DISHONORABLY INNOCENT

A few days ago, I was talking with friends about this worldwide economy crisis. I was pointing out that, in spite of what people generally believe - thanks to biased media reports - this crisis isn't just due to a down-sloping of the economy but rather to an implosion of the actual economic system. 

I also expressed the opinion that the consequences of such a situation will have a devastating impact on the whole world. There is no need to go into the meanders of the economy to understand the reason of it;  it is much simpler to make a basic equation: while the world population keeps growing, resources keep running shorter. To make things far worse, our capitalistic economy based on continuous growth and all out consumerism, can only radicalize the problem.

Briefly, I said, we cannot afford this kind of economy anymore. We cannot afford free rein capitalism.

The present situation requires a drastic political change, but unfortunately the constituted power (bluntly put, those in charge) is a creature of this economic system - ie. the political power is totally in the hands of corporations, financial groups, big banks, credit institutions etc. and none of them is willing to forfeit their privileges and power. 

Mind you, they might succeed in patching up the situation - making the man in the street pay for their malpractice and greed - but the result will only be a new and even more devastating crisis in a few years time.

In the course of the conversation, I expressed the opinion that in spite of everything, as there is not an honest will to accept the truth of that simple equation and make the necessary steps, all efforts are irrimediably doomed.

Using quite an overexploited image, I said that humanity, like the Titanic, is heading towards its demise... "I wish" I added "to live long enough to see it."

Predictably enough, one of my guests resented these words and made me notice that on the Titanic there are also ordinary people like himself and me, who, having nothing to do with the present crisis, are totally innocent and shouldn't deserve such a caustic comment.

I didn't reply, but perhaps I should have. In fact I wonder: is there something like innocence in human things? I don't know about the rest of humanity, but as far as I am concerned I certainly cannot protest complete innocence. I lived and grew fat at the border of a rotting system, I saw its greed and stupidity, I accepted it and thrived on it. 

Surely I didn't commit anything evil, but is this enough? As I never really did much in order to prevent others from committing it, perhaps not.

Therefore, as a full-fledged passenger of the Titanic, I cannot claim any right to safety and I won't, but at least I can claim a spectator seat, possibly in the front row. 

FREE COMMENTS FOR ALL

Let me brass up a bit. 

More than 420 hits, soon to be 500, means that Barry Duck is doing pretty well... considering that:

1) Barrydale is a very small village.

2) many still don't have a computer.

3) many of those who have a computer are still without broad-band - and nowadays having the patience to surf the net with a normal telephone connection makes Job look like a neurotic.

I'm happy... and I'm not happy.

I would have liked a better participation, more comments, more ideas, more contributions etc. 

Probably the reason is that many people still have difficulties in posting comments. In order to do it properly, please read the instructions under "AAA Attention Please", scrolling down on the right side of the main column.

After you wrote your comment press "Anonymous" and then "Publish". Please note that "Anonymous" does not mean that your comment has to remain such. You can sign it; if you prefer, you can sign it with a nick name.

So this post is open to everybody. Whoever wants to post comments on any issue regarding Barrydale or the Barrydale Times or Barry Duck or the price of your groceries or whatever, is welcome to do so.

All comments will be published as a post later on.

"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell

Hello everybody!

I just received a comment to the my post "Will It Ever End?" that should be instead published as a post.

It comes from Jurgen Shirmarcher's wife. The Shirmarchers are battling since years against the plague of pesticides in Riebeek-Kasteel and thanks to them something has been achieved. I think we all should be grateful to them.

Here it is:

"Hello Barry Duck

I sympathise with you regarding this pesticide matter.

My husband and I live in the Boland and we too are being sprayed, in an unlawful manner, with pesticides, so much so that we have ( including our children) ended up in hospital and have been diagnosed as having been exposed to pesticides and organophosphates.

As I type this to you, my joints and fingers are aching ( I have recently spent 2 weeks in hospital) and the diagnosis is pesticide induced multiple chemical sensitivity.My kidneys, liver and spleen were also affected by the pesticides.

