The start of the Caribbean hurricane season brings the arrival of Hurricane Dean. Here, debris covers the John Compton Highway in Castries, St. Lucia, after Hurricane Dean passed, August 17, 2007.

Dean, which is gathering force and momentum and will probably be upgraded to a Category 5 storm, look set to do a repeat performce on Jamaica on Sunday, August 19, 2007.

A Category Five Hurricane, according to the The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, is the highest level bringing winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt or 249 km/hr).

What is this BlackMag Blog about? Well, just like BlackMag the cutting edge cultural focus news magazine, BlackMag Blog will focus on commenting, discussing and reviewing news and features of cultural, educational, historical, political and social interest to people of African descent and the wider world.

By African we mean people of dark complexion with roots particularly in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean and other parts of the world where the Diaspora has migrated to including Europe, America, etc.

Like Peter Tosh once said: “Don’t care where you come from as long as you’re a BlackMan, you’re an African…”

Our comments will also be of interest to non-Africans, especially those who interface with Africans in a professional, social, personal or other capacity and want to know more how to improve their understanding and relationships with Africans.

A Congolese student has launched legal action in Belgium to have the comic book “Tintin in the Congo” declared racist and removed from bookstores.

The book portrays Africans as stereotypical black characters and shows whites as their colonial masters.

“I want to put an end to sales of this cartoon book in shops, both for children and for adults. It’s racist and it is filled with colonial-era propaganda,” said Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu, who lives in Brussels.

Bienvenu is also seeking symbolic damages of one euro ($1.38) from Moulinsart, the publisher that owns the rights to Tintin.

A call by Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality earlier this year for bookstores to remove the Tintin edition from their shelves prompted one chain to move the book from its children’s section to the shelves for adult graphic stories.

Sales of Tintin In The Congo subsequently soared following protests over 3800 percent. The book, which first appeared in Belgian newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle as a comic strip in 1930-1931, is part of the series “The Adventures of Tintin” by the Belgian author and illustrator Herge.

In May, the centenary of the birth of Herge – real name Georges Remi – was marked with a set of stamps, a 20-euro coin and an exhibition in honour of the ageless reporter – one of the country’s most famous exports.

Most companies are proud to herald the brilliance of their shiny new equipment, the high tech gadgets which make them stand out among the crowd, the amount of money they’ve spent to achieve this and the huge network they manage to keep it all afloat.

They may even be very proud of boasting the number of well known brand names clients using their service and how many awards they have won in bringing these to the market.

But, does any of this matter if the customer service to back up these services is less than desirable? To the customer it matters not one iota. It’s like bragging about how big your tool/motor/boat is yet you don’t know how to use it/them properly.

I’ve noticed most progressive companies, mainly American actually, are really keen on pushing their service when you call for technical support. Something in the order of: you call because your server is down and they want to sell you a computer!

In one case I actually took exception to this because it felt like the company I was dealing with was not really interest in servicing its current obligations: just focussed on selling something new.

This to me is not good customer service. Good customer service is where the company places the customer at the forefront or heart of its operations and delivers its products and services around that customer.

When I find such a company I will let you know. If or if you know of one, let me know!

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