Kool Kotor

February 22, 2012 • Blog

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World » Montenegro » Kotor » Bandiera

With the sun coming out on our last day, effectively creating a thirty degree centigrade gap between the start and finish of our Balkan trip, it's obvious this region was under Italian, or rather Venetian, control for some 400 years. These people look Italian, they dress Italian, they act somewhat Italian and Kotor has an Italian feel to it. Or rather, the look and feel is that of what we would associate with Italian.

With the sun making a comeback, it's also obvious that the bay of Kotor is totally gorgeous. Kilometer high mountains surrounding a deep blue bay with centuries old settlements along its shores.
Apparently, in summer, Kotor and many of the other towns on the Montenegrin coast become hotbeds for youthful debauchery, but on this sunny winter's day, sitting on Kotor's main square, in the shade if the city walls, is pure bliss.
It's a pity the hangover incurred after a night at Bandiera isn't helping.

Piece de resistance

February 20, 2012 • Blog

World » Montenegro » Sveti Stefan

The piece de resistance on the Montenegrin coast is probably the little fishing village of St. Stevan. Similar to le Mont Saint Michel in France, the rock of a town is really a bunch of houses thrown on top of each other, connected to the main land through an artificial land bridge.
Where it differs from its counterpart in France is that, under Tito, the town was nationalized and converted into one big hotel. We tried to get in, but we’re told the hotel will be closed until early April.

How do you nationalize a whole town anyway?

Montenegro’s lovely coast

February 19, 2012 • Blog

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World » Montenegro » Budva » Garden Caffe

Though even the road from Podgorica to Budva, a mere 70 kilometers, was closed for a while due to the weather, we now had no problem, taking the short bus ride to the coast, still at times passing through corridors of snow nearly two meters high. And even in Budva, after arriving at the town’s bus station, there was still a tiny bit of snow on the ground, here and there.
The mountains separating the country’s interior from the coast are very rocky and only scenic at times, but exiting them, looking down on the coastal strip from about 1000 meters up, is rather spectacular.

Budva, touted as a major tourist destination, and apparently loved by Russians, is a bit of a downer. The old town is indeed something of a baby-sized version of Dubrovnik, but there are plenty of towns on the eastern Adriatic who aren’t too dissimilar.
Sadly, though at least one hostel rents out reasonably priced, if tiny, self contained apartments, restaurants in the old town charge ridiculous prices. We ventured outside to get our fill.

The town does have its history. In Greek mythology, Budva was founded by Cadmus, the son of a Phoenician king and brother of the legendary beauty Europa, who gave the continent it’s name. Europa was scored by Zeus, himself seducing her in the shape of a bull, taking her to Crete and making her the first queen of that island.
Cadmus promised to bring his sister back, but it’s difficult fighting the will of Zeus. Instead, he founded the Greek city of Thebes, but not after slaying a fine monster of the deep.
The gods being somewhat annoyed by having their favorite monster slain, Cadmus and his wife Harmonia had to pack up and leave, moving up the Adriatic coast, founding a new town and naming it after the oxen they were traveling with, Bouthoe, now Budva.

Though it’s a myth that eastern Europe has taken over winning the Eurovision song contest, particularly the Balkan countries tend to do unreasonably well. Montenegro, proud of its cultural heritage, has plenty of local radio stations blaring out local hit after local hit. And they all sound like Eurovision contenders!
The reason the region does so well is simply that they have internalized creation of the style that makes a Eurovision hit.
Also in culture, the national dance is the Oro, a circle dance, where participants take turns on the center of the circle, performing a stylized eagle dance. Eagle dance, you say? Indeed, how did this echo of Mongolia end up on this end of the Eurasian continent?

In Podgorica

February 17, 2012 • Blog

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World » Montenegro » Podgorica » Hostel Nice Place

Podgorica, Montenegro's capital, seeing over 50cm of snow with towns upcountry close to two meters, meant the country experienced the heaviest snowfall in 60 years. This inexperience with large amounts of snow, and probably the lack of equipment to deal with it was the reason the roads and train line up country, to Serbia, were closed for many days.

Europe's newest country's capital's first impression is that it's very clean, almost clinical and boring. On top of that, the currency being the euro, it's pretty much like being somewhere just over the German border, in central Europe. Somewhere in the Czech republic perhaps. Or maybe northern Italy.
Then, with tourism in the capital being very limited, it's the Mediterranean coast in summer which pulls the crowds, the cheapest room I could find, clean, but feeling run down, set us back 30 euros for the night. Whereas an excellent room in a very modern hostel in Belgrade was only 18 euros.

Podgorica only reclaimed its former name in 1992, when it reverted back from Titoville, which was the name it was given after the second world war, to commemorate the father of modern Yugoslavia, who managed to skillfully steer his country's own course between the communist east and democratic west, after the war, while masterfully kicking out first the Italians, and then the Germans, during the war itself.
All six former Yugoslav republics had a city named in honor of the marshal, but only Montenegro's was a republican capital. Even though it only took this mantle after the war, taking it from the nearby Cetinje.

