'Tis the season of the AIDS conference .... and meeting heroes ....

AIDS conferences are as much theatre as they are anything to do with real science or furthering the cause of people living with HIV .... my first experience was last year at the International AIDS conference in Toronto - a veritable circus for activist organisations, fringe groups and people who frankly just like to protest .... as well as a media love-fest for celebs, politicians and philanthropists. For every serious NGO, pharma company and scientist - there were groups such as grandmothers against AIDS, transvestites, transexuals, multisexuals and a whole bed-zone for sex workers of every shape, hue and flavour ....

The big conference this year is in Sydney in July, but there is also the PEPFAR shebang in Kigali in mid-June (on which more later since I'm actually going to that one) but to kick the season off this week is the South African AIDS conference in Durban - probably the most important national level conference in Africa ....

And with good reason .... South Africa has the largest number of HIV cases in the world .... and has both stories to be proud of as well as to wish swept under the carpet .... we've all heard the tales of Thabo Mbeki refusing to believe in HIV and stating that he doesn't even know anyone with AIDS, as well as our mad-as-a-hatter health minister Mantu Tshabalala Msimang who trashes ARVs and promotes garlic, lemons and the african potato ...

However - SA was also the host country for the 2000 International AIDS Conference (Durban) where for the first time the idea of ARV treatment for all was truly advocated for .... demanding decreases in the cost of treatment ... arguing on the basis of human rights that the developing world could not be ignored or used merely as a lab for drug testing without experiencing the benefits of such advances .....

SA is also the country which hosted the PEPFAR conference last year(Durban again) where the impact of this US funding body was properly debated and where we argued that rather than the US government being able to claim that the American people had out 1 million patients on treatment ... instead such funds should be used to actually strengthen health services and enable countries to put their own people on ARVs in a way that would be sustainable beyond George Bush ....

And its the home country for the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) arguably the organisation who have done the most globally to spearhead the campaign to bring treatment to the developing world, to bring down the cost of drugs, to advocate for the rights of people living with HIV and to force a blinkered South African government to confront that they were allowing what some compare to a genocide to exist within the country ....

So we are all looking forward to this year's conference knowing that things are slowly beginning to change here (thanks in great part to the TAC amongst others) .... and proud that whatever we debate here will have massive impact on other national conferences in Africa and will form the basis for the big international conferences coming up ...

However when i walked onto my flight to Durban this morning ... i was gobsmacked to see that i was sitting next to THE Zackie Achmat (in economy no less!) - the founder of the TAC, one of Time magazine's Heroes and a Nobel Peace prize nominee .... sadly i was too travel sick to talk lots to him (i know most people grow out of it when they're 12 - but what can i do?!) .... and was frankly too shy to chit-chat with a man who is really one of my living heroes .... all i could do was thank him repeatedly for everything that he's done ... and ask him shamelessly for the cheesy photo below ....

Peace and Love to all Mankind ....

The Global Peace Index was published this week ... apparently the brainchild of an Aussie entrepreneur/philanthropist and conducted by the Economist's Intelligence Unit ... with the support of the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the former US president Jimmy Carter.

It ranked countries on 24 different indicators assessing a coutry's level of violence and danger .... but takes into consideration street violence, numbers of prisoners and organised crime as well as general warmongering, military spending and intercontinental meddling ....

Unsurprisingly the Scandinavians did rather well .... Norway comes top of the table with its peace-loving neighbours Denmark, Sweden and Finland all in the top seven (what is it with the scandinavians coming top of eveything?) ..... New Zealand is second (surely too far away from anywhere and too full of sheep to cause anyone any problems?) ... the Irish were fourth (amazingly given recent history) .... one place above Japan (having an elvis-impersonator head of state clearly makes for more love less war) ...

Equally predictable the bottom 5 .....
121 Iraq
120 Sudan
119 Israel (interestingly Palestine isnt on the list)
118 Russia
117 Nigeria (there are some great nigerian blogs ranting against this!)

But the list also throws up some suprises .... the UK is ranked at 49 - way way below most other euro nations including the Baltic states ..... China comes in at 60 just below Libya and Cuba ... whereas the US barely makes the top 100 (96) just one spot better than Iran .... India and Pakistan fare dismally at 109 and 115 respectively .... and Somalia not really being a country doesn't even feature on the list ...

