here!

Here is the shower he wants, from Robin’s House at Nkwali Camp, in Zambia:

Even Friday lunch with AdventureMan is an adventure.

This was in the morning’s e-mail. Unlike the e-mails I post inviting me to get lots and lots of free money, this one seems to have some interesting information. Here is one excerpt from their opening page, The Conversation Behind Closed Doors:

To make itself more attractive for US investment, Africa should:

Invest in education , health and infrastructure

Ensure the rule of law and a business-friendly climate for all investing companies

Show it is serious about attracting foreign investment

Market itself as aggressively as other regions of the world

Demonstrate opportunity cost of not investing

I would have to say there is nothing I disagree with there. I have not explored the whole site, but it looks legitimate, and interesting, if you, like me, are interested in Africa, and future solutions.

Hi

I’m reaching out to you because I thought you and the readers of here there and Everywhere would be fascinated by what my firm has recently uncovered about the attitudes toward corporate investment in Africa among leading U.S. corporations — according to senior officers of 30 American Fortune 100 corporations we interviewed. Why has Africa not attracted more interest from the U.S. business community? We have collected all of the answers and case studies into a news release introducing a study that launched yesterday commissioned by the US Chamber of Commerce:

http://www.usafricainvestment.com

We’re very excited about the revelations in this paper and would love it if you could let your readers know about what we’ve uncovered through a post or a tweet. If you are able to post please let me know so that I can share it with the team. If you have any questions or would like to speak to the partners who wrote this paper, let me know and I will set it up.

Thank you so much,

Fabiane

–
Fabiane Dal-Ri
fabiane@usafricainvestment.com

Thanks to blogger BitJockey, and news service Reuters for this update on the Somali pirates:

MADRID (Reuters) – Somali pirates are planning attacks on shipping using detailed information telephoned through by contacts in London, according to an intelligence report cited by Spanish radio on Monday.

The pirates have built up a network of informants in London with access to sensitive data from shipping companies about vessels, routes and cargoes, according to a European military intelligence report that Cadena Ser radio said it had seen.

The pirates receive their information by satellite phone and use sophisticated equipment to locate their targets, Cadena Ser said.

The intelligence report also said that the pirates seem to avoid attacks on ships of some nationalities, including British ships.

It listed several attacks in which the pirates had surprised crew with detailed information of their prey, including the nationalities of those on board.

Cadena Ser did not provide any more details about where the report originated, identifying it only as “European.”

Western nations have sent warships to try to stop the pirates, who have made millions of dollars from ransoming ships and their crews in strategic shipping lanes off the Horn of Africa that connect Europe to Asia.

They are currently holding about 20 vessels with nearly 300 hostages, according to monitoring groups.

Efforts to fight the pirates have been hindered by the gaps in international maritime law, which have sometimes left it unclear who, if anyone, can put them on trial.

Spanish authorities have disagreed among themselves over what to do with 14 Somalis caught last week by a Spanish warship. A judge tried to bring some of them to Spain while the government argued they should be sent to a court in Kenya.

(Reporting by Jason Webb; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Ever since I was a kid, I found pirates interesting and exotic and adventurous. The truth is probably that those olden day pirates had bad teeth, scurvey - they had lived hard and fast and they probably aged quickly.

Of course, today we have Johnie Depp and the Pirates of the Caribbean series, which makes pirating look mostly like a lot of fun.

So a year or so ago, I wrote a post on the Somali pirates, and got an interesting response. It got me started looking more deeply into what is going on with the pirates there.

Yesterday, in the paper was an article about the Somali pirate code of conduct - with fines and punishments for infractions. I found a complete article in Newsweek, April 27.

What is bothering me now is that the one pirate captured by the US when it retook the captured US freighter is the report filed by one BBC reporter who said he was just a frail teenager, a kid, and that the pirates had already agreed to surrender when they were blown out of the water. You could here her attempting to control her rage.

I know it is a thorn in the side for all shippers and freighters and passenger ships who travel through waters anywhere near to Somalia. And yet . . . I kind of ask myself what the options are? Somalia is a for sure failed-nation. They haven’t been able to cobble together a government for over twenty years. Deadly, long lasting poisons have been dumped along their shoreline - and major industrial nations paid Somalis a pittance to dump their wastes there. Their coastline has been overfished. Families are starving, live is - or was - dismal.

I think it is pretty cool that they developed an enforceable - and enforced - code of conduct.

Here is the article from Newsweek:

It was a hit with the U.S. public, but president Obama’s decision to authorize the Pentagon to kill three Somali pirates who took an American sea captain hostage sent shudders through the world’s shipping and insurance industries. Because the pirates are motivated chiefly by money, maritime experts say, they have—at least until now—taken good care of the crews they hold captive. A document retrieved from a ship hijacked last year contained a “list of written rules” of conduct pirates had to follow, according to a maritime security expert who requested anonymity when discussing sensitive material. The document included a series of “punishments” to be imposed on any hijacker who struck a hostage.

Shipping companies and insurers are far more likely to fork over large ransoms if they have confidence that their personnel and cargo will be released unharmed, and while the scourge of piracy has been disruptive, so far there have been virtually no casualties among innocent people. According to estimates, there were 111 pirate attacks off the Somali coast in 2008; 42 were successful, resulting in the capture of 815 seamen. As of last week, according to one estimate, all but 37 had been released, and two had died—one reportedly of illness. Experts say the rate of attacks has increased sharply this year, and “the more [authorities] shoot, the more the pirates will shoot back,” says Tom Wilson, a Somalia analyst for the British consulting firm Control Risks.

Protecting the 23,000 merchant vessels sailing annually near the Horn of Africa would require a naval fleet of at least 60 ships, according to U.S. government and private experts; the existing international antipiracy task force has about 20. And attacking the Somali coastal villages where the pirates are based could potentially radicalize generations of Somalis. “That would be a 19th-century solution,” says Neil Roberts, a marine insurance expert with Lloyd’s Market Association in London. Industry experts say the only solution to piracy is the creation of a viable Somali government back on dry land.

According to industry officials, ransom demands have ranged as high as $25 million—but in most cases they are negotiated down to about $2 million to $3 million, and insurers then pay out claims to the shipping companies. As hijackings have increased in frequency, pirates have become fussier about how their money gets delivered. Initially, said a shipping-industry source who also asked for anonymity, ransoms were often handed off to shady Somali expats in places like Kenya. After Kenyan authorities cracked down, the pirates began insisting on airdrops via parachute into the ocean near Somali coastal villages, where they have cash-counting machines ready. Until the U.S. opened fire, one of the pirates’ biggest headaches had been dealing with the sheer volume of money they’ve collected. Last year, according to an insurance-industry official, one pirate’s boat capsized because he had overloaded it with cash.

I found this on National Post dated April 30, 2009; it is a copy of what I had read in the newspaper:

MOGADISHU — A mobile tribunal, a system of fines and a code of conduct: the success of Somali pirates’ seajacking business relies on a structure that makes them one of the country’s best-organised armed forces.

A far cry from the image conveyed in films and novels of pirates as unruly swashbucklers, Somalia’s modern-day buccaneers form a paramilitary brotherhood in which a strict and complex system of rules and punishments is enforced.

They are organized in a multitude of small cells dotting the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden coastline. The two main land bases are the towns of Eyl, in the breakaway state of Puntland, and Harardhere, further south in Somalia.

“There are hundreds of small cells, linked to each other,” Hasan Shukri, a pirate based in Haradhere, told AFP in a phone interview.

“We talk every morning, exchange information on what is happening at sea and if there has been a hijacking, we make onshore preparations to send out reinforcement and escort the captured ship closer to the coast,” he explained.

Somali piracy started off two decades ago with a more noble goal of deterring illegal fishing, protecting the people’s resources and the nation’s sovereignty at a time when the state was collapsing.

While today’s pirates have morphed into a sophisticated criminal ring with international ramifications, they have been careful to retain as much popular prestige as possible and refrain from the violent methods of the warlords who made Somalia a by-word for lawlessness in the 1990s.

“I have never seen gangs that have rules like these. They avoid many of the things that are all too common with other militias,” said Mohamed Sheikh Issa, an elder in the Eyl region.

“They don’t rape, and they don’t rob the hostages and they don’t kill them. They just wait for the ransom and always try to do it peacefully,” he said.

Somalia’s complex system of clan justice is often rendered obsolete by the armed chaos that has prevailed in the country for two decades, but the pirates have adapted it effectively.

Abdi Garad, an Eyl-based commander who was involved in recent attacks on U.S. ships, explained that the pirates have a mountain hide-out where leaders can confer and where internal differences can be solved.

“We have an impregnable stronghold and when there is a disagreement among us, all the pirate bosses gather there,” he told AFP.

The secretive pirate retreat is a place called Bedey, a few miles from Eyl.

“We have a kind of mobile court that is based in Bedey. Any pirate who commits a crime is charged and punished quickly because we have no jails to detain them,” Mr. Garad said.

Some groups representing different clans farther south in the villages of Hobyo and Haradhere would disagree with Mr. Garad’s claim that Somalia’s pirates all answer to a single authority.

But while differences remain among various groups, the pirates’ first set of rules is precisely aimed at neutralizing rivalries, Mohamed Hidig Dhegey, a pirate from Puntland, explained.

“If any one of us shoots and kills another, he will automatically be executed and his body thrown to the sharks,” he said from the town of Garowe.

“If a pirate injures another, he is immediately discharged and the network is instructed to isolate him. If one aims a gun at another, he loses 5% of his share of the ransom,” Mr. Dhegey said.

Perhaps the most striking disciplinary feature of Somali “piratehood” is the alleged code of conduct pertaining to the treatment of captured crews.

“Anybody who is caught engaging in robbery on the ship will be punished and banished for weeks. Anyone shooting a hostage will immediately be shot,” said Ahmed Ilkacase.

“I was once caught taking a wallet from a hostage. I had to give it back and then 25,000 dollars were removed from my share of the ransom,” he said.

Following the release of the French yacht Le Ponant in April 2008, investigators found a copy of a “good conduct guide” on the deck which forbade sexual assault on women hostages.

As Ilkacase found out for himself, pirates breaking internal rules are punished. Conversely, those displaying the most bravery are rewarded with a bigger share of the ransom, called “saami sare” in Somali.

“The first pirate to board a hijacked ship is entitled to a luxurious car, or a house or a wife. He can also decide to take his bonus share in cash,” he explained.

Foreign military commanders leading the growing fleet of anti-piracy naval missions plying the region in a bid to protect one of the world’s busiest trade routes acknowledge that pirates are very organised.

“They are very well organized, have good communication systems and rules of engagement,” said Vice Admiral Gerard Valin, commander of the French joint forces in the Indian Ocean.

So far, nothing suggests that pirates are motivated by anything other than money and it is unclear whether the only hostage to have died during a hijacking was killed by pirates or the French commandos who freed his ship.

Some acts of mistreatment have been reported during the more than 60 hijackings recorded since the start of 2008, but pirates have generally spared their hostages to focus on speedy ransom negotiations.

With the Robin Hood element of piracy already largely obsolete, observers say the “gentleman kidnapper” spirit could also fast taper off as pirates start to prioritize riskier, high-value targets and face increasingly robust action from navies with enhanced legal elbow room.

They have warned that the much-bandied heroics of a U.S. crew who wrested back control of their ship and had their captain rescued by navy snipers who picked off three pirates could go down as the day pirates decided to leave their manners at home.

