Fun Trivia: Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History
Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Some, such as the exotic car crashes seen on this page, can be very expensive. But that's trivial compared to the truly expensive accidents. An accident is defined as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss".
Our aim is to list the top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars. This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms.
Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.
#10. Titanic [$150 Million]
The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today's dollars).
#9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge [$358 Million]
On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.
#8. MetroLink Crash [$500 Million]
On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink.
#7. B-2 Bomber Crash [$1.4 Billion]
Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we're only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.
#6. Exxon Valdez [$2.5 Billion]
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.
#5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig [$3.4 Billion]
The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion.
Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.
#4. Challenger Explosion [$5.5 Billion]
The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).
#3. Prestige Oil Spill [$12 Billion]
On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.
According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.
#2. Space Shuttle Columbia [$13 Billion]
The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.
In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
#1. Chernobyl [$200 Billion]
On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl, including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.
18 Nov, 2008 | claudio | Leave comment - 0 -
Save the Turtles in Mozambique...
"I was in Ilha de Mocambique for the last couple of days and had the opportunity of visiting a small island (Sena or locally called Cobra Island) off Ilha. This really small island which is only accessible by boat on the spring low tide, in beautifully untouched - except for the turtle poaches that venture there for their mass murdering! On arrival to the island - our guide - a german chap took us to the poaches 'hide out' pictured below. This is were they have build a small hide to wait the the nesting females. It was heartbreaking to see the amount of turtle shells and bones strewn around the island. A deep water pit can be found, were the shells are simply just thrown in.
The locals know it is illegal and harvest the turtles on sena and transport the meat across to Ilha de Mocambique were it is sold off.
I don't know if there is anything can be done to stop this, given its remoteness, however as we are all aware, if this continues, this island in time will have no turtles laying there at all.�
The mass harvesting off live shells etc also abounds on both the island and Nancala. A brief snorkel at both areas show a complete absence of fish life which is very sad. Sea urchins, star fish and small eels abound if one looks closely.
On a bit of a positive note I did see some Humpback dolphins by the bridge to Ilha de Mocambique when i was departing yesterday".
by Angie Gullan
www.dolphincare.org
19 Aug, 2008 | gavin reimers | Leave comment - 0 -
NEVER FORGET
In today’s world we tend to live our life based in what is best for has and those we care. More than often we see and watch news about atrocities in TV’s, Radio and Newspaper. We tend to watch them and feel for a brief moment the pain those people must have felt. Then we change the channel, flip the page or change the station. But do we ever stop to think about the mentality of these perpetrators? The pain and suffering of these victims?
Recently we Mozambicans were shocked by the xenophobia attacks our compatriots felt in our neighbor South Africa. One picture stood above all, the burning of a man, just because he was a foreigner trying to make a life in a country it wasn’t his, trying to work and feed is family, but these weren’t the reasons was burned alive. He was different; he was targeted by the mentality of others that he was the problem for their problems.
This is why I’m writing this article, to let you and future generations NOT TO FORGET, about the FACTORY OF DEATH, the biggest mass murder machine developed by man, the biggest atrocity ever committed by man, a name that must never be forgotten, the name is AUSCHWITZ.
After watching a report by the BBC channel about this atrocity, I couldn’t stay silent. I couldn’t let this be forgotten. And hope you spread this message to the world, “NEVER FORGET”.
Where to start? Ok, imagine you. One person, who has a family, loved ones and friends, how many people do you think it’s important to you, that care for you, that you would sacrifice all for them in a blink of an eye! My guess is that it’s impossible to surpass 100 people. Imagine now 1.200.000 people. It’s a big number I know, but this is how many people where burned, gassed, shot, beaten, and starved to death in a concentration camp called AUSCHWITZ. This is their story, the story of their assassins and the story of something unreal, that a moment, seat back and get read to be surprised and maybe you will help people not to forget.
