This week, the universe seemed to be conspiring to keep me off my usual chores. I was preparing myself for an introspective Good Friday and joyous Easter Sunday - striving to dodge the consumerism that has been permeating every aspect of the Easter season - even the simplest of daily tasks turned suddenly impossible.

Disobedience to traffic laws abounds and one is constantly assailed by motor-bikers flashing by in between the cars; often nicking your paint job or knocking off your side view mirrors. Along the road to my office there is a section where 6 lanes turn into just 2. This is where bikers exit their lane altogether and take to piloting in the wrong way up the street; shouting insults at whoever is prudently driving in the correct direction. Needless to say, this practice often results in disaster. This week saw a sudden increase in the hostilities between bikers and drivers. Now, they kick-in your car's doors as they pass you by coming the wrong way. Mine was kicked-in this Monday.

The next disruption to my working week came in the form telecommunications troubles. The local infrastructure is extensive and very modern, but interruptions are commonplace. Our company website was down for a full day on Monday and the e-mail servers on our host were "updated" over the weekend with protocols that simply interrupted the flow of e-mails from Monday to Wednesday afternoon. If that wasn't enough, my office was left without phone lines for 4 hours on Tuesday because the phone cables were quite literally stolen from the public poles. Again, this was nothing out of the ordinary, but it didn't make me a happy businessman.

Wednesday started with the unexpected arrival of a good friend from South Africa. He dropped in just as I was leaving to go to the office at 6:15 in the morning. I was surprised to see him that early in the day and even more surprised to learn he would be crashing at my place. As I had no working phone lines at the office, I decided to work from home to keep him company. It turns out he needed advice to sort out some personal issues that motivated his trip. I was glad to provide him with some insights. Yet, to my discredit, I must confess I was just as happy to see him, as I was glad to see him off to a hotel on Thursday morning.

Thursday saw the return of our e-mails to working order and I actually managed to arrive at the office unscathed and within a decent time-frame. I was happy at the perspective of getting some work done. Yet, to my surprise, I had to work out of the notebook because my brand new HP workstation has been acting up and finally crashed and no hope of tech support.

It's as if nothing works properly in Sao Paulo, but on the bright side of all this was that I was left with extra time and motivation to philosophise on my blog; so at least in this sense the week was productive. Nevertheless, after a week like this, I have never looked forward to devoting a Good Friday to some quiet soul searching, as much as this one.

In the past rap music has been attacked and even banned as glorifying violence and inciting attacks on gay people.

World football still has problems with racist and homophobic songs and chanting at matches. It seems impossible to stop despite campaigns like this.

Is it justified to ban such chants and music or would it be an attack on free speech?

Is freedom of speech so sacred a principle we have to accept that some will use language and lyrics in songs that are offensive?

This commentator thinks it is a price worth paying to protect this freedom.

Is this ban of an ANC freedom song just a ban too far?

See listeners' comments about this programme

My fellow students danced, sang songs, wore costumes, and performed funny skits, the party started at about 7:30 am in the morning and it was continuing after we left at about 1:30 pm in the afternoon. Not only that, I got to celebrate my very special day with the people I adore and then later in the evening with the WHYS super marvellous team and amazing listeners and contributors, which was really cool.

As you guys may expect, things this week have been pretty hectic for me, I and all of my close girlfriends were so busy preparing for our very special day and getting everything ready for the party. I got to tell you guys, in 2006 and 2007 there were so many dark and desperate moments when I thought that this day would never ever come because back then our day to day lives used to be only about survival, keeping yourself and all of your loved ones alive. There's actually a huge difference between survival and having a quality of life that's acceptable, not great, but at least acceptable.

Now look at us, celebrating our graduation from medical school, who would've thought that something like that could ever happen to us? I mean us having a big party? I myself would never imagine, me partying like I did today, two or three years ago. Things are slowly and yet steadily improving in this country, which is a very healthy and encouraging sign, and yet there's still a lot that should be done. There're still many unsolved problems that must be dealt with promptly and quickly, otherwise things might deteriorate and collapse all over again, God forbid.

The most important thing is that there's this deep determination amongst ordinary Iraqis to go on with their day to-day lives and stick to optimism and faith in a better tomorrow despite all what the bad guys are trying to do, after all it's either our version or their version of Iraq that's gonna prevail eventually, and we just cannot let their version of Iraq prevail. So we're hanging in there, and hoping for the best to come, Inshallah.

At the moment, I am feeling extremely exhausted. I have slept for only 2 hours since yesterday, but it turns out that happiness and joy can keep you awake as much as sadness and grief. Tomorrow is a new day for me and for my Iraq the final results of the Iraqi parliamentary elections will be announced tomorrow by the Independent High Electoral commission (IHEC), should be very interesting to follow indeed, now I really must go to sleep.