Browsing the French morning paper over breakfast ,my attention was caught by a very unflattering close-up photograph of a woman’s mouth , her lips in a tight ‘O’ and her tongue cradling something brown. What !! Thought I; and on closer inspection discovered that the great annual French cherry-pip-spitting season had begun. This led me to musing about the human obsession with spit, spit spot, spit shine, spitting image , I spit in your eye and were I actually to do so, you would be so insulted that we would be duelling at dawn.
While it seems that most cultures frown at spitting, some do not. But before I venture down this path I must point out quite strongly that there is spitting and spitting. The spitting in central Asia and China involves deep sinus purging which is practiced so publicly and offensively that a large part of the Beijing pre-Olympic budget went into trying to convince the locals that public spitting is frowned upon in the West and - so as not to offend the foreign devils - would the Chinese please stop with the spitting already.
Spitting seems to be a national pastime in central Asia. It first struck me in Samarqand in Uzbekistan. Where suddenly I realised that the pavement was covered in the yellow oyster-like contents of the nations sinuses, which to me seemed somehow worse than dog pooh. This has got to be the most vile and disgusting habit known to man. With a loud sniff and guttural hawking the result of the horrific noise is then plop-splat expectorated onto the most convenient pavement. I can deal with many things but this was just one step beyond. I promtly stopped looking at the pavement; Samarqand is a good place to sort out those lingering posture problems.
In Urumuqi , China, the art of spitting is very well developed . My worst spit memory is that of a well dressed Chinese woman who in a fairly upmarket hotel felt the need to expectorate just before entering the elevator we were all waiting for. So this well groomed lady proceeded with the snarfing, the hawking and the spit into the ashtray, with precision that spoke of many years of experience. I was in a state of horrified shock.
As these memories overwhelmed me this morning I abandoned all hope of further nourishment . If you too are enjoying a meal at this point I do apologise; but I felt the spit obsession deserved some research and did a quick surf to see what the internet could tell me about humans and spit.
Typing in ' Why do humans spit?' Led me into areas of the internet inhabited by the semi-literate and foulmouthed . It also taught me that India rivals China in the love of public spitting. I discovered that most people find spitting an utterly repugnant habit but nowhere did I find why humans feel the need to spit in public . But it does seem to hang together with the acceptability or not of performing other unmentionables in public. The distinction must lie in levels of poverty and living space. The richer a nation the more it can afford clean public toilets, tissues ,handkerchiefs and other niceties that make living together more pleasant
Next I typed in ‘spitting and superstition ‘ as my mother brings from her north eastern German childhood strange quirks that make her believe that to admire ones hands brings bad luck, which is only dispelled if one quickly spits on them. Please remember that this type of spitting is a front of mouth, more air than liquid, variety. A form of spit that is also practised in the Greek culture where, after receiving a compliment it is considered wise to spit on your person- three times- to fend off the evil eye. Fisherman spit on their nets for the same reason and in the film ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ we are introduced to the strange Greek habit of spitting on the bride for good luck. I have visions of the Chinese doing this and … eurrgh there goes my appetite for lunch.
The business of spitting for good luck is also found in Africa amongst the Massai. The Massai are great believers in spitting for luck ,they will spit on children, on people they are pleased to see and on their hands before shaking hands to seal a promise - boys in the west still do this, despite the general cultural taboo of spitting- the explanation given for the Massai love of spitting is that they believe that when it rains god is spitting on earth. It follows therefore that to spit and be spat upon is a very good thing. So if you have a secret desire to spit or be spat upon a visit to the Massai of Africa will find you in good company.
Even the bible mentions spitting in two different contexts, that of shaming by spitting in someone’s face and blessing which is apparently something Jesus did by spitting on followers to heal and ward off evil spirits. Spitting is obviously a deeply imbedded human behaviour and ,as with most primitive human behaviour ,our overwhelming competitive drive kicks in even when spitting. When I asked my search engine to find spitting competitions the most purse lipped of all countries, America, came up tops for variety.
