Archive for March, 2008
Bulgaria
Sunday, March 30th, 2008Cyrillic alphabet. All the guide books suggest you don’t even try it. Very few people speak English especially outside the capital, so it’s worth at least being able to recognise words like ‘hotel’, ‘restaurant’ and so on. Try to pick it up by looking at the signs. When you recognise a word remember the letters, so you can read other words. It doesn’t take any time, and it helps when you need a shop or a cafe.
Tags: Book, Books, Bulgaria, Cyrillic alphabet, Europe, jill, TravelRelated posts
Travel tips
Sunday, March 30th, 2008Sandanski spa hotel Bulgaria
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
The pool is closed, even the town pool in the Spa park is closed, and although it’s warm in the sun, a cold breeze occaisionally touches your cheek. When I’m neither teaching nor sunning myself on the balcony, I’m gobbling the meagre portions
served in the restaurant. Unfortunately we count as the pack with the kids and everything, so we get kid size portions of everything, tiny kofte meat balls, which is the national dish, tiny bowls of raita, yoghurt and cucumber soup.
Across the road, as we are on the top of the town in the Panorama Hotel, past the cafe, is the water source, only put in last year, where the towns women line up to fill water bottles with spa water. The tap water is undrinkable, which unfortunately we didn’t find out until we had been drinking it for a day. It leaves a metallic taste in the mouth, and I wonder if there isn’t some pollution from the Soviet time. As n
o-one has
any money, I suspect European funding for this new source, but haven’t been able to find anything out.
Although it is the Cyrillic alphabet, I have been able to read it, it’s a bit reminiscent of Greek. Greece is actually only 20 kilometres away across the mountains. Spartacus was born here, and you can see the distinctive Celtic look of the people. One looks just like Rees. The sun is warm for the time of year, and it feels good to sit out.
We arrived on Saturday with all the kids, having drivien from Sofia, the capital. After an exhausted hour of panic looking through the course materials, which we were only given at the airport, we had to teach three lessons. One of my groups is 15 8 year olds who have a reputation for naughtiness, in the restuarant. I had to move the glasses and sauces off the tables, then try to keep them away from the stack of bottles. This morning the people were still having breakfast when lessons were going on! Finally we found them another room of their own.
The other group is 9 year olds and they are lovely, I mean a dream, to teach. We are practising for our show called, ‘Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs and a Parellel Universe.’ There is a Blond Snow White and a Dark one. The Blond Snow White has seven positive dwarfs, Happy, Smiley, etc, and Dark Snow has seven negative dwarfs, Sad, Grumpy, Sleepy, and so on, and the Witch causes them to meet through evil physics, thinking that when they fight the world will blow up, but they foil her evil plot by refusing to fight.
The best bit is when they all start singing Hey ho Hey ho and parade in a silly way, when they sing doodle um dum dum the skipping speeds up and goes all jumpy. It is hilarious, and though I say it myself, I am a genius.
Bulgaria is beautiful, snow on the mountains, although the architecture is ancient Sovietic with several new art nouveau americain. Although some people in Sofia are quite up to date, the truth is this is still a very primitive country. Goodness knows how primitive it would be were it not for the Russians and Communism, which has provided the country with an excellent infrastructure of transport, education and health service. The people are very calm, friendly, understated, emotional and sensitive, thoughtful and caring. I say this because when my heater broke and I was cold in the night the guy was respectful when he came in my room and tried to mend it but later brough
t me a little fan heater, saying ‘It will blast warmth’ which you need when you’ve caught cold, and they mended the heater first thing!!!
This people were one of only two nations who defended their Jews from Hitler, the other being Denmark, by refusing to send them to the camps and eventually, at some risk to themselves, refusing to impose the armband system of identifying them. And of course Spartacus defended the freedom of slaves.
Furthermore, the TV has endless English language movies, as they can’t be bothered to dub them. I’ve just seen Sid and Nancy, and yesterday watched Born on the Fourth of July and a Julia Roberts thing that she got the Oscar for. I have to come down to Reception to get access to the wifi and work here, where it’s quite cold. All the Bulgarian teachers are here relaxing after their day with the children. Tomorow we’re all going to visit this famous monastery. I’ll try to post. Best wishes to everyone.
