The girl, the wall and her balloons..

The street artist on the west bank....Banksy

Pimp My Model

Something for the architecture/mtv generation....hehe - Pimp My Model

A Bush Slip

Here's good all George giving us further reason to believe that like Ronseal, he's does exactly what it say's on the tin. Allowing us further ammunition to continue to give him upmost abuse.

There's a boy George.

Osama Sadam

DSTV does not sing in the rain.

I’d love to see the figure of subscribers of DSTV in Nigeria to date. But it still amazes me that as soon as it rains, the system breaks down and we have no satellite viewing. I mean it ridiculous – that we can only watch DSTV when it’s dry – the slightest hint of rain and we get the infamous array of tiny squares which eventually lead to a blue screen and the now infamous ‘Scanning’.

I reckon that the amount of air time, loss during the rainy season especially, equals some sort of discount amount - THE EQUATION IS;

monthly oryearly cost of subscription per household/ days of rain (hours of NO!!! television) = LESS MONEY PAID = MORE SUYA = MORE PHONE CREDIT = MORE MINERALS = MORE MONEY TO YOUR PASTOR

Because you know, even if you’re an hour late paying your subscription fee THE EQUATION BECOMES;

brokeness/late payment of dstv = NO SERVICE = NO MORE ‘Pimp My Ride’ = NO MORE UNILAG CHICKS = NO MORE JANDED NONSENSE TO TALK ABOUT = MORE NTA = MORE SHAME

I feel a letter coming on.

I want my DSTV – (queue Queen anthem). But I want my DSTV rain proof. In the mean time I have to use an old wax coat.

CNN Living with Aids - the end

For some reason the end of this entry keeps failing to show up...

We all know the statistics, the numbers, the lack of adequate drugs all this amidst the wars and famine, in the shanty towns and the ‘uber’ cities, on the water, on the farms and in the modernist concrete blocks. Many of these places will be empty soon and all that will be left will be ……….

THE END.

OBJ - 200m to a Third Term

The question of a third term is all i've been hearing, but Obj (That’s President Obasanjo to u) was within touching distance today...i mean he was literally 200m away from my seat. I mean there was still a matter of the building I was in, a mass of armed police vehicles, more policemen and a mass of traffic that had congregated outside the street of the office I’m working out. I should have guessed this morning on the way in when I saw 4 traffic police per junction, all improvising with each others arms.

So his reason for being in Port Harcourt, Trans Amadi was to open a new Gas plant, which I was told had already been opened three times already this year. I’m guessing it’s a phased construction. I was disappointed at the lack of little national flags that normally accompanies other western presidents, I couldn’t see any school kids from my window and there where definitely no old ladies. I mean, who the hell is handling his PR. Kids, families, gas plants – cooking – the home etc etc…do I need to go on.

See only here even the main man is within touching distance. Only 200m to go....

Fresh Peach Cobbler

It’s my birthday soon and since I missed her last dinner party – J has promised to make me her famous Peach Cobbler…now who’s a lucky boy!
Fresh Peach Cobbler

"If you can't get fresh peaches use canned. Serve warm with milk, whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream!"

Original recipe yield: 6 servings.

1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup milk

delicious................

CNN Living with Aids

In Port Harcourt - last night i watched CNN Living with Aids with famous African reporter/documentary film maker, Sorious Samura. Pretty f**ing depressing stuff but I had to watch, especially after 2 hours of MTV base.
He spent 3 weeks in a hospital in Zambia, where many of the patients were dying of aids and even a greater number were children. He also spent time living in the local village and living, laughing and sharing the lives of the locals, many of who were effected by aids. What was so unbelievable was the attitude of many of the people who had been infected with aids, most notably the men, who seemed to have such a nonchalant disregard to their responsibility to ensure that they practice safe sex as opposed to ‘skin on skin’, to prevent the spread of the disease. Even the local pastor, seemed to preach abstinence as opposed to the use of a condom in a culture where promiscuity and sex are so obviously prevalent and inevitable. His argument was that condoms were man made and not from God. My question to him was who made AIDS?

It’s easy to sit here and apply an educated western perspective and dismantle the ideas of rural villagers, who lack the access to knowledge, education, wealth and the power of choice that all these bring. But the inability for many people to simply grasp the fact that God alone will not save them from Aids is so infuriating. Especially when you have 3 generations of the same family, mother, father, daughter and child all dying from the virus.

The inevitability of death is a fact. But to see that line so clearly in front of you, straight and unbending must be the hardest thing in the world. I think the seminal moment for me was when, after weeks of hearing the loud nightly throbbing of the local bar, Sorious decided to go and investigate for himself and found the local population of young men and women, drinking and dancing their sorrows away. A brief conversation with two girls (sex workers) highlighted the fact that even they, often consented to ‘skin to skin’ sex and charged more for it than sex with a condom. This they stated, was what they had to do to survive.

