Owner: Subvert the Dominant Paradigm URL:http://www.africanchameleon.com Join Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:08:17 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: This is an eclectic collection of my experiences and thoughts about
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Austrian police harass drivers at border within Schengen zone 2008-03-05 08:11:20 The image shows a Schengen border post between Austria and Germany. If this is how you think it is between Austria and Slovakia think again.Slovakia became part of the Schengen zone on 21.12.2007. This means no border controls at borders that Slovakia shares with Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary. However Austrian
police are finding ways to undermine this new freedom. About two weeks ago I hired a car in Bratislava and drove to Vienna for the afternoon. It is only about one hour's drive. On returning, we were waved down right at the former border between Austria and Slovakia by Austrian police who then tried to extort 150 euros out of me. I will explain.They had set up a speed camera right AT the border. Within 100 m of the border the speed limit reduces from 70 kph to 50 kph. Rememb Read more:within
Slovak stare 2008-03-02 13:22:57 So why is it that people here stare at my adopted black son so much? There is something I want to refer to as the Slovak stare. That is when someone slowly and deliberately turns their head about 90 degrees until they are facing the object of interest (black person, dog turd, etc) when they maintain a fixed "slapped arse" expression until the father of said black adopted child tells them to fuck off. People here really need to lighten up. It is not just me. Many expats have remarked that the locals are miserable. It reminds me of England in the eighties.His Slovak teacher commented that he does not seem to like Slovakia or Slovak culture and needs encouragement at home. Well, fuck me. Perhaps being called a nigger in the park by white youths has got something to do with it.
Last Day of Pripyat 2008-03-01 12:18:12 The author of this video, Michail Nazarenko, was making a film about an atomic plant and happened to be in Pripyat. He also filmed the evacuation there.At the day of evacuation, the official level of radiation in Pripyat reached 1 Roentgen per hour, but people say it was 7 Roentgens. This makes a difference, because in first case, the population would die within two or three months. While in second, people would die in several days.
Strange Fruit 2008-03-01 12:17:40 This photo from an article about plastic bags and the environment in The Guardian 29/2/08 Read more:Fruit
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The Cost of the War in Iraq 2008-02-28 17:59:37 Quote from article in The Guardian 29/2/08 By way of context, Stiglitz and Bilmes list what even one of these trillions could have paid for: 8 million housing units, or 15 million public school teachers, or healthcare for 530 million children for a year, or scholarships to university for 43 million students. Three trillion could have fixed America's social security problem for half a century. America, says Stiglitz, is currently spending $5bn a year in Africa, and worrying about being outflanked by China there: "Five billion is roughly 10 days' fighting, so you get a new metric of thinking about everything."I ask what discoveries Stiglitz found the most disturbing. He laughs, somewhat mirthlessly. "There were actually so many things - some of it we suspected, but there were a few things I Read more:Iraq
Just for fun, some places I have been to. 2008-02-27 14:36:09 View my profileCreate your own travel map or travel blogVisit TripAdvisor.comThere's still a lot left to see. I really ought to be made an honorary South African citizen for all the time and money I have spent in that country. It evokes such contradictory feelings. On the one hand there is the way that the current government is dealing (or not dealing) with vital issues. Like for example how it ignored warnings by ESKOM that there was going to be an energy short-fall. Result: 20% cutbacks on electricity, mines close down, economic disaster for the country - 8 years to build new power stations. Then of course Mbeki's famed ignorance about HIV and AIDS. On the other, there is the physical beauty of the country and the vibrancy of the people.