Tags: Architecture, Art, Bulgaria, Europe, Evil, Friend, jill, jill, money, Sandanski, Spa hotels, Sun, Travel, War, WorkRelated posts
Buddhism in Nigeria
Friday, March 28th, 2008Report from Abuja Nigeria Every Sunday the Abuja District meet for chanting and other activities. This morning 11 members and 5 guests chanted for 1 hour, then slow gongyo as some members are quite new to gongyo, then the 2nd part of our study of the meaning of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo given by the incredibly clear Gody, who has been practising for many many years, some in the US. We sang a strange song called The Power of the Gohonzon, Do your Chantin’, Do your Gongyo, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for ever, and so on. We had bananas and nuts, which is the tradition here and I must say a lot healthier than jaffa cakes. Some of the guests had studied Buddhism for a while and decided to start to practise. The others stayed on for chorus. We found a song in Efi, one of the African languages, and bizarrely or not, one of the guests was an Efi speaker who helped us understand the meaning. As resident poet, I translated it into singable English. Another guest, a young man, used his experience in Church choir to help with the arrangements, and Princess Omo my new friend who we bumped into at a swimming pool the first week when we had a meeting with Dr Afolabi the Head of SGI Nigeria, just boogied and enjoyed it a lot. We’re going to perform it at next week’s meeting. Then we planned for our Song of Nigeria, of course For The Sake of Peace. First I read the words and blubbed as usual because it moves me so much, then we listend a couple of times to the DVD which came with AOL, then learned it. You know it’s really hard to sing, very high and very low, so we had guidance on inspiring and motivating the audience as well as ourselves. I told Rees’ story about the song at Trets at New Year. We plan to translate the title into lots of languages including some African languages, and sing it at the Nigeria AGM in 3 weeks time. Then at New Year the children (did I mention our 4 Dove Division members?) will do the fade out at the end. It’ll be lovely. I promised to report about this song to A Certain Person in Somerset. We are doing lots of Study, which has been lacking here, and next week I’m giving the Gosho study on Happiness in this World of course – frightening as I’ve never done study on my own before. We in education division are preparing the first study exam here, which is more or less the English one, and the Core Study group we’re forming is to take the exam on November 18th same as you guys. In Lagos. By we I mean myself and Bob and Stephanie Tansey of the Soka Educators International Forum. They are mystically here with me in Abuja having made the cause to be together in previous lifetimes as well as at the local Chinese in Penel Orlieu Bridgwater two years ago when they visited. Some of you were there. They send their love. The SEIN AGM is online this week, if you’re interested let me know. I’m having the usual karmic excitements and once again my job is on the line due to a dramatic scandal in the House of Representatives of Nigeria. The Speaker is in the process of being kicked out for fraud, she took 65,000,000 naira to furnish her house which had only been done 1 year previously. I think this money was used to finance my school, as corruption is the norm here, and my boss the Honorable Wole Oke if you want to research it online is very close to her. They are from the same tribe down south. Tribal links really matter here. He is trying to become the speaker. Meanwhile, my salary has been held as well as the school funding, and the live wire from the generator is still dangling around the classrooms. They’re trying to threaten and bribe me into taking less money, being demoted and so on. I’m the only trained teacher here and the only expat, so if I go the project grinds to a halt. It is very difficult. I’m doing a 5×5 (five hours chantin’ a day for 5 days) to overcome my crapland karma and manifest the Pure Land, as it’s interfering with my mission now. tomorrow Monday at 2pm is the big meeting, anyone who has time to chant please do so, for me and also for education in Nigeria. Meanwhile I want to ask anyone who has textbooks, reading books for young people and babies, or educatinal toys they are chucking out to consider taking them to Rees to send on to me as resources are very very limited here and we are unable at the moment to order some for the little kids we have. Education is very much below the UK levels here, although the parents and children really value it. It’s very exciting and like the 50s where ordinary people really tried to become educated and raise their opportunities. We aim to educate really well including critical thinking, in fact I’m going to tout after school criti thinkiing around Abuja in other schools to help develop their minds. Our children are starving for books to read, and delighted when you find some for them. Also if it’s not too much, if you have accidentally bought 2 copies of anything on Buddhism