w o r d s

Out of 538 vehicles at the start (264 bikes, 189 cars, 85 trucks ) 300 made it to the finish line today. Stephane Peterhansel won the cars category in his Mitsubishi, Cyril Despres won the bikes on a KTM, and Hans Stacey won the trucks category with his MAN.

Tragically, this rally also cost the lives of four people. Two children were hit by cars and died, and two bike riders died in the competition. The deaths of people who live in the host communities is especially tragic, and this makes the Dakar quite controversial. The riders know the risk they take, but the rally organizers need to make an even greater effort to ensure the safety of the host communities. The deaths of these children due to a motor sports event is not acceptable. If spectators died at Formula One or NASCAR events it would certainly be taken very seriously. It should be taken just as seriously here.

Although the organizers claim to impose strict safety rules, it is apparent that this was not sufficient, and that even more efforts have to be made to ensure the safety of the population and spectators.

Still, this is a fascinating event - check out these cool pictures on the BBC website.

Rock, that is. Rock Balakiyem Gnassingbé, the brother of the President of Togo has been voted out as head of the Togolese Football Federation. After Togo’s first ever appearance at the FIFA Worldcup last year was thoroughly mismanaged, to a large degree by Rock and some other RPT cronies, the FTF finally rid itself of the powerful, but incompetent Gnassingbé and elected Avlissi Tata as its new head.

Some in Togo see this as a hopeful sign for the country, and perhaps as a harbinger of broader change. Who knows, the FTF presidency is a coveted, plush assignment, and for the Gnassingbé clan to lose this job is pretty significant. It goes to show that pressure from the outside (FIFA and the African Football Federation), if applied consistently, can produce progress.

German President Horst Köhler visited Ghana last week, and and attended a conference with several African leaders. Apparently he also met Togo’s Faure Gnassingbé, who “inherited” the family business of running Togo from his dad, the late Gnassingbé Eyadema. The official Togolese government news website claims that the meeting was cordial, and that Köhler promised Germany’s support for the democratization of Togo. After a decade of German and EU sanctions against the illegitimate regime of the Gnassingbé clan in Togo, the fact that this meeting took place alone, could be construed as a warming of relations, I suppose. But promises of “support for democratization” efforts could mean anything.

With legislative elections in Togo this year, the EU is probably interested in warming relations with the regime in Lomé so they can keep a closer eye on the elections. Also, the national unity government between the RPT and the UFC has raised hopes that there may be progress possible in Togo. With the old man gone, engagement may be the way to turn Togo around. However, only if the French government stops propping up the RPT and the Gnassingbé clan. Unless the French quit meddling in Togo, neither sanctions nor engagement will produce democracy in Togo.

To Accra, to be specific. The German President Horst Köhler headed a delegation of 170 Germans at the Partnership with Africa conference that included several African heads of state and international leaders: Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor (Ghana), Festus G. Mogae (Botswana), Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) as well as Alpha Oumar Konare of the African Union. The focus of the conference was on leadership development - perhaps the most important aspect of development aid. Besides the big-wigs, the conference brought together 50 African and European “young leaders” for networking and for brainstorming about the future of the Africa, and Germany’s role in it. The event took place at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana’s capital Accra on Jan 12-15.

The fact that Köhler bothered to attend this event is a good sign, maybe. And considering his IMF background, it makes sense. I think Germany, and the rest of Europe, may begin to realize that they need to engage African countries and their people in constructive ways, in order to strengthen the relationship between the two continents. The problem right now is that Europe is trying to fence itself off from Africa, and that is a dumb idea. Europe needs the immigrants from the South, to bolster its dwindling workforce. Those immigrants send substantial amounts of money back home, which supports local economies and builds buying power of consumers in Africa. And if Africa’s ties to Europe are strong, chances are African consumers will want European products. China has discovered Africa as both a labor pool and a market for Chinese products. Europe is going to have to get on that train, or it’ll leave the station. If China has the stronger ties with Africa in the upcoming years, China will have better access to the wealth of resources in Africa, as well as to African markets.

