Lande is now a senior journalist focusing on the crime beat at the Nelspruit-based Lowvelder.
Dumi has a blog at zimbabweblog.blogspot.com.
I am impressed by the talent surrounding me, and at the committment these journalists possess. These are fine investigative journalists in the making.
Earlier today we looked at story mapping, which entailed looking at how to identify a central hypothesis, brainstorming all possible contacts, mapping them and deciding what is vital and what not.
Today also entailed planning the sequence of interviews and evidence collection, and re-evaluation of approach if an investigation stalls or focus changes.
Nelspruit-based Buks Viljoen was disabled in a defence force accident in 1979. This weekend he is partaking in the Waterval-Boven fly fishing competition... in one of two disabled fly fishing teams.
Pic 2: Trust Me Tavern near the Queen Elizabeth bridge between the city centre and Braamfontein
Pic 3: Love & Light - an incredible, transparent loft space just before the Nelson Mandela bridge, overlooking the railway lines
Pic 4: Much more than a bridge - the Nelson Mandela bridge
Pic 5: Impressive space - inside the new Greenstone shopping centre in Edenvale
This is all about using search engines more effectively, also finding specific phrases, as well as excluding what you don't want.
Google's PageRank technology helps people find the most relevant information on a subject. This is good for basic fact-checking, as the most authoritative sources usually have very high PageRanks, because they are quoted and linked to by others extensively.
However, if you're looking for an obscure message posting by a government official, it's unlikely to be listed very high in the search results unless you're very specific with the keywords you use.
Juicy material that could lead to a scoop is unlikely to have a high PageRank, and if it does, is it really a scoop?
I am able to report that spring is undeniably in the air.. this early evening is warm and heavy with the pungent scent of jasmine.
After a long winter, my heart is leaping with an aeon-old primal joy... .
This section of the workshop includes the following topics: contacts books, an investigative diary, research plans (source-mapping), data collection, management and selection, as well as the indexing of documents and core issues.
Slowly, surely all the pieces are coming together... .
We're learning about how to scrutinize sources, how to interview witnesses, as well as how to handle interviews with hostile or traumatized people.
The IJW collaborates with a number of partners with a wealth of local and international experience in investigative journalism and training.
These, notably, are the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ) in Johannesburg, the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CJI) in London, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) in the US and the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR).
The workshop seeks to encourage journalists in South Africa and the region to dig deeper on a daily basis and thus enhance probing, in-depth reporting - something of particular importance in young democracies.
Right now renowned investigative journalist Adriaan Basson of the Mail & Guardian (previously Beeld) is talking to us about public records and archives. About how and where to access them, assessing the validity and usefulness of secret, confidential and private documents, as well as the legal limitations of their use.
Info: birgit.schwarz@wits.ac.za
www.journalism.co.za/investigations
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Last Thursday co-authors Johan Heine and Michael Tellinger launched their book Adam's Calendar: Discovering the Oldest Man-made Structure on Earth at Salvadors in Kaapsehoop.
It focuses on a remarkable stone structure on the edge of the escarpment near Kaapsehoop, that the authors say resembles but predates Stonehenge "by many thousands of years".
Not only is Adam's Calendar along the same longitudinal line as Great Zimbabwe and the Great Pyramid, but the author's maintain that it "takes us further back in time closer to the emergence of Homo Sapiens than any other structure ever found to date".
"It's also aligned with the rise of Orion's belt when it rose horizontally on the horizon some 75,000 years ago," says Tellinger.
Adam's Calendar could also play a key role in understanding the extensive stone walled settlements and stone circles that abound 'inland' from the escarpment, especially in the Carolina, Machadodorp, Waterval-Boven and Leydenburg districts.
Tellinger, also the author of the controversial Slave Species of god, is already writing a follow-up to Adam's Calendar, which from what I can glean will focus more on these settlements and so-called 'stone circles'.
Tongue-in-cheek Tellinger refers to these stone circles as "very clever cattle kraals," spoofing common held opinions (even in academic circles) that these were little more than cattle pens.
Heine and Tellinger's astonishing claims are undeniably controversial and have potential to cause a stir in the scientific world.
The reaction of Amanda Esterhuysen, a Wits University academic from the geography, archaeology and environmental sciences department has already been reported in the media.
