Stopping traffic...

My second action went swimmingly today. Yesterday I headed through to Gent in Belgium and spent the afternoon training with all sorts of traffic equipment, and getting to know some cool people.

This morning we woke up at 5:30 to an awesome song Alela Diane's "The Pirates Gospel". We then went off to block the Brussels ring road, and put in some environmentally inspired theatre in protest to the plans to add another lane to the road.

It went fantastically, no hiccups and most people hardly noticed we were there - except when they (and particularly the intended audience) saw it later on the news. Greenpeace Belgium captured some of it, check it out on their website in Dutch or in French.

pirates again

I am inexplicably drawn to stories of the Somalian pirates. I think it is because for me this represents the world of global capitalism grinding up against those it has excluded.

It seems to me that the pirates are far from criminals. To call them evil would be plain wrong, and terrorists? Not unless anybody who works to earn a better wage or improve their stock in life is a terrorist. In my opinion these are men who have found a way of earning money for themselves (and probably many people dependent on them). Is there any harm done to anyone through this form of piracy? Well, I can't see any - the money they get in ransoms comes from big multinational corporations, or people who have so much that they can afford an ocean going yacht, and who, I would presume have insurance. Speaking of insurance, I am not speaking from any authority here, but I would imagine commercial ships and most private ships would have some sort of insurance against piracy. So what does this have to do with anything? Well, this means that any money that is paid to pirates comes from insurance firms who basically gamble with their shareholders money (they use algorithms which basically say how much they need to charge people as a premium vs. how much they will need to pay out (the actual risk) and then whack a hefty profit on top). If the shareholders are losing out, helaas pindakaas ("too bad so sad" in dutch), these are people who have enough money to take a risk with some by putting it in the stock market - you have good days, you have bad. So insurance firms aren't losing out (just adjusting their premiums), and people who are putting money into stocks (probably owners of insurance firms) are maybe having one more bad day, which they probably won't even notice given the current state of stock markets!

So nobody goes home hungry because of pirates, but what about the people on the boats? When they get hijacked, that must be pretty scary. Sure, not having control over your situation is scary, but I would imagine seafarers would be used to this in some sense or another. Apart from the odd beating, I understand that the pirates treat their hostages very well, handing around cooked goat meat (seriously, did they bring the goat with them and cook it there?!) and letting them phone home to calm anxious relatives. I would imagine the weather also isn't as bad off the coast of Somalia either - in any case, the pirates stopped pirating in bad weather. Yes, everybody thought it was due to the increased naval presence - turns out it was just a little nippy out.

Granted I probably skimmed way too lightly over a lot of very intricate issues in the second paragraph, and was a bit too blasé about the experience of being held hostage in the last, but there is a bigger issue at work here for me. The fact that as soon as multinationals start losing money, the governments of the world jump, and not only do they jump, but while saying "how high" they raise the ante for the pirates. In order to get one American captain back, they kill 3 pirates. Up until now, as I have mentioned, the pirates have been very hospitable and not done any hostages harm. I would not be surprised if this lenient piracy comes to an abrupt end.

Working for an organisations that runs 3 ocean going ships, I have a rough idea of how much it costs to get a ship around the world. The money being spent patrolling the waters off Somalia are being paid for by taxpayers in the countries that are sending warships. Would a fairer solution not be to let the companies pay for security on their ships, or just for the ransoms, and the government can go on taking care of their citizens more equitably?

This story of pirates highlights the fact that the current global economy is desperately skewed in the favour of a rich minority, through not taking into account externalities. Whether these externalities be environmental, or piratical.

As long as they stay peaceful, I'm on the side of the pirates.

Thailand

After the train journey from Brussels and the flight from Amsterdam, I landed in Bangkok and met up with Jan and his son Finn. We caught a taxi and rode through to our Hotel, Sena Place. As he drives, the driver of the taxi asks you if you would like to take the highway, which means paying extra at toll booths, but quite literally is an elevated road. I headed out onto the street, and bought an ice cold coconut (with plastic straw to drink from – they seem to give you a straw with anything that isn’t beer). I wandered down the street taking in the new and pungent smells from a myrid of street stalls cooking all sorts of things.

