A Spectacular and rare

atmospheric phenomenon

seen over Windhoek for several hours this morning - a 'sun dog' ? usually only visible from polar latitudes. Anyone have a detailed explanation. Weather was rather cloudy, but other conditions normal.

Here I am again, and happy May Day.

Although my web host has gone off the radar (the one who provides easier pointers to these blogs) my pages have mysteriously reappeared, so here goes.

It's a public holiday in Namibia, Workers' Day, and a quiet autumn day, balmy sunlight and a clear duck-egg blue sky. The Namibian construction industry seems the only one in the world, apart from corporate liquidators and doomsday financial journos, to be enjoying a huge boom. Cranes are everywhere, and the latest would-be proud house owner is jackhammering away at the opposite hillside to create his new mansion. Apart from that, all is still. There will probably be a workers' rally at the official stadium, later in the day, addressed by a deputy Minister, and attended by 8 people. Don't expect any protest marches or smashed McDonald's windows. (We don't have McDonald's anyway).

A comforting and reassuring feature about life here, to some, is that everything stays the same. May brings a spate of public holidays, so that, every year, the editor of the local English newspaper writes the same article about how these work-free days cut dreadfully into national productivity. (The newspapers themselves do not publish on a holiday, of course). Every year, some official spokesman will decry the deplorable attendance at the official rallies laid on the mark the day. (The reason is simple - if you are a REAL worker, when a public holiday comes along - what do you do? That's right, you STAY IN BED. Why show up at a dusty dilapidated stadium to hear a politician who turns up 2 hours late and can barely read his speech anyway?

The next exciting occasion will be the election, later in the year, which will be a precise re-run of all the others, including the evaporation of the currently fashionable opposition party, as in South Africa.

Meanwhile, happy May Day. It's a long weekend of course - next Monday is also a holiday...

the season of tacki- ness

is with us again

yes folks, as the sun beats down on the dusty arena after six rainless months, the Windoek junk fair aka the Windhoek Show is with us again. All the same stands from the same outfits, all the tatty stalls in the tatty halls offering the rubbish that won't sell in South Africa anymore, all the condemned rusty fairground rides which they got from who know where (a few fewer each year, since some must have collapsed in the meanwhile) - it's there.

It does have a kind of old fashioned charm - it dimly reminds me of when I used to get taken to the Rand Show in Johannesburg in the 50's when I was a kid. But now, not. For the N$20 admission you could still buy a couple of litres of gas, and get yourself well away from it.

Goodbye beetroot, hello cold showers

The removal of the inept South African president Thabo Mbeki was surprisingly painless. Would that it were as easy to get rid of other African leaders. Of course, it was his party rather than the people who deposed him (the people would not have counted for much).

The reaction may be a sigh of relief, but there is a darker side.

His 'quiet diplomacy' (amounting some might think to total silence), allowing Robert Mugabe to continue in power, with a sham agreement which will swallow up Mr Tshangurai just as surely as Mr. Joshua Nkomo was swallowed, when he could really have made a difference; has cost and will untold human misery and many human lives in Zimbabwe. If presidents of smaller countires such as Botswana and Zambia were not afraid to make their feelings known about Mr. Mugabe, why not the South African President?

But the more serious issue is the crackpot theory of AIDS he and his dumb-loyal cabinet followed for years (notably his bizarre 'health minister', recommending beetroot and garlic as treatment), which is largely resonsible for the 1500 a day death rate of the virus in South Africa. As the writer of the First Post e-paper noted, any politician causing a tenth of this death rate would be speedily hauled up before the war crimes tribunal in the Hague. No doubt Mr. Mbeki will enjoy a peaceful and respected retirement.

In his place, for a few months, we have a 'caretaker' whose name nobody can remember and nobody can pronounce. No matter, after that we have Mr. Zuma, who is a Zulu, related to the Matebele in Zimbabwe whom Mr. Mugabe tried to exterminate in the 1980's. So we might see a little less patience with the senile dictator north of the border. And although Mr. Zuma believes that taking a shower helps to prevent HIV infection, at least he is not on record as being opposed to more conventional anti-retroviral treatment.