From a European perspective, it’d be a shame to loose out on access to Africa. But if the Chinese wins this one, they deserve it, as they clearly take Africa very seriously. From the African perspective, a strong relationship with Europe must be desirable, because of the geographic proximity and because so many Africans already live there. And competition between Europe and Asia for access in Africa would certainly benefit African economies.

And that’s where the leadership development comes in. Africa has to develop its pool of civic leaders, at every level, from farmer’s coops and teachers to national parties and government. Every community needs a handful of civic leaders, men and women with a clear, progressive vision for the future of their community and their country. These people are the seeds of democracy, and a true, participatory democracy is the best recipe for successful, sustainable economic development. Aid, and debt relief may help, but only in combination with leadership development and local, broad empowerment initiatives. If Germany is serious about its engagement with African countries, that’s where it should start. Germany has a strong tradition of civic leadership and civic life, and it should be quite possible for German leaders to leverage this tradition to help build a new generation of civic leaders across Africa. I think that Germans will find a lot to learn from their African counterparts, and I am sure that such a collaboration would benefit both sides tremendously. And that would make development a two-way street, and a win-win proposition.

The Dakar Rally has always fascinated me, even though, over the years, I became increasingly aware of its questionable ethics regarding the communities it touches, and the waste of resources on a vain, more-or-less useless sporting event. Motorsports are basically pretty stupid, but still, I cannot totally escape the fascination of a race across the Sahara.

I wish they’d work more to produce support for the communities they cross, and I wish they’d use renewable fuels, like biodiesel or ethanol. Still, of all motorsports, this is the one I find pretty interesting. Formula One is a huge circus of primadonnas in big cars, and NASCAR should be called NASnore. I mean, how long can one watch cars making left turns?

After crossing the Sahara many years ago in shitty, banged-up Peugeots, I always dreamed of going back there with decent equipment, four-wheel drive trucks, and a decent camera, to really enjoy this amazing, tough place. At the time, we were so focused on just making it, that we wasted very little thought on how awesome a place the Sahara is.

So, once again, the Dakar is under way, and the first stages in Portugal apparently were dominated by the Portugese. It appears that the Volkwagen team is doing well (places 1-4 in the first stage). The trucks look cool, OMG. Anyway, I hope that there are no major accidents, and that they don’t run over too many chickens in the villages in Africa.

Last year had a couple of surprises for us, although most of these have yet to be completely realized: we found a new house, but we have yet to move there; we began planning our trip to Togo (and Ghana) for the upcoming July; and the Democrats won back the U.S. Congress.

One of the biggest changes in our lives in 2006 was Agbessi’s move to Durham. He stayed with us during the summer and then moved to an apartment in Durham. It’s great to have him here; he is like a family member to us. Hopefully we’ll all be able to travel back to our village in Togo together this summer. It’ll be really cool to show up back in Yikpa, the village where Laura and I met 15 years ago, with our children AND with one of the Yikpato from America!

In July 2007, Laura will lead a group of customers an volunteers from her Fair Trade store in Durham on a tour of Ghana, visiting some of the artisans and coops that offer their wares at One World Market. We are planning to leave a week earlier and visit our village in Togo first. This is a big deal to us - taking our children back to the village where we met. And if Agbessi can come with us that’ll e even cooler because he knows our life in the U.S. and his presence will strengthen the bond between our families even more.

In August, Laura found a little house for us, a bit closer to Durham, and a very pretty 2-acre property. We signed a contract but the inspection turned up some serious structural problems. The seller agreed to have the problems fixed. Now, three months later, the contractors have left, and a water test turned up problems with the well that supplies the house with water. Currently we’re in the process of determining what needs to be done to treat the water. Probably a filter and a UV light will be alright. It’s really too bad that this is such an obstacle course. Yet, we have looked around, and we have not found another house for sale that would change our mind.

