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Showing posts from August, 2008

Big Brother Africa 3

This time last year Big Brother Africa 2 came out. I see-sawed between elation and utter disappointment with that season. Elation because the world could be forced to see that Africans are far from the backward homo-sapien they portray us to be and disappointment because our vices are just as bad as the rest of the world. In my idealistic brain I tend to believe we have more class when it comes to morals, ah well, no. Last night I watched the launch of Big Brother 3. I noted that this season they have taken beauties and hunks. For the first time, Malawi is represented my a woman, Hazel Warren. for the sake of being patriotic I'll certainly root for her, I do hope she represents Malawi well, and Africa. My favorite hunk though is the Nigerian.....check them out: Hazel and Uti

Of Charcoal and The Law

It all started when a truck-load of charcoal wanted to make it's way past The Law. Apparently there was a scuffle over some shady business I'd rather not discuss, the end result: three casualties and riots, teargas and smashing of windows, blown tyres and the truck's crashing into a minibus with passengers (not in that order but it all happened). It is terrible stuff to happen in this country, I neither side with The Law nor sellers of charcoal on this one. A bad situation that got worse.

Soldiers and Parliament

I've heard both sides of the story: the opposition isn't too crazy about "threats" that the government will send soldiers to close down parliament if they carry on with dilly-dallying on passing the budget. and the government says that it's not a "threat", the Police and Army are the security to the parliament grounds so they'll simply be ordered to close the gates to the parliament should time-wasting be prolonged. I don't know what is what, all I know is that we aint a military state so let Malawian peace reign supreme!!! Abeg, Abeg (notice for once I've used "Abeg" twice. Malawi, Malawi, Malawi...how many times have I called you-O, listen-O, peaceful reconciliation is not for losers-O. Oho, ndanenatu

Bernie Mac, life and death

Bernie Mac was an artist that I took note of. He made me laugh and there was something very familiar about him that even though I'm Malawian and he was a Chicago native, it felt like he was family. I never met him, never met a star in my life, but it's so sad to hear of his passing. He passed away yesterday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Saturday from complications related to his battle with pneumonia. Bernie's real name was Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (see I didn't know that either), he died at 50. Are you ready for death? What do you think about Jesus? He's THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life - even beyond the grave. See, ever realized He uses "THE", meaning people think it's polite to say, "Well, there are many ways and truths and many pursuits for life, but nah, get it right, right now. He is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life. Amen

Olympics and Chinese construction workers in Malawi

I was an ardent supporter of parents who are believers in the "no TV running your life" philosophy. Well, now that the Olympic Games are here, I'm getting quite jealous of those who are getting to see all the action. I got a text from Wyoming at 4am telling me my fellow Malawians were on TV. I wasn't upset at the timing of the text, I was upset that I don't have a TV running my life. Fancy all those hours spent productively watching Beijing, sports, Beijing, sports, Beijing..... On another note, I was quite surprised to see a truck ferrying Chinese construction workers in Lilongwe. I've heard about Chinese construction workers elsewhere in Africa but to me this was a surprising sight all the same. Am I being idealistic in hoping that they will teach us their unique skills in building and pass the construction mantle back soon after? Abeg

Cuil

Cuil I just love this new search engine! For one, it's new, everything new, I just love. And then when you do search, it actually gives you cool excerpts of the search finds. I searched for something not easy to find on Google, an African thing, Google et al. turned up a handful of finds but CUIL came up with more finds (I'm yet to decide whether the finds were fruitful or not). From this Hemisphere....Here's looking at you CUIL!! sorry Jeeves, can't google you much these day, might Yahoo search you or MSN search you at some point but don't you just love cool cuil?

Yvonne Chaka-Chaka

It's a problem when one gets so used to Malaria being there and people dying of Malaria that it just becomes part of the norm. When Code, Malawi's Big Brother Africa representative last year, took up the task of fighting against Malaria, I was like, "Wack bro, why don't you crusade for the most popular things like HIV/AIDS and vulnerable children etc. " It's quite possible that more die of Malaria than AIDS and not enough funds are going into malaria research. What I know is that new drugs are coming up all the time as the parasite becomes resistant. Although I am quite suspicious of malaria drug makers, just between you and me, I think they make a killing. After all it's only in Africa that the disease is prevalent (pardon my ignorance but I have actually never heard of it elsewhere) so I think they have a field day: "Right, let's hit them with this SP." "Nah, we'll expire that SP next year, is it time to pull out chloroquine again?