tHiNkEr’S rOoM

Prousette found something interesting in this weekend’s paper

Few are unfamiliar with the Fair and Lovely brand. Fewer still would be unfamiliar with their ad.

This features an unfortunate maiden, handicapped not by education, brains, wit, binocular vision or bipedal motion, but by the curse of skin that is a rich ebony. This chocolatey skin serves her during job interviews the same way a dangling rat’s tail from the side of her mouth would. She is dismissed with nary a cursory glance by the interviewers upon ascertaining she is not the complexion of the average foolscap.

On the dating scene matters are just as grim. Tall dark and handsome strangers pass her in the street as if she was simultaneously suffering from leprosy and gangrene.

Until of course an ever helpful friend gushingly tells her of a new product … Fair and Lovely.

Within weeks (says the ad, accompanied by time delay photos) our maiden’s face and hands become lighter and lighter. I assume the rest of her becomes lighter as well. We can’t have the mask and glove effect, can we?

It is only with her light skin that she is able to wow interviewers with her charm, intelligence and natural wit. A leering doofus in the next cubicle leers some more. On her way out suitors at attention line up.

Ah, what magic a little cream can do!

It would seem that men are laboring under similar yokes. They fail to get jobs, attention, dates because of their unnaturally rich chocolatey skin. This is a theorem I welcome with open arms as I find it fully consistent with my self esteem issues.

Good news my fellow brethren! Fair and Handsome is here.

Apparently men’s skin  needs to be fair because it is

• 3 times more exposed to the sun
• 5 times more exposed to pollution
• 2 times more exposed to stress factories

Let me start you off with the opening lines

Emami, in collaboration with Activor Corp, USA, herbalists and dermatologists from India has created a unique fairness cream for Men with a breakthrough Five Power Fairness System to make skin fair and handsome in 4 weeks. It also helps in relieving stress and fatigue signs - gives men’s tough skin a firmer look. Emami Fair And Handsome World’s No.1 fairness cream protects men’s face from sun’s UV Rays.

Right on!

For more fun get there and enjoy.

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka thoughtfully and happily checks out Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice’s “Official Position”

Some time ago I penned a passionate appeal to my fellow brothers about the usage of the throne room. And you, of course, disregarded every word I said!

On retrospect perhaps I wouldn’t mind having daughters instead of sons. The associated hardware and utilities required in raising a girl (shotgun, pistol & associated firearms, machetes and whips for errant boys) are a small price to pay for having lovely, gentle and well mannered girls in the house instead of shouting, rowdy and disgusting small boys whooping and leaving muddy prints everywhere.

Take for example last week. I was at some large corporation whose identity I shall keep secret to protect the guilty. Shortly before lunch (the meeting was strategically set up in the window between 11 and 2, leaving the host no option but to feed me and my lads) I walked into the washroom to wash my hands. Yes, gentlemen. Shocking as it may seem some people still wash their hands before meals! It was not some sinister agenda imposed on your mothers from communist Russia!

If Jack Bauer ruthlessly shot his best friend in the head, his wife in the heart decapitated a hapless prisoner while shouting into his mouthpiece “Chloe, pull up the schematics of the lavatory” this is what he would come up with.

The battle theaters are as follows:

A (Medic) Where preparations are (generally) made before and after combat. Those of us who visit the Medic was our hands. Sadly, we are a minority
B (Fantasia) Where limited operations, generally of chemical nature are effected
C (Kosovo) Where dive and cluster bombing, as well as light machine gun fire cum gas warfare is practiced

Now, there I was, hands gleaming from liquid soap and starting to walk towards the door, whistling the happy whistle of a man about to sit down to a free and wholesome meal when the door burst open and a man swaggered into the facility.

That I did not mind. That sort of thing happens, given statistics, probability and other whatnots.

What I did mind, and mind to the extreme, was that the man had opened his firing turret and his howitzer was aimed, locked and loaded at the recommended 45 degree angle.

So let us recap.

Starting to move due South was M, hands washed, anticipating a lunch.

Advancing North without cover is Megatron, cannon exposed pointing, inevitably, due North.

Now I don’t know about you but I acutely, emphatically and totally object to having another man’s equipment in my face pointing at me as a rule. It’s just not my cup of tea.