I used to read science fiction novels about a diplomat named Retief, I think they were by Keith Laumer. He would find himself in an alien environment with a horrible unsolvable problem and he would find a great solution, where everyone walked away OK. I wish there were a Retief who could negotiate a win/win out of this situation.

Woo Hooo on ME! Although I have never been in Nigeria, somehow someone there neglected to pay me my TEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS! Yes! Yes! This is “online” with my dearest dreams! Someone wants to give me a lot of free money! Wooo HOOOO!

From: “Barrister Afred Mark”
Subject: FOREIGN PAYMENT INVESTIGATING UNIT.
Date: April 28, 2009 3:25:28 PM GMT+03:00

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA
TINUBU SQUARE LAGOS

FROM THE DESK OF:
AFRED MARK & ASSOCIATE’S
LEGAL ADVISER TO THE
CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN).

ATTENTION:
PAYMENT INVESTIGATING UNIT.

From the records of outstanding payment with the Federal Government of Nigeria, your name was discovered as next on the list of The outstanding beneficiaries who have not received their payments.

I wish to inform you that your payment is being processed and will be released to you as soon as you respond to this letter. Also note that from my record in my file your outstanding payment is US$10.5, (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only)

Please re-confirm to me if this is Online with what you have in your record and also re-confirm to me the followings.

(1) Your full name.
(2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) company’s name,position and address.
4) profession, age and marital status.
5) Copy of int’l passport or any scanned identity to prove yourself.
As soon as this information are received, your payment will be made to
you in a certified bank draft from central bank of Nigeria and a copy
will be given to you for you to take to your bank and confirm it.

YOURS SINCERELY,
AFRED MARK.
LEGAL ADVISER TO THE
CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN).

What? What? It’s a scam? Oh! Oh, say it isn’t so!

Earth day came and went. What are people to celebrated. The dilapidated state of this bubble we live in? It’s not that important. Humans have always depended on this planet to sustain their living without even considering the outcome. So, now it’s culturally intrinsic for humans to exploit the earth and its good. It’s culturally unacceptable for a married couple to get married with having children. Like it’s a prerequisite to a complete life. Just like David Attenborough claimed, the biggest issue we have at hand right now is over population. It seems like every couple with a vagina and penis seem hard pressed to make more babies, like it was there biological right. 

Overpopulation is single-handedly overcrowding this earth, exploiting its resources and, as a result, polluting it. And no credible governmental figure is saying anything about it. Maybe if schools had family planning lessons instead of classes about myths and dogmas of the abyss, then people will realize what impact they are putting on this earth every time they think it’s cute to have a child. There is a correlation between the lack of education to rate of childbirth. Uneducated persons tend to have more children. Why is that? You’d think that people, like the Swedes, who have great standards of living that allow them to have an abundance of children would do so. But, it’s quite the opposite. The birthrate is African countries is the highest. In any case, awareness about overpopulation is still at its infantile stages. And it’s not looking any better.

This interview is with a woman I admire very much, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who has a new book out, a collection of stories, called The Thing Around Your Neck. Her most recent prior book, Half of a Yellow Sun, which tells of the three year struggle of the Igbo people to secede from Nigeria to create the independent nation of Biafra, and won the Orange Prize for Literature in 2007. The book is a total WOW.

Goooooooooooood Morning, Kuwait!

It is going to be another gorgeous day in Kuwait. Don’t let this “heavy fog” deter you. When I got up, the sunrise was so bright, I couldn’t see the sun, it was refracted all over the sky. I was only able to get the shot by focusing on the reflection of the sun on the water.

It is going to be a fantastic week - sweet warm days and cooling off evenings, perfect for sitting outside and drinking coffee, visiting with friends - and a little later in the week, a chance of more rain:

AdventureMan and I saw Journey to Mecca yesterday, along with about 500 others living in Kuwait. The movie is still packing people in! The audience was about 3/4 full with children, and I thought “oh this is going to be great, crying children and people talking on their cell phones.” I was SO wrong. Although the movie theater was full, I did not hear a single phone, I did not hear a single crying child - the movie held us all spellbound. We loved the movie, and we loved seeing it in the IMAX theatre.

(There are special headsets for non-Arabic speakers, with the dialogue in English. We didn’t know; they just spotted us as probably-non-Arabic and handed us the headsets.)

Sometimes, I am just slow. My niece, Little Diamond, had recommended a book called Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam’s Greatest Traveller, but it was not until yesterday that I got it - that Ibn Batuta was from Tangiers! Sometimes, I am just slow . . . sometimes I can grasp subtleties but the obvious escapes me totally.

You can buy this book from Amazon.com for a mere $10.17 plus shipping. Yes, I own stock in amazon.com.

You can also probably find it at the Kuwait Bookstore, that amazing store in the bottom of the Al Muthanna Mall, near the Sheraton Circle downtown.

a)  do not do any extra work at all, fail to take extra curricular clubs and sneak off home early
b)  take all your sick days periodically through the year around exam time
c)  never plan or leave cover work
d)  don’t help your kids out at break times and mark homework in class
e)  have an ability to be unable to speak the language  in which you are supposed to teach
f) your accent should be so thick that no one else understands you

g) degreeless teachers preferred

h) if you can get your TEFL cert on line in 2 weeks this is also preferable

i) applications only from African and Indian subcontinent considered

j) be prepared to work for no more than 600KD per month - and damned appreciate it, because ‘ there’s people queueing up for your job if you don’t want it’ ( most of them from Darfur or Mombassa )

Good morning, Kuwait!

(How many different blues can you count in this photo? This is a RICH photo in the blue-grey spectrum, one of my favorites.)

When I saw the skies this morning, all cloudy and gloomy, I thought for a minute I was back in Seattle. If I were in Seattle, the temperatures would be much much lower - it is already getting hot in Kuwait, and this Friday we will hit a huge high:

But something is goofy with Zanzibar, on my WeatherUnderground favorites:

How can that be right? Highs almost in the 90’s, lows almost freezing?

It just might rain a little out there, my Kuwait friends. Be careful on the roads and remember:

Don’t Call Until You Reach Your Destination!

From today’s Arab Times:

Kuwait Red Crescent ready to fill aid agencies gap in Darfur

KUWAIT CITY, March 7, (KUNA): Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) said Saturday it was ready to fill the aid agencies gap caused by the withdrawal of a number of humanitarian organizations from Darfur.

KRCS Chairman Barjas Al-Barjas said in a letter he sent to Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Bekele Geleta, that KRCS believed the federation should cover the needs caused by the withdrawal of 16 non-governmental organizations from Darfur due to bad security conditions. He called IFRC to urge all humanitarian and charitable bodies, national societies, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to contribute to ending the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Darfur. Al-Barjas said KRCS was ready to provide aid, as it always did to the needy around the world.

Meanwhile, the Arab League Council has decided to send an Arab-Afro delegation to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to defer the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. The council, meeting urgently at the foreign ministers’ level to discuss ICC arrest warrant, expressed dismay for the ICC decision and said it did not consider justice, stability and peace in Sudan. The council voiced solidarity with Sudan against any plans undermining the sovereignty, unity and independence of Sudan.

The foreign ministers underlined in a statement importance of the independence of the Sudanese judiciary. They refused any attempt to politicize the principles of the international justice which would jeopardize the unity, sovereignty and independence of countries around the world. They regretted the fact that article 16 of the Rome statute of the ICC was not provoked thus delay the arrest warrant for 12 months. They asserted that heads of state enjoy immunity in accordance with the 1961 Vienna agreement.

The arrest warrant does not consider the implementation of the peace agreement in Southern Sudan and preparation for the general elections in the second half of this year, said the ministers. The Arab foreign ministers urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to live up its responsibility to preserving peace and stability in Sudan. They called on regional and international parties to provide suitable atmosphere for the political settlement between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur.

May God bless the work of their hands and their hearts.

It really sounds like she knows me! And she warns me against those nasty Nigerian scammers, so she must be on the up-and-up, right? And oh my, they have a file for me with all that money? Even though I have never worked in Nigeria, never had a contract? And oh yeh, it’s a blind-copy. . . . hmmmm.

Dearest,

My name is Mrs. Susan Walter, I live at 3775 Oleander Dr Highland, Ca 92346,

United States.

I am one of those that executed a contract in Nigeria years ago and they refused
to pay me, I had paid over $70,000USD trying to get my payment all to no avail.

Somebody directed me to travel down to Nigeria with all my contract documents
to meet Barrister Mat Oto who is the member of CONTRACT PAYMENT COMMITTEE and
LEGAL ADVISER to the COMMITTEE, and I contacted him and he explained everythi
ng to me on telephone and advised me to come down to Nigeria which I did.

He said that those contacting us through emails are fake. Then he took me to the
paying bank, which is Central Bank of Nigeria, and I am the happiest woman
on this earth because I have received my contract funds of $8.2Million USD.

On the process of searching for my file,I saw your information on awaiting pay
ment list in the office of Barrister Mat Oto.Though I did not capture all your
information lest your fax number.

Am sorry contacting you late as I planed doing it as soon as I arrive back USA.

I have been so busy because we are trying to set up a factory here with the mo
ney we received.

So if you care,do contact Barrister Mat Oto with the information below and just
explain yourself to him as I know he is honest and humble person.

Alternatively mention my name to him he will attend to you.

Name: Barrister Mat Oto
Email: barr.mato@urln.name
phone number +234-1-432490123
Address: 123,Palm Avenue Palm Grove,
Lagos Nigeria.

You really have to stop your dealing with those contacting you okay because they will dry you up until you have nothing to eat.

The only money I paid was just $8,200 for Federal Inland Revenue Services
(F.I.R.S).

So you have to take note of that. You can reach me on this telefax number:1-20
8-248-3647 or email:

mrssusan.walter@gmail.com

Thanks,

Mrs. Susan Walter

“Khalid”, a member of the Janjaweed tells about the Sudanese scorched earth policy in today’s BBC News:

The International Criminal Court is set to announce whether or not it is to issue a warrant for the arrest of the President of Sudan President al-Bashir, for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

The Sudanese government has always said the accusations are political but now one of the country’s former soldiers, who served in Darfur, has been telling his story to the BBC’s Mike Thomson.

Khalid (not his real name), a polite and softly spoken man from Darfur, seems reluctant to talk about his past. It is soon clear why.

“The orders given to us were to burn the villages completely,” he says.

“We even had to poison the water wells. We were also given orders to kill all the woman and rape girls under 13 and 14.”

Khalid, who is of black African origin, says he was forcibly recruited into President Omar al-Bashir’s Sudanese army in late 2002.

He and several other men where he lived were taken to the headquarters of his regiment which was based near the north-western Darfur town of Fasher.

He admits to having taken part in seven different attacks on Darfur villages with the help of Janjaweed militia.

The first one was in the Korma area in December 2002 several months before the conflict in Darfur officially began.

He claims to have been extremely reluctant to carry out the savage orders he was given.

“When they asked me to rape the girl, I went and stood in front of her,” he said.
“Tears came into my eyes. They said: ‘You have to rape her. If you don’t we will beat you.’ I hesitated and they hit me with the butt of a rifle.

“But when I went to the girl I couldn’t do it. I took her into a corner and lay myself on top of her as if I was raping her for about 10 to 15 minutes.

