While we were in Togo two weeks ago, apparently Kpatcha Gnassingbé, a half brother of the president tried to overthrow the current regime and was arrested a few days after the attempted coup. Today, the official Togolese government news website announced more arrests in relation to this attempted coup.

On Easter Sunday, April 12, troops loyal to President Faure Gnassingbé tried to arrest his brother Kpatcha and a 3-hour gun battle erupted at Kpatcha’s Lomé residence. Kpatcha managed to flee and showed up on Wednesday at the US embassy in Lomé, seeking refuge. Of course the US embassy, after “checking the validity of the arrest warrant,” told Kpatcha to get lost. Kpatcha was detained by Togo security forces shortly thereafter. The reason the state prosecutor Robert Bakai gave for wanting to arrest Kpatcha was evidence that he was ready to stage a coup while the president was out of the country on a trip to China.

At least that’s the official story. Personally, I don’t think that’s all there is to it. The problems between Kpatcha and Faure have been brewing for some time. From what I have heard, Kpatcha believes he was cheated out of the succession to his and Faure’s dad, Gnassingbe Eyadema. Faure, on the other hand, has managed to take control of most profitable industries in Togo, except for the port and the free trade zone, which are controlled by Kpatcha.

Rumor has it that the port also plays a major role in the trafficking of drugs, gold and diamonds, and maybe even weapons into and out of West Africa, and that whoever controls the port and the “free trade zone” also controls that trade. I find that plausible, considering the rather conspicuous wealth Kpatcha has been known to display – like the three (not one or two. Three.) Rolls Royce Phantoms he bought a couple of years ago. I find it hard to believe that managing the legal business of a port would yield such a disposable income.

Be that as it may – the key question is whether Kpatcha was really plotting against Faure, or whether this was a setup, so that Faure could gain control of the port. Considering Kpatcha’s strong ties to the military it’s quite plausible that he was plotting something. But was he really stupid enough to think he could get away with that? From what I know about him – probably yes. Yet, the foiled plot gives Faure now a great excuse to put away his troublesome rival and to consolidate his power in the military

Few people will shed a tear for Kpatcha. It’s certainly good that whatever he planned, it did not succeed. For the average Togolese, the Gnassingbé family’s infighting is not all that interesting. It won’t solve any of their problems, like the problem of the comatose economy in Togo, or the atrocious state of some of the major highways. It just has the potential to make their problems even worse.

Coming back from West Africa, I found some excellent truck crash footage, which I proceeded to post to my YouTube channel. Turns out that one of the trucks had some furniture on it that belongs to a guy who writes for Gizmodo and he posted the crash video on said website. Since the post appeared, the number of subscribers to my YT channel has already doubled!

Here is the latest crash:

BTW – I found out we’re also on Failblog. FWIW

Today Togo celebrated 49 years of independence from its former colonial power France. According to the government news site RepublicofTogo.com, this was the first time there was a substantial celebratory event at the national government level. For many years under Gnassingbe Eyadema’s rule it was forbidden to celebrate this day. Only the 13 January was celebrated – the day Eyadema shot Togo’s only ever properly elected president Sylvanus Olympio in 1963. I remember when in 1991 for the first time the Togolese people were allowed again to mark this important date in their country’s history.

So Vive le Togo et vive la democracie!

We’re back at home. After 3 weeks in Ghana and Togo, we undertook the last leg of our trip on Friday – from Accra via New York back home to Durham. The guy who’d rented us his Bimmer came to pick us up at 6 AM and took us to Kotoka Int’l Airport. Like so many official procedures in West Africa, the check-in process is an elaborate, confusing dance whereby one moves to and fro, hither and yond, from one official to another, until all baggage has been searched sufficiently and chalked with mysterious hieroglyphs, all passports have been marked adequately, and double-checked, and the traveler is properly weary and a bit dizzy. On to Ghana Immigration.

Oh – and did I mention we were also going to bring the five-year-old son of a friend along? The boy was born in the US to Ghanaian parents and had been living with his Grandparents in Ghana since he was 9 months old. His parents are good friends of ours and so we agreed to do this (on fairly short notice). Thursday Laura discussed this with the airline and with the US Embassy in Accra, and we were really concerned about how we were going to be able to get the kid through Ghana Immigration (although he has a US passport). Very rightfully, Ghana Immigration is very strict when it comes to children leaving the country, because child trafficking is a huge problem in West Africa. Thank god, the kid’s family took care of this process and a relative escorted the child through immigration and handed us all the required letters and affidavits.

