Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

I’m starting this letter while Eve is away in Kenya on yet another ILO assignment, having an interesting time among Masai, Somali and Lake Victoria communities, but pining for her Matumi paradise… I’ve come in from a barefoot mid-morning late summer walk all round the garden. It’s sunny but not hot, the lawn is new-mown everywhere. Trees, shrubs and beds are a leafy green, the hills and mountains all around, covered by natural montane bush, are in dappled shadow under clouds scudding through the blue. The pool is crystal – though the kingfisher who dives down from his perch in the sausage tree and skims the pool surface doesn’t like the modern salt chlorination system. Nor do the frogs. This weekend the top of Mount Carmel, opposite, will be one of the venues for the national paragliding championships. I’ll look up from the pool at them, floating round in the thermals like colourful insects… We often wake up to the sound of the Loerie or the bulbuls, look outside and wonder if we’v...

“Matumi” P.O.Box76 Schagen 1207 9 November 1998 Dear Ms Baloyi, I’m sorry we weren’t able to meet, as a follow up to your phone call, but I do hope that we can do so before too long. Tony and I made a visit to the office, and made contact with Obed, and I hope that he’ll keep us in touch with events and meetings. As we told him, we’d like to transfer our ANC membership from Yeoville to Schagen. I’m writing this letter because both Tony and I will be away for the next two months, until about 12 January (though I will be back at home from 8th to 21st December) and I want to keep in touch. Obed told us that you and he were keen to develop community activities in Schagen, and I’d like to contribute where and how I can. Mary Turok may have told you that I’ve been working for the International Labour Organisation these last 15 years or so (though I’m now semi-retired), and my special interest and expertise is in women’s employment and self-employment, and in community development...

Near the sleeper table, between corral tree and red ivory, where the bird table hangs: a WHITE STINKWOOD. Another WHITE STINKWOOD is the large tree behind the Bainsei The flame creeper is around a WHITE PEAR The Australian tree is related to the pepper tree Next to the cottage: the tree with sweet-smelling yellow flowers is a CASSIA Also near the cottage, behind it, is a COMBRETUM, with feathery three winged pods There is also a COMBRETUM????? The tall ungainly tree near the cottage, next to the Cassia, that has pink and yellow flowers coming out of its stem in mid-summer is a KHAYA – AN EAST AFRICAN MAHOGANY The large tree in front of the cottage that goes into autumn colours and sheds its leaves is a MOUNTAIN SYRINGA At the bottom of the garden ??? is a RHUS The little Chinese lantern tree/sickle bush near the 3 faces of eve is a CINERIA

September 3, 1998 Coral trees are still in bloom but have peaked. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow have started to bloom Bougainvillea still good but shedding Small-flowered red creeper in full bloom, all over tree next to sausage tree Wild Pear blossoms turning brown Hibiscus beginning to be quite profuse Fiddle tree still splendid The red ivories have lost their tiny blossoms and the bees have left Little blue irises flowering around birdbath The sausage tree still has quite a few deep red flowers, and new leaves are coming The moonflowers are still in bloom The red leafed tree near the swimming pool is showing a few leaves No sign of leaves on the flame trees yet ___________________________________ End of September Frangipani trying to come through Corral trees leafing slowly Roses blooming beautifully Jasmine creeper in flower Blue flowered creeper splendid YTAT lost all blooms - before others in e.g. the Impeys' garden Fence cree...

STRUGGLE FOR HISTORICAL TRUTH Arafat. Photo by (?) The PLO has been the ultimate example of a secular liberation movement of the people struggling against enemies from every side, and going through hell to survive. Here are some of its historical moments, the startling truths by Tony Hall (in 2003) Before long, the US war cabinet will turn its evil eye towards the destruction of the PLO as a secular, independent people’s liberation movement. With Iraq under its heel, the way will be clear for the final act. Bush has called for the complete removal of Yasser Arafat from power – why? Because, whatever his shortcomings and those of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat has always led and fought for that secular, independent state, the ideal which more than anything, imperialism cannot stomach. [Read Timothy Mitchell’s fascinating and important "McJihad" analysis of the Islam-Imperialist interface, if you haven’t already, as posted by Raj Patel]. Why is it that even some ...

My fourth case may seem almost arcane, but it is actually at the heart of the problem: left misconceptions which are useful to corporate imperialism. It is in the form of extracts from a post-Cancun commentary in 2003 by a Canadian activist, Yves Engler. It was headlined: How the Left swallows the anti-subsidy line. He wrote: "commentators, from the left and right, on the WTO ministerial meetings in Cancun seemed fixated on the harm wealthy nations' farm subsidies are doing to the world's poor. From the tone of these pundits one could be convinced that European, Japanese, Canadian or US farm subsidies were at the root of all the poor world's problems." The Guardian, for instance, bellowed, “there is only one way to address the growing gulf between rich and poor countries: abolish agricultural subsidies. We should ask what country has ever escaped poverty by depending on agricultural exports? Dependence on commodity production has, in fact, always been a r...

Advice from a sink and suds man Picture from urbanreststop.org You can spend so very much less – on purchase and installation costs, electricity, water and special soaps – by just ensuring a wide dishwashing area, just below the picture window of course, with two proper sized side-by-side sinks and draining boards (maybe you have them already) with a plastic drying rack on each draining side. You can cope with up to ten three-course eaters. Get rid of the one-sink-and-plastic-bowl (whatever do the English use that for?) or the one with a tiny extra sink (for rinsing is it?) Fill both sinks with hot water only. In one, squirt a good shot of dishwashing soap and mix it into foam. Use a square sponge with hard plastic scraper back, and/or the long handled brush (not bottle-brush). Move items from soapy sink to clear rinse sink, then to drying racks. Work out the way to stack everything neatly, systematically, into both drying racks, each type of item in its allocated space or...