Milestones

Last week I was invited to lead a panel discussion at the FSC general assembly held here in Cape Town. The FSC is an international non-profit that foresees the responsible management of the world's forests. The FSC works primarily by certifying forest products, which allows ordinary consumers to know whether the products they are purchasing were produced sustainably or not. Just like blood diamonds there is massive trade in timber whose proceeds are going into the wrong hands, or leading to environmental degradation. FSC therefore addresses issues such as illegal logging,deforestation, and global warming that is threatening the world's forests. This is is critical because more than half of the world's forests have been degraded, destroyed or converted to other landuses.


So it was an honour to be invited for a side event at the FSC AGM on Ecological Networks. This was the first time I have led a panel discussion at an international event, but it went very well. I gave a talk entittled: Strategies of integrating freshwater biodiversity into conservation policy and management. This was followed by a one hour discussion with members of the audience, led by the 5-member panel.

I was flattered when the Organisers addressed me as Dr. Amis (see pic), even though I have not yet graduated. But this was totally understandable, because its not very often that students are lead panelists at international conferences.

And to crown my week of milestones, I was profiled in the African Conservation Telegraph (ACT), a newsletter of the Africa Section of the Society for Conservation Biology.
To Read my profile go to this website:
http://www.conbio.org/Sections/Africa/ACT%20Vol3%20Issue1%20BW.pdf

The week that was...

Last week, I had an opportunity to go out with a team from the Organisation with which I'm involved to participate in a project that is trying to make big corporations conserve water. The project is fondly referred to as 'watersheding', just like 'loadsheding' when electricity is rationed. The current thinking in the conservation arena is that society must be reminded that whereas oil resources are renewable, water is a non-renewable resource.

So Our aim is to make big companies become 'water neutral', i.e. the net amount of water required to produce your bottle of beer must equal to zero. For your information, to make a single bottle of beer requires 4.5L of water. So how do we hope to make companies produce beer without water? Well, welcome to the field of Conservation Biology.

To do that you need to cut down trees!! And that is exactly what we did last week. But you are going to ask, ain't I supposed to be conserving the very trees I was choping down? The answer is yes.

If you are still not too confused, after finding out that you can brew beer without water and cut down trees to protect the environment, then we Conservation Biologists are succeeding in doing our job.

A famous Marine Biologist (yes, there are famous biologists), once said that if a conservation biologist can't explain what they do in a language that their grandparents can understand, then they have failed in their job.


Now how I'm supposed to tell my grandma that cutting down trees is protecting the environment?

Anyhow, maybe one day when I'm all grey and they have instituted a Nobel Prize for Conservation Biology then I will be able to explain what I do in a plain language...

The spotlight is on me!!

Right now I could do with some advice from the likes of Usain Bolt, the guy who broke the 100m and 200m olypmic records with so much ease, it felt like anybody could do it...until you watched the faces of those guys who trailed him in the 100m race.

I'm negotiating that last corner, and is about to sprint to the finish line with my thesis. And you might ask, what does the writing of a thesis got to do with athletics? Well, everything. Before the whistle is blown, the athlete needs to have a clear strategy of how to tackle the race, but its only during the last lap or metres when a winner emerges. The winner in most cases is one who could muster all the energy required to cross the line ahead of the pack.

As a PhD student, a clear strategy is also required which is in form of a proposal at the onest of your studies, although that is probably one of the biggest time-wasters, because it is nearly impossible to stick to what one had initially set out to do. I suppose the same also happens to athletes,otherwise there would be no losers. But unlike in athletics, in academia there are no losers, because even dropouts gain some knowledge of sorts albeit without the paper recognition.

I have a clear strategy of how to get to the finish line, and I have mustered all the energy with plenty of coffee as back up. But I would have still loved to pick the brains of such exceptional winners as Usain Bolt.

Right now the spotlight is on me,everybody is on the sidelines cheering me to the finish line, and I'm feeling so strong as if the race has just started...I'm sure Bolt would relate to this. My office is a clear depiction of what is going on right now.

The outdoors

The weather has become so unpredicatable in Cape Town that I have stopped checking the forecasts. One day it could be sunny and beautiful, the next day its all soggy and freezing. Strictly speaking though,rainy days are my best when I need to get real work done. So after several days of haphazard weather, today I ventured out and took some pics. Here are my favourites!!

I'm back!!

I have a love-hate relationship with this blog. Every time I decide that I was going to delete it I keep coming back. I went as far as changing the address so that my newly acquired Facebook friends wouldn't get here. The main reason is that I don't seem to find a purpose for this blog anyway, yet the desire to keep it is so overwhelming.

But for once I have decided that I'm going to keep it after all, if for nothing else but to just practice my writing. So my dear friends please forgive me if you come across some of the most crap writings ever. You see, I'm a scientist and they are not the most well known lot when it comes to crafting words. I spend a copious amount of time reading both for pleasure and work, but I started noticing that my spelling ability was going to the dogs, that is the reason I'm back to this space. Not to bore whoever bothers to visit though, I will also be posting photos too of my escapades, if that is enough consolation.

So much has happened over the months, most notable of which is that I fulfilled my dream of becoming a biker, and subsequently crashed the bike. We both came out in perfect shape, with only a few broken bones, bruises and bent wheels. I also went to New York. Not that I fancy New York, but it was long overdue.

What hasn't changed over the months is that I'm still a student. In fact next month I will celebrate/mourn another anniversary of my stay at University. With the exception of 2003, I have spent every single year since 1998 in University...that makes 9 years of continuous university studies. I mean nine years of unemployment, forgone income, opportunity cost, whatever you like to call it.

Shouldn't the government introduce a cap on how many years one can spend studying due to the lost productivity? After all there is no link between academic productivity (call it publications), and GDP. For example I have spent the better part of this year writing papers that will probable turn out to be mediocre, with no citations. If I had spent that time for example as a mine worker, I would have been much more useful to humanity perhaps.

Oh, I also forgot to say that within this period I have also been flying around the world giving 15 minutes talks, that were promptly forgotten by those who cared to attend. What was never forgotten was the carbon footprint from my 15+ hrs flights. So that is why I feel a little sad that the petrol price is being reduced this coming week, because with it comes the temptation to abandon the bicycle.

Life is good though, and here are some of my favourite 'things' that make it worthwhile...

The Girlfriend
Nature
Books
Excercise
The Bike

Ten things you did'nt know about me...

1. I wake up everyday at 4:30am except weekends
2. I watched 'live' TV for the first time when I was 20 years old
3. I have traveled to all the continents except Australia
4. For my undergrads,I failed to secure admission to my local university and opted to study in a foreign university but...
5. I'm the only one among my former classmates both in High School and Undergraduate studies who is doing a PhD.
6. I have never grown up in a house with electricity
7. My mother spanked me when I was 3 years for killing and trying to operate on a rat
8. When I was young I hated wearing clothes
9. My first name is a nickname
10. I was made a time keeper in High School so that I could not dodge going to class