Montenegro is tiny. Some 150000 people in the capital and about 600000 in the country. 50% of exports and nearly 20% of GDP come from one employer, the country's aluminum producer. Add to that income from selling the .me domain, some 600000 and counting, and the result has been an economic growth of nearly 10 percent in the years after independence, that is, since the breakup of the union with Serbia, in 2006.
Still, the average monthly income is under 500 euros and unemployment comes in at some 12%. Though that must be a fairly relative number, as with 1.2 million tourists per year, employment must be significantly seasonal.

Revisiting Serbia

February 15, 2012 • Blog

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World » Serbia » Belgrade » Good Morning Hostel

Snow was still piled high everywhere we went, but though we came more than prepared, with multiple layers of long sleeved shirts and thermal underwear, it was only at times that we benefited from our multi-layer approach.
The temperature bounced up and down like a yo-yo, giving us a total difference of over 30 degrees: approaching minus 15 degrees centigrade upon our arrival in Belgrade and approaching 20 degrees shortly before departure from Kotor, on Montenegro's Adriatic coast.

Sadly, though, because of the occasional meters of snowdrifts, trains between Belgrade and Podgorica were canceled, and we had no choice to travel by bus between these two capitals, or so we thought. On our second visit to the Belgrade bus station, we found that buses were also no longer going to Podgorica. Trains, so it turned out, did go just across the border, and we figured it would be possible, one way or the other, to get from there, Bijelo Polje, to Podgorica. Not so, as on the morning of our intended departure, I learned that all the roads in northern Montenegro were actually closed for all traffic.

We took a last minute flight, ponied up the cash and flew JAT to the capital of Europe's newest country (bar Kosovo, if you're so inclined).

Out of Africa, in to Africa

February 11, 2012 • Blog

World » Sierra Leone » Freetown » Home

It's cliche, but every ending *is* a new beginning, and vice versa.
Leaving tonight, for the last time, for Lungi, seeing me having to wait for an uncool five hours, in the middle of the night, to wait for my flight to Casablanca to take off, I'll be moving through half a dozen countries, before settling, with Niamh, in Uganda, just over a month from today.

The last two months, after my return from Tanzania and South Africa, haven't been half bad. Sure, we've had city power perhaps 20% of the time and didn't have water, at all, for a few days, and little water on many others, GOAL, Niamh's organization, finally decided to pony up the cash and get internet at the residence. This meant that, whenever there was power, and we are on a generator in the evenings when city power fails, almost always there has been fairly reliable internet. This, a bit of a godsend, as it allowed me to not have to walk the earth in search for overpriced and very unreliable internet cafes, every day.

The last 19 months or so have been interesting times, good people, a cute kitty, and starting off a weekly pubquiz at O'Casey, last Thursday in its 45th installment. And, on the verge of my departure, a nice project for GOAL, too.
I'm sad for leaving the kitty, Tash, behind, though.

And here's to hoping a return to Asia will happen… at least at some point. For now, it's a one month tour of Europe, which will include a wedding in Brighton and braving the frozen wastelands of… Serbia, as well as visiting a new country on my list, Montenegro.
Then, it's Uganda for a year, with, almost upon arrival, trips to Tanzania and Zambia. And, shortly after, a return to Istanbul and an onwards trip to Azarbaijan with, hopefully, side visits to Georgia and Armenia.

Ah, the bane of aging. If only I still had the same sense of wonder for discovering new places as I once had. And if only discovering new places was as exhilarating as it once was. With the globe being so much more interconnected, and with everyone and their baby brother now having a Facebook timeline where photos, books, games and whatnot get shared, it's just too easy to virtually never leave home and always stay in touch, even in the remotest of places.
The vast majority of the planet has become a completely standardized affair, the wonder and differences being found in every smaller aspects of local life.

Meanwhile, I have to cough up good money to get out of here. The cheapest connection between Freetown and Amsterdam is setting me back 840 USD. For a one way flight. Considering a round trip Amsterdam Johannesburg easily goes for less then 700 USD, it's a total rip off.
And I still have to get to the airport. The cheap option is to take a government ferry, at two euros. But that means either leaving at 2pm, from a fairly easily reachable location, or at 6pm, from the other side of town, a drive there easily taking two hours. As my flight only leaves at 620am in the morning, it would mean having to spend the night close to the airport. There, hotels typically go for over 100 USD per night, as the mining companies bleeding Sierra Leone dry scoop up all the overpriced and low quality beds, though a new place I found that's not great, but manageable, 'only' charges 35.
The alternative, which I in the end decided to go for, is taking a water taxi, at a rip off 40 usd, at 12am. Which means I'll be stuck at the airport, in the middle of the night, for some five hours, before my flight leaves. And, though the airport provided free high speed internet a year ago or so, that has disappeared in the mean time.
Indeed, there's no good alternative here.

