I ranted two weeks ago about the gas shortage in Georgia and what I perceived as price gauging- being charged $5.19 per gallon for premium grade. My karma comes quickly, so I guess I shouldn't have complained. Here's some more gas ranting.

Not only do we still have a shortage, now the queues are longer because there is a $50.00 maximum. Here's the kicker we do not have premium grade gas. Oh, I've looked, spent two hours on the phone Saturday morning calling gas stations within twenty miles of my home. I've taken to shamelessly asking everyone that I overhear mention gas which grade of fuel their vehicle takes, what gas station did they queue at.

How bad is it? Sad enough to drive around with a phone book. I've considered waiting for the owner of parked vehicles that I know only run on premium so I could interrogate the owner. I shamelessly sent out an S.O.S email at work, to which I received responses that went something like this: Will trade info for a $2.00 gas card (yes two), Will trade info for a vacation day, Will trade info for a bag of orange M & M's.

I get in my truck and have technicolor delusions of the gas tank falling off in protest of having to run on Regular, or stalling out on a hill, at a traffic light, or not starting when I am running late for work.

I don't know what the long term effects of running on Regular will be... is there truly a consequence?  Thanks, this fiasco has given the Virgo in me one more thing to worry about.

For those of you who do not know, I am half Sierra Leonean. My heart strings are moored at Lumley Beach. Her shores call to me in my sleep, She is home in my waking and sleep states.

News Story

ACCOUNTABILITY IS Equal to Sustainable Development.

9.26.2008

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: MOHAMED YONGAWO- Irrespective of which political flag we fly, I believe all Sierra Leonean's should stop the unrelenting sycophancy and kowtowing to our leaders. We should adopt the habit of questioning their actions or inactions. For a very long time our leaders have and continue to trample on us with impunity and unabated because we have been seen to be soft and are always prepared to roll the red carpet for them irrespective of their misdeeds in public service. In the process, our politicians have been dehumanized and turned into demagogues. They should be humanized again by any means possible.

Say for instance, if President Ernest Bai Koroma states he is going to float a bridge across the Atlantic connecting Freetown and Lungi. I agree he should be applauded for such a brilliant idea. However, he should also be asked when? why? and how? he intends turning his pronouncement to reality. Also, he should be questioned to outline the benefits this would bring to the nation. Most importantly he should be grilled about funding and how the contracts for the project will be awarded. Are there going to be open or kitchen bids? The latter is the normal practice in Sierra Leone although it blatantly ignores procedures put in place to regulate such activities.

I have no problem with the leadership globetrotting. I also have no qualms about with whom the leader dines or dances. However, I have issues with the size of the entourage, the price tag – huge or small, for the poor tax payers and the benefits these global visitations will bring to Sierra Leone. If my President, for example, jets to Nigeria, I would expect at the end of the state visit, meaningful economic or other deals are concluded with the Nigeria Government and Individuals or organizations interested in investing in the Sierra Leone Economy. On his return, I would also expect the deals so agreed to be placed before the nation’s parliamentarians for ratification, if this is deemed necessary and published for public consumption. By so doing the government becomes answerable to its citizenry and increases the latter’s interest and participation in the activities of the state. This is a very straightforward accountable statecraft that does not require knowledge of cosmic engineering.

I am tired of reading some online news outlets preaching again and again that the last administration was corrupt than this one. If anyone of the public servants who served in the last administration is found wanting let the individual be brought to book. However, this should not serve as an excuse for the current government to wallow like freed convicts and continue to be complacent on this burning issue of corruption while the general populace continue languishing in abject poverty.

I have to admit that I have no facts at hand to point fingers at particular government functionaries. However, reading from news outlets, it appears that there are abundance evidences of systemic corruption and the current administration presents to be turning a blind eye. The $25 million Wanza fiasco and the $32 million generator ‘wahala’ are few examples the government is yet to make the record straight on. Also, I have not seen or hear a government statement debunking allegations that Vice President Sumana bought a million dollar property somewhere in the US. Furthermore, I am yet to read or hear that the government or the appropriate arm of the state has held anyone accountable for the countless political or other violence perpetuated in the name of their political hues since this administration took power.