For Laura’s store, 2006 was a great year. They sold over $430,000 in Fair Trade merchandise, which supports communities all over the world. About a quarter of that was sold between Thanksgiving and X-mas! During most of the year, selling $1000 worth in merchandise is a good day’s work at the store. During the peak of the Christmas shopping frenzy, the mostly volunteer-staffed store was selling at a rate of about $1000 an hour! And as they don’t have much storage space, they were almost continuously unpacking merchandise and stocking the sales floor. And Laura was continuously ordering more stuff. Still, when I saw the store last week, I was amazed to see how depleted it looked! But they set new sales records for the store, both for holiday sales, and for the entire year. Congratulations!

The biggest change for Jacob and Julia last year, I think, was discovering the Horse Ranch where they spend a couple of hours every day after school. While Julia got really serious about learning how to ride - and to ride well - Jacob seems to mostly enjoy playing with his buddies around the Ranch. Julia has won several shows at the Ranch, and she can canter a horse across 3-foot (one-meter-high) obstacles! Jacob has learned how to ride a horse, too, but he is still a bit young for the more advanced stuff.

On my end, my job at Duke changed quite a bit. In addition to all the network stuff and computer security business, I also got to re-design an office suite at Brightleaf Square. I moved my office and the server room, and my co-worker’s office into a new, self-contained office suite. The latter, we just completed in December. So, we’ll see how that shakes out …

A nice perk of my job was being able to sneak out and watch football games last summer, during the Worldcup. As I work with several “dang for’ners” from football nations (England, Germany, Turkey, Togo, Haiti) we had a pretty good contingent over at Satisfaction for some of the games. And the folks at Satisfaction even opened the bar early (at 9:00 AM) several times so we could catch some of the early games (like the Togo games).

The Worldcup was great fun: from the ecstasy of Germany’s win over Argentina to the agony of Togo’s first Worldcup appearance. We saw some wonderful football, especially in the first round, even though real upsets were rare and in the end the Worldcup was dominated by “millionaire football” and somewhat tainted by some really questionable officiating, most painfully noticeable in the Ghana-Brazil game and Australia’s 95th-Minute loss to Italy. And then, of course, there was this unfortunate incident during the very unfortunate Worldcup final.

In the fall of 2006, I started another chapter in my biofuels quest: I completed my biodiesel reactor and began producing biodiesel in the basement. I collect the used fryer oil from several restaurants around Brightleaf Square and process the vegetable oil at home into fuel for my 2002 Jetta TDI. Although this is quite a bit of work, it is very satisfying to reduce my reliance on fossil fuels, produce much less harmful exhaust and safe some money doing it. And it is also a fun, relaxing hobby. As I am typing this, my 200-liter “New Year’s batch” is sitting in the washtank downstairs.

Finally, politics. I mean, I am pretty excited about the fact that the Republican’s lost the congress to the Democrats. Almost more importantly, though, are the implications of this loss to the power of the so-called neocons in the Republican party. Right now, it looks like that in 2008, the “New American Century” will come to an end. Finally. I just really hope that the Democrats manage to re-assert congressional oversight and reintroduce accountability into this corrupt, incompetent administration. And get the US troops out of Iraq ASAP!

I’d say 2006 was pretty good to us. We don’t take this for granted, as we see around us people who had a difficult time, and we certainly are quite aware of all the pain and suffering in the world. Yet, we also see all the hope and generosity around us and we try to contribute to the positive things that go on around us. I am painfully aware of the many serious problems and challenges ahead of us and future generations. But I also see all the energy and hope and strength growing in our children, I can’t help but feel optimistic about the future.

So, thanks to you all for your interest in my blog. I hope 2007 brings you good news and exciting things to do. Feel free to comment and share with us what is going on with you.

Cheers, and a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy 2007!

Jürgen

The Senegalese department of Agriculture last week announced a collaboration with Brazil and India to begin producing biofuels in Senegal. As part of the program “retour vers l’agriculture” the government aims to replace Senegal’s oil imports with homegrown fuel. A pilot project calls for 4000 hectares of jatropha for vegetable oil to produce 10 percent of Senegal’s fuel in the country.

