It has just struck me that comparisons are likely to be drawn between disasters caused by the December 2004 tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Strangely enough I have not yet seen any cases of anyone else doing so. I have seen somewhere a mention of 10,000 deaths from Katrina, which is far less than the tool from the tsunami, yet I see Katrina as the greater tragedy for humankind. I don't mean this in a callous way and have nothing but sorrow and sympathy for the victims of both disasters. What strikes me is that many of the media reports and blog entries I have seen about Katrina are telling stories of people turning on one another, while I do not recall even one such report during the aftermath of the tsunami. What conclusions can be drawn from this? What might the causes be? Can this be attributed to differences in culture or religious background? I don't know, but I will be interested to see if others start thinking along these lines.

I scanned a few old photos last night.

Me sitting on my Honda XL250.

Me sitting on my Yamaha XT500

Me at Donaldson Dam on my first pass from the army.

See the smiling roadhog. See the smiling roadhog cross the line. See the smiling roadhog push the other car to the yellow line. Push roadhog push. Smile roadhog smile.

Sadly this is an all too common behaviour on South African roads.

I participated in this photographic project, along with some oustanding photographers. Go and take a look at utata.org/trains/.