Chennai Chess Championship chomps calories

'...AND ANAND MOVES HIS BISHOP TO E6, OH MY, CROWD GOES WILD!!!' The World Chess Championship is under way with Magnus Carlsen scoring the first win in the 5th game of 12 to take a 3-2 lead. He will be on his way to becoming the greatest ever if he defeats Viswanathan Anand, although Kasparov and Fischer are still widely seen as los supremos. The organisers have tried to stir up a media storm and may yet succeed but it seems unlikely that the characters will inspire the public imagination like the eccentric Bobby Fischer or even the politically savvy Kasparov. Carlsen and Anand are just too normal while the cold war, which provided the backdrop for Fischer and Kasparov, is over. For all those chess buffs out there this is a chance to burn up some extra calories without leaving their seats. You can watch live and compute your version of the multiple combinations before the players actually commit. Do you in fact burn more calories when you think hard? The jury is out on this. It seems the brain chugs along most of the time, burning about 20% of our energy. But it's not certain that you consume more gas when you're trying to beat Larsen at his own game. One thing we do know is that brain is still some way ahead of machine. Sure, Deep Blue beat Kasparov in 1997 but, despite the exponential options thrown up in chess, the process is still essentially mechanical. Massive supercomputers like the Titan in Tennessee are probably only around 1/50th as efficient as a human brain. The Titan fills a house-sized building, while the brain is the size of a spanspek, yet makes far more computations. The QSL comes from Radio WKPT, Jonesborough, Tennessee. The station, using just 5kW was heard in Johannesburg in 1993. The station president sent best wishes for SA just before democracy in 1994.

FARC spark into politics

A malachite sunbird flits down onto our little sugar-water bottle, sips quickly, looks up and scans, sips again. That stuff is so sweet! But then the balance between sweetness and caution becomes too great and it zips away. It's all about how much to give up to get what you want. Peace seems to be breaking out all over the place. In the same week, we read of Iran and the US trying for a preliminary deal on Iran's nuclear programme, while in Colombia the rebel group FARC is talking with government about renouncing war for politics. Naturally, sceptics abound on all sides. No doubt Iran is hurting after tough sanctions have knocked back its oil exports and cut access to international banking networks. In Colombia the government has pursued a vigorous military campaign against FARC for many years, severely clipping its wings. Ex-president Alvaro Uribe, whose earlier clamp-down on FARC has ultimately led to this peace process, opposes any deal. Many remember the thaw a decade ago which FARC cynically used to regroup and relaunch its programme of kidnapping, terror and drug dealing. Deal-making is complicated. Both sides must get some of what they want and but neither can get most. Somewhere in between is a medium, not necessarily a happy medium, but one that can work. The alternative of continued conflict is lose-lose but often the sad outcome of failure. Colombia is one of my favourite economies with a steady record of good growth, low inflation and solid management. A deal with FARC would most likely reinforce this despite the sceptics. The QSL is from Radio Fantasia, heard on AM in Johannesburg in 1986, one of a small handful of Colombian AM stations I've verified.

All Black is the new green and gold

Some times I wouldn't mind being a New Zealander. Then, when the All Blacks run on the field against the Springboks I could support them without any feelings of guilt. Patriotism is a heavy burden. Born out of subliminal radiation right from the cradle and nurtured by shared experiences of time and space, it has a hold on you that's hard to snap. Many frown on those who attempt to break it. To illustrate how pervasive it can be, I still have these nostalgic moments when hearing the old SA national anthem, Die Stem, and seeing the old SA flag because they hark back to early morning trumpet reveilles in the army - a place I didn't want to be, doing something I didn't want to do - in the old South Africa. Living abroad shifts the patriotic dimension. Once you've resided outside of your homeland for a while your links with home become more tenuous. Many emigrants we know talk of how they are never quite sure anymore where they'd rather be. This is not as disturbing as it sounds. Actually it makes life richer to know that you're also rooted in another place far away. But going back to New Zealand, they just play a more inspired brand of rugby. It's all about speed, support and handling. Power is essential too but more to out-manoeuvre than to out-muscle. The Springboks are now trying to adapt to this technique but so far the Blacks have totally outplayed them. Bravo for trying but there's a long way to go. You always feel the temptation is there to fall back on the old up and under, which mostly just serves to give the ball away. The QSL is from Print Disabled Radio, heard in Sheigra in the far north-west of Scotland in November 1996 on the 75mb. This low-powered, 1 kW station, broadcasting from Levin, New Zealand,  was over 11000 miles away.

It takes two to Togo

Togo is just a little country in West Africa, sandwiched between Ghana and Benin. The president, Faure Gnassingbé took over from his father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, in 2005 after the latter's 38-year rule. So nothing too unusual there! In the news recently was Emile Edouwodzi N'Bouke, also know as The Boss (no connection with Bruce Springsteen). He was detained after a chunky 700kg of ivory was discovered in his shop in Lomé, Togo's port capital. Apparently there are only 60 elephants left in Togo so people are rightly indignant about ivory smuggling. Here in SA barely a week goes by without another sad tale about rhino poaching, which has become endemic. It seems the market for both ivory and rhino horn is mainly in Asia: ivory for jewellery and chopsticks, rhino horn for medicine to control fever and convulsions. Across the world in Japan is another Togo, the Togo Seisakusyo Corp., a company that dates back more than 150 years. It has survived earthquakes, typhoons, wars and asset bubbles but now sees itself under threat from Abenomics, which aims to restore inflation, in turn triggering a sharp decline in the yen. This small maker of springs for the giant Toyota motor corporation is struggling in an environment of a falling exchange rate and rising costs. While many are rejoicing at the commitment of Abe to pushing up Japan's nominal GDP growth rate, a host of small companies, which provide loads of jobs, are much less sanguine. The QSL is from Radio Togo, heard in Cape Town on 60mb way back in 1968. Many of the Francophone stations produced these attactive cards.

