EARTH HOUR

WWF’S EARTH HOUR – MARCH 28

Join WWF's Earth Hour on March 28 for an hour in the dark it will mean the world www.earthhour.org.za

This Saturday at 8.30pm millions of people around the globe will switch off their lights to show that they care about our living planet.

Join the world for Earth Hour 2009 and vote for Mother Earth!

Turn off your lights this Saturday, that is tomorrow 28 March 2009 and vote for Mother Earth!

Earth Hour is a lovely idea: millions of people turning off their lights at the same time to show they care about their impact on the planet. They are, in effect, acknowledging that the laws of cause and effect are as applicable to overspending on a credit card or depleting the "bank account" of fresh water, clean air and unpolluted soil that keep us alive.

WWF's 2008 Living Planet Report shows that living as we do now will require the resources of two planets by 2030.

If God were our bank manager, he'd be having a very stern conversation with us. The WWF’s report tracks 2 000 species and shows they have declined by 30% between 1970 and 2005 as a result of human activity.

I accepted the invitation to be the global patron of Earth Hour in 2009 because I believe the event can be a turning point for humanity.

This is important for all South Africans, but especially for the poor. The impact of climate change will hit the poor first and worst. The delegates at yesterday's conference heard how the 50 least developed countries of the world produce less than 1% of global emissions, while the US, Europe, Russia India, China and Japan produce more than 75% of the emissions between them. The reality is that the rich have a far greater impact on the planet than the poor. Tragic too, is the reality that the impact of climate change on the poor is first and worst.

So Earth Hour is not just a "green stunt" - it's about social justice, sustainable development and a more equitable world.

By Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu (Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is the global patron of WWF's Earth Hour on March 28)

What's the largest environmental cleanup site in the world?

What's the largest environmental cleanup site in the world?

It's located in the beautiful state of Washington at a place called Hanford, a former nuclear-weapons producing facility now known as the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States. This single nuclear weapons production facility alone produced over 53 million gallons of waste in underground tanks, almost 40 percent of which has leaked into the ground and water supply. And this is just one site...

Loading contaminated soil into a truck with a former plutonium production reactor in the background.

There is currently a petition doing the rounds to call upon President Obama to make a world free of nuclear weapons an urgent priority and to assure U.S. leadership to realize this goal.

Located in southeastern Washington State, Hanford is a 1,520-square-kilometer (586-square-mile) site created in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was America’s effort to develop the atomic bomb before Nazi Germany. The effort at Hanford focused on making plutonium for such bombs. More...

World Water Day 22 March 2009

Photo: millerspecialyachts.com

HONOR WORLD WATER DAY 22 MARCH 2009

The United Nations has declared today the World Day for Water; this year’s theme is ‘trans boundary water’

Water is our single most precious resource, so essential to life on out planet and already there is not enough of it to go around.

On a an Internet poll ‘Is South Africa facing a water crisis?’

73% voted yes; 10% No; and can you believe it 17% voted that they haven’t even thought about it!

It’s a fact that polluted water, poor management of dams and deteriorating infrastructure could lead to a major water crisis in South Africa and people just carry on regardless...

Pollution from industrial and household contaminants threatens our water supplies, while shortages in parts of the country has lead to rationing in many heavily populated areas. Of particular concern is the tendency of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals to end up in the groundwater, via air, soil and surface water contamination. Another concern is that levels of fluoride that people are regularly exposed to in drinking water can cause serious malfunctioning of the thyroid gland, leading to even more serious health problems.

With the world population growing, and the increasing pollution of our natural resources, we are facing a water crisis.

Water is the most abundant chemical in the body, making up roughly 60 per cent of the human body, it covers some 70% of the earth's surface, with only 3% being from fresh water sources.

According to the latest figures over one billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and over a half-million more (most of them children) die each year due to lack of clean water sources (water borne disease), every drip is precious. Access to clean water means a better quality of life for children the world over. Millions of women and children must still spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources, and 2.5 billion people live without a toilet.
In Zimbabwe alone the consequences due to years of poor governance, are poverty and disease on a tragic scale. Public hospitals have been without running water for months and more than 3,000 people have died in Africa’s worst cholera epidemic in 19 years.

Yet, even for those of us for whom access to water is merely a matter of turning on a tap, water is a critical issue.

Scientists are even working to ensure the safety of drinking water recycled from treated sewage; the idea of toilet to tap is a really bad misconception, it’s way past that. They say that the water will be cleaner than any of the water ever going into a dam...