from Taplow, or have any spare butsugu or Buddhist paraphenalia, really they have nothing here, we’re providing as much as we can and using the net, but should you be able to spare anything it would really be appreciated and would help kosen rufu in Nigeria tremendously. The editor of the local intelligent rag has commissioned an article from me which I’m still finishing, so I’ll meet with him this week. I’ve put stuff on my website but haven’t had time, also there’s no broadband here yet, and can you remember what it was like before broadband? So bear with me, but check it out if you like www.jillrees.com Otherwise I’m STILL in a hotel as my appartment isn’t built but thinking of finding a cheap house in a nearby village perhaps, will go and see it this week. I have to have security for obvious reasons. (White) Everyone including locals has secure walls and gates and hires security guards for 20,000 naira a month. Tip them or the gate will start to mysteriously stick. I’m driving a Chevy around ha ha, have joined the gym and otherwise made good friends, met some expats and boy are they wierd and drunken in part, been on a sponsored walk for an orphanage, met an American diplomat whose armoured car got smashed up when he was fishing and had broken down on the side of the road in Abuja, not too secure, America, is it? VERY nice simple guy we had met at an Embassy party previously. Also spent Sat lunchtime with an Israeli spy! Very interesting account of various wars in Israel that he’d been in, has lived in Nigeria for 15 years. We had a good talk and it helped my article. Also with Princess Omo we may be starting an online Mandela shirt business, and perhaps marketing African paintings online too. Or I may be home soon, jobless and despondent. Depends on if the Gohonzon works or not – watch this space, or don’t bother if you already know and have no doubts! REALLY missing you guys, thinking of you and I’d really appreciate your news and views. Love you ALL (Dame Edna?) Keep well, Keep on Do your chantin’ Do your Gongyo, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, for ever………………..clap clap clap Jill (more…)
Tags: Buddhism, jill, NigeriaRelated posts
milk shakes to Bulgaria
Friday, March 28th, 2008You know those milk shakes that are made of mainly vegetable fat? Well would you squeeze a cup of it into the pocket of the seat next to you on a National Express coach and not say anything when a new passenger sat down in the dark? So that her knees pushed on it while she was sleeping on the 3am drive to Heathrow? And it gushed all down her leg, makng her one pair of travelling trousers smell of milk shake for days and sending greasy white stuff all over the coach floor? Well would you?
After that the connecting coach to Gatwick suddenly ceased to exist and the ‘helping’ woman at Heathrow eventually, after saying we all had the ‘wrong ticket’ - How?! told us to get on the next coach anyway. Then the rude driver told us to stay away, then to hurry closer with our bags and stop messing about. And it’s not yet 7 am when he then decides not to let you on cos you’ve got the wrong bus number on your ticket. Everyone yells at him so he lets us on. Then finally, as we’re all thinking thank god we’re leaving this awful country, he takes your case out and drops it face down into the one huge puddle at Gatwick, making all your clothes wet.
Luckily my luck was just about to change, La Sensa in the airport had a bargain rail of cute knickers, 5 for £10. The day was saved!
Oh yeah and I’m in Bulgaria to teach English for EIA, in a luxury hotel with internet, and the food is lovely, and it’s cheap and what a beautiful country. Shame about their alphabet.
Tags: Bulgaria, jill, Sea, Travel, TravelRelated posts
Democracy and corruption in Nigeria
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008To every political commentator, envisaging that the black days that overshadows the April general elections which saw to arbitrary transition of a dictatorial administration to a fraudulent and hoax politically elected leader will not repeat itself, could only amount to an absolute mirage. It is true, and in any where in the world, a house built by an hypocrite will always be occupy by, mediocre or a traitor.
It could be recalled that, prequel to the April general elections a lot of speculations were heard, both good and bad, paraded the air that blow across the nook and cranny of this Country. Some of the hullabaloos, my ears patronized. Perhaps because I read significant meanings from them and in the best interest of this Country, such calls that prompted the exit of the late Obj. led administration thus, became paramount. However and though we may have succeeded at compelling Obasanjo to Ota farm, the worst predicament that appears more confrontational to the glory and survivals of democracy in Nigeria still lingers. Go to the street, I bet you even the primary school children will testify to you that what happen in April 2007 general election was worst than the 1994 April genocide in Rewanda. Far, backward to a Childs play. Infact one can call it a political genocide.
