STANDING ON THE BEACH WITH A FAG AND A GUITAR

I must admit when I was a young twenty something old, I used to hold a piece of cigarette in my hand, just to look cool. I never liked the damn thing, but I just found it appealing and what is the word? Chic. Chic is “smart” in French. It is also “elegant”, “stylish”... “Dapper”, “debonair”.

Oui. The French might say, “Alors, c’est tres chic!”

The Swahili equivalent is Utanashati. Sharobaro.  In my youth days it was, Bitozi. Alluding to the best band of all time, The Beatles.  Made in Britain. Chic. Mmmh.  

Chic was a name of a 1970s African American band, which we loved to pieces. I still do, I should confess. Recently, the Chic co-founder, Nile Rodgers, (pictured)released an autobiography. Really funny, sad and very tough reading.

CLIMATE CHANGE “THRESHOLD” AND SCHEDULED PARIS GLOBAL MEETING

Threshold.

 A word I did not quite know, until very recently.

 I kept hearing politicians saying threshold, threshold, threshold. Threshold this, threshold that.

The word means strip of wood or metal forming the bottom of a doorway.  In Swahili, that is “kizingiti”, i.e.  kizingiti cha mlango. What fits this article is the second meaning of threshold. A new beginning and era; brink, verge, debut, inception, point, dawn. The start.

According to Thesaurus dictionary, the opposite of threshold is conclusion, death, end, finish, completion.

DRIVERS RAGING OVER THROWING PLASTICS ON A BIG ROAD

 Road rage?

Angry drivers? Watch these phrases...

While a passenger in many a car rides in Dar es Salaam I noticed, what annoyed motorists were small Dala-Dala buses.  Vipanyas.

Once I was in a ride with a good friend who had lived overseas for decades. He seemed to have found a solution to Dar’s reckless drivers.