Nairobi2Osaka

After five years in Kenya - on the 4th of July 2016 - we are moving to Japan. For the first time the 'we' comprises only me and Min Ku, since both boys will be away in University in the USA. It will also be our first time living long term in Asia - following Boston USA (7 years), Toronto Canada (2 years), Berne Switzerland (7 years), Paris France (7 years) and Nairobi Kenya (5 years) we now look forward to experiencing Osaka Japan for (? years).

Osaka

Nairobi

From these nighttime pictures the two places look practically identical. At street level though, I'm sure they are quite different. The Nairobi central business district is basically a no-go area at night (I certainly never ventured there) due to the combined disincentives of horrendous traffic and crime. The Osaka central district is extremely safe and restaurant filled as far as I can make out from the internet.

Osaka

Nairobi

Both places also have primates, as pictured above, though the wildlife safaris we have enjoyed in Kenya will have to be exchanged for historical/cultural/manicured-nature safaris in Japan. The weather in Nairobi is ostensibly perfect - basically 28 degrees all year long, but I must admit to looking forward to seasons again - skiing in winter, cherry blossoms and baseball games in the spring, sweltering summers to escape at the seaside or in the mountains, and beautiful crisp autumn days.

Interestingly, the currencies are of almost identical value, so it will not be hard at all to adjust to how much things cost in terms of numbers - just swap out the units. Today 1000 Japanese Yen are worth 900 Kenyan Shillings (about 10 dollars either way).

I keep thinking of interesting picture combinations to compare and contrast Osaka and Nairobi and appending them here. This one is a Takoyaki restaurant advertising installation from the downtown Osaka shopping area 'dontonbori' and a sculpture installed this week for the 2nd United Nations Environmental Assembly made entirely from old flip flops washed up on Kenyan beaches.

Osaka

Nairobi

In Kenya, I blogged excitedly about all that was new and interesting for about six months. I wonder how long I will last in Japan?

Post Paris - My Take

I posted this on Linkedin 16 December 2015

Optimists estimate the Paris Accord will reduce from business as usual ~6C warming to 'well below 2 with measures taken towards achieving 1.5' (the target in the accord, paraphrased from memory). Lowball estimates (eg. Bjorn Lomborg) are that it will have an effect of 0.05C. The truth will no doubt lie somewhere between these two, and no doubt does not depend on the accord alone, but if/how it is followed up in practice. Note that even the denialist estimates 0.05C, so yes, it will have an effect. The chance of keeping the world below 2C warming is, however, in my opinion, almost nil, we will fail to hit that target the same way we will fail to achieve any of the 'sustainable development goals' - these are really mostly unachievable aspirational targets that seek to catalyze progress in the right direction. The mood is very positive, and such positivity can be a good catalyst. Indeed, the biggest win was one of politics. The UN works. Countries are unified. THis political capital could be squandered (as GWBush famously did in his second term) or could, everyone hopes, deliver substantial progress towards the goals of 2C on mitigation, and building resilience on the adaptation side.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/post-parismy-take-keith-alverson?trk=prof-post

Zeno's Paradox and the climate change negotiations

Some thoughts on the eve of the COP20 Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Peru, December 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOttHb9Yogg&list=PL0F18DB0D14FF1554

Interview on Climate Change Adaptation

IIenvironment DEPI 2012

Career Profile in Oceanography Magazine

KAprofile

Culture of Maintenance

400 dollar used lawnmower

According to Gongong, in Canada it costs 50 dollars to get a mechanic to agree to look at your broken lawn mower, then at least additional 100 to actually fix it. By comparison, a brand new lawnmower can be had for about 200 dollars. These economics invariably mean that nobody fixes lawnmowers in Canada. In a downward feedback spiral, the lack of demand further drives up repair service prices since the one remaining repairman has a monopoly and knows it. Not to mention you probably have to drive fifty miles out of town to find the guy.

Not in Kenya. Here it pays to repair lawnmowers. Our second hand mower cost us 400 dollars - and replacing it with a new one would be 500. But fixing it was less than 10 (700 Kenyan Shillings). Here is the story quoted from my father in law's diary:

The lawn mower was broken again. This time we took it to a repair shop with the gardener. We drove north through the new housing area called New Runda. Not long after we turn south on Kambu Road, there was a rest centre consisted of eating place in huts and a large gas station. There was also a large restaurant surround by a high wall. On the lawn in front of the gas station was the open repair shop with no hut or any structure. There were an old broken Indian made three wheeler tutut and five old lawn mowers on the lawn, and some tools scattered on the ground. The technician adjusted a valve to get the proper mixture of gas and air, and took off the blade for sharpening. It took him for about half an hour, and the mower was running properly again. He asked for KES 700 and Min paid him after consulting with the gardener. Min had told me that the fee for hiring a taxi driver was KES 700 for a day. This was probably the bench mark the technician used to decide his service fee.

