Education AIDS Developement?

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Can you confess the truth? I ask you whether or not you know where Madagascar is?

Yes, back to Afrika we go. I entered the subject line, "sunset, madagascar" on the flickr website, which by the way is an amazing place to visit, because I wanted a vision of the location from an ordinary person, not a watered down, slanted, cynical, safe hotel dwelling media droid. Jessy, whose photo is pictured above is from Mozambique, and her tag line or album name was called "vote for hate." Intriguing, I felt, beauty conjoined with hate. I view above, where we pose beside a tree, possibly a cherry blossom in security, while the cruel sun begins to die. We focus on a statue, symbolizing order, progress, peace, but the hazy outline of fog obscures our panorama. I would imagine our tour guide was covered in sticky sweat, while lurking in the humid air.

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Madagascar, is located at the bottom of Africa. I should say the southern region, the island east of South Africa. Many consider this to be a vanishing eden. It is prosperous but poverty stricken. It is home to many mammals and birds not found anywhere else in the world. Its capital city is Antananarivo, located just north of the center of the lush island. Its population is more than New Zealand and just barely less than Australia, sitting at nearly 20 million. It is a former French colony, where France is its biggest trading parter for both imports and exports. On the smoggy side, this location has a low HIV rate, which is considerably better than its neighbours. However, BBC reports that the rates of STD's are raising because of an ignorance by most of the natives. A good percentage of the population earn 1 US dollar per day, which means buying a condom is pretty expensive. Africa, once again is a paradox. A beautiful untouched landscape married to a Rio Tinto mine site. A capital city conceals herself beside an underdeveloped city infastructure, poverty touching most, but embracing a downtown core filled with Hilton hotels, and a cosmopolitan shopping district. You get a great black coffee, but it is polluted with thick luscious creme. Yes this is Madagascar.

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One final issue. Power. This year there has been growing frustration on the many power cuts. Diesel for the generators has risen so much the state run power company is facing bankrupcy should it continue to generate. Therefore, rolling power cuts are a normal but frustrating occurance. Internet cafe's, hotels, homes, all struggle with this hassle. Due to the rising gap between the haves and the have nots it appears that only 15 percent of the population has access to the grid anyway. Being an island nation can have its advantages but when dealing with power production, its drawbacks.

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So I ask the big twenty four dollar question. At what point to you encourage investment, foreign firms setting up infastructure, hydroelectric dams, resource developement, when you will have a little more of your personal beautiful eden stripped away? Will a fully functional power grid help with education amongst its children, promoting disease control, hygene, stability? Has Madagascar survived for so long without modern conveniences, while education was handed down from elders to youngers, and society living in their own style of comfort for many years previously so therefore should a focus on developement be abandoned? I know what I think.

Wat du yu tink mate?

Paul stammered towards Wassily and Henri.

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.....and so, since the trial was held in Libya under a man named Gaddafi, where torture was allegedly used to gain confessions from the foreign medical staff, the EU has been attempting for years to gain the freedom for the sextet, who until recently had been jailed for the last eight summers.

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Opponents of the release of this group of six, ( five nurses and a doctor ) have said it is an insult to the victims. I wonder how much mileage Gaddafi got as he sold the idea to his country about how he was tough on foreigners who have come into his country and attempted to kill its people. He would have looked like a noble man, and one who was a defender or protector of those he governed. Now, he is getting favourable press, allies amongst the French, the EU, and the United States as a man who listens to reason, a man who believes in compassion, a man who has strong ideals, and a man who governs a country where it may be a safe haven to invest in. Oh, and guess what.... Sarkozy, has already agreed to a nuclear desalinization plant, a joint partnership between the two countries where all would benefit. Interesting.