"These guys are talking nonsense. We are doing extensive research in Mpumalanga and these sites are fairly well known," Esterhuysen said.
"While we don't dispute that structures like this are man-made, there is no way it is 75 000 years old. The type of science they use to date these sites is highly questionable," she added.
But the authors aren't shy of controversy: "This discovery will force historians and archaeologists to reconsider ancient human activity and consciousness," they say.
Tellinger, originally from Johannesburg, has recently relocated to Waterval-Boven - to be in the heart of what he believes to be a region of international importance historically and archaeologically.
He is currently setting up a tourism centre in Waterval-Boven, which he expects to be operational by end August. From here he'll be overseeing and operating tours to Kaapsehoop and other related destinations in the immediate vicinity.
The centre will operate under the auspices of the Makomati Foundation, a section 21 non-profit organisation registered in 2003 and inspired by the extensive research of Dr. Cyril Hromnik among others.
The foundation aims "to protect, maintain and promote the ancient ruins of Mpumalanga, which includes sustainable and responsible tourism to selected sites".
It also wants to see, among others, sustainable research and publication of results, fund raising, the responsible promotion of Mpumalanga's stone ruin heritage as a major tourist attraction.
It also argues for the benefiting and uplifting the rural communities - including the training of guides. And, interestingly, it wants to see an application for World Heritage status.
Whatever the controversy around Adam's Calendar, it will undoubtedly draw extensive attention to our little neck of the woods, possibly even major international media.
"Once the world begins to hear of Adam's Calendar, SA could become the new Egypt, where archaeologists and astrologers will come to do research into a whole new period of human development," says Tellinger.
Either way we'll have many more cameras, dollars and yen appreciating the Mpumalanga Highlands. And our locals might finally stop taking for granted what's literally in many of their backyards... and might have been for thousands of years?
This second launch, after the first one in Johannesburg on Monday, is well attended. (Actually it's the busiest I've ever seen Salvadors.)
It's obvious there's going to be a lot of controversy around their claims, with the most criticism most likey to come from Wits University, in particular Prof. Peter Delius whose book on Mpumalanga's history and heritage was published last year. Delius's view on the stone circles that pervade this region, largely between Machadodorp, Waterval Boven and here, is somewhat different. But as Tellinger says, debate and differening opinions are crucial.
Back to Adam's Calendar.. Heine and Tellinger's focus in this book (and apparently there's more books to follow after this one, focusing more specifically on the stone circles around Boven) is on a remarkable stone structure they say resembles but predates Stonehenge by many thousands of years.
Adam's Calendar, they say, is along the same longitudinal line as Great Zimbabwe and the Great Pyramid. It also "takes us further back in time closer to the emergence of Homo sapiens than any other structure ever found to date".
For more info see the Makomati Foundation website: www.mokamati.com or contact Ciska for bookings and information on 082 883 4508 or info@makomati.com.
Michael Tellinger, to be at the very heart of what he believes to a be a region of international importance, has permanently relocated to Waterval Boven. As of yesterday in fact...
Tellinger expects to have a tourism office and centre established in the town within a month, operating under the auspices of the Makomati Foundation (established to protect SA's ancient ruins and heritage). He'll be overseeing tours from the centre in Waterval Boven to Kaapsehoop, among other related destinations.
cupidity \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\, noun:
Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.
Michael Tellinger (author of Slave Species of god) is launching this week what he describes as "a truly groundbreaking South African book", namely Adam's Calendar: Discovering the Oldest Man-made Structure on Earth. The book is co-authored by explorer Johan Heine and Tellinger.
The second photo (above) provides a close-up view of what Tellinger has named the Johan Heine Stone Calendar (Adam's Calendar) in the Kaapsehoop area, Mpumalanga. The tree in the centre is where the north marker stone is located.
Tellinger says: "This remarkable stone structure was originally a large circular structure resembling but predating Stonehenge by many thousands of years. Adam's Calendar is built along the same longitudinal line as Great Zimbabwe and the Great Pyramid. It is also aligned with the rise of Orion's belt when it rose horizontally on the horizon some 75,000 years ago. Adam's Calendar takes us further back in time closer to the emergence of Homo sapiens, than any other structure ever found to date. This discovery will force historians and archaeologist to reconsider ancient human activity and consciousness."
