Earth Hour, SA Style

Earth Hour was on March 29 and South Africans joined the world to celebrate the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Earth Hour 2014, and express their united commitment towards a more sustainable future. A host of activities and events were held across the country.

Celebrations in Cape Town were particularly festive following the announcement that the city had won the Earth Hour City Challenge - over 163 entrants from 14 countries! A ceremony was held at the V&A Waterfront to celebrate the honor before shutting off the lights from 8:30 to 9:30 and attendees were treated to a candlelit concert by members of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra.

Table Mountain also joined several other famous places and iconic landmarks around the world, including the Pyramids of Giza, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, the Tower Bridge in London, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, the Wat Arun Temple in Bangkok, Times Square and the Empire State building in New York City and the Las Vegas Strip, in a dramatic switch-off which swept across the globe.

Awesome photo by Mark Straw, Photowalkers organizer

Johannesburg offered a number of community-driven earth hour celebrations too. The Joburg Photowalkers organized an evening at the Nizamiye Turkish Masjid Mosque with its 232 stained glass windows. The Mosque turned off its lights especially for the Photowalkers during Earth Hour and Consol Solar Jars were used to light up the exterior and interior of this magnificent building.

Yoga Village in Sandton honored the earth with a candlelit yoga class. Similarly Adventure Boot Camp offered a free session in honor of Earth Hour at Brescia House in Bryanston. The Johannesburg Zoo had a slumber party with its Lights out for Earth Hour event. Guests got to camp out in the zoo and enjoy a guided night walk, stargaze, or sit around the bonfire for Earth Hour 2014. There was a green walk in Turffontein and even Sun City got into the action when the resort's four hotels and timeshare units all turned off the lights in support of Earth Hour.

According to Eskom, South Africans saved 575 megawatts of electricity during the hour. Although Earth Hour is about more than saving energy. It shows the commitment of many South Africans who want to take positive action for the environment and connect with environmentally aware citizens across the globe.

WWF South Africa invited the public - throughout the month of March - to log in and answer the question, “How Do You Honor the Earth?” South African individuals, companies and communities responded to the call and made their commitments online. Promises ranged from simple acts such as saving electricity to more ambitious gestures such as installing solar water heating systems and radically transforming their food choices. Other promises spoke to the uplifting spiritual benefits which nature provides with some promising to take longer walks in the great outdoors and others committing to care more for their immediate surroundings.

It is not hard to feel a closer comradery with nature here in South Africa. With the reality of an overloaded electric grid ready to blow at any minute or a revered animal such as the rhino on the brink of extinction, one is reminded every day of the frailty of the Earth's balance. In the end, I just lit some candles, shut off my lights and made my promise to continue my commitment to the Earth via the WWF promise platform. Can't wait until Earth Day!

St. Patrick's Day in South Africa

I am not Irish, but growing up in the New York metropolitan area and going to Catholic school in the shadow of the Empire State Building meant one thing on St. Patrick's Day. Marching in and / or watching the annual St. Patrick's Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  Later when I came of (drinking) age it also meant enjoying some time along parallel Third Avenue where there was an Irish bar or pub about every 3 feet from 33rd Street to 81st Street. I know because I stopped in for a pint in each and every one of them one St. Patrick's Day when I was young and foolish.

Donegal cottage

Over the years I managed to be in many other US cities with large Irish populations on St. Patricks's Day and was able to see how they celebrate. My sister lived in Chicago where the city dyes its river green for its annual St. Patrick's Day celebration and parade. Savannah does the same with their many park fountains and Indianapolis dyes its main canal green too. New Orleans holds a mini-Mardi Gras parade with floats bearing beads and other green swag. Denver holds the biggest St. Paddy's Day parade west of the Mississippi. Huge Irish populations in Washington DC and Boston guarantee that the streets are paved with a green stripe and their parades and parties are legendary. The White House dyes its fountain green too! Even San Francisco turns its City Hall green on St. Patrick's Day and puts on its own parade and Irish festival along with dozens of individual block parties.

Powerscourt

For 15 years, when one or both of my sons attended a private school in New Jersey, their spring break was consistently the middle two weeks of March. That meant their vacations almost always included March 17. As a result, we have spent many St. Patrick's Days outside the New York metropolitan area. On beaches in Hawaii, Costa Rica and Mexico, in sailing ports in the Caribbean, in Disneyworld, on ski slopes in Colorado and in the desert in Sedona. Every place celebrated in its own unique way, but celebrate they did. (We had planned to spend one St. Patrick's Day in Dublin itself, but the first Gulf War broke out in January that year and we decided to postpone our England and Ireland Spring Break visit to another time.)