It's tempting to want to return to Sierra Leone in, say, 15 years time, to see how the place has developed, but it's also easy to suspect that change will be little. The main road out of town through our area has now been under construction for some 15 months. This is a stretch of road not more than five kilometers long. The road leaving Freetown, going down the peninsula, has been under construction for over five years, nothing ever really changing.
The president recently announced a new international airport will be built on this side of the bay. Sounds nice, until you realize it will be on the other side of the peninsula, where you have to somehow get to the other side of the mountain range that forms the back of Freetown. Meanwhile, see above, trips to the airport are a pain and flying is horribly expensive.
The UN coughed up a loan to allow the high speed internet cable to beach in Freetown, giving land-based international communication access to Sierra Leone for the first time in history, on the condition that the Sierra Leone government would set up an independent telco regulator. The cable beached last October, an independent overseer is yet to be formed. And, hence, access to the cable hasn't yet been rolled out.

And, suddenly, everything is happening at the same time

January 15, 2012 • Blog

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World » Sierra Leone » Freetown » The Emily residence

GOAL decided to go ahead, just before christmas, with a complete overhaul of their DCYP, Disadvantaged Children and Youth Program. The paper based workflow is to be completely moved online. And I’m supposed to have this finished when? Before the end of January of course.

Then, the National Auditer’s Office of Tanzania also needs a new website. Why not. When do they want to be finished? Well, not later than February, of course.

SACSIS is wrapping up moving to a new server, with a completely overhauled content management system. This week.

And culture, too! The Irish pub O’Casey is now having rather superb open mic and live music nights on Wednesdays. Thursday, they are still home to quiznights. On Friday I had my exhibition Once Salone, and on Saturday there was a photo scavenger hunt organized by a few friends.
With mediocre internet at home, it’s almost like being in a real city!

Well, if it weren’t for having had electricity for only two days since the start of the new year. But water on most.

The exhibition was a success. Most works were sold before the opening of the show. But I had to also cut the show short. I wasn’t able to get the prints framed, as there doesn’t seem to be a framer in town, and was too worried about the prints getting damaged.

The scavenger hunt was fun. Tom and I, the only team of two, where everyone else had four-man teams, came in second. It was my first scavenger hunt. Nice, but not as much fun as a photomarathon. For one, in a scavenger hunt, the quality of the photos doesn’t matter. Also, the winning team split up to check more items off their list. Of course totally allowed and possible, but it also means that, in effect, they were two teams pooling their scores. Wouldn’t it be more fun to keep the whole team together at all times?
One way to resolve this would be to only allow submissions from one camera, I suppose.

The winning team’s prize was a case of PBR. The pool party afterwards was a killer. The Star on tap ran out early. The braai was well stocked.

Christmas on the beach

December 26, 2011 • Blog

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World » Sierra Leone » Turtle Islands » Baki

For Christmas, we camped out under the stars on one of Sierra Leone's Turtle Islands, a hundred kilometers or so due south of Freetown, and really only reachable by canoe, a good eight hour sail from River No. 2, itself a good hour south of Freetown by car.

With the nearest proper shops being in Freetown itself, we had to bring all our supplies, which primarily meant water, beer and liquor. And some food. And we had to bring in camping gear. In which we nearly succeeded, Niamh and I missing a mattress, which resulted in some sleep-challenged nights and painful backs in the morning.

Fish were caught, though not speared, bottles with messages were posted, the name game was played, and good times were had by all. One bottle came back on the same day, dropped off by two young fishermen. How did they know the bottle came from us? It's customary to check in with the local chief, asking for permission to camp on his grounds, even if it's an island away. The chief will then 'donate' some useful items, in our case a table, some eggs (many of which contained young chicks), firewood and a guard, upon which we were supposed to 'donate' some money.

We camped on two islands, the first night staying close to a village, where we were full blown entertainment for hours, villagers standing on the edge of our camp, or just walking in, checking out to see what we were doing, in the evening for a while even taking over our cozy little campfire.

Amazingly, in the 30 to 35 degree heat, some have no problem wearing fur winter coats and snow hats. None of us ended up getting seriously burnt. A surprise, particularly as, during the long boat ride, we had to regularly jump in the water to 'swim', typically losing liberal latherings of sunscreen in the process.

“Next, it’s ethnic cleansing”

December 13, 2011 • Blog

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World » South Africa » Johannesburg » Braamfontein center

November 22nd 2012 has been dubbed Black Tuesday, here in South Africa. The National Assembly, with an overwhelming majority, approved the Protection of State Information bill, which could land individuals publishing state secrets in jail for up to 25 years. So much for whistle blowing, in a country where corruption is a major problem. Whistle blowers, coming into posession of state secrets, now have to immediately hand them over to the country's security services, or blow their whistle from behind bars, the bill having no room for the concept of the public's right to know.
Even though the party line is that the bill would protect South Africa from foreign 'spies', few accept that.

