Three for one

Three of my favorite stories of the past few days.

First

• A recent study by the Max Planck Institute in Germany found that marrying a younger woman may be the key to living a longer life. According to the study, men who married women 15 to 17 years their junior were less likely to die prematurely.

I love this story, you know bare men now going be using this as an excuse to chase young girls in fact I already warn the wife about her replacement being imminent. Needs to find me a lil young yam to keep me warm in my old age or at least let me get to see old age cause de wife still doing her best to try to knock me off prematurely.

Speaking of de wife. Boy I like I cant mek no more a dese jokes about her on this blog cause I see this story yesterday

• Veteran comedian Sundra Croonquist, who is a regular on the Hollywood comedy circuit, has been hit with a defamation lawsuit filed by her own mother-in-law, who is tired of hearing ethnic-stereotype jokes about the family.

Wuhloss, de mudda in law get so tired a de jokes at her expense that she sue. Wha imagine if my wife ever read this story? I wud be in bare trouble then. Well actually it doan matter she cud sue but half or all a nuttin is still nuttin so I aint scared.

And then my favorite story this week. This one from Mali where the government just put into place a new family law that say that women dont have to obey their husbands. Apparently this law has the whole country in an uproar and people real vex about it. Read here. The big joke for me though was this quote from this woman who is the president of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations (NUMWA) and is against the new law,

• "A man must protect his wife. A wife must obey her husband," she says " It's a tiny minority of woman here who want this new law; the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country, the real Muslims, are against it."
  

I mean I've heard people wield the poor and illiterate rhetoric like it is a badge of honor before but really in this situation does this statement make you look good or help out women? I think not. Basically from this I read well we that dont know any better do not want this law. Why is wunnah edumacated people trying to offset our culture and stop us wallowing in stupidity.

Maybe thats not what she meant but thats my interpretation.

Bolt SI cover

I see Sports Illustrated is giving Bolt props for his record breaking sprints last week by making him the cover for this week's edition. Way to go!

ESPN on the other hand continued to give dreadful coverage of Bolt and the entire world games. I mean a man runs 19.19 seconds in the 200m and he is reduced to a footnote beside some story of Plaxico Buress' idiotic episode that lands him in jail for gun possession and shooting himself? Give me a break!

And it took ESPN a good few hours to even add that little link in the first place while every other news and sports venues were falling over themselves in the minutes after the race to be the first to have photos and video up on their web pages as the lead story. This from ESPN, a site that calls itself a world leader in sports. World leader my a$$!. Only if its related to the myopic world of U.S.A professional sports. That's why I think Sports Illustrated got ya all beat.

Still as much as I like Bolt on the cover of SI, I'm a little apprehensive cause we all know about the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. I mean how many premier athletes have been on the cover one week only to completely screw up or get injured or lose big time the following week. Is a Sports Illustrated Obeah I tell ya. Well if you believe in these things that is. Somebody give Bolt a bush bath quick nuh!

So maybe its a conspiracy by the U.S to offset Bolt by putting him on the SI cover which leads to him screwing up or falling down or something which then leads back to them dominating the track and field world again. Hmmmm. If allya hear bolt have an ingrown toenail next week then ya know what happen.

Conspiracy I tell ya. Hey it could happen. I mean if they claiming Michael Jackson murder could be a conspiracy why not right?

Call me

I have that face. Had it for a long time too.

What face I'm talking about? That face that everybody mistakes for somebody else. Not sure why but it just happens too regularly that someone mistakes me for someone else. Luckily as yet none of my doppelgangers have committed any major crimes but I keeping in shape in case I have to run quickly from a case of mistaken identity.

Take a few weeks back. First the lady at the doctor ask me if I had been there the previous week, then she ask me if I have a brother that look like me. No and no.

Then there was the bus last week. From the time I get in I notice this fella giving me the once over. I mean the man eyeballing me hard hard hard then. Paid no attention whatsoever but when the man get off the bus he went round to the side I was sitting on and pointed at me then made the universal call me sign with his hands to his head. I of course played right along. You want me to call you? Me? alright then. Thumbs up and a shake. Yea man I gine call ya this evening. Meanwhile I have no clue whatsoever who this cat is. Hopefully he don't see me again and cuss me out.

Oh well I can always just argue I lost his number or maybe I'll just admit I haven't a clue who he is.

Ryan Brathwaite

Big up Mr Bolt for his phenomenal 19.19 in the 200m but got to give props to Bajan Ryan Brathwaite for winning the 110m hurdles. Barbados' first EVER gold medal at the World Games. Big up!

Mr Thompson, PM, sir, try and give the yout pieca land.







and ya cud mek he some sorta ambassador too get ridda dat poppit wid de umba - rella ella ella ella eh eh.

Hung out to Dry

I'll try to keep this short-ish but you need the background cause most of y'all ain't up on Canadian news.

One of the big stories in Toronto lately has been about Somalian born Canadian Suuad Hagi Mohamud who was detained in Kenya while on a trip to Africa a few months ago. Ms Mohamud was detained at the airport in Kenya because the claim was that her Canadian passport did not look like her. Something about the lips not matching but whatever, apparently its common for airport authorities there to seek bribes to let you get on your plane.