555 5th Avenue to Freedom Tower, come in Freedom Tower

With a few hours left in NYC I took a stroll down 5th Avenue. You could bankrupt yourself in all the designer stores crowded on both sides of the street. At least, book shops still appear to be thriving in Manhattan despite the advent of Amazon and I happened across a smart Barnes and Noble. (Sadly Gotham Book Mart - of 'Wise Men Fish Here' fame - closed in 2007). Just the ticket to pick up a copy of the forecaster's latest bible: Nate Silver's 'The Signal and The Noise.'  The store, well-stocked and well-staffed, on two levels, occupies the prestigious address of 555 5th Avenue. The number 555 has a high profile in a completely different context in the USA. For many years now US TV and other media have used it as a prefix for telephone numbers in series like Columbo and Monk, and many more. I always thought this was because the prefix was fictitious but 555 numbers actually do exist so there are probably people who get calls out of the blue from weirdos calling Mr Monk. Reminds me of phoning people randomly from the phone book when we were kids. When someone answered we'd ask 'Is that Mr xxx on the line?' If they answered 'Yes' we'd say 'Well you'd better get off the line the train's coming!' and crack up laughing before hanging up. So silly. Headed on down to the old World Trade Center site to see the new Freedom Tower which is nearly complete. Designed by Daniel Liebeskind, it's a soaring, sleak blue edifice, 1776 foot high, testimony to America's determination to rise from the lows of 9/11. Liebeskind was born in Lodz, Poland. The QSL is from Radio Poland, heard on longwave in Kent in 2004. 

Strolling Bones seersucker Sue surprise

In 1965 the Strolling Bones recorded 'Under Assistant West Coast Promo Man', a song written by none other than Nanker Pheldge. Who? Well Nanker was this name they used for songs that were composed as a group effort, when not just one or two members took the credit. Anyway, this song draws to an end with Jagger saying 'Seersucker suit' and 'Here comes the bus'. Years ago a bunch of us in Cape Town would go around and every now and again meaninglessly blurt out: 'Seersucker suit, here comes the bus.' In fact I thought it was 'Seersucker Sue' and it was a mystery as to the origin of this nonsense. One of us knew but he wasn't telling. So it was a huge surprise to find out that this song was the source. I've loved it ever since I first heard it nearly 50 years ago. I remember recording the 7-single onto a reel tape recorder using a microphone placed next to a radiogram, laboriously building a playlist for my big sister's party. The track was on the flipside of the great rock song 'Satisfaction', still at the top of classic rock playlists today. These days you can get your music fix in multiple forms: Spotify, Itunes, on a flash drive off a Brennan JB7, whatever. As the Stones progressed Jagger's pronunciation became more indistinct but in many of these early songs he comes through as clear as a bell and close up. The band's sound was pared down and uncomplicated. They started off just wanting to be the best r&b sound in town and ended up icons. The QSL relates to another satirical Stones song, 'Far Away Eyes', which starts off '...I was driving home early Sunday morning through Bakersfield...' The QSL is a sweet letter from the station manager at Radio KERI, Bakersfield, heard in Santa Monica, CA in 2004 on AM 1180.

Shock horror: Gambia, out of the Commonwealth!

Shock, horror! Gambia has declared it no longer wants to be a member of the Commonwealth. Just as the Queen's baton sets off on its 190 000 km journey around the world advertising the 2014 Commonwealth Games taking place in sunny Glasgow, Gambia has elected not to participate. Now Gambia is a small country. Of the mainland African nations it's right at the bottom, size-wise, measuring just 11300 square kms. That makes it even smaller than our tiny neighbours Swaziland (17k) and Lesotho (30k), which are themselves mere dots on the map. Gambia is ruled by President Yayha Jammeh, using a combination of mysticism and an iron fist, not known for his deep respect for human rights. He came to power in a military coup in 1994 and has since been elected president four times, one of Africa's 'sit-tight' rulers. His mystical powers also apparently include the laying on of hands to cure HIV, something not even SA's Thabo Mbeki would have countenanced. Gambia has a brutal colonial history: it is said that its borders were demarcated during the British Empire by a gunboat sailing up the river and firing its guns to each side. So President Jammeh might once have had a point about the Commonwealth's colonial legacy but it is rather outdated now. Nigeria was suspended for human rights abuses in the 1990s by the Commonwealth and Zimbabwe withdrew in 2003 for its own special brand of insanity. The QSL is from Radio Gambia, heard on medium wave (648 kHz) in 2000. It's just a personal card, from 'The Gambia', without any details, but it clearly states the word 'verify.' Good enough for me!

Zaha has Hadid with 3D printing

London's Design Museum has just had an exhibition of 3D printing and additive manufacturing. On show and in operation were a number of machines that looked like microwave ovens, producing various shapes out of extruded plastic. On the face of it there wasn't much to get excited about. From a design, created on the laptop computer alongside, the machines were somewhat painstakingly making little blue or red plastic crocodiles, the sort of thing you might find in a lucky packet or a box of breakfast cereal. Given the billing as 'The Future is Here' this all didn't really seem to measure up. But this is a technology that's already being used in the manufacture of aero parts and body organs. The Great Ormond St Hospital for children near Russell Square is home to loads of R&D which has already embraced the new tech. For example, researchers have designed and 3D-printed a replacement trachea for a small boy, grown a new trachea around it using stem cells, which in turn became a living organ as the plastic dissolved. This is only one of a host of such projects. As the costs of 3D printing fall and sophistication of the soft- and hardware increases, it will become increasingly ubiquitous. Much like the personal computer which was regarded as something of an oddity when it first appeared on the scene, this technology will within the next generation become a fixture in the home, changing the way we produce and consume things. Needless to say, today's factory is also likely to be revolutionised, with all the turmoil in labour relations that will entail. The Design Museum building itself has recently been acquired by Zaha Hadid, the new star of London's modernist architecture fraternity, born in Baghdad. The QSL is from Radio Baghdad, heard in Cape Town back in 1968 on the 31mb.

Indonesia a no-no? No.

