Matt's American Adventure: Food and Drink

After a week at Kate's parents house Kate and I have now changed accommodation and will now be based at Rob and Bev's house in Pittsburgh for the rest of our 'vacation'. This has meant I have got to spend some proper time in the city (rather than running through it). One morning was spent walking along the North Shore area which runs along the river providing a great view of the city and holds several memorials. We were also tasked that day to pick up a a prize that Bev had won from a Pittsburgh lifestyle magazine called 'Whirl', upon collecting it we found ourselves posing for a photo for the 'winners' section of the next edition. So be sure to pick up your Whirl next month to see Kate in a stupid hat and me posing with various types tubs of face scrub.

I think it is common knowledge that you will not be short on options on where to eat in the USA, I have been amazed at just how many restaurants and fast food joints they are on every street; ensuring whatever you have a craving for you can find it......and I love it!  The day of our Whirl photo shoot we had lunch at Jerome Bettis' Grill 36, Jerome Bettis is a former Pittsburgh Steelers Football player, (apparently the sport is quite popular in this City). I ordered some Nachos, this is what I was handed:

I tried my best but despite the nachos being delicious even I could not complete the task of eating all of it. Purely out of respect for defeating me in such a way I award Two Thumbs Up!

The next day we went to the Carnegie Science Center which was a lot of fun especially the robot floor and going aboard a WW2 submarine.

The highlight however was at lunch time when I discovered a taste sensation.....the corn dog! This was on my 'to eat' list but I have to say I was not overly excited about it. Seeing them be eaten on TV and in the movies they didn't look overly exciting...but wow, delicious! The biggest surprise of my American cuisine odyssey so far, a big Two Thumbs Up!

Speaking of food, I'll rewind to my last day in Ohio when Jim and Phyillis took us to a Bob Evans Restaurant, where Jim insisted I try Biscuits and Gravy. Now what Americans call a biscuit is very different to what us Brits call a biscuit, the American biscuit is a soft muffin/cake type thing and is most commonly a breakfast food served with honey or gravy.  I was a little skeptical,  but from the moment I arrived Jim has insisted this was a must try and I'm glad he did insist because the biscuits and gravy gets a Thumbs Up.....it doesn't compare to the joyous surprise of the corn dog so I just can't give it Two Thumbs.........sorry Jim!

You may have noticed that most of my verdicts have been fairly positive but its time for that to change....My first negative review is going to disappoint the Echement family and most people of the city of Pittsburgh. According to Kate and her family the best Pizza in the City if not the world can be found at Vincents Pizza Park, it was also made clear to me that not liking 'Vinnie's' pizza could jeopardize my chances of being accepted into the Echement fold.

But fear not reader I know you look to the American Adventure as a beacon of honesty and truth on this subject and I will not bow to peer pressure!  So sorry Pittsburgh, here it is....

What arrived on our table I almost failed to recognise as a pizza, instead all I could see was a small lake of grease upon which was floating a wafer thin base of dough with a ridiculous amount of mushrooms and pepperoni heaped on top as if the person making it was having an epileptic fit. Before eating Phyllis offered me some advice and informed me that I would have to use a knife and fork to eat it or break of the crust and use it to scoop it up...... I slithered a slice onto my plate and tucked in hoping it would taste a lot better than it looked........sadly not.  Kate was horrified and I think she would genuinely have found it less shameful if I had stripped naked and streaked around the restaurant singing god save the queen. Two Thumb Down!

This one may just offend the entire USA....Root Beer; it tastes like the mouthwash my dentist gives me to rinse my mouth out.... Thumbs Down! Sorry America. 

On a less controversial note, Kate and I had a great day with two of her best friends Yulian and Kyle and their daughters Bella and Katherine, who I have to admit may be contenders for being the cutest kids I have ever met. We went to the Pittsburgh Zoo where Kate used to work; and her old friends who still work there allowed us to go behind the scenes and get up close to some of the animals including Monty the Python.

After the Zoo we got a Starbucks and chilled out at Yulian and Kyle's hotel where I managed to catch the final stages of the Champions League final and watched as Chelsea continued to be recipients of Lady Luck's never ending supply of Lucky Charms and won, which thoroughly depressed me. We headed out to dinner at the Church Brew Works and I was very much looking forward to getting a drink from this famous micro-brewery and Restaurant. The Church Brew Works gets its name for being in an old Catholic Church and I was amazed when we walked inside.

Kyle and I then went over to the bar to try one of the micro-brews on offer; we were both asked to provide ID which I was expecting and so I handed over my UK Drivers License which had been accepted several times at other restaurants and got me into a nightclub the night before, but here it was not to be accepted! The only document they would accept from me was my passport, which I didn't want to carry around with me the whole time and was of course back at Rob and Bev's house. Kyle also found out that his drivers license had expired and was also refused.We were not happy. But we got our table and Kate and Yulian bought us our beers and we made our order.