The watermelon pip spitting competition and the cherry pip spitting competitions are the most frequently practiced and the cherry spit has now claimed international status and is practiced as fervently in Europe as America ; it possibly even originates on the European continent . In Spain there is the olive pip spitting competition that draws no less than 25 000 spectators. There seems to be a great fascination with the distance an olive pip can be spat. While spitting pips might seem a fairly harmless thing to do, the dead cricket spitting competitions of America take spitting onto an altogether more bizarre plain. The competition rules require that competitors place a dead, brown house-cricket of between 45 and 55 milligrams fully in their mouths and spit it as far as possible. The spit is only valid if the whole cricket hits the ground. Judges check the missile for the full contingent of six leg ,four wings, one body, a head and two antennae. The world record for spitting a cricket is held by Daniel Capps at 32 feet and one half inch. Now while the Americans are a strange bunch they do not hold the record of the most bizarre spitting competition, that distinction ,I believe, must fall to the South Africans.
The South Africans are great fans of the art of spitting ‘Bokdrolle’. What this translates to is people putting a ball of Kudu dung - the balls are tiny I admit - into their mouths and seeing who can spit it the furthest. Now these are people who under normal circumstances would shudder at the thought of touching a piece of animal pooh, let alone put it in their mouths. But tell them that it is in the quest to see who can spit said piece of pooh the furthest, then all inhibitions are lost and pooh is spat about with abandon. There are hardly any rules for the spitting of pooh but it is commonly understood that a certain amount of very strong liquor should be consumed before, during and after the event.
From this all this information I concluded that humans are hardwired to spit and started surfing the bonobo monkey - as we share 98% of our DNA with this primate- to see how far back in our evolution this tendency manifests itself. My research showed positive results; the bonobo are great fans of spitting on hands and sharing spit i.e. kissing- now that is some spit that nobody goes eww at- and we do seem to share far more behavioural traits with bonobos than just spitting . These are monkeys that also enjoy sex ,a lot, all the time .Both the hetro- and homosexual variety. But that is another story.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
You just don't listen
All my life I have had men nailing down my ‘problem’ with the words ; ‘You know what your problem is? You just don’t listen’. My family, friends, lovers and husband and all said the same. So of course when everybody is telling you the same thing you must assume that there is some truth in it.
I decided some self improvement was needed and took action. I would really make an effort to listen to the men in my life. I bit my tongue and opened my mind to the possibilities. Often I got very bored and struggled to remain awake but I really did try to listen. And then, when the men finally took a moment to catch their breath, I took the opportunity to make my reply; only to be shot down with the same old complaint ‘You haven’t been listening to me!’
At the end of last year when once again standing accused of not listening I decided instead of action I would think deeply about my problem of not listening. What was I doing wrong? I had read the self-help books on listening. I was looking the man of words in the eye, giving my undivided attention and allowing him endless time to get to his point – when is the conversation no longer a conversation but a monologue – before I started composing an answer. Despite all this I still stood accused of not listening.
Finally after another sleepless night tossing and turning over this seemingly unsolvable mystery I hit on the answer.
It is not that I don’t listen to the men in my life, it is that I don’t often agree with them that offends them so. How can I possible have been listening to their great wisdom and not agree? It can only mean one thing; you just haven’t been listening.
I decided some self improvement was needed and took action. I would really make an effort to listen to the men in my life. I bit my tongue and opened my mind to the possibilities. Often I got very bored and struggled to remain awake but I really did try to listen. And then, when the men finally took a moment to catch their breath, I took the opportunity to make my reply; only to be shot down with the same old complaint ‘You haven’t been listening to me!’
At the end of last year when once again standing accused of not listening I decided instead of action I would think deeply about my problem of not listening. What was I doing wrong? I had read the self-help books on listening. I was looking the man of words in the eye, giving my undivided attention and allowing him endless time to get to his point – when is the conversation no longer a conversation but a monologue – before I started composing an answer. Despite all this I still stood accused of not listening.