The newest
(and ugliest)

building opened in windhoek the other day

That thing on top? a lop-sided storage tank left from the construction operation, about to be taken away? No, that is the architectural feature. Since the pic was taken, the 'tank' has been finished in a nice zinc colour - like an old fashioned upturned batch tub.

Must be suffocating under the hot spring time Namibian sun - either that or be contributing an awsome carbon load to the local environment from the power used by its aircons.
Of course, it is the new headquarters of a household name accountancy firm, so they could employ the best architects. But in Windhoek you can be mixing cement one week and be a successful practicing architect the next.
And why situated down a quiet, narrow residential side street? Because of the City of Windhoek's policy to zone peaceful residential areas to office blocks, thereby cocking a snoot at the wealthy white residents of the area, and giving the value of their houses a knock.

Why,

whenever an item about Namibia makes it on to the BBC news or other national medium,

does one get ready to cringe? This time, where African governments had been keeping a discreet silence on the China-Tibet issue, our Min of Foreign Affairs comes rushing in with a statement, probably dictated by the press secretary at the Chinese embassy, that Namibia deplored 'separatist' movements in Tibet, claimed that the violence in Tibet had been 'orchestrated' , condemned moves to independence in Taiwan, and supported re-unification into the one-China policy. Maybe Taiwan will decide its own destiny without the recommendations of Namibia.

Now compare with a press release from Ms. Yade, the French human rights minister: Ms Yade had said that Mr Sarkozy would miss the event unless China freed political prisoners and agreed to talk to the Dalai Lama.
The newspaper Le Monde had quoted Ms Yade as saying: "Three conditions are essential for him to attend: an end to violence against the population and the liberation of political prisoners; light shed on the events in Tibet; and the opening of a dialogue with the Dalai Lama."

Yes indeed. (Of course, China would be fully entitled to boycott the London Olympics because of Britain's involvment in Iraq, but that is another story).

Then last month, we had the North Korean deputy president/chairman of something arriving on a state vist and presiding over the independence celebrations with much acclaim.

I mean, is it a central pillar of Namibian foreign policy to ass-lick the world's crappiest countries? And when, after the usual bloodbath, Mr Mugabe is re-confirmed for another term as President of (what is left of) Zimbabwe, guess which country will be the first to rush with recognition and congratulation?

DARK

ORANGE

DELIGHT

Total eclipse of the moon, the last we'll see until 2011, hanging over the hostel building of the Windhoek High School, at 0530 this morning

THE MOST ORIGINAL STREET CHRISTMAS DECORATION

A tree of paint tins in downtown Windhoek. 10/10 for originality, about 3/10 for visual success.

Amusing to think of the mini-treefurore last year, when a beautifully decorated tree in African theme was torn down by the precinct owner in Swakopmund, because it was not 'traditional' (German?) enough.

Anyway, not much of the traditional Christmas here, if you are thinking of the European style. No Christmas pudding was anywhere to be seen, and only a few Brazilian frozen turkeys - more well-travelled foodstuffs, though not as eco-idiotic as the prawns, caught in England, shipped to Thailand to be cooked and peeled, then sent back to England again. No reason why they should be (turkeys to be seen, I mean) - who wants to stove over a hot slave when you can have a braai and a few beers on the beach, with some ice cream for afters.

Now all that's over, and we are at Dec 29th - perhaps because it's rather a ominous prime number and what I always thought of as the dead date - the nadir of the year - with life and activity at an ebb. The slack between Noel and Sylvester. In the northern hemisphere, frantic post-Christmas sales are in full swing under frosty, leaden skies: here, in Windhoek, by contrast, nearly all the shops are closed., and the population fled to the coast or south africa, depending on their budget. Not even the local newspapers are published - not that anyone would miss them. Not much happens here before Jan 15.

A soporific, sultry afternoon, duck-egg blue sky and fluffy white clouds - maybe some rain later. A happy 2008 to all our readers.