The farmer has said that "nothing he sprays is harmful to man or to the environment" and he probably really either believes this, or is is just a very good liar. We forced him, by means of a High Court Order, to notify us in writing, what he sprays us with and to our horror we discovered that many of the pesticides are 1b highly hazardous chemicals, that many of them have been banned in 52 countries (except South Africa which seems to be decades behind) and that many of them have been found to not only cause damage to ones central nervous system, ones endocrine system, but are also carcinogenic and give one cancer.

The problem is not just endemic to Barrydale, but also to most rural towns in the Western Cape and other parts of South Africa. Similar complaints have come in from Stellenbosch, Paarl, Villiersdorp,Franschoek, Grabouw, Riebeek-Kasteel,Groblersdal ... the list is long.

The hardest part about raising public awareness, is that the farmers will say that they were here first and that if you dont want to be sprayed with toxic pesticides then go back to the city. What they dont seem to understand is that if they allow their pesticides to get blown out of their vineyards/orchards then they are actually breaking the law and are guilty of a criminal offence. They may also then say that because they have Eurepgap Certification (if they export ) they have to adhere to strict standards. But do they really? and who keeps a tab on the way that they spray?

It may take years for some people to get cancer as a result of the pesticides. For others they may have almost instantaneous side effects - it varies from person to person.

Nausea,headaches, tingling tongue and metallic taste on lips, ahcing joints, chronic fatique, vertigo, painful joints, heart palpitations are all well documented symptoms of exposure to pesticides and in particular organophosphates. The more serious long term illnesses like cancer, hodgsons lymphoma, parkinsons ..... take a little longer to manifest themselves.

Should we all be concerned ?? YES.

Are our rights, to be able to live in an environment that is not harmful to our health being infringed upon ? YES

The next question is , what are we going to do about it, to protect our health, our rights and the health of our children ?

Those who dont think and or believe that the pesticides will make you ill, should put their money where their mouth is, and allow themselves to be exposed to the spray drift. When they too get ill, they will then believe how serious a situation this is."

"THE ADVENT"

The "Advent" will change SA's destiny once and for all. After the "Advent", all problems will be solved, all differences settled, everybody will be rich and we'll all live happily ever after. From that moment on, every event in SA will be defined as having taken place either before or after the "Advent". 

The "Advent"  is not going to be a sort of miracle like Fatima etc. it will be the 2010 Soccer World Cup. 

During the "Advent", a boundless crowd of enthusiasts, from all over the world, will flood the country throwing money at whatever moves. They'll try to eat five meals a day, sleep in 2 or 3 different places at the same time and buy whatever they can lay their hands on.

Since South African main cities won't have enough resources to accommodate their spending frenzy, in between games, millions of soccer fans will invade every other city, small city, village, dorp - or any aggregation of more than three dwellings - tasting all local delicacies, buying every ostrich egg, all wall-to-wall posters of the big five, every clock in the shape of the African continent and thousands of cubic meters of biltong. 

As there are doubts that the soccer fans will succeed in reaching any remote corner of the country in such a short time, the best brains of Barrydale - as well as of every other city, small city, village, dorp or aggregation of  more than three dwellings - are at work in order to convey to them the most unmistakable message of welcome and readiness - this in the unfortunate eventuality that our soccer friends decided, for whatever reason, to dissipate their riches somewhere else.

Apart from sticking flags of any size, colour and nationality wherever possible, so far no great plans came out of our local - not to be underestimated - creative elite. Except that just the other evening at a meeting on the necessity to put once and for all Barrydale on the international maps, the remarkable idea of placing a makeshift goalpost at the side of the road with kids kicking balls into it whenever a car seems to approach the village, left the audience gaping.

This commendable display of lateral thinking, vented by a notorious and respected representative of Barrydale's think tank force, will certainly have the merit of reminding our visitors about soccer - in case they momentarily forgot - and somehow conveying to them, in no middle terms, our eagerness to be thrown money at.