We were sat quite contently for about 10 minutes until the manager approached our table and asked for our ID's again as he had been informed that we had been carded and were now drinking. The place was packed so quite clearly the bartender who had apolagised profusely for not being able to serve us had ratted us out.......whaaaaaaaaaaat a Dick! The manager wanted to take our drinks but we instead pushed them over to Kate and Yulian's side of the table. From then on every server kept glancing in our direction to see if we would take another illegal sip of beer, which was extremely uncomfortable. Then my only consolation of not being the only one suffering was taken away as Kyle was able to renew his license online and be served. To add insult to injury they forgot to bring out our starters, for which there was no apology or any attempt to remedy the situation with a free drink and/or dessert; so for shoddy customer service TWO THUMBS DOWN. However, it must be said that my steak was unbelievably good and the few sips of beer I was able to have was delicious.....Two Thumbs Up. This was really disappointing as the Church Brew Works is a truly unique place to eat and one of Kate's favorites and she has never had such problems there before.

America's illogical strictness on serving alcohol....... FOUR Thumbs Down!

Unfortunately Kyle and Yulian could only spend one day with us as they had to leave early the next morning and begin a 10 hour drive home, so we hung out with them and the girls back at the hotel room and watched Harry Potter before finally having to say goodbye. As well as meeting Kate's friends I have of course been meeting the family members, the pressure has been on but my English charm offensive has got through ......... I think!

That's it for this chapter, the next entry will about our visit to Washington DC!

Matt's American Adventure: Cats, Cars and Blue Men

After the marathon Kate and I spent the next two days lounging around her parents house watching movies and eating a mixture of junk food and left overs from her mother Phyllis's amazing home cooked dinners......it was AWESOME! 

The following two days were little bit more action packed. First Kate, Phyllis and I traveled to The Wilds, the largest endangered wildlife conservation centre in North America. We were going primarily to speak the Wilds Director of Animal Management Dan Beetem; a meeting that had been set up by Kate's friend and The Wilds supporter Sue Moderalli, who was there to greet us when we arrived. 

The Wilds is simply stunning and the work being done there is hugely impressive. It is situated on almost 10,000 acres of reclaimed coal mining land and was created by a group of civic leaders, political leaders and zoo professionals who believed that a serious scientific approach was required to find solutions to environmental concerns. The Wilds recently became under the management of the hugely respected Columbus Zoo. 

We were first taken to their 'Mid-sized Carnivore Conservation Center' where they keep several cheetahs, Wild Dogs and Dholes. This is where we met Dan and he showed us around the research facility which included a clinic, laboratory and quarantine pens. We then saw the animal enclosures including the off exhibit cheetah breeding complex. Kate and I were very interested in the design of the enclosures and holding areas which gave us some ideas for our holding pen complex at the NCCC. We of course got to see the animals themselves including their newest additions; two recently born cheetah cubs.

We discussed all kind of conservation related topics with Dan, and he was really interested in the work we/N/a'an ku se does and hoped to keep in contact.  We then went on the open bus tour through the enormous open range areas that are home to rhino, camels, giraffe, zebra and numerous other endangered species.

After leaving the Wilds I was dropped off near Mid-Ohio racetrack to meet up with Kate's brother Rob who had invited me to spend the next day with him and his friend Tony who were testing their race cars in preparation for a race in a couple of weeks time. It also was a good excuse to get me out of a baby shower Kate and Phyllis were attending!

That evening we had dinner at a steak house and I enjoyed a good prime rib and one of the biggest desserts I've ever had; a brownie covered in ice cream -two thumbs up! :)

 The following morning we went to the track where many other car enthusiasts had gathered with their sports cars. I have to say I know absolutely nothing about cars and not a particularly big racing fan but I really enjoyed the experience and Rob and Tony were patient enough to answer my dumb questions.

When Rob and Tony went out onto the track I went up to the stands to watch; I must have been there for 10-15 minutes when something unexpected happend:
An accident training exercise got underway........ :)

The highlight of the day undoubtedly was a ride in a Porsche 911 GT3, which Rob had arranged for me. Even me who knows nothing about cars could tell that this one was pretty damn cool!

After reassuring the car owner that there was very low risk of me vomiting in his car I put on the helmet and strapped myself in. I had no idea what to expect as I have never even come close to being in such a car but the next 15 minutes at 140mph showed me exactly why people like fast cars and racing.....it was an awesome experience. Big thanks to Rob and Tony!