The ruling party, the ANC, has a two thirds majority in the assembly, which allows them to change the constitution, if desired. And though, typically, all ANC MPs vote as one block, two abstained in the vote, though for them that is already starting to have consequences, as it did for other MPs, not toeing the party line in the past.

South Africa's constitution is one of the most liberal in the world, created in the wake of the end of apartheid, when tolerance and acceptance of the country's past were essential ingredients in building a country that would be able to look to the future. The more surprising the harsh 'Secrecy bill' which was recently passed.
Or perhaps not so, considering the ANC's rather murky track record over the past decade, as far as transparency is concerned.

Indeed, I had to adjust, reading my favorite weekly South African newspaper, the Mail & Guardian, where a disproportionate part of their articles now deal with corruption and other shady aspects of the ANC in power. The Secrecy bill, so it seems, primarily serves to protect its own.
As did a similar bill in 1970s South Africa, protecting the murky dealings of the apartheid state. In fact, the colloquial name Black Tuesday, refers back to what was dubbed Black Wednesday, in 1977, when the apartheid state banned a progressive South African newspaper, detaining its editor and some of its staf along the way.

It's because of that history, as well as looking at other countries on the continent and how they deal with (the lack of) transparency, that a friend of mine said, and believes, that what will follow from the ability of the state, the ANC, to hide what their doing, is ethnic cleansing, or perhaps ethnic targeting, inside South Africa's borders.

Demonstrations against the implementation of the Secrecy bill, it still has to pass by a few stations before it can be put to practice, have happened on and off over the last few weeks. The newly created civil liberties group Free Media staged a 'burial of truth' today, though with a rather mediocre turnout.
I had to win a quiz, so I could only attend the start of the event, but gladly shot a few nice pictures.

Another walk in Joburg

December 07, 2011 • Blog

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World » South Africa » Johannesburg » Kitcheners Carvery

The Joburg photowalkers, organized yet another walk around Joburg, this time in and around Braamfontein, yet another area of downtown Jozi which has been regentrified in the last few years, and now even sports a Lomography store, as well as the obligatory art galleries.
The early evening walk saw an excellent turnout, some 40 whities, one black woman and one Indian man, with an average kit value of, I suspect, significantly upwards from 1000 USD.

We started at the over 100 years old Kitchener’s Carvery, an old hotel and bar, walked around Braamfontein, ended up on the roof of the Orion hotel, some 19 floors up, before everyone dispersed. Three guards, apparently in the pay of the suburb of Braamfontein, tried to secure our safety, though for them keeping the group together must have been like herding cats.
With a small few, we had a few beers at the Carvery before dispersing ourselves, and that was a truly surreal experience, like being caught up in some weird David Lynch film.

The bar of the hotel is over 100 years old and looks it. Wooden paneling on the walls, faded pictures and drawings on display, commemorating the time of the Boer wars, but with samosas and prego rolls on the chalkboard. The bar’s wine list consisted of six different, opened, boxed wines. In a side room, a DJ was pumping reasonable funky beats from his MacBook, under the watchful eye of a spinning disco ball, but with no one on the darkened dance floor.
A lanky black man, caught up in his own world, wearing black lederhosen, was swinging to the beats, while remaining seated on his barstool, obsessed by the smoke seeping from his cigarette. A very drunk khoisan with almost no teeth in his face and wearing a yellow fluorescent jacket, was toying with a tiny santaclaus playing a mandolin while santa’s was spinning and jingle bells was emitting from his arse. The khoisan was a boxer from the Cape, waiting for his next fight.
When a happy-faced black lady bounced in, casually dressed and wearing a cocktail parasol in her hair, followed by a muslim in djellaba, proceeding to the disco area and started to dance, we were certain the bar was channeling Mr. Lynch.

One thing I learned today, talking and listening to some of the other photographers, is that ‘blogging’ is now an accepted occupation, something you can actually ‘do’, as opposed to something that happens on the side, while you actually do important things. “What do you do in real life?”, “I blog. About living in Johannesburg”. Seriously?
So, who knows, maybe there’s hope after all for yours truly.

For the second time, a world record holder

December 05, 2011 • Blog

World » South Africa » Johannesburg » Virgin Active Cresta

That's right, plebeians, for the second time ever, I am a world record holder.
Granted, it's me and 12500 others, but still.

My gym of choice, Virgin Active, organized a world record attempt tonight, trying to get the largest amount of individuals on spinners, spinning at the same time. All gyms, a good 250 worldwide, had a spinning class at the same time, and the rules required a continuous spinning of 15 minutes.