However, the most sad and frightening revelation came from a young man, who was HIV positive and stated that, all he wants to do at the end of the week is get drunk and find the closest girl and have sex with her. He didn’t use a condom and didn’t care if he passed on the virus. He had no remorse. When confronted with the question of how he’d feel if another man with his same condition had slept with his sisters, unprotected knowing that he had HIV. His simply reply was, ‘I don’t care’.

HIV/AIDS - This is the death of my people, my race, my continent – our poverty, consolidated by our ignorance and the unwillingness to challenge cultural taboos and subsequently change is wiping out our population and making us a feeding ground for the new age plague. Whilst the revelations of the laws of God, seem to have done little to quell the advancing wave, that wants to drown us all. After all, Christianity came to us to change us because we were deemed ignorant and uncivilised. It seems it’s failing to save us, it has failed to save us because the curses of the new world, need new world ideology. Stay safe, stay protected – stay alive.

We all know the

An Open Letter From Mos Def by Mos Def

A friend recently sent this to me. I remember at the time how shocked i was about the whole situation and the injustice of it all. I guess the culture of violence that goes on everyday in the american inner cities never ceases to amaze me. I wish i'd found the letter earlier - but in fact it feels like the perfect time - because lately i've been thinking about the responsibility of the hip hop artist to his community - in the way of 50 Cent and his 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' mantra...

6/18/01 An Open letter From Mos Def

...Diallo was a West African immigrant with no prior criminal record whowas shot and killed by police in the dark of night for simply beingblack.

He was unarmed and shot at 41 times! No unarmed man should beshot at even once! One of the police officers involved in the Dialloshooting was involved in the killing of Patrick Bailey no more than ayear and a half ago! Tyesha Miller was shot in her car in Los Angeleswhile she had a seizure!

I could go on and on with the names of blackpeople who have been killed at the hands of police just this year. Butthe list is so long that it would turn this letter into a statisticsheet. Most of the people that got killed by police this year and inthe past have probably been some of your fans; fans of some of yourfavorite artists.

They are black people who love us, who defend us,who protect us, who put us in our comfortable homes an dour luxurysports utility vehicles and our well kept hotels suites and ouroversized tour buses. They're the people that buy our records, ourt-shirts, our concert tickets, and so on, and so forth. They're thesame people that are getting murdered, harassed, maimed, and beaten instreets all over the world everyday! The only people in our communitywho have not responded to this incident are us.

Hip-Hop made one hundred billion dollars last year!... A lot of those dollars came from the 'Comptoms', the 'Brooklyns', the 'Crown Heights', the 'Chicagos',the Detroit ghettos, the St. Louis ghettos... the same ghettos wherepolice run around literally hunting black folks to murder... thencruise the streets shortly thereafter with impunity and arrogance. Weare the Senators and the Congressmen of our communities. We come fromcommunities that don't have nobody to speak for them. That's why they love us. Because we talk about what nobody else will talk about. We represent them. And they need to know that we really represent them.Not when it's just a romantic notion or a paycheck attached to it.When something happens to them it matters to us, because when something happens to them it's happening to us.

Because Amadou Diallo is your brother, your cousin, your man... Tyesha Miller is your sister, your aunt, your girl, your wife, your daughter... All of thesepeople are you! You are no different! And just because we're at the top of the Billboard charts, seen on MTV daily, livin' comfortably doesn't mean that we can't get shot, we can't be harassed, we can't bemaimed and mistreated. I hope this is as important to you as it is to me 'cause when I pass by the projects and when I pass by the hood, I don't see nobody but me. I see everybody who looks like me. I see memany years ago as I'm sure many of you do.

So it's time for us to come together from the 'jiggy' to the 'hardcore'; from the 'backpacker' to the man with the Lexus and really unite and show the world that we got strength. Show the world who we are. Represent who we are. Who we really are and where we really come from. Let's show people where our heart is... that we haven't forgotten. Now I'm askin' you and anybody who looks on this letter to come forward and show your heart, to showyour love, to love the people who love you back by speaking outagainst the injustices that they suffer. Because believe me, if the clock was turned backwards we'd be those same people. Please stay mindful of this. Please be considerate of this letter. Pass it around!Talk about this! Think about it! Keep it on your mind because if you don't... it's going to keep its mind on you. I wanna thank everybody for taking time out to read this letter. I hope I didn't take up toomuch of your time. All of the contact information and otherinformation you need to know is enclosed.

I want to wish everybody, each and everyone of ya'll peace, prosperity and love.

Peace, Mos Def

postcard