Getting Caught in the Rain on a Motorcycle

I admit that I am not the expert in staying dry, I do not live in British Columbia or England.  But in some ways it is more difficult to stay dry when rain is unexpected.  My first experience with rain riding was extremely shocking.  I had been riding a motorcycle for five months by the time May 1970 came around.   It was my first year in West Africa, where there is a rainy season and a dry season each year. For five months, I had been riding my motorcycle all over the country without any concern for rain, or even cold.

The day I first experienced rain on a motorcycle started out like many others.  I was at the beach for the weekend, and travelling the 200 km. back to my home on a nice Sunday afternoon in May.  About 30 km from home, a sudden thunderstorm came up.  I was wearing a helmet, sunglasses, T-shirt, regular shoes and jeans.  No face shield or windshield, no gloves.  No spare clothes, and of course no rain suit. I had not seen a drop of rain for about six months, and the temperature had been 31 degrees every day.  And, as I said before, I had never in my life ridden a motorcycle in rain.

The first drops of rain that hit me were a big surprise.  It was like being hit by rocks!  I thought about it for a short while.  Was this hail?  No, it was just raindrops.  I slowed down, and that was a bit less painful.  Within a few minutes, the rain was coming down very heavily, and I was soaked completely through and through.  Then the gravel road started to fill up with puddles.  Every puddle almost blasted my feet off the footpegs with the spray. It wasn't too long before the road started to get muddy, and the mud started getting slippery.  Luckily it was a short storm, and within about 20 minutes the sun was out again.  The temperature felt like it had dipped to about 70 degrees during the storm.  Then within another 20 minutes, I was almost totally dry, or at least comfortable again.  Just wondering what had hit me back there.

Unlike Canada, most of the time in Sierra Leone, they didn't bother with the weather reports. For half the year this would be the daily weather report, if they bothered with it at all.  Sun will come up at 6 AM, sunny, high of 92, sun will go down at 6 PM.  For the other half of the year, it would be:  Sun will come up at 6 AM, sunny with afternoon/evening thunderstorms, high of 82, sun will go down at 6 PM.

Many years later, riding in the summer in southern Ontario to me is mostly like being in a dry season.  This year has had more rain than usual, and quite heavy at times.  So how do you prepare for this kind of rain?  I have a windshield and splash guards for my feet.  I usually bring a rain jacket, rain pants, rain mitts, and boot covers with me.  Then I use my smart phone to check the weather radar, so that I know when to put on the rain suit.

A couple of days ago, I was on the 401 and I knew an intense rain storm was coming towards me.  So I stopped early, while it was still dry and put on my rain pants and jacket.  I don't bother with the rain mitts or boot covers.  Right where I expected it, the rain started, and it was really intense, some cars were pulling over. But my visibility was good, so I kept going, and I was only 15 minutes from my destination.  At my Mother's house I had a spare set of clothes if I needed them.

In the rainstorm, the first breach of the defences was my neck.  I had made the mistake of wearing a hoodie under my rain jacket.  The hood was sticking out, and apparently wicking cold water into my jacket.  About ten minutes later, I started to feel cold water from the front zipper area reaching my crotch.  When I got in the house, I changed my clothes and found out that my pant legs were half wet because of the "breathable" rain pants flapping too much.  Also my socks were damp, but this was actually better than I expected, as in a previous rainstorm, my boots had actually filled with water.  These lace-up boots are not advertised as waterproof, but they work surprisingly well as long as water does not run down my leg into the boots.  My T-shirt was mostly dry except for the lower front.  My gloves were completely soaked, but at least no black dye had run out to colour my hands.  And overall I was warm enough, because of the time of year, even though I was a bit wet.

But I have now changed my breathable rain pants to old fashioned PVC.  And next time, no cotton hoodie will be sticking out in the rain.  Always striving to do better.

Travelling Abroad and Dealing With Theft

I feel a need to comment on this particular statement about Sierra Leone. I came across this comment on the internet by Joy M. Hathaway, from Airway Heights, WA.

She starts out by stating she was a Peace Corp volunteer in Magburaka, from 1985 to 1988, and makes a few general comments, but this is the one that got me thinking.

"One of the cultural practices is teaching the boys and girls how to steal. Looking from the outside in, Western cultures teach children it is wrong to steal."

I am actually quite shocked and horrified that anyone would make such a derogatory statement about any country in the world, and this is especially disappointing coming from a Peace Corps volunteer in the same town I was, although not at the same time.

Theft does take place in Sierra Leone. Theft is a bit different in a wealthy country, and a poor country. In a wealthy country like the USA, for example, you would not leave a laptop computer sitting unattended and unsecured on a desk in a classroom day after day, and expect it to be there two weeks later.

A poor country like Sierra Leone is no different to the USA, if you make an allowance for pricing. Let's assume a piece of chalk in Sierra Leone is as valuable as a laptop computer is in the USA. If people are willing to sit all day in the market in the hopes of selling an orange for one cent, (not a profit of one cent, a total price of one cent)  obviously, some may be tempted to casually steal an unattended piece of chalk, and see what they can get for it.

