About to hit the road

 
Almost ready to head out

THANKS FOR THE good wishes for my Africa trip, which starts with the midnight flight out of Hong Kong on Friday.

Luckily, Hong Kong’s a great place for cheap toys, so we’re packing loads of stuff for the orphans.

We’ve also been advised to bring food for ourselves, so we’re packing jars of peanut butter and cans of tuna etc.

This should be a good learning experience for spoilt Hong Kong kids used to ordering room service in five-star hotels!

Bianca sent me loads of sheet music, thanks ma'am, very helpful. Now all I need to do is learn how to sing in German. (Not really, she sent stuff in a variety of languages.)

When I get back (mid-July) I will do some redesign work on the website, for a relaunch in September. I’ll try and find ways so that commentators have more options to add stuff. Do send me your ideas of new directions and things to add, so that I can get web-site designers to implement them.

PS. Karuna, you are such an intriguing detective. I note that you have indicated that you think Graham and Lift Lurker are the same person, even though their writing styles are diametrically opposite. Interesting theory, but I checked the IP addresses, which are consistent and different. Also, Graham sent me a note last week inviting me to visit him in London during the summer. I can’t imagine secretive Liftie doing the same thing. Also, Liftie cannot possibly be a Londoner: I know London speech patterns.

Some people think Liftie is me. But all I can say, is that I wish I was that clever.

PPS.

In the meantime, here are some pix forwarded from reader Mya Kirwan, that made me smile; most are from GraphJam.

LIFE TRUTHS IN CHARTS

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Comments

[Raihana Abdulcareem]

Have a brilliant trip and give the AIDS orphans a hug from your readers.

Normally I am one of the many, many lurkers who reads this site but hardly ever posts anything. I usually enjoy the columsn and the comments. But I felt I had to apologize on behalf of the readership after the awful comments posted on Monday's column.

A man says he is taking his family to do some charity work in the poorest part of the world.

Some readers use this as an opportunity to give sneering lectures about religious hypocrisy, even though he never even mentioned his religion.

The responses left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I maybe expected this from Jason maybe but not from Chamin and Grandpa.

Mr Jam and family, have a great trip. And if anyone asks what religion you are, don't let Jason censor you. Just be your normal, honest, simple, delightful selves.

[Jason]

The point Raihana, was not that people ask what religion he is, but that they go preaching it as a condition of receiving the aid. There is a subtle difference.

Good luck Nury and be safe.

[Brother Schlimm]

"NIMM DIR ESSEN MIT –
wir fahren nach UGANDA/Brandenburg/Mecklenburg..."

= pack in food, we're going FAR AWAY.

Enjoy your trip and build nicely!

How hot is Uganda in July?????????????????????

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I think we need sort of DARK ROOM.

to chat in peace about "blasphemic" matters such as green (!) underwear.

[Nury]

Thanks for your kind comments, Raihana, much appreciated.

But let's have no more Jason-bashing please, atheists (especially charming ones) are a rare breed in Asia, and we need to treasure the few we have.

[Jason]

A Charming Atheist, Bianca, I think I have a new name for my book! ;)

[Lift Lurker]

peanut butter and cans of tuna etc.

!!!! Peanut Butter and Tuna sandwich? That is Liftuanian "National Dish"!

[Bianca Schlimm]

LL: Together??? Than you must be US-Umrican!!!

Jason: That's a great titel. Tell us more! You mean I was charming? I can be quite grumpy Prussian style, if only you knew!

Have you thought about: Charming Chaminda: How sort of neutral buddhist looks at Christian belief system?

[Angela]

Safe trip to Nury and family. That should be in my travel itinerary. Never been to Africa.

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This religion debate keeps coming back. I say beLIeVE and let beLIeVE.

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What's the official religion in Liftuania? Liftiesm? Is it monotheistic?

[Bianca Schlimm]

I say all you need is BRAIN

And love.

[Karuna]

@Nury, can we pass you used books and toys that are in good conditions ?

[Karuna]

have a safe trip

[grandpa]

"We’ve also been advised to bring food for ourselves"
I can imagine yourselves , dragging heavy bags of food where food is plentiful.
You just need to lift (lift lurk, I mean ) any broken tree to find caterpillars and termites or better ,snakes which you can fry on the hood of your Land Rover, with the local bamboo shoots, or other herbs of the sort

Enjoy the trip
Do not forget disinfecting tablets , just in case you need to drink water from the river, and most important, anti diarrhea medicine;it WILL save your from embarrassment.

[grandpa]

"left me with a bad taste in my mouth"
Strong medicine always live a bad taste in one's mouth, as well as hard reality.
It was not intended ,anyway

[TS]

Have a good trip.

We know that the pen is mightier than the sword.
When you come home you cant tell us if it is mightier than the shovel.

P.S. Angus Young on a spade beats them all, anytime, anywhere.

[grandpa]

Uncle
Do not forget wooden sticks to send messages by hitting on tree trunks or drums to the next internet cafe where someone will forward them to us

[Ram]

@Nury: Have a nice trip!!! Africa.. Thats one part of this world I wish to go and see some day...

