The year 2008 in letters and pictures

The year 2008 began as so many years have done over the last few decades, (yes, I know, with the 1st of January) but also with me writing some letters, sorting out some administrative stuff in my company, reading some books which have been waiting for some time to be picked up and planning the year ahead. Such planning usually involves a lot travel planning.

And here a tip for people who might have the idea of inviting me for some big family event or anniversary to foreign countries. This is the time of the year where you should alert me to such possibility, then I might be able to arrange my travel around such an invitation date. You might not need to go overboard with it like I sometimes do, inviting people 2 years ahead for exactly the same purpose – long term planning. But more about that later.

Since a significant part of my life for the last 25 years evolves around overseas travel for business and personal reasons, any chronological account is very likely to end up being one long travel report. And whilst this is not much different for 2008, having made 6 trips, 4 of them lasting for 6 weeks or more plus two short ones, I decided to introduce a somewhat auflockernde Structure by including some letters, which I wrote to friends, some articles which I picked up on the way and, of course, quite a few pictures.

The first few days of 2008 were quite leisurely and peaceful on the home front, which this letter shows


GPP 5th January, 2008

letter to a friend

… The lazy atmosphere of the first few days of the new year made me wander into Erina shopping centre and succumb to the temptation of buying a new electronic toy against the expressed wishes and clear advise to the contrary of my otherwise very trusted IT manager, Paul. I bought myself a little ASUS EeePC. Its main appeal really is the size and weight which compares very favourably against my trusted Toshiba lap top. I want to use it as a communication tool on trips. Paul thought it was premature to buy one now because they are said to bring one on the market with a bigger hard disc and RAM. But for the things I want to use it for, the available disc space is plenty and you can always complement it with a memo card and/or a USB memo stick.

It's Linux based and Paul warned me that the opening screen and layout would be quite different to Windows. Which is right. But I must say, it's quite intuitive and I was able to get it going, including connecting to the wireless web here in GPP without any need for Paul's assistance (first time in my life with a new computer) May be that was what he was afraid about!!! the joyful thing is that it is not only the machine which is tiny but also the peripherals are minute - just a little power plug with a thin cord, less than my fancy MP3 player. It is even all together small enough to fit into my over the shoulder bag sharing the space with my pipe bag! It's test will come during the next trip…

I am pleased to say that the little Asus EeePC worked out quite well and proved to be a useful tool for my travel. In particular if it is ‘married’ with a standard keyboard. And yes, my eyes are still good enough to allow me to read the things on the screen without resorting to reading glasses.

Unlike in most other years, our international clients decided that this sort of living lazily into the day and doing bugger all for the first 2 months of the year was not on in 2008 and hence they placed orders for completion right from day 1 (day 12 to be correct)



Oh yes, now I have to confess, that some of this annual re-count is documented in languages, other than English.

Green Point 15th January 2008

letter to a friend

……Those yeas are flying by like there is no yesterday, only tomorrows!

......Hier geht soweit alles seinen gewohnten Gang, wenn man mal von der etwas ungewoehnlichen Situation absieht, dass wir bereits an der ersten Studie des Jahres arbeiten und die zweite bereits fuer Ende des Monats angesagt ist. Das hat es in den letzten 20 Jahren selten mal gegeben.

Ueberhaupt war das letzte Jahr, insbesondere die 2. Haelfte, aussergewoehnlich busy, was zu einer Verdreifachung meines Umsatzes im Vergleich zum Vorjahr gefuehrt hat. Na ja, als Kleinunternehmer weiss ich, dass ich mich darueber nicht zu beklagen habe. Und weiss auch, das es im naechsten Jahr wieder genau anders herum sein kann. Ich habe manchmal das Gefuehl, dass wir kleinen Marktforschungs Krauter das YoYo Spielen erfunden haben!

Auf der Reisefront ist die Vorbereitung in vollem Schwunge. In knapp zwei Wochen geht es Richtung Mauritius. Mein Reiseonkel Barry hat mal wieder einen schoenen Cup gelandet. Er hat meine erhebliche Abneigung fuer einen 12 Stunden Flug mit dem Sonderangebot der ersten Klasse gekontert (zum cattle class price) So werde ich in unmaessig aufgeblaehtem Stil nach Mauritius fliegen, dort bei Herrn und Frau Moevenpick fuer drei Tage resorten und dann weiter nach J'Burg segeln (im Flieger)

In J'Burg bin ich mal wieder fuer drei Tage bevor es dann zum eigentlichen Ziel Kampala geht. Dort zwei Wochen. Auf dem Rueckweg werde ich noch einmal eine gute Woche in Cape Town Aufenthalt machen und dank meiner 6PC Freunde ist das Program dort schon zu etwa 110% gefuellt. Dann geht's noch mal nach Mauritius, diesmal fuer 7 Tage Faulenzen, bevor ich am 26.2. wieder in Sydney bin......

In this letter I alluded to some holiday type interlude in Cape Town and Mauritius. My assorted clients around the world. though, made sure that there were no excesses involved and most of those days I enjoyed a rented office with ocean view, which had some features of a hotel room or Hotel apartment (as is the case in my standard quarters in Cape Town.)

But the first trip was still a few days off. And it seemed to me that our beloved clients were not entirely used to working in a concise and precise way at this time of the year. Maybe the masses of Gluehwein, Absinth and Champagne over the silly season still showed some effect


20th of January, 2008

Green Point, on the sunny Saturday morning of the 20th of January, annus domini 2008

to my trusted office manager

I thought looking at my depleted bank accounts would be a depressing move.

It compares, however, immensely favourable with looking at or dealing with current clients and their output of labour of love/hate, mixed up with incompetence and a warped Gallic type of communication

Frustrating client number one:

They shall remain nameless

Against all signs to the contrary, they have not yet given the go ahead for the main survey. Hence we should stop recruiting doctors and today send an e-mail to the currently recruited ones, saying

Dear Dr……

Our client has just informed us that there will be some minor changes to the questionnaire to be made within the next couple of days. May we kindly ask you to delay your responding to the survey until we contact you again to give the 'green light' to access the site and complete the questionnaire.

We apologise for the interruption and thank you for your cooperation.

With kind regards
Jochen Holzrichter

Frustrating client number two:

I just received the survey material from …nameless…. for the new survey and they have achieved the nigh impossible and made the whole thing more cumbersome and unwieldy than it was ever before. They are certainly up for the Oscars in the category: most convoluted market research survey of the century.

You might as well clear the big table of anything and everything which is not vital for its use because we will need all the space we can muster to lay out the survey material!! (what a pleasant side effect says the cynic in me!)

They have also changed their time schedule which means we are starting on the 22nd January (Monday) as opposed to the 29th as indicated just a few days ago!!

My frustration stems from looking at only some of the material on-line for a short and terrifying moment.

I guess if I line up all my genes of Teutonic imprimatur in an orderly fashion I might be able to discover the unbelievable logic behind it all. Knowing those buggers, there has to be one, it just has a cunning ability to hide from my Australian view.

So on Monday (should I have recovered) you will experience a Teutonic Marktforscher to goose step into the office to get this gala monster organised.

Meanwhile I think I will retreat into a weekend cocoon wallpapered with salacious pornographic images, swamped with alcoholic beverages and filled with inhaleable nicotine in a vain attempt to take my mind off the horrors of life for a short while.

I guess being able to write the first half invoice about 10 days earlier than expected might compensate for something. I have yet to find out what and with what effect.

The caring and sharing person that I am, I will, at some stage over the weekend, put together a package with the survey material and send it down the hot copper wire……

5 days later, though, all bets were off and I moved my weighty oyster (which is what I usually refer to when speaking about my suitcase – more because of its clam shell construction rather than the brand) to Sydney airport to get on my Air Mauritius flight to this wonderful sugar island.

