two and two makes five

I Survived the Big One

One day I'll tell my grandchildren about surviving the Great Cape Storm of Aught-Eight. They'll hear about the hurricane force winds whipping up 30 foot waves to pound the rocky coast and the foot of rain and the softball sized hail that fell throughout Sunday afternoon. So what if gale force winds brought 20 foot waves, a few trees fell, we got five inches of rain, and the hail was pea-sized? It was still one heck of a storm. We're so happy to be headed up to Zimbabwe this week in the hopes that Spring will have finally arrived when we return to the Cape. And by the time I'm old enough to say "aught-eight," the storm will have grown quite a bit.

Zimbabwe / Angola

In Zimbabwe, talks between ZANU-PF and MDC have broken down without an agreement. South African President Thabo Mbeki is meeting with parties separately to try and get negotiations restarted. 

Meanwhile, Angola is preparing for their first elections since 1992. Economic growth is at 24% annually and property prices in the capital Luanda, where a one bedroom apartment rents for US$20,000 per month, have risen by 100% annually for three consecutive years. Luanda has passed Tokyo as the world's most expensive capital city. Oh, and Angolan unemployment is around 50%, 25% of children die before the age of 5, and 2/3 of the population lives on less than $2 per day. Trickle down economics at its best.

Now I'm missing something

Just noticed on my My Yahoo page that the sports scores/schedules has updated to include college football this Saturday. Unlike the Olympics, which I missed but didn't really miss, college football will be missed when I miss it. (Funny language, that English.)

But each year that those defining American experiences are missed, they are becoming less missed. Not sure how I feel about that...

Zimbabwe's Parliament Convenes - No Unity Government Yet

Zimbabwean police arrested several MDC members of Parliament as they entered the government buildings for the swearing in of the new Parliament (elected in March), but that was not enough to stop the MDC's Lovemore Moyo from winning the vote for the powerful position of Parliamentary Speaker. There is no settlement yet in the political crisis, and the two sides seem far apart despite earlier promises of a quick resolution. But today, an important milestone was reached, as the ZANU-PF members sat on the opposition side of Parliament for the first time since independence in 1980.

We're headed back to Zim next week... I doubt I'm going to be invited to a session of Parliament, but we'll give a report when we return on the situation on the ground.

Economically, things are not looking up. Inflation is too high to count, and one US dollar now buys 400 (New) Zimbabwean dollars, which is equivalent to 4 Trillion Zim Dollars before last month's slashing of 10 zeroes off the currency, and is equivalent to 4 Quadrillion Zimbabwe Dollars to 1 US Dollar going back to before the slashing of 3 zeroes the year before.

Did I miss anything?

So they tell me that the Olympics are over. We have a TV, but it works only as a DVD-watching device, since we don't have an antenna ("aerial" for you South Africans) or a satellite dish. Therefore, for more than two years, I haven't watched a television broadcast in my home. That's pretty sad for a boy who was so in love with his Tivo. We didn't see a single race, match, game, meet, or event during these Olympics. I'm sure that's never happened before in my life, but I can't say I feel like I missed anything. I guess I'm getting used to it?

"Arrogance is our speciality"

If you live in the West and are thinking of "helping" Africa, you need to read this post and consider...

Thanks, Keith, for sharing and for challenging.

Back to iKapa

Our three days away from Cape Town took up a couple of weeks on the blog, so I figured I'd prove we really came back home with this shot of the Table Mountain "tablecloth" cloud falling over the mountain toward Cape Town's city bowl - Amy took this a couple of weeks ago:

Kruger Highlights - Sunset Picture Duel

OK, my four blog readers, it's time to comment! Which sunset picture do you prefer? These were taken from just inside the Phabeni Gate at Kruger National Park and have not been retouched or photoshopped. One of them is going on my wall someday... which one?

Kruger Highlights

Again, not inside Kruger Park, but not too far away at the "Three Rondavels" lookout point:

Now you're just messing with me

OK, yesterday I discovered that the lowly and pathetic Georgia Bulldogs were ranked number one in the AP preseason poll.

So I went on over to ESPN.com to do a little reading on the upcoming football season. Clicked around on some headlines and realized that America has conspired to play a big practical joke on me.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are in first place - in August.

August. First place. Rays. These words don't belong together. Ha ha, America! You got me!

So whoever is hacking ESPN.com to display a bunch of fake stories - good one. The Devil Rays finished 34 games out of first place in 2001. 48 games out in 2002. 38 games back in 2003. Big comeback in 2004 brought them to 30.5 games back and in fourth place in their division! Go Rays! They continued improving in 2005 by finishing just out of first place (and back in fifth) at only 28 games back. Sadly, 2006 saw them finish 36 games back and they were 30 games out last year.

Seven years, six last place finishes and one next-to-last place finish. Seven years, average of 35 games out of first place each year.

Now someone wants me to believe that they are in first place in August, 3.5 games up on Boston and 10 games up on the Yankees.

Next thing you know, someone will try and tell me the Braves are below .500.

Good try, America.