Friday, September 14, 2007

Quick update, a few pointers

Just got back and am facing the prospect of a mountain of emails and other work-related projects and meetings. In the rural area of Bavaria, the beautiful landscape of towering mountains, seemingly endless thick green forests and valleys interspersed with the fairytale castles of "mad" King Ludwig of Bavaria and the lavishly decorated baroque and rococo churches provided a good backdrop for time away. The greeting in this deeply conservative and deeply Catholic region of Germany is not the usual Guten tag (Good day) but is Gruss Gott (greetings to God). Yet my experience where many of the inhabitants (including some of the staff in the hotels) had problems responding to the greetings of another human being, albeit a black one, did raise questions about the validity of their preferred mode of greeting. Thankfully Munich and Wiesbaden proved more obviously welcoming and indeed I was surprised to see so many black people in Wiesbaden, although the American accents that many of them sported suggested that they were US Army families stationed nearby..... Indeed there was a gospel revival featuring various African American musicians and ministers on one of the days that I was there. Also surprising was the number of medical clinics and hospitals in the area which were actually included in the city's tourist guide, suggesting that the area was a focus for medical tourism....

I'll blog properly later to catch up on all the developments in the UK and Naija while I've been away and catching up on the books I read, but it was a relief to be back and I thought I'd better highlight a few important events ....

For the New Yorkers, the highly acclaimed Tings Dey Happen drama sketch based on the experiences of the lead actor in the Niger Delta is on at The Culture Project till the 20th of October

For the Brummies and fans of the UK TV police drama, The Bill, Cyril Nri, the Nigerian born star of the series is appearing in a production of Othello in Birmingham

And for everyone else, two of our favourite visitors on this blog- Molara Wood of wordsbody and Petina Gappah have short stories published in the latest edition of Per Contra. Here's Petina's and here's Molara's

One last word- on the Madeleine Mc Cann case, can all the armchair commentators, detectives, PR pundits, pros, antis, etc etc, please shut up? Since I got back it seems nothing else is worthy of front page coverage, an indication of our increasingly voyeuristic society...whether or not the parents are implicated or not, all the relentless media coverage (some self-generated I'll admit) cannot be helpful or constructive....

13 comments:

Waffarian said...

Reminds me of a very annoying couple who just moved here and are killing us with their boring stories of "Bavaria", infact, they said the word "Bavaria" so many times that at one time I screamed "Its fucking Germany!", Nothing against Bavaria, I just couldn't help it!

Ekoakete said...

Welcome back!

Atutupoyoyo said...

LOL@ Waffarian. I know the type

Welcome back UK. I visited Hamburg a couple of years ago and I too was staggered by the number of black people there. In this case though I think they were mostly Ghanaians. I found the Germans quite friendly and accomodating which went against the sterotype I had of them as implicitly xenophobic.

Regarding Madeleine me sef I tire. As intriguing as recent developments have been the real tragedy is that we may never really know what happened with that poor girl. No amount of speculation can change that. I had thought about blogging on the very topic but thought against it.

UndaCovaSista said...

Welcome home!
As much as i do not like to subscribe to national stereotypes, i was called the 'N' word for the first time in my life in Vienna (they're all German in my mind) so i understand what you mean...

Wordsbody said...

Naijaman, thanks for the heads up!

As for the Missing MM, me sef I tire mai broda!

Na real 'oro p'esi je' - the matter has swallowed all comment/answer.

I have never been so bewilderingly confused in all my life.

Araceli said...

Hi. Welcome back. And what was that Grandma thing? Thanks anyway...

joicee said...

Hey Naijaman,
Gruß Gott, this is probably my first comment on here. Welcome back....good to see you had a nice time over there.

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

Welcome back!

Unknown said...

Excuse me but why are you not suggesting any plays in London?? There I was all excited about that Niger Delta play and then I re-read what you said, and realised it was in New York...

Jaja said...

Welcome Back...

Oya Clear your desk quick and blog more often..

Hamburg.. : some where I ve read about in a book..

uknaija said...

@waffarian- I reserve my comment
@ekoakete- thanks
@atutu- In the cities they were fine
@undacova- Nuff said
@wordsbody- Confused as to what exactly?
@abuja walkabout- granny as in "your baby" had babies...geddit?
@joicee thanks for dropping by
@solomonsydelle- thanks
@snuffleupagus- sorry...
@jaja- the desk clearing no easy o

Wordsbody said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wordsbody said...

Uknaija-
Confused. The conjecture, claims and counter-claims regarding the missing Madeleine.

Events have moved on considerably on the matter, of course, since I first left my comment.

MW