Michael Tellinger, who has bought property in Waterval-Boven and intends living there, plans on setting up a museum centre, tours and booking office at what was previously Sharky's, the old sports bar in the 'new town', just off the bank of the Elands River.
The Mpumalanga launch of the book is on Thursday, 17 July at 15h00 at Salvador Bistro – Kaapsehoop, Mpumalanga. For further info: Ciska on 082-883-4508
or email publisher@zuluplanet.com
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Today I saw my name carved on a gravestone...
Since living in the Mpumalanga Highlands I've driven past Berg-En-Dal memorial more times than I can count on both my hands and feet. To my shame I've never stopped. Mostly I've been too focused on my destination rather than the journey.
One can't help noticing Berg-En-Dal. It's prominent on the right hand side of the road when travelling along the N4 / Maputo Corridor from Belfast to Machadodorp.
From the road the memorial has always seemed to me to be an unattractive one. But this was another lesson impressed home by the cliché 'don't judge by the cover' - because it's well worth exploring.
Perhaps I stopped there because my nerve ends are still raw, sensitive to the questions our nation has had to ask itself about xenophobia over the last eight weeks, about what it really means to be South African.
Perhaps - because from centuries our soil is soaked with blood and hatred - I possibly stopped there to unconsciously pay homage to those who had lost their lives there, no matter which side of the pitch they played on.
This stark, and sadly rather run-down Anglo Boer War memorial is dedicated to members of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Polisie who were killed (on August 27, 1900) during the bitter six-day battle of Berg-En-Dal.
It has often been described as the last set battle (before entering the guerrilla war phase) of the South African War (1899–1902). The British, having already taken Pretoria, were adamant to get the Boer thorn out of their side forever (and get their battered pride intact again) and capture the then eastern Transvaal.
I was for most of the time the only visitor there, able to soak in the isolation and the peace, also to enjoy the magnificent winter-veldt views, for as far as I could see, over rolling 'berg' and 'dal'.
To my surprise, about 25m on the far side of the main memorial, I found a smallish and simple-in-contrast stone pyramid memorial as tall as me.
Called the Rifle Brigade Memorial, it's a replica of the original memorial which was demolished in 1970 to make way for the adjacent Berg-En-Dal one. Funded by the British War Graves Committee of the National Monuments Council and the South African Soldiers' Graves Association, I don't think that many know about it and I've never seen it mentioned.
Imagine my further surprise to find my name carved in shiny black granite among the other dead: Rifleman C. King of the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade (dog tab number 2928) killed on 27 August 1900....
Although I'm a South African with equal amounts (give or take a pint) of Afrikaans and English blood, I – to quote Socrates – consider myself a citizen of the world ("not of Athens or Greece").
And having been a rifleman once before in my lifetime (with "C King" embroidered in black on dirty brown) I won't easily again be brainwashed into fighting in wars that are the idiotic constructs of often even more idiotic politicians.
The point to be made, way beyond politics (the regimes will come and go), is that our Highlands region is steeped in rich, deeply fascinating history. This is set against a magnificent 3-D geographical, geological, archaeological and botanical backdrop that is a treasure trove beyond imagination.
By taking an interest in our look-out points, in the concentration camp sites, the memorials and the early Stone Age circles, we'll resuscitate them from the neglect, the litter, even the crime opportunities that we're letting many subside into.
This is OUR heritage and we are its custodians.
"Increasingly, the place you choose to live will help determine your success in business, in finding a life partner, and in living a fulfilling life. In fact, it may be the most important decision of your life. I believe that we are in the beginnings of a shift as fundamental as the industrial revolution was over a century ago—one that will have as dramatic an impact on how people live and work. Furthermore, it will have a dramatic impact on where they live and work."
Download Florida's creative manifesto PDF here: http://changethis.com/44.01.CreativeManifesto
About the author:
Richard Florida is the Professor of Business and Creativity at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and the founder of the Creative Class Group, a for-profit think tank that charts trends in business, communities and lifestyles.
Florida has held professorships at George Mason University and Carnegie Mellon University, has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT, and is a former senior scientist with the Gallup Organization.
His national best-seller, The Rise of the Creative Class, was awarded the Washington Monthly's Political Book Award and Harvard Business Review's Breakthrough Idea Award. Florida's next book, Who's Your City?, will be released March 10th, 2008.