Racism in central Europe 2008-02-27 14:02:50 What do you do when a bunch of white youths in a park shout "what's up nigger" at your ten year old adopted son? He is black by the way. That is the reality of where we live in central Europe
. Grown men stopping in mid-stride to stare at him, youths on a tram making monkey noises at him, people stopping to stare. This is one of the most racist states in the area. In 1939 a Nazi puppet state here happily sent 80 000 Jews to Auschwitz.I know it is not alway good to generalise but I find many people here uptight, defensive and miserable. Maybe it is a result of all those years of communism. Having said that, some locals have been very nice to my son with one complete stranger insisting on buying him a toy when we were out shopping. I found that quite disconcerting. I have been here for some t Read more:Racism
Children of Bush's America 2008-02-26 04:37:40 The torturers of Abu Ghraib were McWorkers who ended up in Iraq because they could no longer find decent jobs at homeThe Guardian May 18th 2004In 1968, the legendary US labour organiser Cesar Chavez went on a 25-day hunger strike. While depriving himself of food, he condemned abusive conditions suffered by farm workers. The slogan of his historic union drive was: " Si se puede! " Yes, we can! Last week, George Bush went on a four-day bus ride. While stopping for multiple pancake breakfasts, he praised tax cuts and condemned everyone who says America
n workers need protection in the global economy. His battle cry for laissez-faire economics? "Yes, America can." The echo was probably intentional. Bush is so desperate for the Hispanic vote that he has taken to shouting " Vamos a ganar! We're g Read more:Children
Sports Letter: `Racist' chants: the Slovak view 2008-02-26 04:37:10 The Independent 19/10/2002"Sir: I am a Slovak football fan who was at last Saturday's match. I read your article about the racist behaviour of Slovak fans and I am sorry the English team, and especially Emile Heskey and Andy Cole, took it like that. I agree that there may have been some racist behaviour - stupid people are everywhere - but I must say that most of the things that English team and the referee took as racist arose from a misunderstanding of Slovak fans' customs.Let me explain: I first heard "monkey chants" at an ice hockey match about nine years ago - and I assure you there was no player of black skin. The sound is something like "hu-hu-hu"- and "hu" in Slovak idiom is not just the sound of a monkey's scream, it is also an interjection used when you want to scare someone. In Read more:Letter
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Where does all the crap go? 2008-02-24 12:34:42 On February 20th I took year 7s from my school to the local sewage treatment works - AKA crap facility. There was the screening facility where big solid objects and toilet paper are removed. Here is some oozing out of a pipe. Then there is the sand trap where sand, fats and oils are removed. Sand sinks to the bottom due to a slow flow-rate and fats and oils float to the top, are diverted by baffles and removed. The sewage then goes on to the sludge removal process and the bioreactor. The sewage sits in a settling tank (clarifier) and sludge is trawled from the bottom. This all gets put into a digester later. Meanwhile the sewage goes to the bioreactor, the one here that looks like a jacuzzi. Compressed air is pumped through the sewage so that bacteria can get to work. The sewage then goes
Scandal of patients left for hours outside A&E 2008-02-18 12:46:35 From The Guardian 17th February 2008Hospitals were last night accused of keeping thousands of seriously ill patients
in ambulance 'holding patterns' outside accident and emergency units to meet a government pledge that all patients are treated within four hours of admission.Those affected by 'patient stacking' include people with broken limbs or those suffering fits or breathing problems. An Observer investigation has also found that some wait for up to five hours in ambulances because A&E units have refused to admit them until they can guarantee to treat them within the time limit. Apart from the danger posed to patients, the detaining of ambulances means vehicles and trained crew are not available to answer new 999 calls because they are being kept on hospital sites. Last night the p Read more:Scandal
UK Government distorted the truth in key document that helped Tony Bliar goto war against Iraq 2008-02-18 12:46:24 The Guardian 18th February 2008The notorious claim that Iraq
could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes was not contained in an early draft of the controversial dossier, but the draft version did warn that the country had acquired weaponry intended to "terrorise, intimidate and destabilise", it was revealed today. The draft written by John Williams, who at the time was head of press at the Foreign Office, and released today under the Freedom of Information Act, also said that Iraq "was actively assembling an arsenal of terror weapons with which to intimidate its neighbours and the wider international community". Williams wrote that Iraq was "developing as a priority longer-range missile systems capable of targeting Nato (Greece and Turkey?)" and "covertly attempting to acqu Read more:against
