A few of my favourite things ....

This blog has slipped horribly in terms of its original intent (health and development experiences in africa .... hmmm) and frankly in terms of being a blog with new postings at all ....

however just a quickie to rave about and share my new most favourite thing ... and i know i'm tech-disabled so some of you yanks may already have heard of this ... but my brit compadres will definitely be in the same boat as me .... its a website called Pandora ... which is apparently linked to the Music Genome Project ...

anyhow - you just have to tell Pandora what kind of music you like ... either an artist or a song ... and the clever site will create a "radio-station" for you ... playing like-minded music ... which you then get to trawl through (but don't have to buy) ... perfect for cheapies for me who are scared of buying whole albums and are worried that iTunes is taking over the world ...

i swear its some sort of magic .... but its very lovely ....

Aid in Africa ....

best line at dinner last night (from a black south african bloke):

Yeah we went to Mozambique last week .... and the women were so so hot ... all slim and sexy .... we need to stop sending food aid .... and just send miniskirts .....

The African JZ ...

Jacob Zuma .... the South African JZ .... our home grown black-power superstar ....
A man subject to such headlines as …. "Jacob Zuma's ANC duties suspended on corruption charges" ..... or "Zuma case reveals SA rape problems" .... or even more tragic in a country with the worst HIV burden globally .... "Zuma took shower to prevent HIV"

…… and yet also "Zuma - the next president of South Africa" .....

Now - there's no denying that this man fought for his country .... Zuma was integral to the struggle against apartheid ...... spending hard years in prison and in exile in Mozambique and Zambia .... (unlike the current president Thabo Mbeki who spent much of that time in the UK) .... and he has risen the ranks to become without doubt the most prominent Zulu in the country (very important given tribalism still reigns strong here in SA) ....

NB an aside here ... apparently the Zulus became known as one of the most powerful warrior tribes in Africa ... because they worked out that if you stabbed with a short spear - you got to kill more people than if you launched it at someone no matter how accurate you were .... amazing what makes peoples great ....)

But Zuma like may heroes of the struggle is virtually uneducated (i mean even dubya went to university) …. he proudly touts himself as "100% Zulu Boy" .... and in a country wracked by crime .... his trademark song is “Awuleth' umshini wami” which means "Bring me my machine gun" .....

And then last year .... he was dismissed on charges of corruption … and faced trial for raping an HIV positive woman the same age as his daughter …. famously declaring that he took a shower after sex to protect himself ….. and that a woman was asking for it by crossing their legs or wearing a kang (sarong-skirt) before him .....

His trial had to be delayed because it turned out that he had fathered the judge’s nephew (whilst having 3 wives of his own) …. ..

Just the man to step into shoes once worn by Nelson Mandela ….

And yet incredibly his popularity amongst average South Africans and especially the Zulus remains undimmed ..... and even bolstered by the fact that the SA government couldn’t close a corruption case against him (despite the judge actually admitting that there was certainly corruption afoot) ....

his supporters compare him to Clinton (both apparently are - or would be - the first "real" black president of their nations .... and both accused by a woman) .... records of his theme song are flying off the shelves .... and the trade unions and workers parties have thrown their support firm behind him ..... (For my yankee readers - its as though Foley and Haastert were suddenly being considered the dream-ticket .... for the brits ... i know you get this without the patronising explanation ....)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been openly critical about him ... encouraging him to step down "for the good of the country" (Zuma has resonded by suggesting that Tutu may be getting Alzheimers)…. already the inter-tribal street fights have started (Zulus vs Xhosa etc) .... and many whites in this country are scared enough to already be making plans to leave should he be elected next year ….

And now his latest gaffe …. despite the fact that the constitution here is based on the UN Charter for Human Rights …. and hence homosexuality is both legal and respected (one of the only African nations to be so progressive) …. Zuma stated that the Gays were "a disgrace to the nation and to God" and "When I was growing up an ungquingili (a homosexual) would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out."

Amandla the New Rainbow Nation ....

PS Sorry - couldn't resist this one ...

A week in Nairobi ....

Aaargh - i know i know ... i havent posted in several millennia .... as many of you have been so kind as to email me and point out .... and to be fair i have not one leg to stand on .... i've been so lazy that even Shashank has scooped me to write about our week together in kenya ... so do bear with me for repeating ....

In an attempt to actually see S for more than just a snatched weekend ... i managed to convince my bosses that skype-able internet connections do exist in Nairobi and that I could work effectively for a week from there .... incredibly they pitied my sob-relationship-story and agreed ....

