ktravula – a travelogue!

Political Theatre Sucks

By the end of this year, one new phrase would have been added to the English dictionary – or at least the urban dictionary. That is “the debt ceiling”. To the layman, it means nothing other than the ball that both Democrats and Republicans in the US legislative houses have been kicking around for the past few months. If anything in the news is to be believed, in a week’s time, the credit rating of the country will be permanently damaged from the country’s default on its financial obligations except this “ceiling” is raised.

Horrible as that prospect seems, it has become nothing but a means of political posturing and hostage-taking by elected representatives. On the one hand a party that wants nothing cut out of its special interest programs, on the other another party (and its activist arm) which is hell-bent on opposing any compromise that involves as much as a tiny concession on revenue increase. From afar, all this just seems mad. This is not what you’d expect from “adults in the room”. I listened to the president’s speech yesterday where he did his best to again articulate his ideas of the best solutions to the problem. I also saw the almost immediate rebuttal and posturing by the Speaker of the House. And in that little space of time, the country was back again to a countdown to (as The Daily Show calls it, Armadebtdon: the end of the world as we owe it.)

Unfortunately, there is nothing else exciting on television these days so we will watch with bated breath. What works for me especially while watching an important football match is to imagine the worst, and just enjoy the roller-coaster ride of crazy emotions. I’ll do that now, since politicians have chosen this option over good old common sense. In any case, we still will always have Netflix. Thank goodness for that.

Coming Changes to KTravula.com

I have exciting news. In coming weeks, I will begin to effect a series of changes that will transform this blog from a personal platform of just one man’s thoughts on things to a more open collaborative blog of ideas from all over the world.

I have thought about this for a while now and have come to the realization that the personal nature of the travel experiences here has gradually run its course. For one, I do not travel as much as I used to nor do I hope to soon. There are very many responsibilities of different natures competing for attention. I also have a very demanding schedule of tasks at hand including personal work, a thesis, and other research projects for which I need to give my all. More than that, I am also convinced that there are very many new voices out there that could find good use for this means of expression.

The changes will be gradual and will lead eventually to a richer and fuller content for you dedicated readers. As at today on Alexa, KTravula.com was rated #113,258 in the United States and #393,557 in global ranking. We’re slowly catching up with Google, Facebook and Youtube who occupy positions #1, #2, and #3 respectively ;). In less than two years, we also got a record 12 nominations for the Blog Awards. I couldn’t have done this without you. Now is the time to expand, and enrich the experience. We have got a few offers for non-intrusive ad links on the blog. If it works as planned then, I’ll be able to pay all contributors a little stipend. I will not stop writing, of course, but there will me a few new voices and I will retain my position as the editor-in-chief/publisher. So, watch this space.

PS: Interested travel writers/freelance writers who are interested in becoming regular or irregular contributors should send me a line at freelance@ktravula.com with ideas. I’m also looking for a voluntary website designer.

Pollution

I have just return from Alton, a little town twenty minutes away from my current location. The most dominant news item on the radio was the record heat waves that has got the whole country talking for the last ten days and will continue for the rest of the week. One other prominent feature of that trip was the enduring image of the Alton refineries purring “loud” smokes and fumes into the atmosphere.

I could only ponder the irony of it – on the one hand a deadly record heat all around the country occasioned by gas emissions and other environmental ills, and on the other the sad reality that things won’t change at once just because we wish it to. We can at least still take pictures from inside of air-conditioned vehicles.

Burning Up!

These two statements are very true: America is a very hot place. America is a very cold place. There is one reason however why one of the statements will raise an eyebrow anywhere else across the Atlantic. The most enduring image of this country is that of white flurry snow falling down on lighted trees at Christmas. Somehow, for some strange reason, none of the images of sweating pedestrians, smelly cowboys and dusty roads of Nevada and California survived childhood memories and a transatlantic flight.

The temperature in Edwardsville yesterday was over 100 degrees F (about 37 degrees C). In Minnesota just two days ago, the recorded temperature was 115 degrees F. (That is 46 degrees C for heaven’s sake!!!) Thirteen people have already died from heatwaves. It is very telling that this happened in Minnesota, a usually cold place that still had snow until April when everyone else had already started having sunlight. If there was ever need for anyone to see that climate change is a harrowing reality, this is it. The question is, how do/would people survive the summer here, especially people already used to cold weather for half the year?

This statement is also very true: although coming from sub-saharan Africa, I’ve never been in a hotter or colder weather anywhere else.

Secondary School Days

It was always cold and dry in November towards the end of the school year, and the season always came with a certain bubbling feeling and restless feet. School was at Agodi, a stone throw from the governor’s office, and the state prisons. It was bordered by a military housing project/barrack which had some of the best eating shacks we had ever encountered. It was also the only place where we could go have burukutu in the after hours with the little money we could save. Fufu at Barracks was the best, for some reason. It was rock solid, and filling. It was just as well since the majority of the customers of the eating joints were military people expected to be tough, filled, and healthy.

The broadcasting corporation was about two miles away. It had a very large fenced compound where at this time of the year an exhibition was held. It was called an exhibition because it was conceived as a carnival for the Christmas season. In time, it became a spot for gaming, alcohol and peppersoup and not much else. It was the ultimate taboo spot of escape from school, and we took the liberties many times daring the always looming risk of being apprehended by state law enforcements sent out to find school children loitering the streets during school hours. The best way to get to the broadcasting corporation from the school without getting caught was to walk through a winding short-cut road that went through the Officer’s Mess of the Second Mechanized Division located just across the road. I see it now, a quiet living estate with fancy houses and barking dogs. Three, and sometimes four, young school boys in blue checkered shirts trekking across the land under a sometimes scorching sun. In their pockets are a few coins each, and some roasted groundnuts tied in transparent nylons.

The excitement at the exhibition grounds never always justified its anticipation, but it almost always compensated for gloom of confinement that the walls of our school represented. Dry harmattan Novembers on the streets of Bashorun as pesky loose cannon truants from a faraway place looking for a lost piece of their precocious childhoods… were good times. They also featured really dusty feet in rubber sandals.

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