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Missing comment is here 2008-02-18 12:45:44 This comment I deleted when I removed a post referring to a study by Iraqi doctors. So I am reposting it here at the request of the person who posted the comment. I found this by installing a useful tool to look in my temporary internet cache. I never would have found it otherwise. From Scott:There are many other far more likely culprits behind increased birth abnormalities in Iraq, if indeed their increase was/is genuine, and that's an ill-advised leap of faith right there."If there really is an increase in deformities and disease, what factors other than DU might be causative? The deformities that have been publicised are not unique to Iraq and, sadly, may be observed in children's hospitals throughout the world where they are recognised to have a variety of causes - except exposure to u Read more:Missing
The Cancer Burden from Chernobyl in Europe 2008-02-18 12:45:44 Twenty years ago, the worst accident in the history of the nuclear industry occurred at the Chernobyl
power plant in Ukraine. The full health impact of that accident is still difficult to assess directly1.In June 2005, Dr Peter Boyle, Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC), established an international Working Group to study the cancer consequences following the Chernobyl accident: its task was to evaluate the human cancer burden from radioactive fallout from the accident in Europe
as a whole. The Working Group publishes its conclusions this week in the International Journal of Cancer in an article entitled: "Estimates of the Cancer Burden
in Europe from Radioactive Fallout from the Chernobyl Accident."Dr Boyle said that: "Because the cancer burden from Chernoby
An excellent video on strange effects noticed by scientists studying animals in the restricted 30 km radius zone around Chernobyl 2008-02-18 12:45:44 levels of radiation in relatively safe areas is many times what the background level is in most localities. Due to natural and human processes, activity gets concentrated in some locations. There are areas of extreme activity (hot spots) within the zone. Certain elements like radioactive strontium get concentrated in bone so for example animal remains can show very high activity within the zone. The liquidators who helped clean up the zone buried highly radiocactive waste in different locations - some of them not well-recorded.The nuclear power plant that went critical in April 1986 is just to the north-west of the big lake near the centre of the picture. Read more:Chernobyl
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Where Du munitions were used in the first Iraq war 2008-02-18 05:03:17 The long thin line running north from Kuwait City is the Death Highway where Iraq
i military vehicles in retreat were attacked. Reports suggested that many civilians were amongs these soldiers.It seems that DU was used within 10 km of Basrah if this map is accurate. The IAEA Kuwait report I refer to earlier states clearly that in their studies they had to rely on information from the Kuwaiti military as to where DU was used. The Americans were not forthcoming in providing information.Reference -p41-46_e.pdfThe map is obtained from The National Gulf War Resource Center at
DU - harmful or not? 2008-02-16 10:16:59 Here I contest many points made in an article critical of many people who say DU is harmful
. concept that the 350 extra tons of uranium launched into Iraq would make a measurable difference to the environment is challenged by the fact that four tons of the ubiquitous metal are likely to be found in any square mile of soil one foot deep anywhere in the world. "Yes, there probably is this amount of uranium within the first 12 inches of 1 square mile of soil - but it will be bound up in particles of soil which are typically not big enough to be inhaled. As I stated before, there has been research done to show that the uranium oxide formed when a uranium projectile hits a tank is very fine indeed and small enough to reach right down inside the lungs. Much more uranium was dumped on Iraq in the
Abu Ghraib under the Americans was a holiday camp 2008-02-16 10:16:34 View graphic video here (Quicktime)For the last 30 years, Iraqis inside Iraq had little knowledge of the full extent of Saddam Hussein's oppressive tactics. Many Iraqis who have documented his regime's history argue that Coalition authorities have not done enough to make this history known to the Iraqi people, and proponents of more stringent de-Baathification argue that until this education is completed, Saddam-era officials cannot be trusted with the rule of the new state.Much of the recent controversy surrounding Abu Ghraib has made only vague reference to the prison's nightmarish past. Under Saddam Hussein, some thirty thousand people were executed there, and countless more were tortured and mutilated, returning to Iraqi society as visible evidence of the brutality of Baathist rule ins Read more:Americans
Chernobyl 2008-02-16 10:12:57 What an absurd thing to suggest that the Chernobyl
disaster was not a big deal as some people like to suggest. The city of Pripyat built for the workers and families of Chernobyl and connected industries was abandoned in 1986. It had a population of 45 000 at the time. As I have stated, estimates of eventual deaths due to this disaster are around 10 000. A view of the sarcophagus from Pripyat If a disaster takes place and someone says "You know what - 100 000 people will die" and then it turns out that only 10 000 die, is that a cause for celebration? But that is the kind of thing we hear about Chernobyl.
