The Royal African Society "No Show" - Tim Spicer

I was trolling around the Blogosphere the other day and ran across some interesting postings over at Ethan’s Place (Ethan Zuckerman, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center). One of his articles that caught my attention was the posting on mercenaries (a.k.a. private security and defence contractors) winning a big contract with the U.S. Pentagon for Iraq. You (my fellow Americans) need to read that article because the people it talks about and the practice of paying these mercenaries with TAXPAYER’s MONEY in the name of Democracy & The American People is dangerous and it is flat wrong.

“What’s wrong with you Papa Rumsfeld? You done lost your mind, boy? We c’aint be havin’ nothing like this going on with neither our money nor our government!”

Now if you read Ethan’s article there and check out the comments you will see that I opened my Big Mouth again before engaging my brain. I’m talking about the little exchange between Robbie Honerkamp and me re: Tim Spicer’s scheduled lecture at the Royal African Society tomorrow night in London, England. The name in the article that made me see RED right away is that of Viktor Bout (a.k.a. Viktor B., the Merchant of Death). You can read plenty about these two gangsters by checking links in a Google search using their respective names and aliases. I’m not going to waste any time on these lowlifes here in this article because I want to talk about something else, that is the Royal African Society website. However; if you are interested in certain plans for improving security and safety in Africa you might want to head on down to the lecture at the RAS tomorrow.

“That’s funny. I can’t seem to find any information on the January 27, 2005 lecture by Tim Spicer on the RAS website. It was there just a few days ago, where did it go? Ahh, here it is right here…CANCELLED. Cancelled, what?”

So, now that I have “run that up the flagpole” on my blog as promised I would like to say a few things about the Royal African Society and their fine website. First of all, what is the Royal African Society? I thought this organization went out with Speke and Burton after their tragic search for the source of the Nile and the lost Dr. David Livingston.

“That’s the Royal Geographical Society who sponsored Speke and Burton's expeditions, you dummy!”

“Oh! I’m sorry. I stand corrected.”

Anyway, Robbie’s defense (U.S. spelling for Robbie in Atlanta) of the Royal African Society prompted me to look a little deeper into the RAS and their very fine website. One of the first things that I did is find out something about their history and their mission. Then I checked out their special feature titled “Voices of Africa”___ a collection of about 16 essays to date from some of Africa’s best experts and professionals. More essays to come I believe. Here is an essay from Charles "Mase" Onyango-Obbo, Associate Editor of the Daily Nation in Nairobi, Kenya. Charles talks about press freedom and freedom of speech in his native country of Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni’s rule. Some people know that Uganda and Kenya have become dear to my heart, like Sudan, and that I have a keen interest in what’s going on there and how things work, how they really work. This article is helpful.

There are a number of other very good resources at the Royal African Society website also, like this web page recent RAS meetings from 2003 to the present. While scrolling down this list of reports I came across a January 13, 2005 meeting report titled “History of the Hanged: Reparations, Reconciliation and the Mau Mau War”. Wow! I remember seeing documentary reports on this when I was a real little guy back in the States. Here is an excerpt from an interview with David M. Anderson, author of the book “Histories of the Hanged…” as posted on the RAS website:

David Anderson, Lecturer in African Studies, University of Oxford.

“This book tells for the first time the story of the dirty war the British fought in Kenya, in the run-up to the country's independence in 1964. In 1952, after years of tension and bitterness, the grievances of the Gikuyu people of central Kenya exploded into open rebellion. Only 32 European settlers died in the subsequent fighting, but more than 1,800 African civilians, over 3,000 African police and soldiers, and 12,000 Mau Mau rebels were killed. Between 1953 and 1956 Britain sent over a thousand Kenyans to the gallows, often on trumped up or non-existent charges. Meanwhile 70,000 people were imprisoned in camps without trial for between two and six years. Men and women were kept together in conditions of institutionalised violence overseen by British officials. David Anderson provides a full and convincing account of a war in which all sides behaved badly, and therefore few of the combatants can be either fully excused, or blamed…”

The interview conducted by the Royal African Society’s chairperson, Charlotte Njeru (who’s that?), is a must read for my readers interested in a better understanding of what the heck really went on under the colonization of East Africa and the decades of torment for African people and societies during the post-colonial period in the latter half of the 20th Century. Many Britains should feel pretty bad and ashamed about this kind of thing going on as well, hmmmh?

I shall of course be expecting some comments from my friends and readers from Kenya and the U.K. regarding this tragic period in your country’s respective histories. That is, unless the subject is too painful to think or write about, which I certainly can understand.

P.S. My apologies for playing around with “the Queen’s English” grammar, I’m just having fun with my British readers and the rest of the Commonwealth crowd. “Queen Liz” and I have been on very good terms ever since that “incident” with my Boyz over in Greater Britain back in ’82. She would understand my good intentions on this blog. Cheers.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. & Me

I was trolling around the Net and the Blogosphere over the past few days and noticed that I had not seen very much on the annual commemoration to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In my home country the U.S.A. we have a national holiday on January 17th set aside to honor his great legacy and to help all Americans to never forget Dr. King or the turbulent times in our history during which he lived. I went over to Kenya Hudson’s blog Ambiguous Adventure and couldn’t find a thing. “Shame on you, Kenya.” Kenya by the way is doing some excellent writing on diverse African issues from an African-American (?) academic viewpoint. You need to go on over there and read her articles and while you are at it checkout the group blog at Ethiopundit as well. I wish I could write and analyze interesting and important issues like these fine blog authors.

Dr. King would have been 76 years old this month, born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A. (“Georgia! Have mercy! You had to be alive then - during the U.S. Civil Rights Struggle of the 1960’s - to understand! God bless the strong and good people of Georgia who lived during this important and powerful time in modern American History”).

Anyway, like I was saying, the great civil rights leader Dr. King would have been 76 years old this week if he hadn’t died from an assassin’s bullet in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. I was there growing up in America at that time, just a young teenager back then, and I remember____ the pain of his death and the feeling of loss is still there inside of me, and it still hurts and shocks me even to this day when I remember. As I write these words let it be known that I speak for millions and millions who were also there on that day, in America, and we share that loss together___ Black and White, Red and Brown and Yellow___ color don’t matter to us when you talk about the mourning and longing for Dr. King in the hearts and minds of my people in America.

Now today on January 21st I am making a second attempt of getting this little article of mine about Dr. King written and posted (published) to my blog. I tried to publish it on the 19th but the software application at Blogger was messing up, so I had to save it as a draft and wait. And while I was waiting I began to do some thinking about Martin Luther King Jr. and about what I had written and I came to the decision that it wasn’t good enough, not for Dr. King. So this is a better effort for my readers, especially those of you too young to remember him, to share with you information and some of my personal views on the legacy of this great American.

“How I’m doing Martin? I’ve been thinking about you all night and I want to get it right for you Sir. I want to get it right for all those good people up there with you too. Yessir!”

Now the “Rockin’ 60’s” was a great and exciting time to be alive I’m gonna tell ya, and yet The Sixties was a terrible time too especially if you were a young person, because everything was so darn confusing (at least in America) like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War and the protests and violence on the streets and on college campuses and on television (live video w/ body counts from the war zones with breakfast every morning before school), and then there were the assassinations of three of our most beloved public figures like President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy. If you include Malcom X in there you got 4 and you could just keep on going back then…people were dead and dying everywhere, especially those poor helpless people over in Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia. It was often a terrible and traumatic period and there were many dark days for a whole bunch of folks back then.

But while we suffered what we felt were unbearable losses many of us have learned over the decades which followed what these great leaders were trying to show us, trying to teach us, dragging us kicking and scratchin’ and resisting into a new era for our nation and for the whole world. MLK, JFK, RFK: they were not perfect men, but they were exemplary in the way that they tried to live their lives and they helped lead us toward the Light in times of Great Darkness and Despair. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a leader was head-and-shoulders above his peers of the day, and it took many people around the world years to understand that fact.