Anyway, the Canadian High Commission there agreed with the airport people's claims, took Ms Mohamud's passport voided it, deemed her imposer and sent her to Kenyan authorities who sent her to jail for some time. It was only finally after the rejection of reams of documentation that DNA evidence proving that she was who she said she was was accepted by the authorities and sometime later Ms Mohamud was allowed to return to Canada.

This whole ordeal took over three months and Ms Mohamud on her arrival back in Toronto a few days ago is now sick having to be taken to hospital a day after her return.

The Canadian government meanwhile refuses to issue an apology for leaving a citizen stranded in such a situation.

Now I know I rushed though the story but it should be clear that Ms Mohamud got screwed and was also let down by the agencies that should be working on her behalf. Canadian citizens get into trouble worldwide and are dependent on Canadian consulates and embassies to stand up for them not invalidate them as a citizen and throw them to the wolves. In the past few years we've seen Canadian citizens in jail or accused of crimes in foreign lands quickly whisked away by Canadian authorities, flown back to the the relative safety of their homeland. Why couldn't an innocent individual like Ms Mohamed get such treatment?

Well the general feeling is she got the crap end of the stick because she's an African (read black) immigrant, ie even though she's got her Canadian citizenship she wasn't born here so she's still a second class citizen subject to second class treatment. The evidence is there to lead one to that conclusion but that's not what I want to talk about here.

My thing is about this story in today's Toronto Star.

The Canadian diplomat who officially disowned Suaad Hagi Mohamud as an "impostor" has been recalled from Kenya.

Liliane Khadour has "concluded" her posting, a consular official at the Canadian High Commission said yesterday from the capital, Nairobi..........

Khadour is now in Ottawa.

Although she owns a condominium apartment there with her partner, Jason Joyce, the two are staying at a downtown hotel. Both had been working at the commission in Nairobi as first secretaries.

When reached by cellphone yesterday, Joyce hung up almost immediately. Neither answered the phone in their hotel room or returned messages.

Ok now Ms Mohamud suffered because Khadour screwed up but still this is such a B**** move.

I'm sorry but how does knowing the name of the official who screwed up help anything and who released the name? The only reason this has been released is to make her a real tangible target for the public fury and to get some of the heat off the elected officials and the government apparatus who knew what was happening but refused to even make a statement saying they were investigating even weeks later when it was clear that they had screwed up. This is just a move to avoid a real apology and cool some of the heat off the dudes who need votes.

I mean I'm from the school that says the top should let employees who do well get the praise but if they screw up you don't hang them out to dry the top absorbs the criticisms as much as possible. That's not how it is 100% of the time but to some extent it should work that way to keep folk happy/ Plus in this situation finger pointing at a lower level diplomat just isn't the way to go. Man up and say sorry Government of Canada don't try to focus anger on one individual. I mean she screwed up and deserves to be punished, fired even but don't name names, don't hang a target on her back. I'm sure she had supervisors who had supervisors who could have overruled her. Are their names going to be published too?

This is so unprofessional and uncalled for. Way to try to deflect criticism Government of Canada.

Bolt & Tiger

I'm sorry Sports Illustrated and ESPN but the biggest story this weekend was Bolt's 9.58 second not Tiger losing some golf tournament. Sure its the first time Tiger's been chased down when leading going into the final day, sure now golfers everywhere think he has chinks in his armour and can finally show some backbone when going up against the dreaded Eldridge Woods but its still not the biggest story.

Usain Bolt obliterated his old record of 9.69 with a stunning 9.58 on Sunday. 9.58 seconds?? Do you realize how fast that is? Consider that the record up until 10 years ago wasn't even less than 9.8 seconds and that no one besides Bolt has run under 9.7. Its phenomenal. Consider that Tyson Gay pulled out the choke and ran the race of his life, the fastest any other person has run without the assistance of the wind, a 9.71 seconds and placed second.

Come on man, in a week except for the hardcore sports fans we'll forget if we ever knew who beat Tiger or where it was he lost but Bolt's 9.58 that's going to live on for a long time.

Pitino

Ok so I'm just loving this Rick Pitino story.

Is not the fact that he big, hardback, 50 something married man, 5 kids, 2 dogs and an all-American picket fence plus not to mention a nice job as a NCAA basketball coach had an extramarital affair. I figure that probably happens more than we know or would like to admit.

Its not that he had the "tryst" with the woman in question at a restaurant after hours on a table with one of his assistants nearby standing guard to make sure no one found out. No is not that even though I wonder where he recruits his staff cause a fella like that must be one in a million since good help is so hard to find these days. I must say this assistant really went beyond the call of duty, way beyond the job description. I wonder if Pitino and the assistant coach use a clipboard to draw up plays before Pitino went into the game so to speak. "Alight Rick we can do this, I want you to be aggressive on offense, cause the clock is ticking down fast. I calling a for a Daggering play with the Ramping shop option."