And for something more expensive, they may be willing to hatch a fairly elaborate scheme to steal it. The amount of planning to rob a Brinks truck in the USA may be used to plan the robbery of a mosquito tent or a blanket in Sierra Leone.

I don't know what negative experience gave her the idea that stealing was "being taught to boys and girls", but my own experience in Sierra Leone was that yes, I had some things stolen while I was there. And in Canada, I can recall once or twice having a bicycle stolen, and almost all our neighbours in Canada have had break-in robberies, but not us. (I know what you're thinking, but honestly, it was not me).  Also, there is some theft of office supplies, and hardware and building supplies in various trades. But in a country of vast excess wealth, this petty theft is not crippling to the economy.

I try to take appropriate measures to lock up things that I think may attract thieves. The poorer the country, the more things need to be locked up. In Sierra Leone, things were stolen that no Canadian thief would ever bother with. Just last night, for example, Mary Ann and I were walking through the mall and saw an entire box full of chocolate cookies abandoned on a bench. Because it was in Canada, nobody yet had bothered to pick it up. Not so if there are starving people all around, and I am not saying people in Sierra Leone are starving, but they are not as well fed as Americans.

At one party I attended in Sierra Leone, we were having chicken wings, and the cook, who was Sierra Leonian, asked if he could have all the leftover bones to take back to feed his family. We were probably going to throw them out. And if we had thrown them out, would Joy Hathaway call it "stealing" if somebody came along and took them without permission?

I am pretty sure that parents do not teach their children to steal in Sierra Leone, and people sometimes get beaten up pretty badly when they are caught stealing. That's because, in Sierra Leone, people watch out for thieves and catch them and punish them without bothering to dial 911 and wait for the cops. And they also don't take the attitude that "it's none of my business" if somebody is observed stealing from somebody else.

Let's contrast that attitude to a story that appeared on TV a few weeks ago, about somebody being mugged on the Toronto subway system, where none of the other passengers tried to stop the robbery. That type of thing would not happen in Sierra Leone, because it's a different culture. Not better, not worse, just different. When you travel to other places, you need to try to understand and respect the culture.

The first thing of mine that went missing when I started teaching in Magburaka was my new umbrella. I had left it in the staff room, and it was gone by the end of the day. A few days later I found out who the thief was. You guessed it, the thief was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Was there an explanation? Of course, and I would never use an incident like this to imply that all Americans teach their children to steal. Unless there was proof, such as a hidden video or maybe a collection of handouts and teaching materials to substantiate the claim.

Now let's look at this statement. If "Western cultures teach children it is wrong to steal", does that mean the USA is going to be giving back the land to the Indians? Or that back wages are going to be paid to the slaves? 

Picture: A village in Sierra Leone.

How (and why) to Make a Pat Robertson Voodoo Doll

Before making your own voodoo doll of Pat Robertson, you need to know why. Just after the earthquake struck Haiti last week, Pat Robertson went on Television to announce that the earthquake, and general poverty of Haiti was a result of the Haitians making a pact with the devil. Soon after, a "Pat Robertson" Voodoo doll appeared on eBay, but was quickly taken off, I assume by Pat Robertson supporters, who were apparently scared of the voodoo curse that the owner of such a doll could put on their boss. But if you can't buy a Pat Robertson doll on eBay, you can still throw a voodoo curse on Pat Robertson by making your own doll at home.

The first step in making a voodoo doll is to get a piece of Pat Robertson to put in a doll (any doll, but a G.I. Joe would be good). Traditionally this would be a hair, a toenail clipping, etc. Even if you are Pat's bodyguard or mistress, you may have trouble getting hair from under the wig which he keeps on at all times. But you don't actually need a physical piece of him. Just print out this blog, which explains a bit of his history, and roll it up, remove the doll's head and shove the paper down the neck. Put the head back on, and you're ready to begin sticking the doll with pins.

Pat Robertson's Pact with the Devil, True Story

Pat Robertson, back in the eighties, wanted to make a little money for himself, and thought a diamond mine in Africa would be a good idea. The country of Liberia, in West Africa is a significant diamond exporting country, and so Pat Robertson looked for a partner in Liberia who could run a diamond mine and share the profits. He somehow became friends with Charles Taylor, a powerful Liberian warlord who was also a "Born Again Christian". Pat Robertson decided that he could trust this man, and gave him seven million dollars in return for a promise of a share of the profits of the mining operation.

Pat Robertson is not in the habit of checking into details too carefully, as you can tell by his poorly researched "true story" about the Haitian Pact with the Devil. If he had done some research on Liberia, he would have found out that even though Liberia is a significant diamond exporting country, they have no rich diamond deposits. Most of the diamonds exported by Liberia are illegally smuggled into the country from neighbouring Sierra Leone. The reason that smugglers go to Liberia, is because it is against the law in Sierra Leone to possess, let alone export, diamonds that have not been mined legally. No such such law exists in Liberia, because they have no history of profitable diamond mining, but have made fortunes from Sierra Leone's diamonds. Today, it is illegal for any diamond cutting firm to buy diamonds that are not documented. But back in the 1990's no such international law existed, and so Liberia continued to export diamonds smuggled from Sierra Leone.

