Australia Day

We commemorate a not altogether happy occasion. But perhaps 200 odd years has afforded us an ability to allow commemorations to shift and grow, just as we have, as a nation. Do we commemorate the coming together of many peoples? Debatable. Regardless, the day is a reminder that this land has held two histories, one old, one young, both now intertwined with the common, ancient thread that holds us all as brothers and sisters - the landscape that is our mother. wiyanga. Noojee wiyanga nurra.. (behold our mother country).. I will celebrate by bringing a cake to work, with my Indian colleague, to share with our team, as it is also the National Day of India tomorrow. Indian and Aussie, perhaps slightly fitting given recent events...

What a Weekend!

Galloping across the sands..
Encountering curious baby Camels..
Taking a horsey dip in the White Nile...

Tamam! (great!)

New Years Day desert style..

I popped over to Jordan to celebrate the New Decade with an old friend.

What an amazing land...

Be the change...

Haiti.. devastatingly sad. Of all countries for such a disaster to strike..
Some of my colleagues are flying over there as I type.
Sadly I am not one of those 'core technical' types and would only just get in the way.
But it does make me a tad frustrated, to sit here and work on a protracted emergency (just don't tell the donors!) and not be able to lend a hand where people are crying out for immediate assistance.
But it is a situation that calls for sensibilities to be retained despite emotional tendencies...

One of my favorite bloggers, Cashewman, puts it succinctly with some nice links.
Keep up to date with the situation here on reliefweb, and on who is doing what.

Many that doubt that cash actually gets anywhere near the hands of the needy (I know I used to) - But I promise you, it really does. I see it on a daily basis here.

I like these organisations.. but there are plenty more..

ActionAid Australia

Compassion International

CARE

Global Concern Australia
Medecins sans frontieres (MSF/ Docs without Borders)
Oxfam
Plan Australia
And yes, we are the biggest gang out there, but everyone needs FOOD (and Logs, Telecoms and UNHAS)... WFP


Natural Disasters will continue to occur, thank goodness compassion is limitless.

The sky in Africa is like no other.
If you have been in this great continent you will know what I am talking about. It is alive with colour and there is kind of 'immense' quality about it. You look up and know that it indeed hangs over an immense and colourful landscape.. like an ocean of reflection.

Juba, 7pm Monday

On the Brink...

So I find myself, for the third time, in a country on the brink of a new era..
2003 - First peaceful elections in Cambodia since the end of the Khmer Rouge regime.

2008 - The End of the monarchy and the first constituent assembly elections in Nepal

2010 - The first multi-party (nationwide) elections in Sudan in 24 years..

And this third one is a biggie!

Not only am in Sudan- I am in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. Where the heart of the conflict began 25 years ago.

This place is amazing - I feel like am in an entirely different country to the North and the countries capital. In every respect; the landscape, the climate, the people, the politics.

This is Africa. At its finest: Bloody tribal fighting out in the villages, plunder and destruction of anything resembling a natural resource and a few hundred international aid agencies zooming around town in an cloud of obligatory White Toyota 4WD induced dust. (me ashamedly one of them..)

Yesterday (9th Jan) was the fifth anniversary of Peace in Sudan. Five years ago the North and the South signed a comprehensive peace agreement, ending 21 years of fighting, Africa's longest running civil war, that saw 2 million people killed. I am not sure if you'd call the last five years exactly peaceful and prosperous.. but at least Peace was finally no longer an endangered species on the brink of extinction, much like the extensive wildlife that used to roam the plains of southern Sudan.

But where is the future of this precarious land headed? Peace is about to be tested with both an upcoming election that all parties (north and south) will participate in for the first time and then the ultimate moment of truth - the referendum of 2011. Will Southern Sudan become an independent State, as so many here wish? More importantly, if they gain independence will they cease with the internal tribal fighting that threatens to tear them apart from the seams within? Quite a good overview from BBC here.

Why is it so hard for the various collections of the human race on this beautiful continent to live side by side, I often question. But then someone reminded me of the centuries of bloody fighting Europe has hosted, over race and borders, even into the nineties in eastern Europe. Of Israel and Palestine’s inability to co-exist. And the south America's and Asia... And so I end up questioning if it is simply an ill-trait of human nature to fight what we do not understand.
One of my favorite writers on Sudan, Alex de Waal, has some interesting thoughts on the situation here and here.