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Under the JACARANDA TREE BY DOROTHY-JEAN MCCOUBREY I left the sunny shores of New Zealand just over six months ago to work in Africa. As I departed, the editor of this publication bravely said if I wrote stories he would keep publishing them. This is all very well, but I have learned such trust brings obligations. In return, I must come up with a new food safety or seafood story every two months. Believe me, when you are landlocked in some African country it is hard to feel a marine food safety story pulsing through the grey matter. I have tried to stay abreast of New Zealand's major marine issues. I noted the public spat between Greenpeace and Sealord on sustainable tuna fi shing methods and followed the exciting adventures of Happy Feet, who is possibly now in penguin heaven or at least forming part of the food chain. So this month I pondered the question, "Can blue and green ever be seen together?" In other words, can the capture fi shing industry ever prove its real interest in social responsibility to the environmentalists? Even if it could, would the environmentalists actually admit publicly that the fi shing industry is on the right moral track? I have struggled with this topic, carefully gathering up enough facts to ensure neither Greenpeace nor Sealords could start litigation proceedings to take away my hard- earned Zimbabwean dollars. Believe me, most dollars in Zimbabwe are earned the hard way. There is up to 80 percent unemployment in many areas, and blue-collar workers lucky enough to have a job earn no more than US$150 per month. The land reforms mean the "bread basket of Africa" is no longer producing, because many of those who know how to farm are no longer in charge of the productive fi elds. At least 1.8 million people live with the Aids virus, meaning life expectancy in Zimbabwe has now been reduced from 65 years to 38. There was an HIV prevalence rate of 43 percent on the farms, with the highest number aged between 15 to 23, the agricultural labour force. With such large numbers dying of Aids and no rural work, many families have fallen apart. I live in the inner city of Harare, right behind the Mannenburg Jazz Club, which means six nights a week my apartment moves to the beat until the early hours and on the seventh night I cannot sleep because it is so quiet. It also means many homeless people line up to ask for help at my local grocery store. I stayed staunch for many weeks, ignoring the queue and not knowing how to help what seemed like a bottomless pit. One day one of the young men, called Tenashi, said all he wanted from me was a smile. How can one resist such a black charmer? At that point I decided the queue was at least due my respect and some words of daily recognition. Tenashi has been on the streets for many years as his parents both died of Aids in the 1990s. Like many displaced Zimbabweans he has no paperwork to provide him with a real identity. To get such paperwork requires not only payment, but also bribery money to receive it in a timely way. Over the weeks Tenashi tried using his charm on me, asking for beer for his birthday party, cigarettes and meal money, but I decided the most practical way to help him was to arrange to get his national papers for him. A few weeks after doing so I found him waiting for me Tenashi (middle) was arrested by the police today and roughed up. To get out of police custody cost US$20.00 at my apartment gate. He excitedly pointed to his national identifi cation and showed me that September 9 was his birthday. I pointed out he had asked me in April for beer money for his birthday, to which he quickly responded, "But I did not know when my birthday was then! Now I know. I don't want your money this time, but I did want to thank you for giving me a real birthday." It is very possible none of my multi-million dollar African United Nations projects will come to anything for political and bureaucratic reasons. However, the smile of pure joy on Tenashi's face in being given his birthright with a day to celebrate each year is enough for me to feel I have actually done something worthwhile while in Africa. I have decided "social responsibility" does not only mean large corporate gestures, backed with signifi cant and expensive scientifi c work. It could be something simple like Sealord and Greenpeace sitting down to fi nd some common ground – they might be surprised how easy it is to fi nd. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 ■ NZ AQUACULTURE ■ 11