The Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Entrance to the seed vault.

Photo from the Global Crop Diversity Trust via IRIN

Today the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture shipped 7,000 seed samples from 36 different African countries to Oslo. On 26 February 2008 these seeds will be among the first to be put into the specially prepared vault deep in the permafrost near the village of Longyearbyen.

The seeds will be stored at –18 degrees Celsius in specially designed, five-ply aluminium foil packages inside sealed boxes stored on high shelves inside the vault. The low temperature and limited access to oxygen will ensure low metabolic activity and delay aging.

If there should be a disaster in the world affecting agriculture or the gene bank, the seeds will be there to provide some food security. They hope to have 4.5 million seed samples.

The collection and maintenance of the seeds is co-ordinated by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which has responsibility of ensuring the "conservation of crop diversity in perpetuity". The Norwegian government has built the vault at a cost of $9m (£4.5m), for the benefit of mankind.

Clearly RennyBA and TorAa aren't the only wonderful Norwegians in the world :)

Fruits of Africa

The National Academies (in America) yesterday published a report on the native fruits of Africa. It is the third in a series, the previous ones having looked at native grains and vegetables.

Their suggestion is that tropical fruit production in Africa has been dominated for centuries by species imported from Asia and the Americas. Bananas and pineapples are examples. These fruits were already improved by selection and breeding programmes over the years and gradually displaced native fruits.

As a result native species have been neglected and forgotten, but if they received the attention of horticulturalists, they could contribute both to nutrition and the economy. Some are already cultivated while others are wild. They include fruits with intriguing names such as chocolate berries and gingerbread plums.

Photo by Flickr user ElRabbit. Creative Commons Licence. 

Baobab fruit pulp can dried into a nutritious powder high in protein, vitamins, and minerals and used in drinks, porridge. It can be dried in flat pancakes and last for months or years. The leaves of the tree can be eaten too.

Photo by Flickr user Sanctu. Creative Commons Licence.

Ebony, above, has bright red fruits which are sweet and juicy and not unlike persimmons which are from the same family. Some varieties have edible seeds too.

Photo by B.navez. Wikimedia Commons.

Tamarind grows wild in Sudan. It was introduced to India so long ago that it is often thought to be native to there. It moved from India to Asia and gained the name tamarind from the Arabic "tamar hindi" meaning Indian date.

It is a fascinating report, and you can find the full 380 pages online.

Conflicts of interest

The BBC reported the other day that the Scottish Executive were of a mind to reject proposals to pass plans for a windfarm of 181 turbines on the Isle of Lewis, which has been widely interpreted as a rejection. However the Executive have strongly stated that they have not yet made up their minds. (From EDIE).

On the one hand, the local council are in favour of the scheme because they consider it will revitalise the economy of the remote area, creating in the region of 400 jobs. Campagners against the project say that it will damage wildlife and an important wetland site.

Lewis Wind Power, have graphics on their site which give an impression of what the wind farm could look like.

Map from Ordnance Survey Get-a-Map

My personal view is that we should consider the bigger picture, within reason, and remember that if climate change continues, there will be no wetland. I don't find wind turbines offensive to look at, in fact I find them attractive. I like their clean lines.

Photo from Flickr user laurenispum. Creative Commons Licence.

Another conflict of interest comes closer to home for me. Solar panels are being considered by the Vatican, and France is incorporating solar power into many of its schemes to reduce carbon emissions, but we aren't allowed panels because we have contrived to live in conservation areas in both England and France. So they wouldn't look pretty. We have already insulated as much as possible. Oh, and we aren't allowed double glazing either.

I do understand the planners' concerns, but some consideration must be given to the situation. They are talking about taxing people on the amount of rubbish they produce, but if they don't provide good recycling facilities in some areas, people in the area have a problem. Similarly if they don't provide the means to avoid rising energy prices, some will be penalised if they aren't allowed take action to use more renewable energy.

Botanical garden

We visited Oaxaca City in Mexico, I think about 10 years ago, and had a wonderful time. One of the places we visited was the Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo, which is former monastery, now a museum housing various items from the pre-Columban era including the contents of a tomb from nearby Monte Alban.