I cannot but applaud.

At the same time, having heard during the meeting all sorts of brilliant and semi-brilliant ideas on how to promote Barrydale from a touristic point of view, I wonder how come that nobody had the simple idea of making Barrydale worthy of being visited. 

How come that nobody mentioned that perhaps it would be a good idea to get rid of the incredible amount of rubbish lying all over, in and around the village? And how come that nobody spent a word about cleaning the river and - perhaps - letting it flow instead of sucking it dry? And again, I wonder why nobody has proposed to eradicate some alien vegetation, or clean the verges and the empty plots, or, even better, try to do something about the cloud of pesticides that in certain days makes the air unbreathable.

How many thousands of flags one needs to hide all that? 

The Future Is Green - Apparently

Seeing we are talking pesticides and all sorts of monstrosities in modern agriculture, I want to propose to the readers of Barry Duck - therefore me - this extremely interesting article about food, agriculture and future trends.

Hope you'll enjoy.

 

Published on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 by Inter Press Service

UN Seeks a Green Revolution in Food

by Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS - The food crisis that spilled over from last year could take a turn for the worse in the next decade if there are no explicit answers to a rash of growing new problems, including declining agricultural production, a faltering distribution network and a deteriorating environment worldwide.

"Changing the ways in which food is produced, handled and disposed of across the globe - from farm to store and from fridge to landfill - can both feed the world's rising population and help the environmental services that are the foundation of agricultural productivity in the first place," says a new study titled 'The Environmental Food Crisis' released by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP).

A woman checks vegetables in a market in Beijing in 2008. The UN Environment Programme has unveiled an ambitious seven-point plan to feed the world without polluting it further by making better use of resources and cutting down on massive waste. (AFP/File/Peter Parks)

With the steep increase in food prices in 2008, the number of chronically malnourished has reached a staggering 963 million, mostly in the world's poorest countries.

Anuradha Mittal, director of the U.S.-based policy think tank Oakland Institute, says the findings of the latest UNEP study have to be seen in the light of its report released last year which offered evidence that organic agriculture can increase yields, improve soil, and boost incomes of farmers.

A crisis of this proportion raises major questions about industrial agriculture and how best to address the needs of the hungry, she said.

"Unfortunately, the widespread hunger and poverty is being used to make the case for increasing agricultural production through technical solutions such as genetically engineered (GE) crops and chemical-based agriculture," Mittal told IPS.

However, UNEP's research demonstrates that organic small-scale agriculture can deliver the increased yields without the environmental and social damage that has resulted from industrial model of agriculture.

"We need to pay heed to these findings and start crafting a different vision for agriculture which works with nature and not against it," said Mittal, an international expert on issues relating to trade, development and agriculture.

A briefing paper by the Oakland Institute released Tuesday also confirms the success of the organic model, noting that on average, in developed countries, organic systems produce 92 percent of the yield produced by conventional agriculture. In developing countries, organic systems fare even better, producing 80 percent more than conventional farms.

In a study released last week, the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that despite the economic crisis, organic agriculture would continue to grow, representing an opportunity for developing country farmers including those in Africa.

The report said that sales of certified organic produce could reach close to 70 billion dollars in 2012, up from 23 billion dollars in 2002.

"We need a Green revolution in a Green Economy but one with a capital G," says Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

"We need to deal with not only the way the world produces food but the way it is distributed, sold and consumed, and we need a revolution that can boost yields by working with rather than against nature," he added.

The UNEP study released Tuesday says that unless more intelligent and creative management is brought to the world's agricultural systems, the 2008 food crisis - which plunged millions back into hunger - may foreshadow an even bigger crisis in the years to come.

The major findings of the study include:

- The 100-year trend of falling food prices may be at an end, and food prices may increase by 30-50 percent within decades, with critical impacts for those living in extreme poverty who spend up to 90 percent of their income on food.

