Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Men and women, which of them are the most faithful and sincere?


A cheating man caught red-handed


A cheating man caught red-handed


I write about many interesting issues, but I have never thought of writing about gender faithfulness or unfaithfulness to each other, when one day, someone asked me, "Why do most men die and leave behind their wives?" 


I couldn`t find an answer to her question, then, without a thought, I said, "Because most men are unfaithful to their partners." I was surprised she was satisfied with my answer.

But is it very true that men fall short when it comes to dishonesty? Well, many men lie and cheat on their partners, but also women. 

Most men cheat on their wives and girlfriends for several reasons, including lack of sexual satisfaction, biological problems that the woman is not aware of, but of which the man cannot speak. But with women? I keep on asking myself, "Why do they often cheat on their men?"

Are they also looking for sexual satisfaction or money? On Monday, 28 September 2009, whilst waiting at London`s Victoria Coach Station to join my bus to Dorset, a sad story caught my attention in an entertainment newspaper called "London Lite." 

The story was about a woman who was allegedly strangled by her own husband after discovering that she was having an affair with another man.

The husband, after having enough evidence, including a secret taping of 127 hours of his wife's conversations with her lover, confronted his wife, who asked for a divorce. To me, that was a very good wife. 

She did not deny her unfaithfulness but quickly asked for a divorce of which her man should have accepted the request and given her freedom.

Instead, he did the most stupid thing a man could do. Fearing the loss of his home, two children, and fortune, the jealous husband chose to kill his wife, pretending he did not know of her death. 

The court heard of his wife`s previous adulterous adventures. Marriage always turns to a different angle of diverse problems when there isn`t any transparency, honesty, and faithfulness.

Even though I know that most men die leaving their partners, I can`t really say it is because of their unfaithfulness to their partners, since women also cheat on their husbands. But it is a fact that a greater percentage of men cheat on their wives than women.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Bijlmer is beautiful but is it a dangerous place to live in Amsterdam?


The Bijlmer in the South-East of Amsterdam


The Bijlmer in the South-East of Amsterdam


In the southeast of Amsterdam lies a nice, lively neighborhood called Bijlmer. Bijlmer is always in the news, firstly due to the big firms and industries that have created thousands of jobs for the Dutch people and secondly due to the wave of crime that has soured the image of its inhabitants, mainly foreigners. 


Bijlmer has also situated the magnificent modern Ajax stadium, which has hosted thousands of international matches, conferences, and concerts.

The influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal, has made Bijlmer a dangerous place to live in Amsterdam. With diverse immigrants, mainly from Surinam, Antillean, and Curacao, former colonies of the Dutch and West African immigrants, Bijlmer is now a commercial center for drug trafficking and harbors the most hardened criminals.

How do we call this? Holland dream or Dutch dream? Like the American dream, inviting many Latin Americans and Mexicans into the country, Suriname came in their numbers to the Netherlands. 

Without any basic education, the majority of Suriname is stagnant, without any future. Feeling dejected and frustrated, the only means to survive the material world of Bijlmer is to resort to drug trafficking, crime, and violence.

With the desire to study the background of Africans living in the Bijlmer, I have never seen merciless, hostile, and aggressive people like Suriname before. 

They even think the police fear them and they would not like to come their way. But what makes these people so aggressive and violent? 

My opinion is that the free smoking of marijuana is. In public, the metros running Gaasperplas and Gein, from the Central Station and the lifts of apartments, are always choked with heavy smoke and the odor of marijuana.

Some of the drugs they smoke and use have taken their toll on them. Junkies are a common sight in the Bijlmer. The effects of drugs on users are disastrous. Horrible creatures like people acting in horror movies. 

An investigation conducted recently by two Dutch journalists, Jan-Willem Navis and Joris Polman, in the neighborhood of Bijlmer revealed that for between two and three hundred euros, someone could own a gun, and they fear that, within a short period, guns would overflow in the neighborhood of Bijlmer. Young boys move around everywhere with knives hidden on them.

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Is the crime wave in Bijlmer too much for the police to handle, or bring the situation under control? Over the years, the police force has demonstrated how good they could be by catching many criminals, and those who wanted to resist arrest jumped to their deaths. 

They have tried everything to make Bijlmer a safe place to live, but from every angle, it seems the police are losing the battle.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Obama's historical visit to Ghana


Obama in Ghana


Obama in Ghana


U.S President Barack Obama, like many heads of state, has Africa in his mind or on his agenda to work with. Africa, many times, is like a continent totally neglected, but the fact is, there is no head of state that could push the continent aside because of its vast mineral resources, which the developed and developing countries depend on.

Obama chose Ghana as his first country in Africa because of the country's peaceful political events on the path to democracy. Ghana, formerly called "Gold Coast," gained independence in 1957, and recently had its fifth successive civilian government elected since 1992.

It is Ghana's political success of peaceful democracy that caught the attention of Obama to choose the country as his first country to visit after his inauguration as the president of the United States of America, a couple of months ago. 

The American president was welcomed at the airport by President John Evans Atta Mills, also a newly elected president under the umbrella of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), amidst drumming and dancing at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, the capital.

"Akwaaba," welcome, says the Ghanaian president to Obama. Here, I can't explain in detail the happiness and the delight that accompanied the family of Obama family as they stepped on the Ghanaian soil for the first time.

In a speech at a fully packed convention center, Obama said, " I have come to Ghana for a simple reason. The 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but what happens in Accra as well."

Obama hit hard on corruption, which has been the only tool that has crippled and is still crippling the economy of Africa in general. He reminds African leaders of the task on their shoulders as heads of state, by taking the masses that brought them into power into consideration. 

He called on the Africans to build democracy, create employment, fight corruption, and end the conflicts in Africa, which he called 'a millstone around Africa's neck.'

After touring many interesting places, the president and his family were emotionally moved when they visited the slave dungeon at the Cape Coast Castle. The slave trade was long abolished, but the grim terror was still fresh in the minds of African-Americans who came on a visit to Cape Coast Castle. 

The shackles and the chains used to bind the slaves over three hundred years ago are still there to be seen. After his emotional tour, Obama described the slave trade as one of the evils committed against humanity.

He commended Ghana for preserving the castle and those who contributed to the abolition of slavery. He said the essence of the tour was to learn about the oppression that African Americans went through and to interact ancestral lineage. 

"As somebody whose father comes from Africa, I'm pleased this visit has been particularly meaningful for me." He concluded.