After fifteen short days, the Olympics is finally over

And hence, I want something to get off my shoulder

An empty can makes a whole lot of noise

All that talk about the scripts of Geez

Has been found out for us to have no kind of use

When all is said and done, we win and they lose!

Though Amharic typewriter was invented by an Oromo engineer called Ayana Birru, in Ethiopia, writing in Afaan Oromo used to be illegal until recent times. A prolific scholar and a great Oromo nationalist by the name of Shaykh Bakrii Saphalo rebeled against this oppressive system and developed a writing system for Afaan Oromo. And now the Qubee generation is reading and writing Oromiffa using the more user friendly Latine alphabets.

Gadaan Gadaa Bilisummaati!

Injifatnoon Ummata Oromoof!

We would have our resident legal expert break down this legal voodoo, but we think Lynch pulling this off makes him more of a master of the legal system. His tips for not cracking under the pressure are below.

now i'm gettin maseff ready fo da season. no mo stressin ova drama. no mo worryin bout what dey sayin in da media. mah boyz (jizzy) james hardy and (sizzlez) steve johnson both be gettin demselfs ready too. know why? cuz we boyz. we keep together. we keep our mouf shut. as jimmy conway (robert de nizzy fo sho) said, don't be a rat.

Your First Pinch

i learned that way back when we watch goodfellas in the town (OAKLAND), and it stuck with me to this day. thanks, jimmy.

HT for finding his voice: Marshawn Lynch's Yardbarker Blog

HT for the story: The Buffalo Nizzle

 I heard that Africans did have written languages; but I thought that they only used storytelling and didn't write things down until recently. Could you tell me which it is?   Thank you, -J."

Dear J,

First of all, thank you in your interest in learning more about African history and culture.

To answer your question, yes some African cultures have had written languages, in one form or another, for a very long time. I'll mention just two of them; although there are others.

In the Akan culture, one of the ways that stories were told was through the use of symbols. These "pictures" were representations which tell an entire tale, or which can be simplified into one-lined proverbs. The symbols are then printed on fabric which is worn in the form of clothing. The symbols, called Adinkra symbols, are also carved, etched, painted or otherwise put into daily use items like pottery, jewelry, stools, gold weights, etc. At Mama Afrika's carvings stand, (http://www.mamaafrika.com/products/carvings3.php ), you will find some items such as stools which include some of these symbols as well as an explanation of what the symbols mean.

In countries like Eritrea and Ethiopia, there are even written languages which are more easily recognizable to someone outside of Africa as they include letters which are connected to make up words. Ge'ez is one of the world's oldest written languages. Although it is now only used by the Coptic Church, it is the language that many others such as Tigrinya (in Eritrea), Amharic (Ethiopia) and Tigray (Ethiopia) originate from.

You can think of Ge'ez as the Latin equivalent for much of Europe. Just as Spanish, French or Italian find their roots in Latin; Tigrinya, Amharic and Tigray find their roots in Ge'ez. And just as it is only the Catholic Church which still uses Latin; it is only the Coptic Church (a form of Christianity which is closely related to the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches) which uses Ge'ez.

The Ge'ez language uses "sounds" more than it does letters. For example, there is a letter which represents the "b" sound. Then that "letter" is modified to add a vowel sound to it. So, the following sounds would have slightly different ways of being written: "b", "ba", "be" "bi" "bo", etc...

To learn more about Ge'ez, you can visit this site: http://www.ethiopianhistory.com/Ge'ez

I hope this answers your questions. As you can see, Africans have been using written languages in one form or another for thousands of years!

Blessings,
Mama

in primul rand cateva lucruri despre Effie pe care vreau sa le punctez:

gmp a fost singura agentie, din cate stiu eu cel putin, care a avut un caz respins de comitetul de organizare. este vorba de un caz inscris in categoria David vs Goliath si care, conform comitetului nu respecta definitia categoriei.

nu am inteles impartirea categoriei financial services si cred ca o impartire in servicii financiare bancare si non-bancare era mai logica.

o a treia observatie ar fi ca si eu am fost surprins de faptul ca Dorna nu a castigat nimic la sustained success si ca Wash&Go a luat doar Silver cu cazul care fusese premiat la APG. ceea ce nu inseamna ca research-ul facut de Elena Ionita pentru acest caz nu este unul dintre cele mai bune proiecte de research calitativ facute vreodata in Romania.

nu am facut parte din juriu si nu am cum sa judec prestatia acestuia, dar faptul ca s-au dat mai putine Gold este in principiu un semn de exigenta.

