Shafted in Africa

Jesse Walker | September 26, 2006

In South Africa, an eviction gone wrong:

1,800 Johannesburg squatters who had been in their homes for 14 years were illegally evicted yesterday, a local city council member told The Star newspaper. The problem: eviction notices were served on the wrong community.

More here, including the possibility that the homes are being cleared to make way for a golf estate.

Elsewhere on the African Bad News Beat, a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis is now airborne. Ghana seems to have caught a case of Gay Panic comparable to the crackdown in Uganda. And Somalia's Islamists are trying to ban khat during Ramadan.

Comments

|9.26.06 @ 8:06PM|#

All these issues are right under your nose here in the USA, if you don't mind looking/sniffing. I mean, if I can find them here in Sinincincinnati, you can find them whereever you hang.
For example: "Somalia's Islamists are trying to ban khat during Ramadan."

The other day, when Waki Paki was reimbursing me for the Starbucks coffee I had fetched for him, I noticed some strange bud-like items appear on his desk along with the loose change. It was cardamom. He gave me a little tutorial: just roll a bud around in your mouth for better breath. His breath would suffocate a moose, and mine is worse, but, it was still a fun, new experience...
smaacky!
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/cardamom.html
"Cardamom is also chewed habitually (like nuts) where freely available, as in the East Indies, and in the Indian masticory, betel pan. It is a flavouring for Arab and Turkish coffee which is served with an elaborate ritual."

|9.26.06 @ 8:46PM|#

whut.

|9.26.06 @ 8:51PM|#

smacky,
So long as it's just you and me, do you know the particulars of how to have cyber-sex?
I'm curious, plus so old, I'm thinking it may be the only avenue available.

But let us not forget AFRICA!
Whur be it?

|9.26.06 @ 9:05PM|#

do you know the particulars of how to have cyber-sex?

Ruthless,

I regret to inform you that I do not. I think it involves robots and the cold, distant future, though, if that helps.

|9.26.06 @ 9:50PM|#

The future? Maybe.
Cold? I don't think so.

AFRIKA UEBER ALLES!

(We may have sent this thread down a dark [continent] hole, eh?)

Oh well.

|9.26.06 @ 10:35PM|#

(We may have sent this thread down a dark [continent] hole, eh?)

That's not necessarily true, Ruthless. This thread may just be differently abled.

|9.26.06 @ 10:39PM|#

(Averting my eyes to apparent debauchery herewith)
Cancel my vaation plans to visit my old neighbor who works for the UN and moved back to Senegal. This crazy may be spreading.

|9.26.06 @ 11:13PM|#

Did someone mention "cyber"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SujDk6kqjk

|9.27.06 @ 12:27AM|#

You crack me up Ruthless, what's with the "smaaaacky" calls? I have this feeling I missed a funny somewhere along the line. =)

Re: banning shit and mistreating citizens...I just can't decide which I hate more...government or religion.

Oh, and my husband was Arab, and yup, we nibbled cardamom all the time. It's yummy! You can try it with just plain cardamom seeds like you get at the grocery store. I never had any qat, but I know people chew it all during Ramadan to stave off hunger. It's *traditional*. Old people, young people, men, women, totally religious people, people just going along with Ramadan to make other people happy....everyone uses qat. Trying to ban it will not be a popular move, and will hopefully be largely ignored. Tools.

|9.27.06 @ 8:02AM|#

Bee-
Government, as without it religion can only recommend, but need government to ban stuff.

|9.27.06 @ 11:34AM|#

"You crack me up Ruthless, what's with the "smaaaacky" calls? I have this feeling I missed a funny somewhere along the line. =)"

Bee,
Don't religious persons often say, "Lord help me!"?
Well I say, "smaacky."
(And the results are much better, if I do say.)

|9.27.06 @ 2:47PM|#

"Oh, and my husband was Arab"

Well, I'm glad to see that he's no longer Arab.