the white issue

Imagine that your church decided that people could get special blessings and healing from the marrow of your bones. Imagine your pastor began suggesting that your marrow be extracted so he could bless other parishioners. How would you react? Would you escape? Where would you go?

This is the dilemma of the albino community in Tanzania. Their skin, bones, and hair are being lauded as ingredients to "get rich quick" potions. In a country where food in ever increasing in price, potions are becoming more and more profitable. This means there is an unspoken bounty on the albino community. Their very lives are in danger as hits are taken out, some times by witch doctors themselves, to get the "magical elements" of their body.

In April the President Kilkwete appointed his first albino Member of Parliament, Al-Shymaa Kway-Geer. She said, "I didn’t expect it. I think the President chose me because he believed in me. I’m a very hard-working woman." She hopes to use her position to help educate the public about albinism and end the discrimination.

To read more about this issue, click here.

Bad Day

Its a bad day when you're in a car accident. It's even worse when your declared dead. But what is worse than that? When you aren't dead but wake up during your own autopsy.

Carlos Camejo, from Venezuela was pronounced dead after a highway accident. He was taken to the morgue, then into autopsy where the pain of facial incisions apparently woke him up.

His grieving widow rushed to the hospital to identify the body, only to find the body still moving! I imagine her day improved at this point.

So the moral of the story is...even if you're 'dead', your day can still get worse..or better, depending on your perspective.

dead

well, Saddam has now been executed. I sometimes wonder why they chose him to be excecuted. I'm not suggesting he was a nice guy, but it was the USA that supplied him with weapons which he used for genocide purposes. In cases where a person is killed, the supplier of the weapons is often brought into question. At the very least they find out if the supplier knew what the weapons were being used for. (and it was pretty obvious to the rest of the world)

So while it would seem that Saddam was trigger man, the USA would have stopped supplies if they were interested in keeping people alive. Oh, wait that might decrease their annual income from weapons sales. and heaven forbid that they put lives above their bottom line.

So in the end, i suppose Saddam was killed to protect international trade. I guess the death of one leader really isn't too much to ask if it means the western worlds can continue killing people who throw rocks at them.

The downfall of me

Have you ever watched a really cheesy movie and then had the most dreaded reaction? I recently did. I watch the film Dead or Alive. This is a rip off of a computer game (or so I'm told) and it shamelessly insults the intelligence of all viewers. i loved it. For some reason i can't stop quoting the film. it is a very quotable movie! It is action packed (it doesn't bother with little things like plot) and it is amazingly fun. Of course, you had to pretend you did not have any sort of common sense and that your morals were on holiday.

But there is something quite enduring about a bunch of women who can just kick butt. They can kick butt in jeans so tight you have to sew them on. they can do it in high heals. They can do it soaking wet, they can do it while hanging upside down! They never show any physical sign of bruising, nor of any sort of intelligence (but maybe that is a side effect of all the fighting).

The point of this blog entry, i think I've lost my way.