Dorp - Photos
Some new photos from South Africa - Dorp means small town in the middle of nowhere (or in this case the Free State).
Tea from the African Bush
The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, comes in many forms—black, green, oolong. What makes Camellia so healthful is its polyphenols, antioxidants that protect against cell damage and help prevent diseases like age-related decline, cancer and heart disease. But herbal teas like chamomile don’t have the same benefits. That is, all except one. The South African “rooibos,” meaning red bush in Afrikaans, has the benefits of Camellia without the caffeine.
Psychology Today: Tea from the African Bush
I have been addicted to Rooibos tea for several years now - excellent brew for the evening - but beware, it may not have caffeine, but it gives a little lift - not unlike the other Indian and Chinese herbs of the variety Camellia sinensis.
How to Survive as the Family Tech Support Guy
How to Survive as the Family Tech Support Guy (or Gal) - lifehack.org
One of the most insidious pressures on tech-savvy people these days is the seemingly constant pressure to provide quick, top-quality computer and web support — to our families.
But it’s a responsibility that can quickly grow to wreak havoc on our schedules. You soon find yourself barraged with calls, making house calls, and squeezing in last-minute requests. It’s like the freelancer’s worst nightmare client, except a) you’re not being paid, b) you can’t ask them to take their business elsewhere, and c) you’re expected to offer a lifetime guarantee.
Inside Mugabes Zimbabwe
Newsnight | Inside Mugabes Zimbabwe
Last nights Newsnight on BBC2 painted a disturbing picture of life in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe - check the link above for an outline and link to the video.
What is even more disturbing to me - with cholera epidemic just around the corner, people starving, and a life expectancy in the middle thirties for most people - is the continued complicity of the South African government and all that this implies - they are not about to condemn a brutal dictator because of the colour of his skin.
Its hard to imagine that conditions are any better for most people than during apartheid regimes of the past. The new rulers of southern Africa don’t seem to have read George Orwell’s Animal Farm - far from it, they seem to relish the prospect of grabbing power for themselves and screwing the people into the earth. There is going to be no revolution while people are busy starving. Meanwhile as the rulers in South Africa look over their shoulders in paradoxical envy, South Africa itself is flooded with poor Zimbabweans surviving as best they can in gangs that rob loot and rape.
Someone once suggested to me, that if the rest of the world threw up a fence around Africa - no one outside of Africa would give a damn. Apart from some resources - its hard to argue with this viewpoint. Is Africa going to be a mess forever? Is it all the fault of the colonial past - if so why isn’t East Asia in the same mess?