Whoopee – isn’t it amazing when stuff just works??!! Upgraded to the latest version of WordPress in a few Minutes. I also added the calendar plugin (see on the sidebar at the top). maybe that’ll be useful.

Since I received my greencard ten years ago, I had very little interaction with the US immigration services – basically I showed my greencard to the friendly officers at the airport once in a while. So when my greencard was about to expire, I requested a new one. I payed the $270 (!) fee and got a date to go to Charlotte for a “biometrics” appointment. That date was last Thursday, but due to the winter weather we had, I missed the appointment. So I called the toll free number on the form to find out how to reschedule the appointment. Thus began my little CIS odyssey.

For work I do call customer support phone lines quite frequently, and so I think I’ve see the Good, the Bad and the Ugly when it comes to automated phone systems. So I thought. The US CIS automated phone system is in an wholly separate category. It has layers upon layers upon layers of “options”

if we approved your I-129 petition and you need us to notify a different POE, please press 6

It took me 20 Minutes to “find” a live person in that maze of Orwellian bureaucrat-speak. I explained my situation and she said that that’s no problem – I should just go to Charlotte on a Wednesday, when they take walk-ins for greencard renewals. Oki-doki.

So today I drove to Charlotte, which is about a 2.5-hour drive. I got there at 11:00 AM – the place was really busy. I explained my situation to the security person at the front desk, and she looked at me and said “You called the 800-number, eh? They don’t know what they are talking about. We have not done walk-ins here in years.” Say what??!!

She explained that after 9/11 they began doing full background checks during the biometrics appointment. That takes 2 hours, or more, so they can’t do more than a few applications a day, let alone walk-ins. Oh great! She said I could wait until 2:00 and see if they have time today. Or I could come back Saturday, and try it again – Saturdays are sometimes less busy.

So why do the people at the call center tell us bogus information? I wondered … The CIS security person said that “they ” tried to get the call center people to stop telling people about walk-ins – to no avail. Uh-huh … So what is the real secret for getting a new appointment? Could you give me a phone number for someone who can reschedule my appointment? Sorry … she said, we’re not permitted to give out phone numbers. The proper way to reschedule is to check a box on the form that says “check here to reschedule the appointment” and mail a copy of the form to CIS.

That’s right – even though I was at the office, my only reasonable option was to mail in the form. That is the type of service the US government provides for a $270 fee, at the beginning of the 21st century!! But we are just damn foreigners – so who cares. Since we don’t get to vote, no one cares. I have no congressman to call about nonsense like that. Yet, we do have the privilege to pay taxes.

Taxation without representation is tyranny
James Otis, American Patriot.

Of course, in comparison to what some people have to go through dealing with CIS, my problems are really pretty minor. So minor, I can actually laugh it off and shake my head at the absurdity of this experience. But this experience also reminds me of the abyss of how such gross inefficiencies of an uncaring bureaucracy can completely ruin lives. And they do. Every day.

Last night it was freeeezing – the low was 10.9 °F / -11.7 °C. Big OOOPS! I did not add more petro diesel to the blend in the fuel tank in my car and the dam juice gelled up. I was worried about it, but when the car started I thought I was good … well, a couple of miles down the road the engine stalled and died.

So I had to call AAA and they sent a tow truck. I had it towed to my trusted mechanic in town, where they parked the car in the heated garage. Then I walked to work from there. Later, they bled the fuel lines and got the air out, and it cranked up just fine. I also added some petro, but tonight it’s not going to be as cold as last night. Just below freezing. The mechanic actually had two other stranded biodieselers in the shop today … oh boy.

On Feb. 5, 2005, the Republic of Togo was thrown into turmoil when its ruler of 38 years, Gnassingbé Eyadema, unexpectedly died from a heart attack at age 68. His military quickly installed Eyadema’s son, Faure Gnassingbé as the successor of the “old man” – a move quickly denounced by most of the international community. After internal and external pressure, elections were held in April of 2005. Due to substantial intimidation and outright violence and fraud, the ruling RPT claimed victory for its “candidate” Faure. Thus it came to pass that Faure inherited the “family business” from his dad.

