Contents Issue No. 301/2 -- 23/30 August 2004

  • Editor's Message
  • Quote/s of the Week
  • Ad Hoc Article/s of the Week
  • Bits and Bobs
  • The Legal Beagle
  • Help Desk
  • Where are they now?
  • Club and Other News
  • Humour
  • Recipes
  • Sports News
  • Credits and Contact Info
  • Subscribing and Unsubscribing

    • Send this Issue to a Friend! TOP

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    Editor's Message TOP

    Apologies for the non-appearance of SAWmail last week. For some reason our mail programme decided it wanted a holiday. It has now been upgraded so I decided to have a bumper issue before my departure.

    Didn’t ski weekend before this one just passed... I put my neck and shoulder out and was not allowed to ski, even if I had wanted to. Thanks to my new chiropractor things are feeling much much better and last weekend I had a great ski – it was like having a private lake all to ourselves if you can image that on Hartbeespoort Dam!

    We took my youngest son Emmett with us to get him skiing again. The last time he skied was when he came out to New Hampshire for Captain Ken and my wedding in 1997! He got up first time and even wanted to drop a ski!

    I think spring has arrived a bit on the early side... there are many trees already covered with blossom in our Bryanston garden.

    Reminder!! Captain Ken and I leave for the US at the beginning of September. I am staying on in England for a slightly extended visit with my dear daughter Deborah... great fun... and lots of shopping!!!

    And because of our holiday, we have decided to place our four mouseketeers (we now have only four, not five... as Lumi now has a good home with some close friends of ours and is thriving away from the pack) in kennels. Who to choose???? I went today to check out Global Paws and was extremely happy with the kennels and the attitude and the caring that I encountered. I saw lots of happy cats and dogs there - so am feeling very happy to take our furry family to board there for the time we are away. I shall keep you all informed by way of pics and articles on their 'holiday'.

    This is the last SAWmail until I return – so the next issue will be at the beginning of October.

    Quote/s of the Week TOP

    Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. - Ambrose Redmoon

    Depression loses its power when fresh vision pierces the darkness. - Peter Sinclair

    Determination, patience and courage are the only things needed to improve any situation. - Unknown Author

    Do not fear the winds of adversity. Remember: A kite rises against the wind rather than with it. - Unknown Author

    Each difficult moment has the potential to open my eyes and open my heart. - Myla Kabat-Zinn

    In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes. - John Ruskin

    There's no such thing as Perfection. But, in striving for perfection, we can achieve excellence. - Vince Lombardi

    I wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. - Kahlil Gibran


    Send in any quotes you love... that have some special meaning for you... and I will use at least one every week. Usual (new!) address! editor@saw.co.za

    Ad Hoc Article/s of the Week TOP


    Coming Home

    Welcome to our new section! Each week we will feature a question and answer sent in to the Company for Immigration. We hope these will help answer any questions you might have regarding any part of the coming home process. If you would like to send in your own question, please feel very free to do so.

    We will also be featuring a great amount of information on the SAW Website (www.saw.co.za) under the Coming Home section. You can also find out info by visiting our newly relaunched site, South Africa Online (www.southafrica.co.za) and checking out the Coming to SA section.

    Here is a bit more info...

    Whenever and wherever South Africans meet, the surest way to start a lively discussion, is to ask someone for an opinion about emigration from or remigration back to South Africa. In 2002 we (i.e. the non-profit immigration service, Company for Immigration, and the trade-union, Solidarity) realized that the return of South African expats had become a fact and that their inputs are essential for the growth and development of the country. We are neither interested in a debate about the reasons why people leave or come back, nor about the merit of their decisions. We prefer to provide a practical service instead:

    offering advice and assistance to prospective remigrants;
    addressing the problems which cause people to emigrate; and informing people about the pros and cons of emigration, to help them make an informed decision before leaving.

    Interested? Want to receive our monthly newsletter by email? Have questions or suggestions? If so, please visit our mirror sites www.comehome.co.za or www.komhuistoe.co.za and leave your details on the visitor's page, or contact us at admin@cfi.org.za. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

    Alana & Annatjie
    COME HOME CAMPAIGN

    This week’s query:

    Hello Maureen,


    I am writing this to you, because quite frankly I don't know whether I should be asking the SA Beagle, the SA tax fundi, or the US beagle for advice.

    My husband and I will have had our US Permanent Resident cards (green cards) for five years on April 25th 2005. It is our intention to apply to the INS for "change of status" to become American citizens. We are undecided about whether or not to retain our South African citizenship, since for all practical purposes we will end our days here in the States.

    However, a thought has occurred to us, which might have a definite impact on our decision. My husband still gets a (very small) pension from his long time employer in South Africa. It is paid into an account at a South African bank which we have kept open for that purpose, and twice a year it is sent to us in the US, where, with the exchange rate, it barely covers our auto insurance. Still, we were wondering whether a decision to relinquish our SA citizenship would have an impact on this.

    In addition, I have a small policy maturing in SA in 2006.

