The LibDems conference this week, some of which I have watched. A sense of a lack of excitement and vision, or at least one which does not suggest that there is anything very different about the LD's from any other party.
Something does need to break this obsession with trying to gain as many voters as possible hence the lack of choice. Clare Short is right - we need electoral reform and I think only a hung parliament could offer that. Assuming people bother to vote next time....I think you would be very hard pushed to know what party most politicians belong to . They use the same soundbites, have the same essential message. There's nothing to inspire.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
South Africa
Rather belated, but we spent 10 days in South Africa (Cape Town) and its about time I blogged about it.
Its a fascinating place. Cape Town itself has often been described as thinking of itself as a European city and certainly on one level it is less overtly African than other major African cities - the population is historically more diverse, for a start.
What immediately struck me was that in essense, apartheid still exists, in a practical sense if not in actuality as a political system. For example, restaurants appeared to be frequented only by white people. And recognising the still vast economic differences is at least one explanation. The sheer size of some of the townships, and the fact that much of them, particularly the largest, still consist of 'informal' housing - essentially shacks constructed from corrugated iron, board, and so on - emphasises this difference. Just a mile or two up the road are mansions costing millions. I know there are these diferences in London, but they seem all the more extreme, all the more stark.
What any government can do is limited, I suppose - or at least, it may take time, a long time, and when we visited a township with our excellent guide Duncan, local people did seem to have a sense of optimism. There is certainly a genuine sense of community on the townships, and I couldn't help but think that the design of the new 'pathway' housing will not facilitate this and appears to be more on the lines of the low level blocks of flats being torn down all over Britain.
Racism is still all too apparent, as is the assumption that because we are white, we would agree with them. Two particular occassions - at a crocodile farm where the owner launched into a racist rant, even using the word 'kaffir' (did you know that the only problem with apartheid was giving it a name - it would have been fine if they had just done it!), and in a supermarket of all places. Thats not going to disappear overnight either.
The city itself is remarkably beautiful, no doubt about that. We did the expected Table Mountain visit, and the views really are amazing. We also went to Robben island which was interesting but perhaps somewhat disorganised. The Robben Island Museum are building a new craft to take people to the island but have cancelled their existing contract before the new boat is available and replaced them, temporarily, with the old apartheid era boats which used to take the prisoners over to the island. Of historical provenance, yes, but not a comfoprtable ride to put it mildly, and they are still trying to run the old schedules on boats which are far slower. Daft.
Other things we did - travelled down to Constantia and halfway to Cape Point, where we saw penguins oin Boulders beach, and over to Hermanus for some whale watching - yes, they were more than in abundance. We went on a day safari which included rhinos, zebras, wildebeestes and so on...
Its certainly a foodie city. Great food everywhere we tried, and the exchange rate makes it a very cheap holiday once you have got there.
And the hotel must get a mention. The Cape Heritage Hotel in the city centre is a gem.
Its a fascinating place. Cape Town itself has often been described as thinking of itself as a European city and certainly on one level it is less overtly African than other major African cities - the population is historically more diverse, for a start.
What immediately struck me was that in essense, apartheid still exists, in a practical sense if not in actuality as a political system. For example, restaurants appeared to be frequented only by white people. And recognising the still vast economic differences is at least one explanation. The sheer size of some of the townships, and the fact that much of them, particularly the largest, still consist of 'informal' housing - essentially shacks constructed from corrugated iron, board, and so on - emphasises this difference. Just a mile or two up the road are mansions costing millions. I know there are these diferences in London, but they seem all the more extreme, all the more stark.
What any government can do is limited, I suppose - or at least, it may take time, a long time, and when we visited a township with our excellent guide Duncan, local people did seem to have a sense of optimism. There is certainly a genuine sense of community on the townships, and I couldn't help but think that the design of the new 'pathway' housing will not facilitate this and appears to be more on the lines of the low level blocks of flats being torn down all over Britain.
Racism is still all too apparent, as is the assumption that because we are white, we would agree with them. Two particular occassions - at a crocodile farm where the owner launched into a racist rant, even using the word 'kaffir' (did you know that the only problem with apartheid was giving it a name - it would have been fine if they had just done it!), and in a supermarket of all places. Thats not going to disappear overnight either.
The city itself is remarkably beautiful, no doubt about that. We did the expected Table Mountain visit, and the views really are amazing. We also went to Robben island which was interesting but perhaps somewhat disorganised. The Robben Island Museum are building a new craft to take people to the island but have cancelled their existing contract before the new boat is available and replaced them, temporarily, with the old apartheid era boats which used to take the prisoners over to the island. Of historical provenance, yes, but not a comfoprtable ride to put it mildly, and they are still trying to run the old schedules on boats which are far slower. Daft.
Other things we did - travelled down to Constantia and halfway to Cape Point, where we saw penguins oin Boulders beach, and over to Hermanus for some whale watching - yes, they were more than in abundance. We went on a day safari which included rhinos, zebras, wildebeestes and so on...
Its certainly a foodie city. Great food everywhere we tried, and the exchange rate makes it a very cheap holiday once you have got there.
And the hotel must get a mention. The Cape Heritage Hotel in the city centre is a gem.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Great post about Williams the Spineless
Thanks to Dora in Texas for this - I hope she doesn'tmind my reproducing it
I have my own term for him. The Archmushworm of Canterbury. Spineless is putting it mildly. You have to be capable of actual definitive views before the concept of a spine even applies. The Archbishop of Canterbury reminds me of the overgrown flea larvae that infested my room one hot summer when my cat was ill. If you squashed them, they turned out to be completely made of flea excrement. They had no actual substance.
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