A mighty fall

Skydiving gives you a kick, but it is quite safe. Only 1 jumps in 100,000 end in a fatality. And those are most likely the risk takers or idiots messing something up.

So it was quite remarkable when in Belgium a very experienced skydiver crashed to her death after both her main and her safety parachute failed. It became more intrigueing when a love triangle was discovered between the victim and two other sky divers taking part in the same jump.

As you could expect with such a case, much ink has flown, and many speculations made. There were bizar twists in the trial such as an anonymous letter to the judge stating that the cheating man, and not the mistress would be responsible.

The trio had been due to perform tricks together in the sky, but the murder accused Clottemans jumped a fraction too late and did not join the manouevres. Clottemans became a prime suspect when she attempted suicide hours before she was due to make a second statement to police, a month after the incident.

In the end Clottemans (left) was found guilty of the murder on Van Doren (right), but on the basis of circumstantial links since all hard evidence is missing.

Cote d'Ivoire

Cote d'Ivoire is a west African country, and it's french name remains unchanged in English. Litterly meaning "Ivory Coast" you can guess what the country used to be famous for. Now it has mainly coffee and cocoa as agricultural export products. It is claimed that any chocolatier worth his salt should have Ivorian cocoa in his mix. If you walk in the container yard in Abidjan,the capital, you will watermouth as you can smell cocoa everywhere. Cote d'Ivoire was one of the first African countries to achieve independance from their colonisers - the French. Their inspirational leader Felix Houphouet-Boigny was a great thinker and lead his country to certain prosperity. To such an extend that it was called the Ivorian miracle. It is currently stil one of the upcoming African countries. Currently the country holds 19 million inhabitants, with Didier Drogba probably the best known of all of them - being a top scoring soccer player

A big garden

The Garden Route is probably the most famous destination of South Africa. Not so much a Garden as a Route, it refers to the stretch of coast between Plettenberg and Port Elisabeth. Along the roughly 200 kms, you will see mountains, valleys and lakes, rivers and forests, a paradise for nature lovers.
It is one of South Africa's richest botanical treasures, with giant Yellowwood or Milkwood trees in one of the indigenous forests. And between July and December each year, you can witness a multitude of blooms, such as the Proteas, Ericas, Vygies, Bluebells, Pin-Cushions, Aloes, Tubers and various other species of Fynbos, as it is a matter of record that the floral kingdom of this area is the most varied in the world.
If you stick to the N2, the highway along the garden route, you might not be so impressed. The trick lies in exploring the areas along the highway.

Unexplored beauty

The Western Coast is still an almost undiscovered treasure trove of unspoiled beaches, incredible mountain ranges, rich geographical diversity, and the most astounding carpet of wild flowers in spring. Come
August and September the lush green fields turn into a veritable explosion of colourful flowers.
The Cape West Coast stretches north from Cape Town for hundreds of kilometers. Within its parameters are the indescribably beautiful Cederberg Mountains, which I had visited before.
The villages along the coast are simple and quaint, as fisherman's towns usually are. Snoek, mussels and crayfish are a way of life and ‘bokkoms’ (salted mullet strung up in bunches and left to dry)
is the local delicacy. If you are lucky, or very patient, or both, you can se Southern Right Whales breaching the water. Whilst we were there, there was a sighting of a whale. But we only saw seals and seabirds.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the size of Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria combined. It's population is only 60 million though
which is the same as France's population. The Congo is probably the African country most written about. That is because its history is exemplary of a lot of African countries.
Although first contacts with Portugese explorers in the 15th century were peaceful and based on mutual respect and exchange of courtesies, soon after, domination of Whites over Blacks began.
Slaves were traded form the Congo basin to the rest of Africa and the World by Whites, and in the East Arab slavers enslaved entire villages at a time.
Famous explorers like Livingstone and most notably Stanley mapped the Dark Heart of Africa, triggering interest of the Belgian King Leopold II and others.
But it was the Belgian King that managed to claim this vast country as his personal property. After fighting the Arabs, the Belgians installed a reign of terror to force Congolese to harvest rubber and
dig out copper. They used a "divide and rule" tactic amongst the many Congolese tribes and used cannibalistic tribes as allies, promising them the meat of their victims.
Although certainly some good intentions were involved, and parts of the country were developed, everything evolved around exploiting natural richness.
When the Congolese fought for their independance, acquiered now exactly 50 years ago, Belgians kept trying to secure their access to natural resources. They assasinated Patrice
Lumumba and installed Mobutu Sese Seko as president of the Congo. Mobutu turned out to be one of the worst African rulers.
Unfortunately the atrocities, misgovernment, corruption, civil wars, poverty and other horrors found in Congo's recent history are found in other African countries. Many claim
that the ideas behind these terrible things occured first in the Congo, and were then taken over by other countries

