i read banned books

Mark your calendars and head to Aristoc: September 29 through October 6 is Banned Books Week:

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.

If shelling out 80,000 shillings on the newest Harry Potter (one of the most popular controversial books) isn’t on your agenda, check out Google’s Explore Banned Books to see which 42 of the top 100 novels of the 20th century have been challenged.

If anyone knows where I can find a list of books banned in Uganda (other than, say, in Buturo’s head), leave a comment.

keeping up with the blogren

I wanted to bring your attention to a few bloggers who just crossed (or re-crossed) my radar screen:

GayUganda
I am a gay blogger, blogging from Uganda, and willing to talk knowledgeably about my sexuality, my lover, and my personal life in Uganda. Strange. Very strange.
GayUganda covers issues concerning sexual minorities in Uganda and Africa. Check out the sidebar for news about the Ugandan GLBTI community.

Building the Nation
i am jose acadio buendia. or pip in sons & lovers. prince kung in the last empress. xuma in mine boy. ekwueme in the concubine. i am.
Degstar switched from Blogger to WordPress in March, and I missed it. His most recent post is a letter to fellow blogger Dennis Matanda.

Daniel Kalinaki
Just an ordinary bloke.
Not sure how I missed this one. Daniel writes about media and communications in Uganda. Check out his post on bloggers versus mainstream media.

my inner dorothy


Lawrence KS Brick
Originally uploaded by lleugh

Last night, around 7:30 PM, I set foot in Kansas for the first time in 381 days (I checked). I like flying across the United States — I watch the cities break into checkerboard farmland and the greengoldbrown of the fields reminds me that even though I’m not a farmgirl, I’m definitely a Midwesterner.

Today was a lavish Lawrence-based binge: biking through my parents’ neighborhood, walking downtown, having lunch with an old friend at a new restaurant, being a rock star with my little brother.

Robert Louis Stevenson said, “I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” Still, sometimes it’s just nice to be home.

o happy day

One: people are using The Kampalan to announce actual events! Vision realized.

Two: the actual event announced happens to be this month’s Uganda Bloggers Happy Hour, which 27th Comrade has taken upon his shoulders. Details:

What you are reading is my first post to The Kampalan. It is the first of a number. I am the acting organiser for the Uganda Bloggers’ Happy Hour. And because I am letting my own blog hibernate (on top of it not being the best venue for what I’ll be doing here), I am going to be putting any/all communiqués concerning the UBHH over here.
So … dress up for the 27th of September, 2007, for on that fateful day, yet another Happy Hour shall touch the ground at Mateo’s Bar. The usual time (starting 6:30pm, to when the last blogger leaves).

culture shock

Yesterday a man stopped me outside the subway.

“Miss, how much money do you spend on your hair every month?” he asked me.

I stopped and thought about it. “Why?”

“Well, I’m doing a salon promotion, and I bet you we can save you at least $10 per month on hair cuts and more.”

“The last time I got my hair cut was in April,” I told him. “Of 2006. And it cost me $5.”

I watched his reaction for a second, just because his speechlessness was so amusing. And then I got on my train.