Creative gift wrapping

If you're looking for some creative gift wrapping this festive season, check out Wrap Sacks. A gift bag that you give and then is re-givable. Nice idea.

Attending IDFA

It's IDFA time in Amsterdam - the International Documentary Film Festival. Probably one of the best times in winter in the dam. It happens every year and normally involves me running from film to film trying to see as many as possible, or sitting in a theatre an entire Sunday watching the 10hour "best of the fest" marathon.

This year I've been pretty moderate, only going to see 5 screenings, a couple of which are double screenings, so I'll see 8 in total. I've seen 7 already and there have been some awesome ones among them.

il Capo

A film about marble mining in Italy, and particularly the hand signals used by the "conductor" who shows the diggers where to push and pull the marble. The questions afterwards focused on the type of marble, what it is used for, and about the diggers. I didn't get to ask my question about whether there was any protest against the mountains being ripped apart for rich peoples floors and kitchen counters. This film made me want to protest mining in any form. Our comfort should not come at the cost of ripping apart the earth.

My Playground

A Danish film about free running or Parkour, people running up and down buildings, and urban design for more than just one use. I enjoyed it and it made me want to use my body to the fullest all the time, and of course become a free runner!

Maswife: Life in Camp Pinchinat

About life in one of the camps set up to accommodate homeless people following the earthquake in Haiti. It captured the grimness of life in the camp very well. People living in truly diabolical conditions, and the kinds of structures and hierarchies that spring up out of these conditions. I didn't feel good eating popcorn during this one.

MINUSTAH Steals Goats

Another film about Haiti - this one about the UN mission (known as MINUSTAH) there that begun in 2004. Primarily a peacekeeping mission, the film posed questions about whether there was need for economic "development" as a more sustainable way to bring peace. I think the film tried to include everything, and could have done with more focus. It made me wonder about the ideas of development and what it would take for organisations like the UN and countries to rethink what development is and what aid should be.

Into the Belly of the Whale

This was less a documentary and more a reconstruction of life in the smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Just before this film I heard the voice (cries) of my new niece for the first time.

Abu Jamil Street

Another film about the smuggling tunnels, this one was an actual documentary and did well not to take sides, but just to show the people working in these tunnels. Often just trying to make money in a way that is presented to them. The last thing the film showed was them smuggling a Lama through the tunnel for the Gaza Strip zoo. This film made me not want to live in a place where explosions are routine. I think we dismiss the value of peace.

Al-Halqa - In the Storyteller's Circle


I love telling stories and wish I could be a lot better at it. This was the film of the festival that I really wanted to go and see. It was brilliant, all about Moroccan storytellers and particularly a father teaching the art to his son. How to assemble a Halqa (a circle of people listening to the story), use the words and remember the stories (some of which can go on for four years like a mini-series). Such a wonderful tradition, and way to build and bind community, something I long for and think we are continually moving away from as opposed to towards. This film made me want to tell stories even more, and become good at it!

The last film I'm going to see is on Tuesday and is called Cane Toads: The Conquest. Many have said I am weird for wanting to see a film about cane toads. Perhaps true, but it seems really interesting, and it's about a country I have grown a sudden affiliation too, and I am really looking forward to seeing it, and hopefully learning about cane toad whispering.

WWF at Schiphol

WWF (The World Wide Fund for Nature or Woof Woof) have put up some advertisements at Schiphol airport asking people to [in English] "Look, Look, but don't buy". The ads are asking people not to buy souvenirs from the countries that they visit on holiday that are produced by killing endangered plants and animals.



It seems like quite a straight forward ask, but when we know about things like climate change, mining disasters (even though this is an oxymoron, I use it to indicate the ones that affect humans immediately as well - think Chile and Hungary). The issue I have with this is the thinking behind it. WWF no doubt spent thousands for the advert, and I am sure hours of strategic meetings and planning went into the text, photos and style of writing. I imagine that tactically WWF (who also works on climate change) thought this would be an obtainable ask - something they think the public would take notice of and actually act on instead of ignoring. The issue is that this is a cosmetic change. It is the same as putting a disney plaster on an amputation.



