It must have been in the early 1950s in that paradoxical place of seacoast, desert sun, and brush fires that is Southern California. No fires were burning in the primeval canyons just then, and no great rains were falling. It was simply one of those glorious Southern California summer Sunday mornings when the sun was everywhere in my parents' bedroom.

Usually on a Sunday morning, they got their privacy. But sometimes the family assembled in the master bedroom because it admirably served as a family room as well. Part of their room was an entrance to another room that had only one small window and a low ceiling. At night we used that attic as a planetarium and imagined that the stars projected on the ceiling were real. Because the roof was low, in order to use the ceiling for the projector, you had to recline on large pillows on the wooden floor.

It was probably a mild morning, when summer veers into fall. It was not easy for the sun to shine through the windows, hung deep into the two-foot wide walls of the large two-story home where we lived in Long Beach, California.

It all felt very cozy. My parents, Benjamin and Yaltah, were lying in bed, and my brother Robby and I were nearby. My mother had brought out her shoe box full of letters from "Aunt Willa." She read one of the letters which described me as a baby, in most complimentary terms, and laughed at the memories. At other points she cried as she read.

Aunt Willa, she explained, was the mother her own mother Marutha had never been. If not openly, certainly in her heart of hearts, my mother thought of her mother as a witch. ... READ MORE

Nanka, NIGERIA - The plantain plant may wear rags,
But that does not mean that it is mad

I shake my head in nostalgia. A lot of discomfort is visited upon Lagos and the environs by the fuel price hike. The chorus of children who hawk unguents, a feature of Lagos streets in the harmattan, dies gradually out. The greatest victim -- of course, the greatest victims -- are always the children, who like to hang around street corners treated to the tantalizing smell of delicacies, to a world taken for granted, a childhood world interpolated with illusions and an airy eye view of life.

Even iya ibeji's corner, a very busy eatery where we flock on good days, for local brews and delicacies and where the children have to be prized off the steaming dishes of iyan, amala and ewedu and what else, no longer is crowded. It too has emaciated like a sickly creature. I am stung out of my reverie by the jolt of the bus.

This morning, I take part in a protest over the fuel price hike. At Yaba Square are bonfires and, in the bonfires, the knotted wrath of a dispossessed folk. The ever-thickening crowd that whips from place to place, tears in its trail, finally berths here in Yaba Square. I think this recast lacks theatricality.

From my own socio-economic matrix, I know that more destruction, even in protest of an injustice -- and knowing all too well that this destruction only strikes at the wrong chord -- is counterproductive.

But here, at last, is that version of the protest that every despot must dread. A scruffy figure sidles his way to the dais. His sheer virulence of speech whips the crowd into and out of frenzy. He still reverberates in my full consciousness even as I am on my way out of Lagos in a danfo bus. He is the common man in the street whose oily sweat oils the wheels of state and whose silence is louder than the thundering of the great skies. His echo lives within me. I marvel at that force in words that can whip men into tears or laughter. ... READ MORE


MATTIE LENNON ON BIO-FUEL:

Dublin, IRELAND - Not since I came up with the idea for Bo Gás (using emissions from flatulent cattle to drive internal combustion engines) has such headway been made towards cost-effective motoring.

I'm not suggesting that Diarmuid O'Leary should throw a Carlow pancake at Jeremy Clarkeson but he (Diarmuid O'Leary, not Jeremy Clarkeson) will have to change his catchphrase from, " now yer suckin' diesel" to something more eco-friendly such as, "Let's go, with P.P.O".

P.P.O. (pure plant oil) was exempted from Excise duty, last August, by Finance Minister Brian Cowan, after the price of fuel had increased by 18% in eight months. P.P.O. is the new diesel/petrol.

This biofuels tax relief scheme will be in operation for a limited number of successful tendered applicants which runs from August 2005 to August 2007:

Section 50 of the Finance Act 2004, provided for the introduction of a scheme for excise tax relief for Biofuels. The purpose of the scheme is to allow qualified and conditional relief from excise of biofuel used in approved pilot projects for either the production of biofuel or the testing of the technical viability of biofuel for use as a motor fuel.

The scheme, which includes pure plant oil, biodiesel and bioethanol, has been drawn up in conjunction with the Department of Communication, Marine and Natural Resources. Approval for the provision of State Aid was sought and given by the European Commission. It is for 16 million litres of fuel over the 2-year period.

Informed sources tell me that there may be further relief schemes for biofuels in the preparation of Budget 2006.