Apparently, Senegal is in the forefront of African countries seizing upon an opportunity to rid themselves of their dependence on imported fuel. Expensive fuel is one of many factors that burden countries like Senegal. Biofuels leverage the domestic resources and keep wealth within the country, instead of sending hard-earned money abroad to the already rich oil companies in Europe and the US.

This is a good example of initiatives that will have a much bigger long-term impact on economic and social development in African countries than “big development aid” campaigns. Before we pledge a certain percentage of, say, the US budget to development aid, we should first stop American and European companies and governments from sucking the wealth out of Africa and from fueling conflicts with military aid. We should support Fair Trade and sustainable business practices, like micro-loans.

Secondly, development aid needs to help African entrepreneurs and governments develop economic strategies that focus on value-added, not on exporting raw materials. And development aid needs to use local solutions and know-how to solve problems, instead of parachuting in and imposing “solutions” without regard for the problems.

Finally, the most difficult, and perhaps the most important aspect of development aid ought to be “leadership” development. Identifying and supporting leaders at all levels of society and providing support must be a priority, along with encouraging and supporting access to education and information for everyone. These are the building blocks of a participatory, democratic society, which is, in turn, the foundation of economic opportunity for everyone.

P.W. Botha died Tuesday evening. As the president of South Africa from 1978 - 1989, he was a champion of the system of institutional racism in South Africa known as apartheid. When black South Africans asked for freedom and demanded to be heard, he told the Afrikaners not to listen. He refused to free Nelson Mandela. And P. W. Botha said he had no regrets.

On our trip to South Africa almost three years ago we stayed in Pretoria for a few days and we got a glimpse of Afrikaner culture, especially on our visit to the Voortrekker Monument. Learning about Afrikaner history from their perspective made it much clearer why the Afrikaner people in particular were so vulnerable to the idea of apartheid. Not all Afrikaners, of course, and there were, and are, many other racists.

To be clear: none of what I learned in any way justified or even completely explained apartheid, or any form of institutionalized racism. But I found it worthwhile to learn more about Afrikaner culture.

Beyond the Voortrekkers and the apartheid legacy, I found a resourceful, modern, complex people that’s slowly adapting to a new social and political reality. But I also clearly recognized the shadow of the “old South Africa” in the looks we got when our kids played with a gaggle of black kids on a Pretoria playground, or when we showed up as a mixed-race group on a beach in KZN.

I see Botha’s death as another milestone on the path to the new South Africa, and to a new Afrikaner culture. A culture that contributes its patriotism and resourcefulness to the leadership in South Africa. And a culture that cheerfully shares playgrounds and beaches with all South Africans.

One of Africa’s most successful entrepreneurs, Dr. Mo Ibrahim, has set up a foundation and announced a $5 Million prize for the most effective, least corrupt, and all around best-of-the-best African leader. (HT to BRE)

In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, Mr Ibrahim, 60, said leaders had no life after office.

“Suddenly all the mansions, cars, food, wine is withdrawn. Some find it difficult to rent a house in the capital. That incites corruption; it incites people to cling to power.

“The prize will offer essentially good people, who may be wavering, the chance to opt for the good life after office,” said Mr Ibrahim.

Prize offered to Africa’s leaders, BBC News, 26 October 2006

Pretty clever. Pay them to be good. I think that, in general, politicians are underpaid - and not just in Africa. I am not so naive to think that money is a cure-all for corruption. But if the salaries of public office were halfway competitive with the industry, there’d be fewer nutcases running for office. OK - nevermind that - not fewer nutcases, just more halfway sane, pragmatic technocrats.

In Africa this problem is much worse. Not only is politics extremely dangerous in some parts, but there is also very little in terms of retirement benefits, beyond what you can squirrel away during your time in office. That’s not a situation that provides a lot of incentive to most sane, intelligent people to chose public office as a career.

This initiative deserves the spotlight also because it highlights the key problem Africa faces: leadership, and the lack thereof. Just the other day I asked a Togolese friend “Mon frère, what is Africa’s biggest problem?” I explained that if he could solve one problem on the continent, what would it be? Malaria? AIDS? Hunger? Poverty? Celebrity adoptions?

