hhmag:

Come on up to Georgia and I'll buy you a beer and remind you what years that TR was Assistant Secretary of the Navy and President. No harm, no foul. I have tough skin and a very hard head....

You want the book?

No problem, like I said- I like and admire you thru your posts. I always look at both sides of an issue and play devil's advocate alot. I may take you up on the brew! Likewise offer next time you're on Florida's central East Coast!
PS Got the book already. Here's a couple of good ones as well... Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys both by James Bradley. Interesting notes on these topics while being about Iwo and The WWII air war in the Pacific. Lots of background. Let me know and I'll send you copies.
Rob

hhmag:



If you think this ol' Marine hasn't read both, you better wake up earlier. I think every child should have to read FLAGS and go see Pvt. RYAN before he or she can go to the 9th grade.



Semper Fi, Buddy!

HooRah!

I have done some reading about the Mau Mau. I believe that the Mau Mau rebellion was pretty much wiped out by British special forces. Some of these forces specialized in disguising themselves as Africans. The Mau Mau sympathizers among the Kikuyu were rounded up and confined in certain villages. There, they were forced to confess the blood oaths that they had made to the Kikuyu ancestral spirits.
These oaths were pretty strong stuff involving black magic and all kinds of weirdness. For example, a Kikuyu man working at a white owned ranch would be forced by the MauMau to swear that he would not leave that ranch without murdering the ranch owners. If he failed to abide by his oath, his oath was supposed to kill him.
However, the MauMau rebellion was crushed, and even today the Kikuyus are divided between those who participated in the MauMau blood oaths and those who sided with the British. Thousands of Kikuyu were killed in the MauMau rebellion, together with thirty or so whites.
Interestingly enough, there is a Kikuyu cult today that seems to be reviving some of the MauMau rituals. The name of the cult is Munjiki or something like that. It is very strong in certain of the shanty towns around Nairobi. Cult members make oaths to the Kikuyu ancestral spirits similar to the MauMau oaths, and have become involved in a lot of vigilante justice, killing thieves and such things.
I know a few Kikuyu, and they talk about the Mau Mau rebellion as a time of great suffering.

Jorge,

I guess it all depends on how one defines a nation's "standard of living". If one bases ones definition on the number of plasma televisions and the availability of cheap sweat shop produced Khaki pants then it is possible that Greece doesn't measure up. If one bases his/her definition on the amount of time a family actually has to spend together in their comfortable mediterranean home and the relative number of stress related physical and mental illnesses in each country . . . well, I think the US is falling behind.

Have a nice day,

JohnTheGreek

Please, I've been to Greece and other places in Europe where their notion of a public bathroom even in the best places is a ceramic hole in the ground with molded footprints. Sure they have time to spend with their families, lots are unemployed collecting a pension robbed from people that work. In 24 plus years of naval service I'VE SEEN THE WORLD and although we do have faults ( hell, some people keep electing Ted Kennedy and Barnie Frank) there's absolutely no comparison. We'll anxiously await your report from Egypt, that other Paragon of "easy living." jorge