Meditating pleasantly about a lunch of roast potatoes, pan fried steak, lettuce and tomato, the mind was lurched into unplanned for activity and the following tumbled out

1. What the hell?
2. WHAT.THE.HELL.
3. What if in addition to priming his weaponry early the feller had an itry trigger finger and fired … er … prematurely?
4. If a random stranger walked in, or worse still a client, how on earth would I begin to explain things?

Megatron suddenly noticed  that he was not alone and there was “gentleman, dead ahead”.

What followed was a social impasse that has played out ever since Adam and Eve discovered they were naked.

M went to his left and Megatron went to his right, effectively blocking him.

M then went to his right and Megatron to his left, again blocking him.

Megatron was a believer in pragmatism and saw no need to holster his weapon if he was going to unholster it not 15 seconds in the near future. So as we danced the dance (a dance without even a damn dinner!) a chemical weapon was pointing at me.

Finally I saw that we were getting nowhere so I effected a tactical retreat due North towards the far wall.

Megatron took this to be a surrender and consolidated his position by advancing North as well.

Hands spread in surrender I backed further and further, dying a thousand deaths at the thought of someone wandering into the scenario that from a cursory glance was getting dangerously close to a BBMM (Brokeback Mountain Moment). Some things really cannot be easily explained. It won’t do for a man that has spent his career elaborating at great detail the dimensions of Miss Halle Berry to be caught in such a situation. Within moments the creative grapevine would be buzzing and I would be fielding questions as to which of us said “I wish I could quit you” .

My breath caught in my throat as I felt the wall behind and I rapidly consulted the field manual on what to do in such situations. The manual drew a blank.

Megatron mercifully pulled a sharp right turn at the corner and rumbled into Fantasia for some light skirmishes.

I departed with a sonic boom.

As we sat down to lunch my host looked with concern at my violent and passionate objection to an aperitif of sausages …

Guys, is it too much to keep your weapons holstered until you’re actually at the firing range?!!

Without a doubt one of the most uttered sentences in Kenya today is along the following lines …

Me? A tribalist? No! I am no such thing!

A more refined version goes as follows.

I am not a tribalist! In fact I have friends who are Kikuyu/Luo/Kamba etc.

Interesting. A feeling of déjà vu took over me and it’s just this morning I figured out what was causing that feeling.

About two years ago I wrote a post about tribalism, or to be precise an amazing creature that had been introduced to me called “positive tribalism“. I remember how astounded I was when I first heard it. I thought it was the most outrageously preposterous thing I have ever heard. And there were people who objected to my objection. The post, needless to say, triggered a healthy debate, replete with the usual fare of outraged indignation, threats, and insults, thinly veiled and outright, that I preserved in their entirety. The only comment I obfuscated was one attacking someone else (the only fair game I allow here is myself!)

My opinions have not changed. I think positive tribalism is about as absurd as positive racism. I think it a thinly veiled attempt to legitimize the illegitimate.

I think if you voted for Mwai Kibaki because he is Kikuyu, or Raila Odinga because he is  Luo, then you’re an ass.

I think if you didn’t vote Mwai Kibaki because he is Kikuyu, or you didn’t vote for Raila Odinga because he is Luo, then you’re an ass.

If tribe was one of the considerations in your voting decision, then you’re an ass.

What makes me especially sad is that many of the people I know born in the window between 1970 and 1990, who really ought to know better by virtue of being brought up in a cosmopolitan Nairobi have left me puzzled and saddened.

I find it difficult to believe that to a wo(man), most of my peers with roots (albeit several times removed) in Central Kenya resonate with Mwai Kibaki’s policies and agenda, and that his tribe was not a factor. I find it difficult to believe that to a wo(man), most of my peers with roots (albeit several times removed) in Nyanza resonate with Raila Odinga’s strategies for growth and empowerment, and that his tribe was not a factor.

Let me stress that again. These are not people in Central Kenya and Nyanza who have grown up in a homogenous community. I’m talking about people who grew up in cosmopolitan, multi-cultural estates.

Absolutely preposterous that we, the leaders of tomorrow, the iPod-carrying, blogging, Kwani-reading campus graduates have the temerity to purport to be the enlightened future of this nation and yet we still use tribe as a guide in our decision making!