    We read in the weekend SA news online that there is a move afoot to change the format of the identity books to a card (we both remember the old green ones!), and also to change the passports, for 'better security purposes". My husband only has the old 'blue book', although just before we left I got the 'new" small green book. Our passports have several years to go before they expire, having been renewed in 1999. Would this have some impact on our little pension, and the policy in SA?

    We visited friends and family in SA in 2003, and hopefully, health and finance permitting, we are hoping to visit again in 2006. We had assumed that by then we would have American passports, but would that cause problems if we did not have the current type of SA identity documents to negotiate with our SA bank and insurance company?

    I hope that, with your own recent experience of going "back home" and taking an American citizen with long time connections here with you, you would have the wisdom to know to whom I should address these questions.

    Thanks for any help you can give!

    As Ray says......... Mooiloop! and say hello to Hartebeestpoort for me. I grew up just nearby there!

    Heather

    Dear Maureen.

    Please pass this on to Heather...

    In the first place I would recommend that they should apply for the retention of citizenship before naturalising in the USA. It costs only R110-00 per person, remains valid for life and as you yourself will know, is a simple procedure. We have all the forms in e-format and can even do it on her behalf if needs be. Neither South Africa nor the USA has a problem with dual or even multiple citizenships at this stage, so the process does not involve risks.

    For advice about the rest, one would have to know whether they officially left South Africa, with declarations signed and sent to the Reserve Bank, or just departed (so-called unofficial emigration). The later process involves all kinds of taxation and exchange control issues. If that was the procedure followed, they can consult with a South Africa tax/financial expert. I can recommend someone if required.

    Currently the ID-book which you have will not have impact on the operation of a South African bank account or insurance and I would rather not hazard a guess on what will apply in future. I think it will be many years before the cards will replace the books.

    They should also contact the insurance company and find out whether a change in citizenship will influence the payments. In my 14-years here I only once came across a pension scheme which expressly forbade the recipient from accepting any alternative citizenships, and that was a German insurance company, so I doubt whether their citizenship will create problems in that respect.

    If they however lose the South African citizenship, it might influence their right to hold and operate a South African bank account. Upon losing South African citizenship by naturalising abroad without applying for the retention of the South African status first, one currently gets granted permanent residence status of South Africa automatically, and permanent residents may hold South African bank accounts, but then the ID-numbers will have to be changed to reflect the new status and the bank would have to know that they live abroad.

    Summary - if I were them, I would either become a US citizen and arrange for the income to be paid into a US account, or naturalise but apply for the retention of South African citizenship first. Anything else will be very complicated and possibly even illegal.

    Hope this helps!

    With kind regards

    Alana & Annatjie
    COME HOME CAMPAIGN

    ---------------

    Pia, Italy, writes:

    Where can I find out about South Africa's quarantine requirements for pets?

    Alana:

    Dear Pia
    All the necessary information about the importation of pets and animals can be found on the web pages of the Directorate of Veterinary Services at www.nda.agric.za/vetweb. Follow the links for application forms, quarantine requirements and information about payment procedures. We can also send the necessary forms to you by email. Kind regards!

    Company for Immigration / Maatskappy vir Immigrasie
    P.O. Box 1283, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa
    T: 0027-12-3231428
    F: 0027-12-3239587
    admin@cfi.org.za


    'Senseless' Python in freezer case. Culprits criminally charged

    The NSPCA reports with dismay that the African rock python rescued from the freezer on the premises of the J A Rudolph Construction company was euthanased on 23 August. “It became clear she wasn’t going to make it, despite every effort made to save her. The ordeal she experienced was just too much for her system.”

    Rick Allan of the NSPCA’s Wildlife Unit stated that placing a reptile in a freezer is an extremely cruel means of trying to kill the animal. “It is a cruel act and would have been a long, painful death.”

    It is confirmed that a post mortem examination was carried out. It revealed that the snake was wild. She had eggs inside her.

    Sincere accolades and deep appreciation are expressed to the Johannesburg Zoo whose personnel did everything possible to assist the snake: - at 5 metres long, the biggest ever handled by the NSPCA.

    The case was taken over by the NSPCA from the SPCA in Kempton Park and specialist help was sought in an effort to save the snake that had been put in a freezer to kill it in order to make it into an ornament.

    The SPCA Kempton Park has laid criminal charges in terms of the Animals Protection Act. The SPCA Kempton Park and Gauteng Nature Conservation worked together on the issue and have laid additional charges.


    Ostrich Tragedy

    The NSPCA was present at emergency meetings in the Eastern Cape when avian flu was suspected and later confirmed. Its welfare role was welcomed by the authorities and consent was given to qualified personnel from the NSPCA being present to monitor the putting down of the birds which was accepted as necessary.

    NSPCA personnel remain in the area on farms in this monitoring role.

    The putting down of ostrich is confirmed as having begun on Wednesday 11 August 2004 and that, to date, 13 632 birds have been put down. This is on 20 farms in the affected area.

    The presence of NSPCA personnel is to ensure that the birds are humanely and compassionately put down. This includes any transportation that may be necessary, and having appropriate facilities from holding pens to disposal of bodies.

    It has been reported that the procedure is of high standard. Co-operation from farmers and authorities is appreciated. The NSPCA adds that should any problems come to light, the NSPCA will step in, as is our mandate, and will not be afraid to lay charges, if considered appropriate.

