Tag: south africa

just Panama things

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I say Panama, you say…?
Well, it’s going to be one of two things: “hats” or “canal”. OK, or possibly “Jack’s”  if you’re Capetonian and into dockside seafood.

The Canal famously goes right through Panama twixt Panama City and… er… Colon, so that’s a valid Panamanian thing (also, it’s ‘currently being extended’, but… but how?).
The hats, however, infamously actually originate from Ecuador, which is but one Colombia away from Panama, but isn’t Panama. They are definitely hats though.

There is another Panama thing. A biggie, too. The Disease. If you’ve ever had Panama Disease, then frankly I’m amazed that you’re reading this. Not just because it’s invariably fatal, but moreover because it only affects bananas.

Fusarium oxysporum – that’s your problem, right there. It’s untreatable. And it’s been an issue for a while, prompting lines like:

The banana industry was in a serious crisis, so a new banana thought to be immune to Panama disease was found and adopted, the Cavendish.

But now even the trusty, sturdy Cavendish is becoming threatened by a new variant of Panama Disease: “Tropical Race 4”.
And it’s serious. Because Banana Business is Big Business: R5.7 BILLION Business each year in North Queensland alone. NQ is panicking a bit, because the catastrophic Northern Territory banana crash of 1997 – yes, caused by that fungal bastard – is still very fresh in the memory. The NT banana industry has never really recovered either, because the Fusarium spores can hang around in the soil for 30 years or more, just waiting for their next bananary host to be planted and then killing it, and with it, the local industry.
The concern is that NQ may well go the same way.

We’re not immune here in South Africa, either.

Fusarium wilt (Panama disease) is responsible for severe Iosses of Cavendish bananas in two of the six production areas of South Africa: Kiepersol and southern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The disease first occurred in KZN in 1940, and from there spread to Kiepersol with infected plant material, where it resulted in 30% Ioss of banana fields between 1991 and 2000.

The biggest problem with bananas, aside from their irritating habit of being green when I want to buy them in Woolies, is that they reproduce asexually. Poor things. Asexual reproduction doesn’t allow for much genetic variation though, and so if Daddy banana is wilting (careful now), Baby banana is going to get it too. Bad news for bananas generally.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. But that’s kind of the point here. No-one has the answer: it’s another case of us so-called brilliant humans being outwitted by a microbe. Now, not only it it the case that we are all going to die horrible deaths soon, we’re not going to have any bananas to eat while we’re doing it.

Setting Suns

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Passenger joins a long line of artists who have filmed a video in and around Cape Town while touring out here (see Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Kasabian et al.).

Says Mike:

hello everyone ,
the whispers world tour came to an end on sunday so i thought i’d post a little video that we made over the last few days in CAPE TOWN. i can’t quite believe how beautiful that city is .
SOUTH AFRICA has undoubtedly been one of the highlights and fantastic way to end this adventure !!!!
the whispers tour took me and some of my best friends around the world and i’ll never forget seeing such beautiful things with such incredible people .
the song is called “setting suns” and it felt like a fitting sentiment .
as always , please feel free to hit the share button if you like what you see 🙂
thank you all so so much .
mike xxxx

I know that music people have their stage personae and that we can’t believe everything we see or hear from them, but Mike Rosenberg really does seem to be a very nice, gentle, down-to-earth kinda guy who demonstrates only a mild hint of creepiness when staring into the middle distance on the video.

The video features dolphins, penguins, gannets and seals, Camps Bay, cable cars and er… the setting sun (just one of it, despite the song title) – plus some bonus scenes from the Kirstenbosch concert.

Podcast Update

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A recent chat about podcasts reminded me that I should probably let you know where I am with my podcast selection.

Here’s what’s currently on the Podcast Addict front screen:

  • Frank Skinner on Absolute Radio [link]
  • Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 [link]
  • Guardian Football Weekly [link]
  • Justin Moorhouse About 30 Minutes Never More Than 45 [link]
  • Radcliffe & Maconie [link]
  • The Bugle [link]

Frank Skinner’s show is the ±75 minutes of talking from his Saturday morning radio show. He’s joined by Emily Dean and Alun Cochrane. It takes a while to get into their personalities and the clique of the whole thing, but once you’re there, it’s often amusing.
Friday Night Comedy alternates between the brilliant Now Show (Steve Punt, Hugh Dennis et al.) and the News Quiz with Sandy Toksviki and Jeremy Hardy. Always funny. As comedy should be. 30 minutes per week.
The Guardian Football Weekly with C4’s Football Italia guru Jame Richardson, has two 45 minute episodes each week. This season, they seem to have taken the decision to move to a more relaxed format, and it’s better for it. Very informative and enjoyable.
Justin Moorhouse is what I think of when I think ‘podcast’. It’s hugely informal: just him, a Northern comedian, going about his weekly business, chatting to friends and family. I think the title tells you how long each weekly episode is.
Radcliffe and Maconie’s BBC 6 Music show is condensed into 25 minutes a week: it’s interesting, but it’s too short and leaves you wanting more.
The Bugle is John Oliver and Andy Salzman’s online audio comedy vehicle. It’s very, very funny, very topical and often quite near the knuckle.

In addition to this, I’ve been downloading Nemone’s Electric Ladyland shows from BBC 6  Music. 2 hours of brilliant, brilliant electronica each Saturday night. It reminds me of recording off the radio onto your TDK C90s. Hashtag Old Skool.
It also stands as a reminder of just how bad music radio is in South Africa. Which isn’t so great.

