Lion in Winter

They've found his family in Brazil. They'll be sending him home. Not quite the way he had planned I don't think.

AmerLisa

I keep reading the reports....and I keep thinking..."man what this guy must have been thinking at the time".....

Wicked Jester

I can empathise with that as a parent.

Anyway all, on that cheery note and after an eventful first day out with you all, I bid you goodnight.

L8r

Lion in Winter

Night.

Try The Lounge tomorrow.

Wicked Jester

OK, thanks

Lion in Winter

I don't suppose he was. Can't have understood what was going on. Maybe he saw people following him. Maybe he thought he was being mugged. Won't be finding out either.

Bob

that was silly of her, she could have got somin' to let her out the country for 2 years, then would have been sorted...

Bob

knew someone from there, and he was certainly interesting...and another mate is living there, good job, but he says there are loads of racist people, just depends on where bouts you hang out...

Wicked Jester

Yep it's a country where the prejudices proliferated by the history of the country will continue until the younger generations who never grew up under apartheid take leadership of the country. Although racial prejudices exist anywhere in the world, there is still a chasm between the haves and have nots, and in terms of education between the latter and former. 95% unemployment, high crime due to the lack of the have nots, make for turbulent times.

The history of the country is tainted with battles between the ruling nations (British & Dutch) during colonisation and the indigenous population. The real indigenous population were wiped out with the colonisation of the tip of Africa by Europeans. The fight for this valuable piece of real estate on the spice route from Europe to the east was fought and refought between Britain and the Dutch in South Africa. Prejudices still exist between English and Afrikaans speaking white South Africans let alone between white and black. In the spirit of reconcilliation, there are now 13 official languages in SA! The Zulu nation are a nation of warriors and once ruled much of Southern Africa, they don't believe in being ruled by any other tribe. (Mandela is a Xhosa). Africans are unsurprisingly loathe of Europeans due to the legacy of colonisation on that continent.

The goings on of Mugabe's "ethnic redistribution" process in Zimbabwe is tribal in basis once again, as was the Rwanda crisis between Hutu & Tutsi. This continues today in the Sudan and many other African countries. But let's not forget that this is not strictly an African disease, we saw the same in Bosnia, Serbia and I won't even talk about the middle east.

Watching the humanitarian crisis of people starving in Niger unfold, the tiny emaciated bodies of innocent children starving to death as a result of a failed harvest made me want to call Medecins Sans Frontieres and volunteer for a year of going back to Africa. The reality of that is I would leave my own children of 5 and 2 1/2 to do that. I'm sure my path will become evident anyway.

The state of the world today hey. Now where did I put my Prozac?

Lion in Winter

Well put.

We tend to use more vodka than Prozac around here.

I have a five-year-old too, or I'd be off to a place or two myself.

Bob

Now anyway, to bring with one back, and on topic....the roads up the drive way around where she works have all had the paint lines re-done...the funny thing is, half the road is being resurfaced and the pot-holes filled meaning most of the new paint lines are bing dug up....

just made me smile really...and not that I blame whoever organised it, person's probably going to be made redundant soon anyway, along with a whole bundle of other people, whether they realise yet or not.

snowbunny

Saw a story on that, an interview with a doctor from MSF (Medicine Without Borders). Also made me want to go do a stint, even though I too have kids. Will have to wait for them to grow up to do that kind of volunteering.