Dar nu asta e buba, buba a inceput cu primele comentarii despre cum ca se stiau dinainte castigatorii. mi se pare o acuzatie foarte grava, mai ales ca vine din partea unui membru al juriului, un membru al juriul care intamplator mai si pronosticase ca vor castiga Grand Effie anul acesta. un membru al juriului care este presedintele APG Romania si profesor... dar totul devine caragialesc si ne ramane de urmarit cum in decurs de cateva zile declaratiile lui se schimba urmand firul: se stiau castigatorii, Timisoreana nu-si merita premiile, nu contest premiile Timisoreana, dar GMP nu merita premiile. oscilatii semnalate si de altii, cum ar fi pahomi. si toate astea din grija pentru effie, de care-i pasa ca unui tata de copilul lui. hmmm...

si uite asa apare scrisoarea deschisa, scrisoare semnata impreuna cu directorul de creatie mccann.

in afara de reactia oficiala a lui Felix, simt nevoia sa aduc niste completari legate de cazurile Timisoreana:

- Lowe a fost trecuta la credite in fiecare dintre cazuri, conform cerintelor Effie si conform realitatii cazurilor

- da, platforma de comunicare Timisoreana a fost gandita de Lowe, dar ea a nu a ramas neschimbata, ci a "suferit" imbunatatiri in decursul anului trecut.

- am recunoscut meritul Lowe in toate declaratiile de presa, altfel spus nu ne-am atribuit succesul acestei campanii mai mult decat era cazul.

-nu numai ca am multumit Lowe pe scena, atat noi cat si clientul, la grand effie i-am invitat alaturi de noi. iar la mini party-ul de dupa gala au venit si Daniel Gavrila si Mihai Coliban.

- nimeni nu inscrie un caz la Effie, fara a avea macar semnatura si stampila clientului. noi am inscris pentru ca Timisoreana ne-a creditat cu mai mult decat incearca cei doi fosti rivali, proapspat imprieteniti, sa lase sa se vada...

- Timisoreana era deja de anul trecut lider de piata, lucru nerecunoscut si de Effie care a premiat Bergenbier la momentul respectiv. dar cazurile Timisoreana nu se bazeaza doar pe cote de piata, ci si pe evolutia brandului. si indicatorii de brand, si cei de piata au crescut considerabil in ultimul an, lucru care ne face parte din acest succes.

- spotul de imagine "printul" era deja pe sticla in momentul in care noi am inceput sa lucram pentru Timisoreana.

- pozitionarea Timisoreana nu se refera strict la traditie, este o interpretare mult prea simplista venita din partea unor seniori.

- nu in ultimul rand, Effie este un festival in care strategia aduce cea mai mare parte din nota, creatia reprezentand o treime

bun, daca despre motivatiile leo nu cred ca mai are sens sa discut, motivatia lui Botan pare a fi ownership-ul ideii...consider ca am raspuns mai sus si la acest concern.

si mai am o intrebare: in cei 3 ani de sustained success, prigat a lucrat cu 23? multumesc.

la final am sa spun ca totul miroase tare urat, ca principalele doua agentii responsabile de distrugerea ad'or transfera totul in teritoriul effie.

toata abordarea asta Matasel & Botan imi aduce aminte de dialogul dintre Jesus si The Dude, din Big Lebowski. parca ati avea 8 ani...

p.s. ne vedem diseara la adbreak...

Next day I just stayed home most of the gray cold day. I read a bit and slept a bit. Oh wait, I also wandered out into Xin Jie Kou a bit too. Just cruising through department stores never stopping too long so as not to bring in the predators, those ever present shop-clerks. One every two shelves to help you find the appropriate purchase. I'm less harried by it than I used to be since I've realized they're almost more scared of me than I am of them. "What if he comes over and tries to speak English? What will I do?" they think in much the way I worry over Chinese.

