Bloody Beetroots, Bloody Great! Little Stars off their album Ramborama.

Canyoning pics, Jan 2009

A great abseil in Juggler on the right.

Left is me, leading a tricky little abseil down a drop in Luna Park canyon in the Woolemi Wilderness of NSW, Oz.

Some recent canyoning pics.

Juggler Canyon, Blue Mountains, NSW, Oz. Thats me coming down a short abseil.

Some new India photos

I have just spent a few more weeks in India once again and my photos can be viewed here.

India Trip-Alan, Jim Sept 2006

Blank Noise

The Age article on September 2, 2006 titled "Stare wars: Indian file for lechers" highlighted one of the most disturbing aspects of traveling in India for females. Having traveled about India for some 30 years with my wife and recently with my daughter I have first hand experience of the effect of this sexual harassment on women, which ranges from staring to full out groping. On a recent trip to Bangalore I was in an auto-rickshaw with my daughter and the driver inevitably got lost so we had to stop several times. The staring at my daughter's chest got so intense that she lost all cool and yelled at him--but this didn't stop his behavior despite my presence and support. Taking digital photos of these guys is a great way to put it back on the pervert as Ms Patheja says "The camera instantly transfers power to the woman. Instead of being amused, the man felt threatened." Unfortunately we didn't think about using a camera at the time--next time we will. This is but one of countless episodes of this sort I (a male) have witnessed in the presence of my wife and daughter. Thank you Blank Noise for making a difference and starting to change this cultural male problem in India. Don't let this put anyone off traveling through this wonderful country. My daughter and her girlfriend backpacked for three months around India and for the most part were not sexually harassed--and had a great time . Then again I think Western visitors (both male and female) are somewhat used to the staring and touching--this is not a sexual thing--they are (I think) just curious.

Ganesh Chaturthi

If there is one god in the vast pantheon of Hindu gods that I especially like it is the elephant god Ganesh. Parvati, the wife of Shiva made him out of the sandalwood paste she used in her bath and set him to guard while she bathed. Not knowing of Lord Shiva, poor Ganesh tried to stop him from visiting his wife in her bath. An enraged Shiva chopped off Ganesh's head. Upon being told by Parvati that this was his own son, Shiva fixed on the head of an elephant in the place of the severed head. Shiva was so sorry for what he did that he issued a decree that from then on Lord Ganesh would always be the first god to be invoked in any prayer--and so it is today. The great festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is being celebrated at the moment. There has been some controversy about the Ganesh statues that are left to dissolve in water and possible pollution, but otherwise everyone is having fun--Indians love their festivals!
Now this Ganesh Fractal is something!

Sell the Tiger to Save It?

Barun Mitra's article in the New York Times argues that to save the tiger we will have to farm it and treat it like a commodity to make money out of it. All this for the lucrative Chinese trade in Tiger medicines? As pointed out in the recent CATT Alert #38 "The simplest and most viable solution is to leave wild tigers alone in the wild and better enforce the long-standing ban on trade in tigerparts. Wild tigers will do the rest. The only humans who will lose outwill be a handful of already-wealthy tiger farmers."
Having seen tigers in Bhandavghar, Kanha and Corbett National Parks in India, it will be a worlwide tragedy if these magnificent animals are hunted to extinction--and all just for someone's idea of a medicine. To farm them seems totally immoral--as I would argue is the farming of ANY animal for their parts.