Perhaps truculent with that success - i disobeyed all my travelling-in-africa-rules about avoiding checking baggage and always carrying my essentials on me ....basically i was determined to take S lots of yummy stuff we get in Cape Town that frankly the rest of africa only dreams about .... but he warned me that Kenyan customs are notoriously persnickety .... and so i obstinately dumped all my necessities in my suitcase .... and instead prioritised secreting into my handluggage the four bottles of wine i'd specially picked out (Kenyan limit is one) .... a mass of gourmet foods .... and a large cake-box filled with a carrot cake for S's upcoming b'day ....

Sods law obviously then had it that when i arrived in Nairobi ... my suitcase didn't ... and to rub further salt into my wounds .... the customs man i'd been warned so much about - only told me i had the face of a "nice girl" and asked if i would consider making Kenya my home ......

My poor luggage remained lost for another 40 hours .... so no clothes, toiletries, contact lenses or make up .... i was smelly, wearing dirty clothes, un-painted and bespectacled .... not ideal when you only get to see your boyfriend every two months .... but luckily i'd brought enough alcohol and cake along to keep his beer goggles on (quick note of thanks to yatin for the saving some of the delicious oban) .... and so we had a grand weekend celebrating having survived a whole year in africa together ..... several gorgeous meals and my first ever time playing gambling properly .... with S trying to teach me to count to 21 after countless (free!!!) drinks and stopping me making the wrong hand gestures .... and yet still walking away with $200 profit (i won more consistently ... and he just won bigger) .... i can't wait to go again ...

I've been to Nairobi for a few weekends before and so this week was essentially just spent working and hanging out .... most girlfriends get taken to bars, clubs and restaurants .... S however took me to press conferences about Ugandan rebels surrendering and Congolese civil wars ..... and an off-the-record-forum on Somalia .... and yes you're right - i geekily LOVED it .... all in all it was a fabulous week ... we both worked bloody hard, ate our faces off, watched lots of Sopranos, cooked (or rather taught S to cook) went to gym and just did normal non-living-in-africa stuff that we both crave ...

However the highlight of the trip (aside from the casino, seeing Jan Egeland, meeting S's boss from Kansas city and even hosting a little drinks party) was our weekend trip to Sweetwaters - a tented safari lodge near Mount Kenya .... our tent faced directly onto a watering hole .... where on arrival we were met by a family of 6 giraffes staring straight at us just a few feet away .... with a snow tipped Mount Kenya as a back drop ..... and one night from our table in the moonlight we saw a mother-elephant with her baby and a teen-elephant coming to drink there ... despite their size - utterly silent and dream-like in the darkness .... one of the most beautiful things i think i have ever seen ...

S and I (now being africa stalwarts) emboldened by a sense of adventure decided to dispense with the normal safari guide drives and head out into the bush ourselves with his beast of a landrover .... and it was incredible .... i don't think i'll ever get tired of turning a corner and running into a huge troop of elephants frolicking in a gorge spraying each other with water .... or watching the immense oddly-other-worldly look of rhinos as they trudge across a plain .... or even herds of zebras, impalas and gazelles bounding around nervously checking for the scent of lions ....

One night (albeit with the help of a guide) we saw a black mamba slither across the road ... and then watched a pack of lionesses and their cubs stalk a Jackson Hartebeest (some deer-type thing) - all crouched low and creeping in the grass ... circling their prey ... terrifyingly coordinated and calculating ...

One of the special features about this reserve is their chimpanzee sanctuary .... all rescued from Central Africa .... they have tragic stories - many of them orphaned by the hunt for bushmeat or rescued from being kept in cages as playthings .... they've all been carefully rehabilitated and introduced into chimp hierarchies .... we had to approach their sanctuary on foot (previously you could go by boat but the chimps cottoned on and began throwing stones at the humans on the boats) .... and since there was just the two of us .... we got to approach a few at very close range .... you can tell that they share almost 99% of our DNA .... the male chimps all hissed at S and were then all flirty with me ... walking alongside me as we went back ....

S nicked all the best pictures - so you will have to visit his site for photos .... but all in all it was the perfect week .... and contrary as to what Yat would have you believe .... Shashank can be quite the host when he's actually there ...

Canadia - The Land of Niceness

So despite the terrorists trying really really hard to stop me .... i finally managed to arrive in toronto on saturday night ... albeit several hours late .... but despite having been travelling for almost two days without a break .... like the trooper i am ... i still managed to go out for late drinks with my lovely friend Jay's fiancee (the very lovely and beautiful Bindee) .... just to acclimatise of course you understand ...

