Steve McCabe: from island to island

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!

"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?

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...

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!

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...

Dreadhawk [ dred -hawk] [ ] noun - 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...."

As I sat in the dark, lit only by a flickering candle, listening to our PMs 'state of the nation' speech, two things came to mind. One that I was so badly wrong that the power cut would be over in time for the start of the speech. No way, I thought, that the power company would deprive us of seeing our PM on TV! Wrong. More importantly though I heard the PM talk briefly of how the oil refinery was on hold (not cancelled, note). But he continued on the theme of 'energy security' by talking extensively of the forthcoming and exciting plans for geo-thermal electricity - exploring the potential for cheap power that could also be exported to the neighbouring islands. And contrasting the two options, it really is a no-brainer. The plans by the way are for a soon-to-start French-funded exploration into the potential, centred in nearby Wotton Waven. Given previous studies have shown there is potential, let's get going!

After Spider Pies, my fave type of pie is the website traffic 'referring sites' pie(chart), and over on the Delphis blog I provide some fascinating (!) insights into this non-edible pie...

Here's a good blog about some kayakers who decide Dominica's a good place for their sport!

Outside, it's 20.5C. That's 68.9F. Now that might sound toasty to some, but it's not for late-February in Dominica. We're tropical , not temperate. And it's not even raining. Someone turn the heat up please. ---------------- Listening to: Jeff Wayne - War Of The Worlds - Part 01 via FoxyTunes

In which the Delphis Ltd blog suggests a good way to make sure your data is safe when the next natural disaster hits! Read more...

Good news: the Prime Minister today announced the proposed oil refinery was on hold. This is a major change to the 'oil refinery goes ahead after the EIA' stance. He said a wider view of overall economic benefits should be taken, along with full consultation with all stakeholders, before any decision is made. The Dominica Hotel & Tourism Association recently released a press release on the refinery issue, and it's worth repeating here: " The Dominica Hotel and Tourism Association is alarmed at the prospect of the building of an oil refinery in Dominica and the negative impact this will have on the thousands of jobs created through tourism. The tourism sector presently employs thousands of people and according to the latest IMF report, tourism contributed an estimated $186 million to the economy, creating huge foreign exchange. This growth can be multiplied substantially every year if Government demonstrates its commitment to the tourism sector and helps it mo...

We bag everything here. Stores must spend a small fortune on black plastic shopping bags (Dominica imported US$1.3 million of plastic products last year). Even the smallest item goes into one, sometimes two. Recent reports of a huge garbage vortex in the middle of the Pacific is probably matched by one in the middle of the Caribbean. I hate them, and take a small pleasure from the looks of horror I get in stores when I refuse them. Ban them I say. Fortunately, there's now the re-usable Green Dominica grocery bag. All is not lost.

In which over on the Delphis Ltd blog we have a chuckle at a site that extols good design but fails in one key area... Read more.

Dominica team celebrate Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc It was great while it lasted! Like in the cricket yesterday, we took an early lead in this World Cup Qualifier, only to see Barbados come back. This time they didn't beat us, just equalised, so we go into the second leg needing to win. The prize is playing the USA! Read more on the game here .

Another little earth tremor this afternoon - 5.0, 80 miles east of us, 21 miles down. If it had happened yesterday no-one would have noticed!

Carnival parade Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc Today's Carnival Monday. Though it got off to a late start, it was the usual vibrant parade. See more pics here.

Caribbean Man talks about the growing crisis we face here, and I couldn't agree more. Just the handling of the 'proposed' oil refinery has made me cringe. Surely there's someone in Govt. who thought of saying 'Look, this is a contentious issue and though we ourselves know it's going ahead regardless, we can get lots of Brownie points if we handle this well. Let's be seen to be proactive - meet with stakeholders, do the consultation we promised, maybe even throw the tourism industry a bone or two...' Instead, there's been one press 'conference' (more of a press speaking-to in fact), one press release, one meeting with select stakeholders. Can you, for instance imagine Govt. saying 'We understand your concerns about the possible effect on tourism. So we'll double the budget for tourism marketing!" No, I can't either. Instead, the industry is dismissed as worthless, and critics are dismissed as 'evil'.

You've a good strong password to access your laptop, you might even have a BIOS-based password too. But what can you do if your laptop is stolen? The Laptop Lock is a site that allows you to register your laptop, and if it's stolen you can flag it as such. The site will connect with your laptop (you install a little piece of software) and you have access to a number of options the first time your laptop connects to the Web - including the ability to encrypt specify folders. One interesting option is to be able to geographically track where the laptop is accessing the Net from once stolen... that is, if the thief's managed to by-pass your passwords!

The Nigerian Scam gets even better. I received an invitation to attend the "2nd International NGO/CBO Workshop". Sounded great, all expenses paid trip to New York for up to 4 members of my organisation. Funded by the real Jacobson Foundation, and in part by the Bill Gates Foundation, and the invite was a 'glossy' PDF brochure. Only catch was, to attend you had to Western Union $300 per person to a post office in West Africa.... If they'd have had you wire the money to the US it would have been perfect. I know of a case locally where a whole group were invited to West Africa only to get there to find it was a scam. Our Government even contributed air fares. At least the group got to see Africa. But like I did with this scam, Google the event. If there's not a whiff of the event, take a closer look. Especially given it was supposed to be the 2nd of its kind, why nothing online about the 1st?! ALERT: watch out also for the 'Forum on Human and Community Devel...