Chinese department stores are more like malls than Sears, at least that's how it seems to me. The huge open centres are what do it. And the signage denoting brand territory. Even in those stores that are more cramped like a K-mart with low ceilings, the Jack Jones is clearly set off from Samuel & Kevin from Superman from Fubu from Crocs. I saw my first furry crocs here. Not on anyone's feet, thankfully. Maybe this is how Canadian department stores are too. I haven't been in one in detail in years, just walking through while waiting for a bus. My main problem with these stores is the lack of knockoff Lego in the toy sections. They have some real Lego at real prices but nothing Only In China-ish. Oh how fondly I remember the Beijing Toy Market behind the pearl Market. Wandering through for video games and Lego, all I need to stay entertained for a long time. Entertained and without purpose yes, but I'd be having fun.

But the sun this morning is bright. Less cloud cover. I'm writing in short sleeves without a hint of a shiver. Tonight we'll be boarding a train to Jiangyou. Now that Tibet is closed off Chengdu has to be the gateway to somewhere else; why not Jiangyou with its "fields of canola and skies of coal" as William put it in his email to the Chinadex group. I hope it's warm like this out in Sichuan. I don't want to return to all my layers at once.

Yesterday because it was cold and crappy out (though when Holly and I left in the morning for our Skypechat with Phil she thought it would be a really good day) I spent more time inside reading. I finished the Gao Xingjian book of short stories Buying a Fishing Rod for my Grandfather and marvelled at how good he is. One story, The Accident, is just a description of a traffic accident and the aftermath and cleanup. Holly feels like she was actually there, a witness herself in her memory, though it was all made up. Kate sent me his novel Lingshan (Soul Mountain) the last time I was here and it's just so good. The blurred poetry prosody line and there isn't a lot that happens but it doesn't happen in a more ethereal way than the Cuban novel I read about the Mambo King. Although in that book he was writing about a man's life. In the afterword it talked about how the concept for the book was a building super who'd once been a musician, but it never felt like that. It was all about a musician and then it circled around that for the rest. Which was the point and all, reliving past glories, but it made for tedious reading. Once he stopped being interesting I stopped being interested. Just like a happy blog gets shitty ratings I guess. But it was the unhappy stuff when his life fell apart I didn't care about. Sorry fictional character. I want a tighter view.

The other source of reading material yesterday were Holly's Geez magazines, which maybe I shouldn't have read. They remind me of all my failure as a journalist. That I got one of the facts wrong in my lone article I wrote for them, so it required a correction, that I've only written one article for them, that I don't have any journalistic ideas, that I can't impress anyone who doesn't know me and hold the idea in their heads already that I'm something worthwhile. That there are so many goddamned writers out there you need to be better than good you need to have something to say and an audience for it. I wish I could be one of those writers whose stuff appears regularly somewhere, that I could build a name, a reputation that someone besides the people I know would know who I am. And then I feel bad for these unworthy thoughts. None of that is what it should be about but tell that to my brain. And the inadequacy of all this bullshit leaves me flaky and unreliable in anything I'd really want to do letting me get in tonnes of library shifts whoopee! But I need those to eat so I should be grateful. More and more I feel like I should be escaping. Running away and filling notebooks that's it. Kafka was an office clerk not a published writer. All I want are those tiny ego boosts. My ego never used to need that but now... now it does. Does that make me a worse Buddhist (which I'm not anyway) or a better humanist?

In any case, I was in a fairly fragile state when I left to meet Holly at the office. And then getting porridge with the counsellors before the meeting just about crumbled me right on down. Holly stayed at the counter and I had to go sit with three Chinese speakers who I don't know. Would it have been better or worse if they'd tried to keep me included? At that point probably worse. As it was I could direct my attention down at my bowl of Cai Rou Zhang and its pleasant saltiness (instead of Holly's Red Bean porridge with its gumm fruit sugars in gelatin that gag me right up) until she arrived. I ate a little of the shared food (jiaozi baozi and some little bread things) but didn't want to take too much, feel like I was imposing. That's already how it felt I shouldn't be here. I should stay far away where I won't draw attention to myself. What's that song? The Running Kind? "Every front door found me hopin'/I'd find the back door open/Always has to be an exit for the runnin' kind"

And that goes back to the Geez thing where I'm not at all an activist or a world changer or even really interested in that kind of thing. I feel like I should be but I'm not. They talk so much about the importance of being marginal but I feel like I'm not even marginal enough to fit there. I have my friends and that's all society's ever going to be for me. And I can't even lose myself in them. I'm leaving again as soon as I can. To be away from what I have. To have and be absent. There's the ghost for that story. Absentia. In absentia. Tried.

