Only a few days to go and my life resumes again. Roll on France 2007, roll on! For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about I am talking about the rugby world cup.

Whats up gangsters?? Another lovely day in Jozi comes to a close and the weekend is upon us! I must apologise for my no show last week.

iYo! I think I am in love …for maybe the third/4th/5th/… time this year! Did I tell you guys about the first 2? For some reason I don’t think so. Ok so I’m in love with a stripper…ok not quite, but speaking of strippers, I was in Cape Town last week and I have this married friend who doesn’t get out much, so we had planned to get a whole bunch of boys together and just go take in some art and have a few drinks after work on a Friday. They had Whilst at this ‘gallery’ my mate and I were in awe, ok what do we call my mate, I don’t want to unnecessarily drag anyone through the mud with me so I will give him a ‘common’ name, lets call him Simon… So Simon and I were in awe there was this young lass who was working the room…except us ofcourse. We were there for say an hour maybe 2 and in this time, she easily took over 20 people for a private showing of her dancing art. The time we went could never have been busy by any means. They charge roughly R150 for 2 songs R150x20 for an hour of work…that’s insane, and she was good at what she did so guys were stuck in there for 3 or 4 songs, that’s some good cash!

I digress…So let me tell you about these ladies. The first one, absolute belter in all respects, shy yet cocky, smart and blazing hot, but its one of those things that would just have been a problem, chaos, anarchy, fireworks, blood, love, retribution, vendetta, betrayal, it would have been messy,, that’s the beauty with age, when u realize something is going to be a problem, u just back down and bow out gracefully, girl no 2, she my friends, was the real deal, lovely lass, smart, and also blazing hot, cos I’m fickle like that. But guess what, she became my friend. Current girl, now there is the business right there. Same qualities as the first 2, think I have the same Modus Operandi…she is super styling! But eh to steal some text from facebook “its complicated” story of my life.

Do u guys know what all these 3 girls have in common? None of them knew/know that I was keen. (the last one for example no one knows who she is but me) Sooo wack! I need help…But wait Vaughan, wait, one day, I promise I will grow up!! J

So why did I write this for u all to read about my uselessness, well as I lie here I can think of no plausible reason, it was a thought running through my mind earlier today when I was wondering why I have been smiling a lot lately…moving swiftly along like the South Easter in Cape Town…

Oh no wait, I heard some funky drum n base on the bhudda bar CD Vol II, CD 2 song 9, wow, good ol days of F UCT, Rhythym Divine and Reality…just for those who wanted to do some exercise and take a jog down memory lane…ok now we can move along…

Speaking of complications. I think without fail every single week for the last year or so, there has been one headline that seems to have bought a permanent slot on the news, and that’s the ‘Conflict in Darfur’. Its such a big thing that that it has all of the worlds organizations holding meeting after meeting to try and find an end to the conflict. But what is this conflict all about? Yes many have lost their lives as a direct cause of the fighting or indirectly because of disease and starvation, many have been displaced from their homes, its been seen by many as genocide, ethnic cleansing, but what do the reports say? I will attempt to summarise some of the things that I have read…

Darfur is a region found in the North of Sudan. Sudan, for those of us who don’t know is the largest country in Africa. It shares a border with Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, Uganda, DRC and Kenya to the south, CAR, Chad and Libya to the west and Egypt to the North. The population size is roughly 28million speaking over 400 different languages. The religious backgrounds of the inhabitants are Muslim, Animist (people who believe in a natural objects, natural phenomena and the universe itself possess souls) and Christian.

It is reported that the country as a whole has been in conflict since 1956. What has been at the centre of this conflict, one might ask? It’s been a long time coming I guess. Some of the inhabitants of this country feel aggrieved. They feel victimized. They have feel they have suffered years and years of economic and political marginalization. They feel the government in oil and water rich Khartoum, aren’t providing them with much if any assistance at all. The current conflict is between the Arab Muslim government (the National Islamic Front) and a militia, the Janjaweed, (a group many see as funded and mobilized by the government) and the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement (which is mainly Zurq (black)).

The recent conflict is said to have started on the 26th Feb 2003 when the SPLM attacked government targets. Their reasoning behind the attacks was that the government was ignoring their area of the country and oppressing them. ‘Them’ being black Africans. So I guess it’s now become more of a religious battle because the SPLM and the JEM are predominantly black Africans, and the government and the Janjaweed are predominantly muslim.

The Arab and Arabic speaking nomads are generally found in the north and south of the region. The central part is inhabited by Africans. For those that don’t know, parts of Sudan if not all of Sudan is as dry as Savanah, but u cant drink it, ok I rephrase, its as dry as that attempted funny. Water is a huuuuuge problem in that vast country. Finding habitable arable land comes at a premium. With the droughts of recent times, many more inhabitants of the northern parts have been forced into the central part of the region and that’s leading to a lot of conflict. Their issue is that Khartoum earns quite a bit in terms of oil revenue, but the only people that benefit from this revenue are the friends of the government - which is the southern part of Darfur as well as Khartoum and its surrounding areas. The inhabitants of the centre felt a tad hard done by. As a result they took up arms against government targets. These attacks were met with great vengeance and furious anger. There are reports of murder, rape and pillaging (to strip ruthlessly of money or goods by open violence).

Many a ceasefire has been agreed and many violated. It is reported that as many as 200 000 people have died either directly or indirectly as a result of starvation or illness as a result of this conflict. Over 200 000 people have been reported to have ventured into neighboring Chad, similar to Zimbabweans coming to SA. For a long time the Sudanese government opposed the deployment of UN peacekeeping troops in the region. As a result the AU mobilized a team. The area they needed to cover is large and as we know, resources are few and their mandate very limited…so they weren’t being as effective as they could be. International pressure is mounting and as a result they have softened their stance abit and are allowing UN and AU forces to run the peacekeeping efforts.

So bottom line current conflict was sparked by the lack of water and food but it was fuelled by decades of alleged marginalization.

If the email is all over the show…oops, there were plenty takes and pauses whilst I compiling this one.

Birthdays
7th Lionel Mac
12th Caroline B, Angela J
13th Sharpie
14th Degs
18th Lerato M
19th Cheryl and Rob Lee

“He used to say if I am not for myself, who will be for me. And if I am only for myself, what am I?” Hillel

Another week almost to a close u all be good now u hear!

Maximum respect and beeg love,


Y

‘que sera sera’ and not ‘kwe sarah sarah’ darkies!!