Sunny Christmas to you all. Now online: audioreport ready for downloading in MP3-format…(click here)

Just finished radio report for a series of ‘forgotten stories’ for the Dutch public broadcast organisation Llink. Available on this site shortly.

Back in Kenya, busy doing the editing of a 15 minute radio report on Shell in Durban, South Africa. Meanwhile preparing other stories.

Working on a reports on Shell in Durban, South Africa. Arrived a few days ago in what a Kenyan like me would call the Western World. The usual shock when arriving. The last days I spent a lot of time talking with a lot of people who live under the smoke of the Engen refinery, a Shell and BP refinery (SAPREF) and the Mondi Paper factory. In the area thousands of people have more than average astma and other air polution related sicknesses. Anybody interested in the full story can

Good luck to the village of Haaksbergen in the Netherlands. They had a lot of power faillures last weekend due to bad weather conditions. The mayor was complaining that these things should not be possible in these times. Seen in a wider perspective, Haaksbergen in Netherlands is not that bad, I guess. Power faillures are still NEWS in Haaksbergen. Here in Nairobi people get used to power faillures, sometimes we have five a day. What might be news here is lack of water: the coming weeks Nairobians are advised to

Yesterday, I got a request from a friend. She wanted me to assist her with some money. Quite a normal question to seemingly rich people in Kenya. My friend’s son was to go into the forest for a month, together with more young boys and old men they walk, talk and sleep in the forest. During this ‘test’ the boys will be circumcised. After a month the nine year old comes out as a ‘man’. “Then I am not allowed anymore to send me to the kitchen for helping me”,

Rain is drizzling in small drops. Making my face feel cold and wet, moon looks down on a cold and sleeping Holland. Seen from space, earth is very tiny planet, i imagine. Sometimes I am surprised that we don’t have more wars on this planet with so many different people and so many different interests. Wish you all a good night or/and a good morning!

… but we don’t forget. Find a audio report here (Windows Media). Sorry you have to mis the introduction, but the man you will hear first is Peter Smerdon from World Food Program. Meanwhile I’ve arrived in Holland where terrorism and cultural integration same to be the most important news. Funny thing: whern I arrived at Schiphol Airport a few days ago, the first thing I saw was an advertising board in a Juice Bar with the text Mix Orange and Banana. Nothing special for most of the international clientele:

Woke up with coffee and the news about money shortage for the relief operation of the Asian earthquake. I thought there were (and are) still millions of tsunami-euro’s and dollars that can not be spent, because they do not know how to spend them? Just back from Malawi: they got a shortage of relief money overthere as well to save the lives of 5 million people that are facing hunger within a few moments if nothing is being done. ‘Only’ tens of millions of dollars are needed….

In Malawi at the moment for reports on food, or more the lack of food if nothing can be done. Visited the Southern part of the country. It is dry the land is prepared but has no seeds.