Two nights ago we went to see the Blue Man group at Pittsburgh's Benedem Center. Earlier that day on Skype I told my Mum and sister this and they told me they had never heard of them, which I found astonishing; but having said that, they were in the UK and had not bought tickets to see them......the same couldn't be said for the row of woman sat directly behind Kate and I who for whatever reason had showed up and were not shy in letting everyone in earshot that they clearly had no idea what they had paid to see. One lady became concerned during a humorous pre-show skit involving an electrical scrolling text board, because as the letters scrolled telling jokes and making the audience cheer and clap, the lady could be heard saying "so is this what the whole show will be?"......you would have thought the show being called 'The Blue Man Group' would have given her a clue that the show would actually include some BLUE MEN!!!

It also soon became clear that one of them couldn't see very well and another had hearing difficulties so their companions were oh so kind to give them a running commentary on proceedings, thankfully most of the show included loud music and the moronic ramblings of these woman was drowned out but when the Blue Men were performing a quiet and very funny twinkie eating routine with a volunteer from the audience there was no escaping the cries of "what are they doing?", "why did he do that?" and "this is so stupid!" with the appropriate response given to them by their companions.....unbelievable. I of course in true English fashion dealt with this situation by making quiet tutting noises and giving them a stern stare. The row of twittering idiots aside the show was fantastic and hugely entertaining, I later found out that this was the opening night and therefore reviewed in the local paper.

Well, that's it for Chapter 3 of the American Adventure, keep checking in for more excitement including stories about why Kate and I will have our photo in the next local 'Whirl' magazine, a party with robots and my verdicts on more classic American cuisine!

Matt's American Adventure: The Marathon

A couple of months ago, Kate casually mentioned in a conversation about our upcoming holiday that we would be participating in the Pittsburgh Marathon, and as you can imagine this was quite a surprise and the response I gave was ‘are you out of your mind?!’ or words to that effect....

It was then explained to me that it would actually be the Marathon Relay, and it was going to be a way of paying tribute to Kate’s grandfather who passed away in 2005 and be a good way of raising money for the NCCC. So I agreed and started upping my running routine. However, closer to our departure date I got two shocking bits of info my loving girlfriend failed to mention to me; the first was the fact that the leg I would be expected to run would be around 10kms  (way above what I was used to) and the other was that the Marathon would be on the SECOND day after flying in.  This did not fill my heart with glee. With this new information I then began to try and run the entire perimeter of our 500ha soft-release cheetah enclosure at the NCCC, which was around 10km. By the time of us flying out I could get around it somewhat uncomfortably in around and hour and 10 minutes, far from spectacular!

As my previous blog explained the journey out here had left me feeling half dead and the night before the marathon Kate was also feeling the effects of a long two days of traveling.  We would spend the night at Rob’s house (Kate’s brother) in the city and we both hoped we would awake in the morning feeling much more with it.

The alarm went of at 5.30am, we dragged ourselves out of bed, put on our relay tribute shirts to Kate’s grandfather and some coffee and bagels later Rob drove us and Kate’s sister Allie into Pittsburgh. Kate and I we were feeling pretty good…. Allie who had also been wrangled into doing the run at short notice and not a morning person was understandably not overly happy with proceedings!

It is here I should mention what a beautiful city Pittsburgh is with its bridges and attractive skyscrapers and as we entered the city we found plenty of activity with runners making their way to their starting positions.  It was also a clear sunny day and starting to warm up Africa style.

Our first stop was to drop Allie off at her relay exchange point as she would be running the second leg, Kate’s cousin Erin at this point had just set off at the start of the marathon on leg 1 (Erin would continue and run the half marathon).  I was then put on a shuttle and taken to my exchange point where I would wait for Kate who would be running leg three. I had anticipated to be quite bored waiting for Kate to arrive but the atmosphere was really great with spectators and waiting relay runners cheering and clapping the professional runners as they ran past as well as giving the incoming relay runners lots of support. It was here I started to feel carried away with the spirit of the event and had thoughts of continuing onto the finish line after handing over to Kate’s cousin Kari on the final leg. I was wide wake, I felt good and wanted to rise up to the challenge of my rivals.

The clock read 2h.38min and our team number was called over the speakers and I spotted Kate in the distance….my turn was up. I gave Kate her medal, a quick kiss and I was away! Playing in my ears was inspirational music I had pre-chosen specially and I felt the eye of the tiger within me!

