And now...sleep...

Sleep has now become an infrequent blessing.

Not sure what it is...whether its the writer's block or thoughts of the human condition or the crushing amounts of work I have to catch up on. It may just be the books that I've buried myself in...Primarily the classical Sufi masters...From Ghazzali to Saadi to Hakim Sanai and Omar Khayyam. I believe that a bit of our favorite Sufi has rubbed off on me (Rooq...looking in your direction). The last 2 weeks have stretched themselves out...like one really long day interrupted by moments of lucidity (punctuated by the words of the old Sufi masters). Sometimes things just seem to click. Sometimes not. Perhaps I'm just being morbid...

--------------WARNING----------------

Speaking of morbid, I've been thinking a lot about the worsening conditions of Africa (nice segue huh). Between stints of mindless chemistry exercises, I managed to pick up a few scraps of information from Stephen Lewis' excellent AIDS themed lecture series on CBC (entitled Race Against Time)...Which sparked my interest in the topic. What I found may just have scared the sleep out of my days. Seventeen percent of the child population in Zambia has been orphaned. The number may rise to nearly 1/3 (33%) by 2012 if the current death-toll projections are accurate. In Swaziland, the current numbers are even more staggering...sitting in at around 23% by conservative estimates.

Africa is quickly becoming a continent of orphans...These numbers have never been seen in contemporary history. The number of child led households throughout AIDS affected Africa number in the tens of thousands. The average age of children running those households is eight. I will repeat that. The average age of children running those households is eight. Eight years old. 2nd and 3rd graders. Let's think about the lack of experience transmission between generations. If that doesn't scare you, then perhaps this will.

Failing crop yields due to lack of land rotation, low-grade or lack of fertilizers and droughts have also had a major effect on the African population. The soil has literally been stripped bare of its nutrients due to over farming (as farmable lands must be rotated between harvests to allow the land to recover). Ironically enough, high-investment crops (such as cotton and sugar canes) are the primary harvests of African agriculture industry. Even more ironic is the fact that biomass and fertilizers are at their highest prices in Africa, where they are most needed. The cruelty of supply and demand. What does this mean? Africa is quickly losing its internal food supplies and the hopes of a self-sustaining Africa are fading fast. The result is a larger expenditure of Africa's GP (Gross Product) on imported foodstuffs rather than potential treatments for the sick and the ailing.

The role of the 'First-World' (as much as I detest that convenient label) is flawed. Instead of building a sustainable long-term solution to Africa's crises (by providing critical farming equipment, personnel and infrastructure), they hope to shove the African problem under a rug while throwing a few million to keep the accountants happy...And what are a few million to the Billions in military expenditures/upkeep and trillions in national debt found in the West. The saddest fact that Lewis stated was this: If the pharmaceutical patents of HIV/AIDS treatments and medications were relinquished to (fully capable, reliable) generic pharmaceutical companies in India and/or Cuba, the needed medicines could be produced at a fraction of the cost of Big Pharma (shivers). Here comes the pain. The cost of generic medicines (manufactured on the scale required by the African) would be equivalent to the current cost of aid provided by the 'First-World'. The effectiveness of these closely guarded medications cannot be disputed. Lewis suggests that a single dose administered to an expecting mother could reduce risk of transmission (from mother to newborn child) by something like 90% (or more). But we persist in throwing them the food that will not fill their bellies.

I could go on and on about the internal factors, embedded racism, entrenched class-ism, clan superiority complexes and corporate profits for pages. But it will do no good, because at the end of the day...the conversation is one sided. And we'll go on. And we'll forget. And somewhere, a nation will pass quietly with its orphans into the dark recess. And this is partly what has kept me up.

--------------WARNING----------------

Its funny where we can find wisdom (and the thoughts and reflections of our scholars ) embedded...Case in point...I had a bitter need for some soul and lyrics when I turned to my old Blackstar (Talib Kweli/Mos Def) records (fine...CDs...but its essentially going the way of the VHS and the tape). Kweli spat:

Knowledge Of Self is like life after death
With that you never worry about your last breath
Death comes, that's how I'm livin, it's the next days
The flesh goes underground, the book of life, flip the page
Yo they askin me how old, we livin the same age
I feel the rage of a million niggaz locked inside a cage
At exactly which point do you start to realize
That life without knowledge is, death in disguise?
That's why, Knowledge Of Self is like life after death
Apply it, to your life, let destiny manifest

Attar (the great Sufi and Rumi's inspiration) spat:

You will know that when you were alive you were dead, and only thought yourself alive.

To be fair...I don't think Attar literally spat it...but...ah...whatever...I'm tired. And I don't have the energy to write a Haiku, so I guess I'll leave y'all with some poetry from Saadi (I beleive from his Kitab, Gullistan...or The Rose Garden).

Dominion of the world from end to end
Is worth less than a drip of blood upon the earth.

Anyone wanna read that one out to Bush and the Reagan crowd?

P.S. Anyone a fan of Billy Holiday? I'm trying to cut back on the music thing...but the classics still get me.


------------
TWS Out