Violence in Zimbabwe

Terrible things are afoot in Zimbabwe, and have been since the March 29th election. Mugabe's farcical poll on June 27th and rushed reinstatement has done nothing to slow the terror.

Sokwanele provides some insight into what is happening on the ground. Their election violence map tracks post-election incidents, but only those that have been confirmed and verified - it represents the tip of the iceberg.

I'm not sure how to embed their map, so here's a screenshot from today:


Sokwanele also has a Flickr photostream. There are disturbing images of post-election violence.

Here are some photos from their set:





There are others I can't bring myself to repost: raw flesh and open wounds, huge deep red holes in buttocks and bodies from extensive beatings; axe wounds; burn wounds. And these are only the victims who are close enough to 'civilization' for their injuries to be recorded.

The government and its thugs are indiscriminate: they attack MDC activists (first photo above), white people (often elderly: the lady pictured above is 74), and ordinary citizens who appear poor weak and defenceless: anyone who is suspected of not being a whole-hearted supporter of the government, or anyone who seems easy prey.

It makes me sick and sad. Zimbabwe today is an example of unbelievable courage and extreme depravity.

Murders in Boston

Mashups and Google Maps allow interesting visualization of data, making things suddenly more concrete. Dorchester has a reputation as being one of Boston's toughest areas: this map of 2008 murders in Boston brings it home.

Cambridge has a relatively low murder rate, though I haven't been able to find a similar mapping of murder stats. From a quick search, anecdotally I think it's been a couple of years since the last murder in Cambridge, though there have been recent homicides which appear to be accidental. Somewhat bizarrely, someone originally from Cambridge was recently killed in Salem. The method of murder?... being run through with a sword.

Spring Rain

Spring in Cambridge certainly lives up to the adage "April showers bring May flowers". Today was a lovely April day and in between thunder storms I captured some cloudscapes.

Well, mostly between showers. That black cloud at the top of the "Spring Rain" shot got me :-)

Lunar Eclipse Tonight

Much of the world is able to observe a lunar eclipse tonight.

The moon is accompanied by Saturn and Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. It's an extended show, starting before 9 pm, peaking around 10:30 pm and continuing until midnight. (All times EST since we're at home in Cambridge).

One Perfect Day

While in Belgium (visiting Aileen) we endured a week of sullen grey skies and intermittent rain. It was ideal for squelching about in wellies or staying inside but didn't hold much promise for photography.

Then finally one perfect day dawned - glorious light, blue skies and Magritte-style clouds. This was the view from my bedroom window early that morning.


As an added bonus the waterbirds decided that it was spring and time to argue about territory. This year the lake has a new pair of swans, younger and more athletic than its former inhabitants. The cob (male swan) put on a great display, claiming the lower end of the lake and its island as his own, and trying to chase away the Canada geese. This was a largely futile effort since there were dozens of geese and they seemed to take great glee in taking turns to taunt the swan. The geese are smaller and generally more agile than the swan, but a couple were surprised by the cob's speed.

We also had the rare treat of seeing the swan fly. The cob is a massive heavy bird: it takes great power for him to achieve liftoff - see the continuous sequence of shots. In contrast, when he circled back to land he skidded across the water at enormous speed while holding his wings aloft to slam on the brakes.

Though the show was fun, it might be unwise to argue with a territorial swan :-)

Belgium Attracts Bloggers

Yesterday I posted some shots from my recent trip to Belgium. These posts must have had magic dust or perfect timing - it seems Blogger picked it up and the blog received over 240 visitors from 27 countries. That's a spike relative to my usual friends-and-family and random-passers-by visitor rate :-)