If I were asked today what his legacy means to me I would have to say:

“Dr. King showed my generation great courage and great compassion for humankind, more than anyone I can remember or name. He stood up to be counted and to lend his voice and finally his very life to the cause of true freedom, peace among men and women, and justice. He did this in a way that everyone could see and understand, standing up tall against great odds and adversity___ against 100’s of years of ignorance, fear, greed, and hatred imported from abroad into a beautiful, bountiful and pristine land until that fateful invasion of the year 1492.

Dr. King helped many of us to understand what we have to do in these United States of America and throughout our hemisphere and the world to bring the promise of freedom and prosperity to not just a few, not just many people, not just Americans, but to all mankind.

Although he spoke in his famous 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech of being privelaged to have "...gone to the Mountaintop...” and shared with us his dream of the future, he reminded us with his life and times and ultimately with his death that the road will be long and hard ahead, and that all of us must make our best efforts to continue the progress and good works of that fateful time in history and the struggles for freedom by many good people who came long before us. That the struggles and challenges to make a better world for all mankind never has an end, but continues with each generation, until our last days on Earth have finally come (hopefully not too soon).”

This is what the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. means to me personally, a simple man who was there in America during his lifetime. Now let me share with you some interesting information I have found online about Dr. King this past week:

· The Seattle Times - Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
· Stanford University – The Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project
· Kings Legacy – Interview with Clayborne Carson of Stanford University
· Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project – Washington D.C.
· NY Times (1/17/05) – How the British Inspired Dr. King’s Dream

Clayborne Carson of Stanford University and Ralph E. Luker of George Mason University are two of America's leading historians on the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King. Here is a link to an interesting article on Dr. King from Ralph E. Luker published on the History News Network site titled "Asking Dr. King" . You should also visit the group blog authored by Ralph Luker and other outstanding U.S. historians titled Cliopatria . Luker and Clayborne worked jointly on the Stanford University Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project.

Note also that the Stanford University Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project website has info on Dr. King’s position(s) regarding the Vietnam War. There is a link to a speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam” that Dr. King delivered at the famous Riverside Church on Manhattan-NYC’s Upper Westside on April 4, 1967 - one year to the day before his brutal assassination in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. You may view or download the document by clicking on the link provided on the Stanford MLK Papers Project site. I want to leave you with two excerpts from Dr. King's speech "Beyond Vietnam" delivered at New York City's Riverside Church on that brisk April morning in 1967:

“I came to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together, Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.”

…“Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humilitiy that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement, and pray that our own inner being may be sensitivie to its guidance. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us…”

Words from the heart and soul of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He loved and worked hard for the sake of all living things on our great Mother Earth. In fond remembrance.

Blog Technology Updates for 2005

The Blogger platform still seems to be a bit shakey today, so before I do another test posting and then attempt to post my really big article on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. again for the XXth time!, I thought that I should share some weblog technology news and resources with you.

Here is a link to the eWeek Special Report on Weblogs with lots of articles from 2004 and earlier on blogs, bloggers, and what makes the technology and the Blogosphere tick. eWeek and its companion websites is one of my most coveted information resources on Information Technology, so you can usually trust what they have to say.

Note the latest articles on efforts to curb Comment Spam on blogs (article#1, article#2). I haven't had a problem with it yet (Thank Goodness!) but have noticed it on other blogs and I've read a few articles stating that it is becoming a serious problem. If you are a blog author you should read these articles and others to keep up-to-date on how to keep your blog running like a champ and how to protect yourself in the Blogosphere from SPAMMERS and other cyberscum.

Also note the fierce competition building up between the blog software companies i.e. Blogger (Google) vs. Movable Type & Typepad (Six Apart) vs. Wordpress vs. Microsoft vs. etc. etc. etc. Interesting how they are slugging it out for our attention and future business, isn't it? I hope the folks over at Blogger get their updates and infratstructure acts together soon or I might consider "jumping Google's mothership", but not over to Microsoft, nah no way.

Last but not least here is a nice little article on the Power of the Bloggers. It's not just politics and news op-ed (opinion editiorial) commentary anymore, now it's gettin' personal__and powerful.

Test Posting

This is just a test posting to my blog due to some problems experienced on Blogger's servers yesterday. I have some very (hopefully) interesting postings coming in the next days regarding the recent commemoration holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the U.S. and on an upcoming lecture at the U.K.'s Royal African Society by the infamous and notorius mercenary Tim Spicer of Aegis Defence Services Ltd. (featuring special guest star, Mark Thatcher).

I should get offline now 'cause we are having one of those typical North Sea winter days complete with mini-hurricaines interspersed with stints of sunshine. The Heavens are throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink... Bam! "What was that?" (The kitchen sink).

Allright, have everybody run data backups immediately and then shutdown the network!

NOTE: If you are a Blogger user and having problems with posting to your blog also, you can check on the status of the Blogger software and hardware at the Blogger Status site.

Sudan: PBS Frontline World & BBC Panorama programmes

I was having an online conversation with Ingrid Jones over at Sudan Watch yesterday that prompted me to look at another blog she works on named Sudan: The Passion of the Present. Both blogs focus almost exclusively on Sudan and the crisis in Darfur. There is a January 10, 2005 posting on Passion of the Present about a new PBS Frontline World special report titled “SUDAN: The Quick and The Terrible”.

The PBS Frontline World crew has put together an excellent combination of electronic journalism formats for this program including multimedia web content with streaming video of the aired TV programs. You may also note that PBS Frontline World’s Jessica Smith contacted the blog authors directly to let them know about the airing of the show and the website. Any questions (readers) re: bloggers showing up on the radar screens of international media companies?

SUDAN The Quick and The Terrible features award-winning journalist Amy Costello at her best: on the ground and in your face. There is a lot of in-depth information on the website as well as brief summaries of Who’s Who in Darfur – The Geopolitics of Tragedy. There is also an online comments and forum feature for visitors to the website. Excellent work PBS and I must thank Ingrid and the Sudan: The Passion of the Present team for this tip via their blog.

And while we are on the subject of great special reports on the Crisis in Darfur I must mention the excellent work by one of my favorite journalists Hilary Andersson of the BBC World News team. The BBC Panorama Programme team did an excellent video report back in November 2004 titled “The New Killing Fields” with riveting interviews with both survivors of the genocide and perpetrators of the conflict including the murderous Janjaweed Militia leader Musa Hilal who now lives openly in Khartoum. A program transcript is available via the Panorama website as well as links to program highlights.

UPDATE January 13th:Ingrid Jones of Sudan Watch has also written a very good article about the BBC Panorama feature "The New Killing Fields" last year. Her article dated November 15, 2004 was posted the next day following the P.M. airing of the programme in the U.K. and Ingrid provides lots of extra details and an excellent review of Hilary Andersson's work in the Sudan. Thanks again Ingrid.

Hilary has done some of the best reporting on issues and news out of Africa available anywhere, and she’s one of the bravest and best journalists in the business today. “Eat your heart out, Christiane Ammanpour. You cain’t touch this young reporter even in your heyday!”

UPDATE January 13th during a call from CNN European HQ in London: "Yes Mamm, Mrs. Amanpour! Oh no Mamm, I didn't really mean what I said (er) wrote about you on my blog. Yes Mamm, you still the Best in the Business! Everybody knows that. Yes Mamm, I'm gonna put a link to your CNN bio on my blog right away so everybody knows EXACTLY who you are and I'm gonna learn how to spell your name correctly too. Yes Mamm, that's Amanpour with 1 N not 2 N's......er, 1 M not N's, M like in Monkey. Yes Mamm..."

