woMAN

I wish men could understand
I wish you could understand what it is like to be an object
to be seen with a sole purpose of a hole for procreation
understand the pain when you hurt us and the scars you leave behind
with your words, your acts, your fists
I wish you could understand the stress our bodies go through at every stage of our lives
the blood we lose
the rivers of emotions we swim through
the pain we ignore
the suffering we endure
and for what...

why do you fight for power
why can't you understand the fear you instill in us kills us slowly from the inside
why do you show indifference to the inequalities and injustices
why are we treated as worthless without you
why are we kept in the dark all the time
why are women the last to benefit and the first to suffer from mankind's makings
why are we persecuted for your mistakes
why are the rules always written by you

I wish you could understand...

hurt the way you have hurt us
experience what we had to experience
feel what we've felt
see what we've seen
bleed the same amount we have bled
and take ALL of it the way we have always taken it

and then MAN you will understand why you need to help us change this world!
___________________________________________________________________________________

This world is NOT a safe place for your sister, your mother, your aunt, or your daughter....
DO you feel good about that!?!?!

a BLACK world

I am in a black world and I know that kind of sounds stupid but I could imagine being a black American and coming to Africa for the first time. Everyone is BLACK!
The law, the advertisements, the products, the society, the grocery store (well actually here the grocery stores are Lebanese :)it is all BLACK and it is just as every other place.
People go to work, cook food, raise children and die.

The streets are dirty like those in Cambodia, but the children are happy like those in Thailand.
The government is corruptible like that in Taiwan, and the fruit is as natural and fresh as Hawaii.
The men are assholes like EVERY country in the world, but generally the people are among the friendliest I've ever met.
A land where women carry their supplies on the top of their head and a baby on the back.
A land where it is virtually impossible to take three steps without treding on a piece of plastic.
West Africa- Just another place on Earth!!!


Yesterday I sat at a coffee shop drinking my Malta watching all the eclectic faces go by and I had a vision...I think one day there will be no more white people. I think humans will inevitable interbred and then we will no longer be able to use a physical characteristic to make such gaping generalizations, classifications and assumptions. Or perhaps humans will just choose something else to judge one another on.
Then there is my hesitation with all this intermingling.
My hesitation with that would be with any globalization concept-a centralized power, cultural domination (maybe popular?), economic monopolies. So I am at a dilemma-humans need to adapt to survive in a globalizing world, and in turn the globalized world is slowly killing us.
And on the other hand...diversity which is what makes this world so wonderful coming together as one, as HUMAN.

hmmm the saga continues....

When I was standing in line at the airport to exchange money, the guy standing behind me started up a conversation. He said how wonderful it would be if the world all used one currency, no more bad exchange rates, no more long ques to wait in, no more pockets full of useless coins after going through immigration (unless you donate to UNICEF:) I wanted to disagree right away with him, but I couldn't think of an argument. That is a problem I have, when I feel too strongly about things I forget why I feel like that in the first place. My arguments become emotion-based and I lose some rational processes....
Why is a global currency bad!?!?!?

Humans are truly the most amazing species, even we can see our own demise we continue on due course...Are we just too lazy to imagine a better world and way too stupid to ACTUALLY do something to make it better, or do we really think it is not possible.
I want to talk about a truly new world...one that you can't argue simply because it hasn't lived in before.

Damn it! Why are humans so difficult and blind!

I watched The Gods Must Be Crazy today and I found it quite lovely. The funny part is that humans can MAKE movies like that, write books like Animal Farm and can paint pictures like the Vitruvian Man but we cannot live in harmony with each other and our environment.


or will humans destroy ourselves first...it all depends on us I suppose!

random thoughts from Ghana

The country of Ghana exists of different tribal groups, the one I have gotten a understanding of are the Ashanti people. Many people greet you with their "Akwaaba" welcome saying. I think that one is just for the tourist though as I have yet to hear them use it with each other. Right now is the dusty season or the 'hunaton'(no idea about the spelling) it is big, it is thick, it is dirty, and it is EVERY where!
I have observed the city of Accra and surrounding areas by Tro Tro (mini-vans driven by righteous, full of road rage, young, God-fearing, speed, and natural air conditioner and i swear sometimes high boys).
They are fun, however, hundreds of Ghanaians are killed every week in traffic accidents caused mostly in part, by them.
Today I saw one get stuck while the wheel spun on the dip off the pavement of the main road. I grabbed a piece of cement that had also broken off the main road and told him to put it under the tire...it worked and they drove off with a peel of the tyres and a smile on the face.

I am pretty sure the award for the coolest hair in the world has got to go to Ghanaian women...it is just beautiful the styles and creativity that goes into the hair braids. These girls got mad SKILLZ!

Everyday I feel everything as more and more comfortable but the walks through the market while every successive shop keeper yells Obruni!! will take some more time to get used to. I have figured out how to get the hard core ones to stop grabbing me. I wear a wedding ring and I put it in their face as I yell for my "HUSBAND!"-it gets them every time!

I heard people eat monkey in Liberia...so I am trying to pretend I didn't hear that...

I watched some Nigerian TV last night and I loved it. That had one that was a SITCOM but it was in like tribal setting with witch doctors and tents and all that. Another was a talk show with single mothers talking about their difficulty in life. Giving encouragement to the other single mothers.

Today I sat in a corner shop watching Oprah's Cheers to you episode while finishing my cold Malta so I could return the bottle back to the shot for recycling.
The guy sitting next to me right now is sending those e-mail scams I have been watching him while I am waiting for my exceptionally slow internet to upload a new window. He is taking lots of emails from a unmarked notepad file and sending them out. I leaned over to him earlier and said "wouldn't it be funny if one of those were my email?" ...He just looked at me__________:)

The roasting of Plantines is occuring everywhere, along every street and on the corner of every junction...it must be plantine season.

Straight up I am envious of people who have darker skin...I would love it, its just perfect for the sun and you don't have to feel like an idiot having to put on sun block every day before going out. No third degree burns on the nose, no walking ATM assumptions.
On the other hand my fore fathers could have been stolen from their village sold on the shores of Ghana and shipped to the new continent under much less than economy class conditions. I could be runing for my life with everything I own that fits on the top of my head while dogging bullets in the Congo. Could be getting BEE a job from the ANC government of South Africa. Could have had my legs cut off by neiboring tribes in Rwanda. I could have returned to my "home land" after finally obtaining my "freedom" just to come back to a place that is so strange to me that I must start nameing everything according to what IS familiar to me which is my colonial past, and start treating the locals as I was previously seen as (If you are wondering where I am going with this please see Liberia in your local encyclopedia...and if possible speak with a Liberian, even MORE interesting!)
I could also be THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!

Thank you for taking the time to read my random thoughts...and some not so random. If you can connect any of my thoughts have anything to add to them or and totally random thoughts of your own please don't hesitate to comment!