The next morning I left for the meeting venue. We arrived and after a quick swim had a couple of hours pre-meeting. I then took the couple of free hours I had for a Thai massage which was fabulous! The next three days were consumed by meetings, with me pulling off some less than good facilitation. On the Tuesday we escaped the good food of the venue and took a short boat trip across the river to a restaurant on stilts. The food there as with everywhere else in Thailand was fantastic, subtle flavours and hot spices - nice!

After the meeting I headed back to Bangkok and spent the rest of Thursday afternoon in the Bangkok office. We went out for supper at Sam Sen train station with Ply, and ate more good food served by good looking waitresses. The Friday and Saturday were set aside for sight seeing and we took advantage of them! On Friday Wen Jing and I traveled up to Ayuttaha and took a boat ride around the island. We stopped at three Wat's (Temples) and stayed only long enough to get super heated and dive back into the boat which was a lot cooler.

Afterwards we went for lunch at a lonely planet recommended restaurant which wasn't very good. It did have a tamarind tree (which Wen Jing pointed out to me and Gopi told me what it was in English) growing near by and this led us to search for more Tamarind trees amongst the ruins of Ayuttaha (the old Siamese capital). We found one that was loaded with Tamarind fruit and I was determined to bring one back, so after throwing a stick up after them, I tried to throw my water bottle up, but as I did my shoe came off and I landed with my right foot hard on a sharp piece of concrete. Wen Jing shepherded me off to hospital (in another tuk tuk) and I got a crash course in the excellent Thai health care system. Once I was stitched up we took another tuk tuk to the bus station and caught the bus back home. We met Gopi and Rajesh for supper and ate loads (again!).

On Saturday Natwipha met the four of us at the Charuchak market in Bangkok (15 000 stalls!)and we shopped until we dropped, including a nice lunch where the chef's sang and danced in between cooking up some pretty amazing dishes.

Later Wen Jing and I road the Skytrain to the river and sat and people watched and she helped to augment my grossly lacking knowledge of China! We road the train back to the hotel and I said good bye to my Thailand travelling friends and headed for the airport.

Thanks to Nat for helping me out with all the logistics for the meeting, being the best travel guide and never even looking remotely concerned that I was asking her for yet another hotel booking change even after a whole day of meetings. Thanks to all the people I travelled some of Thailand with, Jan and Finn (auch fuer der Lonely Planet!), Maciej, Rajesh (great barganing!), Gopi (it was a VERY dangerous looking baby tiger!) and Wen Jing (for taking care of me and traveling at a great pace around Ayuttaha and Bangkok).

Back in the 'dam and back to work tomorrow!

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!)

Fishy weddings (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt3)

So after Napier, Mum dropped me off at the airport and I met Thandi who was on the same flight up to Jozi for New Years and weddings. After a long shuttle ride from the Joburg airport to Lydenburg we were met there by Bruce and Charne in the bakkies to go back to the farm. We stayed the first couple of nights on a friends farm with no electricity and an argar to heat the water - good times!

The first night we had a fantastic new years party 60's style (which looked more like it was just fancy dress) when you put that many rhodents together you're sure of a good party, and a party it was! See edited pictures for evidence.

The next day I put a hole in Killas tyre on an ill-fated and never completed town trip. And then spent the most of the day reading and swimming, while others slaved away over at the wedding venue. That night we got our last minute instructions from the bride and groom over a great meal of pasta made by Peta.

The day before the wedding (2/1) everybody was running around helping with a million things and moving us into our fantastic lodges on Bruce's parents trout farm. The venue was looking awesome with the the chapel constructed from scratch for the event. Finishing touches were being put on the orders of service, the golf course and the dancefloor. We had snacks and drinks at the girls lodge before going back to the boys lodge for a couple of sneaky beers, some didgeridoo playing and talk of wynd's (a passage of sorts).