As much of a drag this entire procedure is, I must say that the folks at the airport were all quite nice and helpful. In fact, when they discovered that I had forgotten to remove Laura’s Leatherman tool from the bag I was using as a carry-on, they pulled one of our checked bags back out, and allowed me to put it into the checked bag. That was actually really good customer service!

The flight was – well – long. Eleven hours on a plane with a squirmy, excited energy bundle of a 5-year-old who has to pee every 30 Minutes and doesn’t quite know how to use the toilet. That’s a long time. However, he was also very cute, and his excitement was certainly understandable. The funniest thing was when in the beginning he kept trying to throw trash out the window :)

The connecting flight from JFK to RDU was late, and so we did not get to Durham until almost midnight, where the boy was greeted by his very happy parents. A friend picked us up and drove us home, which was great! Saturday we upacked, did laundry and sorted our souvenirs. And napped. Tomorrow it’s back to school and work. Akwaaba back home.

For almost two weeks Laura and I and the kids have been back to Yikpa – the village in Togo where Laura and I met all these years ago. Our visit is going very well. Our reception was just amazing! We had almost two days of celebration, including a formal welcome with a sacrifice of flour water, liquor and a ram. Folks are really happy to see us and we’re thrilled to be back in the village.

In Accra we borrowed a friend’s car – an old BMW (or “bimmer”) – and we have been cruising through southern Ghana and South Western Togo with that poor car. It has suffered some abuse, but it is hanging in there!

Tomorrow will be our big goodbye party in the village and I am in Hohoe right now to buy a few last things for that. Sunday morning we’ll drive to Lome. After that, we’ll go back to Accra, and then next week we’re returning home to the US. I’ll post lots of pictures and videos once I am back.

[UPDATE 4/27 – added photo]

We made it! We arrived in Accra, Ghana, yesterday at 8AM. Uncle E.K. picked us up and drove us to the house we’re staying in while we’re in Accra. It’s HOT – no rains yet (that’s a problem for the farmers!) but the house does have A/C. We use the cooling sparingly because we need to get used to the heat. No A/C in the lodge in Wli …

Yesterday afternoon we explored Kaneshi a bit. The kids got a bit of attention, some of it was a bit much, but overall folks a pretty laid back in the city. Kaneshi Market is very interesting – a throbbing, hive of local commerce where vendors offer everything from small appliances and reading glasses to live crabs and snails. In the evening we had our first bowl of fufu … and I had mine with grasscutter – delicious!

And … The TAR HEELS ROCK!!!! GO HEELS!!!

Yovo is going back to the village! In a week from now, we will be on our most exciting, most anticipated family trip yet, back to Yikpa – the village where Laura and I met all these years ago.

Next weekend, we’ll fly directly from New York to Accra. In Accra we’ll be staying at a very nice rental place, which we share with a friend. Accra is a pretty cool city of 1.6 Million, and I never spent a lot of time there. So this time we’ll check it out more thoroughly. After a few days in Accra, we plan to head North to the small village of Wli in the Volta Region, where we’ll be staying at a little place called the Waterfall Lodge. Wli is right on the border with Togo, and in walking distance  right across the border is Yikpa.

In Yikpa we also expect to meet up with our friend Agbessi, who just headed back home a few days ago. We plan to spend the Easter holiday in the village, catching up with our friends and family over some palmwine and fufu. We also plan to go hiking in the mountains a bit to visit the various waterfalls in the area.

After easter, we’ll travel a bit in Togo, to Kpalimé for some more fufu at the taxigare and  to Atakpamé to visit a family there. Finally we’ll head back to Ghana, for some more sightseeing. I really would like to visit Ghana’s National Park.

That’s it – the plan is simple enough. But it’s been in making for years, and the implementation began in December. We bought plane tickets, got our passports renewed, got Yellowfever shots, Malaria meds, visa for Ghana and Togo, reservations for the places where we’re staying, transportation (that’s still not settled) … and of course lots of presents for our firends and family!