The Dalai Lama is quoted as saying "Compiling and maintaining an index of which countries are the most peaceful and publishing the results will undoubtedly make the factors and qualities that contribute to that status better known and will encourage people to foster them in their own countries,".

We can but hope.

From the American People .....

There's nothing like posing with a little black baby for a bit of goodwill ... and George's PR machine picked a great one yesterday for the big announcement that PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) would be extended for another 5 years .... and the amount pledged was doubled to 30 billion dollars ....

Wow.

Apparently Laura Bush is coming to Africa next month to promote this extension of the initiative ... her favourite organisation here is the Mothers to Mothers to Be Programme (predictably - no condom education needed in this one or that would complicate matters).

As President Bush said:
“She and I share a passion .... We believe that to whom much is given, much is required.”

The current PEPFAR (2003-2007) pledged 15 billion dollars over 5 years (now closer to 18 billion) .... and aimed to put 2 million people on treatment ... in all honesty today the number of people supported on ARVs through PEPFAR is probably closer to 1 million ... but most controversially the programme has taught 61.5 million people on abstinence ....

Now don't get me wrong - this renewal of PEPFAR is truly a great and wonderful thing ... especially for an administration whose frugality in terms of development aid has contrasted massively with its spending on defence .... and also it doesn't take a cynical mind to see this is a fabulous distraction from a dismal record on climate change, iraq, human rights etc etc .... and that the whole programme has played very nicely to extend the legacy of the Christian Right ....

However there is no doubt that through this extra funding lives will be saved and that new infections averted .... additionally PEPFAR certainly has bipartisan support ... and it is a relief that George has ensured that the funding will be committed well into the next government ......

Even better - this announcement throws down the gauntlet for the next week's G8 summit ... especially to the Germans and Italians who have been less than generous so far and who might be embarrassed into action .... and it might prompt Tony Blair to make some wild promises (even if just to piss off Gordon) as a final hurrah ....

As President Bush said yesterday:
“Once again, the generosity of the American people is one of the great untold stories of our time .... Our citizens are offering comfort to millions who suffer, and restoring hope to those who feel forsaken.”

.... but if George really does want this to change the way that the world views America .... then lets just hope that somehow PEPFAR and the new son-of-PEPFAR will be run on policies based on real evidence and not ideology ...

Sisters are doing it for themselves ....

A few days ago I was visiting some of our sites in rural mountainous Mpumulunga in midst of the Deep Freeze that gripped the whole country ... we ourselves didn't have heating ... the electricity was skittish and the water supply was downright pre-menstrual ... one night Zanele, Bongani and I had to sleep in every item of clothing we had brought along it was so so cold .... so I was a little grumpy when I was asked to drive my colleague to meet with a support group at a nearby squatter camp ... sure to be even more cold, dark and miserable ....

I should explain here that in post-apartheid south africa .... most black people still live in the black townships, most indians live in the indian townships etc and the white people still live in nice houses in the suburbs .... but the older townships are fairly established communities now with cultures and infrastructure of their own .... the really poor people here live in squatter camps or "informal settlements" which are essentially wood and corrugated iron shacks clustered with no water, electricity, roads etc and incredibly high rates of crime ....

Realising that I couldn't get out of it ... i duly left my computer and credit cards in the B&B, took off my earrings, watch and anything else shiny .... keeping only some "mugging cash" on me for emergencies (better to have a few notes to hand over than to deny having anything at all) .... but i was pretty nervous as we navigated the dirt track and stopped at the shack of one of the women who leads an HIV support group that we work with ....

.... and then I heard the sound of music from within .... any of you who have ever lived in SA will know why i mention this ... south africans seem to be born with some natural ability to sing perfect four part harmony at the drop of a hat .... and every meeting or gathering starts and ends with music, singing and dancing ... its the sort of singing that seems to lift your soul with it (think the scene with the opera in the shawshank redemption) .... and makes you feel that somehow life can be beautiful after all ...