Excluding the Nemone shows, that’s around 4 hours of podcasts each week, which is just about enough for my sitting in the traffic. All other audio moments are filled in with Nemone and/or music on the iPod. Anything to avoid 5fm and Cape Talk 567.

I’ve settled into a happy place with this now, but still, as ever, please share any recommendations below.

SA signs nuclear deal with Russia

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And it’s a biggie. Fifty billion of your American Dollars. Instantly, there were two camps mobilised on social media; Firstly, there were those that were opposed to the it because of the sudden and apparently clandestine nature of the agreement, and the inevitable palm-greasing opportunities it provides for the 72nd and 127th ranked nations on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2013.
And then secondly, there were those who were opposed to it because of Chernobyl. Ugh.

I can’t do much about the first problem. As South Africans, we’re (sadly) naturally conditioned to assume that any governmental activity is, in some way, ethically flawed in a financial sense. Of course, the truth is that quite a lot of governmental activity is corrupt. You’d probably have to ask someone with more time and more love for statistics than me to find out “exactly” how much. (Try AfricaCheck or Ivo Vegter.)

However, that doesn’t mean that all governmental activity works that way. But, the assumption is to assume corruption first, and then continue to assume corruption even when there’s no proof. That’s a rod that the ANC has made for its own back and it’s going to be a difficult rod to remove.

The second issue irritates me. While Chernobyl (which actually in is Ukraine, of course, not Russia) was obviously a catastrophic incident, it’s been 10,378 days since that fateful day and I think I’m pretty much safe in saying no further Russian Soviet nuclear power plants have blown up in the intervening period. It’s also a bit foolish to assume that Soviet Russian technology hasn’t moved on during those 28½ years.
Likewise, Harland and Wolff is still a going concern, despite having built the Titanic (#NeverForget).

Things change.

What I don’t think people have considered is the alternatives to Russian nuclear power. We could do solar, but I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations and I reckon that to achieve the 9.6GW capacity planned for this nuclear thing, we’d need something about 33 times the size of the current largest solar park in the world. That would cover 32,043 hectares and would cost about $33 billion. Oh, and since solar only operates at about 25% (Agua Caliente’s nameplate capacity is 290MW, but its average production is just 71MW, because “cloud” and “dark”) we’d never actually get near the 9.6GW anyway.

Wind, then? At 3MW per massive 145 metre (90m hub + 55m blade) turbine, you’d need 3,200 turbines! And that’s assuming 100% efficiency. Wind farms don’t do 100% efficiency. Wind farms only do about 30% efficiency (and I’m being nice here). So basically 10,000 turbines to guarantee that 9.6GW figure. If you’ve seen the blot on the landscape that is the Dassiesklip Wind Farm near Caledon, you’ll see how much of an eyesore just 9 (nine) turbines can be. And how much space they take up.
Dream on.

So…
Tidal, wave? Laughable.
Coal? No-one like coal.
Beaglegas? Far too dangerous. Makes Chernobyl look like an ideal day out for the local primary school.
Natural gas from fracking? Makes perfect sense, but the bunnyhuggers don’t like it.

Of course, the bunnyhuggers don’t like nuclear either, but they don’t seem to be able to come up with any viable alternatives. Alternatives, yes, but not viable ones. They might as well suggest a big team of hamsters on bikes.

But the nuclear deal seems to be all signed and sealed, so I suppose that my pontificating or that of anyone else is of little consequence. I think nuclear is a good way to go. I just hope it’s done right, without backhanders and naughtiness.

Footy tonight and footy past

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I’m off to watch South Africa take on African Champions and second-tier Ebola carriers Nigeria at the Cape Town Stadium this evening. It’ll be my fourth time watching the national team and I have yet to see them win.
Or… er… draw, actually.

The first Bafana Bafana game I saw was seven years ago yesterday, as it happens: Zambia in an Afcon qualifier at Newlands. South Africa weren’t very good that day and Chris Katongo scored a hattrick in 11 minutes for Chipolopolo ruining the return of Benni McCarthy from international exile. It finished 1-3. It wasn’t great.

And then, because of the World Cup and the politics of SAFA, we didn’t see another Bafana game in Cape Town until after the World Cup. Then, we got to see them play the USA at the Cape Town Stadium in the Nelson Mandela Challenge in November 2010. South Africa weren’t very good that day, and lost to a second half goal from Juan Agudelo.

We shouldn’t forget the last time I saw them, either. 8th January last year, against a decidedly under-strength (read: “B-team”) Norway. South Africa weren’t very good that day and eventually lost a really, really boring game to Tarik Elyounoussi’s goal just before half time.

South Africa have won one first-class game at the Cape Town Stadium: a 2-0 win against the Central African Republic in March last year. I wasn’t there, but I was reliably informed that the Central African Republic weren’t very good that day. And yes, there were the CHAN games too, but those don’t really count.

So Bafana’s record is fairly unspectacular in Cape Town, and even more so when I’m watching them. New coach Shakes Mashaba has requested everyone to come out and support the team this evening, but if he knew my history with watching his side, he’d probably be less keen to see me there.

The stadium in Sudan was fully packed to capacity. I hope it will also be the case in Cape Town.

Well, no it won’t. I’m not sure what sort of crowd they’re expecting, but I am told that the lower tier has sold out and they’ve opened up the second tier for bookings. That would probably mean somewhere between about 25,000 and 30,000 tops.

I’ll try and snap a few photos this evening and put them on twitter (tonight) and Flickr (maybe tomorrow).