Shake Hands with the Devil- a Debrief

Ten years into my career as an aid worker, I have finally brought myself around to reading Romeo Dallaire’s Shake Hands with the Devil. For those not familiar with the book, General Dallaire was the Force Commander of the United Nations Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) between 1993 and 1994, during the time of the Rwandan genocide. Shake Hands is his memoir of the events that took place during his twelve months or so in that office.

I’ve had the book on my iPad Kindle app for over 2 years, and had it on my reading list for many more. I think I delayed reading it because I knew what the content matter was going to be and, quite frankly, you kind of have to steel yourself for that sort of thing. You know before you open the first page it’s going to be a harrowing read, especially because it covers true events.

I’m not overly sensitive to these things as a rule. Over the years I’ve had to deal with horrendous subject matter coming across my desk. Pretty much the first task I was given when I started out in this line of work, back in 2003, was to synthesise what was going on at the time in the Liberian civil war, and the stuff I waded through did a good job of setting me up to deal with almost any horror stories the aid world has pitched my way since. That said, it still takes a certain energy to sink yourself into an account that deals with such tragic material.

The events in Rwanda, as well as being one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century- a period that was not short on tragedies- also act as a milestone in the development of the humanitarian industry, and I think anybody in this line of work has a responsibility to understand intimately the dynamics and processes at work during that time, how the history unfolded, and the complicity of the international community in what happened. A few years ago I read Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families, a book that is in some ways even more harrowing than Shake Hands, although in other ways, less-so. At any rate, in my opinion both Gourevitch and Dallaire should be required reading for anybody working in the humanitarian sector. Or, for that matter, in international relations and foreign policy.

I recap the events of 1994 briefly because they are so devastating in their impact that it is inexcusable that there be any chance they might be relegated to some dusty shelf of historical anecdotes and forgotten. They must be retold so that our children, and theirs, know what transpired. I was a teenager at the time of the genocide, nearly twenty years ago now, and living in Geneva, and I suspect had more exposure to the events at the time than many people my age. Those very much younger than myself may not remember them at all. Regardless, I believe it is our responsibility to remember the victims and what happened to them, just as it is our responsibility to carry the memory of those who have died fighting just wars.

The backdrop to the genocide is complex and deep-seated. Rwanda- a tiny country in the heart of the African continent- has a population divided between two key ethnic groups- a minority Tutsi and a majority Hutu. The Tutsi did at various points over the last couple of hundred years hold a disrepresentational amount of wealth and political influence, in part exacerbated by the Belgian colonial system. A sequence of ethnic slaughters had occured over many decades, with atrocities committed by both groups. By 1993, a large contingent of Tutsis were living as refugees in Tanzania and a rebel Tutsi army was carrying out offensive operations in the north of the country against the mainly Hutu government forces (and populace). Rwanda had a government dominated by increasingly extremist Hutu elements, and the international community was attempting to broker a naive peace agreement between the belligerents.

On the night of April 6 1994, the plane transporting Rwanda’s Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down, killing all on board. Those responsible for the shooting down of the airplane have never been identified, however it is generally (though not universally) accepted that the assassination was carried out by Hutu extremists, who immediately blamed the Tutsis and used the killing as an excuse to launch what was to become the Rwandan genocide.

The genocide itself had been planned for months, if not years, with weapons stockpiled, militias organized, victims identified and a campaign of hate propaganda disseminated. It was no spontaneous chaos.

Over the next three months, while the international community failed to intervene, far-right Hutu death squads carried out a systematic and well-rehearsed annihilation of Tutsis and moderate Hutus across the country. An estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered, roughly 8-10,000 per day, most killed with machetes and farm implements. Rape and torture were systemic. The killing was only really brought to an end as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the Tutsi rebel group led by Paul Kagame (now Rwanda’s President), took control of the country and drove the genocidaires, together with nearly two million Hutu refugees, into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). There, the violence continues nearly 20 years later.

As part of the Arusha peace negotiations, UNAMIR was given a Chapter VI (peace-keeping) mandate to monitor a cease-fire between the RPF and the Rwandan Government Forces (RGF) from late 1993 onwards. Dallaire, a Canadian, had command of this mission, and was present during the six month lead-up to the genocide, and was also on the ground throughout the height of the genocide itself and the accompanying civil war.

