Attie Heunis's Journey

The ramblings of a Caucasian African American

recent posts

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.

  • England also bans public smoking, at last

    English MPs did a brave and good thing yesterday by voting for a full ban on smoking in all public places. Subject to an expected acceptance by The House of Lords, it means that from 2007 if anyone is caught smoking in a public place they could be fined up to £2500-00.

    Readers of this blog will know that I wholeheartedly support this kind of ban. To my mind it doesn’t at all diminish someone’s human rights. In fact it enforces them. The law doesn’t say that you cannot smoke; it only says you cannot smoke in public places where you might damage other people’s health.

    “Public Places” includes bars, pubs, restaurants & clubs, but not streets & parks etc.

  • Potgooi 21

    Op die vooraand van die 1ste game van die Super 14 lei Thinus Delport in die nuwe seisoen in.


    of laai af.

  • The best wildlife documentary(ies) …ever

    Whilst waiting at Johannesburg International Airport I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw they were selling the Emmy-award winning Eternal Enemies, by South-Africans Dereck and Beverly Joubert.

    I trawled the ‘net unsuccesfully for this DVD for 2 years, so I was absolutely delighted and instantly bought it.

    This is my best wildlife documentary of all time. It is about the constant battle between lions and hyenas. There are several parts that still gives me gooseflesh. Most famous is the “Christmas shot” of a male lion… shall we say “taking control”, but the whole documentary is brilliant. The narrator, Powers Boothe, also lets you feel the raw beauty of Africa.

    I also found out that the Jouberts made a follow up called Ultimate Enemies, based on lions and elephants. They had this on sale as well and I obviously bought it. The footage in this film is unbelievable – there is no other way to describe this. If you told people from the African bush about this many would laugh in you face, yet the Jouberts captured it on film. A must see for anyone who is interested in African wildlife. The narrative script is slightly laboured at times though.

    And right now, while googling the Jouberts I have found out that National Geographic in the US have just shown a 3rd “episode” called Relentless Enemies. This one is about lions and buffaloe. Thankfully, this time there is a proper site. Just the video preview gave me goose bumps! Dereck says that they have been working with lions for 25 years and they have never seen lions as big as this!

    Needless to say, I can’t wait to see this one.

  • My 2 cents on the Muhammad cartoons

    I hope this post doesn’t offend some of my Muslim friends, but I do believe that freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones of a free society.

    No country – be that the US, China, South Africa, Denmark or Saudi Arabia – can ever claim to endorse real freedom for their people if they don’t allow freedom of speech.

    The caricature of Muhammad really tests this freedom. Some countries like South Africa have failed this test allready (see SA’s Sunday Paper’s gagged), but most countries seem to be standing fast.

    If Muslims feel offended by these caricatures, then don’t read/buy the papers. I’m offended by many things that the BBC says about Afrikaners, but I don’t threathen the journalist with death. I switch the tv off. I feel that in time most people will see what the truth is.

    The other thing of course is that by making such a huge noise about this issue Muslims are alienating themselves even more from the West. Many countries like the Scandinavian countries have been on the “Arab side” for a long time. One reason for this is that they have freedom of press in these countries. If they didn’t most of the public wouldn’t know about the illegal occupation of Palestine.

    I myself have also been a vocal supporter of the Palestine cause. I have been in trouble many times for defending the Muslim perspective. But I cannot understand this refusal of Muslims to understand the principle of freedom of speech.

    When I refer to Muslims I mean Muslims in general. I’m obviously aware that not all Muslims see this issue in the same way.

  • The old Steve Jobs: a bright star indeed

    Whilst reading up on Steve Wozniak, I came across some true Apple gems. Check out these video clips of Steve Jobs in his absolute element here. Look out for Bill Gates as well.

  • Potgooi 20

    Ons is uiteindelik weer op die lug. Ons wei maar net die nuwe jaar in.

    Potnotas:

    Laat weet van julle!

    of laai af.

  • Kalahari Gemsbok Park

    Young male lion close-up
    As promised, here is the link to my Kalahari Gemsbok Park photos.

    The Kalahari desert is part of the huge sand basin that reaches from the Orange River up to Angola, in the west to Namibia and in the east to Zimbabwe. The sand masses were created by the erosion of soft stone formations. The wind shaped the sand ridges, which are so typical of the landscape in the Kalahari.

    The dunes are stabilised through vegetation, so the area should actually be called a dry savannah.

    The dominant vegetation – grasses, thorny shrubs and Acacia trees – can survive long drought periods of more than ten months every year.

    To read more on the Kalahri Desert, look at the Kalahari Desert Wiki.

    The Kalahari Gemsbok Park is a brilliant place to take photos of lions. The lions in this region are even more impressive because of their black manes. I did get some awesome shots, but there is so much more here than lions. It always happens like this, but now I wish I could go back again and take more photos of the “lower profile” creatures.

    We stayed at the Nossob campsite. The last time I was there (15 years ago) this camp didn’t leave a great impression, but with the addition of a swimming pool and other “user friendly” stuff Nossob is now as good as the other campsites. They have also recently built a very good waterhole viewpoint, although this will really mean much more in the dry season.

    All in all a trip to the Kalahari is well worth it. It is very hot (although not unbearably so) and remote, but I honestly feel that this kind of experience is healthy for the soul. Plus the wildlife is absolutely superb.

  • My Frappr page

    I don’t really get Frappr yet, but here is my Frappr page anyway.

    Please join (I think?) if you want to.

  • Shark attacks on video

    These clips might persuade you NEVER to swim in the sea EVER AGAIN. But although they are scary, they are well worth seeing.

    The 1st clip was taken in the Western Cape in South Africa, an area well known for Great White Sharks. This guy was lucky.

    The 2nd clip was taken in the US. Please note this is not for the squirmish! This guy was not so lucky.

    These are, of course, courtesy of Google’s amazing new video service.

  • I’m back

    Well I’m finally back in the UK after a month of R&R in South-Africa.

    It always takes a bit of getting used to, but this year seems more difficult than ever. The quality of life in SA is just so much higher than in the UK. Why are we still in this country?!? I’m just moaning now I know – the UK and London specifically has so much to offer. I guess I’m just missing the sunshine, beauty & wide open spaces of South Africa.

    Swiftly moving on. We spent the first 11 days at my parents-in-law on the Kromme River (near St Francis Bay). The next 10 days we spent at my parents at Boesmansriviermond. For the rest of my holiday my father and I spent in the Kalahari Gemsbok Park.

    As you probably got from the 2nd paragraph, we had a fantastic time. The weather on the coast wasn’t as hot/sunny as you’d usually expect for this time of the year, but they needed rain so we didn’t complain too much. We still managed to spend some quality time on my brother-in-law’s jetski.

    The Kalahari Gemsbok Park was superb (and hot as hell). It is meant to be the best place in the world to photograph lions. And these lions have the characteristic black manes. We had six sightings of lion; 2 producing some great photographic oppurtunities. We also experienced some hardcore thundershowers. It rained 63mm in one morning. The area’s annual rainfall is 130mm!

    Although the KGP was superb, it almost turned very nasty indeed. I came about 5cm from being bitten by a puff-adder. Some of you may know that the puff-adder is a very poisonous. It is virulently cytotoxic (cell-destroying) and can cause some very serious damage. It was my own stupidity and I was bloody lucky to not have been bitten. If you do ever walk around at night in SA, make sure you look where you walk and wear shoes. I got told this and ignored the advice. It almost cost me.

    I’ll upload some photos soon enough.