The Beginning
Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Oświęcim was annexed by Nazi Germany and renamed Auschwitz. Auschwitz I was the original camp, and it served as the administrative center for the whole complex.
Then came the Final Solution from the Germans, and this Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of its systematic genocide against European Jewry during World War II, resulting in the final, most deadly phase of the Holocaust. Hitler termed it: "the solution of the Jewish question in Europe.
The entrance to Auschwitz I was—and still is—marked with the sign “Arbeit Macht Frei”, or “work makes (one) free”.
At its peak size, Auschwitz was actually three separate facilities (Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II/Birkenau, and Auschwitz III/Monowitz), and was constructed on 20,000 acres which had been cleared of all inhabitants. Auschwitz I was the administrative center for the complex; Birkenau was the extermination camp, where most of the killing took place.
The Plan
It all started with the Final Solution – the eradication of the Jewish People. The Mass killings of about one million Jews occurred before the plans of the Final Solution were fully implemented in 1942, but it was only with the decision to eradicate the entire Jewish population that the extermination camps were built and industrialized mass slaughter of Jews began in earnest.
By November 1, 1941, the first extermination camps were being built: first Belzec, then Sobibor, Treblinka, Chełmno, Majdanek, and finally Auschwitz-Birkenau. The mass execution of Jews began in early 1942.
Not only has Auschwitz become a symbol of the Holocaust due to its geographical size, but also because Jews were sent there from all over Europe to undergo selection and to be systematically murdered in gas chambers.
The Actors
Auschwitz has many key players involved in the extermination of the Jewish people. I’ve decided to include the 3 top actors involved in this unreal period at Auschwitz.
Rudolf Hoess - The first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp. He was born on November 25, 1900 in Baden-Baden into a severely strict Roman Catholic family. Höss met Heinrich Himmler in 1929; in 1934 Himmler invited Höss to join the SS. That same year, Höss moved up to the SS-Totenkopfverbände (Death's Head Units) and in December he was assigned to the Dachau concentration camp. In May 1940, Höss was appointed commandant of a prison-camp in western Poland, a territory that had been annexed outright by Germany and incorporated into the province of Upper Silesia, Höss would command the camp for three and a half years, during which time he expanded the original facility into a sprawling complex, the place now known as the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Höss tested and perfected the techniques of mass killing which would make Auschwitz the most efficiently murderous instrument of the Nazi Final Solution and the most potent symbol of the Holocaust. [Read more here]
Heinrich Himmler - was a German Nazi National Socialist politician and head of the Schutzstaffel (SS). He was one of the most powerful men in Hitler's entourage. As overseer of concentration camps, extermination camps, and Einsatzgruppen (death squads), Himmler coordinated the killing of millions of Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma, many prisoners of war, and perhaps another three to four million Poles, communists, or other groups whom the Nazis deemed unworthy to live or simply 'in the way', including homosexuals, and those with physical and mental disabilities. In contrast to Hitler, Himmler inspected concentration camps. In August 1941 he witnessed a mass shooting of Jews in Minsk and was said to have been sickened after brain matter from a victim splashed onto his coat. Himmler wanted to breed a master race of Nordic Aryans in Germany. His experience as a chicken farmer had taught him the rudimentary basics of animal breeding which he proposed to apply to humans. He believed that he could engineer the German populace, through selective breeding, to be entirely "Nordic" in appearance within several decades of the end of the war. [Read more here]
Josef Mengele - Was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The most infamous doctor at Auschwitz, who was also known as the “Angel of Death”. Particularly interested in "research" on identical twins, Mengele performed cruel experiments on them, such as inducing diseases in one twin of a pair and killing the other when the first died to perform comparative autopsies. He also took a special interest in dwarves, injecting twins, dwarves and other prisoners with gangrene to "study" the effects. [Read more here]
The Story
Construction on Auschwitz II (Birkenau) began in October 1941 to ease congestion at the main camp. It was designed to hold several categories of prisoners, and to function as an extermination camp in the context of Himmler's preparations for the Final Solution of the Jewish Question, the extermination of the Jews. The Nazis had committed themselves to the Final Solution no later than January 1942, the date of the Wannsee Conference.