Going to Africa first time this year

Barry, my travel agent, had managed to score a first class seat for me between Sydney and Johannesburg (J’Burg) and return, so it was only the trip between J’Burg and Kampala that I was confined to cattle class, which for 5 hours is fine with me.

trip 1

25th January Sydney – Mauritius
29th January Mauritius – Johannesburg
1st February, Johannesburg – Kampala
12th February, Kampala – Cape Town
19th February, Cape Town Mauritius
25th February, Mauritius Sydney



Don't ask me why there is an imposing bust of comrad Lenin in a suburban park of Port Luis in Mauritius. But there were fresh cut flowers on it, he might have had some relos here.

For the first stop over (3 days) I had not really planned anything like holiday since we had just started a survey and there was plenty for me to do. So Moevenpick resort was not really of great holiday value to me, but offered a quite acceptable working environment.

Since the clientele in this establishment seemed to be largely recruited by Neckerman (or what was once Neckerman Reisen) Duesseldorf and Dueren were significantly over represented, compared to Durban or Dublin.

The pleasant upshot of that was, that they offered quite nice bread rolls for dinner and breakfast and cheese and cold meat were plentiful on the breakfast menu.



After 3 days I was whisked back to the airport for my flight to J’Burg.

This tends to be a short stop over destination for me, where I have my standard hotel in Sandton, one of the many suburbs of J’Burg (and an upper class one at that) The good thing really is, that my hotel is only a short walk away from the Nelson Mandela Plaza where there is a huge shopping centre as well as a big open space (Plaza) surrounded by lots of different restaurants. That gives you a good choice between Italian, Thai, Greek, African cuisine, and other culinary destinations. And since these types of shopping centres are often the nucleus of public life, they also incorporate a lot of the social activity which the good burgers of J’Burg might like to engage in. So it’s usually a lively atmosphere.



On the 1st of February it was time for me again to pack my bags and get to the airport for my trip to Kampala. Due to the fact that a new administrative company had taken over the airport, a few things were still a bit on the slow side, in particular as far as luggage handling etc is concerned. That delayed the flight a bit, but J’Burg airport is pleasant enough to spend a few hours in ‘airport mode’ there. And I still had to buy a few mobile phones for some of my boys in Kampala. So shopping was on the cards. It is also – before Kampala – the last opportunity for me to buy Mc Baren Mixture, my pipe tobacco. And of course a few gigantic blocks of Toblerone which go down a treat with my boys in Kampala (they never buy any chocolate, it’s a real luxury for them)

This time around my plans for Kampala were more focused on preparing my next visit and that of 8 of my overseas friends for my 60th birthday party. Mum had asked that we visit the grave of her son Geoffrey who died in 2004 in a motor cycle accident and is buried a fair way outside Kampala, resting under the watchful eyes of grandma,



the clan elder who is responsible – amongst other things – for the graves of the clan. And there were some administrative things to sort out. And last but not least, there was a very sick computer which needed a lot of TLC (tender loving care) to be de-bugged and equipped with new defence mechanisms against the ravages of the cyber world.

Hence I spent the first few days collecting some proposals for the 3-4 day safari in May and also tried to sort out the restaurant for our birthday dinner. And the Sydney Hotel



(yes such thing exists in Kampala) needed to be checked out as it was destined to serve as accommodation for my overseas visitors in May. It has the big advantage to be located just around the corner from Masaka Road (where our house is) and since it is an African hotel their prices are seriously below those which one would expect to pay in places like the Sheraton etc. And it provides, what a traveller needs, a decent bed, a small bathroom with toilette and shower and is very clean. And for that kind of service you pay just $25.00 the night, instead of $250.00 for a room in any of the international hotels.

I got myself three different quotes from 3 travel agents and decided for Rachel and her “Let’s go Safari” Her proposal came on time, at a reasonable price and with the kind of detail which one would like to see when making a booking like that for 10 people. A brief check of the various lodges which Rachel suggested, made me finally decide on Mihingo Lodge at Lake Mburo (1 night)





and Buhoma Lodge in Bwindi for 2 nights. Both choices proved to be excellent.





It was then that I became aware of the permit system which governs the visits to the Mountain Gorillas and I was just in time to snap up the last 10 permits in two groups which were available for the time I had in mind. Those permits are the most expensive single item in the whole 4 day trip at US$500.00 per person. About the same amount needs to be spent on 3 nights accommodation, 2 four wheel drives with driver for transport, all meals and any other charges applicable. And whilst US$950 might sound expensive for 4 days, it is more than worth it and offers a lifetime experience which all my guest and Moses and I enjoyed tremendously in late May.

For the visit in the bush at grandmas we packed some picnic lunch and it turned out to be a very pleasant daytrip into the middle of the bush, worlds removed from the huzzle and buzzle of Kampala.



I can’t talk with Grandma since she does not speak English. But her interaction with her daughter (Mum) and the boys as very lively and interesting to observe. Johnny played a trick on her by suggesting that I will stay over night with her in the village. She looked at me and asked: “what does he eat” to which Johnny answered truthfully with ….some cheese and bread, and for dinner he likes white wine…. Grandmas’ response was swift and clear: “Take him with you, we don’t have this ort of things”!



Grandma, though, likes the occasional beer. However, so that it does not look like beer, she tends to fill the beer bottle into a water bottle and drinks it from this less conspicuous looking container!

After 11 busy and happy days in Kampala I made my way to Cape Town. Checked in at the Ocean Tide in Sea Point. I even hired a car which I took over at the airport to drive myself to C’Town. The little car was then to be rested for a few days since my clients thought it to be fun to provide me with lots of work for those days. (see above)

But even the most serious clients can’t stop me from taking the occasional tour, whether it is down Chapman Drive to the Cape of Good Hope, the wine country or some of the surrounding areas around Table Mountain, Signal Hill etc.







These areas are the obvious attraction in C’Town apart from Waterfront, where you can indulge in shopping and wining and dining.

And then there was the little bar, not far from my apartment on the waterfront and with wonderful view of the Ocean, where I became a regular every night after dinner (which I made myself in the apartment) Got to know a few people there, sat outside in the little beer garden and enjoyed a nice glass of wine and a pipe.

That makes even working during holidays a bit more tolerable. However, all those wonderful suggestions which the 6PC members had made for my 7 day visit still have to wait for a next time, some time in the future, maybe in 2009, who knows.

On the 19th of February it was time again to pack the oyster into the car and drive myself to the airport for my flight to Mauritius, via J’Burg. Last opportunity for pipe tobacco duty free (and dirt cheap, compared to what I have to shell out in Sydney for a pack). Some 8 hours later I landed again in Port Luis



and this time took over a little tinny car which served as my transport for some excursions on the island.

Mauritius 21st February, 2008

letter to a friend

…..Yesterday when I responded to your e-mail, my sitting position was not really conducive to longer writings. I have to take the lap top into the lobby because the WiFi network does not work in the room. (how useful is that!) But at least it works in the lobby which is easier than carrying around a memo stick which then is not recognised by the computer under normal guest login but needs the administrator to log in. (as it happened in my first hotel here)

Funny thing was, when I was sitting there, receiving and sending e-mails, a mildly sleazy Brit set opposite making Skype calls to the UK speaking with some Insurance companies and ensured his partner on the phone with booming voice that he was calling from a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean!! You would be surprised how much money can be shifted from one account to the other via Skype and from the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Arrived here on Tuesday night and suddenly realised that I had to drive my rented car some 60 km across the Island in the darkness of night. However, I made it remarkably well and only missed one turn off, which was easily corrected. The car is a tiny shoebox on wheels and I have yet to find out, who built it. I suspect the Koreans are responsible for it.