    The swift and decisive action of our government and state authorities to contain the avian flu is again applauded.

    Please refer to www.nspca.co.za for media release dated 10 August 2004 – ostrich – a national tragedy. NSPCA supportive role appreciated for background.


    News

    This from Wayne Visser wayne.visser@ntlworld.com

    Dear Maureen

    Thanks for another great newsletter. I’m not sure if you are interested in new developments initiated by South Africans worldwide, but just in case you are, I wanted to alert you to the new not-for-profit organisation and website I have launched called Business Poets International (see attached). I also plan to write an article about a great survey which has recently come out on South African’s charitability, and I will obviously send you a copy once I have completed it. Keep up the good work. And yay! for the SA 4x100 freestyle men – gold in the Olympics in a new world record! J

    Regards

    Wayne Visser
    wayne@waynevisser.com


    The purpose of Business Poets International™ is to:

    Encourage poetic writing on business

    Network business poets globally

    And share business poetry freely

    Business Poets International™ is not-for-profit venture, hosted and coordinated by poet, writer and business consultant, Wayne Visser.

    The Business Poets International™ website is being launched on 8 August 2004, to coincide with the Arts Academy Exhibition of the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in New Orleans, where a variety of business poetry has been selected for display, including for example Quest for Gold by Wayne Visser.

    I do hope you will visit the website and return often to check on updates. You are strongly encouraged to submit some of your own business poetry for the competition and for consideration for the website. Simply email wayne@businesspoets.org.

    Best wishes

    Wayne Visser
    President
    www.waynevisser.com
    www.businesspoets.org


    South African Inventions: Interesting?

    This from Mike Preston

    This is the MTN ScienCentre's list of 40 of the best South African inventions, in terms of innovation, uniqueness and impact. They are given in alphabetical order.

    1. Action Potential Stimulation Device (APSD) for arthritis relief
    2. Aloe vera products
    3. Appletiser and Grapetiser
    4. Barlow-Wadley broadband radio
    5. Bell articulated trucks
    6. Buchu appetite depressant
    7. CAT scan, which uses x rays, radiation detectors and computers to produce images of planes through the body
    8. Colindictor, the first device to record a telephone message
    9. Computicket online booking system
    10. Cybertracker, a handheld computer originally developed to help Khoisan trackers store data
    11. Dart and Flamingo sports cars
    12. Disa push-button telephone
    13. Exhaust system, Vibol fuel-saving
    14. Fire, first use of: recorded at Swartkrans cave from some 1.5 million years ago
    15. Fourcade's spectroscope for three-dimensional mapping
    16. Freeplay wind-up radios, torches and cell phone chargers
    17. Hippo drum water roller and the similar water-carrying Q-drum
    18. Jetmaster fireplaces
    19. Kreepy Krauly, Barracuda and Poolcop pool-cleaning systems
    20. Murray 'Tour de Force' competition bicycle cranks
    21. Nguni and Bonsmara cattle
    22. 'Playpump' water pump, powered by children on a roundabout
    23. Plethysmograph for measuring rate of blood flow
    24. Policansky fishing reels
    25. Pratley putty
    26. Radar, pioneering innovations
    27. Radio, Wadley Loop Receiver
    28. Rooibos tea and other products
    29. Rooivalk helicopter and pilot's helmet
    30. Scheffel bogie
    31. SharkPod shark-repellant device
    32. Shuttle low wattage transformers
    33. Smartlock safety syringe
    34. Smocking pleater for the garment industry
    35. Speedgun for measuring the speed of a cricket ball
    36. SUNSAT telecommunications satellite
    37. Tellurometer (infrared)
    38. Tellurometer (microwave)
    39. Turboheat solar water heating spiral
    40. Van der Bijl's pioneering vacuum tube for transcontinental radio broadcasts. – Sapa


    The Good News – South African rugby makes a dramatic comeback

    This from Guy Lundy guy@centric.co.za

    In twelve months, Springbok rugby has come back from the worst run of bad form in its history to show itself as a world-beating force once more. On Saturday the Springboks worked the hardest they have in a long time to beat Australia 23-19 and win the Tri-Nations Cup for the first time since 1998.

    This time last year the Springboks essentially gave up as they allowed the New Zealand All Blacks to score 50 points against them. And that was only one story in a sad succession of losses, including record losses against England, Scotland and France as well as an ignominious early exit from the Rugby World Cup in Australia.

    But in this year’s Tri-Nations tournament they have held their own throughout, even when they have lost in away matches. They only just lost to the All Blacks this year in New Zealand through a try conceded in the last minute of play, and they lost by four points to Australia in Perth after former Springbok Under 21 captain Clyde Rathbone scored a winning try for Australia. Then at Ellis Park last week they beat New Zealand 40-26 followed by this week’s win against Australia at Kings Park in Durban.

    In Saturday’s match, the score remained 0-0 for most of the first half, until Australia scored the first try. Just before half time, Percy Montgomery kicked over a penalty to make the score 7-3 at the break. In the second half the Springboks came out more motivated than ever and scored 20 points in fairly quick succession. The Australians wouldn’t give up though, and playing against fourteen men for the last ten minutes, as first Percy Montgomery and then Breyton Paulse were sent off with yellow cards, they brought the score to 23-19. But it was too little too late and South Africa took the Tri-Nations title to become champions of the southern hemisphere.