But not all microbiologists agree that the technology is safe. The say that you are starting off with a much dangerous water source, due to a million times higher concentration of viruses, bacteria and probably drugs than what you would EVER find in a polluted river...

Water is Sacred...

In Nepal, water and religion go hand in hand. Giving people water is regarded as a virtue and taking money for water can be seen a sin. A pity it is not enforced worldwide!

There are abundant water resources in the mountainous country of Nepal, but for many people, communal taps are their only source of fresh water. Stone taps were built all over Nepal, some of them dating back a thousand years.

Watch Out for that (Disease in a) Bottle...

Kibera, in Kenya's capital Nairobi, is the world's biggest slum, where poor people pay a premium for filthy (contaminated) drinking water (risking their health); which they buy from illegal water sellers.

Watch Out for that Bottle...

There is more water in that bottle than just the liquid living inside it. In fact, it takes more water to make the plastic bottle than the bottle itself provides. And even though these water sources are pretty much the same as what comes from your tap, they charge up to 1,900 times the price of tap water - bad news for your pocket, health and environment alike.
Be sure to purchase a reusable bottle that you can take with you on-the-go. (I am also a guilty party). Bottled water is not a good choice for the well being of the earth. In landfills, water bottles will remain biodegrading for approximately 1,000 years.

"When the well is dry, they know the worth of water."- Benjamin Franklin

Scars...

Today is the 20th March and the Earth is at autumnal equinox when the day and night are of equal length.

So at last our weather should change, hopefully.
We have been experiencing unreal hot weather during January and February this year.
For me it was and still is an uphill struggle!
I am just not a summer person, I prefer winter by far. I think I would love to live in England with all that snow and rain. It wouldn’t bother me to never see the sun again ...

I find it always so strange with overseas visitors plastering on sun block when the temperature is below 20 degrees Celsius; and we don’t even bother because that is not warm enough for us.
However if I look at my skin and all the melanoma’s I’m battling with, I know it’s from not enough protection over the years against the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

I have several scars on my body. Some scars on my body are comical and some represent a deep hurt from my past...

The first scar I acquired between my nose and my upper lip (Philtrum) at the age of four; when my cousins decided to play a joke on me and sent me into the chicken coup to collect eggs and the rooster who was protecting/guarding his nests with eggs decided it’s time to kick me out! It was a bad scar/experience then, but not anymore; however in the light it is still visible.

The vaccination scar on my right arm, just below the shoulder was the first to confirm that my skin form the most horrific scar tissue (Keloids). Kids can be so cruel and eventually when I really got tired from explaining why I have the scar; I told everyone that I got bitten by a horse. LOL - that stopped them in their tracks!

Then another scar is on my shin after disobeying my mom and shaving my legs when I was fourteen. I had no choice, it was the fashion... I had this ‘hateful girl’ in my group who was always reminding me of the fact that I should shave my legs as well as my eyebrows…Needless to say, when we started shaving in our teenage day, we had old fashioned Minora blades which delivered a mean cut and your scars showed the next day for everybody else to see. (and if there is still something good on my body it is my legs)

And then there are the bushy eyebrows; after shaving/plucking it off with tweezers to thin them out (no waxing in those days); it never grew back again like it used to be; so an eyebrow pencil was the answer to that problem.
My daughter wax hers and I tell you I think that is even a bigger mistake, because it grew back, backwards and downwards and she never looked the same again. It has to be done on a regular basis now...

Then there are the cesarean bikini line scars; the appendix scar due to a Porphyric attack and not due to an appendix rupture and lastly the four little incisions on my upper abdomen due to a laparoscopic Nissen Fundoplication.

However, some scars on my body aren't so humorous...

For example, there’s the one white scar/mark on the right side of my forehead, in my hairline which I acquired after radiotherapy to eradicate a big 20c piece melanoma. I lost a lot of hair at that stage and had to wear scarves; but it’s almost back to normal, if I can call it normal. Luckily it’s not showing, with my long hair I can hide the bald patch.

And then there is the half a dozen or more scars on my back and shoulders due to melanoma removals over the years; not to mention my ear piercings which grew as big as peas and had to be surgically removed.

Another example are the two crescent shaped scars just below my belly button. They aren't the result of body piercing, but of three laparoscopic exploratory surgeries to try and discover why I was having all these cysts and unbearable pain. They reminded me of the years that I struggled with four miscarriages. Then there's the scar on the right side of my abdomen that reminds me of the weeks of waiting and wondering if the big tennis ball lump was malignant or benign.