The Maritime Hotel could aptly be named the Maritime Museum, as the predominantly German guests have, at a rate of 90%, already reached pensioners age. At close to 60 I am spring chicken here. Well, all is relative.

The animateurs are regularly hunting me down in order to inform me about the wanders of the water world activities and are regularly disappointed when I tell them that I sit in my room all day working or take my own car and drive around the island. The latter I am yet to do.

I had to smile about your comment about mobile reception in Jenolan caves. No my dear, in the cave, you won’t have reception at all. They were not built with mobile communication in mind. But I would say, outside you might not have too much of a problem. Remember, the worldly metropolis of Lithgow is not very far…….

After a few days work and a few days of excursions and exploration of Mauritius I arrived back in Sydney and ultimately Green Point on the 20th of February.

Some time at home, sweet home

By the time I got home, Mardi Gras was in full swing





and the entertainment of the festival was alluringly close, but I must admit, I gave it a miss with one exception one night and worked my way back into daily life in Green Point Palace.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald caught my eye. The writer was telling the story about two gay guys in their early twenties, who were all so over Mardi Gras and the main hoopla, like the parade and party and really could not see the point why all the fuss was made about it. this prompted me to write the following letter to the editor of the SMH

1st March, 2008

Letters to the editor@smh.com.au

Re.: SMH, 1st March, 2008, Opinion, Robert Reynolds, More than gay, the young ones move on

As a gay man, born in 1948 and more or less active in the gay movement over the last 30 years – 26 of those in Australia and now also Africa, I agree with the general observation of Robert Reynolds. His interviewees Dave and Andrew live normal and legal gay lives in Australia and so they should.

One should not forget, however, that their ability to do so has – to a not insignificant part – to do with the existence of organisations such as the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and comparable gay organisations. And, equally importantly, courageous individuals such as Rodney Croome and Nick Toonen, Bob Brown, Michael Kirby, the late Don Dunstan to name but a few, for whom the backing through the 'gay community' in general and gay activist organisations were supporting factors in their fight for equality and respect for gay rights which, in my understanding, are human rights.

Over the last 25 years, in a decidedly secular country such as Australia, we only ever had to deal with one or two religious fundamentalists. And to laugh off Fred and Elaine Nile and their gaggle of followers may have been an amusing pastime for Mardi Gras organisers and float designers over the years. Somehow the numbers were always in our favour and not in theirs. Those numbers always meant something because the groups who made up those numbers were and still are visible and identifiable.

However, I am afraid to say, this can change. Over the last few years we have seen the religious right organise themselves socially and politically. Family first, born again Christians, Hill Song to name but a few exponents of that movement, have realised that they have to become involved in the political process in order to be able to make their fundamental views of how we should live our lives more acceptable and, ultimately, reflected in law.

As we have seen in our labor laws and agreements, nothing is cast in stone for ever. If you had told some of the older union members that their achievements with respect to working hours, penalty rates, overtime compensation etc. could be eroded and done away with, like we have seen in most recent history, they might have told you: … it will never happen, we can't go back to the 'old days'…. And, as a natural consequence of that thinking, union memberships dropped. That is until recently.

In the books of those religious fundamentalists, gay rights and freedoms are very high on the 'reform' list. And given general developments in at least some parts of the developed world – the USA being a prime example – those 'reform' lists have a good chance to mutate into law amendments being considered by our national parliament.

If or when this day comes, I hope Dave and Andrew still know who to turn to and who their friends are. Because once Dave and Andrew become a defining majority amongst the gay and lesbian people in Australia there won't be a Mardi Gras or gay rights lobby to collectively speak on their behalf.

Democratic politics is a numbers game and 1 + 1 only makes 2 if you and everybody else knows what you are adding up.

By the end of March, we reached a point in our working lives, where there was a little break and I had the opportunity to attend to a few things around the house, like cleaning up the block,



removing all the leaves and dead branches, which mother nature – represented by her many trees – tends to disperse quite liberally over roofs and the ground. I have to do such a clean up about twice or three times a year, also with a view towards reducing fire hazards for the bushfire season in December, January.

Green Point Palace 26th March, 2008

letter to a friend

…….After 6 months of hectic in the office, peace and quiet has returned to the palace, well at least for a few weeks. The next survey is planned for mid April. That means, I have been working a bit in the garden, cleaned all the roofs and now starting to reign in some of the very wild growth of some of my plants. They are getting a bit out of hand.

In Kampala we just finished a survey on mobile telecommunication. Can you imagine, in Kampala around 90% of people with a minimum household income of $200 per month (which is sort of a moderate income which allows for some consumerism) have one or more mobile phones!! And those guys afford themselves 5 mobile phone service providers!!

At the moment I am working also on a new business idea – well it's minor at the moment - the idea came to me in Cape Town whilst sitting in a street café with my thoughts wondering around God knows where – and that is the key word here. I am designing some t-shirts with an atheist message. I am really slowly but steadily getting more and more sick about religious nutcases of what ever persuasion. So I'll have some t-shirts with an atheist theme, fairly simple really. I thought that the catholic world youth day which takes place in July in Sydney would be a good marketing opportunity for something like that. (talk about viral marketing!) Nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition!.......

The quiet weeks at the end of March made me decide that I should get a new PC since my old one would be worthwhile shipping to Kampala. And since it had some ten years on its back, the chip was a bit slow and therefore a new PC did not seem to be too extravagant and expense in order to keep up to date with the times



Green Point 19th April, 2008

letter to a friend

…… My well oiled office in Green Point Palace is currently severely hampered by the arrival of a brand new computer. The bloody thing drives me perfectly nuts. I picked it up on Thursday and during the first 24 hours, everything seemed to be ok. Then, all of a sudden, it decided that, if I want to open a folder within my directory tree, it changes to the search function – you know the thing with the little puppy dog wiggling its tail (stupid dog!)

And windows has indulged in further “help features” And those go beyond the little (stupid) paperclip figure which used to cheerfully ask you, whether you need help with writing a letter or so. Every bloody word document opens with a right hand side bar which allows you to do all sorts of incredible things which American business people seem to indulge in, sharing their memos, prioritizing documents, adding timelines and meeting notes, tracing changes etc. etc. It very much oozes the American managerial culture of silicon valley. And you can imagine how that goes up my Teutoaustralian nose!

And I must say I am afraid to tinker too much with all sorts of settings etc. because I don’t really know what I am doing. We have the word in German Verschlimmbessern. and that would probably exactly be what I would do. So I have to wait for Paul to come up here next week and teach this silly computer a few lessens in humble behaviour.

I just simply do not accept a machine to pretend it is cleverer than me. One reason why, for example I have never owned a calculator with scientific functions. I don’t like a calculator which can do things, which I cannot do on paper as well.

Anyway, there is not a lot of frustration which could not be mellowed with a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc or the likes! Or, more appropriate for this time of day, a little afternoon nap…….

Life went on and we were starting to prepare for winter – well what’s called winter in Australia anyway.

A sad day in my life in 2008

For good reasons – I remember the phone call I made with my mother on her 92nd birthday on the 16th of April. Given the occasion, it was little longer and more animated conversation we had, remembering some of her visits and things we did. And I filled her in on my activities in Africa. and we both were looking forward to re-celebrating our birthdays together in June, when I was expecting to be in Hamburg for a few days, after my big birthday bash in Kampala in May.

That was to be the last time I was talking to her, since a few days later, my sister had the painful duty to inform me of our mother’s peaceful death.