The United Nations has been widely condemned for its inaction in stopping the genocide from occuring, given that it had both intelligence that plans were underway, and peacekeeping troops on the ground who, at times, stood by and watched while civilians were hacked to death in front of them. Gen. Dallaire, as UNAMIR’s Force Commander, is unavoidably tainted by this failure, and although the book only touches intermittently on the subject, consequently suffered years of psychological illness as a result of the situation he found himself in- as did many of the troops under his command.

Shake Hands is an interesting, at times awkward book structurally, because it is several things at one time. It is, at its most superficial level, a memoir of the twelve months or so that Dallaire spent in Rwanda. At another level, it is Dallaire’s own attempts to purge his demons- to put down in writing and convince himself, if nobody else, that he did all he could. And on another, it is a methodical, almost clinical account of every step, every decision, every administrative process that prevented the international community from stopping a genocide that people clearly knew was in the works before it even began.

The book is written entirely from Dallaire’s perspective and as such focuses almost exclusively on his own experiences and reactions. It hangs in an odd space of being both banal and horrifying. In the space of a single paragraph, the prose jumps from describing some bureaucratic tedium of logistics or process, to a vivid description of bloated bodies jamming a stream, or the hacking to death of a group of children.

The narrative is subjective but reads fairly. There are those he singles out for damnation- particularly the leaders of specific world powers who failed to intervene, some of the poorly-equipped and -disciplined UNAMIR military forces, and the apparently inept UN Special Representative in Rwanda. Others he praises, particularly those he served with, but others too. Whether critical or applauding, his judgement is consistently based on the merits of their actions and contributions.

There are moments when the book reads like a list of defences, as though Dallaire is trying to demonstrate at every point that his hands were tied. His approach is methodical and reflective of his military background. As far as his position is concerned, he has crossed every t, dotted every i. He does not shirk blame either but acknowledges that he has failed- one could even say that he is unduly harsh on himself- and reading between the lines, it is easy to see that behind his careful description is a soul that is tortured by a guilt it will never, ever escape.

In many ways this is the second tragedy of the book- not to compare in any way to the horror of the genocide itself. Dallaire was put in an inexcusably impossible position, and essentially hung out to dry. Dallaire’s account- and history more generally- makes it clear that the powers that could have intervened quickly to stop the killing- the US, France, Britain, and to a lesser extent Belgium and other nations- allowed the bureaucracy of the international system to tie itself in knots and found excuses not to engage. Dallaire and UNAMIR were left with negligible resources, a nearly powerless mandate, and virtually no ability to seriously defend themselves- let alone intervene against multiple hostile militant forces to protect civilians. The argument is quite clear: had Dallaire gone on the offensive with the scant troops available to him, it would have been literal suicide. Tens of thousands of people were undoubtedly saved from death by the actions that UNAMIR, under Dallaire’s initiative, did take, but the overall inaction and the weakness of the force meant that hundreds of thousands that might have been saved perished. Dallaire, caught in the middle of both the war and the criminal negligence of the international community, has to live with that knowledge for the rest of his life.

It’s often said that the biggest threat to the emotional and mental wellbeing of aid workers is not the difficult scenes they witness on the ground, but the ineptitude of colleagues and the breakdown of organizational systems and political will to actually create a solution. Reading Shake Hands, the overwhelming sense is remarkably similar. The accounts of the violence visited on innocent Rwandans makes for horrible reading (though to be honest I found Gourevitch to be far more confronting from that perspective, as his journalistic style and his choice of stories made the accounts far more personal, less clinical). However what makes you come away from the book feeling sullied, angry, and deeply affected is just how simple it might have been to save 800,000 Rwandan lives, and how a broken and self-serving international system completely failed to kick into action.

There was nothing ‘new’ per se in Shake Hands that I didn’t already know. I’ve read enough accounts, visited enough analysis on Rwanda, and spent enough time in the humanitarian and international systems to understand how Rwanda was utterly failed. None the less, being taken through these failures step by step, and watching them add up- not just one error, not just ten, but a conspiracy of failures that sprawl from one end of the narrative to the other- is heartbreaking.

I came away from Shake Hands with a melancholic but intense respect for Romeo Dallaire. Like the tragic hero of an ancient epic, his story is deeply flawed. None the less, his humanity, the impossibility of his situation, and his heroic efforts to resolve it within the limits of his capacity come through.