    Much of the honour achieved through the new style of positive rugby being played by the Springboks has been laid at the feet of new coach Jake White and new captain John Smit. A year after the embarrassing debacles of a racial row involving Geo Cronje and Quinton Davids, and the Kamp Staaldraad affair, this winning pair have provided the country with a fine example of positive leadership. They now have a record to live up to of being unbeaten on South African soil, having previously beaten Ireland and Wales as well.

    Jake White successfully coached South Africa’s junior sides, including the Under 21 side that won the last Under 21 Rugby World Cup. His Springbok side includes a number of very young players who have recently graduated from the junior sides previously coached by White. The team’s youth makes the wins against far more experienced sides that much more remarkable and ensures that South Africa will have at least another ten years of increasingly impressive rugby.

    For more interesting and exciting news about developments in South Africa, subscribe to the International Marketing Council's regular BrandSA newsletter by visiting www.imc.org.za/goodstuff.htm or www.imc.org.za/subscribe.asp. You can also visit the South African gateway website at www.southafrica.info.


    Helping to keep South African healthcare alive and well

    More from Guy for this week...

    While as many as 6% of health-care workers in the UK come from South Africa, many of our own public hospitals and clinics have around 30% of their positions vacant. Much of this can be ascribed to aggressive targeting of South African health professionals by overseas agencies.

    South Africa is not the only developing nation to have this problem, because the UK's National Health System (NHS) is expanding and the UK does not have enough of their own doctors and nurses. UK agencies therefore target well trained professionals in other countries and offer them significantly better packages than they can get at home.

    But things are set to change soon, as British Health Secretary John Hutton last week announced new measures to curb the poaching of South Africa's doctors and nurses. Hutton, who was visiting South Africa as part of the annual SA-UK bilateral forum delegation, said that the UK's expansion should not be at the expense of developing nations.

    South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said that the government believed that the well-managed international movement of health workers could be a good thing, as "South Africans can get this exposure and return to the country with newly acquired skills and experience." The concern, she said, was with the "exploitative recruiting tactics" of certain international operators.

    Mr. Hutton said that the British and South African governments would work on strengthening the International Code of Practice on Ethical Recruitment of Health Workers, which was adopted by Commonwealth countries at the World Health Assembly in Geneva last year. The UK government will close several loopholes in the code and extend it to the recruitment of all health workers.

    At the same time, Wits University is doing its bit for encouraging brilliant South African doctors to return home by setting up the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Parktown. The centre is a not-for-profit private hospital based on the model used in the United States, where expert training of "super-specialist" doctors is done where the money and technology are rather than in public hospitals that must focus more on primary care and diseases like HIV/AIDS. All profits from the DGMC will go back into building the hospital and funding patients who cannot afford the care but whose cases offer high teaching value.

    Hospital Chief Michael Eliastam, himself recently returned from the United States, said that the DGMC is advertising for South African doctors abroad to return and specialize further here. He said that South African doctors have always had a very good reputation internationally and to maintain that we must be able to train super-specialists as well as the generalist physicians needed for primary and community health care.

    Bits and Bobs TOP


    Our view on ageing!

    Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

    "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five!

    That's the key.

    You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

    "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

    But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

    You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40.

    Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 . . and your dreams are gone.

    But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

    So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

    You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

    You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.

    And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

    Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

    May each of you make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!


    HOW TO STAY YOUNG

    1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the
    doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them".

    2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

    3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

    4. Enjoy the simple things.

    5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

    6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only one who is with us our entire life, is God and ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

    7. Surround yourself with what you love, Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

    8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

    9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

    10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

    And always remember:
    Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

    And if you don't send this to at least 8 people - who cares?
    But do share this with someone. We all need to live life to its fullest each day.


    Mind Massage

    Are you a gourmet cook? A distance runner? A potter? A swimmer? A gardener?

    No matter what you do, mindfulness can enhance your experience and help you engage more fully in the thrill of learning new skills and reaching new heights.

    Here's a look at the loss of an inspiring icon, and how we can use her inimitable style to apply mindfulness to our own pursuits.

    Cheers!

    Maya ;-)

    Alone In the Kitchen: Stirring Up Mindfulness

    Put on your apron! It's time to stir up a batch of mindfulness.
    Julia Child, the trilling television chef who taught millions of Americans how to prepare French food without being hoity-toity, died in her sleep at the age of 92 recently. In dozens of articles, she has been glowingly eulogized for her spirit, her humor, and her ability to share her passion for cooking and fine dining.

    I've never tried any of Julia Child's recipes, and I watched her show only on those days when I was skipping high school. I was fascinated by her confidence in the kitchen, and I absolutely loved the way she dealt matter-of-factly with her mistakes. The line she used to excuse a dropped chicken or imprecisely flipped potato pancake? "You're alone in the kitchen, anyway." Just patch it up and serve with a smile.

