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Sossusvlei, Namibia

2006-11-23T21:41:00.000Z

20041217 Sossusvlei, Namibia 078
Originally uploaded by gakout.

inspired!

The verdict on science fiction

2006-08-21T18:16:00.000+01:00

Why do I think (some) science fiction is worth while?

Put simply, imagining a utopian or dystopian future is a necessary requisite to approaching or avoiding it.

One of the things that sets us apart from other animals is the ability to anticipate future events logically. We know, from careful observation, that the regular flooding of the Nile coincides with the seasons. At some point some Egyptian dude put his imagination to work, hatched a hypothesis and set off to prove it. His mode of imagining could have been superstitious (Ra is punishing us by flooding the Nile - must sacrifice more virgins) or logical (maybe the summer rains play a role).

Science fiction is simply a literary extension of that logical modality of thought. As if to prove its utility consider some of the predictions made by HG Wells around 1899: air conditioning, TV & Video, gas warfare, electronic billboards, "pleasure cities to placate the masses"! An oft cited example is Arthur C Clarke who first proposed the geo-stationary satellite.

However SF is not about predicting the future. Instead it uses the future as an altered frame of reference in which to test novel ideas or simply to ask new questions.

The science fiction I'm most interested in deals with imaginary possibilities of the biological, religious, political, psychological, ethical, philosophical etc. What and why are we, why did we evolve and on which path is our evolution headed, what are the potential future outcomes of current trends (thereby informing us about *the present*), what ethics would apply during extra-terrestrial contact, how human are human rights and who/what should they apply to, what is the nature and basis of intelligence, how far to take pleasure seeking, why do civilizations fail, what are the limits of automation, what are the most stable political forms, what is the aim and outcome of industrial development. To me these are, like, The Questions.

Why do others belittle science fiction?

'Tis true: I know otherwise intelligent people who dislike science fiction. Vehemently. What are they missing? Or should I ask, what am I missing?!! ...

Regrettably most non-print science fiction is pretty poor we'd probably agree. Mass pulp like latter Star Trek and Star Wars, where special effects take centre stage papering over flimsy plot lines and wafer thin character development, detract from a genre otherwise adorned by the likes of Bladerunner, Solaris and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (it qualifies).

Plenty sci-fi betrays an infantile escapism by placing sole emphasis on "he's from planet X" otherworldliness, reducing human interest to the padding between explosions & cool hardware.

So that kinda deals with the bad by saying "people think it's bad because it usually is". What about good SF? There are some greats in the genre: Stanislav Lem, Philip K Dick, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, Arthur C Clarke, George Orwell (1984 anyone?), William Gibson to name but a few. Why is it that many (most?) intelligent, scientifically literate folk see science fiction as nothing more than escapism for grown-up boys? This attitude is too wide-spread to be a mere matter of taste.

One possibility is that science fiction is, like medieval art, didactic . I read somewhere (?) that science is to science fiction as religion was to medieval art. In the age of the individual perhaps most people just aren't ready to be in a sense 'preached' to.

I prefer the explanation that good science fiction takes getting into. The realm conjured by the author is frequently detailed and complex, bending or dispensing with the rules we take for granted and take comfort in. It can be taxing and scary to do away with such unshakeable constraints and replace them with new & bendy ones.

...or maybe these pesky detractors simply haven't read any good science fiction lately!

Review: A Scanner Darkly

2006-08-21T14:29:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Gerrie, Les and I saw Richard Linklater's film adaptation of Philip K Dick's novel "A Scanner Darkly". I saw it and wanted to write this before reading reviews.

In case you were wondering, it is not science fiction in any real sense of the word. The basic idea is (skip this para if you plan to see/read it!) the main character, played by Reeves, is so deep undercover as a narcotic agent in a post war-on-drugs world he is tasked to keep watch on his friends, his girlfriend and himself, all of whom are 'Substance D' addicts. He falls victim to the drug's addictive and mentally destructive properties which is what he is supposed to combat, ends up in rehab and finds out he is actually farming the selfsame drugs during his 'recovery'. This is signature Philip K Dick twist-upon-twist material.

The good
The cooky, acid-wavy, not-quite-comic-book visual style (I think it's highly posterized film footage or somesuch - not animation).
Woody Harrelson - reminded me of Brad Pitt in Twelve Monkeys
Robert Downey Jnr - a slick, sick fucker

The bad
There's a listlessness that prevented me from really empathizing with any of the characters. Several times I caught myself thinking this is not quite working, or "when will this flick come to life", "whats the point". Maybe I've seen too many slacker movies.
The whole theme of drug induced corporate paranoia is a bit passe

The indifferent
Keanu Reeves is ok but uninspired as usual. Still playing himself after all these years.
A somewhat clueless Winona Ryder.

