A different view on current affairs & history
The story of the most exotic coffee – Kopi Luwak – and its highly extraordinary origins: coffee beans retrieved from the defecated matter of the Asian Palm Civet.
The issue that intrigues me most of all is why somebody would have wanted to separate the faecal matter of an animal and then to test whether it made a delectable brew. Clearly someone has. Somebody with an obtuse mind.
Main picture: Source – http://skuddl.com/5-best-coffee-machines-2017/
Unlike most of Hitler’s circle, Albert Speer and Hermann Goering were not regarded as archetypal Nazi thugs. Most such as Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy until his arcane mission to Britain in 1941, were wastrels and professional thugs in keeping with their narrow-minded views on society and the solutions to social problems. If there had to be a psychological attribute for being a member of the Nazi inner circle, that trait would be sociopathy.
What is the essence of a great race? What ingredients does it require before the majority of the runners will exclaim, “That was a superb race!” Of course all situations will all have their cynical detractors who will censure or dismiss with scorn even the best organised events. One such runner was Eugene. Perhaps due to his brilliant mind, he would deprecatingly scoff at the organisation of even the best organised events.
This flagrant hypocrisy does not relate solely to Syria’s heinous crimes but also to the whole of the Middle East. What has been the Arab response to the genocidal actions of the ISIS forces against the Iraqi Yazidi Sect. In fact why has Adam Habib, a vocal support of the Palestinian cause, not issued a sharp rebuke to Abu Bakr al-Bagdahi’s forces for the mayhem, death & destruction caused by their forces against a peace-loving Sunni sect. It was left to the “hated imperialist” American air force to prevent the ultimate slaughter of the Yazidis in their mountain fastnesses.
This topic is one that most of us do not even dwell on for a second as if the maxim “out of sight out of mind” would automatically apply. Perhaps one is forced to contemplate this eventually if one reads about this occurring. Aside from the fact that it is the death of a child, one cannot possibly imagine what those other parents are enduring. By imagine I mean to be in their shoes and not some bystander or some passer-by.
Economic growth does come at a cost. Being the most populous country on earth, even the upliftment of 300 million people from penury into the middle class has scared the countryside. Imagine what will happen when the next billion people become middle class with aspirations for cars and household appliances. Without urgent changes such as pollution standards and the use of renewable energy, an imminent catastrophe will befall China and ultimately the world. China burns around half the world’s coal, reaching 3.8 billion tons in 2011.
The main picture highlights the fact that air pollution has become so problematic that school and work closures due to smog are a regular occurrence in major cities.
Among the multitude of mendacious traits of the ANC such as having a culture of impunity, is that they define their opponents not as rivals but as the enemy. I contend that it is this milieu that is at the root of such repugnant comments that Malema made whilst head of the ANCYL.