If the tribes of our play pen mates when we were howling toddlers filling our pants did not affect us, and they did not affect us when we were racing our BMX and Choppers how then are we, the product of the cosmopolitan 80s and 90s, using these very things we ignored against our fellows? How, in 2008, can lawyers and doctors and engineers who will be standing for public office in 4-8 years subtly and openly promulgate the same innuendo, fear, paranoia and outright hate and in the same breath express outrage at people hacking each other to death?

My friends, using blogger.com and WordPress.com does not absolve you from your responsibilities. Neither does using gmail.com or yahoo.com. Neither does using Safaricom and Celtel text messaging facilities. Using technology to spread disunity does not absolve you of responsibility!

Do you get outraged when you hear “thieving nigger”? (Yes, nigger) You do? Then why don’t you get outraged when you hear:

• Money hungry Kikuyu
• Colour blind Kamba
• Violent Kisii
• Extravagant Luos
• Chicken loving Luhya
• Warlike Somali
• etc

I’ll just bet you don’t! And I also bet you forwarded and re-forwarded all those inane jokes starting with “A Kikuyu, a Luo and a Luhya …”, that you fondly believed to be funny.

It’s just a joke, you say? Oh really? Is blackface funny? Disabuse yourselves of that notion!

We are the generation that ought to know better. Why then do our communication, our perceptions, our stereotypes and our voting have anything other than sound logic, merit and character at their foundation?

Have the two-faced youth done this country a disservice, preaching unity from one side of the doubt and undermining it with the other? Could we be the problem?

Given the events of the past 3 weeks I’m beginning to be so inclined …

AOB

I was very serious about hate speech in this blog. If I find your comments fail to live up to the basics of respect for your fellows, even those of opposing views then your comment, and then you, are gone. I am not interested in Oompa Loompas and River Trolls interested in sowing their hate here. I will black list your IP address. I will not remove your IP address from the black list until January 1, 2012. So do not bother emailing me.

USHAHIDI.COM

A brilliant initiative is ushahidi.com, an initiative to keep track of incidences of unrest in the country. Ushahidi.com is a tool for people who witness acts of violence in Kenya in these post-election times. You can report the incident that you have seen, and it will appear on a map-based view for others to see. This will be a big help not only in knowing what’s going on, but also some time in the future be a tool for introspection

Vote Of Thanks

Many thanks to everyone sending all those emails and text of concern. I am alive and well and taking good care of myself. I am a bit flooded with emails but am doing my best to respond to everyone.

Special thanks to all those sending in news and information. Special thanks to WathiiFM for updates from the Buru Buru area and first class pictures

Housekeeping

I fondly believe that most of my readership are adults of sound mind with a modicum of maturity. In case you are not, allow me to tell you this. This is not a site to propagate hate and rumours. I have spent more time than I should moderating obtuse comments. I am tired of that. I have many other things to worry about. Henceforth if you post something even remotely advocating hate or violence not only will I delete it, I shall blacklist you from ever visiting my blog again. I shit you not. If you think this is a convenient avenue for your hate, think again. I have no time for your nonsense. We want solutions, not more problems.

My connection is not the most stable so henceforth I shall be uploading a huge combined post whenever I can.

News Update

• Official death toll is now 300. Unofficial death toll is much larger
• Yesterday there were skirmishes in Bahati, Maringo, Kangemi, Arwings Kodhek, Industrial Area and Thika Road
• A man was killed on Thika Road when police fired in the air, severing an electrical cable that fell on him
• ODM rally was moved to Saturday
• At long last Mwai Kibaki addressed the nation in a lackluster speech long on hot air, ambiguity, vagueness and lethargy and short of concrete solutions
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu arrived and met with the ODM leadership. The grapevine has it that Kibaki initially refused to meet with him. Subsequently it turned out that a meeting was indeed scheduled for this day.
• Again proving that no matter how low the bar is, stupidity will always find a way to slither under, Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua, rose eyed lens firmly on, castigates the international community for interfering.
• Flies on the wall allege that Kibaki himself is pretty amenable to negotiation. But as is the hallmark of his regime other elements in his administration are taking hardline positions.
• Same flies say that Kibaki is willing to form a coalition government with the opposition. This I have to see to believe. 
• Nairobi water company allays fears that the city water supply is poisoned.