As long as big NGOs and others trying to do something about the various environmental challenges we face continue to work on what is obtainable and doesn't offend funders, they will only act as a salve to our conscience as we head toward environmental collapse. We need organisations to shout, loudly, the inconvenient truths we are facing. No, we cannot afford to take intercontinental holiday flights, we have to change our patterns of consumption. We have to start listening to nature, seeing ourselves as part of a very intricate system and begin playing by the earth's rules. Seeing a small group of animals and plants as endangered misses the point. We are amongst the endangered species, time to call a spade a spade.

Fish

This deserves a blog.

AquaBounty is a Canadian company that has developed a GE Salmon. This Salmon is genetically engineered to grow year round (unlikely normal salmon that only grow for some of the year). The result is a bigger fish, quicker.

I'm not going to get into the science of all of this, or the fact that the eggs are being shipped to Panama (as it is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity) to be grown, and then shipped back to the US and Canada to be sold.
Consumers will of course be saved from seeing salmon that looks like it has been stretched and pumped up with a bicycle pump, as they will no doubt be offered the salmon, unlabelled as GE, in neat little shrink-wrapped polystyrene trays.

The bit I'd like to talk about is the company's (AquaBounty) argument for this fish. They claim, quite straight faced, that it is needed to address world hunger. This will no doubt be met with delight by the French who are trying to grow GE vines (which fortunately keep getting ripped out by volunteer reapers, even after public consultation and a fence being erected around the trial). Obviously the starving people in the world will soon need a chilled GE Chardonnay to wash down their GE salmon.

Jokes aside, could they be any more brazen? Salmon as a solution to world hunger? There are so many outrageous things going on here that it's hard to know where to start. How about with salmon. There used to be streams all over the Western US and Canada that were so full of Salmon in season that people scoop them out with buckets, and bears would take one bite of one fish and then move onto another. Many of these rivers and streams have been dammed for various reasons (something about progress and development) and the fish can now no longer return to the spawning grounds as they always have. This is perhaps not such a problem when, with all the money you've made by damming rivers in your own country, you can build fish farms in places like Panama and farm fish there. All good and well except these fish need to be fed something. Mostly they are fed wild fish, but it takes much more than a kilo of wild fish to produce a kilo of farmed salmon. Slowly it starts to look as if AquaBounty may not have the poor and starving peoples interests at heart after all.

We need to look at what we will need to do to enable people to eat salmon without having to make them artificial and raise them in artificial environments completely removed from any type of ecosystem. A good start would be to start questioning companies trying to sell snake oil by promising to feed the world with it.

A wonderful morning moment (another)

An amazing moment on the way into work today that inspired me, gave me hope and added to an amazing start to the day.

While riding along and listening to K'naan's "Take a minute", I was getting nearer to GP Berlin, and as a taxi backed away from me (there was a truck blocking the street that I had just squeezed past) I saw a women, perhaps 45, walk across the road and notice a dead bird that resembled much less of a bird having been run over repeatedly. I lost sight of her as she got off the street between two parked cars, but as I rode past, I saw her again. She was looking back down at the bird with so much tenderness and sadness.

Just amazing.

Clearly, it's the little things.

Man with a gun

Here's a little story I told myself on the way to work today.

I started off thinking about the police, and got onto thinking about the argument that you can't criticise the system while you continue to live within it. However I think we are forced to live within the system (or civilisation).

Say I choose to live outside the system. Okay, so I'm feeling hungry, and reckon I'll get something to eat. There's a supermarket. I go in, get something to eat and walk out. No paying right - I'm living outside the system. Well unless a friendly wave, a thank you and a mental note to do something nice for the cashier sometime counts.