The garden of the monastery had recently been planted as an ethno-botanical garden, using plants that are native to the area.

Interior courtyard to the Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo below.

So I was delighted to catch a broadcast on BBC earlier this evening "Around the World in 80 Gardens" with Monty Don showing the garden as it is now, and giving some of its history. It seems there had been plans to turn the monastery into a hotel and a car-park. Thank goodness sense prevailed.

All the plants included have some meaning locally - religious, medical, perfume, as a food or for household use. It has one of the most extensive collections of cacti and agaves.

These are pictures of the gardens more recently. They appear to have matured quite a bit.

Photo from Flickr user loremipsum. Creative commons licence.

Photo from Flickr user loremipsum. Creative commons licence.

If you'd like to see more pictures of the garden, visit Gardner in Cacala. And for more information (which seems hard to come by) visit The Human Flower Project.

Child marriage

"It should be noted that children's games are not merely games. One should regard them as their most serious activities. "
~~Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

And yet so many children miss large parts of their childhood as a result of child marriages, child labour, child soldiers, child trafficking, and child abuse which covers all of these plus sexual abuse.

Photo Kamila Hyat/IRIN

The girl pictured above is 13 years old. Her daughter 8 months old.

There are several reasons for early/premature marriage, which happens primarily but not exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Asia:

• Poverty: a girl can be considered a financial burden to the family and so the sooner she is married off the better. Alternatively where a dowry is expected, a younger girl would not be expected to have as large a dowry as an adult.
• Social ties: a girl can be offered to reinforce ties between families, or to settle a feud (so-called compensation marriages).
• Social status: girls and women are defined solely as wives and mothers.
• Control over sexuality: girls are married to protect their sexual purity and to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy - protecting the family honour.
• Fear of HIV: some men in African countries seek young virgin wives to ensure they are HIV free.

There are many reasons why this is a violation of fundamental rights, apart from the very important one of losing their childhood. Girls in particular suffer greatly from the consequences.

• For both boys and girls, early marriage stops their education and reduces their chances to develop personally.
• Girls become pregnant and give birth before their bodies are sufficiently mature. This can lead to complications or death.
• They rarely have any knowledge of birth control or issues such as sexually transmitted diseases/HIV.
• Girls are often married to much older men which leads to a power imbalance, frequently resulting in violence towards the young wife.

Some stories of child marriage can be seen in the photo essay from the ICRW, Too Young to Wed.

A good overview on the subject can be found on the Forward website.

Dover Castle

On our new year trip we decided to travel to France on a Dover crossing , for old time's sake. My parents used to live nearby for a time, so it used to be our preferred route in those days. I took the photo above as the ferry left the harbour. It shows Dover Castle on the cliffs above the town - the keep, the castle wall, and the Constable's Tower on the left.

The castle was a favourite haunt of our sons, and then it became a great place to visit with any of their friends who came to stay.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

While I was looking up some information on the area I found the photo above on Wikipedia, which seems to have been taken from almost exactly the opposite direction to mine. It even has the ferry in the background!

This third view shows the castle church with the Roman lighthouse at the end of it. The arches half way down the cliff are part of the casemate barracks built between 1793 and 1801, and you are just able see an observation platform at the top of the cliff on the extreme right.

The cliffs are riddled with tunnels, some dating as far back as Tudor times and others from WWII. To the right of the casemate barracks are entrances to some tunnels which were converted to shelter the government if it became necessary. Some tunnels, but not the government shelter, are now open to the public.

Plenty of interesting information is available on Wikipedia, Dover Castle: lock and key of the Kingdom and Historic Kent.

PhotoHunter: old fashioned

I was fairly clear in my mind what I was going to use today, and I knew where to find the photographs. What I hadn't realised was that they were wrapped in some old newspaper from 1942 and in the newspaper were these two old fashioned advertisements.

Please note, it was during the war and the above advertisement is for American satin! Such luxury! It isn't only the subject matter that's old fashioned, but the style too.

