Wally-locks and the 3 bears...

The rains were coming soon. It hadn’t rained in about a week and a half. Mundjego wasn’t worried though. Looking at the sky and listening to the winds at night, he knew it was only a matter of time. The sun had already set, but the skies were lustfully colored. Remnants of the sun’s magnificence were visible well past daylight hours during the summer months. The bottom half of the sky was a strong, reddish orange. The top half of the sky was a dark and effervescent blue. The deepness of the blue lessened more and more and then transformed into black as the sky soared towards the North Star. A long and bloated cloud interjected the horizons. The cloud started from the north, which was to the left of Mundjego and stretched far to the south, well beyond the sight of the African bush. In many places the puffy cloud exploded and flew into the sky.
Wind began to blow from the north. Mundjego stood watching the cloud and felt the cool breeze on his hot and worn face. He closed his eyes briefly. The rusted axe that he held rested on his shoulder. A small boy passed nearby in the bush of omusati trees. Mundjego couldn’t see whom it was, but wasn’t scared.
“Oto yi peni?” where are you going?
“Kegumbo.” to home
Mundjego heard the voice of a small boy.
“Oh, Haiti! Popitha nawa mati.” oh, what! speak well boy
Pause.
“Wu hala po Kuku.” good afternoon, grandfather
“Ano.” yes, it’s good
“Nawa-nga.” that’s good
“Nawa. Ngoye olye?” fine. who are you?
“Nambala.”
“Nambala…Nambala olye?” Nambala who?
“Nambala Hamutenya.”
“Humba! Nambala Hamutenya. Eowa. Tate omwe li? oh! is your father at home?
“Eee.” yes
“Kundelapo.” greet him
“Eowa, Ku.” okay, grandfather
“Eowa, mati gwandje. Oshi li nawa.” okay, my son. it is good
The boy walked swiftly and quickly as the evening African wind. He had a chore, an errand to run and couldn’t be late. Mundjego turned to go home. His rusted axe was in one hand and the firewood in the other.




Since the 4th of July I’ve been in Charlottesville, Virginia. My sister Charlotte lives there in a beautiful home about 15 miles or so from the center of town. It’s funny though because you (i.e. I) usually equate miles with minutes in automobiles, give or take some. So, you (i.e. I) would think that the town of Charlottesville would be 15 minutes from my sister’s crib. Not so. The urban sprawl makes my mile per minute determinator bogus! It’s more like 45 minutes on a busy day due to the continuous stoplights and shopping centers. On Friday Char had to go to work. She left me her car so I could do a little exploring, but I was to pick her up from work around two. On the way I got lost, of course, so I called her for directions. She was directing me to an area of town and told me to turn near a big shopping area. Hold up, said I. All I had been doing was passing shopping centers.

Eeeeeewwwww! This is more of a shopping center urban sprawl. Do we really need a Target, a Home Depot, a Wal-mart, and a Kmart all on the same strip? Along with shopping centers I also passed several land-for-sale signs. Are big businesses merely buying out the small land owners to profit exponentially? I commend those homeowners who refuse to sell their land to the developers of the already developed America. You see their homes amidst the Tonka bulldozers and trucks, but they’re not selling. I remember as a kid growing up in Raleigh there was this plan to make one of the biggest malls on the east coast. Most of the land had been cleared, except there was a lone driveway surrounded by tall pine trees that led to a small house. The owner refused to sell his land. The plan for the huge mall was somehow disrupted and never went up, though a smaller complex was built. The house was finally destroyed, however. Under what circumstances I am not sure.

Looking at the big picture, this is all for the ease of more consumer expenditures. But, do we really need it? Perhaps, I’m a hypocrite, because I have shopped at this particular mall complex many times. And though I don’t like to admit it, I have frequented Starbucks for the ease of the Internet access and the mochas (that hurts to admit, really). Maybe, the over flux of the big businesses limits our choices, which is why I have gone to those places – or so I would like to rationalize. Maybe it’s the relatively lower prices offered by the Wally worlds and tar-geis that makes them so appealing (this excludes Starbucks however; a medium, or grande as they like to call it, Mocha costs almost 5 bones). So, that means we will buy more for our money. Okay, but do we need it? Although I can possibly rationalize buying cheaper goods there, I certainly can not rationalize with the cheaper wages they offer their employees – minimum wages while el gran jefe de Wal-mart and other execs earn millions upon millions per fiscal year. Sure, building a Wal-mart creates jobs, but is a job worth it if the salary barely assists you in a comfortable and stress-free life? If Wally world really wants to make that case why don’t they offer free daycare opportunities for its employees when working and free health care services for all family members. They could even hire their own Wally world doctors with the signature Wally world smiles and open their own Wally world hospitals so that all of its employees could have equal opportunities at health care. Why not offer a Wally world transportation service so employees could get to and from work in a stress-free and environment friendly way. I certainly am not for this Wally world utopian society, I just think that it’s clear that their supposed reasoning for more development could be more equal to all, rather than one sided to the executives who reap the benefits of the real laborers.

In short: make your own informed decisions about where you shop. It is your prerogative, but we can not, as compassionate humans, forget or neglect to acknowledge that our decisions (and dollars spent) directly affect others. And, keep Charlottesville green, at least that’s what the bears tell me!

Next stop, Grayson County, VA.