Dandala vs. JZ

Classic (and possibly a little unfair) comment from the M&G:

"Where Jacob Zuma is essentially an autodidact, Dr Dandala (COPE presidential candidate) has degrees from Cambridge University, as well as honorary degrees from The University of Transkei and from the Cameroons.

Whereas Zuma has several wives, Dandala has but one. Dandala publicly took an HIV/Aids test. Zuma famously took a shower."

ps: an autodidact is a self taught person (I had to look it up...)

Where boys fear to tread...

For those who don't know, the title of my blog is also the title of a Smashing Pumpkins song, as is the title of this post, but I digress before I've started...

Okay, so I'm definitely not the most experienced to speak about menstruation, but I have heard a bit about menstrual cups. They sound as if they are comfortable and environmentally, I reckon they are the business.

Check out a pretty glowing review from my South African paper of choice.

Now to tackle the resource intensiveness of toilet paper.

e-readers

Whether to buy an e-reader or not... It's been a question that I've been thinking about for quite a while.

I first heard about e-readers and e-ink when my dad suggested I worked for them (e-ink) when I was thinking about what to do with my life, and was considering various environmental jobs. The concept is simple, e-ink allows easy to read text on a small screen. It is supposed to look like paper, and can be read in bright sunlight. The devices are highly portable, about as thin as a box of matches and weigh less than a paper back. It is normally bigger than your average book. The battery typically lasts for roughly 7000 page turns (when the text is being displayed it hardly uses any power), which is enough for at least a weeks serious reading.

The reason for me to buy one would be mostly environmental, however the speed at which you are able to download and start reading a new book is definitely a plus.

Environmentally I'm not totally convinced, but let's look at the pros and cons. In the e-readers favour is the fact that every book is displayed on the same device - this means no printing and transporting the books around (I normally order books online), however the life cycle of the e-reader has to be taken into account. The manufacture includes all nasties of all our electronic gadgets - mining, plastics, chemicals - they'll all be there. Of course there is also the disposal - I haven't yet found a disposable e-reader!Greenpeace has done a great job highlighting the problem. So what have I found?

There seem to be 4 big names of purpose built e-reader. They are (with links to their websites:

Bebook
Iliad
Sony eBook
Kindle

All four are roughly similar, except that the Sony and Kindle only let you use formats that they specify - the Kindle particularly as it only lets you buy books from Amazon.com (who sell it), and you actually have to pay to read .pdfs on it (which immediately ruled it out for me). The other two run on linux based systems and allow you to read a number of formats on them.

The problem with all of them however, and my reason for not buying one at all, is simply the selection of books currently available as e-books. There just aren't enough (and particularly not of the ones I want to read). Having an e-reader and still having to buy the odd real book just seems silly - more just e-showing off, geek factor.

So lessons I've learnt through all this - I still need to join the library, I need to get my book club swapping the books we have rather than all reading the same book at the same time, and lastly, that I won't be buying an e-reader for a long time.

Shame though, could've impressed my mom.

My first action

Last Wednesday I met up with some other people to protest against Junichi and Toro being tried by the Japanese system for their part in uncovering a whaling scandal. You can read all about the Tokyo Two and the part they are playing to end whaling on the Greenpeace Website. Part of the reason for this blog is to try and answer all the questions my family have asked me about the protest.

We met at the Japanese Embassy in the Hague, one of us dressed as Lady Justice and with a big blow up whale, that was my job - plugging it in and taking care of it. Not lurking as my father was kind enough to point out - that's my concerned face (okay, I'm the once right at the back with the fashionable beanie).

We were there to hand protest the trial of the Tokyo Two and hand a letter over to the Ambassador asking the Japanese to put whaling on trial instead. There were lots of other protests all over the world - watch the slideshow halfway down this page. All went well, but the people exposing corruption are still in court.

You can help, click the link on the banner on the right of the screen and let the Japanese police know if exposing the corruption in whaling as a crime is an offence, they can arrest you too!

And thanks mum, I took care and was fine ;-)

Hiking the point (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt6)

So despite the fact that this is now about a month late, here is the final installment of my SA holiday.