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On the flip side, we have an introduction of two ladies. Cecilia Sarkozy, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner. Cecilia has said she would not be a conventional first lady and within weeks has proven this to be true. Breaking from protocol, she breezed into Libya to visit Gaddafi personally on an impromptu trip to the region. She appears to be a bit of a firebrand, a maverick, one who pursues what she deems to be right, regardless of consequence. I think those qualities can be the mark of a leader, however, they are also the qualities of those who embrace diplomatic failure. Time will reveal her mettle. Personally, I kinda like her. Benita, the fifty something External Affairs Commish for the European Union has been tirelessly working and negotiating on this issue for some time. She became the commissioner in 2004. I googled her name and came up with just about sweet nothing. If you want type in Barossa, where you will find his cabinet, then scroll down until you get to this dignified lady. The ABC here in Australia, reported that the Sarkozy's have gone in, grabbed the glory, the headlines, while the others, like Ferrero-Waldner, who have done the hard yards are left to bask in the aftershock of the lovemaking made with the presse by the French delegation. In other words, there was little if any recognition given to the efforts of others. I will leave it to you to formulate your own view, but until then, I think Benita deserves some recognition for her great strides. I have been negligent in providing pictures but hope to follow these two strong ladies in the future and will no doubt post more about them.

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I lastly ask, about the others. Did Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse have an important part to play in this dramatic, political rescue? Should they be awarded medals?

The evil ones?

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So the result was terrible. A team of foreign medical staff deliberately doing harm to hundreds of children. I have been following this story for a while now, and am kicking myself for not writing about it earlier. A Pakistani doctor and a team of 5 Bulgarian nurses knowingly infecting 438 children with HIV. At least those were the charges. The African nation handed down the stiffest sentence possible. Execution. Fair? You tell me.

Suddenly, one starts to rationalize. How could medics, charged with caring for children be so monstrous? Stories slowly emerge that those charged are wrongfully imprisoned, and will die without the facts presenting themselves. It seems the problem wasn't murderous intent, but a culture of overwork, poor sanitary standards, coupled with lack of proper funding. The staff in charge of infecting the children were in fact innocent, but were caught in a trap which led to a dire consequence.

Those are the two stories. I know you are familiar with the outcome, because it has become a major story now, as opposed to an obscure side track, which has been the case for the last years.

I ask though, what should happen? Who is guilty, who is innocent?

... to be continued....

Infamous or famous, rich or poor?

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I love pictures. I also like to find provocative pieces which make one ponder. Now I have to give a slight warning here because the picture I am posting below is one that may make you want to vomit. So, if you have just had more than a couple pieces of pizza, and about 5 too many beverages, while topping it off with the best chocolate cake, you will want to stop reading NOW. Do not go any further. I mean, we have had Britney Spears sculpture of her posing nude, while pregnant, on a bearskin rug. We had images of the flamboyant Parisian throwing a brick at police, while fires burned in the background, and of course the one of a massive man sitting naked on a chair. I feel this little ditty is in the "special" calibre. I hope you do too.

As an interlude, I feel it is always good to break away from the same ole political talk, worries of the future, postulations upon themes which hold no lasting value, and hold a couple light hearted blog spots. So please indulge me for a time, we will get back to important topics. I read with interest about Sarkozy and his wife, about Putin with his weapons and a bit about the Tour de France. Hopefully steroids will not be such a blemish this year. Today I would like to focus on Virus Protection. Here is my story......

My laptop wasn't performing very well. I was not happy, and thought it was due to not enough memory. I went out and purchased 2GB of RAM, upgrading from a paltry 512, and then expected a marked improvement in my performance. I noticed no difference. In fact, when I clicked on "My Computer," it would take up to ten seconds before loading the page. Of course at this point I was too lazy to push this big mountain of a problem off of me and to investigate why things were not going too well. The next indicator was when a little bubble came up in my taskbar informing me I was out of disk space. I moved skads of junk to my spare usb drive and went for coffee. Upon my return I noticed the little bubble was back. No disk space. My co-worker asked if I had updated my virus definitions. I hadn't, so I did. Of course, my virus scanner did not pick up anything awry, so I let it slide. Two weeks have gone past, and with a burst of energy I tackled the problem. On Thursday, last week I downloaded Prevx. I chose the free trial. The idea is, that they will put the software on you computer, and will update it, while watching for trouble. Upon finding a perpetration, they will clean it up. After 30 days though, they will only tell you that there is a problem. At that point you can buy it, which is actually pretty inexpensive, and it will continue to flush any problems into the toilet.