Emerging markets are dropping like flies. They are become a dirty word. From hero to zero. Well not so fast but some of the glister has rubbed off of the high-flyers of the past decade. Just a couple of years ago everyone was talking about the 'Lula effect': how Brazil had transformed itself from seemingly perpetual disappointment to the paragon of the new world. Now it seems to have regressed back to its pedestrian 3% growth path of the past 20 years. India was another. Its economic growth was vying with China's: 8, 9 or even 10% was possible and India's vast 'demographic dividend' was going to embrace new technologies and catapult the economy into the big league within the next generation or two. But in recent years we have seen a dysfunctional political system squander the reforms of the 1990s and Indian growth has plummeted to around 4%. More recently, high-flying Indonesia has fallen foul of investors, stocks plummeted 20% and the top state pension fund had to step in to buy. Is it all over for emerging markets? Well, not really. Things did get a bit ahead of themselves. Money moves in herds and funds poured cash into these economies without really thinking. The emerging market crises of the late 1990s and early 2000s led to significant reforms but after that they have rested on their laurels somewhat. It's human nature. Then easy liquidity from central banks in the US, Europe and Japan hid some of the flaws but these are now being revealed as the cost of money starts to rise again. But it's not over for emerging economies. They still have big populations. low urbanisation rates and low incomes along with growing access to new technologies. They'll be back. The QSL is from Radio Republik Indonesia, Palembang, in southern Sumatra, heard in Morgan Bay in 1993. The station engineer kindly replied in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.

Gibraltar - the end of the world

Gibraltar has a long history and changed hands more than once. Neanderthals, Carthaginians, Phoenicians and Romans all had their time there. According to legend, Hercules, Superman of antiquity, smashed a gap through the Atlas Mountains, then at the end of the world, thereby connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and forming the Pillars of Hercules, of which the Rock of Gibraltar is one. There's a dispute about the other one. Now you'd have to say that both Britain and Spain are behaving as if it's the end of the world that they don't get their way with this tiny sliver of land at the southern tip of Spain. A day after a belligerent Spanish fishing boat armada advanced on the territory, the Royal Navy frigate, HMS Westminster, pulled in. Of course, it was only a routine visit, but then aren't they always in such circumstances? A concrete reef has now been laid alongside the airport runway to deter Spanish fishermen. These days the old pink on the maps of the Empire has shrunk to minute proportions but Britain continues to hold onto little dots like Gibraltar, the Falklands and St Helena/Tristan da Cunha. Suits me, they all count as separate radio countries! We spent a day there a few years back and enjoyed its mix of Brits, Spaniards and many other ethnicities, basking in the temperate climate. We too have our pics of the cute macaque monkeys jumping onto our shoulders with the Rock as backdrop. Britain has held the space since 1713 and despite the current spat looks likely to hold on for some time to come. The QSL is from Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation, heard on AM during a trip to Portugal in 2004: a little island of English-speaking radio in a sea of Spanish and Portuguese.

From Coast Guard chase to Nigerian thunder

A US Coast Guard cutter is visiting right here in Simon's Town naval harbour. Or it used to be a CG cutter, now it's part of the Nigerian navy. It has arabesqued from US CG cutter Chase into NNS Thunder, as of 2011. This Hamilton Class cutter was launched way back in 1967 in New Orleans and has a long pedigree of operations in the Vietnam war, Middle East and off the east and west USA coasts, at one point making the second biggest cocaine bust in Coast Guard history. Today the NNS Thunder and one of SA's corvettes have been criss-crossing False Bay on manoeuvres. I spotted them between waves at Muizies, glinting in the broken sunlight. The dust has still not settled from SA's big navy corruption scandal, involving the four state-of-the-art corvettes and three new submarines. The sad thing is that our navy is completely ill-equipped with the skills to manage these boats and few of them are ever at sea. The presence of NNS Thunder is a reminder that a much smarter move would have been for the navy to have acquired a fleet of smaller ships, of the type used by the US Coast Guard, to patrol coastal waters. The corvettes are way over-specced for our needs, to say nothing of the subs. You don't need over-the-horizon missiles to catch perlemoen poachers. On a more stylistic note, I also am not too fond of their light grey colour. A navy boat looks that much more threatening and convincing in dark grey. The Thunder's black and dark grey combo is the real thing. The QSL is from US Coast Guard in New Orleans, using just 1000 watts and an omni-directional vertical whip antenna, heard in Johannesburg up on 8 mHz in 1989. The Coast Guard are among the best and friendliest QSLers around the world.

Blue Flag no guarantee against E. coli

Several days of strong winds had whipped up a big swell. I got to Muizies at 0830 and found a prime parking spot, guided by Charles Mbalanda, the car guard from Congo Kinshasa. Charlie tolerates my rudimentary spoken French, so we always have a little chat about the state of the world. Everyone knows him. He has permanent residence in SA but is still hassled by the police. Bigger waves are harder to catch and also tend to close out along the face. So I moved across into the Corner proper, just below the station where the rocks are. The reef tends to create wave peaks, allowing for more left and right rides. Paddling out was hard work and every now and again a big wave would pitch over just as I reached it, flipping me back in a somersault into the white water churn. Inevitably you swallow a bit of water as you roll around. True, Muizies is a Blue Flag beach but after heavy rains, winter stormwaters bring extra bits of untreated sewage. Once or twice in the past after a day of wipe-outs I've ended up with a spot of dysentery. Hopefully not this time. E.coli is E.coli but so far I haven't grown any extra digits or organs. It's not that I'm precious at all. Rather, I'm in the camp of those who believe that if you drop a bit of food on the kitchen floor you should have no compunction about picking it up and eating it. The best way to fight bugs is to build up a bit of immunity to them. In London we felt that parents were way too hygienic about their kids, many of whom seemed to get sick rather easily.  E. coli was discovered by the German pediatrician, Theodor Escherich, in 1881. He was born in Ansbach, not far from Nuremberg. The QSL is from the Bayerischer Rundfunk, broadcasting from Munich and Nuremberg and heard in Cape Town on AM way back in 1971.