And so i was introduced to this land of utter niceness .... everyone here is nice to the point where you think something MUST be wrong ... the cabbies don't speed and give way to pedestrians .... no one crosses the road when they shouldn't ... and everyone goes out of their way to help you ... they apologise if they knock into you ... and everyone smiles - all the time .... they are all so nice - it can't be natural .... either that or there's something to that maple syrup ....

Sunday was spent preparing for a week at the AIDS conference .... mimosa brunch .... shopping for shoes and bags (BCBG dahling) ... and then many yummy martinis on sunshine-y patios .... yes - its a hard life this saving the world lark ..... so its obviously vital to have fabulous accessories as one does it ....

Heathrow Hell

A few months ago - on my way back from the epic Jamaican-Greek-Punjabi-Yankee wedding extravaganza ..... i had my worst-to-date travel experience .... hungover (actually still drunk) ... late to the airport ... invalid ticket .... delayed ... lost luggage .... and shitty seats (next to golhar) ... and it was all made only a little bit better by the fact i was travelling with shashank .... although given he managed to leave his laptop in a security check in heathrow - i don't think he found the whole 40 hours of travel too much fun either .... for two people who globe trot for a living - in general our performance was pretty poor ...

however - that trip now seems almost easy (well - especially since i threw a tantrum for the second part of that aforementioned trip and got myself upgraded from london to jobourg ... it was my first ever business class experience .... and it was just incredible .... there's a reason they draw that curtain across to divide it from cattle class ... they know they'd have a riot of people knew how good it was up there) .... as compared to my latest trip from SA to Canadia this weekend ....

I was travelling to Toronto for the big AIDS conference jamboree here ... and had to travel via London so that i could spend a few hours en famille ... and basically to eat my mum's food .... but unfortunately evil terrorists have no sympathy for a poor child wanting home food after many months away helping to save the world ...

After 4 hours delay in cape town .... a 12 hour flight to london .... and then the ignominy of having all my hand luggage and presents and mobile phone (oh god - separation from my phone) snatched away from me by the airport nazis (sorry i know you're only doing your job) ... i was feeling pretty peeved .... thankfully mum and dad came to the airport to collect my stuff (including all the wine that i'd been ferrying to canadia as presents) .... and brought the mythic-much-dreamed-of food (indian mothers are GODDESSES) which we ate true indian family style as a picnic by the car (only this time in the car park and not motorway-side as per my fond childhood memories .... did anyone else grow up with the M6 as their formative picnic experience?) ....

And then shock horror .... we walked to the next terminal .... and found the queue to enter the departure zone .... which snaked all the way out of the terminal .... to the carpark .... and then around the multistorey for two levels .... un-bloody-believable ....

What was amazing however was the complete calm-ness and chirpiness of the Brits .... i can see how that stiff-upper-lip-thing led to them ruling the world .... there's nothing like a crisis to bring out the best and the stoic in the english .... but truly what was even more incredible and completely to the brits' credit - was that there was no tension whatsoever between the general delayed masses and the many muslim families also standing in line .... it could so easily have been nasty and have got ugly .... and i remember what many muslims (and many other people of colour) went through post-9-11 .... and i'm dead proud of my country-people ....

Although i have to admit .... that i (albeit after a good 24 hours travelling non stop) did lose it when an arab bloke (and his three wives) tried to cut in the line in front of me .... as he held up his hands and tried to protest that he'd also been waiting (in a chair) etc etc .... i fixed him with my iciest most snooty stare and said in the poshest accent i could muster "This is England - and in England - sir -We Queue"

"Whats going on?"

Now - I don't pretend to understand anything about Middle Eastern politics or its deep roots in a tangled and bloody history .... and so I'm sure that my total bewilderment at how the current crisis has played out over the past fortnight and more .... is pretty common to most of us .... I just don't understand how the world seems to have stumbled into this unfolding hell ...

My particularly keen interest above and beyond my usual news-junkiness (aside from the obvious horror etc etc of course) is because Shashank was posted to the region with about 24 hours notice (on the very eve i might add of my visiting him in kenya .... and our big planned holiday with yatin to zanzibar .... dating a journalist is only for the very unflappable) ..... in his own words - he's been speeddating the airports of the middle east ..... egypt, cyprus, jordan, syria (it is amazing he has pages left in his passport) ... and now he's in beirut .... now i'm not going to scoop him a la yatin ... but save to say that he's bunkering down to be there for an indefinite while (this straight after 3 weeks in darfur) and he will certainly need to travel down to the south where the really scary action is ....