( Picture below is an example of a virus having its way with YOUR computer )

Sunday, today, I turned to my Prevx install, and did an extensive scan. I note in fairness that it, once installed does a quick scan to find anything. It didn't. I had to enable a full scan and it found 2 malicious files, which were over 8MB each. Yes eight freaking megabytes each! It is the equivalent of 6-10 songs, or about 15000 of the above picture and 50 of my last blogs or thereabout. So officially I dedicate this small spot, to spruiking Prevx. Hopefully Google won't be too mad because they want to put their own ads here, but that is my humble opinion, and I intend to let everyone I know, know.

A virus, or rootkit, or worm, or trojan, and the humble computer user is rarely a good combination... as evidenced in the picture at the top. "Where did all my hard drive space go?"

Nemo wasn't sad.

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Well well well, it is certainly good to hear from Targo, which is getting rarer and it is nice to see a visit from Bench. However, it is an amazing treat to get both of you! So thanks.

Does a fish have a heart? Yes it does. Can a fish have a heart attack? I don't know. Can fishermen have heart attacks? Yes. What if they are frustrated? Here is my story.

A short time ago, in a place far, far away a gentleman met another who had a boat, gear and the knowledge to fish, fish away. One of the gentlemen was me.

So I met and climbed into the craft. The water, though calm, looked cold, uninviting, but ready for a fishing rod. We set out, travelling slowly upstream to the special spot, where we found another mate with his wife, already fishing.

"G'day"

Pleasantries were exchanged first, then blissful working of the river for her treasure ensued. All was quiet, until, "So have you caught anything today?"

"No, but I did yesterday. We have only been here for an hour and a half"

Silence. Swish goes the water.

I asked again, "So, how're those Roos goin?"

"Sssh...quiet, you are scaring the fish!" She exclaimed with vigour and contempt. I was thinking because if they had been quiet for the last hour and a half like they said they were, silence wasn't the golden lure.

" I just wanted to...."

"Shaddup! You are scaring the fish, and if you are going to continue I will have to ask you to leave. We were here first." This time he was the culprit. Man, I wondered again about this strange breed. My boatmate chuckled silently. His brother and sister in law were the real serious, dour, fishing type. Whenever, they fished tension was high and most people just kept quiet, hoping they would not make eye contact.

Suddenly, my line gave a tug! " Pull up, pull up " was the exclamation but to no avail. Fishy fish was only teasing. I decided to name her in honour of my fishing mates, surly girl. Surly girl wouldn't bite.

Now the surly girl in the little white dingy got a bite. She dutifully reeled her prize in, but it was a fighter.

"C'mon Terese, go, go, get her man. You can do it. Have you got her?"

"Quiet, I'm trying to concentrate." Her arm tensed, her eye was gleaming, her brow perspired.

"I gotta name it for you."

"Would you just shut up."

"But you gotta name her. Look, she's getting closer. Oh man, this is exciting." I stood up rather too quickly, the boat violently keeled over but my blonde companion and I steadied our vessel before we had a tragedy.

"*&^% off. Shut your face!" Her face contorted with rage. It seemed she was a bit hot, but I wasn't really doing anything. " You are causing waves, I can't concentrate and would you quit being so excitable, like a little kid"

Undaunted I blurted, "Happy Mood"

"What?" This time it was the husband. " Happy what? Are you making fun of my wife?"

"No, its the name of the fish, don't you think it is...."

"You are naming the fish? " She was looking at the waters, while his mouth still hung open with disbelief

"Yeah, Happy Mood." I watched as she reeled her in. The hook was caught deep into the belly, wriggling, unable to breathe, eyes wide open, flopping all over in the bottom of the boat. Terese pulled, but the hook wouldn't come out.

"Grab me the pliers." They were handed over but it was no use. The hook was too far, and it couldn't be reached. "Measure it," she ordered.

"Don't call her an IT, her name is Happy Mood," I declared.

"Just do keep you mouth shut, how do you know if it's a girl?" She was seething.

"Its a little short love. We are going to have to throw it back in," her husband faithfully said.

Cutting the line, she carefully placed Happy Mood in to the water. " That hook will dissolve eventually. It's the acids in the stomach of a fish."