We’re excited, and the kids are psyched! They had to get time off from school, but the teachers are fine with it – in fact the teachers understand what a great experience this will be for Jacob and Julia.

Jacob and I have been working hard on our karate training, and today we passed the test for the orange belt, the 9th Kyu,  in Shito-ryu Karate-do at the Carolina Martial Arts Center under Sensei Kevin Gurganus.

Laura came along a shot some video and photos of the test with my new Canon video camera. I’ll post some on the dojo’s website later this weekend.

“Oh boy!” – I thought when around luchtime today a reporter and cameraman from a local TV news station knocked at my office and asked me if they could do an interview about the truck crashes I had captured on video. But they asked nicely, and so I agreed to do it. I sent Jacob (who was hanging out with me today at work) over to the deli to fetch us a couple of sandwiches, since I was hungry. The reporter and I had a nice chat, and I told them all about the truck crashes and the traffic issues along this stretch of Greson Street. They ran the story on the 5PM news tonight and you can see it on the WRAL website (not sure how long they keep it there).

UPDATE: the truck crash videos were also featured on tonights new episode of “Most Daring” on TruTV.

Another UPDATE: German news site Der Spiegel also recently featured my truck crash videos.

Tying my shoes is one of those things I don’t remember learning. I did it all my life without really ever worrying about it. However, there is this pair of shoes I really like, but the ties of these stupid shoes keep coming untied. Several times a day I have to stop to re-tie those shoes.

The other shoe-tying trouble i am confronted with is having to explain to my son how to tie his shoes. He’s 8, and it’s really time he figured out how to tie his shoes. I tried to explain it … you make a simple knot, you make a loop with your right hand, hold it with your left hand etcetera … Well – he doesn’t get it.

So I thought some illustrations might help and I Google “Tie shoelaces” and find Ian’s Shoelace site. This was one of those “gotta-love-the-Interwebs” moment. Years of research on the best way to tie shoelaces distilled into a website that meticulously documents not just one or two ways to tie shoelaces, but seventeen (17)! Including Ian’s new, super-efficient knot.

So now I am not only teaching my son how to tie his shoes properly (with helpfull visual aids), but I am also re-learning how to tie my shoes myself, using the handy, efficient “Ian’s knot.” Why knot?

Not to dwell on the weather, but this is pretty intense, even for North Carolina. Last week, the official low temp. was 18 Deg. F (-7 ° C) and today the high was 81 F (27 °C). In the 50 hours from Wed AM to Friday PM temperatures went up by 50 Deg. F.

Right now I am sitting on the deck in shorts and t-shirt with a nice, cold beer, enjoying the first spring weekend of the year.

The daffodils survived the snow just fine … Julia’s snow witch hung in there for a couple of days (see below the fold)

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Sunday night central North Carolina was blanketed in 2-4 inches (5-10 cm) of snow. This is our third snowfall this winter, which makes this a pretty “wintry” winter for NC. Last year the temperatures hardly dipped below freezing. Last night it was 14 Deg. F (minus 11 Celsius). The kids enjoyed building their first snow-person. And of course they enjoyed the obligatory snow-day.

We had a few nice days before the snow and so the daffodils had already started to bloom.

Julia is very pleased with her snow-person!

[UPDATE 3/7:  cool satellite picture of the snow on 3/3 on the NASA website]

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So, as I said earlier, the camera I set up at Brightleaf caught several trucks crashing into the railroad trestle across the street. A couple of weeks ago I got an email from TV producer who was interested in my videos. First I was suspicious – but after a few Google searches he looked legit. Also, Laura figured out that she knows a guy at that production company and she emailed him to verify that this is for real. Shortly thereafter, another TV producer contacted me, also  about licensing my videos for another show. I could hardly believe it!

But it got even better. I started looking around on various video sites to see if I coould find anything like the footage I had and I found my videos on several sites other than YouTube. A compilation of my videos was on MSN Video, and it had gotten over 1Million hits at that point!! After consulting with my “Samoan attorney,” I wrote a “nice” email to Microsoft’s licensing guy requesting a licensing payment. The next day I got a terse reply saying that they licensed it from stupidvideos.com. Well – I thought that that’s a bit like me saying that I licensed my copy of Windows from stupidsoftware.ru … Eventually, though, the CEO of stupidvideos.com called me. We had a nice chat and resolved this matter in a reasonable way. He even said he’d be interested in licensing videos of future truck crashes.

