Afternoon at the BBC

I cannot claim to be a veteran broadcaster – far from it. I have been invited on to local radio programmes to say my piece about our work in Kenya, but that’s about it.

Things aren’t going to change either. I don’t think I could hack it as a presenter, I get tongue-tied.

But we have been approached to do a feature on KCIS, not the usual 15 – 20 minute slot, but a proper feature.

This came about because one of the producers, Nejra, is going to Kisii next week. She is a volunteer with an educational charity, and it just so happens that, this year, she is being sent there to do their thing.

Someone else at the station pointed out that KCIS is based in Kisii, so she contacted us and we had a long meeting yesterday (long, probably because when I start talking about Kenya, I can’t stop).

Nejra intends to visit our “office” in Kisii interview the local directors, Vincent and Abigael, meet the kids and hopefully record them singing and maybe even interview them, if she can find one that speaks good enough English.

Then, once back in the UK, she wants to put a feature together that will spread over three weeks, including her recordings, sound bites from our Promotions Officer, Manuela and me, and then a live broadcast with the two of us on the last week.

This is very good news – all publicity being good publicity, so they say.

It has to do our organisation some good, raise its profile in the West Berkshire area, and maybe get more people willing to do fund-raising for us.

As Nejra said, we can see the situation on TV, but seeing it first-hand brings it to life. The kids become real people, really suffering. Not just images on TV.

Attitude of Gratitude

A good friend of mine, living in Andover, who has had a few emotional knocks in her life has started a campaign, “Attitude of Gratitude”.

It started when, feeling rather low, she was walking home and saw a tramp with no shoes, curled up in a doorway with only a cardboard box for shelter. This was last winter. And my friend realised that she should be thinking of what she still had, not what she had lost.

She started picking up litter in the streets to make the town a better place, and publicised it, encouraging others to do the same, using the local press.

And the campaign has taken off in a big way. She now has a website with pictures of her “supporters”. And it is striking, the number of younger people who support her. Kids I can understand, but teenagers? Those surly, grunting beings that hang around on street corners? Don’t you believe it. They are the most enthusiastic of all.

There is hope for this country after all.

How Well Would We Survive?

I have just returned from a five week stay in Kenya, not as a tourist, but living with ordinary Kenyans, as they live.

The house where I was staying has four rooms plus a wet room, a small plot of land which can be cultivated, and electricity (sometimes!).

There is no formal kitchen and the wet room was just a room with a squat toilet with a cistern, although there was no piped water.

Water has to be fetched from a borehole 300 metres away and carried up a steep hill to the  house, or, during the rainy season, it can be collected from the roof.

Cooking is over a single propane gas ring, or a charcoal burner, and food is grown. Staples like maize flour is bought, but just about everything else is grown by the family. They have laying chickens for eggs, and they buy chickens for slaughter from neighbours.

Washing clothes and dishes is carried out in the yard in bowls of water heated over the gas ring.

A shower consists of wetting the body, soaping all over then tipping the bowl of water over the whole body to get the soap (and dirt) off, unless you are lucky enough to be a small child, in which case you can sit in a bowl of water.

Travel – “My feet is my only carriage”, to quote Bob Marley, at least until you reach the road, where you can catch a matatu, motorbike taxi, or if you feel rich, a car taxi.

I lived like this for almost three weeks, and settled in quite happily. But I was living with Kenyans, so I did not have to carry out a lot of the chores such as killing and plucking a chicken for dinner.

And it got me wondering … how well would Mr & Mrs Middle-England with 2.4 kids survive if they were dropped into a typical rural Kenyan life-style?

No computer or Playstation for a lot of the time, and difficulty in charging a mobile phone due to the erratic electricity supply.

When it rains, it is all-hands-on-deck to get buckets and bowls placed strategically to collect   off the roof – one evening I collected 75 litres of water in about 20 minutes – and storing it in the 100 litre water butt.

Where I was staying, Kisii in SW Kenya, the soil is sticky, so walking when it is wet is a challenge. The mud sticks to the soles of shoes and within 100 yards you can be 1 inch taller! The ground is also extremely slippery, and Kisii is in the mountains. There is not a flat path anywhere! So butt-skiing is also a distinct possibility, as I found out at the expense of my dignity.

So how would the Middle-England family cope? You want chicken for dinner? buy a live one and dispatch it with the kitchen knife, then pluck it. Vegetables? Well, did you plant any? If so, go to the plot and harvest what there is, usually sukuma.

You want to go into town? walk to the road and wait for an overloaded matatu (they are licenced to carry 14 passenger, but they will always manage to squeeze a few more in). Or take a motorbike taxi, a 125cc two-stroke Chinese-built machine. You can usually get two passengers on one of these.

As I said, I settled in quite well, but I was living with Kenyans. But if I were alone? Yes I would survive, but it wouldn’t be pleasant.

Making Whitehall More Efficient

It has been announced ahead of Wednesday’s fudge it budget that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling will be making a saving of £15,000,000,000 over the next couple of years, by making Whitehall more efficient.

Presumably, this means cutting back on the number of civil servants presently “employed” by the various Government departments, something that the general public has been calling for for years.

