two and two makes five

My boy is cute!

More Vusi pictures on Facebook here...

iMac Resurrection

Picking up iMac tomorrow. Working like a charm. No charge for service. That's what I call good news. :)

Dead iMac

No powering on, no warranty. Waiting for the diagnosis. Thankful for Time Machine.

DRC Still At War

One of Africa's deadliest and costliest (in human terms) wars is threatening another major eruption.

Hundreds of thousands have been raped as a weapon of war, estimates put the number of refugees and displaced persons as a result of a series of wars in the region at over 5 million, genocide and even cannibalism have been the order of the day, and peace is not yet in sight.

Vusi rolled over

From his stomach to his left. Twice. What a clever boy. :)

Keep praying for Zimbabwe

Today in Zimbabwe, thousands are lined up outside their bank, hoping to withdraw the maximum amount of cash allowed by law. If they line up every day for four consecutive days and get there early enough (maybe 3AM) to get through the queue before the bank runs dry, they will withdraw enough money to buy a single bag of maize meal - if the price does not rise (unlikely) in the next four days.

The Cabinet of the new unity government has still not been agreed upon, and time is running out before President Mugabe defies the agreement and names his own ZANU-PF dominated Cabinet, plunging the nation back into more political chaos.

Meanwhile, one US Dollar is worth roughly 7 Quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars under the old (pre-10zeroslashing) system and inflation is close to 10 Billion percent annually. 

A few weeks ago when we were in Zimbabwe, a pastor told me, "We have trusted in men for too long. Maybe now we will realize that the only One we can trust is God."

Amen.

For those who disagree...

...with my political statements or my choice to write about politics (about once a year or so) on this blog, the conversation is happening on this post. Feel free to agree, disagree, or completely ignore anything I say, as long as you keep it civil and polite. Love and respect to you all...

Dear America, My Final Word

Enough with politics, but this is such an indication of what is wrong with the Wall Street bailout... from the New York Times on 21 September:

Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.
Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.
At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.
Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions...
...Other firms hope to be hired to manage the assets that Treasury acquires, a job that could earn them $1 billion a year, even if they charged fees that were modest by industry standards. Among them are the asset management companies Pimco and BlackRock.Morgan Stanley, the investment bank, is also vying for the work.

Today, I contacted my Congressman and both Senators via phone and email. I've never done that before. What is wrong with me? :)

A few more pictures...

Check out a new Vusi photo album on facebook...