nearly 01:30pm in Zimbabwe and no official results yet

Nothing, or very little.
Of the 210 parliamentary seats available the results have been given for 24.
12 going to Znu-PF (Mugabe's party) and 12 to the MDC.

Let's be honest the fact that the results are coming exactly half and half makes it look like the results are being rigged. I am not saying they are, though there is nothing that anybody can say or do that would make me believe that they aren't. And I am not saying this because it is Africa, or because it is Zimbabwe or even because it is Mugabe. I am saying it because it is a humans involved in power issues, and I have very little faith in human's ability to remain fair when issues like this are concerned.
But what I think is irrelevant, what matters here is how the people of Zimbabwe are reacting. So far there is no reported violence. BBC News World writes; "Zimbabwe stands on a precipice", but this is just their take on it.

Here are my thought on this title: When you read the news always remember that, contrary to what we would like to believe, the job of the press is not to give news, it is to sale newspapers. In fact I never understand why people think that the press owes us the news and all the news. They choose what they think their readers will be interested in and only what they think their readers will like (and it is an obvious fact that we choose newspapers that we like) and they word it in a way to make it interesting (Really another obvious point). Put two and two together.

Nearly 6:00am in Zimbabwe...still no official results

Late at night here and nearly 6:00am in Zimbabwe: The news are saying that they will release the results soon. So far no sign of violence but apparently people in Harare (the capital city) have been told to stay indoors.
6:00am....In southern Africa. 6:00am is day light and one of the many things that always sort of amazed me about sub Saharan Africa in general is how people get up with the first day light or earlier. I know they are up.
I wonder how much longer we have to wait.

And while I wait here is a thought: in the last election in my city there was a 41% participation. In Zimbabwe this Saturday some people got up in the middle of the night so they could stand in line to vote. Most waited for hours to get to vote.This photo is from BBC News World.

Zimbabwe early and non official election results

The opposition won..or at least the unofficial returns give them 67% of the vote but they have been "warned" against declaring and early victory.

Here is part of what BBC World reports: "The MDC, which has repeatedly expressed fears of rigging, has started to quote unofficial returns, saying it has 67% of the vote so far and "has won". (For those who are not following the elections, the MDC is the opposition)

The electoral commission said it was "concerned" at the "purported" results.The information minister accused the MDC of "speculation and lies" and "causing unnecessary havoc".

So now starts the really scary part. I cannot start to imagine what the people of Zimbabwe are feeling. I wish them the very best. I mostly wish them peace and safety but reading this pretty good blog it is hard to be too optimistic, still I am hoping. And here is somebody, who sounds like she is in Zimbabwe right now, talking the day before the elections ending their blog with "Then, we will wait the painful wait for election results in Zimbabwe" but generally stating a state of "tolerance". So, see, there is hope.

And for the record it is very unfair and uncalled for to keep on saying that "South Africa is the next Zimbabwe".

continuation of the grey day

So the pot of "dirty rice" is ready, and delicious!
And I am eating my late lunch while reading blogs.

Lately I find that I often find something in the blogs I read (I have a list of "regulars") but then cannot find it again.

Today I am going to create a link to some of the stuff I want to be able to find later, or something who ever reads this may want to have a look at.

A downloadable excel list of "1001 books you should read before you die"

A review of a book I would like to read "In defense of food"

more to be added later because right now I am taking off to the library.

grey day

I'm at home and it is a miserable grey day when the sky is white and if you look carefully you can see a few crystals of ice falling slowly. It isn't very cold, but it is far from warm. It is just windy enough to be chilly without being dramatic....it is one of those days.
Zimbabwe is voting today but we won't get the preliminary results until Monday so there is no point following the news and waiting....The Zimbabwe elections may seem to be totally unrelated to the weather here but somehow to me the two make for a grim day. And, yes, I know elections in Zimbabwe theoretically are good, elections anywhere are good, but let's face it I am not optimistic on the results...and here I say "results" not only meaning "results of the vote" but also "resulting effect of the elections". (If you are curious about it here is a link to read about it)

So what do you do on a day like this?
I started cooking another pot of "dirty rice" with different pulse and different spices. This time I used lentils and put in fenugreg, caraway, garlic, cardamon, chilies and a little cumin. I just started it, tempered the spices and the rice, soaked the lentils and remembering that last night P. A. told me again how she really thought I should read "Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver and I used this as an excuse to go to the second hand bookstore.
They didn't have "Prodigal Summer". They didn't have any of the Graham Greene I wanted to read ("journey without a map" and ........ "The heart of the Matter" - I couldn't even remember the title here for a second). They didn't have any Kafka - I had a moment where I thought I should read something by Kafka...don't ask why, I couldn't possibly come up with an answer.


