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Showing posts from May, 2013

New Zealand and the crisis of states in the shadow of big brother

Not many would like to be in the shadow of a strong popular person, object or animal for that matter and states are no different either. Talking of states,  a lot of us will think of Canada in the shadow of US, New Zealand in that of Australia, and Portugal in that of Spain. Well, state popularity contest aside, lets talk about New Zealand for a while and the recent stories coming out of that far away place. New Zealand might be seen by some, especially by Aussies, as the country in their backyard that is in the shadows, let me debunk this myth. In my world, Australia is in the shadow of New Zealand and not vice versa. One, All Blacks rugby team can make any country proud if they played for them, they might have lost to countries like Fiji, Samoa but whenever they play they leave memories behind that makes rugby fans yearn for more....... and lets not even mention the performance which of course will not be complete without Haka dance. Second, it is in New Zealand where you c

Tale of "undiscovered" Africa, savannah, safari and annoying questions.

Let me paraphrase one of the famous quotes by an individual whose name I do not recall, it goes something like this "There is nothing like stupid question". Well, I do believe that a person who asks question he/she does not know an answer to is actually an inquisitive lot. On the other hand, there are questions that do not show curiosity but sheer ignorance or something closer to that.  One term that makes me think more than I actually do is "undiscovered Africa". Africa, apparently is undiscovered, a term that is overused. And Africa in this context may not necessarily refer to a continent but any country within the continent, you see its easier to say Africa than Burkina Faso or its Capital Ougadogou. I honestly cannot say what are the expectations of non-Africans when they plan to come and pay the continent a visit. However, I can say that I have had a share of interesting questions that Google has an answer to directed towards me. See, geography is simp