Question Why does being in a meditative state make me tired, sleepy and drifting off in thought all the time? Practice what is called shamata by the Buddhists. There are other names. It sharpens the mind. Drifting into somnolence is not meditation. Awareness is heightened but very relaxed in proper…

Plundering thieves have the edge when resources are limited. However most people do not have the capacity to look somebody in the eye, batter his head and take away his goods and his spouse. But psychopaths could. In exchange for forking over our power, psychopaths could go to the next…

Fernando Botero died today at the age of 91. I have always liked his paintings, although I knew nothing about him besides his name. You have probably seen his art: fat, serious bourgeois people looking out at you. I find them reassuring, a bit of solidity in a fluid world. I may also have seen some of his sculptures at a museum. — I always assumed that Mr. Botero worked in the 1930s somewhere in Europe. The clothes worn by his subjects appeared dated. I did not know that he had been alive during my lifetime until I learned about his death today. …

Every African living abroad has encountered people discussing Africa as a country. Most Africans in that situation take offense and point out that Africa is a continent, not a nation. “I am from Ghana or Mozambique.” I used to be outraged about the ignorance and disrespect of the world, but I have changed my view about this because I believe more than ever that we should be one. Call me a Kenyan, Nigerian, Haitian, African American, or Somali. I accept them all.

Dear Africans: It Is About Time That You Granted France Its Independence One of the mind tricks of the neocolonizer is to convince you that it granted you independence, but all the while, it has been dependent on you. If something or someone has a parasitic relationship with you, it depends on you. You are not dependent on it. If you sever…

When I was born, the human population of Planet Earth was an estimated 3 billion humans. Since then, our population has escalated to 8 billion and increasing. In that same period, jumbo jets have been invented and we now criss cross the planet at an unprecedented rate, transporting people, goods…

As a child, I had a paralyzing fear of heights, especially of bridges. On one occasion I had to cross a foot bridge across a small brook flowing 6 feet below. The problem was that the floor of the bridge was constructed from expanded metal and I could see the…

The first time I saw a personal computer, I was 23 years old. It was an Apple II or III gathering dust on a bookcase in my professor’s office. He had not yet figured out how to use it or to integrate it into his work. It was just an…

Actually, images of food from my native Cameroon which has exciting cuisines yet to be discovered by the wider world, a gustatory new frontier as it were. No names, no recipes this time. Just stimulation for the senses and imagination. Photography by me. Food was prepared by my wife and my sisters. Enjoy!