As I'm outside eating my food, a guy with a gun arrives and takes the food away, and says something about "ever catching me again", arrest and jail. Well, as it turns out I wasn't that hungry, so I decide to turn in for the night. I walk back to my modest flat and get into bed. I haven't paid rent for a couple of months as I live outside the system. Just as I'm drifting off to sleep, there is a knock on the door - same guy with a gun. Man, he's really beginning to be a problem.

So no, we cannot choose to live outside the system, we are forced to live within it. And for some the easiest thing to do it put on a jacket and tie, carry a bag full of lies and smile, smile, smile, smile that colgate white smile.

** To be fair this wasn't really my story, but a bad mismash of Derrick Jensen with a little Promoe stuck on the end.

A recession for the poor

The media reports the economic recession as something terrible for all people. However there are some different stories that are seeming to come up every now and again. These tell of how there seems to be one (or more) "recession-proof" sectors. These sectors are always (in my brief analysis) luxury sectors and also tech sectors. Some articles proclaim the good news factor of this - one even appearing on "South Africa - The Good News" website.

I imagine the writers of particularly the second type of article - showing that there is some good news despite the recession - are wanting to show that at least one sector is doing it right, or, more vaguely that "there is hope". The truth is that the global recession is only a recession for the poor. Food price increases aren't affecting any of my family or friends (or me). I hear of vary few CEOs losing there jobs, but plenty of blue-collar and government workers out of work (again, it seems as the important ones are still there - the EU still has a commissioner of "Digital Agenda" - important one that).

This recession is a recession of and for the poor. The rich continue to buy their iphone apps, expensive "handmade" watches and luxury yachts. And what's more they are buying them in ever greater numbers, despite the increasing number of children going to bed being "fed" water to stop them from crying because there is no food in the house.

So next time someone with an iphone complains about the recession, slap them and go and do something useful to take down the system that causes the inequality which allows a simultaneous recession for the poor and boom for the rich.

Making Hlodnik

Kasia, who is from Poland and works in our finance department, brought in some Hlodnik the other day and proceeded to let us taste it and then when we all really enjoyed it, she promised to bring us all some the next day. She did. We like people like Kasia.

Hlodnik is a Polish soup made from beetroot and yoghurt (amongst other things). It is served cold and is very refreshing on a summers day. Once having tasted it I made some (a HUGE batch) at home and included the cucumbers as well as a large amount of other veggies (as is required by the recipe). It wasn't nearly as good as Kasia's, but I think it will be a learning experience!

Here are some pictures of the herbs, the other ingredients and the cooking process. Enjoy.


The herbs (chives, dill, basil, coriander).


Yoghurt.


Beetroot.


Cucumbers and Kholrabi.


Hlodnik!

And a good blog about it if you want more...

Bioplastic

We all know how much we rely on plastic in our everyday lives (if you don't, just look around you!). Plastic is made from oil, and this tends to bother environmentalists. As well as being non-renewable (i.e. it will run out someday), oil is rather polluting when dragged from the ground and "used" - read: burned. And of course, besides all that polluting the C02 it emits also contributes to climate change.

One of the lowest hanging fruit (in this culture's mind's eye) concerning the struggle to be more sustainable is the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag and wrapping that food products are sold in. To replace conventional plastic bags and packaging, bioplastics have been invented. These are plastics manufactured from "renewable" sources - mainly glucose which normally comes from refined maize (or potatoes or beets). Increasingly you will see advertising on shopping bags saying that they are biodegradable, these are invariably made from bioplastics. With regards to there biodegradability, my aunt and uncle (who actually have a very functioning compost heap - nice) have tried to compost them, but have been unsuccessful up until now, apparently they persist long after the rest of the food scraps, paper, etc. Biodegradability is only a measure of the amount of time it takes something to breakdown anyway - but that's another blog post.