The read is a heavy one, both in terms of the subject matter and in terms of the methodical way that Dallaire lays out the bureaucratic impediments put before him and how he worked to move the system forward. It leaves you with an anger at the decision-makers who stood by and allowed the genocide to occur. Not just the genocidaires themselves, but powerful people- Francois Mitterand, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, even the likes of Kofi Annan (then in charge of the Department of Peace Keeping Operations and who has recently released a book on the subject of the challenges of humanitarian interventions) and Boutros-Boutros Ghali (then UN Secretary General)- leaving you wondering why some of these men and women aren’t also standing before a tribunal to give account of their actions and their complicity in genocide.

Shake Hands isn’t fun, but it is an important narrative and I would seriously endorse it to anybody involved in this line of work. We all have a responsibility to understand tragedies like this. It is where history finds its highest value as a discipline- trying to ensure that we (as individuals, even if larger institutions around us fail) do not become guilty of repeating past mistakes, but work to avoid and solve them. And to take the time to unpack the sorts of complexities that a case like Rwanda presents means we’re more likely to take that time to understand the current events of our time that equally can’t be summarized by a tweet or a headline- Somalia, South Sudan, Libya, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Sri Lanka, Darfur, DRC, the LRA and Myanmar to name just a few.

Sorry for the heavy post. As you can see, the book left me needing to do a little written debrief. And in its defence, going through some tough things in my own life just at the moment, it really helped me get some perspective on what really matters.

Read Shake Hands with the Devil. But maybe keep a glass of your favourite scotch handy to wind down afterwards.

NB: A note on the photo used with this review. I have never traveled to Rwanda myself- much as I would like to- but friend and fellow photographer Nick Ralph was there not long ago and snapped this gorgeous shot of a young boy with a scythe, with building rain clouds behind. I love the shot- it’s the sort of image I really like in photography, and the child, the red soil, the dark skies and the lush green backdrop are very evocative of the Rwanda that Dallaire describes in his narrative. Additionally, I like the image because, despite the sombre tones of both shot and article, it shows that 18 years on, Rwanda has taken a road towards recovery- albeit one that is incomplete and still fraught. I want to thank Nick for giving me permission to use this shot. Do check out his 500px site, where hopefully he’ll start putting more fab shots like this one up. Incidentally, Nick tells me this shot is in fact a stitch of four vertical frames. Nicely worked sir.

Blue Lagoon Beach Resort: The Real Slice of Paradise

The last time I wrote about Paradise, I was being more than a little ironic. PNG was far from my idea of a good time- however pretty the pictures look. The post was hard, I struggled with the culture and the professional isolation, and for all the good diving and some of the good folks I spent time out there with, it was still a relief to move on to a different stage in my personal and professional life.

I went to Fiji in July. It was my fourth trip to the little island nation. I went once for a family holiday in 2001, followed by a couple of work trips in 2008 and earlier this year, and this latest trip was a combination work-play. The first two weeks were to be spent helping manage an interagency disaster simulation for NGO staff in the Pacific across half a dozen agencies, as well as Fijian government representatives. The third week I was to be joined by my [now] fiancee for a bit of relaxation on a small island.

I’ve always figured Fiji for a nice enough place, without being really special. It’s a bit synonymous with package holidays and honeymoons, a sort of upmarket Bali with fancy hotels belying a fragile national economy. We booked into a resort hotel based on input from TripAdvisor, and despite the glowing reviews I was a little dubious. The idea of packaged meals and a resort-style trip (something I’m not at all familiar with) left me a little uneasy.

Besides, I’ve been to a lot of places. Over 50 countries worldwide. A whole bunch of beautiful beaches and coastal holiday areas- Cairns, Noosa and Sydney in Australia, dozens of places in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Hawaii, Tahiti and Mombasa- to name an incomplete list. I’ve snorkelled or dived in most of those places, swum and relaxed or sunbathed (to some extent) in all.

So when I say that the Blue Lagoon Resort in Nacula is as close to beach paradise as I’ve come across, I know what I’m talking about.

Overview

Where to start? I’m a bit overwhelmed really.

Well, first off, an overview. A brand-new resort, Blue Lagoon pitches itself as a mid-range option to independent travelers that suits budgets of better-off backpackers and flashpackers and young families. It’s quite boutiquey- probably around sixty guests at any one time- and it’s a ways out there too- some four and a half hours’ boat ride from Nadi, and at the top end of the Yasawa group of Islands off Vitu Levu’s west coast.