My take on this whole situation is obviously very naive ..... my experiences growing up in Saudi Arabia do not make me the most fervent supporter of arab causes .... but these sentiments at odds somewhat with my good Guardian-reader natural sympathies for palestine and lebanon ....

However irrespective of Israeli understandable fears and insecurities about its neighbours' intentions .... surely any normal average person must see that this full scale war against the people of Lebanon in an attempt to suppress Hizbollah cannot from any perspective or planet be seen as acceptable .... in the words of Fouad Sinoria the Lebanese PM - his country is being "cut to pieces ... and why should an Israeli tear be worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?"

Poor Lebanon .... only just recovering from a horrendous civil war ... finally trying to extricate itself from the clutches of its own neighbours machinations .... and coming to terms with the assasination of Rafik Harriri - the main architect of its renaissance ..... is now shattered once again .... according to the Economist .... more than 800,000 Lebanese are now internally displaced .... and between 400 - 650 killed (several times as many as Israel with incalcubly more infrastructure damage) ..... in a war that their nation did not start. And lets not even start to get into the first front of this war in Gaza.

Now you could say that some blame lies with the Lebanese - Hizbollah is undoubtedly a threat to Israel ..... and so their politicians ought to severe their links with the Syrian/Iranian backed "Party of God" (18 MPs in Lebanon) and that if Sinoria maintains his friendship with Nasrallah (and certainly refuses to condemn his actions) - then Israel can legitmately view Lebanon as a threat .... and it seems reasonable that Israel had to respond to the provocation of Hezbollah kidnapping its soldiers and lobbing rockets over the border ..... but can this ever really be a justification for such a disproportionate reaction against a nation? I just don't get it ... I can't understand .... and someone clever needs to explain it to me.

However ..... my real vitriol now is reserved for our own governments .... the governments that stopped the Security Council from condemning the Israeli bombing that killed 4 UN Observers .... the governments that between them scuppered calls for an immediate ceasefire at the Rome summit even when it was supported by all other parties present including the UN .... the governments who claim that they want to build a "sustainable ceasefire" (read - give you more time to destroy Hizbollah) ... and are fast losing all credibility amongst not just arab nations to be involved in a any form of peace process (whilst the french - ha! imagine! - seem to be emerging smelling of roses ....)



And really - even if we knew we could expect no better from George Bush ..... I had hoped that Tony Blair at least would show a modicum of the decency for which we initially elected him ..... do any of us even remember the party who gave us hopes of an "ethical foreign policy" when they were first elected? .... and now the ignominy .... we let the yanks stop their weapon-delivery flights in our country en route to israel whilst condi talks of sustainable ceasefires! ..... truly this whole shoulder-to-shoulder performance of Tony Blair's is getting tired ... we're all over it ..... and you have to wonder just what it is that Dubya holds over him .... Sir Stephen Wall wrote a great editorial in the New Statesman and the Guardian this week - warning that we must not let the US set our moral compass .... and I agree .... we need to stop outsourcing our foreign policy to the yanks ... and soon.


PS 1 Interestingly - I just saw a clip on CNN showing how some evangelical groups in America are saying that this conflict was predicted in the Bible (Revelations) - and how this Holy War is the start of the return of Jesus Christ as King .... and thus Israel should be supported at all costs ... I'm speechless .... someone please explain ...

PS 2 Shashank's experiences there so far ... he says have made him realise just how much worse it is here in any African conflict than there in the Middle East .... he said the scenes in Cypus with all the evacuees were really just like any hotel lobby in Nigeria .... and Chad even in peacetime (let alone Darfur) was far more horrific than anything he's seen there so far ..... whereas - whilst he's been away .... here on the dark continent we have historic elections in DRC .... Somalia and Ethiopia appear to be approaching their own Holy War ..... Liberia's capital got water and street lights for the first time in 15 years ..... and millions have died from diseases that could have been prevented, cured or treated with the cash frittered away on bombs, rockets and the like .... and the poor readers of McClatchey/Knight Ridder newspapers won't have the chance to read about it all ....

Happy Birthday to Me ... again and again ....

I was really lucky this year to have my birthday whilst I was at home in london .... and so i saw and was suitably cherished by my folks .... and got to see and celebrate with all my mates (thank you so much to everyone that came to the Sochu lounge .... i had such a wonderful night!) .... a real luxury for me given my recent global trottings ....