So bioplastics are becoming increasingly popular, especially by those who *really* want to be seen to be doing something good for the environment. At my local supermarket, all the organic fruit is placed on a recycled cardboard tray and wrapped in a very loud crinkly bioplastic (the normal fruit of course gets the conventional thin plastic bag - which are somehow exempt from laws banning plastic shopping bags...). The problem with bioplastics is that there production consumes a lot more energy than conventional plastics. The actual production of the plastics obviously takes energy in both cases, and it seems that bioplastics consume more energy in their production, but it also takes energy to produce the feedstock. Oil obviously requires drilling, transport, etc. But glucose (or starch - made of lots of glucose molecules) needs all the inputs required to grow it on top of the energy intensive refining process. And when you boil it down, these inputs are essentially oil (chemical fertilizers, pesticides, petrol for the tractor) - I'm assuming a company will use the cheapest glucose around, which with our skewed subsidies is more than likely not organic!

So it turns out that at the end of the day the more environmental choice would probably be conventional plastic. Of course neither of these are really environmental choices at all, and if I was writing this post for my other "live simply it will help the planet" blog I would probably end off by saying we should all be re-using our cotton, hemp or plastic bags. In this case though I imagine you can guess what my solution will be...

The oil spill

Osborne, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, said after speaking to BP CEO Tony Hayward, "The prime minister is also clear that we need constructive solutions and that we remember the economic value BP brings to people in Britain and America."

The oil spill and people's response to it confuses me. And at the same time it shows how brilliantly this culture has turned us from citizens - people - to consumers. Just looking at the response to it shows the lies we are being told. I mean chemical dispersants? Plastic bags to put the oil in (and then dump it where? another planet?)? Oil absorbent booms? Plastic protective gloves and clothing? The common thread? ALL these things use oil either as an ingredient (plastic, most chemicals) or in their production and transport to the spill. Bad for the economy? The economy is loving it! All this buying up of oil fighting equipment, all the media flights and trips on boats. Pathetic. Real solutions? Try supporting nature in it's own ability to deal with the spill.

When I see a video on youtube of a US man mocking BP's response to the oil spill and encouraging people to dump their garden "waste" on BP's property to get back at them, the madness is clear. To punish a company that in their NORMAL operations rapes and kills the earth by "dumping" the most valuable product the earth offers us on their property is beyond nonsensical.

I'm waiting for the "Buy American" campaigns telling people to buy their petrol from US companies - because there products are a product of nature (1) that do not kill the earth? Does anyone really think other oil companies are better? One encouraging sign is the couple of "radical environmentalists" talking about oil companies, particularly Shell's destruction of the Niger delta, and comparing it to the Gulf oil spill.

Looking at the quotation above, one can only marvel that Osborne is still a publicly employed official. People might actually believe that? Even if you think in purely economic terms, BP is destroying the economy by vacuuming up "resources" that could be used for "development". Let's not even get into the bit about how they are destroying the planet. You know, that thing that all of us - our children and all other species depend on for LIFE. And then the little sinister leer and knowing wink - bringing economic value (a prime example of an oxymoron) "to people in Britain and America". To clarify, not to Britain and America, but only to people, and by that we mean some people, not all, and by that we mean an infinitesimal portion of the people in the UK and US, and by that we mean the ecocidal maniacs who are destroying everything the rest of us (including the cute and cuddly, big and ugly, inanimate, breathtaking, tiny, new and old) rely on for LIFE.

We don't need a better response to the oil spill, we need a better response to the assault on our planet. We don't need people angry at BP, we need people angry at this culture. We need more Greenpeace, we need more Sea Shepard, we need more MEND, we need more people who refuse to take responsibility for the death of the planet, but begin to dismantle the industrial economy, starting from where it is weakest.

-----

(1) Oil might be a product from nature, but petrol is certainly not. There is also a reason nature stored the oil underground.

Recovering my saddle

On Thursday I recovered my saddle - orange of course - and then took it out on a test drive today. Fun! Here are some pics of the process:

Shining a light on civilisation

Okay, just before you think I've got a light theme going on - I actually wrote this on the train to the UK a couple weeks ago, and subsequently forgot about it while languishing on my death bed (I'm fine now, thanks).