I pondered. It seemed a little inhumane to me. Of course, would it be inhumane if it was a fish? Wouldn't that be another word. This kind of philosophies are too much for my tiny brain. What did I know, they were probably right. I mean, catching an animal with a sharp hook, dragging it by its innards, pulling it out, where it couldn't breathe, yanking on the foreign object, cutting the line.... that didn't seem very, uh, what is the word, fish friendly, to me. Oh well, at least she kissed it before depositing, my Happy Mood back where she belonged. I thought it looked like the fish had done a little poo.

My boat mate suddenly came to life. "Fairdinkum mate!" He yelled while furiously pulling the line in. " Get the net ready." I did, and quickly slid our prize into the bottom of the water filled box. Unfastening the hook, I realized I didn't have time to name our treasure. This was so exciting. Again, I nearly capsized us. Once measured, it was just a little short to keep. I asked for our passenger, kissed her, and then much to the horror of our surly friends, lobbed her in a high parabolic arc 20 meters away. Splash! See ya my nameless friend.

" I can't believe you did that. That was uncalled for. You probably gave the poor thing a heart attack", exclaimed the cranky duo. "Don't you know anything? You don't treat a fish like that. It isn't how things are supposed to be done. In all my years I have never seen anyone do THAT!" They both droned on with animation.

Give a fish a heart attack? I hadn't thought of that. What a selfish jerk I am. " C-can a fish even have a heart attack," I stammered? I enforced my will and asked to be taken immediately to shore. My friend complied and while I detected the beginnings of a slight smirk, he kept his face straight like a poker player eyeing a winning hand.

Tonight, after weeks of turmoil, I finally had the courage to google fish heart attacks. I had done something so unruly, so cruel, acting like an unjust judge. What did I find? I found that fish oil actually helps with heart disease. What did I glean from that? Well, number one, if my unnamed fish was a cure for heart problems, it must have a healthy heart and couldn't have been in any duress. Number two, the hook in our little fish, Happy Mood, would not be too happy. But what do I know, I'm not a fisherman.

Charcoal anyone?

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(picture) Virgin Amazon Rainforest logs and the mud huts they will be put into to create... charcoal.

Australian Minister for Defence, Dr. Brendan Nelson, was involved in what Liberal supporters called a gaffe, last week. He may have had his words taken out of context by a media outlet to sensationalize a story but the spotlight was thrust upon him, and it was reported in the worldwide news that Australia is in Iraq for the oil. John Howard went into damage control after the official opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, claimed the Liberals were making up policy on the run, or words to that effect. American diplomats would have "encouraged" to refrain from these kind of statements because the war is not about oil. It is about ridding the evil Saddam Hussein's dictatorial empire and give freedom to the Iraqi people.

The Gulf War I, was not about the oil, it was about defending Kuwait from an evil bully. Gulf War II, of course was not about the oil either. Fact 1. The Middle East, including Iraq is awash in oil. Fact 2. When the initial invasion took place, in both conflicts, the price of petroleum raised dramatically. Fact 3. The largest exports from the Middle East are oil. Fact 4. The largest companies in the Middle East are oil exporters. Fact 5. Without oil, every country in the Middle East would be poor third world countries. Fact 6. The US, Britain, and Australia are not in Iraq for oil.

I know Australia, is but a tiny little speck when compared to any of the G8 ( Canada notwithstanding ) nations and the pollies know which side of their toast has honey on it, but it would be refreshing for at least one politician to at least blurt out, in a high and voluptuous voice.... The emperor isn't wearing any clothes! It will not happen because we recently signed a Free Trade agreement with the US, making them a larger trading partner, and secondly because we are not the puppet master. If Australia, was to tell the world, that Iraq was about oil, many Republicans would be upset. Democrats would be happy of course but when Hillary Clinton, comes into power, I doubt she would trust Howard and his experienced cronies because of the damage they had done to the previous administration, however small. I guess the game is played with certain rules, that cannot be broken.

We have many hostile thoughts against the US government here on this site and wonder if you would like to indulge in a few more? Isn't it interesting when you see normal Americans echoing the views of their enemy? Ironic. Defeat from within? I am full of questions today.

Psam agrees with Osama?

