I’ve seen the Wonderbag being used before… in fact, last year my mom blogged about how she used one to cook my birthday dinner because the power went out on the day we celebrated my birthday at her house… so, I was intrigued when I got invited to Microsoft for today’s launch.  But the launch ended up not being about the bag… but about how the company intends distributing it to communities.

Oh and we got to eat lunch that was cooked in the bag!!

Before I start, it probably makes sense to explain what it is.  It’s a bag that looks almost like a duvet with a cushion that you tie around the top.  The way you use it, is to boil your food in a pot, and once the cooking process has started, you take the pot off the stove and put it in the bag, seal it, and leave it.  And the bag’s insulation acts like a slow cooker and cooks the contents of the pot.

So, as you may think, this save electicity or fuel or whatever it is that you cook with, and is good for the environment… and effectively saves you money if you use it regularly.

What’s interesting about this product though, is the way in which it’s being “sold”.

Natural Balance has now reached agreement with some municipalities to distribute/sell the bags to the residents to reduce the power consumption as well as household costs.  The mayor of Newcastle spoke at the launch today and told us how 22000 of these bags will be distributed to the residents of the town who are on the ingident register (those households registered as only earning < R1900 income per month.  And then other residents will get bags if they prove that they pay their electricity bills for 3 consecutive months… as an incentive to paying for electricity.  They’re hoping to encourage the use of the bags to reduce power bills… and effectively giving the residents more disposable income to spend on other things.

Interesting hey?

I really hope that the community project is successful, because I think it’ll really help those that are struggling to pay for electricity… and to keep their consumption under the minimum “free” limit. In fact, there was a guy from the Ekhuruleni municipality at the launch trying to understand how he could get the concept working in his area… good sign!!

What was also interesting was that a product design agency Frog has built a mobile USSD application for field agents to capture basic information about the people that use the bags (and the data is then sent real-time to a cloud based database and system provided by Microsoft) in order for the company to monitor the use of the bags… and then enabling them to claim carbon credits.  Carbon credits are tradeable in Euros and will essentially mean that that money  received from the sale of the credits will be plugged back into the project enabling more bags to be produced and distributed.

Some facts about the bags which I found quite fascinating:
- The Wonderbag saves approximately 0.5 tonnes of carbon per year if it is used 2 or 3 times a week.
- With regular use, the Wonderbag can save at least 15kWh of electricity and 1.6 litres of paraffin a week, and as much as 50% of the energy needed of cooking.

Oh and it’s pretty!
I think it’s a really worthwhile project they’re embarking on… I think I want to get one for my domestic worker… I’m sure it’ll save her some money.

However, even though it’s so cool, I’m not sure how often I would use it… other than what my mom did… use it when the power goes out and you want to cook something for a long time.  We don’t really eat a lot of stewy stuff.  But if we did… this would make a huge amount of sense

PS. Some of the images taken with iPhone and Instagram and the others with my DSLR

There have been loads of videos and photos and stories that I’ve seen and read over the last few days about the tragedy in Japan.  But there’s one image that I can’t get out of my mind.  It’s quite a simple photo, but it speaks to me on so many levels.

This whole thing in Japan, being so close to the hurricane in New Zealand has seemed quite surreal to me.  I was in the office on the day that the tidal waves hit the coast, and was actually standing next to colleagues watching the live broadcast on CNN as the wave hit the coast.  It was incredible. It didn’t seem real really.

But this particular image from Big Picture makes it hit home.

Connor is little too, and I can imagine how scary that must be.  No actually, I can’t think I can imagine it… but let’s pretend I do.  I can just see his face being similar to this, with that little frown on his face.  OMW how scared  this child must be.  And I can just imagine how scared that mother must be that’s behind him (well, hopefully it is his mother)

It reminds me of a sci-fi horror movie, and it’s just freaky that this is actually real, and not put on by some actors in a studio somewhere.

In fact, like normal, Big Picture‘s photos are just incredible, and are much better than watching the videos and TV and general newspaper sites.  These photos tell the story properly, not some rambling person with subtitles.

My heart breaks for them all… and all the people trying to directly help.  It must be so terrifying. So terrifying.

What has made this real for you? What photo/image/video has stuck in your head?