Air Van men bewitched over Hex River Valley

We started to taxi down the long strip at 4.47pm and the little RV-7 was quickly airborne, rising rapidly. The control tower had been a little naughty, letting us go less than two minutes after a Mango Boeing 737 had departed. So we picked up a bit of turbulence and Matt soon banked off to the left, just a fraction before the tower instructed him to do so. Within minutes we were up at 2000 feet, with the Western Cape spread out magnificently below, heading north-east towards the Hottentots Holland hills, Cape Town's wine country. Beyond lay the snow-capped peaks of the Hex River Mountains, towering 2000 meters into the blue sky. It was a perfect winter's afternoon: virtually windless, sunny, cool and clear. We pushed up to 3000 feet, sending regular radio messages out to surrounding traffic about who we were and where we were going. Western Cape airspace is not busy like London's but we heard a few calls from other pilots nipping around the hills and valleys, enjoying the stunning flying conditions. The RV-7 is a tiny two-seater but very quick for its size. After warning me, Matt put it into a dive and we both rose in our seats with negative gravity, our heads brushing the perspex top of the cockpit. As we neared the snow peaks we climbed to 7500 feet and it grew much colder. The mountain tops looked bleak, white and pristine, snow glistening in the sun. Soon we were headed back towards Cape Town International airport and made a perfect touchdown. Matt had clocked up another hour in his training schedule. The Van's RV-7 plane is a kit aircraft made by Van's Aircraft in Oregon. The QSL is from KPNW, Eugene, OR, heard in Los Angeles in 1987. Pic shows the snow-covered Hex River Mountains.

Zimbabwe - it's the devil you know

I saw a bus marked Harare heading out of Simon's Town today. Not the capital of Zimbabwe but Harare in Khayelitsha, a sprawling Cape Town suburb. It was a reminder of how many Zimbabweans you meet here, to say nothing of the Congolese, Malawians and more. Years ago we had a gardener, quaintly named Million, who was originally from Plumtree in southern Zim. He actually had a permanent residence permit to live in SA, unlike many Zimbabweans who have simply skipped the border and found work. Speak to any Zimbabwean and he'll tell you that he'd love to go back. But not yet! So long as president Bob Mugabe is still there, raping and pillaging the economy, most would rather stay here, even if they do pine for home. Mugabe is set to become the only current state leader to have attained the ripe old age of 90, following his latest landslide victory in Zim's snap election. This really is a case of sticking with the devil you know.... Of course, there are emigrants all over the world who talk of going home and often don't. In London, we first became aware of the strong Polish presence in the late 1990s when big Polish newspaper bills started appearing outside local newsagents. Polish is now the second most widely spoken language. Afrikaans-speaking South Africans used to be few and far between. On the tube, you would hear them sharing all sorts of indiscretions about London, the Brits and all, secure in the knowledge that no one would understand them (or hardly anyone!) These days it's less common because there are so many more around. The QSL is from the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation, pre-independence, heard on 998 kHz medium wave in Cape Town in 1967. The beautiful Sable antelope adorns the card.

Many roads to Mecca

Saudi Arabian women may not drive cars and are supposed to cover up in black if walking in the street. Bikes for girls are frowned upon. Meanwhile a friend of ours was recently in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, meeting a trader in textiles. He required that she hang back three feet behind when walking through town. Last night we saw again the wonderful play by South African playwright, Athol Fugard, probably his best, put on by the Muizenberg Amateur Dramatic Society at the local Masque Theatre, just a few hundred meters from my favourite beach. It's called the 'Road to Mecca' and features two highly independent, clear-thinking women. One's an artist who conjures up a 'light-filled, glittering Mecca' out of her little home in a small South African village; the other is her best friend who teaches in Cape Town, hundreds of miles away. The irony of Miss Helen's 'Mecca' is that it is a holy place for her but a source of ridicule for the villagers around her. Its 'holiness' is not of the religious kind but a celebration of free thinking and creativity. It struck me that no woman in Mecca would dare and certainly would not be allowed to do what Miss Helen does. And at another level, such issues would never be aired on stage for general consumption. A society that treats its women so can only be poorer for it: masses of talent suppressed - not allowed to bloom and never discovered.  The lovely QSL card is from Radio Tashkent heard in Cape Town way back in 1968. In those days Communist countries had 100% verification records, no need to send return postage. 

Reelin' and rockin' with the Fed

Chairman Ben is doing a spot of game fishing. The fish has had a long run out to sea; time to put the brake on and start to reel it in. After the last Fed meeting, Bernanke made a hawkish statement about tapering the current bout of quantitative easing. Markets swooned. Bonds and equities sold off. The journos starting fretting about how banks were going to hit the wall as their bond holdings plunged. Then within 24 hours, Fed governors were on the stump, attenuating the message, insisting that they would not pull back too hard. This was echoed across the pond by Bank of England and European Central Bank officials . Almost immediately some analysts were saying markets had over-reacted. But Bernanke had achieved his objective. The first stage of  bond market normalisation was done. In due course, stand by for another tug on the line, just to remind us that the fish will eventually end up in the boat. Of course, despite the maxim, 'Don't fight the Fed', central bankers are not gods. In game fishing, sometimes the black marlin can end up sinking the boat. Sometimes you play out too much line, others you yank too much in. But the Fed has been very careful to accumulate a range of tools to scale back the huge liquidity bulge it has created since Lehman's went down. Stand by for more reelin' and rockin' and hope the fish is landed safely. Cairns in Queensland bills itself as the black marlin capital of the world. The QSL is from 4QD Emerald in Queensland, some way south of Cairns, heard in Morgan Bay on AM in 1987, 11000 km away.

How would Snowden manage Managua?

I once worked for a firm with an open plan office design and atrium from floor to roof, with glass lifts. We used to joke that management could watch our every move. "Employee number #3462, return to your desk immediately." Maybe it's  not so funny when you realise that Big Brother is able to track our phone calls, Facebook messages, Skype contacts and who knows what else, even if you live 1000s of miles away. Not that there really are ranks of analysts poring over our every :) text and holiday snap. Even so, Edward Snowden has a point. He has certainly polarised opinion, with some calling for him to receive a presidential pardon or even the Congressional Medal of Honour, while others berate him for breaking the law and oath of secrecy. But if you decide to become a whistle-blower you must first think about where you want to live. His preferred choice appears to have been Iceland but this didn't work because to apply for asylum there you actually need to be in the country. His choices have been whittled down to just three: Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. None are going to be that easy to get to from Moscow. He would probably find Nicaragua quite strange given he was brought up in North Carolina and appears to have no Latin American experience. Managua seems like quite a pleasant place as long as you stay on the right side of town but it's pretty hot and muggy especially in summer. Living there would surely put him in close touch with people who really dislike America. Daniel Ortega, the president, is a friend of Iran and supported Muammar Gaddafi. How to square that with Snowden's stand on human rights? (I need not mention the irony of Snowden's current sojourn in Moscow, where human rights are two dirty words). The QSL is one of my best:  a friendly letter from Radio Miskut in Puerto Cabezas on the Nicaraguan coast, heard in Kent in 1997, using just 1 kiloWatt. They were playing Jim Reeves songs which helped to compile the reception report. The Director of Operations, Evaristo Mercado Pérez, also kindly signed my self-made card and filled in the details.