Having arrived back in CT with my dad on the train, Em, Al and I gathered some things for our hike the next day and then got an early night. The next morning we got up, packed our things and headed off in Als car to pick dad up, and then travel on to the Cape Point nature reserve, with a mandatory stop at Olympia for baked goods.

We got there, parked the car, donned our packs and set off. We walked along the East coast of the point with amazing views of the sheer drop to the rocks and breakers below, and the rest of the peninsula. We passed the old cannon and dropped down to the sea, and walked past all the Sunday picnikers and braaiers. We joined them for lunch though, after a swim in the refreshing water. Once we had lunched on cheese rolls and mussel oil we searched for the small traffic circle, and once we found it began the climb to the overnight huts. Towards the top of the hill we saw a pair of ostrich with a whole bunch of baby ostriches running around. We carried on to the hut where we relaxed and had sundowners while counting windsurfers and kite surfers (which became the entertainment of the evening). We had braai for supper and a couple of beers, and made up fantastic stories about windsurfers not making it out of the park before the gate was shut.

The next morning we had hot water (mmmh) and muesli before setting off with considerably lighter packs. The walk started off along the beach which involved some sand, but mainly rocks. We were treated to a Bles(bonte?)bok peering at us through the mist. As we carried on we saw other wildlife (a very small tortoise included). We had lunch next to a very black lagoon and were visited by a large group of Baboons. After lunch we headed off with some of the party taking the short way round, and some finishing off the final hill for all.

The rest of my time in Cape Town was filled with friends, braais at Oudekraal, amazing productions of the Tempest, fantastic days in Napier with mum, swimming in rock pools and spending time with my sisters.

I'm now very much back in Amsterdam (it really is very cold), and working away again. It was an amazing 6 weeks and I can't wait to get back there soonest!

Thanks to everybody who made it such a good time!

GSK starts to break the mould

Drug companies have been taking a lot of slack because of their protecting of patents that deny poor people access to medicine.

GSK have come out against this with a brave new stance by their CEO, promising to slash prices in poor countries and pool patents for other scientists to work on.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/bqbrxy

I wonder if this will lead to a different type of medical safari, and whether it will prompt others to do the same!

Twittering

I'm twittering.

Unfortunately, because my cell phones a bit old and I'm on pre-paid (laugh all you want james) I can't update it from my phone yet, but watch this space.

In the meantime I'll update it every now and again. You can check out my entries here (on the right of this page, scroll down a bit, below my links, above my followers).

Wiki!

for those who might not know what twitter is (no names mentioned):

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

The best way to travel (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt5)

I flew into joburg and quickly got a taxi into Melville, and to the Greenpeace office. I walked in and said hello to the people who were working. Some of the people I would have liked to have spoken to were not there, but I got introduced to the people working there and saw their premises, a really nice house that has been converted into an office.

After that I walked down to a local Mugg and Bean and had a cup of tea while I waited for Phil to finish work. Once he had he picked me up we headed to the Jolly roger for half a pizza and a couple of beers. Chris and Ciska picked me up there and we got some excellent thai food, and headed back to their (lovely) new house and Larry the beaglador. After some great chatting and a bit of hooka piping we went to bed, and in the morning Chris dropped me off at the Joburg station, where I bought a newspaper and met Dad for the train ride to Cape Town.

The Shosholoza Meyl was advertised as a pleasant experience, which I think rather under sells the train trip (aah, they've hit on my underpromise and overdeliver mantra, which some day I'll actually adhere to!). The only thing that wasn't good about the trip was booking the tickets. They have no way to book without actually going to the station (although my sister swears she booked by paying money into their bank account and then picking the tickets up from the station). You can book tickets before hand, however once you've reserved, the reservation is only valid for two days where after you need to have bought your tickets at the station. It should be easy enough to set up an e-ticketing system where you can print your tickets at home, or at least to hook up with a service like Computicket, like Intercape buses do.

Well, as I said the only bad thing was the booking. We got on at joburg and left only about 15 minutes late (was it dad? - he has the time to the minute that we arrived at and left every station, I think he was still keeping tabs in his sleep ;-). As we pulled out of johannesburg we settled into our 2 person coupé, distributed the newspapers and had a bit of a read as the highveld slipped by. We ordered our bedding (for R40) and then went off for a little something to eat (after some literally ice cold beers). Cards were the order of the afternoon and as a thunder and lightning storm stormed off in the distance we played a refined game of German whist. Supper was macaroni cheese for me and a steak for dad, accompanied by a fine bottle of red (okay, it was Chateu Libertas...). After that it was a few more hands and then bed.

