Politicisation of Crime

There is an article in today’s Business Day informing us that South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority plans to investigate historical allegations of mass rape by members of ZANU-PF during the build up tp Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections. Although Zimbabwe has not done so, South Africa has ratified the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court. As such, the NPA has been ordered by a high court here in SA to investigate what amounts to ‘crimes against humanity’. Continue reading “Politicisation of Crime”

Pyromaniacs delight!

Sometimes, you really do get what you actually wish for!

I have spent ten years here in this house regarding the shack next door with great disfavour every time I set eyes on it.  It was built illegally, not up to code and has spent its life being rented by some pretty scrofulous peasantry with poor credit records, savage dogs and half witted female companions.  Some idiot judge allowed it to be grandfathered in to the irritation of the County who wanted it demolished.  But finally nature has had its way.  Condemned by the County, deemed unfit for human habitation due to leaking roofs, black mould, insufficient drains and God knows what else, it has finally had its day!

Image

Continue reading “Pyromaniacs delight!”

Weathermania

It’s an A for anabatic and a B for beaver’s tail,
With a C for coriolis and a D for downdraft hail.
El Nino Southern Oscillation, fogbow’s visibility.
Gustinado, glaciation, a hodograph, helicity.

Please excuse my insolation, intertropical I’d say.
Jet streaks all around; and graphed the kilopascal way.
Lenticular, the lapse-rate, mamma clouds and mesonets,
Northern lights and NGMs will end in orographic sweats.

Beware the popcorn (sic) convection; pressure sometimes causes that.
Psychrometric intervention; rossby waves both shear and flat.
Theta-e, a turkey tower, an ultraviolet extreme;
UTC and UVV, with a gentle warm advective stream.

Old X is out of favour here but yougs and yellow winds prevail.
Zones and zulu time, the solar zodiac brings up the tail.
You’ll wonder what on god’s own earth (!) this catalogue of terms can be?
I don’t count sheep. I list like this the words of meteorology.

Shipping Out

I’m off on vacation for the next few weeks, starting Monday, heading for sunny Tortola and a little winter warmth, no cell phone, no internet, no worries, should be back about March 6.

In the meantime here is a wee pome for the weather comp.

 Shipping Forecast

It’s a comfort to know, when the barometer’s low
That Malin’s expecting a gale
It’s a long way from me, and somewhere at sea
Where the wind is beginning to wail

And in the same blow is expected some snow
For Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle
It’s all one to me, I’m Lundy you see
So I listen to this with a smile

The isles of Faeroe, are in an ice floe
Iceland, Viking and Forties – a fright
Cromarty’s sleet, Forth, Tyne, Dogger are beat
By Fisher’s storm in from the bight.

The Humber/Thames rain will cause Dover pain
And Wight will get little sun
Portland, Plymouth they say will be worse than Biscay
And Trafalgar and Fitzroy are done

The Sole chance for me, is the Irish Sea
Which, with Fastnet, may turn it astray
I’ll stay in the house, be quiet as a mouse
And hope that it all goes away.

How to win friends …

French President Francois Hollande today spent about ten hours visiting the Salon de l’Agriculture – not in any sense a vote collecting exercise.  He is apparently not very popular with country people in France, but then he’s not really got a lot of  fans in any section of the population.

A few years ago we too visited this exhibition, which demonstrates the wide range of agriculture in France.  The weather was very cold and snowy in Paris then as now, so it was quite comforting to spend the day in the warmth.  Once you have paid your admission fee, you can actually eat and drink for free from all the samples that are waved in front of you.  There were all the different breeds of French cattle and sheep and pigs and also some foreign guests.  I had to go to greet the Highland cattle on display.  I never knew how many different varieties  of goat there are.  Visitors are not permitted to feed the animals on display, which may have accounted for the very unpleasant expression on the face of a rather large mule.  I’m sure he felt he deserved a carrot for standing there for so long with all these people streaming past him.

Different halls contained the produce of France’s overseas territories, the poultry and rabbits bred in farm yards, hunting dogs, horses and donkeys.  The whole exhibition covers a vast area but the cheese, wine, sausage and other samples keep the visitor going, especially the seafood nibbles from the Caribbean. From the Channel, Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, the Alps and Pyrenees to the pastures of Normandy and other less well-known regions – I even discovered there is a Berry donkey – it was an impressive display of the wealth and variety of France’s produce.

Hollande and friend
Hollande anoints his successor, who quite frankly can’t do a worse job than he is doing.

Weather vain?

You were noon sunshine, no, a heatwave’s blast
That stormed a myriad moons ago
And flooded all my thoughts with monsoon rains
Conspiring youth’s mild innocence to fade

What cyclone’s surge could dim that radiant glance?
What calmed the crashing jet streams of those hours?
Did gathering clouds obscure those flashing eyes
Or grey monotony depress those lighted waves?

(pic courtesy John Constable 1821)

Written by a Ghost

A friend recently told me that established fiction writers of thrillers and detective mysteries use other authors to pen for them. The famous authors have ghost-writers doing the chores for them while they have a break from writing. The reason for this is so that the publishers can carry on cashing in on a “big name”. The ghost writes in the same style as the previous books to give credence to the novel.

This diabolical invention has made me think twice before reading a book in case it is false. Just how long this shady practise has been going on is anybody’s guess. And it has spread to other literary outlets. It is now commonplace for blogs to be written by a ghost. Here again, the ghost apes the unique manners of the real blogger. You can never tell what is what in cyber space. For all you know, this blog could be the work of A.N. Other and not me. Doubt has now been formed, no doubt about it.

Bouncy friends

Has anyone else been receiving odd messages via the DT, presumably from Facebook?   I was told the other day that three people had “unfriended” me, which seems unlikely since I wouldn’t touch Facebook with a bargepole, however heavily disinfected.  Brother-in-law did join, for reasons best known to himself, and put everyone else’s name down.  Today, however, I am informed that two people want to “rebound” with me.   Are there some very bouncy Tiggers out there?  Who would want to deal with such a bunch of illiterates?  Is it American?   (Sorry, LW, nothing personal.)