22nd April 2008

Ursula Gertrud Dorothea Holzrichter, geborene Hinze
16th April, 1916 to 22nd April, 2008



A very rich and eventful life of a wonderful mother comes to a very peaceful end.

Later this year, reflecting on 2008 it prompted me to think of the following

Das Jahr 2008 war irgendwie ein recht ereignisreiches und bedeutendes Jahr was anniversaries (Jubilaeen) angeht. Und wie das so im Leben ist, es waren schone und traurige darunter.

Mein historischer Ueberblick beginnt im Jahr 1908 mit dem Geburstag unseres Vaters. Er waere dieses Jahr 100 jahre alt geworden. Doch das sollte nicht sein. In seinen dreissiger Jahren zog er sich eine Tuberkulose zu, die er fuer laengere Zeit in Davos im Sanatorium auszukurieren suchte. In eben jenem Ort der durch den Thomas Mann Roman der Zauberberg beruehmt geworden ist.

In diesen Tagen waren der medizinische Fortschritt und das medizinische Wissen in solchen Faellen darauf beschraenkt, so viel wie moeglich der geschaedigten Lunge operativ zu entfernen. Und als Folge starb er am 2. Dezember 1958 und ueberlebte damit sehr erheblich die Vorhersagen seines Arztes um mehr als eine Dekade.

Fuer mich war es das erste Mal in meinem Leben, im alter von 10 Jahren, dass ich es erlebte, einen geliebten Menschen fuer immer zu verlieren. Am 5. December wurde er am Unterbarmer Friedhof beerdigt.

Ich konnte mir damals natuerlich nicht vorstellen, dass ich genau 50 Jahre spaeter an der selben Grabstelle stehen wuerde, um meine Mutter fuer immer zu verabschieden.

Das naechste bedeutende Jahr mit einer 8 am Ende war dann wohl 1978. So etwa Mitte Maerz kehrte ich von meiner ein jaehrigen Weltreise zurueck nach Wuppertal. Ich hatte im Jahr davor meinen Job bei Infratest gekuendigt und eigentlich keine genauen Vorstellungen, wie das alles weiter gehen wuerde nach meiner Rueckkehr (gesegnet seien diese Sorgen freien Zeiten)

Und zwei Tage spaeter hatte ich bereits einen Anruf vom damaligen Managing Director von Infratest Gesundheitsforschung, Dieter von der Recke. Ich habe bis heute keine Ahnung woher er wusste, dass ich wieder zu Hause war und woher er meine Nummer hatte, aber seine Worte waren recht klar: bevor sie mit irgend jemand bei Infratest sprechen, sprechen sie mit mir!!

Na ja und das tat ich auch und ein paar Tage spaeter hatte ich einen neuen Job als Leiter der ad hoc Marktforschung mit Verantwortung fuer die Internationale Marktforschung bei Infratest Gesundheitsforschung.

Es war eigentlich mein 2. permanenter Job in meinem Leben und das zweite mal, dass es nicht ich war, der um einen Job bat, sondern die Firma mich bat, einen mir angebotenen Job anzunehmen.

Es war ein toller Job fuer 4 Jahre, bevor ich mich dann entschloss, fuer 2 Jahre - ha ha ha - nach Australien zu gehen.

Auch fuer einen Neu-Australier war natuerlich das Jahr 1988 wichtig. Es war das 200 jaehrige Jubilaeum der weissen Besiedlung von Australien, die - so vermerken es die Analen - mit der Landung von Philipp Arthur in Sydney Cove am 26. Januar 1788 begann.

Damals - und fuer die folgenden 200 Jahre - galt Australien zum Zeitpunkt seiner ersten weissen Besiedlung als Terra Nullius - ein, bis dahin, nicht bewohntes Land. Es dauerte dann ziemlich genau 200 Jahre bis diese Ungerechtigkeit den Ureinwohnern gegenueber auf dem Wege ueber die Mabo Entscheidung rechtskraeftig geaendert und die urspruengliche Besiedlung, verbunden mit Landbesizt Rechten durch Native Title Gesetzgebung anerkannt wurde.

Das naechste Jahr mit einer 8 am Ende und einiger Signifikanz fuer unsere Familie war sicher dieses Jahr 2008.

In der Nacht vom 21. auf den 22. April ist unsere Mutter sehr friedlich im alter von 92 Jahren von uns gegangen. 50 Jahre nach ihrem Mann, unserem Vater.

Das Leben ist eine Reise mit Anfang und Ende. Und so, wie es natuerlich ist, geboren zu werden, wie mir das in 1948 passierte, und weshalb ich dieses Jahr meinen 60 Geburstag feierte, so ist es ebenso natuerlich, dass unsere Eltern uns verlassen. Und ich kann mir keinen friedlicheren und schoeneren Tod vorstellen als den, der unserer Mutter gegoennt war, die an einem Mittwoch einschlief um am Donnerstag nicht wieder aufzuwachen. Kein Drehbuch koennte das besser erfinden.

Und waehrend ich dieses schreibe bin ich gleichzeitig traurig und gluecklich.

2008 war ein gutes Jahr, ungeachted oder sicher auch wegen der Ereignisse, von denen ich geschrieben habe.

Und es ist sicher ein recht guter Grund, diesen Ueberblick ueber das Jahr 2008 mit den herrlichen Erinnerungen an einen wunderschoenen Geburstag in Uganda zu enden.

Herrlich erfreulich war er wegen der Anwesenheit vieler guter Freunde aus alten und neuen Zeiten und ganz besonders wegen der Anwesenheit meines Bruder Klaus und seiner Sabine. Wir alle hatten ein herrliches Erlebnis in und um Kampala und natuerlich auch bei unserem Besuch bei den Verwandten, den Berggorillas in Bwindi National Park.

Und spaeter im Oktober dann waren es meine Freunde in Australien, nicht zu vergessen, auch Freunde aus Muenchen, die mir eine 2. Geburstagsfeier in Green Point Palace zu einem unvergesslichen Ereignis machten.

The news about my mother and the information on the date of the burial came just before ANZAC day. And it gave me only a long weekend to arrange for my flight to Germany and back. Hence I could not involve my otherwise very efficient travel agent Barry, but had to try to make a booking on the internet. At this time of the year (ANZAC day) and on such short notice, you are up against a few airline rules and regulations which don’t bother me at any other time.

Green Point 25th April, 2008

letter to a friend

…….It speaks for the lax religious affiliations in this country that on Easter or Christmas all shops are open 24 hours, but on ANZAC day, when Australians celebrate the crushing defeat!! of their troops in Gallipoli, nothing goes!

I has taken me close to four hours to find a website on which to book a flight for Sunday. Most sites don’t accept any bookings less than 48 hours before departure time. Strange but true.

However, I was lucky with the Arabs. Emirates were gracious enough to accept my booking for Sunday evening, which gets me into Frankfurt on Monday afternoon, in time for the family gathering in Wuppertal on Monday night.

As far as our plans for May are concerned, there will be no changes. Our mother would have been the first to tell us not to be stupid and change something like that. And my brother and Sabine said spontaneously the same thing. To them, in a way, it’s even more reason to come and celebrate……..

trip 2

27th April Sydney – Frankfurt
28th April, Frankfurt – Wuppertal
29th April, Wuppertal – Hamburg
2nd May, Frankfurt – Sydney

There is not a lot to report from this relatively short visit in Germany. One of the very pleasant aspects was the fact that we met up with lots of old friends and relatives with whom you share a significant part of your past. That means in reminiscing about the past everybody ‘knows’ what you are talking about. And whilst the occasion might have been sad, meeting all those ‘old’ friends and relos was certainly a great pleasure.