Hilary has been on the ground over in Darfur, Khartoum, and in Chad practically since the story really broke back in Spring 2004 and she has been doggedly going after the truth and facts behind the genocide and the conflict between warring parties. The President of Sudan Omar al-Beshir and his Foreign Minister Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail just LOVE Hilary to death___ so she has to watch her step while working in Sudan. I’m crazy about her myself and can’t get enough of her good reporting.

I particularly liked the way Hilary Andersson ended the excellent feature on Darfur and I have provided an excerpt from the November 2004 BBC Panorama programme transcript below:

**********************************************************************************

ANDERSSON: "But for Darfur's African people, Sudan is already in anarchy. As we were leaving, women began descending on the African union observers. The Janjaweed had raped another group of women that morning. They wanted someone to do something about it."

WOMAN: "They humiliate us all the time. Our blood is boiling and our hearts are broken."

ANDERSSON: "How do you feel about the African Union, do you think they're helping the people of this town?"

WOMAN: "We just went there and we were told there was no way they could do anything."

ANDERSSON: "The African Union told the women to come back the next day. For all the horrors, this is the best the world can do. The protestors lined up to watch us as we flew away. "

"Genocide, the ultimate crime against humanity may be occurring in Darfur but despite the lessons of history, we all allow it to continue. This is the world we live in. The people of Darfur, like Miriam, can only count their dead and pray."

-----End of programme transcript-----

(Bold typeface highlighting added by blog author)

Sudan Gets A(nother) New Peace Deal

I am really falling behind on my blog postings schedule this month. Terrible.

Did you see Omar al-Beshir and Dr. John Garang making peace and shaking hands on international TV news yesterday (Sunday, January 9th)? Wasn’t that somethin, isn’t that nice of them? After all this time (since 1983) and more than 2 million people dead these guys finally decide to stop fighting one another and work out a deal for the sake of the Sudanese people.

Now I know I may sound a little skeptical about how this is all gonna work out over the next months and years but honestly I am delighted that the two sides could get this far, at least on paper. I’m sort of sitting back like Colin Powell was doing yesterday and watching this new agreement real close, watching everybody’s “body language”. The time is overdue that the rest of us around the world who really care and have something to offer the people of Sudan work together with them to implement this new peace agreement in meaningful and sustainable ways. It’s time to get busy and help the people of Sudan rebuild their war-torn country and their war-torn lives, especially for the children of the country. That’s what time it is, it’s time to make it work in the Sudan and that goes for Darfur as well. You hear me Khartoum!? I sure hope so?

There is plenty of coverage on this story in the traditional media of course and in the Internet so there is no more that I need to add at the moment. We are gonna “drill down” on some other issues regarding the recent history of Sudan here on Jewels in the Jungle in the next weeks and months, and we are not going to be drilling for oil. In the meantime here are a few links to some good online articles on the new North/South Peace Accords for Sudan:

• Washington Post article: Sudanese Sign Peace Agreement
• Sudan Tribune article(s): Dr. John Garang’s Speech (real nice)
• BBC News: Sudan in Depth (see photo essay “refugee’s comment”)

I’m sure that we all have a lot of folks to thank for helping to bring this new agreement into being. I believe special thanks should go to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and to the Government and the people of Kenya for hosting talks and negotiations between the two sides. Ugandan and Kenyan authorities have provided land and assistance for numerous refugee camps for the 100,000’s of Sudanese who fled the fighting in the South over the past two decades. I hear there are more than 4 million IDP's (Internally Displaced Persons) from the south of Sudan who live in and around Khartoum who are anxious to be able to return to their homelands... and I am certain that many of them did not end up in Khartoum by choice but by force or worse.

Northern Kenya is the main base of operations for much of the humanitarian relief airlifted and trucked to the people of southern Sudan including the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile regions. Without this assistance the number of people dead from war and starvation in the south of Sudan would be closer to 6 million or more. Of course we should not forget the $2 billion dollars in aid and relief supplies that the people of the United States of America have contributed alone over the past many years. Thank you very much...you are welcome.

I haven't seen any numbers on aid contributions from other countries to the people of southern Sudan (yet). I wonder what the oil-rich Arab and Muslim countries and The Arab League and their humanitarian foundations have given to help relieve the suffering of peoples in the south of Sudan over the past two decades?

I’ll tell you what, after watching how the regime in Khartoum and their various “partners” operate over these past few years, we (the people of my country) will know what to give the people of southern Sudan the next time there's trouble, I’ll tell you that.

Pray for Peace.

Malaysian Blogger Jeff Ooi

I've just added the Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi's blog "Screenshots..." to my blogroll today. Jeff is an outstanding blog author and is getting a lot of attention in the Blogosphere due to his excellent writing and engagement for free speech and democratic principles in Southern Asia. He is a must read blogger if you are "really interested" in what's going on down in his region of the world. I am.

Check out his piece on the 115 year old Malaysian woman who survived the tsunami disaster in one of Malaysia's coastal communities. She says the Japanese Occupation during WWII was tougher, and she oughta know 'cause she was there! Great article along with many other postings from Jeff.

I've been (quietly) adding some other outstanding blogs and sites to my blogroll over the past weeks and months, but we'll get to them later. Jeff is hot right now, and in the thick of it.

The Tsunami Disaster and The Blogosphere

I did say in my last posting a few days ago that I wanted to share some interesting things I found on the Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami disaster in the Blogosphere. I’m sure that some of you “tech-savvy” readers have already read some of this info, but I thought that I should post it to the Jewels in the Jungle blog anyway for others who may have not seen it.

I should also mention that about an hour or so ago I sent off an email to Indonesia in search of a good friend of mine down there named Donald P. Donald is one of “My Boyz” that you hear me refer to in my postings and emails and the young man (the Kid) is really like a son to me in several ways. That is not to say that I don’t have bright young women who are very close and special to me as well, ‘cause I do. Anyway, I haven’t heard from Donald since this disaster struck in Indonesia and I’m startin’ to get a little worried. Hopefully he will answer my email as soon as he can. If he follows that last little bit of advice I gave him before he left Germany to find work in Asia with his newly polished MBA degree, then Donald is in the midst of the disaster relief efforts workin’ his ass off to help his people in any way that he can.

And if by some tragic series of events he found himself front-and-center at the beach with a cold beer in his hand on December 26th enjoying his Christmas Holidays in Indonesia at the time the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis hit (very possible even though I think he is a Bhuddist), well then Dear God please bless his soul along with the 100,000’s coming your way. Make sure you put him in the American Section with the “Brothers” ‘cause that’s what Donald P. thinks he is___ an Indonesian Black Guy. Amen.


So here are some of the interesting links to Tsunami Disaster News and Relief efforts and even some educational stuff on quakes and tsunamis I wanted to share with you:

1. Rebbeca MacKinnon (former CNN Bureau Chief for Beijing and Tokyo) has a real nice article on her great blog Rconversation titled Tsunami news: blogs and wikis. Pay particular attention to her links to the Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog and to the Glenn Reynolds December 26th article at MSNBC news. As a matter of fact, try to read everything that Rebecca writes about blogging and media ‘cause it’s important what she has to say, being a professional journalist and a Fellow at Harvard Law's Berkman Center and all (I’m not kidding, here).

2. One of the web’s favorite wikis, Wikipedia, and its new little sister site Wikinews have some good encyclopedia resources on the scientific aspects of the quakes and tsunamis as well as news and disaster relief information. The Wikipedia is a very popular Open Information Project whereas the Wikinews site is rather new. Read the background history on these sites and try to use and follow them regularly if you can.

