Terrific Thursday

No there is nothing terrific about the day so far but I'm being optimistic.

First things first, I see mass hysteria has checked into the Congo; making away with people's manhood is all the rage now. What's silly is the fact that people are being told to watch out for people wearing gold rings, I remember when I was Kenya most of the Congolese men I came across were very metrosexual and used to wear loads of jewellery; so I guess most of the nation is suspect. Anyway I'm sure it's going to die down as soon as people find something else to keep them occupied.

I came across this article about older British women going to third world countries to get their groove on. All well and good but there are those who actually lose the script, fall for the young dudes' lies and end up losing most of their money to them; only to find out they aren't the only ones being played.
On the other hand there is this interesting video about sex tourism in Thailand, how British men go to Thailand, mostly for the sex but some of them also end up staying there with girls in "sugar dady" kind of arrangements and a few of them even marry the girls. One dude in the video was depressed about how his "girlfriend" started rolling with another dude when his money from UK took a bit longer than usual to come through.
So at the end of the day, when you read the stories and watch the video; who's really being played? Yes sex tourism is a cruel trade esp when children are involved but in these cases I do think that at times the Brit folk end up losing. And come to think of it, why is it in places where feminism seems to thrive both parties seem to be dissatisfied and unhappy with relationships in general? I do agree that traditional systems often had women at a disadvantage but now why is it the more feminism spreads the more unhappy women in relationships seem, this was the great emancipation that came wasn't it? Anyway I'm sure someone out there can school me about that.

I may have mentioned this, but I came across this magazine and this one too. It's good that someone is trying to reach out to the African diaspora out here, my only issue with wakilisha magazine is the cost. $5 an issue is too much, I have subscriptions that come out to $1-2 per issue; but I also understand that with a smaller circulation each issue becomes more expensive. What I am also concerned about is the fact that these two magazines seem to focus on women who are on the upper class here in the diaspora and that is a very small percentage of the women out here.

On another serious note we have this global food shortage going on. Half of this I blame on globalization, let's look at Haiti which used to grow it's own rice until it was "forced" in the name of globalization to take in imports of US rice that had been subsidised by the government, obviously the local farmers couldn't compete with the lower prices and had to stop growing rice and import. But now when they country you import from for some reason or other isn't exporting that much rice and keeping it for their own people you are stuck up the creek without a paddle as they say here. I know of course I'm oversimplifying things but that is the problem with the chain of globalization, when something goes wrong at one link it has ramifications for everyone in the chain. Let's look at Kenya, yes we do not have as much arable land as we should, thanks to deforestation, urbanisation and poor climate in some areas of the country; but I am sure that Kenya can still provide a whole lot more food for the people than it is doing at the moment and not have to rely on imports. Plus we also do know that reducing the taxes on fertiliser, cess fees and other levies on local farmers would encourage the sector to grow. Yes, I do know that it isn't that simple but every small step in the right direction is better than standing still waiting for AID from the West; they have their own problems to worry about. I find it funny though how the 2 touted virtues of capitalism and globalizations are now creating more problems than solutions.

Anyway time for me to get off my soap box and back to work, have a nice day people!

Another Year Goes By......

Yes for those of you who remembered ie Gish, Mocha and company; I say thanks for remembering! Yes on Thursday, April the 17th; The Acolyte became one year older. No, I will not share how old I am turning with you. For some reason or other, birthdays have never been the greatest occasions for me, but they are good times for me to look over the past year and see what has been done, hasn't been done, shouldn't have been done and needs to be done. But by all means I am grateful for the fact that one year later, I'm here in one piece!

This week I intend to put down my goals and time lines on paper. I know most of them off head but research has shown that more people achieve their goals when they have them on paper since we all forget. Time to make sure I'm still on the right track!

In other news, I was talking to my small sis and she was telling me that if she was ever going to marry a Kenyan man she would go back home to do so, as all the ones here in the States are "rotten". On telling her friends in Kenya that they told her that she shouldn't have high hopes as most of the men in Kenya are "rotten" too, seeing as I am not in the motherland, I can attest to her opinion of Kenyan men out here but now those of you back home please defend yourself. If mamas back home are swearing you off then there must be a big problem somewhere. State your case gents!

You know one thing I miss about Kenya? The fact that 99% of the food was organic and cheap (before the whole elections chaos and current economics issues) to boot. Here what's cheap is processed food, organic food which I try to buy costs an arm and a leg, I can only imagine what it costs people who have children. I joined a co-op this weekend to help save money on that, I guess you don't realize what you got till it's gone.

I'm planning another picture post soon but in the meanwhile let me share these pictures from the Photoshop Disasters blog.



Look Ma, no feet!



No comment.....



I guess his sword levitates or something?



I always knew there was something wrong about that girl!

Now the picture below isn't a blooper but just plain disturbing. The State of Montana decided to run PSAs (Public Service Announcements) about the dangers of smoking meth. Take a look!



Anyway have a nice meth free day!