However, I had been running for around five minutes when I started to feel something wrong with my legs, a pain right down both of my shins, aka ‘shin splints’. It suddenly dawned on me that whilst training in Namibia I had been running on dirt roads and now I was running on tarmac.  I was now seriously worried I wouldn’t be able to make the exchange point let alone the end of the race. I slowed my pace down and hoped to run off the pain and thankfully, slowly but surely my legs started to recover. I had aimed not to stop even once but felt I had to be careful and so I stopped to stretch my legs out. After that I was able to pick up my pace and make some progress on some runners who had overtaken me, including a relay woman in a tutu. Pictured below is one of her relay team mates:

It was getting pretty hot at this point but there were plenty of fluid stations along the course with volunteers handing out water, Gatorade and oranges. There were also lots of local residents standing outside their houses cheering us on and spraying their hosepipes onto the course.

My stamina levels felt really good but every now and then my calf muscle felt a little strange  (I did something to this muscle working in the weeks just before flying out) and I knew it would be unwise to try and go to the end. However, I decided to really make an effort and try to finish my leg within an hour, I was also determined to catch the tutu woman!

I had no idea how long I had run for and found myself running along a long street; right at the end I could see shade tents (which I knew were present at the exchange points) and a gathering of lots of people. I thought it must be the exchange point and therefore I was on the final stretch of my leg; so I started gunning it, tutu woman in my sights. I was flying past runners and eventually the pink blur of the tutu whizzed past and behind me, victory! However, upon reaching the scene of activity I discovered that it was not the exchange point and simply a larger fluid station with a street band and happy on lookers............Bollocks!

As I ran around the corner, I was faced with another extremely long street. But there was no way I was going to let anyone who I had passed overtake me again, especially the tutu woman! So I dug deep and kept a steady pace. I heard one onlooker clapping support and shouting ‘2kms to go!’ and I have to admit those two kilometres were hard. But thankfully my legs held up and I made it to the exchange point where I handed over to Kate’s cousin Kari who gave me my medal. I had finished with a time of 59 minutes and 40 seconds, with tutu woman behind me!  

After catching my breath and chugging some water I jumped on a shuttle that took me close to the finishing line. The traffic now was slow and by the time I got dropped off and walked over to the family reunion area Kari had long finished and I was the last to meet up with everyone, which included more of Kate’s family. Kate greeted me like a worried mother who had lost her child in a Mall....no faith! I was introduced to everybody; her cousin Geraghty had run the entire Marathon, and her Aunt Beth, Uncle Jim along with Erin’s mother Barb had run the half marathon.  

Obviously we were all very tired, but back at Rob’s house his wife Bev had prepared a pretty spectacular spread of food to refuel us.  Kate’s parents were there as well as her Grandmother who was extremely grateful for our efforts in memory of her husband, Harry. It was a great feeling to have been a part of it plus we have raised quite a bit of money for the NCCC. A successful day all round I think you would say :)

So Harry’s Harriers total time total time was 4 hours, 28 minutes and 8 seconds, finishing 545^th out of 924. Not bad considering and something to be proud of!

Matt's American Adventure: Living the Dream

That's right, the English Gentleman has made it to America, the land of the brave, free and David Hasselhoff! I am writing this first Chapter of my account of Kate and I's 'vacation' at Kate's parents lovely home in Youngstown Ohio, close to the City of Pittsburgh. I am supposed to be with Kate at her friends Wedding but I have yet to recover from the journey here and have had to stay home drowning myself with vitamin water hoping I can recover in time to run the Pittsburgh marathon relay tomorrow, yep that's right, a Marathon Relay..... but more on that later.

This is the first time Kate has been back home in over two years so for the last month she has been acting like an excited child on Christmas eve. For me it is my first time to the US of A, and I have really been looking forward to immersing myself in all things American, especially the food! It is also the first time Kate and I have gone away TOGETHER in the whole time we have been together, that alone has been great.

But before the fun could begin we of course had to get here and the journey was interesting to say the least. The flight from Windhoek to J'burg was fine but getting on the plane to Atlanta proved more troublesome. When we arrived at the gate we were greeted by two enormous ques one for the men and one for the women, the purpose being an extra controlled security check. I joined the men's que and watched as passengers removed their shoes, were scanned and had bags searched. I was stood for only a couple of minutes before I was asked by an official to step aside and follow him for a thorough search. 'Thorough?' I thought to myself, if the searches everyone else is having isn't thorough what the hell is in store for me!? I was in no mood to get a gloved finger poked where the sun doesn't shine!

I ended up in a room with a handful of other selectees and where we were again made to form the two ques. Playing from speakers in the ceiling was music by Enrique Englesias, maybe this was some form of psychological test or a way of flushing out any western culture hating terrorists, who knows? I awaited my turn tapping my toes to the music and watched the procedure which appeared to be much of the same but with an extra thorough frisking and a part where they wiped some sort of pad over the palms of the hands.

