Chessa-lee

Another one bites the dust

2012-01-07T16:34:00.002Z

I completed this game today. I played white in the game and like how the game finished. I first thought my opponent - an American teacher - was going to have a complete different plan with her knight, but then sadly she lost it with the checkmate.

Chess for the birds

2011-12-24T23:39:00.010Z

In Chess you get different openings and the 'Bird opening' is one of many openings. In this first game - vs one of my American chess friends - the Bird opening was played. I played black in this game. In the next image you can see the end position.

Before Christmas - a chess game - or two!

Game 2 - I played white and in game 3 I played black - both games were played against the same player. I always play for the fun of it and don't really put too much effort in my games, as I really want to relax only. So, you might decide it's not good play from my side either, but that's all for the fun of chess - if you're not a serious player. I really have time only for 2-3 games during holidays and therefore see it as time to catch-up with chess friends and their comings and goings.

Merry Christmas!

Talking about birds - this is one of my favourite smaller birds of South Africa - the Mossie - or a sparrow. This photo is from Flickr:Ruslou/6239953222

Click HERE to play one of my most recent games on chess.com. This is a game against one of my favourite players and he normally beats me up. This time, with black, I was in the winning position.This is the end position - we've decided to start a new game, hopefully I will not allow him to beat me up in this next game too! :)

Play Chess Online where I play!

Quick Chess game

2011-11-30T11:28:00.011Z

A quick game played today, whilst at home due to ...'industrial action'...In this game I played black. It was played on the chesscube site.

Play Chess Online where I play!

Tired and old

2011-07-02T17:25:00.002+01:00

Tired and old - some say she even looks 50 on some of these pics... well, not quite the bridesmaid of a few months ago.Link:

http://uk.specials.lifestyle.yahoo.com/style-it-light/hot-topics-detail/game-set-and-style-match-to-pippa-2672

Churchill's Secret Army

2011-06-30T22:24:00.001+01:00

The Game

2011-06-24T22:05:00.013+01:00

1. d4 d5 2. e3 a6 3. c4 e6 4. c5 Bd7 5. Bd3 Bc6 6. Nf3 h6 7. Ne5 Bb5 8. Bxb5+ axb5 9. Qf3 Nf6 10. h4 Be7 11. Nd2 c6 12. O-O Na6 13. a3 O-O 14. g4 Nh7 15. b4 f6 16. Nd3 f5 17. gxf5 Rxf5 18. Nf4 Qd7 19. Bb2 Bxh4 20. e4 dxe4 21. Nxe4 Bg5 22. Nxg5 hxg5 23. Qg4 Rxf4 24. Qh5 Rf5 25. Rfe1 Re8 26. Rad1 Nf6 27. Qg6 Qf7 28. Qxf7+ Kxf7 29. Rd3 Nd5 30. Bc1 g4 31. Re4 Nf6 32. Ree3 Nd5 33. Rg3 Nf4 34. Bxf4 Rxf4 35. Kg2 Nc7 36. f3 gxf3+ 37. Rgxf3 Rxf3 38. Rxf3+ Kg8 39. Re3 Rf8 40. Rh3 Nd5 41. Kh2 Rf4 42. Rg3 Nf6 43. Kg2 Ne4 44. Rg6 Rf2+ 45. Kg1 Ra2 46. Rxe6 Nc3 47. Re7 Rxa3 48. Rxb7 Ra4 49. Rc7 Rxb4 50. Rxc6 Rxd4 51. Rc8+ Kh7 52. c6 b4 53. c7 Rc4 54. Kf1 b3 55. Rb8 Rxc7 56. Rxb3 Nd1 57. Kg2 Rf7 58. Rh3+ Kg8 59. Kg3 Ne3 60. Kh2 Nf1+ 61. Kg2 Nd2 62. Kg3 Ne4+ 63. Kh2 g5 64. Ra3 Kg7 65. Kh3 Kg6 66. Ra6+ Kh5 67. Ra5 Rf3+ 68. Kg2 Kg4 69. Ra4 Kf4 70. Rb4 Rg3+ 71. Kh2 Kf3 72. Rb3+ Kg4 73. Rb5 Kf4 74. Rb4 g4 75. Rxe4+ Kxe4 76. Kxg3 Kf5 77. Kf2 Kf4 78. Kg2 Kg5

This game is not finished as yet. My opponent thinks it's going to be a draw...but I said it will definitely be a win [on my side.] He could actually checkmate me quite early on, he didn't notice it and I only told him a few moves after, then he saw it too. Can you see where/when?

Commonwealth Chess

Round 5

Round 4

Round 1

Chess opening - Commonwealth Chess 2011

Play Chess Online where I play!

Pawn or a King!

2011-06-17T09:31:00.000+01:00

Play Chess Online where I play!

Royal Wedding

2011-04-30T14:23:00.002+01:00

I'm really not a fan of the Royals, but do like William and therefore decided to watch this wedding. Hopefully he will be more sensible than Charles [I don't like Charles] and he will continue set an excellent example to the rest of the Royal family. Some protocol in this photo! William salutes and Kate bows down.

I quite like the 'party' dress of Pippa, a lovely design and one of my favourite colours.

All by myself

2011-04-13T19:16:00.001+01:00

Chess world rocked by French cheating scandal

2011-04-02T14:27:00.009+01:00

Three top French chess players have been found guilty of cheating in last year's world championship, using an ingenious messaging system.

The French chess federation has suspended Sébastien Feller, a 20-year-old grandmaster, his team-mate Cyril Marzolo, 32, and Arnaud Hauchard, 39, the French team captain. It said they used mobile text messages, a remote chess computer and coded signals to beat the opposition.

The fraud, which took place during last September's Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, has rocked the chess world, which prides itself on its code of honour.

Rival teams have been known to accuse each other of cheating, but in this case the whistle-blower was the French federation's own vice president, Joanna Pomian.
She became suspicious when she found a text message addressed to Mr Marzolo, which read: "Hurry up and send me some moves." It was sent from Russia by Mr Hauchard during the competition.

She examined Mr Marzolo's itemised phone bill and found he had sent more than 150 text messages to Mr Feller during the tournament, plus 30 to Mr Hauchard. Unable to look at their contents due to a privacy ruling, she and the federation nevertheless remained "convinced" the players had cheated.
The federation said the system required Mr Marzolo to follow the game via the internet. He logged the moves into a chess computer then texted its suggested moves to Mr Hauchard in codes within phoney telephone numbers.

The captain communicated these to Mr Feller during his match by standing next to a particular player who represented a pre-agreed number and a figure. Mr Feller could follow his captain's movements to know which piece to move and where.
Mr Feller won three games at the tournament, enough to earn him a gold medal and €5,000 (£4,400).
According to Laurent Vérat, the federation's director-general, Mr Feller and Mr Hauchard owned up to the fraud in October, but "refused to sign any documents".
"The only thing that mattered to them was that the affair didn't get out," he told Le Parisien.
Mr Feller and Mr Marzolo were handed down five-year suspensions while Mr Hauchard received a life ban from being team captain or a coach.
The three deny any wrongdoing and have appealed against the ruling.

See this link for the article - the link will open in a new window

To meet and to mate

2011-03-30T19:44:00.000+01:00

Great song

2011-03-20T11:49:00.002Z

Rain Dance

2011-02-13T20:00:00.002Z

Find more artists like Jane Ellen at Myspace Music

You're beautiful

2010-12-20T23:45:00.003Z

Seasonal Greetings

2010-12-19T19:23:00.005Z

With this video I want to say - Have a Great Christmas and wish you everything the best for this time of year.

Another Love to come

2010-11-20T12:35:00.001Z

What kind of chess player are you?

2010-10-30T11:45:00.001+01:00

Do you see yourself in one of these images? Click on the image for a larger view.

That kind of news again

2010-10-29T17:49:00.005+01:00

Police probe cargo jet 'packages'
Officials are investigating reports of several packages on aircraft in the eastern United States cities of Philadelphia and Newark, New Jersey.In Britain, parts of East Midlands Airport were sealed off earlier on Friday following the discovery of a suspicious package.Police called to a freight distribution building and a number of offices at the Donington site are examining a suspicious package

Click HERE to read the complete article. The link will open in a new window. Update link at the bottom of this entry.

Update: 30/10-Click the image for a larger view. To read the complete article, click
HERE and you can also watch a short clip on this link. The link will open in a new window.

Sonkring

2010-09-22T19:06:00.001+01:00

Truro - Cornwall

2010-08-27T18:32:00.001+01:00

Cathedral Lane - just opposite the Cathedral

We've been to Cornwall for a few days and visited Truro and the Truro Cathedral. You can see a few pics of the city and also read part of a news article about David Cameron whose baby was born at Truro a few days ago too. The weather wasn't really great and we didn't spend that much time at Truro, but I would like to go back and visit again in the future. You might want to click on the photos for a larger view.

The Chess Players

2010-07-25T18:38:00.001+01:00

Image posted HERE with more information about the sculpture. The link to the map is where you can view the sculpture in Washington, DC.

View Larger Map

Just the music for a relaxing chess game!

SA Open 2010

2010-07-21T22:16:00.001+01:00

It is time for Chess in South Africa again. This time the SA Open 2010. Last year we had 3 GM's played in this tournament and participating from different continents! Follow
this link to find out more about the SA Open Chess Championships 2010. The venue is in Pretoria, photos on the link of the venue too.

Churchill makes me smile

2010-07-03T15:09:00.002+01:00

Boer Scouts in Natal

Father and son go to war - image: diggershistory.info

How I love thee...to read these quotes - you can read similar quotes on my other link in this post.[The Boer War link on my blog]

When the world loved the Boers...

WHEN IN OCTOBER 1899 the British Empire went to war against the Boers or Afrikaners of the Transvaal (South African Republic) and the Orange Free State, it was widely believed that the conflict would be brief. It became, however, the largest war waged by Britain since the Napoleonic Wars, even including the Crimea, involving the strongest forces sent from English shores since Henry V's army departed for Agincourt. It was the first of the modern media wars, waged for the hearts and minds of both metropolitan and global opinion, in which military officers and civilian politicians on all sides had to pay acute attention to the coverage provided by the press. Fought at a time when the telegraph and syndicated news agencies had begun to globalise information, it became the most publicised war waged outside Europe between the American Civil War and the First World War. Indeed, in the minds of contemporaries, the South African War shared certain similarities with the American conflict, not least the widespread perception that it involved universal issues and principles which extended far beyond the borders of southern Africa.

Imperialists in Britain and its colonies of settlement believed the very essence of British strength to be at stake. Thousands of volunteers from Canada, Australia and New Zealand flocked to the imperial colours in South Africa. Britain, however, was made to appear both militarily and physically degenerate by the three years and almost half-a-million men it took to defeat the Boers, whose forces never numbered more than 88,000. During the guerrilla phase of the war, between June 1900 and the Boer surrender in May 1902, the tactics of farm burning and concentration camps employed by the British added further charges of brutality and moral corruption before the bar of world opinion. The significance of the Transvaal goldfields and the political prominence of leading magnates, often caricatured as a bloated Cecil Rhodes, gave the war a whiff of the sordid, which opponents of the conflict were all too ready to exploit (even if the actual influence of capitalists in the outbreak of hostilities was and remains controversial). Meanwhile, the unexpected protraction of the struggle intensified calls for a complete reorganisation of British educational and industrial life and gave rise to that peculiar Edwardian imperialist soul-searching encapsulated under the catchphrase National Efficiency. The war polarised political opinion in Britain, where David Lloyd George, Emily Hobhouse and James Ramsay MacDonald were among its leading opponents. The war even affected the young Clement Attlee, then a schoolboy at Haileybury, who, along with the entire middle school, was beaten by his pro-Boer headmaster for taking part in a celebration of the relief of Ladysmith that he had banned. In Ireland, the war greatly deepened the alienation of unionists, whose imperialism was invigorated by the war from nationalists who were enthusiastically pro-Boer. In Canada, too, the conflict widened the gulf between French Canadian nationalists and their English-speaking countrymen and set the pattern of their future relationship. It intensified the imperialism of Australia where it appeared to herald the arrival of The Coming Man, that healthy Independent Australian Briton who represented an almost evolutionary improvement on his metropolitan ancestors, ensuring that the new federation was born with a conservative emblem of imperial sacrifice. Nevertheless, it also provided, in the form of `Breaker' Morant, executed for shooting prisoners, yet another Australian anti-hero. In India, the unwillingness of the British to employ Indian troops in a `Sahib's War', together with imperial failure to ensure Indian rights, further alienated moderate nationalists, while Indian advocates of physical force, like their Irish counterparts, came to admire Boer armed resistance. More generally, at the dawn of the twentieth century the war drew on a widespread, almost millenarian sense of angst about the future, manifested in such events as the Dreyfus Affair, the Fashoda Crisis, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Chinese Boxer Uprising in 1900.In Europe and America, where there was enormous interest in the war, and in the United Kingdom itself, there emerged vociferous movements loosely regarded as pro-Boer. These varied greatly in outlook, however, from those who favoured an immediate end to the war and conciliation with the Boers, to those, often represented by the Irish nationalists and continental movements generally, which looked forward to a British defeat. There were also ...