Super XIV rugby

Southern Hemisphere Rugby

The Super 14 Rugby tournament is a competition between the top provincial teams in the Southern Hemisphere. This tournament is arguably the best in the world and has 5 South African teams, 5 teams from New Zealand and 4 from Australia. Most of the players of the national teams of these countries play in one of the teams of the Super 14. So that definitely adds to the excitement and level of the games played. The Stormers are the team for Western Province, and play their games in the capital of this province: Cape Town (what a nice coincidence). They have been performing

average in the past years, but this year was their best year ever. For the first time they made it to the finals, but were beaten by the Blue Bulls.

Of course, the fact that it was an all South African final was a huge achievement in itself that was proudly emphasized by commentators here.

Townships

A "township" is a term from the Apartheid era, and refers to an urban area where none-whites live. I guess the term itself can be used as a synonym for ghetto, favella, borough, shantytown maybe even slum... because they are all very alike.But if you look closely at the description, you'll notice that a township has nothing to do with the type of houses. Indeed townships can have the whole range from normal brik houses down to little shacksout of plates of corrugated iron. A squatter camp is different in the sense that it is illegal: people moved there and started living there although it was not approved by the goyvernment.Most cities have townships, and they vary from well organized - having tarred roads and electricity, running water, sewage, garbage collection - to not organized at all.Gugulethu is one of the biggest townships of Cape Town, housing mainly Xhosa speaking South Africans. The name is a contraction of "igugu lethu", which is Xhosa for "our pride".

Mozambique

Mozambique is a neighbouring country to South Africa, bordering on the north east. The capital is Maputo, and lies in the far south of the country, about an hours drive from the Kruger national park. Mozambique became independent in 1975 after a 13 year long lasting war between the guerilla forces and the Portuguese army. The Portuguese had occupied parts of the land along the coastline for around 500 years, mainly serving their lucrative trade with the far east. The civil war was not the only evil that struck, natural disasters and economic mismanagement deepened the problems. This leads to a low average annual income of $ 370 per capita for the 23 million Mozambiquans. Official language is still Portuguese (next to other languages), and the majority of the population is christian, clearly showing the influence of the colonists.

AWB leader murdered

Eugene Terreblanche was the president and leader of the Afrikaner Weerstand Beweging (AWB). The political party is extreme right and very racist. He pleaded to re-install apartheid and was a forefighter of racial discrimination. Back in the '90s he had quite some followers, but the last few years the number of followers were like his ideas: marginal. He saw himself as a new Hitler, and was not afraid to say so. This can be seen in the flag the AWB has (see picture), very much like the Nazi Swatsika.

He was brutally murdered by two of his black domestic workers, one 28 years old, the other only 15. They jumped him in his sleep and bashed his skull withand iron rod. Their motive was that they had not been paid for their work since December 2009. Some argue that this murder was inspired by the hatespeech of Julius Malema, the ANC Youth president who has been trying to get the "Kill the Boer" song registered as national heritage. That song was used by black anti-Apartheid fighters in the 90's and calls to kill whites. It says "one Boer one bullet"; A "Boer" means peasant aka white South African.