I passed the inspection and liking cheesy pop music turned out not to be a reason for detention so I was allowed onto the plane and thankfully met back up with Kate. The flight from J'burg to Atlanta would be almost 16 hours, one of the longest if not THE longest flight you can experience. My big problem on flights is that I find it almost impossible to sleep and so I engaged in a marathon movie watching session. After a sleepless 11 hours I started to not feel well at all; not drinking enough and staring at the little TV screen ensured I got a thumping headache. When we started our descent the change in altitude made me feel nauseous and I had to visit the bathroom just before landing to throw up. I REALLY wanted off the plane.

Getting some fresh air was a welcome relief but as we entered customs another huge que greeted us; fighting the desire to pass out I entered the foreign visitors que and proceeded to be the last person through the process due to being given a right grilling by the customs officer who wanted to know my entire life story and my exact movements for my entire stay - maybe this was the consequence of tapping my toes to Enrique Englesias?  Desperate for a drink and the chance to sit down I was almost through only to be ushered to ANOTHER que as the inquisitive customs officer had assigned me to have further screening due to coming from Africa and having worked on a farm.

But even after this I had one more hurdle to go through as we had arranged to meet up with a good friend of ours and former CCF intern Ashley; which meant having to exit the arrival terminal, requiring another shoe removal, bag check and walking through a device that looked like something out of Star Trek.

This whole process was tortuous and by the time we met up with Ashley at the Atlanta Bread Company all I could do was give her a hug and pass out on the seating area. Kate played nurse and made me chug down some water and take some drugs. As Kate and Ashley caught up I found some strength to go to the bathroom splash water on my face and change my stinking shirt. It was here I had an experience not too dissimilar to a scene in the first Austin Powers movie and I warn those of you with a nervous disposition, this will not be pleasant!

I was sat in a cubicle and despite having the choice of dozens of open stalls a gentleman entered the one right next to me, sat down and proceeded to make enormously loud grunts, groans and noises I will leave to your imagination. With my condition as sensitive as it was this really was not what I needed and I came very close to throwing up again. Those of you who remember the Austin Powers scene will remember the punch line "What the Hell did you eat!?" but I did not hang around to find out!!

I felt really bad saying goodbye to Ashley after being useless company with only a horrendous toilet based anecdote to offer, but she had to get to work and we had a flight to Pittsburgh to catch. Once through security and back into departures I was in serious need of something to pick up my spirits, and being in the USA I of course found it.....the American Dream......a delicious ice cream flavour from Ben and Jerry's. 

By the time our flight landed in Pittsburgh I felt somewhat better and was able to act like a normal human being when being greeted by Kate's parents Jim and Phylis and Kate's sister Allison. Thankfully I had already met Jim and Phyllis during their holiday to Namibia last year (I had also previously met Kate's brother and sister in law) so thankfully I didn't have the pressure of meeting all of the important family members for the first time. Also they all happen to be extremely nice and haven't tried to warn me off Robert Deniro style........yet! :-/

It was here my exploration into American cuisine began as we went straight to one of Kate's favourite restaurants 'Chipotle Mexican Grill'. Having not eaten breakfast and feeling better my appetite was back and I was well up for some good grub. I was not to be disappointed, I have a feeling Chipotle will be one of my favorites; lots of different options, spicy and very very tasty! I give it a Matt's American Adventure score of two thumbs up! :)

We then went to Kate's parents house which as I mentioned earlier is really nice and in a nice area; and despite my mother's concern about me coming to the states, not a single gun shot could be heard :)

We unpacked and relaxed on the back deck; Jim made Frozen Margaritas and Phyllis handed me a present, two boxes of Twinkies! A Twinkie was first on my list of things to try when Kate and I first started planning for this trip. This is because the name Twinkie has always been in my head from watching American TV and Movies, most notably in the recent film 'Zombie Land'. From seeing it on screen it appeared to be a simple sponge cake with cream inside but I discovered it to have an almost mythical reputation with stories about it having no shelf life and being one of the few things able to withstand a nuclear holocaust.

So I wasted no time removing the fabled Twinkie out of its wrapper and took a bite.......and it tasted like a simple sponge cake with a cream inside. An enjoyable snack but not my choice of fuel if I was ever caught up in a zombie attack. So somewhat disappointingly I give the Twinkie a Matt's American Adventure score of "Meh".

It has to be said most of Kate's family have found my fascination with the Twinkie a little bit odd, as none are great fans themselves. But as I told Jim and Phyllis as they laughed at me munching on a Twinkie with one hand and holding a Frozen Margarita in the other, from my point of view I was 'living the dream'! 