Source: Questia HERE. It will open in a new window.

The Guinness Book of Records lists the Anglo-Boer War as Britain's most costly war outside of the two World Wars.

Camouflage was first used in battle by the Boers, who used camouflaged trenches and adapted battledress to blend into treeless landscapes.

The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) was the first war of the 20th century and saw the introduction of trench warfare, the first large-scale use of concentration camps for non-combatants, and the most prolonged period of guerrilla warfare by a conquered nation's military against a victorious army.

Young Boer soldier with the name of Conrad...

I've decided it was time for a new post on the Boer War as this link on my blog is now stuffed with too much info on the South African/British War. I will now add new info and links to this new entry as I lost myself amongst concentration camps and battles and thought to find myself again, this time on board with Churchill! Yes, Churchill even made me ordering this book. I like his way of playing with words and he had a humorous way of putting his hand on paper. He made me smile a few times and I've quoted some bits here...he even dreamt about South Africa as the country where he saw his great-grandchildren could grow up...er..South Africa is the most beautiful country in the world..no wonder he thought so too...Churchill also made me smile where he writes about the soldiers and the casualties...and them thinking the Boers were defeated. Ha! England, together with Irish soldiers/Scots/ Welsh/Indian+Australian/NewZealand-soldiers+Canadian soldiers...and they fought this War over three years against an army the size of the population of Brighton, that makes you think! I also have with me another interestesting book...Battles of the Boer War - written by W B Pemberton...an English writer. A great book to read. This book is not written one-sided - as you will find most books written by English writers are, as they see it only from their perspective and colour it the way they want. One must also bear in mind, the Boers had no training in fighting wars, no orderly system was in place, whilst the British had the experience and the advantage of fighting battles was on their side! According to this Gutenberg-link, about 15000 Boers were actively taking part in the War as soldiers. Enjoy bits from Churchill's book..click on images to see a larger view. I must also add, this is the first book ever where I read the offensive word which we don't use in our country - for years now - to refer to a non-white person. It was quite weird reading it - especially in this book. Where Churchill refers to the Karoo, I was really smiling...could picture him thinking what he was thinking. I've quoted it here too. On the above link you will find images, poetry and art about the Boer War and thousands of links to other historical sites/links linking to the War. On this link you can read about my great grandad and the role he played during the war and the peace process. His grandad was also on the most wanted-list of the British and there was a price tag of £300 on his head! [cool!] Read on the link more...
On this link you will find more history about the War on the site of Ladysmith-history, also eyewitness-accounts.[I've now received my book - see the cover in the next image - which I've ordered]
From the book:

The Boer War: Londton to Ladysmith Via Pretoria and Ian Hamilton's March by Winston Churchill

Churchill's adventures of the first five months of the War. Churchill was eager for news...

At last news came through...Boers defeated, three battles, Penn Symonds killed...
Cape Town - 1 November 1899
We caught the Man Who Knew ...setting him halfway up a ladder on the hurricane deck...the man told his story quickly, with an odd quiver of excitement in his voice... then for the first time we heard of Elandslaagte, of Glencoe, of Rietfontein...Tell us about Mafeking...someone else said...It's a long list of casualties...the best officers in the world...Colonel Chisholme...Sherstone...Haldane...Barnes...and many more...
East London 5th November.

The train, which is built on the corridor system, runs smoothly over the rails, so smoothly, indeed, that I found no difficulty in writing. The sun is warm, the air keen and delicious. But the scenery would depress the most buoyant spirit. We climbed up the mountains during the night, and with the daylight we were in the middle of the Great Karroo, Wherefore was this miserable land of stone and scrub created? Huge mounds of crumbling rock, fashioned by the rains in the most curious and unexpected shapes, rise from the gloomy desert of the plain.
At Beaufort Wes grave news awaiting the Mail and we learnt about the capitulation of twelve hundred soldiers near Ladysmith.

Churchill dreams about South Africa...

Boer soldiers ready for War - click for a larger view

"The war declared by the Boers on 11 October 1899 gave the British, as Kipling said, no end of a lesson'. The public expected it to be over by Christmas. It proved to be the longest (two and three-quarters years), the costliest (over two hundred million pounds), the bloodiest (at least 22,000 British, 25,000 Boer and 12,000 African lives) and the most humiliating war Britain fought between 1815 and 1914." - Thomas Pakenham: The Boer War

Image: Life - Women also took part in the war. In this post you will find the Gutenberg-link with photos from Women that played important roles during the war.

The young Winston Churchill

The news article about Churchill's captivity - in the Telegraph...image: genealogyworld.net - click on the image for a larger view.

A lovely chess set! I would love to have this one...

A French Hero...

Image: Wikipedia - Villebois-MareuilMy blogger-friend, Brandnetel, blogged today about Villebois-Mareuil and she had us all googled for Private E Brooks in her previous entry - as a secret mission! haha

From Wikipedia:[link at the bottom of this entry]

George Henri Anne-Marie Victor de Villebois-Mareuil (22 March 1847, Montaigu, Brittany, France - 6 April 1900, Boshof, Orange Free State, South Africa) was a Colonel in the French Infantry, and French Nationalist who fought and died on the side of the Boers during the Second Anglo-Boer War. He was the first of only two Boer foreign volunteers to be handed the grade of Major-General in the Boer Army. The second being his second in command Evgeni Maximov (1849-1904) after the death of Villebois-Mareuil. He took part in Franco-Prussian War - 1871 and drove back the Prussians from Blois.

George Henri Anne-Marie Victor de Villebois-Mareuil was born approximately 30 km South East of Nantes. He was a soldier and author. He started his military education at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr where he graduated as a Second Lieutenant in 1867. He loved sport and excelled in gymnastics. Shortly after his graduation he left for Cochinchina where he joined the Marine Infantry serving under his uncle Admiral de Cornulier who was Governor of the Colony. He was promoted to full Lieutenant in 1870.

He saw in the Anglo-Boer War the chance to avenge the French humiliation at Fashoda in the Sudan in 1898.
"But she (England) can be sure that this tricolour flag, grabbed from Fachoda and ripped to shreds in London, was brought to Pretoria by French Volunteers, and has taken its place next to those of the Southern Boer Republics to support their independence against the oppressors. She gave us a Hundred Years' War, and for a hundred years she has robbed the farmers from the Cape. Since then she has violated every peace treaty. Her hatred being even fiercer against the Boer, for there is French blood flowing through their veins." - F. Chinier.
He arrived in Lourenço Marques on the 22 November 1899. In December 1899 he was appointed to the rank of Major by General Joubert, and fought in the Battle of Colenso. Due to his leadership capabilities he was given the rank of Major-General and commander of all Foreign Volunteers on 17 March 1900.

The average age of his troops was thirty with the youngest being Private Boiserolle who was only 17. He had a lot of respect for the fighting ability of the Germans under his command despite the lack of unity between the different German troops and commanders. He did not have the same convictions towards the Dutch under his command due to their apparent lack of courage and eagerness for battle. They were often referred to by the Boers themselves as lowly drunkards. - B. Lugan.

About the Boers he said:

He summed his thoughts about the Boer as follows: "Noble and of good race for the most, they live on their farm like in the castles of old, free and isolated... These people are standing up in the face of the whole world defying the decline of our too advanced civilizations." - La Liberté.

Read Here more about the hero - Villebois-Mareuil.

The Gravestone of Villebois-Mareuil. He was reintered at Magersfontein - Photo: Brandnetel

"When is a war not a war?" with "When it is carried on by methods of barbarism in South Africa," referring to those same camps and the policies that created them.
Read more here.

image: stanford university

This next book is a must read - [I said to myself]

Sarah Raal, deserves to have had a film made of her life. Born into a prosperous farm family in the Southern Free State outside Jagersfontein, with the outbreak of war her father and four brothers immediately enlisted leaving Sarah, her mother and two small children alone on the farm. On one occasion, when the latter were shopping in Jagersfontein, her mother was denounced for feeding passing Boers and, together with her children, placed in a concentration camp. This left Sarah alone on the farm with her farm workers. After seven months of this, her brothers suddenly appeared seeking sanctuary. Word of this got out, but they all got away before their arrest could be carried out. For a few months Sarah moved from farm to farm but inevitably her luck ran out and she was incarcerated at Springfontein. There she had a run-in with the Camp Commandant that resulted in her being placed in a punishment detail from which she escaped to rejoin her brothers. As the countryside was palpably unsafe for a woman alone, she was allowed to enlist with the commando under command of a Commandant Nieuwoudt. There she took part in a number of guerrilla engagements, coming under both rifle and shell fire several times and displaying considerable bravery during the course of these actions. On more than one occasion she was in actual physical combat with the enemy, narrowly escaping injury, death or capture. She was eventually captured in an ambush and placed in a camp until the end of the war. She later wrote a book entitled Met Die Boere In Die Veld, which was published in 1936 and re-published in English in 2000.

Source: http://rapidttp.co.za/milhist/8/08sepnl.html

September 19, 1899, Wednesday

LONDON, The special dispatches from South Africa confirm the report that the Boers are massing artillery in positions commanding Laing's Nek. Small Boer detachments occupy positions above Buffalo River.
The members of the Afrikander Bund in Cape Town intend to convene the Bund in Congress to consider the situation.
A Bloemfontein paper reports the dismissal of several Englishman from the Bloemfontein Police Force because of their refusal to promise to serve on the Commando.

Mr. Chamberlain came to London from Birmingham yesterday afternoon and spent the evening at the Colonial Office. While there he received a dispatch from Lord Salisbury, who is at Hatfield House, and sent a special messenger to the Premier.
There has been lively interchange of dispatches between the Foreign, War, and Colonial Offices, but no summons has yet been issue for a Cabinet Counsel.

Long dispatches were sent last evening to the Viceroy of India, Lord Gurzon of Kedleston, and to the British High Commissioner in South Africa, Sir Alfred Milner.
General Lord Garnet Wolseley, Field Marshal and Commander in Chief, returned to London yesterday and immediately repaired to the War Office, where he remained busily employed the greater part of the day.

The Daily Chronicle points out this morning that "the Orange Free State would probably better serve the Transvaal by remaining neutral than by active assistance, because the easiest route for marching troops to Johannesburg and Pretoria lies between Orange River and Vaal River."

The Cape Town correspondent of the paper says: "It is reported here that Conyngham Greene (British Diplomatic Agent at Pretoria) fears that an attempt will be made to dynamite the British Agency."

The second edition of The Times yesterday contained a dispatch from Johannesburg, which says: "There is, I am informed, some early coup in contemplation. The quantities of compressed forage forwarded in the direction of Natal border indicate some move on the part of the troops in that quarter. The Government is buying horses freely today."

Source here: Source

London Oct 21,1901 - a Dispatch from Brussels to the Daily Mail says:

“Mr Kruger has received a report from Mr. Schalk Burger that the greater part of Cape Colony is in open rebellion and that the Boers have armed 15,000 Afrikanders within the last three months."
Source here: Source
[Schalk Burger is my great grandad]Images from this brutal war where many South Africans and animals died brutally...animals in the scorched earth policy by the British. Farms were destroyed and set on fire, houses burnt down and sheep butchered like at a butchery.