These women are poor - i mean properly rags-dirt-shack-beggar poor .... and yet they manage to band together each week and walk to visit all the other people in their community who are also HIV-positive to look after them and check they take their medications properly ... they don't ask for payment or glory ... they just do it out of a hope of something better for the whole community .... and when i walked in they greeted me as if i was one of their own .... and offered me hospitality as though i was the queen of england ....


They then proudly showed me their scheme to raise funds for themselves and ensure that they eat healthily .... a small area of green garden amidst the misery of the shacks .... growing sugar beets and sweet potatoes, spinach and tomatoes, papayas and avocados .... they have to dig with their hands and irrigate using precious water they ferry up in jerry cans ... and they don't let men into the group because they just steal the money and get drunk .... (the chap in the picture is my friend Bongani)

I was overwhelmed by what they have managed to do with no training, education or advice .... I reached into my pocket and found my emergency 500 rand (about $75) - and gave it to them for a wheelbarrow, seeds, a spade and some wire to keep out marauding chickens .... the hijackers and muggers would just have to find someone else to demand cash from today ....

Is Al joining the party?

Possibly the best president-who-never-was published an exerpt from his new book - The Assault on Reason today in the Guardian .... and quite aside from the vitriolic attack on the Bush administration ... it could quite easily also serve as an opening salvo for a presidential campaign ...

"The pursuit of "dominance" in foreign policy led the Bush administration to ignore the UN, to do serious damage to our most important alliances, to violate international law, and to cultivate the hatred and contempt of many in the rest of the world. The seductive appeal of exercising unconstrained unilateral power led this president to interpret his powers under the constitution in a way that brought to life the worst nightmare of the founders."

"We as Americans should have "known then what we know now"- not only about the invasion of Iraq but also about the climate crisis; what would happen if the levees failed to protect New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina; and about many other fateful choices that have been made on the basis of flawed, and even outright false, information. We could and should have known, because the information was readily available. We should have known years ago about the potential for a global HIV/Aids pandemic. But the larger explanation for this crisis in American decision-making is that reason itself is playing a diminished, less respected, role in our national conversation.

So - would he again? Could he again?
Would certainly make a change from the endless Hillary-Obama fundraising stories ...

Shades of blackness

There's a furore in South Africa at the moment .... involving the country's pet passions - Rugby and Race ...

It all centres around the man pictured - who has been declared by some of SA's top politicians as being Black ......

How you may well ask .... since the man is clearly White. Very White. Lily White even.

And herein lies the nub of the problem.

Luke Watson comes from an old activist family. His (white) father "Cheeky" Watson famously in the 70s relinquished his position in the Springbok team in protest against the apartheid regime - and instead played club township rugby in an impoverished region of the Eastern Cape.

For this he was arrested, beaten, had his factory burnt down, and the whole (white) family were subject to death threats for being a "kaffirboeties" (or kaffir lovers). For the blacks of the Eastern Cape - he was a hero .... and even coined a struggle chorus - "Siyomlandela u Watson!" (We will follow Watson!) for him.

Switch now to his son .... and despite the fact that Luke Watson captained many national junior teams and is now the captain of the local Cape Town rugby club (the Stormers) - he was not picked this season for the Springbok side. Half the country was furious .... and the other half felt the Watson family had it coming ... (to be fair there was also probably a significant fraction who didn't think he was actually good enough to be picked)

Then to make matters worse - the head of the rugby union overruled the coach and selectors - and personally included Watson in the team - on the basis that "forces" in rugby were still harbouring old-apartheid time grudges against the Watson family and so thwarting their progress ....
"Cheeky Watson was one of us, fighting for the liberation of this country. We cannot have a situation where those children get victimised because of their parents' actions."

The final twist was then for Luke Watson to be declared black by virtue of his family history ....
"Given where he comes from, and where his father deliberately chose to play his rugby, on the dusty, potholed fields of the Eastern Cape townships, Luke comes from a historically disadvantaged community. The coach shouldn't be looking at Watson as a white player. If there are white flankers of equal ability, then Luke should get the nod because of his family's history."

It is amazing however that once again we have politicianss here declaring who is black, and who is not .... it was not so long ago here that the following happened and now its the ANC ... Amandla the Rainbow Nation ...