    We would do well to stir in a little of Julia's wisdom when it comes to stewing in our own juices. For those of us likely to simmer in frustration or stick to the fear pan, her gentle and humorous approach to making mistakes is a refreshing reminder to be forgiving in order to be fabulous.

    A mischievous teen and notorious good-time girl in college, Julia didn't set out to impress anyone but herself. Along the way, she inspired millions. Her wildly popular cookbook, "The Way To Cook", made gourmet food attainable to anyone willing to give it a go. Child herself served up some delicious morsels of advice for the way to live.

    1) Start at any age. If you think that only monks who start chanting at age 8 are likely to develop any respectable level of mindfulness, remember Julia Child. She grew up completely oblivious to her potential in the kitchen, relying on the family cook for meals and snacks. She didn't take a cooking class until she was 34 years old, and it wasn't until the age of 51 that she started cooking before the masses on television. She continued to write cookbooks throughout her eighties.

    2) Move past your mistakes. This is especially helpful in meditation. If you find yourself kneading a few thoughts, whipping up some emotions, or punching down your view of yourself as a "good" meditator, simply dump that flattened soufflé in the trash and move on.

    You're alone in your head, anyway.

    3) Do it for yourself. Julia Child always ended her television shows by sitting at a beautiful table set for one and raising her glass of wine to the camera with a melodic, ascending "Bon Appetit!" She made it seem perfectly reasonable to spend time lovingly preparing a delicious meal--for yourself. She delighted in the idea of cooking--and dining--for the sheer joy of the experience.

    By remembering that we are never too old to start, that we must expect to make mistakes as we keep moving forward, and that we need not impress anyone but ourselves, we can stir up mindfulness wherever we are.

    I still think that staying home to watch Julia Child should have been an excused absence from school. She taught me the value of demystifying difficult concepts in order to embrace learning without fear.

    Bon appetit!

    Thanks to the Polish Princess

    My friend, Kasia Z.G. here in Portland, sent me the online version of the New York Times obituary for Julia Child before it hit print. Kasia is actually a Polish countess or princess or something, and she's a brilliant, multilingual architect with a passion for designing small spaces.
    She also sent along the lyrics she keeps in mind during trying circumstances with loved ones: "All You Need Is Love... ta-ta-ta-ta-ta..." Perfect! Add it to your list of helpful mindfulness tools, along with the last issue's article suggesting the "ch-ch-chain" phrase of Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools"...

    Have an idea for a future issue? Send it to me, and if I use it, I'll send you a complimentary copy of the ebook, too!

    Send your ideas to maya@massageyourmind.com

    **********************************
    Maya Talisman Frost is a mind masseuse. Her work has inspired thinkers in over 90 countries. This article appeared in the Friday Mind Massage, a free weekly ezine serving up a satisfying blend of clarity, comfort and comic relief. To subscribe, visit http://www.massageyourmind.com.
    **************************************
    ©Copyright 2004, Maya Talisman Frost


    Mind Massage

    Gesundheit!
    That's German for "Good health!"--not a bad blessing to hear anytime, no matter how you feel.

    Katharina, our new German exchange student, was surprised to learn that we use this phrase often in the US.

    This week, I'm sniffling about a recent New York Times article regarding a relatively new idea in Japan that your soul can catch a cold. It's known as "Kokoro No Kaze"...
    Gesundheit!
    Maya ;-)

    "Kokoro No Kaze": Does Your Soul Have A Cold?

    Feeling sad? Have you lost interest in things you used to enjoy? Perhaps you're suffering from a cold of the soul.
    That's the concept that has taken Japan by storm in the last five years, thanks to a culturally savvy marketing campaign launched by pharmaceutical companies to turn mild depression into an acceptable malady that a simple prescription can cure.

    Anyone familiar with Japan will recognize that "kokoro no kaze" (literally "cold of the soul") is a phrase guaranteed to resonate with the citizens of that country. Preventing and treating colds is practically a national pastime there.

    Everywhere in Japan, you see people wearing gauzy surgical-style masks covering their nose and mouth. Although some may be wearing the masks to protect themselves from the latest bug, the majority of wearers are simply being courteous. In a nation lauded for its complex culture of politeness, the Japanese wear masks when they come down with a cold as a polite way of warning and protecting others.

    In Japan, your dentist and dental assistants are likely to wear masks--not to protect themselves from your mouth breathing, but to provide a polite barrier so that you won't be inadvertently subjected to their germs or the lingering odor of their sushi lunch.
    Catching a cold in Japan is an opportunity to practice concern for others. How brilliant, then, that pharmaceutical companies have developed this new phrase to describe the symptoms of mild depression. Now, Japanese businessmen, housewives and students are running to their doctors in droves to get prescriptions for antidepressants. In a culture steeped in politeness, it seems that the same folks likely to cover their noses and mouths to protect others from germs are recognizing their obligation to protect their loved ones from their melancholy.

    After living in Japan for five years and having a Japanese sister-in-law and four beloved bicultural nieces and nephews, I have a great fondness for that country. That's why I am saddened by this new need to treat mild depression with drugs.

    I'm all for turning to pharmaceuticals to help those who are severely depressed. I've lost two brothers to suicide, and even the worst drug on the market is better than that outcome.

