Schoeman pledges loyalty to SA
I did say that I wouldn’t blame if he did leave to swim for Qatar, but I’m delighted that he is still staying!
Attie Heunis's Journey
The ramblings of a Caucasian African American
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Dolphin by Todd Pusser If you want to be blown away by some fantastic wildlife photographs be sure to take a look at the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year website. If you are in London, you can go the exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Kensington. My favourite image is of two young tigers, but unfortunately it only works as a big photo. Instead I have added another super photo by Todd Pusser.
Predictably almost all of the photos were again taken with Nikon and Canon equipment. Interestingly there are far less photos from Africa than previous years.
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I’m on the Afrikaner issue again! Looking back at my recent posts you’d think that I’m a flag-bearer for Afrikaner Nationalism, which I am not. I am an Afrikaner yes and proud of it too, but I’m very much a South-African and (as Roland Schoeman recently said ironically) an African as well.
With this in mind, I was pleasantly surprised by some recent research that has been done in South Africa. I would definitely recommend taking a look at the research in more detail at More Afrikaners back AA. By the way, the title of the article on fin24 once again shows the decline in journalistic standards at News24. It is misleading and is only designed to attract readers. Don’t let it put you off.
Essentially the research suggests that Afrikaners of all ages are much more positive about South Africa than they were 5 years ago. This doesn’t really surprise me from the younger generation, but I am very encouraged by the older (50+ years) attitudes. They are also much more positive. And even dramatically so in some cases.
This research also suggests that 51% of younger (16-24 year old) Afrikaners subscribe to the ideals of Socialism. Right now I have some major concerns over uncontrolled Capitalism, so this is very interesting to me. With that statement I can already hear some grumblings at home 🙂
One thing I doubt very much though is that the British media (John Simpson being exempt, of course) will ever mention this research. Surely all Afrikaners are inherently racist, intolerant & downright oafish!
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African Innovation! “African technology” is considered by many to be a contradiction-in-terms. But this picture clearly demonstrates that Africa CAN compete with the West when it comes to technological innovation. I’m a proud African myself and this is only a light-hearted dig at ourselves so don’t get too upset at this post. 🙂
Thanks to Fredri Kok for this photo.
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Ons gesels oor die Kalahari woestyn, die Heunisse, ons potgooi verkeer en nog ander goed.
Potnotas:
of laai af. -
Oxford Professor, David Thomas, is doing a study that claims that Global Warming might unleash “Sand Seas” in Africa; specifically Southern Africa.
The gist is that more drought and more wind will stop vegetation settling the dunes down and so the desert will expand.
Read more at this National Geographic post.
I still can’t wait for my Kalahari photo expidition in 6 weeks though. Expanding desert or no!
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Ek het ontdek dat die eerste Heunis in Suid Afrika was Hermanus Heunis. Hermanus Heunis was gebore op die 19de 1798 in Leiden, Nederland. Hy’t Suid-Afrika toe geimmigreer in 1798 (toe hy 30 jaar oud was).
Dit beteken dat ons lot nou al 207 jaar lank in Suid-Afrika is.
Hermanus het sommer in sy eerste jaar in SA met Maria Catherina Gerber getrou. Hulle het toe die volgende jaar hulle eerste kind gehad.
Hermanus is 15 jaar later oorlede. Hy het al 15 jaar van sy lewe in SA in Swellendam gebly.
Ek het ‘n search gedoen vir Heunisse in Leiden, maar ek het niks gekry nie. Ek wonder wat het met die res van die Heunisse geword?
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I have just discovered this fascinating blog post titled Why the Afrikaners hate the British.
Admittedly it was written by someone who calls himself a born again Redneck, but the post is very well researched. There are some disturbing photos as well.
He also covers some Apartheid facts which wont be popular in the UK at all, but they are true.
Even if you disagree with him, this post is definitely worth a read.
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I have been suffering of music fatigue lately. You know; when everything on your iPod sounds old. Then last night I stuck Beethoven’s Triple Concerto by Herbert von Karajan and I just realised again what an absolute genius this man was. Nowadays we use the word genius way too much, but I don’t think anyone can deny that LvB was about as genius as they come. Remember that he was totally deaf when he wrote his outstanding 9th Symphony. The 9th is more commonly known as the Ode to Joy or Klanke sonder Melodie if you grew up in Christian Afrikaans South Africa.
My classical music knowledge is not more than knowing what I like. But to me no-one gets me worked up (not chocked up) like Beethoven. His music has so much volume and solidity. I can’t see how you cannot get caught up. I do like many of Mozart’s stuff as well – Elvira Madigan specifically – but to me the dramaticism of Beethoven cannot be beaten.
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In Dec 2001, we were in Kenya on our honeymoon. We were in Amboseli, Samburu & the Masai Mara. It was absolutely fantastic and I would probably say it was one of the highlights of my life. Especially the Mara. It is so awe-inspiring that one can get emotional. But, regrettably, even then I could definitely see some ominous signs that Kenya wasn’t looking after what must surely be their most valuable heritage.
The soil erosion in the Mara was shocking. There are tracks that are as wide as dual carriageways and they are still expanding. And nothing grows in/on these tracks. It is a mess. These widened tracks are formed initially in the rainy season when it is muddy and drivers don’t want to drive through the mud. Instead they drive around the mud and broaden the track in the process. All that is needed is some very basic maintenance on the roads. But there was no maintenance anywhere in the park.
New roads were also being created at an alarming rate. This happened when the drivers (usually on request from their ignorant passengers) went off the roads to get closer to animals. This then created new roads and before you knew it people were using these “new” roads as if they’d been there forever. This could be fixed with just very basic supervision. In Kruger, one of the best managed parks in the world, if you disobey the rules, you can get thrown out.
Now some more extremely worrying news about Kenya has surfaced. The first issue is that the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) has had a lot of its powers removed. Instead the Kenyan government has agreed to give local regions more of a say in how they run conservation in their area. I’m not 100% convinced that this is a bad idea, but many environmentalists think that local institutions are more prone to bribery than the KWS. Being African myself I know that this opinion isn’t totally unwarranted. I want to say that we should just wait and see, but with the stakes are so high that I don’t think we can afford to “wait and see”.
Now to the latest and most bizarre bit of news. I’m afraid this one stinks like rotten eggs to me – I cannot see any legitimacy in this. Kenya and Thailand have signed an agreement that will allow Thailand to manage Kenyan game reserves!! Thailand is one of the worst offenders when it comes to wildlife smuggling. Thailand have just opened a zoo where you can order your lion, tiger etc from its cage. Why on earth would Kenya allow them in. To me it sounds like the proverbial Wolf in Sheep’s Clothes or more appropriately, poacher in conservationist’s clothes.
Not only is this deeply troubling from an environmental perspective, but also from an economical one – so much of Kenya’s economy depends on eco-tourism. Any Kenyan or environmentalist should be very worried indeed.
This post has been syndicated from The Green DB.
Attie Heunis's Journey 