Living In A Parallel Universe

I'm Living in a Parallel Universe

Mother M is essentially a very enthusiastic and passionate woman. This is rather obvious by the blog here and the way in which I live my life. I have been fascinated by social networking sites and have been on several of them. First is the whole online dating thing. Definitely not something for women over 40. If you are over 45 men your age are not interested in you, and definitely if you are over 50. Men in that age range want the do-over, so give it up. If you really can't live without a man, try something where they have to pay to meet you. You will get more serious lookers at least. The online dating is too easy in the BVD's and the mouse clickin away at 2:00A.M. They like the idea of it more than the reality.
Then there are the sites that cater to social networking such as MySpace, Facebook and for my generation we can now go to a potpourri of sites for Boomers. I have been on one of those and blogging. In fact much of what I have put up here has been honed elsewhere. That is until last week.

It is clear to me that being a certain age is no reflection whatsoever of your maturity.I found what I thought was a really cool site for my peeps. I dove right in, making friends, writing letters, reading blogs and feeling pretty happy to have found such a thing. I made friends with some of the editors, and them Boom (if you'll pardon the
pun) The Boomer site rapidly devolved into petty sniping,"rants" and complaints.I kept thinking "God! Chris Hansen is coming to this site next." It got so bad that the few editors left had to do a reiteration of "Let's Play Nice." In the middle of all this ( while I am blogging away on what is happening in Kenya). I receive a bunch of letters from members who wanted me to talk to the editors about so and so. R U kidding???? Oh and one editor wrote me and asked me to form a group because so many had been thrown off the site for infractions of the TOU's. Is this OZ or the Twilight Zone? I would be interested in moderating a group for cranky boomers because I don't have enough real strife in Kenya and in my practice?

Now having been floating on these networking sites, Mother has, indeed, put a profile on Facebook to see how that works. Indeed of all of them I like that the best. Well it turns out that an old high school friend (class of 1965 and I know most of you weren't even around then) contacted me to catch up. I've sent her to this blog to read about what I do. Yesterday I get a call from her, she had a friend who was going to Kenya today and what did I think of that.Am I the only one who thinks that's odd. Is there anyone here who is reading this blog that isn't catching my drift about the potential for genocide next week? WTF you're not serious? Seems the friend thought that the publicity about Kenya was way overblown. Yeah and I'm going to be a size 6 anytime soon!

So Mother knows all of you reading this little excerpt are at least informed if not actually part of her parallel universe. And I'm glad you stopped by to check in. Oh and here's today's editorial from the Nation. Seems the Kenyans think what's happening is real. Ta Ta.
EDITORIALS (The Nation)

We need to address children’s plight urgently


Publication Date: 1/13/2008

UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for ensuring the welfare of children throughout the world, estimates that post-election violence has displaced at least 100,000 children in Kenya.

Together with their families, the children have been sleeping in police stations, church compounds and show grounds where existence is informed by a host of indignities that go side by side with homelessness.

With primary schools set to open tomorrow, now is an appropriate time to reflect on the plight of those children. A new school year marks an important milestone in the life a child. It is critical in determining the pathway to the future in a dynamic and competitive world where there is no substitute for education and the attendant skills.

Sadly, for those displaced children who should be in school, tomorrow is neither a happy nor a hopeful day. Their immediate future is threatened by intransigent circumstances way beyond their control.

Scores of schools have been razed the ground, and even where they have been left standing, the volatile atmosphere rules out the possibility that the children will be returning home for a long time to come.

Given the violent circumstances under which the children and their families were uprooted from their homes, school materials like books and uniforms have been lost. Reduced to destitution, their parents can hardly be expected to replace them.

And the politically-driven violence has not spared teachers either.

Some of them have been killed while others have fled with their families. It is unlikely that they would be willing to go back to their work stations until peace prevails and their security can be guaranteed.

All this points to a situation where these displaced children will certainly be absent from school. There is nothing to indicate that the government is seriously working out ways of ensuring that they will be able to report to a school tomorrow.

It is nowhere near adequate to request that displaced parents take their displaced children to the school nearest to their place of refuge. As it is, thanks to free primary education, schools are already congested.

Classrooms are bursting, and the teacher-pupil ratio has been stretched to the limit, making quality learning elusive.

It also important to bear in mind that many schools in the violence-torn areas have been turned into refugee camps for displaced families. So the additional challenges arises of providing alternative shelter for the displaced to create room in time for the commencement of learning tomorrow.

Many children have been separated from their parents in the mayhem. This situation is made worse by the fact that provincial education departments in the areas of conflicts are yet to resume work, so accurate information on absent children is not readily available.

Hungry children wandering around on their own face many dangers and are particularly vulnerable to child traffickers and pedophiles.

Children separated from their parents and lucky enough to find their way to refugee camps might find themselves in a situation where they will be ill-informed of availability of opportunities in the absence of adults close enough to watch out for their interest.

The displaced camps are poor substitutes for homes. Stories coming out them paint a gloomy picture of hunger, lack of adequate clothing and shelter.

We are talking of young souls whose innocence and sense of security have been profoundly shattered. Some of them have witnessed the killing of their parents and siblings. Others have witnessed their playmates being killed. Their homes, their last lines of security, have been burned before their eyes.

Besides proclaming their commitment to peace, the protagonists in this whole saga need to go out and assure those children of the rapid resumption of lives that have been arrested mid-stream. They need to guarantee them that they will never again suffer because of the politics of the day. They owe the children this much.


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