inspiratio

meegan2.jpg "Then Where Is Your God?"

"Don’t worry, all will be well. It’s ok. This god is here. That god is in you. That God is what you’re going to do about this suffering. God is in this people. The more you live in Africa, the more you realize the power of faith in these countries. That’s the wonderful thing. You don’t leave Africa overwhelmed with despair, in tears. You leave Africa inspired, because you realize that this continent is so powerful. It’s so strong, has so much love, so much energy…"

Dr Michael Meegan, international director of ICROSS, in an interview with BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur sometime earlier in 2005.

I came home from a play at the theater last night and still had some energy left to be wasted in front of tv when I came across this interesting interview on BBC World with Michael who is said to be in Kenya since 27 years now. Despite of the interesting and commendable work he does in assisting the people living or even dying with HIV+, his words and content smile speak for themselves: the man has found his place.
In addition, I think his criticism towards international aid & dev. organisations and their ever changing policies is absolutely justified.

"I have always believed it is our actions, not our thoughts that matter. Tears have never fed a child, pity has never healed a wound. Unless words become deeds, unless dreams are lived, they are mere deceptions".
(Dr. Michael Meegan)
(source)

Interesting to note, btw, that people in Germany will be spending around 100 million EUROs on fireworks on the last day of this year (on a single day!). According to ICROSS’ donation information, that’s a lot of food, vaccinations or mosquito nets. Hmmm….

p.s.: ati, isn’t that mzee Thesiger? :-)

ngoma05

Nachdem mich letztes Jahr die Shins & Co. so dynamisch durchs Praxissemester begleitet haben, habe ich mir nach HORNBY, EINBECKER et al für 2005 eine eigene Top 15 Liste zusammengestellt. Eine Liste mit Bands, deren Alben in 2005 veröffentlicht wurden und für mich so das musikalische 2005 darstellen:

15. Hellacopters "Rock & Roll Is Dead"
14. Aqualung "Strange and Beautiful"
13. Sugarplum Fairy "Young & Armed"
12. Kaiser Chiefs "Employment"
11. HARD-FI "Stars of CCTV"
10. Coldplay "X&Y"
09. Tiger Lou "The Loyal" (thx TT! :-)
08. Sigur Ros "Takk"
07. Art Brut "Bang Bang Rock And Roll" – hehehe…gibt es geilere Lyrics? Im Grunde haben sich Art Brut einen Sonderpreis für Komik verdient.
06. Boards Of Canada "The Campfire Headphase" – oh yeah!
05. Maximo Park "A Certain Trigger" – schöne kick ass Mucke
04. Brendan Benson "Alternative To Love" – ein Allround-Talent.
03. The Magic Numbers "The Magic Numbers" – musikalisch eigentlich die heimliche Nummer 1 vor Brendan Benson…
02. Death Cab for Cutie "Plans" – ein schönes Album mit schöner Musik.
01. Nada Surf "The Weight Is A Gift" – weil das Musik im Evan Dando Sinne ist – Musik zum Nachspielen und Mitsingen. Was will man mehr?

soil maps

Please correct me if I am wrong on this one but as far as I am informed, detailed maps of Kenya were always hard to come by since that infamous AirForce coup in 1982 in Nairobi, Kenya, upon which the Government of Kenya reduced the number of detailed maps openly available to the public.

A friend of mine had told me about some plots for sale in Thika (Kenya), so I did a short Google image search on the keyword "Thika" and came across a HUGE collection of amazingly detailed maps for scientific use – scanned & published online by the DG Joint Research Centre of the European Commission: the "European Digital Archive on Soil Maps of the World (EuDASM) ".
Kenya? Africa? – you name it, they have it. Free of charge! With coordinates for geo-referencing and other useful metadata!

Now I take it that most of you won’t have a proper use for such scientific maps and that Isohyets of median annual rainfall for places like Wajir won’t be of any interest, BUT! I know you’ll love to have a look at maps like this one showing the City of Nairobi:

nbomap.jpg

  Or this 1:100.000 map of "Nairobi & Environs":

nbomap2.jpg

  As for the soil question in the area around Thika, Kenya:

thikasoilmap.jpg

Those maps for Kenya make up for about 1 GB of downloadable JPEG images with an average size of 4 MB each…ENJOY! :-))

Tembonanusu

“The most important part of vehicle maintenance is clean windows, so if you are broken down, you will enjoy the beauty of the view.” (Dan Eldon)

Remember I told you the other day that my beloved Tembomoja (a.k.a. ’89 VW Golf II) is soon retiring to West Africa and that I am still undecided upon Tembombili?

Well, with christmas round the corner, it’s about time for me to show you how materialistic I really am and what kind of (old) cars it takes to turn me on. Yes, they turn me on, they are hot like Lake Magadi, juicy like Nyama Choma with Tusker and stylish like James Kikuyumoja 007 :-)

So, before my brain starts coming back, please allow me to present a short list of cars that I would like to drive one day:

A_RoverP5B.jpg
ROVER P5B (this particular one owned by the Queen, btw)

A_db5.jpg
ASTON MARTIN DB5

A_volvo_p1800s_1966.jpg
VOLVO P1800S

A_mustangfastback.jpg
FORD MUSTANG (Fastback)

A_Volvo_67_Sedan_P120_Red_sf.jpg
VOLVO P120

A_citroends.jpg
CITROEN DS

A_peugeot_504coupe_v6_01.jpg
PEUGEOT 504 Coupé V6

A_volvo262ccoupebertone.jpg
VOLVO 262 C Coupé Bertone

Audi Coupé 100S

BMW E38

Mercedes W116
(in dark grey or dark green with a light brown leather interior).

Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2

The irony is that after publishing this post in 2005, I later on sold the 1989 VW Golf 2 and stayed without a car until 2015. I then inherited a rusty 1993 BMW E34 which I kept for another year until it was replaced in 2016 by a 2007 VW Touran 2.0 DSG Highline – also with a lot of chrome like the vintage cars above.

Also, I am not a huge Ferrari fan, but that 250 GTE 2+2 ex 1963 is just too sweet. If I had all the money in the world to buy any car I would want, I would probably still go for the VW Touran (but the European version) as it is my dream car. Practical and economical, even fits a fridge or a bed.

(list updated on Dec 7, 2021)

Rotweinmusik

minormajority.jpg

Für Liebhaber nordischer Musik sicherlich keine Unbekannte mehr – auf der entsprechenden deutschsprachigen Website zum gleichnamigen Thema immerhin Platte des Monats in 03/2005 – aber auch mich erreichte die Musik dieser hierzulande wohl eher unbekannten Band erst vor kurzem: MINOR MAJORITY, nette Gitarrenmusik aus Norwegen – oder wie Herr Peters bei Plattentests.de schreibt: Rotweinmusik.
Die Website übrigens genauso schlicht und dennoch effektiv gehalten wie die Musik auf den bisherigen drei Alben. Anspieltip vom letzten Album "she gave me away"…
Auf jeden Fall: meine Empfehlung für dieses nass-kalte Wetter draußen! 8-9 von 10 Punkten :-)

P.S.: Das Leben ist einfach zu kurz für schlechte Musik!