Boobs, fat and fuel

It's amazing what you find when looking for links on the internet. I was looking for more links to celebrities who've lost their children. After all, John Travolta lost his son last week and Mia Farrow lost her adult daughter. Here in Ghana, a known member of society lost his 3.5 year old daughter after she tragically died in La Palm's swimming pool. (Apparently she somehow got into the adult pool which is not monitored by lifeguards). Could there be anything worse than experiencing the death of your child? I think not.

Any way, whilst browsing the world wide web for more details I first came across a story of outrage against facebook for banning pictures of babies being breastfed. Naturally, as a woman, and someone who sees nothing wrong in breastfeeding in public (despite whatever I may have written before!), I understand the upset people are feeling over these pictures being likened to pornography. However, after taking a peek at the facebook group "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!(Official petition to Facebook)", my only question is why you would take, no, publish a picture of your baby being fed? Is it a matter of that being the only moment you catch him/her awake, or simply wanting to catch the moment and share it with friends and family? Only asking as most mothers I know feel a bit exposed whilst breastfeeding and I can't imagine them wanting to have their picture shared on facebook.

HOWEVER, what really intrigued me was the story of the doctor who took the fat from patients he had performed liposuction on and turned it into biodiesel for his and his girlfriend's cars! Surely this man is an ecological genius, no? Rather he has fled to South America as his practices were against California law. At first I thought, 'what a shame' as I am all for recycling, but after learning that his girlfriend performed some surgeries (without a medical licence!) and took out too much fat, I can see why it would be risky for him to gain from what he was taking out of the patients. After all, the way petrol prices used to go up, we'd all be tempted to steal a bit more fat from our would-be patients to keep our expenses down! Still, the avid recycler in me feels he was really on to something.

What do you think?

Magazines

Passed Shoprite on my way home (decided to try my luck there for seaweed since the Chinese shop was closed, did I really think they'd have it?!) I discovered an aisle I had never noticed before which had a...magazine section! Most people know me to be a magazine junkie, that's usually the first thing I ask for when anyone is coming to Ghana, so imagine my joy at discovering a whole section of magazines!

Unfortunately my headache had by then started affecting my eye sight (migraine perhaps?) so i only quickly scoured the shelves to check what was there. To my shock, British Marie Claire is selling for Gh¢20!!! A magazine that costs £3.30 in England is selling for three times the price here. If that's not exploitation, what is? How is an average, or even well off person living on an Accra salary supposed to afford that? Oprah was selling for Gh¢23 and OK magazine, a £2 magazine was selling for Gh¢16.5, more than four times it's original price. It seems by purchasing a few magazines we'd easily pay for a ticket to London, maybe that's Shoprite's aim?

Sadly for me, the irritation of seeing the prices just made my headache worse, so now I'm off to bed, hoping it will all be gone tomorrow.

Goodnight.