Tag Archives: Africa

Fiction

THE LIFE IN CALABAR – AN INCONSEQUENTIAL SHORT STORY

I drove out of the airport at about 7:15 pm local time on Sunday and was mindful not to cause any delays in the exit lane from the parking lot. The parking receipt had slipped through the space between the driver’s seat and the fancy hand rest. I struggled to squeeze my fat fingers through to where the coloured paper rested while keeping the car in motion since from the rearview mirror there was a convoy of government officials trailing. I was driving a rental car, a small mini sedan which I often drove home from the airport instead of taking the light rail into town and hissing at every stop of the 45 minutes journey. Luckily, my dear friend Esther was manning the final exit gate and she simply waved me on and reminded me “Bros Bee, I’m still waiting for the trip oh!”. “I will call you”, I shouted in response. Call her fire! Ever since I met her at a restaurant in town and told her of my weekend getaway with my wife and friends to Creek Town holiday resort, she has bugged me severally to take her family along the next time I went.

The 1km road from the airport terminates at the ‘Welcome to Calabar’ roundabout, a massive landmark which unites three major expressways leading to the major districts in the City of Calabar. Beautifully constructed and well maintained, I usually take a deep breath when I get to drive around it to remind myself why I love this town. At nights, the dancing streams of water shot from powerful nozzles are coloured by underground lights and quite spectacular to behold. The water acrobatics from the concentric pools move with the rhythm of the local Efik percussions. At Christmas, tourists are usually treated to some elaborate water displays while driving into the city.
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Top African Countries for Investment – by Afkinsider.com

1. South Africa

Despite a troubled recent history, South Africa has quickly become a model of stability in Africa and an important voice on the world stage. It ranks second in the world for accountability of private institutions and third for financial market development, showing trust in its markets at a time when trust is hard to find. With a rapidly growing tourism industry, a wealth of natural resources and booming industrial production, South Africa presents a unique opportunity hard for some investors to pass up.

Cape Town, South Africa ThinkStockPhotos

2. Mauritius

Little-known Mauritius offers a strong infrastructure for foreign investors – particularly in the areas of ports, air transport, and phone communication. Coupled with strong and transparent public institutions, clear property rights and an efficient government that enjoys an independent judiciary (a rare find on the continent), Mauritius has high standards for investor protection.

Port Louis in Mauritius ThinkStockPhotos

3. Rwanda

The Rwandan government’s no-tolerance policy when it comes to corruption makes the country a strong contender for investment. High-functioning institutions and security infrastructure contribute to the package. Additionally, Rwanda is well known for innovation and efficiency, and has well-developed financial and labor markets compared to the rest of the continent.

Tea plantation in Rwanda ThinkStockPhotos

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A TWIST TO JOSEPH KONY

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Invisible Children‘s Poster on Joseph Kony

Before you spread the word, take time to think first. How many times have you been fed a pitiful image about Africa that prompted you to suddenly become a temporary social media activist? You can’t remember? How many times have you watched a documentary framing an issue that speaks to a crisis in Africa, and you shed a tear and were moved to repost the video to your FB timeline, or even shared it inbox to raise awareness on the matter? Countless I imagine. I love this age we live in. One thing happens five time-zones away and we are inundated with reports of it in less than 5 minutes. We are buried in the innards of the information monster and we seem to be oblivious to its numbing effects on us.

So constantly we are faced with the reality of dual living; the social media avatars we present, and the real us strutting the corridors of life and sucking up to the demands of bread and water. Armed with Blackberrys, Android devices, iPhones, pads, and pods, along with the power platforms of Facebook, Twitter, and the likes, we suddenly assume the active global citizen that lends it voice to almost every passing concern. We like, share, comment, spool, anything that gets our attention and quickly move on to the next big thing. We have so perfected the art of using emoticons that we even literally believe that a ‘lol’ means the user is bursting out in actual laughter.

There seems to be only one thing that is consistent, and that is the desire to belong to something bigger than us.  But as for actually getting involved in something bigger, we stand in apparent contradiction to our avatars. Sad innit? A while ago I wrote a blog post on the treadmill dynamic and why social media activity is like going somewhere but walking on a treadmill. We engage in so much visible activity but no tangible impact. As soon as I saw the Joseph Kony video earlier this week, I knew that suddenly we will have many social activist rekindling their passion for social justice. However, by the weekend, I expect that their profile pictures would have return to more real images of friends, parties, idols, etc.
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