Once Charles Taylor had the money from Pat Robertson he knew that the only way to set up a diamond mine would be across the border in Sierra Leone, which was not possible for him to do legally. He hatched a diabolical plan to send a group of his thugs across the border to clear the civilians out of the diamond area, and create enough mayhem for the Sierra Leone government that he could go ahead with digging up the diamonds without a permit.

The plan was first to clear out the civilian population through terror, and make them flee into the cities far from the diamond fields. While Taylor had enough money (Pat's 7 million would go a long way in Africa), he did not have enough men to carry out the plan. So he decided to recruit young boys in Sierra Leone to form an army.

Charles Taylor's small but well funded band of thugs entered Sierra Leone with the strategy of forming an army of children to fight their own people, and drive the civilians out of the diamond area. The tactic they used was brilliant, though unfortunately it was also a war crime. But back in those days, no evil dictators feared any international court, and Charles was the dictator of Liberia.

The tactic was to go into a village, and round up boys about 10 to 14 years old as their recruits. Most villages in Sierra Leone are totally unarmed, so a couple of men (or even children) with AK47's can easily take over a village. They then lined up the villagers, and forced their new recruits to chop the hands off one by one. Psychologically this was devastating, as fathers and mothers had their hands cut off by their young sons. Usually after most of the hands were cut off, and the soldiers had left with their kidnapped recruits, the entire village would be abandoned. And with each new village, Taylor's small band had a new bunch of recruits that they began to turn into "child soldiers". This training process involved the use of cocaine, beating and torture, usually carried out by the children on each other, with the help of the drugs. Also the children were told they were fighting for Jesus against the evil Sierra Leone government, and that they were on the side of God. With a combination of psychological methods, they could get the children to carry out these village operations almost with no supervision. So the tactic proved effective. The Sierra Leone police and army found themselves faced with an army of drugged up children who were heavily armed, and fearless. Plus, of course some men who were persuaded that this rebellion was an easy way to power and wealth. Millions of people fled, not only the diamond country, but Sierra Leone itself.

The rebellion was actually too successful, it spread right into the capital city of Freetown. The reason I say too successful, is that Taylor did not want to "take over" Sierra Leone, he just wanted the country in chaos so that he could continue to smuggle out the diamonds. But with the success of the rebellion, came a UN team to negotiate a peace settlement.

A power sharing agreement was mandated by the UN, peacekeepers were brought in. Everything should have gone back to normal. But of course it didn't, as Charles Taylor needed the terror to continue. The fighting did not stop, and at one point, a large group of UN soldiers were kidnapped by the drugged up "rebel" forces. If peace had returned to Sierra Leone, it would put a stop to Charles Taylor's hugely profitable diamond operations.

Gradually as the fighting continued in spite of a peace deal, it became clear that this was not a typical tribal rebellion based on some legitimate grievance against corruption in the government. The Sierra Leone army was stretched to the limit. At that point, the British Government, under Tony Blair sent in a commando unit with the stated purpose of providing security for British citizens. When they arrived, the desperate people of Sierra Leone looked to them as their only hope of ending the carnage that was still going on. With the help of the British commandos, and a further effort of their own, they managed to turn the tide. They eventually persuaded most of the child soldiers to put down their weapons. The children, who now were actually getting to be teenagers and young adults, were eventually put into child soldier rehabilitation camps, and with time the refugees that had fled into neighbouring countries started to return.

Pat Robertson never got his fair share of Charles Taylor's profits. But he also never made an attempt to find out what was going on, in keeping with his philosophy of how to attain prosperity.

As the story became clear, and Charles Taylor was discovered to be the culprit, George W. Bush called on Charles Taylor to step down as President of Liberia. Pat Robertson, still loyal to his "Born Again Christian" friend Charles Taylor, rebuked Bush publicly, stating that Bush had no business interfering in the affairs of a sovereign African Nation. But Charles Taylor stepped down, and he was offered asylum in Nigeria. Later on, he was handed over by Nigeria, to eventually be taken to the international court in the Hague, to stand trial for war crimes in Sierra Leone. The trial is still going on.

Without Pat's financing and moral support, this carnage in Sierra Leone may have never happened. So did Sierra Leone a country similar to Haiti, founded by freed slaves, also deserve this misery because of a pact with the devil? Or was it actually Pat Robertson who made a pact with the devil.

True Story.

Read and print this, stuff it in a doll, and you're set to go with the Voodoo curses.

Also, read Wikipedia's version of Charles Taylors story here

A much more complete, and complicated story of the Sierra Leone Rebellion:

Picture: A traditional voodoo doll in full headache mode.

Simplistic Christian Ideas May Cause More Harm Than Good

After Pat Robertson's comments that the Haitian earthquake was a result of Haiti's pact with the devil, I am going to go over again why I did not generally like the Christian missionary's approach to helping people in Africa.

You would think that as a CUSO volunteer, I would appreciate the efforts of Christians, building orphanages, schools, medical facilities. While those were appreciated, there were some problems with the Christian approach, which in my opinion is very simplistic all the way to willfully ignorant about the real causes of problems in Africa (and I guess Haiti too).

Take the example of Pat Robertson, who says that Haiti's poverty is proof of their pact with the devil. At first I thought the comment was racist, but after some discussion (with my sister, a Born Again Christian), I have come to the conclusion it is more ignorance than racism. A racist would say Haitians are poor because they are dishonest, lazy, stupid. Pat is not saying that, he is saying their misery is only because they had a pact with the Devil. Apparently this pact is well known in the history and folklore of Haiti, so I am not going to take the usual scientific approach and say the devil does not exist. And I was going nowhere with the opposite reasoning that the white slave countries also had an obvious pact with the devil. But the fact is that white countries have had a huge negative impact on Haiti's prosperity. A quick read of the history of Haiti will, for most people have an eye opening effect. Like "Wow, I never realized how inhumane and dishonourable the other counties like France, USA especially (even Germany) were to Haiti. It's even worse than Avatar 3D!" But why would anyone really be surprised, if they actually know a little bit about the history of the American Indians, about the history of slavery, about the history of Europe in general.

The only surprise for me in reading some Haitian history, and one that really merits further study, was a period of peace and stability and even the beginnings of prosperity that Haiti managed to achieve with little or no help from white countries, before the Americans invaded in 1912 and started a brutal occupation that lead to further brutal dictatorships, and pretty much constant interference right up to the present day.

My feelings about Christian missionary activities comes down to this. Some Christians have a childishly simplistic view of what causes poverty in Africa, and elsewhere. They have a one sided and mythical view of how the world works based on American greatness and other people's sinfulness, and of course their own God being the only right one. They do not care to understand the history, and in most cases do not understand enough about international finance to get a handle on the real problems of developing countries. If it was simple ignorance, I would have no problem, but not only does it focus the efforts in the wrong direction, it sometimes leads to catastrophes.

For example in Sierra Leone, where coincidentally, I lived for three years, and coincidentally Pat Robertson had some remote involvement. It started off simple enough. Pat had a charitable organization that was doing their usual thing in Africa, well-meaning people just trying to help. But Pat wanted to be wealthy and so he also set up a mining company with his own money. Then he found a way to transfer money from the charity to the mining company.

Here again I have an issue with the simplistic approach of Christians. Pat was found guilty of fraudulently taking money from his charities, but his supporters say he did nothing wrong, because he never took money from the charity. It seems like they do not understand that there are ways of committing fraud without actually taking cash.

True, the charities received all the money sent to them. That's because the charity is audited, as any charity must be in order to prevent theft. Neither Pat's charity, nor any other charity in the USA or Canada operate on trust and faith alone just because they are "nice Christians". If good hearted Christians don't know that, maybe there are a lot more things they may be unaware of when it comes to money matters in developing countries or elsewhere.

Just to explain it on the level of someone who knows nothing of fraud and finance. (let alone international development), independent accountants must regularly go over the financial books of a charity. But a clever person can always find new ways to cheat and get money out of the charity, so that the auditors can't find it. The method Pat used was to run a private, personal mining company (gold diamonds etc) in parallel with the charity, but not having any connection financially between them. Both organizations needed airplanes to operate. In fact, the charity didn't really "need" the planes, it was a nice thing to have sometimes. Airplanes are always are nice to have, hey, even I could use one right now. Airplanes are just too expensive for most charities that have more pressing needs for that million dollars. But aircraft were vital to the mining operations. So the decision(?) was made that the charity would buy the aircraft instead of the mining company, then Pat secretly made use of the aircraft, paid for by the charity, to conduct the mining operations. He still thinks it was no big deal, just put a few mining supplies on a plane, that's all. And people who know nothing of fraud of course agree with him, after all he is a Christian, how could he be bad? That's how simplistic thinking starts bad things happening.

I am objecting to the oversimplification of the problem of poverty in the developing world, promoted by Christian missionaries. And furthermore the lack of understanding of what is going on by admittedly well meaning people which allows greedy individuals to get away with stuff that drains money from the charitable causes.

But far worse was a "mistake" Pat made that caused tremendous human suffering in Sierra Leone. And why did he make that mistake? Because he either let himself be guided by over-simplistic Christian ideas, or there was conflict of interest. The simplistic idea was that because warlord Charles Taylor was "A Born Again Christian" and that his enemies were Muslims, Pat could place his trust in Charles Taylor, and enter into an agreement with him that was worth millions of dollars, enabling Taylor (from neighbouring Liberia) to wage a horrific clandestine war against Sierra Leone, to steal their diamonds. Pat expected to make money out of this deal, so not only was Christian oversimplification involved, but "conflict of interest" as well. He didn't make money, of course Taylor kept it all.

At the very least, Pat closed his eyes to what was going on, and continued to support Charles Taylor. Either through greed, or Christian blindness (because it was only Muslims who were being butchered), or just stupidity, I don't know. But as the atrocities mounted, Pat stayed a firm friend of Taylor. Finally the atrocities reached a point where even the US government under George Bush could not stand it any more, and called on Charles Taylor to step down as President of Liberia. Pat then publicly rebuked President Bush, saying it was no business of his to interfere in African politics.

If Pat is not outright evil, I do not accept that it is just an innocent mistake, but a stubborn refusal to recognize that mistake. And of course, conflict of interest (greed) was involved as Pat still hoped Taylor could repay the 7 million dollars and more. I actually don't think Pat is as stupid as he pretends to be, but that's just my opinion.

The amount of suffering caused in Sierra Leone is probably way more than all the good done by all the well meaning people in Pat's charitable organization. If I did believe in Hell, I might take great comfort in thinking Pat Robertson may end up in it. If not, well there's always Pat Robertson Voodoo dolls for sale on eBay. Don't forget to read the Q&A before bidding.

Picture: No, that's not Haiti! A Learjet, one of Pat Robertson's planes crashed, killing both pilots. And he says Haitian misfortune is all because of their pact with the devil. Well I won't be flying Air Pat Robertson anytime soon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13105641/

Why CUSO Was Not a Missionary Organization

When I went with CUSO, some of my friends and relatives were puzzled about why I would want to become a missionary to Africa. After all, I had not seemed overly religious to them. The answer is that CUSO is not a religious missionary society. It is a secular organization (Another word that is often confused. It means NOT religious). It does not mean that religious people are not admitted, just that CUSO's philosophy is not connected to any one single religious view.

CUSO was built on some liberal values that were more widespread in the sixties. Just a note that I am no longer with CUSO, this is just my understanding of CUSO's philosophies forty years ago. I can't find a current or even an old official declaration, but anyway here were some things we assumed as the truth.

First that all races of man were equal, and women too, even though this was pre-womens' lib.

Second that it was possible to eliminate such things as poverty, starvation, war, overpopulation. We didn't know exactly how, but some basic approaches might include education, diplomacy, empathy, fair trade practices, modern science.

Third was respect for local culture. Languages, religions, and customs.

Fourth would be the attempt of CUSO volunteers to live at the standards of their African counterparts. We did not approve of CUSO volunteers putting on ostentatious displays of wealth, such as driving around in limos, or living in air conditioned mansions surrounded by barbed wire. Although we earned the same salary as local teachers, it turned out we were still richer, because they generally had to support a large extended family, while our families back in Canada could manage without our support. So that's how I could afford a cook, and a smallish motorcycle, which African teachers could not. The rest of our living standard was not too far above the African teachers, although we always had a refrigerator.

CUSO did not believe that the evil in the world was the work of satan, or witchcraft or voodoo magic. No CUSO volunteer I ever heard of ever did any religious proselytising of any sort while in Africa. Although some of my friends in Africa became religious when they returned home. (Actually now that I think of it, those were mostly Peace Corps volunteers, i.e. Americans.)

One of the first projects by CUSO was to send Canadians overseas to newly independent developing countries to help fill in where they were short of trained people, starting with teachers and medical staff. When I first arrived at my high school in Sierra Leone, they were short staffed. Many classes had to teach themselves, and I had the pick of which classes I wanted to teach. When I left three years later, there were no more teacherless classes, and I had already turned over my senior classes to new graduates of Sierra Leone's college, and moved down to some of the Junior classes. At the time, Sierra Leone had been independent of the British Empire only 6 years.

Now to contrast with the religious missionaries in Africa, of which there is a much broader spectrum of beliefs and practices. They generally saw their primary job as bringing their religion to the natives. So right from the start, their philosophy was opposite of CUSO. CUSO did not promote our culture or religions as being superior. Also, I don't know that any church groups believed in the possibility of eliminating poverty world wide.

The next thing I noticed about missionary work is that it was generally some sort of charity. CUSO was far more likely to send someone to work at a local government run institution, rather than set up their own school. As far as I know, CUSO never set up any schools or hospitals, while missionary groups had plenty, plus orphanages and clinics that they ran themselves.

And of course another major difference was that CUSO did not believe in the Devil or magic or superstition. Not officially anyway, but as I said, I never met a CUSO volunteer who claimed to believe in those things while I was in Africa.

Was the liberal, secular philosophy of CUSO proved right in the end? Whatever CUSO did, Africa did decline in the forty years after I went there. Now I believe there are even more missionaries than ever before. Children are being killed for witchcraft. Even the Catholic Church has said they are going to start fighting witchcraft and devil possessions with prayer and exorcisms of their own. What I mean is they recently have officially acknowledged that these things exist.

I don't think it means CUSO was wrong, just that the problem is more difficult than imagined. We have found, for example, that the damage done by racial abuse lasts for generations after the abuse stops. And on the other hand, amoral profit-driven corporations have increased their power in the last 40 years. Just look at the huge personal bonuses the banks took from the bail-out money in the USA. If the United States of America can have it's economy destroyed by multinational corporations, imagine how much easier the corporations can leave a small country destitute such as Sierra Leone.

The religious end-of-the-world people have not been proven right either. Not yet anyway.

Show Some Respect When Travelling Abroad

Last night, I was looking through many pictures and snapshots that you can find on the internet. I was looking in particular for pictures of Sierra Leone, wondering what it looks like today. I came across a comment that struck me as being kind of insensitive. A young university student from Tennessee was in Sierra Leone working, and had taken some pictures of billboards in Freetown. One billboard was partly in "Krio" which is the word used for Creole, or the language that the freed slaves used. Her comment about the billboard was that it was written in Krio which is "Basically, bad English."

Before I go on, I'm going to just address that comment with my own take. Of course, it is rude to insult the way other people speak. But this comment also displays a lack of knowledge in both language and history. All languages started out as "bad" something else. French, Spanish and Italian are all bad Latin. English started out as bad French mixed with bad Germanic/Scandinavian. American English is bad British English. Same for Canadian English (but not quite as bad of course!). And Southern American English, for y'alls information, is bad Yankee English.

Now some history. The reason the Freetown Colony spoke Krio, is that they were freed slaves. But they were not freed in their own country, they were freed together with other people from different tribes that could not understand each other languages. The only way they could communicate with each other was with a new common language they made up for themselves, and this language was Krio, and based heavily (but not entirely) on English.

They also had not been given the benefit of formal English classes by their slave masters, although possibly the first ones that came from Canada may have been able to read and write. That's because Canada didn't make writing and reading a punishable offense for black people, like the southern USA did at the time.

Now to get back to language. Krio is actually not just "bad English" because it is now a written language. Meaning it has a defined syntax, spelling, and there are books published in Krio.

Now that I have dealt with that one innocent comment from a young woman visiting Sierra Leone, I want to continue with my feelings toward some people who travel and do not have respect for local people and cultures. I'm sure it's unintentional in most cases. But it seems to me when I was a CUSO volunteer we had a very strong sense of respecting the country we worked in. We were taught something of their history and culture and we were expected to learn it. The original motto of CUSO was "To serve and learn".

I went to the CUSO website to see if they had any guidelines on how volunteers from Canada should behave in foreign countries, but there was nothing. I guess it was just assumed that if you have to teach somebody how to respect a foreign culture, this person is not suitable for CUSO. I want to add that CUSO was completely unlike religious missionaries in that we did not go to eliminate local religion or cultures, we were a secular organization whose goal was more in eliminating poverty through education and infrastructure.

Some tourists are incredibly disrespectful of countries they visit whether intentional or not. They shout at people who do not understand their English (not even realizing that their English is actually non-standard), and look down on local people as lazy, ignorant, and dishonest.

I'm just going to wrap up with an anecdote from my trip to Mexico. I was talking to an American at the next campsite about travelling, he said he had never been out of the United States. Even though he was sitting in Mexico, a good 500 kilometers past the southern US border. Is this a common American attitude? I sometimes wonder from all the US flags I see flying on flagpoles in front of cottages in Canada. The only place you will not see this is on the St Claire river between Michigan and Ontario. There is not one single US flag flying on the Canadian side. I assume this not allowed because the Customs Agents don't want to confuse the boaters as to which side of the river is USA and which is Canada.

From Canada to Sierra Leone and Back

Canada and Sierra Leone occupy opposite ends of the United Nations quality of life scale, where Canada has occasionally ranked number one, and Sierra Leone has got the 192nd spot, or dead last a few times.

Sierra Leone and Canada are the only countries I have actually lived in. I was only in Sierra Leone for three years, but that included my first full time job, my first house, my first motor vehicle, the start of my passion for motorcycling, and getting married. Although Sierra Leone was poor when I was there, it was a beautiful country, with friendly people full of life and fun.

Listening to the Sierra Leone national anthem gives me the same feeling as listening to the Canadian national anthem. Although I would like to go back, I know I would be disappointed that it has not stayed the same as it was forty years ago.

I discovered to my surprise, that Sierra Leone's capital city Freetown was established by Canadian Settlers in 1792. They were Loyalist freed slaves who fought for the British during the American War of Independence, and subsequently were driven out and allowed to resettle in Nova Scotia. About 2000 of them were recruited in a mass exodus to the new British colony in Freetown, Sierra Leone. They were not actually the first to arrive, a small group of freed slaves had come from London England five years earlier, but had almost disappeared by the time the Canadian group arrived. They started the new colony which originally was just on the Freetown Peninsula. Fifteen years later, the British government declared the trans Atlantic slave trade illegal, and started seizing slave ships and unloading their human cargoes in Freetown, building up the population of the colony to the size of a small city.

Sierra Leone was also the first place I lived where English was the common official language. The original settlers spoke Creole, a form of English common among American slaves, which is still the common language of the Freetown Peninsula. Part of our orientation course was to learn Creole, and today I still remember the Creole greeting term "Ow de body?" which gives you an idea of how similar to English it is. However, it is just impossible for me to understand two people speaking Creole at full speed. While I was there I spoke English and usually muddled along. I did not actually live in a Creole speaking area, and so my native language speaking attempts were normally in Timne. Really all I wanted to do was to be able to greet people, and the rest seemed to take care of itself.

This incident shows how far even one word can get you. My first motorcycle trip after I got home was to Bo, 60 miles away. I knew that I would be entering the Mende language area somewhere along the way, and I learned the Mende Greeting which I think was Bua. Being new to motorcycling, the trip was a series of disasters, one of which was running out of gas half way there. I pushed the Honda to the next village, very hot work with the hills and gravel. I saw only mud huts and thatched roofs, so the usual thing of going to a gas station was not possible. A couple of curious village women approached me. I said Bua, and luckily they did too (because it is not marked where the language changes). They didn't actually expect much more from me, and found me a chair to sit on and placed it in the shade because they knew these white people were allergic to the sun or something. They made me understand that they were sending for someone who could speak English, and soon a young schoolboy showed up. I explained that I was out of gas, and he explained that nobody in town had any. But he went over to the local Paramount Chief, who was also the local member of parliament, and happened to be heading to Bo pretty soon. Next thing I knew a black Mercedes with a flag fluttering from the hood pulled up and I got in the back seat with the Paramount Chief. He asked "So how could such an intelligent person as yourself run out of gas in this village?" He had a point, since I was no more than 30 miles from my home, but I explained the situation, new bike and all, and not only that it was January 1st and the Magburaka gas station was closed for New Years. Anyway we had an interesting conversation all the way to Bo, where he let me off at the first open gas station. I'm going to leave the story there, but you should get the idea this was a long day.

As hard as it may be to believe, this kind of friendliness was typical of the entire three years I spent there. And it probably explains my liberal attitudes.

My biggest shock was not in going to West Africa, it was in returning to Canada. Although everything was more or less as I had left it, everything was also different. Am I imagining things, or did Canadians start complaining a lot about nothing while I was away? Example of complaining about nothing, how about this one which I occasionally hear. Those Indians are taking our land. First of all, before we get into whose land it actually is, did you know Canada, with only 3.2 people per sq. km. has more land than almost any country on Earth? Sierra Leone has 80 people per sq. km., and you could fit it into Canada 360 times. If Canada had Sierra Leone's population density, we would have about 800 million people, and probably less complaining.

I would like to introduce S.E. Rogie, the Sierra Leonean version of Gordon Lightfoot. This is a nice video with still scenes of Sierra Leone of today, not 40 years ago. I can tell it's a little more crowded and has about a thousand times the number of motorcycles. That is one big change I personally can relate to. My motorcycle's licence plate was NT 183, meaning the 183rd motor vehicle of any type ever registered to the Tonkolili district in the Northern province.

The picture is from Freetown Sierra Leone, 1970. The old City Hotel (on the left) has since burned down. The only motorcycle in the picture is mine in the bottom right corner.

Motorcycling: Road Hazards

We have been to quite a few funerals this month, and while it is always a sad event, it does give you a chance to meet members of your extended family who you might not have met before. The last time, many people seem to have heard of Mary Ann's scooter, and were asking us questions about it. And because some of the questions were kind of thought provoking I decided to do a write up.

First question: What about pot holes on a scooter with 13 inch wheels that is also capable of 140 kilometers per hour speed. This is a better response than what I gave verbally.

You do need to avoid potholes, more than you would in a car, and maybe more than a motorcycle with regular sized wheels. But on a two wheeled vehicle, you are always checking out the road surface, as that is one of your greatest hazards. Potholes are only one of the hazards, so is debris in the road: tire treads, big rocks, train tracks, streetcar tracks, gravel, leaves, ice, water puddles, dead animals, and oil puddles. In fact there are so many things to watch out for that I am always scanning the road surface. I swerve around anything suspicious even just a stain on the road. And I try to do this while also paying attention to traffic. But I never ever talk on the phone while riding, and rarely even attempt to talk to my passenger so at least I'm not too distracted.

A motorcycle or scooter is a single track vehicle, cutting in half your chance of hitting a pothole. Also your eyes are lined up on the track, meaning you don't need to sacrifice any mental brain power to compute the path of an off centre wheel. And don't fool yourself, even if you are doing it unconsciously, your brain has to work, and work harder to compute the path of the tire that is not lined up with the eye. Also helping you is a high viewpoint, and a vehicle that is quite good at dodging around, if you practice. And since I try to miss everything on the road, I do get a fair amount of practice. Also, with such a narrow vehicle you can move around quite a lot without sideswiping a car next to you.

