A few years ago, I used to write longer e-mails. Some recipients would appreciate it, others probably didn’t – but only my sister had the guts to directly tell me: “I don’t have the time to read your novels”.
She, being a lawyer by profession, likes it short and precise. Why waste more words on a [...]

“It’s Our Turn To Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower”, by Michela Wrong, ISBN 978-0-00-724196-5

After having read this interesting book by Michela Wrong, written in a similar style as “In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo” (which I really liked) – I am still confronted with [...]

Ein Artikel online über Demenz brachte mich auf Umwegen zu Tilman Jens, der ein sehr streitbares Buch über …. den Umgang mit seinem Vater, Walter Jens , geschrieben hat.
Überhaupt, dass ein 54jähriger Mann immer wieder als “Sohn von…” eingeleitet wird, wäre dann schon Grund genug, sich noch zu Lebzeiten zu differenzieren. Aber so?
Das Thema Alzheimer [...]

As twittered earlier, these books shall enhance my chances for a seat at the Kenyan parliament (no work, taxfree income, free car) – or at least raise my mzungu status within the Kenyan blogosphere.
Now, would you please excuse me, I’ve got to teach some Kiuk to other Exilkenianer who were forced to leave home in [...]

“We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women who have had years of education, to know nothing about the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers.”
“Reading, books, used to [...]

Jetzt bin ich schon fast drei Wochen in meiner alten dreiJahresHeimat Frankfurt am Main – und habe natürlich erstmal einen richtigen Stapel kostenloser Zeitschriften und Flyer angesammelt.
Das sind aber auch genau diese Kleinigkeiten, die es bei uns aufm Land in Suderburg nicht gab. Ok, die Unicum mit ihren McKinsey Anzeigen und anderem Erstsemesterblablub und dem [...]

It’s almost like as if they are already keeping the thumb on the phone’s red button.
Trying to call someone in Nairobi from abroad is easy and cheap, lakini most jamaas there – it seems – are used to 10 seconds conversation: no long greetings, a very short smalltalk and then an abrupt ending.
“Hellooo?”
- “Eh, hello, [...]

Steve already received his copy the other day, and since I found a perfect deal to secure mine for only 10,- EUR, I just couldn’t resist…
For more literature on contemporary music from the continent, here’s an interesting PDF (~0,2 MB) from the Depatment of Anthropolgy and African Studies @ the University of Mainz in Germany.
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