“Leadership!” He said. Without decent leaders democracy cannot work. Without democracy, there cannot be much progress, social or economic. Without progress we can never solve poverty, hunger and the public health crises. And there will always be another genocide somewhere.

This is why I am skeptical about those “big money” campaigns by Americans and Europeans to raise huge sums for development aid for Africa. It’s like they are refueling and changing the tires on a racecar that’s going the wrong way on the track because the driver is drunk. Dr Ibrahim says: let’s reward the driver who can drive well! Congratulations!

See Jewels in the Jungle for more info.

Here is a recent update about the cleanup from the Probo Koala toxic waste scandal:

‘We do these kinds of operations all around the world, but this is big,’ Alwin Booij, managing director Tredi Internationale, the French firm contracted to handle the cleanup told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Thursday.

So far, Booij said, his teams have removed more than 6,000 tons of contaminated soil and toxic liquids from 18 sites around Abidjan, a city of around five million inhabitants. The 141 tanker and box containers aboard the MN Toucan constitute only the first of an expected four shipments.

[…]
Today, Ivorian authorities are carrying out no fewer than five inquiries into the affair. Two top Trafigura executives are among ten men currently being held in an Abidjan prison pending the results of a criminal inquiry. And police in the Netherlands are looking into an attempt by the Probo Koala to offload its cargo in Amsterdam in July.

The Ivorian government is also concerned with recuperating cleanup costs, which are likely to run well into the millions.

‘We’re talking about six thousand tons of very hazardous waste to repack, transport, and incinerate,’ Tredis Booij said Thursday. ‘There are big bucks involved.’

[…]
The MN Toucan left Abidjan late Friday night with its poisonous cargo bound for Le Havre, France. From there the tankers and containers will be transported to an incinerating facility outside Lyon for disposal. But it leaves behind it unanswered questions.
Ivory Coast toxic cleanup nears end, but questions remain, by Joe Bavier, Oct 28, 2006

Ten innocent people dead, thousands of people sick, and millions of Euros/Dollars wasted in cleanup cost. At least two of the executives of Trafigura are sitting in a prison in Côte D’Ivoire! If they are found to be responsible for this mess they deserve to rot in the deepest, darkest hole in that prison for the rest of their lives.

Can microbrewing save the world? In a recent article on Alternet, Chris O’Brien looks at the global and historical perspective of microbrewing: revolutionary America and the colonies’ dependence on porter from England; the rich variety of local brews of Africa and South America being replaced by imported mass-produced beer, and the rich brewing tradition in Germany due to the Reinheitsgebot (purity law) of 1516.

O’Brien puts forth the popular “buy locally” anti-globalization argument, that equates globalization=big beer=bad beer. I do like his “beerodiversity” point. I am all for supporting local brewing diversity. But I also do appreciate a globalized selection in the local(ly-owned) beer store. Most of the beer I drink is made in North Carolina. This state has some fine brews, like Highland and Foothills, and there are some very good local micro-brews as well.

But I also like having a large selection of imported and US beers available. I like my Weihenstephan weizenbier, or a Celebrator, or even just a Guinness. The latter in particular, is a great example of “big beer” not necessarily being “bad beer.”

To me, beer and life is all about diversity. Diversity grows locally, but it can also spread globally. So yes, microbrewing can safe important aspects of the world, like local tradition and flavor. So let’s save the world - one pint at a time.

Prosit!

The ship that was involved in the deadly toxic waste scandal in Ivory Coast has left the Baltic port of Tallinn, after unloading toxic waste similar to what turned up in sewers and municipal dumps in Abidjan a few months ago. According to the Baltic Times, the Probo Koala pumped 600 cubic meters to another vessel, to have it processed by EcoPro in the port of Sillamae.

In the meantime, two executives of the charter company Trafigura were arrested in Côte D’Ivoire. The company still rejects direct responsibility for the disaster, but has promised full cooperation with the investigations.

Reportedly, the Probo Koala was used (illegally) as a floating refinery, to use chemical processes to extract fuel from low-grade crude oil.

