04.07.08 – 15h30pm

Transit in Heathrow…it is massive – first time here. But highly irritated at the same time. I was in Geneva 3 hours before to check so that I can cruise around one last time before departing only to encounter the hassles of Olympic Airlines’ incompetence and British Airways’ ridiculous rules!
Ideally I was to fly from Geneva – Athens (with an 8hrs transit) – Johannesburg, on Wednesday Olympic airlines (which I have a ticket with) called me to change my itenary to Geneva – London – Athens –Johannesburg – I was not about to complain as I had not been to London before and they saved me the 8hrs I was to spend in Athens at 40 degrees doing nothing (actually reading my newly acquired The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama). I had 4 items of luggage i.e. two suitcase and two backpacks…..being the ‘goody’ that I am I went ahead to check-in one suitcase and one backpack and the others were going to be hand luggage, and to allow myself to have ample time to have breakfast with Linda and Luca before leaving…I arrived to check in and then I was told that the policy of British Airlines is to allow only one bag per passenger for check-in (…what the f**ck, since when?) even though I was below the prescribed weight allowance for check-in luggage. Luca, Linda and I ran around the airport looking for a bag at a reasonable rate for an airport…we found one at 70 CHF (R450)…I packed luggage of two bags into one and then headed off to the check-in desk again and it was checked in alright even though it weight 26 Kg.

07.07.08 – 13h42pm

…went through Heathrow to get to my terminal and I must say it is big is not that pretty! N’way boarded and landed in Athens – It felt like 40 degrees when we stepped out of the plain into the airport and I met a Xhosa and an Indian women and heated off into a conversation about the uncultured English young people and the rest of Europe for that matter, the soaring prices of bread and petrol in S.A. and all that could come to mind while we waited for the Athens – Johannesburg connection which was late and when we finally did get on – the food was horrible, could not eat much except drink water and juice!! Its understandable as they were the cheapest airline I got in this high season and I would travel with them again (this time get a day or two in athens for a tan J) but carry a lunch box with me.

…Landed in South Africa, for the first time noticed that there is a South Africa and an African check-in section - customs for passports at the airport similar to Europe where they say EU and Non EU passports queues, I was proud! This might seem like a randon statement but when you have travelled first worlds and have had hassles at customs due to an African passport you would know what I am talking about.

I am home, sitting in a mall at house of coffees finishing this blog and planning my two days stay in Johannesburg and life in general. I feel the pinch of rising prices…got into a taxi this morning and it costs R8 than a previous R5 and the tea I am having costs similar to the taxi fair, but for some reason people are still flocking into clothing shops to get some new goodies that will make their bodies twist and turn better with the midday breeze and capture the eye’s attention! I am holding tight to my wallet, gallivanting the world can hurt your pocket quite a bit.

14.07.08 – 14h45pm

Now I am home, I get out when the sun is sitting in the mid-sky because it is damn cold down here. I am at a friend’s house – my usual urgent thinking and behavior have subsided, ideally o should be on holiday and relax but I am bored already for doing nothing except eating to fatten myself up…

Well I gotta go, my internet time is about to lapse, I miss my limitless wireless back in Bern!

Time of my life

03.07.08 – 04h00pm

It has started settling in that I am leaving Switzerland after 7 months of being here and the second time living here in 4 years, I’m on the train right now on my way from Luzern - Lugano . . .its summer already – extremely hot, people are swimming in the river and walking in bathing suits in the middle of the day and I am still astonished by the beauty of this country especially the route I am travelling on right now…when you have time once take a train from Luzern – Lugano or Brig – Fiesch or Romont – Lausanne or Lausanne – Montreau or Geneva – Neuchatel or Neuchatel – Biel or just take a trip up to Jungfrau jong mountain . . . I have been everywhere and nature’s beauty weather its winter or summer has been an eye opening and I don’t know if Swiss people truly realize how amazing this place is.

I have lived in paradise, I hardly had to walk anywhere unless I was travelling after midnight (…yes travel after midnight without fear of being mugged, the only fear I had was a ghost jumping in front of me from old buildings J), I had a bus/tram next to the flat, took a train everywhere within the country (didn’t pay – all I had to do was show my GA card – gives me free access to all transportation within the country this obviously has made me very lazy J to walk anywhere).This country has shown me the ability to be able to provide social security even for the ‘lowest’ level of its citizens, I love this country – actually I am in-love with the Swiss’s natural beauty,and sense of togetherness in its diversity and this has obviously made it hard for me to say goodbye….

