Welcome to Heaven!

For those who still question my adventurous ways (tsk tsk), this weekend marked a substantial milestone in my ubuntu adventures: 16months after first stepping on the soil of the motherland, I can now say that I have been to (or at least travelled through) each one of south africa's provinces. The final leg happened this weekend when I took a quick and extremely nice roadtrip to durban/kwazulu natal.

Factoid of the day/week/year: Zululand means Heaven (more or less) in Zulu, so just to make sure that everyone travelling to the region knows this, there is a HUGE sign as you enter the region that reads: Welcome to Heaven. Thats awesome...unfortunately I couldn't get to my camera quick enough to get a snap. I did get a chance to take a few pics. The landscape is simply beautiful (rolling hills, mountains, beaches with the reallly nice beach breeze). More importantly, the people just seemed sooo much friendlier than other places in SA. Definitely, it was more integrated and racist (i felt) than other places. I think i could probably see myself living there, tho what would i do for money :/ ...

some pics:






to see lots more pics, click here

post posts: I STILL can't stand strikes. but to clarify my earlier position, I am totally in favour of workers being paid a living wage and working under acceptable conditions. however, i have to believe that there are other, better, and more innovative ways to achieve this than to simply strike. strikes tend to do no good and only really benefit the union organizers and those at the top. and its these guys at the top that ensure that the lowly workers are as little educated as possible so that they don't understand that a stoppage in work will cost the economy millions, an increase in salaries and bonuses (in the case of construction workers, the dispute was b/w 11 and 13%...wtf??!) will only put more strain on the already depressed economy, which may lead to higher inflation, which may lead to higher taxes, which may lead to those taxes being passed on to the citizens, which may lead to even higher food and essential products prices. nope, all the organizers want the toi-toi-ing workers to know is that their R100/per hr wage could be raise to R111 or R113, and we all know that 113 is light years more than 111. in the case of doctors also striking, i also dont agree, but agree that those in the healthcare industry need to get paid decent wages and work in favourable conditions and with adequate equipment. but lets start using our god given brains to think of better ways to negotiate these things than to allow sick people to die because we want better pay. all this while the head of the unions live comfortably in their mansions, driving their black mercedes. i will now proceed to step down my soap box.