How in the world do you want me to answer that question? So i just tactfully avoided it and invited him to talk about something else. Damn it! I never had to ponder on any subject matter harder than that one. Actually, all my life I have been thinking about it, I just never could find an answer. And I don’ think there is any… Of course I can mention ’ignorance‘, ‘lack of education‘, or even blame it on the economic hardship that make people only focus on their survival instinct, or may be more… but whatever the reqson might be, it won’t be proportionally fit to justify their actions.

Few days earlier on our way to Saint-Louis, in a taxi, he asked me similar questions : “how come the driver throws out the piece of paper that was used as a wrapper for the bread he was eating? how come the driver passes another car and drives over the thick line? why is it that all the taxi are so rusty and dirty?… then he ended up saying : “i don’t know why Senegal is so old”.

For each of his remarks, I felt ashamed after all the beautiful stories i told him about our Home Country while we were in DC. My shame culminated the day he asked me: “Dad, when are gonna return home?” (meaning the U.S.).

Eight weeks after i got back home, hoping to settle down and focus on my job at one of the major telecommunication companies in West Africa, I decided to submit my letter of resignation in order to return to the U.S. and start to build what I want from life for me and for my family.

How sad is it be to be disgusted by your own country, your own people!

I just cannot take this anymore. It has been raining a lot lately over Dakar and the populations in the suburb are living in aquatic hell, unable to sleep at night, cook anything, sit in their houses filled with water. The few schools that are not under water have become refuge to many of them… at the same time, our president in enjoying his vacation on the shore of Lake Leman in Geneva, Switzerland. The ministers are probably flying around too in their airplanes to other ‘exotic’ places as well or live in castles in Dakar.

During the raining season, temperatures are over 85°F… Regular people (98% of the population) are facing power outages EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN DAY! Those who have a refrigerqtor have to throw away the wasted food they were hoping to live upon.

The air stink because of the heat and the rain that mix with the trash in dumpsters outside every street.

The gutters are filled with sand and rocks and garbage.

The sidewalk are used as shops, personal gardens, storage area, parking lots… you can only walk on the pavement hoping not to be hit by a car or motorcycle.

The smoke from the car exhausts is stinky and cause immidiate reaction from people throat or nostril

The roads are paved with holes, filled with water; mosquitoes everywhere, people driving like nuts…

I cannot sleep at night because of the constant noises and disturbances in my neighborhood. If there is not some partiy, there is sabar (a traditional dance party), or a religious gathering where people use loudspeakers to sing, or cars honking at any moment of the day or night (i am convinced those cars are equipped with none conventional horns), or simply my neighbors make loud noises…

The world still carries stupid people who have no moral values and companies who only cares about their financial benefits. Shameful! Pitiful! I wish I could dump my laptop in bucket of shit and send them both as such to microsoft!

I am pleased the BLACK guy was using a Mac!

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Software giant Microsoft has apologised for editing a photo to change a black man’s head to that of a white man.

The picture, showing employees sitting around a desk, appeared unaltered on the firm’s US website.

But on the website of its Polish business unit the black man’s head was replaced with a white face, although the colour of his hands was unchanged.

Microsoft said it had pulled the image and would be investigating who made the changes. It apologised for the gaffe.

The altered image, which also featured an Asian man and a white woman, was quickly circulated online.

Bloggers have had a field day with the story, with some suggesting Microsoft was attempting to please all markets by having a man with both a white face and a black hand.

“The white head and black hand actually symbolise interracial harmony. It is supposed to show that a person can be white and black, old and young at the same time,” said one blogger on the Photoshop Disasters blog.

Others have suggested the ethnic make-up of the Polish population, which is predominantly white, may have played a part in the decision to change the photo.

From BBC website : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8221896.stm

The original picture as it appeared in the US (top) and the altered version (bottom) that was displayed on the Polish website

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Michelle Obama wears shorts to go hiking in the Grand Canyon. HuffPo asks if it’s appropriate.

