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.