Five days without posting anything at The Slog must be something of a record for me, but there was a very good – in fact, personally unpleasant – reason: in Senagambia now, there is a serious pollution problem, and four days ago I succumbed to it.
The dust and exhaust fumes that are belched over the walled garden in my apartment here have always worried me; but what I didn’t fully grasp was the likely consequence for a person like myself no longer in the first flush of youth.
I woke up startled last Monday morning to discover my nose was completely blocked, because my sinuses were overloaded with with so much polluted gunk, they weren’t draining any more.
Now as it happens, the sinuses themselves are air-filled spaces in the skull located behind the cheekbones, in the middle of the forehead, between the ears, and behind the nasal cavity.
I italicise the last words above because what happens is that – when the sinus draining/filter process stops – you present with raging sore throat caused by untreated bacteria, thumping headache above and behind the eyes…and gunked up nose. As you’ve probably gathered, nose and sinus have a sort of circular interdependence here: screw up that relationship, and you’ll barely be able to function….along with a lung full of infected sputum.
As in, no energy due to infection, swollen sinus applying pressure to cheeks and brain. Lethargy, headache, face-ache and slightly manic from constantly disturbed sleep.
Thanks to the amazing skills and dedication of Dr Ding’s holistic clinic just down the road from here [see left] I’ve been X-rayed, blood tested and medicated….and the whole shebang cost fifty quid. But only this morning (Thursday 9th January) have I begun to feel like something slightly more than a Zombie.
I suppose I’m making two points here: first, corruption in government and greed in the tourist industry is never going to lead to action on dust and diesel fume pollution; and second, the vast majority of Gambians still face the prospect of lives shortened by the unaffordable nature of most medical care.
In turn, this is not helped by the fact that tourist hospitality suppliers exploit their workforces by paying wages that leave them penniless at the end of every month.
Whichever way you look at it, beyond Dr Ding’s oasis of health provision there is not a lot of empathy on display.
Typically of course, during the five days of my absence, the Great Awakening has made some satisfying strides I wasn’t able to either focus on or write about:
Canadian maniac Justin Castro finally decided to resign; the U.S. Congress formally certified President-elect Donald Trump’s November election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris; Zuckerberg-founded tech giant META looks to leave Woke-wank behind with its appointment of Trump intimate Dana White to the Board; the Green ‘net zero’ movement is losing support and popularity as yet more evidence questions the validity of CO2 as the guilty party in alleged “climate change”; senior Democrats are beginning to nail the diehards in their Party by toeing a line that increasingly warns Bidenite wreckers to “accept that Trump won clearly and legally, so get TF over it”; and 14 US state attorney generals are formally demanding answers regarding government malfeasance and mistreatment of the COVID-19 vaccine injured and dead.
But ominous negative signs remain – most notably, yet another mysterious new virus doing the rounds in China – and allegedly making a sudden giant leap into The Ukraine; plus Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates rolling out a plan to use Africans as guinea pigs for an expanded series of new genetic alteration mRNA injections he calls vaccines…despite myriad U.S. courts ruling that mRNA serums don’t qualify as vaccines….and of course, so-called Covid19 vaccines using mRNA turned out to be an unmitigated disaster.
I’ve opined many times before in these columns that if you are in the business of marketing globally relevant brands across hundreds of national languages and local dialects, don’t ever stint on the cost of translating claims, instructions for use and potential benefits. The noise-pollution protective headphones I bought earlier in the week included packaging guidance [see left] that promised me best purpose if I were to adust adjustments and place earcap abut on ear…but not allow the earcap to pin hair, and just to be on the safe side – in case of Yawp circumstance – always adorn earcap on ear up Ere as opposed to on penis down dere in order to maximise sound decrement.
I’m glad we’ve cleared up all doubts re that one: it’s English Jim, but not as we know it
I continue to detect a worrying absence of obese women launching into song. And as the old Vaudeville adage has it, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.
The Slog 