The first gas chamber at Birkenau was "The Little Red House", a brick cottage that was converted into a gassing facility by tearing out the inside and bricking up the walls. It was operational by March 1942. A second brick cottage, "The Little Red House", was similarly converted some weeks later. By July of 1942, the SS were conducting the infamous "selections", in which incoming Jews were divided into those deemed able to work, who were then admitted to the camp, and those who weren't, who were immediately gassed.
In early 1943, the Nazis decided to greatly increase the gassing capacity of Birkenau. Crematoria II, originally designed as a mortuary, with morgues in the basement and ground-level furnaces, was converted into a killing factory by placing a gas-tight door on the morgues and adding vents for Zyklon B and ventilation equipment to remove the gas. It came online in March. Crematoria III was built using the same design. Crematoria IV and V, designed from the start as gassing centers, were also constructed that spring. By June of 1943 all four crematoria were up. Most victims were killed during a period afterwards.
Auschwitz-Birkenau claimed more victims than any other Nazi extermination camp despite coming into use after all the others. In 1941 1.1 million Jews were murdered, largely by mass shootings in the occupied territories. In 1942 2.7 million Jews were murdered, many in Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka, the extermination camps built in Poland specifically to destroy Poland's three million Jews. Only 200,000 were killed at Auschwitz. In 1943 some 500,000 Jews were killed, half of which were killed in Auschwitz. With the destruction of Poland's Jews mostly complete, the other four camps were closed by the end of 1943. Auschwitz alone would continue to operate, both as a giant slave labor complex and an extermination facility dedicated to the genocide of Jews from the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe.
The exact number of victims at Auschwitz is impossible to fix with certainty. Since Germans destroyed a number of records, immediate efforts to count the dead depended on the testimony of witnesses and the defendants on trial at Nuremberg. While under interrogation Rudolf Höß, commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp from 1940 to 1943,said that two and a half million Jews had been killed in gas chambers and about half a million died "naturally".Later he wrote "I regard two and a half million far too high. Even Auschwitz had limits to its destructive possibilities".
The NOW
After the war the camp served until 1947 as an NKVD and MBP prison camp. The Buna Werke were taken over by the Polish government and became the foundation for the region's chemical industry.
The Polish government then decided to restore Auschwitz I and turn it into a museum honouring the victims of Nazism; Auschwitz II, where buildings (many of which were prefabricated wood structures) were prone to decay, was preserved but not restored. Today, the Auschwitz I museum site combines elements from several periods into a single complex: for example the gas chamber at Auschwitz I (which had been converted into an air-raid shelter for the SS) was restored and the fence was moved (because of building being done after the war but before the establishment of the museum). However, in most cases the departure from the historical truth is minor, and is clearly labelled. The museum contains very large numbers of men's, women's and children's shoes taken from their victims; also suitcases, which the deportees were encouraged to bring with them, and many household utensils. One display case, some 30 metres long, is wholly filled with human hair which the Nazis gathered from the people before and after they were killed.
The Images, Videos
I’ve did a research online for website offering some graphical representations of Auschwitz, although not many pictures were taken you can find some graphical content in the following websites:
1. http://www.remember.org/camps/birkenau/bir-list.html [Photos From Auschwitz and Birkenau]
2. http://www.remember.org/auschwitz/ [Virtual Reality panoramas of Auschwitz and Birkenau]
3. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5156918753541068347&q=auschwitz&hl=en [Auschwitz Video]
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNhFxV79_Kc [Youtube Video]
The YOU
Well the main reason for this article is to “NEVER FORGET”. Don’t let this happen again. We must take this experience and live our lives to it’s fullest, there were people who never had the chance to live, to make a choice, to grow up, to see the world. Who knows, maybe one of these victims could have invented the cure for aids, cancer, help someone from your family, we never know. We must never forget, we must learn always from the past. You got fired, betrayed, in a accident, lots of bills to pay, etc, well at least you were treat worst than an animal, you weren’t selected to die due to difference in cultures and ideals. So what you must do? Live your life to it’s fullest and “NEVER FORGET”.
