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.

  • US Justice steps up to the plate… finally

    Alvin K Hellerstein, a federal judge, ordered the release of more pictures of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib. The US government argued against this – saying that releasing the pictures would “would aid al-Qaeda recruitment, weaken the Afghan and Iraqi governments and incite riots against American troops”. I don’t think the government has any concerns over this, I think they really just don’t want to give the anti-war groups more ammunition.

    At least Alvin K Hellerstein saw right through them. He said he was applying the Freedom of Information Act. Good on ya!

    The American Civil Liberties Union brought the action almost two years ago in a lawsuit demanding information on the treatment of detainees in US custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture.

    The Abu Ghraib photo release article was carried today at News24.

  • Happy Birthday Blog!

    Today, exactly one year ago I created my first post. So far I have found it a very worthwhile exercise. Much better than watching trash on TV anyway!

  • Ominous South African land seizure

    There are reports that the South-African government is moving to sieze land for the first time. I’m always sceptical about these kind of reports, but this story has been carried on CNN, BBC and IOL. Interestingly though, it is not carried by News24.

    If it is true, it is very very worrying. Zimbabwe is the obvious example of how badly forced land distribution can go. I think this is the biggest challenge to a stable & peaceful South Africa. Without some land distribution South-Africa will be in serious trouble, but the whites won’t accept being forced off their land either. It is a very tricky situation.

    Something like this can force one to re-evaluate your future.

  • Potgooi 11

    Ons gesels oor Kyknet/Kuduclub se JA, Hoekom ons en ander Londen toe kom, Wolf Brother, Londen dieretuin, Flickr, Google Blog Search en nog meer.

    Verwysings:


    of laai af.

  • The London Zoo

    Sumatran TigerWe visited The London Zoo today. I was hoping to practice taking wildlife photography, but it didn’t quite work out that way. The animals are either behind glass or fencing, which of course makes photographing them difficult.

    This tiger photo is the best I could do. But, even though it looks OK here, it was pretty far away and I couldn’t get a great shot. This is a Sumatran Tiger. They’re slightly smaller than Siberian tigers (but still huge) and alarmingly there are only about 400 of these magnificent predators left. Check out this Sumatran Tigers website to find out more about these cats.

    The London zoo itself is not really what I expected. I get the feeling that the zoo is much more about preserving endangered and threatened species than a showpiece of animals. In fact, I’m against the idea of keeping animals in small enclosures for human entertainment. As a way of preserving species though, I’m all for it. Also, the enclosures aren’t “small” as such – they’re actually quite big, but obviously no cage can be big enough for a wild animal.

    I encourage anyone who is concerned about our natural heritage to spend the ú14 and go to the zoo. They are doing very good work.

  • Potgooi 10

    Ons gesels oor ons Europese vakansie, rook in Europa, Chinese name, Hurricane Katrina, Krieket, die Tories, Israel, Pienk voete en nog meer.

    Verwysings:


    of laai af.

  • Weekend trip to Northern Germany

    Tabea Holtmann
    Tabea Holtmann
    We got back from our long-weekend trip to Northern Germany on Monday. The main reason for the trip was that one of my wife’s best friends gave birth to a girl 6 months ago and we wanted to introduce ourselves.

    This (on the photo) is her. Her name is Tabea and she is adorable. Anke & Carsten, Tabea’s parents, asked Lené to be Tabea’s god-mother. Lené is predictably over the moon with this honour.

    To see more of Tabea, Anke, Carsten (aka Holti) and Northern Germany check out my Northern Germany set on Flickr.

    Northern Germany
    Northern Germany

    Northern Germany really is a beautiful region. There is very little of the rat race here and the people are friendly here as well. The most well known towns in the area are Bremen (from the Bremen Town Musicians fable) and Hamburg.

    Being a right snob, I have to say that the North Sea (see photos as well) didn’t impress me much. But as a South-African I’m probably spoilt when it comes to oceans and beaches.

  • Hilda Smits: towenaar

    Julle kan gerus na Hilda Smits se dig blog gaan loer by dignet. Sy is vreeslik goed, nee eintlik is sy briljant.

    Ek is besig om ‘n website te bou teen trofee jag (by StopHunting.org) en toe vra ek haar of sy weet van ‘n natuur gedig wat ek kan gebruik. Sy het toe vanself met die stukkie magic vorendag gekom:

    die trofees
    die koppe teen jou kamermuur tuur glasig uit oor land en wier vas
    gemessel sonder graf of steen jou vier mure demp die reuk van reen
    soveel fier oe in jou tronk vermink verower die dag rus loodswaar
    op sy drie pote maar jy klein man rower van die stom siel was jou
    hande in bloed blind vir verstarde spoke snags soekend na reen

    Dit het my sommer ‘n knop in die keel gegee. Rerig.

  • Our Parisian breakaway

    Eiffel Tower (Paris, France)As you might have gathered from my previous post, we had a superb breakaway to Paris for the bank-holiday weekend. We saw many of the sites including: The Pompidou Centre, The Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, The Sacre Coeur, The Champs ElysTes, The Louvre & The Arc de Triomphe. Paris just has sooo much to offer. I really love this city. Plus the food is, what can I say, French.

    This was the first time that we actually used the Eurostar and it makes so much sense. The actual journey time is maybe an hour longer than flying, but in reality it takes about an hour less door to door. Even more so fo us because Waterloo is only about 15 minutes away from Wimbledon (where we live). Check in/out is a dawdle as well. We’ll certainly be doing this again.

    Please check out my Paris photos as well. My personal favourite is the guy sitting in his window sill with his kid.

  • The one disgusting thing about the French

    We have just returned from a superb weekend in Paris.

    I love Europe and, despite sleaze balls like Chirac, I love ze French. I find them friendly; their food is fantastic; they’re very professional; they’re proud yet socially responsible and compassionate; their children are well behaved (much more than the Poms, for instance) and their rugby team plays the most watchable rugby (apart from the Boks, of course) in the world.

    But the one thing I cannot stand about the French is their smoking culture. This is a first world country where human rights are extremely important and their education is first rate, yet EVERYBODY SMOKES. Old people, middle aged people, young adults and even teenagers – all huffing and puffing away, ready for lung cancer by 55. Also, in the US and UK it tends to be people in lower socio-economic groups that smoke, whereas in France the whole spectrum is covered. I simply don’t think that with all their education they have an excuse.

    This is not even mentioning all the other evils associated with smoking like passive smoking and littering. I saw two upper middle class parents with their two pre-teen daughters all bunched up on a park bench. Nothing untoward about this, except that both parents were CHAIN SMOKING!! They showed no regard for their own children. I find this absolutely appalling. I also saw many people using litter bins for Coke cans, orange peels, crisp packets, but throwing their cigarette butts on the grass – as if this does not constitute litter!

    We had dinner at this very nice French restaurant on the Champs-EllysTes. The whole restaurant probably had about 50 tables. There were 4 tables in the non-smoking section!!

    This is not only a French thing though. In Spain it is worse and in Germany it is not much better.