In the meantime, I had hammered out a deal with the second producer, for the show “Most Daring” on truTV. I even got them an interview with the guy who owns “John’s towing” who does a lot of the recovery work after the crashes. Last Thursday I ran into the field producer who did the interview. He was poking around Brightleaf and the RR trestle, shooting B-roll (supporting material). We had a nice chat, and I took some notes on shooting B-roll …

So, the folks at Nash Entertainment told me that the segment with the trucks will be on truTV on Wednesday. I guess, I’ll be hanging out at Dain’s Place watching truTV that evening.

At Dain’s place, one of the most popular items can only be ordered if you know the secret password: the chilly-cheese-burger-dog. It’s a hamburger with your choice of cheese (or cheese-whizz) topped by a beef hot dog that’s smothered in chilly.  And if you slip Gloria an extra tip, she’ll even top this off with a fried egg. Naturally, Dain makes you sign a disclaimer when you order it. This is a true masterpiece of bar food, and it’ll shave those unnecessary years off of your life expectancy.

Well, apparently researchers at the Domino’s Pizza Institute (of all places) recently published findings that completely validate this type of “unhealthy food made from other unhealthy food” – folks just cannot help it:

Domino’s Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat

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About a year ago I installed a camera to record the traffic outside my office in dwntown Durham. Over the course of that year, that camera recorded several boxtrucks crashing into the railroad trestle crossing Gregson St. Here is the newest one:

There’s more on my YouTube Channel.

The fundamental problem here is not so much that the bridge is too low (or the truck too tall) – it’s that everyone is speeding on this busy stretch of Gregson. The speed limit is 25 MPH. There is a school two blocks before the train trestle. There are five pedestrian crosswalks on the two preceding blocks. There are ample warning signs, flashing lights, but none of this appears to matter to most drivers. Frequently, vehicles come flying down Gregson easily twice the allowed speed. And when you’re barelling down Gregson in a rental truck … WHAM.

We (who have to cross Gregson) have had many, exhaustive debates as to what could be done. I think the only real remedy is to slow traffic down. And that can only be accomplished by vigorosly enforcing the speed limit. And of course the Durham cops have nothing else to do than to chase speeders on Gregson St.

So in the meantime all that’s left to do is to document what happens when you go too fast on Gregson in a truck that’s over 11 feet 8 inches.

See some photos below the fold …

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Once a year, the good people at Foothills Brewery brew their Sexual Chocolate Stout, and this weekend they began making the ’09 edition available at the brew pub in Winston Salem. To their loyal customers, known as “Footheads”, this is special day, indeed. Foothills brewery does not usually bottle any beer – so its beers are only available on drought at fine beer-appreciation facilities. But once a year they hand-bottle 600 22-ounce bottles of Sexual Chocolate stout and make them available for procurement by the Footheads. Yesterday was that day.

So the Durham Footheads decided to rent the BioBus and make the pilgrimage to this cultural highlight in the Camel City. When we got to the brewery almost two hours before they were to open, we were shocked (and very impressed) to see that we had arrived way too late to stand any chance of procuring any bottles. There was already a line of about 200 footheads snaked around the brewery, humming in giddy anticipation at the front, noticably more muted toward the back of the line. When the big moment arrived, at 11:00 AM, it took us about 45 Minutes to get into the brew pub, only to find ourselves empty handed.

But never fear – at least we had a table reserved, and were swiftly seated and served. And as we enjoyed the newest incarnation of Jamie’s masterpiece of an Imperial stout, there was no room at the table for regrets or gloom at our late arrival. We got to enjoy the new Sexual Chocolate next to the year-old, and we had some blended with the Seeing Double IPA (AKA Sex on the Shortbus) to round off this beer-ravaganza. Of course a hearty meal was in order to complement all this liquid nutrition, and I opted for their excellent ostrich burger.