Sources
1. Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz-Birkenau]
2. BBC Documentary – “Auschwitz: The Nazis Final Solution”
3. Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project [http://isurvived.org/Lustig_AuschwitzAlbum.html]
By Cláudio André Fauvrelle [claudio.andre@clubofmozambique.com]
11 Aug, 2008 | gavin reimers | Leave comment - 1 -
Inside the mind of a robber
One in three house robbers have murdered and on average they commit 104 crimes before the law finally catches up with them. And with each crime perpetrated over an average period of seven-and-a-half years, they become more and more violent.
This is the disturbing profile of a convicted house robber revealed in a study conducted by senior forensic investigation lecturer at Unisa, Dr Rudolph Zinn.
It was a research project that left Zinn, an ex-police officer, shocked at how willing this category of criminal was to resort to violence.
House robberies are on the increase; they have risen by more than 13,5 percent in the last year, according to police. In total, almost 15 000 house robberies were committed last year, half of them in Gauteng. But until Zinn's research, little was known about this brand of criminal.
Zinn found that most house robbers are aged between 19 and 26, but that their criminal careers, began when they were in their teens.
"I discovered that the youngest person committing house robberies was 12. I also found that the younger the person when they began their life of crime, the more violent they were later in life," explained Zinn.
In the course of his two-year long research project, Zinn interviewed 30 convicted house robbers who were serving time in six high security prisons around Gauteng.
"I found that 30 percent of them had murdered while committing a house robbery. They simply said that they have to use violence. I think those criminals who respect human life would probably stop before they become house robbers, " said Zinn.
His study also exposed the myth that most house robbers were black and foreign.
"About 17 percent of them were foreigners, the rest came from all race groups and cultures across South Africa," he explained.
They were, however, generally from poor backgrounds.
About 90 percent had not got a matric and most, Zinn found, were unemployed.
"I found a small group who were employed, but they gave up their jobs, when they found out just how much they could make.
"One of them told me he makes more money in five minutes than I do in a month," he said.
Another myth dispelled was that their victims were mainly white.
Their targets were usually affluent home owners who displayed their wealth with jewellery, double storey residences and fancy cars.
Their modus operandi, Zinn's subjects told him, revolved around gathering intelligence about their intended victims, usually from a domestic worker.
"If they don't have inside information, they will keep the house under observation for a long time.
"They might send an accomplice into the house to check it out, he might pretend he is there to inspect TV licences."
Part of their reconnaissance also includes establishing which security firms operate in the area, how often they patrol and how long it takes for them to react to a call out.
The observation of their victims continue right up until they are ready to commit their crime, often they will hide in the garden watching the house.
"They strike when their victims are still awake, at night or in the morning. They use the noise of TV sets, or cooking as cover. At this time they told me, most people haven't armed their alarms," Zinn explained.
Usually four members make up a house robbery gang. The modus operandi is for one of the gang members to gain access through a small window. The tools used to break in, are usually scavenged from the home owner's shed. House robbers, Zinn's research found, don't carry house breaking tools, as they believe it makes it easier for police to spot them while they make their way to their target.
The random use of excessive violence has so puzzled researchers that currently, says Zinn, several academics are conducting studies to try and ascertain why.
Zinn would not disclose, for security reasons, just how much on average house robbers would make from a robbery. He has, however, been able to break down what they spend their money on.
"Easy come, easy go is what one of them said. Most of their earnings are spent on luxuries, branded clothing, parties and prostitutes."