- Up to 25 percent of the world's food production may be lost due to 'environmental breakdowns' by 2050 unless action is taken. Already, cereal yields have stagnated worldwide and fish catches are declining.

- Today, over one third of the world's cereals are being used as animal feed, rising to 50 percent by 2050. Continuing to feed cereals to growing numbers of livestock will aggravate poverty and environmental degradation.

- The amount of fish bycatch currently discarded at sea - estimated at 30 million tonnes annually - could alone sustain more than a 50 percent increase in fish farming and aquaculture production, which is needed to maintain per capita fish consumption at current levels by 2050 without increasing pressure on an already stressed marine environment.

- Losses and food waste in the United States could be as high as 40-50 percent, according to some recent estimates. Up to one quarter of all fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S. is lost between the field and the table.

- In Australia, it is estimated that food waste makes up half of that country's landfill. Almost one-third of all food purchased in Britain every year is not eaten.

- Food losses in the developing world are also considerable, mainly due to spoilage and pests. For instance, in Africa, the total amount of fish lost through discards, post-harvest loss and spoilage may be around 30 percent of landings.

The study, compiled by a wide group of experts from both within and outside UNEP, also warns that climate change has emerged as one of the key factors that may undermine the chances of feeding over nine billion people by 2050.

Increasing water scarcities and a rise and spread of invasive pests such as insects, diseases and weeds may also substantially depress yields in the future.

WILL IT EVER END?

I was fairly happy. For some strange reason, since I live on farmland, down at the river, I don't get much affected by pesticides, or at least not as much as before. I even thought things were somehow improving. 

But unfortunately they were not - as usual, all fits of optimism in Barrydale don't last long - hope you noticed.

At the beginning of this month, heavy spraying took place a bit further down from the Pad Camp. Whatever they might have used affected me like never before. During those days I suffered of:

1) Strong heart palpitations.

2) Tingling tongue and thirst.

3) Nausea and stomach acidity.

4) Pain to liver and articulations (fingers, elbows, knees and hips).

These symptoms stopped a few hours after the end of the spraying operations, except for the pains to the liver and joints that are still bothering me, though at a lesser degree - the way it has been explained to me, the problems to the liver and the articulations are due to the fact that the body doesn't recognize these chemicals and doesn't know how to get rid of them. As the liver cannot process them, the excess get stored around the sinews and in cartilaginous tissues - don't know more, I come from Barcelona.

Since there were no doubts whatsoever that the spraying was the cause of these  problems, I contacted the Ministry of Agriculture for help and support - other big fit of optimism. They sent me a list - scarily long - of all banned chemicals and wanted to know from me (?) what they were spraying.

So I went to the police and ask them to check. Guess what? The police didn't want to know about it - no big guessing here, I suppose - but kindly suggested me to contact - guess who - the Ministry of Agriculture - usual ping pong. 

Back to the Ministry of Agriculture I was told that they would happily come and check, but as they were momentarily short of staff, they will eventually send somebody in a near future. Since this expression in the public sector means anything between 4 weeks and 5 months, I wonder why they should bother, by the time they are here, there' ll be no trace left of these chemicals. 

So practically, farmers will always get away with anything, no matter what they spray.

And this in spite of the law. Funny enough, there are a few laws and regulations on the matter - still nothing compare to the 300 and more pages on the use of tobacco in public places - but fortunately there are. Act 36 of 1947, for instance, OBLIGES FARMERS TO MAKE SURE THAT THEIR SPRAY DOES NOT AFFECT PEOPLE OR PROPERTIES .

Our "friends" instead - I don't know who exactly they are, but does that matter? - not only spray a few meters from the Pad Camp and the houses of Smitsville, but they don't even bother if a strong wind is blowing towards the village. Basically, they don't give a hoot.

For a few crates more of plums, in spite of many safer and Eco-friendly alternatives, these people affect other people's health, pollute the environment, contaminate rivers and table water. 