So, here’s the thing. When we were being subjected to the firestorm over Michelle’s “right to bare arms” (har har har) a few months ago, I had some conflicted feelings. I’m not a terribly conservative dresser, but I know I wouldn’t have worn a sleeveless dress to the not-State of the Union.
However. The uproar about Michelle’s arms smacked of body policing, albeit in the guise of “as first lady, is she representing the U.S. well?” See, I don’t think most people on the “no” side are there because they care about how she represents the U.S. The people who criticize the Obamas just for breathing are often the same people who are quick to claim that most Europeans “would be speaking German if it weren’t for us.” In other words, they don’t care about what other countries think of us because we’re the awesome and everyone else can love us or leave us alone.
The people who are ‘concerned’ with the appropriateness of her attire seem to be trying to impose their own standard of What An Adult Woman Should Wear on a woman they don’t know. That bothers me.
Now, I could defend her decision to wear short-shorts by saying any of the following: she’s dressed like every American tourist ever, minus a fanny pack. She has great, muscular, long legs. And, for Christ’s sake, it’s a family vacation in Arizona in August.
But I don’t think it’s appropriate to defend her decisions, because in this case, I don’t think it’s appropriate to ask whether her decisions are, um, appropriate. As White House social secretary Desiree Rogers said back in February, if Michelle wants to wear something, that’s what she’s going wear. For me, that was the end of the “conversation.” I think that generally, she’s set a standard for herself — she dresses comfortably, often chicly, and tends to be more casual and/or daring than her predecessors.*
Michelle is one of the most famous women in the world, and part of a beautiful family that people like to look at. And I think it’s natural to discuss her appearance. (For the record: neither UniverseExpanding nor I much cared for her dog-walking madras shorts. But we both recognized that if you’re out walking your dog, then you should be able to wear whatever is comfortable for you.) But something about the question “is X appropriate?” really strikes me as rude.
She’s not some teenager or twenty-something (like me) still figuring out her personal style, or navigating the waters of “is this okay to wear?” She’s not a starlet who earns her bread and butter from red carpet appearances. She’s a lawyer who has worked in corporate America; she spent years in the casual halls of upper-echelon universities; she has been a politician’s wife for some time, and now she lives an active life while keeping up with two young daughters. She’s got this.
*G.D. reminded me that HRC was pilloried for her appearance when she was FL. I have vague memories of jokes about her clothes and hair, but I don’t remember it being so pervasive as it is today. Of course, our collective celebrity obsession is a little different now.

From : http://postbourgie.com/2009/08/18/on-michelle-obama-and-being-appropriate/

Il faudrait bien que les parents soient bien éduqués pour pouvoir servir d’exemple et inspirer leurs enfants.
Ce sont les adultes qui jettent des ordures n’importe où,
Ce sont des adultes qui tympanisent leurs voisins avec des chants religieux (où on évoque plus leur marabout que Dieu ou le Prophète), avec leur sabar, ngenté (qui servent à gaspiller des sommes qui auraient pu les aider à se nourrir pour des semaines). Un nonsense absolu !
Ce sont des adultes qui conduisent leurs véhicules comme des forcenés dans Dakar, ou qui traversent les rues comme des moutons,
Ce sont des adultes qui occupent le moindre espace de la voie publique de la façon de plus anarchique qui puisse être,
Ce sont des adultes qui gèrent nos cités plongées dans le noir, insalubres, bruyants…
Ce sont les adultes qui gouvernent ce pays comme si c’était leur bien propre à la différence que quand on gère ses biens on en prend bien soin !
Au nom de quoi devrions-nous nous attendre à ce que nos enfants soient bien éduqués ?
Nous sommes tous indisciplinés et le très peu d’entre-nous qui essaiyons de nous conformer à des règles de savoir-vivre et de discipline les plus élémentaires, sont perçus comme des fous. Penser que nous pouvons éduquer nos enfants, c’est nous fourrer les doigts et les orteils dans les yeux.
Il y a plus de vingt ans que Youssou Ndour chantait, « les enfants pleurent car les adultes les effrayent »
Jamm ak jamm.

Keemaan
September 25th, 2008