Rugby 1891 - "The best teams were undoubtedly the Western Provinces, played at Cape Town ; the Griqualand West (to whom the "Currie" Cup was given) at Kimberley" ...source:
rugby-pioneers.blogs.com/rugby/2008/09/touring-to-sout.html

Boer Women - image: nzhistory.net.nz

Boer Soldiers -image:nzhistory.net.nz

Boer Women:Image:ictnetwork.co.ukThe Scandal of the Black Camps

A South African visitor to this site has raised the controversy about the imprisonment of Black South Africans in conditions much worse than those for Boer prisoners. Removed from farms or other areas, at least 14 000 Black people are believed to have died in these concentration camps--but for nearly a century the ordinary South African was completely unaware of their existence.

Unlike the Boer prison camps, the Black prisoners were mostly left to fend for themselves, and were not given any rations at all. They were expected to grow food or find work. In a few instances this actually improved their chances of survival because they were able to get out of the camps which were hellholes of infection and disease.
Source:http://users.westconnect.com.au/~ianmac5/exhibit8.html

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phoqx-MOXWs&]

Image: ToGoTo.co.za

Almost Forgotten Victims - The Anglo-Boer War Camps of Aliwal North

Southbound out of the Free State’s grassy plains, the Friendly N6 Route carries travellers across the great Senqu/Orange River into Aliwal North, gateway to the Eastern Cape.This quietly bustling provincial town was formally founded in 1850 by Sir Harry Smith, then governor of the Cape Colony, who named it in tribute to his 1846 victory over the Indian Sikhs at the Battle of Aliwal. “North” was added to differentiate it from Aliwal South, the old name for Mossel Bay. Fifty years later this hamlet would become the chosen site for two of the many horrific concentration camps of the Anglo-Boer War. Aliwal North’s Northern Post and Border News reported in January 1901 that a native refugee camp had been established at the confluence of the Orange and Kraai rivers for blacks impoverished by the war. The term “refugee” was bolstered by the fact that, initially, blacks entered the camp voluntarily, and also willingly supplied a virtually endless source of manpower for the “labour-strapped” colonial government. Towards the end of January the camp contained just over 200 refugees. At that stage the Aliwal North town council advised the Rouxville Commandant that the council could no longer cope with the Free State refugees – since the camp was a military undertaking, the council would help but would not take responsibility. In February, the council exhorted the authorities to give urgent attention to the poor sanitary conditions in the camp.According to Rev. Kessler, an American researcher on concentration camps, in August 1900 a British Intelligence officer, HR Abercrombie, recommended that defeated Boers, their families and servants should be sent to concentration camps similar to those used by General Weyler in Cuba in 1896/1897. Lord Roberts, the Supreme Commander, did not approve. However, when Lord Kitchener assumed this position, he incorporated the recommendation into his “scorched-earth policy” to end the guerrilla war. He planned to make it impossible for Boer commandos to receive any assistance from their families or the land by burning all their homes, razing crops, slaughtering all the animals and driving all black servants, Boer women and children into concentration camps.Kitchener initiated his campaign in mid-March. Within one month the black inmates had increased to over 2000 and a separate camp was established for them approximately 5 km lower down along the Orange. By May, the arrival of white women and children from the Free State villages of Rouxville, Zastron and Smithfield swelled the white camp population to over 2500; by October, when others were brought from Bloemfontein, the camp reached its maximum of almost 5000.In 1986, a local farmer, Mr Abrie Oosthuizen, suffered a severe heart attack and was given a year to live. Releasing the farm to his son, he retired to Aliwal North where he underwent a heart bypass operation. During his recovery, he found time hung heavy on his hands and he became bored. Then, Abrie enthusiastically started researching the Anglo-Boer War. The result was the publication of his first book, Rebelle van die Stormberge, six years later in 1992. After completing a second book, he turned to the military blockhouses and forts along the Orange River. In all his research, there had always been a gap – the history of the black war refugees: it seemed as if they had simply disappeared off the face of the earth. Until he came across an interesting and illuminating article in a copy of the Northern Post of 1902. It stated that the municipality had planned to construct a turbine pump station but was divided over a suitable site. One group suggested building it below Aliwal North beside the Orange River. The other preferred a higher position beside the Kraai River, since they feared contamination from the graves along these rivers. Eventually the camp superintendent provided proof that the graves were so deep that there was no likelihood of pollution. This controversy indicated that camp graves existed not only in the bend of the Kraai River above the confluence but also along the Orange River right up to Greathead’s Mill, where the pump station stands today. Abrie obtained further proof of a second camp while reading the research of Dr Jan Ploeger, the government archivist, wherein he noted that the black camp at Aliwal North had been moved five miles west of the white camp.Abrie Oosthuizen then heard of a Mr Michael Magetse who helped him identify the place through the fireside stories he had heard from his grandfather, a camp survivor. Abrie found the first camp and the remains of many black graves beside the Kraai River, which were confirmed by the land surveyor of Aliwal North, Mr N van Deventer. After a futile attempt to find the second camp, Abrie located an old map indicating a “native cemetery” five miles west of the first. It was described as Crown Land, ceded to the mayor and town council of Aliwal North in 1912 “on condition that the land hereby granted shall be used as a place of interment for Natives”. The title deed subsequently obtained from the office of the surveyor-general in Cape Town provided irrefutable proof that the one morgen terrain situated in the current township of Dukathole was the oldest formal graveyard for black people. Mr van Deventer had no trouble finding the anchor stones with rusted wire attached to them, indicating the corners of the fence surrounding the “native cemetery”. It is believed to be the first cemetery of its kind in South Africa which could be accurately located.Although a careful record was kept of white deaths, Emily Hobhouse, in her book The Brunt of the War, admits that statistics of black mortalities were scanty. Calculations based on the known number of black mortalities in Free State camps from July to October 1901, indicate that there were at least 250 to 270 black South Africans who died in the Aliwal North camp during those four months alone, mostly from pneumonia, enteric fever and diarrhoea. Conditions in the overpopulated camps had quickly deteriorated, since the little town of Aliwal North with only 800 inhabitants did not have adequate infrastructure to support the sudden influx of camp inhabitants.Two separate and magnificent monuments commemorate Aliwal North’s white victims of war; on one hilltop lies the Garden of Remembrance for 134 British and Colonial soldiers, on the other hilltop, the Concentration Camp Memorial Garden for the 720 Boer women and children who succumbed to the appalling conditions in the camps.A monument has been erected on the picturesque site of the original “Native Cemetery”, along the bank of a river that on its 2000 km long journey brings life and sustenance to vast tracts of our country and many of our people, irrespective of colour or circumstances. The original cemetery is surrounded by thousands of more recent graves extending over an area of at least five morgen. The respect with which this piece of land has been treated for over a century makes it a fitting memorial to those almost forgotten victims.Read the complete story in the June/July issue of ToGOTo

Source: http://www.togoto.co.za/?PID=2&fu=ReadArticle&gid=38&Issue=4

Beautiful - Die Kasteel Kaapstad

2010-06-27T09:20:00.003+01:00

Beautiful, the old flag of South Africa! Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
Read HERE more about the Castle of Good Hope that was built between 1666 and 1679 in Cape Town. This is the OLDEST building in South Africa, built by the Dutch. The link will open in a new window.

Waitrose and South African food

2010-06-12T20:54:00.001+01:00

Waitrose has sent around a leaflet-thingy about South African food they're selling [promoting]...and they're also on terms with the word Braai...hmmm...must be a South African that put together this leaflet+photos. Wish Tesco and the others want to follow! Tesco: Take note please! [uhm... on the background the vuvuzelas are humming like madness! England 1-US 1...and almost another goal for the Americans! - this is feedback from the front-house...lol...too boring for me to watch - gimme rugby, braaivleis and biltong!]

Genocide in South Africa

2010-06-04T19:23:00.003+01:00

Grandmaster Flash Karpov

2010-05-30T19:34:00.001+01:00

Anatoly Karpov, chess grandmaster, former world champion and diligently a-political public figure, has found himself on a collision course with the Kremlin over the future of world chess. By standing for the Russian nomination for World Chess Federation (FIDE) president he has challenged the incumbent, President of the Republic of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and clashed with his ally, the high-ranking Kremlin aide Arkady Dvorkovich.

For newsroom editors across the world, the idea of Karpov “battling with the Kremlin” for the future of world chess was too good a headline to miss. But this struggle seems to be less about politics than about personal prestige, allegiances and somewhat opaque business relationships.The scandal – by now well documented in the Russian and Western press – erupted on May 14, when the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) met in Moscow to elect its candidate for president of FIDE – the sport’s governing body.

Read on this link the complete article.
I've enjoyed editing these two images. I would like Karpov to be the next President of FIDE. Karpov is now visiting various countries to gain support. The "queen" in the first image and the 2 characters in the second image represent the other countries to support Karpov.

Die Unie van Suid-Afrika - The Union of South Africa - 31 May 1910

2010-05-29T21:42:00.000+01:00

Suid-Afrikaners het alle rede om die 100 jaar sedert uniewording op 31 Mei vanjaar te vier. Of die Unie van Suid-Afrika wat op 31 Mei 1910 gebore is in sonde ontvang is of nie, die werklikheid is dat Suid-Afrika op daardie dag ontstaan het, skryf Dave Steward. Die wyse waarop die nuweling verwek is, het sedertdien feitlik elke aspek van ons nasionale geskiedenis beïnvloed. ’n Deeglike begrip van die proses wat gelei het tot die geboorte van die unie kan ons help om latere ontwikkelinge en die huidige te verstaan.

Die idee van die unie is sterk bevorder deur die Britse imperialiste van die tyd. Daar was ’n sterk gevoel dat die Britse kolonies in Suid-Afrika – die Kaapkolonie, Natal, die Oranjerivier-kolonie en die Transvaal-kolonie – moet verenig om ’n nuwe dominium te vorm soortgelyk aan dié in Kanada en Australië.
Die herstel van selfbestuur aan die twee voormalige Boere-republieke in 1907 is gevolg deur vinnige skuiwe in die rigting van uniewording. ’n Nasionale konvensie – wat 33 verteenwoordigers van die vier kolonies ingesluit het – is op 12 Oktober 1908 byeengeroep en het teen 11 Mei 1909 ’n ooreenkoms oor ’n konsepgrondwet bereik.

Dié grondwet – in die vorm van die South Africa Act – is op 20 September 1909 deur die Britse parlement aanvaar. 31 Mei 1910 – die agtste herdenking van die Vrede van Vereeniging – was vasgestel as die geboortedatum vir die nuwe unie. Die besluite wat by die Nasionale Konvensie geneem is en in die 1910-grondwet opgeneem is, het die fondament gelê en die raamwerk geskep vir die volgende 84 jaar van ons geskiedenis.

Die belangrikste was waarskynlik die besluit dat Suid-Afrika ’n unie sou wees waarbinne die parlement die oppergesag sal hê. Die nuwe grondwet het geen eienskappe van ’n federasie besit nie: daar was geen hoogste grondwet; geen werklike verdeling van mag tussen deelstate; en geen hoogste hof om die grondwet te vertolk en gevolglik die uitvoerende gesag te beperk nie. In plaas daarvan was die parlement, en nie die grondwet nie, oppermagtig; mag was nie verdeel tussen deelstate en ’n federale regering nie, maar het uiteindelik gesetel in die parlement; en die howe het, net soos in Brittanje, geen gesag om as uitleggers van die grondwet op te tree nie.

Die merkwaardigste is dat die nuwe grondwet weinig, indien enige, waarborge vir die regte van swart, bruin en Indiër Suid-Afrikaners ingesluit het. Dit het die status quo wat voor uniewording in die vier kolonies bestaan het, bekragtig. In die Transvaal- en die Oranjerivier-kolonie kon net wit mense stem; in Natal kon swart mense wel kwalifiseer om te stem, maar dan onder voorwaardes wat die kiesreg in die praktyk bykans onbekombaar gemaak het. Net in die Kaap was daar ’n betekenisvolle franchise vir swart en bruin mense.