A very special trip to Uganda

Returning to Green Point for just a short few days, those were obviously packed full with office work and preparation. It was reasonably obvious that during the weeks in Kampala I would have only little opportunity to seriously work and the timing of our contracts sort of looked OK this time. So it was more internal and administrative stuff which kept me busy before jumping on the plane to Kuala Lumpur (KL) which served as my short stop over to break up the flight, before arriving on the 17th May in Kampala.

For the days in Kampala please go the separate report on this big event. Sorry to the English speakers, it’s all in German, but the pics are worthwhile looking at.

trip 3

15th May Sydney - Kuala Lumpur
17th May Kuala Lumpur - Kampala
5th June, Kampala – Dubai
7th June, Dubai – Hamburg
8th June, Hamburg – Munich
11th June, Munich – Hamburg
12th June, Hamburg – New York
15th June, New York – San Francisco
18th June, San Francisco – Tahiti
21st June, Tahiti – Sydney

Here some birthday pictures from Kampala









The previous report on my birthday time in Kampala ends with our departure from Kampala on the 5th of June. Now here a bit of the rest.

I had given myself the ‘birthday gift’ of flying around the world. Given the fact that I tend to do that at least once if not twice a year for the last 20 years, not much of a ‘gift’ but anyway, a good time to catch up with clients, friends and places which I have come to like as travel destinations.

This time on our flight to Dubai, I had the very rare pleasure to share the experience with my brother Klaus and Sabine. We had planned for a two day stop over in Dubai, before going on to Hamburg.

Klaus and Sabine had been to Dubai on their way to Kampala and did a wonderful Balloon trip over the desert,



so we thought we might do a bit of down town sight seeing. We did not take into account, though, that it was a Friday and, given the religious affiliations in this country, Friday afternoons are not a time to visit any museum or so.

We then booked ourself a dinner cruise on one of the old djunkes which ply the river in the city and go out towards the open ocean as well. Very nice dining experience with a good Arabian buffet, some cool winds going at this time of the day.


The Golden Sands apartment hotel proved to be quite a viable alternative to my Oasis beach, where I usually stay. And much cheaper! And the white wine which we bought duty free in Kampala (of all places) helps to round up a good day.

On the 7th June we leave for Hamburg in the early morning and arrive, as I usually do, shortly after midday.

Whilst I usually stay at my sister’s and brother in law’s house in Othmarschen, this time around I plonked myself on the guest bed of Klaus and Sabine, since Beate and her Klaus Martin were holidaying in their house in Volterra. And my stay in Hamburg was only short, as I needed to go to Nuernberg and Munich, in order to see some relatives, many friends and a few clients.

During my stay in Munich, I usually make a point of visiting my old friend and aunt Traute in Rottach Egern on Lake Tegernsee. Her health is somewhat deteriorating with Parkinson’s slowly but steadily depleting her physical capacities. But she still likes to see me and we have a chat about old times.

Off to the land of the fair and free

After a few more days in Munich and Hamburg I board my plane to New York (NYC) on the 12th of June. After a fairly eventless flight arriving in JFK Airport. I am sad to say, it rates, for me at least, as one of the worst airports around the world. You could find a partner for life without resorting to speed dating whilst waiting for your luggage.

The immigration procedures in the land of the fair and free are these days thus that you feel like being assumed a terror merchant unless you can proof that not to be the case. And since my passport is filled with visa for exotic countries and has hundreds of stamps in it filling about 65 of the total of 80 pages, I am invariable sorted out for special scrutiny. Don’t get me wrong, I am not by any stretch of imagination a USA hater or basher. A bit like with religion, I have no problems with the individuals, it is the organised authority which sometimes gets up my nose.

Arriving the my hotel, the Roosevelt mid evening gives me a short time for a drink at the bar before I fall into bed. The Roosevelt might not be the top notch hotel in NYC and the value for money relation leaves a bit to be desired, BUT the location is almost unbeatable, situated on the corner of Madison Av/45th Street in the heart of Manhattan and in good walking distance to most of the things I would like to see, visit or experience.

A couple of years back I had a wonderful experience in this hotel. My Internet connection in the room was not working, because the cables for the connection had been laid under the carpet through the room and the constant walking on them had made them brittle and eventually broke them.

In this situation of need I had a brilliant idea. I looked at the notice board in the reception hall to see, where in the hotel there were conferences etc held. For those occasions they usually put up broadband internet access, usually even wireless or plug in. And given that the time table were usually part of the information on the notice board, I used to sneak into this room after the function had finished, but the room had not been cleared by hotel staff. (which usually only happens a day later) And here I then sat, plugged into the internet connection of company XYZ and sailed through cyberspace at corporate speed with no corporate rate applicable!! And yes, it worked a few times quite well and I almost made a sport of it at the Roosevelt in years to come. Saves me lots of money!!

There are a few things in NYC which I usually do and which are pleasant to body and mind. Amongst those things are a long walk to and through Central Park, where I can’t but end up at the boathouse for a glass of wine.



Not far from there is the Metropolitan Museum which I usually visit and, a few streets up the Guggenheim which also holds a lot of interest for me.



Paul had asked me to look for some electronic gadget in NYC (can’t remember right now, what it was) and I took the opportunity to walk along Broadway down from 45th Street to Greenwich Village in search for computer stores which would carry said item.



And there are lots of those stores around, however, mysteriously none of them carried the item I was after. But it provided me with the welcome opportunity to walk all the way to Washington Square and through the Village. And after about 6 hours walking I was back at the Roosevelt.

Had plans to visit cousin Anita but she and her family were at their holiday residence in Long Island. Hence a visit has to wait until next time.

After three lazy days with wonderful weather and lots of walking I again boarded the plane to make my way to San Francisco.



Again this is a city which I love to visit and just amble around following my nose. Nothing planned in particular. As usual, I took a car at the airport and made my way to my hotel on Sutter Street, just around the corner from Union Square. Not so long ago, the hotel was still called the Cartwright (of Bonanza fame) but is now branded as Larkspur. It’s one of those somewhat older and run down hotels which, in their promotion, is labelled with “European charm” which is basically a euphemism for small and somewhat dilapidated. And since the change in name and corporate ownership has also brought about a change in management, the once reasonable breakfast menu has been replaced with a breakfast voucher for the fast food outlet next door. A very unpleasant and totally inadequate alternative. But there are shops around everywhere and with a bit of looking around Jochen can find the things which make an acceptable breakfast on my room.







One of my regular trip destinations in SF is Sausalito and, more specifically, the Horizon Restaurant on the water. For 14 years I tend to go there at least once for lunch. What draws me there are very good memories, very good food at reasonable prices and the location overlooking the bay area.



I remember my first visit there in 1994 on a trip through the USA. On my trip by boat to Sausalito I had met a very nice Ecuadorian gentleman by the Name of Raoul. Like so many tourists, he wanted to have a few pictures of himself standing in front of one of the many landmarks which signify the place of visit. In the case of Raoul, however, one photo did not do the trick, he needed a whole film of pictures (yes in those days we still used films in Cameras!!) And as we started a conversation on the boat and he accompanied me for the rest of the trip, he developed a standard phrase which always started with ….would you mind Mr Johann…. And Mr Johann did not mind at all and took many photos of the South American Gentleman. And on this trip, we also had lunch at the Horizon.

In 2000 I sat here with Frau Hillebrand and my mother during our stay in San Francisco and I remembered how Mum enjoyed the location and ambience.

And from here it is not very far into the wine country, which also holds some strange attraction for me.



Visited a few wineries (third time this year on three different continents) and even found a little memento which I could not resist buying. It is a coaster from the region inscripted with CENTRAL COAST. Well, they don’t say that they mean the Central Coast north of Sydney (where I live) but so what.