Sidebar: Funny how this sort of mirrors the debate in the US ... would Obama be black enough on the new SA criteria?

Yet more south africa

The last i promise of "typical" south african stories .... but this one really infuriated me ...

I was at Edendale hospital this week ... yes the one where 80% of the inpatients have HIV .... where TB is second nature .... and where I can't even walk onto the paediatric ward without getting all teary .... and like all hospitals in South Africa - the nurses rule the roost and the doctors wander around looking like shell-shocked bunnies trying to fire-fight emergencies and generally do what the nurses tell them to ...

So despite my trepidation and knowing how it gets to me - I had to see some cases on the kiddies level (natch - i was told to by one of the chief nurses) ... and let me just say here that it is NOTHING like children's wards anywhere that i've ever been used to ... no toy areas or play therapy for these kids ... no bright colours or happy murals .... they just lie three to a bed .... and are so skinny that they actually fit .... and so sick they don't move very much ....

So imagine my outrage when i caught the nurses (all typically "rubenesque" zulu women) on the ward chomping down the hospital meals MEANT FOR THE CHILDREN!! And when i opened my mouth to protest - the ward sister just waggled her finger at me ..... and i meekly knew my place ....

Sometimes africa just bites you in the bum ....

Extreme home makeover ...

The GBF Peter made the big grown-up move and bought a house in Cape Town last year .... a house with a very typical south african story

Great aunt shirley had lived in the house for decades and decades .... until earlier last year - she was murdered on her own porch by the young black kid who had washed her car forever .... Peter only found out about the story when one of the drunks that seem to inhabit every street corner in the city (to be fair the "bergies" are always rather sweet and almost a relief compared with the other types nastiness that infest our streets) told him about the whole affair ....

But thankfully for peter - other gays have started move in to the area (" here comes the neighbourhood") ... and its now a teeming mass of cafes and boutique furniture shops and the all poor bergies are very bewildered ....

Anyhow 6 months after deciding to gut the place and armed with a gay architect, a lesbian builder and a gay project manager (apparently quite the hot team in town) .... peter finally overcame poor aunt shirley's house neglect and design ignorance ... and unveiled the most gorgeous and perfect little house in Cape Town with a very fabulous house warming party ....



It was all cocktail dresses and champagne ....one of those chattering-clattering beautiful parties .... and basically peter's very lovely friends made the place look so good (see above) that amazingspaces.com want to use the property for the movies and model shoots ... obviously we would all have be written into the contract as fixed adornment furniture .... but i think poor aunt shirley would have been very proud ....

PS - party pics and the house in full glory - all photo credits to the very wonderful Lisa Mastronardi

A very south african story ...

Crime, drugs and HIV - any country come to mind?

This story is from an area that I work in - its postcard-picture-perfect with rondavels straight out of a No 1 Ladies Detective agency book and has hills covered in romantic mistiness .... but sadly bugger all else to do but drink and have sex .... which would explain the massive rates of HIV ...

And so the local thieves have caught upon a new way to help while away days in tropical heaven .... you steal the ARV drugs from patients with AIDS (cunningly too weak to fight back) as they leave the ARV clinic .... and you smoke them with weed - which apparently give you a better high than anything else on the local market .... and then hope that it protects you from catching the HIV too .... genius ....

A day in the life of Baghdad

Several of you know that Shashank is currently in Baghdad for a month covering what will probably be the biggest conflict story of our generation .... and so in order to maintain some form of intelligent conversation with him - i've been scouring everything that i can on the situation .... and i am ashamed to realise how immune i have become to reading about what is happening in Iraq .... the newspaper stories feature a body count, a bomb, and a sect .... and then i just switch off .... its just like it was during the wars in Bosnia etc ... or even in general the whole of Africa ... the same story repeated just with different numbers and players ...

Anyhow in an attempt to educate myself - quite aside from Shashank's own blog (what will Playboy make of him now?!) .... I came across the following blog Inside Iraq written by the Iraqi staff of the McClatchy bureau there .... a truly heartfelt account of day to day life in Baghdad - far more poignant and insightful than any newspaper article .... i commend it to you.