The trip home was cheerful – my memory gets a bit blurry, but we made it home safely on the BioBus thanks to Frank’s remarkable will power and restraint at the brewery. The BioBus (a 1971 Mercedes Bus that runs on biodiesel) is a truly remarkable mode of tranportation, and I can highly recommend it to anyone seeking to ferry a group of up to 18 around Central NC, whilst minimizing their carbon footprint and use of fossil fuels.

Corn-based ethanol fuel may not be a “crime against humanity” after all. New research (pdf) shows that newer plants can produce a fuel that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent and replaces a lot of fossil fuel:

The ethanol industry currently is producing a fuel that is 48 to 59 percent lower in direct-effect lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline. That’s two to three times the reduction reported in earlier studies that did not take into account recent advances in corn-ethanol production.
The net energy ratio, which averaged 1.2 to 1 in earlier studies, is 1.5-1.8 to 1 in the recent research, Cassman said. That means that for every unit of energy it takes to make ethanol, 1.5 to 1.8 units of energy are produced as ethanol.
Even more striking is the corn ethanol’s potential to replace oil. This new study estimates that 10-19 gallons of ethanol are produced for every gallon of petroleum used in the entire corn-ethanol production life cycle. The range in the ethanol-oil replacement value, as well as the ranges measured for net energy efficiency and GHG emissions reduction, are due to differences in crop management practices and ethanol plant performance.

That’s a lot better than previous studies, but the net energy ratio of less than 2 to 1 still sucks (biodiesel from virgin soy oil has a 3.5 to 1 ratio). Maybe if everyone in the US could travel 200 miles on a gallon of fuel this could work. We’d only have to produce 15 Billion gallons a year …

The German start-up car maker Loremo says it is still on track with production in 2010 and they announced a couple of weeks ago that they will offer the Loremo in three flavors: Electric (EV), Gasoline (GT) and Diesel (LS).

While I understand the idea of adding diversity to their product lineup, I hope they won’t dilute their original principles of simplicity and economy. They have already beefed up the power of the Diesel engine, and turned the 140 mpg car into a 120 mpg car. What next? Add Bluetooth and double the price tag? Please keep  it simple and inexpensive!

Check out the Loremo YouTube Channel!

More details below the fold …

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After five years of civil war (2002 – 07) and a year of relative peace, it appears that Côte d’Ivoire is getting back on track to stability, democracy and eventually, relative prosperity. In the 80’s, the West African nation was still one of the continent’s successes. In those days, many of my Togolese friends dreamed of going to Abidjan to find work. The country’s economic success was attributed to the stability and relative freedom under the rule of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. He had run the country since independence from France, for 33 years, and maintained strong ties with France.

When Houphouët-Boigny died in 1993, he left a huge power vacuum in the country. Ivorians had to come to grips with a sudden transition to democracy. Also the new leadership began to politicize ethnicity, a trap Houphouët-Boigny had always managed to avoid. Ethnic tensions boiled over in a military rebellion in the North of the country, which split the country in two for five years.

Now the country appears to be emerging from this mess. The rebels have begun to disarm and the UN has programs to help re-integrate the decommissioned rebels into civilian life. The Ivorian blogger Yoro (FR, pop-ups) wrote a very interesting story in Afrique in Visu about two groups of decommissioned rebel soldiers (FR) grappling with civilian life.

In Dec. ’08 the Ivorian political parties agreed to hold elections in 2009.  There are efforts under way to resolve the citizenship issues and distribute ID cards. The international community has to help with these efforts, and the Ivorian leadership has to be disciplined and committed to the process. If the elections are fair and peaceful, I think Côte d’Ivoire will be well on its way to peace and prosperity.

SOTRA buses in Abidjan

Economically, things seem to be getting better. Despite the problems of the last years, the national transport company, SOTRA, has created an engineering arm, and begun building buses in Abidjan. The Ivoirian buses are built with parts from European supplier IVECO, and designd specifically to the requirements of being operated in an African city like Abidjan. According to SOTRA’s Mamadou Coulibali the buses are more rugged and have fewer electronic gadgets and fewer seats: “We just need robust buses because our roads are not very well done like in Europe. This is an African design for Africa.”

Obama Inauguration viewed from space

Geoeye published a great satelite photo (half-meter resolution) of the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama. The image above links to a high resolution version. Geoeye provides the original high resolution image (3.5MB) that shows the entire National Mall.