No, not all scars are humorous.

Perhaps the most painful scars that I bear are the ones you can not see. You know the ones I'm talking about. We all have them. They are the scars on our hearts and in our souls. The scar of rejection from a mother that didn't know how to show her love for me because she lost her mother at the age of four. (My grandmother died with the birth of her fourth child due to kidney failure and Variegate Porphyria); the scars of disappointment with my miscarriages; the scars of my broken dreams. I was an excellent athlete but wasn’t allowed the chance to compete; and lastly the scars in my heart that I carry that nobody can seen; my fight to accept the fact that my talented young son had to have a dual-chamber pacemaker implant; my daughter struggling with O.C.D. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and Bipolar; my youngest that inherited my horrible monster, Variegate Porphyria.

We receive scars in one of three ways; what has been done through us by our very own failures and mistakes; what has been done to us by other people and our genetic DNA inheritance.

However, I am no longer ashamed of my scars and I don’t try to hide them any more like when I was a little girl. They are living proof that I have been healed and that I am a survivor and that God loves me! So, it there is still another pebble or a mar in me today, God will remove it and remold me into what He intended me to be from the very beginning...

Success is not about the acceptance or applause of people. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people.

I never think of the future, it will come soon enough, life goes on regardless...

“We live to die” - Zelia 2005

Ziska's 30th Birthday

Ziska’s 30th Birthday

It was my daughter’s 30th birthday on the 12th..
Beyers her friend arranged a 30th birthday bash for her on Sunday the 15th

It was a beautiful day and I flew down to Johannesburg. Had a good flight and landed 14minutes earlier than planned at the OR Tambo Airport; it just took forever to get my luggage.
Don’t know what’s going to happen in 2010 with the Soccer World Cup?
It was crazy busy...

I stayed at their house in Centurion and saw her little nest for the first time...
Beautiful and NEAT as always... I expected that with her OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) A stranger will find anything with the greatest of ease.

She must pay me a visit again to get my house in order LOL

Her party was at the local tennis club hall and her colour theme was RED; my favourite as well...
At the entrance she had a beautiful collage of her life since birth; which brought back very sweet memories...

She went overboard as usual with beautiful table decorations; posy’s of red roses; big centre water bowl with three gerbera daisies floating and a little gold fish swimming/hiding underneath; menu typed and framed; individual name cards and red roses serviettes...

It really was a lovely picture; the guests were great with some of her previous year’s drama students making it a memorable day by delivering song duets, etc.

She had a master of ceremonies who did a wonderful job with ‘Ziska’s life story’ telling...

The food was excellent and the catering was done by a ‘young’ 72 year old lady by the name of Nellie.

We had three different pate’s; sweet chili, tuna, cottage cheese, egg and biltong which was divine served on a variety of breads. I just loved it... (I am a bread and butter person. LOL)
The main menu was; on the spit - Leg of lamb with pork roast and crackling to die for LOL; small baby potatoes; pineapple carrots, creamy spinach, cauliflower in cheese sauce, apple and mint sauce and a pick and choose salad.

Dessert was ‘Jan Ellis Pudding’ (old fashion Vinegar/Brown pudding) and apple crumble served with custard.

I even had a glass of a very special “Meerlust Rubicon 2004” the best red wine ever! (a dear friend of mine called it in Afrikaans ‘engeltjie piepie’)

I could only have one glass because it contains ‘sulphur’ which I am allergic to, but on such a special occasion I just had to LIVE and if any consequences afterwards I’ll just have to bear it and smile... LOL

It was a lovely day, my old friend Marie of 30years joined us and I saw friends and family I haven’t seen for more than 22 years...

How time flies?

Lifeguard killed in shark attack

DEFINITELY NOT FOR SENSITIVE VIEWERS
PLEASE DON’T READ ANY FURTHER – IT’S HORRIFIC PHOTO’S

My daughter Ziska and her boyfriend were holidaying in Port St Johns in January when this horrific shark attack took place.

A 27-year-old lifeguard died after he was attacked by a tiger shark at Second Beach in Port St Johns where they went snorkeling everyday.

He was attacked around 14:00 after he and a friend went for a swim. A fellow lifeguard witnessed the attack. He tried to reach him with a rubber duck, but he was too late.
The noise of the rubber duck scared off the shark but by that time his friend had already died; the shark attack was too vicious on his friend.

Ziska was a real ‘old nag’ and didn’t want to swim at Second Beach – she just didn’t feel comfortable in the water...

She had reason not to feel safe...