As I said in some other trip report, no self respecting queen visiting SF can do without a visit to Castro and the main drag, Market street, this being the heart and soul of the gay universe. Well, I must admit that the heart and soul have largely gone elsewhere and it still is pretty run down as I found it last time to my disappointment. Hence the visit was swift and short and I took some drive around the surrounding hills which afford great views over the City.

A speck in the pacific ocean

Soon it was time to once again pack my oyster and prepare for the last stop over on this trip, Tahiti. My usual route would lead me to Hawaii for a few days, which I really love very much. But the airlines conspired against me and thus my trusted travel agent Barry had suggested to aim at Tahiti as an alternative.

I had been to Tahiti in 1977 during my trip around the world. And my memories were somewhat mixed. That had, to some degree at least, something to do with the people and their attitude.

I should point out, that by and large I am a great fan and lover of the Polynesian people. Most of them are very friendly, very helpful, fun to be around, often very good looking. And the top of the crop in my opinion are the native Fijians. And during a few visits to those islands I have never been disappointed.

The exception to that rule seemed to be the Tahitians. In 1977 I did not quite work out what it was which got up my nose. Anyway, I landed in Papeete and was brought to my hotel, the Royal Hawaiian. Very nice bungalow hotel on the water. Nice rooms, all very pleasant.

Entering the room and installing myself I grabbed, as you would do, the printed guest information sheet and there, at the very end of the sheet, somehow was at least part of the answer as to why I have problems with this particular ‘member’ of the ‘Polynesian family’ There it said:

“there is no room service, because the distances are too long”

It was the first time in 35 years of hotel dwelling that the guest information stated categorically that you, the valued customer, could bloody well get off your arse and get your wine or what ever you want on your room yourself.

It is the unfortunate combination of Polynesian laid back attitude mixed with French arrogance which produces something like that.



Since rolling around on sandy beaches in the blazing sun is not my kind of fun and since I was determined not to inconvenience the hotel staff with any of my unreasonable wishes for any service – be it on my room or in their restaurants – I once again took some basic carry bags and made my way to Papeete proper. What I had (mis)judged as being a 45 to 60 minutes walk one way, turned out to be about 2 hours. but so be it.

I got a bit of local flavour on the way. Most of the way goes along the water front and is quite pleasant. Sometimes, though, the main road also leads you into the interior and then things become a bit more bleak. Also this quite different to, lets say Fiji or Mauritius for that matter, let alone Hawaii. But one has to take into account that Tahiti is certainly a poorer place than would be Hawaii, but it would be on par with Fiji and Tonga or even Mauritius and in those places I never saw this kind of uncaring run down of buildings and environment as I did in Tahiti.



None the less, I got myself a very respectable baguette with nice cheese and ham, some fruit salad and, of course, some nice French white Bordeaux and my life was on the right track. Walked all the way back to the hotel and thus earned my keeps, munching on my supplies for early dinner and had some left overs for breakfast as well. And it was here, that work caught up with me again, so the couple of days went by very quickly until it was time for the last leg of the journey back to Sydney and Green Point.

Some local politics for good measure

During my absence, a mini scandal had ‘rocked’ the NSW landscape and the centre of the unsavoury activity was smack bang in the centre of the Central Coast, the RSL type restaurant und club so imaginatively named Iguana Joe.



The characters involved were Belinda Neill, the federal member for Gosford and the Central Coast, her husband John Della Bosca, minister in the NSW government and a few hangers on.




Belinda Neill is just by her looks and her way of speaking a somewhat unpleasant character. I never met her or spoke with her and all my impressions in the past were exclusively from TV news and appearances. But on that basis I had formed an opinion and that was not particularly favourable. And I must say, a similar assessment would also apply for her husband, though not as negative as that for her.

The late Princess Diana from the UK once upon a time referred to her rival Camilla Bowles as “the Rottweiler”. I can’t help thinking about that when I think about Belinda Neill.

And hearing the story, which was quickly dubbed Iguana Gate, seemed to match reasonably precisely my perceptions. Anyway, a minor affair blew up in her face, basically because of her rather unreasonable and petulant behaviour (for which Kevin Rudd ordered her into some anger management courses!!)

The papers had a field day and I thought the article below was worthwhile reproducing here


20th June, 2008

The Iguana Affair

It ain't over until the Iguana sings

Chris Henning, Sydney Morning Herald
June 20, 2008

Act I:
Die Slabberdammerung (Twilight of the Slabs) The Slablords, Siegdella and his lady, Belinhilde, are partying at a castle with Central Coast friends, known as the Woymaidens, when the Iguana appears, singing the rollicking drinking song Move, Move. We Need Your Table. Belinhilde, who knows sorcery, tries her most powerful spell in the well-known aria ---- Off, ----head. But her spell goes awry, and she succeeds only in conjuring up the greedy twins Faffen and Fupfa, who covet the Woygold. They join Belinhilde in the tremendous Me ---- Off? ---- Off Yourself, Bitch.
As the three battle for supremacy, Siegdella tries to intervene, brandishing his sacred sword Rightwing, and singing the famous aria My Wife Is A Saint. I Have The Numbers To Prove It, but Faffen accuses him of hallucinating in the powerful duet Youse Must Be Off Your Face (I'm Cutting Youse Off).
Siegdella, who has been drinking mineral water, is baffled. Belinhilde, disgusted at Siegdella's weakness and mortified at the twins' insults, sets fire to the restaurant and marches out with the Woymaidens singing the curse song Lizard, Your Redevelopment Plans Are Toast.
They leave Siegdella, Faffen, Fupfa and the Iguana fighting amid rising flames in the car park as the Iguana sings the vengeful I'm Gonna Shop You To The Sundays, Nyah Nyah. At its climax, the sword Rightwing shatters, and at that moment the Iguana recognises Siegdella as a true hero, and is filled with remorse.
Act II: The next day. Siegdella realises he will have to negotiate with the Iguana if he and Belinhilde are to be cleansed of their shame. In swirling mists high on a mountain top, he meets the Iguana, and sings the famous aria Mate, Neither Of Us Needs This. The Iguana, chastened, answers with the equally haunting I'll Sign Anything - Just Don't Knock Back My DA. But though the two sing the reconciliation aria Nothing Happened, And If It Did, It's The Media's Fault, they have reckoned without the malevolent Faffen and Fupfa, who have seen their chance to win the Woygold in return for interviews on 60 Minutes.
Interlude: Dance of the F twins (ballet). Faffen and Fupfa leap about in front of TV cameras, mocking Belinhilde and Siegdella obscenely, and brandishing their stat decs. But Belinhilde and the Woymaidens drive them away, and Belinhilde forces the Woymaidens to write new stat decs, which she then hides with the Woygold.
Act III: Later, at Slabbenhalla, home of the Slabs. Belinhilde is confronted by Kevinrude, king of the gods, in the majestic This Is Not The Image Our Party Needs and told to undergo a penance. As the orchestral accompaniment rises to a deafening climax, Belinhilde appears before the dwarves of the Allthing (parliament) and confesses her shortcomings in the moving lament I Might Have Been A Goose, But I'm The Victim Here. Albo, the head dwarf, reforges the sword Rightwing and in a magnificent act of reconciliation with his lifelong factional enemy, returns it to Siegdella, who immediately beheads him. But the hero cannot save Slabbenhalla, which has been torched by the F twins, using the Woymatches supplied by Kevinrude. As the entire cast collapses around them, Faffen and Fupfa clutch the Woygold and sing the climactic aria Our Story's Worth 100K Minimum, Or At Least A Free Commodore before perishing in the flames.

