Back in Juba

Ok, so I got back to Juba on Friday. Weather is hot as the deepest furnaces of hell - and muggy (much unlike, I expect, the afore mentioned furnaces). Apparently theres was heavy, heavy, rain at the beginning of the week. Something witnessed by the state of the "roads" in Juba. The graded the roads while I was away - yet they look almost exactly the same as before I left. If they hadn't graded those roads, I expect they would have been a series of gullies and small riverbeds at this point.

Apparently nothing particularly exciting has happened in my absence. Well, not here in Juba, anyway. But, one my friends here is lebanese. On one of the first days of the Israeli bombings in Beirut, his grandfathers house was hit by two 1000lb bombs - by mistake. His grandmother, cousin, and two nieces were killed in the incident, along with two nigerian UN observers (two that I haven't heard about in the news, but it may have passed me by). Now, I don't have all the details on the current skirmish/conflict/act of hostility/name your bomb-dropping activity, but it does underscore to me how horrible the outcome of conflict is. Forget the politics of the moment, as I am certain there are many families in Israel who have lost loved ones.
I am not, those who know me well will agree, a very political person, and I certainly don't want my blog to be a forum for what I think will ultimately be a pointless discussion of the current conflict. I simply want to raise the question and thought : why is it necessary in this day and age, to resort to the actions of hostility, over ideologies and zealotry based on the actions of people long gone? Surely it must be possible to educate these people (I speak of both sides in this particular conflict) to such a degree that they are able to address this in a more constructive fashion?

Enough now of this talk. I felt the need to get it off my chest, and as this is my blog, I get to do that.

Now, for something a little lighter: Rollershoes, or Heelys, as they are also called. A radical change of subject, I know. Do you remember these things? Immortalized to little or no acclaim in several Usher music videos, these contraptions made the rounds a few years back. Basically a sneaker with wheels recessed into the heels. The wheel can then be made to pop out, or activated by moving your weight around, allowing you to, I guess, cruise down sidewalks or in bars on the heels of your shoes, saving you the onerous task of walking. If you don't remember them, check them out
here . I can only imagine the collective groan and gnashing of teeth that must have gone on among the paramedics of the world when these puppies hit the streets...

Why do I mention these now, you ask? Well, as you may or may not be aware, the consumer market in Africa, is largely driven by counterfeit products. Be it clothes, electronics, media, vehicles - you name it, they have a fake for it. And as I was waiting for my flight from Nairobi on Friday morning, I noticed a kid in what at first glance seemed to be Heelys. So what? Well, the whole thing about the heelys, is that you can choose to use the wheels or you can walk - like normal people. The things this kid was wearing, were yet another proof that the counterfeiters that supply these markets rarely see the products they are copying. It's as if they had a phonecall(on a crappy connection) from someone who had a brother, who at one point saw an add for Heelys on the side of a bus. The shoes worn by this kid were bright red, sparkly, vinyl, with a really thick white sole, and basically 2 plastic casters nailed for the bottom of them. No hinges, no springs, no nothing. They were like rollerskates with none of the redeeming factors. The result was that the poor kid couldn't stop himself from slowly rolling around in random directions. Often both legs going off on grossly divergent headings. Even if he tried to stand still, he would eventually just head off for the horizon. Poor guy. Perhaps you had to be there, but at 7 am, with no coffee in me, and not much sleep for the previous 36 hours, I found the image funny.

Anyway, I am on the ground in Juba, and will return soon, with more tales of the life I lead. Until then, this is JubaJoe, live from Juba.