“Then, I jumped up and came out. They said: ‘Did you rape her?’ I said: ‘Yes, I did’.”
Khalid says that soon after this he and the other soldiers went back to base.
When they got there he was told to join another patrol immediately.

When he refused they beat and tortured him, inflicting severe burns on his legs and back.

He spent five weeks in a military hospital recovering from his injuries.
Before long, he said, he was ordered to join other brutal raids on Darfur villages.
I asked him what he was told to do with unarmed civilians who did not resist in any way.

“They told us, don’t leave anybody, just kill everybody,” he said.

“Even the children, if left behind in the huts, we had to kill them,” he said. “People would cry and run from their huts.

“Many couldn’t take their all their children. If they had more than two they had to leave them behind. If you saw them you had to shoot and kill.”

Khalid insists that he always fired over the heads of civilians and didn’t kill anyone himself despite the orders he was given.

He says he could do this without his fellow soldiers noticing but he admits that there was no way he could avoid carrying out orders to torch peoples homes.

The six-year conflict has spawned more than two million refugees

“I did take part,” he admitted. “They forced me. We had no choice. If you didn’t they would kill you.”

Did anyone refuse?

“Two of my colleagues refused and they were shot dead.”

You can read the entire article by clicking BBC NEWS: Dharfur

A British aeronatical engineer says a grid he has found on the ocean floor off the coast of west Africa could be the lost city of Atlantis. Internet giant Google has pooh poohed his idea…..old kill joys. It  is 620 miles off west Africa in an area called the Madeira Abyssal Plane.

Mr Bamford says the image looks like a “man-made aerial map” of a city.

Dr Charles Orser, curator of historical archaeology at New York State University has described the find as “fascinating.” He said: “The site is one of the most prominent places for the proposed location of Atlantis, as described by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

And still Google pooh poohs the idea………

President of Libya Muammar Al-Qaddafi (who is looking absolutely fabulous here, might I add) has just become the leader of the African Union. It’s hard to predict what eccentric dictators would do to such a prominent organization. Did they run out of people? Maybe Mugabe would be a good vice-leader. He plans to for an EU-like atmosphere, which is highly unlikely considering Africa’s state. I think he opted for the position a long time ago with his tour of Africa. I wonder what is behind it…

 

 

From Yahoo.com:

 

“ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Moammar Gadhafi of Libya was elected Monday as leader of the African Union, a position long sought by the eccentric dictator who wants to push his oil-rich nation into the international mainstream after years of isolation.

Gadhafi, once ostracized by the West for sponsoring terrorism, has been trying to increase both Libya’s global stature and its regional influence — mediating African conflicts, sponsoring efforts to spread Islam on the continent and pushing for the creation of a single African government.

Still, some African leaders offered tepid praise for the choice of the strongman who grabbed power in a 1969 coup. Rights groups called him a poor model for Africa at a time when democratic gains are being reversed in countries such as Mauritania and Guinea.

He attended the session dressed in a gold-embroidered green robe and flanked by seven extravagantly dressed men who said they are the “traditional kings of Africa.” Gadhafi told about 20 of his fellow heads of state that that he would work to unite the continent into “the United States of Africa.”"

      

The African Kid

================

When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in Sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you gray
And you calling me colored??

      

From this morning’s e-mails - I think this is a sincere one. If anyone wants to contact this artist, his e-mail is:

africanhead_art@yahoo.com

Good day sir\ma

it is a great pleasure of getting across to your wed site. Am Mr KOLA OWOLAWI JUNAID am muslim an artist am the founded of african heads art and cultural gallery african heads art gallery was base in lagos and osogbo osun state in nigeria

i participated in my first art exhibition at GENEVE COMITE INTERNATION committee of the red cross ICRC am one of the winner in the art competition i also exhibit at US Embassy in lagos ,IITA ibaban German cultural Center , British High Commission ,american international school,Britsih high school, National art council in Accra Ghana i received an award for up coming artist an many more

i will like to make an inquiry on if i could join the Qurain cultural festival or organizering a cultural art exhibition on Qurain words, painting adire ,batick ,tye and dye and other local fabric art work for up coming this year.i will ilke to know if it could be organizes and what was the general registration or inquiry is needed for the exhibition thanks you.

please if you ilke to see the samples of the art works i will be glad to show it

      

“Are you able to watch the inauguration from work?” I type an IM to my son.

“Nah, I’ll have to catch some of it later,” he types back. He has victims to interview and briefs to prepare - it’s a normal day, not a holiday in his state.

I am glued to the screen. AdventureMan comes home and joins me, just in time for the swearing in and Inaugural address. WOW. Our new President is inspirational. He doesn’t tell us it is going to be easy. He says we are all going to have to work hard to turn things around. He reminds us that together, united - we can do it. Wow.

AdventureMan said what was most exciting to him was that we are celebrating 200 years of peaceful transition of power. The pendulum has swung right and left and center, administrations have changed, and by the Grace of God, it has happened peacefully.

Taking the oath of office:

Crowds watching in Kenya:

Inaugural speech:

An estimated 1.4 million Americans stood hours to watch Obama become President in temperatures below freezing:

Singing the national anthem:

Signing his first documents as the US President:

What? You thought I forgot? Here is the new dawn in Kuwait - a pearly morning, another great day in Kuwait. Thanks for your patience.

      

In the comments of a recent post, blogger Moodi asked if I liked Qatayif. I checked the Wikipedia page, and it reminded me of something else.

In Qatar, when I lived there, our teachers at The Qatar Center for the Presentation of Islam demonstrated making a large, thin dough that was used in many ways, folded and used in casseroles, used as a foundation in serving dishes, crumbled up when dry and used in breakfast making . . .

It was made by hand, using a dough that you held in your hand, and tossed and brought back to your hand after leaving a dot on a hot griddle. I think the hot griddle might have been flat some times, and like an upside-down wok other times. The pancake would turn out large and round, but only a few atoms thick, they were very very thin and delicate.

I never have seen this in Kuwait, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Do any of your grandmothers or mothers make thin pancakes for special holidays in this manner? Can you tell me what it is called?

In Tunisia, women used to make Malsouqa, the thin thin dough used to make brik and sell it in stacks in the marketplace. You could wait, and buy it fresh off the stove, they would toss and grab, toss and grab, and then peel the very thin, fragile skin of dough off the burner. Pop in a little tuna, chopped parsley. salt, pepper and egg, fry lightly in a little olive oil in a frying pan - heaven in a wrapper.

I was obsessed. It took me an hour - but I found a wonderful blog, Chef Zadi with these fabulous photos of how malsouka are made. His blog is all about healthy North African cuisine

So - have you seen anything similar, something done on a hot iron with a dough held in the hand and tossed at the got grill over and over, leaving small spots of dough that gather into a large flaky thin pastry?

      

Other than the absolute scenic beauty of this atoll with a heart shaped island in the middle, it boasted the best snorkling and scuba diving spot I have ever seen. Lush corals surround it and then a sudden dip into the india ocean. The fish aren’t scared and will come really close to you. The trumpet fish are huge and the Napoleons will brush up against you lazily. The corals are like rainbows and the species are endless. To top it all off, we went to another side of the atoll and swam with wild dolphins. It was an exquisite experience.

      

Posts will be in small portions, but even more succulent.

      

This is a report from BBC News. I published a piece previously on Somalia on March 11, and blogger Shafi said the following:

“When wealthier nations align their fleet of vessels at Somali coast to fish illegally (estimated at around $6 million as the article says) and dump toxic waste in some parts of the water, aren’t they doing a greater evil and a major harm to the shell-shattared country and her people than the pirates for whom piracy is itself a survival method?”

The statement caught me totally by surprise. I went looking to see if it was true, and it was.

Shafi has a fascinating blog, and if you have some time, go take a look. Meanwhile, I am happy to see glimpses of a fuller picture coming forth in the news:

Ex-Somali Army Colonel Mohamed Nureh Abdulle lives in Harardhere - the town closest to where the hijacked Saudi oil tanker, Sirius Star is moored. He tells the BBC, via phone from his home, that the town’s residents are more concerned about the apparent dumping of toxic waste than piracy.

The Harardhere-born military man advises the town’s elders on security matters and is in his fifties.
Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991 - when its last national government was forced from power.

The super-tanker is close to our coast. It is a very, very long ship. Some time ago we had our own problems of piracy in our town but that has not happened lately.

The people who have been hijacking these ships in our seas are not from our region. We do not know any of the guys on the super-tanker and they haven’t made any contact with us.

You know, our problem is not piracy. It is illegal dumping.

These problems have been going for sometime and the world knows about it. The Americans have been here in the region for a long time now - they know about the pollution.

Instead, no, the world is only talking about the pirates and the money involved.

Mysterious illnesses
Meanwhile, there has been something else going on and it has been going on for years. There are many dumpings made in our sea, so much rubbish.

It is dumped in our seas and it washes up on our coastline and spreads into our area.

A few nights ago, some tanks came out from the high sea and they cracked it seems and now they are leaking into the water and into the air.

The first people fell ill yesterday afternoon. People are reporting mysterious illnesses; they are talking about it as though it were chicken pox - but it is not exactly like that either. Their skin is bad. They are sneezing, coughing and vomiting.

This is the first time it has been like this; that people have such very, very bad sickness.

The people who have these symptoms are the ones who wake early, before it is light, and herd their livestock to the shore to graze. The animals are sick from drinking the water and the people who washed in the water are now suffering.

TimesOnline ran an article on Somalia after the tsunami, and the contaminants that had been washed ashore:

“The current situation along the Somali coastline poses a very serious environmental hazard not only in Somalia but also in the eastern Africa sub-region,” the report says. Toxic waste was first dumped in Somalia in the late 1980s, but accelerated sharply during the civil war which followed the 1991 overthrow of the late dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Local warlords, many of them former ministers in Siad Barre’s last government, received large payments from Swiss and Italian firms for access to their respective fiefdoms.

Most of the waste was simply dumped on remote beaches in containers and leaking disposable barrels.

Somali sources close to the trade say that the dumped materials included radioactive uranium, lead, cadmium, mercury and industrial, hospital, chemical and various other toxic wastes. In 1992, Unep said that European firms were involved in the trade, but because of the high level of insecurity in the country there were never any accurate assessments of the extent of the problem.

In 1997 and 1998, the Italian newspaper Famiglia Cristiana, which jointly investigated the allegations with the Italian branch of Greenpeace, published a series of articles detailing the extent of illegal dumping by a Swiss firm, Achair Partners, and an Italian waste broker, Progresso.

The news is so much more complicated than it appears. How do we stop all these wrongful, hurtful things? Do not we have a responsibility toward the poorest nations? If we - meaning the richest nations - don’t stop this dumping now, is there not every chance in the world that it will come back to haunt us?

      

It’s officially Iceland Day on my blog. And it was all by coincidence, however I will continue to look for Icelandic topics to continue the theme. 

I was amazed to find out that the first country to fall pray to this global economic crisis is Iceland. I feel like the poverty escalation in Africa is at least partially due to the credit crisis, but then again, the media rarely focuses on African matters. But, Iceland? 

Not only does it have the best standards of living, is one of the least corrupt countries in the world and has exemplary freedoms of speech and action. But it is also the home to some of the best music of the past decade - all in a population that is around a fifth of a million. 

I’ve been hearing about the Krona dying down for a year now and the Icelandic people have opted to join the Euro even when Iceland is not part of he European Union to avoid sharing the seas. Now the Icelandic front accuses Britain of helping the current status.  I just hope thats a slight dip and Iceland can get back on its feet. 