    Crown Princess Masako, a Harvard grad who surprised the world by agreeing to marry Crown Prince Hirohito and live behind the closed doors of the Emperor's Palace, prompted a national debate on depression when it was announced recently that she was undergoing treatment for the disease. Though it doesn't surprise us that the life of a princess and its accompanying expectations to bear heirs might be difficult to handle--we all watched the sad story of Princess Diana unfold--this is an unprecedented admission in Japan. The fact that the Imperial Family has publicly acknowledged Masako's struggles will have a profound impact on the ongoing discussion of depression in a nation known for its suicide rate.

    Preventing suicide? Good. Taking drugs for mild depression? Not always so good.
    Does life in "advanced' countries like Japan create stress, frustration and sadness? You bet. Should a culture be treated, en masse, by drugs? I have to question that.
    The me-too mentality is all too prevalent in a nation that prides itself on this phrase: "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." I hate to think of millions of Japanese taking drugs in order to deal with the expectations of their culture. I hate to think of ANYONE taking drugs for that reason. And yet, it's becoming a remarkably common practice around the world.

    Our folk wisdom tells us, "Feed a cold, starve a fever." Traditional remedies may help a cold of the soul as well. We don't run to the clinic every time we develop an itchy throat. We drink tea, take vitamins, get plenty of rest--in other words, we take care of ourselves. Shouldn't we try boosting our soul's immune system first before choosing a pharmaceutical solution?

    Recognizing sadness or dissatisfaction is positive. Dealing with the pieces of your life that aren't fitting together is powerful and rewarding. Making decisions to improve your relationships or circumstances is empowering. Understanding our role as growing, changing humans and applying mindfulness to our greatest challenges strengthens and elevates us. It feeds our soul.

    Is it easy? No. Is it healthy? Yes. And letting our loved ones know of our struggle and our optimistic determination to work through it? Priceless.
    Face mask, anyone?

    **********************************
    Maya Talisman Frost is a mind masseuse. Her work has inspired thinkers in over 90 countries. This article appeared in the Friday Mind Massage, a free weekly ezine serving up a satisfying blend of clarity, comfort and comic relief. To subscribe, visit http://www.massageyourmind.com.
    **************************************
    ©Copyright 2004, Maya Talisman Frost


    52 Best Stories – The Magic Moment

    It was like many Maui mornings, the sun rising over Haleakala as we greeted our divers for the day's charter. As my captain and I explained the dive procedures, I noticed the wind line moving into Molokini, a small, crescent-shaped island that harbors a large reef. I slid through the briefing, then prompted my divers to gear up, careful to do everything right so the divers would feel confident with me, the dive leader.
    The dive went pretty close to how I had described it: The garden eels performed their underwater ballet, the parrot fish grazed on the coral, and the ever-elusive male flame wrasse flared their colors to defend their territory.

    Three of us caught the current and drifted along the outside of the reef, slowly beginning our ascent until, far below, something caught my eye. After a few moments, I made out the white shoulder patches of a manta ray in about one hundred and twenty feet of water.

    Manta rays are one of my greatest loves, but very little is known about them. They can be identified by the distinctive pattern on their belly, with no two rays alike. In 1992, I had been identifying the manta rays that were seen at Molokini and found that some were known, but many more were sighted only once, and then gone.

    I started calling through my regulator, "Hey, come up and see me!" I had tried this before to attract the attention of whales and dolphins, who are very chatty underwater and will come sometimes just to see what the noise is about.

    After a minute, she lifted away from where she had been riding the current and began to make a wide circular glide until she was closer to me. I kept watching as she slowly moved back and forth, rising higher, until she was directly beneath me.

    Looking to the ray, I realized she was much bigger than what we were used to around Molokini - a good fifteen feet from wing tip to wing tip, and not a familiar-looking ray. I had not seen this animal before. There was something else odd about her. I just couldn't figure out what it was.

    Once my brain clicked in and I was able to concentrate, I saw deep V-shaped marks of her flesh missing from her backside. Other marks ran up and down her body. At first I thought a boat had hit her. As she came closer, now with only ten feet separating us, I realized what was wrong.

    She had fishing hooks embedded in her head by her eye, with very thick fishing line running to her tail. She had rolled with the line and was wrapped head to tail about five or six times. The line had torn into her body at the back, and those were the V-shaped chunks that were missing. I felt sick and, for a moment, paralyzed. I knew wild animals in pain would never tolerate a human to inflict more pain. But I had to do something.

    Forgetting about my air, my divers and where I was, I went to the manta. I moved very slowly and talked to her the whole time, like she was one of the horses I had grown up with. When I touched her, her whole body quivered, like my horse would. I put both of my hands on her, then my entire body, talking to her the whole time. I knew that she could knock me off at any time with one flick of her great wing.

    When she had steadied, I took out the knife that I carry on my inflator hose and lifted one of the lines. It was tight and difficult to get my finger under, almost like a guitar string. She shook, which told me to be gentle. It was obvious that the slightest pressure was painful. As I cut through the first line, it pulled into her wounds.