This is insane.

A PERFECT CRISIS

It's the 6th of February - a month where temperatures are supposed to be well over forty throughout,- I'm sitting having breakfast and I'm cold. Yesterday I felt cold in Swellendam, of all places. Where is summer? Evenings are pretty cool, mornings are chilly and the wind is going full steam since months.

Should the trend persists, we are going to freeze our but off well before winter. 

Anyway I didn't mean to talk about the weather. 

Today instead I want to talk about this flipping crisis. I can feel it in the bones, or I rather perceive it  on the shelves of shops and supermarkets, in shopping centers and in front of estate agents' advertising boards. Doom and gloom all over! The pessimists are having the time of their life and the only ones who still smile are the die-hard optimists, those still stuck to the mind over matter story.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm more worried about the solutions than the crisis itself.

All over, governments are printing money and reducing interest rates - this is what worries me the most. They are intentionally  igniting an inflation spiral that - they think - should theoretically counteract an inevitable price plunge and push people to get rid of their money in order to support the economy - if everything is going up, rather spend.

It worked in the past, but I seriously doubt is going to work now, given the present recession. It might work for a little while, mind you, but soon afterwards things will get worse.

The fact is that especially in the last 20/30 years the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. I.e. a policy of containment of salaries has been worldwide tacitly enforced with the result of reducing the masses to the breadline. At the same time costs kept escalating - basically everybody, except the masses, wanted to make money out of the masses. It couldn't last. If you don't pay people, you can't go back to people and ask for the money you didn't give them.

The dentist wanted more money, the government wanted more money, Eskom wanted more money etc. and up to here it works because you can't say no to the dentist, the government, Eskom and eventually the green-grocer. But then you have to say no to pizzas, new socks and a few days holidays, unless you're prepared to sleep in the back of the car and eat chips.

So restaurants are half empty, shops don't sell, doctors and lawyers run after ambulances.

 

To ignite a hyper-inflaction in the present situation is a risky business. People do not consume because they don't want to, but simply because they can't afford it. With an increase of prices due to inflation, people will consume even less and will get seriously irritated. The South African government, just to be on the safe side, should send an official delegation to Lourdes. 

Looking at the bright side of life, we have already the first excellent victim: globalization - not dead yet, but comatose: cargo flights are down a serious 23.9% - serious but not dramatic - while shipping is down 93% - just dramatic.

As a consequence, industrial farming will end soon - hopefully; all those stupid and useless things from China will disappear by magic; mass tourism, the plague of the century, will come to a stop - many will cry, I won't; chain stores  and colossal supermarkets will collapse like Goliath hit by the stones of David; local products will take over. That, especially, is going to save us a lot of money -  having South Africans decided long ago that importing is easier then producing, there are basically no local products - wine and biltong apart.

The beauty of all this crisis is that there is absolutely nothing we can do. Or just about...

Personally, I'm already preparing some nice Christmas cards to send to all heads of state, finance ministers, tycoons, financial groups executives and newspaper editors. Something like this: 

RUBBISH...RUBBISH EVERYWHERE

True, I'm paraphrasing Coleridge. I must say I loooove that overwhelming sense of greatness and defeat in his words "Water, water everywhere..." while dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean. 

I'm also overwhelmed by a sense of greatness and defeat, not by the vastness of the ocean but by the rubbish. Rubbish in Barrydale is ubiquitous and unbeatable, a cosmic force against which it seems useless to rebel, like gravity. And although I'm certainly not on the verge of dying because of it, the rubbish - everywhere - always triggers in me a sense of depression. 

Admittedly depression is quite a personal feeling and in order to be depressed by rubbish one has to be a particular kind of person - the wrong one. The other one litters and lives happily ever after.

Obeying to an inner masochistic streak, I took my camera and went for some pictures hunting - some things MUST be immortalized. 