South Africa's constitution

South Africa's Constitution was the result of remarkably detailed and inclusive negotiations - difficult but determined - that were carried out with an acute awareness of the injustices of the country's non-democratic past.
It is widely regarded as the most progressive constitution in the world, with a Bill of Rights second to none.
Human rights are given clear prominence in the Constitution: "a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights". These are then further spelt out in detail. Very important ones, especially compared to other countries on the continent are: freedom of sexuality (often also seen als sexing freely) and freedom of expression. The latter entails that South Africa has free press, which can be a very strong weapon against bad gouvernment.

All in all, with so many good intentions aligned in one text, a good reason to have a day off and do nothing... because everyone feels to have that right now and then.

Eikestad

Stellenbosch is considered to be one of South Africa’s most beautiful villages. Located at the foot of the mountains in a fertile valley, the scenery couldn’t be more beautiful. The place is named after it’s founder, the Dutchman governor Simon Van Der Stel, and meant “Stel’s bush”. Back in the day, people did not think this had a double meaning (you perv.). Van Der Stel is seen as the founder of Cape Town in name of the VOC and had a major influence on the area. One of those influences was importing oak trees.

South African trees did not grow tall and straight, so they were not ideal to make timber wood off. That is why Simon Van Der Stel started growing European oak trees. Today the city still has the nickname “Eikestad” (oak city). As you can imagine, you can still find a lot of oak trees in the streets.

Diving

I now have my official diving certificate issued by PADI. PADI ( Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is a worldwide diving association, and one of the biggest in the business. The organization checks affiliated diving schools on how they perform and how they operate. This way they guarantee safe and adequate diving assistance to scuba divers. So if I rock up to an other country and walk into a PADI dive shop I know I’ll be in good hands. Scuba itself is an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. But because that is a mouthful and sounds cocky, scuba became a word on itself. What scuba really means is diving with compressed air (not oxygen) in tanks, but that you should’ve guessed by now. With the open water certificate I attained now, I am allowed to dive down to 18 meters. So now the fun can really start. There are many different types of dives: adventure dives (looking for hidden objects with a map), wreck dives (following marked routes in wrecks), night dives, orientation dives (with map and compass), explorer dives (looking for specific sea life)… All of which I am very keen to do of course. There are many more types of certificates I can attain, let’s see which others I might get.

Vuvuzela

The ancestor of the vuvuzela is said to be the kudu horn - ixilongoin isiXhosa, mhalamhala in Tshivenda - blown to summon African villagers to meetings. Later versions were made of tin.
The trumpet became so popular at football matches in the late 1990s that a company, Masincedane Sport (curses be upon them), was formed in 2001 to mass-produce it. Made of plastic, they come in a variety of colours - black or white for fans of Orlando Pirates, yellow for Kaizer Chiefs, and so on - with little drawings on the side warning against blowing in the ear!
There's uncertainty on the origin of the word "vuvuzela". Some say it comes from the isiZulu for - wait for it - "making noise". Others say it's from township slang related to the word "shower", because it "showers people with music" - or, more prosaically, looks a little like a shower head.
The announcement, on 15 May 2004, that South Africa would host the 2010 Fifa World Cup gave the vuvuzela a huge boost, to say the least - some 20 000 were sold on the day by enterprising street vendors.
It's a noisy thing, so there's no surprise some don't like it. Journalist Jon Qwelane once quipped that he had taken to watching football matches at home - with the volume turned low - because of what he described as "an instrument of hell". (source: http://www.southafrica.info/2010/vuvuzela.htm)

The answers

All right, I think I left two questions outstanding, correct? The first one being, what was I doing in that stadium? The other one Why was I studying and taking an exam? You got to forgive me for keeping (at least some of) you in agony, but I thoroughly enjoy this little bit of power I have over you from 10 000 km distance.

So on with the answers.