Obama - here, in the Deep South

Five choppers suddenly loomed above Muizenberg, heading directly for us. I switched my radio to the civilian aircraft frequency and heard a quick communication between 'Night Hawk' and the Cape Town Airport traffic control tower. The choppers were moving much faster than aircraft usually do around Cape Town. They swooped down over St James and disappeared into the cleft in the mountain that joins Fish Hoek to Sun Valley. Obama was in town! Two days earlier the forward party had descended on the airport in the form of six C-17 Globemasters, which proceeded to disgorge the tandem rotor Boeing Vertol C-46 transport choppers and Sikorsky VH-60 Night Hawks. When we saw them, the choppers were going to none other than Masiphumelele, where Desmond Tutu has set up an HIV clinic, just around the corner from us. From there the Pres was just a stone's throw from Long Beach, Kommetjie, one of the best surfing spots in town. They could have popped out for a quick wave! Later on we saw a long cavalcade of cars, with blue lights flashing, whooshing down the Simon's Town road en route to dinner with President Zuma at Groote Schuur. The Pres, in Simon's Town, right by our house! They must have done a quick swing by Cape Point. After dinner he popped over the road to present to students at UCT. The speech was a bit cumbersome and far too long but Obama is an orator and impresses with his ability to talk off the cuff without notes. (Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9QWco281OA). He had memorised things like greetings in local SA languages (including 'How's it?') and the name of a big local township, Khayelitsha ("I'm still working on this", he quipped). Boeing Vertol's HQ was in Morton, Pennsylvania. The QSL is from WTKZ, Allentown, PA heard in 1996. In his friendly letter, the president, Arthur Holt, mentions his links with the old Swazi Music Radio as well as the pop music station, LM Radio in Mozambique, and the SABC.

There are Wally's and then again there are Wally's

Windguru forecast a northwester for Muizenberg but as it turned out the wind was about 60 degrees to the 'right' i.e. from the northeast, which is pretty unusual. This made conditions slightly choppy but with a big swell at the back and low tide this was neither here nor there. At Muizies you are hardly ever in the curl but you can race just a fraction ahead of the white water for long stretches if you pick the peak right. Waiting for sets I watched a magnificent rainbow over the Simonsberg, right above our house, with the full spectrum clearly visible, from ultraviolet to infrared. The air temp was 19 degrees - mid-winter, I ask you! As I was paddling back out after a ride, two surfers nearly collided, triggering an altercation. No longer the cool surfer dude, each thought the other guilty of hogging the wave and the one ended  up calling the other a Wally. This was meant as an insult. The word derives from Glasgow Scottish and refers to kids living in a 'wally close' and thus shielded from playing with the rougher kids on the project. And it's a derogatory term here, just as it became so in London.  But I thought of another Wally, the one with the stripey red and white shirt, bobble cap and glasses in "Where's Wally", the wonderful kids books by Martin Handford. If it had been me and I'd thought quickly enough (usually you don't) I might have said to the other guy, 'Hey thanks, Wally's a pretty cool guy.' Nerdy but cool. When our son was small we spent hours trying to locate this geeky little character in crowds on the beach, in fairgrounds and stacks of other places. Sometimes you'd spot him straight off, other times it would drive you mad that you couldn't find him among the loads of funny characters in the crowd. The QSL is from Northsound Radio in Aberdeen, east Scotland, heard on AM in Kent in 1996, using just 0.8kW. The engineer, Ken Hancock, sent a nice letter as well, mentioning that he enjoyed trading in listed stocks. Hope he didn't get burned in the crash!

No breeding in Ayn Rand

It's said "truth is stranger than fiction." If this means that stranger things happen in the real world than anyone can make up, then read The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand). With tributes to individualism and the human spirit I have no problem but do people really communicate like this and have such singularly little need of human company? The main characters are surely extremely talented souls but inter-communication is so perverse as to be utterly implausible. Many conversations are confrontational and often just plain obdurate. A keynote in the story is Dominique Francon's trial testimony where she insists that maverick architect, Howard Roark's temple be pulled down because it was 'casting pearls before swine' (swine being the human race, not capable of self-respect and exaltation). So she trashes all the other architects in the the courtroom. These are the leading architects of the day, all apparently living in the past and set up as straw men to be ridiculed. No matter that the book was published in 1936 and that some of the most iconic city pictures ever are of the New York skyline of the 1930s. Empire State and Chrysler were already up by 1931. When Rand arrived in Manhattan for the first time in 1925 she claimed to have wept 'tears of splendour' on seeing the silhouette. Is the human race really composed only of 'moles that object to mountain peaks'? I don't think so. The development of cities itself, all over the planet, is tribute to human ingenuity and creativity. Indeed, it's been a major catalyst for developing those traits. Leading characters, Roark, Francon, Gail Wynand (newspaper owner) and Ellsworth Toohey (humanist) are incapable of empathy. They pursue individualism at all costs. Wynand is particularly odious, as he destroys some people for no apparent reason at all. If society were truly composed of such dysfunctional characters it would, for one thing, find it very hard to propagate. Humans would simply die off for lack of breeding. No surprise then that Rand chose herself not to have children. Her view was that an individual's primary obligation is to achieve his own well-being. Shades of Adam Smith - society benefits from the individual's enlightened self-interest. No problem there. But Smith in the Theory of Moral Sentiments also talked of the happiness of others giving pleasure even though one derives nothing from it. That's balance. So The Fountainhead is a good read, full of archetypes but fiction that is stranger than truth. The QSL is from WNYW, New York, a popular station heard in Cape Town on short-wave way back in 1967.