The next three months in Green Point Palace are filled with the usual, quite a bit of work, some visiting guests from overseas, work in the garden to prepare for winter as well as my second Birthday Party which is scheduled to take place in October.


Weatherwise things become rather cold, more so than would usually be the case. And whilst it had been raining a few times during my absence, it now turned to absolutely dry.


Green Point 28th July, 2008

letter to a friend

......Um beim Wetter zu bleiben, hier bei uns ist es – um es urdeutsch zu sagen – arschkalt. So einen kalten Winter hatten wir schon lange nicht mehr.

Na ja, es ist natuerlich auch alles relativ. 14 Grad Tagestemperatur und 8 Grad in der Nacht sind fuer uns halt ungewoehnlich. Erfreulicherweise ist mein Haus ‘thermal’ guenstig und die Sonne, wenn sie denn scheint, erwaermt mir das Buero doch auf 23 oder mehr Grade. Aber es ist lange her, dass ich im Bett mal Socken angezogen habe!

Australien war ja wohl auch bei Ihnen in der letzten Woche einige Male in den News Dank Papa Ratzi. World Youth Day war ein grosses Ereignis hier, allerdings auch nicht immer ganz unumstritten. Die doch recht sekulaeren Australier und Sydneysider insbesondere, haben es nicht so mit Massen von Katholiken – oder irgend welchen anderen Glaeubigen jedweder provenience. Ich hab mich jedenfalls aus Sydney raus gehalten in der Zeit

Hier geht es sonst so seinen ‘sozialistischen Gang’ ein wenig Arbeit ist angesagt. Ansonsten plane ich bereits wieder meine naechste Reise im Oktober/November.

Wie ueblich wird es fuer ein paar Wochen nach Kampala gehen. Dort machen wir tentative Fortschritte mit zwei kleinen Geschaeften. Ich habe den Jungs einen Container gekauft – so ein richtig grosses Ding – welcher auf dem lokalen Markt aufgestellt wird. Darin werden wir dann 2 kleine Geschaefte installieren.

Eines wird die second hand clothing Boutique, welche bei dem Besuch meiner Freunde im Mai bereits mit den Namen “Wunderbar” getauft wurde. Das war so ein Wort, was viel in der Zeit gebraucht wurde und die Jungs hatten grossen Spass daran.

Das zweite business wird eine art office services Laden, wo der Mensch CDs machen lassen kann, Drucken, Wordprocessing, laminations und so weiter. Sicher werden wir dort auch so ein paar Bueroartikel verkaufen, wie notepads, Schreiber etc. Bin mal sehr gespannt, wie das sich anlaesst.

So hoffe ich, dass ich wenigstens einige der Jungs zu einer oekonomischen Unabhaengikeit fuehren kann. Diese beiden Laeden werden wohl insgesamt 5 von ihnen in ‘Arbeit und Brot’ halten.

Vor ein paar Monaten habe ich einen gebrauchten Lastwagen gekauft und der ist jetzt die Basis eines recht gut gehenden Transport Unternehmens fuer 2 der Jungs. .......

The world looks at Beijing

In August then, the Beijing Olympics dominated the news spectrum. and whilst I have modest interest in a few of the sports on display at such occasion, this wall to wall media coverage goes a bit on my nerves after a while.



Anyway, as a statistically minded person with a warped sense of humour, I can wring some fun even out of the Olympics and the product is the following


25th August, 2008

Beijing Olympics

For a person who is only mildly interested in Olympic sport (hence suffered a fair bit in the last 2 weeks) but quite interested in statistics, the real joy of the Olympics starts a day after the closing ceremony and lasts for a few hours.

I guess we all know, which countries are leading the medal tally and, depending on your way of looking at the statistics, you rank countries either by gold medals achieved or by the total medals collected.

However, since I would always strive towards the fairest view of things, I have calculated a total medal value which gives each gold medal 3 points, each Silver 2 and each Bronze 1 point and thus creates a total medal value. By that value the ladder looks like this

1 China
2 USA
3 Russia
4 United Kingdom
5 Australia
6 Germany
7 France
8 South Korea
9 Italy
10 Japan

However, there are obviously other elements which one could – or dare I say should - take into consideration in the process of arriving at a medal tally. Such as the size of the country. In other words, the question arises, how many square kilometres does it take to achieve one medal value point. And obviously, the fewer the square km required, the higher on the table. On that score the first three places go to

1 Bahrain
2 Singapore
3 Jamaica

The UK still does quite well on place 9 and Germany on place 14, but China falls back to 49th place and the mighty USA to 51st. Sadly, Australia does rank even worse with 63rd place. So let’s forget about that and focus on other aspects!

Well lets see, what other parameters would make PERFECT sense. There is obviously the total population numbers. After all, Olympia's greatest have to come from a sporty population and it is only fair to conclude that the ratio between total medal value and size of the population would be a good indicator of sportive prowess. And you guessed it, that favours Australia

In all fairness (that’s how I am) there are a few countries still doing better on that score than Australia and those are

1 Jamaica
2 Bahamas
3 Iceland

Who would have thought Iceland gets up there? Which sports did they take part in? But amongst the medal kings and queens the ranks look like this

6 Australia
21 United Kingdom
25 South Korea
30 France
35 Germany
37 Russia
39 Ukraine
40 Italy
43 USA
57 Japan
67 China

Well you could say this table above is a table of squandered opportunities, so many people, so little medal value (China, Japan, USA)

It is often said these days, that it takes money to medal. And no doubt, a few National Olympic committees are now going with cap in hand to their Governments and ask for oodles of money in order to be able to improve on their national result in London in 2012 and, by implication, the nation’s pride and joy and, not to forget, prestige of the country in the chorus of the world’s nations.

Well I have bad news for those plucky Olympic chiefs. Based on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per person per country it ain’t the money

The ranking before the country name shows the place in terms of GDP per person/medal value and the figures in brackets show the ranking in terms of GDP per person

The first three countries based on GDP/medal value ratio are:

1 China (66)
2 Ethiopia (87)
3 Kenya (81)

And a special mention goes to Ethiopia, being the poorest country in terms of GDP per person and making it to place two in the GDP/medal value ratio. And Kenya is not far behind.

Last, but not least one should look also at the overall ‘capacity to pay’ that is the total GDP and its relation to total medal value. After all it’s the country which will earn the glory and the country has to pay! And again, the numbers in brackets ( ) show the placing in terms of GDP of those countries amongst the 87 nations that scored at least one medal and the ranking in front of the country name denotes the place based on ratio between GDP and medal value

On that basis the first three are

1 Mongolia (79)
2 Georgia (72)
3 Jamaica (49)

Three cheers for Mongolia. You can get to the top if you let the statisticians have a go at it. It must have been all those fancy wrestlers or boxers (I don’t know, have not watched any of it)

And finally the relation between total GDP and medal value for our so called medal Kings and Queens, well eat your heart out says Mongolia.

12 Ukraine (48)
25 Russia (19)
39 Australia (15)
41 China (6)
44 South Korea (13)
54 United Kingdom (4)
60 France (5)
64 Italy (9)
68 Germany (3)
77 USA (1)
83 Japan (2)

USA and Japan and Germany, you might be filthy rich but it does not buy you medal value. The 3 countries with the highest GDP – the riches nations – end up on the last three places in the ratio rating out of the ten and in the last quarter of all 87 nations.

Some local argy bargy

Peter Fitz Simmons is quite a vocal sports and also social commentator in the Fairfax News. And whilst I don’t really share his unlimited devotion to rugby, I can surely empathise with his overtly atheist views.



