Into the lair of the beast

May 31, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Georgia » Gori » Stalin museum

It was the smartass Meshrop Martots (spellings of his name, ironically, differ) just over 1600 years ago, who came up with the Georgian and Armenian alphabets. Somewhat based on Greek, but mostly his own invention, tourists from all corners of the world still struggle when coming to the Caucasus. The only advantage being that the alphabets are somewhat congruous with greek and Latin, meaning that most letters in both the Armenian and Georgian alphabets phonetically represent letters that exist in the Latin alphabet.

However, it also means its not always easy to get around using public transport, where destinations are typically only listed in the local script, the occasional Russian alternatives being a welcome change.

But, still, I managed to get to Gori, a village not too far from Tbilisi and home to the infamous Stalin museum. A bit of a must to visit, the museum has relatively little to offer in the little town that, at best, can be described as sleepy.
Though that might change. Here, too, as in Tbilisi, half the buildings appeared to be in the process of being refurbished.

The best aspect of the museum is Stalin's birth house, untouched, in a away covered by its own mausoleum, with the neighborhood that once surrounded it having been bulldozed, the old home now being the eccentric center of town.

On the up, there now is limited attention in the museum for Stalin's (huge) dark side. Apparently, upto a few years ago, the museum still only saw the man in a purely positive light. Not so now. Though the guide, I suspect, still mostly tells the same story, in almost the language of your choice, specifically three large banners, in three languages, draw attention to the millions of deaths Stalin was primarily, if not solely, responsible for.
also, the huge Stalin statue in front of the museum has 'mysteriously' disappeared.

On the edge of Europe and Asia

May 30, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Georgia » Tbilisi » Freedom square

Tbilisi has a lot of gorgeous architecture. Not just in the center of town, or the old town itself, but everywhere. You might be walking around in some deadbeat suburb, turning a corner, when your breath is taken away by a humongous art nouveau structure, or a socialist realist contraption, or some neoclassical cum rococo folly.

Sadly, however, outside the recent additions and the few areas in Tbilisi which have been refurbished, much of the city is in a pretty dire state of disrepair. Even in the old town, where the main streets are in need of an upgrade, one block down, the streets were in need of an upgrade twenty or more years ago. Let alone the suburbs, where many buildings need to be refurbished before they can be refurbished.
What doesn’t help is that, seemingly, building restrictions never existed or were simply never adhered to, many residences, including the home that operates as a hostel in which I’m staying, seemingly having grown hopscotch over the years; additional room here, extra balcony there, perhaps even a new floor on top. And with all these additions of varying quality and material, it makes some areas of the city look like a medieval collection of madness.

Georgia, significantly more free, politically, than Azerbaijan, is undergoing some political upheaval, yet again. However, there clearly is some real improvement in people’s lives, and, as said, people can voice their disenchantment, but the city, as the suburbs, looks significantly more grimy than Baku does.
And, yes, Baku was swept clean of beggars in preparation for Eurovison, so it’s hard for me to compare on that count, but there is quite a bit of poverty, sometimes painfully so, on the streets of Tbilisi.

Tbilisi does feel distinctly more European, if eastern, than Baku. The dividing line being the structural absence of bum guns, sorely missed.

The national foodstuff in Georgia seems to be cheese. It’s EVERYWHERE.
Also, a surprising local delicacy is khinkali, large boiled potato dumplings with, most often, meat inside. Pretty much identical to Mongolian buuz.
It’s a small world after all.

Georgians are said to be a people of extremes. Mother Georgia, an aluminum statue overlooking the city, similar to the statue in Kiev, but smaller, holds a sword in one hand and a bowl of wine in the other; ready to welcome both enemy and friends, with the visitor being able to choose his destiny.
However, I found most Georgians I have met so far, to be a bit gruff, much more so than the Azeris of yesterweek, who I felt had a bit more carefree attitude. Or was that just spiel?
Then again, the thousands strong demonstration against the president only a few days ago, here in Tbilisi, perhaps means that Georgians are having Georgia on their mind, and it might not be too pretty.

Also intriguing, both Armenian and Georgian lore says they are descendants of great grandsons of Noah, himself having been stranded on the nearby Ararat, but just different grandsons. It would make them brothers, at worst. And it’s Georgians and Armenians who also have the fewest spats with each other amongst the people of the Caucasus.
Armenians struggle with Turkey and Azerbaijan, Azeris struggle with Iran at the moment, Georgia struggles with its breakaway provinces, while playing with Russian fire.
In fact, all these feuds are a tad confusing to the untrained eye.

Of Norway and Azerbaijan

May 28, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Azerbaijan » Kish » Caucasian Albanian church

Azerbaijan is a pretty country and there’s lots to see. But it’s also not the easiest country to get around in, unless you’ve got your own transport. Sheki, in the far north west, sometimes written Shaki, is worth visiting, but not too easy to get to. Busses take a reported 7 hours, my train took 11, but as that was an overnight, nearly empty, sleeper, for a mere 9 euros, the trip was very pleasent.
Still, Sheki train station is a baffling 17km from the town of Sheki, meaning you have to pony up an additional 3 euros for, and deal with the hassle of, a shared taxi to drive you to your hotel.

Sheki is in the foothills of the Caucasus. Surrounded by green pillows of mountains, with the snow-capped Caucasus as a backdrop and looking out over green plains, Sheki is most certainly picturesque. Also, the old town is in the process of getting a complete makover, in the wake of Baku’s refurbishment, meaning that in one or two years, Sheki will be one hot and gorgeous tourist destination.

Besides the nice surroundings, perhaps the biggest draw is the Caucasian Albanian church in Kish, a few kilometers north of Sheki. ‘Albanian’ in this context, has no connection with the country Albania on the Adriatic sea. The former’s name is derived from the name surrounding kingdoms used to denote the area in the Caucasus, whereas the name of the latter most likely derives from the name of a settlement on the Adriatic coast in modern day Albania. An etymological coincidence.

Legend has it that, already in the first century AD, a disciple of a disciple of Christ founded a church in Kish. Recent findings make this unlikely, but what has been shown is that the church was built on an ancient cultic site and has been a center of worship for millenia.

These findings were a result of a cooperation between Norway and Azerbaijan, where one of the researches was the late, great, Thor Heyerdahl. At some point in his illustrous career, he compared rock paintings from Gobustan, close to Baku, depicting boats made from reeds, with similar boats from his own Norway and started wondering.
Then, Odin was, in most contexts, the supreme god of the Norse pantheon, the Aesir. People from Azerbaijan call themselves Azeri. Aesir, Azeri. OMG!
Heyerdahl claimed that the Odin myth stated that Odin led his people from east of the Black sea to Scandinavia. I can’t find corroboration of this, except an obscure reference in a book on Google booksearch, but even if this is indeed true, it sounds more like Vikings adopted a foreign pantheon than that people actually migrated and founded Norway.