Thanks to intense activism by Greenpeace , the ship involved in the Abidjan toxic waste scandal, the Probo Koala, was impounded by Estonian police and a criminal investigation appears to be under way.

For three days, the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise blocked the Probo Koala in the Estonian harbor of Paldiski. The activists painted the words EU TOXIC CRIME SCENE on the Probo Koala in order to draw attention to the fact that this ship is implicated in a toxic waste scandal that has killed eight people and injured thousands.

The Probo Koala, a Korean-built, Greek-managed, Panamanian-flagged and Dutch-chartered tanker, unloaded several hundred tons of toxic waste which were dumped in the sewers and open dumps of the city of Abidjan in Côte D’Ivoire, West Africa. The charter company, of course, “had no idea” that the waste was going to be illegally disposed of.

Yeah, they dock in Abidjan and in the middle of the night they unload their toxic sludge on trucks that disappear into the African night. No, they suspected nothing. Seemed all perfectly normal. Some fat envelopes change hands. No problemo. Seemed all perfectly legal. Yeah.

Anyway, maybe for once the crooks won’t get away with it. Maybe.

The Probo Koala, infamous now for the deadly toxic waste it unloaded in Côte D’Ivoire, is now in Latvia, en route to Estonia, Deutsche Presse reports. The tanker’s arrival is causing some concern in Estonia:

“The Probo Koala will be under very special treatment when it comes into (the Estonian port of) Paldiski,” Allan Gromov of the Estonian Environment Ministry told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
DPA report via The raw Story, Sept. 8, 2006

This DPA report also talks about a story (ne) in the Dutch daily de Volkskrant, that reports that the Probo Koala tried to unload its toxic waste in Amsterdam in July. When they began pumping the stuff to a facility operated by the Amsterdam Port Services (APS), the resulting smell led to the operation being halted. The ship was allowed to leave, supposedly for Estonia. On August 20, the Probo Koala unloaded several hundred tons of toxic waste in Côte D’Ivoire, where since 3 people died and 1,500 have fallen ill from the illegal and unsafe disposal of the waste in neighborhoods of the city of Abidjan.

Yet again, another genocide is under way. In Darfur, the Sudanese government has begun indiscriminate bombings of civilians and supposed rebels Human Rights Watch reports. The Sudanese government is committing these war crimes in blatant defiance of international law and plain human decency. And it very much looks like they are moving into what Bill at Jewels in the Jungle calls “the end game, the final solution to their problem with the black Africans occupying the valuable land over the oil and gas fields of western Sudan, in Darfur. ”

But what to do?

Jewels in the Jungle has an interesting discussion of the problem. Bill calls for a blogathon to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide.

An op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle by John Morlino (HT iAbolish) calls for the Darfur activists to “Take off the gloves” and demand urgent and decisive action in Darfur.

How about 50,000 blue helmets in Darfur with a clear unequivocal mandate to protect civilians? How about an enforced no-fly zone over Darfur? How about promising the Chinese access to oil in exchange for their cooperation in pressuring Khartoum to back off of Darfur?

The BBC reports that the government of Côte D’Ivoire has resigned over the toxic waste scandal.

The Ivorian Prime Minister, Charles Konan Banny has offered his government’s resignation after a scandal over toxic waste in Abidjan.

Two people have died and several hundred are ill after inhaling fumes from toxic waste apparently dumped at sites in the city two weeks ago.
Ivorian cabinet quits over waste, BBC News, 6 September 2006, 23:00 GMT

The report also states that 2 girls died Monday from the effects of the poisoning. AlJazeera reports that three people died and 1,500 are seriously ill.

Why, on earth, does the government resign at a time when the people need it to coordinate cleanups, and assess the public health impact of this terrible incident?? Le Patriote suspects a purely political maneuver to appease upset citizens and ensure political futures.

During the night of August 20, the Probo Koala, a tanker built in 1989 and owned by the Celtic Legend Shipping Inc., docked at the harbor of Abidjan. Its cargo - a volatile, toxic blend of a petroleum distillate and hydrogen sulphide was unloaded its onto 13 tanker trucks. Under cover of the night, these trucks proceeded to dump the noxious, dangerous cargo at several places around this city of over 3.6 Million. Now hundreds of residents have been poisoned and many are critically ill.