Patrick, Min and Gongong at the Lawnmower Repair Store (check out the tools scattered all over the ground)

The Elusive Five

Chasing down giraffes on foot in Amboseli

Back when safaris comprised tracking down animals on foot and shooting them, enthusiasts defined the 'big five': Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Leopard. Tourists continue to obsess about sighting these 'big five'. But, as Min rightly pointed out one day on a bushwalk during which we were endeavoring to chase down some giraffes on foot, if the point of labeling these five was how big they are, then surely giraffe, not to mention hippopotamus, should have made the list. The trick, by the way, to catching up to giraffes is not to behave like an intelligent predator. If you try to cut them off - walking towards where they are headed - they'll freak out and run even faster and further. If you 'give them way' and just tail along behind them stupidly, like a cattle egret might, they lose interest in running and settle down to browsing on Acacia trees instead. This tendency to flee is why giraffe is not one of the big five. The five were chosen because they "won't give you way" (quote from our guide, Leperes, in Amboseli), but will stand their ground and attack if challenged, making them particularly dangerous to hunt on foot. But times have changed. Safaris today are done in vehicles with radios, telephoto lenses and guides trained in the ways of the modern bush. Yes, everyone knows circling vultures can lead you to a lion kill, but even more useful bush signs can be read today. Excited sounding radio messages in Maa, and speeding convoys of safari vans, for example, are a sure sign of the supposedly elusive rhino, cheetah or leopard. Perhaps the true safari enthusiast should define a new 'elusive five' as those that are most difficult to photograph while on a commercial safari. Aardvark would certainly be among these new 'elusive five'. They never come anywhere near roads, only leave their subterranen dens at night (precisely when all the big carnivores are out looking for something to eat), and bolt back underground as soon as they sense anyone coming. The other four are so elusive I can't even say what they are, and I certainly don't have any photographs of them

Potential candidate for the elusive five: Osterich with head corkscrewed 540 degrees?

Eat Dirt, Sucker

I vaguely recall 'eat dirt, sucker' being a put down of some kind in high school. Something that would be said by the victor to rub in one's loss at some competitive activity.

I've posted quite a bit now on delicious foods in Kenya, so at the risk of glob appearing to become a one dimensional food blog it turns out that one of these is, well, dirt. Here's the photographic proof, a bag of baked clay that Min picked up at the local supermarket (Nakumatt) for 30 shillings. We all sucked on these clay chips for dessert last night.

Min, source of all wisdom, and having read up on wikipedia regarding 'geophagy' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagy) informed us that we were playing a dangerous game sampling this fare, since many people, particularly in central Africa and the American South, are addicted to it.

A couple of obvious questions arose over dessert:

Max: If you want to eat dirt why buy it at Nakumatt? Why not just eat the delicious looking stuff in our backyard?

Keith: If this is addictive why is the price so low? You'd think rapacious traders would corner the market and make people pay through the nose for high quality stuff. Was the clay aisle at Nakumatt full of rampaging competitive shoppers like the sugar aisle? At least you got fresh dirt, look at the label, it was packed only a week ago, and is good for another 12 months!

Alex: This isn't very tasty. Do you think grade '1' might be the cheap stuff and grade 2 might be for the real connoisseurs?

GOOS and Climate Change Adapatation Interview 2011

To view this pdf online in blogger I find it best to click the 'magnify'
button at the bottom a few times and then scroll columnwise through the pdf.

KA GOOS CCA Interview 2011 Hires

No fake fruit here

Real Bananas!

Unreal is an interesting word. In common conversation it means extremely good, as in "wow, that banana and avocado salad was unreal'. I guess this is probably ironic language usage - saying the exact opposite of what one actually means. The word 'unreal' only connotes good because not being real is actually bad. Ordinarily of course, there is far greater value in real things, gucci handbags for instance, than in fakes. In North America and Europe much time and effort has gone into food labeling laws, balancing consumer protection and corporate profit. A quick glance at the ingredients list quickly informs one that cereal that is 'sweetened with a touch of real honey' may in fact be mostly sugar (as long as honey appears somewhere on the ingredients list, perhaps just after emulsifiers). And what exactly is pure Florida orange juice? It clearly sells juice to label it this way, but does it mean the juice is free of additives or is this a guarantee against the possible tainting from oranges that were not grown in Florida? It seems that in Kenya, the 'real' label is very important indeed. I suppose labeling made in Kenya "Manji" brand 'the real digestive biscuits' is to distinguish them from 'the original digestives' imported from the UK in suspiciously similar packaging. But what exactly is the point of labeling an avocado 'real', or every banana in a bunch?

Gordon Brown likes his digestives with chocolate