Interesting, certainly, but without somewhat stronger evidence, this makes Heyerdahl almost look like von Daeniken. Then again, Vikings coming down to the Caucasus for raids and maids is pretty much an accepted fact, as is shown in this image.

Either way, Sheki is worth a visit. The place to stay at is the gorgeous Karvansarai. At least until they open the completely refurbished and even bigger karvansarai just to the west of the curren tone. Dinner is to be had at Celebi Xan (which means, weirdly, that Jackie Selebi has a Turkic name). Their sheep-tail-fat kebab is pretty darn good. But bewar that it is… pure, and only, fat.

Eurovision Song Contest 2012

May 26, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Azerbaijan » Baku » Crystal Hall
Website

Perhaps I'm still too myopic, but it felt like the quality of this year's songs was surprisingly high. I'm also starting to get sad that there's a three minute limit on the individual songs. So many songs could be much better, have more depth, if they had another minute to spare.

This year's opening song, in the first semi-final, "Euro Neuro" by Rambo Amadeus from Montenegro was pretty bad. There was no chance they would make it through. Still, they performed better than Austria, which came last in the first semi. I liked their song, and had expected them to easily pass. Maybe the Trackshittaz' "Woki mit deim Popo" reminded people too much of anal sex.
Albania received a deserved pass, where Rona Nishliu, recently naturalized to Albanian, sang the most dramatic song at Eurovision.
Belgium also didn't make it, but 17 year old Iris, or Aires, was just too uninspiring.

I enjoyed Switzerland's "Unbreakable", which was very much Europop; very energetic and very easy to sing along with, if a bit too repetitive, and I did expect them to make it to the finals. Meanwhile, Cyprus seems to have been a shoe-in to pass through, scantily clad babes dancing around and on a table made from books. Not bad at all, I'm suspecting that hot babes stand a better chance in getting to the finals.
Denmark's Soluna Samay, hailing from Guatemala, sounding like an American singer-songwriter, in the style of Avril Lavigne, deservedly made it into the finals, although she sadly underperformed once there. The only Scandinavian country not making it to the finals, Finland, singing in Swedish (for the second time ever), sent in a dreamily, sad, but excellent, song which didn't make it to the finals at all. The song gets better every time I hear it and didn't get the appreciation it deserved.

Greece's song, very upbeat and with a babe, isn't bad at all. But, what, they have to leave the Euro if they would have won? Meanwhile, the somewhat generic "Sound of our hearts" from Hungary also made it through. Jedward squeezed through as well. Their show was good, though their singing wasn't. But I'm guessing their European following alone was enough to propel them into the final, where they eventually underperformed.
Israel wanted to go back to the 50s, which was as asynchronous as it was uninteresting. Iceland's "Never forget", reminiscent of Evanescence deservedly went through, though they, too, were not much appreciated in the finals. Latvia, in similar vain, commemorated previous Eurovision winners, which was somewhat cute, but too self referential and too slow.

Moldova continued it's somewhat quirky streak from last year, which paid off. Romania's poppy dance tune also made it, only partially deservedly so.

The crowd at the Crystal Hall tore the house down for the Russian babushkas coming on stage. And, it has to be said, the song is hilarious. My cat is happy, my dog is happy! You can not make this shit up. And only one is older than the Hump himself.
"The Social Network Song", from San Marino, was almost painful, in a good way. But still, deservedly, San Marino did not pass.

The intermission show with the first semi final was nice enough, but also very repetitive, showing off a mix of typical Azeri music and dance.

The second semi final sported a much higher number of good songs, though not all the better ones made it through. Serbia opened with a ballad, , which reminded me of the Israeli submission from two years ago, and made it through.
Belarus, coming up with something of a rock ballad, which was very palatable, and much better than last year's bombastic propaganda (I love Belarus), probably don't have enough credits to spend with European countries to make it to the finals, even though the song was decent enough. Perhaps this is political disapproval in action?

Bosnia's song, also a ballad, somewhat surprisingly did make it through. Bulgaria's, I thought, stood much more of a chance, with Sofi Marinova poppy dance track.
Estonia's song, something of a power ballad, starts of slow and becomes dramatic enough to make it to the finals, where they did fairly well. Meanwhile, Georgia's operatic start and too simple "I'm a joker" got a lot of support in the Crystal Hall, but deservedly didn't make it. Croatia could have, though the song didn't stand out enough. I'm guessing that English lyrics would have helped them just that little bit.

Lithuania's "Love is blind" is cheesy, and Donny Montell's dancing looks like he's on acid, but was good enough. As was Macedonia's "Crno i belo" (black and white).

A quarter of Malta's population showed Europe that "This is the night". Very catchy, but not appreciated much.

Joan Franka, the Dutch entry, toned down on her act's Indian-ness, which was good. But I fear there still was too much, resulting in her not being selected for the finals. The opinion on Twitter seemed to be positive, and the song is quite cute, if too similar to Lena's from two years ago. Also, listening to Franka at home, it was clear she didn't hit all the notes she should have.

Norway, energetic, but, obviously, no match for Sweden, made it through. Sweden was tipped as a strong contender and *is* very catchy, dancy and poppy, eventually winning by a sizable margin.

Portugal threw in a ballad as well, but with the language that virtually no one can make sense of, they never stood a chance. Slovenia's Eva Boto could have done better, the drama being more pronounced than with Portugal, but the song still being too slow to make it. Sadly, the hard rock of Slovakia, reminiscent of Hard Rock Helleluja, Lordi's 2006 winner for Finland, also didn't make it.
Turkey's song brought the house down in Baku and, with one position for the final left to be given away, the crowd chanted "Turkey" in unison. However, though very campy, and, indeed, almost gay, the song is only amusing, at best. Ukraine has fielded better songs, but this year's is very upbeat, though not good enough to win.

The intermission show at the second semi final was very cool, the last five years' Eurovision singers performing together on stage, ending up with a, somewhat distorted, version of Waterloo, where not everyone seemed to know all the lyrics.

Azerbaijan's number is one of the many ballads in this year's Eurovision. The song passing through Sabina Babayeva's pumped up lips is well song, if not my style, and performed very well in the finals, for a while appearing to have a chance at the top spot.

Roman, singing for Germany, has a spectacular voice, but the song, "Standing still", though pretty good, was just not good enough.

Spain's Pastora Soler certainly can sing, but her ballad was too slow to win. Perhaps a good thing, as the head of her national broadcasting organization allegedly 'jokingly' asked her not to win as Spain can't afford to host next year's show.
France's video clip accompanying the song looks good, her show in the Crystal Hall was excellent, and the song, by Anggun, of Indonesian decent and the first Indonesian to break into both European and American record charts, isn't bad at all, but it was too hard to compete with the dancy front runner Sweden.

The Hump's song for the UK, also a ballad, took long to get used to. It could easily have a lot of staying power, but the waltz is not a song you immediately see the value of.
Italy is back, again, returning last year for the first time in over a decade, and again puts forward a very strong song, though perhaps a bit too much like Amy Winehouse, both in look and feel.

