Outraged, Depressed, Upset (!)

Thabo Mbeki: a failure, and an embarrassment to the good people of South Africa?

Nothing upsets me quite so much at the moment as the situation in Zimbabwe. While I do like to give vent to some political passion on this site, I tend to keep those messages short and infrequent, in between the usual updates on life in Sydney.

However, I can't bring myself to give the usual jovial update this week. I've got a much greater compulsion to point out what I think is an understated travesty in the current Zimbabwe situation.

Since Ghana was the first African country to gain independence in 1957, far too many African countries have spent too long under the regime of leaders who fail to have any respect for the rights of their people.

Robert Mugabe is clearly such a leader. Since taking power in Zimbabwe in 1980, he has steadily showed his real colours as a despot, a criminal and a murderer. Recent events are part of a steady progression towards anarchy in the country, which Mugabe must be held responsible for.

And now, Thabo Mbeki appears to be another. When South Africa finally emerged from apartheid in 1991 it got a leader that it richly deserved. Nelson Mandela is rightly lauded as one of the greatest leaders of our time. That his successor has been such a disappointment is not what the South African people deserved.

Mbeki too has been in his own downward spiral. Corruption among his closest associates was disappointing, his policy of denial on AIDS/HIV (South Africa has more HIV sufferers than any other country in the world) disturbing, but it's his support for the Mugabe regime that is the most depressing development.

The situation in Zimbabwe brings me to tears. I wish there was more that countries such as the UK and Australia could do to instigate a resolution. But with Mugabe oblivious to pressure from outside of Africa, the only way that social, economic and humanitarian disaster can be avoided in that country is with pressure from other outside parties that Mugabe must rely on - his neighbouring countries.

South Africa is foremost in those, so we should be shocked and outraged that Thabo Mbeki is now trying to persuade his fellow African leaders to recognise Mugabe's completely specious electoral win.

That's the basic facts. I'm not going to go into Mbeki's motives. This article gives a few more details if you are interested: http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=792493

I am relieved to say that Mbeki is leaving office next year, and will be replaced by a rival in his own party, who has made clear his anti-Mugabe sentiments. But in the meantime, anarchy in Zimbabwe will go on.

The South African people are suffering in this too, albeit in a very different way. I don't believe they share Mbeki's wish to shelter an evil dictator. Rather, the front page of one of the daily newspapers in South Africa today called Mbeki's leadership into question over the issue. It's also worth pointing out that, while the paper costs 10 Rand in SA, across the border in Zimbabwe, the price is 15 billion Zimbabwean dollars. Aside from the violence, I can't think of anything else that so well sums up the astonishing failure of leadership... in Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

And we just stand idly by...

Please read this. You will hear plenty about it in the next two weeks. My guess is that it will then disappear from tv screens, as we once again do nothing about it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/18/zimbabwe

A Trip to Fraser Island

I love the greens in this photograph. Beautiful.

For the holiday weekend, Dom and I took a trip to Queensland’s rainforest and beach paradise of Fraser Island.

I already have my big holiday for this year planned – in December I’ll be back in the UK for 3 weeks over Christmas and New Year. As this will drain most of my annual leave, I’m having to be pretty scrooge-like with my holidays for the next few months.
Those crazy, crazy 'roads'.

So with the office closed for a long weekend, and the Sydney weather turning a little more wintry (well, 18C and rainy), it made a lot of sense to get out of the city and seek the warmer climes of Queensland.

Hervey Bay is a 90 minute flight north from Sydney, and the stopping off point for the ferry to Fraser Island. Dom and I had organised a 3-day hire of a Landrover Discovery (see pics), which would be our trusty steed for getting around the road-free, sand-dune covered expanse of Fraser.

Right: eagle-spotted ray, seen from the cliffs at Indian Heads, Fraser Island.

After an unconventional safety video – “do not drive in the salt water, deflate tires to extract yourself from swamps, do not feed the wild dingos, etc…” – we were off on the ferry.