The night went well, despite the rain continueing, and when we went to bed Dad thought we would be in a lot later than the anticipated 12:10 (I however had a well placed hope in the men and women at SARS and Shosholoza Meyl). Sleeping on the train wasn't the deepest sleep which was perhaps that the bunks were a bit small, but after a relatively good sleep I woke up and read for a bit (unfortunatly on the top bunk so I couldn't see the scenery go by). Once dad was up we had a fry up breakfast, and went back to our cabin for a few games of battleships (all won by Dad!) and to watch the last of the Klein Karoo and the Hex River valley slide by. There were also some very long tunnels which neither of us had expected. Sooner than expected we were pulling into Cape Town with the mountain ahead and Ratanga Junction off to our right. We got into the station early, and got onto a Metro train to take me to Mowbray, and Dad to False Bay.

I walked back to Em and Al's house where I was to spend only a night before starting a two day trail with Em, Plus, Al and Dad.

Shosholoza Meyl was fantastic, and I would highly recommend a trip on the train to anybody with enough time to take a slow trip.

Zuma for prez?

Well, okay, bring it on!

Having just read Jeremy Gordin's biography, I'm feeling much better about JZ taking over the presidency of my country. I also hope he brings about some economic sense to a developing country (read: not bow to the false god of FDI).

If the ANC is going to focus on the rural areas more in 2009, I think there are worse people and parties for the top job.

Sabi Sands (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt4)

After the morning after fry up at one of the trout dams I said goodbye to the rhodes mates and set off towards Nelspruit with Gene's parents. I got to Nelspruit without trouble, and some interesting conversation about forestry with John, Gene's dad.

Once there though I started feeling a bit off colour. I met up with the guy who was going to give me and 4 brits a lift through to Kirkman's Camp, in the Sabi Sands. Kirkmans is a private game reserve in one of the richest game areas of the Kruger Park, the Sabi Sands. Murray, a friend of mine from school days is the head game ranger at Kirkman's, and it was because of him that I had the opportunity of a life time to experience a luxury game reserve.

I was staying in Murray's staff lodging (he quickly whipped up a bed for me to sleep off the rest of my hangover - very understanding). It was simple, but right in the middle of the bush which made it luxurious beyond measure - were else do you get to see hyenas running past about 10 metres away while you're having a braai, and have to make sure your shoes are inside at night to avoid them walking off. During the days I slept and read, only to be disturbed by the odd meal and game drive.

The game drives were awesome, off road driving like I've never experienced. And of course the animals. The rangers found them all and extremely close up, I could've touched most of them. We almost ran over the pack of wild dogs we found on my first full day. I saw Rhino, Baboons, Giraffe, Impala, Leopards, Wild dogs, Hyena, Elephant, Owls, Amarula treas, Russet Willows, Sausage trees, Chameleons, Lions, Buffalo, Smaller antelops, Bats, Moths, Monkeys and if I sit long enough I think I'll remember a million more! I was also treated to a bush breakfast (all laid out in the middle of the bush, with cooked breakfast and croissants), and on the evening game drives we stopped for sundowners with biltong, nuts, dried mango and our choice of ice cold drinks - there is really nothing like a ice cold beer as the sun goes down over the bush!

At night we'd braai or just have some beers and talk. It was really magical. After 4 days it was time to move on again though, and Murray again came through, organising me a flight to Joburg from only 15 minutes down the dirt road.

Once back in the big city, I was amazed at how we have managed to confine nature to these small spaces between civilisation, but as soon as we reach the pinical of civilisation, we take the opportunity to rush back to the wild (admitedly, this time in a 4x4).

In Joburg I went to visit Greenpeace SA and managed to squeeze in a beer (or 3) and pizza with Phil at Jolly Rogers before I was picked up by Chris and Ciska for some great thai food and a comfy bed in there new house, gaurded ably by Larry the Beaglador.

(sorry, photos just wouldn't do it justice - and besides, I didn't take a camera!)