At the Crystal Hall, the quality of the sound left to be desired at times. Perhaps it was that which obfuscated the quality of the individual singers which I found, when watching the finals from home, was lacking regularly.

Live tweeting the finals, it was interesting to see that so many individuals, roughly everyone, on Twitter make a sport out of ridiculing the event. Most don't seem to be able to accept the event for what it is; a campy, fun and, really, obscure leftover from post-world war 2 European integration efforts.

Several of those calling out the individual country's votes made veiled remarks to Azerbaijan's human rights record. Excellent.

No one expects… the Azeri opposition

May 25, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Azerbaijan » Baku » Araz cafe

On the corruption perception index, maintained by Transparency International, Azerbaijan comes in at an abysmal 143rd place out of 183 indexed countries. In Europe, Azerbaijan's score is the same as that of Russia and Belarus and a fraction better than the Ukraine's. Though an oil-rich country, Azerbaijan's Human Development Index (HDI) is amongst the lowest five in Europe, only barely outperforming Georgia, Bosnia and Albania. In the press freedom index, which is maintained by Reporters Without Borders, Azerbaijan holds a horrible 162nd position out of 179, with Belarus being the only European country scoring even lower. The freedom index is maintained by Freedom House and lists Azerbaijan as amongst the three least free countries in Europe, scoring about the same as Russia, and marginally better than Belarus.
There are an estimated 70 political prisoners incarcerated in Azerbaijan. There are no members of opposition parties in parliament. The US embassy in Baku has compared the president's control of the country to that of a mafia boss running his criminal outfit. The president's 15 year old son owns millions worth of property.
The president's son in law was the intermission act at the Eurovision finals.
Development of Baku is primarily superficial and has been sped up for Eurovision. People have been evicted from their houses to make way for development related to Eurovision. 
Demonstrations and calls for more freedom are violently suppressed, even in the week leading up to the Eurovision final (photos on Facebook aren't publicly available).

In a country where the minimum wage is 75 euros per month, and a Big Mac is about 3, the Azeri government has spent between 130 and 150 million euros on building the Crystal Hall alone (which is apparently a building that is temporary by design and will be torn down by the end of the year), with the total cost of Eurovision estimated at a staggering 1 billion. Official unemployment only barely reaches 1%, but hidden unemployment, 6 people doing the job of one painter, for example, all being paid too little to survive, is high.

All of the above is, obviously, pretty darn bad and opposition groups, like Sing for Democracy, calling the suppression of the Azeri people to the world's attention are needed and very important. And it's good that the above puts the EBU, the official organizer of Eurovision in an awkward position, some of which you can see in this excellent BBC documentary.

However, early calls for not having Eurovision in Baku or boycotting the event bring important attention to Azerbaijan's issues, but are also hypocritical.

Hypocricy

Azerbaijan needs to go through a lot of chance before it properly can compare itself to the European nations it seemingly wants to be grouped with, but calling for a boycott after the country won last year does not make sense. The political situation in Azerbaijan hasn't changed much in the last few years, so if Azerbaijan's issues were really as important as some make it appear, Azerbaijan should have been boycotted from the first time they participated in 2008. What's more, Belarus, participating since 2004, and Russia, participating since 1994 and winning in 2008, should have been boycotted for similar reasons.
Furthermore, Spain, participating since 1961, was an outright dictatorship under Franco until 1975 and not a democracy until 1978. Hungary is turning into a police state, but that also doesn't seem to bother anyone, no one calling for a boycott of Hungary at Eurovision.

So, in short, yes, the current situation in Azerbaijan should be called to attention, but everyone should also realise that the EBU, nor Eurovision, is a political organization. Europe has agreed to the rules of Eurovision and if, then, a less democratic one wins the show and gets to host the next one, Europe has to accept the rules it set itself and not suddenly change its tune.

And anyway, if Eurovision should boycott Azerbaijan, shouldn't every single international organization? 

Talking to the opposition

Benno and I met some of the guys from Sing for Democracy this week. First by accident, when we were having dinner at Araz cafe, where a few supporters were handing out little flyers explaining the issues Azerbaijan has with press, and overall, freedom. They were, reasonably friendly, but resolutely, asked to leave the cafe. We agreed to meet them the next day, first at some cavernous bar, then, later, at Araz cafe, the same cafe where a few of the guys we met were kicked out the day before. It was interesting but, sadly, the language barrier turned out to be a a bit too much of a challenge.
Benno and I were very interested in how these guys were perceiving change and how they expected the next few months to turn out, but we only got a nice afternoon and a verbal list of problems and abuse from the last few months. Interesting, but nothing we couldn't grasp from the international press.

Our primary interest was based on their claim that all the change you see in Baku was superficial and only done to impress tourists and officials coming in for Eurovision. We actually anticipated that and took walks through a distant suburb of Baku, as well as visiting the industrial town of Sumgayit. The suburb certainly wasn't very rich, but we've seen much worse situations in plenty of European countries, including several that are in the EU. The town of Sumgayit, supposedly a graveyard of Soviet heavy industry, and not a tourist destination at all, is completely being refurbished. Sure, refurbishment is 'superficial', but it's also actual positive change that serves the individuals using the facilities that are being upgraded. And the fact that this town that saw us as the first tourists in weeks, perhaps, is being upgraded means that, at least not all changes, are directly related to Eurovision.

Our overall impression was that, yes, a lot needs to change, but, yes, it could be significantly worse.

A Trojan horse

I believe that, president Ilham Aliyev's attempt to make Azerbaijan look like a modern country while suppressing dissent will backfire. To make the country in general, and Baku in particular, look like it works according to 'western' standards', quality of work and service has been upped significantly. I bought a train ticket the other day. "Passport!… please."
These changes, though within the framework of political suppression, also change people's views, expectations and attitudes and, overall, foster a more 'western' ethic, more service and quality oriented, which, in the somewhat longer run, will result in more and more demands for change by the Azeri people. My view is not unique, I'm siding with the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan on this.

I'm looking forward to Azerbaijan in, say, 15 years.

What to see in and around Baku

May 23, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Azerbaijan » Sumgayit » Friendship monument

There are plenty of touristy sites around Baku. Sadly, they’re not well served by public transport, and with our limited time inbetween going to the Eurovision shows, we only saw the sights of Baku and went up to a former major Soviet industrial town, Sumgayit, some 30 kilometers north of Baku.

The old town of Baku is centered around the impenetrable Maiden Tower, and this is one of the few remaining oldskool attractions in Baku. Baku is primarily impressive for it being something of a mix of Tehran, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, with the city’s gorgeous boulevard, hypermodern architecture and beautifully refurbished facades. 
The flame towers, lording over town from one of its hills light up in gorgeous polychromatic displays.

Haider Aliyev’s grave is relatively understated.