Finally after another sleepless night tossing and turning over this seemingly unsolvable mystery I hit on the answer.
It is not that I don’t listen to the men in my life, it is that I don’t often agree with them that offends them so. How can I possible have been listening to their great wisdom and not agree? It can only mean one thing; you just haven’t been listening.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Renewable energy in South Africa
Play leapfrog not catch
There are moments in history that shimmer with possibility. Lucky are the few who find themselves at the right time and place to take full advantage of the opportunities these moments bring. South Africa is presented with just such a moment now.
The age of Renewable Energy Technology is ready step onto the world stage, and it will be the lead actor for decades to come. Generating renewable, clean, cheap - possibly totally free - energy will be the technology from which will come the greatest innovations of the near future. Renewable Energy Technology will be the biggest and fastest generator of jobs seen in decades .The nations that make developing Renewable Energy Technology their top priority now; will be the leaders of tomorrow.
Africa has a tremendous advantage in this field precisely because it is energy poor. Before the start of the IT age it was commonly believed that Africa would never catch up with the technology of the West. With the arrival of wireless technology Africa didn’t need to catch up, but within ten years simply leapfrogged into a future that it took the developed world hundreds of years to reach. Today Africa is in the same position to leapfrog over the dirty, unsustainable, polluting energy technology of the developed world and become energy rich without further disturbing the balance of nature. Africa is in a position to be a leader in a world where trade and commerce must factor in the value of clean water and air, a world where people labour to create things that enhance the human condition, without destroying the ecosystem that sustains them.
While Governments of the energy hungry developed world know that the prospect of future climatic chaos can no longer be dismissed by clever spin doctors; they are prevented from taking decisive action in developing and implementing the technology of what will become the next age of progress- the age of clean renewable energy- because of their heavy financial investment in antiquated dirty energy technology.
Africa does not yet have the massive investment in dirty energy, it does not have the outdated energy grids it doesn’t have even a small percentage of the coal burning plants it needs to bring energy to all Africans. This is a blessing in disguise as investment in the development and creation of clean energy could become a major new industry in Africa; providing not just clean energy but clean jobs. Unlike the politicians of developed nations the leaders of Africa do not have to convince their voters to move from old and comfortable dirty energy to clean sustainable energy in order to prevent a still debated future of climatic chaos. African leaders can justify the implementation of completely innovative energy technology with immediate human need.
In the 1998 South African White Paper on Energy the then minister said that the energy policy ‘did not intend to reinvent the wheel’. Eleven years on we have discovered that the wheel is central to the planets climatic problems and reinventing it or throwing it out altogether is very much part of the energy policy of the developed world. Just skimming through the White Paper I came across the following statement. “We must open our economy to global industries, and by supplying cheap efficient energy we can do so”. Yes, quite right, but in the context of today’s thinking so very wrong. Of course global industries are looking at South Africans ample supply of cheap energy in combination with its easy come easy go environmental policies with delight- South Africa is 14th in the world for CO2 emissions and its energy use to production ratio places South Africa 10th in the world for inefficient energy use. For a small, sparsely populated country where 40% of the population are not yet linked to the national grid these figures are shocking.
For dirty fuel hungry industries, that are increasingly forced to shape up environmentally in their own countries, South Africa is the last outpost. Even the Chinese are looking at South Africa for cheap energy (that is about as bad as it gets) and considering what the Chinese managed to do to their own environment within the space of 20 years this does not bode well for the rivers, air and people of South Africa. While China continues to consume Africa’s dirty energy, spewing pollutants into African air; the Chinese government has woken up to the fact that it can no longer pollute its own country the way it has been doing or its people will no longer be able to breath. China is currently in the race to produce clean renewable energy at home and it’s government passes stricter emission and pollutant controls daily. So for whose benefit is China coming to South Africa?
