New Orleans (Wednesday)

Not much to report today, just packing up and catching the all-night bus to Tampa in Florida. I’m leaving New Orleans before I am ready but I must move on. I will come back here one day.

While there is little news to tell I would like to write about a story that was in the news papers here not long after I got to the US. A feature item appeared up front on one of the big Californian papers about a speech made by a noted leader of some national medical authority (sorry, bit short on specifics). She made a key speech that caught commentators off guard. Obesity is a well know problem in USA and I have seen plenty of it. And African-American are a significant part of the problem (I wouldn’t disagree with that) because she (African-American herself) made a plea to black women to forget about their hair and get out there and exercise. African-Americans naturally have very frizzy hair. Men deal with this by either cutting it very short, shaving it all off or growing it into dreadlocks. Women spend a fortune having their hair straightened and coloured and maintaining that straight hair. Sweat undoes all that hard expensive work so they forgo exercise! This key speech was about urging black women to not forgo exercise for the sake of their hair. Only a black women could make such a speech.