Benno and I went of a fact finding mission to Sumgayit to see whether Azerbaijan’s superficial changes were specifically done to impress visitors coming in for Eurovision. No one really visits Sumgayit as a tourist, but here, too, we found a lot of recent and in progress refurbishings. We even walked along the shore, Sumgayit is on the Caspian, to discover the towns decaying industries, but only found recently refurbished factories. 
Apparently, decaying Soviet monstrosities still exist, but it seems they are slowly being replaced.

Facts and rumors

May 20, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Azerbaijan » Baku » Tosca

After drinking till three am on the day of my arrival, talking politics and whatnot, after not having seen Johan for 16 years, my Saturday morning was spent in a bit of pain. But there is no rest for the wicked. The afternoon and evening were spent at a braai, commemorating the end of the youth expat rugby season. Rugby being such a major sport amongst expats in the region, that every year, 2000 of them gather in Dubai to compete against each other.

It was only on the Sunday that I got my first real taste of Baku. We visited the airport market, a huge and sprawling bazaar on the edge of town, nowhere near the actual airport. The market, until recently, used to be close to the airport, but the thing was forcibly moved to its current location, perhaps or perhaps not because of Eurovision, to the opposite side of town.
This was followed by a first glimpse of Baku, strolling around the totally refurbished and very attractive downtown area. Johan's business is based in a 13 storey building close to the center of town, Fountain square. When that building was put up, some 15 years ago, it was the largest building in town. Now, it's being dwarfed by the fancy schmanzy high rises around it.

Baku's whole downtown area has been refurbished in the last few years, a lot of it having been done in the last few months. The sandstone buildings in downtown Baku were all soot covered and have been meticulously cleaned. Pavements have all been redone in gorgeous colors, even more fountains have sprung up all over town, not just on Fountain square, and the gorgeous boulevard rivals any and probably surpasses most. This has clearly become one jaw dropping little town.

Live!

Sunday evening, the TROS, yes, the Dutch broadcaster, threw a party for Joan Franka, the Dutch entry to Eurovision, at the fancy restaurant Tosca. This invite-only event saw pretty much all Dutchees of Baku, a few dozen at most, as well as some colorfull additions, gather around for free food and drinks on a sizable terrace on Baku's boulevard.
Joan Franka, who's half Turkish, which was spotted by a few non-Dutchees in the crowd, by looking at her, does a very nice song, if a bit too similar, accent and all, to Lena's from two years ago. She chose to not enter the stage in her rather absurd American Indian outfit, which, I believe, is going to cost her a place in the finals. Near the end of the evening, I managed to chat to her and convey my apprehension for the risk of her not obtaining a position in the finals, based on her dress. "This is who I am, so this is what I'll do." I then pointed out that it could be construed that she had something of an obligation to the Dutch to try and make it to the finals. "The Dutch chose me, Indian outfit and all, for who I am and how I performed, so that is how I choose to perform at the show."
Not too unreasonable, indeed, but I doubt that outside of Holland, these views will be much appreciated.

The TROS went all out, hosting half a dozen or so other entries to the Eurovision. Roman, the German entry, is a fantastic singer, but his song is too slow. The Austrian hip hop entry is extremely energetic and, I think, stands a very good chance to make it big. Portugal tried a bit too hard, coming across as a tad incincere, while the Slovenian entry, a bunch of cute girls, were, well, cute, while their song was too much of a ballad. Switzerland and Malta both have a competent song, but don't stand out enough to stand a decent chance, I suspect.

There are still plenty of performances I would have loved to have seen live, standing mere meters, or less, away from the performers themselves. The Russian babushkas being one, Jedward being another.
On Saturday's braai, several of the guests had traveled on the same plane as Jedward, flying into Baku, and showed off some of their photos, with the two brothers sporting their absurd hair. They had visited the international school on Friday and, earlier in the week, one of the brothers had pushed the other into the pool of the hotel they're staying at. When he emerged, his hair was still towering high, the water having had no effect whatsoever.

Rumours

Baku is very much a city where rumours and hearsay play major roles. The government's restriction of a free press means that no one has the full story while all have their own view, supported by their own experiences, extending them to create blanket statements only partially, at best, based on facts. Indeed, the general lack of reliable information fuelling rumours feels very Soviet-like.
The earlier mentioned forced removal of people in order to build the Crystal Hall is one example. The Crystal Hall was built on newly reclaimed land, meaning that no one was forcibly removed to build the actual hall. However, people were removed to create the feeder highways. But, I'm now told, apparently that that feeder highway was in the cards already for five years. But, it is said, people weren't properly compensated for being removed. But, I learned, they were given the option of being paid a market-rate for every square meter of their property or offered alternative, comparable, accommodation. But, then it was communicated, all those people had extended their properties far beyond what they owned, on paper, meaning that compensation reflected their official possessions, not their actual possessions, meaning that, in short, they were whining about not getting what they thought they were due. In a climate of disinfirmation and lack of easy access to information, it's hard to uncover what is real and what is not.

It is also said that 'Azerbaijan' doesn't care much about tourists for Eurovision. They want to make sure the officials are being put up and feted properly, and they want to put down a fantastic show, so that the projected 125 million viewers will want to be tourists to Azerbaijan next year, or the year after.

Then, it's said that the 'thousands' of Eurovision London cabs were not actually ordered for the Eurovision, as the first were already driving around before last year's win.

Then there are the conspirationists that say that, already two years ago, there apparently was talk that Azerbaijan was going to win the Eurovision. Two years ago, the country wasn't ready for it, yet, so they won last year's. Azerbaijan came in fifth in the year that Lena won, but Lena winning with such a big margin, the possibility of anyone taking the crown in that year feels unlikely.
Still, Azerbaijan winning last year was quite the surprise, particularly because the quality of the two singers left a bit to be desired, even though the song itself was very nice.

Azerbaijan, douze points

May 18, 2012 • Blog

World » Azerbaijan » Baku » Heydar Aliyev international airport

In the early years of the 20th century, Azerbaijan was the first country, ever, to go through an oil boom, supplying an incredible 50% of the world’s oil in 1905. This was reflected in the religious tolerant period the country went through, everyone slowly realizing that money was more important than bickering over which version of god was the right one.
Also from this time period comes the immensely interesting, Ali and Nino by Kurban Said. Set in Baku at the time of the oil boom, the story is, in a way, a local Romeo and Juliet, the not so much appreciated love between a Christian beauty and a hard working Muslim.

The sociopolitical issues which is at least one of the causes for it being fairly challenging to get into Azerbaijan also are the root cause for the relative lack of a free press.
More interestingly, due to Soviet aversion to religion in all shapes and sizes, though Azeri are technically Shia Muslims, like in neighboring Iran, they are also surprisingly secular and open to diversity, to the extent where, apparently, remnants of Zoroastrianism can still be spotted here and there.

But, still, reading “the nation’s number 1 international newspaper” is more akin to perusing a Soviet-era state-controlled periodical than anything else. Though it’s easy to read between the lines, “rumors” being strongly denied as affronts to the Azeri nation.
So, perhaps 100 homosexuals *were* kicked out of Baku for the Eurovison contest. And, it seems, Ladas will be banned from Baku’s streets for the duration of the contest.

