A couple of things...

NPR had a story this morning that discussed the oil speculation taking place in Uganda.  The story opened up with what the reporter characterized as an old Ugandan joke, "When the White man came, he came with a Bible.  And they told us to close our eyes and pray.  By the time they opened their eyes, their land was gone."  funny, and seemingly accurate of the British occupation of Uganda - justified in part with bringing "God" to the "Godless".  If the joke really is an indigenous joke, it really says a lot of the self awareness of the people and culture that gave birth to that view point.

American media, and cinema, and schools (at least the schools I attended) are regularly reinforcing a narrative of how the Native American was displaced by the invading European (well, that's what I took away from my American History classes).  History is constantly being re-written and, depending on your definition, there definitely was something of a genocide perpetuated on the indigenous population of North America, hell, of all the America's.  Of course that was way before, I believe, genocide was part of the popular vernacular. 

And I have to ask, was any less done in Africa? or parts of Africa?  Is it too much to suggest that the "joke" presented in that NPR article hints at just such a tragedy?  culturally if not literally.  I will confess I have never studied African history.  I did an IS course in college on Traditional African Beliefs but I did not go so far as to compare how those belief systems were impacted by historical events and vice verse.  The classes in Islam and Islamic history I took only briefly covered the Islamic crusades to convert northern Africa which ended in the occupation of much of Spain.  There was only one course in modern Christianity that ever mentioned Africa and that was only when discussing the European successes and failures in spreading the state sponsored religion that was appropriate for the territory claimed by the occupying power.

The point of that little detour down days of college past, is that I am in no way an authority on African history of any kind.  If anyone has an opinion on my musing and feels inclined to point me towards some good source material, please do.  I am a slow reader and do not have a lot of free time but I will digest anything sent my way...

Now, on to the other thing in my couple of things.  I just finished watching two episodes of "Life Unexpected" on the CW website. My first comment is that the CW video player works much much better than Hulu on my eeePC and at what seems to be a similar resolution - whats up with that Hulu - I thought streaming video was supposed to be your forte?

My other comment is that, "Life Unexpected" has strangely captivated me for two'ish hours and I don't feel the time was wasted (as I often do when I get mindlessly sucked into some shows).  Sure, the show is filled with "pretty" people and the characters are drawn with telegraphed flaws that (hopefully) will not (but probably will) turn into perpetual excuses for conflict and tension.  But the setup is good and someone cared enough about the material to flesh out the main characters (and a number of the supporting characters) so that each character is more than the sum of his or her cliches.

And in two episodes the writers have raised some interesting discussion points on the effects of adoption and foster care on all parties involved.  On responsibility and what that means and how different people manifest responsibility.  And, like in all the shows I seem to really like, each episode adds to the history of the narrative - the shows "universe" does not "reset" when the credits roll like in so many lesser shows.  Which, if the writers maintain this trend, will lead to some interesting moral choices.  It is not Firefly or Lost in terms of well developed characters and contigious storylines but it has the potential.

27 days later

So it has been 27 days and not much has changed. I still have not made any progress on esrphotos, I still need to decide on the copyright notice, and I still have photos to finish processing. usually when I hit a block like this I sit and talk it through with one or two of a small group of close friends who have some interest in what I am talking about but, sort of like installing gentoo on a eeePC 1005HAB, doesn't seem anyone I know or can find is interested in the subject.

Sure I know people who will sit patiently and let me ramble but that doesn't do me any good and I end up wasting both our time. I wish I could still pick up a phone and make that call but my Ka is still on a separate path and I can no longer see where that path is - let alone...

I think of all the relationships I let go... well I keep telling myself there is a fine line between support and co-dependence. :)