Marlon's a marvel

In the second cricket test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham the West Indies were on the rack at 136/6 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul,  in my opinion the best batsman in the world, already out. Then for the next 42 overs Marlon Samuels from Jamaica and Darren Sammy from St Lucia made the highest score ever for the seventh wicket at the ground and they're still there. For ages cricket-lovers around the world have prayed that West Indian cricket would rise again. I'm a big fan of the idea that the wheel goes around and the pendulum swings back but the long slide of Windies cricket has put the theory to a very stern test! There have been signs recently that mean reversion may be starting and yesterday's fightback was a marvel to behold. Chanderpaul, born in Guyana, consistently makes runs batting for a team where no one else has. It's one thing playing in a side where a number of players can step up to the plate when needed but Shivnarine has had to do it on more or less on his own. South Africans are watching this series with interest as we are next, with a tour to England starting in July. This will be a battle for No. 1 in the test cricket arena. I'm in two minds about the West Indies tour: on the one hand I'd love to see the Windies return to their best, on the other I'd like England to win easily so they get a bit overconfident. The QSL is for a utility test loop transmission from Jamintel, Kingston, Jamaica using a 1kW transmitter and heard on shortwave, upper side band. 

A Chile wave hits Quebec

Quebec has reacted to student protests against fee increases by passing an emergency law. It restricts demonstrations and imposes fines on protesters who block students from going to classes - up to $35000 for student leaders. Some of the demonstrations have turned violent, with Molotov cocktails being thrown. The name Molotov cocktail was coined by the Finns as an insulting reference to the Russian foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov at the time of the Russian invasion of Finland in 1939 which ultimately cost Finland  11% of its territory. (And the same Molotov of the eponymous Molotov-Ribbentop non-aggression pact between Russia and Germany in 1939). The quebecois student wave follows in the wake of extended demonstrations by students and high school pupils in Chile. The unrest has contributed to a precipitous decline in the popularity of President Sebastian Pinera. Following the dramatic San Jose mine rescue in 2010 his rating has plunged from 63% to just 26% recently. In the UK university fees for citizens have risen sharply. They were first introduced at 1000 quid p.a. in 1998 and recently have rocketed from 3000 to 9000 pounds. Foreign students in the UK pay much more - closer to 14000 quid. There are two forces at work here. One is the dissatisfaction that many feel about economic inequality - a narrow elite with unfair advantages. The other is the raw fact that the welfare state has become unaffordable. The QSL is from Radio Presidente Balmaceda in Santiago using 10kW on 31mb and heard in Cape Town in 1969. Tucked away behind the Andes, Chile is not easy to hear on AM and harder to QSL.

Darling, there's a trawler blocking the view

Japanese-registered trawler Eihatsu Maru ran aground on 1st beach Clifton over the weekend. 1st beach is prime territory in Cape Town, with apartments along the shore selling for the most of any properties in the city. The water at Clifton is cold but all four main beaches have good body surfing. You go in, catch a wave and then bake in the sun for a minute - fantastically invigorating. Luck was on the sailors' side as the boat ran aground on a sand-bank, avoiding the many scatterings of rocks located along that part of the coastline. Most of the crew were evacuated although the captain remained on board with his dog. I guess the dog went along with the plan, as dogs usually do! Local rescue teams sprung into action with NSRI boats from Table Bay and Bakoven quickly on the scene. Later a tug from my village of Simonstown, on the other side of the Cape Peninsula, arrived to attempt to move the trawler off. Many boats have come a cropper along that side of the coast, often pushed onshore by the strong north-westers that create such good surfing conditions for land-lubbers like me. The Eihatsu Maru is fairly old, first registered in 1985. Its engines are apparently in running order so it seems it lost its way in fog. It's amazing with modern nautical navigation systems that this can happen. Here's a link to the tug Smit Amandla pulling Eihatsu Maru off the beach http://sawdis1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/eihatsu-maru-pulled-off-clifton.html The QSL is from two Japanese AM stations, JOGO 1485 and JOGR 1233, heard on a business trip to Seoul, Korea in 2000, with a sweet letter from Reiko Sasaki, who worked at the station.

Message from the Dutch bottle

Political drama every day in Europe. We are about to see a new president in France, while in Greece the traditional parties have shrivelled in the polls as austerity bites. The Dutch government of Mark Rutte was taken down by Geert Wilders. Here in the UK the Conservative-LibDem alliance was pummelled in local elections. Blond politicians to the fore, with Boris Johnson of the scruffy blond locks edging home to another win as London mayor. I vote for Bozza just because he's entertaining, although I think he's actually been quite effective, after a chaotic start to his first term. Wilders' blondness comes out of a bottle and although he's an attention-grabber he's a bit too off the wall for me. Both Wilders and Rutte are youngsters, still in their 40s. With 'fringe parties' on the rise in many parts of Europe, ongoing negative market buzz is never far away. The latest wheeze is to implement growth strategies to offset the austerity fatigue. Europe is chipping away at the edges. What we need to see is still greater shrinkage of the state. Governments the size of Europe's are simply unaffordable. The public sector is not suited to the creative destruction necessary for a dynamic economy. I've been saying that we'll look back in five years and be surprised how Eurozone has progressed. But a little flutter inside worries me: that too little is being done to reduce the bureaucracy and free up economies. The QSL is from Radio 10 Gold, the AM hits station in Holland, heard in London in 1995 but also audible in South Africa at the time.