04.07.08 – 02h20am

I worked with amazing people colleagues & friends from AIESEC to UNFPA and met inspiring people in my usually unpredictable way…

Anna – The bubbly German caramel girl, well I hope you are having a great time some special ones from far far away.
Ivan – The Slovak cook, I hope you find what you are looking for on the pilgrimage.
Luca – The Swiss-French going to the Brazil beach/bitch J, come to S.A. and I will take you to Pretoria – I promise.
Simone – The calm Swiss-German who kept things together, I hope the Brussels people take you if they know what’s good for them.
Jeroen – another bubbly Dutch who enjoyed picking me up for fun, the world is your playground my friend.
Linda – The Arabic/Swiss-French caring individual, something great will come up soon.
Jean-Paul – my brother from another mother, I hope all goes well soon.

. . . and to all those I did not mention I have enjoyed our time together, I mentioned the above people as I literally spent days and nights with them at close range, I have enjoyed my time here – it is one of the best times of my life…

Coming back home!

Since my time is near for going home, i thought this song would do.

Conflicts in Africa: any good news

On the …..i attended a seminar/session on the above mentioned topic organised by the UN reasearch and training agency, the panel consisted of various individuals such as Mrs Fraser-Moleketi – the minister of public service and administration in South Africa, Mrs Sydnes – head of Church Aid in Norway, Mr Edusei – Ambassador of Ghana to the US and Mr Mkandawire – a world acclaimed academic.
I must say…to my surprise, there were more europeans in the room than Africans, any way the points that I highlighted as they impressed me were that:

• For the 4th conservative year, in 2007 Africa’s real GDP growth rate exceeded 5% ….with growth becoming more broad based, of which; 25 countries achieved GDP growth rate of above 5% and 14 countries achieved GDP between 3% and 5%.


• When you talk to the people on the ground, the notion is about getting better….


• Most wars are over, but fear that lingers is that wars will come due to new themes of the world such as terrorism.


• Africa is in good track of most Millennium Development Goals


• Atleast leaders are not comparing medals on the chest but how fast economies are growing, and new definitions were given: Dictators – count civilians who can be put into military use and Democracies – leaders count people in the country and where they can be placed on the needs of country.


• Africa deals with diversity more than anyone i.e. we appear as one during the day and manage tribalism at night, but we do need a platform for diversity management to avoid the kenyan and now recently South African rapture.


• All African wants is fair and free trade and fair press

All this have been due to good policies in recent good time where better economic was managed, there were more competitive exchange rates, better institutions and governance and fewer conflicts – although we do acknowledge that there will always be conflicts as the continent is large with many different tribes and dialects.

Ps: I found diplomats to have no meeting etiquettes despite their job being to attending meetings. In us embracing communication/technology - I still find it offensive for one person to answer a phone in the middle of a session, its disrespectful to the speaker on the floor and/or presenter on the floor. I don’t know if it’s a subtle behavior amongst ‘this’ community or they are just not used to being told if something in inappropriate in a direct manner!

South African (S.A.) xenophobic attacks!

You might have realized the xenophobic attacks that had erupted in S.A. in recent weeks – which made headlines all over the world….they temporarily over-shadowed Zimbabwe’s elections, China’s Olympics and any other disasters around the world. I must say I was not impressed by my country and the violence did not improve our image at all. In Switzerland we are on all communication materials you can think of…from TV, newspapers and even tabloits (20minute is a tabloit!). South Africans need to think about what they are doing, imagine if I had to be chased around in Switzerland with fear that I will be burned to death…. I have had to be the undesignated spokesperson of SA lately with questions fuelling from Canada, Germany, Kenya, Brussels, and mostly Switzerland and I told them that ‘i hate the violence ...i think its plain stupidity of a violent uneducated and unknowledgeable minority’….why didn’t they just march and burn Home Affairs department if they had problems with immigrants and the government….what happened to Ubuntu (humanity)?