Beauty without brains

wish i was clever enough to post videos (if anyone can tell me how please do) .... but this is funny ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZScx-NFhTA

Happy TB Day

Very randomly i recently bumped into a couple of old mates from medical school who are here in SA working at Edendale hospital where by chance i myself work and teach at once a month ... Sanj is there as a paediatrician and Sam as an anaethestist ... obviously as befitted the occasion we shared many memories over many many drinks ... but also - for the first time since arriving in SA - i was able to openly share the experience of whats its actually like being here in the eye of the HIV storm ....

Edendale is a district hospital in Kwa Zulu Natal .... chronically understaffed and under-resourced ... the patients are all poor and black .... and an average medical take brings in over 100 new patients a day ... the casualty department is awash with blood and bullets (sam's first case on her first day here was solo-anaethetising a patient with an axe in his heart) .... and tragically over 80% of the medical in-patients are HIV positive ....

I don't think i can ever really explain the reality of what such figures mean .... percentages just don't convey what you feel when so many people seem to be dying around you .... and you just feel overwhelmed by your inability to do anything at all of any real use .... its as though you are sticking little pink plasters (band-aids in american) of aid, help or arvs on huge stab-wounds on society and watching helplessly as the blood gushes through .... you know that whatever you've done is merely pissing in the wind and you just have to hope that somehow miraculously things are going to get better ... before then having to focus on the next horrific case .... humiliating and utterly apathy-inducing ...

The worst place of all however are the paediatric wards .... i can't even bring myself to go there anymore .... i don't know how the doctors and nurses there face everyday rows of stick thin kids often two to a bed .... most lying listlessly waiting to die (since often they arrive far too late to be able to do anything for them) usually of some complications of their HIV ... its heartbreaking and totally demoralising ....

Edendale truly is at the eye of the HIV storm even in south african terms .... however the tragedy is it is now also at the epicentre of the twin epidemic of TB .... and especially XDR TB ....

Most of you will have seen the articles about XDR TB ... its had lots of very factual media coverage .... but on the coal face - XDR TB means any normal TB drug you have is frankly useless .... and so you put the patient in a side room and usually just watch them die (90% die here) over an agonising few days to weeks .... and then you have the dilemma that you have to isolate them away since so many of the general population are HIV infected that you'd be exposing them to almost-certain death as well ...

And the other kick to our collective balls is that we can't even diagnose XDR TB at the moment essentially until the patient fails treatment for normal TB .... we simply don't have any good testing for it .... so the patient basically has several weeks or months in which to spread the infection around the community before being locked up in the hospital to wait to die ....

Its World TB day today ... and unsuprisingly here at Edendale we're not celebrating ....

TB is one of the oldest diseases known to man (HIV is a merely new kid on the block comparatively .... although a rather uppity ambitious one at that) .... and is the second leading cause of infectious deaths worldwide (about 2 million deaths a year ... second only to HIV inevitably) .... one person is infected every second ..... and about three quarters of all people with HIV here in Africa are co-infected with TB ... its the ultimate double whammy sick joke ....

And although we know how to treat it and treat it well (ie cure it) .... we still don't manage to ... and like HIV it is ravaging through populations both here and in the West ... taking evil advantage of inequitable health systems, poverty and apathy ... and is now totally outwitting our rather feeble attempts to bring it to heel ....

And the scary thing is ... this disease knows how to fly ....

The African Reality Tour - Part Two

Shashank recently wrote a post about "reality tours" in the slums of Nairobi such as Kibera - now not just a quick n' easy source for a story on african poverty ... but also a tourist destination for pity tours ... guaranteed to make you go home realising how lucky you are .... but all seemingly rather sordid with liberal intelligentsia up in arms at this semi-schadenfreude ....

Its an argument i've often had with myself .... i've worked in slums in Peru, India and townships in SA .... but i've also visited them as a "tourist" - including the favelas of Rio and Soweto near Johannesburg .... and i think it is an important thing to do and acknowledge - the favelas aren't even on city maps of rio - and tourists visiting these areas are the only recognition such cities-within-cities get .... aside from the aforementioned press reports of crime, violence and deprivation ....

