gabon's 50th anniversary

This coming Tuesday, August 17, 2010, Gabon will celebrate the 50th anniversary of it's independence from France. I will be noting the celebration with the realization that it has been declared a holiday Monday through Thursday and as such, customs will remain closed and continue to make me miserable. In reality, I'm sure people will generally be having a good time and carousing in the streets with parades and exhibitions and so forth and spreading good cheer. However, at least one guy seems to think it's a bit of a hollow celebration with the legacy of French colonialism never having gone away.

mauldin

For those of you who do not subscribe to the usually interesting and often salient newsletter from John Mauldin, it also makes an appearance at my favorite mostly financial blog. This week's topic on the Gulf oil spill has some interesting tidbits in it.

rainy season will come

Rainy season is on the way. While it may not be here in full force for another couple months, there are increasingly frequent 'misty' nights. Perhaps most telling is the cleaning of drainage ditches all over the city. Alongside most of the bigger streets (and plenty of smaller ones) are ditches a couple feet deep, maybe even up to a full meter and about two feet wide. They are covered by one foot by two feet pieces of concrete that are about four inches thick and are shaped like very bold 'I's where the vertical line is nearly as wide as the horizontal lines. Basically, there are sections missing out of their long sides that allow for both water to flow into the ditch and to give a place where they can be grabbed to lift them out. In theory, they rest on a lip such that the top of the blocks are flush with the surrounding road. Sometimes, the ditches are covered by metal grating, but that seems much less common.

Starting a few weeks ago, road crews have been pulling off the concrete blocks and cleaning out the ditches. Every 50 or so feet along the side of the road is a big pile of mostly dirt (lots of dust blows around in the dry season), along with some plant matter, and human-made refuse. Last week, road crews came along and started to pick up the dirt piles so they're mostly gone now. Just an observation about city works and what I expect to be an interesting (for me) rainy season.

that song i kept hearing

I can't believe how long it took my to find out what this song was called. I heard it so often in Hungary at clubs and even in Congo and here in Gabon but never knew this name until about a week ago. While hardly a priority matter, it gnawed at me and now I can sleep in slightly more peace. Stereo Love by Edward Maya, I have you now!

fb spam

Has anyone else been getting suspiciously spammy looking friend requests from young women? Again?

cinematic train wreck

Well, I just watched a Steven Seagal movie (as nothing he makes should ever be called a film), that was of course bad. However, there was no ordinary bad. This was slow-motion train wreck, epic disaster, terribly bad to such a level that I had an obligation to watch, to carry this torch of warning for all others to never dare watch Out for a Kill, which is itself a ridiculously ludicrous name for this thing. I think the 'best' User Review nicely summarizes the movie's, um, qualities quite succinctly.

Edit: Yes, watch total dreck on the telly is what I do on Saturday nights. It's a very exciting town.

always been here

I think this bit of dialogue from The Shining sums up my feelings about working in Port Gentil:
Jack Torrance: You WERE the caretaker here, Mr. Grady.
Delbert Grady: No sir, YOU are the caretaker. You've always been the caretaker. I ought to know: I've always been here.