…I have been thinking about the whole saga and why it started, and it still comes back to one thing – economic refugees – mainly coming from Zimbabwe, here is the reason why; South Africa has always been a country of immigrants, the countless mines that brew diamonds, gold, platinum and all other metals we have in abundance were not just dug by South African men from the 1900…..they were dug by men from Lesotho, Swaziland, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia – there are even trains and buses from this countries coming directly into South Africa known to have transported mine workers mostly. With history you would know that most settled in especially around Johannesburg and made that home, that’s why joburg is an extremely mixed city….most children actually cannot speak one pure language because they grew up speaking all of them at once…you will find that a typical joburger in a conversation has switched to atleast 3 languages and is still understood perfectly by a recepient.
Listern to the song: Stimela by Hugh Masekela, you will understand what I am saying to you.

So with this in mind, something else must have been brewing behind to have come to this and to me economic refugees made sense… With our next door neigbour’s (Zimbabwe) drama ; with South Africa hosting 2010 soccer world cup and our president refusing to acknowledge there is a crisis in Zimbabwe plus opening our border gates as wide as possible without proper policies for refugees like intergration, status clearance, etc (…for an intellect, he is such an idiot sometimes) – Zimbabweans have found South Africa a safe heaven. Even before I left to come to Switzerland in most restaurants around joburg…most waiters and waitresses were Zimbabweans (…you can hear their proper British English with that unique accent) and I believe this has caused the chaos because there is very little resources in the country even for South Africans hence the high unemployment rate, then you have illegal immigrants treated as cheap labour by most businesses (…and what are the poor people supposed to do in Zimbabwe when there is nothing left to even put into their mouths) and this salad caused the unemployed to march and take out immigrants as they believe they (immigrants) are taking their jobs…..no employed right person who has a proper job can run around during the middle of day in pursuit of immigrants.

As I said; I do not believe in violence, we have come so far in the world to be able to find solutions for problems just by conversing (except for the US), things should never carry on like this…that is why politics are such a bore! And I hope S.A. is taking hold of the situation as competent people should, atleast a majority of South Africans marched to the government to condemn the attackes…. Check out - www.mg.co.za .

Obamatopia....comedy

Chill in Brussels and party in Amsterdam

I took Friday off as i was planning to spend a long weekend in Brussels with a friend and former colleague – Chituru. Since I missed the easyjet special, I had to take the train which took 6 hrs through north of France, Luxembourg and finally Brussels. When the train arrived at the central station….I was a bit surprised by the abundance of black people at the station – it felt like I was in Africa again. . . the train station did not look that ‘pretty’ though and trains were very old aswell . . . I guess having been in Switzerland for this long has spoiled me to a certain level as the stations are more organized and cleaner – owing to the fact that they never got bombed throughout history, the trains are not that old (not German magnificent either) and the fact that there are not that many foreigners in Switzerland as in other European countries due to restrictions has created a sort of bubble for me.

Went to a festival at about 17h00, a celebration of spring with all kinds of music….but listened to a lot of Arabic music through-out the day, quite a cultural experience and had a watermelon – which seems to be a delicacy this part of the world. Came back @ 00h20 or so, had water to dilute our alcohol intake and then continued to talk about world issues until 05h00….and the main issues were an African point of view about Zimbabwe & Mugabe, Democracy versus dictatorship and being a foreigner in Europe.After all those deep discussions, my head was dizzy so I went to lie down a while, awakened later on that Sunday morning to have breakfast @ 11h00, slept again to gain more rest during the late afternoon

At about 23h00, left Brussels for a club in Amsterdam and stayed until we were escorted out. Instead of going home at about 04h00 – headed for a bar 100 meters down the road and waited until sunrise…..then we headed back to Brussels 4 hours later. When we got to Brussels we went straight for my luggage, even though time was not on my side - had to wash the necessary parts though cause I was to have another 6hrs sitting down straight.

I feel I am still recovering from last weekend, but that is not happening as I am in the middle of a conference about new generations and demographics organized by the economic commission for Europe where in lay men’s terms they are talking about why Europe east and west are not making anymore babies and what should be done to assist the process of reproduction….another story for another day….right now I shall continue with my book Hannibal, pride of Carthage by David Anthony Durham – on that note I learned on my train trip to Brussels that Carthage people are what we call Tunisians from a Tunisian who was sitting across me.