Will I ever blog again?; The Berliner and other Nigerian stories.

It's gotten really strange. From being known for compulsive writing, I barely put a word on ...ehr...cyberspace now.

What does one blame?

The column in the Guardian that is so good to/for me but demands a thousand words weekly?

A busier work/play schedule?

STARCOMMS intrernet access or the lack of it? (This is a good one to lay the blame on. The Starcomms board should be lined up and flogged. N15,950 a month for no access is just nasty but they keep advertising and the Standards Organization in this country or whatever outfit should monitor this travesty lies comatose. By the way, Zain/Airtel/Econet/Vodacom/Buddie/Celtel is guilty of it too)

Well, I'll give consistent writing a shot once again seeing I'm some distance from Starcomms now and the internet's like lightning here.

I was leaving Berlin a few days ago when the airline attendant who was German told me my name wasn't on the passenger manifest. I told her to check properly and she got up, went to a telephone and sniggered into it in her, I assume, thick Bavarian accent, "Oluwole Oguntokun". She said it thrice, finding amusement in my name with her colleague at the other end of the line. I looked at her, 6am in the morning and said to her hearing and those of her colleagues around her, "That's the way your name sounds to me as well". She didn't get it at first so I repeated it. I saw she came to the phone a gentler person.

So much for a new century. The world is still riddled with bigots.