In that respect, I would particularly like to draw the leadership’s attention to Kambia District, which I understand is turning into a political hot potato. I hope I am wrong on some of the issues raised here; otherwise, the government would appear in the eyes of intelligent observers to be colluding with corrupt officers and political hoodlums. With the cocaine debacle I would rather not pre-empt the outcome of the ongoing court proceedings. My only hope is that those handling this cocaine issue know there is a symbiotic relationship between drug trafficking, corruption and chaos. Also, I hope those in power understand the ramifications of the availability of drugs within a very poor society like ours. Although, it is widely trumpeted by supporters of the government that the final destination of the cocaine was Europe, it will be naïve to presume that some of it will not end up in street corners and allay ways in parts of our country. If this happens we will be doomed for decades to come.

At every stage of our nation’s development our politicians and other public servants have always let Sierra Leone and Sierra Leonean's down. These group of people appear to know no tomorrow – they only live for today. They appear to have organized themselves into what I call a “Paris Club” or can I say cabal. They appear to only care for themselves and those closer to them. No plans, no programmes. Even where one is present rather than developing it, they ensure it is destroyed before they leave office. Sadly, sadly, today it seems some members of the fourth estate who the people rely on to champion their case appear to be kowtowing to these politicians. I love this popular Sierra Leone Maxine – ‘tell friend true nor dae pwel friend’.

I am pleading to my fellow Sierra Leonean brothers and sisters to open our eyes. We can not afford to be blind anymore. Yes, there are problems all over the globe and most of the issues in Sierra Leone are not unique to her alone. Even the most successful economies are not immune to the current economic virus that is fast becoming a pandemic. However, we can not continue blaming global problems for the ineptitude of our long dreadful history of uncommitted and indecisive leadership that has plagued our beloved Sierra Leone for decades. We have suffered for far too long, we deserve better. Join me to say very loud and clear that enough is enough.

We can all go around talking about democracy and changing of attitudes but actually what we are preaching is ‘DEMOCRAZY’, if we fail to tell the truth to those at the helm. Truth is perhaps the first principle of democracy and trying been hypocritical even where the truth flashes in ones face is dangerous and counter productive. Because, if one is not careful you may fall victim or worst still be spurn by your own lies - just because you fail to tell your friend the truth. Remember the famous saying – ‘what goes round comes round’. ‘Journalists’, even pretend ones are humans and therefore should not be expected to be interest immune. However, I and many others expect them to put the national interest before their selfish interests. Therefore, next time, when they put their pens to paper or click their keyboards, they should search very deep within their conscience and ask themselves whether what they are writing is in the nation’s interest or they are doing so to prop up a friend, ‘Ngor’ or ‘kortho’.

Everywhere you look around Sierra Leone – North – South – East and West, there are abundance lovely, industrious people and natural resources but we still present to be down and out. No, no we are not; we should only make our opinions known - by voicing them out. Even if it is going to hurt your brother, sister, father, mother, uncle, your political friend or foe – say it as it is. There should be no sacred cows. Gone are the kowtowing days. This is one means, I believe we can all play our part in redeeming our beloved motherland from the woeful state it is today to the part of sustainable development.

As always, I am one of those who still believe all is not lost. However, the government should start acting now before another generation is lost to empty words, empty promises and importantly to safeguard our baby democracy. Giving further powers to the Anti Corruption Commission as reported is a noble gesture, the president signing what I would term a memorandum of understanding with his Cabinet in respect of their performance in their different ministries is good. However, these and others will in the end become short term gimmicks if they are not seen to be implemented to the letter. Nevertheless, I do not really think the president needed a by -law in his dealings with his cabinet. I would like to presume His Excellency knows what he his doing.

In that respect I believe we the Sierra Leonean citizenry both home and abroad should also review our approach towards our politicians and other public servants. So, my brothers and sisters next time you stumble across the president, a minister, a parliamentarian or a civil servant, demand to know any good she or he has done or doing to still deserve been in the position she or he has been entrusted with. We should never again allow our politicians and other public servants to continue fooling themselves and feeding their egos with resources, which belongs to us all. Enough is enough.

Mohamed Yongawo

London, UK

The New People Newspaper Online:

Gas

I got off early today, at about noon, in enough time to witness the queue's at about six gas stations. What is going on? I don't understand the panic, come on people, we've been at this for over two weeks now. I refused to top off my tank. If gas cost more on Monday, I'll still have to pay the higher price come next Friday, regardless of the additional cost. Seriously, my tank doesn't know the difference between last Friday's gas and next Friday's gas. Okay, my wallet will know the difference, but I've got to have gas, regardless of the cost. Public transportation doesn't come out my way, and when my pager goes off, I've got to go wherever. Can we take a moment to rationally think our hoarding over please!

P.S., I am in Georgia.