We had been told about the island’s dirt tracks, but hardly expected the all-terrain assault course that awaited us. Half-sweating in fear, and half-laughing hysterically, we tackled the outrageous cambers, giant pot-holes and sand slides that make up the navigable tracks. In fact, this was one of the key attractions for me – awesome fun, and really just like a big advert for 4x4 off-roading.

It got even better after we’d traversed the 15 mile-wide island and reached 75-mile beach on the far side. Driving at up to 90kmph along the beach, running through wash-outs and scattering wading birds was just too much fun!

I should say a little about the natural attractions too. As you can see from the pics, the island has some beautiful scenery – a natural result of the combination of desert, rainforest, lakes and ocean, which is actually pretty hard to find, even in Australia.

One less natural attraction is the wreck of the Moheno, a passenger liner washed ashore in a storm in 1935. The ship had been bought by the Japenese, but was shipwrecked during delivery to its new owners.

Given that it would probably have been used against the Australians in WWII, the grounding can now be considered somewhat fortunate.

Great place, great weekend break, back to work now.

A New Career and A New Home in A New Town (Going Through a Bowie Phase at the Moment)

I belatedly realised that the title of a previous update could have led you to believe that I’ve become as slovenly as to only update the website four times a year.

This update should abolish that impression.

I have a new home. Please see various images of the fantastic views. This is the key selling point. Otherwise it’s a ‘studio’ apartment. Like most real-estate euphemisms, ‘studio’ really just means one big room with a bathroom. I may be dating an artist, but I’m not about to turn into one.

I like the apartment though. It’s small but cosy. There’s a gym and a jacuzzi downstairs. It’s very very near to town. The swimming pool is even closer.

LEFT: Yes, this really is the view!

I’ve been doing a lot of swimming since India. Otherwise I’ve been trying to spend as much time out of doors as I can. After a very poor summer here (by Australian standards), the autumn has been amazing. Every day has been 20C and sunny. As it gets dark by 6pm, its best to do as much as possible outdoors at the weekends.

Talking of weekends, my next adventure will be a trip to Fraser Island for the holiday weekend (6th-9th June). Fraser Island is a fantastic wildlife/beach/ocean getaway. Dom and I are very excited. Actually, I’m amazed they still celebrate the queen’s birthday here. Though if the alternative was one day fewer holidays in the year, I guess I’d celebrate anything.

Happy Birthday Keith. We had another big night out at the Argyll last Friday. This was a more sober moment – must have been near the start of the evening.

Work is going well though. We had our annual fundraiser last week. I was a table host – and conversationalist – for the gathering at the hyper-plush Sheraton Hyde Park. Even though I conversed with a large number of the donors, we still managed to raise a substantial sum on the night. The highlights included an interview between our new CEO and our founder, Senior Australian of the Year David Bussau. We were also lucky enough to have one of our donors from the Philippines in the room. Her presentation was particularly moving, and a great reminder of how much we have, when others have so little. In other words, it was a great prod for the guests to write some cheques!

Chrissie, Rebecca, Karen and Sarah at our fundraiser. Have you ever seen a more glamorous looking finance team???

Another Big Trip to India…

This is the amazing view from Adam and Jo's apartment window. The towering apartment blocks are part of Thane's incredible building surge, reflecting the money brought about by the rocketing Mumbai economy. It's not just money that builds these tower blocks though. Poorly paid labourers live in the slum houses you can see in the foreground. These workers risk their lives daily, working in dismal conditions to earn wages that will keep them in poverty in urban Mumbai, but far exceed what can be earned in rural India.

How many Indian cities can you visit in a week? It seems like four or five if you are on a business trip. I’m just back from my second work trip to India and I had the good fortune to visit four cities I hadn’t been to before:

Hyderabad sits right in the middle of India, towards the south, and is the old capital of the Mughal empire and home to India’s Shia muslim population.