BY Shaun Smillie
SOURCE www.IOL.co.za)
17 Jul, 2008 | gavin reimers | Leave comment - 0 -
BE PREPARED FOR AN ADVENTURE
The brochure for Parque de Malongane, Sud de Moçambique screams “Be Prepared For An Adventure” with a tranquil sunset behind a beautiful beach scene. It looks peaceful and idyllic – paradise found. And it is! Ponta Malongane, near Maputo in Mozambique and Kosi Bay in South Africa is breathtakingly beautiful. The beach is soft and stretches on for miles around the bay with hardly a person to be seen on it. The sea is warm, inviting and really is “azure” in colour as the brochure claims. Home to red squirrels, Samango monkeys, genet, bushbabies and other forest creatures, the indigenous dune forest is spectacular. However, something I learned from this holiday is that you need to choose your adventure at Malongane carefully.
We had been invited to join a group of Midwives, Therapists and Doulas who were combining the dolphin experience with a workshop on alternative therapies and techniques to assist in pregnancy and childbirth. Jacky, my sister in law, is the international expert on this subject and we were lucky enough to tag along. This amazing group of girls had a really gentle, positive energy and were very open to new experiences. Our adventure was swimming with wild dolphins and experiencing a varied programme of events organized by Halo Gaia, with the emphasis on spiritual journeys.
To prepare for our adventure with dolphins, we had a 10 minute snorkeling lesson in the pool and were declared sea-worthy. Then followed a hair-raising briefing about boat procedures and safety which had half of us reconsidering the whole thing. But at 6.30 the next morning, we were there to take our chances. It had been full moon the night before and the tide had come up right into the camp. The waves were choppy and the current was strong but the skipper said we could go out. A tractor pulled the boat onto the beach and turned it around facing the sea. The skipper yelled over the surf “the seas are rough and we will have to be quick when we get onto the boat.”
As we pushed the boat out, the waves were crashing over the people in front. The skipper shouted “ladies on the boat. Quick, quick, quick.” Everyone hurled themselves over the side of the boat and hustled into the nearest foot straps and were told to HANG ON! The skipper went roaring off into the surf as we clung to the ropes. As we came down with a thump and the swell crashed all around us, our dolphin organiser yelled at the skipper “go back, go back, it's too high, we can't do this..” but he just revved the engine and headed for the next wave. I think he was too psyched up to remember that the boat’s passengers were girls mostly inexperienced in diving and not strong swimmers.
As we headed straight for an enormous wave, it was pandemonium with everyone yelling "hang on, hang on" As we climbed the wave, I could see that there was absolutely nothing behind it. We came down as if from a three storey building smack down onto the sea and I heard my back go crunch on the under-inflated ballast. At the back of the boat, the foot straps had broken and Jacky had gone straight overboard. She was hanging on to the ropes but her head was hitting the waves. My husband, Ben happened to look back in time to grab her and pull her back on board. Others, petrified about the whole experience, just hunkered down in the boat and started crying to go back to shore.
Then, all of a sudden, we saw them. The dolphins were leaping and twirling through the waves nearby. As we moved into calmer waters, the dolphins kept with us and circled around the boat. On the skipper’s okay, everyone who wasn’t injured, petrified or seasick hopped overboard to swim with them. Ben was euphoric about his experiences : “Once in the water, the key is to remember to breathe and look down. Although this seems obvious, for inexperienced snorklers, these are not easy things to remember in the excitement of having dolphins swimming below and around you. Once you have got through the practicalities of staying alive and can relax a bit, it is amazing! You really have a sense that the dolphins come to you to check out these pale, pasty things thrashing about in the water. I had dolphins within arms reach on two occasions and could hear the clicks and squeaks as they chatted to each other (or to us?) You get a sense that they are playful as they dive down and then head straight up at you from the deep blue depths, only to veer off at the last second. As quickly as it starts, they are gone. With a flick of their tails, they vanish and you realize that if they did not want you to, you would never get near them.”
