Abla’s Lot

With the furrows of the rich red costal soil warming his feet, Abla felt quite comfortable as he slowly worked his way down the mile long plantation rows. Each row contained hundreds of trees, and each tree was laden with countless cocoa pods.

In a sense, you could say these fist sized pods were all Abla really knew of the world.

The plantation was what kept his family on its feet. It put bread and butter on the table and money in their pockets.  

At the age of eleven he already knew every thing there was about growing cocoa. He had practice of trimming throughout the year, of how to cut the storks for harvesting, the timing and strength of feeding, watering and sterilizing the trees was everything that his life had so far been involved with.

His entire extended family shared this life. His father was just the next row over, beyond that his eldest brother. By closing his eye’s he could hear the sound of both of them working on their own trees. He knew what they were doing. He always knew what they were doing when they were all working the same stands. Adjusting the wiring that ensured that each cocoa pod was clear to grow unrestricted. Abla was doing it himself without thinking.

Abla had always felt happy here. He felt whole, or maybe he just didn’t feel incomplete, both are very different things. The work wasn’t always easy, but it never challenged him anymore. He didn’t think about what he was doing most of the time; work on one tree after another, clearing the ground, re-running the watering pipes. He didn’t have to concentrate. Day after day he just went through the motions leaving his mind to wander where it would. There were days when he would come in from the plantation with cuts all down his legs burning from the pesticides, and caked with loam, his hands hurting from clasping the machete all day and yet; he would never feel at a loss.

Abla had no concept of humanity outside of his family. He knew his father and mother loved him, his brothers respected him and that was enough.

He didn’t see the missing fingers on his sibling’s hands. His sister’s limp wasn’t apparent to him, just as his youngest brothers partial blindness from spray never came to his attention. His own scarred limbs were testament to hard work and perseverance, not over work and unfair conditions. He was living how he always had. Why should things be different?  

Child labour was not an aberration to him, it wasn’t even a concept he could grasp. He had no idea about things in the outside world like the GIG the ICI or the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), no knowledge about media attention to child labour in cocoa plantations in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Indeed, Abla would very likely have laughed at the thought that he was to young to work the rows. These were outsider concerns. They had nothing to do with Abla and his world. Abla was more happy than most.                            

My opinion on Blogging…

So what is my opinion on Blogging? To tell you the truth I can’t say I’ve ever devoted anytime to thinking about it really. Also, it is only because of having to write my own blog that I’ve ever looked at any.

From what I can tell, I’m going to have to come to the conclusion that Blogs, albeit enticing for its easy use, broad reach and accessibility to almost anyone, are essentially useless because of these very reasons. Due to the incredible numbers of Blogs which are dedicated to boring things and uninteresting people, being able to sift through all that crap just isn’t worth the few gem’s you might find. Having said that, good luck to you if you have something to say…     

Neil Gaiman’s blog Review

Ok, so I’ve been looking at this Blog by a guy, at least I’m assuming it’s a guy, his name is Neil Gaiman so I’m guessing I’m right about that, oh he’s an author by the way so I’m expecting good things. Anyway, I suppose this is a pretty good example of just what a Blog is supposed to be. Just today I’ll look at his entry posted on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, entitled The Anatomy of Melancholy, ok, so this fella sounds like a positive kind of guy right? Any-who, this is very informal writing; it’s really just an update on his work journal, so he’s not using any formal writing techniques. The way he’s been writing is just like he’s talking to us. He’s also in the habit of switching from the present to past tenths as his conversation wanders from one topic to another. I suppose you could look at this as a way from him to organise his thoughts, although considering he’s supposed to be writing as a profession I don’t see why he spends any time on this thing. However, it is interesting to note that his first paragraph is quite nicely set up to give the reader a sense of place and time through a rather brief description of the view outside his window. The main idea behind this blog is to keep anyone who’s interested in this guys work up to date on his progress. However, I’m guessing this Neil guy has started to add a bit more to this as he starts talking about things that really aren’t related to his work. This is nice that it gives me a good insight into the type of person he is, but it’s really not that interesting.