However ... my new friends in south africa wanted to celebrate for me too .... and so my lovely lovely friend peter decided to throw me a champagne brunch .... and yes i know this means that i have now been celebrating my birthday for over a month (although there is NOTHING wrong with having a brithday month .... and no it isn't an only child thing) .... and if he was honest .... it was all really it was to show off his new champagne flutes and candelabra .... (and yes he is - as peter pan on ice skates .... but every girl needs a gbf ....)

And so we met in his predictably fabulous flat at 11am armed with capetown-tastic food, champagne in the all new beautiful flutes and great jugs of bloody mary .... it was 27 degrees out on the deck (welcome to winter in cape town) .... and life seemed perfect ....

As the afternoon wore on - the sun kept blazing .... and the mimosas/champage and bloody marys hit the spot .... idah was teaching us to dance afro-style ..... everyone seemed awfully witty and clever ..... several of us had to pop out for more and more bottles ..... and if we broke a few glasses - well - peter was very understanding .....

however as the hours went on ... and the bottle pile grew .... it became clear it had all hit the spot too well ... and by 5 (we started at 11) .... after 12 bottles of champagne and 3 bottles of vodka between 10 people (not all of whom stayed the distance) ..... me and half the party were revisiting our brunch (including one nameless person who vomited over the balcony onto the white awning and the passers-by below .... yuck!) .....

rather embarrassingly for me i then promptly fell asleep on the settee .... stonkingly boxed .... and woke up an hour later ... in time to see england crash out of the world cup on penalities .... not sure if it was the alcohol ... or my latent patriotism ... but i spent the rest of the night slumped and mourning all english performances of the evening ....

So i know that my african experiences seem rather different to Shashank's (especially his recent flirtation with the darfur diet and men with guns) .... but .... anyhow it just goes to show that just because you turn 31 ... you don't have to be all grown up ....

It all seemed so fabulous at the start ....



And Peter was the perfect host ....



But then things started to get messy ....



And we went from fabulous to flat-out - how the mighty are fallen .... (in fact Idah did fall ... from the bed to the floor .... and still didn't wake up...)





And the party resumes after our "naps" ....

Crime and Punishment ... To Live and Die in SA

A couple of days ago two of my colleagues here were violently attacked.

One was walking out with a visitor from the US on Durban beach at sunrise .... surrounded by dozens of surfers, holiday makers and even policemen ... when they were beset upon by two youths with knives who kicked, punched and stabbed her .... apparently they looked as though they had been sniffing glue and so didn't listen to her screams that she wasn't carrying anything of value .... and she finally managed to fight them off .... the poor visitor screamed herself hoarse trying to attract attention ... but in this country everyone is too scared to help ....

So because they were getting stitched up and bandaged .... they ended up being late to meet another colleague (a black South African woman) ... who was waiting for them outside a shopping centre in the nicest part of Durban ... a place where even a scaredy-cat like me would walk to ..... but as she waited ... she was held up by two men who held knives to her throat as they took everything she had on her .... phone, keys, jewellery, money etc ....

When the others finally turned up to pick her up .... she wasn't at the meeting place and was uncontactable ... and so a full scale search ensued .... and she was finally found terrified at a police station ..... this on the background of her husband having been carjacked and stabbed just a couple of weeks ago .... he was missing for over 24 hours .... and eventually found unconcious in a hospital .....

Many of you know that I was mugged at knife point with a colleague on my very first day here .... luckily I didn't have anything on me to even give the guy .... and since then I've been accosted in my own driveway by two guys .... and even had my car (rental) stolen from my own drive as well .... (by the way ... please please please don't tell any of this to my mum .... you know she would make me get on the next plane to london) .... I haven't dressed nicely or worn jewellery for months .... and walking home from the pub at night .... in fact walking anywhere has become something i dream about wistfully (ha! who would have thought!)

Now when I first arrived ... I was determined not to become like so many foreigners and white South Africans .... for whom discussion of crime levels is like talking about the weather to the english .... they all live in huge houses behind high walls with wire and armed security .... keeping the "black menace" at bay .... but it is true that everyone here has a story .... they say in Johannesburg everyone knows someone who has been shot ... I've lived all over the world .... in places much poorer and deprived .... and yet I've never felt such an undercurrent of violence and tension as we do here .... now we all understand that the history of this country has deeply influenced income disparity and opportunity ..... but my (perhaps naive) attitude is rob me blind if you have to eat .... just please don't murder or rape me as well ....