And with all our mid-March travels, we learned you don't really need a parade or a festival to celebrate St. Patrick's Day like they do in New York. All you really need are some Irish people, corned beef and cabbage and a pint of Guinness. Preferably with a shamrock foam finish.

Irish people and a couple of Italians

 

Last year I spent St. Patrick's Day at the Jersey Shore (parade, bagpipes, kilts, Guinness) and later that night at our friends the McMenamys' annual St. Patrick's Day party (corned beef and cabbage and more Guinness Black and Tans).

After Hurricane Sandy destroyed the beach and boardwalk in Seaside Heights a few months before and put the famous rollercoaster in the drink, Seaside's parade honored the thousands of fire fighters and other first responders who came to the aid of Jersey Shore residents and business owners in the wake of Sandy. It was a triumph!

Happily for me St. Patrick's Day is not just celebrated in Ireland and the US but in cities all over the world. Definitely in places where there is a large Irish population like Sydney and London. But even where there is not a history of mass Irish immigration - like Rio, Paris and Cairo - people celebrate on March 17. Turns out everyone wants to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day!


In preparation for the big day, I looked to see how St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated in South Africa. I found that Cape Town and not Joburg has the most showy St. Patrick's Day celebration. Cape Town turns Table Mountain green on March 17. What a sight that must be! There isn't an actual parade but there are plenty of parties and Irish festivals planned including one outdoors at the V&A waterfront. I can't be there, but my sometime-guest-blogger and full-time husband Vince will!

Joburg doesn't put on a parade either, but you can still enjoy a Guinness on tap in any number of Irish pubs and shebeens on St. Patrick's Day. And even get some corned beef and cabbage at the weekend-long Montecasino or Emporer's Palace Irish Festivals. Jozi and Éirinn go Brách!

Oscar Fever

Contrary to popular belief, there are actually five seasons in the United States. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and Awards Season. The annual film awards season starts in January with the Golden Globes, quickly followed by the Critics' Choice awards, the Screen Actors Guild, the Producers Guild, and the Directors Guild Awards, the BAFTA (technically British but I watch it anyway) Awards and finally the big one, the Academy Awards or as it is commonly called, the Oscars.

Dressed in vintage 20's the year The Artist won

I am pretty sure I have never missed an Academy Award broadcast. (I have a nagging feeling that last claim may not be entirely true, but even if I was out of the country at broadcast time, I am positive I taped it and watched it in its entirety with a bucket of popcorn afterwards.) The next day would always be spent dishing about the results, the fashion, the jewelry, and the jokes with my mother and sister on the telephone.

One thing is for sure, for the last ten years or more, except for when a blizzard kept me home, I know where I was on Oscars night. At my friend and fellow cinephile Dede's house for her annual Oscar party. Dede would invite 50 or so of her closest friends over for a viewing party worthy of Vanity Fair. Bowls of shrimp, bottles of champagne, plates of chocolate-covered strawberries. A red carpet, golden idols, and a humongous big screen HDTV. I will miss it this year! Dede has promised to set up her iPad in the middle of the buffet and let me Face Time-eavesdrop on the commentary.

my blue cocktail was named in honor of 2009's nominee Avatar

Some years I would get inspired and dress up like a character in my favorite film. I was never the only one! Some would dress in very formal attire as if they were actually walking the red carpet.

Most years I saw the majority of the films. At the very least all of the Best Picture and most of the Best Foreign Language Film nominees. That usually covered most of the individual Best Actor, Actress and Supporting Role nominees too. If I had time I would fill in with the remaining films.

Beast of the Southern Wild & Life of Pi's Richard Parker

This year will be very different. For one thing, no party. Unless you count Lou and Serge.

I will still try to watch it on television in real time. It will be on DStv about 3:00 in the morning here in Joburg so I will have to get up early in order to watch before I go to work.

And I will be wearing my jammies. Or maybe my Nelson Mandela tee shirt in honor of the nomination of  The Long Walk to Freedom.

I will also record it while I watch. If it is anything like the usual broadcasts, it will run long and I will miss the big awards at the end if I don't.

But unlike the typical years, I have hardly seen any of the movies. Going to the movies back in NY/NJ was a weekly affair for me if not even more often. Maybe it's the lack of advertising or my inattention to late night talk shows. I am just not compelled to go to the movies anymore.

But that will not stop me from enjoying my favorite part of Awards Season anyway. The Fashion and The Jewelry. I even get Joan Rivers and The Fashion Police on E! here. And I will still get to Face Time with my sister in Denver the next day and dish about it!

Who's the big winner? Me!