Nacula is a decent-sized island about 10km long and maybe 2-3 wide at its widest. The resort is situated on a beach shared with one other low-key resort on the west side of the island, giving it stunning views at dusk as the sun sets over the Pacific.

And the beach is the one you’d create if you had a drawing board and 10 million years of geological time at your disposal.

It’s an arc of white sand sloping from a green verge into a turquoise lagoon of calm warm sea. The lagoon itself slides away on a shallow gradient where a natural channel has formed through the coral reef, while small waves lick quietly at the shoreline.

More on the reef presently.

I’d heard nice things about the resort, but had a feeling that, based on the slightly backpacker-ish pitch of some of the material I’d read (they have a backpackers dorm as an accomodation option) I was concerned that maybe the rooms would be a little pokey. I’d settled myself with the thought that even if the rooms were a bit small and/or run-down, the main attraction was being out and about on the beach, so I steeled myself for the worst.

Unnecessary.

The Place

The rooms are delightful. We booked a Delux Garden View room, set back a row from the beach among lush and flowery growth, riddled by sandy footpaths. Stepping inside, the bure was large and spacious, with a high open ceiling, fan, wooden slat-blinds that allowed free-flow of air, and an open-air bathroom with magnificent shower. It was clean, new, well-built, and smacked of simple quality.  It was light. It was airy. And sitting on the foot of the bed, you could look straight out of the front door and (despite not being an sea-view room) see the irridescent aqua of the lagoon itself.

Really, once you hit location and accomodation, you don’t need too much more than that to go right to have a good time. None the less, there was more.

I’m not a fan of Pacific cuisine (sorry to any of my island readers out there). A year in Melanesia didn’t overwhelm me with vibrant culinary experiences, so I was a little suspect at having to package all our meals in with the accomodation, and face the prospect of not getting to choose off a menu. But again, this was completely unnecessary.

The food is great. A wide variety of styles- curries, fish, western, asian and Pacific- is on offer, with meals varying each night of the week, and a limited a-la-blackboard menu option at lunch time as well. The dishes themselves were nearly universally tasty, and the variety and volume left nothing to be desired. You do need to plan ahead a little, as meal-times are set and there aren’t stacks of between-meal options, but we had a little heap of biscuits with us that we never made it through, testament to being well fed. Communal eating didn’t really appeal at first (dinner takes place at shared tables- gasp!), but the barefoot vibe of the place (and the travellers frequenting it) facilitates a really chilled-out opportunity to get to know people.

The Experience

Never a package-holiday traveller, I wasn’t particularly interested in the daily activities that the hotel lays on, but in fact they had some fantastic little trips available, of which we partook several. Snorkelling trips to explore other nearby reefs, sunset and drinks on the sandbar (we missed this one, sigh), a hike up to the island’s highest peak (beautiful views), and a handful of cultural visits as well were all on the menu. A must-do trip is to the Nacula Caves, which involves a series of swim-throughs of saltwater limestone caves at the top end of the island- not for the claustrophobic, but otherwise a unique and fantastic morning which everybody enjoyed.

An aspect of the resort which we really appreciated was the attitude of the management. Run by Australasian expats, the management are accessible, friendly and helpful, and mingle easily with the guests. The local Fijian staff are warm, welcoming and hospitable, as well as being very professional. It’s the sort of place where you get to know the staff by name- and they you.

More to the point, the resort prides itself on its links to the local communities on the island- something that we found especially important in terms of our own values in this area. As well as trips which incorporate, employ and interact with villagers, the resort runs a scholarship fund for students on the island to which cover costs of fees, uniforms and school supplies, as well as contribute to the maintainence of the school facilities. Guests are invited to contribute to the fund, and the resort will match dollar-for-dollar whatever is donated. There is a sense of respect and interaction between the resort and the village, which I hope the management will be able to maintain as the resort ages.

I would be wrong not to return to the lovely reef. Quite aside from the access to a number of dive-sites in the area via the on-site dive-shop (do the shark dive), the snorkelling is, well, unlike any other beach snorkelling I’ve done. While I’ve seen a handful of reefs that are more vibrantly coloured close in to shore (but only a handful), the diversity and volume of fish-life was a delight, and never this accessible, anywhere. If I reel off a bunch from memory, there were Triggerfish, Moorish Idols, Parrotfish, Chromis, Anthias, Unicornfish, Sweetlips, Jackfish, Dascyllus, and a host of other reef favourites. The more special visitors included a shoal of Reef Squid, Stingrays, a huge Octopus and a metre-long Barracuda- all within 10 metres of the beach itself! The reef is accessible at high- and low-tide (and in fact the reef life differs at the two extremes, worth checking out), and more to the point it’s a joy to swim along; the channel provides a shallow sandy-floored passage that drops to a couple of metres in depth for a long way out into the lagoon and which is very comfortable to swim along, and the reef raises a wall along the southern edge of that passage where most of the action is. It’s a safe, enjoyable way to investigate the sea life, and we did it every day, and loved it.  For sheer accessibility to a really exciting reef, this can’t be emphasised strongly enough.

