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Aboreal Eugenics
During a recent visit to Eswatini, while temporarily lost and in the middle of a forest I thought I’d never get out of, I remembered Tato, one of my protagonists in Future Imperfect (soon to be published 😊), when he described commercial tree plantations as arboreal eugenics. Of course, I agree, but then again, wood is an important resource, useful for many things and renewable because you can plant new trees after the old ones have been cut down – a veritable virtual circle.
Future Imperfect – Meet Tato
Bridge Books
Underground Bookseller Tour
There are more than 60 booksellers in Johannesburg of all types, some most of us wouldn’t even think of and not all of them ‘bookshops’ in the way most of us would expect. But wherever they are, those booksellers prove that a high percentage of Johannesburg’s population are big readers. The tour explains how books move through the underground economy and reveals the history of bookselling in Johannesburg, from the first black-run library, through the days of censorship and book burning, to how readers today find books in inventive ways. I saw booksellers in street markets, a Nigerian importer, and books in a spaza shop, next to the bread. We also heard about how Bridge Books started, another incredible story you’ll have to find out for yourself.
Continue reading “Bridge Books”TEDx Johannesburg COUNTDOWN 2023
Action on climate change.
What a privilege to be a very small part of the TEDx team, but even more to be there on the day and to speak with some of the most influential thinkers and game-changers. I snatched an interview with some of them where I could, not always in the best place in terms of location and their limited time, but each one had something radically important to say.
Continue reading “TEDx Johannesburg COUNTDOWN 2023”Rotarians in Eswatini – not as strange as it seems
There are a lot of things I’ll NEVER do. One is eating meat. Another is learning how to use a gun and the other, I thought, was becoming a Rotarian, but never say never because I’ve just attended DISCON, the annual conference for District 9400 with 200 other Rotarian delegates from Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Eswatini. It’s not often you can talk to so many nationalities without moving more than 10 metres.
Continue reading “Rotarians in Eswatini – not as strange as it seems”Consumer Power!!
This video is about the link between fossil fuels and plastics and how we as consumers can snap it … if we care enough.
My Little Plastic Footprint app
My Little Plastic Footprint is an app that helps you reduce your plastic consumption by going on a plastic diet. Reduce your plastic usage and choose sustainable alternatives. Download it onto your phone today! Here’s a short video to show you how it works and why you should use it.
More than just numbers
One thousand people. Thirty-plus kilometres of river. Fifteen locations. Nine tons of waste removed. A precis of All Spruits Cleanup day — Johannesburg’s contribution to World Cleanup Day 2022. After glibly offering yet another numerical response, it occurred to me that while statistics seem to be the only truths we have in a vast sea of lies, even those figures, however accurate, conceal a different story.