Die teoretiese maatstaf was dat enige man van enige ras wat kon voldoen aan sekere eiendomsvereistes en wat sy naam kon skryf, kon kwalifiseer vir stemreg. Soos Keir Hardie, Skotse sosialisteleier, opgemerk het was die doel van die South Africa Act “om die wit rasse te verenig, stemreg van die gekleurde rasse te weerhou en nie om eenheid te bevorder tussen die rasse van Suid-Afrika nie”. Sy waarneming was korrek: Alles in die nuwe bedeling was daarop gerig om die wit groepe tegemoet te kom en te versoen – insluitend die toekenning van gelyke status aan Nederlands en Engels en die beskerming van wit ekonomiese belange.

Tog vir die daaropvolgende 50 jaar is die Suid-Afrikaanse politiek oorheers deur die voortdurende stryd om oorheersing tussen die twee wit gemeenskappe – die Afrikaner-nasionaliste aan die een kant en wit mense wat ten gunste was van deelname aan die Britse Ryk en die Statebond aan die ander kant. Dié stryd het afsluiting bereik in 1961 met die totstandkoming van die Republiek. Ná 1910 was slegs beperkte aandag gegee aan die posisie van swart, Indiër en bruin Suid-Afrikaners, terwyl die bestaande burgerregte van swart mense en Kleurlinge in die Kaap onverbiddelik uitgehol en uiteindelik afgeskaf is. Maar ná 1961 het die fokus van binnelandse politiek en internasionale aandag onverbiddelik verskuif na die grondwetlike posisie van swart mense.

Die Nasionale Party se reaksie was aanvanklik om te probeer om die geografiese eenheid van 1910 te verdeel deur onafhanklikheid te skenk aan swart tuislande. Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana en Venda het “onafhanklikheid” aanvaar – maar die oorblywende nasionale deelstate het onwrikbaar geweier om dit te doen. In 1983 het die regering probeer om bruin en Indiër Suid-Afrikaners in ’n nuwe grondwetlike bestel te bring deur middel van ’n driekamerparlement. Die nuwe bedeling is egter verwerp deur die meeste van die veronderstelde begunstigdes en het gelei tot steeds luider oproepe van die UDF en andere vir algemene stemreg. Teen 1986 het die NP begin om die noodsaaklikheid te aanvaar van die akkommodering van die politieke aspirasies van alle Suid-Afrikaners in ’n gesamentlike grondwetlike bestel.

Hierdie ontwikkelinge het uiteindelik uitgeloop op die inisiatiewe wat oudpres. FW de Klerk op 2 Februarie 1990 begin het. Die grondwetlike proses wat daaruit gevloei het, verskil fundamenteel van die Nasionale Konvensie wat gelei het tot die Unie van Suid-Afrika. Die opvallendste is dat dit verteenwoordigers ingesluit het van al Suid-Afrika se gemeenskappe.
Waar die Unie van Suid-Afrika in die lewe geroep en uiteindelik goedgekeur is deur ’n buitelandse mag, Brittanje, was die onderhandelinge wat gelei het tot die vestiging van die nuwe Suid-Afrika heeltemal inheems. Die grondwet wat ontstaan het in 1996 was baie anders as die 1910-grondwet: die grondwet – en nie die parlement nie – was oppermagtig; dit het ’n handves van regte bevat om die fundamentele regte van alle Suid-Afrikaners te beskerm; en dit het ’n konstitusionele hof daargestel met die mag om te verseker dat alle vertakkinge van die regering hou by die oppergesag van die reg en die bepalings van die handves van regte.

Die belangrikste was dat die nuwe grondwet gelyke regte en gelyke status van alle Suid-Afrikaners, ongeag ras, geslag, taal of seksuele oriëntasie, erken het. Ons het ’n ver pad gereis sedert 31 Mei 1910. Hoewel ons steeds gekonfronteer word met vele ernstige uitdagings, het ons verhuis na ’n stelsel wat inklusief en gegrond op die oppergesag van die reg is. Nietemin, niks daarvan sou moontlik gewees het – en die geskiedenis van die afgelope 100 jaar sou drasties anders gewees het – as dit nie was dat die Nasionale Konvensie in 1908 ’n ooreenkoms bereik het oor die vereniging van die vier kolonies en die groot verskeidenheid mense wat daarin gelewe het nie. 31 Mei 1910 was die geboortedatum van Suid-Afrika en moet as sulks gevier word.
Source:
http://www.beeld.com/In-Diepte/Nuus/Eeufees-van-SA-Lank-leef-die-unie-20100527

SA wins at Chelsea Show

2010-05-29T12:49:00.000+01:00

The International Year of Biodiversity was given an extra boost as the South African National Biodiversity Institute's (SANBI's) 2010 Kirstenbosch-SA Chelsea entry entitled 'Bio[logical] diversity is the variety of life' scooped up a silver medal at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show (CFS) in London.

This is yet another feather in the cap of the designers and the hardworking team who assist in putting the exhibit together. With a full complement of exhibitors this year the South African exhibit was up against serious competition but once again proved its worth.

But all was not plain sailing this year! The drama unfolded when the cargo arrived in London on Wednesday. UK customs refused to release the plants due to a possible harmful bug they found on some of the leaves of one of the specimens.

Some laboratory tests later these turned out to be harmless but nearly three precious set-up days had been lost before the cargo was released. The plants had also been standing in the heat for two days due to lack of cold room space so, when the cargo finally arrived on Friday evening, it was with trepidation that the team unpacked. True to the hardiness of our wonderful plants virtually nothing was unusable and the team pulled out all stops to complete another award winning exhibit.

Gaining silver was worth the huge effort!
Once again the designers David Davidson and Ray Hudson showed the public an innovative interpretation of our spectacular plant heritage. Taking the fact that biodiversity occurs at many different levels, 'ranging from complete ecosystems to the chemical structures that are the molecular basis of heredity', the designers illustrated the diversity as well as the genetic variability of the botanical wealth that makes South Africa the third most biologically diverse country in the world.

Notching up their 18th medal in the same number of years of designing the exhibit, Davidson and Hudson had set themselves a difficult task, but one that obviously paid off.

The South African exhibit is always a major attraction at the show and this year certainly did not disappoint. Representing several of the different vegetation types comprising the nine biomes of South Africa, the exhibit was grouped in four separate nodes, each with its own cluster of interconnected, hexagonal compartments.

Fine-scale examples of genetic variability within a single species as well as diversity among species and within different genera featured strongly and the four clusters featured plants from the following biomes:

Fynbos (Cape Floral Kingdom – proteas, restios, ericas [heathers]); Forest/Thicket [Sub-tropical] (cycads, euphorbias, strelitzias); Desert/Succulent Karoo (succulents) and aloes and Savanna/Grassland (aloes, grasses and bulbs.)

Showing off our rich heritage at this major show maintains the fascination that visitors have with the South African plant kingdom. With more than 60 of the 300 possible species from the Protea family (limited by what is currently in flower) representing a number of the 13 different genera in the fynbos section of the display, the exhibit is one that is always visited by Queen Elizabeth. From the magnificent examples of Strelitzias to the diversity of aloes and the elegant Quiver tree, Cycads to Euphorbias, each of the other biomes offered their own focal point to intrigue and educate the public. An added attraction was a geodesic domed roof structure (similar to the domed climatron greenhouse of the Eden Project in Cornwall) that bore an uncanny resemblance to a soccer ball!

"What a wonderful reward, particularly under the difficult circumstances we worked this year," said designers Davidson and Hudson.

"This is the perfect way to say thank you for the long hours that the team worked to ensure that the exhibit came together as we had envisaged. Biodiveristy is the variety of life has created such enormous interest here and once more has captured the imagination of both judges and public alike. This 2010 exhibit shows more of what makes South Africa the third most biologically diverse country in the world and we hope to attract many more tourists to our country to see first hand the beauty of our plant kingdom."

Dr Tanya Abrahamse CEO of SANBI was delighted on hearing the news saying "Once again our team has done us proud and shown world class status! The Chelsea Flower Show continues to show the beauty of nature, by bringing this to the forefront, underlining how nature affects our physical and mental wellbeing. We look forward to recreating the exhibit later this year on home ground so that South Africans can share in this pride"
This 2010 award winning exhibit will be recreated back on home ground later in the year in Port Elizabeth, Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town giving us the opportunity to celebrate another medal winner!

Source: http://lifestyle.iafrica.com/your_home/gardening/2435760.htm

Ietsie lekkers

2010-05-27T18:10:00.002+01:00

My groot gunsteling - My big favourite

2010-05-22T10:20:00.008+01:00

Mozart Piano Concerto no 20
and

Katie Melua...

This chess game was played quite a while ago, but one of my more enjoyable games, a game that was more challenging than other games. My Board Number for this game was 4693183 and I played white in this game. The game was really tough and it was only from move 44 that I felt I had the upper hand in this game. My opponent resigned before the final checkmate move could be made.

In this next game - also against the same player as the above game, I played black, but didn't have a good game. This game ended in a draw on board 4693182.

Schools - teaching and learning

2010-05-15T14:29:00.004+01:00

Click on the image to have a clear view. Click HERE to read the news article. The link will open in a new window.
I think I can write a book by now about the Educational system in the UK, after being a teacher in Primary and Secondary schools for a couple of years. To Secondary School teachers, I want to say...you have my sympathy. In this image-screenshot from the above link, I want to reply to Beverly in the comments box. Dear Beverly, [and all the other Beverlys in British schools]Teachers are actually willing to make it more interesting, but if I listen to the Science teachers at my school - and to my husband and his comments from colleagues at his previous school - then I want to say the following: The problem lies with you and your buddies - students in schools where they say it is "boring". My colleagues prepare time and time again these wonderful Science lessons and have great ideas and want to carry out all sorts of wonderful experiments..but time and time again, they reject their ideas/plans to have these wonderful expriments...due to students' behaviour. If students behave like a normal student should- and that is to be in your seat, all the time during your lesson, being sensible and quiet all the time allowing your teacher to teach, you will have fantastic, inspiring teachers/lessons etc. Try it and see for yourself. You will have plenty of fun, learn a lot, have a good education, leave school with A's and A*'s and it won't be necessary for you to leave school at 16/17, going to get a baby in order to get handouts from the Government and sponge on the taxpayers of this country. - it's all about using your logical mind and common sense, isn't it?
If you mention the word "control", then you are basically insulting yourself. You want to compare yourself and other students to animals. In the human world, humans are not in control of other humans. We control animals or joysticks when we play games etc. So, by using the word control, don't you think you think of yourself like an animal that needs to be controlled? I, as a teacher, prefer not to use the word when it comes to teachers-students, as I don't see any student as an animal and I don't want to control students. I want to teach them. - I leave you with that thought to ponder about.

Nalchik 2010

2010-05-08T20:22:00.003+01:00

Tatiana Kosintseva is the winner of the Fide Women Grand Prix which ended today - 8th May - in Russia. Click HERE for the Official site. The site will open in a new window.

Anand vs Topalov

2010-05-08T12:43:00.002+01:00

Click the image for a larger view...Anand 5 Topalov 5 after Game 10. Today 8th May is a rest day, Game 11 to be played tomorrow.

Follow THIS link for more about the match and to see some chess graphics about their games. The link will open in a new window.

Check_my_mate

2010-05-08T11:14:00.008+01:00

These two game I've played on chess.com - one of my favourite sites to play chess. I do like chesscube more as there are always tons of players ready for a realtime game. I played white in both games.

Anand vs Topalov

2010-05-06T00:59:00.000+01:00

Images: Official site

Click on the link HERE to follow the match and the results on my WP blog, with chess graphics about the moves too. The link will open in a new window.

Confusion and...more confusion

2010-05-06T00:53:00.011+01:00

first there were three.....and...more confusion

..and then...only two.....and now...the next step...

...and finally

And now....the beginning...of...

....a new Government

Anand vs Topalov

2010-04-24T23:18:00.001+01:00

Anand...