The exit of Obj had ravagely ignited a fire similar to that which emerges from the sea and it’s fast consuming the principles and ethics of politics and democracy in this Country. To day a large number of politicians who prior hitherdo owes and respect the principles and ideologies of great politicians such as Mal. Aminu Kano, Chief Obafemi Awolow, great zik of Africa, Mike Okpara Tafawa balewa, Makaman Bida and my icon Sir Ahmadu, bello are rather force into throwing thus humanitarian precept and opinions which they look forward to replicating in their daily political activities into dustbin. Because, to many of them, if a single person against the interest of million people could single handedly select a leader in a cosmopolitan environment such as Nigeria, so what them is the faith of polity, what is so special about politics without tears, what can a politician who want to adapt the ideology of pragmatism thus as zik advocated? Indeed it would be very disastrous to our psychology if we pretend with all reality on ground that democracy was at work.
Honestly there is absolutely nothing democratic to tell about Nigeria . And believing willingly that judiciary was the last hope as far as save guarding our democracy is concern is an aberration. the recent judgment by the presidential election tribunal authenticates this obvious perception. I can not subscribe to that and I challenge every Nigerian to disagree with the unpatriotic illusion. After all it is only when there was a foot ball match that a referee can officiate, but in this case there were no matchs at all. And as a mater of fact all the judges that precided over the cases that were file by different candidates against the pronouncement of P.D.P as the winner of the presidential election were living witnesses.
To day even some of us who are rootly looking for ward to wearing the shoes of our great founding fathers are now dispelled into having a rethink. Thought such as “those democracy really exist as ascribe by it inventors, could love, hard work, prowess and diligentness really count in the decision and policy making of a society” however occupies our mined in place of new innovations that could add to the image of polity and leadership in this nation. Honestly it is a political assault to admit that judiciary was the last hope for our democracy. We must note that “the world smiles are more dangerous than it frowns” so he said Mathew Henry. let not there fore pretends that all is well while we are much awhere that the devils is strongly at work. It might also interest you to know that “every generation in a related obscurity like ours, who fails to fulfill it promise wills rather betray it.
I am neither against Obasabjo as an individual, but I am an antagonist of those policies that make up his personality. Personally and thus as some well meaning Nigerians. Such as Chief Anthony Nnaworo, former Senate President Ken Nnamani, chief Ganiyu Fahumi San, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, archbishop john Onaiyekan President CAN and alot of well meaning Nigrians, to mention including Yar’Adua himself as rightly noted that the process that brought him to where he is was an outright bridge of democratic principles which resultant effect could amount to lawlessness, disunity and break down of peace and tranquility but because Nigerians are so resilient the dust rested. Nigerian owe him an applause for making this indication, however he will be more honorable if by the virtue of the reality on ground to which the whole world beholds, he kindly step aside and call for a fresh election. By so doing he will undoubtedly become an epitome and a democrat who’s star would shine across the globe, but if in the contrary he fails, fine that means he has refuse to bath after falling in a gotta and he would continue to smell like the local magi popularly called ‘dawa dawa.’ People love to eat it but they don’t like it odor. More so he may have succeeded at the end of his tenure in achieving his seven points agenda which is to day an household talk in Nigeria, but them he should remember an adage that says ”Although a broken put could be rebuilt but the society keep an eye at the spot where the crack lies”.
Also, I may not be a supporter of Buhari but am certainly an upholder of his dream for democracy, for they are in conformity with the principles of democracy and politics. As he also observed “if you say I should withdraw my pursue, what would be the faith of Nigerians who called for election, those Nigerians who were drove away with guns from pulling units and as a result some of them were sent to their untimely grave and what will be the future of democracy” subsequently the Action Congress Presidential Candidate is not also singing a different song, though a wolf in the ship clothing he admonished that ” if the April general election was allowed to remains then a president will always write the name of his successor” this predication is not disputable by all level of thinking-because the perpetrators of the current crisis, that we are left to contempt with will whimsically mistake our patience for compliance with irregularities frauds and lack of transparency that characterized the April general election. Thus becoming tantamount as yes, Nigerians are rather less important or ephemeral in deciding who take charge in the affairs of their father land, hence, licensing the perpetrators to persist with their evil doing and consequently, above all, political iniquities will unavoidably become an order. there by changing the story from democracy to anarchy. For Yar’Adua, I advice that he smells before chewing, like the cat will always do. Knowing full well that the heart injury caused by the abortion of third term bid of his predecessor is still fresh in the hearts of it benefactor. I will employ him to consider the story of the monkey who laughed while bamboo was described to have had it eye far away from it socket. Indeed the bamboo responded rather pleasantly as he said “what the laugh for, unt you awere that we all have the same trend like our ancestrer fathers?”