By the time we headed back to shore, my whole back and neck was in spasm and I was in agony. Thank goodness I was with a whole boatload of Midwives who know how to deal with a person in pain! “Concentrate on your breathing. Nothing is more important than your breath. Breathe through the pain. In through your nose, out through your mouth.” We had to make it back through the same swells to get back on the beach and when I felt the boat hit solid land, I would have kissed the shoreline if I could have bent over to do it. It was a rough day - another skipper broke his fingers, a girl got ridden over by the boat as it got swept away by the current and many divers came back black and blue.
This extreme kind of weather is not the norm in this secluded bay which is usually a perfect spot to fulfill various dreams of adventure. You may long to go snorkeling with dolphins, diving in the reefs with rays and sharks, jet skiing, kite-surfing, body boarding or game fishing. If you are a nature lover, your thing might be long strolls along the beach or in the dune forest. Those in search of an adrenalin rush, will take to the 4x4s and quad bikes. Parque de Malongane has accommodation to suit every group and budget. Visitors can choose from tents on platforms, log cabins, chalets or a campsite on the edge of the dune forest. The central chaotic kitchen has an excellent system for allocating space in the fridges, which absolutely nobody uses. New-comers stupidly expect their fridge space to correspond with their tent number but find it choc-a-block with other people’s things. The kitchen is kitted out with battered pots and chipped mugs and we ate our morning muesli with forks because all the spoons had recently been stolen.
At the restaurant, tables are irresistibly tucked into the undergrowth and under enormous trees. Staff were obviously chosen for their good looks and beaming smiles and it was a real treat to eat at a place where everyone seems thrilled to see you. We managed to eat them out of prawns by the third evening, delicious garlic-smothered delights, and then were forced to devour the most tender and delicious calamari. Behind the restaurant is the Kanimambo shop which bakes irresistible fresh pão every morning. I think you can gather that we ate well!
Nascer do Sol bar has spectacular views out over the bay just where the boats launch into the waves and come flying back onto the beach. After everyone has showered the salt and sand out of their hair, they head up here to drink 2M, Manica and Laurentina beer. Rugged divers drink depth-chargers until the solid ground becomes as unstable as the sea. Of course, the rule is no diving if you have been drinking, but that would halve the diving clientele and cut bar profits down to nothing.
The dive area is always buzzing with boats and people getting kitted out for the launch. Wetsuits, flippers, weight belts, snorkels and tanks hang over poles, waiting for the next group of macho guys and strutting gals to be squeezed into their wet suits and launched into the waves. There is always a lot of testosterone flowing here – guys with big ‘beer boeps’ strut around with their wetsuits unzipped and a large hunting knife bulging dramatically in their diving boot. Girls surreptitiously check out how the others look in their bikinis but the guys are too busy showing off to each other to pay them much attention. Only the skippers and dive leaders chat up the girls, pursuing them with teenage enthusiasm and corresponding style. “At least I’m going to be motivated to get off the boat” said one nervous gal-diver “I don’t want to be the only person stuck on the boat with him”
Although I was well and truly out of action for the next few days and did not go back on the boat, the others came back breathless with tales of close encounters with dolphins, turtles and whale sharks. We had lazy beach time, skinny dipping under a full moon and walks to the Sunset Bar in the village up the road. Here you get cool 2M without the macho hype and you begin to remember that you are really in Mozambique where people are optimistic, friendly and laugh a lot.
When my back was up to it, I snorkled in the rock pools around the bay. With your head under the ocean, you experience a whole new world of luminous fish. It is totally peaceful below even when the sea is swirling above you. Back in the dune forest, when the camp is quiet, wildlife enthusiasts can see Livingstone’s Turaco, Bearded Robin, and many other elusive forest birds. The Golden Banded Forester, a butterfly experts would follow to the ends of the earth, is flitting around here in virtual anonymity. The beach from Ponta Do Ouro to Malongane was ripped up by 4x4’s in the past, but because of the threat to the turtles who have laid their eggs on this beach for centuries, the area has become protected and only a limited stretch of beach can be used to launch the boats.