Schedule

See the image/link to the Official site on my blog's sidebar (my Wordpress-blog - see link at the bottom of this entry) [top right on my other blog]. The link will open in a new window.

Topalov vs Anand - Round 1 move 19 [click on images for a larger view]

Round 1 move 23

Move 25

Round 1 move 29 - big trouble - Anand has resigned this game

Topalov - 1 Anand - 0

[Event "Sofia BUL, WCC2010"]
[Site "Sofia BUL"]
[Date "2010.04.24"]
[Round "1.22"]
[White "Topalov, V."]
[Black "Anand, V."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D87"]
[WhiteElo "2805"]
[PlyCount "59"]
[EventDate "2010.04.24"]
[EventType "match"]
[EventRounds "12"]
[EventCountry "BUL"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 c5 8. Ne2 Nc6 9. Be3 O-O 10. O-O Na5 11. Bd3 b6 12. Qd2 e5 13. Bh6 cxd4 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. cxd4 exd4 16. Rac1 Qd6 17. f4 f6 18. f5 Qe5 19. Nf4 g5 20. Nh5+ Kg8 21. h4 h6 22. hxg5 hxg5 23. Rf3 Kf7 24. Nxf6 Kxf6 25. Rh3 Rg8 26. Rh6+ Kf7 27. Rh7+Ke8 28. Rcc7 Kd8 29. Bb5 Qxe4 30. Rxc8+ 1-0

Follow THIS LINK on my WP-blog to follow the other games.

The Yooks and the Zooks

2010-04-13T13:23:00.004+01:00

This is part 1 of the video [book]. This is a kiddies' video, but has so many uses...even for older children.

How to Dance the Argentine Tango

Report Crime - South Africa

2010-04-05T13:46:00.004+01:00

Please click on the image for a large view

Report Crime is something thats been in the back of my mind for a while now and 6 months ago, If not longer I decided to implement it. It will be an on-going project that I really want to get off the ground. Its a community based crime notification and awareness tool. It's currently a free service and I intend to keep it that way. However it needs to look after itself financially in the end, and that would be supported by advertisers.
My main focus rite now is to build up users for the site, Ive already started advertising on Facebook. I originally tested the idea by putting up a very simple crime logging system, and the response I got from advertising though Google was very good. However that system had no methods in place to track users. It was extremely simple and was setup in less than a week, I wonder if the current system is too complex and the key to its success is to be ridiculously simple.

Look at Craigs list, as ugly as hell as there is no styling and no js, but that makes it fast and is one of the most successful sites around the world.
Please click HERE to visit Derrick's site to read more and HERE to visit the Report Crime-site where you can also report a crime if you know about one! Please tell Derrick what you think about his site as he needs to know if you want him to continue it.

I think this kind of site is the first in the world and I personally think it is great! I'm in contact with Frederic on Twitter - his twitter-name is Deighardt and through him I got to know about this site which is his cousin's mastermind - Derrick. I hope people will find it useful and use it too as it is a great tool to even report crime too. Planning to visit South Africa...check out this site for crime hotspots! Planning to travel...from Pretoria to Durban...or wherever...check it out. You know of any crime...report it! You can even search for places in South Africa or set up an email/sms-alert. This is what we need in our country...maybe all over the world!

South Africa's got talent

2010-03-31T22:57:00.004+01:00

Thank you to the people of Netherland!

2010-03-26T23:27:00.000Z

In South Africa farmers get killed on a daily basis! The world is turning a blind eye as to what is going on in South Africa. Luckily, ONE country is NOT turning a blind eye. Holland! Thank you to Holland, our "mother country" for supporting the white farmers of South Africa by doing something about it! This image-screenshot is from the website here. Please click HERE to see the original page. If you don't understand Dutch, you can use google-translator. These news headlines in blue are ALL about the killings. [look at the dates too] South Africa is on the slippery road due to our government. This is SAD, but true. We've thought that our country would become [under the new government] a fantastic place to live, but unfortunately, it's not the case after how many years since 1994. These killers feel nothing for children, elderly people and even women. If you're one of those turning a blind eye to everything, then you can do at least something and that is to pray that all people are save tonight when YOU go to bed.

Blank Chess

2010-03-26T22:25:00.002Z

'n Boer dans in die Karoo!

2010-03-26T20:39:00.001Z

Engele - Angels

2010-03-19T21:01:00.002Z

Chess Invitation to the Dance

2010-03-14T17:15:00.002Z

Enjoy this Chess Dance - and the music of Weber - Invitation to the Dance

Chess game 26

2010-03-06T23:09:00.002Z

In this game I played black against arturo1113 on the chess site where the game was played.
This was really a tough game....one of those challenging games. If you play through the game you will see why. Luckily...as always... I had a Knight-to-the-rescue. I will even sacrifice a Rook just to have my Knight! Exactly like in real life... that's why Knights are there! hehehe... look at move 80! Fork! and from there one...it was really easy. If you play through the game, you will see why my opponent named this game after this nursery rhyme - ring-a-ring-a-rosie... See if you can work out why I couldn't really move away from that advanced Pawn of my opponent...He resigned this game at the end. Enjoy playing through the game.

Image: Wikipedia

Beethoven's 5th

2010-03-05T20:45:00.010Z

Ek was op Hoerskool, die minister van Onderwys het ons skool besoek en hierdie simfonie van Beethoven was die musiek wat ons massa gimnastiekvertoning vir die besoek begelei het. Dit was harde werk vir 'n hele paar maande, maar die moeite werd en dit was eintlik iets aanskouliks, noudat ek daaraan terugdink! Waar's die goeie ou dae!

When I was at Secondary School, we had a mass gymnastics display for the visiting minister of Education and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony 5th Movement was the music our teachers selected for the display! What a wonderful time it was! This was also on my music menu for Saturday mornings when I did my school homework. On the verandah - with the large old oak trees a few metres away...all the farm-sounds...circled by mountains....and the echo of a running river not very far away...geeee...this is life!

In this next track you can listen to Waldo de los Rios playing the same piece of music, of course [for me] better than the orchestra in this video! I'm a lover of Waldo de los Rios! This is only a taster, but quite a bit to enjoy!

On THIS LINK you can follow a few blog-links with the music-link of Waldo de los Rios.The link will open in a new window.

Madeleine van Biljon

2010-02-24T22:56:00.000Z

Madeleine van Biljon (81) sterf
2010-02-24 13:19
BEELD-nuus
Nurene Jassiem
Kaapstad. – Die joernalis, koskenner en skrywer Madeleine van Biljon (81) is gisteraand oorlede.

Sy het die laaste paar jaar in die Murambi-huis in Wynberg gewoon.

Volgens een van haar susters, die skrywer en resensent Cecile Cilliers, wat die kykNET-program Boeksusters vroeër saam met haar aangebied het, het Van Biljon “maklik gesterf met al haar kinders om haar”.

“Ons was vier kinders en Madeleine was die oudste.

“Sy is die eerste een wat sterf en dit is ’n swaar verlies om so ’n belangrike mens in ons lewens te verloor. Sy was tot op die einde so ’n ‘vibrant’ mens,” het Cilliers gesê.

Volgens een van Van Biljon se dogters, me. Mapula Swanepoel, het haar ma tot die einde nog haar mure bedek met haar jare lange kunstenaarsvriend Robert Hodgins se skilderye.

Swanepoel, ook ’n bekende in koskringe, het haar ma as ’n “absoluut positiewe mens” beskryf.

“Ons was ontsaglik lief vir haar en dit wat ons weet, het ons by haar geleer. My ma het altyd gelag en was ’n fantastiese mens om te kon ken.”

Van Biljon is in Lichtenburg gebore en was onder meer tussen 1983 en 1984 president van die Kaapstadse Persklub.

Sy het jare lank ’n kosrubriek in die Sunday Times behartig.

In 2008 het sy in ’n onderhoud met Die Burger gesê: “As jy weet hoeveel ek al geskryf het in my lewe: miljoene woorde.
Liewe vader! Dis ’n lang loopbaan.”

Sy word ook oorleef deur haar dogter Madeleine Roux en seun Willem van Biljon

Another

2010-02-24T20:52:00.003Z

In this game - I played white - which I finished on chess.com [one of my favourite sites - the other Chesscube.com] was an easy win, but I had to sacrifice my Rook in order to win. This guy couldn't handle the fact that he was losing, so he started using foul language in such a way that I had to disable chat! Eish! Some men can't handle it when losing to a woman!
Hierdie spel het ek teen 'n gemorsie van Afghanistan gespeel. Die ou het sommer - toe hy agterkom hy verloor - begin vloek en lelik praat - woordeskat het sommer laag onder die belt begin daal, soveel so dat ek die "chat" gediskonnekteer het sodat ek nie sy gemors hoef te gelees het nie. Tipies daardie soort [van daardie lande af] Ek het onlangs teen 'n ou van Romenie gespeel en die ou het ook sommer kras begin raak. Goeie genade, kan hierdie ouens nie 'n skaakspel hanteer nie...of wat?

A Game for Two

2010-02-18T12:03:00.002Z

STELIOS KOUKOUVITAKIS presents NIKIFOROS VLASSIS, VASSILIKI VLACHOU "A GAME FOR TWO" Director of Photography PENY KAFIRA Sound Recordist TEO BABOURIS Editor PANOS ANESTIS Sound Designers ANDREAS SPANOS, PANOS ANESTIS, GEORGE CHRYSAFAKIS Art Director STELIOS KOUKOUVITAKIS Costumes by SOFI IOANNIDOU, RENATA KONSTANTINOU Produced by STELIOS KOUKOUVITAKIS Written and Directed by STELIOS KOUKOUVITAKIS

Synopsis

Victoria, a chess champion, enters Argiris’ bookstore.
A flirt begins. In post – feminist era, the roles of the hunter and the prey constantly change.

Is winning all that matters?

FESTIVAL SCREENINGS

42nd Houston Worldfest International Film Festival (2009)- PLATINUM REMI AWARD
6th Naoussa International Film Festival (2009)
4th Crashfest (2009)
1st London Greek Film Festival (2008)
Platforma Video8 International Digital Film Festival (2008)- OFFICIAL SELECTION, COMPETITION (top20 films internationally)
21st Panorama of European Cinema – Student Section (2008)
2nd Aza Digital Film Festival (2008)

Video here

Lame Excuses - who's next?

2010-02-17T22:06:00.000Z

The Queen is being asked to grant a royal pardon to Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a soldier executed by a British firing squad for the murder of prisoners in the last days of the Boer War.

Somerset-born Morant – the subject of the film Breaker Morant starring Edward Woodward – sailed to Australia in 1883 at the age of 19 and became a skilled horsebreaker.

He was among thousands of men from Australia who volunteered to fight against Dutch settlers in South Africa. In 1902 he was convicted at a court martial of murdering 12 Boer prisoners.

During a savage guerilla campaign, when numerous atrocities were committed by both sides, Morant is said to have intercepted a group of eight prisoners being brought in for questioning. He ordered them to be shot at the side of the road.

Later other Boers who had waved a white flag of surrender were also disarmed and shot under Morant's command.

Now a petition has been sent to Australia’s Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, by military lawyer James Unkles, who claims shooting prisoners was Army policy and Morant and codefendant Peter Handcock should be pardoned.

He claims Lord Kitchener, the British commander, ignored recommendations for mercy because he wanted the pair shot to discredit claims he had ordered the execution of prisoners to speed up peace talks with the Boers and appease Germany, which was considering entering the war. --- read the complete article HERE and another in the Sydney Morning Herald here.

Shall we - or shall we not...no...we shall not! I agree with Derek from Durham saying the following in the comments on the first link - link of the Mail Online.
"Sounds to me he commited war crimes then and by any stretch of the imagination would have been founld guilty then and at any time since.

A war crime is a war crime in no matter what era or by any country .

What next shall we pardon members of the SS, or maybe even Goering or Rudolf Höss the Commandant of Auschwitz,

I was just carrying orders , mmmm sounds a lame excuse sure the SS used something like this in their defence."

