Cindy-Lou Dale

Smoke and Mirrors: Just by throwing out the country’s commercial tobacco farmers – the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy, accounting for approximately fifty percent of Zimbabwe’s foreign currency earnings - and seizing their land, President Robert Mugabe systematically destroyed a country that was once southern Africa's second-largest economy after South Africa and the world’s second largest tobacco export industry. Now Zimbabwe lies in ruins, a landfill of devastated lives and shattered dreams decaying into hellish nightmares. As hundreds of farms were taken over, sometimes by local people, often by senior government officials, production and export of grain and tobacco collapsed.

An honourable African: A shadow passed over his face. “We would be fully justified in celebrating the achievements that have been made to attain peace and development but we cannot underplay the challenges that we still face. As now, following decades of deprivation, the grief has been driven away by our hunger pains - hunger for the improvement of the quality of life of all our people, affecting many critical areas of social existence, including health, safety and security.”

 

Belgium, a nation of humanitarians: Most people will agree that every country in the world has shaped history in some way. The United States gave us the telephone and the Korean War; Britain the steam engine and colonialism; and South Africa the Cat-Scan and Nelson Mandela; but few realise the significant role a small European country would have on Africa and the daily lives of others around the world.

Rwanda's unlikely hero: I sat across from Paul Rusesabagina, a soft-spoken, refined African, whose courageous actions saved more than 1,200 refugees as documented in the Academy Award-nominated film Hotel Rwanda. "History keeps repeating itself, and fails to teach mankind. We never learn from the past," Rusesabagina continued. “The time for the world to repent their failure to help Rwanda has elapsed.” His voice was heavy with despair.

Belgium's Coffee Culture: Each European country has a different interpretation on how this pleasure should be achieved. Italians enjoy it with a Corneto ice cream, the French could quite easily enjoy a calming cappuccino which could just as easily be followed by an alcoholic beverage as a croissant. Northern Europeans enjoy their coffee with sweet cakes and pastries and the Dutch coffee houses, known as smart shops, light up a joint of cannabis. In Belgian coffee houses, you’re served a little trayed quartet of coffee, cream and a special Belgian chocolate truffle – with sorely tempting Belgian waffle always at the edge of your gaze.

New Age Philanthropy: I noticed some tea pickers being bussed off to a building in the valley and enquired after their destination. "Nursing mothers are transported to the crèche three times a day,” Mike claimed. Encouraged by this show of humanity, I enquired after the other facilities Thotulagalla Estate provides their staff and discovered that not only was there a crèche, but a primary school and a newly built secondary school too, with teachers provided by the Education Department; an estate medical practitioner, a brand-new community centre, and really good housing – each with a patch of land for self cultivation or live-stock grazing.

Berlin, the other side of midnight: The nightclub was an extraordinary place, musty and dark, unusual art, a swing - I felt my way through the gloom, seeking a good vantage point of the stage. Something nicked the edge of my gaze and made me turn. Sitting on a black leather sofa to my left was a rotund man clad head to toe in a black rubber Batman costume, complete with goggles. He was in the process of indulging a somewhat aroused body part which protruded from a Velcro y-flap.

Sri Lanka, a renaissance in tea ethics: I was spellbound by the vivid saris of the women, whose hands resembled butterflies flitting over the shrubs, moving independently of one another, nipping off the youngest and topmost leaves by snapping the stem with a sharp movement of the index and middle fingers, then tossing their pickings into large baskets on their backs.

New Age Guerrillas: Although not a key producer when judged against giants like Brazil and Colombia, Malawian coffee farmers have learned and can teach a useful lesson to other smallholder growers who may be considering either diversification or uprooting their coffee trees. The lesson is that financial success depends not on growing more but on reducing costs of production and bold, guerrilla-type marketing tactics.

Phat Phil Cooper: “It’s a passing trend that’s been coming to your ears for three decades!” says International DJ, Phat Phil Cooper, who has helped steer the concept and design success of NuNorthern Soul to the movement it is today.

Ferrari's Wildman: When Jody Scheckter blasted onto the F1 scene many considered his aggressive tactics menacing to others on the track. Following one of the biggest accidents in F1 history, the then World Champion, Emerson Fittipaldi, accused Scheckter of being a madman who did not belong in the sport.

In search of the world's best coffee: Other than receiving Napoleon’s approval, St. Helena coffee received further recognition. In 1839, following a tasting and testing, London coffee merchants, Wm Burnie & Co, pronounced it to be of superlative quality and flavour. St. Helena’s coffee then continued to top the London market. By 1845 the company had reached a sales price way above any other, thus creating the highest-priced and most fashionable coffee in the world.