I think lightbulbs are a good example of just how deep we're into the civilisation dead end. We are developing a habit of solving problems with things that create a bigger problem. We discover that we are using too much energy, and a lot of this is going into lighting. So what we are presented with as a solution is a lightbulb that uses less energy. Unfortunately as with many things that are the product of civilisation we later find out that once again when we exclude nature from our thinking we have created yet another problem.

With lightbulbs I think it was even clearer – we knew there was mercury in the HCL lightbulbs, however I guess we thought that less energy use was better than more mercury poisoning our environment (or let's be cynical – perhaps it was just more economical). Now we are trying to create even more energy efficient lightbulbs by using LED technology – I wonder how long before we realise the problem with them.

In a world where only those that work with nature survive, anything that takes more than it gives is doomed, no matter how clever it looks on paper. Technology will not make civilisation sustainable, nor will it slow us down until we have enough time to notice the people next to each other, and stay in one place long enough to build up meaningful relationships.

Seeing the light

A friend of mine at work is a Eugene Terreblanche hater. Before ETs death he would often decry me (and all South Africans) because nobody had killed him yet. In his view, as a blatant racist and inciter of violence he needed to be 'offed'.

I always laughed at him (kind of nervously) becuase I never really knew what to make of his tirades. Unfortunately it is only in ETs death that I find the answer. The fact that ET was allowed to live free and do his thing (whether that was going to jail, rattling on about some idea that white people might be better in some way than black people because they are white, falling of his horse, being a reason for many South Africans to be grateful that white neo-nazi's in SA don't have a better leader) in South Africa and was NOT killed by someone or tried by a kangaroo court shows exactly the type of miracle that the New South Africa is. A place where you can be a crazy, and still expect to be tried according to the laws of the same country all the other crazies are tried according to.

I think that if through his death and the trial of his killers, if we can keep this foremost in our minds, that all South Africans are equal in front of the law, we'll stay on track as a nation. No matter how much Julius Malema, Steve Hofmeyer and Jonah Fisher are trotted out to try to get us to forget this, we need to remember that all are innocent until proven guilty. And if I had another opportunity from my work colleague, I would love to tell him how ET living there is the best example of the beauty of South Africa.

What I'd like to see is some cunning plans on how we can all contribute to upholding these sorts of laws in our everyday lives.

*Phew* finally someone does something serious about climate change!

Let's not lie - it was getting a bit worrying there. All this talk of coal power plants, world cup stadiums made of concrete, BRT's instead of bicycles - the list was seemingly endless - and dire for the climate.

BUT, there is a ray of hope on the horizon and it comes in the unlikely form of the World Bank. A revolutionary counter note here - this is the NEW world bank (ie, sans all those bloated colonial masters of yesteryear who are intent on never seeing South Africa develop anyway - don't think we Africans didn't notice your sneaky skyving off US, Netherlands, UK, Italy and Norway! Although we may remember you at some point when we are economic power houses for not actually voting no).

Yes the NEW WB have seen the errors of their old incarnations ways, and have decided to loan (well, no they couldn't just give money away - that creates dependency) South Africa 3.75 billion US DOLLARS!!!! Talk about the jackpot! Before I get carried away, let me not forget to share the really big news, what the money is for:

Ruth Kagia, World Bank country director for South Africa (ie, she sits just above JZ) said the Eskom project offered a unique opportunity for the World Bank Group to strengthen its partnership with the government of South Africa, Eskom, and other financiers "and help South Africa chart a path toward meeting its commitment on climate change while meeting people's urgent energy needs".

As if that wasn't enough, the real NEW WB WOman (of course - and hey, none of that reverse sexism here!) Obiageli K Ezekwesili, World Bank vice president for Africa said: "Our support to Eskom combines much-needed investments to boost generation capacity for growing small and large businesses [we'll come back to this point... never], creating jobs and helping lay the foundations for a clean energy future through investments in solar and wind power."