Now, two years after these dramatic and rather violent events, Togo appears to have changed quite a bit. Under Eyadema’s régime, fear and intimidation were the modus operandus of the public discourse. People who dared to speak out were harassed and often disappeared. Togolese commenting on the situation two years ago in blogs and forums often used pseudonyms and stayed anonymous, for fear of reprisals against their friends and family back home. In Togo, when discussing politics, great care was taken to avoid being overheard easily.

Today, that chill appears to have lifted somewhat. More people are willing to speak out and speak their mind in public. Yet, critics point out(fr) that many of the old power dynamics are still in place, and that much of the perceived liberalization is just window dressing. Interestingly, the official RPT-run government news website touts quite prominently the changes over the last two years, like the de-throning of Rock Gnassinbé from his cushy post as head of the Togolese Football Federation and the installation of prominent opposition figure Yawovi Agboyibo as Prime Minister. Agboybo ran for president twice, and he spent eight months in jail for defaming a former prime minister.

Despite the reformist rhetoric and the new website design, the republicoftogo.com website has hardly become a beacon of free speech and independent political analysis. Rather it is the same RPT rag, just under new management. The mouthpiece of a “kinder, gentler” RPT? Or maybe the RPT just abandoned its hard line approach to further the same basic end: power.

Presenting Faure as a new, pragmatic leader who promises both continuity and a more inclusive leadership is very much in the interest of all the real power brokers in Togo. Clearly, one of the key goals of this maneuvering is to restore economic aid from the European Union. This can only be accomplished with some reforms and acceptable elections. Another key goal for the RPT is to guarantee continuity to the foreign economic interests in Togo (China, France) and to reassure them that their investments are safest with Faure. Finally, France has a vital interest in re-establishing Togo as a pillar of its hegemony in West Africa. That can only be accomplished by maneuvering Togo back into the mainstream of West African politics. France has no interest in Togo as an isolated pariah in West Africa. And the Togolese military has no interest in France loosing interest in buying them new guns.

So is Togo truly changing? Is the RPT turning into a kinder, gentler dictatorship? In some ways it is – and therein does lie a chance for democratization in Togo. Faure is not the old man, he does not command the fear and authority Eyadema did. The RPT is loosening its grip on Togo. Probably for strategic reasons, to present Togo as a new, more enlightened country, in order to get economic aid restored. And finally, Chirac is a lame duck and until a new administration settles in in Paris, the influence of France on West Africa may also be somewhat diminished.

So the election this summer might just represent an opportunity to wrest power from the RPT. That is not a prediction – to be clear – I am not at all sure that the fractured, self-absorbed opposition in Togo has the wherewithall to pull that off. But I do think there may be an opportunity. Theat opportunity is not to legitimize the RPT and the Eyadema clan’s grip on power. It is the opportunity to wrest power from them and to give the Togolese people control over their destiny.

Congratulations to the German Team Handball Men’s Team! Today they defeated Poland in the final 29:24 (17:13) and won the Worldcup for Germany in Germany!

This is rather amazing – expectations were not very high before the tournament, but the German team really came together and played some amazing handball. And after the football Worldcup last year, the whole country appears to have been swept up by another wave of enthusiasm and cheerful patriotism.
Photo: DPA

This triumph is especially nice, as it brings handball out of the shadow of football, which is the dominant team sport in Germany. Yet handball has deep roots in Germany and it is less corrupted by money and egos that football. It is a great sport and the German players won many more fans for their sport this weekend.

FYI: Team handball, AKA field handball, or European handball is not to be confused with American handball.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest report yesterday:

“Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis”, assesses the current scientific knowledge of the natural and human drivers of climate change, observed changes in climate, the ability of science to attribute changes to different causes, and projections for future climate change.

The report was produced by some 600 authors from 40 countries. Over 620 expert reviewers and a large number of government reviewers also participated. Representatives from 113 governments reviewed and revised the Summary line-by-line during the course of this week before adopting it and accepting the underlying report.