But the final straw in a country where 51 murders and 151 rapes are reported DAILY (and those are only the ones that get to be reported) .... was the safety and security minister recently telling Parliament:-

"They can continue to whinge until they're blue in the face, be as negative as they want to, or they can simply leave this country so that all of the peace-loving South Africans, good South African people who want to make this a successful country, can continue with their work."

Can you imagine ANY minister ANYWHERE keeping his job after telling his people that if they don't like the crime - they can just emigrate?! It shows that in this country ... even the fight against crime is still prejudiced by colour .... its seen as a white whinge topic ... even though the majority of crime is against black people ....

This has sparked all manner of debates at to what kind of responsibility the SA government is taking over the levels of violence here .... and some people have taken the matter into their own hands through an internet site ... and tried to highlight to the international tourists the realities and dangers of travelling around here ... and even casting doubt over whether it will be safe to have the 2010 World Cup here ..... a real kick to the balls as it were ....

Welcome to the new South Africa.

All Hail the Black Stars ....

Africa is football-crazy ... its football mad. Like the old song goes - this football it has taken away the little bit of sense Africa had.

There's always a game on ... at every street corner ... in any bit of bare land in a township ... kids with no shoes ... often no real ball ... playing with tin cans .... or bundles of rags .... and every kid wants to grow up and be David Beckham ....

Even in normal times .... if you go to the gym here in cape town - there are five tellies showing every bloody league match in england ... with the spanish and italian leagues on the other channels just for good measure .... (and yes .... for those of you sniggering ... yes - i have purchased a gym membership ... and yes - i never go .... but it is just the perfect encapsulation of the new South Africa to see all the skinny white people running on the treadmills after work cos they're too scared to be outside after dark ... and then jumping into their cars to drive home .... passing in their wake all the black gym cleaning staff who have to run home cos all the death-wagon taxis stopped at sundown) ....

Anyhow .... given that general obsession is the starting point for the nation .... you can imagine that the world cup brings the whole country to a standstill .... the matches are on 24/7 ... spinning on a loop .... everyone shuts up shop, stops work and the bars/restaurants become almost american in having a telly in each corner ....

What's interesting is the team loyalties of the various racial groups here in SA (since of course EVERYTHING here comes down to race) .... the blacks all wanted the black african teams to win .... the coloreds and indians support brazil .... and the whites cheer doggedly for england or holland .... even though they've all been africans for generations ....

And its not just south africa .... the obsession is transcontinental .... there have been great articles about refugees in darfur paying a week's earnings to watch games in a make-shift viewing tent ....
and in somalia - only the banning of world cup games has provided the impetus for protests against the islamists who have taken over mogadishu (although sad news today about those who braved the ban) ..... football widows clubs have spouted all over nairobi in kenya .... and the President sanctioned a national holiday in Togo just to celebrate qualifying ...

And so it could only be football (for the first time since I've been here) that could make South Africans at last feel part of Africa at large (the South Africans do like to think of themselves as a cut above the rest .... and people even say they're going abroad when they come to Cape Town) .... and its all thanks to the Black Stars of Ghana ....

Every game they played - we all watched breathless and holding thumbs (its a south african thing ...) ... we cheered ourselves hoarse at the game against the USA .... and we all KNOW that the only reason they lost against brazil was because they were playing against 12 brazilians ....

Now everyone wants to be Steven Appiah .... and due to Ghana as well as the Ivory Coast, Angola, Togo and Tunisia .... African football can hold its head up high .... bring on South Africa 2010 ....

Celebrating Freedom ...

Just a quick note to say happy 4th of july to all the yanks out there .... i might even have some cheap burgers and nasty beer in your honour (but just think of what you could have been feasting on if you'd kept european) ....

keep that freedom marching y'all ....

Pot loads of cash .... Thank you Mr Buffett

Warren Buffet. What a very lovely man.

Many of you may have heard - Mr Buffet, multi-gazillionaire, owner of Berkshire Hathaway (and hence half the world .... including a good part of Tescos, McDonalds, Coke etc) .... and apparently stock-market investor to God .... has donated almost all his personal fortune to charity .... the great bulk of which will be given to the Gates Foundation and its fight for improved global health and education. Apparently he and Bill play bridge together ...

The exact amount varies according to who you read ... and will definitely vary long term since it's all stocks/shares related ... but essentially its estimated at somewhere between $30 and 40 billion on current valuations.

On of the largest donations ever made by an individual.

In addition he has given several billion to other eponymous charities - which are pro-choice and promote family planning.