As I referenced in an earlier post, I proposed out at Blue Lagoon (and would have been hard-pressed to chose a better location for it). Before heading out, I dropped Kylie (one of the managers) a note letting her know my intentions and asking if there was anything a little special I could arrange with the hotel’s help. She was most supportive and immediately gave me a list of options, including a lobster dinner for two on the beach (away from the horde), and the option of having a picnic on a secluded private island nearby- both of which I seized upon and both of which were thoroughly enjoyed.

Some Balance, Please?

Words of moderation? Well, a couple probably. First up, once you’re on the island, you can get away without paying much more, but the temptation will always be to do things and have drinks, and these will add up. You don’t use cash out there, everything gets recorded in a book and you pay up at the end, so if you’re not keeping track you could be in for a bit of a surprise- nothing (except some of the activities) is particularly cheap- although it’s not extortionate by resort standards either. That said, having food taken out of the equation is a pretty good thing, and we managed just fine with our bill.

My biggest fear for Blue Lagoon is that as word gets out, the place will get a little overrun. The reviews on Trip Advisor are pretty rave, and with good reason- this is a very special place right now, and somewhere that we will never ever forget (not just because we got engaged out here). It’s been open less than a year. I’d love to think that the management will be able to maintain the relaxed vibe several years into operating with high demand and through-flow, but it’s not impossible to imagine it getting a bit worn-out, so I’d recommend getting in sooner rather than later.

And, well, the cocktail list could probably be improved on. But really, when you’re four and a half hours from the mainland and everything has to come by boat, you can understand why these things might be a little lacking, if that’s your thing.

All up, this was probably my best single hotel/resort experience, mixing a lovely blend of quality, relaxation, activities and experience, all at a very reasonable price. My hat goes off to the team running the place as they’ve created a really special location with a perfect unpretencious vibe. Great for travellers, flashpackers and families with a reasonable budget, this goes right to the top of my list of ‘places you should visit in the Pacific’.

Verdict

Accomodation- 5/5 Light, fresh, new and spacious. The open-air shower has to be experienced to be understood. A range of really pleasant options from budget through laid-back comfort, this isn’t the Denerau Hilton, but why would you want it to be? Ask for Garden Villa 11 and get sea views thrown in for free.

Food- 4/5 Great taste, decent lunch options and a good range of evening meals, despite not having any control over the dinner menu. This would be a total win if there were more between-meal snack options and a wider range of drinks at the bar, but really, I’m just looking for things to quibble about because there’s really not much else to add balance.

Location- 6/5 Amazing reef, gorgeous beach, sunsets and tropical vibe- this has to be one of the best-located resorts in the Pacific. What can I say to the Blue Lagoon’s detractors? Would you like the hotel moved a little to the left?

Activities- 5/5 Relaxation is key here, and relaxation and swimming are free, but the creative options for daily activities mean that for those unable to entertain themselves still have an option to keep busy. Do the cave trip. Not for adrenaline junkies- but hey, this is Fiji. If buzz is what you’re after, Queenstown is to the south. And there’s always the shark dive.

Vibe- 5/5 Just brilliant. Beanbags in front of the open-front bar, barefoot dresscode, bonfires on the beach, and a general emphasis on chill-out throughout. And small enough to keep it personal. Really, really lovely.

Management- 5/5 Friendly, accessible, helpful, flexible and professional. What more would you ask for?

Ethics- 4/5 It’s refreshing to see a resort pay more than just lip-service to supporting local communities. It’s hard to know what impact a throughflow of western travellers will have on the island’s economy and environment, but the fact that they invest in local education is a great thing, and the friendly disposition of both local staff and local villagers we interacted with suggested that the attitude is more than just a marketing ploy for the time being.