 

      

I recently received an e mail from Jenny @astro.net or something spiritual like that,  letting  me know that she had ‘’cleansed my energy’’. I was quite relieved I can tell you. There’s nothing like walking around all day carrying a bad dose of dirty energy. It only drags you down.

Even though we have never actually met, Jenny @astro.net feels she knows me very well, for she told me,

‘’ You now know that I began to feel strong vibrations from the very first moment of our contact. These feelings have been amplified by the energy waves produced by the Reiki Grid Power Source which I performed for you last week. …….it also brought me some vital information indeed.’’ It’s amazing what someone can do for you without you even being aware of it……..

I could only venture a guess at how vital the information might be…..I wondered if the Reiki Grid Power Source was somehow linked to the National Grid Power Source and was there some kind of electricity bill rebate coming my way…….but no. What she was going to tell me was deeper….much deeper than that, and whatever it was, Jenny needed ‘all my attention’ and I could only ‘ignore its impact and importance’ at my peril.

Jenny then waxed lyrical about my ‘incredible potential’, ‘considerable capacities’ and ‘immense qualities’ before promising me that only she knew the way forward for me and would only wait for ‘confirmation of this  e mail’ before she set to work preparing a ‘great book of revelation’ for me . The reveal! Was it going to be a Trinny and Suzanna or an extreme makeover moment?

I suddenly began to wonder if Jenny @astro.net was in any way related to Mr Bargo Compaore of the African Development Bank (ADB ) who also had some vital information for me last week. No, sorry, his wasn’t vital. It was ‘urgent’. For some reason, Mr Bargo wanted me to ‘forgive’ his ‘indignation in this regard’. NO idea what that one meant, but I pressed on regardless, keen to read his ‘urgent’ information, sent to little old me all the way from Burkino Faso ( IP address Egypt……..how bizarre……). Mr Bargo told me not to be ‘scared or surprised, but wanted me to be a partner in his claim to millions left by the estate of none other than Joseph Grillo ( what do you mean you haven’t heard of him?) who unfortunately was a victim of 9/11…. I was neither scared nor surprised.

OK I’ll stop there. You’ve got the idea by now anyway. How many of these darned scams are flooding into your e mail account each day? 10, 20, 30 ? Are there actually people who fall for these scams? And who the heck thinks them up to begin with! Only yesterday I won a total of $4,546,987 from four different sources. And the problem is, even though we have the SPAM option in all our e mail accounts, we have to check that something ‘real’ hasn’t slipped in there- a cheque from old Aunt Phoebe of the mint imperials and mothballs, promising a few hundred in her will.

Mind you money scams are the least of your worries. Just be careful you don’t have a toddler peering over your shoulder when you open up one of your ‘free prescription’ junk e mails…….you have no idea what might pop up there, literally.

Now another thing- if you are one of these joke e mail forwarders- please stop! And also stop telling me that if I ‘only forward this good wish e mail to six friends ‘I can ‘save an entire tribe in Africa’…… I DON’T CARE and I DON’T BELIEVE YOU.

Rant finished? Ok , must dash- apparently I have a top of the range Lexus 2008 waiting for me somewhere in Shuwaikh. I just have to go and give Mr Ahmed something or other my bank details……..

      

This is from today’s Daily Star

South Sudan arrests 20 women for wearing pants, short skirts
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

JUBA, Sudan: A Southern Sudan Cabinet minister said on Tuesday that more than 20 women were arrested and beaten for allegedly dressing inappropriately under a new edict against “bad behavior.” “Between 20 and 30 girls were picked up from different points, hurled into police lorries, arrested and taken to the police station and some of them were beaten,” said Mary Kiden Kimbo, the gender, social welfare and religious affairs minister in the semi-autonomous southern government.

“This is absolutely not acceptable: it is not the job of police to judge what is and what is not a correct way to dress in such a manner of blanket punishment,” she said.

The police crackdown on young women wearing trousers or short skirts follows an order from the commissioner of Juba county, the capital of Southern Sudan. Most of the women, said to be in their late teens and 20s, were rounded up as they left Catholic mass in Juba on Sunday, Kimbo said.

Others were picked up in market places.

The order bans “all bad behaviors, activities and imported illicit cultures,” according to a copy seen by AFP, signed by Juba’s commissioner, Albert Pitia Redantore.

Inappropriate behavior may include wearing tight trousers, short skirts or skimpy tops considered “Western” attire.

The order, dated October 2, said that it aimed to “preserve the cultural values, dignity and achievements of the people of southern Sudan, checking out the intrusion of foreign cultures into our societies, for the sake of bringing up [a] good generation.” Those deemed in contravention of the order are liable to three months imprisonment. Those convicted for a second time face another three-month sentence and a fine of 600 Sudanese pounds ($300).

Traditional values are important in largely Christian and animist Southern Sudan, which is recovering from decades of war against the mainly Muslim north. It was the imposition of Sharia law by the north that helped spark the southern rebellion, which was rooted in complaints of marginalization.

“This kind of thing looks like the old days of Sharia law, and it is dangerous because creating such a situation can encourage mob justice,” Kimbo told AFP.

The minister said that the principle of gender equality was enshrined in Southern Sudan and added that she was investigating the matter. - AFP

      

You can read the entire story, which appeared today, on BBC News Africa:

A Moroccan blogger has been jailed for two years for showing disrespect to the monarchy, say the man’s family.

Mohammed Erraji, 29, was convicted after writing an article claiming King Mohammed VI’s charitable habits were encouraging a culture of dependency.

There has been no official comment on the case, but rights groups claim Erraji did not have a fair trial.

A BBC reporter says criticising the king is an offence in Morocco and the royal family remains a taboo subject.

Morocco has previously caused international outrage with its treatment of internet users.

Earlier this year, Fouad Mortada was sentenced to three years in prison for creating a false profile on the internet site Facebook using the identity of the king’s brother.

He received a royal pardon following protests from internet users around the world.

‘Disastrous’
Erraji claimed in an internet article that the king’s charity towards Moroccans was stifling development by encouraging people to be lazy.

“This has made the Moroccans a people without dignity, who live by donations and gifts,” he wrote.
The BBC’s James Copnall in the capital, Rabat, says he was particularly critical of the practice known as grima - giving lucrative licences to run taxis and other transport in exchange for begging letters.
Erraji said this did not happen in developed countries, where hard work rather than begging is rewarded.

He was arrested by the authorities last Friday and accused of “lacking the respect due to the king”.
In court on Monday, he was given a two-year prison sentence and fined 5,000 Dirham ($630:£356).

This is an excerpt from the New York Times Travel Section on Namibia, a country AdventureMan and I visited a few years ago.

We landed in Windhoek, and our first night, we ate dinner at Joe’s Beerhouse, a little disorienting, as we had flown in from Germany, and found ourselves in a very German restaurant. The Germans colonized Namibia for a very few years over 100 years ago, but their influence lingers on in names, on streets, statues and cuisine.

Our trip through Namibia was unforgettable. It was unlike any other African country we have ever visited. It has a very long coastline with cold Atlantic currents called The Skeleton Coast. It has the world’s highest sand dunes, unbelievably beautiful. When I think of Namibia, I think of dryness - it is the thirstiest country I have ever seen, outside Kuwait.

Much of our time in Namibia, in Etosha and in Demaraland, we were camping, with CCAfrica (Conservation Corps Africa), but at the end, we stayed in one of the most spectacular private lodges in the world: Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge. It was a total WOW. We rode ATV’s to the top of the dunes for sunset. They had an astronomical observatory, because at night there is NO ambient light and you can see the sky so clearly. The food was fabulous and creative.

Namibia, a country of stark beauty and riveting contradictions, should be at the top of any serious traveler’s want-to-visit list.

The landscape is otherworldly, from the ocean of blood red crests along Dune Alley at Sossusvlei (pronounced SOSS-oo-vlay) to the gravity-defying rock formations and petrified forest of Damaraland, in the country’s center. Even beside the main highway, there are enough elephants, giraffes and springbok to satisfy those who can’t imagine a southern African trip without big game.

And the mind-boggling juxtaposition of women draped in skins that covered animals a week earlier against shopping malls offering a full selection of Ray-Bans, or of face powder ground in a mortar and pestle cheek by jowl with shiny Hummers, leads you into the heart of a modern Africa tangled by time, defined by the collision of centuries and traditions.

Namibia isn’t easy, especially for travelers whose notion of a vacation is dashing from one sight to another, or for urbanites who need regular fixes of bright lights and noisy streets. Except for those with pockets deep enough to arrange chartered flights between the dunes and the Damara homesteads, it demands patience with corrugated gravel roads and mile after mile of what poets are fond of calling terrible beauty.

You can read the entire article HERE.

Just a quick note to say that if you have been waiting to read Long Way Gone in paperback, it is now on the shelves.

My good friend Adamu Attah, head of the FILE DEPARTMENT at the African Development Bank wants to give me money! I am printing his letter, exactly as written, because I am thinking my bank friend really needs some grammar, spelling and spacing review. In any case, I am much too busy these days to collect my 40% of 15.5 million dollars.

But it is summertime, and some people have a lot of time on their hands, and if you want to contact my friend Adamu Attah, here is his address:

adamu_attah1@sify.com

Please. Please. Do not send him any money, not for fees, not for deposits, not for anything. This is another of those hoax spams that some people actually respond to. Please, please, don’t be one of them.

FROM THE DESK OF ADAMU ATTAH

THE HEAD OF FILE DEPARTMENT,
AFRICAN

DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB)

OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO WEST
AFRICA.

TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.

PLANE CRASH WEB
SITE…http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

(”remittance of $15.5million u.s.a dollars

confidential is the case”)

compliments of the season
2008,

i am (adamu attah),head of file department & debt recovering in
african development bank ouagadougou burkina-faso in west
africa.

first, i must solicit your confidence in this transaction.this
is by

virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top
secret.

however after series of petition was recieved by this present
regime from foreign contractors and inability of the african
development bank (adb)to fulfill their obligation for the payment to
its foreign creditors, in conjunction with the council of ministers,
they mandated us to carry out a careful and comprehensive review of all
overdue payments to foreign contractors and to effect payments
immediately.

during the above mentioned process, we discovered an
abandoned sum of us$15.5 m (fifteen million five hundred thousand us
dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who
died along with his entire family in a plane crash that happened in
(monday 31st july 2000).since we got information about his death, we
have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money
because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it as next of
kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines
and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin
or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody
behind for the claim.

it is therefore upon this discovery that i and
other officials in my

department now decided to make this business
proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or
relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since
nobody is coming for it and we don’t want this money to go into the bank
treasury as unclaimed bill.

i agree that 40% of this money will be for
you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign
account,and 50% would be for me, while 10% will be for expenses incure
during the transaction. there after i will visit your country for
disbursement according to the percentage indicated.therefore, to enable
the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply
first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating
your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax
number for easy and effective communication and location wherein the
money will be remitted.

upon the receipt of your reply, i will send to
you by email the text of the application to fill and send to the bank. i
will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is
hitch-free risk and this transaction will only take us 14 banking days
because as a banker, i know what to do and move the fund into your
account without any delay and thatyou should not entertain any atom of
fear as all required arrangement have been made for the transfer.

you
should contact me as soon as you receive this letter so that i will
send you the text of the application to apply to the bank and the data
information of the deceased .

your’s faithfully,

adamu attah

from (adb) ouagadougou burkina-faso.