The first item in this collection of images is actually a pearl: Barrydale's welcome sign to visitors. It talks loads about municipal standards and criteria. And plenty more about pride, care, dignity, as well as attracting tourism and promoting local business. 

It looks like a joke. I suggest either we remove the sign or we remove the rubbish. As nobody seems to understand that rubbish doesn't necessarily belongs to the landscape, I guess removing the sign would be a better and more permanent solution.

 

Pictures 1 and 2 describe the situation at the school's sports ground. Here the pictures seem to emphasize education, cultural models and local legacy to future generations. Useless wasting more words.

 

Finally a surprise for those who seem "to know" where littering comes from. Pictures 3 and 4 show a massive illegal dumping of rubbles at the side of the road (the so called Escape road). Ie. a smart ass' clandestine operation gone wrong: there have been witnesses - Barrydale is too small for smart asses. 

In 15 days time charges will be laid.

Why in 15 days time?

Well, perhaps in the meantime the offender will reconsider and clean up the mess.

What can I say? Ducks are real "softies". 

Die Manne on The Track of Extintion

I just received from John Sachs some alarming news. 

As it requires urgent attention (and the due amount of consideration), I'm going to publish it straight away: 

Dear agony auntie Bertha from Barrydale.

The fear of God – F.O.G.

Barrydale is blessed with some mighty woman who have put the fear of the almighty into our group. They have ever so politely informed me that ‘Males’ or as we say in Barrydale ‘Die Manne’ have reached their ‘best before’ date and it’s only a matter of time before the whole species reaches its ‘sell by’ date. This is to occur in 2012 with the dawning of the age of ‘Aquarius’. On this date ‘die manne’ will become subservient to the woman. According to our very respected and beloved Nola, this shift has already taken place in our primate forefathers - the baboons. She has noticed that the Alpha males no longer dominate troops; Alpha females have replaced them. I will ask her to please gather all possible information on the new leaders ruling habits so that ‘Die manne’ can prepare for the future. My first question to you my dear auntie is:

will the dominance of females be the same as it was by the men? (This worries me very much because we men have some rather large skeletons in out closets)

Can we observe and use baboon behaviour in females as a yardstick as to the kind of behaviour we can expect from ‘die vroumense’ in the future? I have personally witnessed such behavioural patterns.

A while ago some marine scientists informed me that the males of the innocent sea horse carry the offspring. They get pregnant and carry the babies. I spoke to the manne about this and it has caused great concern in the village. We have heard from very reliable sources that some women have got together and have dried some sea horses, smoked them with Mpephu (a herb) and have sprinkled it in our precious spring water that we get from the pass. I do not know how long this has been going on for, but my breasts have definitely gotten bigger and now I am truly worried. Questions????

Should groups of ‘die manne’ get together and begin breast-feeding classes? What age groups will be targeted in the future? Will the over fifties be given a break? (Especially those with a low sperm count). Will women who presently suffer from penis envy be given lower status in the future or perhaps higher? What current penis envy tests are available at present?

It has also come to my attention that some women in the village are taking up welding classes and one has even taken up sword fighting. This is of deep concern. The mustering has begun.

Now on to a more serious matter. Will there be Nuremberg type trails in 2012, or will a truth and reconciliation commission be the order of the day? Will gay men be given a reprieve and what means tests will be given to find out if they really are gay? If it helps being gay then maybe I will consider changing my orientation now before the rush. 

Very, very concerned

 The Foggers (the name of our interest group – fear of godders, we thought the name would give us credability in the future.)

John Sachs

SOMEBODY UP THERE DOESN'T LIKE US

Today I want to talk about weather and chemtrails. 

Chemtrails ("friendly" and shortly for chemical trails) are those strange long whitish lines that we can see at times in the sky.  "Oh! you mean the airplane's condensation trails!". 

No, I don't! 

Condensation trails are something and chemical trails are something else. Even if to a superficial glance they might seem the same thing, they are not: condensation trails can only happen above a certain altitude (26,000 to 30,000 feet) and remain visible for a short time; chemtrails instead happen much lower, just above or at the same level with the clouds, and remain in the sky for much longer, sometimes for hours.

