Someone once said that the misery of a heat wave is something that can't really be quantified,its only endured.

Since this summer began,we have had record highs in heat levels here in le Capitale.Between the steep gasoline prices- that seem to be rising on the same level as the heat, and the constant need for air conditioning,i am sweating harder than Bob Novak in a CNN boardroom briefing.
Ironically,DC has had an upsurge in tourism this year around.The implications of which are, that you have to endure those curious and oft annoying stares of tourists, as you sweat your way to work or for lunch.A friend who onced got irked and stared back at them, explained to me that she feels that tourists-who get to ride in their air conditioned and chaffeured tour buses are saying to her "we are on vacation and you are not...neh neh neh".There is however that occasional family of about six kids and their parents lagging their cameras and sweating to their knees.The mother always has that look like she is saying to herself "how the hell did we end up with so many kids.....and this was not my idea of a vacation,damn you Tom"

Apart from the summer of 2002 when the A/C in my old Ford Taurus was broken,summer was something i looked forward to.It meant among many things,enjoying the sights of semi clothed ladies,chilling on your balcony without the fear that you will be barbecqued alive and just driving with your rooftop down.This year it feels like all the talk of global warming is finally starting to make sense.So even as Bush signs an energy bill that subsdizes the oil industry,he should think twice about not ratifying the kyoto treaty and that ozone layer is not a type of food found in the exotic section of Safeway.

The Fear that as we advance further, our inventions and technologies become more of threats to our lives is real.We(hopefully) have by far a better life than those in the mediaval times,thanks in part to such man-made solutions to the afflictions of nature.However as much as we have advanced,we have the challenges of actually gaining complete and total control of what we have invented.
Last week Leila was flying to Tennesse,when her plane almost crash landed due to turbulence.Thank the gods,this nail biting ordeal ended with an emergency landing in Little Rock Arkansas(of all places).It brought me to thinking-a faculty that I rarely employ-about the how far in life science has brought us,and yet how much nature still overhelms us whenever it wishes.
We are still prone to such things as hurricanes,tornadoes,earthquakes and many others disasters that natures wills us.Hurricane Cindy and Ester come and wreck havoc, they destroy lives and leave hundreds homeless.The next year Cindy will tell her husband Ivan to come and do the same to us.Still we are helpless.
However advanced we are,our mortality still haunts us in the face of nature.That’s probably why we give such disasters a human face by giving them names like Cindy and Ivan,so that their devastations will make more sense to us.Cindy was here, she took your husband Robert or Ivan came and “fucked up” your house.
The challenges that face this generation are not simple,but we can have hope if instead of sinking billions of dollars into the war industry,we use that money in more explorations on how to safeguard humanity from such calamities.

On my list of places I might never visit,Texas ranked up there among Montana,Ukaraine and Azerbaijan.However last weekend I was given little option when I was told that the annual Rwandese convention was to take place in Houston. There was a good number of Rwandese,young and old.So we did what are famously known for(not Hotel Rwanda fool).We partied… all weekend long like it was 1995 all over again.

My first impression of Texas, as I landed in Houston, hadn’t changed abit, three days later when i boarded the plane back to DC.To borrow a quote from one of my former teachers, "i would rather chew on foil paper" than live in that searing heat.
All was not lost on me though,I always wanted to feel for myself how bad the sweltering heat can fuck up people’s heads. No wonder that this is the state that gave us Dubya. All airports were indeed named after their famous export.I know you are all asking yourselves..."what about the rednecks"...well i was in that part of town where the presence of Mexicans and their small Taco stores was more evident.So for all the trapping of a city the holds the memory of Los Alamos alive,the rednecks seem to have let this one slide.

For those of you who depend on me for you infotainment(which i highly discourage),Bobby Brown finally got into the fray of the celebrity reality TV genre. As comical an idea as that sounds, its proof enough that this is a nation of rubber-neckers, just waiting for the next train wreck.So the producers of Bravo thought to themselves, ‘where do we go after Flava Flav’…Bobby Brown!
I saw part of the debut last night, and even though I accept having been among those who refused to accept all the tabloid accounts of Bobby’s infamous tirades. The show lays to rest any of those doubts. These two are definately certified crack-heads .
In this one scene, the two high-on-life crack-heads are buying glasses in a dollar like store. Whitney then breaks into this crazy, ghetto dance,Bobby then joins in and what follows is more like a scene from the Dave Chappelle show.
You only had to see the contontion on the face of the old Asian store clerk, to know that the whole charade was a little disturbing. The bewildered look on her face epitomized the reaction of most viewers, whose memories of Whitney as a sex symbol going “I am every woman” ,were completely destroyed.
Not only does the show expose Brown to be even more ghetto fabulous than the tabloids always depicted, but it manages at the same time to rob Whitney of any last shreds of dignity.

So I finally get a reason to go to London.That’s right the Olympics of 2012…Yesterday London beat out many contenders for the much coveted spot,I felt bad for New York---mainly because I would have had to drive only three hours to get there--.Before this,the only reason I ever wanted to go to London was to ride the Big Ben(Except that today a bunch of asses felt that it was okay to blow up all symbols of mass transportation in the civilized world).

I however didn’t understand the reaction of the French at losing the race.I mean these are the same people who have snubbed any attempts at globalization. Mes amis,maybe you should have waited to reject the EU constitution till the IOC voting ended nes pas?.

Bush continues to enjoy promise billions of air-dollars of aid to Africa.Hopefully one day that air will materialize into hard currency and go to help the impoverished children and mothers who need it.In the interim,we would all use less of the “giving” rhetoric and use the time to watch reruns of the Live8 concerts.

I know it has been a while...but i have yet to tell you a bit about the Rwandan Convention in Texas.Despite the searing heat,we all had a great time.
Aside from interacting with people that i hadn't for so long,i had started looking out for them in the obituaries section of the Washington Post.The long weekend was indeed an opportunity for Rwandese to meet and create a synergy in a setting devoid of any political undertones.I would love to tell you more on what went on in the nite but i am bound by the confidentaility statement that i signed upon entry.
Speaking of confidentaility, brings me yet to another interesting topic that has been the talk of the capital for quite some time now.Last year Valerie Plame a CIA "operative" was "ratted out" by someone high up in the White House. This was a deliberate act of retaliation by the administration for her husband's criticism of the Bush war agenda.
Not to be confused with having some kind of moral obligation, such as that of "Deep throat",the person who revealed Plame's name to the media had the sole intention of malice.On some level when the story broke in 2003,i could help but mutter to myself "damn you Karl".For those of us who remember,it was a time of desperacy in the White House,when anything could be said and done to further the war cause.

Just to give you reason enough to scroll down further on this page,i will continue to disinterest you in the power of lobbying and special interests in the Capital.Here goes..in the most lay terms.
A state-controlled Chinese oil firm Cnook,is competing with Chevron's plans to buy Unocal an oil firm, this has in turn touched off an international fight which pits two economic giants in a battle interesting to watch from the outside.
The Chinese in the words of the legendary Tsan Tzu are trying "to win the war without fighting it",a strategy this administration should have borrowed in their quest to quench an oil thirsty economy.

Sad news this week for the fans of Dave Chappelle,word is that his much anticpated third season might actually never see the light of day.Amidst reports of Chappelle going bonkers and travelling to South Africa for a retreat,comedy central still found ways of giving us all the Dave we can take.I can now comfortably say that i have watched all the reruns of the second season.Infact the other day i caught myself as i was about to blurt out that catchy phrase"I am rich bitch" a couple of times.So the unofficial news making the circuit are that Chapelle might indeed have failed live upto the standards that he set in his last two seasons.