[rafanjr]

..."When I get back (mid-July) I will do some redesign work on the website, for a relaunch in September. I’ll try and find ways so that commentators have more options to add stuff. Do send me your ideas of new directions and things to add, so that I can get web-site designers to implement them."

...how about adding ITA?

[Lift Lurker]

I will start up new publishing company.

Our first publication is KJV bible with Foreword by Dawkins and Afterword by Hitchins. I hope to capture theist and atheist market.

[said Liftie, pathetically idiotically]

Have safe and wonderful trip Uncle Nury and family. We will miss you.

[sej]

Nury,

If you can send me LL's IP address, or the first three parts of it, I can tell you roughly where he is...

But then, breaking the mystique might be ruining a good thing.

Have a great trip to Africa!!

[Karuna.]

@nury! about Graham and Liftie, I suppose I got confused since they both are clever writers.
For now Liftie continues to be a mysterious stuck in the shaft person.

[grandpa]

Uncle
If you see a towering animal , looking like the Eiffel tower, do not walk behind:
it is called a giraffe and it can kick you into orbit.
If you see a quiet brown/orange animal with a furry head , don't get close :
it is called a lion and it does not know the difference between you and a snack.
If you see a dark gray big thing trying to fly by flapping its ears do not get close ,
it is called an elephant and it can fling you like a tennis ball.(If you have been in Africa in a previous life , it will remember you ,and still fling you into orbit)
If you see a big spotted cat , do not try to run,
it is called a Cheetah and It will catch up with you at the speed of bullet rain.
If you see pieces of wood floating in the water , do not try to grab it,
it is called a crocodile and it is an animal disguised a branch to trap city dwellers into a snack.
If you see a pig , lazying in the water do not get close,
it is called an hippopotamus, it likes to flip boats over , in partnership with crocodiles,
Why is is so fat? because of the fat commission it gets for flipping boats over.

If you see little men , with bones across their nose, do not get close, they like barbecued city boys and girls.( but I cannot say if they like them curried ,or not.)

One last word, Never forget that in Africa , YOU ARE THE SNACK...
If you see flies, or mosquitoes do not think that you are safer, they still see you as a snack.

How do I know?
I was born there.....

[TS]

Toto's Africa all done acapella and very detailed, even down to the slightly clumsy turn of vocals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw

[Paul]

Have a great trip Uncle N. Take plenty of pics and be safe. Your groupies...er um...comment community will be here anxiously awaiting your return. If you happen to stumble across King Solomon's Mines remember to be mindful of trap doors.

:-)

[Chamin]

Hi Raihana,

I am perfectly fine with telling other people what one's religion is. I just don't want:

(a) "we give you (more) if you convert to our religion"

(b) "Just because we are the majority, our government should make rules according to our religion, to be followed by those of other religions too."

(c) "I beat you up because you are in our religion but you don't want to follow one rule of the book. I kill you if you give up the religion."

I know that Nury doesn't belong to these groups. But I made my points because these are real problems worth discussing.

[Chamin]

Hi Nury,

Have a great trip! Please tell the kids that many Japanese kids and one kiddult sent hugs to them.

[Bianca Schlimm]

Grandpa: I always thought you might have been born in Algérie. Nice story. maybe add women who want to eat him.

The best anthropologist in Africa is the one with the most wives.

[grandpa]

oops
My mistake ;
i forgot that Algeria was in the North Pole .....
Women who like to eat men alive are called Amazons, they are found ,as the name says, in South America.

[Bianca Schlimm]

I mean different eating of course

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGfgNwcRrXE

this is sooo cool. Jason, watch it!

[Angela]

My date is showing me photos from his holiday in Africa. One morning, his cousin who works in a safari, took him for a swim in the Nile.

Angela: did the crocs bother you?
Date: No.
A: hmmm..maybe they don't like english muffins for breakfast.
D: huh?
A: well, they didn't touch you :)

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I am so looking forward to Uncle Nury's African tales.

[Jason]

Bianca, I think you meant grandpa not me. I don't speak French.

[Bianca Schlimm]

Jason: look at it anyways, its funny without words

the French Airline in the movie lets the African Muslim priest pray in the middle of the aisle, so charming the French stewardesses are! (you don't see that here though)

[Bianca Schlimm]

A certain very precise group of Christians is smaaaater than very unprecise person in Germany: In Uganda it is not very hot in July. And much less wet than the months before. Stupid they not are.

[Vaibhav]

Hi Chamin.
What you've mentioned happens in India. A lot. Villages converted for sacks of rice.
Goa is an interesting case study. The UNESCO heritage site i.e. St. Peter's Church was actually a temple.
Things done in the name of God astound me.

[Bianca Schlimm]

V: You can also buy votes with cash or booze...things slightly addictive.

[grandpa]

Uncle

Beware
There is a new danger in Africa
Watch to the end
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqfqFRG5dBM&feature=topvideos_education