Chess and Chess

2010-02-13T15:31:00.009Z

This chessgame was completed yesterday on chess.com. I played white in this game and wasn't sure if I was going to win this game and only near to the end of this game I was more sure...with my opponent allowing me to check his King with my Rook and from there it was quite an easy win. This is the endposition of the game.

This is a game I've finished a while ago. I played black in this game and my opponent resigned in this game and said I was a tough nut to crack.[hehe] You can see how I - as always - like to have my Knights instead of my Bishops.

In this next game I played black too. This is one of my old games of a few years ago. He's also a South African player and we played this game in a tourney. His rating was about 400 higher than mine. I do like the checkmate position in this game.

In this next game - also from about 3 years ago, I also played black. I don't always keep my Bishops and in this game I must say, I quite used them effectively. My opponent resigned in this game too.

Linares 2010

2010-02-12T22:32:00.003Z

It is time for Linares 2010! These are the players taking part this year. Please click HERE for the official site.

Dear Mr President Jacob Zuma

2010-02-07T21:47:00.003Z

Sefu Sekgala 01 February at 15:20
Dear Mr President Jacob Zuma
Today at 4:54am

Dear Mr President Jacob Zuma

After having read the front page story of the Sunday Times (31/01/2010), I feel compelled to write to you as this ordinary citizen that I am. Because I am a commoner, my judgement of your actions could be regarded as disrespect. Equally you might be indulging in all these sordid acts because you feel that you cannot be questioned and brought to book.

As a young man I have an interest in the way in which those in power are behaving, so as to ensure that we have good, moral and ethical leaders to look upon. A public figure who does not inspire confidence or does not conduct themselves in a manner that seek to inspire development of society, should be eliminated from the limelight and sent into the deepest of corners so that their misleading acts are shunned. To me you happen to be such an individual.

In your address during your inauguration and also in your first State of the Nation address, you emphasised greatly on moral regeneration. The reason why religion has seemingly failed to produce members that embody the values taught in religious institutions is because the preachers themselves are failing to be upright leaders who live out what they preach. You are such a preacher to me.

Given your past record that displays you as a man who is easily tempted by indulging in sexual intercourse, it is very difficult for me to throw water over the claims made by the Sunday Times. To me it is irrelevant that the person you impregnated is the daughter of Dr Irvin “The Iron Duke” Khoza, I would still feel the same way even if it was just yet another woman. If this baby was born under normal circumstances, it means that you must have slept with this lady around January 2009. During the same time you had already paid Lobola for Thobeka Madiba-Zuma and you were planning your wedding day with her. At the same time you were already having the pleasure of being attended to by two wives. I suppose given that you were busy campaigning for the 2009 General Elections, the challenges that you faced couldn’t be accommodated by your wives, you needed to find solace and release your masculine energy on another woman outside wedlock.

What nauseates me the most is the fact that this lady got pregnant, meaning you had unprotected sex yet again. To me it is clear that you have unprotected sex with your wives, because you do it so easily with “omakhwapheni”. It means you are a risk to your wives, because you seem to be fishing for HIV, so that you can take the catch home and distribute it evenly amongst them. Unless there is preventive medication for HIV that you have and we the ordinary people do not have access to.

The Zulu Kingdom should be ashamed at how you have paraded their culture of polygamy, a culture that is in fact to me very demeaning of women. To me it symbolises true qualities of chauvinism and patriarchy, whereby if a man is not satisfied with one woman, then they can go get another. Meanwhile society would vilify a woman who would take a second man. Polygamy also promotes cheating on your wife, because you must first know the second wife, well in your case sixth, intimately on stolen moments away from your wife. So during that time you are lying to your wife or wives claiming to be seeing no one besides them and even to God, whom you made such a pact with when getting married.

Polygamy reduces women to objects that are used to just satisfy the egos of many men out there, who see having many women as a sense of superiority and achievement. To me this is a very small minded sense of thinking.

I cannot have you preach morality to me when you partake in such disgusting acts that make me feel if only I was not a South African. When a sex scandal broke off about Mr Bill Clinton, he had to step down as President of the USA. The President of the World Bank stepped down after such allegations were tabled against him. However to you it is just yet another day another dollar and nothing will happen, because you are hiding behind tradition and using it to camouflage your helpless sexuality.

You are a man who does not respect women clearly, a man who does not believe in treating your wives with the best respect they deserve. I doubt maKhumalo is happily married to you, but she is probably fearful of what shall become of her if she were to leave you. It is unfortunate that the majority of the people in your organisation find your acts acceptable; it goes to show how the morals of the ANC have become fragmented over the years.

You occupy the highest seat in our land and many people will find a way of using your acts to justify their mistakes and atrocious behaviours which resemble yours. You are not a beacon of hope to me, but rather that one of disaster.

It is impossible that you could raise all your 20 children, so it means that you promote unstructured families whereby kids grow up with single parents. You promote and justify cheating. You promote for society to discredit the three pillars of fighting HIV, because you do not Abstain, you do not get to Be Faithful, you do not Condomize.

What are you good for? Absolutely nothing. You are shaming our country and making it seem as if we are unable to be led by principled leaders.

You are a health risk to your wives, you are a financial risk to the taxpayers who must pay for your opulence and you still pledge your support to communists.

I ask of you to step down as President, before you turn South Africa into a quagmire that resembles your sexual life and its animalistic behaviours.

Written by: Lukhona Mnguni

COPE and COPESM member, in his personal capacity

killpovertysa@yahoo.com

This letter was sent to me via email. I blog it for the world to know what is going on in my lovely country and what the people of my country think about our president.

The King and I

2010-02-06T16:39:00.003Z

In this game you can see an unusual opening...with a King...the game is also on chessgames and on this link to play through the game on chessgames.
Not that I think I'm the best chess player, but look at THIS GAME game - also the same opening, but this shows you how wrong this can be - to move your King in such a position!

to play through the game

Night at the concert

2010-02-06T12:24:00.017Z

Enjoy some good music from James Last while playing through the game! This piece of music is called: Elizabeth Serenade. Image: sybervision.com

This chess game was played on the site of Chess.com and my first tournament to play. I don't have that much time to play tourneys, but have entered one now and finished the game last night. I was very lucky in this game. I played white. At one point I said to my fellow South African, also my opponent - after his comments of good play from my side - that I was going to resign as he was in a winning position. Earlier in the game I actually typed a message to ask for a draw as the game was even - play through it and you will see why I say this. I then thought it was a bit cheeky of me to ask for a draw and removed my message. At the point I was about to resign, I was actually waiting for my one pawn to run off, if the right move was made from my opponent's side and he did it! Like Philidor says...the Pawn is the soul of chess! This was pure luck! We have another game going, but my brain is now racked and needs a rest..[hehe] In the image you can see the end position when my opponent resigned.

In this next game I played black and a chess-friend has asked me to blog the game here as it was actually on my Wordpress-blog, but he couldn't play through the game. So, Dan, here goes...enjoy! I have also thought at one point this game was a lost for me, then I noticed my Queen-move and the pin with my Bishop helped too. I was earlier in this game counting my last days on this chessboard and I think I can count myself lucky in this game too.

Valentine Chess

2010-01-31T12:33:00.004Z

Original image: funmunch.com
I hope you like my edited image - I created it by using Fireworks - Have a great Valentine's day!
On my WP-blog on this link you can find lots of beautiful pics about Valentine's day. Enjoy!

Liefde is: [love is] Original image:
leukespreuk.nl

Corus Round 12

2010-01-30T14:01:00.008Z

Round 12 - Corus 2010 - Anand vs Kramnik. This image shows the position of the board after move 21 was made by Anand. Click on images for a larger view.

In this game you can see the position of the board after move 19 - This is Leko vs Carlsen.

Smeets vs Van Wely - position of the board after move 18.

Jean_Claude.Borelly-Dolannes.Melody

Jean-Claude Borelly - Dolannes Melodie

Standings after round 12 - Grandmaster Group A

Chess and Hess

2010-01-30T11:36:00.002Z

Chess and Hess

This news article is from the Chronicle-Live. On the image you can see Maurice Williams.

ONE was a notorious Nazi war criminal, the other a young Tyneside soldier.

They came from different countries and from different backgrounds, but they forged a friendship of sorts and ended up playing chess together.

This is the remarkable real life story of Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess and Maurice Williams of the Durham Light Infantry.

Charged with guarding Hess in Berlin’s Spandau Prison, Maurice the pair ended up playing a game of chess.

“It was 1951 and our Battalion was taking up guard duty at Spandau Prison,” said Maurice, who lives at Ovington in the Tyne Valley.

“There were a number of Nazi war criminals there and I was curious about the place.

“I decided to take a tour of the prison and it certainly was a grim place. On my travels I came upon this guy in the prison garden, reading a paper.

“It turned out to be Rudolf Hess. We weren’t supposed to talk to either him or the other Nazi prisoners and, if caught, I would have been on a charge, but I was curious about him.

“He had a chess board and I asked him about it. He asked if I played chess and, luckily, I did.”

Hess challenged Maurice to a game and Maurice said: “In the end, he beat me easily. I said to him that I only thought two moves ahead and that he must be thinking about 10 moves ahead. He laughed and said: ‘Maybe a few more than that’. We played a second time and this time I gave him a much better game but, again, lost out.”

Maurice said Hess was unlike the picture he painted in the Nuremberg Trials of a man on the edge of sanity, adding: “He was a perfect gentleman and asked such things as ‘are you married?’ He spoke perfect English, better than myself!

“I told him I was single and he asked about my family, it was just like talking to the man next door. I really wanted to ask him how he felt about the Jews but the opportunity didn’t arise.

“He said he liked the British and American guards, but wasn’t too keen on the Russians.

“I’m not surprised about that as I found them a funny lot, especially when they were on the vodka, which was made out of diesel oil. If they gave it to us we had to drink it with black pepper.”

Nobody was more shocked than Maurice at what had gone on in Nazi Germany, but he didn’t class Hess as one of the hard-liners who were hanged after the war crimes trial.

“I don’t know why they didn’t let Hess go in the 1950s. Spandau was a harsh place and Hess had a room the size of a normal living room with table chair and bed and also a wireless.

“I believe that later he was given much more room.”

Apparently Britain and the USA wanted to release Hess, but the Russians wouldn’t allow it. Many think it was because it gave them a foothold in West Berlin.

Hess is said to have committed suicide in 1987.

It was not the first time Maurice had been to Germany.

He had joined the Durham Light Infantry at the end of the Second World War and witnessed the devastation as he travelled through France and Belgium toward Germany.

“In Germany we had to hammer on the doors of the civilians and tell them to get their valuables packed up within an hour and stored into the lofts or such place.

“We then took their homes over as billets as there was no army camp. They were put into a displaced persons camp.

“All the time we were there I never knew of any soldier touching the belongings of the German civilians.

“They were lovely middle class houses with lovely gardens. You know what Geordies were like for gardening, so enjoyed keeping them in shape. They could come back to their homes undamaged with nothing missing. In 1946 we were sent out to Egypt. It was later in 1951 when we were posted to Berlin and Spandau.”

This music file is the music by Haydn and it is "The Clock" part 3 "Rondo"...do enjoy! One of my big favourites. Unfortunately, it's only a taster ....now you can get the music if you like it...You need to turn the volume up to hear the clock in the start of the track.

Corus Round 10

2010-01-30T09:56:00.004Z

Report of round 10 Corus 2010 Round 10

It was the day of the world champions Wednesday in Corus Group A with India’s Viswanathan Anand, the reigning title holder, notching up his first victory in tenth-round action, after an unbroken series of draws, and former world champ Vladimir Kramnik of Russia taking the sole lead in the standings of the annual chess tournament at Wijk-aan-Zee.

Kramnik surprised Vassili Ivanchuk in an unusual variation of the Queen’s Gambit sacrificing a piece at his 19th for a promising attack. But ‘Chuky’, who played black, found a way out and even held a slight edge in the resulting endgame. The peace was signed at the 40th when both players were in danger of getting into time trouble. The draw put Kramnik half a point in front of Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Spain’s Alexei Shirov.

