one’s life outline

I spent the weekend watching ‘The Last King of Scotland’, ‘The Blood Diamond’ and ‘The Constant Garderner’.. What do they have in common?? Well, they are all based in Africa and for all that matters to me, they pretty much rerflect the political conditions in Africa now and then..

I don’t know how and when this started but now I have a strong passion for politics, culture and society in Africa. For some weird unknown reasons, I have the strongest desire to work in Africa.. Well not necessarily work, but I wish to make a contribution to Africa, no matter how insignificant that may be.. And I am not talking about Pretoria or Johannasburg (is this how it’s spelt??). No, I’m talking about rural sub-saharan villages in Africa.. Away from any sort of civilisation and modernity.. Try to change and affect the lives of those torn away from loved ones by conflict or war.. Wow, suddenly I sound like a hard-core idealist..

I don’t care about the position I will hold if I do get the chance to live (and work) in Africa. I can be a cleaner for WFP, for all I care.. Or I could even be wearing a UNICEF cap.. Aming.. Oh what a dream I have..

Oh well, just a thought

I saw this documentary on BBC this morning. "The Climate Watch". It rather has some interesting things I had never known existed. As the title suggests, this documentary is about watching the climate and how it had changed in the last few decades.

Well, for once, it suggests that the layer of carbon had already happened, it is part of the natural cycle.But according to some really fancy equipment situated on a mountain in Hawaii (I really can’t recall the name of the equipment nor the name of the mountain). The levels of carbon dioxide we are seeing in our life time, is far beyond the natural cycle. I’m paraphrasing here: the layers of carbon dioxide is the produce of human activities. Mankind has changed the earth; changed it for the worse.. Ok, I know that there is nothing new about this information. Although the next information in the documentary left me almost speechless.

Well, it is a common knowledge that rainforests are the ‘lungs’ of the earth. Yes it is. While it helps reduces carbon dioxide, it is also the highest producer of carbon (actually maybe I misheard it, not entirely sure, but can someone clarify this for me??). But there is something more serious happening to rainforests other than massive deforestation. *sigh*, and all this time I thought deforestation was the worst that can happen; apparently not. The worst thing happening to tropical rainforests other than deforestation is that the older, higher trees are dying; and all because of drought. Yep, drought. Usually the older the trees, the harder it is to actually have them chopped down. But with them dying, it may mean less branches, less leaves, less chlorophyll for photosynthesis, less absorbtion of carbon dioxide, the thicker the layer, the worse the global warming.. This was a shocking fact.

I may not be the best writer around, but I was left spechless at the end of the documentary. Maybe it is time to stop and think our contribution to worsen global warming. I often leace my room with my lamp still on. Since the thickening of the carbon layer is the result of human activiy, it may be time we change it. If we have the ability to change mother earth for the worse, I believe we also possess the ability to affect another kind of change. A change for the better