How open to interpretation perceived reality is, was underscored by the early claim that hundreds of Azeris were kicked out of their house to make way for the building of the Crystal Hall. Not so. The Crystal Hall was built on virgin land, reclaimed from the sea, meaning that the Eurovision claim that the venue was built on empty land was true. However, for making room for building the feeder highways to the Crystal Hall, people were most definitely displaced.
The devil is in the detail.

And it’s the detail that’s easily overlooked. Driving from the airport to my friend’s house, the driver decided to take the scenic route, which took us almost through the dead center of town. The trip is truly amazing.
The roads are in excellent shape, while the journey is akin to driving through a city that is a mix of Dubai, Tehran, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo. Apartments look to be in excellent shape, public buildings are grand and gorgeous, while the streets are clean and modern.

But, most of it is just a facade. It’s only the first line of apartment blocks that had their fronts cleaned or adjusted, with the second tier of apartments still being Soviet style, ugly and badly designed.

Still, quite a bit of the recent constructions are very impressive. The tallest flag in the world is an easy one, but the flame buildings are extremely impressive. And so are a lot of the modern hotels, springing up all over town to accommodate Eurovision tourists now and oil workers afterwards.

Indeed, it’s clear that Eurovision is the most important event in the country for decades. And a lot is being smoothed out to make things easier for those attending. The Eurovision promotion team was helping tourists getting their visa upon arrival, all of them being pretty and cute little babes in Eurovision uniforms.
From the airport, hourly shuttles, escorted by police, ferry tourists from the airport to downtown Baku. Azercell, one of the event’s main sponsors, gives every tourist, upon arrival, a sim card, for free, pre loaded with 5 euros worth of airtime. And the streets are filled with London style, Eurovision-branded cabs.

According to my friend, Johan, and his wife, who have been in Baku three years, change happens so fast, you can almost feel it in the air.

The end of modern art

May 17, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Turkey » Istanbul » Istanbul Modern

Istanbul Modern is a privately owned modern art museum on the banks of the Bosporus. Opened in 2006, it houses a wealth of art and regularly changing shows and is very much worth a visit.

the main floor of the museum contains the changing collections, the ground floor has an extensive and interesting photography exhibition, with works from their collection of currently nearly 8000 photos by mostly, if not all, Turkish photographers.
The photographs are good, although most also reinforce the upcoming consensus that photography as an art, with the rise, first of Flickr, now of Instagram, is dead; of the photos that were on display, it won't be hard to find better photographs of nearly the same subjects taken at nearly the same locations on one of those services.

The modern art section contains a bunch of interesting works and, overall, is more than worth the visit. But what it also shows is that so much modern art is self referential and just a tad too full of itself, to the extent that it runs the risk of becoming irrelevant. Or, at best, that perceived value is becoming more and more subjective, and therefore worthless in itself.
That said, a few of the works were socially conscious, which gives them meaning beyond the intrinsic absence of value and makes them more relevant and interesting.

Still, it's very nice to see so much attention to art. Particularly when I live in Africa, where, in most countries, very little attention is given to one of the indicators of the rise of the middle class.

One of the works in the museum's collection was by south African demi-god William Kentridge. Sadly, it deployed a stereoscopic trick, which made the central objective of the work lost to my eyes.

The restaurant attached to the museum, seemingly very classy and very popular for lunch, is horrendously overpriced.
Walking down Taxim street, connecting the square with the same name, past Galata tower towards Galata bridge, I stumbled upon an open air photo exhibition, unifotofest, with the subject 'Change'. The exhibition runs at seven venues on both sides of the continental divide and is well presented, though someone with a better understanding of the English language should have supervised the translations.

Walking the wall

A long time ago, in an empire not so far away, the emperor decided to try a little harder to keep his foes out, and built some impressive city walls, allowing him to seal off his peninsula when needed.
The Theodosian walls, built by Theodosius II during the fifth century, are still standing, though not in the greatest of shapes. You can zig zag past them, roughly walking along and, it is said, occasionally on them. The walk is much less of a tourist attraction as they could be and are quite impressive, while the communities straddling the insides of the walls are rather cute, if quite poor in places.

Walking around town, it's just too tempting not to stop every kilometer, particular when off the beaten track, and have a tea or an ayran, a somewhat watery yoghurt. I also stopped at a makeshift restaurant, a dad and son selling freshly grilled fish sandwiches from their own boat, to have a break and enjoy the view.
The only thing they were selling was the sandwich; freshly grilled fish with lots of chopped tomatoes, cut unions, on a fresh loaf of bread. A good deal, for 5 lira. I asked if they could get me a tea, which the father told his younger son to get from a trying-to-be fancy restaurant perhaps 100 meters down the quay.
Sadly, the tea turned out to be an unreasonable 4 lira.

Of pizza and Mongols

May 16, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » Turkey » Istanbul » Church of St. Mary of the Mongols

Istanbul gets more rain than London, though it doesn’t have the reputation for it. Still, upon my arrival, a steady drizzle was making my choice of wearing shorts and sandals a poor one. I upgraded my dress and later even added a sweater and went in search for baklava.

One new addition since my previous visit is the excellent metro connecting the airport with the edge of downtown Istanbul, for a mere 2 Lira, some 85 eurocents, though the machine issuing the tokens did eat on of my lira first.
Also good, close to the entrance, a supermarket selling heaps of baklava.

I’m staying in an area called Fatih, where I found a place calling itself “Best place in Istanbul’s old city” through Airbnb. It’s nice, but maybe that’s overdoing it a tad bit.
Airbnb will be the death of the conventional hostel. I’m paying 15 euros for a double room in a private home, comparable to the price of a hostel bed in a dorm. Sure, you don’t get the same social experience, but the advantages are legion.

Inside the suburb of Fatih, there’s the sub-suburb of Zeyrek, a world heritage site where dilapidated wooden houses are stacked on top of each other, fairytale like, at almost impossible angles.
And kitties! So many kitties!

Dinner was had at the excellent Fatih Karadeniz Pidecisi, serving Turkish pizza. A Turkish pizza is most often oblong, somewhat shaped like a human eye, with upstanding edges. The fillings are typically cheese, meat and, more often than not, a soft fried egg. Mine was served with a stick of butter.
Next to me, three men ordered four pide, where the sides were so much standing up, that they touched along the length of the pizza, except for having a small hole in the middle. They threw in their sticks of butter, picked up the pizza at both ends and proceeded to rock their pizzas back and forth, letting the melted butter slide from one end of the pizza to the other.
Then, pizzas were wolfed down.

I was a bit surprised at the cost of my meal, pide now apparently going for upwards of 10 lira, about 4.50 euro.
Restoring my faith in economic disparity, though, my breakfast the next day, of a big toasti, ayran en tea, was a mere four lira, not even two euros.