Chernobyl 2008-02-16 10:12:57 The following was a reply to a comment on a post I deleted.Radiation is never "Good for you". After Chernobyl
, there was a dramatic rise in the number of reported thyroid cancers in children. The reason is that much radioactive iodine was released to the environment and children were particularly susceptible to absorbing this. "The incidence of thyroid cancers in children and adolescents up to 14 years was for the whole of Belarus 1986: 2 1987: 4 1988: 5 1989: 7 1990: 29 1991: 59 1992: 66 1993: 79 1994: 82 1995: 91 1996: 84 1997: 66. (Mrochek A G 1998 Belarus Population health status Chernobyl disaster long-term follow-up. Abstracts 2nd Int. Conference Long Term Health Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster Kiev 1-6 June p 91.) These thyroid cancers in children were atypical in that more t
No title 2008-02-15 11:57:20 The Guardian 15/2/08An Oxford coroner today delivered a blistering attack on the Ministry of Defence, accusing it of betraying soldiers' trust by sending troops to Afghanistan without basic equipment.Andrew Walker castigated the ministry at the end of an inquest into the death of Captain James Philippson, 29, who was killed in a June 2006 gun battle with the Taliban in which British troops were described as being "totally outgunned".An internal army board of inquiry into Philippson's death concluded that UK soldiers deployed to southern Afghanistan were ill-prepared, badly led, undermanned and lacked "mission essential" equipment because of "political machinations'" by ministers. The board's report described the operation in which Philippson was killed as an "ill-prepared rush". Had his un
Aupark update 2008-03-09 14:20:03 Well I emailed Aupark, the shopping mall where this incident happened. I know they viewed the article below - I gave them the link. I also emailed The Spectator, the only English language newspaper in Slovakia. Somehow I don't expect a reply.
Fucking English Bitch 2008-03-08 14:29:23 So what nationality are you? Are you Spanish or French, American or Swedish? Imagine an employee at an establishment you were patronising called you a "fucking - insert nationality here - bitch". Now imagine that you were at this establishment because it was your son's eleventh birthday and with him were seven or eight of his friends. Now imagine that you are spending about US$60 here in two hours. How would you feel?This was my situation at Brunswick Bowling, Aupark, Bratislava on Friday. I booked an alley between 6 and 8. I arrived at 6 with my son and his friends. The employee in question was behind the cash desk. He was immediately obstructive. I do not speak Slovak but he was trying to tell me that my booking was for 5 and not for 6 even though I could see my name written on the reser Read more:Bitch
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Buying a house 2008-03-13 13:30:35 My brother said he would kill himself if he hadn't bought a house by the time he was 40. He bought a house aged 39 in Vancouver. Finally I am in a position to buy a house in the rapidly growing economy of Slovakia. House prices here are shooting up at about 10 to 15% per annum. You can pick up a 3 or 4 bedroom house on the outskirts of Bratislava for about GBP 110 000 or US$ 220 000. This is a lot more than a few years ago but still the price of a dingy 1 or two bedroom flat back home in the UK.The bank does a 100% mortgage and rates are at least 1% less than at home. Frankly I would not get a mortgage at home with no deposit. If I leave this country I can rent it out and could probably make enough to pay the mortgage. Read more:Buying
Yobs rule 2008-03-17 07:43:13 Country house trashed by 500 partygoersThe perils of inviting "everyone" to a teenage party in the modern world of social networking websites and radio shout-outs were dramatically illustrated at the weekend when more than 500 gatecrashers trashed a country house. Thousands of pounds of damage was left behind shattered windows and ripped-out curtains at Georgian Colehayes Park in Devon, a listed building now run as a field study centre by descendants of the industrialist who first mass-produced tarpaulin.Initially blamed on BBC Radio 1, which featured the private function on a "shout-out" - where listeners tell the world about cool things going on - the chaos proved yesterday to have snowballed from an ill-advised poster at Torquay grammar school. It was pinned up by Sarah Ruscoe who light
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