The next chapter will feature much more of my impressions of Pittsburgh, especially as I will be running through much of it in the Pittsburgh Marathon, I hope I survive to tell you about it!

PS - Much better photos will coming when Kate and I buy ourselves a camera in the next few days!

Suarez vs Evra: A Modern Day Witch Hunt

I wrote a blog in September last year about the depressing rise in people who believe the utter nonsense that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by some sort of government conspiracy. I pointed out that this was partly due to the internet with its Twitter, Blogs and amateur websites where anyone and everyone will have their say and state opinion as fact. Importantly I described the thoroughly depressing truth that many people will believe something just because many others do, with this common ridiculous argument given in defense of absurdity:

“There HAS to be some truth if so many believe it”.

I don’t think there will be a better example highlighting the power of ill-informed web chat and instant media to warp the minds of a population into acting like a brain-dead mob than the recent racism case of Luis Suarez, because make no mistake what this has turned into is a disgusting witch hunt on a national scale.

On the 15th of October 2011 Liverpool played Manchester Utd at Anfield and after the game Patrice Evra accused Luis Suarez of racial abuse. Soon after John Terry the England captain was accused of the same offense and then good old Sepp Blatter made the crazy statement saying there is no problem with racism in football. Crazy because there have been many instances of black players having bananas thrown at them and having monkey chants directed their way in Russia, Italy and Spain.

BOOM and so it begins. Racism is the big topic of choice and all eyes of the media fall on not the England captain but Luis Suarez.  You know, "the weasel faced, hand balling cheat of the world cup who throws himself to the floor whenever he is touched". Even before this incident Suarez had had to endure constant abuse from fans, a situation not helped by rival team managers such as Alex Ferguson (I refuse to call him Sir) attempting to influence referees by accusing him publicly of ‘diving all over the place’, which is a bit ironic hearing this from the manger of Ronaldo and Nani.

Now whatever your view on Suarez as a footballer that should be irrelevant when the charge is something as serious as racist abuse. Being given the label ‘racist’ can be career ending and have life long consequences. The Suarez case needed to be judged in isolation and the media to be responsible.

However, very early on in this case disturbing signs were emerging about just how our media were going to handle the story when the Sunday Mirror published an article with an interview with Alex Ferguson who despite being told by the FA not to discuss anything about the issue, went ahead and talked about the issue. In the article he proclaims “racism is creeping back into the game”. The picture chosen to accompany this piece? One of Evra and Suarez of course.

This was deeply irresponsible of both Ferguson and the Mirror because quite clearly it was stirring the pot and subliminally points the finger at the villain of choice, Suarez (even though he had not even been charged at this point). When the charge comes Suarez strongly denies it and it begins to emerge that there may be some confusion over the word ‘negro’ which in Suarez’s native tongue is not a racial slur. No internet footage appears of the incident and it appears there were no other witnesses. Clearly, this was not ever going to be a straight forward case.

But despite everyone’s human right of being innocent until proven guilty its quite apparent what the general public and media had decided, for the next two months Suarez is abused at every game he plays by away supporters and the media frenzy over racism escalates. Everyone and their dog now wanted to make it known that racism is VERY VERY bad and must be stopped! More often than not Suarez’s name was mentioned and his face pictured.

Remember this, by the time Suarez got to defend himself in the FA hearing he had had to endure two months of abuse and have his name dragged through the mud by the media. The public mood to exclaim to the world “we hate racism” is at boiling point, all the baying mob needed was a monster to throw their pitch forks at. 

They were not disappointed, the so called ‘independent’ panel of three white english men found Suarez guilty of racial abuse but state that Suarez is NOT a racist. Evra also states he doesn’t think Suarez is a racist. However, despite not thinking Suarez a racist they punish him to the max with a ban of eight games and a fine. Disgustingly the FA do not release the evidence along with the verdict, which when the case was clearly about a complex issue of the nuances of different languages you would have thought immediate clarification would have been preferable. For the baying mob the word Guilty and the maximum punishment was all they needed.

 

This was the headline from the Mirror (again). There really is no better example of how low the English media have gone than this utterly irresponsible and dangerous headline. By doing that the Mirror basically gave people permission to refer to Suarez as exactly that....a racist. Even the Neanderthals at the Mirror should have known what this would mean for Luis Suarez and his family.  Away fans will forever feel entitled to chant ‘you’re a racist’ when he plays and no doubt idiot passers by in the street will not be able to resist hurling abuse towards him. Shameful.

Liverpool FC released a very strongly worded statement clearly expressing that they failed to see how such a verdict could be reached when it is solely down to one person’s version of events against another.