Imran can't quite reverse swing Pakistan's polls

Last month's Pakistani elections saw the first democratic transition of power..... and the winner waaaas...... Nawaz Sharif, who ruled once before, was deposed by the army and sent into exile. To the outside onlooker it seemed that the most high-profile candidate was Imran Kahn, one of Pakistan's great cricketers. Many would agree today that Pakistan produces cricketers of flair and talent and, if it wasn't for its dysfunctional politics, could probably be at the top of the world cricket. Imran was the cricket captain who schooled the wonderful bowlers Sarfraz Nawaz and Waqar Younis in the miracle of reverse swing. Up till then conventional swing was produced by shining the ball vigorously on one side to make it move in the opposite direction. In the right conditions you could shift it a lot through the air even at quite low speeds. I remember at junior school, we had one bowler who conjured up such prodigious inswingers that a leg slip standing next to the wicket-keeper could take the ball. Reverse swing occurs when the ball is quite beat up and moves in the same direction as the shine, such as it is. It also requires more speed, in excess of 80mph is good. Imran bought this talent to the Pakistani election. He took on the established parties and created a media storm. But his reverse swing in politics was probably too elitist to make serious inroads into the popular vote. Maybe, if he's prepared to continue the grind of constructing a political party he may yet prove a winning force in the next election, if the army doesn't intervene again. The QSL is from Radio Pakistan, Lahore heard with a local broadcast on AM one sunset at Partridge Point near Simon's Town, sitting in a car and using a short antenna up in a cleft above the sea.

Ben and the Assets

The Federal Reserve has come in for loads of criticism. Having once been regarded as the world's #1 central banker, Alan Greenspan's name is now mud in many circles. Ben Bernanke is also panned by those same detractors. But as each quarter passes you see method in the madness. While many fret that the huge rise in the Fed's balance sheet can only lead to disaster, the US personal balance sheet continues to improve. The latest data for 1st quarter 2013 shows another 8% rise in real personal net worth, following 8% and 9% in the previous two quarters. Many have lambasted the US for debt excesses especially during the 2000s. But what most fail to remember is that debt has its counterpart on the flipside of the balance sheet. And while the US consumer has reduced its debt burden, personal assets have surged. Total assets are now at $84 trillion while liabilities are at only $13 trillion, having fallen steadily for the past 5 years. Housing and equities make up a big slug of those assets and it's fair to say that these do not look particularly overvalued right now. On a cash flow basis, the combination of low interest rates and falling debt has pushed the consumer interest bill down to a record low of 8.3% of income, compared to 12.8% before the credit crunch. Being a liberal economist I argue that too many distortions and vested interests in the US economy lay behind the original explosion of debt and the 2009 credit crunch. However, once that had happened the Fed's focus on rebuilding asset values has slowly but surely medicated the recovery. We may see the outlook for US consumers continuing to improve for several years. Ben Bernanke was born in Augusta, Georgia. The QSL is from WTEL, Augusta, operating  in the US AM x-band and heard in Kent in 2001.

Marion Island: Water, water everywhere and many drops to drink

South Africa has declared the area around Marion and Prince Edward Islands in the south Atlantic a marine protected zone. These two global 'biodiversity hotspots', over 2000 km south-east of Simon's Town, are home to many of the planet's remaining albatrosses as well as seals and penguins. It is quite likely that the mythical albatross shot with a cross-bow by the story-teller in Coleridge's wonderful "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" had a home on the island. Probably the best-known stanza  is: "Water, water everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink". This is somewhat strange as the area around the islands averages 94 inches of rain a year, about 3 times London! The poem in turn was probably inspired by one of Cook's voyages into the Antarctic circle looking for what was then still a fabled southern continent, only to be discovered 22 years after it was written. The total area covered is 180000 sq km, about the size of Uruguay and slightly bigger than SA's Eastern Cape province. The islands themselves are a teeny 335 sq km. The protection zone is supposed to be enforced by the fisheries patrol vessel Sarah Baartman. Aside from the question of how this little ship could realistically patrol such a gigantic area, it is currently holed up here in Simon's Town harbour with paint flaking off its bright red hull waiting to be repaired, along with a number of other SA Fisheries boats. Marion Island is named for the French explorer Marion du Fresne. The QSL is a telex from the South African base on Marion, using just 1 kW and heard in Johannesburg in 1985.

Red, red robin: quicker than dead

Saturday afternoon: stunning, with warm autumn sunlight radiating down. The sun's azimuth is low now, refracting off the marina water beneath into a myriad of tiny shimmering speckles, pointillist-style. A robin flits into the bush below our deck, barely visible under the leaves. Its little head jerks back and forth, triangulating its surroundings, looking for prey or predator. It reminds me of the 'quick and the dead.' I remember being taken as a schoolboy with the story in Judges of the three hundred soldiers who drank of the spring with cupped hands, while the others got down on their knees. These latter were sent home because they had exposed themselves to a surprise attack. Going to the supermarket is a bit like war, you need to be quick and sharp. Plan your list in advance and move through the store, methodically. Unlike the streets at least, the rule of the road is pretty flexible and there are no stop signs - you can just dart in and out. I like to take a little break from the mass of shoppers. You find in every supermarket quiet sections where almost nobody goes: shelves with the novelty knives, double-sided tape and pool chlorine. Then back out into the jungle for the final sally. On the way home I stopped in at Noordhoek to check the surf. The wind had veered round from a strong north-wester to a south-easter. This left a large beautifully hollowed-out swell  and a bunch of surfers were far out back being towed by a jetski into 20-foot peaks, spray whipping back off the top. I'm no fan of jetskis but this one made sense. A Californian dude walked up and we chatted about the surf. He was passing through from Indonesia and was later spotted tearing up the fast waves at Inner Kom. The QSL is from the US Coast Guard near San Francisco, heard in 1989 in Johannesburg about 10500 miles distant, in communication with an aircraft.