....and I check the African news each time I walk by the computer.......

two "new" authors - new to me at least

I've recently discovered two authors:

Graham Greene is one of those super famous author which for what ever reason I had always avoided. I just read "travels with my aunt" and enjoyed it. but then I went and looked at the front of the book to read the small introduction explaining very briefly who Graham Greene was and I was actually sold. I want to try to find some other books he wrote. I'm thinking of "Journeys without maps" next. Of course "the heart of the matter" seems like a must. It is one of those books whose title it ems I have heard of too many times to remember when or here I first herd of it, but I would like to read it.

In a totally different style, I keep on hearing / reading about Michael Pollan who wrote "in defense of food" and "the omnivore's dilemma". Both sound very interesting though I suspect that just as I finally adapting to eating meat this will probably throw me back into being a veg....which is fair enough.

Here is a small exert from an article he wrote for The New York Time Magazine:
"Piglets in confinement operations are weaned from their mothers ten days after birth (compare to 13 weeks in nature) because they gain weight faster on their hormones - and antibiotic - fortified feed. The premature weaning leaves te pigs with a lifelong craving to suck and chew, a desire they gratify in confinement by biting the tail of the animal in front of them. A normal pig would fight off his molester, but a demoralized pig has stopped caring. "Learned helplessness" is the psychological term, and it is not uncommon in confinement operations, where tens of thousands of hogs spend their lives ignorant of sunshine or earth or straw, crowded together beneath a metal roof upon metal slats suspended over a manure pit. So it is not surprising that an animal as sensitive and intelligent as a pig would get depressed, and a depressed pig will allow its tail to be chewed on to the point of infection. The U.S. D.A.'s recommended solution to the problem is called "tail docking". Using a pair of pliers (and no anesthetic), most, but not all, of the tail is snipped off. Why the little stump? Because the all point of the exercise is not to remove the object of the tail biting so much as to render it more sensitive. Now, a bite on the tail is so painful that even the most demoralized pig will mount to struggle to avoid it"

Hard to eat bacon after this....for me anyway.
Already for me the only way I can eat meat is if I make sure not to think of where it comes form, this is why I can't eat whole fish, I always joke that I can't eat food that looks at me but really I can't eat meat if I remember what it is...but maybe it is wrong maybe I need to think of where it comes from.

I'm just happy that I am not at work right now and I don't have to eat meat. In fact I have a delicious smelling pot of "dirty rice" on the stove with fenugreg, thym and cumin....mmmmmmm!

Saigon River in Ho Chi Minh City

Once you've bravely crossed the very busy street you can get to the Saigon River. Obviously in the city it is a very busy spot. I was a bit surprised to see how "industrial" the river was. A lot of large (or large-ish) boats were there and a lot of barges low in the water, loaded with all kind of stuff.



They also have a all bunch of restaurant boats where you can go and have dinner cruises on hte river.

Ho Chi Minh City, random scenes

This was near the market, women eating on the street. This scene like all the others is quite common. I did not take any pictures which could be considered amazing scenes.

the parks are swept every morning.

Just across the street from Ben's place there is a small temple. These are big coils of incense.

Peaceful moment in the park.

Old woman crossing a busy road to get to the Saigon River. For the record the guy facing to the right is going against traffic.

Ho Chi Minh City, city of bikes

There are also quite a few bikes in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. I am not sure what the numbers are but scooters seem to have the upper hand on bikes. Or maybe it is just because they are bigger, faster and make more noise.



And you can also get a bicycle tour. They are very comfortable and a lot of fun.

"Ways of dying" Expanding Horizon Book challenge

Oops, I think I am not going to meet the challenge. I read more than enough books to meet the challenge but I am falling short on the review part.