The day arrived with much hecticness of sticking names onto seating plans made out of rock, cleaning of dance floors and trying to disguise portaloos (and rus and killa still trying to finish off the video booth). It soon all collapsed into an amazing wedding in the most awesome venue. Everyone looked great, the speeches were good, the mcing brilliant (if I do say so myself :-) and the entertainment legendary, even with a not very well stocked bar. The best thing was the reuniting of people - with all the group there it was like one of the best night at Rhodes, with all the dance moves being thrown around, the silliness, the bad photos.

Congratulations to Bruce and Charne on getting married, and putting a huge amount of effort into an amazing wedding.

Pick it up! or...

When I see rubbish lying on the beach, I'm in two minds whether to pick it up or not. Strange, being an "environmentally minded" person, but I guess the question is, where does the rubbish go once you do pick it up? Where is away?

When someone picks up rubbish from a beach or nature reserve they usually put it in the nearest bin. I doubt it is recycled from there, it is probably taken to landfill. Landfill is just another person/creature/insect's home.

For me the answer to plastic bottles lying on the beach surely doesn't lie with how we dispose or recycle the bottles, but rather with not using plastic bottles (and all the other -mainly plastic- junk that litters or environment) .

Buy one water bottle that is made from another material, or buy one that will last at least 10 years. Refuse to buy things in packaging the manufacturer will not take back, and where possible bring your own packaging. These are steps that are easy to take and will have the biggest influence.

As for the litter - leave it lying there as a reminder to others that there is no such place as "away", and precycling, not recycling is the only answer.

Christmas at Mariley (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt2)

Christmas with the family was good, despite being tense at times. Full was definitely the word to describe it best with it passing in a blur of breakfasts, teas, lunches, dinners, chocolates and biscuits. Mum as always pulled out all the stops with loads of fresh veggies from the garden and a superb nut roast for me, as well as a cassata I was entirely ready to lie cheat and steal for. Dads Christmas pud also went down well I had a second helping, whether I managed it is another story. I also managed to sort out my stuff (with Mark's help) and give some to charity and condense the rest. Once everyone else had left it was me, mum and al and em. We spent an afternoon wlaking around de Mond, took the dogs for a walk and had an amazing supper at Juliens in Bredasdorp with great wine (Soetvlei Shiraz?).

Road trippin' (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt1)

After a week of admin in Cape Town, Saturday morning came round. After visiting the Hiscocks and Tylers, I went shopping at KC for the essentials (and the biggest watermelon I could find, which, lets face it, is an essential) while Ruth sorted Kit(t?) with some last minute wheel alignment. We managed to get on the road only and hour later than our absolute deadling and headed of for "die Hel".

By the time we reached Beaufort West (I think) we (read "I") were getting a little worried about the light, given that those who had been there before all suggested a 4x4. Ruth decided to push on despite me trying to sound as anti driving into the mountains, yet uncritical of Kit as possible. We filled up at the last petrol station and ventured off, driving into an amazing mountain pass with fantastic views, very badly captured on camera.

The sun had pretty much set by the time we passed the "2 and a half hours to die Hel" sign, but unbowed we carried on. With only a few scrapes to Kit and some white knuckles, we got to the campsite and managed to chose the best spot, even in the dark. The next morning we woke up and made the biggest fruit salad ever (in the watermelon) and also, inadvertently, Wyclef the watermelon.

As it was frikkin boiling we went in search of the pool and cold beers, with a packed lunch. We wallowed in the pool and chatted to the friendly Joburgers and Germans. Supper was braaied veggie sausages, beers and chocolate (a little runny from the day in the car). We also fitted in some frisbee throwing as well.

The next day we joined the ever coming and going procession of 4x4s out of die Hel, with me guiding Ruth and Kit over the the dry river beds (note white knuckles).

The journey out was even more beautiful than the drive in. Once we were out of the pass we hit Oudtshoorn for a quick drink, sunglasses and some aubergines. Then it was on to Route 62, past Ronnies Sex Shop and to lunch and foosball just outside Ladysmith. Through another pass, and we arrived at Napier, and quickly headed to Sun Touched for a cold one, which was followed by half a movie and bed.