A redeeming thing to say is I felt the same indifference towards the book (I much preferred his A Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which Bladerunner was based on of course).

In all I think it deserves a so-so 6/10 but it's mandatory viewing if you're into Philip K Dick or novel cinematic style.

Reminder to self: explore why almost everyone I know is religiously prejudiced against all sci-fi...

Update:
The Guardian, Times, Independent and FT all give it 6/10.

Mental health warning - the news is fake

2006-08-16T19:06:00.000+01:00

Ok perhaps that should read "some of the news" and perhaps even "some of the US news". Regardless, allow me to introduce the latest innovation in mass media concentration: Video News Releases, i.e. fake news items produced by PR firms for clients corporate and governmental and aired by TV networks as real news.

From Sourcewatch:

Video news releases (VNRs, often referred to as fake TV news) are video clips that are indistinguishable from traditional news clips and are sometimes screened unedited by television stations without the identification of the original producers or sponsors, who are commonly corporations, government agencies, or non-governmental organizations.

The Centre for for Media and Democracy has published a report into the phenomenon with examples and analysis:

To reach this audience—and to add a veneer of credibility to clients' messages—the public relations industry uses video news releases (VNRs). VNRs are pre-packaged "news" segments and additional footage created by broadcast PR firms, or by publicists within corporations or government agencies. VNRs are designed to be seamlessly integrated into newscasts, and are freely provided to TV stations. Although the accompanying information sent to TV stations identifies the clients behind the VNRs, nothing in the material for broadcast does. Without strong disclosure requirements and the attention and action of TV station personnel, viewers cannot know when the news segment they're watching was bought and paid for by the very subjects of that "report."

It has been said (in a 1960s song by Gil Scot-Herron) that the revolution will not be televised. Evidently the counter-revolution will!

Salafist totalitarianism; causes and treatment

2006-08-15T17:25:00.000+01:00

This is a fascinating review of what must be a really great book by Peter Beinart entitled "The Good Fight: Why Liberals–And only Liberals–Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again". He argues in favour of a *massive* injection of aid into the Muslim world on the vast scale of the Marshall Plan after WWII, because...

...for Beinart, "salafist totalitarianism" is what the Cold War liberal Walt W. Rostow called communism–"a disease of the transition to modernization."

The reviewer goes on to counter:

He ignores the explanation provided by French scholar Olivier Roy, who has argued that jihadism is not a result of poverty or repression in the Muslim world, but rather of an identity crisis on the part of elite Muslims like Osama bin Laden and Mohammed Atta, who have been exposed to Western modernity.

Now this is fascinating:

Robert A. Pape of the University of Chicago, in an exhaustive study, has shown that suicide-bombing is a tactic used by populations under real or perceived occupation against occupying powers with democratic governments susceptible to public opinion, including Israel and the United States. If Roy is right, then the center of gravity of the struggle is Europe, not the Muslim world; and if Pape is right, the United States can somewhat reduce the appeal of jihadism by withdrawing from Iraq and limiting the American military presence in other Muslim countries.

(italics mine)

More at www.democracyjournal.or...

Who is to blame: Israel or Hezbollah?

2006-08-09T19:41:00.000+01:00

Of course things are not as simple as a silly dichotomous blamegame, despite the rhetoric from both sides. But you're defenceless to that very propaganda unless you have some historical context to explain what went before.

George Monbiot obviously has a certain (in my view perfectly tolerable) slant usually but this decent analysis of the recent history really opened my eyes:

The Israelis have been harassing the Lebanese in the south for years with low-flying supersonic flights over their populated territory.
There is a history going back to 2000 of shooting, kidnapping and casualties across the border from both sides.
Hezbollah's firing of rockets didn't start out of the blue in Jul 2006.
Mossad (Israeli intelligence) is thought to have been involved in covert black ops in Lebanon prior to the war.
Just as Hezbollah holds Israeli prisoners captive, Israel holds Hezbollah prisoners.

I am not trying to say the Israelis or Hezbollah are to blame. Just that there is a background to the war going back further than July 12 2006. As Monbiot says Hezbollah's actions were stupid and none of this changes that.

The claims about Israel's prior intentions to invade and distroy Hezbollah are obviously a bit bold but they're pretty well substantiated.