Did I tell you they were NEW or what??? I trust by this stage you are as excited about this whole pro-poor, pro-environment, pro-democracy, pro-life deal as I am! And with all the hype, you can only imagine that at least 3.7 billion of the 3.75 total is going to renewables right? Well, you wouldn't be very wrong at all! But it's not that exact figure, let's take a closer look:

WOAH, not that close! Oh, you're actually interested in the "figures"? Oh well, here's a breakdown:

0.75bn - RENEWABLES!!!
3bn - Coal fired power plant (well, that's part of the 17bn needed for the plant)
0.75bn - RENEWABLES!!! Oh, did I say that already? but look this time it's not in bold :-)

Go NEW WB Go! What, you want to know the breakdown of the renewables part do you? Look, there's a bn after the renewables figure! No? Still want a breakdown huh? You bloody agent, don't touch me on my studio!

Okay, so:

0.75bn =
TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS for wind and solar projects! THAT IS 26 (yes, TWENTY SIX) Darling wind farms! What? Yes, their are only 4 turbines at Darling. No, that doesn't include any solar.... or consultancy fees... Chief, get this thing out of here.
oh, and 485mil on a railway "to transport coal with fewer greenhouse gas emissions".

So of 3.75bn, only 0.26bn is for actual renewables? C'mon, that's almost a whopping 7%!

And corruption I hear you say? Nope, no worries there, the NEW WB has a dedicated team of grade 2 accountants (SA School system grades...) to ensure any corruption is totally overlooked. For instance there have been elements in the media (we have your bank account details) that have been telling people about the ANC's holdings (which is private information I might add) of Hitachi Africa, who are making the boilers for the plant.

Sarwat Hussein, senior spokesperson for the World Bank's Africa region, quickly sorts this out: "The Hitachi component is not part of what we are financing. We were not party to awarding a contract, and we are not a party to its payment". See? What did I tell you, these guys are stellar - you can't even pin trumped up charges of corruption to them.

So, now that the NEW WB is here to stay, we can only be thankful that "Energy insecurity and climate change are two of the most significant development challenges of our time," Hussein again, pointing out that only one in four Africans have access to energy (... and one in one have access to climate change, he quietly pointed the other way).

Back to Africa

For the past week I've been in and around Bamako, Mali. I was there for work, for the 2nd Africa Rice Congress. It was an amazing experience, although at the same time frustrating as I was sick for some of the time and therefore lacked a lot of energy that would have made the trip that much better.

I travelled with Arnaud, my French colleague - I mention his nationality specifically as it was brilliant having a native French speaker to ease the way through everyday interactions. We stayed at the Plaza Hotel (otherwise known as the Royal Hotel by Arnaud and at least one other taxi driver). The hotel had a good restaurant and a very friendly staff of Malians and Lebanese. Despite two leaks in two separate bathrooms - we had a very good time there. The staff were definitely the highlight with Arnaud leaving with a number of friends.

From Monday to Thursday we travelled to the conference centre, and spent the days there either in sessions, trying to corner important people to speak to or trying to maintain some semblance of calm over all our colleagues in the rest of the team. On Friday we travelled to the Office du Niger, a large (almost 1 million hectares) agricultural area for rice and cotton production (with some other minor crops as well). This area also includes "Malibya" a project to develop 100 000 hectares of the land, which has been bought by Libya and will be developed by Chinese engineers and agronomists. On the way there and back we saw lots of Baobabs, and I think I will need to go back to give a couple a hug!

The Chinese presence is very real in Mali - most of the vehicles on the road are Djhakartas - small (what looked like) 50cc motorbikes, all made in China. Even most of the clothes are made in China, despite looking as "African" as the genuine article.