AdventureMan called his contact at Al Shamal Travel about an upcoming trip:

“Mr. Flan, I have our itinerary, is everything still on schedule?”

“Yes, Mr. AdventureMan, I just checked on it this morning. You are booked all the way through, all the flights are exactly as shown on your schedule. I booked your seats on all the legs and I think you will be very happy. Just show them your itinerary; the reservation number is on it.”

(Sigh of pure pleasure)

Real service, CUSTOMER service. So rare that when it happens, we notice it.

We had reservationsin Nkwali, the jumping off place for most of the Robin Pope Safaris, but we had to change the reservations by a couple weeks, and that meant a total reversal of the reservation. We started off in Tena Tena, then we went to Nsefu, then we ended up in Nkwali. We have always loved Nkwali, loved the cabins there, but this time we were happier than happy - they put us in Robin’s House.

Robin’s House is where Robin and Jo Pope lived before they built a gorgeous house on the other side of the camp.

It is perfect for two couples, or two couples and children. It is perfect in so many ways that I had to make a list of all the things I loved about being there.

* Space - spacious bedrooms, spacious, private bathrooms on each side of the house with a spacious common living/sitting/dining room in the center.

* Indoor/ outdoor living - the windows have screens on them to keep out critters, but indoors or outdoors, it all feels a part of a whole.

* Wrap around windows - a view anywhere you look

* Huge walk in shower, with animal prints molded into the painted cement floor. Love the whimsy.

* High, airy ceilings, with ceiling fans

* natural materials, canvas colored curtains, a neutral palette with beam accents

* great big soft fluffy bath towels

* all our favorite drinks stocked in the refrigerator, and a liquor bar, which we barely touched, that had Amarula, which I love.

* electricity! We could recharge our own camera batteries without going to the camp itself

* being taken care of by a hostess, a cook, a dedicated guide and Thomas and Amos, who took care of us without over-taking-care of us - they gave us plenty of privacy when we needed it, and were there when we needed them.

* variety of seating for people of different heights

* Tribal Textiles accents - pillows, covers, etc - in rooms

* a book case! With books! and games!

* multiple views of hippos, and hippo sounds at night

* grand, comfy beds with good sheets, good pillows and good mattresses

* kikoys provided for our use

* shaded porch with a variety of seating options

* a hammock with a view

* insect repellant - with a good smell and nice texture, and it really seemed to work

* ditto shower gel and shampoo and conditioner provided

* a drying rack for swimming towels, washed clothes, etc.

Our last day there, LawAndOrder Man and EnviroGirl had to leave for their 32 hour return to the USA, flying Mfuwe - Lusaka - Johannisburg - Dakar - Atlanta - Pensacola - imagine. And they had to work the next day. It was such a sad parting, and we were all glad to have had the last days together in this beautiful, very private location.

Photos:

This is the wing of the house where AdventureMan and I stayed

This was our room (sigh!)

And this is the shower we loved

This was the living room/sitting room where we would gather

This was the second bedroom - there were additional beds for kids

This is the pool. Other guests from the camp could use it, but no one did while we were there. It was separate from the house but very close.

These spaces for outdoor sitting were outside the other wing, where our son and his bride slept

They served our meals privately, too. What wonderful luxury privacy is

You know, the little Alaska girl is still alive and well inside me, and I am always fascinated with fishing techniques. This was right across the river from Robin’s House, and they caught quite a few fish.

Robin and Jo Pope have expertise, and also VISION. Problems, to them, are opportunities. Need to get tourists to the camps? Invest in an airline. Need to get them to the national park across a river? Build your own pontoon bridge - it gives Zambia additional park revenue, provides additional employment, and gives tourists a thrilling experience. When they solve a problem, everyone wins.

We crossed several times on this boat, and once, in pitch dark, got caught on a tree snagging us from under the water. It took about 15 minutes to maneuver us off, and to get across, but it is not like this ferry is on a schedule. It goes back and forth when vehicles are going into or coming out of the park.

How the boat is pulled across the river

We had some fabulous game drives; I will only bore you with this one. The hippo ponds are covered with nile cabbage, and I just loved this hippo with his nile cabbage blanket

We travel to Africa almost every year, but the Robin Pope Safari camps are the only ones we have ever visited more than once. After our first visit, I think in 2003, we went back for a Hiking with Robin Pope safari in 2005 and enjoyed every minute of it. When we first dreamed of taking our son and his wife to Africa with us, we thought we would do the Hemingway Safari with CCAfrica (it’s twelve parts but this link takes you to the first entry) but that takes 14 days, and LawAndOrder Man doesn’t get that much time off.

No problem, we know that the Robin Pope Safari Camps do it right. We know they will be totally WOWED. We set up some dates, and then when the Cupertino wedding comes up, we revise the dates, which means that we do the same trip we did the other two times, only backwards. This is fun! When you are booking a Robin Pope Safari, you need to book early, they fill up fast.

We love Tena Tena, the first camp we stayed at. Each couple has a very large tent, with furniture and books and oriental carpets. The bedcovers are kilim, the whole flavor is very fusion, like Zanzibar - African, Indian and Middle Eastern. There are only five tents, maximum of ten guests. We feel so at home.

During the day, each tent is totally open in the front to a large patio from which you can watch passing game. Our very first day in Tena Tena, just after lunch the elephants came through, and we watched, enchanted, from the porch. First AdventureMan went to our son’s tent to watch as they passed, and then all three came to our tent. My heart was so full of joy that I didn’t know whether to watch the elephants or to thank God for the sheer happiness I felt, all of us together and the miracle of elephants walking right past our door as we watched in wonder. I found a way to do both.

So here are some more photos of our time at Tena Tena:

The airplane we flew in on, and Mfuwe International Airport. Once a week or so, a flight comes in from Malawi, and so it is genuinely an International airport:

The South Luangua needs these small planes to get the visitors to their camps, so Robin and Jo Pope invested in their own airline, ProFlight.

The guides at the Robin Pope Camps are so patient. I am absolutely ga-ga about the sky, seeing blue sky and clouds and a sunset. I get gorgeous sunrises in Kuwait, but I never see the sun set. The guide is patient when I ask him to stop to take a photo. While we are stopped - a hyena comes slinking along, totally ignoring us, crossing behind our vehicle.

The next morning, it is up at 0530, out of the camp by six (not a vacation for people who want to sleep in!) LawAndOrder Man and EnviroGirl have been awake since three a.m. - jet lagging - and are bright and shiny!

As we are watching the baboons wake up and take care of daily business, we see the most amazing fight - a set of four birds fighting over a tree top territory. One hops up on his partner’s back to scold and intimidate the other two into leaving:

Back in Tena Tena, a delicious lunch - every meal is delicious - and just as we are finishing, there are elephants crossing the river to our side. What is cuter than a baby elephant?

The elephants crossed the river, then came foraging down past our tents:

I know you are all dying to see LawAndOrder Man and Enviro Girl - that’s them, watching the elephants on our tent front porch.

Our guide, Bertram, was amazing. He would ask us “what do you want to see?” and we would tell him, and he knew just where to find them. The first night drive, I said “We love seeing everything, but it would be a real thrill to see a leopard.”

We drove around, looking at all kinds of things, and then he said “over on your left is a hammerkopf - and a leopard.” And there she was, relaxed, soaking up a little sun before she hunted up something for the night’s dinner. She posed, she stretched, she changed positions and gave us plenty of time before she sauntered off. Wooo HOOOOOO! We had been to Africa three times before we ever saw a leopard, and here was one on their very first night of their very first safari. God is Good!

One of the best parts about Tena Tena is hearing hippos. There are hippos everywhere:

Thank you for being so patient with all my vacation stories and photos. I know, I know, I am turning into that boring old aunt who always shows up with photos!

Listening to BBC yesterday, I learned that in Ghana, men forbid their wives to get HIV testing. If the wife tests positive, it makes public his own shame, carrying HIV, and they don’t want people to know they are infected. They will even resist being treated rather than confess to having HIV.

Recently a Ghanian man divorced his wife for testing positive, even denied he was infected. She states he is the only man she has ever been with. He said she is bringing shame on him, going public.

What tragedy. What folly. Life enhancing, life prolonging drug treatments are available. First, you have to acknowledge you are infected. And, of course, if the women do not get tested, the dreaded disease passes along to the babies.

The newspaper recently published an article that 129 Kuwaitis are HIV positive. I imagine the problems here are similar, that people would prefer it all be kept very private. Is that possible? Is confidentiality respected? Do couples have blood tests before getting married?

I used to be such an organized person. I had a responsible job where I juggled many important things. I had meetings and messages, and events and proposal deadlines, and somehow, I did it all, and I did it well.

Now that I have somewhat less to handle, I don’t handle it as well. I am too relaxed. I don’t obsess about details, I don’t wake up in the middle of the night gasping about something I may have forgotten, I don’t even keep a notepad by the side of my bed to write things down that wake me in the night.

When I was making arrangements for this trip, AdventureMan said to add on a few days at the Chongwe River Lodge, so I told the travel guy at Robin Pope Safaris to book us at the Chongwe River Lodge. Then, I just paid what the invoice said and never thought about it again. If you go to the RPS page, it will show you Chongwe River HOUSE, and that is where we thought we were staying. When we arrived, we were a little disconcerted to discover we were at the Chongwe River Camp, not the house, but our tent/cabin faced a pod of hippos, and we were immediately enchanted, and sometimes things happen for a reason, you know? We knew we were there for a reason, and just relaxed and enjoyed what the camp had to offer.

And oh, WOW, what the camp had to offer. First, every tent is situated to have a fabulous view, and the front of the tent is all clear net, you CAN close it if you want to, but you don’t have to, you have absolute privacy with on one looking in. They have a wide range of activities, lots of water sports, fishing, kayaking, hiking, fly camping . . . so much to do! Or . . . you can do nothing at all, too.

Our view overlooked a pod of hippos. All day and all night long, we could hear hippos. In the middle of the night, a hippo mom and a baby hippo were grazing two feet from the entrance to our tent - when I got up to watch, they quickly slipped back into the water.

That might disturb some people, but it totally enchants me! I was told some people get grumpy because they can’t sleep, that they request earplugs . . . I cannot imagine. I love the sounds, and somehow, it makes me feel safer inside knowing wild things are roaming around at night. I’ve always felt human beings were the far more dangerous threat than the animals.

So I will bore you with a bunch of photos, and you will see the things I love - details of the tents and lounge and dining areas, and photos that I wish had sound attached so you could be lulled to sleep by the laughter of the hippos.

This is the Chongwe River airport:

This is the airstrip we flew into - you can see elephant dung all over the strip, but there were no elephants on the strip when we flew in:

Zambia was experiencing a huge airplane fuel crisis while we were there, so flights were being consolidated. One night, there was NO fuel at any of the major airfields. Here us the fuel storage at Chongwe:

This is my idea of camping - king size bed, good sheets, a great bathroom and a great view of hippos:

The bathroom! Can you see why I enjoy camping so much? The shower has a European style flash heater - so practical, and you get hot water in a heartbeat without burning a lot of trees.