Khayelitsha is one of the largest townships associated with Cape Town - over 500,000 people live there .... a remnant of the apartheid government ... its inhabitants are poor, black and typically unemployed. Most homes are corrugated iron shacks without plumbing or electricity .... crime and violence (murder, rape and domestic abuse) are rampant and HIV rates hover around 30% ....

Most white South Africans have neither reason nor inclination to be in Khayelitsha .... but the townships are a vital part of the SA culture and way of life .... and despite the crime and poverty - these communities are very tight knit groups who support and celebrate with each other. There is great passion, pride and spirit in the townships and it is unfortunate that others outside don't get to see that part of them. All they often get to see is the miles of shack-like communities lining the highways to/from the airport. In turn - the township dwellers don't think that the affluent and the white bother about or even acknowledge them or their problems .... they feel alienated, rejected and justified therefore in turning their rage against those who ignore them ....

MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières - Doctors without Borders) provides ARV treatment to HIV patients in Khayelitsha and runs a clinic there called Simelela .... and amongst other things, the clinic also serves as the Rape Crisis center for the community. Two of my colleagues, Eric and Carter (young yankee interns on a programme run by Princeton in Africa) volunteer at the Simelela clinic on their free time. Recently MSF and the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) held a march in Khayelitsha in protest against the levels of violence against women called "Take Back the Night" .... only because the nights are so dangerous and crime-ridden .... the protest march had to be held in the day ....

NOTE: Another organization in the area is called "One in Nine". Only 1 in 9 rapes are reported and only 1 in 9 rapes get a proper trial. Much of the crime is "black on black" happening in the communities in which the women live and committed by men they know. The longer we all ignore these women, where they live and what they endure ... the longer it goes on ...

How do you solve a problem like Mugabe?

Robert Mugabe turns 83 today ... and despite recent rumours of ill-health he's promised to party like a 28-year old at his birthday party on saturday ... and even worse to stay on as leader until at least 2010 .... celebrating this news with a lavish extravaganza despite the fact that today the shops in Harare have run out of bread (again), people are out bartering their last possesions for something to eat and the whole nation is seething with discontent at the fact that a bag of maize costs about 4 months worth of average salary ....

Its horrific and flabbergasting that the leader who took over the country from the Brits in 1980 in a wave of hope and goodwill (he's even been decorated by the Queen) has driven the breadbasket of africa and possibly one of the most beautiful countries in the world into complete and utter devastation ...

Inflation rates are 1600% (the highest in the world) and unemployment rests at about 80% .... fuel food and foreign currency are as rare as hen's teeth ... and violent land expropriation to the "war veterans" has left ravaged farmlands incapable of harvest ...

Case in point: a zimbabwean friend of mine took a loan out when he left 10 years ago to study at Harvard medical school and do his PhD there ... essentially 10 years of probably the most expensive education that money can buy ... and he returned this summer to pay off the entire loan with a $100 bill .... and he still got change back ...

The average life expectancy in Zim has fallen to 34 years (some estimates are less than 30 years) - the lowest in the world (the only countries comparable are Lesotho and Botswana due to heinous HIV rates of around 40%) .... hospitals are closing for lack of materials and medical schools closing because students can't afford fees ... doctors are in their 8th week of strike as are teachers with other workers close behind ....

Some estimates put over 3 million people facing starvation in Zimbabwe .... its democracy is in tatters and some of the most draconian press laws and worst civil liberties records in africa (which to be frank is not setting the bar very high ...)

As many of you know - the main opposition party (the Movement for Democratic Change) has been persecuted, hampered and its leaders imprisoned ... the brave bishop of Bulawayo - Pius Ncube - remains one of the few unbowed voices in the country despite horrific harrassment ...

Many are praying that this could be the turning year for them ... as the Zim economy crashes further .... there is no way of avoiding the fact that Mugabe is slowly driving the country deeper into catastrophe with no intention of ever stepping down ... and maybe just maybe - a winter of enough discontent could start the beginning of the end ...

Its unclear if anything anyone does in the west can divert Mugabe from his course ... sanctions, censure and alienation seemed to have had little effect ... and sadly the one african nation that may have had any influence - namely the south african government - remains doggedly silent and by default supportive to this grand-master of african politics (he staunchly helped the ANC through their stuggle against apartheid) .... perhaps all we can hope for is for those 83 years to catch up with him ....

