Kevin vs. the Poachers

Last month my youngest cousin, Kevin Langergraber, found himself forced to protect the chimpanzees he was studying from poachers and their dogs. The story was covered by The Atlantic, and it's harrowing reading. I'm glad Kevin is okay and that he managed to save most of the chimps, but I know he's agonizing over the ones killed. A senseless tragedy. 

Oranges & Iron

In a conversation with Jeff about the intrinsic hilarity of throwing up (don't ask), I was distracted by a turn in the discussion and came up with a cool new adventure story for Paranoid Productions:

O R A N G E S & I R O N

In Oranges & Iron, ambitious industrialists are on the verge to completing the fabled Cape to Cairo railway. As part of the festivities, a massive shipment of Capetown Oranges will travel via the new railway to the citrus-starved denizens of Cairo.

But not everyone is sanguine about the new line, a product of European imperialism, an iron scar carved into the spine of Africa against the wishes of that continent's people! Fierce Bantu tribesmen and scurvy Indian Ocean pirates plan to sabotage the shipment for reasons both noble and nefarious. Against this backdrop of colonial conflict, our heroes struggle to survive the nearly 6,800 km journey!

Characters would include the dashing but villainous robber baron, the fiendish orange grove owner, an Egyptian merchant prince, a young Bantu warrior, the plucky railroad engineer (a woman), a British debutante on her first train journey, her fretting governess, a German spy, the conflicted pirate first mate and his cruel captain (and assorted scurvy dogs), the stalwart but harsh sailors of the British frigate HMS Recalcitrant, an 8 year old stowaway rascal, and Tarzan.

There would be a crate of hand grenades fashioned to look like oranges; the pin would be disguised as a pair of leaves growing from the "navel" of each "orange." At one point, the stowaway rascal will toss a faux orange into the confused hands of a pirate attacking the train. After the orange/grenade blows up in the villain's face, the boy will exclaim "Orange you glad you experienced that explosion of flavour?"

I think it could be a winner. 

From Cairo to Cape

Ever since I first heard about the concept, I've been fascinated by the never-completed Cape to Cairo railway project. Today, on a whim, I decided to see if it's theoretically possible to drive from Cairo to Cape Town, and to my surprise Google Maps claims the feat is indeed possible, though it would take a staggering 165 hours to complete the nearly 11,000 km journey.

Of course that assumes you can get all the travel visas you need and have an incredibly durable vehicle that can make it through the many unpaved sections, not to mention river crossings. I think I'd probably only want to do this in a custom iteration of the Batmobile. I imagine it would be a spectacular trip, though.

Out of Africa

Tonight Sean and I met up with Mom and Dad in Leduc to see my Mom's sister Jean and her husband, John. Aunt Jean and Uncle John recently returned from a trip to Uganda, where their younger son, my cousin Kevin, is studying primates. You can see some of their adventures at this blog, maintained by Kevin's friend Jim.

Aunt Jean is a painter, and I asked her to pose next to her Charlie Chaplin painting - one of my favourites, since Chaplin is one of my favourite directors.I wonder she'd paint Chaplin as The Great Dictator for me - it's probably the Chaplin film I admire most.

Aunt Jean and Uncle John had some pretty fascinating stories to tell about their time in Africa; Aunt Jean spent some time painting landscapes and willing Ugandans, while Uncle John accompanied Kevin tracking chimpanzees. One of their guides could recognize over 60 chimps by their voices - a pretty amazing feat!

The Globe and Fail

Here's an interesting question from yesterday's Globe and Mail: where should Canada's foreign aid efforts be focused? Hmmm, let's see...the Americas...well, I don't know, does North America really need foreign aid? Maybe they mean Haiti.

South Asia...developing economies, sure, Bangladesh is in rough shape...

The Middle East...aren't they rolling in oil cash and military aid already?

Eastern Europe? I suppose they're poor compared to Western Europe...seems like there might be poorer countries somewhere on the planet, though...

Hey wait a minute...there's something missing from this list, I just can't put my finger on it.

Oh wait...WHAT ABOUT AFRICA? The most impoverished continent? The one with the poorest nations by far?

Coincidentally - or not - this poll ran right next to an opinion column by Campbell Clark extolling the virtues of Stephen Harper's "America First" foreign aid strategy. Now, there may be merits to Clark's argument; there may even be merits to Harper's strategy. I haven't examined the issue at all. But it does seem awfully manipulative to limit the polling choices like this - almost as if they're looking for a particular result. And speaking of the results...

Gee, what  a surprise. That's the liberal media for you, I guess!

They Say They Want a Revolution

I was earning my political science degree at the University of Alberta when the peoples of eastern Europe rose up in a wave of protest to overthrow their dictators. Events quickly rendered our textbooks obsolete, and professors had to rework their lesson plans to fit the new context. One of my professors was of Latvian descent, and I still remember his overwhelming joy and excitement when he talked about the peaceful Singing Revolution in the Baltic states.

It was an exciting time to be a student, a time when the Utopian visions of my beloved science fiction novels seemed within reach. But even as eastern Europe became freer, similar protests were crushed in China. The road to a better world was, as always, fraught with danger.

Now the peoples of north Africa are rising up in search of a better life. No one can say whether the dreams of Tunisians, Egyptians, and Algerians will be fulfilled or swept aside. But I find it heartening that humanity is now witnessing yet another wave of relatively peaceful political change.

Is there such a thing as a secular prayer? If there is, then I offer up my hopes for the people of north Africa, and for the rest of us, too; one day, if we are wise and very lucky, all the peoples of Earth will work together to gradually build a civilization of perfect justice, prosperity and freedom. That civilization is a long way off, but today, it seems, the people of north Africa are doing their part to create it.

Mad Science in the Dark Heart of Africa

A friend of one of my cousins has started a blog named las aventuras de don ernesto. Aside from some excellent photographs of the nature and wildlife of Africa, the blog features my cousin Kevin Langergraber, a primate molecular ecologist attached to the Max Planck Institute. If you scroll through the photos, you'll see my Uncle John, Kevin's father, grinding a rail; here's a photo of Kevin himself doing the same thing.