They are so completely unlike anything we have nowadays.

Then we come to the photos I was intending to show you, the first of my parents' wedding day in 1942, just after my father qualified. Immediately afterwards he went out to North Africa in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

The second shows my mother and a friend in my parents' flat, not long after that wedding. I am particularly delighted with this one because I still have the photo of my father that you can see on the mantelpiece and and my sister has the copper coal scuttle to the left of the picture.

So not only can you see old fashioned clothes, but also an old fashioned interior décor. The question is, when do old fashioned things become period items of some value?

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January flowers

Perhaps a little too early, some of them.

In strictly alphabetic order:

Aconite

Anemone

Crocus

Snowdrop

If I'm perfectly honest, I think snowdrops are one of my favourite flowers. They give hope when you think the winter has gone on too long, and to my eye they are so elegant: simplicity of line and colour.

The Nile

Map of Egypt: Wikimedia Commons via IRIN

The main source of water for Egypt's 80 million population is the river Nile, so it is good news for them that the quality of the water in the river has improved recently by 16%.

• The concentrations of organic matter decreased.


• Dissolved salts decreased.


• Phosphate concentrations reduced.

Photo Flickr user archival. Creative Commons licence

The improvement is a result of efforts in:

• preventing industrial pollution (e.g. pesticides, organic material, heavy metals, ammonia, nitrate and phosphate)


• the encouragement of recycling of banana waste, produced in large amounts by agriculture, to make compost


• annual maintenance of the water hyacinth problem


• diverting treated sewage water from the river to irrigation of forests.

Photo of Aswan Dam: Wikimedia Commons via IRIN

In spite of the results of these efforts, officials feel more progress will be made if people are more environmentally aware and recognise that there is a problem.

Winter colour

Winter is not all grey.

Birch, willow and a couple of evergreens.

The red catkins and cones on an alder.

Ash seeds dangling over the water.

I don't know what this riverside shrub is but I liked the shape the branches make against the backgound of the water.

A spherical bunch of mistletoe suspended over the river.

An evergreen bush overhanging from a garden. Quite a few of the red berries had already gone, to the birds I presume.

Fruits of a plane tree. There seem to be a lot of them this year.

I love these last berries. They seem to be oozing from their coverings or cases. There's something almost voluptuous about them. If anyone knows what they are, I'd love to know.

Numbers

From a BBC report quoting some figures from UNICEF's publication The State of the World's Children.

Child mortality is at its lowest in Sweden, at its highest in Sierra Leone.

In Sweden there are 3 deaths per 1,000 children under five.
In industrialised nations there are 6 deaths per 1000 under five.
In Sierra Leone there are 270 deaths per 1000 under five.

In Sweden, 1 in 17,400 mothers die in childbirth.
In the UK, 1 in 8,200 mothers die in childbirth.
In Sierra Leone, 1 in 8 mothers die in childbirth.

In Sweden there are 320 doctors per 100,000 people
In the UK there are 230 doctors per 100,000 people.
In Sierra Leone there are 2 doctors per 100,000 people.

Perpignan - the very first energy positive city in Europe

Photo from jordillar_fotos on Flickr. Creative Commons Licence

Perpignan has signed an agreement, in the presence of the Minister for Ecology and Sustainable Development, which will encourage a decrease in energy consumption along with the expansion of renewable sources of energy - wind power and photovoltaic solar power. It will allow Perpignan to produce more energy than it consumes.

Photo from Zoonie on Flickr. Creative Commons Licence.

There will be a wind farm consisting of 40 wind turbines, and three solar power stations. Public buildings will be equipped with solar panels like the ones on the 70,000 square metres of roof covering the St Charles fruit and vegetable market. Existing buildings will be renovated following low consumption standards with a view to meeting 50KWh/m2 per year. At the moment very few will fall below 100 KWh/m2 a year. Finally, an incinerator will produce heat from waste.

It is expected that all residential needs will be covered by the plans. For the time being, industrial consumption is not included.