The Spaniard, who had been on top of the A-Group standings from round one, played a brilliant game from a Ruy-Lopez Archangelsk variation with black to reach a vastly superior position against Anand. Pressed for time, however, he missed the winning 39. …Ng3!! wasting his advantage and, in fact, the whole game, when he blundered with 39. …Rxe6?? instead. He fought on but never got back into the game and surrendered sixteen moves later.

“I’m not playing all that well,” Anand admitted, commenting on his victory at a press conference. “It’s not that I’m unwilling to show my hand in advance of the title match I’ll be playing against Veselin Topalov in Sophia, Bulgaria, next April. I’m really trying to win but it just doesn’t work. Today, for example, I got nervous in an already worse position. I don’t know what came over me; I was dreaming.” Even a world champion is only human, it seems.

Carlsen, who faced Russia’s Sergei Karjakin in a French game, got lucky, too. The Russian did well in the opening and had the upper hand until a rash exchange sacrifice around the 30th changed the situation drastically. Carlsen remained an exchange up to grab the full point in the ending fifteen moves later. As both players left the tournament hall straight away, there was no helpful comment available. Some experts admitted they failed to understand the encounter but GM Ivan Sokolov was so impressed by Carlsen’s performance that he decided the young Norwegian deserved the daily ‘Ymouth Versatile Prize’ of 500 euros.

Three other games were drawn in a more or less orderly fashion –although Hikaru Nakamura had to work hard for his half point against Leinier Dominguez- but in the final encounter of the round, Sergei Tiviakov defeated fellow Dutchman Jan Smeets with white in 34 moves from a Petroff Defence.

Dimitri Reinderman earned the 250-euro prize for the best game of the day in Group B with another lucky win. Playing white in an English game against India’s Pentala Harikrishna, the Dutchman obtained a winning position only to waste his advantage in time trouble towards the 40th. What followed was a virtually balanced endgame with two white rooks, one black queen and an equal number of pawns on both sides. Reinderman’s win came when Harikrishna committed a fatal blunder on the 58th.

Sounya Swaminathan of India defeated Sweden’s Nils Grandelius with white in 36 moves from a Sicilian Defence. It was the Indian’s first victory and earned her the daily prize of 100 euro’s. Holland’s Benjamin Bok defeated Dutch women’s champion Zhaoqin Peng with black in an English game to reach his second IM norm.

Images: Corus Chess 2010

Chess game

2010-01-29T17:47:00.009Z

In this game I played black. My opponent resigned the game. I will start blogging more chess-stuff on this blogger-blog as I'm a bit frustrated with Wordpress.
The following song is an Afrikaans song. Read on the link more. This song is sung by one of my teachers from Secondary School. It is a beautiful song. The above image is a collage which I put together in Fireworks.

Read here about Sypaadjie Mense - translated into English too.[Sidewalk people]

Sal ons speel?

2010-01-24T00:13:00.000Z

SA Juniors 2009

2010-01-22T17:39:00.003Z

South African Junior Chess Championships 2009 - December 2009.
Hierdie verslaggie is saamgestel deur Connie, een van my mede-skaakspelers op chess.com. Connie se twee dogtertjies speel skaak - sien hulle op die foto met Melissa Greeff, Suid-Afrika se eie Woman Grandmaster. Melissa het onlangs - soos in Junie 2009, haar titel gekry. Die Junior Skaakkampioenskappe het Desember plaasgevind en Connie se tweeling het deelgeneem en hy het die volgende verslag saamgestel en die foto's geneem. Dankie, Connie, jy's 'n ou doring! 'n Staatmaker, want soos jyself se, dit was ook nie eens in die koerante nie...ai, ai, ai, Suid-Afrika! Baie geluk aan Connie en die twee dogters met hulle puik prestasie!

Ja, waar sal ek begin. Dit was in die 1ste plek glad nie ‘n vakansie by die see nie. Voel eerder of ek terug by die huis is om te rus. Dit was baie oorweldigend vir my, so ek kan net dink hoe dit vir die kleintjies moes voel. Daar was by die span kampioenskappe +- 1800 spelers en by die individuals 900-1000. Die eerste 3 dae met die spanne was ‘n nagmerrie. Dit was eens te veel vir diekleintjies en vir die pa.. Baie van die o/8’s van die verskillende unies het meer gehuil as skaak gespeel want die druk was net te veel. My 2 het in die onmoontlikste drakies verander wat net wou huil en baklei. Die kompetisie was baie sterk en die deel van die toernooi het uit 5 rondes bestaan. Marelize het 4 van haar 5 en Bernize 3 van haar 5 gewen. Ek weet nie presies waar die span geeindig het nie maar vermoed dit was maar hier by 15/20. Eerste was Noordwes A en 2de Gauteng Wes A.

By die individuals het die senuwees begin kalmeer en dit het beter gegaan met die emosies. Ongelukkig is die o/8’s en o/10’s saam gegooi vir die pairing alhoewel die results gesplit is. Bernize was heel tyd no 1 tussen die 0/8’s tot en met ronde 6 (9rondtes in die deel van die toernooi) Haar laaste 3 het sy verloor, want sy was gepair teen van die beste 0/10’s en het toe 5de geeindig. Marelize het 10de geeindig. Eintlik dink ek sy het baie onder haar potensiaal gespeel en dink ek dit was maar ‘n geval dat die toernooi te lank geword het vir haar. Die 2 is ook met die 2de ronde gepair om teen mekaar te speel wat toe geeindig het op ‘n draw

By die prys uitdeling was daar ‘n paar grootname in SA skaak. Laura Irwin het nou in Januarie glo 2de gekom in Egipte in ‘n Toernooi. David Gluckman, IM van Westelike provinsie. Sy kinders speel ook skaak en ek was nogal heel trots toe Bernize sy seun , Paul, (Bord 1 van WP o/8 A span ) gewen het in die span toernooi. Nicholas van der Nat van Gauteng South. Hy is tans SA geslote Kampioen. Op die onderste foto ontvang Melissa 'n trofee van Advocate Lyndon Bouah, Visie president van Chessa. Die trofee was vir die beste prestasie nasionaal en Internasionaal. Ongelukkig was daar nie eens iets in die media oor die hele toernooi nie. Nie eens ‘n koerantberig nie. Om vir Melissa te ontmoet was natuurlik die hoogtepunt veral toe sy ingestem het vir ‘n foto saam met my 2 en hulle maatjie Jessica. Nou wag ons net om te hoor wie word uitgenooi na die geslote kampioenskappe waaruit die Springbokspan gekies word.

Follow THIS LINK to see more pics of tournaments played on the site of the Northern Cape Province.

Children who are smacked when young are more likely to be successful, study finds

2010-01-03T22:46:00.002Z

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:21 PM on 03rd January 2010

Children who are smacked by parents often turn out more successful than those who have not, research has found.
The study concluded that children who had been physically disciplined when they were young, between the ages of 2 and 6, were performing better as teenagers on almost every measure that was taken into consideration than those who had never been smacked.
It was only in cases where it continued beyond the age of 12 that the children were found to be affected negatively, resulting in a dip on performance indicators.
The results of the US-based study undermines the efforts of various campaigners who have been trying to have physical punishment outlawed in the UK, who have claimed that it causes long-term damage to the children.

Currently, UK law allows parents to chastise their children as long as it does not leave a physical mark such as a bruise - the government has said it is reluctant to criminalise parents purely for disciplining their children with the best of intentions.
'The claims made for not spanking children failed to hold up. They are not consistent with the data,' Marjorie Gunnoe, professor of psychology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told the Sunday Times.
'I think of spanking as a dangerous tool, but there are times when there is a job big enough for a dangerous tool - you just don't use it for all your jobs,' she added.
Gunnoe, who lead the research, said 2,600 people were reviewed, of whom about a quarter had never been smacked.

It also included detailed interviews of about 179 teenagers who were asked how old they were when they were last smacked and how often they were smacked as a child.
She then looked at many outcomes parents generally night want for their teenage children such as academic rank, volunteer work, college aspirations, hope for the future, and confidence in their ability to earn a living when they grow up.
It emerged that those who had been spanked just when they were young were doing a little better as teenagers than those who’d never been spanked on almost every measure.
Research of this kind is rare, given that physical punishment was not viewed as taboo until fairly recently.

However, in a recent poll, more than 70% of Britons would support a ban on smacking.
Source HERE

The above article was slightly adjusted when I read through it again, so here in green, I've copied the adjusted article from the original source - again.

Last updated at 8:55 AM on 04th January 2010

Young children who are smacked by their parents grow up to be happier and more successful than those who have never been hit, research claims.It found that children who are smacked before the age of six perform better at school when they are teenagers.They are also more likely to do voluntary work and to want to go to university than those who have never been physically disciplined.

But the study also revealed that children who are smacked after the age of six were more likely to exhibit behavioural problems, such as being involved in fights. Smacking is currently banned in 20 European countries, including Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. In Britain 'reasonable chastisement' in the home is allowed unless it leaves a mark.

But the study, by Marjorie Gunnoe, professor of Psychology at Calvin College in the U.S. state of Michigan, found there was not enough evidence to prove that smacking harmed most children. She said: 'The claims that are made for not spanking children fail to hold up. 'I think of spanking as a dangerous-tool, but then there are times when there is a job big enough for a dangerous tool. You don't use it for all your jobs.'

Professor Gunnoe questioned 2,600 people about being smacked, of whom a quarter had never been physically chastised. The participants' answers then were compared with their behaviour, such as academic success, optimism about the future, antisocial behaviour, violence and bouts of depression.

Teenagers in the survey who had been smacked only between the ages of two and six performed best on all the positive measures. Those who had been smacked between seven and 11 fared worse on negative behaviour but were more likely to be academically successful. Teenagers who were still smacked fared worst on all counts. Parenting guru Penelope Leach disagreed with the findings.

'No good can come from hitting a child,' she said. 'I do not buy this idea that children will learn positive behaviour from being smacked. 'The law says adults hitting adults is wrong and children should be protected in the same way. Children are people too.' But psychologist Aric Sigman said: 'The idea smacking and violence are on a continuum is a bizarre and fetished view of what punishment is for most parents.

'If it's done judiciously by a parent who is normally affectionate and sensitive to their child, our society should not be up in arms about that. Parents should be taught to distinguish this from a punch in the face.'
Two years ago, Britain was criticised by the UN for failing to ban smacking in the home, after experts said it was a form of abuse.
And growing numbers of the public seem to agree: A recent poll found 71 per cent of parents would support a ban on smacking.

Under-sevens 'too young to learn to read'

2010-01-03T12:03:00.000Z

The Guardian

Children should not start formal learning until they are seven, according to a world expert in nursery education who will suggest today that teaching reading and writing earlier can put them off for life.

Teaching children at five to read and write can dent their interest in books later on, according to Lilian Katz, a professor of education at Illinois University, who will today address an international conference on nursery schooling at Oxford University.

"It can be seriously damaging for children who see themselves as inept at reading too early," she told the Guardian. Boys were particularly vulnerable when rushed into reading too soon, she said.

Her comments come amid mounting concern over reading skills. In England, a quarter of all 14-year-olds now fail to reach the expected standards, and boys are struggling even more. Earlier this month a Cambridge University report strongly criticised Labour's £500m national literacy strategy for having a "relatively small impact". It concluded that children's reading skills had not improved in 50 years.

Moves in England to introduce more structured learning for three- and four-year-olds could store up problems in the long term, Katz suggests.

English schools start formal teaching at five but there are plans to introduce a foundation stage for three- and four-year-olds which will set new learning goals, including one which specifies that by the time children start school at five they should be able to at least "use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words". Katz, a former president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and a respected authority on early years education, said: "Teaching younger children can look OK in the short term but in the long term children who are taught early are not better off. For a lot of children five will be too early.

"That has a more negative impact for boys. For most boys they are growing up in cultures where they are expected to be assertive and active. In instruction they are passive and receptive and reactive, and in the long term that accounts for the negative effects. In most cultures girls tend to put up with instruction earlier and better."

The conference will examine the case for starting formal teaching at a later age. In Sweden children do not start formal instruction until six or seven. Professor Ingrid Pramling-Samuelsson, from the University of Goteborg, who is president-elect of the World Organisation of Preschool Education, will tell the conference that academics in Sweden have been "surprised" to hear that England is moving towards earlier formal instruction.

