Political Forum Chat Thread.

I may have been a victim of the purge.
When my father installed the dish, about 15 years ago, he bought a card for £20 (just for the free to air cover) which was supposed to be renewed every year but it kept on working so he never renewed it. Now it doesn't work.
I could pay the fee I suppose but since I can get everything online with my phone there's not much point.

 

The card is a one-off purchase so your system should work. You may want to get a local company to look at the dish and the cable, or swap out the box - they're about 100 quid I think.
Isn't it expensive to use your phone?

 

Good to know that the card was a one-off purchase. I replaced the cable but the box kept saying ''no signal''. Could be the receiver on the dish I suppose.
The phone is free to use for data, calls, texts etc in EU countries but that may change post-Brexit.
I hate all the people who voted Leave so much...

 

Have you guys tried using firestick? Cheap and really useful.

 

My house doesn't have WIFI or even a landline as it is empty for most of the year. I think that my mobile phone is probably the best solution for me.
I drive down so I am not limited to baggage allowances on a plane which means it is no trouble to take my laptop.
My sister flies then hires a car when she gets there so if I can get the Sky working again that will be good for her.

 

i did not know kobe bryant spoke fluent italian until i read wikipedia recently

 

sigmund freud was a famous jewish doctor who treated personalities without medications
the cure for the personality appears to be treated by neither
or jack daniels, courtesy of red, white, and blue.

 

I prefer that Jewish doctor who was Freud's competitor

Carl Jung. ​

 

@StillBlue tell us about the Congo.

 

That is like asking what is Europe like. It's a big place.
It's a country where you either hate it or love it When I was here 40 years ago as a Peace Corp volunteer then Zaire had the distinction of having the highest rate in the world of volunteers quitting before their two year post was up. It also had the highest number of volunteers that extended beyond 2 years.
I see it in all the alphabets as we call them, UN, Wfp,WHO, MSF....hearing their people talk it's either their worst assignment or their favorite . You can guess which category I fall under since I've been back for 16 years now.

 

I’d forgotten that name change.
What sort of food do you eat apart from homemade chocolate?

 

Yes, please do.
I've always wanted to travel to sub-Saharan Africa but have only ever made it to Egypt and Morocco. Both of which I really enjoyed but they are Arabian not really African apart from the wonderful Nubians I met on the Nile.
How much of the wildlife has survived the constant wars, poaching and famine?
Have you traveled along the river Congo?
What is the African jungle like and how much remains intact?
Will the healthcare system cope with the Coronavirus or is it going to get really bad in your part of the world?

 

Some animals have suffered more than others. Gorillas and elephants hurt the most. The fighting in the East over minerals and metals is the biggest problem for the gorillas as the fighters tend to hide in the forest where they live.

The only part of the Congo river I've been on is in Kinshasa when I needed to go to Brazzaville. I've seen some more or it from the air.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Africa has no jungles, we have forests. The difference between the two is jungles have a great deal of undergrowth, ferns and such. Forests don't. The canopy here is very high and very thick which doesn't let light through for other growth beneath it. Yes, where there are clearings caused by waterways or mountains then you have jungle like conditions near them. I've seen video of gold explorers depositing their rigs for drilling core samples by helicopter. They fly under the canopy between the trees. Somehow I doubt their life insurance agents have ever seen those videos. But the forest for now is still stronger than man. Small pockets of timber companies do some damage but the forest always comes back with a vengeance. I was in Washington 14 years ago and attended a GreenPeace presentation and their biggest complaints were not with the foresters but with the government for not following through with local improvements that the foresters were paying for. They had a bad system, mining and foresting companies are require to use a percentage of their profits for community projects like schools and clinics. To make sure they don't shirk their responsibilities the tax is paid to the central government and the people where the mining and forestry never saw a dime of it. Some of the companies just started doing the work themselves because it's in their interest that the community is happy with them. Turns out my presence was fortuitous at the GreenPeace meeting as they had non English speaking Congolese giving testimony and the translator was struggling at best, I offered my services.

 

Honestly, DeBeers was loved while they were here. They were just in the exploratory stages but they paid very well and treated their employees far better than they were used to. They once asked me for a young person with good technical aptitude. I sent him one of my students that had just graduated. Within 6 weeks this kid was leading a team and had an air conditioned office. When DeBeers left here they took him with them and paid for him to go to college in Kinshasa. He now owns a house there and is the tech geek for the US embassy. Most of the companies were like that. Some even built bridges, schools and clinics in villages and they were still just exploring and not yet making money. An Aussie explorer used to ask me for help designing projects. We called him Good ol' Don and the Congolese called him Pere Noël (Father Christmas). Kids who had never seen real books began to own them. He always went out with two vehicles, one loaded with his equipment and one with goodies to hand out. I think he enjoyed handing out the goodies more than the exploring.

 

No, we can not treat the patients who need things like ventilators. Out best bet is to prevent the spread and we are very well versed in that. We've been in Ebola mode nationally now for a long time. Nobody other than cargo transport and medical personnel goes in or out of areas infected. As long as we can hold out on preventing the spread hopefully it will give doctors time to find cures and vaccines.

 

Don't ask if I have anything nice to say about the Chinese.

 

On a happy note. Another of my former students will be getting a masters in IT from a university in the US in December. There is now talk of Harvard or University of Chicago for a PhD. Not bad for a kid that grew up in a mud brick home with a dirt floor.

 

Last post. Pasta, rice, chicken, beef, pork, goat. Sadly no seafood but we do have river fish. Unfortunately dairy is confined to powdered milk and a cheese from the East which is pretty good.

And yes, we eat insects. Not bad really. Just never, ever make the mistake of leading a live termite into your mouth with your tongue like you do normally with items. Always bite the head off first. You'd be surprised just how much the tip of your tongue bleeds.

No Vegemite.

 

The locusts you mean?

 

They are exploiters in the worst sense of the word. Too early to tell if the change in government last year will put an end to that.

 

Which govt? Wasn’t Xi made Premier for life?

 

One belt, one road has enabled them to pluck many beholden countries like fat chickens.

 

The Democratic Republic of Congo finally lived up to it's name and had a regime change via elections last year. The new government has struggled to break the hold the previous regime held but there has been progress.

 

Yup, but to be fair the West just abandoned all of those nations so the Chinese are just picking up where they left off. Colonialism was an even worse form of exploitation because it destroyed the original ways of living and never replaced it with anything sustainable.

 

Ah, get it now. I suppose corruption was a major issue?