Dominica says a definite 'maybe not!' to whaling!

Great news: our Prime Minister today announced that Dominica will abstain at the annual IWC vote on the resumption of commercial whaling.

This follows 10 years of siding with the Japanese on the issue. Many people have questioned the official Government position that Dominica has for so long taken on whaling; our whale watching industry has a huge potential with one of the best success rates in the region, and it's also been hard to square the whaling stance with our desire to be seen as a leading eco-tourism destination.

It'd be nicer to have a more definite 'no' on the issue but for now abstaining is a huge step in the right direction.

castle bruce beach

castle bruce beach
Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc

And they say we don't have any beaches...!

Sensible Units!

Here's a relatively useful but fun site: http://www.sensibleunits.com/

It takes a quantity with a scientific unit and turns it into several quantities with sensible units, like elephants, buses and Great Walls of China.

Scam alert: Forum on Human & Community Development

I received another scam/spam for a dubious conference:

International NGOs’ Forum on Human and Community Development Financing.
August 4-9, 2008: Seattle, Washington, United States.
August 11-16, 2008: Birmingham, United Kingdom.

How do I know? Tracing the send of the e-mail, it was sent from Togo, West Africa! It appears to be sent from the fully legit cantercorporation.com

Flickr tip

Here's a tip for Flickr users: adding date-taken-calendar/ to the end of your photostream shows a cool month calendar of photos taken that month! Try this...

Banana fights

There's been lots in the news recently about the ongoing spat between various banana organisations here. It seems that the long-standing official body the D/a Banana Producers (DPBL) and the Fair Trade farmers organisation have been at loggerheads for ages.

Thing is, Fair Trade would seem to be the way to go, more even than organic. (In fact, this article debunks the myth that organic is good for you, and for the environment.) UK Fair Trade bananas have gone from sales of £7.8 million in 2000 to £150 million in 2007; we have to embrace it and stop the infighting.

And as a footnote, this article highlights another 'banana war' going on - between UK supermarkets.

See also fairtrade.org.uk

Fighting spam... again

Recently I discovered to my horror that tons of spam had been sent 'from' my address. I knew this because my in-box had 1,500 bounced back messages. The trouble with this kind of spam is that it's impossible to report since bounce backs don't have the headers of the original spam. I did trace the hosting company of the link seen in the SPAM e-mail, and that after I sent off an irate e-mail to the China-based hosting complaint the spam did slow down. More to do with the 'natural' cycle of spam than my e-mail I think.

Normally any spam I get I report: I view the message source, copy, and paste into my Spamcop.net account. I knew there must be a plug-in to automate this, and there was. I started with the Habu add-on, but have since gone with the KnujOn.com plug-in from secondwheel.

In fact, the easiest way to report spam to Spamcop is simply to forward the mail to the unique e-mail you get when you sign up!

fantasy league champ

fantasy league champ
Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc

After a grueling 9-month campaign, I win Channel 4 Fantasy Football League.... again!

Final stats:

Overall points total
Steve 501
Simon 496
Liz 478
Wendy 466
Harry 445
RJ 390
Andrew 312
Dan 307
Tony 296

Best 3 months
Steve 214
Wendy 213
Simon 204
Liz 195
Harry 190

Months Won
2 Steve, Simon, Liz
1 Harry, Wendy, RJ

Getting scrappy

Finally, Dominica has begun to do something with old computer parts (besides dumping them in the landfill). I dropped off several years worth of old PCs at the 'Scrap Metal Only' yard in Canefield. Along with old aluminium cans they are shipped off to Canada where they are recycled.

Next - let's find a good way to dispose of used engine oil.

The scrap metal initiative is by Ivan Smith (767 276 6434) in conjunction with Lifeline Ministries (767 449 8593).

rebuilding the bike

the bike
Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc

I'm in the process of rebuilding part of the bike, and found BicycleTutor.com, which is fast becoming invaluable. Mind you, I wish I hadn't found out WD40 was the worse possible lubricant to use on one's chain...

Otter with big eyes

The LIAT Twin Otter flight from Canefield, Dominica, is how flying should be - fun, lots to see (especially with the large windows), a little 'edge of the seat' at times, and short. En route to Antigua, the stop over is about 15 minutes at Guadeloupe, when one usually sits in the plane and awaits any passengers going on to Antigua.

Until now. Because of a 'new law', as the <racial stereotype> sulky but stylish French female</racial stereotype> ground staff told us, we had to get off the plane, follow her around into the airport, up several flights of stairs, through a security check again, and back down and out to the plane.

Still, one gets to see another airport, and one could even buy a copy of Le Monde before it goes bankrupt (it lost US$31m last year). Except that Le Monde journalists are on strike... Which got me thinking, when French air traffic controllers take their annual strike action, does that mess LIAT flights up? I'd rather not know...

Getting the bird

A recent newspaper article voiced concerns by farmers in Dominica that wildlife - especially parrots - had made such a comeback that their numbers were impacting on farmers' crops. Apparently they're very partial to grapefruits.

