Long weekend

Eid el-fitr fell on a Friday, resulting in a 3-day weekend. My Friday saw a sizeable family feasting.

Saturday, attended a wedding ceremony at St Joseph Cathedral. About 15 weddings were being carried out at the same time, therefore it at one time came down to plain boredom. "Do you take so-and-so to be your husband---" repeated 30 times is no little feat. I saw a couple or so brides concealing yawns.

Eventually it came to the end, and lo, outside there were 10 or so brass bands, each going full blast and each doing own tune, own rythm: cymbals clashing, drums banging! I started getting a fairly good picture what happened to the walls of Jecicho, so cautiously stepped away from wall that might give to the volley of misdirected decibels.

And limousines, decorated for the occassion. All this in a country where an average person lives on less than a dollar per day. And not just this church and not just this Saturday...

Rosa Parks passes peacefully

Rosa Parks, The black woman that made a mark in American Black (and white) history died today in her sleep. Her brave move: of challenging law, resulting in support of thousands of other blacks, and changing the offensive law in the process.

They and us/Kudos Ms Blackman

Sometimes early in the morning, still in bed, my mind sometimes wanders about things I've been doing, things I've seen, people I've met and so forth.This morning I found myself thinking of one gifted lady, Rachel Blackman.
I've not met Ms Blackman in person, but I once wrote her an email that she politely replied.

So how did I get to know of her? Like many Tanzanians who use the Internet, I do subscribe to Tanzanet, an online forum of Tanzanians scattered world over to exchange information, news, jokes etc. The mailing list is run by Ecartis software. Two years or so ago, there had been time when my email client couldn't process messages from and to the Tanzanet list, so upon searching about Ecartis, I discovered that it was written by one Rachel Blackman. Googling her, I discovered that she was in her early twenties. Browsing here resume I learned that she was a star programmer.

Now, that is something you wouldn't easily find around East Africa: a 20-something young person, and a girl at that, having made a mark that touches a large chunk of humanity. I truly appreciate, and may God bless her.

Nyerere Day, 14 October, Tanzania

1922 - October 14, 1999

Tomorrow is a public holiday in rememberance of H.E. Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the Father of Tanzania nation.
After successfully leading struggle for independence of Tanganyika (that later united with Zanzibar to form Tanzania), the great man proceeded to spearhead independence struggle to other African countries.
It was during Nyerere rule that Tanzania earned universal praise for assisting Ugandans to throw out dictator Idd Amin, a hostile leader of Tanzania's Northern neighbour. I will never forget the partriotism with which we Tanzanians rallied behind their leader during that war, despite knowledge of economic repercursions that the war would cost. Here we are, all Africa liberated of colonial power, thanks to "Mwalimu" (teacher) Nyerere.
RIP

Concience and man

I believe every human being that is sane has a concience. It is a self-destruction mechanism built into a person, triggered when someone deliberately wrongs another.
Pillar of living in peace with one's concience: don't do unto others what you'd rather not like done unto you.

Komakundi Church Fundraising Dinner

Held on Sunday 2 October 2005 in Dar es Salaam. Some photos of the event appear in the links on the right.

Historical Kilimanjaro caves talk.

With big brother in town from abroad, yesterday evening we had this big family gathering at Jackys, ate fine roast goat and washed it down with booze. Talked of preserving historical caves in our Mamba Komakundi village, but as almost everyone was tipsy, no-one was so serious about the talk leading to any serious conclusion - even less so, a joint communique.

Next time I'll remember toting along my digicam to capture such times.

A typical week

<<>
Dar weather fine and dandy. Campaigning period for upcoming October 30 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, lots of parties colours driving up and down all over, claxons blaring at open grounds, TV and radio taken over.
Some stories in the local news:
- forceful eviction of some civilians from their quarters by soldiers.
- heists and carjackings
- threat of fuel prices even going higher due to american hurricanes.

Geniuses

A genius is a person who does what is complex-to-impossible for most other persons around them with ease without even noticing.
Geniuses come in all races, colors, religions.
A genius is usually in a particular area, sometimes quite narrow. sometimes wider.
"Genius" is not interchangeable with "talent".
Geniuses are a Godsend to our societies and world at large, meant to invent, correct, solve, teach.
Where accorded respect and appreciation they deserve, geniuses bring development and growth.
To some societies (said Africa) a genius is
- a threat to his superior's position
- a show-off
- his child whom the dumb teachers cannot make pass exams in flying colours
- a nut
- a fluke.

Since creating this blog, I've opened this notepad several times but hesitate putting something up that I might want to pull down later. I'd like this series of posts to be a permanent archive. For ice-break, let me anticipate an eventual visitors questions and answer them in some sort of FAQ:

Q: A/S/L?
A: 45/M/Tanzania.

Q: Profession?
A: Mech Eng, Info Tech

Q: Religion?
A: Christian. Note that, like most folks, I would be of faith my parents believed in, therefore I have no beef whatsoever with other peoples' religions.

Q: Interests?
A: Many--Most of all, music: a whole variety of it from jazz to hiphop to classical to rock ...
---
[More to come]

Wao! I'm a Blogger!

Blog is an up thing today, you don't just give your homepage and ICQ, you also give your blog.
In the course of coming days, I'll put up my ideas - to educate the world? Kind of.