3. The BBC News of course has extensive coverage of the disaster and published an interesting artilce on the effects bloggers are having on information and relief efforts. Watchout for that Morquendi blog link though, for it looks a bit spooky. You may also notice those artilces under the Technology Section on blogs and bloggers, but we can get into that later for there is even better info available on “The Movement”. Here is a teaser for you though:

Technorati reports that 23,000 new blogs a day are being created; that is one new blog every 3 seconds! People got something to say in this world, I’m tellin ya.

4. If you haven’t been able to find those satellite images you’ve been seeing on television news programs, then go over to DigitalGlobe and check out their Quickbird image gallery on the tsunami disaster.

Well that’s enough for today. I’m hungry and I’m tired of looking into my PC monitor. Bye for now.

2005: The Year of Hope

The Children of the Sun
Photo by Ibbo, Mozambique 2001

"...and we shall hearby declare this new year 2005 as The Year of Hope!".
The Russians have an old wise saying that goes something like this, "Hope is the last thing to die". The new year 2005 should be a year of hope for many of us, making sure that the necessary hard work on all fronts gets done so that we can start turning things around in this world and making this a better place for everybody to live.

The kids above in the photo are just lovely, aren't they? Full of joy and dreams and hope for the future. Fortunately for them they have been born into a country which has brought an end to a terrible and long-running civil war, the country of Mozambique in southern Africa. From photos and video I have seen it seems to be a very beautiful country, and I want to thank Ibbo for this great shot of the kids. I gave the kids the handle "The Children of the Sun" for this posting.

The leaders and the people of Mozambique are on "the comeback trail" according to much that I have read last year in the various media, and that is wonderful. I also heard that Mozambique has made a financial assistance pledge to the Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami victims for US$ 100,000.00. Now that is really something considering how badly the government of Mozambique needs money itself to help its own citizens with reconstruction and rebuilding. It goes to show you that some very smart people in Mozambique have got it right, in their heads and in their hearts.

Over the next few days I intend to post about some very interesting things going on in the Blogoshpere and the traditional media re: the tragic series of events following the Indian Ocean quake of December 26th. I think that you will enjoy it and gain a different perspective to boot.

In 2005 the Internet Rules the News! Power to the People is back in vogue and moving fast.

2004: A Year End Message to My Readers

I started working on this posting yesterday, December 30th, but hesitated to publish it because I felt that I did not get it right. So let’s try it again:

I’ve just finished watching the latest updates on CNNI and BBC World TV news regarding the catastrophic Asian Seaquake & Tsunamis as perhaps many of you have done over the past 5 days. Man! It will make you sit back and do some thinking, won’t it? You can’t help but feel sorrow for the victims and particularly for the plight of the survivors down there in Southern Asia. The death toll is estimated today to be over 120,000 people gone and the Indonesians have so many dead they have simply stopped counting. It will be over 200,000 dead before it is all over (which will take several more weeks), you watch.

Let’s face it. The Year 2004 was not a good year for the human race not to mention all kinds of other animal and plant species on Earth. And Mother Earth has given EVERYBODY something to think about as we go into the New Year 2005. All these people making senseless war and creating atrocities against women and children and the environment and calling for Holy War and all kinds of other bullshit better sit back and think about what you doin’, cause Nature, Mother Earth’s forces can make it so that everybody on the planet is gone, All Living Things Gone… and that is a scientific fact! The Quakes and Tusanamis that just swept across the Indian Ocean from Asia to Africa were just an appetizer.

Granted, many good and wonderful things happened to people this year___ from beautiful little babies being born into the world (animal and human) to outstanding leaders being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace 2004, people’s lives and property were saved from disaster by courageous rescue workers and aid professionals, a few very bright people solved some long-standing problems and answered a few more of the “Big Questions” which have been dumbfounding and threatening mankind and our environment for millenia.

People have stood up for liberty and justice and democracy when it comes to running the affairs of their country (Georgia, Ukraine) and have succeeded by using peaceful means while others are struggling desperately to establish the same truths in the face of ruthless and brutal enemies (fill in the blanks) while much of the world stands by and jeers and jaunts and opinionates from the comfort of their “living rooms”.

There have been Peace Treaties signed between warring parties who have been fighting one another for decades (or at least they promise to sign up and stop fighting___we’ll see if that is true real soon). All of these things are good and there are many many more good things happening around our world (unfortunately grossly under-reported in the international media).

Yet on the other side of the coin life on Earth this year has been an absolute disaster for many of us. The WARS and VIOLENCE and GENOCIDE and HUNGER and DISEASE and POVERTY and general misery and suffering of too many peoples is simply off the charts!

Maybe it is just my state of mind but the human race seems to be hellbent on going downhill fast, particularly in the past few years. Either that or we who now have the privelege and means to access information instantaneously from a seemingly infinite variety of sources have finally got a clearer picture of just how bad things are on the planet. This may be just symptoms of modern information overload where total ignorance would seem like a better deal than knowing everything___ the old “Ignorance is Bliss” factor.

If you have been following my writings on this blog Jewels in the Jungle since May 2004 then you know that I have devoted much of my time and energy (via the blog) to the peoples and the environment on the African continent. I’m interested in all kinds of things and people here on the planet Earth but I feel the Urgency of Africa___ I feel it real strong these days and I am determined to devote as much of “me” as I can to help turn things around down there on the African continent… and Thank God I know that I am not alone, I know it.

Africa has got help coming from all kinds of people from all corners of the Earth and believe it or not, something as new and elementary as the “blogging phenomena” has helped me to understand that better than a lot of other information resources at my disposal including live people and expert reports. It’s like Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca Mackinnon over at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and others are saying__ Blogging is Big and it is turning into a major civic dialogue movement worldwide.

So, before I go any further with this “long-winded” posting I want to first say a big Thank You to all of the people who have visited and commented on and contributed to and encouraged me to publish Jewels in the Jungle this year. I thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart, and I promise (uh-oh, there he goes again…) to improve it and make it better for 2005. If you have any suggestions on how I should do that don’t bother to send it to me ‘cause I ‘aint listening to you. This is MY BLOG and I AM THE KING HERE! (Just kidding, I need help improving this blog so send suggestions if you have them)

Now that I am finished with that brief introduction this is what I wanted to say today:

Many of us around the world have been following the situation in Darfur, Sudan this year with dread and shock and anger and a myriad of other rather unpleasant human emotions. Some of you undoubtedly have dug a little deeper into the story to discover that situations in other parts of Sudan (and throughout the region) aren’t much better and in some areas it is worse. Others of you either live in Sudan or have fled Sudan or left Sudan for greener pastures and know exactly what is going on in your country.

Now the country of Sudan and the people there have become really special for me and I cannot explain fully why that is, it just is so. I think that part of the reason is that a while back I convinced myself that if the “World Community” cannot muster the will and courage and resources to come to the aid of these destitute women and children being herded into the most hostile areas of the Sahara desert like cattle being driven to slaughter… if we can’t help these people, then Africa itself may soon be lost forever, especially for native Africans.

If that idea or belief is true, then the rest of us will go down right along with Mama Africa and her peoples and her beautiful and exotic natural wonders, the Birthplace of Mankind and in my mind a true Garden of Eden where man and nature first learned how to live together. It would seem that mankind has lost this knowledge and wisdom that our ancestors once had a long time ago. I think that we have not lost this knowledge (totally) but that we just refuse to accept the fact that every man and woman and child must learn to live together with nature.

This is what Mama Miti (Professor Wangari Maathai) is trying to tell us about, and thousands of other very wise people around the world just like her who have been pleading with us and begging us to wake up about this. It’s time that we all listen up and get busy to protect the planet or else. You disagree? Turn on the TV news tonight or open your local newspaper and read about it for yourself.

Which brings me to the conclusion of my last posting for the year 2004.