Walking back to the office from porridge there was a river of shit on the sidewalk. It was there when we went too but we hit the street in the motorcycle lane to get by. This time the five of us had to duck under some hedges that were crowding the walkway. Up until then Wang Yi was haranguing Zhang Guo Xian about how he should open up a healthy porridge shop since he's all about what you should do with your body to be healthy. "There is not one person in China who doesn't like porridge" she said, which if true does mean he'd have a decent sized market. "You can deliver it to their homes. Yes, this is what you should be doing." Zhang Guo Xian is a volunteer/"research assistant" sort of like Holly (except he's a Beijing University grad instead of being foreign) so it's not expected by anyone (maybe Wang Xuefu) that he stay on and make Zhi Mian his life. He's a young man in the church which makes him very important Holly says, laughing.

Anyway. The river of shit. The balding counsellor who's very tall (Mao Feng, who I just learned is also Holly's Chinese teacher) slipped when he tried to make the last hop and fell, dropping the bag with the two sealed porridges inside. He didn't roll in the shit, but his hands hit the ground and he left tracks behind him. Other counsellors caught up with us and he held his hands out gingerly, not wanting to touch anything, though in the elevator he was by the buttons looking awkward. Thinking her reeked of shit while the others laughed and joked. Didn't help that red bean porridge looks like shit too.

si se da si proaspatul site brandstalk. pe care va invit sa aruncati si un ochi la lucrarile facute pentru suzuki swift si sa va amintiti tot felul de lucruri pe care le-ati vazut pentru mini...

concluziile va apartin.

si ca tot suntem la capitolul asta, mai are si pasarica hartista una buna, de mccannes, aici.

"Realizatoarea „Duminicii în Familie“, difuzată de Antena 3, Mihaela Rădulescu, s-a alăturat companiei de publicitate GMP, condusă de Felix Tătaru, cel care a elaborat strategia de campanie electorală a președintelui Traian Băsescu, dar și a primarului Adriean Videanu. Deși, aparent, această mutare a Mihaelei poate fi interpretată ca o provocare pe care vedeta a acceptat-o, surse din anturajul său susțin că aceasta ar pregăti o schimbare de macaz în viața profesională"

urmeaza o analiza amanuntita despre background-ul mihaelei, agentiile in care a mai activat, conturile pe care le-a avut sub obladuire si mai ales despre inregimentarea politica a vedetelor ca doar se stie care e relatia gmp-basescu.

slava domnului ca nu si-au dat seama ca vrem s-o folosim pe mihaela ca endorser in urmatoarea campanie pentru timisoreana ca se prindeau aia de la leo si ieseau repede cu andreea marin pentru bergenbier!

ca e plin de jurnalisti tampiti nu e nici o surpriza, ca nu se documenteaza...iar nici o surpriza, da' ca nici macar nu stiu ca emisiunea mihaelei e pe antena 1, nu pe antena 3 cum scrie la shapou asta chiar ca e de exceptie...bomboana de pe tort ramane insa semnatara articolului, pe numele ei maria marinescu. sa fie fosta tiriac, fosta chivu, fosta....? neah! aia ar fi stiut ca emisiunea se da pe antena1. :D

tot din categoria jurnalism fara frontiere are enache una si mai buna despre ce faci atunci cand esti ziarist si te prinde nevasta la femei. de mare angajament!

iaca si un scan cu articolul din atac, nu care cumva sa-l dea aia jos de pe site...iar stirea reala se poate gasi aici

as fi vrut sa comentez, sa zic ceva mai mult...dar pur si simplu nu pot. sunt marcat pe viata.

hai sa ne luam de manutze si sa cantam in cor, asta e calea catre iluminare: