Nairobi calling..

The weekend has come and gone and my Magnum Opus of deconstructing Science has not materialized. Well, I have a good excuse! In order to do the job in the ...well, spirit of the job, I need to make sure that all my ducks are in good evidential rows. Increasingly aware of the many nuances and influences that are brought to bear on any discussion about Science and Truth here in East Africa, I must first delicately explore such. The biggy, of course is that I write from a place of near 99% religiosity. It is the kind that always presents socially with a sweet and goodly smile that says, "We are God's people and can do no harm. How can you possibly find fault with this?"
So, I have to extricate myself gently from this warm and fuzzy feeling that all is OK as long as we simply are nice to each other. Where do I start?
I think, with giving you an idea of how weird a place this really is - how what is just taken as bizarre in the developed world is seen as normal here and visa versa. With a background of hardly any serious or violent crime life here is marked by learning the tricks, being polite and patient and finding the funny side of things.
We had a kidnapping this week of some smartypants Canadian but the nappers were none too bright and fell for the oldest trick in the book - the cops delivered the ransom money and after doing the swap simply shot all the bad guys. Whoops! Canadian Embassy velly happy.
In Nakuru the big news is that two pastors were killed in a car prang and the remaining pastor told everyone to come and pray over the coffins as God had assured him that the dead would come back to life again. Twice a day they lift the lids to check on the progress, but still no luck. They are, however, confident that the lord will deliver. Local police are accusing the church of causing a bit of a stink.
In the same town, in a global first, bicycles have been banned as they are causing too many problems for the cars.
Closer to home, a prominent TV presenter has resigned and moved in with the pastor of the Finger of God Church. Police arrested him yesterday for not being registered as a church and she has been referred to the state mental hospital to be tested for insanity.

In neighbouring Uganda, the uproar about the proposed anti-gay laws continues. The fundamental absurdity of legislating against gay people is that it is essentially like making a law against people having 2 ears. It would be worded something like this: "From such and such a date it is no longer legal for citizens to have 2 ears. Anyone actually caught displaying 2 ears in public or private will have their ears chopped off. It is known to the goverment that there are in our midst many people with 2 ears and while the decadent West may well consider this to be normal, we (and our friends in the earvangelical movement) are confident that our clampdown will successfully reduce the incidence of 2 -earedness in our beloved country.
In the words of the well known Italian patriot, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!"

I leave you with that lot to digest. of course, you reception of it will depend on where your bum is placed geographically and what cultural influences weave through your payche. But you understand how it is a confusing landscape in which to contemplate the meaning or non- menaing of Life!