Now anybody who has any kind of access to news (including drums, smoke signals and native runners) has heard about the massive earthquake under the Indian Ocean and the resulting death and destruction caused by the deadly Tsunamis that swept from South Asia to East Africa like a speeding bullet. Almost everything in its path was destroyed or uprooted or disturbed in some way, and the Earth itself wobbled off its axis momentarily from the force of the undersea earthquake. (Note: that “Earth wobbling” thing is the scarey part ‘cause if that gets out of control we are all finished and quick! I hope the Geophysicists and other scientists are watching this! “Houston? I think we have a problem here.”).

When I was at university out on the desert years ago I took some classes in natural sciences i.e. Plate Tectonics and Volcanics and other Geology subjects. I have had the privelege of spending many a day and night on the deserts of the American southwest running up and down those hills and mountains and canyons and dry gulches like some kind of coyote or Apache indian or something. Mesmerized by the beauty of Mother Earth layed bare I often reflected upon what kind of power and processes did it take to create such natural wonders.

Now we have had a chance to see such a magnificent and yet destructive force of nature as a 9.5 (Richter Scale) seaquake in our lifetimes. And thanks to modern communications technology we can also see the event itself and the aftermath of the crushing tidal waves and flooding in the coastal basin of the seaquake. It is not pretty to watch the victims, is it?

We have also seen on TV news reports how international rescue teams and emergency aid and money and military resources and Presidents and Chancellors and the Pope and all kinds of important people are on TV talking about “coming together” to help these destitute and traumatized survivors and the governments of Thailand and Indonesia and Sri Lanka and India in the rebuilding and reconstruction of their devastated economies and lives and and and… nobody has bothered yet to help out in Somalia though.

I watch (like you do) how the world can come together and work together to help one another out during a terrible tragedy and humanitarian disaster as the Asian Quake and Tsunami events of December 26, 2004 or the devastating earthquakes that leveled the city of Bam, Iran and killed an estimated 30,000 people 1 year ago to the day___December 26, 2003.

I watch all of this activity with great sadness and dread just like millions of people around the world___ except perhaps for this one thing. While I watch all of this outpouring of humanity and aid on behalf of the peoples of Southern Asia during their darkest hour I am asking myself these questions also:

“Why can’t the World Community quickly build an “international coalition of the willing” in order to help out the peoples of Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo?"

"What choice would a belligerent leader like Omar al-Bashir or his Janjaweed militias have if all of these dignataries and military personell and equipment and humanitarian teams showed up all at once in the deserts of the Sahara to help the people of Darfur?"

"What could the bast---ds in Khartoum do but Accept the Will of the World and set those people free? Why can’t Kofi Annan or Thabo Mbeki or Tony Blair or The Arab League or whoever make this point very clear to the regime in Khartoum?”

I’ll see you next year in 2005 so that we may explore the answers to these questions and many others together. May God Bless and Keep You Safe on the last day of the year 2004.

P.S. I’ll add the relevant URL links and a nice photo ASAP. That’s enough for today.
P.S.S. Added some new URL links and corrected some spelling on January 5th.

Back to the Blogosphere: Dr. Wangari Maathai and coming attractions

Wow! Fifteen days since I made a posting to the blog, now that is what I call going “Cold Turkey”! Blogging is very addictive you know and a lot of hard work as well, but I’ve already said that before. Well, what’s been going on and where do I start, hummmh? Oh yeah. Professor Dr. Wangari Maathai of Kenya and the Nobel Prize for Peace 2004.

Well, did you see any of the TV coverage of the Nobel Award Ceremonies at Oslo and the various live interviews with Wangari Maathai on December 10th? Of course you did and so did I, she was just fabulous and yet remained so humble before the whole world. I hear they even watched Dr. Maathai live from space aboard the ISS (International Space Station)! Thirty years at fighting to save the environment in Africa and fight for the rights of women and communities and we don’t learn about this great environmentalist and leader until now. Now whose fault is that, hummh?

Well, if you didn’t know who she was up until October 8th of this year, you know who she is now. There have been so many good things written about her in the past months, all I can add is what many, many of us around the world feel about Dr. Maathai and her work:

“God Bless you Mama Miti! Keep on going with your wonderful work in Africa. You are an inspiration and excellent role model to all of us who care about the Planet Earth and the sake of all living things upon Her. Congratulations for receiving the coveted Nobel Prize for Peace 2004, and congratulations to the many people especially the women of Africa and beyond who have stood together with you against great odds and adversity in your native Kenya.”

If you haven’t had the chance to catch up on the latest about “Mama Miti” this month then checkout the links below:

The Nobel Peace Prize website
Nobel Peace Prize 2004 Lecture (Dr. Maathai's acceptance speech)
The Green Belt Movement website
Wangari Maathai’s personal website
BBC World Online’s latest articles on Wangari Maathai (she’s hot here, telling it just like it is)
CNN’s latest articles on Wangari Maathai (we are messin’ up the Planet, and we must stop it now)
CNN’s Nobel 2004 Special interview (transcript not available yet)
Wikipedia’s information pages on Wangari Maathai (the best open encyclopedia on the Net)

Oh yeah, by the way Dr. Maathai will be live on BBC’s Talking Point programmes (radio and TV) for December 26th. If you haven’t heard her speak as of yet, try not to miss this chance.


Coming Attractions in the Next Weeks:

Back To Sudan – “Omar & the Janjaweak” They just don’t get the message over there. Time is up, Omar… and that goes for your camel-riding murderers and slavers as well. How we can stop the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed dead in their tracks, for good.

UNICEF’s “Childhood Under Threat” Report - The State of the World’s Children 2005.

The U.N. and Kofi Annan – Should Donald Trump finally be allowed to take over the U.N. real estate in New York City, or should we convert it into a public zoo and theme park?

The D.R.C. – Nobody but nobody wants to talk about this “international community” disaster. More than 1000 people are dying per day, 31,000 dead per month, 3.8 million mainly women and children dead from starvation and curable dieseases over the last decade, and counting.

The deadliest conflict on the planet since WWII and no one has any answers. Not the U.N. nor the SC nor the MONUC, not the AU, not the EU, not the U.S., not the Russians & Co., not the Asian countries, not the Commonwealth countries, nor the Islamic countries, Nobody.

Even Angels must drop their heads in shame and sorrow to weep. Africa’s forgotten people trapped in Africa’s most savage cross-border conflict. The Congo Wars.

World AIDS Day 2004: The Day After

Now did we all do something positive for World AIDS Day 2004 yesterday? If not, don’t worry because you can do something about it today, or tommorow, but don’t wait too long ‘cause time is running out for millions and millions of people the world over.

Each year because of events like World AIDS Day 2004 I learn more and more about this devastating pandemic HIV/AIDS, and I feel that I still don’t know enough. There have been 17 Annual World AIDS Day events to help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, 17 years for the world to begin to wake up to the most devastating disease to affect humans on Earth, ever.

I took some time yesterday to read online news articles and blogger postings and even watched a little TV coverage on BBC World & CNN International about World AIDS Day and I’ll tell you there are some wonderful things happening out there on behalf of AIDS sufferers. Here are a few of my favorite World AIDS Day 2004 discoveries:

THE GLOBAL FUND website

These folks have a “serious” (U.K. english translation = well done) online presence for their international programs to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB. I was particularly attracted to their Stories from the Field section, their Country Profiles tool, and their financial contributions and disbursement features (you can find all of these features on the web page link provided). The U.N. H.Q. in New York and their overpaid accountants can learn something from these folks about financial accountability and transparency ref: Iraq Oil for Food Scam.

