beat drums of the VOA that is! I'm on a creative roll but the trouble with that is I can't seem to look anywhere else but work! Go figure. I'm glued to my office desk.
I am having a ball though, work is tremendously busy with breaking news comin in literally by the hour. Friday alone I did a 16 hour stint working on the afternoon and evening edition and then on a surviving journalist's report for the breakfast show as well as my weekly review program. In between I squeezed in news recap of the week for Nightline Africa and the final feature for my Africa News Tonight Somalia series which will air next week. It will also be available online. I came home not being able to find my bed quick enough! I wanted my brain to shut down completely and it did, for the following 12 hours. I woke up on Saturday, fixed some lunch and took myself and one of my dust collecting books to the pool downstairs. Instead of reading though I couldn't shake off the thought of the journalist whose story I was covering. He had escaped an attempted assassination by a group of armed men for the sole reason of him doing his job. Ever since 2007 there has been this rampage of Islamist militias hunting Somali journalists to wipe them off the face of Somalia. They have killed more than 15 so far and many of them still live in fear of losing their lives receiving death threats almost on a daily basis. It is undescribable what is going on in Somalia these days. Life has become unworthy.
Another story that has been keeping us busy is the two Frenchmen that have been kidnapped in Mogadishu last Tuesday. They were apparently invited by the government to help train the Somali security forces. What I'm baffled about is why on earth they would go to Mogadishu knowing very well the conditions on the ground there. They are now in the hands of Al-Shabab who are getting ready to try them in their so-called sharia courts but this is the joke; they are planning to fine them rather than cut off their limbs! could it be that Al-Shabab is running out of money?? Another relevant piece to this unravelling puzzle is the involvement of the Somali pirates who claim they have orchestrated the organising of the kidnap. I'm leaning towards believing that they are involved and that maybe they have forged an underground alliance with Al-Shabab especially since Al-Shabab is now asking for money rather than plucking out their eyeballs or something. They'll probably ask for a million for each one and then split it with the pirates. Watch this space!
My weekend has been restful to me but more than likely boring to others. I've caught my apartment up on some much needed cleaning and my eyes on re-runs of Waiting to Exhale and the Jacksons. I got all excited when I bumped into BBC America screening Graham Norton! You tend to look forward to the smallest things like watching TV and doing the laundry when you don't get to do it as often as regular folks do!
Next week is looking to be as hectic as the one that has just ended but I'm looking forward to it as I'll get another go at putting my creativity to good use.
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