The next day Paul arrived and we went off in search of candles and lunch, to eat at de Mond. Unfortunately no one wanted to brave the wind as much as I did (it was admittedly blowing quite a gale) so we returned to Mariley for lunch. Once mum had gone to bed, the three of us stayed up late into the night talking and drinking tassies, obies and klippies and coke (Ruth and I had luckily escaped the curse of klippies and coke despite our stop in Oudtshoorn.)

The next day Paul and Ruth left for their respective families for Christmas.

Thanks to Kit for getting us there and back again in absolute style. Thanks to Paul fr coming out ad spending time in Napier (and being official photographer for a while). Biggest thanks to Ruth, who didn't get scared off by my powerpoint. One of the best road trip partners ever, who drove the dodgiest road without losing her sense of humour once. You rock! Looking forward to Road Trip II - The return of the killer sporf...

Documentaries and friends

This past week was the idfa in Amsterdam, a documentary film festival. It was great, and I saw some really good ones, and am considering reviewing my criteria for a good film (guns, explosion and good looking women).

On Monday I saw Poison Fire a film about gas flaring in Nigeria. Another of those thinks that reminds you that the current economic system is very deeply flawed. Big oil multinationals drill for oil in Nigeria and when the oil comes up, it brings with it a lot of gas. This gas makes the oil difficult to transport, so the companies burn it off in huge gas flares. This is while Nigerians have very few opportunities for fuel for cooking. And of course the flaring leads to huge health problems for the people living nearby. Shell in particular has been taking to court a number of times in Nigeria over the flaring and has been ordered to stop flaring. They haven't, but now a case is being brought to a Dutch court ... we live in hope!

On Wednesday I saw a film that wasn't on the festival, but was shown by Greenpeace NL. It was called The Deadline and was about pirate fishing off the cost of Africa (New Guinea in particular). It was interesting to learn about pirate fishing, but more to see again how much work goes into a Greenpeace campaign, to end with just one action. I've bought a copy of this one, so if you'd like to see it, let me know the next time I'm on my way to you.

**oh, and speaking of piracy, check out this Sunday Herald article for a really interesting take on the recent increase in piracy off the coast of Somalia**

On Thursday it was Let's Make Money, a film about the world economy and how CRAZY it is. The best quote? An government official from Burkina Fasso saying that if subsidies like the US subsidy on cotton were not ended, the people of Africa would invade Europe, even if they built a wall 10 metres high to keep them out (Kein mensch ist illegal!). Me and Zeina were cheering :-)

On Friday I saw Sea Point Days, a documentary about Sea Point (yes, in Cape Town) and it left me with the biggest smile on my face. A really positive look at SA, and showed of some of SAs best sides!

Saturday was a weird one called A Complete History of My Sexual Failures. A (rather useless) guy going back and interviewing all his ex girlfriends on why they dumped him. It also involved him being whipped by dominatrix and taking 6 viagras. Pretty funny at times. And led to a good discusion between me and Tamar on assholes and what constitutes an asshole. The randomness of the conversation was also fed by the fact that about 4 hours previously I had eaten more baked goods than could strictly be called necessary and then gone to a party where Mel had shown what the snack table would look like in heaven (mint and feta bread? yes please).

Today was the last one and a really good one about plastic called Addicted to Plastic. Not nearly depressing enough to be called a good environmental documentary in my book. Well, seriously it was very good at not getting too crazy about the fact that the pacific ocean is more or less a plastic soup, and showing some really good examples of people working on plastic waste.

So a good week of documentaries and now for the next two weeks I've got meetings most days. Then it's holidays in SA, which I am really looking forward to!

Risk

yeah, nuff blog posting, I'm off to play risk...

lost glove found glove

I went for a long ride on Sunday and during the taking off my jacket, putting on my jacket and taking my gloves off and putting them back on and putting them in the pockets of my jacket I lost one. Really cool gloves that Holle bought for me at Globetrotter.

So what good is one glove? Not very much and I was very frustrated that I would have to throw away a perfectly good glove and go and buy 2 more. However, I related my story of woe to anyone and everyone who would listen, and what do you know, Ilona said that she had a glove that some one left at her house.

So she bought it in, and it was the right hand (in both meanings of the word). So now I have too slightly different gloves, warm hands and a warm heart.