    With one beat of her mighty wings, she dumped me and bolted away. I figured that she was gone and was amazed when she turned and came right back to me, gliding under my body. I went to work. She seemed to know it would hurt, and somehow, she also knew that I could help. Imagine the intelligence of that creature, to come for help and to trust!

    I cut through one line and into the next until she had all she could take of me and would move away, only to return in a moment or two. I never chased her. I would never chase any animal. I never grabbed her. I allowed her to be in charge, and she always came back.

    When all the lines were cut on top, on her next pass, I went under her to pull the lines through the wounds at the back of her body. The tissue had started to grow around them, and they were difficult to get loose. I held myself against her body, with my hand on her lower jaw.

    She held as motionless as she could. When it was all loose, I let her go and watched her swim in a circle. She could have gone then, and it would have all fallen away. She came back, and I went back on top of her.

    The fishing hooks were still in her. One was barely hanging on, which I removed easily. The other was buried by her eye at least two inches past the barb. Carefully, I began to take it out, hoping I wasn't damaging anything. She did open and close her eye while I worked on her, and finally, it was out. I held the hooks in one hand, while I gathered the fishing line in the other hand, my weight on the manta.

    I could have stayed there forever! I was totally oblivious to everything but that moment. I loved this manta. I was so moved that she would allow me to do this to her. But reality came screaming down on me. With my air running out, I reluctantly came to my senses and pushed myself away.

    At first, she stayed below me. And then, when she realized that she was free, she came to life like I never would have imagined she could. I thought she was sick and weak, since her mouth had been tied closed, and she hadn't been able to feed for however long the lines had been on her.

    I thought wrong! With two beats of those powerful wings, she rocketed along the wall of Molokini and then directly out to sea! I lost view of her and, remembering my divers, turned to look for them.

    Remarkably, we hadn't traveled very far. My divers were right above me and had witnessed the whole event, thankfully! No one would have believed me alone. It seemed too amazing to have really happened. But as I looked at the hooks and line in my hands and felt the torn calluses from her rough skin, I knew that, yes, it really had happened.

    I kicked in the direction of my divers, whose eyes were still wide from the encounter, only to have them signal me to stop and turn around. Until this moment, the whole experience had been phenomenal, but I could explain it. Now, the moment turned magical.

    I turned and saw her slowly gliding toward me. With barely an effort, she approached me and stopped, her wing just touching my head. I looked into her round, dark eye, and she looked deeply into me. I felt a rush of something that so overpowered me, I have yet to find the words to describe it, except a warm and loving flow of energy from her into me.

    She stayed with me for a moment. I don't know if it was a second or an hour. Then, as sweetly as she came back, she lifted her wing over my head and was gone. A manta thank-you.

    Sadly, I have not seen her since that day, and I am still looking. For the longest time, though my wetsuit was tattered and torn, I would not change it because I thought she wouldn't recognize me. I call to every manta I see. One day, though, it will be she. She'll hear me and pause, remembering the giant cleaner that she trusted to relieve her pain, and she'll come.

    At least that is how it happens in my dreams.

    By Jennifer Anderson

    http://www.52best.com/manta.asp


    52 Best Stories – My First Deer Rifle

    Good Morning Maureen,
    Except for six years in Germany and the Netherlands, for the past 37 years I have lived in Texas. The true "Texan" is an unique combination of redneck, cunning and compassion, as seen in the story below.

    With Kind Regards, Sandy
    I was 18 years old when my dad gave me his 30-06 deer rifle that he made from a Jap rifle one of his friends who had been in World War II had given him. My dad didn't deer hunt much anymore. He said he could always borrow it back if he decided to go deer hunting again.

    My two nieces Betty and Latricia, my two nephews Lavon and Lavoy, and me were down in the river bottom shooting beer bottles. We had gone out across the river into Smith County where the beer joints are and had gathered up a box full of beer bottles for targets. After one or two shots with the 30-06 all the kids said they didn't want to shoot it anymore. They didn't like the recoil. But Betty was tough. She would shoot it just as long as I would let her.

    I threw a bottle out into the river. As the current carried it down stream, Betty took a bead on it with my 30-06. When she pulled the trigger, the recoil of the rifle made her ponytail jump up and down like a squirrel's tail, when he is excited. When I looked back for the bottle, it was gone. Betty was just 12 years old and the recoil was tough on someone her size, but she just didn't miss.

    But I was going to tell you about my first deer rifle. The first time I got to go deer hunting with it was in Red River County in North Texas. I was hunting with friends and didn't know the woods very good, but I found a board up in a tree that someone had put there to sit on while they watched for deer.

    I climbed the tree and settled in on the board for a long wait. After about only an hour, I heard something walking in the dead leaves. It was off to my right. As I slowly turned my head to look in that direction, I could see a deer walking slowly along. He had not seen me. He was only about 80 yards out so it was going to be an easy shoot.

    But as I raised the rifle to my shoulder to shoot, I realized I had a problem. (Houston, we've got a problem here.) I'm right handed and to shoot to my right, I would have to turn almost half way around. All that much movement would spook the deer and I wouldn't get a shot off before he ran off.