Gas Prices

Every once in a while I look up gas prices in California to keep me from complaining about what I dish out for gas. My truck takes premium so I am used to paying more than the average person. I took the weekly cost into account when buying Bee four years ago, and didn't complain about $4.50 per gallon. I recently paid $5.19 a gallon and was limited to fourteen gallons. I am seriously considering converting my vehicle to bio fuel...I don't think I will ever pay $3.50 a gallon again what with the state of our economy.

 www.mojaveexperiment.com

I usually veg out in my bedroom, laptop on hand and I must confess the television on as company. Ninety eight percent of the time I am not watching it, but a Vista commercial caught my attention. I'll have to catch it again to consciously know what drew my concentration from work to the television screen. I'll be the first to tell you that I am a tv snob. Go easy, it was a discouraged pass time in my parent's home.

Vista is the operating system on my laptop, I have XP on my  PC. The difference is vast, like the convenience of a 7pm self checkout at your neighborhood grocers on a payday. In and out, get what you need minus crying babies, toddlers falling out, and the long wait.

Check out the posted web site, and let me know what you think.

Created an Event, I'll add pix as they are taken. 

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Moving Day

Hosted by: Moi Date and time: Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 7:45 AM Location name: Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan View this event on Windows Live

Sunday past I attended the funeral of an extended family member. My extended family is swelling in numbers large enough to fill a football field. We were supposed to gather by 1pm for the funeral procession to the church, we finally got under way at 2:30pm. By this time everyone is sweaty, not sweating, those of us that arrived on time had to wait for the rest of the family, this was a two and half hour wait in ninety plus degree weather.

Jada got bored as a four year old will and entertained herself in a manner that only she would think of. She is scared of animals to the extent that when she comes over to my place I have to put Shout (my cat) in a spare room.

Jada would run towards my grand-aunts dog screaming, supposedly out of fear, pull his tail then runaway screaming. The poor dog got smart and would run into his house when he would see her coming towards him. In her Sunday finery she got on all fours and tried to coax the dog out of his house, needless to say coaxing didn't work. Her mother finally put a stop to it when Jada decided to put her head in the dog's house. She got smart and would wait until the dog came out of his house, then repeated the whole spectacle times twenty. I don't need to tell you that what was white when we arrived wasn't by the time we got to church.

Her brother Kam, my darling Kam is no longer the chubby cheek angel who captured my heart. What Kam has lost in weight he has gained as mischief. Kam attacked two senior citizens, he tried to take the walking cain from one of our bicentennial grand-uncles while the man was standing. Once Kam gets going, telling him no will not stop him, you have to physically remove him from his prey. It was like watching a slow motion derailing, about twenty of us saw the the impending attack and fall. In unison we raced towards Kam, yelling nnnooooooo..thank goodness we made it to the other side of yard in time to steady our grand-uncle who had no idea what was going on. Kam was so angry that he was thwarted he attacked an elderly aunt, he got about ten licks in before he was carted away.

Jordan is truly a middle child, at three he displays all the idiosyncrasies that comes with that honored birth order. Jordan kept running in and out of our grand-aunts house which has a heavy screen door, and continued to after two spankings as he has a knack of closing his right hand in doors. Yup, you guessed it after about a half an hour of being passed from lap to lap to keep him out of trouble he made it back indoors, this time he didn't spare his hand and broke his pinky again.

All the above occurred prior to the funeral.

During the funeral service whenever one of the speakers raised their voice Kam would yell back for minutes at a time. His paternal grandmother missed more than half of the service as she would take him outside so he wouldn't disrupt the service. She ended up staying at the back of the sanctuary, which didn't help because Kam kept trying to run outside....and he made out a few times. Will you join me in welcoming Kam to Badness Inc.

Empresses Space

This is from a second hand acquaintance, a colleague of a friend who moved on to what he thought were greener pastures.

Yesterday I started my new job as an Editor of the Gamhuria Gazette, the oldest English language newspaper in Egypt. Yesterday I quit my new job at the oldest and worst English language newspaper in Egypt.

I was editing a piece on fashion. Egyptian youth these days are, apparently, wearing low-rider jeans and tight fitting clothes. They claim that this is a personal expression of freedom. Their parents are terrified. What?! Their daughters want to look sexy? Their sons admire gangster rappers?

I have to say, I'm not much impressed with the youth culture of America that these Egyptians, especially the privileged, are taking on. What I don't like is that rap culture, at it's most shallow, gives the appearance of rebellion without really providing any sort of social criticism. Of course there is great American rap, but it's not usually on the radio or TV. On the other hand, the kids who spoke up in this piece about fashion were quite articulate. They knew the code, and they knew very well the message they were sending. I really admire that.

