Back on the blog, ailing leaders, remembering IB and dreaming of Seattle

No, I wasn't ill or even any more depressed than normal. It was just work- another crazy fortnight of dashing back and forth and trying to meet deadlines on various projects. Looks like I've come out whole the other side and so am back here blogging.

While I was away from blogville I missed the whole "He's dead" "No, he's not" "Yes he is" drama surrounding Obasanjo's anointed , the blessed Yaradua. It turns out he was simply suffering from "severe catarrh" which left him breathless but necessitated a quick trip to Germany for treatment. This morning I wake up to learn that his main rival Atiku has been flown to the UK for surgery on his knee following a "domestic accident". Meanwhile Nigerian doctors have been on strike for a number of days now.So while the average Nigerian currently has virtually no access to medical treatment, the two leading contenders for the Nigerian Presidency jet off to various Western countries for THEIR treatment. Could someone throw down a gauntlet- can all of these contenders sign up to a pledge that if elected they will not seek medical treatment outside Nigeria- now that would motivate them to improve the health care system. I know I know, tell me I'm dreaming...

Well, Gordon Brown, the Iron Chancellor (who by the way is NOT Tony Blair's anointed) has been in the news here for using a private dentist at the cost of 100 pounds an hour for a root canal treatment. Initially the story that emerged was about how the dour Iron Chancellor had bravely had the treatment without any anaesthetic as he was due to deliver a speech a few hours later and was worried that anaesthetic would slur his speech. Soon, the focus turned to the fact that he had gone to a private dentist as opposed to an NHS one....

Years ago when I lived in Abuja I used to go to the bar at the Nicon Hilton Hotel (it was virtually the only place to hang out then) to listen to the live band that played there. There was the vertically challenged Don Bruce doing his James Brown imitation in his sprayed on seventies gear and then for a brief period there was IB- sassy, talented and giving as good as she got. In a country where albinos were still looked at with some ambivalence, she belted out popular tune after popular tune making each song her own, and seeking no sympathy or special treatment. With a caustic wit, she won admirers who regularly returned to hear her sing. After a while she disappeared and I often wondered what had become of her, until last week when I saw her reemerge on Pop Idols West Africa http://www.mnetafrica.com/idols/contestant/profile.asp?Id=1 - I don't know how she's doing on there, but I do wish her well, remembering with fondness the night she turned the hotel bar into a Deep South style gospel church at midnight, switching effortlessly from the secular songs that she'd been belting out seconds before-....

On Sunday afternoon I was invited to lunch at a friend's- it was a classic English meal with a lovely steak and kidney pie- the crust was melt in the mouth and it had a rich creamy sauce replete with meat. It made a welcome difference from the pounded yam and egusi that had been my staple diet for most of the week after a Nigerian friend had brought round a humongous pot of soup. Back to the lunch- we had sticky toffee pudding with custard to finish and I must admit that the English do get their puddings/desserts/whatever you want to call it right

I've recently read and loved Xiaolu Guo's A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. Written in the form of a diary by a young Chinese woman new to Britain, it's poignant but funny in its descriptions of her bewilderment with a new culture and a new English lover. I've also just finished George Alagiah's Home from Home: From Immigrant Boy to English Man, in which Alagiah, a senior newscaster with BBC who was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Ghana and the UK tells his story. While I loved his first book A Passage to Africa, I was less enthused by this one. Partly because he tries to attack multiculturalism but fails like many critics to first define what he means by the term. And while he criticizes many new immigrants for refusing to fit in, he's less strident in the reverse - criticizing the structures and attitudes that fail even those who wish to. I would recommend it anyway as his insights into the life of an immigrant from his perspective are interesting. Now I've started on Jonathan Raban's book Surveillance. I loved Waxwings, his first book which made me want to visit Seattle- pages into the new one I begin to feel the urge again...