informage

We are so conditioned (rightly) to shun pyramid schemes, that it's easy to forget we're all part of the biggest pyramid of all:

This week I fly from Cape Town back to the UK. As always, nothing is permanent, but it's a one-way ticket... next time I'm here I'll be visiting. I've been needing to snap myself out of a funk for sometime now, and a transcontinental shift might just do the trick. (I know, I know, it's really about me not where I am but it's worth a try and anyway it'll be great to spend unbounded time with family and old friends again).

It's appropriate in the week I leave this nation that has been my adopted home for the last five and a half years to point to a couple of good S'African blogs. Firstly Ian's Neverness has been subscribed in my newsreader for a while. He's a cool Capetonian who I unfortunately never engineered to meet, but I've enjoyed reading his writing on politics, free and open source software, Africanism and green stuff.

Ian posted a link to a blog called Red Star Coven, written by Walton - a S'African in Scotland. His latest post "I hate Afro-optimism" strikes a chord with me, partly because I myself have at times fallen into the trap of blind Afro-optimism in reaction to the obnoxious and racist voice of whiney pessimism that emanates from privileged whites here.

Ian's response is intelligent and impassioned, musing on the parallax of perception* between positivity and negativity, pessimism and optimism, that Walton's critique can be inverted into a positive appraisal by simple fact reversal. I spend a lot of time thinking in just this way. Great post Ian, thanks.

Having said that, I find myself tending towards Walton's perspective. I'm extremely impressed with what I've read of his blog thus far and will be reading it regularly.

* I've evidently been reading too much Zizek but to my credit I used to be in a band called Parallax, and we chose that name because like Zizek we regarded it as word with a significant and underused denotation - that where you stand shapes your point of view.

David Cameron will today unveil radical plans to harness the power of the internet by reaching out to a blogging generation that is disaffected and disconnected from mainstream politics.

At the heart of the initiative, which is designed to make the Tories one of the most technologically progressive parties in Europe, is "webcameron" - a website for video blogs by their leader. Mr Cameron will provide regular clips with him speaking direct to camera, as well as written blogs and podcasts.

Tories unveil their secret weapon: 'webcameron', The Guardian, September 2006

The villagers have spent the last six decades dressing up in home-made US army uniforms, drilling with bamboo rifles and parading beneath the Stars and Stripes in the hope of enticing a delivery of cargo once again.

They have even hacked air strips out of the jungle and built crude wooden aircraft to tempt the speedy return of American generosity.

Culture clash in the South Seas, BBC News, May 2004

(format of juxtaposed quotes as commentary shamelessly lifted from Billmon)

I’m stating the obvious when I say I haven’t been keeping my blog very up to date recently. Just look down and you can see that. In the meantime I do post links of interest to my delicious account which you can also see down on the right.

Later…

John Spencer, a wonderful American character actor, died on Friday of a heart attack. I never met the guy, but I'll miss his acting a lot. I have many fond family memories of sitting around watching him on LA Law as a kid, and when I finally decided to give The West Wing a try after many recommendations a couple of years ago, Spencer's charmingly intelligent character Leo McGarry did much to warm me to the show. In particular his portrayal of alcoholism - 'I don't want just one drink, I want ten' - gave me more insight into addiction than any educational pamphlet.

In a sick and twisted pastiche of postmodern irony, I was watching the episode where Leo demonstratively suffers a heart attack pretty much at exactly the same time that the actor was dying of the real thing. I had to double-take the headline - my immediate reaction being 'but he didn't die, it was a non-fatal heart attack'. Tragically in this detail, life didn't mirror fiction.

I love The West Wing, at least the first few seasons for sure. It started to decline with the departure of Aaron Sorkin, but before that the scripts are some of the best dramatic writing around., and since then it's still been darned entertaining. Jamie Zawinski calls it his "favorite fairy tale" (sic - he's a yank and thus cannot spell). I really can't disagree with that. There's a cloying yet comforting sweetness to the idea of the world's biggest superpower being run by a group of smart committed principled people who deeply understand the value of service. If only...

Staying with the maritime theme, here's a wave that hit our harbour last weekend. At the time I was sitting mere metres away in our local - the Brass Bell - and heard some murmurs about some people being swept into the sea. We considered joining the throng of spectating tourists, but in true hardened local fashion instead sipped on our beers. Only later on seeing this shot did I realise the scale of what happened. Fortunately both these tourists were rescued by some courageous locals. I imagine they'll be a little more wary of high seas in future (picture courtesy of Martin and Callan - they both sent me copies).

It's whale season in Cape Town and one of the joys of living now in Kalk Bay is that they cruise right past our balcony. Today they were countless whales cavorting around, some nearby and some far. Two in particular Chris and I spied swimming almost into the harbour and so we promptly rushed down for a closer look. These are the somewhat unfortunately named Southern Right Whales, superficially not the most beautiful of creatures but with a striking sentient presence. In the glorious heyday of whale hunting (sarcasm intended) they were named for being the "right" whales to hunt, having an exceptionally high fat yield.

When we got to the harbour even the hardened local fisherman were stopped and gazing in awe. The two leviathans on the right were swimming past the harbour entrance just a metre away from us, barnacle-encrusted backs undulating through the waves. Southern right wales have no dorsal fin, so the protuberance you can see above left results from a lazy sideways roll. Despite their immense size they will sometimes playfully launch themselves out of the water, a behaviour known as breaching. Whilst my attention was focused on the couple nearby, a more distant whale began a series of breaches, perhaps in a bid for attention. My shot is a bit blurry as the whale was at a good distance, but my timing was good!

Well it hasn't quite gone yet, but the indications are that the island nation of Tuvalu (home of the .tv Internet domain) is gradually being consumed by the Pacific Ocean.

"They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years and hell, we're not using it anymore."