Friday
I have before me an intriguing article from The New Vision (I've been picking on them a lot lately but I'm sure there is karma involved somehow) it's intriguing because I think it shows something of the mindset of a typical African politician.
The article is called ACHOLI GETS sh2b FOR PEACE. That sounded good- if anybody needs the money its the poor Acholi. However reading on, my initial optimism was quickly dashed like a streaker being rugby-tackled by a policeman just when he thinks he is going to make it all the way around the pitch. You see the four war-ravaged districts were being given 2 billion shillings to boost peace-building "through collecting the views of the people at the grassroots" According to one of the brains behind this project (I'm using the term 'brains' very loosely here) "Unless the last man in the village knows about peace and talks about it, we shall be wasting our time on peace-building and reconcilliation"
Really? Do you really think what Acholi needs right now is to sit around trying to define just what peace is? Do you think collecting their views is the best use of this money? I'm pretty sure they know what peace is- what is this experiment supposed to achieve exactly? Let me guess- it will discover that a) The Acholi really, really want peace b) they define peace as not getting shot at and abducted. Do you need two billion shillings for that? It's all very patronizing. And do the people behind this scheme really think the Acholi are not talking about peace? Seriously, what is going on?
Anyway moving on- this time to the recent arrest of nine British Muslims for allegedly plotting to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier- the footage of which would be posted on the internet. What really caught my attention was an article in the Guardian about the views of the people who lived in the area where the men were apprehended. Apparently their friends and neighbours were very, very shocked. It turns out they were always very friendly and polite. One of them worked so hard in his shop that they believe he didnt have time to be a terrorist. Another neighbour-applying rock-solid investigative skills- said "I don't believe he was involved with terrorism. I saw him at a wedding a couple of weeks ago and he just seemed like any normal guy."And of course such a story would be incomplete without people lining up to claim that they were all 'family men' and yes people dutifully did so. It seems none of them had a history of beheading others.
Now I don't know if the men are guilty or not, but surely being a 'family man' does not automatically rule you out as a terrorist? Likewise being 'kind' and 'polite' is hardly concrete evidence of their innocence. "Your honour I saw him at a wedding and he seemed like an okay guy. He was even getting people drinks and he gave me a piece of his chicken. He's obviously not a criminal...." or "Your honour he was working so hard in his grocery shop that he couldn't possibly have planned a beheading" Right.
Meanwhile opening sentence of the week comes from The New Times about one of Kigali's busiest shopping streets. It is possible that the writer got carried away just a teeny little bit.
"This Friday afternoon, as the sun rays glow, and the winds blow, the traffic slow, with interceptions of the short buildings creating shadows and halos, the bellows, hustle and bustle are only redolent of busy bees. The short buildings indolently constructed in the city center are physically and architecturally aging vestiges but economically active volcanoes." Clearly someone has just discovered a dictionary and they are using it with all the dilligence of a heroin addict stumbling on a box of syringes.
Friday is slow as hell- I'm typing this whole thing on autopilot. To quote Tesi, I'm "clockwatching like a loon"
The article is called ACHOLI GETS sh2b FOR PEACE. That sounded good- if anybody needs the money its the poor Acholi. However reading on, my initial optimism was quickly dashed like a streaker being rugby-tackled by a policeman just when he thinks he is going to make it all the way around the pitch. You see the four war-ravaged districts were being given 2 billion shillings to boost peace-building "through collecting the views of the people at the grassroots" According to one of the brains behind this project (I'm using the term 'brains' very loosely here) "Unless the last man in the village knows about peace and talks about it, we shall be wasting our time on peace-building and reconcilliation"
Really? Do you really think what Acholi needs right now is to sit around trying to define just what peace is? Do you think collecting their views is the best use of this money? I'm pretty sure they know what peace is- what is this experiment supposed to achieve exactly? Let me guess- it will discover that a) The Acholi really, really want peace b) they define peace as not getting shot at and abducted. Do you need two billion shillings for that? It's all very patronizing. And do the people behind this scheme really think the Acholi are not talking about peace? Seriously, what is going on?
Anyway moving on- this time to the recent arrest of nine British Muslims for allegedly plotting to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier- the footage of which would be posted on the internet. What really caught my attention was an article in the Guardian about the views of the people who lived in the area where the men were apprehended. Apparently their friends and neighbours were very, very shocked. It turns out they were always very friendly and polite. One of them worked so hard in his shop that they believe he didnt have time to be a terrorist. Another neighbour-applying rock-solid investigative skills- said "I don't believe he was involved with terrorism. I saw him at a wedding a couple of weeks ago and he just seemed like any normal guy."And of course such a story would be incomplete without people lining up to claim that they were all 'family men' and yes people dutifully did so. It seems none of them had a history of beheading others.
Now I don't know if the men are guilty or not, but surely being a 'family man' does not automatically rule you out as a terrorist? Likewise being 'kind' and 'polite' is hardly concrete evidence of their innocence. "Your honour I saw him at a wedding and he seemed like an okay guy. He was even getting people drinks and he gave me a piece of his chicken. He's obviously not a criminal...." or "Your honour he was working so hard in his grocery shop that he couldn't possibly have planned a beheading" Right.
Meanwhile opening sentence of the week comes from The New Times about one of Kigali's busiest shopping streets. It is possible that the writer got carried away just a teeny little bit.
"This Friday afternoon, as the sun rays glow, and the winds blow, the traffic slow, with interceptions of the short buildings creating shadows and halos, the bellows, hustle and bustle are only redolent of busy bees. The short buildings indolently constructed in the city center are physically and architecturally aging vestiges but economically active volcanoes." Clearly someone has just discovered a dictionary and they are using it with all the dilligence of a heroin addict stumbling on a box of syringes.
Friday is slow as hell- I'm typing this whole thing on autopilot. To quote Tesi, I'm "clockwatching like a loon"
posted by Minzo at 1:32 AM
1 Comments:
LOL! to begin with, the word "streets" is employed fairly loosely in reference to kigali's ummm... streets. secondly, i harbour the suspicion that this wasn't a case of "discovering a dictionary" as you said, so much as it was a case of discovering the phenomenon that is known as plagiarism. just sayin'...
no disrespect intended to The New Times and all affiliated parties but this paragraph -- aside from being inanely inaccurate -- did not even make sense. "indolently constructed"? come on, now!
as to that "economically active volcanoes" claim... look, i LIVE in kigali and while the place certainly *does* have its charms, it's hardly what one would call a buzzing metropolis - not by any stretch of the imagination. so it seems that in addition to suspicions of plagiarism, we may have to add "harzardous delusion" to our running charge-sheet.
that being said though, it's great for the laughs.
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