And coming to the judiciary. I may not be a layer, but am certainly not absolutely ignorant of some legal procedures as enjoyed by jurisprudence. First there must be a dispute or disagreement usually from different parties. The statuary mandate of the Court is to look in to disputes which the laws refer to as case or cases. the legal practionals who often intervene with a view to clarify issues, usually do so, as either defendant or prosecutor un-behalf of either parties involve. Evidence and facts foam the bedrock of arguments and from it the judge or panel of judges wiegh and finally pass their verdict as the law proclaims, under no circumstances will a judge try in any means to personally influence favour or against a legal client order than the provision of the law. So therefore, to marry the law with the April general election, I vehemently believe that both judges and the layers who are either presiders, defendant or prosecutor as the case maybe needed no fact or evidence to enable them determine who was wrong and who own the right.
Because all of the above were living witnesses of the charade that took place in the last April election which will sooner or later put its perpetrators to shame. It is however, the prayers of Nigerians that God should touch all the judges or panel of judges who are preciding over the cases of election tribunal to do so without sentiment. And for any legal practitioners who deem it good to stand and defend fraud and iniquities against humanity be he SAN, would have his or her name change from senior advocate of Nigeria to senior advocate of nonsense.
Finally before a take a bawl I will like to extend my hand of appreciation and applause to Chief Owelle Rochas Okorocha for his concerted effort. Giving the average Nigerian child basic education is beyond every critical criticizing a gesture wordy of encomiums. Infact I am dedicating a book which took me three years to complete to him. You can wait to see the book, so I advice you book a copy now! for Mall Nuhu Ribadu, honestly he should have him self to blame. when he started Nigerians, he, Nuhu force into believing that he was an angel who’s duty on earth is to healed us a wond which have eaten dip into our social wellbieng. little did Nigerians knew that EFCC was just a synonim of political watch dogs, train like the greyhond to chase jenuine aspirants\politicians out of the feild of play. Nuhu [EFCC] was used as a copnsperatory organ against his fatherland. but the truth is that some peaple believe they could plant colanut and reap palmcarnel.
To the power drunk and partisan politicians, the recently unveil statue of a hero, great Nelson Mandela in the heart of London would always serve as a galvanizer to us in our quest to succeed in making Nigeria a democratic society. we will not relent. indeed persistence it said breaks resistance and thus as Martin Luther King jr. “unharmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality”
Suleiman Mohammed Mokwa
pioneer, Visionary Movement of Nigeria
Email:-speak2suleiman@yahoo. Com
Tags: Abuja, Africa, Africa, Art, Book, Buddhism, Buhuri, Democracy, Dog, election, Evil, Leader, Leadership, Mail, Mall Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria, Obasabjo, Peace, pet, Politics, Rain, Sea, Senate, Story, Sun, Survival, War, WorkRelated posts
Saint Heather Mills and Super Hilary Clinton
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008Have you noticed the connection between Heather Mills, celeb ex-wife and self-illusionist, and Hilary Clinton, former super hero who parachuted into world trouble spots and solved all of mankind’s problems? I have wondered why her husband Bill, when he was President of the United States, was continually sending her into bullet-ridden danger zones where, as the brave Hills constantly says, ‘The President himself was too afraid to go’., but it seems a tactic Sir Paul could have wisely followed to rid himself of the clinging unijambist.
Mis-speaking around the Globe, these two women have a diverse grip on reality, as my lawyer advises me to put it. Hilary’s ‘running for cover under a hail of bullets’ would be a calmer person’s ‘strolling round the airbase chatting with children’. Heather helpfully poured water over the prosecution’s new hairstyle, committing the worst crime known to woman, whereas Hills bravely gritted her teeth as her husband, the Most Powerful Man on Earth, dilly-dallied with the staff. It’s a wonder she can face returning to the Whitehouse, the site of her humiliation. But perhaps, like Heather, she doesn’t remember it that way.
Paul McCartney is famed for his charity work, as was his lovely wife Linda, and it turns out Saint Heather was central to most of it over the decades, even before she was born it seems. Hilary saved the World by flying into space and pushing the Earth back on its axis to the point in time where Adam and Eve had never committed adultery – sorry make that ‘evil’, I misspoke. Or am I confusing that story with a Superman movie? Never mind, truth, differentiated memories: it’s all pretty much the same to us women.