The perilous soul of San Pedro Sula

Cape Town in April and May - just one day after another, warm and windless with stunning evenings. Graceful Table Mountain reigns majestically over the proceedings and the city has turned out in droves. You name it: catch a wave, run in the forest, ride along the tranquil coast, it's all there. But who knows what goes on in the dark, mean streets? For there is a malevolent side, the city having the highest murder rate in the country and a rank of 34th in the world. Drug-linked gang warfare is rife in some parts of town. Ask any doctor working in hospitals in poorer areas and you'll hear a story of shocking A&E night after night. Young doctors come here from Europe to learn; they see more in two years than they might in a lifetime back home. SA gets a lot of bad publicity for its crime rate but the truth is that if you keep to the right side of town you'll be pretty safe. The media magnifies the danger because that's what it's paid to do. I remember people telling me that there were many parts of Belfast that were perfectly safe during The Troubles. When we lived in London's St Johns Wood for a couple of years in the 1990s, we were surrounded by some of the poshest houses in town. But there was also quite a bit of council housing and one Saturday afternoon a gruesome stabbing took place in a pub right around the corner. So pity poor San Pedro Sula in Honduras which has just earned the rank of most dangerous city in the world, for the second year running, with a murder rate about 4 times that of Cape Town and about 100 times London. The QSL is from Radio Internacional, broadcasting from San Pedro Sula in Honduras on short-wave 60mb, heard in London in 1995. The picture is of the beautiful but difficult to pronounce Pulhapanzak Waterfall - a distinctly un-murderous looking natural beauty spot.

Ummm, yes it's UMNO again

Malaysia's prime minister is not short on names: Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak. That's a tad more than the poncy record British multi-barrelled surname of Francis Edward Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, 8th Baron Thurlow, who died recently . But let's just call him Najib Tun Razak for short. He's pretty well connected for a Malaysian politician: father Tun Abdul Razak was the country's second prime minister, while uncle Tun Hussein Onn was the third. He was elected president of UMNO, the United Malays National Organisation in 2009. UMNO has been the party in power in Malaysia since independence in 1959, a run of 54 years and was once again victorious in the latest poll which saw record numbers of voters turn out. It wasn't plain sailing for the world's longest-ruling party (following the demise of the Colorado Party in Paraguay a few years ago) as it slipped further in the poll but still ended up with a comfortable parliamentary majority. Allegations of electoral fraud are unlikely to bear much fruit. Malaysia's policy of favouring ethnic Malays over Chinese has caused a steady erosion of support for UMNO and its coalition partners in recent years. Even so Malaysia remains a remarkable economy. Over the past forty years it has transformed itself from an exporter of commodities like palm oil, rubber and tin to one of the largest shippers of semiconductor devices, electrical goods and appliances in the world. Inflation is under 2% and GDP growth tracks along steadily at 5% plus. Years ago when I was listening to a lot of Indonesian radio stations I had it in mind to try to learn Bahasa Indonesia, a delightful language. I then discovered that there are similarities between Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. To locals there are many differences for sure but to the untuned ear they sound mutually intelligible. The QSL is a beautiful card from Radio Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, heard on 60mb in Cape Town in 1968. The little blurb on the card states that chief exports are rubber and tin. Boy did that change!

Swap the stetson for a beret

Through life we wear two hats, at least. Make it a stetson and a beret. For instance, you're a pedestrian on the Zebra crossing in London and get very indignant if a motorist fails to stop but if you're the driver you want that pedestrian to wait for you to go by so as not to break your flow. It's the same with the green man at the traffic light: pedestrians just love that little guy, while the motorist drums his fingers waiting for the red guy to come up. And so on: when you're in the car, cyclists are a hazard; when you're on the bike, motorists are a menace and they're polluting the place to boot. The contrast is even starker in bureaucratic situations. You're standing in the bank queue (yes, sometimes you still have to do it). You've been waiting quite a while and let's face it there are only so many things to look at, like the tedious bank TV explaining all those great services that you mainly won't ever use. At last it's the turn of the person in front. You hope his business will be short and sweet and can't believe it when he breaks the news that he can't understand why he can't draw money from his account and the teller has to do an in-depth check. By now he's now blissfully unaware of the frustration simmering in the line behind. He just wants his problem sorted. Then there's the house buyer and the seller. For the buyer, there's stacks of houses to choose from and he can saunter through your place weighing up the odds. For the seller, you've dolled your place up and if he's going to invade it, the least he can do is make an offer, and quickly too. Just about any buyer will do. The American hatter, John B. Stetson was born in New Jersey and the QSL is from the Bell Telephone system in New Jersey, one of those beautiful cards they sent out in the 1960s, heard in Cape Town in 1969.

Japan's Kuroda Restoration

Something quite special is happening in the Japanese economy. But I'm not sure if it's special enough, yet. Japan has a history of changing course dramatically, notably with the Meiji Restoration, which ended centuries of isolation; again in the 1930s and then after WW2. This could be another one of those big leaps forward. Haruhiko Kuroda, the Bank of Japan governor, has announced a 'new dimension in monetary easing' targeting a large rise in the monetary base and a doubling of government bond purchases. The objective is to raise inflation expectations and push cpi-inflation up to 2%, from around minus 1% currently. In fact this step is not that new, even for Japan. Firstly, it has already had several large monetary base expansions over the past 20 years while further back it has the far more aggressive example of Korekiyo Takahashi, the finance minister in the 1930s. From late 1932 the government was selling entire issues of bonds directly to the central bank. When people talk about, for example, the Fed 'printing money', this has not really been the case. The Fed has mainly been purchasing assets in the market, simultaneously crediting banks with reserves. Mostly these bank reserves have gathered moss: the transmission mechanism into new credit to the private sector has seized up. Demand in the US economy has lagged since the credit crunch and is now some 6% below trend. In the case of Japan, the economy is so far behind trend nominal GDP that it can never make up lost ground. But the swing to a clear inflation target along with a real commitment to achieve it is a good first move, if not far enough. In due course, the BoJ may indeed follow its 1930s path and 'print money' by directly funding government debt issues. Indeed, if it succeeds in pushing inflation up it may have to buy bonds directly just to keep bond yields from rising too much. The QSL is from JOOR Osaka, heard on AM on 1179 kHz in Morgan Bay in 1992. The station later contacted me and I was interviewed on one of their programmes per telephone.