The article ended with some college professor saying that "Freedom" couldn't mean the same thing in Egypt because here people have to uphold "traditional Eastern values." I wonder if China is involved somehow in these so-called "Eastern values." Two main problems here: (1) traditional western values don't teach us to wear provocative clothing (anyone remember the bonnet?), and (2) "traditional Eastern values" have fluctuated wildly over the course of the last few centuries and the last few decades.. Of course, what this professor, and the parents in the article, meant by "traditional Eastern values" is obedience to authority. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind calling blind obedience "Freedom." I mean, this is the kind of crap my country's government says!

In the end, I was proud of my contribution to the article. The editor did not approve. Mr. Ramadan, chief editor of the Gazette, had a few minor problems with my composition. Okay, no problem, I still think he was wrong, but I was more than happy to make the changes. Then he told me to lie. I asked him three times just to make sure.

At issue was a particular line which read: "some girls wear pants so tight that they have to put on a bikini underneath just to hide their lady parts when they sit down." He objected to the word "bikini," saying that it must mean shorts. I offered to show him the Arabic original which clearly stated "maillohat" which is a word borrowed from French to mean "bikini" or "bathing suit." He insisted. I told him that I wasn't going to distort some poor young lady's statement. I told him that he had no integrity or regard for the truth. Then I told him to go to hell.

His paper is notoriously conservative, a real tool of the government. He was going to lie so that he could avoid embarrassment, and so that he wouldn't embarrass Egypt. It's that very embarrassment about sex, and the inability to discuss sex frankly in the media, that maintains ignorance and conservatism. Let me make myself clear: I don't care how Egyptians dress. I just think that their attitudes should be fairly portrayed in the media.. I wasn't about to sell my soul for some flatulent and ignorant civil servant masquerading as a journalist, dear Mister Ramadan.

This happens just on the heals of a survey conducted by Dr. Aliyaa Shoukry regarding sexual harassment.

The study found: * 31.9% of women who reported sexual harassment were dressed like figure 1, wearing a blouse, long skirt and veil. 21.0% of women were wearing a longer blouse, pants, and veil like figure 3. Figure 4 was third, where women were wearing a cloak and veil (20 %), then figure 6 (19.6%). These results disprove the belief that sexual harassment is linked to the way women dress (women are sexually harassed when dressed "indecently" or are not veiled - in the words of some participants), since 72.5% of victims surveyed were veiled. *

This confirms that the stereotypical ideas of a patriarchal culture that blames women even if they are victims, is opposite to reality.

As it turns out, the problem isn't with women showing off their beauty.. The problem is that men are insecure and feel threatened by the beauty of a woman.

One more word before I finish. No doubt the Egyptian government will crack down on sexual harassment, especially against foreigners. Egypt is protective of it's tourism dollars.

But the real problem is that people in this country have very little space, almost none at all, for men and women to meet as equals. The veil is just a cover story. What's at stake is the place of women in this society, in this world. Until men and women are equal, sex will continue to be taboo, unsatisfactory, violent and patriarchal.

My aunt has an inoperable brain tumor. It is hard to accept her diagnosis because she does not look, nor behave as if she is ill.  I know it is selfish to want a loved one to stay amongst us longer than they are supposed to, yet I want her to fight. I want her to call upon all of our ancestors, all that is good, all that is love in this universe seen and unseen and grow old with us. 

I am a firm believer in positive thinking, I know that it works. Despite that, I don't want to know how to face a loved ones mortality and continue to smile. 

She is a mother to this motherless child, my friend, and a safe quiet place for me. I don't want to have this internal dialogue, I don't want to miss her, but mostly I don't want to know the awkwardness of her not being here.

My heart is broken, and I am filled with guilt. Sad for all the wasted moments that equate to years of taking her presence in my life for granted. Embarrassed about all the family events that I missed because of the selfishness of youth. Yet here I go across the world, someone please tell me how do I leave with grace?

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YouTube - Terrible Idol Auditions #9-Leroy Wells - Can you dig it?
  

  This is utter foolishness!  Can you dig Adderall XR?

YouTube - Terrible Idol Auditions #9-Leroy Wells - Can you dig it?
  

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YouTube - pop idol (verry funny)barbie girl
  

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YouTube - "See dem a come"
  

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YouTube - Learn Japanese Adjectives and Grammar : How to Speak Basic Japanese