IPCC Press Release, Feb. 2, 2007

Bottom line: The Earth is still round, and it’s cooking! Temperatures are rising:

The understanding of anthropogenic warming and cooling influences on climate has improved since the Third Assessment Report (TAR), leading to very high confidence7 that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming, with a radiative forcing of +1.6 [+0.6 to +2.4] W m-2.

Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policymakers, page 3.

The Earth is getting warmer and warmer and the thermal expansion of the water and the melting ice are causing the ocean water levels to rise. Most scientists agree that this is real, and really bad news.

Of course the “flat-earth coalition” disagrees. To them, this is all “propaganda” by “… those who want to break the back of the world’s energy system.” Uh-huh … Al Gore would love to see us all in the dark, eating sushi by candle-light and huddling around a fireplace. And of course the fact that Big Oil gave the CEI tons of money has nothing to do with their concern about the threat Al Gore poses to the world’s energy system.

The official Togolese government news website reports that Stephen Keshi is currently in Lom̩. Presumably the ex-coach of the Togolese national football team is talking with the Togolese Football Federation (FTF) about a job. The FTF is now under new management Рits new president Tata was formally installed on Tuesday. A connection between the two events is quite probable.

Keshi, who celebrated his 46th birthday yesterday, coached the Eperviers when they qualified for the Worldcup in Germany last year, but then the team tanked during the African Cup and he was sacked right before the Togo’s first-ever Worldcup appearance. This sparked total chaos for the team and the management during the event and caused an embarrassing performance of the team in Germany – well below its potential. However, much more embarrassing was the inability of the FTF management to deal with the situation constructively.

Boy – Bill Gates is so not funny! Even Jon Stewart has a hard time being funny with the Ãœber-geek in the studio. “What does the F12 button do?” ??? This is a bit of an awkward interview, especially for Stewart, who is usually pretty good at it.

Last night we watched the DVD of Andy Kaufman doing the Midnight Special in 1981. I would give a lot to see Andy Kaufman have Gates on his show. Wow – that would have been just out of this world! Of course Kaufman died in 1984 – way too young – before the age of the geek.

The funniest moment with Gates was when he left without waiting for Stewarts queue …

According to the Togolese government news website, EU officials informed the Togolese ambassador to Belgium this weekend of the lifting of the 14-year-old aid embargo against Togo. The EU decision apparently also prompted the IMF to re-establish relations with the Togolese government – for what that’s worth.

The EU suspended all development aid to Togo in 1993, after President Eyadema’s troops brutally crushed the nascent political opposition to his oppressive military rule. Several thousand Togolese were killed by the military and by RPT death squads during the riots of 1992/93. But all the EU sanctions did was punish a suffering people by undermining Togo’s economy. The deteriorating economy created a massive brain-drain, as many Togolese left for what seemed like greener pastures abroad. That meant that young people with university education left the country, instead of organizing an effective opposition. So suspending aid most likely helped Eyadema, rather than hurt him. If the Europeans really wanted to put pressure on Eyadema, the French should have stopped their military support for the Eyadema regime.

The decision to resume aid to Togo comes after the current “national unity government” was formed last year, based on negotiations facilitated by the government of Burkina Faso. The talks in Ouagadougu resulted in a commitment to hold elections this year, several compromises re the eligibility requirements for presidential candidates, and a coalition government of the ruling RPT and the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC).

With Eyadema gone, and the French president Chiraq a “lame duckq,” maybe there is a chance for a democratic election in Togo, after all. If the French keep their sticky fingers OUT of Togo, and the EU and the AU send lots of observers to the polling stations, maybe the seed of democracy can finally sprout in Togo, this year. Still, we’re only talking about legislative elections this year. Extracting the Gnassinbé clan from the presidency and from its stranglehold on Togo will not happen overnight. But if the EU and the AU help the Togolese hold the ruling RPT and the military accountable, maybe there is hope. And a new French president might also help.

