Monday

Wow - great discovery in Kenya! Chinese Ming dynasty porcelain and coin in a coastal town. More evidence that possibly the legend of Cheng He could be true ... he reached the African coast before any western power. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11531398  And how about the theory that some chinese sailors remained and married local Kenyans - DNA tests seem to prove it's true ... some Kenyans in the region have chinese blood. You just might have a very long lost relative who's Kenyan ... I wonder from which parts of China the sailors came from. Cheng He (aka San Bo aka Sinbad) was himself a muslim; descendent of the Persian general Sayyid Ajjal Shams who served in the Mongol court.

Today we remember Yitzhak Rabin, the former PM who was assassinated 15 yrs ago. I remember that day well. Who could forget the shock, the intense incomprehensibility of the madness that resulted in the death of a distinguished statesman? It was sad. It still is.

And there're warnings of another Gaza war coming up. I happened to pass through the village of Silwan where last week the two boys were knocked over by the car .... it's full of soldiers at every few meters: helmets, bullet-proof vests, semi-automatic in hand .... and the street is strewn with rocks. How long more can we continue to live like this? It's surreal ... I've been thinking it's like what you see on TV, it can't possibly happen here in my neighbourhood. But it is. It's real. It's here. It hurts.