Women's Rights: The idea that the women of the West are empowered or emancipated, or any way in a better position to Muslim women is deceptive.Compared to Muslim women Western women face a constant struggle to meet the sordid and exploitative expectations set by our consumer driven society.

 

Coffee Out of Africa: “Our farmers are ambitious, intelligent and driven to generate lucrative opportunities and self-sufficiency by trading their coffee,” said Andrew Rugasira, CEO of Rwenzori Coffee Company. "Africa is a giant food basket, not a bottomless begging bowl. She is place of tremendous opportunity. Our coffee growers are ready for business. All we want is the opportunity to fight poverty through trade.”

 

Congo's Conservation Crisis: (Interview with Chief Game Warden of Virungas National Park) When recollecting events from the past, Mirindi’s broad shoulders stiffened. Through a clenched jaw he managed, “In the past ten years 65% of my Rangers have been killed by militia-men”. His chiseled features hardened, "But to commemorate my men”, Mirindi continued, “we do things the African way. Each man that was lost in the line of duty is remembered every day because we give a fallen comrade’s name to a mountain gorilla. That way, they live on in memory and their spirits live on to care for our animals.”

 

Vertical Limits: At 08h00 on May 25th 1996 Cathy O'Dowd, a 30-year-old mountaineer from South Africa, stepped onto the summit of Everest and into the world’s history books. She had become the first woman to climb the highest mountain in the world from both its south and north sides.

 

21st Century guide to parenting teenagers: To many, a father’s role is limited to providing financial support and appearing on ceremonial occasions. But increasingly, we are presented with findings that suggest just the opposite. Many boys, lacking the father role model, and are far more likely to find difficulty in developing stable relationships with members of the opposite sex. It is also likely to be an obstruction to successful parenting.

Halloween Elsewhere: I passed an elderly gentleman stooped over a freshly dug mound of earth. He was poking at it with his cane. Numerous clucking hens were at his feet, scratching at the soil, ferreting for worms and grubs. One let out of whooping squawk and attacked something only she could see in the dirt. Her action caused the other hens to rush across in excited anticipation.

Our forgotten people: Heather spoke of her mental and physical exhaustion. “You must bear in mind that for most elderly folk to do anything like get up in the morning, go to the toilet, wash, dress, eat and prepare for bed at night takes about ten times longer than it would take us younger people – the everyday things that we all take for granted are now a time consuming, sometimes painful and often frustrating chore, taking hours out of a day.”

The private life of a male sex worker: We spoke of his clientele and I enquired about his ethics when called upon by a man he knows to be in a heterosexual relationship. “Most of the people that make use of my services are married or attached men. Some are heterosexual and a few are homosexual. Some want excitement, while others need a secret escape from outside their bonds.”

Lions and bushmen of a wildlife sanctuary: Driving through the farmhouse gates, I was greeted by an expanse of manicured lawns on which two Jack Russell terriers wrestled with a lion cub. Marlice and her husband, Dr. Rudie Van Vuuren, were there to meet me. "Thanks to Angelina Jolie, we have fenced our entire 100 square mile wildlife sanctuary and as a result, we have successfully released many of the animals that have undergone rehabilitation."

 

Backseat boys: I asked David when and what he planned to do when he leaves this work. “I don't know. I’m not getting any younger”, he said. He thinks it will probably be three more years on the streets for him, and then he would have to make another move. “Once I am 21 I know I won’t attract much business. We have a sell by date you know. Clients want young blood all the time.”

The Super Executive: “Learning from text books about due diligence, for example, should only be considered as basic grounding; the easy, technical stuff.  Working with people that have dissimilar views, different agendas’ or who fight you every step of the way is something no text book can teach you. On the job training is constant, regardless of how long you’ve been in business; every day poses new challenges, whether you’re in the corporate office or in the mailroom.” 

An international career: Live-in carers earn between £350 to £500 per week, depending on their experience, which is relatively high earnings but bear in mind it is temporary work and a working holiday visa holder is supposed to spend a considerable amount of time in leisure pursuits.

 

For old times sake: “These are the very people that molded the England you have today; they guaranteed democracy and I consider it a privilege to give these souls a dignified existence. I love them all, even when their pride gets in the way. I look at my career choice as a preserver of life. I am responsible for a life that had at one time, greatly contributed to Britain’s society, perhaps fought in WW2, guaranteeing life as we know it today.”