To the first one the answer is plain and simple: I attended the opening of the brand new stadium in Green Point, Cape Town. You must have seen pictures of it already for it is the most picturesquely located stadium they build for the coming World Cup. The stadium is a stone throw away from the ocean, it has a view on Table Mountain from within the stadium and there is a golf course lying right next to it.
The observant and loyal readers must have remarked that it is also located in the suburb where I live. Indeed it takes me about 15 minutes on foot from my front door to the entrance of the brand new stadium. And I intend to do that several times as I have tickets to all 7 world cup games which will be held here in Cape Town. Let me emphasize: I will be attending all World Cup games held in the Green Point stadium. That includes one 16^th final, one quarter final and one semi final, and I will only have to walk there 15 minutes. Now throw in the fact that I am not a football fan, and you must have an inkling of how jealous I am making my football loving friends at this moment.

Especially to those readers, I will sing: neh neh neneeh neeh, neh neh neneeh neh.(again, referring to the last sentence of my first paragraph)

So there I was at the opening of the Green Point stadium, attending the first ever football game held there. You know about the vuvuzelas so I won’t touch upon that again. Now try to imagine what kind of an event it would be if they open a new stadium in your home town. There would be some hustle and bustle, right? I am talking about brass bands, live performances, fire works, movie clips on the construction of the stadium, cheerleaders, sponsors left and right handing out free goodies, maybe even marines descending from the roof or fighter jets flying over in formation? None of that!! There was nothing! Ok, there was a band performing three songs and the dressed up a handful of girls like cheerleaders. And I saw two doll like figures bobbing around at the other side of the pitch, advertising something. But that was basically it. When the game started they counted down from 10 to 0, you know, for the official kick off of the first game ever! When they reached 0 they ball wasn’t even in the middle of the circle because the home team was still passing it around.

As feeble as the festivities were, so bad was the game. It was a premier league game, mind you. But the first real attempt came in the 88^th minute when a header accidentally ended up somewhere near the goal posts. The rest of the game was just an eyesore. Shame.

But I don’t wish to say negative things only. It is just easy to comment on what is bad, or what is lacking. I have to say the stadium itself is really beautiful to see. It is a very light structure and it allows you to reach the stands really easily. No crawling through dark catacombs, once you are in you walk right up to where you have to be. And there are plenty of stores to buy food or a beer. Very nice indeed.

Now on to the second question. What did I study, and what the flip was that exam about? I don’t think any one has guessed it. Although I must say that from the guesses you ventured, I got the impression I need to work on my image. No one said “lion tamer” or “snake expert” or any other cool and macho thing. One very good guess was “world cup host”. I might still want to try that. Escorting people to all 7 games in Cape Town, since I am attending them already. I told you that right? And about the finals?

I was studying and taking and exam to get my scuba diving certificate. That’s right. I am close to attaining my certificate for open water dives down to 18 metres. You have to take that stuff serious because if you mess up badly, you might end up killed. Yes sir, you can drown in 10cm of water. So if you go down to 18 metres you risk your life like 1800 cm/ 10cm = 180 times. And since I only have 1 life, that is quite significant I’d say. So that is why they make you take an exam. You have to study a book of roughly 540 pages. So with every 3 pages you learn, you eliminate 1 time you risk your life (on average).

On a serious note, the theory was quite extensive for a leisure activity, but it wasn’t that bad of course. I’m still proud to say I scored 49,5 / 50 #big smile.

(and now all you evil people are wondering what that one question was I got wrong).

I had the first dives as well. In a pool. To get to know how everything works, how to breathe, how to take off your goggles and put them back on, how to take off your tanks at put them

back on again, all that sort of stuff. Really cool, but not as cool as the first ocean dive I did. We went down to 6 metres to a little ship wreck lying there. Nothing too dramatic but I loved it! The plants, the fish, the starfish, the little octopus we saw. I thought it was incredible. It was also a lot more difficult then I thought. I was so tired after those two hours of diving, I had to take a nap before I could go and watch the 6 nations games (rugby).