Value- 5/5 Value is an entirely subjective term. I appreciate every dollar we spent at Blue Lagoon and don’t have any regrets, as we came away with a set of beautiful memories and a great time. It’s not the cheapest option out there, but my word do you get what you pay for in terms of location and vibe.

Blue Lagoon also gets an extra 5 points from me for that little extra something for laying on a really special time for us as we got engaged. Just fantastic.

Thanks guys for an amazing stay.

Details

You can check the Blue Lagoon website here for tarrifs.

Room rates start from FJD 40 per night for a dorm bed, through lodge rooms at FJD 140, and villas ranging from FJD 209 through to the delux ocean-front villa at FJD 449. Food packages are included at FJD 70 per person per day, and return transfers to the mainland, FJD 276. (FJD 1 = AUD 0.57; FJD 1 = USD 0.51)

All up, it means a mid-range stay option for two adults for a week comes in at around FJD 2,000, so if you couple that with a good flight deal from Australia, it can be quite accessible- though is by no means at the bottom end of the price scale. Worth every penny, in my opinion, but everyone values different things.

Of course for a different extreme in the travel stakes, check out a couple of my tales from West Africa. Now there’s a cheap way to have a travel adventure…

iLove iPad (A User’s Crush)

As many of you know who follow me on Twitter, I recently procured the latest gizmo prerequisite for those of us whose veins suffer junkie-esque cravings for connection to the interwebs.

iPad polarizes audiences like a Federal Election. You vote Apple, or you vote The Other Guy. I hate to admit to being an Apple Otaku. I feel my love of [most] of their products is a result of years of experience with their various platforms (largely blissful) contrasted with the indentured servitude I experience locked into my work laptop (a dull HP Compaq) and the distinct lack of envy that clangs down every time I see somebody whip out a Crackberry (or even, dare I say it, an Android).

My family was indoctrinated into the way of the Bitten Fruit early. The father of my best mate growing up was a large jovial Bavarian man with a booming laugh and a bear-hug as-standard. Klaus worked as an Apple rep and technician for CERN (Centre European pour la Recherche Nucleaire) in Geneva, and had done so since the early eighties when he graduated from handling punch-cards for computers the size of studio apartments. Since about ’87 my family have been Mac Addicts. My mother just got herself the latest iteration in her desktop kingdom, a 27” iMac which looms over the living room like a highway billboard.

I never got an iPhone, largely because I struggle with phone contracts, but I have had an iPod Touch for eighteen months and it’s a gem. Until a few weeks ago it was my favourite little device (as opposed to my base computer, a MacBook Pro) and it came with me overseas, replete with movies, music, and the opportunity to note down thoughts and even the outline of blog posts.

I now think of it as a cute little toy.

iPad is seen as a gimmick by some, a flawed opportunity by others, and the future of personal computing by still more. I wouldn’t fit myself neatly into any of the three categories. I bought it, however, with a clear vision in mind, that as a platform I felt it was going to have immense potential, limited primarily by the creativity and interest of App designers. A week into my love-affair with my black-clad little companion (my fiancee is already making jealous remarks), I stand by my assessment.

(A brief nod to all you iPad widows out there. A friend and colleague from the States bought one right after its release. He showed it to me with affection and explained hang-doggedly how he reckoned it might have been the worst thing to happen to his marriage in several decades of happy relationship. After the first week or so of besotted interaction , his wife snapped at him, ‘Get that thing out of the bed!’)

All About Apps

iPad is a platform and a portal. Like many things related to the web these days (including social media platforms like Twitter), it’s less about the architecture, and more about your vision for what you hope to achieve through it. If you approach iPad with a clear idea of what you want to do with it, it will serve you well (providing the necessary apps have been designed yet). If you drift up to it expecting it to entertain you, well, it can do that, and do it with class, but you may be left wondering after a while where the substance behind the style is, or why you just bought a $600 mp3 player.

I bought iPad with the intention of scaling back my need to take a laptop to the field with me, to interact with web content (especially social media), and to engage in content creation (particularly blog posts and other written documentation). With those three key strategies in mind, I’ve been thrilled with the output.
iPad is a pleasure to use. The large touchscreen is beautifully intuitive in true Apple style (I LOVE that the instructions manual is a single glossy post-card sized piece of paper, one side of which is a picture of the iPad with the four buttons labelled). The size is just about perfect- small enough to be portable, large enough to be a pleasure to use, and practical for the fingers. I can type well with the onscreen keyboard, and my eyes soak in that gorgeous screen.

