CNN

I love CNN. I think it is the best news channel. Because it explains things well to stupid, uneducated people like me. People who have difficulties to understand what is going on in this world.

It is important to catch all the issues. Thank's to Piers Morgan's "Tonight", we all know now that Charlie Sheen has problems. They seems to be huge, because in Morgan's show, they talked for days about it.

CNN is a global channel. And they want the people to know it. That is why they show their "Connect" and "Go Beyond Borders" spot about every 10 minutes. For us (for stupid me) to understand.

The nicest thing about CNN is that they show us that the world has not many problems really. Only one, at any given time. Yesterday, we had during one hour "Breaking News" on the earthquake in Japan. I got all the details needed. They showed the tsunami waves and the devastating effects. They showed the water flowing cars away. Unfortunately, they showed this only 3 or 4 times, so I did not have the chance to count the number of cars.

I then went for a shower and had dinner. Then I switched my TV on again and there was another CNN show making "Breaking News". I was very comforted because again, I saw the same pictures and videos and now I really had understood what was happening. So, I went to sleep, satisfied.

And this morning, drinking my coffee, I was so happy. There seems to be no problems anymore anywhere. The only problem in the world is the earthquake in Japan. I was well informed again about it.

I still could not count the cars washed away. But I can tell you that it is the same number.

I love CNN, they show me how stupid I am. But they do a good job educating me.

NA!!


PS. CNN is the only channel I have on my TV. The landlord did not renew the TV subcription yet. People, soon I will be graduated.

Slow

I have a slow internet connection. Very slow. But at least, I can connect. But it is a bit cumbersome and it takes time. Normally, this would frustrate me because I cannot satisfy my big web surfing need.

But something else is slow. Our response to the needs of the refugees from Ivory Coast. At this moment we have 72'000. And most probably soon more. Things are getting worse in Ivory Coast and I think we are not far from a civil war.

I said our response is slow. I don't mean us. We are here, we are working a lot to procure food and send it to where the people are in the border area. The problem is the system here with all the UN agencies and NGO's. We are spending and wasting our time in meetings in Monrovia. Instead of doing our work in the field. Luckily enough, we (WFP) have field offices in the areas where assistance is needed.

But the meetings are killing me. And I wonder about the sense. Just to give you an example: On one day we have at meeting at 11 am, lead by an agency. There some 60 participants attend and then the sector heads make their briefing. The next day, there is another meeting at 9 am lead by a different agency. And the same 60 participants are getting the same briefing by the same sector heads. And each of those meetings are lasting a long time. So, you imagine the time wasted.

When I was in Darfur, we took care of 1'500'000 people in need and we had two meetings a week. When I was in Sri Lanka, 300'000 people were in need of help and we had 4 meetings a week. It seems that the less people in need, the more meetings are needed. That is why for 72'000 people we have at least one meeting per day.