Closeby, also the seemingly only Greek Orthodox church not converted to a mosque after the takeover of Constantinopel by the Turks in 1453. The oddly named Church of St. Mary of the Mongols was already a church and nunnery from the 7th century onwards, but only achieved its later prominence in the late 13rth century, when one Maria Palaiologina rebuilt the church and nunnery after herself having been away for 15 years. She returned to Istanbul because her husband had died. Her husband being the khan of the ilkhanate, the portion of Chinggis’ empire centered around Persia. Hence the name.

This trip is so Takei

May 15, 2012 • Blog

World » Turkey » Istanbul » Ataturk airport

It’s not without reason that, together with Belorus and Russia, Azerbaijan is the last country in Europe to have strict visa requirements. The sociopolitical situation is just a tad more volatile than in most. This was recently exemplified by scores of citizens being kicked out of their homes to make way for the. creation of the Crystal Hall, the soon to be venue for the 2012 Eurovision Songcontest.

Benno and I are continuing our two year streak of vacationing in eastern Europe, this time checking out the abandoned social housing in Baku, cheering for Holland and Hungary in the semi finals of the Eurovision.
We had wanted to attend the finals. I expected the ticket prices to be reasonable enough, this is, after all, eastern Europe, so far east it’s regularly confused with Asia. But not so. The cheapest tickers for the finals were a steep 160 euros.
Our semi final tickets are ‘only’ 90 euros each. Painful.

And then we needed to find accommodation.

As soon as the tickets had gone on sale, I started to look for accommodation in and around Baku. The 100 or so hotels that are bookable online, ranging from about 15 euros to 250 euros per night, were already booked by the time I started looking. Even expanding my search to up to 100 km away from Baku made no difference.
I was ready to give up.

Venting my frustration on twitter, an old friend who, as I thought, was living in south America, assumed I was actually in Azerbaijan already, and invited me over.

We were saved.

Under more normal circumstances, you’d need an invitation to get into Azerbaijan. Not so now, proof of purchase of a ticket for Eurovision being enough. When flying into the country, but only when flying, you can get a visa upon arrival.
With the same ticket, you can also get a visa at any of the Azeri embassies, but with the nearest being in south Africa and Cairo, that was not really an option for me. And the expected wait in istanbul, from where i had planned to travel overland to Azerbaijan, turned out to be up to ten days.

I postponed my departure for turkey by a week, and tagged on a one way flight to Baku.

Hello turkey, it’s nice to see you after 6 years.

Visiting Murchison Falls

May 13, 2012 • Blog

World » Uganda » Murchison Falls national park » Murchison Falls

This weekend was my last in Uganda for the next few weeks, so Niamh and I wanted to spend it outside of Kampala. For both of us, it’s been a while since we visited a wildlife park, so we decided to head to Murchison Falls national park, north of Kampala, on the shores of lake Albert. Marlies joined us on the drive up north.
The park, also known as Kabarega (or Kabalega) Falls national park, so named during Idi Amin’s reign and after a local king, has now mostly recovered from raids by poachers and soldiers, during the Last King of Scotland’s time as Uganda’s dictator and is part of the 5300 square kilometers Murchison Falls Conservation Area. Murchison Falls National Park, itself over 3500 square kilometers, is the largest national park in Uganda.

The Nile squeezes through an opening of seven meters before dropping 43 meters to create the thunderous falls after which the park has been named. It ain’t no Victoria Falls, but it ain’t half bad either
The park itself is home to four of the big five, after rhinos became extinct in 1983. They can now be seen at a rhino sanctuary some 70km south of the park.

The northern half of the park, where most of the wildlife can be found, is pretty, with its savannah and softly rolling hills. Sadly, we missed out on lions and leopards, driving around for four hours, but seeing elephants, several deer, hippos, giraffes and buffaloes.
The cost of visiting the park aint too low, with particularly the daily park entry fee of 35 USD being a bit steep, with many of the activities requiring additional payments. Reasonable enough budget accommodation with excellent food at reasonable prices were had at Red Chilli.
Surprisingly, it was the pork sausages with mash and gravy that was by far the best dish being served. But all the food was pretty good. An achievement, considering pretty much all ingredients have to come from far away.

And, at Red Chilli, there’s occasional free wildlife viewing, with semi-wild warthogs occasionally stopping by for a snack. I tried patting one, but was rudely snorted away when it became clear I wanted to right the pig.

On the way to the park, we stumbled upon a real find, Kabalega Diner. 165km from Kampala on the Kampala-Gulu highway, this halfway house serves rather excellent foods in a pleasant setting with good service at affordable prices.

54 hours to build a business

April 29, 2012 • Blog

World » Uganda » Kampala » MTN warehouse

Last year, there was a lot of buzz around technology in Kampala. Mobile Monday, the google technologies user group and the Linux users group were all going strong. The latter two seemed to have quieted down a bit, but now, facilitated by Google, just like the two user groups, and hosted by MTN, this week’s startup weekend, (Facebook) was a rather interesting event.

At a startup weekend, hundreds of which have now been held across the globe, small teams, mostly students, try to come up with ideas and build something of a working business around them over the course of the 54 hours the event lasts.

It started on Friday afternoon, where anyone was allowed to give a one minute elevator pitch. When I signed up, I considered throwing a pitch myself, but I never heard back from the organizers. Forgetting about the event, I got a surprise invite only hours before the start. I still considered pitching, though I hadn’t given my idea a lot of thought. But with the crowd being mostly students, I forgot about it, at least this time around.

A surprising large amount of attendees were wearing shirts identifying them as students of Victoria University, “take a shot at a UK degree in Uganda” (interesting slogan, if a bit odd; take a shot?) and, as a whole, a surprisingly small amount of whities were in attendance. In fact, it took ages before I and @boazshani, promoting the portal UGO.co.ug (hello nineties!) were joined by a trickle of more whities, and they were jurors.

Some of the speakers dropped a few tidbits of interesting information, though I suppose for the younger crowd, they were somewhat more interesting. @mr_maina, CEO of the groupon clone Rupu, mentioned the interesting concept of white space, and how applicable it is for doing business in Africa: “when rules are vague, authority is fuzzy, budgets are non existent and strategy is unclear”.
Sadly, though, Ben didn’t quote the source, which is an 11 year old Harvard Business Review article. Ben continued with describing best practices for starting a business, but then admitted that he himself hand’t followed any of his own guidelines. Clearly, being considered successful, this was a clear, and pointless, example of “do as I say, not as I do”.

Easily the most enjoyable, and also most seasoned speaker, of the weekend was the ‘honorary guest’, handing out the first prize at the end of the event, Dr. Ham Mulira, ICT governance big shot in Uganda (and having no less than four LinkedIn profiles). Mulira’s speech contained a few nice anecdotes, but offered little wisdom, with his most choice insight also being lifted from someone else.

After a quiet start, no less than 35 pitches were put forward. Only two were presented by women, which pretty much comprised all women present. Of these, my favorites were:

+ A service called “Show me around”, where locals could show foreigners where to do what in the Kampala region, in person. Quite similar to a service I once used in Hanoi, OurExplorer.com (now a part of Viator).