Always, when I talk about chemtrails, I'm met by a wall of skepticism. And I don't understand why - people, generally speaking, believe in almost anything: aliens, fairies, lost continents, you name it, they even believe in what politicians say, but for some reason they seem completely unable to accept the existence of the chemtrails.  Even more puzzling, considering that, contrary to aliens, fairies etc. chemtrails can be seen, have been photographed, there is quite some literature about them, and it is enough to google them to see that they are not just matter for conspiracy theorists.

When finally I am through explaining the difference between contrails and chemtrails, I'm generally dismissed with: "Why somebody should go through the trouble of spraying the sky with chemicals?". That marks the end of the debate - I'm clearly a lunatic and everybody tries to restore "sanity" in the conversation.

Up to a point I can't blame the agnostics. In spite of many investigations throughout the world, the efforts of hundreds of researchers, the countless enquiries in various European parliaments, still nobody really knows the reason of the phenomenon. The best we achieved so far is that these strange trails are the result of top secret military operations and that is it. But are they? I'm not even sure about that.

What is known for sure is that chemtrails appear almost everywhere in the northern hemisphere, except China. Although in the southern hemisphere the spraying of chemicals happens to a much lesser degree, South Africa is subjected to it.

We also know for sure that the spray operations are carried out by either cargo or ex-passenger jet airplanes modified for the task, which are generally painted grey and completely anonymous, ie. they don't display identification marks, colours etc.

For many reasons it is quite a difficult task to analyze the chemical content of the chemtrails. From soil samples taken in areas where an intense activity has taken place, is possible to establish abnormal quantities of Calcium, Potassium, Arsenic and others, but mainly Barium and Aluminum, both metals having the property to absorb humidity from the atmosphere. This aspect of the phenomenon is quite visible as you can see from some pictures - areas of condensation form around the trails and converge towards them. It really looks like the trail is sucking humidity from the air (clicking on the picture should enlarge it - should because nothing IS in the computers' world)

What all this has to do with Barrydale? A lot I'm afraid.

 

It is almost three years that I observe the phenomenon in our skies. The extent of it is not so mind-blogging like in other parts of the world (see pictures), but nevertheless is perfectly visible. In certain days one can see quite a few chemtrails hanging over the mountains, moving from East to West and vice-versa. Then for a week or two nothing happens - a further demostration that chemtrails have nothing to do with normal commercial flights. These spraying activities have been varying considerably in length of time and extent, but have increased substantially in 2008. 

After an intense spraying activity, the weather tends to change. The temperatures rise sharply, winds increase and the air becomes extremely dry. Luminosity also increases and looking in the distance one can perceive an unnatural bluish haze that has nothing to do with dust particles in the air or smoke from fires. 

In almost 100% of the cases, a couple of days later it rains in the Cape and  eventually also inland, but chances of rain in Barrydale remain scarce.

Both the heat-waves we had in the past recent months happened shortly after the sighting of chemtrails. The latest took place a day or two after the third and fourth of November, during which period we had the most intense spraying activity so far. Immediately after that, we had storms and heavy rains in the Cape followed by floods here and all over the western Cape - if we want to talk in terms of coincidence, a quite remarkable one.  

After that, the only time I could spot some chemtrails has been the 18th of November, again followed by heat, wind and rain in the Cape.

As you know, ducks are quite opinionated creatures. Nevertheless the topic at issue is so controversial, so debated worldwide, that I don't feel like adding my opinions to the many already circulating (some of them admittedly quite wild). 

I want to point out only one thing: areas of very high pressures tend to attract low pressures into neighbouring areas, low pressures that would otherwise skip those areas. Having the capacity of creating  high pressures (the technology already exists) I can probably configure, up to a point, the weather pattern of a region. 

Mind you, this is only the opinion of a duck. Think what you like, if you like.