I was particularly attracted to the featured organization of the month KENWA (Kenya Network of Women with HIV/AIDS) based in Nairobi, Kenya. This community-based organization founded and operated by women has proven that they can have an impact on the lives of HIV/AIDS sufferers in their communities, and they have proven that women can organize and run a successful non-profit organization which garners the attention and funding from international foundations i.e. The Global Fund (and do the job better than men).

Now some very fine people from Kenya have been talking and working with me over the past few months, helping me to understand all kinds of things about Kenya that I didn’t know before (can’t learn about Kenya in the movies or from the skewed views of Colonials you know, you gotta deal with the people who come from there to get the lowdown). And then there is “Mama Miti” (The Mother of Trees), Dr. Wangari Maathai, who will be in Oslo, Norway in just a few days to pick up her well-earned 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace. God bless her for showing the world how something as simple as planting trees can help save the planet. She had a little something to say about womens roles and woes in Africa recently too.

So, KENWA in Nairobi is an excellent choice in my opinion to directly contribute funds to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, or you can contribute money to The Global Fund in Switzerland and let them use it where they see fit. Either way, you can be assured to help someone.

Africa-centric weblogs

Kenya Hudson, the author of the excellent blog Ambiguous Adventure, used a very nice “personal stories” touch for her December 1st posting about World AIDS Day 2004. You need to go over there and check it out for yourself and while you are at it, review some of her articles and commentaries on African issues and affairs. Kenya Hudson is coming up-to-speed nicely in the blogosphere and she is "a graduate student and itenerant researcher and writer" coming to us LIVE out of the U.S.A. Nice work Kenya.

Mshairi, my blogger friend and author of Mshairi (the Poet), wrote a lovely little poem (or is it a sonnet?) titled “This Day” for December 1st, 2004. It is a wonderful piece as are many of her poems that she shares so generously with us in the Blogosphere before we all have to spend “big bucks” to buy her first published book of poetry at Amazon. She is helping me to take an interest in poetry again and to learn more about her home country Kenya as well. A jewel of a woman writing from the dark and damp jungles of London in Winter.

There is plenty more on World AIDS Day 2004 one can discover in the Blogosphere on zillions of weblogs, but unfortunately I have not had the time to search. If you know of some other good blog postings on this important day, let us know via the comments feature.

Telling Tales, Singing, and Acting for AIDS Victims

If you like reading books like I do then you may find this link to the UNDP Choices online magazine for September 2004 interesting. South African native Nadine Gordimer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature, came up with an excellent idea to organize an anthology of short stories written by some of the world’s most renowned authors and use the proceeds from sales of the book to help HIV/AIDS victims in Southern Africa. The lineup of 21 writers and their respective short stories is outstanding, with a few of my favorites on the list and others I have been intending to read at some future date (which never seems to arrive). So, this book titled “Telling Tales for AIDS” could be a Christmas gift to myself this year. Maybe I should buy a copy or two for some friends as well. Nah, why do that?

A group of 18 top African musicians and performers from the continent have released a special album (sorry, a CD) to help HIV/AIDS victims and to help alleviate poverty in Africa. The name of the recording is “We Are The Drums of Africa” and I had a chance at hear a brief take 5 of the music on CNN’s Inside Africa program last weekend. You can find out more about the CD release with photos at the Africa 2015 Foundation site. Hmmm, I think I’ll get that cool CD for myself this Christmas too.

And last but not least, I got a tip on a new film being released in South Africa this month titled “Yesterday”. The work is the first major film release in the Zulu language and will be South Africa’s entry to at least 3 major international film festivals in 2004-2005. Below is an excerpt of a brief review by South Africa Films online magazine:

"Shot on location in KwaZulu Natal, Yesterday is the first feature film to be made in Zulu (with English subtitles). It is also the first South African film to be selected for both the Venice and Toronto film festivals and, more recently, has been chosen to be South Africa’s Official Entry for the 2005 Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Picture.

Written and directed by Darrell Roodt (Cry, The Beloved Country), Yesterday tells the moving story of a young mother (Leleti Khumalo) who is HIV positive. Her husband refuses to accept this and she is left to fend for both her daughter and herself. The film was produced in association with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which has described Yesterday as “reaching beyond conventional HIV-Aids rhetoric, towards real action and active engagement”. Oprah Winfrey, who saw the film in South Africa last year, says of Yesterday: “Its simplicity and clarity of message resonate with power”. Nelson Mandela has described the film as “truly inspiring”.

Hmmm? If Oprah Winfrey and Nelson Mandella say the film is good, then it must be good. I’ll guess that I’ll treat my----, or a friend or a loved one, to this film for Christmas. I wonder if it will be showing in Germany by Weihnachten 2004. I hope not with subtitles “auf Detusch”! Yeah? Bummer! O.K., it would be nicer for German-speaking audiences if subtitles are in German. O.K.

Advice provided by yours truly,
SCROOGE (of the River People)

Uganda. World AIDS Day 2004

Uganda: World AIDS Day 2004. We are counting on you too!
Photo by Susanne Behnke, Uganda 2003

Photo of rural village schoolchildren taken in Jinja District of southern Uganda near Lake Victoria. They look just great and very interested in having their picture taken. Is there a future professional woman photographer in this shot? Maybe a doctor? I sure do hope so.

Africa: World Aids Day 2004

Uganda: World Aids Day 2004. Don't forget about these children, they are counting on us.
Photo by Susanne Behnke, Uganda 2003

Tommorow, December 1st 2004 marks the Annual World Aids Day. The UNAIDS & WHO just released a new report on the pandemic which shows that women and children (like these sweet little Ugandan kids in the photo) are under unbelievably high risk of contracting, suffering, and dying of HIV/AIDS. Over 60% of AIDS infected people in sub-Saharan Africa are women and girls today.

Now I can't tell you if the children in the photo above are infected with HIV/AIDS or not, chances are that they have never been tested for the disease. I can't tell you if they belong to the enormous group of millions of children in Africa who have been orphaned because their parents have died from illnesses related to HIV/AIDS either, but I can tell you this:

Without the help from all of us around the world to help prevent and fight this devastating disease, particularly in the developing countries, these poor kids won't have a chance in Hell for any kind of a bright future. None of us the world over will have a chance for a bright future. Nobody.

Here are some useful links to resources on World Aids Day 2004:
UNAIDS
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria
BBC HIV/AIDS Debate site

If you can do anything to help, no matter how small it may be, do it. I'm sure that the little ones in the photo above would be mighty appreciative of your efforts to help them, now and in the future.

SUDAN: Good news for the Chai Lady

Sudan - A parting shot of the Chai Lady of Khartoum.
Photo by Tom Gething, Sudan 2004

I thought that it would be a good idea to share this full color photo of the Chai (Tea) Lady of Khartoum with my readers today. I'm sure that for many of us around the world who have been following the news and reports about Sudan and the crisis and atrocities taking place in the Darfur region of the country this year, the signing of a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the regime in Khartoum (GoS) and the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) representatives today is hopefully a big step towards a workable peace for the people of Sudan.

All the international newswires and television coverage is full of stories on the historic meeting of the UN Security Council & Co. in Nairobi, Kenya and the outcome of the 2-day negotiations to force a peace agreement to end the 21 year civil war in Sudan. Here is the latest article from the U.K. Guardian Unlimited which a lot of my liberal leaning left-winged blogger buddies read. There is also an excellent link at the bottom of the online article to a resource I have never noticed before in my research, The Rift Valley Institute's Sudan Internet Resources. These folks are good, look at all that stuff, yum-yum. It will take me weeks to get through all of that information, maybe years.