… but doesn’t want to. A tale from the Black Forest in Germany.

Once upon a time, in 1791, to be exact, some Benedictine monks in the Black Forest decided to wean the folks in the nearby village off their beloved Schnapps (brandy). Folks were just drinking too much, and often things got out of hand. They were good people, hardworking mountain folk, who lived a short, harsh life logging, farming and making charcoal, deep in the Black Forest. So the Schnapps they made, their moonshine, was the only distraction, the one thing that made life seem a little less harsh. Yet, they drank too much, and the Schnapps also contributed to the shortness of many a man’s life.

So the monks decided that their best chance of cutting down the consuption of Schnapps, was to offer a more nutritious beverage: beer. Monks had been brewing in Germany for as long as any one remembered, and it was a natural thing to suggest for these Benidictine brothers. And so they started the brewery “Am Roten Haus” (The Red House) in Grafenhausen. At roughly 1000 Meters (3000 feet) altitude, it is today the highest brewery in Germany. In 1806 , the brewery became the property of the Grand-Dukes of Baden, and after WWI, the brewery was state-owned.

When I started drinking beer, the Rothaus brews were always a taste of country, and they reminded me of visiting my grandparents. We lived in Stuttgart, and you could not get any Rothaus there (a couple hours’ drive from the Black Forest). Especially in the South, beer is a very regional thing. Every area has its brew. If you’re lost, and you see a Bar, or a Gasthaus, and you see which beer they sell, you can figure out where you are, down to the ZIP code, in some areas.

So Rothaus was the mountain beer, and it had (and has) a very provincial image. They have not changed the label design in 30 years! So when I read in the Spiegel Online that Rothaus has become somewhat of a “cult beer,” I almost dropped my laptop. Apparently, about 100 bars in Berlin sell Rothaus beers and it’s the second most popular beer in Cologne. They just cannot brew enough to satisfy demand. And yet, they don’t even advertise aggressively. I mean it’s great beer. The Tannezäpfle is one of the best Pilsener beers in Germany. But it’s not a hip, sexy beer. Its image is downright boring and provincial.

So are the folks at the brewery excited about all this attention? Do they have plans to expand to fill the demand? Come up with a clever marketing strategy? No. They are quite dubious about this. Their little brewery is just fine the way it is – thank you very much.

Actually, the reasoning is more like this: if they expanded they’d have to buld a new brewery in the valley and they would loose the connection with the community of Grafenhausen. They also might loose the image of the little country brewery, which is a big part of the brand appeal to city folk. And the seven springs where they draw the water can only produce so much water – yet the quality of the water is a huge aspect of quality of the final product.

So what to do? Well, it’s really not that big a deal: brew a decent beer, take care of the local market (90 percent of the beer is still consumed within the state of Baden Württemberg), and see if there is some left over for the city slickers up north.

Nome net huodla, gell! Gsundheit!

After a few chilly days, temperatures were back to the 60s F (almost 20 °C) today, and so we went out to the Little River Park. Laura went for a run and when she got back I rode the bike trail. Jacob and Julia rode their bikes and played in the playground.

I helped Jacob ride his Thunderbike (as he calls it) and he did great. Finally, I don’t have to hold his bike and run with him! Running along with Jacob on his bike used to be half my exercise regimen at the park. Round and round and round …

Today, he got on his bike, I gave him a push, and he rode off … left … right … straight into a tree! He picked his bike back up and got back on – another push … and he was off again – straight into another tree. Soon, thought, he got the hang of it and was cruising around more and more confidently. His main problem was that when he gets distracted by something, like another child, or a dog, he looks at it and rides straight for it on collision course. So I rode in front of him on my bike, yelling at him “look at me! – look at me!” When I got him to focus on me riding in front of him, he stayed on the path and did really well on his Thunderbike.

I had a great ride through the woods on the single-track for almost an hour, scared up some deer, and got a great workout. When I came back, Jacob was cruising around the parking lot “wuuheee!! Look at me!” Good thing there were very few cars left in the parking lot.