The children's minister Beverley Hughes will also address the conference about the early years foundation stage, which has been interpreted by some as the extension of the national curriculum to toddlers. The government is adamant that despite setting goals for children to reach they are not targets and it is not a formal curriculum.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "The formal school starting age of five has served children well for decades and standards in our primary schools have never been higher. The curriculum is age-appropriate and we actively support teachers to adapt their teaching to the needs of children. We want all children to make progress in literacy and numeracy at an early age, as these skills are critical to their ability to get the most out of learning later on."

Source HERE

Snow! Sneeu!

2009-12-18T20:57:00.008Z

See more snow photos here. The link will open in a new window.

Merry Christmas to you all! Enjoy the music of John Lennon - So this is Christmas

My Move

2009-11-21T15:32:00.000Z

A Golden Load

2009-11-07T09:45:00.003Z

See more beautiful pics on my WP blog about the area where we live. The link will open in a new window.

Green Point Football Stadium

2009-10-27T14:30:00.002Z

Beautiful, isn't it! Click HERE to see more images of this football stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. The link will open in a new window.

Jane Austen

2009-09-27T20:27:00.002+01:00

Visit my Jane Austen entry on my WP blog to see more photos about my visit to the Jane Austen museum-house. The link will open in a new window.

Woman Chess Grandmaster for South Africa!

2009-08-31T11:36:00.006+01:00

Congratulations to Melissa! We are proud of you!Click on this link to read about 14 year old Melissa.

South Africa

2009-08-16T09:04:00.003+01:00

Friday, 14th August was Afrikaans Language day - well in the "old days" - in South Africa. On this link - which will open in a new window - you can read a few interesting facts about South Africa. Afrikaans is also the youngest official language. Here is just a few interesting facts.....We have the greenest canyon in the world- which is also the 3rd largest in the world, we have the highest waterfall in Africa and the 2nd highest in the world, the 3rd longest Tufa waterfall , the deepest mines, the largest zoo, the smallest butterfly, the largest diamond, the second largest amount of windmills on farms (280 000), the largest impact crater on earth, white lions... read more on the link too and you will also find on this link another link to an entry on my blog about the Afrikaans Language Museum. If you don't know what a Tufa Waterfall is, you will also find a link to read what it is and also, a few Afrikaans songs. Enjoy!

Countryside

2009-08-11T13:26:00.004+01:00

You know what's in this photo?
See more images of the countryside in Bucks on
my WP-blog here. The link will open in a new window.

African Individual Chess Championship - Tripoli

2009-07-24T14:01:00.004+01:00

Pairings/Results
Round 3 on 2009/07/23 at 15:00
WIM Alaa el Din Yosra vs WFM Latreche Sabrina–0-1
WIM Solomons Anzel vs WCM Beddar Karima– 1-0
WGM Mona Khaled vs WIM Greeff Melissa –1-0
WIM Mezioud Amina vs Al Jahani Marwah –1-0
Elansary Eman vs Elgohary Myada –1-0
Rahal Mawadda vs Abdulgader Amira–1/2
WFM Mudongo Boikhutso vs WFM Elfelo Khouled–1/2
Al Felo Ekhlas vs Matoussi Amina–0-1

Men: RESULTS AFTER THREE ROUNDS:

1-3 : (2,5 Points) : IM. Kenny Solomon, GM. Ahmed Adley & GM. Essam Elgindy

4-5 : (2,0 Points) : GM. Amon Simutowe, IM. Watu Kobese & GM. Amin Bassem

GM. Slim Belkhidja is on 1,5 Points and we have no word yet on GM. Aimen Rezouk except to report that IM.Kenny Solomon took advantage of him in pocketing full score!
This tournament is now taking place in Libya. Many players couldn't get visas to enter Libya...more info on a link on my Wordpress-blog. Little information is available about this tournament. Please click HERE to follow the tournament in Tripoli and to read more about the "issues". The link will open in a new window.

South African Open Chess Championship 2009

2009-07-11T09:09:00.004+01:00

If you have missed out on the South African Open 2009, you are still in time to catch-up with some news as this tournament ends only today!

Please click here to read more and to see the results of all the rounds.The final round - round 11 - is being played this morning at 11:00-16:00 South African local time. The link will open in a new window.

Exciting news: Ryan van Rensburg (2106) (SA) drew a game against GM Dimitri Komarov (2530) (UKR). Ryan has also beaten IM Watu Kobese (2493) (SA) in round 7 and in round 8 he drew a game against IM MABUSELA, JM (2244)! Ryan drew in round 9 his game against IM P Wang (2453) and in round 10: Ryan drew his game against FM NP van der Nat (2322) and also, FM CCA De Villiers -2179- (SA) drew against GM G Jones-2550-(ENG).

From Chesscube: The South African Open is being contested by 208 with the following nations being represented in the field: AUS, ENG, EB, EK, FRA, GER, HUN, KEN, MAW, MOZ, NAM, NWP, NZL, RSA, UK, UKR, WP, ZIM. With 2 GM’s, a handful of IM’s, and a couple of FM’s/CM’s in the field, you are for sure to see good chess. There are 3 games being played live exclusively to ChessCube of SA Open. To watch these games all you have to do is go into the SA room and you can watch straight away. Games are commencing at 9:30 and 18.30 each day – local time.
In a world first for chess, some of the matches will be played online. This is a format many internet chess players have been waiting for – an online event being played simultaneously over 2 continents, yet officially recognized and rated by FIDE!
From Melbourne, Australia, behind the computer screens will be GM Gawain Jones (GBR, ELO 2550), IM Puchen Wang (NZL, ELO 2453), IM Mirko Rujevic (AUS, ELO 2282), and IM Leonid Sandler (AUS, ELO 2332) on standby. On the other end of the computer terminal at Cape Town, South Africa, will sit their opponents. The South African opponents will be paired each round, as will all the other players, using the Swiss Pairing system. This means that three different South African players will play online every round.
“Having these players compete in the tournament from another location using the Internet is a world first. Each Australian player will use a computer to connect to ChessCube and play their game, and will be supervised by the arbiter on that side. Similarly the players paired against them in Cape Town will play their games online using a computer, and will be supervised by an arbiter on this side,” commented Mr. Mark Levitt, founder of ChessCube. FIDE rated event over the internet! FIDE have agreed to officially rate the games played over the Internet.ChessCube powering the community and the SA OpenChessCube as a playing platform has been bringing innovative ideas into online chess playing for the last couple of months, turning into one of the busiest and most populated web chess servers with player peaks reaching over 3000 players online simultaneously, and a growing base that has eclipsed half a million users. The platform has turned into something that the chess world has been missing at previous online chess communities – it is a place where one can socialize and have fun at the same time.
Now ChessCube are taking a step further and create a tournament, part of which will take place online, and will be officially recognized by FIDE.- source: chessdom

SAAF during WWII in Italy

2009-06-24T16:34:00.002+01:00

On this first image you can read about the South African Air Force and the bomber squadron that served during WWII in Italy.

News about the SAAF, Marauders and Baltimores

On the back of image 1, this was printed, interesting!

This was printed on the back of the next image

A quick plan... South Africans are known for making plans quickly whenever they have to! Here you can see how they made a snow-plough.

Well done to the SAAF! Broken records!

Another well done! The British Lieutenant-colonel signalled a message to a SAAF medium bomber wing. "I watched the medium and light bombers operating from a forward observation post. It was simply incredibly devastating. Their accuracy and the destruction they caused were unbelievable."

MTel Chess 2009

2009-05-16T19:30:00.003+01:00

MTel is on! The chess machines of the world are playing.Please click here on my WP-blog to see the results and chess graphics of the rounds too.The link will open in a new window.

Topalov played a game blindfolded before the start of the tournament.

US Chess Championship 2009

2009-05-10T21:09:00.013+01:00

Please click HERE to follow the tournament and results.

This game is Kamsky's game in Round 4. On the photo you can see Shulman vs Kamsky

The following game is Kamsky's game played in Round 8

Play through the game of Hess and Shulman played in Round 8

Play through the game of Brooks and Nakamura played in Round 8

Azerbaijan vs Fide World

2009-05-09T11:49:00.007+01:00

Big Chess is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan. The world's "big game" in Chess! In this glass front you can see the images of the 9 players...Fide World Team against the Azerbaijan Team. Follow the link at the bottom of this entry for more details.

Mamedov vs Anand - 1/2

Please click here to see more chess graphics and results on my WP-blog about the tournament.

South African Women's Open Chess Championships 2009

2009-05-02T13:00:00.005+01:00

The South African Women's Open Chess Championship is now taking place in Pretoria till Sunday the 5th May 2009.

Please click here to follow the results on my WP-blog. The link will open in a new window.

US Chess Championship 2009

2009-05-01T16:28:00.009+01:00

The US Chess Championship 2009 starts from the 7-17th May 2009.

Click on THIS LINK to get more info and to read more about the Championship.
This game here is REAL time chess! Click the arrows to follow round 3 of Kamsky's game - 10th May 2009

Real time chess!

Kamsky round 2 - end position

Earth Day 22 April 2009

2009-04-22T17:01:00.001+01:00

We have only ONE Earth!

Fook Island

2009-04-20T16:55:00.005+01:00

Fook Gallooper..image: artthrob.co.za artist:Norman Catherine

If you wanna know what Fook Island is all about..then click here to read who was the creater of this island. He even created fookian banknotes and exchanged it on the airport of Rome. His fookian drivers license was accepted in the USA! hehehe...The link will open in a new window.

Nalchik 2009

2009-04-20T16:49:00.004+01:00

Please click HERE to follow the games at Nalchik live. See more spectacular images of the opening ceremony. Nalchik is in Russia and on the link you can see who are the Grandmasters taking part in this Fide Grand Prix tournament. The link will open in a new window.

Boscastle

2009-04-20T16:45:00.002+01:00

Please click HERE to see pictures taken on our visit to Cornwall from Boscastle, a fishing village. This village was flooded in 2004. The link will open in a new window.

Hawker's Hut

2009-04-12T23:11:00.004+01:00

Please click HERE to read about Hawker's Hut and the eccentric man, Hawker, and to see more images about this part of Cornish-land. The link will open in a new window.

Hush now, my little baby

2009-02-15T13:12:00.007Z

Image: Wikimedia

This poem is my translation of the Afrikaans poem with the same title. The poem was written by one of South Africa's national poets, A G Visser. The poem is based on the truth. During the 1800's the Dutch settlers trekked around the country to find suitable places to settle and they fought different wars at the time. This poem is based on the 6th Xhosa war. It is a sad/emotional poem. I think many South Africans know this poem quite well. It was one of the poems I had to recite during my primary years and it's always been one of my favourites! I was asked on my Wordpress blog by a blog reader to translate it and I hope I've done a good job as it's sometimes difficult to translate a poem, not all poems are easy to translate as you have to get the same message across. I didn't try any rhyming patterns in this poem with the translation, so, what you see is what you get! The story-line in the poem was more important.

Amakeia

In the shadow of the mountains
bush-sheltered on all sides
stands alone the wattle-and-daub hut
on the boarder of Kaffir country.

Softly Amakeia hums
on the banks of the River Kei
till he sleeps, the tender baby
of the white pioneer:

“Hush now, hush now, hush little one
see how the evening star twinkles
No one will hurt you, little one
hush now, even if Mummy isn’t near.”

To read the complete poem, please click here and slide a bit down on the page. The page will open in a new window.

The Amatola mountains in South Africa, Western Cape.

Enjoy this song by Helmut Lotti...Tula Tula...(which means..hush/keep quiet)

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-06T10:44:00.004Z

On THIS LINK you can find more beautiful images and quotes about Love. The link will open in a new window.

Video Games History

2009-02-01T10:31:00.005Z

Technology!
Follow THIS LINK to watch a video about the history of video games. The link will open in a new window.

Corus Chess 2009 Live

2009-01-18T00:43:00.003Z

Please click HERE to follow the Corus Chess 2009 Live.The link will open in a new window.