Another highlight was Halo Gaia with their drumming workshop and a Sound Journey - an hour of heavenly sounds from Jewish harps, to Tibetan gongs, to Digareedoos to mbiras and interspersed this with Tibetan chants and singing. It was awesome to lie on your back and let the music wash over you, blending in with the sounds of the bushbabies, francolins and the crashing waves.
Ponta Malongane is a spectacularly beautiful place and has an adventure for everyone on its shores. For the nature lovers, visit when the camp is quiet and you will experience the tranquil beauty of this place. Anybody wanting the spiritual connection with sea creatures should definitely book a break with Halo Gaia and tap in on Courtney Hofinger’s unique energy (and hope your skipper is not on an adrenalin rush). If you want the buzz of lots of people, constant activity and parties visit Ponta Malogane over peak season when 650 guests have the park bursting at the seams. On our last morning, looking out into the bay, we spotted the dolphins in the waves, dancing and leaping through them. This phenomenal parting gift had us all applauding as the dolphins whizzed off for their next adventures in the bay of Malongane
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www.pontamalongane.co.za
(Text and Photographs by Lisa Martus)
27 May, 2008 | administrator | Leave comment - 0 -
Xenophobia! Fight and Die Far From Home!
Okay, so i think to describe the brutal horror that many foreigners are living in our neighbor South Africa we should start with the basics, what is Xenophobia??? - Well, did some Google research and found a nice description in Wikipedia that i would like to share it with you.
"Xenophobia is a fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people. The term is typically used to describe a fear or dislike of foreigners or of people significantly different from oneself."
Ok so in the Township of Alexandria case, we can mold this and remove the fear to add words like "horror", "inhumane", "terror", "unreal", "killing" - to name a few.
There was a spate of attacks against foreigners in South African townships in May 2008. The attacks originated in the township of Alexandria which is an impoverished suburb in the city of Johannesburg.
Social tension is high, because of the influx of foreigners into South Africa in recent years, most notably 2–4 million Zimbabweans (roughly a quarter of the population of Zimbabwe). The South African government seems unwilling or unable to enforce border control. In additions to the porous borders, the South African Department of Home Affairs –tasked with matters of immigration– are slow and inefficient at processing asylum seekers, creating many loopholes for unscrupulous immigrants who simply apply for refugee status in order to obtain the necessary permits to then work and move freely in South Africa. These foreigners are in direct competition for jobs and living space with the poorest citizens. Many incidents of crime are also blamed on these desperate foreigners. 22 Foreigners were reportedly killed in the attacks with roads barricaded and police battling with the protesters.
The weekend attacks come as the government tries to change South Africa's violent image ahead of the 2010 World Cup. South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world, recording an average of 50 murders each day.
12 people were killed, 200 people had been arrested on charges ranging from rape to robbery and public violence.
Police said the worst violence erupted after midnight Saturday (May 17) in Cleveland and other rundown inner city areas that are home to many immigrants. Two of the victims were burned and three others beaten to death. More than 50 were taken to hospitals with gunshot and stab wounds.
A South African man, who is unemployed, said, "Foreigners are taking our jobs and our wives," and blamed government for letting them into South Africa. "A lot them don’t have a passport but I am the one in jail," he said, pointing at the group of adults and children who sat among piles of suitcases and furniture outside the police station.
Who's right? How to stop a killing mob when they think all they're doing is fighting for better a chance in life? and those that go in search for better life in other country, what have they done wrong? Most blame the increase south african crime rates on foreigners, but why must the honest working people pay for others?
How many foreigners must die, get maimed or blinded before the authorities are jolted into some serious action?
It is time to take drastic measures against this scourge. Enough of the sweet words.
Compiled using the following sources: Wikipedia; The Times South Africa; Celean Jacobson report
20 May, 2008 | administrator | Leave comment - 0 -