The biggest hurdle in getting South Africa to fully embrace new energy technology is it’s massive coal resource –South Africa is the fourth largest hard coal exporter in the world- these exports bring 23.4 billion ZAR into South Africa annually . A massive part of the annual budget, and a very difficult thing to imagine the country doing without. But the fixation with monetary cost - as it is understood today- prevents decision makers from seeing that the value of clean air, clean water and every other environmental thing that dirty energy impacts on will all be hard costs that will have to be factored into every energy budget in the very near future. In that context it would not be far fetched to state that; within 20 years from now the fully factored cost of energy from fossil fuels will be so high that South Africa’s coal will no longer be the cheapest but most expensive fuel on the planet. It is not inconceivable that producing energy from any fossil fuel will be outlawed or morally condemned- much like whaling is today- and global communities will enforce sanctions on any industry or country that insist on using them.
The world’s great financial power houses are squaring up for a battle to see who will lead this energy revolution, but they are hindered in taking the quantum leap that is required by their existing technology. The biggest end user of dirty energy is the domestic house. While factories might seem to be the biggest consumers; it is in the service of the houses of man that all this energy consumption takes place. But due to the glut of houses in the developed world, changing the way houses are built is not even on their think tank agendas.
The need for housing is well understood to be the social foundation for any country. It provides not only shelter but stability and pride of ownership. The possession of a house settles the society and allows it to grow beyond its basic needs of food and shelter. But in a world where Renewable Energy Technology will soon become central to all thinking, the house should not be seen as just a basic social requirement, but central to the fiscal growth of a country. I believe the house of the future will be the catalyst for all the technologically advances that we will make in the next decades and will sweep away thinking that we believe is entrenched and unchangeable.
Technology moves fast; take the IT example, in 20 years we have moved from a communications Dark Age to a present where we know and accept that we will leap forward with better, smaller, cheaper communications on a daily basis. The age of Renewable Energy Technology will be the same. The coal fired power plants that are being constructed now and are expected to start producing energy in 2023 may never be used.
The chronic housing shortage in South Africa combined with government commitment and control over the building of these houses -and the governments stated aim to provide affordable energy to poverty stricken and rural households- makes the South African RDP house potentially the greatest nursery for clean Renewable Energy Technology in the world. Never has a government been presented with such an opportunity to promote and fund Renewable Energy Technology through tax incentives, design competitions and global partnerships with companies that already have done the technological spade work, but are waiting for a large investor to allow them to scale up.
If the South African Government included a ‘zero energy use’ standard (the house is designed as an energy producing unit which creates all its own energy) in the design requirements of the RDP house, these houses could instantly provide the scale needed to make new energy sources, new building methods and materials more cost effective than traditional brick and mortar fossil fuelled houses. In a society that is not yet dependant on six electrical gadgets to shine its shoes and another four to brush its teeth, the concept of a zero energy use house is totally feasible with existing technology. With a zero energy use standard, the government could conceivably not only provide free energy to these households, but the houses could sell back energy to the national grid, producing income for the RDP household or for the government ; thereby offsetting an initial increase in building costs. The increase in building cost of the RDP housing energy unit should also been seen against the elimination of the need to build more power plants and electrical grids and the incalculable advantages for the health of the people and the planet. With new South African design innovation and production the RDP house could become a self sustaining, energy producing unit that could provide the blueprint for international housing and building standards.
In 2008 the then Minister of Energy claimed that South Africa couldn’t supply the 100 000 solar heating systems they had planned for because South Africa doesn’t have the capacity to build them. So build the factories, create the jobs, invest in the future; the renewable energy race has only just started and nobody on the planet has the answers. The Danish government is in the forefront of wind energy but their only distinction is that they are first. It doesn’t mean that they are the best or even right. Their technology it is based on a 7000 year old design – Chinese were using windmills to power their water pumps in 2000 BC- this is like using carrier pigeons to deliver our emails. The future in clean energy has not yet been written and South Africa with it’s first world infrastructure , the knack of it’s people to be innovative thinkers , it’s culture of entrepreneurship and it’s intricate knowledge of low energy living conditions is perfectly positioned to be a world leader, innovator and exporter of renewable clean energy and clean energy systems.