And his generosity in one fell swoop elevates the Gates Foundation into being the wealthiest and probaly the most influential player in the game of international health .... not least due to the fact that the charity must spend the amount donated per year within that year .... essentially they must give away over $ 1.5 billion a year .... greater than the GDP of a good few African nations ....

As I have alluded to before - Bill Gates is thankfully unencumbered by ideological chains .... but it is worrisome that the alpha male funding body of the international health world is entirely subject to one man and his wife's idiosyncrasies. It is rather ironically - very unhealthy.

Now I don't want to post yet another polemic about a funding source .... but it does make you think about the role of traditional multilateral funding organisations, and the rise of such personal foundations to fill the gaps.

Perhaps this is inevitable after the self-interested and bungled development packages of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Mistrust is high. At least with such charities - to a greater degree - what you see is what you get .... and the fewer strata you have to deal with ... the less opportunity for "leakage" and the more for accountability. But .... it is worrisome if we keep having to rely on the Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts of this world ...

ABC .... easy as 123?

Last week - I attended the PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) annual conference (in Durban - so - sadly no sexy international business trip for me) .... an event showcasing the achievements so far in fighting the AIDS pandemic in the 16 recipient countries.

PEPFAR (as many of you already know) is the US initiative established by President George Bush in 2003 .... pledging $15 billion over 5 years to a global crusade against HIV/AIDS ..... in essence the largest amount ever pledged by a single country to combat a single disease .... thereby making it one of the most influential programmes in international health today .... (as well as funding my own current employment - thank you Uncle George) .... for more background info - check - http://www.avert.org/pepfar.htm

There are of course a myriad of reasons why President Bush would choose not to put this huge bolus of cash into a multilateral organisation such as the Global Fund - not least the ability to stipulate branded drugs and accommodate the interests of Big Pharma .... and it certainly allows him to state that the American People have put 560,000 people on ARV treatment within 3 years and enabled testing for many millions more .... as well as helping to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV to four million women .... which no one can deny is a monumentous achievement .....

But perhaps the most controversial reason is the ideological motivation behind the ruling that PEPFAR funds must be divided as follows:

1. 55% for the treatment of individuals with HIV/AIDS
   
2. 15% for the palliative care of individuals with HIV/AIDS
3. 20% for HIV/AIDS prevention (of which at least 33% is to be spent on abstinence until marriage programs)
4. 10% for helping orphans and vulnerable children

Now most of us have heard of the ABC approach to preventing HIV (Abstinence/delay having sex, Be faithful and Condomise) ....

But PEPFAR has developed its own definitions for ABC ..... namely Abstinence for youths until marriage, Be faithful in marriage/monogamous relationship and Condoms for those who practise high risk sex ..... (and all this on a background of the global gag rule and the prostitution loyalty oath)

And so - many PEPFAR-funded prevention programmes are limited to providing condoms only for "high risk groups" .... and the only message available for young people is that of abstinence until marriage .... and this in countries where the reality is that kids start having sex in their early teens because there is little else to do .... where early sex is often violent .... and where young girls have little choice or decision-making capacity over what happens to their own bodies ....

In addition - whilst the guidelines insist that a third of all the prevention money is spent solely on promoting A and B .... the reporting system for ALL the PEPFAR prevention programmes (well - in South Africa at least) requires them to submit stats only on their A/B achievements (but not C) .... so even if you do distribute/preach condoms .... you're not given any credit for it ..... and there's no incentive to really make an effort to provide them .... given that A/B targets are the only results that will get you refunded ....

The EU on World AIDS Day 2005 openly distanced themselves from this policy .... advocating instead for a comprehensive approach to prevention and treatment ..... and the GAO reported earlier this year .... that some countries receiving PEPFAR money had needed to divert resources from efforts to prevent mother's transmitting the virus to their children and for ensuring clean blood banks .... in order to meet such A/B targets set for them .......

The Lancet published an editorial accusing PEPFAR of being " ill-informed and ideologically driven" .... noting that almost a quarter of such US funding was being chanelled through faith-based organisations .... and concluded that "Many more lives will be saved if condom use is heavily promoted alongside messages to abstain and be faithful".

And yet .... some organisations still believe that PEPFAR's efforts to influence the HIV world are not profound enough ..... "Casting the first stone: the US Christian right’s war on the Global Fund"

So obviously ..... this has formed the basis of many a wine-fuelled-late-night-indignant discussion here ..... but surrounded as i am by liberal heart-bleeding ngo types .... i was taken aback when asked by a friend that ..... given this current american administration was elected not once but twice - then why can't the US spend its dollars in a manner that its citizens would approve of, advocate for and most importantly vote for?