I am not religious but I’ve been praying lately that Hills never finds herself near the real nuclear button, but Heather will bounce back, we’re told. Well she’ll have to really……………oh no that joke begs to be told, but I’d better not.
Tags: Art, Evil, Hilary Clinton President USA Heather Mills Paul McCartn, jill, Story, WorkRelated posts
Stories of Nations
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008The old European nations are like old ladies sitting in their dilapidated old mansions sifting through their family jewellery with their memories. Sometimes, like Austria, they’re looking back at past glories. More typically, like Britain and France, they still think they’re players, and are again looking to play their part in the world. Nations with a past they would like to forget, such as Germany, are players but keep themselves to themselves. Some of the nations are struggling back to the surface after the devastation of World War II. There are new democracies, new nations, new economic systems. Many have already joined the European Union, others are trying to qualify. Turkey, bridging the Bosphoros between Europe and Asia, has chosen to be considered European, its mainly, but not only, Moslem population. And finally the nations who are still dreaming, like Bulgaria, not yet realising what it means to be European, the most privileged of the world regions.
Although there have been shifts in the peoples of Europe from time to time, the basic thought systems come from the ancient Greeks, whose thoughts and ideas permeate the European nations since the 5th century BC, being largely adopted by the nascent Christian civilisations. During the last century, some of the cultures suppressed by this neo-classical culture, such as the ‘Celtic’ peoples of Spain, Brittany, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, have had a revival in recent years, helped not least by the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart! Is there an identity to being European? Yes, I think it would be a nod of the head to the classical civilisations of Rome and Greece, still regarded with the greatest respect in Europe, taken with the inventiveness of the indigenous peoples.
The former Eastern bloc countries, closed to the rest of the world as insular Soviet satellite countries for much of the late 20th century, have found it surprisingly easy to return to their pre-war roles. The great romantic cities of Budapest, Prague and Sofia are once again at the heart of culture, drawing other European travellers as if by a magnet, the magnet of myth. Their old glory is still within living memory, and is so deeply embedded in their culture that it remains untouched by Soviet oppression. The melting pot of Celts, Slavs, Latins, Moors, Saxons, Scandinavians, all forming a delightfully varied but primarily united civilisations we can call European.
Of course there is a crossover with Africa. The distance between the continents on the Spanish/Moroccan crossing is only nine miles. The Celts are related to the Berber people who once formed a great Empire until finally defeated by the Arabs, and are now undergoing a cultural revival in the same vein as the European Celts. The Kabyle people of Algeria often have light skin and blue eyes, coming as they do originally from the Aryan peoples of ancient Greece. The Arab or Moorish empire stretched into southern Europe as far north as the Loire, and is the origin of the saying that the south starts at this East/West river, below which people tend to be darker in skin and hair colour, and the lifestyle more relaxed.
Africa is home to great empires too, the Berbers, the Arabs, the Malian Empire which was so wealthy from trading that the streets of Timbuktu were said to be paved with gold, the great Ethiopian Empire,Ghana, Bambara, Garamantes, Egypt. What does it mean to an African to remember these great peoples? The colourful Berber in Algiers, reclaiming his heritage; the purple-scarved Touareg, mapping the peoples of the immeasurable Sahara; the Malian farmer, surveying the quality of his cotton crop, the displaced farm worker of catastrophic Zimbabwe; the children sheltering from the bombardment in Iraq; the Nigerian tradesman counting his money and planning to smuggle it to the UK!. The Muslim villager, struggling to live with honour; the miners of South Africa; the gallant Ethiopian, whose borders remain uninvaded for the longest of all nations on earth, home of Shakespeare’s Othello.
Austria of course used to be a great Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who fought the Ottomans more or less continuously and derived a lot of their reputations and pride from these great battles. How unfortunate that troubles in the Balkan states led to wars they could not win, and in which they were minor players, and how misguided to side with Hitler and be faced now with the memory of grandeur, and also the mantle of shame. To remember or to forget - which is least painful?
Great peoples and great histories are in all our memories, as well as stories of shame. The result of the end of the Malian empire, defeated at the hands of the Arabs, marked the beginning of slave-trading within Africa, and eased the way for the white slave traders later. Involvement in the slave trade brought a sense of shame on the European empires long before they began to fade. These common histories join us as much as they divide us.