My rather eccentric hotel in Bangalore had a golf course across the road and a gaggle of geese in the forecourt (see bottom of picture).

Bangalore is well known to Brits as the IT capital of India. When a UK-based company hits the headlines for transferring its IT operations to India, this is most likely where they end up (though Hyderabad and Chennai/Madras are also getting in on that action). Bangalore has a great history, though no other Indian city seems to have made quite such a headlong rush towards the twenty-first century. The city has a very modern feel to it, and – typically – development has brought problems as well as virtues: during my stay I was caught up in some of the worst traffic I’ve experienced in any city.

For all its modernity, Mumbai still retains much that is exotic about India. Here you can see goats' feet chopped and ready for sale.

Mumbai is perhaps India’s most vibrant, confronting and news-worthy city. Apartments in some parts of Mumbai cost as much as they do in the more affluent parts of London or New York. Poverty in Mumbai is as shocking as in any other urban location in India. The two things – extreme poverty and extreme wealth – can often be found literally within yards of each other in Mumbai, the electronics and media (ie 'Bollywood') capital of India.

Ahmadabad in North West India is the capital of Gujurat state and famous as the birthplace of Ghandi. In the general aesthetic of the place (the architecture, the people, the enivronment), Ahmadabad feels closest to neighbouring Pakistan, but I was still unable to get a Peshwari Naan in the hotel restaurant.

I had meetings, site visits and work to do in all of these cities, mostly related to the healthcare project that I’m working on for Opportunity. I learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in India and I met a number of people that will be useful contacts in future. If that’s all that happens on one of these trips, it’s a success. In addition to that, I made good progress towards partnering with a couple of organisations to help provide healthcare to the poor – that’s a great bonus.

Another great bonus was the chance to meet up with Adam and Jo in Mumbai and see their home there. It was hard to believe that we hadn’t met up for nearly three years. Within 10 minutes Adam and I were getting along like friends that see each other every day. We had a great laugh buzzing round Mumbai on Adam’s motorbike, buying cheap electronic gadgets (a mobile charger for Rps120 – fantastic! – a hifi for my ipod – awsome! – a speaker system for my mobile phone – lovin’ it sick!), buying furry underwear and paper stamps (ahhhh, don’t ask). Friends like that are just beyond any value. It was also great to meet Freya for the first time – she is gorgeous – and Alastair seemed as loveable and cheeky as his dad. Looking forward to meeting up with them again when I’m back in the UK in 6 months time. (Hopefully I’ll even get the chance to whup Adam’s ass at pool.) They have just bought a great house in Blackburn, where they are moving to when their great three-year Indian adventure ends on 10th June. I really did make it out to see them in the nick of time.

Back in Australia, it has been great to see Graeme and Jill in the last few weeks too. Part of their 3-week holiday here coincided with my India trip, which meant I had to cancel a planned weekend with them in Brisbane. That was a bummer, but we had a good time in Sydney, hitting some restaurants and making the most of the Anzac holiday weekend. I was somewhat disturbed by Graeme and Dom’s shared love for the audio cassette. Though it has to be said that their taste in music was pretty, erm… divergent. And no Graeme, your encyclopedic knowledge of obscure Australian rock music is NOT something to be proud of.

This means that in the space of a week I’ve caught up with three of my best friends. This hasn’t happened for a long time.

Adam and I had a great laugh in India, not least shopping for 'quality' Mumbai souvenirs. Here I am, loving my 'stylish' Rp200 watch sick!!! (Picture of furry underwear to follow!)

So, with some relief, a more uptodate addition to the website. It’s a pity the photos aren’t better though – I just seem to keep forgetting to take pics. I didn’t get a single one off Adam, Jo and the kids. Well, here’s a link to Adam’s site to make up for that:
http://www.clanblack.co.uk/

Ok, time to sleep off the jetlag. I had another flight on the A380 superjumbo this morning, but its hard to appreciate when you're arriving into Sydney at 7am, without having caught a minute's sleep...