Indeed at the end of the day .... if we ignore the prevention agenda .... PEPFAR has proved incredibly successful in rapidly putting people on treatment .... often in creative and innovative ways .... and so ..... whilst it calls into question the motivations behind such donor aid (should the US be allowed decide who can use a condom or not - even if sex is the major cause of HIV spreading?) .... realistically this is the nature of development ..... and we will have to weigh up how nefarious it really is to use such bilateral aid agreements to ensure the success of our own pharma companies or religious organisations ..... as long as the job gets done - especially when no one else is putting up the cash ....

Lets just be thankful that Bill Gates thinks that religion isn't time efficient ....

A genius in the rough ....

In the process of setting up this blog ... i read loads and loads of others .... and i know that blogs are all a bit old hat now .... and most are dreadfully egotistical .... and all too few are even interesting .... but then you come across an absolute corker ....

I can't take credit for really knowing this guy .... he's a friend of a friend of shashank's .... and i've met him just once .... but i find myself shamelessly looking forward to his new posts ....

"In high school, I did not have a fancy car. While most kids were rocking new Mercedes and BMWs, I got an 1980 4 door Volvo. My crew and I used to “roll” down Old Pasadena in this clunker. Because I did not have a CD player, my boy would bring his boombox in the car, and we would rock that. Take a second and just imagine 4 dorky Indians with fresh fades rolling in this clunker. Our night would end typically when the batteries ran out. I wish I was kidding, but it is a true story."

You can't learn to write like that .... he's a natural .... Shashank is right - someone needs to get him a book deal ..... http://ogspice.blogspot.com/

The important stuff ....

A good mate of mine from school replied to my email announcing this blog to say ... "The idea of a blog is great, v. educational, worthwhile etc .... and it looks v. professional too ..... but where's the space where we can just chat normally about the important stuff and life in general?"

And she's right .... so if all my intentions go awry .... and this turns into some horribly boringly worthy blogspot for my constant navel-gazing .... then send me many comment-slaps to put me in my place .... although really .... anyone who uses this many ellipses ... can never be taken too seriously ....

And so - I do want to send out huge and happy congratulations to my lovely friend Katherine and her brand-spanking-new fiance Greg .... and to all my mates getting married this month whose weddings i'm so gutted to be missing .... Pooja T .... Harsh and Sneha .... and my wonderful friend Andrew and Bernadette .... perhaps some of you might consider Cape Town for a honeymoon?

Thirty years on .....

If you can ever say that one day could change a nation's history .... then for South Africa .... thirty years ago today may have been such a turning point. On June 16th 1976 thousands of schoolchildren in Soweto (a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg) staged a protest against being forced to learn Afrikaans, the shamefully poor standards of "Bantu" education and against the oppression of apartheid.

Tragically the protesting children were met with with the wrath and firepower of the South African Police - and the ensuing bloodbath spawned furious and violent unrest in townships across the country.

It was the first major protest since the 1950s and 60s when leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo had been imprisoned or exiled ..... after which the white National Party had ruled more or less unchecked with their policy of apartheid and white supremacy. But by the mid 1970s .... the spirit of revolution had again started to foment ....

One of the most iconic photographs of the past half century shows the brutality of the response to the uprising: 12 year old Hector Pieterson, one of the first children to be killed that day, lying dead in the arms of an anguished schoolboy with his sister running horrified alongside.

Mbuyisa Makhubo, the boy who picked Hector up, like many of the other protestors went into exile afterwards due to police harrassment. Some of these young people from the townships then went onto train as guerillas in other countries such as Angola and Zimbabwe to fight a covert war against the apartheid regime .... some fled to study in foreign universities and then came back in 1994 to lead the freed country .... others died in mysterious circumstances .... and Makhumbo like far too many others .... just disappeared - South Africa's lost generation remembered today on Youth Day.

The student protests of 1976 lit the spark of a freedom struggle .... that threw up many now famous leaders such as Steve Biko, Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Kathrada ..... and culminated in the historic free and democratic elections in 1994, catapulting the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela into power.

The photograph of Hector Pieterson .... published across the world .... finally revealed the horrors of what was happening at the time in South Africa to a doubting international community. It resulted in sanctions, censure and widespread movements pressurising the apartheid regime to free its political prisoners and allow mutiracial elections. Hector Pieterson's sister, shown in the picture, has been widely quoted in the press here on the consequences of photo, the protest and his death: "I was a nobody, Hector was a nobody. What it proves is that you don't have to be famous to change the lives of other people."