But, if the civil service is trimmed, this would presumably mean sacking a lot of workers, rather than just shunting them around from one department to another, as has been done in the past.

So, these workers will expect redundancy pay. And they will expect unemployment benefit.

Lord Digby Jones said of the Civil Service, ”Frankly the job could be done with half as many, it could be more productive, more efficient, it could deliver a lot more value for money for the taxpayer. I was amazed, quite frankly, at how many people deserved the sack and yet that was the one threat that they never ever worked under, because it doesn’t exist.”

This week’s budget is going to have to be a corker. It has to take the pressure off the Prime Minister, after weeks of criticism from many quarters regarding sleaze, corruption, police brutality, MPs’ expenses, opinion poll ratings, etc.

Uncle Bob Mugabe must be looking over his shoulder, wondering who that is just behind him in the race for sleaze-ball of the century!

But then, does it really matter what Darling says? After June 2010, there will probably be a new government in power, who, with a bit of luck, may have some ideas about how to run this country.

And pigs might fly.

Where is this Country Going?

After allegations of misuse of expenses allowances, the arrest and eventual release of an opposition legislator (because there was no case to answer), smear campaigns against opposition leaders, we now hear that there is an allegation of ballot box rigging, where a ballot box has been found, tampered with and with the ballot papers inside it torn up.

Where is all this? Zimbabwe? South America? Somewhere in Asia?

Nope, the UK.

Encounter

Our little Norfolk Terrier (AKA floor mop on legs) was minding his own business, sniffing around the garden when he came across a small slow worm.

I doubt that he has ever seen the like before, nor a snake, although we do live in a distinctly rural area, but after a good sniff, he pounced on the poor slow worm and shook it in a manner of a mongoose attacking a cobra.

The slow worm, being a lizard, immediately shed its tail, which kept the dog interested as it wriggled, body-less on the ground.

I rescued the now tailless lizard and put it out of reach of the dog, who seemed quite happy to worry the tail.

Two lessons to be learned.

For the slow worm – don’t mess with our dog.

And for us – don’t rely on the dog to protect us from venomous snakes, he’s only interested in wriggly dismembered tails!

Does My Bum Look Big On This?

In an effort to lose the couch potato look,  I recently acquired a second-hand bicycle and go for a ride once a week, with a friend, around Greenham Common.

This is a mountain bike with knobbly tyres so I thought I would give it a go off the main paths – big mistake!

When I got back to “base”, I picked up the bike to put it in the back of the car and my hand came into some gooey, slimy muck. I will leave to your imagination what I was thinking.

But, this goo was not what I though it was. It was small lumps of gel, which had leaked from my saddle and onto the frame around the rear brakes. It probably failed when my not inconsiderable weight was bouncing around while off-road. That’ll teach me.

So, my saddle is now an ex-saddle.

Now comes the incredible part. I  keep an eye on a website called Freecycle. The idea is that people can offer things that they no longer want to other people who may find a use for it. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

And there, on Freecycle, someone was offering a bicycle saddle and post! Of course, I jumped at it and managed to acquire it, but what are the chances of finding a free saddle a couple of days after yours has given up the ghost?

I am, of course, extremely grateful to the poor guy who had had his bike stolen before he could fit the new saddle, but it means that I can continue to work on getting rid of my flab.

Now, where did  I put that Allen key?

Update

I found the Allen key and fitted the saddle, after a lot of messing around (the post that came with the new saddle would not fit the frame).

I have tried it out and all I can say is, “Wow!” It is sooo comfortable!

Minister Appalled that ONS Tells Truth

Government Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas said he was “appalled” at the release of figures showing one in nine British residents was born abroad.

If the figures are correct, why should he be appalled that they were released? Are we, the British public not allowed this information?

Full report on BBC News

Computers and Jargon

How long has the phenomenon of a computer in the home been around? I have had a home computer since about 1988, when I decided to go free-lance, but even then, I was ahread of the field as most people in my discipline (technical author) still used pen and paper.

But, home computers, other than for home workers have been around for some time, and most are PCs.

So, why is it that people still don’t know the difference between the machine’s memory (RAM) and storage medium (hard disk)?

When a client complains that their PC is running slow, I examine it and usually find a plethora of little programs running in background, using up RAM and CPU processing capacity.

Or, I find that the hard disk is almost full, so there is no room for any virtual memory.

Of course there are several possible cures, the first of which is to buy a new machine with a bigger capacity.

Or, increase the RAM capacity, or the hard disk capacity, or both.

This is where the confusion sets in.

Whereas increasing the RAM is merely slotting in an appropriate memory bank into an available slot, replacing the hard disk with one of a higher capacity involves re-installing all the software and transferring the data, unless the original disk can be ghosted (copied faithfully from the old disk to the new one).

Try explaining that to the average user!

Many users think that they save their work to memory, and hav’t got a clue what the hard disk is for, and it can take longer th explain the difference between the two components than the upgrade itself!

Oh well, if everyone understood computers, I wouldn’t have an income, so I am not complaining – really, I’m not …

Climate Change? Here’s the Proof!

Climate change must be real – there is new evidence.

The Atlantic Ocean, once a massive body of water, has shrunk to such a degree that it is no longer big enough for two submarines to navigate it without colliding!

What more proof do we need?