Forever Young....

"Let's dance in style, lets dance for a while Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies..... Let us die young or let us live forever, we don't have the power but we never say never, Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip.."

Life looks like a long trip along the beautiful sandy beach in the region of Okinawa. In a small village on Japan's southern island, people are living one of our dreams: Live healthy and longer. With an average life expectancy over 80 years and 86 for women, the village of Ogimi is the house for hundreds of centenarians and enjoys with the whole country, the world's longest life expectancy.

On the beach of Ogimi, you can read a sign that says: "At 80 years old, you are still a kid....." Here people live life like a video- When the sun is always out and you never get old... Forever young, I wanna be forever young- Do you really want to live forever- Forever young."


Their secret resides more than anything else in their lifestyle: their good diet, physical activities....."Hold up! Life is for living, not living uptight, so let's just stay in the moment, smoke some weed, drink some wine..."

Nooo! (alcohol and smoke are not considered a good diet...sorry!), so to this diet and sports, you add doctor check-ups, good social and family life, and as a result, in the Region of Okinawa disease is less than anywhere else in the world. These ordinary people are enjoying life and life is loving them back.
So if you love me baby this is how you let me know, don’t ever let me go, that's how you let me know, Forever young I wanna be Forever young.

A 15 hours flight from the Land of the "Rising Sun" , is Luanda! Here, it seems like heaven cannot wait and People are Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, "are you gonna drop the bomb or not"?


Yeah! Luanda is the capital of Angola (in Africa, not Texas!), where life expectancy is barely 38 years!!!, "Life is a short trip, and the music’s for the sad man." People are young but "forever" doesn't exist in their vocabulary. It seems that a 15 hrs flight from Okinawa has taken 50 years off people's lives.



In the slums of Luanda, like the majority of the country and bordering countries, if you manage to survive past 5 yrs old, chances to be young "forever" are slim. One will expect you to be gone by 38, taken away either by disease, war or poverty. In some cities, life expectancy can be in the lower thirties...

Here, no one dies from excess of calories or obesity (oh well, there is no food!), no one thinks about tomorrow, there is no sign on the beach to tell you how long you can live, no ipod to listen to Jay Z, but life goes on and you can hear from a cassette tape player, Bob Marley singing:
"life is one big road with a lot of signs so when you ridding thru the ruts, don't complicate your mind and all together now, Wake up and live now, wake up and live."!


My songs:

Forever Young : JayZ & Mr. Hudson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1nbvplgElw

Wake up and live: Bob Marley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nR2vsnH4Is

Ous

Mandela !

Today, feb 11th marks the 20th anniversary of Mandela release. I wasn't born when Mandela was imprisoned in 1962, and was still a young boy when In 1990, the world watches his historic walk to freedom. When he came out he represented not only a hope for south Africans but for the whole continent that is struggling to find it path, where Hope and compassion still thrive in the middle of ravage and horrors.

Known as "Madiba"(clan name) by his friends, the leader of the "Zulu nation", who strongly believed in the Golden Rules and fought all his life against injustice is sitting on the same platform as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mother Theresa... he is today, "The Last of the Mohicans".


He fueled the last hope for Black south Africans struggles, for shanty towns residents from Pretoria to Cape Town ....He was the last hope, not like the " last Man " but the "Übermensch": courageous enough to lift them from the quick sand of injustice, strong enough to make their dream come true and to embrace a new vision as the ultimate reality.

Even though the wall of Apartheid has fallen, new walls have risen since, between poor who die early and riches who live longer, between Muslims and Jews, between Third world and developed countries.... South Africa is Diamonds filthy rich country but murders and rapes are among the highest in the world. The country is the image of Africa where Big money mixes with extreme poverty and high unemployment rate.

The Ultimate reality is that , i don't believe one man alone can solve all these problems, but Nelson Mandela's 27 years spent in Jail for his courageous fight against apartheid make me believe that maybe, with Faith, courage and hope one can accomplish the unthinkable and maybe, Life is worth living for when you have something to live for, something you believe in, bigger than yourself, something for which you will be forever remembered, after all, only our legacy will stay.

For this, my Songs :

* Asimbonanga from Johnny clegg (A Tribute)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGS7SpI7obY

*Vulindlela from Brenda Fassie (A welcome)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrinswnda3Q

Ous