Storage/clothing shelves in the bedroom. Rooms come with flashlights, insect repellant sprays, and a whistle in case you feel in danger:

Dining in the bush - and the food was great. Because it is the middle of winter in Zambia, nights can be chilly, and we had charcoal braziers between diners at night to keep us from shivering. It was toasty warm! When we would get back to our tents, there would be hot water bottles warming our beds, so we could just jump in.

The coffee/tea/hot chocolate bar, with French press Zambian coffee, yummmmm:

This is how the camp would look at night when we would come back from a game drive or a boating trip - purely magic, with all the twinkling candles. The camp offers fishing, hiking, game drives, kayaking, all kinds of activities, or . . . just chilling:

This is the lounge area and library in the daytime:

These are “my” hippos - oh, this just made my time at Chongwe River Camp, hearing their laughter, hearing their arguements. Just up the river all the animals would come down to drink at dusk. I could sit and take photos and never intrude on them - warthogs, impala, elephant, waterbuck, geese, heron, egret, ibis . . . and lots of baboon.

We saw everything on our game drives, but I will start with the great Kudu, because finding a male kudu not shyly running away is a great treat:

I think this lion finds tourists boring - he and his wives endured our presence for about 45 minutes before ambling off to another shady glen:

This was a great thrill for me - an elephant swimming to one of the Zambezi islands. Don’t worry, I was using my great telephoto, I was not that close. We did not bother the elephant, we kept our distance.

Here is the big guy safely on his island:

And just look at this guy! He was a big as a HUMMER! Our guide said he had seen even bigger on the Zambezi. (gulp!)

This week AdventureMan and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary. He kids me - when we were married, we had a goal. We wanted to go to Africa, so we saved our money for a whole year. We didn’t eat meat - or not often. We didn’t go to movies; we went to the library. We did buy cameras, and we saved and saved and saved, and when we had been married a year, we went to Kenya for a month - three weeks on safari and then one week on the beach.

Life has been so good to us, has blessed us so richly. Today we give thanks for the good times, and even the bad times - it takes both to glue a marriage together. We thank God for his abundant mercy on our foolishness and our pride, for our mistakes, and for our good intentions gone wrong. We give thanks for all his blessings and we pray for many more years together.

May the great adventure continue!

As I work in the Project Room, I often have the radio on, BBC. I get to hear all about the US elections from another point of view, I get exposure to music I might otherwise never hear, and I hear things that show up weeks, even months later in the news.

AdventureMan called and asked if I had heard the segment on the Lemba in Zimbabwe. I hadn’t, but I listened closely for the next couple days and it was repeated.

It is about a professor who discovered what he thinks is a replica of the Arc of the Covenant in a dusty museum in Zimbabwe. He explored further, and discovered the Lemba claim ancient connections with the Arc, and had priestly customs similar to old Jewish customs. When they underwent DNA testing, the priestly clan of the Lemba had the same genetic markers as the priestly clan of the Jews, the descendants of Aaron.

How fascinating is that? Legend has always claimed the Arc of the Covenant is or was hidden somewhere in Ethiopia . . . transport to Zimbabwe from Ethiopia would not be out of the question.

I went to BBC news online and did a search - no results. Maybe it takes a while for their newest stories to be documented in their search files.

Googling on the internet, I found Ethiomedia which says the following:

In a newly released book, University of London Professor Tudor Parfitt claims to have located the treasured artifact on a dusty shelf of an out-of-the-way museum in Harare, Zimbabwe.

“It was just by chance that I finally managed to track it down to a storeroom in Harare, was able to analyze it and discover that quite apart from anything else, it’s quite probably the oldest wooden object in sub-Sahara Africa,” said Parfitt, an expert in Oriental and African Studies.

“It’s massively important in terms of history, even apart from its status as the last surviving link to the original Ark of Moses.”

In his HarperCollins’ book, “The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark,” Parfitt describes traipsing around the globe, decoding ancient texts and deciphering numerous clues to locate the enigmatic object.

Along the way, the man dubbed the “British Indiana Jones” by friends, colleagues and the Wall Street Journal uncovered genetic evidence confirming claims by the Lemba tribe that they
are descendants of ancient Israelite priests, the caretakers of the lost Ark.

He experienced a major breakthrough in 1999 when he took DNA samples from 136 male members of the Lemba tribe. In a finding that drew worldwide publicity, a genetic analysis confirmed they were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses.

So many discoveries have proven to be fraudulent that I hesitate to put too much faith in this discovery, but I have to admit that it appeals to the little girl in me, who still believes archaeologists have great adventures, and loves the Indiana Jones movies!

(I hear there is a new Indiana Jones movie coming out soon. I hope old Harrison Ford can recapture enough of his youth to make this as good as the first one.)

Before you go any further, this comment which I found in SPAM is a “fund-raising” SCAM. I am only printing it as an example of some of the “Nigerian” scams out there - this is a new one for me, clearly targeting Muslims. It is hard for me to believe that people act on these letters, and find themselves out of their life savings.

The moral: if it seems to good to be true, it IS too good to be true. Don’t let greed blind you. This is a SCAM:

Dear Sir,

I’m Ali Ahmed, from Gambia West Africa,I want to explain my problem to you as Muslim father.My biological father name is Mohamed Ahmed,my father was born in a christian home,but my father and I find Islamic religion as the only true religion,and my father and I started practising Islam for good two years before my father relatives poison him because he changed to Islam.Now they after me,trying by all means to terminate my life,so that they will wipe Islamic religion in the family, As am writing to you my life is in danger,I can no longer go to my fathers compound,I cannot move freely in the street because their running behind me, My father was a successfully international business man, he trade on mineral resurces all over Africa.My father deposited 20,000 000 Million united state dollars to the national security company Gambia,of which I am the next of kin.All the documents both the depositing certificate is in my possession, Pleas sir, I want you in the name of Allah to help me come to your country and invest this money. May Allah Bless you, You can call me through this number

Tel (removed by blogger)

Email (removed by blogger)

Thanks
Yours faithfuly
Ali Ahmed

Tomatoes don’t do that great once the temperatures hit the highs we have hit recently. Time to pick them all, and fix some Roasted Tomato Soup. Freeze the leftovers for a taste of spring deep in the heat and humidity of a Kuwaiti summer.

Roasted Tomato and Cumin Soup
From Nxabega Okavango Safari Camp

3 - 5 kilograms ripe tomatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions
3 garlic cloves
1 large fresh red chili pepper
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons whole cumin, roasted and ground
2 cups vegetable stock
salt and black pepper

Slice tomatoes in half, place on a baking sheet and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Roast in a hot oven one and a half hours. (If you have a Misto you can give them all a good spray!)

Chop onion, garlic and chilli pepper.

Place all vegetables in a large sauce pan with 4 Tablespoons olive oil, cook until onions are soft (about 10 minutes).

Add cumin and fry another 5 minutes. Add roasted tomatoes and stock, cook further 10 minutes. Puree the mixture, transfer back to a sauce pan and gently warm. Check seasoning and serve.

(How can something that tastes so good also be so good for you?)

From the New York Times

Peacekeeping in Darfur Hits More Obstacles

By LYDIA POLGREEN
Published: March 24, 2008
ABU SUROUJ, Sudan — As Darfur smolders in the aftermath of a new government offensive, a long-sought peacekeeping force, expected to be the world’s largest, is in danger of failing even as it begins its mission because of bureaucratic delays, stonewalling by Sudan’s government and reluctance from troop-contributing countries to send peacekeeping forces into an active conflict.

The force, a joint mission of the African Union and the United Nations, officially took over from an overstretched and exhausted African Union force in Darfur on Jan. 1. It now has just over 9,000 of an expected 26,000 soldiers and police officers and will not fully deploy until the end of the year, United Nations officials said.

Even the troops that are in place, the old African Union force and two new battalions, lack essential equipment, like sufficient armored personnel carriers and helicopters, to carry out even the most rudimentary of peacekeeping tasks. Some even had to buy their own paint to turn their green helmets United Nations blue, peacekeepers here said.

The peacekeepers’ work is more essential than ever. At least 30,000 people were displaced last month as the government and its allied militias fought to retake territory held by rebel groups fighting in the region, according to United Nations human rights officials.

For weeks after the attacks, many of the displaced were hiding in the bush nearby or living in the open along the volatile border between Sudan and Chad, inaccessible to aid workers. Most wanted to return to their scorched villages and rebuild but did not feel safe from roaming bandits and militias.

A week spent this month with the peacekeeping troops based here at the headquarters of Sector West, a wind-blown outpost at the heart of the recent violence, revealed a force struggling mightily to do better than its much-maligned predecessor, but with little new manpower or equipment.

Despite this, the force is managing to project a greater sense of security for the tens of thousands of vulnerable civilians in the vast territory it covers, mounting night patrols in displaced people’s camps and sending long-range patrols to the areas hardest hit by fighting. But these small gains are fragile, and if more troops do not arrive soon, the force will be written off as being as ineffective and compromised as the one before.

You can read the rest of the article HERE

Back when I wrote an update on Dharfur, my blogging friend Chirp recommended a book, A Long Way Gone; Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I ordered it that very day, and read it this last week.

It is a truly heartbreaking autobiographical book about a young mischievous boy growing up in Sierra Leone, leading a relatively simple and carefree life in his village with his family. It is very African. He talks about the games he and his friends play, his fascination with rap music and the simple joys of the life he is leading.

Then the rebels come. The invade the villages, hopped up on dope, their dead eyes with no pity, raping, killing, chopping off limbs, stealing all the village food and burning the village behind them, often with people locked inside their huts.

Ishmael escapes once with friends, eventually returning to the village to find his entire family gone. Most of the book has to do with what he has to do to survive. Many villages are very afraid of groups of boys, even boys as young as these are - in their early adolescence - and will hurt them. At the very least, most of the villages hurry them along. At one point Ishmael is hiding out in the jungle forest on his own, hiding from lions, giant feral pigs, sleeping up in trees and looking for the rare fruit or grass that he can eat without getting sick.

Finally, after meeting up with some other boys and continuing to try to find his family, a village takes him in, a village run by the state soldiers. As they are attacked by rebels, the boys are forced to make a choice - go out on their own again (where the rebels will also try to recruit them, and if they refuse, will kill them) or agree to be soldiers. These are kids 12, 13, 14 carrying AK 47’s. As part of their training they are given drugs on a regular basis which keep them hopped up, full of energy, and not sleeping for days. The young boys learn to kill without pity. He becomes the very people he was fleeing.

This is a book about redemption. At the center where the boy soldiers are taken, they are constantly told “none of this was your fault.” It is a very African approach, a very human and loving approach to redemption of lives that might have been totally lost to the horrors they have witnessed and inflicted. The author is now nearly 30, and sounds - unlikely as it might be - happy.

Thank you, Chirp, for recommending this wonderful book.

BBC has been running a radio series on pirates, how we came to see pirates mostly deriving from Treasure Island, and romantic literature. Here is a recent article, however, on modern day piracy, which is alive and well, particular off the Horn of Africa / Somalia. Scary stuff. Did you know that 90% of the world’s cargo is moved by sea? And I recently heard that for Kuwait, the percentage of goods delivered by sea was 99%. This article begins a three part series on modern day piracy:

No vessel is safe from modern pirates
By Nick Rankin
BBC World Service

Pirates are not just mythological characters with peg legs, parrots and pistols. They now carry AK-47s and use speedboats to rule the high seas of the world.

Robbery of the high seas is not confined to 18th-Century history and literature or Hollywood films - it is still very much alive today.