A rhino at the Krugersdorp Park was killed by poachers during the night.

Lance and I were discussing it this evening, when Bradley asked about what we were talking about.

So I told him.  He asked how they killed the rhino.  I said that they used poison.  He asked why, did they want her skin?  I said, no, her horns.  They cut her horns off once she was dead.

He says “Oh ja, for the chinese people because they think it’s makes them clever”

Then there was silence.

And he said “That makes me sad.  Where am I going to see rhinos now?”

Ja thanks a LOT Mr Poacher… you selfish git!!

It’s not just future generations that you’re depriving of beautiful animals… it’s my kids!!!

And I’m so not happy about this!  It doesn’t only make me sad.  It makes me very very angry.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned somewhere along the line that I don’t recycle much around my house, but I do recycle paper.

Now I’m a lazy  person, and it’s all about convenience for me.  Truely the only reason I recycle the paper is because it’s so damn easy.  Once a week, the Mondi guy comes around the area and collects his Ronnie paper pick-up bags, and he leaves refill bags for the coming week.  Every household in the area gets one back for his purpose.

So, then last week, I got a mail from the community news people saying that the recycling service is being extended. So now, they’ll also collect tin, plastic and glass. The instructions were to leave a bag filled with the new type of a waste on the kerb, and they would leave a seperate bag for it.

So I duly did that.

It seemed like a perfectly brilliant idea.  No hassle.  Easy.

Except there’s one BIG flaw in this plan.  The orange paper pickup bag that works perfectly well, is useless for other waste for a number of reasons:

1. Until you start recycling properly you actually have no idea how much of the stuff you collect in one week, and one bag is simply too small.
2. The instructions say to rinse your waste before putting it in the bin.  All very well and good, except it’s still smelly.  Paper doesn’t smell.  Other waste… well… it smells!
3. I have huskies… the smelly tins and empty milk containers are just so very tempting. No matter where I put the bag, the dogs smell it out.

So, there’s goes my recycling initiative for the moment… I don’t have time to phaff around with this stuff.  I need a proper bin… not a silly bag!

They fixed it!!

They arrived yesterday to fix the water problem.  I didn’t actually realise that they were also striking… that makes sense then.

And then they also went above and beyond duty a little.  The main tap inside our garden had also been leaking, and Lance had fixed it, but not covered it up yet, because he was waiting for them to fix the problem on the road so he could stop the water for a while, while he sorted it out properly.

They looked at what he had done, and asked where the cover was for it.  He told them that there had never been a cover, and the one reason he’s left it open was so he could put a bigger pipe around it to protect it.

They proceeded to go the truck and get him a proper meter cover!! How cool is that?!  So now it looks proper too

Today is Earth Day 2010, and I should really be blogging about what I’m doing to help the environment, and to encourage everyone else to do the same.

However, I’m too irritated with Joburg Water… and the subject matter is actually related!

We have a leak at our water meter on the road, and Lance reported it 3 days ago… do you think anyone has bothered to come and fix it?  Of course not!  When he logged the call, the guy couldn’t even tell him how long it would take to fix.

And it’s not a trickle!  OK, it’s not a fountain either, but that’s not the point, it’s SUCH a waste of a precious resource.

We only found it because we had a leak at our main tap, and we needed to turn it off at the meter to fix the problem.  So, until they fix the leak at the meter, we can’t actually replace the fitting that’s worn out inside our garden walls.

I wonder how much water has been lost with the leak so far?  It makes me mad even thinking about it actually.

Not only that.. but when Lance opened it up, he had to scoop out the muddy deposits on top of the actual meter to get to it.  Which leads me to the next question… when last did they actually read our meter?

And it’s not only ours, Lance went to check our neighbours meter too… and it’s even worse.  His is completely covered in hardened soil!!

How the hell are we being charged?

And also… if they’d freaking bothered to read the meter more regularly they would have found the leak sooner and less water would have been wasted!! So much for their banner on the home page of their website talking about being a water warrior – if you start some kind of campaign like that – you should start with your own employees!!

I was about to leave the house this morning to get food for our braai and a new pair of sandals, when Lance mentioned the article he’d read in the Star newspaper yesterday about shoes with dangerous levels of some chemical.