Back in Bamako, I spent the Saturday in the hotel in bed while Arnaud and Anne and Anicent went off to explore the city. Anne works for an NGO in Mali, and that is how Arnaud got in contact with her - we met on the Wednesday, and as Anicent, her partner, works in tourism, they offered to take us around on Saturday. They did on Saturday and Sunday - giving up a whole weekend for us - we felt very spoilt! When they got back on Saturday, Arnaud thankfully convinced me to give up my attempt at being sensible and remaining in bed, and we went out for dinner again with A and A to the "hip" part of town. It was really good, I ate fried plantain and and a separate onion sauce. After another beer we took another taxi home. We took taxis everywhere - they are a bit similar to the cockroaches in Cape Town's townships, although perhaps not AS run-down. Obviously with the window open all the time, although the exhaust fumes from the Djhakartas and heavy trucks and all the dust in the air can be quite stifling.

Once Sunday rolled around I decided to suck it up and head out with the gang, having seen the awesome shirts Arnaud had made up for him at the market yesterday. Anicent and Anne took us to a market where they recycle old metal and make it into new things. Using literally anything not only for the raw material, but for the tools as well. The picture here shows a bellows made from a wheel and a carburettor. The products were mainly tools, although some decorative things like tea trays where being made from melted down aluminium (the silver in the middle of this sand mould.

The market was really big, and climbed up the side of a hill. Afterwards we walked down the hill and through another market where I bought some things. We eventually went for a lunch at a cafe and afterwards to a stall of a friend of Anicent's (although it seems as if he is friends with most of Bamako!). We then went back to the Hotel for some packing and after a middle of the night flight back to Paris and then an early morning train trip to Amsterdam, I was back home!

The last photo is the summary of my Bamako shopping. A big block of soap, 3 cds and plunger - because my shower drain at home was blocked (and is now no longer so!).

*sigh*

It does indeed feel like the end of the line. Today the collection of country representatives (ha ha) at CITES voted not to protect Atlantic Bluefin tuna. The trade in the fish that we once so loved in our tuna salad will continue (tinned tuna these days is normally skipjack).

Well, for now anyway. Soon they will fish the last one and our children will be making jokes about tuna, not dodos.

St. Paulopoli

Left for Hamburg early on Saturday morning, having replaced my bb with james' salvaged from his cyclocross bike (thanks man).

Went by train, read "after the party" about the ANC - really good, but had me tearing up, especially the bits of Mbeki's 'I am an African' speech. Got to Hamburg, removed my bike from bike bag (thanks B and Tom) and built it up and then walked about half the way to St. Pauli because the snow was super icey. Got found by Daniel, with a fantastic moustache, who gave me directions to reaperbahn. Eventually met a very hungover haterer. Had a hot chocolate and then met up with James and the rest of the Amsterdamage. Went to a friends house, drank a beer and then left for the start of the alley cat, stopping for a huge plate of veggie burger and chip goodness.

Met up with Siep and more of the boys and girls on the way to the start, and registered and asked various people what I was supposed to do. Started the alley cat which basically involved cycling from check point to checkpoint - at each checkpoint you got checked in, and then threw dice to see where you'd go to next - if you threw the same number as where you were, you had to go to jail and get a shot of corn (?) and then come back. Oh, you also got money at check points, but I never worked out what the point of the monopoly money was. So the night involved riding around, criss crossing (will make you jump jump) with loads of messengers and people generally trying to cycle as fast as possible and not fall off their bikes. For the record I only fell once (during the race).

The best memory was cycling like mad past the docks area as this grossly big cruise ship was being launched. Heard some old white guy in a suit talking about how some of the money was going to help kids - almost fell off my bike at this point. The revenge was had though - read on.

