Living with Fire – Addressing Global Change through Integrated Fire Management

Scientists, fire management experts and government policymakers from countries around the world will gather at Sun City in South Africa's North West province, in May for the hottest event on the international firefighting calendar.

The Fifth International Wildland Fire Conference will take place from May 9 – 13. The theme is “Living with Fire – Addressing Global Change through Integrated Fire Management.”

WILDFIRE 2011 will be held under the auspices of the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the Food and Agricultural Organisation.

Topics to be discussed at the conference include adapting to climate change in a post-Kyoto protocol period; the Mega- Fire phenomenon; cutting-edge technologies in fire detection, monitoring and fighting; how fire management programmes can help alleviate poverty in South Africa and elsewhere; how communities in many countries are preventing and fighting fires that would otherwise cause devastation, and the progress made in drawing up international agreements and guidelines for managing wildfires.

The conference, funded with assistance from the South African Government, will be held under the auspices of the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the Food and Agricultural Organisation. WILDFIRE conferences only take place every fourth year with past conferences have taken place in Seville, Sydney, Vancouver and Boston. 2011.

Please join the Wildfire 2011 Facebook page.

To do so:
Open your own Facebook page.
in the "search" line at the top of the page enter "Wildfire 2011".
The new page will open. Press the comment: "like"
Or comment on a posting
This will enable you to receive our daily updates and learn more about Wildfire 2011
Anybody can become a member of this Facebook page. We will also communicate with delegates through this Facebook page and introduce them to information about South Africa and the conference.

HWB guested at JB Met

HWB on CNN iReport

iReport —

Former South African president, Nelson Mandela, was admitted to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on Wednesday for what the Nelson Mandela Foundation called "routine tests".

It's been all-over the press and media for the last two days, but with no clarity on the matter. It's now said that authorities should just be completely open with the media/press on Nelson Mandela's hospitalisation and that they should provide
regular updates.

"They are opening themselves up to rampant speculation by not keeping the press informed," said Evelyn Holtzhausen, chief executive of Cape Town-based HWB Communications.
"The first rule of public relations is to keep the press informed."

Since then there has been a string of visitors to the former president, including his former wife, Winnie Mandela, who was seen leaving the hospital in tears earlier today.

There has been a lot of speculation since the word got, but whatever the case may be, I'm sure of one thing...the whole South Africa or more likely the whole world, are hoping & praying for Mandela's speedy recovery.

Be Open on Mandela, say PR gurus: HWB leads media on advice

(This is an edited extract of a news item that moved on the SAPA news wire today, January 27, 2011)

Authorities should be completely open with the media on Nelson Mandela's hospitalisation and provide regular updates, public relations experts said on Thursday.

"They are opening themselves up to rampant speculation by not keeping the press informed," said Evelyn Holtzhausen, chief executive of Cape Town-based HWB Communications.

"The first rule of public relations is to keep the press informed."

He was speaking as scores of journalists continued to camp outside Johannesburg's Milpark Hospital, where Mandela was admitted on Wednesday for what the Nelson Mandela Foundation said -- in a two-sentence statement -- were "routine tests".

Since then there has been a string of visitors to the former president, and a brief statement from the African National Congress giving no further information of substance.

Holtzhausen said that from a PR perspective, Mandela was an internationally-renowned statesman, and there was an obligation on his minders to keep the people of South Africa and the rest of the world aware of what was happening to him.

The media ought to respect his need for privacy, but at the same time he was a very public figure.

"They should be issuing bulletins regularly," he said.

Holtzhausen, himself a former journalist, said that from what he had seen, the media had certainly been respectful, and had not indulged in speculation.

He said he spoke on Wednesday to the editor of a large-circulation South African newspaper, who had said they was aware of the need to handle the issue very sensitively.

"There is responsibility [on the side of the media], but it's also up to the gatekeepers of Mr Mandela to show recognition of the critical role the media play," Holtzhausen said.

Holtzhausen said the number of high-profile visitors and family members who have been to see Mandela in hospital gave rise to the suspicion that his stay involved more than just "routine tests".

Source : Sapa /dbm/th

A historic literary moment: the long-overdue movement to abandon Caps Lock.

THE END IS NIGH. That's the message Google sent last week when it unveiled its new laptop, the Google Cr-48 notebook. The computer has all kinds of new features—Chrome OS, a simplified design, and free broadband. But perhaps the boldest change is Google's decision to ditch the Caps Lock key. In its place is a Search button, denoted with the image of a magnifying glass. Users can still designate the search key as the Caps Lock—they just have to take the time to change a few settings. But the default is that if you want capital letters, you have to hold down Shift.

What's most shocking about Google's announcement isn't that it's scrapping Caps Lock—it's that the button has lasted this long. Caps Lock originated with typewriters. The first typewriter to include both upper- and lowercase letters was the Remington No. 2, introduced in 1878. (Before that, typewriters printed only in uppercase. Stop shouting at me, writers of the 19^th century!) Uppercase letters were typed by holding down a "shift" key that would literally shift the carriage so that a different part of the type bar—the part on which a reverse uppercase letter was printed—would hit the ribbon. The problem was, it was hard to hold down the shift key for more than a few letters. So typewriter manufacturers added a "Shift Lock" button that would keep the carriage elevated until the button was released. It was a useful innovation: Typewriters didn't have options for italics or bold or underlining, so capitalization was the only way to emphasize words. By Christopher Beam Slate.com

Welcome to 2011

The offices of HWB have re-opened for the year.