If you do hit a pothole or other road hazard, in spite of all your efforts, surprisingly the scooter is usually not damaged unless it is a real big hazard, and those may damage cars too. Anyway, just because you hit a pothole you are not necessarily going to crash. The motorcycle or scooter has a fair amount of stability, and unless you are thrown off, will likely keep going. Many two wheeled vehicles have kept going even without the driver.

I had one incident in my first year of motorcycling that permanently tuned me in to road hazards. I was riding my Honda 175 on a bush road in Sierra Leone, probably at about 70 kph, when I hit a big rock sticking about six inches out of the road. I don't remember exactly what the rock looked like, but I do remember what happened to the motorcycle and me. The front wheel went over and bounced up in the air a bit, then came down just when the rear wheel hit the rock. For some reason the rear suspension could not absorb the hit, and so the back of the bike went high up in the air, and so did I because the seat is right over the rear wheel. The bike rode along with only the front wheel touching the ground. I was no longer sitting on the seat, in fact the only contact I had with the bike was my hands on the handlebars, where I was just about upside down, doing some kind of handstand like a stunt rider. I came really close to going right over the front, but I hovered there for what seemed like a minute, then I fell back down onto the seat of the bike. I pulled over to the side of the road and stopped to catch my breath and figure out what was going on. The rim of the wheel was dented in. I actually don't remember if the tire was flat right then, but later on I had to patch the tube, so maybe it caused a slow leak. I was an impressionable 21 years old at the time, and I learned something valuable from my lucky break.

The Picture: I photoshopped two of my pictures together from Sierra Leone. I'm in the rainy season, but the rest of the road is in the dry season.

Motorcycling: Driving on the Right

For once, I am going to explain the difference between right and left without getting into politics.

I was sitting in the Doctor's office reading MacLean's again, and I saw an article about Samoa switching sides of the road. In the article, it mentioned this was the first time in 39 years since a country had switched driving from one side to the other. They did not mention the previous country, but I was in Sierra Leone in 1971, when they switched from the left to the right hand side. (Samoa is going right to left). Nigeria switched even more recently, in 1972.

Unlike Samoa, there was no controversy in Sierra Leone. Everyone knew our neighboring counties drove on the right, as did almost all West Africa. If the switch was not done soon, it would have to be done eventually at far greater cost. Thinking back, it seems so nostalgic that people could make a decision based on rational thought and foresight, unlike the decisions we make today about global warming (or anything else you can think of). It was thought to be responsible to make a relatively small sacrifice now rather than let future generations suffer a far greater burden.

There would have been plenty of chances for opponents of right hand traffic to recall that Hitler ordered right-hand traffic in Czechoslovakia and Austria in the 1930s. But back in those days, Hitler comparisons were not a popular debating game.

Coming from Canada, I had learned to drive on the right all my life, but switching to driving on the left in Sierra Leone was not too difficult. Motorcycles have an advantage over cars in that you don't need to move the steering wheel from one side to the other, they are equally at home on either side of the street. And if you see a vehicle approaching on the wrong side, you may still be able to find space on your side to squeeze by. If you have to make the last minute decision to swerve to the wrong side, you will sometimes find that the other driver does the same, and you're finished.

Sierra Leone did the change in the middle of the night and declared a 4 hour moratorium on driving. Of course, my motorcycle ended up on the road during that time. I had lent it to my housemate for the night, and he didn't return until after the moratorium started. I was a bit concerned, but as he said, it was actually the only time he had ever really been safe on the roads, so all was forgiven.

Funny thing was, the next few days I had a really hard time adjusting to driving my motorcycle on the right side of the road. I guess it was easy enough to switch when on unfamiliar roads, but hard to change once you adopt certain habits.

Everyone was expecting carnage on the roads during the next few weeks, but as far as I could tell, there were few or even maybe no accidents. I certainly never met anyone on the wrong side of the road although I was over on the left a few times by mistake.

My 100th Blog Entry

I can't believe I have posted 100 blogs since I started on November 30, 2008. My subjects have been mainly related to motorcycling or propaganda. Motorcycling has included driving tips, technical stuff, nice roads and bikes. The propaganda started with some myths about Nazi propaganda and also included some current propaganda, religion and politics. Because I consider all those to be bound up with propaganda. I ended up with over 20 blogs about propaganda alone.

2009 is the fortieth anniversary of my first year as a teacher and a CUSO volunteer in in Sierra Leone. I found out that the current president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, might have been in my class at Magburaka Secondary School for Boys in 1969. He attended that school, and was 16 in 1969, the year I started teaching there. I don't have the actual class registry, and it's too long ago to remember all the names, but I do remember a few "discussions" on politics in my Physics class - proving once again that I have a hard time sticking to one subject. I am hopeful that he turns out to be a good president, Sierra Leone deserves it.

I also found a current picture on the Internet of my old house on the MSSB school compound, which has been partly destroyed by the war in the nineties. That war finally ended when Tony Blair sent British troops in on a peacekeeping mission. Some good things can be achieved by peacekeeping, but there is a right and a wrong way to go about it. I want to congratulate Tony Blair and the British peacekeepers for doing it the right way.