One of the book I read is: "Ways of dying" by Zakes Mda a black South African author.

First thing to say about this book is that it is not as macabre as the title would lead you to believe, in fact in a sort of a way it is cosmical in parts.
Toloki is a professional mourner. He has invented the profession and the rules by which he thinks such professionals should live. The way he approaches his job, the way he feels about it is probably the funniest part of the book. But then of course this is actually only a small part. The book starts when he finds himself working at the funeral of Noria's son. Noria was a girl who grew up in the same village than him and who had two gifts: her laughter who make people happy and her singing which made Toloki's father, a blacksmith, able to create metal figurines.
As the book goes along through the descriptions of what is happening and through the memories of Toloki we see how Noria end up leaving together in her shack in the slums.
I thought that the story in itself wasn't really that interesting but I liked the little shreds of truth about South African during Apartheid that came through, things like:
"..people of his complexion could not own a house in this area" (he does write "complexion");
or the observation that women are the most active people in the townships but that the leaders area always men. There is quite a few chances to grab onto some insight like this throughout the book. I enjoyed the description of how they rebuilt Noria's shack after it was burnt and how they plastered the inside with pictures from magazines and catalogs to make it look nice. I liked it because I know that it is very much something that people did and in some cases still do in south African Townships. I liked the descriptions of their dream-walks through the garden in the magazine pictures because it explained to me the value of fancy magazine pictures on the wall of shacks that can be burnt and rebuilt in one day.
"Ways of dying" is a thin easy book and if you happen to see it, but I would say to go and look for it, I would recommend reading it as an easy way to get a simple insight into what it was like for some people to live in the townships of South Africa during apartheid. But remember: don't expect a big political statement, don't expect great rallying passionate passages which could start a revolution it is just a simple book which shows a little bit of what life was/is like fr other people...and this is why I liked it.

Ho Chi Minh City, the scooters

I am back home for a few days before going back to work. Today I a just relaxing though I know I will regret it later on when I have to hurry to finish everything I have to do.
I thought I would post a few photos of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City...same thing).

The traffic in Ho Chi Minh is crazy...absolutely crazy. Crossing the road is a bit of an adventure but generally if you just walk slowly across the road and just keep on going people will avoid you..or at least scooters will avoid you. They won't stop, they'll just zoom on all around you.

The right lane is usually reserved for scooters and when a car wants to turn right they have to cut the flow of scooters. Here the same rule that applies to pedestrians applies to cars: they have to go slow and keep on going letting the scooters avoid them.

People carry absolutely everything on scooters, and ridiculous amount of stuff.

They rest and read on them...when they are parked, but they do dial cell phones and talk on phones even in the crazy traffic.
And a common sight is women with long gloves and face masks while riding their scooters. The face masks they wear anyway on and off scooters, but from what I could see the long gloves seems to be kept for scooter riding.

Vietnam

I made it to Vietnam.
I am staying here with Sam, Connor and Ben.
Vietnam feels amazingly relaxing to me. It feels like I don't stand out as much and things are very safe here....very relaxing!!

Singapore

I'm actually blogging from Singapore!
I am only here in transit for a few hours and I am obviously only going to see the airport. There is no way that at 6:00am local time I am going to get out of the airport when my next flight is at 9:00am.
Still it was nice to land in Singapore at that time of day. After Africa the all area around Singapore looked amazing with thousands of lights everywhere. I couldn't help but think "everybody has electricity, how amazing". The density of the population needed to have that many lights was the second thing that came to mind. After both Canada and Africa let's face it density is not what I am used to. The ships, small and big, also looked pretty cool from the air and in a way they looked more like the land areas I am used to...I mean in term of how many lights per surface area.

If the airport is at all a sign of what Singapore is like then I would say it must a pretty nice place but definitely on the clean / organized side.
I've already eaten Korean style glass noodles with mushrooms and vegetables...Why Korean you ask? ...because that is what I found here in the airport which isn't completely "international" food. I mean coffee, croissants, pastries, sandwiches (all quite "normal").

Next stop Vietnam!!