More at www.mg.co.za/articlePag...

South African crime: selected facts

2006-08-08T14:03:00.000+01:00

I'm not going to pontificate, just state some indisputable facts:

According to the United Nations, South Africa has the highest rate of gun-related crime in the world after Columbia^(a).
The South African murder rate is 51 per day ^(c). In Iraq on average 22 people have died per day in the last 12 months ^(b). The world frets about the dangers of post-Saddam Iraq.
South Africa has 260 policemen per 100,000 people against a world average of 380 ^(a). So we are under-policed by a third. A THIRD.
The South African Revenue Service is an amazingly efficient government department, regularly surprising the government and the markets with its larger than expected tax take. The fiscal deficit is considered modest and healthy. In other words there is money to spend on things like, say, policing.
The Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula recently said, in Parliament, people who "whinge" (sic) about crime should leave the country ^(d).
As of this writing the government's own "programme of action" section on its own website is a month old.
South Africa's world Human Development Index rank has slipped from 95th in 1995 to 120th in 2005, falling gradually each consecutive year ^(e).

The purpose of the state is, first and foremost, to protect its citizens. If it fails at this most basic level it can accurately be described as a Failed State.

a. According to The Economist
b. This is using the higher estimate given by IraqBodyCount.net
c. South African Police stats for 2004/2005 at the Institute for Security Studies
d. Well Mr Nqakula we get the message loud and clear. You're incompetent and you don't care.
e. Source.

Hypocrites unite!

2006-08-04T13:59:00.000+01:00

George Meyer invites all hypocrites and "total nutjobs" to join the environmental movement in a spot-on hilarious article at the beeb:

True, when you go for a stroll on a Sunday afternoon, nothing seems amiss.

But as we know from horror movies, that's exactly when the giant alien embryos come blasting out of the sidewalk.

We're melting the ice caps, ripping up the rain forest, and vacuuming the oceans of everything that wriggles.
...

Are we really gonna wreck the whole planet? 'Cause that's a big move. That's like something a crazy stripper would do.

I know, plenty of people aren't worried.

Technology will bail us out. Nothing a few pollution-eating nanobots can't fix.

And if the ecosystem does collapse, we can always load ourselves into enormous rockets, and make a fresh start on Jupiter.

But here's the thing: I don't want to move to Jupiter. I don't even want to move across town.

Precious knick-knacks would get broken; I'd have to order new stationery.

Let's be real: even a well-planned move to Jupiter would be stressful, and tough on relationships. For this reason alone, we should not turn the earth into an apocalyptic hellscape.

That said, if we did turn the earth into an apocalyptic hellscape, a sick part of me would find it thrilling.

I would enjoy watching dazed stockbrokers and ad men clawing at the dirt for edible roots. I'd remind them that they'd been warned of their folly, right here on the BBC website.

And they'd all grunt ruefully, and make me their king.

I have often thought the right to hypocrisy is a basic human one. To opine is easy, to align actions with opinion is most certainly not. So perhaps I am just after an easy life or perhaps we need that easy fluidity to experiment with fresh ideas, to try on new opinions and test for fit without unpleasant consequences (such as the annoyance of life without jet flight and beef steak).

That doesn't mean one should stop trying not to be a hypocrite... you can always offset your carbon airmiles using something like climatecare and write sentimentally about the environment on your blog...

Another sad birthday, Soweto Day

2006-06-15T21:10:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is the 30 year commemoration of the Soweto Uprisings.

I am moved by this for several reasons:

The personal connection: I was 8 days old when it started. Luckily my family was in Cape Town which is roughly as far from Soweto as London is from Belgrade!
The injustice of forcing Afrikaans as a tuition medium resonates strangely with Afrikaans-speaking people like me. A mere 70 years before Soweto, the Brits tried to squeeze Afrikaans by forcing English as the only tuition medium.
The indiscriminate and lethal violence on 16 June '76 was directed against children and teenagers; twenty three fatalities on the day, 500 in the following months.

I choose to believe that South Africa was then and is now peopled by good people of all races. How did this happen? I sense that is a rhetorical question that I will never reach a final answer to.

Regardless of the futility of the gesture I have an urge to apologise for the injustices committed by my forebears. Perhaps this is misplaced specie shame or perhaps the wise man (Joshua Mentz's dad!) was right when he said we carry the shadow of previous generations. It fixes nothing but I am deeply sorry for injustices perpetrated supposedly to guard my generation's future and I honour Hector Pieterson and the 100s of others who died in the ensuing riots for what is now my freedom too.

