Attie Heunis's Journey

The ramblings of a Caucasian African American

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about

Originally from South Africa’s magnificent Eastern Cape, my family and I now reside in Pennsylvania in the United States. To earn my keep I’m an executive for a multinational company in the Healthcare sector. I’m also a serious amateur photographer. Pro-environmental and conservation views.

  • SA bank fees The Most Expensive in the World!

    An international study by consultation firm CapGemini and its research partners, including the European financial management and marketing association, assessed South Africa’s banking costs for the first time and they found that South Africans pay more to own a cheque account than anyone else in the rest of the world.

    from News24.com.

    This is infuriating but not surprising. We opened our business, The Red Apple, in December last year and we were absolutely shocked by the exhorbatant bank charges. For instance we pay R1.20 extra to pay a beneficiary (payee in the UK) instead of an ad hoc payment because – and listen to this – it costs money to save the payee details on the bank’s database. Have you ever heard something so insane!

    Also you pay a flat fee plus a percentage for every cash deposit you make. Then you pay for every payment/transfer/balance enquiry/statement whether its on the internet or not!!

    Deeply concerning is that all the major banks are in on this deal. This seriously suggests price fixing to me. I know the banks are now being investigated again, but they are so far up Mbeki’s arse I don’t know if anything is going to happen. Now everytime I see these gushy TV ads from Standard Bank (my bank) and the others it just makes me sick. I’m surprised that some of the oversees banks haven’t seen this as an oppurtunity.

    Read the actual World Retail Banking Report for 2007.

  • Digital cameras to benefit from new colour-filter

    Kodak has anounced a new colour filter that is supposed to be twice as sensitive to light. This means is that you will be able to take great photos in even darker conditions than you can presently. You can go pretty dark as itáis, butátypically you need to either keep the shutter open for longer (forcing you to use a tripod) or you need to up the ISO making photo grainy.

    It is set to start appearing in some camerasáas soon asá2008. I’m not sure how it will be incorporated into other brands like Nikon (which I use).

    Read more at CNN’s New filter promises crisper photos.

  • Cannon Rocks wreck

    .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }Cannon Rocks wreck

    Cannon Rocks wreck, originally uploaded by Attie Heunis.

    This wreck is not that old actually. My father tried to salvage the anchor, but there were legal issues!

  • Boesmansrivier Mond

    Die is ‘n foto van die Boesmansrivier (die tweede langste gety rivier in Suid-Afrika) se mond tydens laagwater. Dit is ongelooflik hoe veel anders die rivier lyk as dit hoogwater is.

  • Racist ANC to destroy Springbok legacy

    Springbok Rugby
    Racist ANC targets the Springbok

    It has emerged that the ANC, through its influence, aims to take over Springbok Rugby after this year’s world cup. Rumours are that the Springbok team will be coached by a sub-standard coloured coach (Pieter de Villiers) and will have 10 black/coloured players on the field at all times. Luke Watson is set to be the captain. To put things in perspective there are presently 2 black players (Bryan Habana and Guthro Steenkamp) in the side on merit and Luke Watson (the son of anti-Apartheid activist Cheeky Watson) isn’t even in the top 6 loose-forwards in the country.

    I don’t care what your background is or what your political views are, but surely this must raise a red flag to anyone that supports democracy and deplores racism. The rhetoric of these rugby officials is comparable to Hitler in Nazi Germany. I just hope that the senior ANC members see how dangerous these precedents are and stops it. I’m just not sure they know how fundamentally wrong this is. This would be a good way to head for that Banana Republic that Mbeki hates to hear about so much.

    The only positive outcome if this disturbing vision would ever realise would be if we saw a breakaway group formed of merit-based (black, white, coloured etc) players/administrators. I’m certain this group would have support from the businesses that matter (Supersport, Vodacom, Fox/Newscorp) and most importantly the viewing/paying public. To my mind this is probably the only thing that can save rugby from a meddling racist government.

  • Canada shows Winnie the door

    Today Canada denied Winnie Mandela a tourist visa. I say kudos to Canada. Winnie is a horrible person who was found guilty of kidnapping and murder. She is also a convicted fraudster.

    Despite this Winnie is still seen as a hero by many black institutions & organistions across the globe.

    Jonathan Kay agrees.

  • Amnesty International fights the fight

    Amnesty International has warned that the internet “could change beyond all recognition” unless action is taken against the erosion of online freedoms.

    According to Amnesty International the “virus of internet repression” has spread from a handful of countries to dozens of governments, said the group.

    Readers of this blog will know that I am passionate about protecting free speech so I endorse Amnesty International in this case.

    People will very easily say a website should be shut down for saying something they disagree with or that angers them, but that is such a dangerous precedent. It is never just about shutting down a site/page. Because the principle is if you shut down one you can shut anyone down. Then the question is who decides if a site should be shut down and then basically its a slippery slope into full censorship.

    Today a friend emailed me about cityboy, another anonymous blogger. His writing is brilliant and it is now getting some recognition, but it would never have been as crisp if the author wasn’t anonymous.

    Remember the old rule always applies, if you don’t like it, turn it off.

  • Major movie excitement: Golden Compass

    I saw the trailer for Philip Pullman’s Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights) for the first time last night and it gave me goosebumps! I didn’t even know they were making the movie yet so this was great news; the bad news is that it only has a release date of December (damn – so long to wait). But at least there is plenty of time to catch up on the books.

    Below is a youtube trailer but I suggest you watch the HD trailer which you can download here.

    Golden Compass is the 1st book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. This trailer might suggest it is pure fantasy like Narnia and Harry Potter and there certainly is plenty of that, but the trilogy (in book format at least) also covers some very deep philosophical and existential issues. I hope they canábring the underlying themes to the movies, because the books aren’t exactly for organised religion and for Hollywood this is dangerous. For this reason I urge readers of this blog to read His Dark Materials before you watch the movie. Buy His Dark Materials at Amazon (US), Amazon (UK) and Kalahari.NET (South-Africa).

  • Photographer of the Year

    I’m very pleased with our 1st Photographer of the Year competition so far. The first category (people) closed on the 14th and we’re about to anounce the winners. We had more than 250 entries for this category alone.

    áIf anyone wants to enter don’t hesitate to do so at Photographer of the Year website. It should take less than a minute per photo.

  • Weak whaling commisison “condems” Japan

    The International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting has passed a resolution condemning Japan’s scientific hunting programme in the Antarctic. This is not bad, but it almost means nothing. Japan has been ignoring these condemnations for years now. In fact they are openly flaunting it.

    áI’m afraid action is needed and this is where the IWC falls flat. For this I admire people like Sea Sheperd and Greenpeace. But until the global community (through the IWC or other means) take action Japan will continue to get away with this cruelty.

    áRead the full article on BBC.