Nonetheless, there is some powerful medicine coming out of Kenya today, despite the backsliding and maneuvering from the Chinese, Russian, Pakistani, and French UN ambasstardors (did I spell that right?). Lot's of people will be working and praying for you over the next months Madam Chai Lady, working to help Peace break out all over Sudan and across Kenya all the way down to the Great Lakes Region. Yep, big meetings down in Tanzania this weekend too. Peace trying to break out all over the place, 'cause it's time! Peace is loooong overdue and we all want to see it in our lifetimes. I'd bet the Chai Lady would be real happy to hear that news, the streets of Khartoum and the folks around her little stand must be just abuzz with news and opinions today. Good sales.

Following is what the photographer Tom Gething had to say about the lovely photograph, before I added my 2 cents worth on Sudanian politics and issues:

"This tea (or 'chai') lady was operating her stall by a traditional brick making factory on the west bank of the Nile, in a district of Khartoum called Elacocu. It's part of a series on traditional skills that I am trying to develop.Taken handheld, in the first hour after dawn, I was attempting get an enviromental portrait. As I don't have a WA lens I decided to use an angle that put her in context. I was also very aware of not getting blown highlights on her face. I'm particulary happy with the orange tone of her 'tobe' (shawl). ..."

SUDAN: Coffee with The Chai Lady of Khartoum

Khartoum _ Chai Lady Preparing Coffee
Photo by Tom Gething, Sudan 2004

I have been just dying to get back to posting to my blog about Sudan. O.K. so dying is not a good choice of words if you have been following news and reports on Sudan and Darfur lately. The more I read the angrier I get, and not only at the regime in Khartoum but perhaps most of all at myself for not being in a position to go in and help these people right now, and I am not only talking about being a humanitarian or an aid worker. Something bigger.

I would love someday to be able to extend the hand of friendship personally to the Sudanese people in the photos from Tom Gething on this weblog. It would be a great honor for me albeit they may think I’m crazy for thinking that it was so special to be able to meet them. Anyway, before I return to Sudan next week via this blog I thought that I would share another one of Tom’s beautiful photos with you today. Here is another B&W image of The Chai Lady (see my A Survival Study in B&W posting) as she prepares a coffee (or tea?) for us.

If I were there in Khartoum with her I would be excitedly trying to tell her (via a translator) that she is probably one of the most famous “Chai Ladies” on the planet and certainly in all of Khartoum, that perhaps 100,000+ people around the world will have seen photos of her on the World Wide Web, and that many of us just love her only by seeing images of her, and that it has helped some of us to learn more about her country, Sudan, and her people. I’d tell her all of this while she was busy preparing my coffee (she nervously thinking to herself, “Who is this crazy guy? Do all Americans act this way asking all of these questions?”).

And when my coffee was ready I would pay her for it, I would pay at least 100 times what she normally charges for the glass of coffee (which is $00.01 or 1 cent a glass), I would pay her about $1.00 U.S. Dollars. At this point she would be totally convinced that I AM DEFINITELY CRAZY, but also that I am a rich American and too loose with my money. I would be spending 300-400% less for a cup of her coffee than what I would pay at Starbucks, and the service and company is undoubtedly better with The Chai Lady by far.

Then I would try to strike up a conversation with The Chai Lady, to learn a little more about her life and her people and try to tell her things about my country and my people and about other people I’ve met around the world, while enjoying my wonderful cup of coffee with her. Can you see it? I sure can, clear as day, what a wonderful experience that would be.

And after we had finished our coffees and our conversation I would bid The Chai Lady farewell and tell her what an honor it has been to be in her presence after having only a photo image of her in my mind for so long. Perhaps she would be happy also to share such an experience and be anxious to see me again soon so that we may swap stories and so that she could sell her coffee at premium prices.

Then I would bow my head to kiss her hands and then walk away, and as she watched me go my eyes would swell with tears to the point that my vision would blur, tears of happiness and sadness at once, and my heart would be full of joy at having the chance to finally have met her, The Chai Lady from Khartoum made famous by a photograph and a blog and a very long war.

Can blogs and bloggers and their readers help change the World?? I believe the answer to that question is an emphatic YES, and we are already well underway down that road. This is the greatest social dialogue and collaboration experiment I’ve seen in many a year, and I’ve been around for awhile. Thanks to a posting from Ethan Zuckerman over at Harvard here is an article about the affects bloggers are having on the international media scene and global politics already____ and we bloggers are not even out of the race starting blocks yet!

While reviewing the ONA site (ONA= Online News Association) today regarding the prestigious award to BBC News Online for Best Online News Website 2004 I also ran across an excellent piece on blogs and bloggers vs. mainstream international media. Here is an excerpt about a speech by Alan Nelson from The Command Post - Newsblog Collective delivered to the Associated Press Managing Editors on the subject of blogs (weblogs):

"Alan Nelson of Command-post.org gave a great speech to the APME a couple of weeks ago. He talked about the Law of the Flow, the Law of the Fast, Law of the Few, and the Law of the Many. It's fascinating reading. Here's one quote: There’s a very important lesson here: bloggers should not be underestimated. They are not just average people … they are people who, long before blogs came along … had the ability to surface information and present it to others in a persuasive and compelling way. They are opinion leaders, and weblogs have only served to exponentially increase their reach and their power." I encourage you to read the full text, and the comments attached at the end."

This is a "must read article" for my fellow blog authors and avid blog readers by the way, as we all try to get a grasp on what this is really all about and why we do it. The folks over at The Command Post have a real hot blog by the way, and you can find their permalink in my blogroll "Hot Blogs and Sites To Go" along with some very fine new blog additions to Jewels in the Jungle i.e. Crooked Timber and Ambiguous Adventure.

Now, I wonder how I could explain all this stuff about blogs and bloggers to The Chai Lady of Khartoum?

Intro to American Politics 101: U.S. Elections 2004

This is one of those agonizing postings to my blog I don’t want to really do but I feel somehow that I have to do it ‘cause everybody’s talking about it and most people have no idea whatsoever about the subjects but they feel they have to say something anyway even though what comes out of their mouths most times is totally GARBAGE irregardless of their political leanings and preferences.

What am I talking about? The U.S. Elections 2004, that’s what!! Personally, I am sick of hearing about it and I don’t necessarily want to see this subject on Jewels in the Jungle. However, being a true-blue red-blooded American citizen whose family has heaps of history and a fascinating heritage in the good old U.S. of A. it would be unpatriotic if I didn’t say something on this subject. So here goes:

LESSON NR. 1:

Never say never. What is done is done and the best thing to do is to get over it and move on. All of that expert commentary, opinions, analysis, tea leaves and crystal ball predictions, polls, live T.V. coverage by 10 million journalists from all over the world, foreign air mail voter manipulation and harassment from our “concerned cousins” in the U.K., jumping up and down at conventions and rallies waving flags and wearing stupid looking T-shirts and hats and campaign buttons and laughing and crying and literally making a damn fool of yourselves on international T.V., not to mention threats of foreign invasion and economic boycotts and breaking of diplomatic ties and all kinds of other B.S. from our long-time traditional allies and partners” overseas (many by the way who were our “mortal enemies” just a few years or generations ago but that’s a long time in most people’s minds due to chronic memory problems) ….. all of this stuff didn’t amount to more than a hill of beans. If you were against G.W. Bush, you lost. Period. BUSH IS BACK AND THAT’S THAT. If you need some consoling or something, see my links in LESSON NR. 2 below.

As a matter of fact, he never left and he is "startin’ to take a likening to Washington D.C." as they say down in my part of the country, The Heartland. Now the problem for a lot of people who have no idea about America or Americans (this includes an awful lot of U.S. citizens by the way), the problem with all of these folks is that they don’t understand the term “Heartland” nor do they respect or understand the millions of Americans who hail from these parts. Most people around the world cannot even find the place on a map including a whole lot of so-called experts on America.