More background on this which may explain my emotional state:

An account of the events from an unusual perspective - inspirational.
If this audio slide-show doesn't stir, check for a pulse.
Max Du Preez, veteran Afrikaans journalist, on the Soweto Day commemoration.
Stander, probably the best film out of SA, starts with an arresting reconstruction of Soweto Day from the perspective of Andre Stander, a then cop who went bad (or not?) following the experience. He became the leader of the Stander Gang, the notoriously brazen bank robbers of the early 80s.
The Soweto Riots wikipedia page.

PS. I know it is easy for me to be high minded sitting in London. That is not something I will apologise for. One of the freedoms their blood afforded is international travel.

What if your sense of Right & Wrong is faulty?

2006-05-04T15:08:00.000+01:00

...faulty as in internally inconsistent, bordering on hypocritical but still strongly felt.

This ethically vexing survey of attitudes to moral dilemmas confirms that I am not alone in lacking a firm moral compass - perhaps moral relativism is confusing the hell out of us after all.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/mag...

ANC's Oilgate: Imvume oil company = ANC = SA Government ?

2005-05-20T14:36:00.000+01:00

Where would we be without the Mail & Guardian? Stefaans Brümmer et al undertake to lay bare the intricate details of an ANC corruption scam which threatens to eclipse even the arms deal affair. They allege that the ANC received R11-million in tax payers money illicitly via the oil parastatal PetroSA for campaign financing months before the 2004 election. The paper actually publishes the full forensic evidence on their website here.

In summary:

On the day Mbeki announced formation of PetroSA in 2003 as the parastatal national oil company, it signed a contract with Imvume, a BEE oil company. Imvume was to supply PetroSA regularly with condensate which it in turn sourced from Swiss company Glencore (Condensate is a feedstock for PetroSA’s Mossel Bay gas-to-liquid fuels plant). The arrangement was that PetroSA pays Imvume for the condensate, which then pays Glencore.
The clincher: in Dec 2003 Imvume asked for a special advance payment of R15 million from PetroSA into a different account than usual for a condensate shipment. Days later it wrote cheques to a total of R11 million to the ANC, four months before the general election.
During this time the ANC's overdraft was typically running at around R100-million.
When Imvume was unable to pay Glencore because it had diverted the funds to the ANC, PetroSA had to pay the money AGAIN, this time to Glencore directly. This is tax payers' money.
PetroSA have yet to recover these funds from Imvume. A black hole remains on its balance sheet.
Neither the ANC nor Imvume dispute these payments of R11 million. They claim it is a private matter between them.
When PetroSA took Imvume to court, they used an ex-Imvume lawyer, suggesting that it was more of a PR exercise than a properly hostile law suit. They withdrew the case before getting anything back from Imvume.
"PetroSA maintains that the special circumstances of the empowerment environment largely excuse the actions of its management." Scary.
The ANC are stonewalling on the entire issue, claiming they have no obligation to discuss party funding matters.

Other background:

Imvume's boss is the ANC secretary-general's "economic adviser".
Imvume received generous oil allocations from Iraq between 2000 and 2002 after travelling there with top ANC officials. While I am no apologist for the illegal Iraq war at all, this undermines the ANC's moral opposition to US warmongering, akin to France's position which was similarly tainted by contracts between Total Elfina and the Hussein regime.

Here's to hope that the media and opposition in SA will pounce on this opportunity to hold the government to account. The best thing that could come from this is legislation to disclose party funding explicitly.

Also see the M&G's editorial.

Cape Town not black enough for its own good?

2005-05-13T10:28:00.000+01:00

Of late South African news sources such as the Mail & Guardian have displayed a certain anti-Cape Town bias, alleging that the city stubbornly refuses to accept the norms of post-Apartheid transformation. Even the mayor alleged this recently.

Being a Capey, I am saddened by this perception. I also think it sits uncomfortably with Cape Town's past as something of a liberal outpost in SA. Actual evidence of the city's inhabitants adopting a reactionary attitude to transformation has so far evaded my radar. One wonders whether the true criticism is that Cape Town is just not black enough, being the only city in SA where blacks are not the majority. This is what Max du Preez seems to be saying .