The wind farm should produce 70% of the power, 11% from the roof panels, 10% from the solar power stations and the rest from the waste incinerator. It is expected that the works will take at least 2 years to complete. Any surplus energy will be bought by the electricity company EDF at a better rate than for other electricity.

From Développement Durable le journal

A windy place

Sometimes on your travels you come across, entirely by accident, an interesting place.

The aire de repos on the A16 in Normandy, Les Falaises de Widehem, is an example. We stopped at this spot purely to eat our picnic lunch but found a site apparently dedicated to the wind which seems to blow there all the time. I have already mentioned the wind turbines in a Photo Hunter post.

The view of the Baie de la Canche from the path around the area is spectacular.

At the viewing point, there are two quotes about the wind carved in stone:

L'horizon perçu par les yeux humains n'est jamais le rivage, parce qu'au delà de cet horizon, il y en a un autre, et toujours ! Flaubert

The horizon perceived by human eyes is never the shore because beyond that there is another one, always!

Le vent n'attend pas. Il franchit les montagnes, il balaie les poussières, le sable, les cendres... Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (whose father was a surgeon in the British army in Africa)

The wind doesn't wait. It crosses mountains, it sweeps up dust, sand, ashes...

On either side of the viewing point were listed names of winds on the left-hand side:

Zéphyr
Noroit
Alizés
Sirocco
Tramontane
Mistral
Aquilon
Bora
Foehn
Simoun
Pampero
All theses names are listed on various sites such as this one in French (a good windy site!)and this in English.

On the right hand side were words describing the action of winds taken from a poem by Charles-Marie Leconte de Lisle:

Beugle
Rugit
Siffle
Râle
Miaule
Mord
Râpe
Ecume

In 2003, Sanef, who run the autoroutes in that area, held a Concerto aux quatre vents there, and in 2007 held a jazz concert, Sonate aux 4 vents.

Just stopping there for a short while has led me to find out all these bits and pieces of information. It's the sort of thing I find fascinating - I know I have strange inclinations ;) but who knows what we are missing as we rush along trying to get from place to place as fast as possible.

"Africa being drained"

I took the title of this post from the BBC report which, like many, many others, implies that African doctors and nurses working abroad are causing major problems in their home countries.

The author, Michael Clemens, of the original paper has said in a blog post that he is very uneasy about these conclusions being drawn and has written another to show that there is little evidence for the assumptions.

The reasons that it may not be a negative picture can be summed up as follows:

• The doctor or nurse may be following up an opportunity unavailable at home.
• The salary may be five or ten times as high as in Africa, enabling support for families left behind.
• The main causes of death in Africa are more dependent on prevention than care, for example: diarrhoea, malaria, HIV.
• Many of the care givers in Africa, sometimes as many as two-thirds, live in or near the main cities, so the majority of people who live in rural areas at great distances from the cities are unlikely to be affected by a doctor leaving to work abroad. Many rural clinics can find no-one at all to fill vacancies.
• The option to emigrate has positively encouraged Africans' decisions to enter the health professions.

Michael Clemens' final paragraph:

If you think that limiting the movement of Ghanaian doctors is justified by the fact that Ghana doesn't have enough doctors, ask yourself: Does Ghana have enough entrepreneurs? Does it have enough engineers? Does it have enough wise politicians? The answer is 'no' across the board, so the logical conclusion of this sort of thinking is that we will somehow develop Ghana if we stand at the airport and prevent all Ghanaians with any kind of skill from leaving, preventing them from accessing the very high-paying jobs to which most of us living in rich countries have access by birthright alone. That is ethically problematic at a minimum, as well as ineffective -- trapping entrepreneurs in Ghana would not produce an efflorescence of investment.

The situation is very much more complex than it seems at first sight.

An award!

Dragonstar has very kindly given me this award. I'm not at all sure what I've done to deserve it though :) However as I sit here suffering from the worst cold ever, it has cheered me up immensely. Thank you so much Dragonstar.

PhotoHunter: important

It is important .....

..... to understand that whiskers are a way of measuring whether or not the space is big enough.

It is also important to stop trying to fit.

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