Sometimes when I travel by plane on a flight home, perhaps from the emotions of going and returning, I get ecstatic. Maybe its something to do with altitude. Last time I burst into tears listening to music. I must have looked pretty strange, good thing I had a whole row to myself. This piece was recorded with good friend Derek, who is a wiz on electronic music and composed the background music. I just hooked up my guitar and played. Hope you enjoy.

Here is the file location.

When I was atop the small mountain at Isle Goree off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, I learned the critical importance of pronunciation. In the paradise like island community of bohemians, artists and rastas that was once a hell, a holding station for slaves on their way to America, I was at the home of Maha a renouned Rasta. The home was built into the rock, fashioned from the former military barracks of the French colonials. I was speaking to some children, trying to show off my limited Wolof to say 'You are very nice'. Apparently it came out, 'you are breaking up the place'. Fortunately, the parents agreed that I was probably right!

January 1st, 1999, from the black journal, A. Jinha

My brother, moon and stars
I cannot seem to find words today
I am a drop in this ocean
Great tides move through history
as a reflection of eternity
Not even all the noise of humanity
approaches a whisper
as this Great Wind passes by

A poem written in 1999 from the black journal, a. jinha

I am no Muslim, no Jew, nor Christian, nor Buddhist
I am nearer to nothing
as they say, nothing lasts forever!

These are clothes that I wear, Ismaili or Buddhist
the names are reference points or social conventions
underneath, I am naked
aren't you?

I am a lover and a fool
that is why I have these words
but fools have always cried out for love

It is in the crying
and the soft silence that follows
that the great Mother makes us all her minstrels
singing and dancing sweet spirituals
in a great and vast silent sky

This is the proof of concept for a podcast by the very talented Kasey, at Skills Link Smiths Falls. here it is!

Enjoy!

There is supposedly good news about the economy (if you're a rat in a maze like most economists seem to be), that it's going to grow next year.

Lest we forget what condition we were in before Wall Street's 'the parents are away, let's have an open house party' deregulated greed fiasco thrust us into this recession. This idea of bank deregulation, coupled with powerful private money too cozy with government officials meant that the 'crony capitalism' and bad lending that was behind the unproductive bursting bubble of the Asian crisis were lessons not learned at all. Well maybe now there's something, Alan Greenspan, the guy in charge and veritable god of finance until recently actually admitted he was wrong. It's insane to keep doing the same thing, when you get disaster over and over again.

But anyway, before the recession.

Real wages have stood still against inflation since the 1970s.
EI benefits were tightened along with eligibility.

YOUTH and FRIENDS OF YOUTH: YAK is now accepting applications for Skills Link in Perth and Smiths Falls. But not for much longer... Apply now. Yes, right now at the link below. Its truly a once in a lifetime opportunity (sounds cheesy but its true!). Alumni linkers, please tell your friends! LAST CHANCE!!!!! It will take you 5 minutes to fill it out. Seriously!

Find the application here, get it in fast!! http://yakyouth.ca/

I'm a bit late to still be writing about my trip to Dakar, but I haven't finished the story. After the conference, the two other Canadians left one by one. But before this, we had the guitars out at Hotel Nina. There was an environmentallist from Kinshasha at Nina, participating in another conference I think. He played a sweet classical guitar, fingerstlye, and we played together in the Lobby, the Swahili tune Malaika and a song that he wrote about the environment. One of the Canadians joined us to play Hand Jive.

I got home June 3rd, but I hadn't written anything about the remainder of my trip to Senegal. I try to revisit now in my mind, before memories become more dilute.

I had worked very hard on the presentation, and then taken a break and ended up in the suburbs, with an interesting journey back to Dakar centre, as told earlier. I shift verb tenses willy-nilly, and I am sorry about that. I need a coruse in travel-writing, I think.