Clarissa Hughes » Snippets

Al’s African Proverb

Clarissa — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:28:39 +0000

If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

That’s Al Gore talking about climate change and the scary place the world’s at right now.

The proverb rings true for Africa. It’s through collective, not individual action, that things will change. Traditionally, Africa is about the collective. There’s a neat tie-in with Al’s message about the natural environment. Africa is, after all, the continent of Nature.

No Sex Please, We’re Kenyan

Clarissa — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:47:09 +0000

Kenya’s women activist groups have called for a week’s Ban on Bonking to demonstrate to the male leadership of the country they want political reform. Since the violence that marred last year’s erections, I mean elections, (a slip of the tongue or the African phonetic transposition of Rs and Ls?), there has been an uneasy truce on the political scene. Women have decided it’s high time this changed and to take matters into their own hands. They will even pay prostitutes to abstain, to get their message across.

There is something positively Gandhi-esque about the initiative and in a country so beset by HIV/AIDS and overpopulation, a ban on sex couldn’t be more to the point! Viva Mama Africa!

International Wilddogs

Clarissa — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:49:16 +0000

Five wilddogs, also known as African Painted Dogs, swam across the Zambezi River from Zimbabwe to Zambia, near the Victoria Falls recently. The river at this point is wide and deep so this couldn’t have been a paddle in the park. Three dogs swam back to Zimbabwe! While the other two remained in Zambia. Let’s hope these refugees are welcomed in exile.