Kibaki’s Speech Highlights

• He is deeply concerned
• He condemns the violence
• Kenya is a peaceful country (Is it now?)
• Justice abounds in Kenya. No one has ever been denied justice
• He too, just like other Kenyans, was made aware that he was won in that same press briefing of the ECK
• He has followed the law all the while and will continue to
• Anyone with problems with the outcome should take it up with the court
• He would seek solutions once the situation calms down. (WTF?!! People are dying while you wait!)
• He had no time for journalists’ questions. If they had any they should come tomorrow. (People will be dying while we await for you to be comfortable with questions)

State House

Earlier today I drove past State House. A continuous flag like the one that is put on public holidays is very much in evidence. I took some very illegal pictures juggling camera and car. It is no idle rumour that the security personnel there are overzealous. A friend of mine once stopped outside one of the far flung entrances and within minutes a truncheon was being bounced off his amazed skull.

Personally I would take down that flag. It can be construed as a celebration of Kibaki’s new term. I don’t think there is anything to celebrate.

Here are the pics (Quality is not the beast because I was driving and some were taken through windscreen)

 
Road heading towards State House, adjacent to the grounds

The State House Junction

Approaching the main gate

The main gate

The Rally

I’ve been roving here and there to capture developments on the ground just after the skirmishes took place. The pictures are sobering indeed. My heart breaks when I photograph what some Kenyans have done to others. Scarred indeed are our weary souls.

The following set is from a looted Coca Cola distributor on Arwings Kodhek. I spoke to the proprietor and the owners of the adjacent stalls. The angry mob repulsed by the police in Hurlingham wreaked havoc. The vendors lost their fruits and vegetables. Hooligans would bite a mango and throw the rest at cars, buildings, etc.

At the depot they broke bottles from some 300 or so crates.

A destroyed adjacent vegetable stall. They ate the fruits and took or destroyed the vegetables

Another looted vegetable stall

A torched stall

Broken glass on the road

A closer view of the glass. They broke 300 crates

Pile of shattered glass

A closer view

A still closer view

The distributor

Attempts to recover

 
Uprooted bus stop

The following set is from the Engen Petrol station further down the road

The empty parking bay

The looted quick shop

The broken door through which they entered

 
Thrown stones litter the parking

Entrance to the adjacent restaurant

 
Windows of the restaurant

An ignored plea in the restaurant window

Kenya Burns

I weep.

Rioters burn tyres behind a locked gate

I need not tell you that as I write this our country is on fire. Flames stoked by the ineptitude of the current regime and outright tribal polarization by politicians have finally exploded in a shocking turn of violence and destruction. Neighbours are turning against each other. People are suddenly afraid.

The rowdy mob makes its presence felt

Myself included. As I was driving to visit the missus who lives in an area that happens predominantly of a single community I wondered what exactly I would do if I was stopped by a mob and asked to identify myself. One of the names given to me by my folks happens to be Luo, and it is proudly there on my ID. The fact that I am not actually Luo would not help be because assumptions would probably be made on the strength of my ID, as is happening in many places in Nairobi, let alone Kenya. I have two friends in hospital who has “the wrong names” on their IDs.

An unfortunate is arrested

However I refused to succumb to this situation. I refuse to be a victim of the greed of the political elite.

GSU personnel run after a mob

The fact of the matter is that the political elite is very comfortable in their homes. I drove by State House this morning and not only is the road clean and uncluttered, there are flags all over presumably to celebrate the Kibaki victory. Unlike my hood where there is debris and ashes and broken glass and stones all over.

A GSU office reloads with tear gas

Our politicians are not suffering. They have running water. Milk, eggs, bread, meat and even cake are delivered to their doorsteps.

Reloading

It is me and you, my friends, who risk being beaten up by mobs and shot by the police as we look for milk and bread for us and our own.

A GSU officer ready for anything

The political elite are enjoying cartoons and soap operas and football on their DSTV and GTV. It is only me and you who are watching KTN and K24 and Al Jazeera and NTV to see the carnage being visited on our country. (KBC is not a serious news station. They’ve been showing cartoons and comedy clips as the country disintegrates)

 
Fully reloaded the GSU set off after rowdy mobs

The political elite sleep soundly in the peace and quiet Kitusuru and Thigiri and Riverside. It is us unfortunates who have our sleep interrupted by screams and shouts and gunshots.

The press in the thick of things

The political elite have access to fist class air tickets to fly out of the country. It is me and you who have nowhere to run to. If Somalis and Rwandas and Ugandans and Sudanese flee here, where o where are we to flee to?