South African could leapfrog the world and become a leader in clean Renewable Energy Technology. Will you grab the chance?
There are moments in history that shimmer with possibility. Lucky are the few who find themselves at the right time and place to take full advantage of the opportunities these moments bring. South Africa is presented with just such a moment now.
The age of Renewable Energy Technology is ready step onto the world stage, and it will be the lead actor for decades to come. Generating renewable, clean, cheap - possibly totally free - energy will be the technology from which will come the greatest innovations of the near future. Renewable Energy Technology will be the biggest and fastest generator of jobs seen in decades .The nations that make developing Renewable Energy Technology their top priority now; will be the leaders of tomorrow.
Africa has a tremendous advantage in this field precisely because it is energy poor. Before the start of the IT age it was commonly believed that Africa would never catch up with the technology of the West. With the arrival of wireless technology Africa didn’t need to catch up, but within ten years simply leapfrogged into a future that it took the developed world hundreds of years to reach. Today Africa is in the same position to leapfrog over the dirty, unsustainable, polluting energy technology of the developed world and become energy rich without further disturbing the balance of nature. Africa is in a position to be a leader in a world where trade and commerce must factor in the value of clean water and air, a world where people labour to create things that enhance the human condition, without destroying the ecosystem that sustains them.
While Governments of the energy hungry developed world know that the prospect of future climatic chaos can no longer be dismissed by clever spin doctors; they are prevented from taking decisive action in developing and implementing the technology of what will become the next age of progress- the age of clean renewable energy- because of their heavy financial investment in antiquated dirty energy technology.
Africa does not yet have the massive investment in dirty energy, it does not have the outdated energy grids it doesn’t have even a small percentage of the coal burning plants it needs to bring energy to all Africans. This is a blessing in disguise as investment in the development and creation of clean energy could become a major new industry in Africa; providing not just clean energy but clean jobs. Unlike the politicians of developed nations the leaders of Africa do not have to convince their voters to move from old and comfortable dirty energy to clean sustainable energy in order to prevent a still debated future of climatic chaos. African leaders can justify the implementation of completely innovative energy technology with immediate human need.
In the 1998 South African White Paper on Energy the then minister said that the energy policy ‘did not intend to reinvent the wheel’. Eleven years on we have discovered that the wheel is central to the planets climatic problems and reinventing it or throwing it out altogether is very much part of the energy policy of the developed world. Just skimming through the White Paper I came across the following statement. “We must open our economy to global industries, and by supplying cheap efficient energy we can do so”. Yes, quite right, but in the context of today’s thinking so very wrong. Of course global industries are looking at South Africans ample supply of cheap energy in combination with its easy come easy go environmental policies with delight- South Africa is 14th in the world for CO2 emissions and its energy use to production ratio places South Africa 10th in the world for inefficient energy use. For a small, sparsely populated country where 40% of the population are not yet linked to the national grid these figures are shocking.
For dirty fuel hungry industries, that are increasingly forced to shape up environmentally in their own countries, South Africa is the last outpost. Even the Chinese are looking at South Africa for cheap energy (that is about as bad as it gets) and considering what the Chinese managed to do to their own environment within the space of 20 years this does not bode well for the rivers, air and people of South Africa. While China continues to consume Africa’s dirty energy, spewing pollutants into African air; the Chinese government has woken up to the fact that it can no longer pollute its own country the way it has been doing or its people will no longer be able to breath. China is currently in the race to produce clean renewable energy at home and it’s government passes stricter emission and pollutant controls daily. So for whose benefit is China coming to South Africa?