Africa, is divided by the false borders of the former colonies, divided by borders and by languages, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Afrikaans Dutch; divided by tribes, some of which stretch over the old borders, some which create bloodshed to rival twentieth century Europe, like the murderous genocide in Rwanda; divided by religion, especially by Islam and Christianity, a story going back centuries, yet these two religions so close as to be siblings in the same family. Africa, who sometimes wants to progress by emulating the northern industrialised nations, and sometimes wants to find its own culture, buried in half-forgotten traditions. Ruined cities, archaeological treasures beyond the imagination of Europeans, newly uncovered in the desert winds, fossils from the beginning of time, the memory of man. The heritage of Africa lies also in the sculpture, textiles and music which form the basis of white culture in the guitar-blues of Mali, the dancers of Senegal, the colours of Kenya.
Most importantly, modern Africa, more modern than anybody, has taught us how to end division by forgiveness and by moving forward, when Bishop Tutu devised the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Africa gave birth to the greatest humanitarian statesman of them all in Nelson Mandela. Africa has its own future, taking its place again at the heart of the world’s great civilisations, this time founded on culture and dialogue instead of destruction and war. Africa and Europe, we have so much more that joins us, than divides us.
Tags: Africa Nigeria Algeria Moslems Christians Nelson Mandel, Art, Classic, Continent, Creative Writing, Europe, Family, France, home, jill, money, Nigeria, Quality, Spain, Stories, Story, Travel, War, WorkRelated posts
The Thing About Barack
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008The thing about Barack is not so much that he himself is black, since he’s satisfactorily ‘whitified’ and middle class now, but that, by association, he is connected to other black people. White Americans don’t like to think of themselves as racist, generally speaking. The Great Hero of school children after all is the legendary freedom fighter Martin Luther King, and the almost mythical John F. Kennedy himself supported civil rights for the black population of the USA, and was grievously mourned by black people after his assassination, weeping women lining the railway track along the fields and farms of Alabama as his body was slowly chugged back to Washington. What the American middle class don’t like however, and what Barack can hardly disassociate himself from, is black people manifesting what is considered inappropriate black behaviour, especially anger.
The image of the angry violent black man is strong in the white American consciousness, but not in their conscience. Black Americans have a special identity, not to be confused with general black people, such as Africans. It’s not so much a skin colour, as a social position. The social position associated with black Americans is of course as former slaves, a people who the whites have brutally and terribly wronged. The white American feels really bad about that. If it is permitted, as in some southern state communities, they feel the cold anger of justification, which is suppressed guilt. The black citizen of America is working class, and poor, as befits a freed slave. The long road to middle-class-dom is not easily trod from a rural southern township with little educational opportunities, and few black families have as yet walked this road. The association of black people with poor, ill educated and angry citizens is a fair one, but does not bring the whites ease.
So when Barack’s long time friend, mentor and guide, the preacher Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Expressed his anger and distrust in the white middle class system, the spectre of the angry black radical once more raises his curly head before quiet white Americans, and they are afraid. Fear is a twisted and distorted parasite of the subconscious mind, and of course no-one really believes that Barack would muster an army of crazed Black Panther youths to storm the peaceful suburbs of ordinary Americans: this would be irrational. But fear is irrational, and fear of Barack lies just below the water-line, where liberals’ racism really lurks.
In 1923 the blues singer Leadbelly found himself jailed, as so many young black men do, and won his release, not by justice or by law, but by singing to the Governor. He pleaded unashamedly for freedom, and I am told he accompanied the song with a little tap dance too. White America doesn’t like its black man to be upstanding, to refer to the Constitution and to equal rights within the law. Leadbelly won his freedom by playing to the common image of the black man, the hoped-for image, the tamed domestic animal, grateful not to be still a slave, accepting of his status as a child to the white authority figure.
In the movie Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman’s character Red tries year after year to get his parole, but is constantly refused. Only when he gives up, his spirit broken, and declares that he accepts his fate and the prison governor’s right over him, is he set free.
Barack too, if he wants to be allowed near the WHITEhouse, must continue to play the grateful educated subdued black. He responded to Reverend Wright by disassociating himself from angry black people. No sir, this candidate is just a white man’s pawn. Should Barack forget his lines, he might like to make use of Leadbelly’s.
Please, Governor Neff, Be good ‘n’ kind
Have mercy on my great long time…
I don’t see to save my soul
If I don’t get a pardon, try me on a parole…
If I had you, Governor Neff, like you got me
I’d wake up in the mornin’ and I’d set you free