 
Still reloading

And while our brothers and sisters and cousins and nephews and nieces are dying, pseudo-leaders wallowing in crass stupidity appear on TV to grandstand, blaming the chaos on each other.

Listen, nitwits. We are not interested in your grandstanding and finger pointing. We want solutions. Alfred Mutua, we have no time for your foolishness Kenyans are dying. We need all the help we can get to contain this situation. Accusing the international community of interference is nothing short of obtusely crass stupidity. This is not an episode of your half baked pesudo-thriller Cobra Squad! This is real life!!!

The GSU at work

We’ve had enough of nonsense press statements from comfortable hotels and the State House lawn. Come and make those inane gestures from Kibera or Mukuru or Thika Road or Kangemi. I dare you. Come down like me and other Kenyans who have no security detail and do your grandstanding!

What Should Be Done?

• Every politician and their offspring should have their visas canceled and should be denied new ones. Let you and your children experience the Kenya that you created! Let your children come back from the US and Australia and Canada and England and live with the consequences of what Mama and Papa created like the rest of us!
• The grandstanding between the government and ODM should stop. We are not interested in your foolish finger pointing games. It is we, not you, who are suffering. Shut your mouths and give us solutions, not problems. The media (local and international) should give the ilk of Alfred Mutua a total blackout.
• Kibaki and Odinga should visit the affected areas and make their statements for there. If they are so sure they are right then there should be no problem in facing your people.
• PNU and ODM must negotiate without pre-conditions. This is no longer about you.
• This is not merely a matter of getting peace. We need to treat the disease, as well as the symptoms. The disease is justice, or lack thereof. If we don’t sort out this root cause then the violence will just flare up again later.
• Recounting the votes and re-checking the tallies I fear is no longer an option. It would seem that some form 16As have been conveniently stolen from the safe in which they were stored. Presumably ballot boxes are being stuffed with votes as we speak.

The ideal solution I would think, would be along the following

• Kibaki and Odinga agree to a government of National Unity, with the former as president and the latter as vice president. The cabinet would then be split between PNU and ODM
• In 6 or so months, fresh elections to be held
• Neither Odinga nor Kibaki should offer themselves for election. They are even more polarizing than they were before. We need a completely new shift in governance. Those political fossils still in power need to go before they sink us all
• The election should be overseen by an imported Electoral Commission. I would not trust the ECK to hit the water if it fell out of a boat
• Usage should be made of all the TV footage and camera pictures. Neigbourhoods and communities should be called upon to identify the murderous and destructive fools that have been the instruments of destruction. They should be dealt with ruthlessly once identified.

As with most ideal solutions this one has a fatal flow. Neither Kibaki nor Odinga have demonstrated putting the welfare of the nation above their own.

What can we do?

Go into your hood and talk to people. If you’re waiting for someone else to do it you’re part of the problem. You have youth groups and fellowships and estate committees and outreach programs and tuition groups. Go and talk to them. Go into the community and preach peace.

People in the slums do not have TV to watch the televised campaigns. The most powerful voice is yours. The people know you and they probably trust you so they’ll listen to you.

If I do that and you do that and the people you talk to do the same pretty soon we’ll have covered this country.

Stop the fighting. Why are we losing our lives while the elite, who don’t care, are comfortable?

Show them they no longer have power over us. Show them that they work for us, not us for them.

Show then their days of lording over us and using us as cannon fodder are over.

Stop the fighting.

Stop the fighting.

Stop the fighting.

Unless you live under a disproportionately large rock, you cannot have escaped the recent political party nominations that transpired during the tail end of last week and the fallout that is taking place even as I write this.

On paper at any rate it was a simple affair. Party members would get together and out of a list of aspirants interested in contesting a seat on the party’s ticket, they would elect one who would go on to compete from the seat.

But the reality on the ground was another kettle of fish altogether indeed.

For once, out of the choice of laughing or crying, I am very sure of which one I should be doing. Crying.

The whole exercise exposed a number of things

Political Parties: Meaningless Entities

A political party is an absolutely meaningless entity in this country. I laughed myself into a foetal position watching a fellow who had switched parties during the course of Friday night at a press conference with officials of his new party (ODM-K). When given the microphone to express himself, the fellow could not even pronounce the name of the party leader and presidential candidate correctly. The fellow has no idea of the party ideals, visions and manifesto. But then again, neither does the party.

