Some thoughts

Not having taken any good pictures recently, I guess it is time to write a bit.

I seem to be spending alot of time worrying about the South African energy sector these days. South Africa is going through interesting times. The Western Cape is going through "load shedding"- which is basically just planned power cuts - and people are asking where South Africa's power for the next few decades of growth is going to come from. The organisation that I represent (REEEP) is getting involved in a lot of lobbying work down here - so I'm getting my share of meetings with bone-headed utility managers, ministry officials and all sorts of businessmen.

But enough work. Life is still good down here. I'm beginning to get more of a feel for the place. South Africa has a hell of a long way to go before becoming Mandela's rainbow nation, but it also isn't the crime capital of the world that many people paint it to be. The city centres are multi-cultural and multi-ethnic in a way that European cities can only dream of. The townships are far from the centres of crime and violence that is often protrayed by some South Africans and even travel guides. This is where the developed world is forced to live door-to-door with the developing world.

Europe is truly boring by comparison ;-)

Maurice

The office

The other South Africa

I was up in Jo'burg this week and, although I had little time to do much sight-seeing, I thought this picture from January was worth digging up again. This is a part of Soweto.

Working late

Day 0

Thanks for your comments people - also to Paddy (but wouldn't Raoul Duke be more appropriate than Alex Delarge?).

I'm off to the airport today. And yes, I will actually be coming back after 3 months. However, there is also a very good chance that I will return to South Africa again for longer.

I know you people like pictures, so here are some more (click on them, to see them in large). Also, the link on the right hand side of this page will take you to a server with a full collection of pictures from January.

If anyone wants to know what I will actually be doing (expcept for getting a nice even sun tan): I will be managing the REEEP (http://www.reeep.org/) office for Southern Africa for 3 months. This office is run by AGAMA (link on the right of this page).

Going South...

Hi people,

This is a small experiment with this new technology. Hopefully this will allow me to keep some of you people back in Europe informed about my travels and adventures in South Africa.


For those of you who don't know, I'm heading off to Cape Town on Tuesday to start on a 3-month assignement. It all looks very promising: beautiful country, great city, interesting work. But there is also still alot that remains to be sorted out- like accomodation.

I'll be working with a renewable energy company down there- helping with various tasks- but also with running a local office of an international renewable energy network.

Incidentally, I am also escaping a relapse of winter in Munich (see picture), for which Cape Town is perfect (it is late summer down there). The pictures further down the page are from my visit there in January (which was clearly successful from a professional as well as a personal point of view)

More news and pictures to follow soon....