I somehow doubt, though, that my name will end up in the Guinness book of records, this time.

Walk walk, snap snap

November 27, 2011 • Blog

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World » South Africa » Johannesburg » Main Street Life building

The first time I visited downtown Joburg was in 2004. It was something of a daredevil experience, due to the constant reports of high crime rates in South Africa, the fact that pretty much all businesses had vacated the downtown area to set up shop in the northern suburbs, typically Rosebank or Sandton and the personal reports, telling us how dangerous and unsavory downtown Johannesburg had become.
Nothing happened, of course, but we did sense a certain tension, apparent under the surface, as everyone was going about their daily routine. And we did feel like we achieved something by the time we got out of town, having gone in and coming out unscathed.

Since, I’ve come to understand and familiarize myself well with Joburg, to the extent where, a few years ago, I crisscrossed the inner city, photographing and mapping public art, without a hitch or any stress. Very much alone, very much flashing my semi-precious camera and very much not caring about walking around in less savory areas (during the day, no less).
Now, shortly after arriving in Joburg a few weeks ago, I had to pick up my rental from rent-a-wreck on the far edge of the downtown area. Refusing to pay for a, pricey, taxi, I decided to walk from Melville to the rental agency, a good six kilometers through the heart of the city. Not worried at all, I was even very surprised that I could feel virtually no tension and that the vibe on the street was almost mellow. Sure, I’m now more accustomed, but I think that’s at most half the story.

The city of Joburg has spent a lot of time and effort on making the inner city more livable again. Refurbishing the inner city started with Newtown and Fordsburg in the west, years ago, and spread through the city, now having arrived on the east side of town, where, between Fox and Main streets, on the edge of Fairview, a whole new community of art studios, a lovely hotel, a small theatre, an independent cinema and more have been allowed to flourish.

There, on the ground floor of the Main Street Life building, the temporary exhibition space Ourspace was hosting a show sponsored by the cultural department of the Spanish embassy in South Africa. Curated by Bronwyn Lace, the photographic exhibition contrasted the works of seven African photographers, taking photos in seven cities of Spain, with pictures taken by seven ‘wanderers’, homeless guys, sleeping on the streets of Johannesburg.
Obviously slightly risqué, but also very interesting. And the exhibition, specifically the Spanish photographs, were rather beautifully presented. Sadly, the photographs of the wanderers could have been more prominent.

Perhaps to compensate somewhat, the exhibition was complemented by two walks in downtown Johannesburg, to some extent following the lives of these seven wanderers, trying to give the participants of the walk something of an insight into the lives of those living on and off the streets in the city.
On Sunday, I participated, with a crowd of almost 40, white, individuals, most of them having spent very little time in downtown Johannesburg which, for many of them being South Africans, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around.
The walk, partially hosted by Marcus Neustetter, who facilitates many of the installations of public arts in the city, partially hosted by Zisi Duze, who was the conduit between the wanderers and the exhibition organizers, was interesting, but the best part was the aftermath, sipping champagne and gorgeous hors d’oeuvres on the roof of the Main Street Life building, with great views of the city and mellow beats flowing in the background.
How’s that for contrast?

A day earlier, I participated in a photo walk at St. John’s College, organized by the Joburg photowalkers, something of a hobby club of photographers, brought to life shortly after the two photomarathons I organized in Joburg and Pretoria in 2007.

Dipping my toe again into the Joburg arts scene, the result might just be a somewhat informal photo marathon before my departure from South Africa.

And, if you’re wondering, not all of the city’s gentrification process progresses completely smoothly. Particularly the evictions of illegal, mostly immigrant, squatters from former office blocks in the city is a painful process for all involved in the physical eviction and has even more painful consequences for those being thrown out on the street, the city in no way compensating for these people losing the roofs above their heads.

To get connected in SA, a fekkin’ nightmare

November 08, 2011 • Blog

World » South Africa » Johannesburg » Cresta Mall

It's a pain to get mobile internet access in almost any country, but my experience in South Africa this week was one of the worst ever.

On the day of my arrival, I walked into the Vodacom store at the airport. They wanted 20 euros for a sim card. The next door MTN only wanted 6, but their system was down, meaning they wouldn't be able to register the card.
The next day, a Sunday, I wanted to visit a Cell C store, who offer the cheapest Internet in the country. The store was closed, but a nearby Vodacom store was open, where sim cards were being sold for forty cents. Only drawback, just like in most other African countries, you now need to register a new sim card with your passport if you are buying a new line, even if you're getting a prepaid card. And I wasn't carrying mine.
The next day, at the Joburg train station, I walked into a third party Vodacom store, who wanted four euros for the sim. A store on the other side of the isle wanted 3, and a store 20 meters away was giving them away for free. I registered the sim and got some airtime.