"We declared jihad against the US government, because the US government is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation." - Osama bin Laden - to CNN in March 1997

"The pieces of the bodies of infidels were flying like dust particles. If you would have seen it with your own eyes, you would have been very pleased, and your heart would have been filled with joy." -- Osama bin Laden at the wedding of his son in southern Kandahar about the 17 sailors who died suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen

The should be dead... alive!

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I just had to comment on the release of Alan Johnston, BBC reporter, who was held hostage for 114 days by terrorists. If you recall, I had a brief blurb on here and fed you a link in which there was an online petition calling for the release of the respected journalist. I did not sign the petition because I figured it was an exercise in futility, feeling also that he would be yet another victim of terrorism. However, he was released. Amazing. Did any of you sign the petition? While I think that it was not the petition which was the mitigating factor which secured his release, it would have been another small step in the right direction. It was a vote for hope, and a vote for a peaceful solution. I am glad Alan Johnston is alive, and hope he can receive any mental healing he needs to receive. I would have felt a bit better, if I had put my name to the petition, and maybe felt that I had done a little, itty, bitty thing to help sway the minds of evil to release one who was a pawn in a much larger game. One could argue that I am being a bit harsh when I refer to the kidnappers as evil, as they were just trying to negotiate better conditions for their movement. However, I don't know that involving bystanders, or killing children, or using suicide bombers will ever enter my mind as an acceptable method of achieving empathy for a cause. I will, for now, simply say the kidnappers are evil. I watched Alan, say he didn't give up hope. While being in chains, in desolate circumstances, in uncertain times, he never gave up hope. I admire his composure, but again, it is evident that he never gave up because he didn't look like a beaten man, he looked tired, he looked weary, but he also looked strong and able. I felt a bit sorry for him, as he gave interviews, and liaised with the former leader of Lebanon and other Hamas members, becoming once again a pawn, or a photo opportunity for another side of the conflict. Hopefully, he can now get some rest, and spend some much needed time with some loved ones. Maybe we all can take a little time to spend with the ones we love.

Dirty White Trash [With Gulls]

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Tim Noble and Sue Webster.

Ah, dirty white trash. What image does that evoke for you?

I put the garbage out where it waited for the trash person to arrive, taking it to its final resting place in the sun. Whilst awaiting for limo equivalent transportation its grave site was interrupted by a young couple. The two, scavenging for treasure flipped the lid open, proceeding to ferret around for scraps of gourmet undertakings. After closing the garage door, and backing out, I suddenly stopped. Upset, agitated because I was already behind schedule, I shooed the magpies away, picked up egg shells, leaking containers, and the like putting it back into the bin. Disgusting.

Our topic is consumption. Each day, we will produce trash in mammoth proportions. First of all I must digress. When I say "we" I mean anyone who would be reading this, so that means, an internet user, who reads English. Okay? That will eliminate about 3.5 billion of Earth's inhabitants. So, yeah, each morning as we start with "brekkie" two egg shells, half a slice of toast, maybe a butter container go into the bin. We put our dishes into the dishwasher, after washing off the used scum on the plate. Net result, oh about a litre of water, not including the dishwasher.... I will not keep going, but if one was to ponder for about nine seconds, the amount of refuse going into the trash each day we would realize a few things. What are those few things? Next is production. If we consume, do we produce? What do we produce besides emissions?

Australian police are questioning two doctors in the aftermath of the attempted bombings in the United Kingdom. Slowly sloshing through traffic this evening, the talk show was floating the idea that it is not the young disenchanted middle eastern men who are the main fear among anti terrorism proponents. It is the established, thirty something, educated, middle eastern men. I have to confess, when seeing middle eastern men, in the airport, I sometimes have a fleeting thought they could be terrorists. Yes, I know this is unfair, but be honest, does it happen to you? I think it does. I also wonder if it is a theme which is perpetuated by western media sources causing fear. September eleventh, UK tube bombings, Iraqi, Bali, Israeli, Turkish bombings, all in under 10 years involve those of middle eastern decent. Every morning, as we check the news we are being inundated with these images. So therefore, does it make one racist if they feel a fleeting suspicion when in close contact with middle eastern people while at the airport? I think not. Is it fair? No. Conversely, it would be true, I feel, that in Iran, a great number of the inhabitants there would feel a fleeting suspicion when they came into contact with some of us...... Dirty White Trash!!!