I bring you all greetings and salutations from humanist friends in Nigeria, from other parts of Africa and from the rest of the world

I want to assure you all that your humanist and freethought colleagues around the globe wish you well. They wish the humanist movement in South Africa a success and that it grows from strength to strength. They wish that the South African humanist movement would take its rightful place and plays its rightful role in the growth and development of humanism in the region.

So I want to welcome you all to this important program. I want to thank you for creating time to be here and for agreeing to take part in this historic meeting.

For me this conference is a clear mark of change - of change that is coming to the humanist movement in South Africa and the change that humanists are set to bring to this country. So permit me to thank especially our humanist friend and colleague, Jacques Rousseau and other friends at the Free Society Institute of South Africa for agreeing to host us here in Cape Town. Free Society is necessary for humanists and human beings generally to thrive and flourish. And I can’t see any goal better or higher than working and campaigning to create a society where all human beings are free.
 more this way»

Jun 9 2009 - Jun 11 2009, Johannesburg, International
WaterTecAfrica 2009

WaterTec Africa 2009 together with Petro.t.ex Africa 2009 and Pumps, Valves and Piping Africa 2009 is a conference that features the latest innovations and the current state of Africa's water and agriculture industry.

catherine larkin
CVL Consulting
011 789 7327
011 326 1259

events@cvlc.co.za
http://www.exhibitionsafrica.com

As President of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA) and on behalf of the exhibitors and organisers - I have pleasure in welcoming you to the International Water Technology Exhibition and Conference (WaterTec Africa 2009) Scheduled for 9-11 June 2009 at the Gallagher Convention Centre – Midrand, Johannesburg South Africa.

The pressures for water services delivery and water resource management are top agenda items in Southern Africa. The water industry face major challenges related to water quality, asset management and cost effective service delivery on a daily basis. This together with a vibrant growing region creates the ideal environment for the adoption and application of innovative solutions and appropriate technology.

We therefore invite exhibitors, water professionals and technology users to actively participate in this international event. It is guaranteed to be rewarding business and learning experience.
 more this way»

I wrote the following in June 2007:

Societal collapse is not a pretty site. It usually involves many deaths and occasionally even some pretty horrific images...

We've seen societal collapse. Biafra...Rwanda...Cambodia...the Balkans...

Zimbabwe is predicted to be within 6 months of collapse according to a secretive and leaked report commissioned for aid workers. Alarmist? Unlikely?

Consider this. The current inflation rate in Zimbabwe is 3,714%. Yeah...you read that correctly. Quadruple digit inflation. Add to that 80% unemployment. One third of the population depends on food aid from the international community, which of course requires sufficient infrastructure and stability for food to get through.

I think you already have what amounts to economic collapse. No work and no one can buy anything.
 more this way»

So what do we think about The School That Oprah Built?

Not many hand-picked groups of 150 girls have $40 million standing behind their learning . . .

I heard about it on National Public Radio yesterday, and then today Newsweek arrived and Favorite Daughter read it to me in the car. Quite the personal project. It reminds me of
 more this way»

So what do we think about The School That Oprah Built?

Not many hand-picked groups of 150 girls have $40 million standing behind their learning . . .
 more this way»

WTF

I watched the film Ashes and Snow today.

I want to lighten up, and enjoy this truly enchanting and fluid film, but I cannot shake the feeling that I was supposed to be seduced into not noticing the racism and exploitation ...

People of color with their eyes and mouths closed and still as stone. Exquisite women of color dancers playing second fiddle to the white swim-dancers who had the first and last scene. Haikus written with the self-important tone of a white man. The white man who has the last word while the third world folks are his "medium." It was set up so that the human beings were objectified. He contributes, imo, to racism in the form of the exoticizing and dehumanizing of women of color. Men and children too for that matter. Then he imposes his poetry on top of their worlds.

At the time I was watching, I thought the narrator was white. I stand corrected Laurence Fishburne is a black man. That helps some, but the fact remains that a white man waltzed around the world and took what he wanted from it.
 more this way»