+ A service to allow for transfers between a PayPal account and the mobile money services popular in Africa.

+ A tool to compare Ugandan cellphone plans based on consumer’s past behaviors.

+ A setup allowing for food-orders to be delivered to your door after paying for them with mobile money.

None of the pitches were highly original, though a few were relevant in a local, Ugandan context, such as comparing the cellphone plans, a local iTunes clone and a SMS-reminder service for young mothers.
Of the 35 pitches, 16 were selected, voted for by the audience, to try and find a team to support themselves, of which 12 were eventually presented at the end of the weekend. None of my favorites made it all the way, though “Show me around” reincarnated as a geolocation service.

The idea of a startup weekend is to create a Minimal Viable Product in the space of 54 hours. I was highly skeptical, and indeed, most of the presentations at the end of the weekend were just that, presentations, with little or no demo of the finished product being shown.
Three winners were selected by a somewhat professional jury, and only second place I could really agree with. MyZiki, a platform to distribute local music and collect revenue even showed off a working, if barebones, demo on a Samsung Android phone.
Third place went, surprisingly, to a fund raising platform, Sonda, where the presenter failed to describe an actual product or value proposition.
First place was for betotm.com, a proposition for a portal to allow for mobile online sports betting, which appears to be quickly gaining traction in Uganda. These guys did some decent market research, though I have a hard time to believe that existing betting agents are willing to fork over 5% for their revenue for having it piped through betotm.com.
And I’m surprised the judges were willing to award this betting portal first prize, as it’s a bit like awarding a business venture which has a great plan for selling cigarettes or booze.

What was great to see, was that the shy, quiet, mostly, boys from Friday, had changed into much more confident speakers by the time they had to present their products on Sunday, even though most presentations were quite meager, most business plans seemingly not thought through very well, too often relying too much on context sensitive advertising.

It would be nice to see any of the final 12 presentations making it into an actual product somewhere down the line but, though prizes for the top 3 were mostly free use of useful services, including office space, it seemed no actual investments were awarded, meaning that, most likely, most, if not all, of these students, will revert to either studying, or to work that will simply make them some money in the short run.

Kampala’s coming of age

April 27, 2012 • Blog

World » Uganda » Kampala » @The HUB

Last year in Uganda, I found Kampala to have changed much for the better since my previous visit, three years earlier. Now, a year later, positive change is visible yet again. Last year, I was amazed at how the quality and availability of restaurants had increased significantly in the three year time period. Now, a few more restaurants, as well as malls, have popped up, but the change I’m noticing now is primarily related to cultural activities, an indicator that, indeed, the Ugandan middle classes are thriving.

Last night, at the opening of @The HUB, a collaborative workspace, or incubator, in Ntinda, I was lucky and won a month’s access to its facilities, currently priced at 220 USD. A friend, Marlies Pilon is already based there and considers it her second home and, it has to be said, the venue feels very pleasant. Well maintained, sturdy desks and chairs, decent enough wifi and free tea and coffee for those working @The HUB, straight from the on-site Junction cafe.
Funnily, before winning the night’s grand prize, Marlies was saying how she liked the fact that, by working from @The HUB, as a freelance journalist, she is able to nicely separate work and private life, arriving in the morning, leaving at the end of the afternoon. I, on the other hand, said that I actually love working from home, where I can do what I like when I like it, dress how I like and not care about anything or anyone. Except, perhaps, that with the maid we have, I can’t sit behind my computer in my Adam costume. However, I did go through 10GB of 3G data in the space of two weeks. Working from @The HUB, if internet access is indeed decent enough, could save me 100 euros per month.

But, back to cultural activities. Jantien Zuurbier (there are too many Dutchees in Kampala!) who runs @The HUB recently got involved with publishing a monthly magazine listing “what’s on” in Kampala, called Arts 256, a much needed resource, in line to replace, or at least compete with, The Eye.
Also, there’s now a decent website/blog on east African arts called StartJournal and another nice looking artsy website on Kampala, InKampala.com also opened its doors in April.

Furthermore, the monthly poetry nights hosted by Masaani Art have gotten significantly more professional (though many of the performing poets also try to assert themselves a bit too much with their Ugandan-ness, to the extent where their work sometimes feels juvenile) and the Alliance Francaise is now regularly organizing cultural events at the National Theatre.

All in all, Kampala as Nairobi’s little brother is slowly and properly coming of age.

Jane Bussmann – The worst date ever

April 20, 2012 • Blog

World » Uganda » Kampala » MishMash
Website

A disappointing show, where Bussmann, judging from her website an established comedienne and once a budding celebrity journalist, tells her story of leaving her career as a celebrity journalist, in pursuit of peace maker John Prendergast in Uganda, in 2005, where Prendergast's objective was to broker peace between Museveni and Kony of the LRA.
The show has received a lot of critical acclaim, but didn't even come close to living up to the hype. Bussmann was clearly doing a spiel she had done many times before and, as her story is really seven years old, felt very dated. She briefly, not even for a minute, ad-libbed, comparing her entering Uganda seven years ago with her return now, where the joke was fresh and the tone noticable different. The rest of the show, sadly, had little value and was at times even annoying.
Bussmann has her show prepared for a 'northern' audience that has little understanding of the Ugandan conflict, individuals that would be challenged when asked to find Uganda on a map. She addresses this during her show, using slides and showing a map of Africa, pointing out Uganda and then, in Uganda, Kampala. Considering this show was held *in* Kampala, where everyone, on top of that, probably has a decent understanding on the (former) conflict in northern Uganda, Bussmann actually pointing out where in African you can find this country called Uganda was downright insulting. She apparently didn't even have the decency to skip these two slides and throw in a few lines specifically for this particular audience. That's just plain lazy.

In the end, I was expecting much more. Not so much because of the reviews of the show, but because Bussmann also wrote a well received book on her experiences, on which the show is based, and now claims to live in Nairobi and recently wrote a few comments in relation to Kony2012. I was expecting not a (perhaps once) clever one-man show, but something that was more engaged, both socially and politically, being able to give a fresh, or perhaps unorthodox insight into Uganda's current state of affairs. Instead, we were served something canned and stale.
And, I suspect, many other spectators were expecting something fresher as well. Bussmann admitted that this performance, at the fairly new, and trying to be very hip, MishMash, with some 600, mostly whities, attending, was her biggest crowd yet. Sure, Kampala ain't no New York or London and options for a night out are limited, but not that limited. I suspect that few attending were waiting for a seven year old review of the conflict in northern Uganda by an outsider, presented to be digestible to individuals who have little clue about Uganda in general and the conflict in particular.
And, sadly, Bussmann set the tone from the very start, making it clear she was only going to say one thing on Kony2012, which ended up being a somewhat funny commment on wanking in public.

Slightly related, Prendergast strongly reminded me of the character Jurgen Thor from Ben Elton's book This other Eden.