Politicians Never Lose: They Are Rigged Out

It was as if they were reading from the same (poorly written) script. Not one of the vanquished was actually vanquished. As one man they made reference to sham elections and rigging, even in cases where the defeat was by a margin of a couple of dozen thousand votes. Other fellows loudly proclaimed that they had not actually participated in the electoral process, despite there existing footage of them at polling stations voting and awaiting the results before roundly dismissing them as a sham.

Political Parties: Preach Water and Drink Johnny Walker

Any political party worth its salt cannot talk about democracy and then in the next breath introduce undemocratic practices like direct nomination. That is a slap in the face of democracy and the intelligence of the electorate. What criteria are used for the direct nominations, especially when there are aspirants on all the parliamentary seats? I would understand if a concession was made for the presidential candidate and perhaps the running mate.

Arguments are made that some of the members given direct nominations are of strategic importance to the party. This raises a couple of points:

1. If their importance is to the party, why then is the electorate being saddled with someone whose duties are to serve the party
2. Why are these individuals trying to be MPs at all? Let them serve the party fully in some other capacity as full time employees

Dishonesty & Corruption: Abounds In Political Parties

Only two answers can satisfactorily explain how Bill, who defeated Bob by 20,000 votes can find that Bob’s name is the one on the final list. Dishonesty and corruption. How can such people be trusted to manage our affairs?

Violence: A Tool Very Much In Use Today

Footage from ODM House was sobering indeed. Stones were thrown, windows were broken, heads were bloodied, limbs were injured. An aspirant from Dagoretti is nursing his wounds after disaffected party elements caught up with him.

Fees: Whither The Monies

Political parties made a brisk business collecting funds from parliamentary and civic candidates. Some parties charged 100,000/- for parliamentary candidates. Now, let us assume that each of the 210 constituencies drew at least 3 interested individuals. The total monies raised from the candidates is thus approximately 63,000,000. Yes, 63 million shillings. Remember we are yet to include the fees from those aspiring to be councilors. Now, given the fiasco, how much of this money was actually channeled to the nomination process itself?

Food For Thought

If political parties and politicians cannot be honest, transparent and sincere in a simple matter like party nominations, how then can they suddenly change such that in January 1 they will be honest, upright leaders of integrity that respect due process and the rule of law?

In my opinion the events Kenyans witnessed over the last week ought to be enough to convince them that we need an entirely new breed of leadership. Leopards do not change their sports, and even if they do — not in 30 days! You cannot be Jekyll today and Hyde tomorrow.

All 3 of the big political parties have given us a cursory preview of their inner workings. And it stinks. The stink is enough to turn the air around us blue for miles. All I can see is half baked leadership masquerading as real change, continued development and a new paradigm shift.

Soldiers have no say over who gets to be their General. Therefore a mediocre general does not say much about the solider’s. Elected leaders is another cup of tea. Mediocre leaders speaks volumes about the electorate.

Much as I take immense satisfaction in some of the big names being trounced at the nominations, I am wary of the fact that Kenyans are notoriously short of memory and might just gift these rejects 5 additional years of room, board, travel and leisure at our collective expense. Literally.

Don’t vote for parties. Don’t vote for individuals. Don’t know them? Make use of Mzalendo. For those incumbents attempting their luck again, check out their track record and what their constituents think of them. Anyone that has been a lethargic doofus for 5 years is unlikely to change within the month.

For the new comers check out their dreams, aspirations, ideas and what their constituents think of them.

Vote for achievements. Vote for ideas. Vote for potential.

Don’t vote for fairy tales. There’s a world of a difference between potential and fairy tales!

AOB

My sympathies go out to our friends in Kampala. The delegations arriving for the Cerebral Hemorrhoids Order General Meeting, of whatever CHOGM stands for. If its’s anything like the summit for Mayors held in Nairobi (or what was it of again?) Princes Camilla and Charles, and indeed everyone else will be treated to spotless streets (that are actually washed, leave alone swept daily), absence of parking boys, men and women (driven away with the threat of violence), 24 hour electricity (a pleasant surprise to most) and no traffic (ramshackles like Roberta need not apply). Needless to say that state of order and cleanliness lasted about as long as a Brazilian in a British tube station. As soon as the last taxi set off for the airport the City Council came to its senses and questioned the rationale of cleaning streets for black assed residents …

PIC OF THE DAY

Yum yum!

DMX - Catz Don’t Know