For content creation, representatives of the iWorks suite (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) are arguably the most powerful mobile applications in their field. Although without the full functionality of their computer-anchored counterparts, they are simple to use, with a representative of the most common and important tasks and options which gives you 98% of what you’d want to do under normal circumstances. Multimedia handling and desktop publishing are beautiful- you’re able to caress images into place among a sea of words and watch the architecture arrange everything for you in the way you always feel MS Word should but blatantly doesn’t.

To support that process, I purchased the Bluetooth external keyboard. It was a great buy and I love it. I spent a goodly portion of this weekend in bed, iPad resting lightly on my knees and keyboard in my lap, writing 12,000 words-worth of some upcoming blog posts, and loving it. Far more comfortable than having an overheating laptop sweating on your legs, and highly portable as well.

To engage with social media I finally engaged with TweetDeck, which is a lovely interface and very easy to use and display what’s going on. When I’m within range of a wi-fi network it will become my new default in Twitter interactivity. Better still is the must-have app for anybody inclined towards social, which is Flipboard. The architecture pulls out web content from your RSS feeds (including Facebook and Twitter) and arranges it through a clever use of ever-changing templates into a multimedia magazine format, complete with updates, images, movie clips and articles, all spread out before you in a beautiful interface.

A few other apps out there that I’ve enjoyed using are Informant HD, which is a powerful and extremely enjoyable personal organizer (I am rubbish at using them IRL, but this one is great, and I already have most of the key tasks relating to a certain upcoming wedding mapped out); Disaster Alert, which links in real-time to the Pacific Disaster Centre and updates major disaster events globally in real time (floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, human disasters & tsunamis, among others); and the must-have no-purpose entertainment app Gravilux, which through a complex set of physics formulas lets your fingertips act as points of gravity in a universe of tiny starlike dots. It sounds mundane, but use the colour settings right and the screen can seem to sparkle, and playing with it to a good bit of trance music in the background gives you a euphoric sense of creative joy.

A Little Balance

I’m not so lovestruck that I can’t see the point of some of the iPad’s detractors. There are a couple of flaws, in my opinion largely forgivable. The lack of Flash compatibility is obviously the biggest- and the closest to being unforgivable as well. There are creative workarounds, but in short, finding web functionality reduced on some pages (for example, even the ever-so-important stats graph on my WordPress blog!) is a bit of a drag. The screen definitely smudges- though you only notice it when the iPad is off, because the backlight overpowers your fingerprints. The default case available from Apple is on the flimsy side for those of us who want to whack our devices into our backpacks for long journeys or commutes, and the more padded alternative I’ve chosen to protect that beautiful screen only allows me to set the iPad up vertically on its stand, not horizontally (same complaint with the docking station that Apple offers as well; a landscape orientation option would have been lovely). There are still limited apps out there (though not doing badly considering the things not even been out six months yet) and you can’t find everything you want. And perhaps the most unforgivable crime for those of us in Australia- the rather wonderful iBooks app- which (again, imho) poos all over Kindle with its gorgeous formating- has no books for it! Apple hasn’t managed to secure any Australian copyrights yet, so we’re stranded for the time being and are left using Amazon’s rather bland alternative (though I will say that on the iPad screen it is still a pleasure to read documents).

All up, I rather feel that I’m nitpicking in an effort to sound balanced. But I’d hate to be accused of partisanship.

Aww what the heck. If Steve Jobs were running against Julia and Tony, I know where my vote would go (assuming, that is, that I had Australian citizenship, which I don’t).

In Conclusion…

My take on the iPad is that it’s a powerful platform whose potential is barely being tapped yet. People talk about waiting for the next iteration, and I wouldn’t stop them from doing so, but I suspect any changes will be iterative, marginal and cosmetic. As it stands, it’s a powerful tool already, with the possibility of becoming moreso by orders of magnitude as more applications are developed, and more content is set up to enage with a mobile platform.

There’s little doubt that mobile connectivity and content creation is an increasing trend, and iPad offers a medium that is both practical, and also enjoyable to use (a crucial facet in consumer choice and in longevity). I feel it strikes a great balance, and while there are features lacking or flawed, they barely rub at the sharp edge of what is without a doubt my favourite toy at the moment- and one which I can already see outstripping my personal computer for most tasks (and with luck, my work computer as well).