Rather than shoot them (as had been done), the farmers ought to see this as a golden opportunity. People will pay good money to see these magnificent birds, which are only found here. Remember, there were only sixty or so Sisserous (Amazona imperialis) after Hurricane David. Now there are about 300. I did wonder how Hurricane Dean last year impacted on birdlife, and events such as that serve to show that we still need to protect our own endangered species.

(Photo by Izzy)

PS The newspaper also said one farmer was considering court action. The defendant may only be referred to as Jack O...

April sunset

sunset 12 Apr
Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc

The days are getting longer, and as you can see from the photo, the sun's setting further north.

A Place of Safety

The UK’s largest children’s charity is raising funds to open and operate a Dominica 'Place of Safety'. The Place of Safety will be the first ever 24 hour residential home for abused and abandoned children in Dominica.

The home will be able to look after approximately 100 children per year, giving them a secure and loving place of refuge. The Place of Safety will also function as a child development centre, providing respite care and other services to the wider child population, including Carib ‘Kalinago’ children. They are seeking to raise £300,000 to complete and equip the project by October 2008.

NCH staff in Dominica are currently in contact with abandoned and abused children who are in need of dedicated care and protection, while efforts are made to find loving homes. For example, one child is currently living in a hospital because she has nowhere else to go.

NCH needs help right now to meet this commitment and protect children from abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Read more at http://www.placeofsafety.blogspot.com/

Low blow

Dominica boxer Lennon Bannis was denied a chance to qualify for the Bejing Olympics at the recent qualifications in Trinidad when his opponent delivered a low blow that was missed by the referee, who then stopped the fight and awarded the bout to the opponent.

What was also sad was that the chance for an appeal was missed for lack of funds... why it costs to lodge an appeal I don't know!

Barbados 1 Dominica 0

"Now I know what it's like to be a travelling England fan".

For a long time we had hope - the first half ended 0-0 and though chances were few, we knew a goal was possible.

But then it all went pear-shaped in the 59th minute: a straight red card for our captain (at least one of their players was sent off for a second yellow at the same time). Without him - arguably our next best player after the awesome goalie - we were prone to the increasingly confident Bajan attacks... Then in the 75th minute their number 14, Standford, who came on a as sub in the 62nd minute, got the goal that put us out, and set Barbados up with a June meeting with Team USA.

But well done our boys! And the highlight of the game - the announcement over the PA asking for a Richard X, whose girlfriend had just gone into labour at the main gate... What's the betting the baby will be called Stanford?

'A place called Massacre'

More footballing news, and another astute 'signing' of a UK-based player into the Dominica team ahead of The Big Game: Ross Jeremy, from Massacre, who said "It was 30 degrees every day and the ball bounced twice as high as I'm used to," he said. "I expect it will be pretty warm in Barbados as well."

Full article...

Countdown to the big game

10 days till the big game - the second leg of the 2010 World Cup football qualifying game v. Barbados on the 26th. I had a chance to speak with the manager, Erickson Christopher, recently, who was upbeat about our chances. He and the team fly out on the 22nd, and are joined by the English players a couple of days later.

Remember in UK-based Richard Pacquette we have a guy who's scored against mighty European Champions Liverpool, and given his impressive goal against Barbados in the first leg, must be the biggest threat. Heartening new is that in recent friendly games Barbados have struggled to score.

The prize of course is the USA in the next game. What a way to showcase out new stadium!

Grinding greenery

A recent article talked about Dominica's 'grinding poverty'. Like another from someone else who'd done cursory research on the web (but never been anywhere near here), it emphasied how poor we are.

Before I go on, let's quickly look at the UN's Human Poverty Index. Dominica ranks 71st, the top of the Medium Human Development group of nations, above many of our Caribbean nations (inc. St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent). And even above our new partners, China and Venezuela! And above another 84 countries in the same group. Below that are the Low Human Development group of another 20-odd nations.

But along with the other indices that rate us highly in quality of life (4th happiest in the world, no less!), they are ignored in favour of a sweeping generalisation. Certainly, if the author of the article were to visit, for every ramshackle home they'd pass, they'd also be passed by a SUV. Yes there's poverty, but it's not 'grinding'. The author is probably closer to it than we are.

What we do have is a grinding greenery. A lushness that hits you in the face hard every day. An almost depressing natural beauty that berates you constantly ('look at me, climb, explore, take photos, dive, stop working!'). And as the rain continues to fall outside, a grinding rainforest. I know where'd I rather be.



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Listening to: Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
via FoxyTunes

Word of the week: Dreadhawk

Dreadhawk [dred-hawk] [] noun -

1. a hairstyle consisting of dreadlocks shaped into a mohawk.

Taken from http://www.fauxlogism.com/,
Fauxlogism is "an ongoing project to document false words. It appears to be heading mostly in the direction of portmanteaus, but all fraudulent or phony words are acceptable.

Why is any given new word a fauxlogism and not a neologism, you might ask? There’s no good answer to that question so let’s just shuffle our feet a little, tug at our collars, and move on...."