Af-riikka

Olen tässä viime vuosina viettänyt melko runsaasti aikaa lentokentillä, sekä omien matkojeni vuoksi että odottamassa muita ihmisiä. Beninissä seisoskelin hiostavassa ja kaoottisessa vastaanottohallissa odottamassa villakarolaisia tai omia vieraitani useampaan otteeseen, Helsingissä olen taas ollut vastaanottamassa ulkomaalaisia vaihto-opiskelijoita yliopiston maksaman pick up -palvelun työläisenä. Epäilisin, että muutama tusina tuntia on siis vierähtänyt lentojen saapumisalueilla. Ajankulukseni olenkin usein tarkkaillut muita odottajia. Osa on selvästi työasioilla liikkeellä, moni odottaa perheenjäseniä, jotkut jännittävät rakkaidensa tuloa. Yhden lennon matkustajien purkautuessa ulos tullista samalla purkautuu ilmaan valtava määrä erilaisia tunteita, mutta päällimmäisenä näkyy väsymyksen lisäksi onnellisuus perillepääsemisestä. Mikään ei ole parempaa kuin se, että joku on vastaanottamassa lentokentällä pitkän lennon jälkeen! Tuloalue on siis ehdottomasti lentokenttien paras, onnea uhk...

Last week I bought something strange: my first ever Benetton clothing, and the first yellow clothing during the last 10 years or so. I just couldn't resist the T-shirts for the global communication campaign of Benetton for this year: Africa Works . Funnily enough, the first place where I read about it was Iltalehti, the second best-selling tabloid newspaper in Finland! It stated briefly that the campaign is hosted by Youssou N'Dour and that Benetton supports a micro-credit project called Birima in Senegal. My Benetton T-shirt cost 17 euros, which is not much for Benetton clothes in general, but a lot for a T-shirt. The money goes probably to the huge advertising budget... Still, I have to say that I quite like the Benetton campaign - as always, they are skillful at advertising and gaining attention from people. The photos for Africa Works are supposed to present Senegalese workers from various fields who have used micro loans, offered by the NGO Birima, to start small, produc...

On the airport of Dar es Salaam, on way to Finland from Tanzania I realized that I had packed all my books (which would've all been on Zanzibar / Tanzania anyway, being books for my thesis) in the airplane cargo. Thus I browsed the bookshelves of several gift shops at the airport, wanting to find something new to read for my long journey. I picked up this book because of its unusual cover with a pink mud mosque, men with Kalashnikoves, a tank and the title: " The Lost Kingdoms of Africa - through Muslim Africa by truck, bus, boat and camel" . It sounded interesting enough, and I purchased the over-priced book for 20 $. The title of the book refers to the old, pre-colonial kingdoms especially in West Africa: Ghana, Songhai, Mali, Hausa...all those names we had to learn during the course on the History of Africa on my first year in the university. The author, Jeffrey Tayler, succeeds well enough in capturing the mood and mentality of the people while travelling from Chad th...