I was very curious about which shoes had been found to be dangerous, so I read the article… and promptly changed my mind about the shoes I was about to buy.  You see, I was about to go and buy another pair of Ipanema slops from Woolies.

According to the article, and to the original report that I’ve just found, traces of DEHP have been found in 4 shoes in South Africa, and one of them is a pair of gold Ipanema slops (the other shoes don’t affect us as I don’t buy those ranges).  This chemical apparently causes cancer as well as severe damage to a developing foetus and the central nervous system. Nice hey?

And guess what… Ipanema slops are just the most comfy thing to wear in summer! I have 2 pairs from last year, and my mom and sister have umpteen pairs of them.  Now apparently, this chemical helps to make the plastics and rubber soft and pliable… which means in my mind, that it’s not only the gold pair of shoes that’s “infected”…  it’s the entire range.

So I guess that means, I have to find more shoes!  At least I have a genuine reason to go shopping now!

Oh and, I did get to Woolworths this morning, and guess what I found?  An entire wall of Ipanema shoes!! They hadn’t been withdrawn yet.  the newspaper stated that Woolies would be investigating, but surely it would be more prudent for them to just withdraw the shoes until they knew for sure that there was no problem?!

Edited to add a link to a site that has a photo of the style of shoes in question: http://www.stylescoop.co.za/?p=2833

I got a link to this video on Cath’s blog earlier today, and it’s well worth watching.  It’s a 12 year old Canadian who addressed the UN summit in Brazil in 2008 on the subject of the environment.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0]

Bradley has started lying with a straight face… but luckily, I can still catch him out.  But it’s driving me a little batty, I just want him to stop!

Today was a perfect example of that, and of me stretching the truth a little to prove a point to him.

There’s a Spar supermarket down the road from our house, and we went there this evening to get bread and milk and to collect our pizza takeout that we’d ordered.  Now that supermarket gives the kids lollipops as they walk out… which they’ve come to expect now… and tonight Connor asked the shop owner where his sucker was.  LOL!

Anyhoo, by the time we got to the car, both lollipops were being consumed, and I noticed an orange wrapper on the ground next to the car.  Whe we got in the car Bradley mentioned that his lollipop was orange.

So I asked him if he was the one who had littered, explaining that I’d seen the wrapper.  He looks straight into my eyes and says “No, it’s in my pocket”.   So I just told him that I wanted to see the wrapper when we got home.  He sat there for a while, and then finally told me the truth.

I decided that this was a good time, not only to discuss the lying issue, but also the littering one… which he’s also doing more and more these days.

So I told him what he must do if he had paper or rubbish he wanted to get rid of, and explained why it was important to throw it away properly.

I told him 2 stories about what will happen to that wrapper.

If no-one picks it up and it rains, the wrapper will float into the drains.  The drains lead to the rivers.  A fish will swallow the wrapper and die.  So now he’s a little wide-eyed.

Then I said, the more likely result is the following.  The wrapper is shiny. Birds will picks the wrapper up in their beaks and use it to line their nests.  However, the baby birds like the look of it and start pecking at it.  They swallow a piece of it, and they die.

Then Connor pipes up “Poor birdies” from the back of the car.

By now Bradley is a distressed, promises not to do it again, and pleads to me not to tell Daddy (he knows he’ll be stripped of TV priviledges for a while).

Hope it worked!

I read an article on IOL earlier today about the lights on Table Mountain being turned off for Earth Hour this year.

and the World Wide Fund for Nature is hoping that Table Mountain won’t be the only part of Cape Town which is plunged into darkness from 8.30pm to 9.30pm on March 28.

What a great initiative on the part of Cape Town!

I see that Johannesburg has also pledged support for this cause… I wonder what they’re going to turn off.  Is there something as symbolic as the Mountain that is lit up?  Unless they get business to turn off Sandton?  I mean really, if they turn off things like the Nelson Mandela bridge or something in Newtown… imagine how much crime will be in that hour.

It’s a noble cause though, and we should all try to make a plan this year.

So, follow this link to the Earth Hour site, and pledge your support.  Better yet… hold an Earth Watch party at 8:30PM on Saturday 28 March 2009.