I’d go back to my original statement. iPad is for people who have a vision for what they want to do with it, and otherwise it’ll become a very expensive toy in your collection. I see it as a powerful tool, and I can’t wait to watch it and the apps which fill its innards evolve over the coming months.

These fun and colourful Apple-themed wallpapers are freely available from http://applewallpapers.net

Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino

Another anime review. Skip this if you’re not into anime. Yeah, I know it’s not aid work, but I do have a little leisure time you know.

Okay, and I’m a geek too.

In Il Teatrino, the follow-up series to the original Gunslinger Girl, the characters of the first season are back, with handful of extras, most notably the boy-assassin Pinocchio. While the first season focused primarily on the girls of the Social Welfare Agency and their stories, this second season becomes more plot-focused and splits its time evenly between the girls eponymous with the title, and a small band of terrorists against whom they are pitted. Picked up by a different production team, Il Teatrino isn’t the artful, subtle story that the first season is though dealing with the same sombre subject matter, so can hold its own, but with some disappointments. Read the full review here.

Anime Review: Gunslinger Girl

Been a while since I last posted an anime review. I’ve been working my way slowly through a few different seasons however, and hammered out a couple more reviews, with some still pending. Gunslinger Girl is one of my favourites, and don’t let the campy title put you off.

The Social Welfare Agency ostensibly saves the lives of children on the verge of death using cutting-edge medical technology. In fact, it takes them and turns them into deadly government assassins with cybernetic implants. Devoted to their handlers, these girls are at once deadly machines, yet retain the personality of the children they are under the surface. Artful, sombre, subtley told and full of dark notes and interesting contrasts, this series is a high-quality piece of anime as it tells the stories of half a dozen of these girls. Read the full review here.

Anime Preview- Claymore

Showcasing more first impressions of anime series (without having watched all the way through…)

Clare is a Claymore, half yoma, half beautiful woman, bred and trained by a shadowy organization to hunt down and destroy innard-devouring yoma (monsters) that ravage the medieval landscape.  Together with Raki, a young boy whose life she saved after his family were slaughtered by yoma, she travels from mission to mission, overcoming not just monsters, but the hostility of the mistrusting villagers whose lives she protects, and the yoma nature inside her own body, always struggling to take control.  Claymore isn’t the prettiest-looking anime around, but with a dark gothic feel and plenty of gore, this would be good fare for fans of the horror genre.  See the full preview here.

Anime Review- Gungrave

Another anime review.  I post these from time to time when I feel like showcasing something I’ve been watching.  Mostly for my own satisfaction.  And because it helps me process them when they’ve been imposing cathartic experiences on me.

Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowell, friends from childhood, vowed to make it to the top of the criminal organization of Millenion, until the day that Harry betrayed Brandon and had him killed in his own quest for power.  Brought back from the dead years into the future, Brandon is sworn to avenge his betrayal and the murder of the woman he loved, and to bring down the monstrous henchmen that Harry uses to control his vast empire.  Gungrave is an original blend of crime thriller and the monster genre, but an excellently-plotted, characterised and rendered series that is engaging and intense.  See the full review here.

Anime Review- Speed Grapher

Time for another anime review.

When famous but retired war photographer Tatsumi Saiga goes to investigate a shadowy club, he uncovers a sinister society indulging carnal pleasures, in which are embroiled the sinister Suitengu, and an innocent fifteen-year-old girl, Kagura Tennozu.  Mysteriously endowed with the sudden ability to make things blow up just by taking a photograph of them, Saiga rescues Kagura from the club and together the two of them try to stay ahead of the murderous Suitengu and his supernaturally gifted henchmen.  Speed Grapher is a formulaic and periodically gratuitous plot that never really gives life to its characters.  See the full review here.

Anime Review- Madlax

And again with the anime…

Two girls are inexplicably linked, half a world apart, by a bloodied picture book and a single word. Margaret Burton attends an exclusive school in a peaceful European capital, while Madlax is a beautiful but deadly agent operating in a war-torn South East Asian nation. A mystical power will bring both their lives crashing together.  This is a colourful, attractive and engaging adventure, told with passion and mood.  Read the full review here…

Anime Reviews- Figure 17

More anime goodness…

When Tsubasa, a chronically-shy only-child recently moved to Hokkaido with her father, discovers a crashed alien spaceship in the woods near their ranch-home, little does she know it will change her life forever.  This moving series blends sci-fi action with a tender story of friendship and growing up, showcasing lovely scenic artwork and fantastic characterisation.  Read the full review here…