Feb 2 Fela Kuti and my journey to Abuja - Nigeria

Some technical difficulties and a loss… but here I am. I have arrived in Abuja, capital city of Nigeria. It is my first time visiting West Africa. As we flew over the Mediterranean sea and entered Africa through Tunisia and Morocco (waving to my friends P+B)... my interest in the dessert grew. The flight satellite image looked like this massive extension of yellowish/orange land that ended on a green bank… Nigeria. Desserts are maegestic (Sheila, you should follow your dad steps and tell us that story...)
I am a bit sad because I left my video camera on the plane. That means that I may not be able to video blog the way I had planned. The unexpected happened… I was just wondering what everything had gone so smooth… I have this idiosyncratic believe that there’s always a stone in the shoe… perhaps because I know how distracted I can be. I can pack the perfect suitcase and forget the most important item from my list… oh darn!
So far so good. Entering Nigeria was simple, friendly, easy. Yes, it was warm but manageable; and the Canadian embassy people were there waiting for us. I got a new phone SIM card and exchanged some US into Naira. Two things I forgot to bring: a 3 leg converter (those which look like fridge plugs) and my iPod charger. The hotel is ok, and the Tuesday’s seafood buffet was great as well as the local beer, Star. I can hear the reggae like music on the different patios. I swear I heard Spanish Salsa music on the elevator before. I am now fighting with the internet connection for the service to work. It did earlier on but now it is simply dead… and I called the front desk to ask for assistance and they promised to call me back… 10 minutes ago.
I slept on the plane and listened to music; but also finished my first book by a Nigerian author. I shall talk about it tomorrow. It was fun. I also started a play by another famous Nigerian author (clue: he has one of the most amazing hair-dues... can you guess?). I can already see some similarities between the two storytellers.
What does this city smell like? Hard to say. It’s a combination of smells: the air conditioning, fried sweet plantains, sweat combined with expensive perfume, liquor, serene forest breeze. What does it feel like? It feels like things work but at their own pace. People are way friendly but extremely laid back. They do their minimum possible as not to stress and assure you everything is going to be fine. I kind of like that. They are pretty, well groomed, some men tall and strong; women play with their hair and their hips. They greet you as you pass by, but not with the Asian ceremony… it is more like a next-door neighbour type of attitude.
Fela Kuti (from Wikipedia) was born in 1938 and left this world in August 1997. He was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick. He's been my friend and travel companion since S and I watched The Visitor a couple of year ao. Here goes excentric Fela!


And of course, the movie of the day: The visitor (2008) directed by Thomas McCarthy. If you've watched the TV series "Six Feet Under" you will recognize Mr. Richard Jenkins who plays cold Professor Walter Vale.
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Jan 27 - Blindness/Ensayo sobre la Ceguera - Ottawa

No, Canada doesn't have a President... that was a Lapsus Línguae on my video of the day... although, I am sure our Prime Minister would love to become the King of Canada (over our unpopular Prince Charles)!!!! Anyway, Canada is a parliamentary system unlike the US which is a Republic (you do your research).

And Yes, I hate the shiny light reflected on my glasses as well. I didn't have much time to find the right spot for my video entry last night... darn... oh well... it kinda goes with the theme... that layer of shine that may cover our eyes at times, preventing us from seeing.

Blindness is a wonderful essay on human condition and human interdependence. Beautifully written, quite disturbing on occasion, it is impossible to drop it. There are moments when you literally suffer the pains inflicted on the characters. Brilliant work of Nobel Prize Laureate Saramago. This book is my second favourite of his after the Cave. If you don't like reading, watch the movie. If you like reading, go for it... and then watch the movie. I thought the film wasn't going to be as interesting (it didn't get very good reviews in North America)... but it was actually quite good... the audience may not have been prepared to see themselves reflected on the screen! Fernando Meirelles the director (City of God, 2002) is a genius. The cast is excellent... and what about the slightly cheesy ending? Well, we all need some optimism after all... Hollywood endings are more popular than we think.



I like open endings... endings that leave you wondering, that allow your imagination to complete the scene. Those are rare... there's a little bit of that in this book and film (despite the spark of optimism). There is rebuilding ahead, and that is not shown... that part is left for us to reflect on.

I've chose this book because I see how Haiti will disappear from the TV radars soon. After two weeks a catastrophe becomes history... a Wikipedia entry... we will soon forget how the earth roared on January 12, 2010... killing thousands of already impoverished Haitians. We will forget because the earth rotates at a very fast speed. The struggle for survival in Haiti will get shadowed by Apple's new iPad, or by the State of the Union speech... we just throw more rubble on what is dated, and move on... is it nature? is it choice? is it just short-attention span?

Actual news, which is supposed to mean "information on a recent event or happening", is associated with 'media news' (which is what media outlets and media associations, i.e. AP...consider is a 'recent event')... well, if official media newscasts stop broadcasting an event... should we forget about it ourselves? Should we move on to the next catastrophe? This is today's open ending to ponder on...

Tip of the day: We, as citizens have more media power nowadays than we did before, because of the Internet and other social media outlets... let's continue to empower ourselves. Citizen journalism is IN! Share

Jan 25 - Intimacy and mediated relationships - Ottawa

I loved this book. and I warn you, it may be disturbing for some. It is very well written, modern... with the sincere confusion of people finding their ways, especially when they reach that middle age... and want to question everything all over again, relationships being one of those items.

Experimenting with my camera and web cam, I noticed the delay in my speech. And how my image, reflected on a computer screen and mediated over and over, resembled that approach to online intimacy. We are close but distorted. We can develop a sense of intimacy because the natural physical barriers allow us to open up to strangers, and yet, we are pixels away, hiding behind the comfort of a screen and a cheap web cam.

These thoughts remind me of two modern thinkers located perhaps at two opposite ends of the spectrum. One is Canadian educator Marshall McLuhan and "the medium is the message", meaning, as stated by Wikipedia, that "the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived" (you go figure that one)and the other one is Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek (this goes for my friend E)who talks about the impersonal forms of modern life, where we get to "experience" things without their essence... many products are deprived of their "malignant property": coffee without caffeine, cream without fat, beer without alcohol... and virtual sex without sex!

Tip of the day: we may want to revisit the term intimacy but especially its actual sense of existence.

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Jan 9 – The Word of the Decade – Ottawa

Morning coffee in hand, and sunlight shining through the stained-glass fortress on my window, The Ottawa Citizen tells me that the word of the decade is “GOOGLE”. Wikipedia states that the name "Google" originated from a misspelling of the word "googol", some kind of a numerical formula followed by a whole bunch of zeros. The verb "to google" was added to the Merriam Webster and the Oxford English Dictionaries in 2006 and it means "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet”… don’t we often say: “Google it?” I registered my first email with hotmail over a decade ago when I was still living in Colombia and working for a small NGO where we had dial-up Internet. It is amazing how the Internet has changed our lives. Growing up, when I had to answer difficult homework questions, my “modern” tool was the phone. Once my personal encyclopedia and the Larousse dictionary failed to provide me with the answer I was looking for, my grandma had to call her friends to ask their kids if they knew what the “light blue stripe” meant of the flag of my province, or how many children had Columbus had. It often worked… those were the earliest stages of “social media”.

I was reading in an article the other day that in times of Francis Bacon, “knowledge” was power. Some researchers think that it is no longer the case as we can have access to anything we need to learn. “Knowing” things is not as valid anymore because one can easily “google” meanings and find almost any if not all answer(s).

Chosen movie: Tom ford’s A Single Man. Book: Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.

Tip of the day: when you have some time, google the expression “knowledge is power” and share what you find.

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