Heroin is the foundation of dignity and development

Rwanda's National Heroes' Day was February 1.

We celebrated in the village with some team building games and an inspirational guest speaker from the Rwandan military.  

There is a national theme for the day published.  This year it was:

"Heroism is the foundation of dignity and development"

I don't know…  Is it just me, or does this feel like a slogan right out of 1984?  Thoughtcrime is doubleplus ungood. Heroism is the foundation of dignity and development.  

The slogan was painted on banners around the school. Originally this banner (pictured) read "Heroin is the foundation of dignity and development." which I think we can all agree is not quite right. 

As a fun little exercise, imagine yourself defining the word 'dignity' to a bunch of teenagers.  It's a bit harder than you might think. 

Day 5: Newsworthy?

First off, it looks like I got out of NYC just in time. I’m sure the class-based overalls and tell-screen monitors are soon to follow. Doubleplus ungood. (I insist on my right to get hit by a taxi while simultaneously texting and watching a video podcast on my iPod.)

A quick note (mainly for my less blogging enthused friends and family) about the comments, which I shamelessly beg for and relish upon receipt like a schnauzer for bacon: It’s great if you have or want a blogger ID, however if you don’t, you can still leave comments. Make sure you choose the ‘Anonymous’ option (you can still leave your name if you want, but you aren’t forced to log in.) Thanks for everyone who’s let me know they are reading.

Unfortunately, now that I’ve established a loyal readership I find I don’t have much to report. I think I’ll have to scale back from daily to weekly soon, just so I have some updates to include.

Day 5 was suspiciously like 4 & 3. I went on a different run to Melbourne University (instead of the Royal Botanical Garden) which went fine. Melbourne is a heavily treed city which is nice. Run. Work. Repeat. My exotic international lifestyle is up to full speed now. One accomplishment I can report is my opening an Australian bank account. (My bank rep was maybe the most polite and friendly person I’ve ever met.) I’m official now. Let the money laundering schemes begin.

Back at Georgetown, I did a radio show on WGTB called Rap Presence with Terrence Mylonis. Blame me for the name, not Terrence. I seem to recall some FCC rules about stalling and repetition and boring people. Good thing that does not apply to blogging, cos I’m fresh out of ‘Courtney in Melbourne’ updates for today.

One last tidbit is that a popular car here in Melbourne seems to be some resurrection of an El Camino called “Thunder”. Do look at the pic. The ones I’ve seen so far have been in subtle colors like orange and the same shade of neon yellow as that Mustang rental I wrecked at UNC hospital.

In lieu of further updates I’ll give you a quick take on my view of a couple of current news stories as I’ve digested them from CNN international:

Can someone explain to me what is so offensive about the Snickers Ads? Two morons accidentally kiss and then respond in a homophobic way by drinking motor oil and pulling out their chest hair. The message seems to be that homophobia is moronic. I’m fine with that.

Also these two: My take on this ‘romantic’ find is that this couple probably died chocking each other. I guess it’s more likely she was put in his grave because he died and he got to take his property with him to the next realm. Take that, Hallmark. (My remote, amateur archeology expertise is in full swing.)

Today’s foreshadowing: Tomorrow I’m going with my ‘housing consultant’ to look at some apartments. I’ll let you know how that goes.