Without the details why the verdict was reached and the pure venom spitting of the front pages the club unite around Suarez. The players release a statement in support and wear Suarez T-Shirts whilst warming up before their next game. Quite clearly to anyone with a brain these actions said to the world ‘We know this man is NOT a racist’, which is what the media WERE labeling him.

But no, the media with its unqualified commentators pore scorn on the club for defending a racist and defending racism. And don’t forget the guy they're defending is that "weasel faced, hand balling cheat of the world cup who throws himself to the floor whenever he is touched".

But of course it gets worse, much worse. The FA’s report was finally made public, at the oh so convenient time of New Years Eve. For the mob the report had everything they wanted to hear ‘inconsistent’, ‘unreliable’, ‘evidence rejected’ and ‘guilty’.

I find it genuinely quite scary that the vast majority of so called journalists from the sewer depths of the Red Tops up to the heights of organisations like the BBC have fundamentally failed to analyse this report in its entirety and see it for the agenda driven embarrassment that is is. Purely aimed to make a statement about racism.

I wont go into much detail to explain why because it is much better presented in these excellent articles by respected Liverpool FC writer Paul Tomkins:

Suarez (Still not a Racist)

All Spanish Speakers are Racist

Now let me make it clear, this is NOT Liverpool FC and its supporters ‘blindly defending' one of their own’ and therefore turning a blind eye to racism. It is about supporting a human being who has been branded a racist for the rest of his life based on nothing more than three men believing one person over another. When you read the report and discover how exactly they came to this conclusion you are left open jawed at how flawed the process was and even more astounded why everyone else can not see it. I suspect the worrying truth is that they can see it but choose to continue their witch hunt. Why let the truth get in the way of a good story eh?

The main two points is that the ‘independent’ panel believed Evra to be more reliable than Suarez and they rejected Suarez’s claim that he used the word ‘negro’ in a non abusive manner. I refer again to Paul Tomkin’s articles as there are SO many examples as to why these conclusions are absurd.  I will say this regarding Evra’s credibility though, he is known for previously making a FALSE accusation of racial abuse and just that simple fact alone should place significant doubt over his testimony. And please look at the following youtube clip of Evra using the ‘N’ word. In the hearing Evra said he would never say the word. CREDIBLE?..........REALLY?

No one is saying there are not inconsistencies in Suarez’s testimony and the way Liverpool handled themselves in the hearing leaves a lot to be desired but when the charge is as serious as racial abuse, you would think there would be the need for extremely strong evidence. Even when using the FA’s 'balance of probabilities' the report is flawed, every inconsistency by Suarez is used as evidence of guilt whilst Evra is inexplicably given the benefit of the doubt. And if the FA really want us to believe that there was no bias then WHY has Evra not been charged for admitting referencing Suarez's race by saying ‘Don’t touch me South American’?

How exactly do three white men have the right to decide that they find it ‘inconceivable‘ Suarez could not have used the word  ‘negro’ in a non abusive way? There is obviously a real inability for people in this country to get their head around the fact that this word in other parts of the world has NO derogatory connotations, and their opinion of it being ‘inconceivable’ is exactly that, their opinion, NOT fact. Whilst they're busy telling foreigners how they are allowed to speak maybe they should charge the entire country of Argentina for racist abuse:

The fact of the matter is that the media and the online frenzy seen on Twitter and other chat rooms has rocketed up the issue of racism to boiling point. Now everyone is clambering to make it known they are not racist, and the best way they see to do this is to morally condemn Liverpool FC and Suarez. Liverpool’s decision not to appeal was ‘not good enough’ and an apology by Suarez was ‘not good enough’. Just like a swarm of Piranha in a feeding frenzy the attackers are unstoppable, the web is festered with amateurs and so called professionals constantly pouring fuel back onto the fire with an anti-Liverpool rage that seems out of control.

I am writing this the morning after Liverpool beat Oldham in the FA cup and Oldham's Tom Adeyemi has claimed he was racially abused by a supporter in the crowd. Well, what better news for the frenzied mob?!!!! Before the facts are known and claims investigated the mob on Twitter know what this is all about:

"So a liverpool fan racially abused an oldham player,I’m not surprised cuz when u have kenny dalglish backing suarez wot the hell do u expect" 

Oliver Holt's reply:

"I think you’re right. I also think that thankfully, what we’re seeing here is black players not prepared to ignore any more" 

Now Oliver Holt is a professional journalist...... and that's probably one of the funniest jokes you’ll hear all year.  But to publicly agree with such a flagrantly absurd statement is deplorable, utterly irresponsible and most of all phenomenally hypocritical? Why I hear you ask, well because Oliver Holt has written biographies about a certain John Terry, John who? John Terry, you know the England captain accused of the same charge who has been defended by his club and a certain Mr Holt. But i forgive you for forgetting because  apparently video evidence of him saying ‘Black C**t’ is very different and not worthy of a national hate campaign, plus when you play well reporters will actually praise you for doing so with such a terrible accusation over your head.