[update 2/28: added the picture]

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Heat mining apparently has much greater potential in the US as previously thought. The idea of exploiting geothermal energy by drilling deep holes into hot rocks deep underground is not confined to Iceland and Yellowstone. According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this awesome, abundant source of energy (the hot core of the Earth) is accessible even is much less geologically active areas, like the East Coast. You just have to drill a bit deeper. A lot deeper. But it can be done.

According to panel member M. Nafi Toksöz, professor of geophysics at MIT, “geothermal energy could play an important role in our national energy picture as a non-carbon-based energy source. It’s a very large resource and has the potential to be a significant contributor to the energy needs of this country.”

Toksöz added that the electricity produced annually by geothermal energy systems now in use in the United States at sites in California, Hawaii, Utah and Nevada is comparable to that produced by solar and wind power combined. And the potential is far greater still, since hot rocks below the surface are available in most parts of the United States.

Even in the most promising areas, however, drilling must reach depths of 5,000 feet or more in the west, and much deeper in the eastern United States. Still, “the possibility of drilling into these rocks, fracturing them and pumping water in to produce steam has already been shown to be feasible,” Toksöz said.

MIT-led panel backs ‘heat mining’ as key U.S. energy source – January 22, 2007

I think this is really exciting news. Let’s go drill some holes.

Oops – apparently the harddrive fried on the server that hosts my website, this blog and my email server. So I was without email (at least non-work email) for two evenings, which was a bit disconcerting. And I was a bit nervous about the provider’s ability to restore all services and files and databases. I would hate to lose the information I gathered in this blog. I do have a local copy of the static website, but I have no backups of the databases. I should probably download a backup – just in case.

After 19 hours downtime, everything was back up and running. Phew! I am just glad I don’t run anything rally critical on this service. But then, you get what you pay for, and they are pretty cheap – $60/year.

This is one of my favorite pictures from Yikpa – it captures a true Yikpa moment during the funeral of the old chief of the village of Yikpa-Anigbe in 1991. As the drums were rumbling in the background, and the men occasionally fire an old rifle into the air, the women gathered to burn herbs and say prayers for the deceased. Finally Mama Celi, the chief of the women, put some herbs on the fire, and as the pungent, aromatic smoke filled the air, she slowly dances to the drums and recites with great intensity a powerful prayer for the old man.

I use this photo on my homepage and on the “Yikpa Spirits” page, because it nicely illustrates the sense of spirituality in the village. The smoke and the light illustrate the ancient mysticism of the traditions. The serious faces of the women and Mama Celis posture reflect the intensity of the moment and the depth of their faith.

Last weekend I got an email from a guy at a film production company who asked me if they can use the picture in a documentary film about the tradition of Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans, LA. The image will be used to illustrate some of the cultural traditions that have influenced the African-American Mardi Gras Indian tradition. Sure, I don’t see a problem with them using the picture in this context.

In fact, I think it’s pretty cool that they picked this image. Sounds like a great film project – I hope I’ll get to see the film when its done.

Right after Christmas, Laura saw a Mr Beer homebrewing kit on super-duper sale and bought it. So this afternoon, we brewed up a batch of “California Pale Ale” in the Mr Beer. It’s really easy, and I am very curious how this stuff is going to turn out. It’ll have to sit in the barrel for a week now, then I’ll fill it into bottles (I’ve been collecting the very nice 1-liter, pop-top bottles the Highland brewery uses for it’s Cold Mountain Winter Ale – one of my favorites).

After it sits in the bottles for another couple of weeks my homebrew should be ready. This should be interesting!

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.

Since last weekend, this cold front moved into North Carolina and the temperatures in the Triangle area dropped from the mid-70s F. /low 20s C on Monday to below freezing Wednesday (a difference of over 40 deg. F or 20 deg. C in about 40 hours!). And this morning we woke up to an inch (3-4 cm) of snow on the ground! Wow – from a day on the beach to snow in a couple of days.

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.