So bring on the good news

2005-04-15T17:06:00.000+01:00

Since my recent post about negative bias in coverage of Africa I've been wondering about the good stories about my country that go unreported. Before I start I should disclose that I am in the UK, not South Africa. Secondly, I have just bought a house in Cape Town and I am transfering my net worth from the mighty pound into the wobbly rand, where they will forever stay due to exchange controls. So I'm "Proudly partial to South Africa"

Our progressive constitution is internationally respected.
In spite of simmering tensions, the world looks up to South Africa as an inspiring example of relatively peaceful transition of power and co-existence amongst diverse groups.
Crime is bad - really bad - but it's not getting any worse. If you believe the stats, violent crime is actually declining.
While HIV/AIDS is obviously an acute problem, the country is rich and sophisticated enough to help sufferers and absorb the worst of the resulting societal and economic shocks provided there's political will to do so.
While the economy still fails to employ enough people and income distribution remains desperately skewed, the macro indicators are very positive indeed: inflation and interest rates are at multi-generational lows, growth has been unspectacular but steady, the economy is creating lots of jobs in sustainable service sectors while shedding jobs in mining, a painful but beneficial transition, and our credit rating has been steadily improving since 1994...
Using GDP per employed person, SA is up there with TAIWAN!
Ignoring for a moment his policies on AIDS and Zimbabwe, Mbeki's peace efforts in Africa have been substantial and earned SA recognition in the international diplomatic arena, bolstering our chances of getting a seat on the security council.
We seem to have the ear of the US administration, which is shrewed given that we're also in there with the Chinese, Indians, Brazil and the EU.
We have the world's largest platinum reserves which could make us the next Saudi Arabia as and when the hydrogen economy takes off.
Sasol is a global player in energy technology.
Our steel and electricity is comparatively dirt cheap .
Our agriculture seems pretty healthy - while most of southern africa is struggling to cope with the effects of the drought, we are struggling to find export markets for our bumper maize crop.
Damn, the tax take was embarassingly large. Sensibly, we're paying off debt with the excess.
We have eliminated the reserve bank's forward book and doubled foreign reserves in the last two years.
Asset prices - notably property - are booming. Not too sure where that's headed though...
I have very mixed feelings about this, but South Africa is growing into a major player in car manufacturing. Case in point: GM just announced $100 million investment to upgrade their Port Elizabeth car plant to produce all Humvees sold outside of N America. Already all right-hand drive VWs and plenty BMWs and Mercs come from our shores.
South African call centres are now the most favoured by UK companies according to a recent survey.

It seems this list could go on.

Coverage of Africa disproportionately negative

2005-04-14T12:03:00.000+01:00

This articulates something I have always felt about the UK media (although the survey focused on Africa coverage in the US). Often the only news about South Africa that ever makes it onto the BBC is negative, be it crime, Zimbabwe, labour strife or major road accidents. The positives just aren't deemed newsworthy.

Racism and monkey business in 21st century South Africa

2005-04-05T16:23:00.000+01:00

A caustic spat is brewing on the comments pages of the respected South African Mail & Guardian newspaper/site. The debate is three-pronged, representing a spectrum of debate in South Africa.

The protagonist, Malegapuru Makgoba, vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, alleges in his Wrath of dethroned white males that white males in South Africa are spoilers, comparing their behaviour to fallen alpha males in baboon packs.

Audacious. Some choice quotes:

"...let there be no doubt that sooner or later African dominance and the imitation of most that is African shall permeate all spheres of South African society...

This message should be loud and clear just as the writing is on the wall for all to whom South Africa belongs... ...It should therefore become common sense that the white male... ...learns to dance and sing like Ladysmith BlackMambazo... ...learn kwaito, dance like Lebo, dress like Madiba, enjoy eating 'smiley and walkies' and attend 'lekgotla'...

He must soon accept, value and imitate the things that matter dearly to Africans. The sooner this white male gets out of his denial mode, the sooner he will receive treatment and proper African rehabilitation. Surely, our white male group can and should do better than the baboon or the bonobo."

It's interesting how the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children: I would not have put it past the white supremacists of yester-decade to compare non-whites to baboons. Meanwhile, history gets on with the tiresome job of repeating itself.

Enter stage left Robert Morrell, professor at the faculty of education at the very same University of KwaZulu-Natal, arguing persuasively in his White, male, democrat, African for inclusion of all minorities, including white males, in the transformation of South Africa.

Finally, very much stage right, Dan Roodt enters with You can't have your banana and eat it. Roodt is controversial, having penned the likes of Adapt and Die - South Africa's new motto. He praises the previous apartheid regime for not having dropped its nukes on the non-whites of South Africa as an act of extreme altruism. Seriously.

