This piece assesses Oz's downfall and how we can prevent going the same way

http://bit.ly/ebtsgj

Proteas can learn from fall of play Down Under
Dec 9, 2010 1:23 AM | By FRANK HEYDENRYCH
By every empirical measure, Australia have collapsed as a cricketing power. No1 for decades, they are now No5 and heading for No6 in the world rankings.

South Africans must reflect on the lessons England and Australia have learned. Here are five lessons South African cricket should heed:

* South Africa needs a strong and competitive domestic infrastructure. Australia's has collapsed. It used to be the feeder of the great Australian team, and grade cricket was the feeder for state cricket. Both are fading, a consequence of lifestyle change and competition from other sports.

* Your A team is a benchmark for future strength. Time was when our selectors played around with the A team, picking players who were not on the next taxi out of the rank. The A team is serious stuff. A decade or so ago the Aussie A team was as potent as the Test team. "World" series featured Australia, Australia A and England, and the final was always between the two local teams. A South African A team could feature Jacques Rudolph, Dean Elgar, Andrew Puttick, JP Duminy, Ethy Mbhalati and the like. Is the South African A team strong enough? More importantly, how does the B team look? The Test team is only as good as the pressure it faces from the next XI in line.

* Fire selectors if they are incompetent. There's no doubt Andrew Hilditch and his Australian selection committee are the least competent in the world. There is also no doubt that Geoff Miller has created a settled, dependable and predictable selectorial environment in England's selection committee.

* Plan and plan again, with the right coach and captain in place. England had their Test team settled in July. Australia had theirs settled the day before the first Test. Andrew Strauss programmed Mitchell Johnson's bowling into a new-generation bowling machine and faced it for four months.

* Build succession into the system. Ricky Ponting is out of form, strategically, and tactically inept, and presiding over the worst deterioration of any Australian team. But there is no one to replace the hapless 35-year-old, just as there is no one to replace Simon Katich, whose career ended this weekend.

Can anyone fix Ponting's shambles, and can South Africa ensure it does not go down the same road?

One heck of a carbon footprint to fight climate change

http://bit.ly/ehxJpT

You have to admire the climate change dogooders who will descend on Durban at the end of this year, all 10 000 of them.

Last year Cancun, this year, Durban. Gee, how they suffer for their conscience.

We have some idea of what kind of carbon footprint this conference will generate, given what happened in Cancun last year.

The estimated carbon footprint for Durban will be 30 000 tonnes. This is the same as a typical Western village of 4 500 people, or 240 000km in a diesel car.

http://bit.ly/eObJGi

http://bit.ly/gx52Tq

Now, let's look at the effectiveness of Cancun and its precursor, Copenhagen, which attracted 45 000 climate changers. The simple fact is that neither conference generated remotely the change that was reported, as countries like India and China which are the greatest polluters will not be bound by climate change resolutions. Their economic growth is much more important to them.

Then, let's look at Durban's eco record, one of the very worst in the world:

• massive greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to SA’s emissions of CO2 per unit of per person GDP being twenty times worse than even the US,

• regular fires, explosions, and devastating oil pipe leaks,

• the world’s highest recorded school asthma rates (Settlers Primary) and a leukemia pandemic,

• extreme capital-intensity in petro-chem production and extreme unemployment in surrounding communities,

• a huge new pipeline to double the oil flow from Durban to Johannesburg (already two children were killed after falling into unprotected trenches), and

• an old airport earmarked for expansion of the petrochemical, auto and shipping industries.

http://www.counterpunch.org/bond11222010.html

Yup, Durban is going to be a lulu!

Durban prepares for climate conference
Jan 26, 2011 1:22 PM | By Sapa
More than 10,000 rooms for visitors have been "blocked" in Durban for the United Nations' Climate Change COP17 conference, to be held in the city at the end of this year, an official said on Wednesday.

Briefing Parliament's environmental affairs portfolio committee, environmental affairs deputy director-general Joanne Yawitch told MPs that the coastal city was ideally suited to cater for the large numbers of foreign dignitaries the international event would attract.

"Durban was identified as the host city largely because it has the biggest [convention] facility in the country... enabling us to hold the conference in one place.

"[The city] has, through its convention bureau, blocked over 10,000 rooms, and the tenders have gone out... in order to appoint someone to manage the accommodation," she said.

The first meeting of a logistics committee would be held early next month, as well as meetings in Durban to discuss "issues related to finance".

A UN delegation was set to visit South Africa in mid-February to discuss "issues related to the logistics" of managing the event.

The legacy of last year's Soccer World Cup "puts us at quite an advantage", Yawitch said.

A lot of work had been done already around setting up broadband infrastructure and facilities for the media.

"This will make the job of the people organising the conference quite a lot easier."

Last year's climate conference, COP16 in Cancun, Mexico, had been used by the Mexicans as an opportunity to "showcase" their country.

It was important South African did the same, she said. A series of stakeholder meeting would be held in this regard.

COP17 will take place in Durban's International Convention Centre from November 28 to December 9.