Ninety percent of the world’s trade is still moved by sea, so it is not surprising that piracy against cargo vessels remains a significant issue.

It is estimated that seaborne piracy amounts to worldwide losses of between $13bn and $16bn a year.

Piracy peaked in 2003 with 445 attacks around the world and since then, they have more or less steadily come down.

In 2006, there were 239 attacks. Last year, the number increased slightly to 249.

Although attacks have decreased from the early 1990s, Rupert Herbert-Burns, a maritime security expert at Lloyd’s Intelligence Unit, says piracy is still a worrying problem.

“Attacks rose by 14% towards the end of last year, largely due to attacks off the Horn of Africa, specifically in Somali waters or in the territorial waters off Somalia,” he said.

You can read the rest of the article HERE.

Lynsey Addario for The New York Times:

SULEIA, Sudan — The janjaweed are back.

They came to this dusty town in the Darfur region of Sudan on horses and camels on market day. Almost everybody was in the bustling square. At the first clatter of automatic gunfire, everyone ran.

The militiamen laid waste to the town — burning huts, pillaging shops, carrying off any loot they could find and shooting anyone who stood in their way, residents said. Asha Abdullah Abakar, wizened and twice widowed, described how she hid in a hut, praying it would not be set on fire.

“I have never been so afraid,” she said.

The attacks by the janjaweed, the fearsome Arab militias that came three weeks ago, accompanied by government bombers and followed by the Sudanese Army, were a return to the tactics that terrorized Darfur in the early, bloodiest stages of the conflict.

Such brutal, three-pronged attacks of this scale — involving close coordination of air power, army troops and Arab militias in areas where rebel troops have been — have rarely been seen in the past few years, when the violence became more episodic and fractured. But they resemble the kinds of campaigns that first captured the world’s attention and prompted the Bush administration to call the violence in Darfur genocide.

Aid workers, diplomats and analysts say the return of such attacks is an ominous sign that the fighting in Darfur, which has grown more complex and confusing as it has stretched on for five years, is entering a new and deadly phase — one in which the government is planning a scorched-earth campaign against the rebel groups fighting here as efforts to find a negotiated peace founder.

The government has carried out a series of coordinated attacks in recent weeks, using air power, ground forces and, according to witnesses and peacekeepers stationed in the area, the janjaweed, as their allied militias are known here. The offensives are aimed at retaking ground gained by a rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, which has been gathering strength and has close ties to the government of neighboring Chad.

Government officials say that their strikes have been carefully devised to hit the rebels, not civilians, and that Arab militias were not involved. They said they had been motivated to evict the rebels in part because the rebels were hijacking aid vehicles and preventing peacekeepers from patrolling the area, events that some aid workers and peacekeepers confirmed.

Please read the rest of the article HERE.

My husband and I have long supported an organization called Medecins Sans Frontiers / Doctors Without Borders. Wherever there is human misery, these brave doctors go and serve those suffering, and their life-saving work is performed under the worst possible conditions. They don’t look at politics. They look at human suffering, and do their best to alleviate it, or to do what they can. These heroic doctors are serving in Dharfur - while they can. When Medicins Sans Frontiers have to pull out, you know that the situation is as bad as it can be.

The accept donations from anyone, anywhere. Be generous.

I started Zanzibar Chest in December, and could not get into it. It was interesting, but at first the tone was . . . I don’t know, maybe pompous? Something in the tone put me off, and yet I didn’t put it back on the bookshelves, nor did I give it away. It sat on my bed table while I attacked lesser works, more enjoyable fare. Then, one day, I just knew it was time to try it again, and this time, I could hardly put it down.

Born in Kenya, just before the rebellion, Aidan Hartley spent his life mostly in Africa. He skillfully interweaves three main story lines - the life of his mother and father, the life of his father’s best friend and his own life as a news correspondent.

This is not a joyful book. It is not inspirational. It is a tough, hard look at the people who cover the news, and the toll it takes on their lives. It is a story of drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of what they are observing, the comraderie of gallows humor and surviving the intensity of living through life-threatening moments together.

He covers some truly awful events. He covers the wars in Somalia, and in Rwanda. He covers Kosovo and Serbia. He is sent into some of the most dangerous and awful of places. He pays the price.

In his Zanzibar Chest, he takes us with him.

I will share a couple quotes with you, and if you are sensitive, please stop reading now. This book is not for you. It is almost not for me, except that sometimes I think we need to come face to face with just how awful reality can be to put our own lives right, to set appropriate priorities.

“I can’t put my finger on exactly how death smells. The stench of human putrefecation is different from that of all other animals. It moves us as instinctively as the cry of a newly born baby. It lies at one extreme end of the olfactory register. Blood from the injured and the dying smells coppery. After a cadaver’s a day old, you smell it before you see it. From the odor alone, I could tell how long a body had been dead and even, depending on whether brains or bowels had been opened up, where it had been hacked or shot. A body would quickly balloon up in the tropical heat, eyes and tongue swelling, flesh straining against clothes until the skin bursts and fluids spill from lesions. Flies would get in there and within three days the corpse might stink. It became a yellow mass of pupae cascading out of all orifices and the flesh literally undulated beneath the clothes. The tough bits of skin on the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet were the parts of the body that always rotted away last. As living people, these had been peasants who had walked without shoes and worked hard in the fields. A man who had been dead seven days reeks of boiling beans, guava fruit, glue, blown handkerchiefs, cloves and vinegar. After that he starts to dry out into a skeleton until he’s almost inoffensive . . .

The dead accompanied me long after Rwanda. It was months before I could order a plate of red meat served up in a restaurant. I smelled putrefaction in my mouth, or in my dirty socks, or as sweat on my body. I imagined what people I met would look like when dead. . . “

These guys all suffer from Post traumatic stress syndrome, they deaden themselves with drug and alcohol, and they are totally addicted to the adrenalin rush their job gives them. Living on adrenalin takes a huge toll - on their health, on their mental health, on their relationships, on their belief in goodness. They are the witnesses to the enormity of man’s inhumanity against one another.

In another quote, the author tells us:

“It was impossible for latecomers to comprehend the evil committed here but the British military top brass were still so scared of what their soldiers might see and what it would do to their minds that they sent a psychiatrist to accompany the forces to Rwanda. Bald Sam and I were amazed at that. We laughed about it. A shrink! It seemed extravagant. But the truth is that we stuck close to that man for days. We said it was all for a story, but really it was about us. The psychiatrist, whose name was Ian, told us his special area of interest was the minds of war correspondents. I could see Bald Sam squirming with happiness at all the attention, and I felt quite flattered myself. . . .

. . . for years I did endure some sort of payback. I have to try every day to prevent the poison that sits in my mind to spread outward and hurt the people I love. Sometimes I can’t stop it and I wonder if in some way the corruption will be passed on from me to my children.”

Toward the end of the book, the author tells us how hard it is to give up this adrenalin-news-junky life:

“Whenever I see a news headline to this day I half feel I should board the next flight into the heart of it. I’d love to get all charged up again and I could write the story with my eyes closed. I’m sure the sense that I’m missing out while others get in on a great story will never completely pass. . . The sight of people committing acts of unspeakable brutality against others fills a hole in some of us. The activity is made respectable by being paid a salary to do it, but there is a cost.”

This is not a book I really wanted to read, but it is a book I will never forget. Hartley doesn’t spare himself in the telling of this tale. He takes us with us and shows us all of it, and all of his own warts along with the tale. Would I recommend this book? Not for the sensitive, not for those who don’t want to look at the dark side. Between idyllic sequences on the beaches near Mombasa, in the hills of Kenya and Tanzania, in the dusty deserts of Yemen, there are some very intense and bloody moments. This is non-fiction, it is a documentary, it is a slice of the real life one man has seen, and that to which he has been witness. Read the book, and like him, you pay a price. You carry images in your head that you can’t forget, and a sorrow for our inability to solve our differences peaceably.

(Available in paperback from Amazon.com for $10.88. Disclosure: Yes, I own stock in Amazon.com.)

If color, texture and weave are your kind of thing, there is a wonderful group in Kuwait for you. Before I even came to Kuwait, people told me about the Kuwait Textile Arts Association, and oh, what a trip.

A friend asked me if I were going to this month’s meeting. I hadn’t seen any announcements for it, and then she said “you ought to come! It’s African textiles.”

Magic words.

You know AdventureMan and I love going to Africa. And a meeting on African textiles? Woooo Hooooooo! Yes, I will admit it, I am totally a textile geek.

Africa is a huge subject to cover, when it comes to textiles, and the speaker did well - Nigeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, Mali, indigo dying, small loom weaving. . . You could teach an entire college level course on any one of those topics, and he gave a great overview.

You can join KTAA for 10KD per year, or you can attend each meeting for 2KD. Meetings are held once a month at the Sadu House, where they also have a fabulous collection of books on textiles.

We had a cat, a street cat from Tunisia, named Cinnamon. I had taken our son to see a movie and when I got home, my husband looked funny. You know, a wife can tell. I said “what’s up?” and he gave me those big innocent Bambi eyes that tell you for SURE something is fishy, and he said “Nothing!”

Just then, we could hear loud loud miowing at the back door, the kind only a kitten can make, the kind that attracts attention. We went to the back door and there was this tiny little kitten, barely old enough to be away from her family, and she is stuck between the screen door and the back door.

“How very strange!” I said, looking accusingly at AdventureMan, who continued to try to look innocent.

“She looks cold!” he said. “Maybe we had better bring her in!”

Later he confessed, he has found her wandering around alone, wet and miowing in our backyard and had been feeding her while we were at the movie, then put her in the back door so we could “discover” her. He wanted to keep her. We already had one big cat, but we had wanted another, and here she was.

She was my Door into Summer cat. She still had all her wild instincts, even though we adopted her at such a young age. Once, in Germany, I found a dead hare on my steps, with it’s throat torn out, an offering from Cinnamon - but the hare was at least twice her size! She was always bringing us offerings of a dead nature; she was a born huntress. One time when AdventureMan got out of bed, he stepped on what he thought was a rolled up sock, but it moved! It was a badly wounded mouse!

Cinnamon hated winter. We lived in a house with a lot of doors, and when it would snow, she would go from door to door, asking us to open so she could go out. When the bitter cold with the biting wind would hit her face, she would back into the house and head for the next door - always looking for the door she remembered, the one which led out into summer.

moar funny pictures

I used to read a lot of Robert Heinlein. His books are SO politically incorrect, so sexist, he was an old engineer, but man, could he write. His writing takes you WAAAYYY out of the here and now, and makes you stretch to think in new ways.

He wrote a book called Door into Summer, in which he wrote about another cat:

“…While still a kitten, all fluff and buzzes, Pete had worked out a simple philosophy. I was in charge of quarters, rations, and weather; he was in charge of everything else. But he held me especially responsible for weather. Connecticut winters are good only for Christmas cards; regularly that winter Pete would check his own door, refuse to go out it because of that unpleasant white stuff beyond it (he was no fool), then badger me to open a people door. He had a fixed conviction that at least one of them must lead into summer weather.”
The Door into Summer - Robert A. Heinlein

You can read about Robert Heinlein on Wikipedia and you can find many of his books still in publication on amazon.com.