February 17th update

So I am back at work. This time I am in the office in Johannesburg, and apart for a planned fairly short trip to Mozambique to look at some cores, I will spend my entire rotation in the office.
Life when working in the office makes life when working at the rig look like fun. All I do here is get up before 6:00am, go to work, come back after 6:00pm, eat in my room and sleep. this is of course seven days a week.

I have to eat in my room because to go anywhere from the hotel I have to walk over a walkway which as become a perfect place to get robbed at gun point. They (the hotel) tried to set up a system where one could call the security guards and they would come and walk across the bridge with you. But since somebody was robbed at gun point when accompanied by two security guards (without guns) they gave up on the all idea.

I am mildly bored and pretty sure that I will get to bored to death before the end unless I get to go to Mozambique for a week, stay in a nice lodge by the ocean but spend my working hours doing tedious work which will, I am sure, end up being mostly a huge clean up of the government warehouse....I guess this is why I get paid to do it; because I would not do it for fun.

I am thinking of stopping in Vietnam on my way home at the end of my rotation to go and see Ben...It all depends on whether or not I can get a ticket. If I can't I will do another trip in Southern Africa.

Namaqualand

A relatively narrow strip of land along the western coast of South Africa from the Namibian border to a few hundreds kilometers south is called the Namaqualand. Port Nolloth and Springbok, an other small town where I stayed, are part of it. The plants in this part of the world are amazingly plentiful and varied and quite a few of them are endemic to the area.
It is a beautiful part of South Africa. This photo looks a little too much like a postcard, but it is the real thing. This is the way it looks. I took the photo, I was there. I hope I get a chance to go back.

Then there is the detrital diamonds of the west coast

Those diamonds are not found in kimberlite pipes but in the sediments brought to the west coast by the Orange River. To get there you have to drive through a very dry plain. As you arrive from the desertic inland the first sign that the coast is approaching is the bank of grey fog in the distance.
The town (Port Nolloth) is in fog most of the time, they say 8 months of the year, and is amazingly cool even though 10 kilometres west of it is probably one of the hottest spot of South Africa. It is always hard to take picture of the fog but just here are the diamond dredging boats in the harbor.

These are used to get diamonds on the bottom of the ocean along the coast. They basically vacuum the ocean bottom to catch all the gravel. Then the gravel is sorted out to find the diamonds. All diamonds found here, unlike those found in kimberlites, are gem qualities. The theory, and it makes sense to me, is that it is because all the diamonds which are not gem qualities are not as strong and are destroyed by the transport and weathering.

Over 80 kilometers of the coast are closed off and are behind fences. And by the way, they mean it. They really really do not want people wandering in those areas.
In this photo you can see the difference between the white clouds and the slightly grey fog coming off the ocean and hanging around the coast.

There was the diamonds of Kimberley

This is the famous Big Hole, which is not the oldest diamond mine but is right down town Kimberley.
They have had the sense to make a visitor center where one can go and see it from close. This visitor center also has a very good museum with everything related to diamonds: from the theory of kimberlites (for the non-geologists) to an exhibit with thousands of real diamonds showing all naturally occurring shapes and colours found. It was a great spot which nicely made up for an otherwise hellish town. Though, to be fair, I should say that I met some really nice people in Kimberley and went out for a drink with some of the locals at the motel where I stayed. One of the old guys, who was the carpenter doing the renovations at the motel, took me round town the nest morning showing me the old De Beers office, the diamond sorting center etc.
People in South Africa (mostly outside big towns) are usually very friendly.Yep! 2722 kilograms of diamonds came out of this kimberlite alone. And it is not the best. De Beers best diamond mine so far is near Mesina (You may remember I went to Mesina on my trip to see the Limpopo). It is the richest and has the best diamonds so far, but it is still active and visiting it is not an option.

Of course there was the quiver trees!

more random photos from north western South Africa

A typical view of the wind mill with its water tank. You see a lot of those.
Where I bought mangoes for breakfast just outside Welkom (a gold mining town). Note: people drive on the left hand side of the road in South Africa, in Mozambique and in Namibia.

Sheep farm with the typical wind mill. For what ever reason I really like this photo. Some days it was hard to make any headways driving. I would stop every few hundred metres to take another photo or just stand outside and look at the view. It seems that the views changed drastically from one perspective to the next.

Just a view I liked on the way back from Port Nolloth.

Another small town.