This is total lunacy and right now I am fully ashamed to be English, if the government here weren’t so strict on the issue I would seriously consider changing my nationality to Namibian!

Liverpool FC has been accused of bringing the game into disrepute and discrediting the anti-racism message. On the contrary, in such a rush to be seen to take racism seriously the FA have found a player guilty with no conclusive evidence whatsoever and instigated a media circus dripping with xenophobia that I truly believe will be remembered as one of the most shocking examples of a baseless character assassination by media in modern times.

If a supporter at Anfield DID shout racist abuse then he needs to be banned for life. But clubs whose fans chant ‘You’re just a town of racists’ as they did last night also need to be heavily punished. Because if Luis Suarez is hounded from this country it will be to the eternal shame of the FA and all those leading the mob online, as we would have proved ourselves not to be a nation of tolerance but instead a nation of easily lead mindless bullies who will happily see someones life ruined just because they look a certain way and speak a different language.

When Suarez has served his ban will the public and media allow him to get on with us life - "The weasel faced, hand balling cheat of the world cup who throws himself to the floor whenever he is touched"?

Sadly I’m not optimistic......

EDIT - Good news there is more intelligent life out there:

Media on Racism: Part 1-Churnalism

Nestle: Born and Died a Free Cat

We received the sad news from Erindi Game Reserve two days ago that Nestle, one of the chocolate sisters we helped release into Erindi was found dead. As of yet the cause of death is unknown, although as a wild cheetah there are numerous possibilities. She could have been killed by lions, snake bite, illness or sustained a fatal injury whilst hunting.

This was of course tough news to hear especially as we were responsible for looking after her during our two and half years at CCF and were part of the team that watched her and her sisters take their first steps back to the wild.

Nestle and her siblings Toblerone, Hershey, Lindt and Cadbury were brought to CCF in February 2003 when they were only eight months old after they, but not their mother was trapped on a farm near Otavi. Therefore the mother was suspected to have been shot. Lindt and Cadbury were released into the NamibRand Reserve in 2008 along with three other males. The chocolate sisters spent most of their time at CCF in the Bellebenno cheetah camp and they along with their adopted sister Chanel were chosen to be released back to the wild as part of a rehabilitation project last year.

Nestle could probably have been described as the grumpiest chocolate sister and when approached by people she would usually hunch her shoulders and scowl. Before being fitted with a collar with red tape on the antenna this distinctive posture was a good way of distinguishing her from her sisters! Around a kill she was also the most defensive and would normally be the first one to charge towards whoever approached.

During observation of the coalition in Bellebenno it appeared that Nestle was the ‘lowest ranking’ member and would sometimes be found away from the other three and it remains a possibility that her death may have happened after she had separated from the others.

I’m sure her sisters and Chanel are wondering where she has gone. However, they will adjust and continue on as a trio, and as much as the loss of Nestle saddens Kate and I, we have no regrets. Chanel and the Chocs were released into CCF’s Bellebenno game camp on the 1st of September 2010 and Nestle therefore had just over a year of freedom. Over that time Erindi staff members have taken many people on tracking safari’s to see the four girls and they have been filmed by numerous TV film crews. Therefore, Nestle has helped educate and inspire people and also enjoyed a bit of fame!

The Bellebenno release will always be a highlight of our time in Namibia and we’ll always have a special connection with Chanel and the chocs. RIP Nestle, a life well lived.

Bye Bye Boris!

 The 30th of October marked a very important moment for the NCC as it was the day that saw our first cheetah released back to the wild. It was made even more special as it was also the 40th cheetah N/a’an ku se has released.

 

The cat in question was Boris, the four year old male who was trapped and taken to N/a’an ku se’s wildlife sanctuary in May 2011 after he had been hunting game repeatedly on a small game farm in the Windhoek area. For a complete account of what happened check out the NCC blog.

It was a really great feeling watching him go free and we tracked him yesterday and even got a visual, he looks in really good condition and we suspect he has already made a kill due to his bulging belly. So for Boris, so far so good :)

Here is a great video of the release made by my colleagues at N/a'an ku se, unfortunately I'm in it. In the video you may notice a film crew filming proceedings. They were filming for an Animal Planet documentary series about N/a'an ku se which starts next year in March. The show will be called 'Wild Animal Orphans' so keep an eye out. Kate and I will be featured in the episodes about the NCC, thankfully, for me anyway, in a non-speaking role!