I am certain I will do this a couple of times more often. I am already dreaming of diving to real ship wrecks. There are plenty of those along the coast and they organize dives to them.

Watch this space!

Hell's horns

The ancestor of the vuvuzela is said to be the kudu horn - ixilongoin isiXhosa, mhalamhala in Tshivenda - blown to summon African villagers to meetings. Later versions were made of tin.

The trumpet became so popular at football matches in the late 1990s that a company, Masincedane Sport (curses be upon them), was formed in 2001 to mass-produce it. Made of plastic, they come in a variety of colours - black or white for fans of Orlando Pirates, yellow for Kaizer Chiefs, and so on - with little drawings on the side warning against blowing in the ear!

There's uncertainty on the origin of the word "vuvuzela". Some say it comes from the isiZulu for - wait for it - "making noise". Others say it's from township slang related to the word "shower", because it "showers people with music" - or, more prosaically, looks a little like a shower head.

The announcement, on 15 May 2004, that South Africa would host the 2010 Fifa World Cup gave the vuvuzela a huge boost, to say the least - some 20 000 were sold on the day by enterprising street vendors.

It's a noisy thing, so there's no surprise some don't like it. Journalist Jon Qwelane once quipped that he had taken to watching football matches at home - with the volume turned low - because of what he described as "an instrument of hell".

http://www.southafrica.info/2010/vuvuzela.htm

Shark Chow

Mr Skinner, 37, a Zimbabwean who lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo, died in the way all Ocean enthusiasts dread. He got eaten by a shark. At 100m from the shore he was only chest deep. Many Capetonians frown when they hear he was 100m in because he should not be able to stand there they say.
But they had plenty of eye witnesses, including a man swimming close by. (moments after the event the first messages appeared on twitter giving an extra dimension to voyeurism). Not wanting to quote their simplistic reports, they say they saw the shark eat Mr Skinner in two times. Nothing remained but his swimming goggles and a cloud of blood. The shark supposedly was very big, "larger than a mini-bus". The last time a man got killed by a shark dates back to 2005 which can be seen as an indication of how rare this is. Moreover in 70% of the cases, the shark only bites a chunk at most and then runs off. Little consolation if you ask me. But in Fish Hoek they took some measures to counter this. They have guys monitoring the bay with binoculars. When sharks are spotted in the bay, a flag goes up to warn the people on the beach. This particular day there was a flag signaling that the waters were too murky to have clear sight for shark spotting. .

First Heart Transplant

Christiaan Barnard was the South African surgeon first to perform a heart transplant on humans. He was born and raised in Beaufort West, and attended medical school at the University of Cape Town. It is in that same city that he performed his miracle surgery back in 1967.

He was accostumed to exchanging organs between people, it seems, because he performed the first kidney transplant as well, in 1953.The unlucky soul that provided the heart for this medical milestone was Denise Darvall, who died instantly when she was hit by a car whilst crossing the streets in Cape Town. Much to the good fortune of Louis Washansky, a 54 year old who suffered from an incurable heart disease.

After the successful heart transplant, Louis did not enjoy his new life for long. 18 Days later he died. From pneumonia, not a heart related problem.

So this comes to show that South Africa has good hospitals, and that you have to be careful when crossing the streets in Cape Town.

Sea point

Up to the thirties, Sea Point was a little seaside resort out of town, where affluent Capetonian citizens had their holiday and weekend homes.
From the fifties on, highrising apartment houses were erected. Similar to Hillbrow and Johannesburg, it was regarded to be chic - á la New York - to live in a high building.Sea Point has a different face nowadays. "Upper Sea Point", on the slopes of the Signal Hill is characterised by expensive private mansions.

Down at the sea promenade you find a long row of luxury apartment blocks. In between lies the Main Road with pubs, music clubs, coffeeshops and some good restaurants like the Chinese Mr Chan or bistros like the lively New York Bagel. But also stripclubs, brothels, gambling places, drug trafficking and the like can still be found here.