Then for my microsim, to be used inside my iPad. The same shop sold microsims for 1 euro (really only the charge for not having to cut the card up yourself), registered it, but discovered the sim didn't work. Being a reseller, the clerk advised me to go to a proper Vodacom shop. Which I did, later in the day, where they told me the line had to be registered on the network through a phone. I tried, using an adapter for the microsim inside my own phone, but to no avail.
I was told to go to a Vodacare shop. Which I did, where I was told I had to get a sim from the shop next door, for 5 cents, register that sim, and then do a sim swap. Which I also did, only to be told thee sim swap wouldn't be finished within two hours, after the shop's closing time.
And how to load the dataplan? I would have to come back to the store and have staff load a dataplan upon my payment in cash.

So I came back the next day, bought the plan and had staff load it onto the sim. Only for it to still not work. Settings needed to be entered, for which I had to stand in line for half an hour, as only one individual in the store knew the right settings, and he was helping a stupified BlackBerry user.

Fekkin' ridiculous.

Data usage in Tanzania and South Africa

November 06, 2011 • Blog

World » South Africa » Johannesburg » Lucky Bean Guesthouse

In Tanzania, some were complaining about the high cost of mobile internet in Dar. I thought it was rather affordable, Airtel selling 1 week, 3GB packages for about 6 euros. In South Africa, which offered 3G already years ago, I expected the prices to have dropped significantly over the last few years. Not so. 2.5GB goes for about 40 euros. Yes, mobile data in South Africa is about 7 times as expensive as in Tanzania. 
Below are two charts detailing this.

In Tanzania, Vodacom and Tigo offer packages for certain periods, limited through a fair use policy. Strangely, specifically Tigo is very tightlipped as to what ‘fair use’ means to them.

Little Gem

November 03, 2011 • Blog

World » Tanzania » Dar Es Salaam » Coco beach

Award winning play performed by The irish Society of Tanzania. Effectively three related confessional monologues by three women, three generations of the same family. One of the actresses was also in the Society’s previous play, Bold Girls, which I saw early last year.
The actors needed a few minutes to get into their roles but, once this is done, all put down reasonable performances. The lack of men in the play, all three women’s stories to quite some extent having to deal with the influence of men in their lives, is interesting, but doesn’t add to the dramatic value and, perhaps, even takes away from it.
The ending, with the break in style, is sudden and surprising, but feels rather artificial. 

The author, Elaine Murphy, confessed that the three women in the play are composites of everyday women she’s met over the course of her life. It’s quite impressive, then, that Murphy managed to make this play somewhat interesting. Most people have very little interesting to offer.

A quick review of a few recruitment tools

October 30, 2011 • Blog

World » Tanzania » Dar Es Salaam » Twaweza office

I’m in Dar, for Twaweza, enjoying the Swahili coast. Besides updating their websites, I’m also looking into solutions to simplify their process of filling vacancies. Sure, a custom built solution is an option, but I figured there would perhaps be a few open, or cheap, solutions on the market. I investigated.

Joobsbox (version 0.9.20090730). Looks nice and easily installs but is a bit buggy, as nesting categories constantly fails. It’s really only a job board with basic functionality.

Jobberbase (version 1.9.1). Is more functional, but I couldn’t get this to work on my first try. The application first couldn’t connect to the database and it wasn’t very clear where I had to configure the database settings. Then, when I got the application to connect,  files were downloaded, instead of rendered by the browser.

Trying again from a fresh install, the application decided to work. Jobberbase certainly looks decent and is quite configurable but, in the end, is still only a jobboard.

OPJobBoard (version 1.4). The SQL scripts to populate the database fail. The provider’s forum nor demo works. Some rooting around got the system up and running. It looks outdated, but functions to some extent. However, it’s a usability nightmare. Also only a jobboard.

I did not try JobHut (version 1.2.1).

Of the three products, Jobberbase by far is the most usable one, and certainly looks the best. Still, none of these is a solution for actually managing the application procedure.

Recruity is more suitable for recruitment management, but also feels like a horribly complex application and is certainly overwhelming.

OSScube Recruit, built on SugarCRM, offers similar complexity.

More straightforward, perhaps less powerful, but certainly less overwhelming and offering a free plan, is the hosted Zoho recruit. More powerful functionality comes at a small fee. Sadly, customization seems to be limited.

Similar to Zoho recruit, smart recruiters allows you to manage your recruitment process online, for free.

Conclusion

The best open source jobboard is Jobberbase, hands down. None of the more proper recruitment management solutions seemed to be suitable, however, all being too complex or not complex enough. I’m now leaning towards a custom built solution, perhaps using Google Docs to create application forms and store applicants’ data.

Any suggestions for solutions are more than welcome.