Its not even that after the woman end up pregnant Pitino gave her $3,000 for an abortion although he claims it was for medical insurance. (Big lie!) No man, he was trying to cover his trail avoid the drama and the backlash that would have come with the coach fathers child after one night stand stories.

No, the one part of the story that puts it way, way over the edge and just got me here laughing is that sometime after the event Pitino's equipment manager married the woman and she alleges that Pitino set that up to keep her quiet.

Damn, damn damn!

Now let me get this right. You marry a woman cause you boss mek you marry she? Wow! This boggles my mind.

All I can say is that Pitino has really upped the ante for all celebrity, big money maker entourages. I mean the assistant keeping watch was bad enough but this. Plus back in the day your random celebrity, big money type, just needed a fella to carry the drugs and a fella to take a fall and claim the unlicensed firearm that went off in the club was his and not yours. And that could have been the same fella cause you could always tie he back with a drugs firearm relationship and make it seem like you Mr random celebrity were still innocent. Now thanks to Pitino you need a fella in your entourage to marry the jump-off (And in case y'all don't know jump off is it is what dese young people duz call women that ya duz have one night stands etc with) to cover your indiscretions.

That is a harder thing to find than a bodyguard cause a fella might not feel a way about catching a bullet for ya but catch a marriage? You know how many fellas would do that? Not many I'm guessing.

Still all seriousness now, I'm wondering how a fellow like Pitino still has a job or at least hasn't been suspended from his job. How does a nice school like Louisville, in a red state like Kentucky, where they always try to give the impression that they have superior morals and they are so prim and proper, at least in public, can still support the man is even more mind boggling to me. And the NCAA, the College Athletics Association, the head authority, how do those guys that will routinely throw the book at a student athlete if he or she take a stick of chewing gum or a free donut from anyone, how can they stand aside so silently on this situation?

And God help us if this situation was with a professional sports player. Lawd a mercy those Authorities would have thrown the book at him long time ago and we would be inundated with comments on his infidelity, his stupidity, his womanizing, his attitude and his sense of entitlement cause he makes big money and he has enablers around him in his entourage. Well I don't think anybody has bigger enablers than Pitino and his take on a sham marriage for the boss staff. So how come he getting a pass?

We would hear how this story reflects badly on which ever sports league the player belong to as well. How come Pitino isn't getting much of that negative press yet? I mean he makes big millions of dollars too, he got a big ego, he in the public eye and clearly he has an enabling entourage. If anything this is worse than the players doing it cause he actually the boss man leading and teaching young students athletes.

So how come they trying to act like this incident is nothing spectacular when this story is bare bacchanal. How they acting like it is par for the course?

I guess is like Animal Farm teach we. All Animals created equal but some just more equal.

Oh happy day

Happy Blogversary to me. 5 years gwan do I get a medal or some sort of gift? I'll settle for a few comments (which have been way scarce these days) to show a brother that some folks actually still read this. You know if I got a few more comments I might actually consider blogging more. Whoops shouldnt have said that watch all the few comments dry up entirely now.

I dare you

De heathen back dey pon de wall.

It was an unspoken challenge. I dare you! If you feel you is a bad john den I dare you.

Me, well I dared not. There was something about the eyes. It spoke a million words. Some feral look which spoke only of my own peril if I made any misstep and took the confrontation further or rather started a confrontation cause in my opinion it wasn't one.....yet but it could easily have been one with the quickness and then what. What was my escape strategy? Was I prepared to go all out over stupidness? Naa those that know me know if I feel its worth it I'll bring the pitbull intensity but otherwise in the words of Redman whatever man.

In a sense I would have felt better though if words had been exchanged, if swearing had ensued. If idle or real threats had been made. Then I could size up what I was facing: Real danger, exaggerated swagger, fake badman/woman, Plexiglas thug. It would have felt less threatening, less dangerous, less like I was going to be in a fight for my life if I didnt just walk away.

And so I moved on. No need for confrontation, not in this place, not with this person I didnt know, not at this time, not over a trivial matter. It was the best move I felt. Save the drama for something that really mattered cause this is how folks get murdered over really silly ish.

Yet it bothered me. One innocent action on my part to protect myself had somehow been misconstrued and taken as a personal offense even though it wasnt. One move, miscalculated on my part because I thought it was so innoculous, so unoffending, that no one would mind and that it wouldnt bother anyone and yet now here I stood faced off with the eyes from hell with the ridiculous response to my actions and the unspoken challenge giving off more intensity than GI Joe #21 (for the uninitiated GI Joe 21 (1984) was this issue done with no words at all but the intensity was surreal. Its a classic).

Well at least I didnt run away, just moved away at my own pace cause although I wasnt trying to intensify the situation I wanted them to know I aint no punk and if they pursued the matter any further I'd have to get igrant. And they wouldn't like me when I'm igrant.

Still some folks are just mad uptight and want to set it off for the slightest reason. I guess you never know what side of the bed folks wake up on or what issues they have ready to let loose on some innocent bystander. Oh well.

Still, I now have a better understanding of some of those stock phrases like, the eyes spoke volumes.or they shot daggers from the eyes, or if looks could kill.

Yep, I've seen it like a 27 inch zenith believe it!