28 June, 2005

Memo (3)

» BBC News | Nationwide strike in South Africa
27 June 2005

As a person who has been to Durban and had an unforgettable experience there, I cannot ignore this news. But I need time to scrutinize it, really...

29 May, 2005

Pretoria to Tshwane

South Africa is planning to change its capital's name from Pretoria to Tshwane. But this plan is arousing national controversy, deviding the white and black citizens.

Each name, Pretoria and Tshwane, has each root. Pretoria was named after Andries Pretorius, a hero of the Afrikaner group, which established apartheid. Tshwane, which means "We are the same", is the name given to the region by early African groups.

According to BBC news, many of white South Africans think that "the name Pretoria is part of a proud history", while the black see this as going back to their roots.

The point is that the black seek identity from the new city name and the disappear of Pretoria means, to the white, losing their citizenship.

There is also the fact concerning the cost for renaming. The opposition Democratic Alliance, which has strong support among whites, says that 1.5 billion Rand ($256m) would be needed for the switch and would be better spent on improving services.

The city council approved the switch to Tshwane in March as part of moves to make place names more African.

Pretoria's renaming is part of a national drive to make South African cities sound more African, which its proponents say fits with a continent-wide trend in the post-colonial era.

More information here:
» BBC News | Mixed response to Pretoria change
» BBC News | South Africans to rename capital
» BBC News | City names mark changing times

29 March, 2005

Have we entered seismic active period?

Last night, an 8.7 magnitude earthquake took place in the same area in Indonesia, damaged by that Boxing Day's earthquake and tsunami disaster that brought nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Asia. The extent of the damage hasn't been cleared yet.

What's going on the earth? What the hell is this sequence of earthquakes in Asia??? Even looking at only Japan, we experienced two massive earthquakes; one is an 6.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred in last october in the Nigata area, northwest Japan, affecting 3,000 local people; the other is a earthquake on 20 March that damaged the Fukuoka region, southern part of Japan. What scares me is the fact that either Nigata or Fukuoka had been said to be one of the "safe zones", which means seismic gaps where not many earthquakes have happened before, in Japan, and not many experts anticipated the earthquakes in Nigata and especially in Fukuoka. This series of earthquakes made us fear that a massive earthquake occurs anywhere in Japan, even though some are defined as "safe zones".

It has been also said that Tokyo would experience a massive earthquake, causing approximately 10,000 deaths or more in the nearest future.

» Guardian Unlimited | '1,000 or more' dead in Nias quake
29 March 2005

» BBC News | Powerful earthquakes shake Japan
24 October 2004
Nigata Earthquake

» BBC News | Japan struck by strong earthquake
20 March 2005
Fukuoka Earthquake

Moreover, here is a shocking article I've found just now. It had already predicted another strong earthquake near Indonesia before this quake happened. It was written on 16 March 2005.

A build-up of stress on faults in Sumatra following the Indonesian earthquake is likely to trigger another large quake and perhaps a tsunami.

According to this article, the answer to my question - Have we entered a seismic active period? - is YES...

» BBC News | New Asian quake threat warning
16 March 2005
By Paul Rincon