Happy memory of Sutherland

Karen and I were married in Sutherland, a place with which we have a lifelong bond. Given the terrible events of the last fortnight, I thought I'd share a pic harking back to happier times. Context: dawn, I'm up early, there's a windmill-filled dam outside our bedroom. This is the reflection in the dam.

Do we have free will?

As a young(er) man, I read the entire anthology of Leon Uris. I was struck by how seemingly good people could commit the most terrible acts, and then return to their suburbs as pillars of society. I estimated that of every 100 people I knew, some two thirds would do these terrible deeds. This was corroborated by my time in the army (1976 to 1978). This study confirms what I expected, and shows that of every 500 people in Linbro Park, 390 would be prepared to kill each other. The obvious jokes aside, this is a frightening thought.

This study is chilling, and forms part of a new BBC series. Do keep an eye out for it when it hits our shores, or buy it it at Look & Listen.

Some chilling excerpts: "how easy it is to make ordinary people do terrible things, that 'evil' often happens for the most mundane of reasons."

"Yet Bill, like 65 per cent of the volunteers, gave an apparently lethal electric shock when told to do so."

"humans have a tendency to blindly follow orders, if they are presented in a plausible fashion by someone who is apparently in authority."

"we are 'puppets controlled by the strings of society'."

This is a summary of the BBC programme:

http://bit.ly/gF6s9R

And here's the link to the actual article, and ask yourself: Are you among the two thirds who go with the flow, or the third who don't?

http://ind.pn/ibqRh5

Freakish weather: while the US and Europe shiver, the Arctic is balmy

I was in Madrid when the temperature was above 45. Surreal ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/science/earth/25cold.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22

Pic taken in 2005 on a trip to the south of France

St Paul de Vence truly one of the world's greatest places. This pic taken looking out to the sea from a cemetery.

A flashback to 2005 ...

Karen and I went to Cape Town and were walking along Long Beach before breakfast when we came across stable hands exercising their horses in the surf. The Sentinel is to the left.

Shane Watson of Oz goes home to see the floods

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/watsons-heartbreaking-homecoming-i-never-expected-to-see-that-level-of-devastation-20110122-1a0iq.html

This article published in The Times 18 February 2008

WHAT WOULD A BLACK TEST TEAM LOOK LIKE?

by FRANK HEYDENRYCH
Two notions have clung tenaciously to life in South African cricket,
and both deserve to be euthanased. The one is that black people don't
play cricket; the second is that cricket is not being transformed.
For the purposes of this article, the term "black" will be chosen to
embrace all players who are not white. This is important, as it is
absurd to think of a freckled Herschelle Gibbs as black - just as
Makhaya Ntini is demonstrably black.
I thought I would shoot these two theories full of holes by selecting
a South African Test and ODI team without a single white player.
What this will show is that the momentum towards a black-dominated
cricket playing structure is under way. Much needs to be done still,
but more on that in a moment. For now, here is an "all-black" Test
team:

Herschelle Gibbs, Alviro Petersen, Henry Davids, Hashim Amla, Ashwell
Prince (captain), JP Duminy, Vernon Philander, Thami Tsolekile,
Alfonso Thomas, Makhaya Ntini, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

This team would not disgrace South Africa at all. It would be highly
competitive, and it would have a variety to it currently lacking in
the South African Test team, in that it would have a left-arm pace
bowler in Tsotsobe; vigorous all-rounders in Philander and Thomas; the
leading run-scorer in the country in Davids; a man averaging 50 at
first-class level in Duminy; and an experienced core in Gibbs, Amla
and Prince.

What's as exciting is the South African A team, again chosen only from
"black" players. Look at this lineup and it's perfectly evident that
transformation has taken root:

Goolam Bodi, Loots Bosman, Ahmed Amla (captain), Justin Ontong, Robin
Peterson, Rory Kleinveldt, Athenkosi Dyili (wicketkeeper), Tandi
Tshabalala, Monde Zondeki, Charl Langeveldt, Sinethemba Mjekula

There is no room in either squad for such exciting players as Jonathan
Vandiar, Saidi Mlongo, Ethy Mbhalati, Farhaan Behardien, Imraan Khan,
Yusuf Abdullah, Alan Kruger and many other authentically quality black
players.
Now, to the other issue to which I alluded: schoolboy cricket is awash
with quality black players. Nobody argues this point. But somewhere
between the ages of 17 and 20 these young players disappear. It's
clear what happens: as good cricketers, they are looked after by the
system: kit, accommodation, food, clothing, emotional support. This
typically ends at school leaving age, and so young cricketers are
forced to confront the reality of survival in currently disadvantaged
families.
So they move on, leaving behind what had looked like a promising
cricket career. Deal with this issue, and we'll deal with the mandates
of transformation.
And we can stop making transformation Mickey Arthur's job.

Pat Buchanan calls the US-China spat spot on

http://townhall.com/columnists/PatBuchanan/2011/01/21/how_the_chinese_must_see_us

One of those canine moments you have to share ... Thursday afternoon 20 January 2011

Quite the most wonderful piece on Dale Steyn

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/497468.html?CMP=NLC-DLY