I look forward to joining the Steemit community. It is a truly intriguing concept. I hope I can contribute to the conversation, however it turns out.
Politics has been my first passion as a journalist. I wrote about it over several decades as a reporter, commentator and political editor for South Africa’s biggest newspaper group and later as a correspondent for America’s then mighty Knight Ridder/Tribune Media group. It was also as a political writer that I was a foreign-visitor guest of both the US and UK governments.
So politics is what I am going to be much on about.
Nature-conservation journalism came to me later in my career. As group environmental writer for South Africa’s Independent Newspaper Company and a contributor to National Geographic Online and magazines like Forbes Africa I attended UN and other conservation conferences around the world. I was honored also to have an IUCN/Reuters international award for environmental writing handed to me by Princess Takamado of Japan.
So environmental matters are something you are going to hear about a fair deal from me.
Then comes travel writing as a decidedly happy turn in my career. As a contributor to travel supplements and magazines, I toured parts of the US and Canada, the Middle East, Europe and in particular glorious Italy, and of course most of southern Africa with the array of nature parks that fits with its status as one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.
Now who can complain about a job that has you taste the delights on offer for the tourists of the world? So on this too I shall be sharing my impressions – and pictures.
I have been doing much writing on transfrontier parks, otherwise known as peace parks. This is where I have constantly found my political, conservation and tourism interests converging. To me such parks spanning international boundaries are the antithesis of greed, division and conflict. Thus, expect to hear a fair deal from me on this subject.
I hope you find what I have to say of interest. Whether agreeing or disagreeing, I look forward to hearing what you think.