And the celebration of world youth day, for which I had already become subversively active, triggered a few shots from Fiz, as he is known for short, which, in turn, triggered a few letters to the editor brandishing Fiz for his ‘relentless’ rage against the oh so wonderful and timidly cowering catholic church. That letter prompted me to write the following letter in response

31st August, 2008

Re.: Letters to the editor 31st August, 2008, Denis Collins, Blackheath

Denis Collins, I guess Fiz will stop, what you call in your temperate, measured words, hysterical diatribes, (talk about people in glass houses being careless with rocks) as soon as the assorted churches, christian or otherwise, stop telling all and sundry what to do and not to do. Stop their obsession with sex. Stop their homophobic ranting. Stop preaching utter nonsense, such as creationism as pseudo science. Any chance there?

Getting to early September, I somehow had enough of the cold and rang Ute to tell her, that I would come to Flying Fishpoint for a few days, in order to soak up some warmer temperatures and a bit of tropical ambience. And there was a new rain forest walk which I would like to visit near Innisfail. Gesagt, getan


trip 4

5th September, Sydney – Cairns – Flying Fishpoint
10th September, Cairns – Sydney

The funny thing with this trip was, that it basically rained on all but the first day – when we did our rain forest walk – but it was warm and created a wonderful atmosphere for sitting around, reading, eating drinking and, in the evenings, playing lots of Yatzee with Dominic, Helga, Tony and Ute.







It was also a pleasant coincidence that my good friend Thomas from Adelaide spend some quality time in Flying Fishpoint as well and I was pleased to see him.






In September our political scene hotted up a bit, thanks to the machinations of the liberal party which, as yet, has to come to terms with the idea of being in opposition. For most of the year they had the misfortune of being led by Brendan Nelson. (3 Photos in this following section are taken from the Internet)



He is a nice enough guy, but, as we would say in our Australian vernacular piss weak.

His public performance often left things to be desired. His arguments on camera became increasingly mangled and contradictory and by August, almost all people in the liberal party room were talking about having to replace the poor bastard. The polls showed him, at times, on a 7% approval rate, compared to that of his opponent, Kevin Rudd at 65% plus. Not a very good look.

At the same time the liberals were still somehow dreaming about Peter Costello, the former Treasurer and wannabe leader for so many years putting up his hand to lead the party.



But he had made, in more than one convoluted way clear, that he had no particular interest anymore in such a job. But as it often happens, politicians don’t believe politicians if they say no to something which they would be expected to say yes to. Such is politics.

In all this unproductive rumbling about the liberal leadership, Brendan Nelson was obviously asked many times whether he felt that he still had the confidence of his party or whether he would be leaving the leadership and make place for somebody else. And in one of those tedious interviews, his response was: “I am going nowhere”

And that response, using the common Australian interpretation means something slightly different from what he intended to say, but without intention, he described his situation perfectly. He was going nowhere with his leadership. And neither was his party.

In those days I wrote to a friend

Green Point Palace 15th September, 2008

letter to a friend

…… Speaking of the Howard era. We are currently spoon-fed with titbits of the Costello memoires. Seeing the Libs squirm and the ALPlers grin like a Cheshire cat with lots of crème around its mouth is a sight to behold.

Not that there is a lot of real news in it. We always knew that Howard is, what we call in German, a Winkeladvokat. They are masters in re-interpreting commonly understood terms so that they actually mean the opposite of what everybody else understands them as meaning. He carries the moniker lying rodent not for nothing and bestowed on him by his own party.

And the ALP in NSW is just getting a whacking at every turn possible. Nathan Rees, our new Premier, can hardly keep up with the number of apologies he has to issue on a daily basis. The next few by-elections – due to MPs leaving the sinking ship in droves – will end with a big mauling of the NSW ALP. Deservedly so, one has to say. The council elections on the weekend were just a warm up run.

As you can see, we live in interesting times – the way the Chinese, euphemistically, wish.

From me, however, best wishes for interesting times in the best of German/Australian tradition. All the best


PS: this letter was written last night and saved, just before the power supply of my PC said for ever good bye and switched off the computer in an uncerimonial fit. Which meant I had to lug it to West Gosford to a computer repair shop and replace the power supply.

During the ensuing 15 hours, Brendan Nelson has called for a leadership spill after having been white anted for the last 9 months (he is an absolute dill) And as every ALP man worth his/her salt would know, you don’t call leadership spills unless you know exactly the outcome. And Brendan got that one wrong (and not only because he is an ex-ALP and liberal now) by the looks of it. In other words, we have the member for Wentworth, Millionaire and bonvivant Malcolm Turnbull now in the leader’s chair.

Whether that will change anything is a different question. But here we go – she’ll be right mate, as we Bavarians say so eloquently –

And if I don’t send this e-mail now very soon, the big machine in Switzerland might have created a new black hole in which we all disappear.!!........

And there he was, Malcolm Turnbull in the role of leader of the opposition.



One of his dreams came true. However, since his party, or he, cannot decide on any policy or anything constructive to hold the government to account, he resorts to childish accusations of Rudd or other ministers, one of those being to criticise them for their extensive travel, in particular it such dire times when the world financial markets come to a melt down. Never mind that Kevin Rudd spent most of the time on the trip, for which he was so severely criticised, in NYC and other parts of America, at the centre of the malaise and talked extensively with many of the players in this game in order to obtain as much first hand information on facts and possible solutions as is humanly possible.

But Mr Turnbull wanted him at home in order to be able to have a go at him in parliament. And it got a bit up his arrogant nose that these one on one confrontations simply could not take place . this prompted me to write the following open letter to Malcolm Turnbull


Green Point (NSW) 24th September, 2008

Open letter to Malcolm Turnbull

Dear Malcolm,

I think in your valiant efforts to show those neo luddites on your and the other side of the house what a ripper new leader you are, you are losing a bit of touch with reality and logic.

Your constant moaning about Kevin 07 not being in the house but spending a week in NYC contrasts, in the logic capers, a bit with your moaning and groaning about the government doing bugger all but setting up inquiries into all and sundry.

If the latter were true – as you insist it is – there is nothing for Kev to do right now other than to wait for all those reports to flood his desk. So he might as well use the time for a fleeting visit to NYC with some potential for national benefit.

And as far as communicating with those neophytes (as you might regard those ALP masses back home in Canberra) there is this thing with the little squiggly bit, you know, the thing which OzEmail was into big time, which has miraculously dispensed with the good old postal dove and allows for pretty good and timely communication of all sorts of things. (even taking into account that NYC is far behind Canberra – 14 hours according to my world clock - to be precise)

Or is the real reason for castigating Kev for his travel the fact that his absence might take a bit of the gloss of your first week performance in parliament as the new and oh so brilliant economic manager.

I agree, on the TV news at night it might sometimes look a bit like Romeo and Juliet in the balcony scene with Juliet having left the balcony for a quick pee. Makes Romeo look a bit superfluous!

Coming to think of brilliant – manager – merchant banker – world financial markets – etc – I would think that you should be the first – inflated ego and volcanic temper allowing – to fly somewhat under the radar and hope for the tsunami to wash over you without a lot of traces of damage – image or otherwise.

It is, after all, your professional colleagues – those brilliant merchant b(w)ankers, who managed to manage their fortunes into oblivion and now stand – cap in hand – at the tax payers’ funded trough (a mental picture which is more commonly associated with politicians rather than the proud and self-appointed guardians of private enterprise) waiting for the morsels of public money to fall into their laps.

I don’t know whether the inventors of PPPs (public, private partnerships) had this kind of scenario in mind without telling the great unwashed.

Malcolm, sit back, relax, count the left over cash if you must but think of a new and better way than dear old Brendan could, to provide this country with, what it needs for the political oxygen to flow, a convincing political ALTERNATIVE.