Once Salone: Freetown’s then and now

October 19, 2011 • Photography

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World » Sierra Leone » Freetown » Old railway station

For many countries in Africa, the colonial past, followed by indigenous mismanagement, typically in the style of the former colonial masters, sometimes interspersed with violent civil war, has left many African urban spaces in careless disrepair. Colonial structures often end up being re-purposed, infrastructure slowly degrades. As a result, in many African capitals, under a veneer of change, remnants of a colonial past can easily be uncovered by those who care to look.
Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, is no different.

Great Britain moved freed American slaves to the coast of what is now Sierra Leone from the late 18th century onwards. But, though initially administration was mostly left to the new arrivals, Britain slowly took over control of the coast, as well as of the newly established protectorate, the inland areas of what is now Sierra Leone. With both wood and diamonds being in abundant supply, Sierra Leone was ready to be bled dry by the colonial administration.

After independence in 1961, a series of coup attempts saw the country slowly slide down under extensive maladministration, eventually resulting in a civil war that lasted for more than 10 years and was triggered by the civil war in neighboring Liberia. A government fueled by the diamond trade, with little interest in developing the country and its people, urban structures built during the colonial area were re-purposed and re-purposed again, allowing visitors to Freetown, when willing to look hard enough and scratch the surface, to uncover a past that’s there for all to see.

The project Once Salone does exactly that, superimposing a seemingly more ordered past on top of a more chaotic present.

Background

After discovering a host of old postcards from, mostly, colonial Sierra Leone, I realised it would be interesting to compare the old and the new. A few of the places were easily identified, but some took some clever deduction while others were practically impossible to pinpoint.
Interestingly, some of the postcards which seemed easily identifiable turned out to be amongst the hardest to locate. For one, some photos showing what seemed like the exact same road, claimed to be on opposite sides of the inner city. This, while neither location appeared to be just right.

Either way, the result is an interesting mix of old and new, the images creating a portal into Sierra Leone’s, specifically Freetown’s, past, creating a window into a period when the city was perhaps more organized and, likely, a time in which life, in many ways, was much simpler, or maybe much quieter.

The original postcards came from sierra-leone.org, while valuable insights were gleaned from delcampe.com. A very useful (partial) map of Freetown, dating from 1947, was essential for locating a few more obscure corners of the city.
Many thanks to Ed Ramsey, who was essential in locating several of the spots and who’s participation was essential for making sure I’d get out of bed early enough on three consecutive Sunday mornings, the only time of the week in which the inner city is somewhat quiet.

Exhibition

Most of the prints are on show, and for sale, at Bliss in Freetown (Sierra Leone), from January 13 until January 20, 2012. The opening will be on January 13 at 7pm.

In bookform

This project is featured in the book Photoviz: Visualizing information through photography, released in March 2015.

The face of an insulin thief

October 13, 2011 • Blog

World » Sierra Leone » Freetown » Syl Internet Cafe

Sometimes, you have to have faith in people, or, give a sob story the benefit of the doubt.
On Monday, sitting at my favorite internet cafe, I was approached by a French speaking black man, claiming to be from Togo but living in Guinea (Conakry). He claimed all his luggage was stolen (sure!), that he was a diabetic (uhuh!) and that he had a little bit of cash, but wasn’t able to buy his, also stolen, insulin (right!). In fact, all he needed was some money to buy insulin, after which he would inject it with me there, just to show he wasn’t scamming me (of course!).
He was in touch with his wife (he still had his phone), and she had tried a Moneygram and Western Union money transfer, but, so he claimed, both no longer operate from Guinea. This is plausible, though not easily verifiable. To get money, he had had his wife set up a bank transfer, but that would take a few days for the money come in, supposedly on Thursday.
Also, so he claimed, he had visited two pharmacies in town, from which he knew that the cost of insulin was above his current means. I asked him which pharmacies he had been to and, the luck, one of them is owned by a friend. I called the friend and, surprise, he confirmed that, indeed, a French speaking black man had passed by, asking for the cost of insulin, claiming to not have enough funds.

Sounds legit-ish. So I went on a little adventure.
It was already late in the day and, taking a shared taxi to town, we ended up finding as many open as closed pharmacies, but were able to get the right insulin, from the fifth open pharmacy, just before closing time (and me paying for it). Then, indeed, he injected the insulin right in front of my eyes. Now, it’s possible he did an impressive switcheroo, but if not, this showed that Komla (born on a Tuesday), was at least a diabetic, if possibly a scamming one.

He was going to call me Thursday, after receiving his funds, to get me my money back.
Not so. Sadly, Komla was unreachable himself. For days on end. Sadly, another example of misplaced faith.

So, I present to you, the face of an insulin thief. Komla was ok, interestingly enough, with me taking a photo of him, with my crappy phone, which does lend some credibility to his actual story. And though he tried calling me once, on Tuesday, a call which I missed, it’s not very hard to call again, whether in or out of country.
Who knows, perhaps he’s dead.

Connect!