Come on Dover! Move Yer Bloomin' Arse ....

I had my own Eliza Doolittle moment recently at the annual cape town J&B Met ... our answer to Ascot (or the Kentucky Derby or something if you're a yank) .... apparently its been going for the past 30 years or so and is definitely a "Big Deal" socialite event on today's cape town calender ...

People plan their outfits for months in advance according to the annual theme (this year - Black White and Bling) ... and go completely overboard despite the melting hot summer .... everyone vies for one of the coveted hospitality tent tickets .... the whole day is about people watching, drinking and general flouncing around in finery ... with the horses coming in a poor second ....

This year rather nicely for me - Shashank was in town visiting ... and very serendipitously my mate Priya (a local radio DJ) was not only doing her radio show from the Met .... but was also responsible for judging the best dressed couple competition (for anyone who turned up in theme) .... so you'd think the stage was all set for me to win the first prize of a week in mauritius or several 1000s worth of diamonds as second prize etc etc .... but no ... sadly one of the - let's say idiosyncracies of dating an american .... is that his version of dressing up in black white and bling meant essentially a pair of khaki shorts and t-shirt ... yay me ...


That minor disappointment aside - the day was a cracker .... we had a huge picnic with several of my mates .... potloads of wine .... the weather was typically cape-town-beautiful ... and most importantly i/we won big including over 400 rand from one free bet .... although if we're being honest (and not to be all cockahoop) - we'd have won more if shashank had listened to my other race suggestions ... but we'll say no more about that except to note every time we've been gambling together we've won ... and that doesn't tend to happen when shashank gambles solo ...

Still we spent the winnings on the rest of the weekend generally pretending to ourselves after several hard weeks in the field (me in hiv-ridden township SA and S at the Somalian border etc) that we weren't really in africa at all - organic farmers chi-chi markets, gallery openings, yummy yummy food and wine tasting (and a lot of wine-buying) ... Cape Town - the Paris of Africa indeed .....

A Very Un-Valentines Day

This country has a horrible way of biting you in the bum .... just at those moments when you start thinking that a corner has been turned and that there is hope for this country after all ....

I spent yesterday schlepping around hospitals, clinics and GP surgeries in rural mpumulanga (province of SA where Kruger national park is) .... following up on patients, training doctors, etc etc ..... and i suddenly realised quite how much had changed here since a year ago.

At my first training session in this area over a year ago - only three patients turned up, they bolted the doors of the hall and were clearly terrified of being seen there and hence "outed" as being HIV positive ... they wouldn't even leave the room at the same time and certainly wouldn't be seen with any of us foreigners - a sure-fire sign of having AIDS (the only outsiders that come to these parts are do-gooders) ...

A year on - we have to barricade ourselves into the room to avoid the huge mass desperate to to get onto ARVs .... having wider access to treatment and witnessing others in their community actually getting better has definitely reduced stigma and given them hope .... the message has trickled through that knowing whether you are postive is no longer an immediate death sentence and so more people get tested ... and the numbers needing ARVs keeps rising ....

And so it was a rewarding moment realising that a year of our programme had made such a difference to a community .... and importantly to see the patients who had been so pitifully ill just a few months before actually job-seeking and looking well ....

I returned home to my B&B feeling as though I was finally doing something worthwhile .... and over dinner with two of my colleagues we earnestly talked about things getting better for this country after the twin scourges of apartheid and HIV .... and so in between courses we got up to get some fresh air and walked onto the front street ... to be greeted by the sight of a gaggle of young girls all dressed up to the nines ....

This sadly was not some asbo-inducing fest of fourteen year olds gathering for valentines day and just hanging out on the street .... instead these girls were flashing at the passing truck drivers (this being a big timber region and transport route with lots of trucks) ... and if any of them stopped at the traffic lights ... they would clamber onto the bonnet shouting to the driver all the things they could offer him and the price ....

Horrified and yet somehow also fascinated - we ran down to the nearest girl to ask her why she was doing this ... and it was just wrist-slittingly depressing to hear that it was the only way any of them could make money and that often they were sent out onto the street by their families ....

