Threat

I am desperately trying to think of a way of making some kind of income from a small island.

Journalism just might work, and sensational, nutty journalism even better, so I'm sending this picture around, to the usual suspects, with two quite different messages:

1) AL QAIDA MAY ATTACK US EAST COAST WITH GLIDERS

2) PENTAGON CONTRACTOR'S SUPER-FIGHTER BOONDOGGLE OVERSHOOTS BUDGET

Which will sell better?

Pole Dancer

Nemia Thinking She's a Pole Dancer, originally uploaded by smallislander.

Nemia, nicknamed Agha, is very typical of young girls from the Philippines provinces.

Yes, she is beautiful, and she works in Nine Bar, just down the road from me. And no, she is not for overnight rent , and Nine Bar is not a prostitution joint, thanks to Peter, Pontus, and Frida, who set it up as the most popular bar in GL.

Old Age and Rare Plants

Montane Forest XPDC, Cameron Highlands, originally uploaded by Prof KMS.

Prof KMS put this photo of a very rare Malaysian orchid up in Flickr recently.

It is actually a flower (Goniothalamus montanus (Annonaceae)), but it unfortunately reminded me of my age.

A Small Crime in Gaza

This is all that is left of a Gaza family's 14 year old son.

“The Israeli forces had been bombing hard so we’d evacuated the house, gone to Fakoura (UN school which had [already] been bombed with white phosphorous). The first 3 days at the school we had only the clothes we were wearing, no blankets, no food. At night in Fakoura it was so cold and windy, so when we heard on the radio that there would be a cease-fire between 8 am and 11 am, Abed asked if he could return home to grab a jacket. We all went with him,” Abu Abed explained, now holding the yellow bag.

“When we were in the house, the Israeli army starting bombing in the area,” said Umm Abed. “We were very frightened, we had thought the cease-fire meant we could return home safely. We quickly took whatever clothes and food we could and left the house. I thought Abed was ahead of us. At the school friends told us Abed hadn’t come back. They also said that a drone had fired a missile at our area. People were saying the missile had hit a child and shattered him to pieces. We didn’t know it was Abed.”
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/all-weve-got-left-of-him
blogged by a very brave lady in Gaza

I would like you to look at her weblog, and read her personal encounter reports. They are more telling than any amount of TV news, from either side.

Child of Gaza

Child of Gaza, originally uploaded by smallislander.

I published this photo on Flickr on January 4th 2009, after a few days of the Hannukah Massacre, Since then, it's had over 2000 views, which is quite something for a photo-sharing club.

The original photo is by Fady Adwan of Getty Images. I added only a title.

Start All Over Again

I've shamefully neglected my weblog (Notes From a Small Island) for the past few months, partly because someone got Google to put up a notice that I had objectionable content on the site.

True, I did post a photo of my odious neighbour (self-taken) stopping just north of his pubes, but the only obscene aspect of it must have been his physique. But then I cut it out, only to find that Google did nothing in return. I've found no way of contacting Google to have this notice removed.

So, I`m starting anew with Notes From a Small Island 2

Obama's In

Well, we seem to have a 'nigger' as US presidential candidate for the "Democrats ;-)" (we, outside, who can't vote, have a certain interest in the outcome, since whenever America drops a marble, we get an earthquake).

It's going to happen again.

This:


or this:

clear

or even this:

After the Rain - Ta-Ta's Umbrella

After the Rain - Ta-Ta's Umbrella, originally uploaded by smallislander.

Sometimes it rains here - well, more or less, all of the time, it rains here.

Household Altar

I'm into religion, suddenly. I've got so fed up with widely published trash and propaganda about Muslims that I've decided to fight back.

Muslims do not allow images of God, or idolatry in any form (except for the Ka'aba).

Certain Christians like to have a series of images of their gods and goddesses around the house, just like the Romans used to do.

Jesus takes the place of Apollo, and the Virgin Mary takes over from whatever ancient female god you ever thought of (Astarte, Aphrodite, Venus, etc).

Kayabasa pumpkin flower early morning

Kayabasa pumpkin flower early morning xP1010006, originally uploaded by smallislander.

Out of the 100 or so pumpkin seeds I sowed earlier this year, only one has survived, but it has survived with a vengeance. Every other morning I go down to the end of the garden and redirect its trail in the opposite direction, so now it's looking like a plate of vegetable spaghetti.

It flowers in the early morning, before the sun shrivels it up. Not a sign of a pumpkin fruit yet.

I was imagining lots of pumpkin curries, but all I've got is these goddamned flowers, and sweet little tendrils.

Kayabaso (pumpkin bud) P1010011, originally uploaded by smallislander.

Mushrooms on way to CR

Taken on a midnight visit to the CR. These mushrooms are called barogong here, and are edible, just. They have virtually no taste at all.

I do miss the big fat wild mushrooms of Europe at this time of year.
I think these are a Cuprinus sp

CR stands for 'Comfort Room' in the Philippines. They're usually anything but, and mine is no exception.

Poikilospermum sp. This can't be jungle broccoli, can it ? Yes

We found this strange set of flowers in the local forest (or, at least, Ron did, and it turns out to be even more strange than I ever thought.

1) Either the leaves or the flowers are eaten by people in Sabah, Borneo, so my silly comment about jungle broccoli just might be right.

A species of climber called binatong (Poikilospermum sp.) found in abundance in both Sabah and Sarawak is also collected and cooked as vegetable.www.arbec.com.my/pdf/art3janmar03.pdf

2) It has a wonderful relationship with ants, who actually plant this liana's seeds at the entrances to their nests.

However, they (ants) maintain a very close relationship to another plant, the hemi-epiphyte Poikilospermum cordifolium. Most entrances of these ants on tree trunks have some seedlings of this Poikilospermum, obviously planted by the ants that act like gardeners. Some of the plants grow very large and send roots down the trunk into the soil. As the ant colonies around those large hemi-epiphytes are currently still active, this suggests that such colonies may live for many years at the same spot, and that the association between Crematogaster (ant) and Camponotus (ant) is a very stable one. This relationship between the two ants in a common nest is termed parabiosis.....http://www.insect-plant-interactions.biozentrum.uni-%20wuerzburg.de/

And what's more, the two ant species live together in total harmony, which is fairly amazing.

The two species are a big one, and a small one, but they live together quite happily. Wish our politicians could do the same.