More adventure happened on the same Monday I went in search of insulin. Delayed by only a year or so, the ACE undersea cable beached in Freetown. Somewhere in the next year, perhaps March, it will be the conduit for all high speed internet trafficked in and out of Sierra Leone. The ministry of information (whose website no longer functions) sent out a press release, inviting all Sierra Leoneans and interested parties to attend the ceremony. Only to not list a time and by sealing off the venue.
I went over, shot some photos, and then was kicked out by an army colonel. “We have state press. We don’t want anyone snapping here.”

The cinematic experience

September 30, 2011 • Blog

World » Sierra Leone » Freetown » Cruzer cinema

A few months ago, Sierra Leone moved up in the world, with the introduction of the country's first and only cinema. The Lagunda complex, built, most likely, in the 60s or 70s, appears to hold a hotel, a nightclub for the country's elite, and a theatre. The theatre has a stage but, more importantly, has been layed out like a proper cinema, some 20 rows of chairs, 25 or so to a row, facing the stage and, behind that, a large white wall which can be used for projecting films.

So now, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 'Cruzer cinema' uses the theatre to show films.
Shortly after they started, being skeptical as to the source and quality of the films shown, this is, after all, a country where one of the roving street sellers' hot commodities are homebrew CD compilations, as well as the obligatory illegal Chinese DVD bootlegs, I asked what format they get their films in. Digital projection? Actual film reels? LCD projection? The answer I got was more telling for what it wasn't saying, claiming that they used whatever technology required to show the films they were putting up, using film, digital or LCD projectors when necessary. Now, as this is a country where dead chickens, ready to be grilled, are imported, only to get stuck at customs for months, claiming you can get actual film reels into this country is like claiming you got proof of extraterrestrial existence which, temporarily, you are not just quite ready to share with the world.

And, indeed, for watching Suckerpunch, the LCD projector had been hooked up with a Windows laptop, which had VLC running to show us the film, which, very tellingly, had been cut up into two files, the switch being obvious roughly halfway through the movie.
Cutting up digital videos like this is done to create files that are under 750MB, so that you can have one movie fit on two CD-Roms. Obviously, this is not done by studios, but by the aforementioned Chinese, and other, pirates, requiring cheap and easy distribution methods.
Indeed, we were watching a bootlegged, though luckily not cammed, copy. Strangely, before the film started, we were treated to movie trailers for other films showing this weekend at Cruzer. They apparently took the time to download the trailers. Perhaps to promote their own films, or perhaps to make the whole experience more cinematic.

The showing was pleasant enough. The projection was a tad out of focus, but it's hard to determine whether this was due to the LCD projector, or because of a slightly dodgy copy that was being projected. There's even popcorn on sale and a proper usher, with wind-up flashlight, showed us to our seats.
When Cruzer started operating, they tried to get away with 40.000 Leone cinema tickets, about 9 USD. A total joke, them clearly not realizing their biggest challenge would be to convince the more affluent Freetonians that spending money on watching a movie could be worth it, even though you can buy the same movie on the street for a few dollars which allows you to watch it as many times and with as many people as you see fit, and then pass it on to whomever.
Wizening up, Cruzer quickly introduced 'two for one' tickets and now, it seems, the price of the evening shows has permanently been reduced to 20.000 Leones.

Not that, it appears, this has helped them much, yet. The three of us were the only spectators. I'm sure their operating costs are low, but I did expect that their constant promotion of the cinema on the city's unofficial web forum as well as having posters all over town, would have resulted in a somewhat larger turnout.
But they're trying. Cruzer this week announced they now also have a book exchange on the premises. So I brought the book I had finished the same day, finding the book exchange to consist of 6 kids' books and as many run of the mill crime thrillers. As book are something of a luxury item in Salone, as the closest English bookshop is probably Timbooktoo in Banjul, Gambia (for French books you probably would be able to go to Abidjan, Ivory Coast). I obviously didn't leave my book behind.

Budapest from 1 to 100

August 19, 2011 • Photography

World » Hungary » Budapest » Over the Danube

Collected over a three day period during a recent stay in Hungary, my hunger for collecting numbers was triggered by Piet Musterd’s photoset on Flickr, though the idea has been around for a while. However, seeing his work shortly before spending a week in the Hungarian capital, working on this would be an excellent way to spend some time while being forced to look at Budapest in a completely different way.

The photos were collected over a, rather tiring, three day period, where finding representations of the larger numbers was particularly difficult. You can deduce this from the rather high frequency of house numbers amongst the numbers higher than 50.

If there’s enough interest, I could make this image available as a print. The original file’s resolution has 16 times as many pixels as the one uploaded to Flickr and can easily be printed on a full square meter without pixelation occurring. 

I’m contemplating doing the same for my current city, Freetown, though, if anything, the upload time of this image of 2 hours is a bit inhibiting.

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