We asked her if she'd ever heard of HIV (of course she had ... there's not a a soul here under the age of 50 here who hasn't) .... and if she used condoms (of course she said she did .... note to all doctors about people telling us what we want to believe ...) ..... and sadly like the good HIV doctor I am - I was of course NOT carrying spare condoms to dish out to all and sundry on the street ....

But within a few minutes - she had a client .... who said that for sex without a condom he'd pay her three times the going rate (about 300 rand - less than 30 quid) ... she looked at us and shrugged her shoulders ... it had been a quiet few days and she wasn't going to turn him down - she needed to eat .... we tried to plead with her and even offered to match the money ... but in a flash she'd hoisted herself up and the driver was shouting obscenties at the interfering foreigners about trying to make him eat sweets with the wrapper on ....

I looked up and noticed he didn't have a seat belt on .... and so here's the rub ... how do you get a nation to start using condoms and avoid a fatal threat which will affect them 5-10 years on ... when you can't even get them to wear a seatbelt to protect against an immediate threat? How do you get people to value their lives when they have so little to look forward to at age 14 that they sell their bodies and potentially their long term health for under 50 dollars?

Where for art thou?

Just so that people don't think from reading either my or Shashank's blogs that Africa is all war, epidemics and car-jackings (although maybe his life is that exciting) .... here's a pic of my weekend having a picnic in the park with mates priya, shaun and lisa before watching open-air shakespeare .... and whilst the acting wasn't quite up to regents park (just imagine Juliet with an Afrikaans accent) ... its still very nice just to pretend that civilisation is just around the corner ....

Another hope bites the dust .....

I feel a bit sheepish since i've been meaning to write about microbicides ever since the Toronto conference last summer (and yes i DID do more than just accessory shop there). I even had a snappily titled post all set up in my head in honour of Gates and Clinton, the chief celebs that i followed around star struck ... although admittedly rather typically never got around to actually writing the post ...

But to summarise post haste - the overwhelming themes at the conference were:-

1) that the face of HIV globally is now the face of a woman (especially a poor black or asian one)
2) that the funds committed to provide ARV treatment to all that need it are never ever going to suffice (despite the best efforts of Gates, Buffet and dare i say George Bush) .... and
3) that the pendulum needs urgently to swing back to prevention efforts (as opposed to solely treatment advocacy) .... BUT a very different kind of prevention this time ...

Stephen Lewis (possibly the greatest Canadian ever) made an impassioned speech regarding the fact that funds such as PEPFAR, originally the largest fund donated to a single disease are now already woefully inadequate for the current state of the pandemic, much less for the projected numbers in a few years time .... three by five might would need to be fifty by ten at this rate .... an inconceivable burden of disease ....

But the one positive message that shone through was that finally sisters might be able to do it for themselves ....

We all know that condoms don't work (correction: condoms could work if only men could be persuaded or even volunteer to wear them) .... and that vaccines are still the same ubiquitous 20 years away that they were 20 years ago .... but microbicides were presented as the possible salvation of every woman in the developing world wanting to protect herself surreptitiously .... (the other breakthrough touted was that some ARV drugs could be taken on a Friday night to protect someone having unprotected sex until sunday night .... a whole new take on "something for the weekend - sir" and not unsurprisingly top of the agenda for the MSM contingent at the conference .... speaking of which I had never seen such a circus at a conference ... there sections for grannies against aids, prostitutes, transvestites, transsexuals, multisexxuals ... frankly anything went and had a stall or an advocacy group .... ).

So it is with great sadness and disappointment that we learned earlier this week that the trials into microbicides had been universally halted in all research centres across Africa because the provisional results showed that women who had used the gel actually had higher rates of infection than women who used the placebo gel .... bloody typical ....

Now it could be because women with the microbicide took more "risks" with the confidence of the gel whereas the placebo group somehow managed to make their men wear condoms or even that the gel candidates were somehow placed at greater risk through some other means (barrel scraping) ... but it does look like the great white hope of a female-centric method of protection has bitten the dust .... a disaster for women on this continent ....

I've just got home from a day in an antenatal clinic in Kwa-Zulu Natal where 80% of all the expecting mums are HIV positive ... someone pass the Prozac and quick ....

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 ....