Toxic waste hangs around for thousands of years

The Koeberg Alert Alliance organisation goes back as far as 1983, but was reformed by Peter Becker in 2010. A determined man, he spends much of his time sharing the important news of what nuclear means to the people of Cape Town, trying to cut through the smokescreen that is governmental brainwashing and monopoly-driven propaganda.

For Peter, it all started with a poster. Before his anti-nuclear days Mr Becker was into wind power and one day while giving a talk at a school he couldn’t help but notice the crude misinformation on one of the posters on the wall about energy. With a couple of degrees up his sleeve Peter quickly saw through the subtle manipulation tactics scrawled across that school poster, seriously downplaying the potential dangers of Nuclear Energy. He was so disgusted that he

The perfect opportunity to purchase cutting-edge literature

First Book Fair
This Guy Fawkes marked the first anarchist book fair in Africa, a trend that has taken off all around the world. These events are a great opportunity for existing anarchists to come together and the common public to learn more about anarchism.

Located at Observatory’s quirky café Ganesh, the anarchist book fair on the 5th November had a revolutionary atmosphere, and you could almost feel the genius as it bred in small groups, big ideas swished around by foreigners and locals alike.

‘There were more anarchists at the book fair than we expected,’ says Stef, one of the fair's organisers. ‘I realise now how many are actually living in Cape Town. We sold loads of books and distributed tons of pamplets.’

On the steps of Thibalt Square podium

The Occupy movement started in Cape Town some Saturdays ago. A small group of locals hoping to reinact what has been going down all around the world for the last few months - Occupy Wall Street being the most well-known – decided to hold peaceful discussions on the lawn of Gardens outside Parliament. The intention was to plan what was to be done as well as how to spread what they felt to be an important message.

A wonderful mosaic stands at the door

In the quiet Cape Town suburb of Plumstead a listed national monument building houses a vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurant that specialises in fresh and fantastic lunch buffets.

Michelle Carelse, the owner of Organic at Heart, took us for a walk around the kitchen garden - a space that was car park only 8 months back, now a thriving veg patch - where we discuss companion planting, worm-composting and the joys of eating as fresh as the last pick.

‘I like the idea of sustainable living,’ says Michelle. ‘This garden inspires people to start their own vegetable gardens. It’s not difficult to start growing your own herbs and salads – if everybody could just grow a little bit we could be well on our way to becoming a more self-sufficient society.’

The Hemp House in all it's sunset-lit glory

After we had attended Tony Budden's talk a couple of Tuesday's back at Bedrock Manor , we had been super amped to check out his new home in Noordhoek.

Speaking about his own experience with hemp, Tony says:

‘I fell in love with hemp when I saw my first bit of cannabis fabric. It is so strong and durable...Then we started Hemporium . The work we do helps change the perception of hemp- we chose to make clothes because they are such a tangible product. Hemporium has been a good

Abalimi Bezekhaya means "the planters of the home" in Xhosa and I had the opportunity to spend an incredible 4 hours with Rob Small yesterday morning on a tour of some of their projects and facilities in Khayelitsha.

One of the main messages I got from Rob, which resonated very strongly with me, was the need for a shift in mindset from a consumer culture to a livelihood culture. We are suckered into a consumerist existence - living from one acquisition to the other - without questioning what the point of it is. Bigger, better, more expensive. When confronted with the harsh realities of township poverty, this point is really driven home. A "livelihood culture" is more than a subsistence way of life, one where we strip off the excesses of western life in order to enjoy more creative, meaningful work.

Our day started with a small group of us meeting at The Business Place in Philippi, where the Abalimi co-ordinating office is located, and, after quick introductions by Rob, we piled into two cars and headed off to see what Abalimi is all about. En route we got an inkling...

Pax Afrika is an unruly teen who just happens to have been chosen by the spirits of the Ancestors to save the world. And boy, does it need saving. The environment is ravaged by global warming and over-industrialisation, plants are virtually extinct and animals have mutated into nasty monster beasts. If that wasn’t bad enough, the evil corporate industrialist, Maximilian Malice, controls the city, forcing people to buy stuff and pretend to be happy. It’s up to Pax to solve the mystery of his missing dad, find the mythical lost city of URBO (or Universal Repository of Bio-Organisms, a travelling DNA library) and restore the future!

For more go to www.urbo.co.za and check out Pax in action every Friday on SABC3 at 3.30pm.

What inspired you to go eco? Pollution in iKapa is seriously out of control...

The first thing that strikes you about Steve is his passion. Steve has abounding enthusiasm for everything, but most particularly his Micro Greens™ – the Porterville farmer is the micro herb and micro green fundi of the Cape, and winner of the SA Produce Innovation prize in the Eat in RMB 2006 awards.

He also calls his mini leaves ‘Magic Greens’, hence his nick name, and he really can magically grow just about anything from French tarragon and Japanese parsley to lemon thyme – and that’s just his herbs. His range of 40 Micro Greens is all the rage among chefs in the Cape, and top restaurants like Le Quartier Francais, Showroom, Ginja, Haute Cabriere and Caveaux are listed amongst Steve’s top clients.

Steve believes he is the first person to grow Micro Greens commercially in the country, and he commutes from the Swartland dorp into Cape Town a number of times a week to personally deliver his micro leaves still in trays of organic medium ready to harvest. They’re all organically grown on five hectares of agricultural land – ‘why would I use pesticides or chemicals when everyone knows toxins cause diseases like cancer and liver dysfunction?’

What inspired you to go organic? It’s in my soul. Mom taught me how to grow pees when I was a lightie, and I knew that spraying anything on them just wouldn’t make sense. I’ve always had a herb garden and have never sprayed things. We had lots of fruit trees when I was growing up and my dad, even though he sprayed, was incredibly careful. I think this developed a fear for chemicals and toxins in me, so I’ve never liked it. I’ve always had the attitude of ‘no spray’.

What is your convenient truth: Erosion. If you don’t protect the land, what do you have? Organic isn’t just about chemicals, it’s about the health of the soil. We have some very bad farming practices here, especially in the old homelands where farmers weren’t taught how to work the land. Do you know that in Germany you need a permit to move top soil?

What’s the greenest thing you’ve ever done? Releasing my aunt’s parrot from captivity, when I was a child. Since then, I’ve been releasing everything – cows from paddocks, horses from stables. But probably the greenest thing I’ve done is starting Magic Herbs. If I had enough land, I would plant a tree every day for the rest of my life. Look at China, they’re busy planting trees in the Gobi desert to stop encroachment – as far as you can see there are trees. [forests of the world are slowly disappearing – IOL]

What is your favourite food and where do you buy it? I grow all my favourite foods – chives, thyme, oregano and Italian parsley; brandy wine tomatoes, onion de Florence and shallots; and figs and mangoes. My favourite meal is a salad of Micro Greens with or without cheese. But I’ll go to Ginja, in Cape Town, for their veal.

Desert island scenario: what would you take with you? Seeds to plant.