Chavez is dead, long live the Chavistas

Another Venezuelan election is over. Another win for the Chavistas. But no Chavez this time and it was a close run thing, much closer than expected. It is a shame how the Chavistas have spoiled the reputation of the simple baseball cap. After all, baseball is such a fun game. Che Guevara iconised the beret in his time but despite his sensitivity to the poor and disenfranchised we shouldn't forget he was a heartless brute at times. The Venezuelan opposition is contesting the result and the election council has agreed to a vote audit, which could take a month. So a final twist to the saga may yet emerge but don't bet on it. The economy is in trouble. Although it is very different from Australia's they have one thing in common  - the dreaded Dutch disease. Commodity prices drive up their exchange rates too far. Despite the booming economy, there are pockets of high unemployment in Oz,  with the real Aussie dollar having risen 20% in recent years in line with strong prices and big volume increases in commodities. When apartments in remote Port Hedland go for the same as in Manhattan and truck drivers are getting paid over $200000 pa you know something is wrong. The same problem affects Venezuela which generates most of its export revenues from oil. But oil production and exports are falling and with Brent trading below $100pb the economic arithmetic is turning ugly. Occasionally there is a big devaluation but that doesn't fix the problem. The QSL is from Radio Latina, a 10 kW Venezuelan AM station heard on 1470 kHz in Johannesburg in 1987. Nice personal letter about the station and the town of Valencia, the motortown of the country where Ford, GM and Goodyear had factories.

Captain Morgan Yo Ho Ho

Blood is an amazing thing.  You may meet up with a family member not seen for years who in turn introduces you to someone you've never met or even heard of. Within moments you can be chatting merrily away, starting out with nothing in common other than your kin. Somehow you seem to trust the new acquaintance and share intimate details about family connections. You may even be an in-law so have no actual blood connection to the family member himself. No matter, it's still family. In some nationalities these ties are extremely strong, stifling even. We used to hang out with an extended family from a Mediterranean country where the whole kit and caboodle would gather each Sunday for lunch. It was hard for a family member not to show up. Some people spend hours tracing family roots in the hope of turning up a famous ancestor, who, once discovered, gives them bragging rights and a sense they're special. Silly really, after all people differ hugely even within families, let alone down the generations, so any sense of superiority derived from an illustrious forebear is just spurious. Famous people are often far more revered than they deserve. Some were just plain lucky and others plain obnoxious, but history has been kind to them. There are far more people who led valuable, exemplary lives and passed on unserenaded. Our family claims Admiral Sir Henry Morgan as an ancestor - both an Admiral and a knight! Sounds good but actually he was a terrible thug, a privateer who tore around the Caribbean sacking and looting cities, including Panama in 1671. The QSL is from the US Naval facility at Balboa in Panama, a utility station heard in Cape Town in 1969.

By force of arms, also hips and legs

First big surfing day of the autumn quarter. Nice steady northwester and a good swell at Muizies corner. It's a grey day like London but unlike London it's much warmer and the sea's not cold, especially for wimps like me with the full Monty: wetsuit, hood, and booties. Hey, I wanna stay in the water for two-three hours and not suffer from exposure! I get there early but it's already packed. No matter, I've got a new Macski and nothing's gonna stop me from hitting the waves! I find a place to park in the far corner and in a jiffy I'm out back. The new waveski is lighter and sleeker than the old one and much faster on the wave. Oh wow! Why did I wait so long to upgrade?? Being lighter there's the question of balance. I'm used to the old more buoyant board. Now I must re-learn. Your hip, back and thigh muscles are making hundreds of small adjustments to keep you up and the old brain is having to slowly re-programme itself with all this new input. It's gonna take a few hours out there to ingest all the new info. In paddleskiing you might think that most of the work you do is with your arms: pulling and steering, but a whole bunch of other muscles come into play and usually it's the ones at the top of your thighs that feel a bit stiff the next morning. Macski is a great South African company, based in Port Elizabeth up the coast, in business since 1979 and billing themselves today as the world's no. 1 waveski manufacturer. The QSL is from Capital Radio which used to broadcast on AM and shortwave from further up the coast in Transkei (then a nominally 'independent' country in apartheid South Africa). Note the great seagull logo: they played cool music, just perfect for beach holidays.

Mongolian mining mania

Mongolia, landlocked between giants China and Russia, has a population of less than 3m. The city of Cape Town, at the  southern tip of Africa, has a population exceeding 3m. Mongolia is the size of western Europe and is gradually emerging from obscurity as more and more people become aware of its substantial mineral resources. A huge copper/gold project is under way at Oyu Tolgoi, while Tavan Tolgoi, the world's largest untapped coal deposit is also moving towards production. Rio Tinto, one of the world's mega-miners, is wrangling with the Mongolian government over royalties at Oyu Tolgoi but the project is so vital for both parties that some solution will be found. Tavan Tolgoi has an estimated coal resource of 6.4bn tonnes, enough to keep a quite a few fires burning! Newly-elected Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, he of Abenomics fame, is set to visit Mongolia, proclaiming it for its 'shared democratic values'. Abe is cosying up to several Asian economies as part of a plan to neutralise some of China's growing muscle in the region. The Tavan Tolgoi development will also need a lot of heavy equipment of the kind that Japanese companies are good at. 800 years ago Genghis Khan founded the Mongol empire and grandson Kublai conquered China. Kublai's summer palace was in Xanadu, now known as Beijing. That's not going to happen again anytime soon but the country is starting to become a player after years in the wilderness. The QSL is from Radio Ulan Bator, English Section, heard in Cape Town in 1968. Typed on an old typewriter, the upper case characters popped up half a line and the lines nearly ran off the page.

Argus-watching in the Deep South

This year's Argus cycle tour in Cape Town was another roaring success with 35000 riders from around the world on the 109 km course. The winner clocked 160 minutes, giving an average speed of over 40km/hour. This is the world's largest individually-timed cycle race and, as with all such large occasions, offers a delightful mix of deadly-serious professionals and out-for-a-fun-day amateurs. One fellow hared past on an elliptical stairmaster on wheels. A group of tandems tore through with an ominous whoosh. Here in the Deep South, Simon's Town is the perfect vantage point for observers, as the road slopes gently into the village and riders take a bit of a breather or even stop at the large watering point on Jubilee Square. A lone bagpiper on the balcony of the British Hotel serenaded the pedallers through. Once the last of the stragglers had gone I jumped on my mountain bike and followed in the wake of the tour. Just beyond Miller's Point I stumbled across another large watering station, feverishly packing up after a long day and festooned with Coke flags flapping frantically in the breeze. It was a reminder of the huge logistical effort underpinning the event. This was the first cycling event outside Europe to be included in Switzerland's International Cycling Union's Golden Bike Series. The QSL is from Swiss Radio in Beromunster heard on AM in Kent in 2000.