Our trip started at the Grumeti River Camp and continued on the the Serengeti Tent Camps. We have filled our eyes and ears with the sights and sounds of the Great Migration, and have had the thrills of elephants, giraffes, lions, hyenas, alligators and vultures in addition. Now it is time to head north, to the Klein’s Wilderness Camp, located near Klein’s Wilderness Lodge.

The “airport” at Serengeti, from where we are flying, is a busy little place with one open-to-the-air little cafe and a toilet down a path with two stalls. It’s the bring-your-own paper kind of place, but it’s nice there is that convenience. The landing strip itself is just a cleared piece of ground where the little two engine planes land and take off.

Our flight is larger than most we have taken, maybe 20-something people, most on the way home or to Zanzibar. First, they are dropping us off at Kleins, a short flight away. The landing field at Klein’s has a little antelope running across it when we get there, so the pilot circles and lands on the lush green landing strip. There is no one there. We wait, it is inevitable that a car come roaring around the curve any moment now, but no car comes. The pilot comes on the microphone and asks who the passengers are for Klein’s, and we raise our hands.

“I can’t leave you here,” he says.

We totally understand. There are lions around. This is a wild country.

“I have to take you to Arusha with us,” he says, “and I will bring you back on the next flight.”

I am not entirely unhappy. In the tiny little airport in Arusha, I found a vendor who is selling Masai textiles and raw gems at very good prices. He is Moslem, and astounded that I speak some Arabic. When I come back to his shop, he is delighted to see me again. (or maybe I paid too much the first time, ya think?)

I pick up a few more momentos, and head back for the airline departure desk, where there is a very loud argument going on over the telephone about who is to blame about our not being picked up at Klein’s Wilderness Camp. The Camp says the airlines never told them. The airlines say they did. It’s on our itinerary, which we have had for months, and we landed exactly when they said we would, but in Africa, you have to stay flexible, flight schedules change depending on where customers need to be dropped off. It doesn’t pay to get angry or aggressive, you learn to just go with the flow. Things will work out.

A short time later, the pilot takes us to the plane for the flight back, and whoa! We fly right over an active volcano!

This time, when we get to Klein’s, a car is waiting and the arguement between Klein’s and the airlines continues. On the way to Klein’s, we are told that they were never told when we would be arriving.

Don’t you hate it when people refuse to take any responsibility? The airlines treated us so well, the pilot said he didn’t think it was their fault but he went out of his way to make sure we felt well taken care of. This is the only time at CCAfrica that we felt the camp was not well managed, and part of that feeling came from this continual message of “it’s not our fault.” We later learned that the previous camp manager had just been fired and a new manager was starting, and there was a lot of work going on to try to get the camp back on track.

This was another beautiful location, we were high up and could see forever.

Sometimes, in the mornings, or in the late afternoon, the migrating antelope came through the camp. We could sit outside and just watch them file past.

Most of our days in this camp, we would leave early in the morning, have lunch with us so we would stop somewhere in the park, and not get back until late at night. These are the vehicles we travelled in, stopped for a break

:

Some of the roads were barely there, were pitted, or rutted, or were raw rock:

We spent hours watching the zebra herds, and the shy antelope:

“How can you spend hours watching zebra?” you might ask. Every zebra is different. It’s particularly fun watching female zebra with their young. When they are born, the momma zebra insures that her little baby zebra sees only her coat for the first important hours of it’s life, so that the baby can recognize the momma zebra’s own unique markings:

But there were other thrills as well. The nice thing about travelling in a very small group (most of the time just AdventureMan and I and the guide) was that you can ask them to stop while you photograph a beautiful purple flower:

And if you see a leopard, you can just sit and watch him as long as you like:

We rarely ran into others from the camps, but this Masai was accompanying another group:

Among the thrills in this more northern camp were also the glorious birds. This is one of our favorites, a Lilac Breasted Roller:

I’m not sure what this bird is, probably a common starling. His fluorescent coloring attracted my eye. AdventureMan says that the fluorescent coloring happens a lot in birds which eat excrement, but he is not sure that is true, just what he thinks he remembers:

We love travelling with CCAfrica. They specialize in eco-tourism, like the Robin Pope Safari Camps we travel with in Zambia. Our all time favorite safari with them was The Hemingway, a 14 day safari through Botswana, starting in Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls, heading south to Chobe and Moremi, Savute, the Okavango and then flying into the Kalahari. It was an all-time thrill. If January is a little slow for you and you want to read about the Hemingway Safari you can click on that blue type and it will take you to the first entry - of thirteen! I wrote it up back when I was first blogging, sort of as a discipline for myself to get it all down in writing. There aren’t a lot of photos - I wasn’t digital then - but it is a very thorough description of a trip-of-a-lifetime safari.

Even though they don’t seem to offer this particular safari anymore, CCAfrica will tailor any safari you want to your specifications. What we loved about the Hemingway was that so much of it was under canvas, so we would be sleeping right out among the animals - and listening all night.

A warning - none of these safaris are for people who HATE getting up early. The game is active in early early morning and late afternoon, so most camps get you up at 5:30 - 6:00 so you can grab a quick cup of coffee and bite to eat and then run for the jeeps/vehicles that will take you out to see the game. It can be very cold on an early morning game run, but oh - the thrills! It is SO worth it! You come back late morning, have your mid-day meal, which in these camps is always amazing, and then you have quiet time in the heat of the afternoon, when you can catch up on those zzZZZZZZZzzzzz’s you missed out on in the early morning. You wake up refreshed, ready for afternoon tea and your afternoon/evening game drive. They feed you and feed you - but we never gain weight on these trips, maybe because you are rocking around over the rough roads all day.

And, when the trip is over, and you are ready for a few days of sloth and luxury before you return to the real world, there is no better spot for transitioning than the CCAfrica private island hideaway of Mnemba, a place we dream about on a cloudy dark day in Kuwait:

That is Mnemba island in the background, viewed from the beach in Zanzibar. You take a boat to get there, and when you land, you land barefoot. You never put your shoes on the entire time you are there. It is beautiful, secluded, luxurious and infinitely private. You can have all your meals in your own banda, if you wish. They have their own marine reserve, a dive shop, snorkeling equipment and it is all included. They even have internet.

View from our Mnemba banda:

After two wonderful days in Grumeti River Lodge we transfer to the CCAfrica’s Serengeti Under Canvas Program, with the first camp being a short drive from the Grumeti River Lodge.

We LOVE tent camping. We used to camp out of a Volkswagon bus across the US with a baby and a cat (now that was an adventure!), in Tunisia, in Jordan. Now, I still love camping, and I particularly love it CCAfrica style - maximum 8 tents to a camp, a huge bed with good linens, an indoor shower and toilet, brass water containers, all very Hemingway in feeling. I love having coffee brought to the tent early in the morning, and I love the quiet shuuussshhhing of the wind through the high African grasses. We have our own dining tent to the side of our tent, which is high on the ridge, or we can choose to eat with the others.

Here is a view looking out from our tent across the Serengeti Plains:

There is one little fly in the ointment - to get in and out of this camp, we drive our open vehicles through an area infested with tsetse flies. I am terribly, horribly allergic to mosquitos and to tsetse flies, and of course they find me irresistible. I am totally wrapped up in local large cotton wraps called kikoy - I look like a very colorful bedu woman, all covered except for my eyes.

But it’s worth it. I take tubes of Benedryl2 with me and lather it on morning and night to keep the size of the bites down.

First trip out of the game camps we find gnus at a water crossing. No hungry alligators, but it’s wonderful getting to watch them crossing:

There are only four of us in the Rover, so we can spend all the time we need watching the elephants. It’s always a delight to find a mother with a baby. The elephants are so sweet with the babies:

Early one morning, we catch a group of hyena:

Even better, as sundown nears, we find a pride of lions, catching the last rays of the day and preparing to hunt:

I have one of the early Lumix models, an FZ10. It takes beautiful photos, even under very low-light conditions. It is small, lightweight, fairly fast, shoots movies as well as stills, captures audio, and oh - did I mention small and lightweight? It has the equivalent of a 420mm lens, in a small body. It is an amazing camera and gets amazing shots.

Sundown has it’s own rituals, with a stop every night for refreshments and a toast to the setting sun:

We spend two nights at the Grumeti River Camp, following the herds, photographing as they drink, as they trek, but in truth, you simply can’t imagine the scale of The Great Migration unless you see it for yourself. At one point, we sat in the center of a road as thousands of gnu and zebra filed past.

We sat for an hour, shooting stills and shooting movies, and when we left, the line just kept going. We were surrounded. Sometimes it would thin a little, and sometimes the gnu would start to gallop and they would all start to gallop and the sounds of their hooves would thunder on the ground.

Other times, we would be sitting, and we would hear the sound of the gnu just shhhhussshhh, shhuusssss, shuussshhhhhh, interspersed with the occasional “hungh? hungh? hungh?”

Watching the zebras drinking, all would be quiet and then all of a sudden one would twitch or panic or something, and then you would hear loud “SWWWOOOOOOOSSSHHHing” noises as they rushed out of the water. We loved the vastness of the Migration, the enormity of it, the huge, grand overwhelming scale of it all, but for me, it was these sounds that have stuck in my memory.

AdventureMan and I find these experiences nourish our souls. We feel close to God in the African wild. We love the sights, and the smells and the sounds. We love meeting the African people. When we get back, we can still sniff the smell of wood-burning campfires lingering in our clothing.

Next, we head for Klein’s Wilderness Camp.

Every year, thousands and thousands of animals roam the African plains, following the water. Huge herds of zebra, gnu, and antelopes make a grand tour, mindless of international borders. “Wouldn’t that be a sight to see?” Adventure Man and I asked each other, and decided “Yes!”

One of our favorite outfitters, CCAfricxa (for Conservation Corps Africa) offers special tented camps following the great migration, and we really enjoy travelling with them, so we book into several of the camps, and at the end, book ourselves into another of our favorite places, the CCAfrica lodge on Mnemba Island with more photos of Mnemba and Zanzibar here.

We overnighted in Arusha, then flew out of Arusha International Airport to Grumeti lodge. This is what Arusha International Airport looks like:

This is where you look up your flight going out:

The trip was off to a great start when we got to Grumeti Camp. The colors of Grumeti are red and purple; we go to our cabin to clean up and then we have lunch outside, down near a bog full of hippos, who grunt from time to time. This is our bed in the Grumeti Lodge:

Two days at Grumeti, and oh what fun from the very beginning. We see huge herds of Gnu. Here is what a Gnu sounds like:

Gnu: Hunnh? Hunnh? Hunnh? Hunnh?

It never varies.

Gnu: Hunnh? Hunnh? Hunnh? Hunnh? Hunnh?

Here is what a gnu looks like:

There are thousands of them. They know where they are going, and sometimes they go single file and sometimes they go in great bunches. We did get to see gnu (plural) crossing a stream, but the alligator wasn’t anywhere near and I think he had recently eaten:

Here is something very cool. This is what the alligator’s trail looks like:

The Great Migration also includes huge herds of zebra, and the males are constantly trying to keep the females from roaming off. So zebras will all be quietly munching grass and then one male will go heee-hawing around trying to keep other young virile zebras from making off with his females until one day he gets too old and the younger zebras can steal his women, errr, zebra-females.

Thousands of zebra everywhere. . . these ones are drinking while not 100 feet away, a lion is resting. He looks like he has feasted recently, and is not too interested in the remaining thirsty zebra - not right now, anyway.

Next chapter: We go to the CCAfrica tented camps to follow the great migration.