So to answer that pressing question I get here in Europe from far too many absolute strange people who say they have a “genuine concern about the United States of America" since the first day I got here to help save their disgusting butts from political and military catastrophe years and years ago, that question which goes something like this:

“By the way, what do you think about the results of the U.S. Elections 2004 and the re-election of President George W. Bush?”

My answer often time is like this:

“Nothing, it’s over, we have another President. Why, you don’t like it or something? You’ve got something to say about it? You from the States, pay taxes over there or something, have sons and daughters dying on foreign battlefields in U.S. uniforms? No? Who is your president? What is your government doing to “save the world”? Oh really, I don’t believe you because the facts and evidence shows that your leaders aren’t doing Squat to help anyone other than themselves. Don’t leave, what is it, have I insulted you or something? Good, because that is what I intended to do. Goodbye and don’t come back!”

Now if I like you and think that you are really intelligent and well informed on global issues including those which affect Americans as well as the rest of the world and you are the type of person with which one can have a good dialogue on politics I might answer in this way:

“The American Elections for 2004, interesting wasn’t it? Looks like Bush and the Republicans just fooled all of the experts, must’ve have really pissed a lot of people off. Actually as a rule I almost never discuss who I actually voted for, but I am more than willing to discuss issues with you. Where you from? Oh, I’m from _______”

LESSON NR. 2

Before you open your mouth, make sure that your brain is engaged. American politics is really complicated. Politics anywhere is usually complicated unless you live in a country where decisions are made for the people vs. by the people. I would guess that most people in the world have never had the opportunity to vote, although I believe that all people of the world have the Right To Vote. A lot of government and business leaders in foreign lands making all of this racket about the U.S. Elections are working very hard to make sure that their people CANNOT VOTE.

I personally use various sources of information from broadcast media, the Internet, real experts on political issues (a rarity), and even my own gut feelings to help me determine who should be the President or Senator or Congresswoman/man for my country or home state. This is particularly important when you have lived abroad amongst absolute savages (albeit well dressed savages) here in Europe as long as I have___ which is too long by the way, way too long.

Here are a few of my favorite info resources for the recent U.S. elections:

1. CNN U.S. Election 2004 Coverage
2. BBC U.S. Election 2004 - Don’t miss their Guide to U.S. Government.
3. Internet Public Library - Online news sources from around the world.
4. My Mom - She says she "hates Bush" by the way, although she is trying to be a good Christian. Don't arrest her Mr. Ashcroft, she doesn't mean it. Mom is just highly emotional about politics.
5. Priorities & Frivolities - Tagoda is at the John F. Kennedy School of Government - Harvard University. You can learn a lot about U.S. politics if you spend some time on his blog. I think he is a progressive Republican with immigrant roots in the Phillipines.
6. Cox & Forkum Editorial Cartoons - This is a good place when you begin to take politics and yourself too seriously. Everybody needs a good laugh now and then.
7. German media and press - I occasionally checkout these news sources in order to keep up with the well-oiled propoganda machines the Austro-Germans perfected years ago. These guys are good and much of the German-speaking public doesn’t notice a thing. I hope that somebody in the U.S.A. is analyzing these sources in order to help us ammend foreign policy strategies for the 21st century and beyond.
8. The African Viewpoint - Interesting and diverse views from Africans. Also checkout various news and commentaries expressed on AllAfrica.com.
9. Barack Obama - I have yet to see any coverage of this story in the German media. Here are two articles from the BBC and CNNI. Obama is a Big Story and I’m delighted for his win in Illinois.
10. The Blogoshpere - Technorati's Election Watch 2004 lists the top political blogs on the U.S. Elections. The Berkman Center at Harvard is a good place to track politics and blogging as well. Blogger of course covered the effects of blogging on the U.S. Elections 2004 in their posting Blog The Vote.


LESSON NR. 3

No matter how the election turns out, whether your candidate(s) have won or not, it is very important that afterwards everybody just calms down. Go home and do some reflecting or go out with your pals and have a celebration or cry in your beer or whatever makes you happy. Then wake up the next day and go about your business. Here are a few more tips for those of you feeling low about the results of the U.S. Election 2004:

1. IT IS EXTEMELY IMPORTANT THAT EVERYONE WORKS TOGETHER AS ONE NATION, AS ONE PEOPLE, FOCUSED ON HELPING ONE ANOTHER AND HELPING PEOPLE WHO ARE IN EVEN WORSE SHAPE THAN YOU ARE OUT THERE IN THE WORLD. THIS IS VERY, VERY, VERY IMPORTANT!

2. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT GO NEXT DOOR AND BURN DOWN YOUR NEIGHBORS HOUSE BECAUSE THEY VOTED DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU. If you want to burn something down, then burn up your own stuff, or burn yourself in effigy or something. Make sure you leave a note to save the taypayers money on police investigation costs.

3. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT GO OUT THREATENING PEOPLE WITH VIOLENCE AND REVENGE AND ALL KINDS OF OTHER STUPID STUFF. ESPECIALLY DO NOT THREATEN TEXANS IN ANY KIND OF WAY. "DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS!" GOES THE SAYING BACK HOME IN THE STATES AND BELIEVE ME, TEXANS MEAN THIS. EVERYBODY IN AMERICA UNDERSTANDS THIS AND YOU HAD BETTER UNDERSTAND THIS TOO. DON’T PISS THESE FOLKS OFF!

IN SUMMARY:

Find something you like to do which helps you to relax. Focus on what your nation needs to be doing and make sure that you are part of the solution and not part of the problem. Go out and do something other than "running your mouth like a clatterbone on a Goose’s rearend" as my Grandma used to say, God Bless Her Soul. Make the American Dream work, and the dreams of your own respective country work and those of people who can still dream all over the world. Make it work by getting your butt to work on their behalf.

So, that is the end of the first part of the course "Introduction to American Politics 101".

Next time I will cover the 2nd part of this course,
“How to Politely Reject Foreign Influences on National Political Matters Without Losing Your Temper, Your Mind, and/or Your Religious Upbringing and Beliefs”.

Thank you and Good Night.

The Fans

The Fans at the Big Game
Photo by Tom Gething, Sudan 2004

I would have titled this photo "The Boyz at The Big Game". It can be said that I tend to favor girls and women in the photos on this blog, that is true and there are lots of reasons for it. However, my love for "The Boyz" all over Africa is in reality no less than for the girls, particularly when they are young like these little guys.I want to do some more work this week with Tom's images and I am going to favor the men and boys of Sudan in the series.

I read in various news reports that the negotiations for a peace deal for Darfur is unravelling pretty fast, and that is terribly sad for all of Sudan. These little guys are growing up in a refugee camp several kilometers outside of the capitol city Khartoum. Their families have been in these IDP (internally displaced persons) camps for years and years as a result of war(s). How long must these kids wait for peace and a chance for a better life? How long???

Here is what Tom had to say about this photo and this day:

"One of the best things about living in Khartoum is that because the international community is so small you tend to know everybody. A group of us from all over (Italians, Dutch, French, Americans, British and others from Cameroon, Egypt, and Ethiopia) have a football team that play once a week on a dust pitch (no money for grass!).

The best part of this was in April when we went out to a displaced camp about 50km from the city where about 40,000 people live. We played a match against the 'Juba Allstars' - a team made up from the southern Sudanese refugees who have lived in Jebel Aulia for over 9 years. About 3000 people came to watch - it was absolutley fantastic.

As with everythig in Sudan we had to have official permission and pass through road blocks but it was worth it. I've just heard we are going back at the end of Ramadan for a rematch so when I fly back on Saturday its back to training.

In case anybody is interested the locals hammered us 6-1."

An Note from Black River Eagle:
"Well Tom, looks like Ramadan will be drawing to a close soon and the Big ReMatch should be coming up fast over there. Make sure that you get another great photo of "The Boyz" if you can."