Whale Oil vs. Mineral Oil

2005-03-23T10:07:00.000Z

This post suggests a number of interesting things about the economics of oil:

There is no precedent for depletion of a mineral resource. This is unbelievably surprising, given how long we've been extracting minerals. One might infer that this will add to the bumpy ride when oil runs out because we lack prior experience of running out of juice on this scale.

If one uses the history of whale oil as a proxy, price rises start at the inflection point of the production curve, i.e. when the *rate* of increase in production peaks. According to this, that point occured around 1970. Shortly after, the oil price started its upward trend as seen here. Of course the initial triggers were geo-political but the oil price has never recovered.

If the post is correct in saying that the demand for oil is extremely inelastic (i.e. price changes have a limited effect on demand), oil price hikes will have little effect on how much carbon we pump into the air. I have my doubts: surely ever higher oil prices will make alternative fuels increasingly viable economically, if not technically ? Or perhaps reserves will run out before we have technically viable alternatives to oil, which is a doomsday scenario.

Hybrid + biodiesel: the panacea?

2005-03-22T17:36:00.000Z

Finally the automakers are sticking electric motors and diesel engines in the same chassis, as reported by Wired News. It is also heartening to hear the US EPA plans to enforce stringent emissions standards from 2007. Better late than never.

Now combine that with biodiesel fuel blends and I get even more excited.

"They come in any colour, as long as it's green!"

Iraq today - the BBC's John Simpson summarises

2005-03-22T16:12:00.000Z

John Simpson, liberator of Kabul and veteran BBC journalist, summarises the situation in Iraq. I think this is quite even handed.

The irony is palpable: Iraqi's are liberated but suffer 20 civilian casualties per day, the US pours $5 billion into Iraq PER MONTH even though Wolfowitz said the campaign would pay for itself but best of all: Iraqi's can't get fuel at their own forecourts.

South Africans able to influence UK Elections

2005-03-22T14:46:00.000Z

Consider that the electorate in England totals 37 million (according to Parliament's website). Then consider that we South Africans squatting these fine islands number a cool 1.5 million according to the UK Independent newspaper. And according to Keele University voter turnout in the 2001 national elections was 59%. And finally consider the bizarre rule that while we have no automatic right to be here we may vote for HM Government provided we are here.

What this means is that, assuming we Saffas really are all of voting age, eligible, we all register and we all cast our vote in May, our joint vote could constitute as much as 7% of all votes cast. That is almost as much as the gap between the Lib Dems and the Tories last time round.

I suggest we start lobbying HM Government for public braai areas, subsidised boerewors, tax credits for mag wheels, more TV coverage of rugby and cricket AND BETTER WEATHER!

Letter to the editor: New Zealand Herald

2005-03-21T16:09:00.000Z

Sent this to the New Zealand Herald this morning:

Dear sir,

I am writing in relation to your article "No kidding, South Africa is a completely different country".

I find several points made quite offensive. Singling out Afrikaners as having "bad breath" because they eat putrefied meat (by the way, "putrefication" is spelled putrification) is a parochial and factually inaccurate characterisation of a minority group in the new South Africa. It is not surprising that the author spouts such nonsense given that he never ventured beyond a hotel except for, by his own admission, rugby and discos. Perhaps this lack of any perspective qualifies him uniquely to write for the New Zealand Herald.

Yours,

Louis Joubert

Perhaps a day will come when I do not feel mysteriously injured when someone says something unflattering about Afrikaans-ness.

When is enough enough, and what then?

2005-03-18T01:53:00.000Z

Here follows my rant about the hugh-ess-ay, our beloved global superpower.

They refuse to sign up to the Convention on Biological Diversity. They do so because sharing the benefits of global biological diversity is contrary to their environmental security strategy (their words, basically!!)
They attempt to railroad a UK proposal to outlaw illegally logged timber from developed world markets. If successful this could shrink the markets that illegal loggers rely on to flog their timber logged from old growth forests. They (the hugh-ess) do so because it would increase red tape for their poor suffering legal loggers.
They attempt to block a UN programme for women's rights. They do so to block any right to abortion. In fact the programme merely suggests that states "consider reviewing laws containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortions"
Bush nominates Paul Wolfowitz, the leading Neo-Conservative and Deputy Secretary of Defence, to run the World Bank. Which goes to show how similar helping and bombing the 3rd world is to them.

When will it stop ? Where are the pipe-wielding anarchists when you need them ! What to do about this ? Write to your MP ? Start a blog ?

... but I love Americans !