The after part was held at Hafenklang, and started with soup and bread and this was preceeded and anticeeded by beers. Partied on well into the middle of sunday morning, went and snatched a couple of hours of sleep, met everyone at a cafe for a goodbye beer and burrito. Went to say goodbye to everyone at the local squat, and as we were there the new cruise ship from last night sailed past. We took the opportunity to abuse it and all on board with a megaphone we had handy. I'll skip the choicest bits, but basically saying how silly they looked, that their money would never save them and that we wished the somali pirates the best of luck. We eventually tumbled into Vis' bus (complete with beds and lounge area) for the trip back. James slept, and me and Jan Willem drank a beer and ate an assortment of junk food while watching some rather mad films.

Got back to Amsterdam at about 9 this morning, and spent the whole of today recovering :-)

Good times.

Items gained:
1 x red and white cycling hat from hat swapping game at the party
4 x udis
1 x stiff body
lots x good memories

the arrogance...

Excerpt from Nature 463, 713 (11 February 2010):

"Climate warming could exacerbate species invasions and their often-negative ecological impacts if non-native plants continue to respond better to changing conditions, a study warns.

Using a 150-year record of seasonal plant data started by US poet and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, Charles Davis at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his colleagues analysed the long-term changes in the flowering times of native and non-native plants in Concord, Massachusetts, near where Thoreau lived."

The arrogance to think that with a 150-year record of seasonal plant data these scientists could know ANYTHING about millions of years of species and ecosystems interaction with their environment and climate.

If you really want the solution, start listening to the few remaining wild trees, rocks and streams. They are the only ones that can teach you.

Musicians as NGOs

Now that anybody with a half decent internet connection can download any music they want, how will musicians survive?

Will musicians start to make their music available for free and ask for donations? Would be great, and skip all the music industry. Of course there will be free(down)loaders, but I would imagine they will be enough people who will realise that without people spending some money on them, they will stop creating music (or at least making it available).

But then again, artists in hardship, and often poverty, have often produced their best work.

Should art never be a profession?

Hello weekend

It's the weekend! I've got my weekend pants on, there is a bike downstairs that has "ride me" written all over it and I'm meeting mates for an afternoon of polo. Man life looks good from the 10th floor!

The week also allowed me to get more or less back on top of my work, and then on Friday afternoon I had what would be a pretty average call with a campaigner which left me with loads of action points to get an awesome project rolling. If there wasn't such a good Saturday ahead, I'd like to start working on them straight away.

Cheers for life on this scorched earth!

Love and respect.

Comment Spam

Thanks to all of you who leave comments on my blog. Unfortunately I've been getting a lot of spam comments, so I've turned on word verification. You'll have to type in some words before posting your comment. Sorry about the extra effort, and that you will no longer be tempted with amazing investment opportunities every time you read the comments on the blog,

Did you know I've started up another blog? It's about environmental stuff in Amsterdam and you can find it here: http://ecoamsterdam.blogspot.com/

On being assaulted in Amsterdam

In the last 24hrs I was assaulted twice in Amsterdam. Nothing serious, but as with any assault, they shook me a bit.

I have been assaulted before in Cape Town (a number of times, and more violently than in the above instances) but in all of those times it has been by people wanting something from me. In Amsterdam, most people have what they want and there is a lot of social "support" for people who don't. I use the inverted commas as the support is often in the form of being arrested and imprisoned.

In both of the recent cases, I have felt that the people involved have behaved as if they were trapped. Not only physically but emotionally, as if they are being forced to act in a certain way - and it is not surprising that many of their actions have a very close resemblance to bad TV. Being in such a controlled society though, I did not feel unsafe in either situation, more concerned for the people involved - their (re)actions were at the same time comical and sad.

In the second case it was also interesting to see the people around me get involved. The assaulter got very little out of his interaction with me, and so, quickly started to argue with people who had stepped in on my "side", who provided him with much more of a reaction. As I cycled away, the argument continued and seemed to be getting more intense.

It feels as if there is constantly a fight brewing beneath the surface of this society, and I think it is because of our increasing isolation from each other.

We should start talking to each other more.

my snow haiku

snow brings white safety
as she reclaims humans concrete world
but hubris soon shows