The biggest hurdle in getting South Africa to fully embrace new energy technology is it’s massive coal resource –South Africa is the fourth largest hard coal exporter in the world- these exports bring 23.4 billion ZAR into South Africa annually . A massive part of the annual budget, and a very difficult thing to imagine the country doing without. But the fixation with monetary cost - as it is understood today- prevents decision makers from seeing that the value of clean air, clean water and every other environmental thing that dirty energy impacts on will all be hard costs that will have to be factored into every energy budget in the very near future. In that context it would not be far fetched to state that; within 20 years from now the fully factored cost of energy from fossil fuels will be so high that South Africa’s coal will no longer be the cheapest but most expensive fuel on the planet. It is not inconceivable that producing energy from any fossil fuel will be outlawed or morally condemned- much like whaling is today- and global communities will enforce sanctions on any industry or country that insist on using them.
The world’s great financial power houses are squaring up for a battle to see who will lead this energy revolution, but they are hindered in taking the quantum leap that is required by their existing technology. The biggest end user of dirty energy is the domestic house. While factories might seem to be the biggest consumers; it is in the service of the houses of man that all this energy consumption takes place. But due to the glut of houses in the developed world, changing the way houses are built is not even on their think tank agendas.
The need for housing is well understood to be the social foundation for any country. It provides not only shelter but stability and pride of ownership. The possession of a house settles the society and allows it to grow beyond its basic needs of food and shelter. But in a world where Renewable Energy Technology will soon become central to all thinking, the house should not be seen as just a basic social requirement, but central to the fiscal growth of a country. I believe the house of the future will be the catalyst for all the technologically advances that we will make in the next decades and will sweep away thinking that we believe is entrenched and unchangeable.
Technology moves fast; take the IT example, in 20 years we have moved from a communications Dark Age to a present where we know and accept that we will leap forward with better, smaller, cheaper communications on a daily basis. The age of Renewable Energy Technology will be the same. The coal fired power plants that are being constructed now and are expected to start producing energy in 2023 may never be used.
The chronic housing shortage in South Africa combined with government commitment and control over the building of these houses -and the governments stated aim to provide affordable energy to poverty stricken and rural households- makes the South African RDP house potentially the greatest nursery for clean Renewable Energy Technology in the world. Never has a government been presented with such an opportunity to promote and fund Renewable Energy Technology through tax incentives, design competitions and global partnerships with companies that already have done the technological spade work, but are waiting for a large investor to allow them to scale up.
If the South African Government included a ‘zero energy use’ standard (the house is designed as an energy producing unit which creates all its own energy) in the design requirements of the RDP house, these houses could instantly provide the scale needed to make new energy sources, new building methods and materials more cost effective than traditional brick and mortar fossil fuelled houses. In a society that is not yet dependant on six electrical gadgets to shine its shoes and another four to brush its teeth, the concept of a zero energy use house is totally feasible with existing technology. With a zero energy use standard, the government could conceivably not only provide free energy to these households, but the houses could sell back energy to the national grid, producing income for the RDP household or for the government ; thereby offsetting an initial increase in building costs. The increase in building cost of the RDP housing energy unit should also been seen against the elimination of the need to build more power plants and electrical grids and the incalculable advantages for the health of the people and the planet. With new South African design innovation and production the RDP house could become a self sustaining, energy producing unit that could provide the blueprint for international housing and building standards.
In 2008 the then Minister of Energy claimed that South Africa couldn’t supply the 100 000 solar heating systems they had planned for because South Africa doesn’t have the capacity to build them. So build the factories, create the jobs, invest in the future; the renewable energy race has only just started and nobody on the planet has the answers. The Danish government is in the forefront of wind energy but their only distinction is that they are first. It doesn’t mean that they are the best or even right. Their technology it is based on a 7000 year old design – Chinese were using windmills to power their water pumps in 2000 BC- this is like using carrier pigeons to deliver our emails. The future in clean energy has not yet been written and South Africa with it’s first world infrastructure , the knack of it’s people to be innovative thinkers , it’s culture of entrepreneurship and it’s intricate knowledge of low energy living conditions is perfectly positioned to be a world leader, innovator and exporter of renewable clean energy and clean energy systems.
South African could leapfrog the world and become a leader in clean Renewable Energy Technology. Will you grab the chance?
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