Africa the little engine

April 01, 2012 • Blog

World » Tanzania » Dar Es Salaam » Valhalla

I’m getting somewhat tired of the world’s business elite touting Africa as the ‘new engine of growth’. It’s crock. The whole of Africa’s GDP, including Africa’s larger economies of South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria, is comparable to the GDP of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Sure, particularly east and west Africa are seeing decent annual economic growth, at least on paper, of around six percent, but virtually no one, not even the vast majority of Africans, will actually benefit from this growth.
Sure, there is plenty of money to be made and, particularly in the last few years, with the discovery of new oil and gas fields under African soil, there are plenty of opportunities, at least for the Shells of this world, but little of that wealth trickles down, besides more jobs being made available for car washers and the like, for the fleets of Mercedes and Hummers that the business and political elites will acquire through their murky kickbacks. At least in the short run. There *are* opportunities that can benefit the common man, but as long as these countries don’t invest in education, infrastructure and healthcare, the best that can happen is for the diasporas of these countries to return to their homelands and invest their foreign cash in products and services that will benefit the elites. And, perhaps, changes resulting from those investments will trickle down more readily, though that will take many years.

And, no, China, too will not be Africa’s savior. Sure, they are investing, but only to benefit themselves, as they have been doing for many a decade, the Zambia to Tanzania railway, built by the Chinese in the 70s being one of the first examples; in the public’s eye unlocking the ability to travel fairly reliably and comfortably from the Swahili coast to the heart of the butterfly of Africa, China’s sole ambition was to unlock the mines of Zambia’s copper belt, to more easily transport the goods from the north west of Zambia to the east coast of Africa at minimum transport costs and times.
And, of course, more modern Chinese infrastructural ventures are little different. If the Chinese don’t benefit directly from the infrastructure they create, it’s because they’re building them in exchange for concession rights on mining natural resources.

Sure, there is growth in Africa, but only because there is still so much to exploit. The only difference between now and, say, seventy years ago or so is that the money made with this exploitation is calculated as economic growth for the countries that are losing their resources, because now this profit is routed through internationally recognized business entities. In the past, all that money disappeared in colonial state coffers.

Then again, if enough people claim Africa *is* the new economic engine, this bubble will obviously keep on growing for a while. With the global economic bubble having been popped, the economic elite needs to explore other venues.

Meanwhile, in Dar

After not even a week in Kampala, I was whisked away to Dar es Salaam. Building a rather straightforward website for the National Audit Office of Tanzania (not live as I write this), Twaweza was so kind as to fly me in for a few weeks.

Dar is treating me well. Lots of activities have kept me busy on most nights, including a decent Francophone month, organized by the Alliance Francaise and an amazing night with live bands and dancers at Nafasi art space.

Portreat.com: Brighton 2012

March 12, 2012 • Photography

1 / 1
World » United Kingdom » Hove » Sussex County Cricket Club

Portreat.com was a project where photographers took portrait pictures at, mostly, street festivals in, mostly, the Netherlands. The photographs were made available online afterwards. The images were free to download, and printed copies were available for sale.

it’s been a while since Portreat was in business. In fact, it’s been almost seven years. However, trying to think of a fun and somewhat different angle for shooting pictures at Todd and Felicia’s wedding in Brighton, I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to revive this time-tested concept.

Pascal was so kind as to scrounge for a frame on the morning of the wedding.

A wedding in Brighton

March 12, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » United Kingdom » Brighton » Brighton pier

Shouldacouldawoulda, a train from Holland to London now can cost as little as 50 euros. Super deal. My early morning flight to Stansted, still perhaps some two hours north of The City, is both more expensive and less convenient.

On the up, spending lots of time on finding an affordable place to stay, I did end up finding a twin room for Pascal and myself for a mere 12 pounds per person per night. A steal, In a town where dorm beds are sold for over 40 euros per night during the weekend. And laughably affordable compared to the 100 euro plus several of the other guests at Felicia and Todd's wedding were paying.

It was still quite fresh in Brighton, just before the start of spring, requiring me to carry along pretty much all my winter clothes, in addition to all my luggage for Uganda in a mere 20kg of luggage, allowed by Easyjet. But the newlyweds were lucky, in that their wedding day was the only one out of the five of my stay which saw clear blue skies and pleasant temperatures.

Perhaps in true American style, the groom got to decide what to do on his bachelor's party, which meant a horribly expensive deep sea fishing trip in international waters and a visit to a strip club where "you can order a bottle of vodka and we will give you two pitchers of mixers for free". There, I asked how much the vodka would be, which turned out to be somewhat pricey, at 150 pounds.
I stuck to affordable beers, sold for under four pounds, only a bit more expensive than in a regular pub.
Entry, at 15 pounds, was circumvented by using the VIP entry vouchers strewn around in large numbers around the rather upmarket apartment the groom's parents were renting.

Interestingly, though it's an obvious social faux pas to, when in a long term relationship, flirt, or, say, snog, let alone have sex, with someone who is not your partner. Yet, if a girl is simply paid to stick her boobs in your face, it apparently is ok.

Meanwhile, it was quite fantastic to remeet some of the Chiang Mai crowd. The wedding itself was probably one of the most photographed ones in human history and the number of photographers per attendee, just 42, must have been the highest ever.
3G and iPhones being ubiquitous, the first wedding pics were posted before the couple was even married and, literally, comments and congratulations started pouring in straight away.

Now, more so than after returning from Montenegro, I really need a holiday to recover from this holiday.

Felicia and Todd, Todd and Felicia

March 12, 2012 • Photography

1 / 1
World » United Kingdom » Brighton » Town hall

The fourth time, ever, that I’m deployed as a wedding photographer, and the first time the weather actually cooperated. Still, the inside shots were still nearly too dark to be really useful. My camera, a now three year old Canon SX1IS, is decent, but struggles with low light conditions. Then, the combo of low light and the red of both the bride’s dress and the room in which the wedding occurred made for a challenging photographic mix.

Planes, trains, busses and automobiles

February 24, 2012 • Blog

1 / 1
World » United Kingdom » London » Paddington Station

For our return, our last minute decision to fly to Podgorica from Belgrade means our return journey was truly messed up. First a bus trip to Podgorica from Kotor, then a flight to Belgrade, followed by a flight the next morning to Luton. There, we had to wait the day for our train to Wales, from where we took a ferry to Ireland.

I had decided to book the train over the bus, from London to Rosslare, the port close to Wexford, where Niamh's parents live. The train is a good bit more expensive, but train travel tends to be much more agreeable.
Not so, on this journey at least. Sure, the UK rail system is not getting a good rep, and it ain't getting better, but this was somewhat ridiculous. We took the 2015 train leaving Paddington and found that *all* seats had been reserved. In fact, it was so busy, that we had no choice but to stand in the hallways, together with dozens of others. Only after a few stops, when some of the passengers had gotten off, could we stake out a seat or two. Why, mostly, this was annoying, was because when I booked the tickets, I was not given the ability, nor being told of the possibility, of reserving a seat.

×