The Abidjan local daily Patriote suggests that local officials may be implicated in this scandal, and that they may have been paid off by whoever is responsible for this horrible crime. Clearly, they had to have had some local help to be able to unload and dump more than 500 cubic meters of this toxic brew.

The thing about this that gets me more than a few local officials taking bribes, is the gall of some chemical industry plant managers or executives somewhere, deciding to dump this stuff into the sewers of a city in Africa!!!
“Yeah buddy, we got a tanker load of this shit, whaddo we do with it?” - “Oh, ya know, let’s just ship it to Africa and dump it into the sewers of some city there … no one will notice … “

And they thought that that is a good idea, and that they would get away with it?

I hope the cops, Interpol, or the WHO …. someone is going to find out who is behind this and make them explain why they did this to the parents of the 10-year-old kid who is now in a coma because of this terrible crime. Right?

(I’ll post more stories to del.icio.us/yovo/toxic_waste)

What a week: Snow and Tornadoes in South Africa and a deadly heatwave in the US. In the US, the Midwest and East Coast were cooking - New York declared a heat emergency with temperatures of up to 38°C/101F and a heat index of up to 110F/43°C. Here in Bahama it was sweltering, too, with a weekly high of 97F/36°C and over 90 percent humidity.

Rough weather conditions also wreaked havoc in South Africa and in the mountains of Lesotho last week. In Lesotho, eight people had to be rescued after their vehicle got stuck in the snow! And while New York was sweating, Johannesburg had snow flurries for the first time in eight years. On Tuesday, a tornado hit a town in Mpumalanga Province, and caused several injuries and some damage and severe flooding killed five people in the Easters Cape province.

And, of course, Typhoon Prapiroon caused death and devastation in Southern China …

According to the Global Crafts website, Volkswagen of America has backed off:

Volkswagen of America have sent a letter of apology and revoked the Cease & Desist notice. Thank you for your support, I know many of you emailed Volkswagen on our behalf.

They have also offered to work with us towards a license which we hope we can get in the name of the name of the artisans so that they can sell to and Fair Trade importer and eliminate the risk of this occurring again.

We would also like to publicly thank Peter Bloch at Lightyearsip.net who has helped and is continuing to help in this matter.
Global Crafts website, Aug. 3, 2006.

I hope they give their attack-dog lawyers a muzzle, too. Incidents like this are really counterproductive and damage VWs image.

Nevertheless: Congratulations, VWoA. Smart, timely decision.

This is a great example of elephants with sledgehammers protecting a china store: VW of America’s lawyers have sent “cease and desist” orders to the Fair-Trade importers of toys made by the Teenage Mothers of Kenya crafts cooperative:

Teenage Mothers and Girls Association of Kenya is an organization working for the rescue, rehabilitation and economic empowerment of girls and young women. Our programmes focus on helping solve the problems of HIV/AIDS infected children, their parents (often teenage girls who are single), orphans, the poor and the destitute of the community.
TEMAK website

Yeah, this sounds exactly like the type of organization on which VW wants to sick their lawyers. Make an example of these trademark-infringing teenage moms! Can you see the headlines on CNN and NPR: “Volkswagen sues Teen Moms of Kenya”

And over what? Toy cars made from wire!

These young women in Kenya thought it was a cute idea to make little VW Beetle® model cars to sell, so they could make a little bit of money support themselves and their kids. All over East Africa wire toys of this kind are popular and inexpensive fun for kids. And our own, gameboyed, interactivated, hypertained kids love the wire model cars and galimotos we buy at the local Fair Trade store.

VW should be proud that these folks chose the iconic Beetle® for their modest enterprise, and not the far more ubiquitous Toyotas. They should make an advertisement that highlights that when these women think “car” they picture a VW Beetle®!

Get a grip, VW of America. Embrace these women and give them a hand, instead of threatening their fair trade partners.