    The only thing I could think of was to swap the rifle around and shoot left handed. Now all this thinking is hard work for me. Especially when I'm sitting on a little piece of board 20 feet up in the air. The first deer I have ever had a chance to shoot is walking away and I'm trying to figure out how to get a shot before he's gone.

    I swap the rifle around to shoot left handed take aim and pull the trigger. Shoot! I forgot to take the safety off. I take the safety off, put the rifle to my left shoulder, squeeze the trigger, and the rifle clicks. I forgot to put a shell in the chamber after I climbed the tree. I work the bolt throwing a shell into the chamber, take the safety off, put the rifle to my left shoulder, take aim at the deer and start to squeeze the trigger, then stop.

    The deer is just standing there watching me. He's not suppose to do that. If anything, he should be running away. But there he stands. Watching me like he was watching some sit-com on TV. I can almost see him laughing.

    How do you shoot a deer that is standing there laughing at you?

    I didn't.

    I climbed down out of the tree and went back to camp. Would you believe that deer followed me half way back to camp? I guess he was waiting to see what else this stupid hunter was going to do. I had to chunk a rock at him to make him go on so he wouldn't follow me back into camp.

    I could've just heard the guys saying: "What's this, you find Bambi?"

    ~ The Author is Loren Moore. "I'm 72 years old and have been married to my wife, Johnnie, for 52 years as of 11-14-03. I worked for the General Motors assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, until I had to take early retirement in 1975 because of multiple sclerosis. My hobbies have always been hunting and fishing. I'm an uneducated redneck from the piney woods of east Texas. Now that I'm in my old age and do most of my hunting and fishing in my memory I decided to write about a few of my experiences. I can remember everything that ever happened to me and a few that didn't. I decided to write them in the form of a short story. These stories are about 90% true and 10% fiction. My wife Johnnie says they are 10% true and 90% fiction. Maybe they are some where in between. But be that as it may here are my stories. They have been written for the amusement of my two daughters, Susan and Angela, my two granddaughters, Amanda and Ginger, my great granddaughter Chivona Lynn (aka Doodlebug) and my great grand sons, Dennis (aka Little Man) and Nathan (aka Charlie Brown) , and any one else that wants to read them. Those were the days my friend. We thought they would never end. We thought they would last forever and a day. We would live the life we choose we would fight and never lose. For we were young and sure to have our way. So come time travel with me. Let's take a cruise down memory lane to the golden olden days." © copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 ~

    http://www.52best.com/deer.asp


    One Man’s Australia

    A weekend of incidental discovery

    Fiona's family arrived in Sydney in June 1789 - on the Second Fleet. One third of the convicts died on the voyage. The survivors and their descendants are tough.

    Like most people who are children of migrant ancestors and have migrated themselves I have been curious about ancestry. At grandparent level I am English and Norwegian. I have had no problems with the Greens, two of whom, Cockney brothers from Lambeth, arrived to join the Natal Mounted Police in 1876 and lived adventurous lives – my great uncle being wounded at Isandhlwana and my grandfather being wounded at Rorke’s Drift the next day.

    I have had no problems with Nicolai Georg Andersen, a ship’s captain from Kristiansand and his wife from Fosterudd.

    But with Lynette I have had problems. She was descended from Afrikaner/French/German stock and records are scratchy.

    But Germans are methodical – and well dug in to both South African and Australian history. This is because the Prussians under Blucher saved the day for Wellington at the battle of Waterloo when he was facing defeat and the Hanoverians fought the Russians in the Crimean war some forty years later.

    After both episodes Germans were declared honorary English and encouraged to migrate to the colonies – in the case of Australia to the Barossa Valley in South Australia and in the case of South Africa to Kaffraria, in the area of East London, to replace the 1820 Settlers who had proved to be a dismal failure at keeping the African hordes at bay because of their preference for commerce and the professions over farming.

    An Australian descendant, Samuel Hoffmeister, became an itinerant shearer and union organiser and died in a creek near Winton in Queensland during an attempted arrest for arson of a shearing shed during the 1890s shearers’ strike.

    He was ‘am der walz’ – tramping along the country roads in search of work and carrying his ‘mathilda’ or blanket roll with his possessions in it (from German army slang for the camp followers who kept the troops warm at night) – a ‘swag’ in Australian vernacular.

    From this episode came the iconic Australian folk song that was specifically forbidden by the IRB to be sung at the RWC matches last year on the grounds that it was both inflammatory and intimidating – depending on whether those who heard it were Wallaby supporters or their opposition.

    The crowds sang it anyway.

    This weekend I finally located Robert's Vogt ancestors (via Lynette) who arrived in East London as Kaffraria Germans on 28 August 1858 on the La Rochelle, Hanoverians having been declared Honorary English after having fought on the correct side during the Crimean War.

    Vogt, Ferdinand, Schäfer (44), Weiler (Württ.), mit Frau Margaretha (44) und Ferdinand (11), Johannes (9), Gustav (7), Wilhelmine (5), Emma (3). Passagiere der 'La Rochelle' - Anfang Juni 1858.

    To cap it all off I was looking through HARS - http://www.hars.org.au/ - (of which I am a member) records and, entirely by happenstance, looked up the history of the only Lockheed Vega ever to be on the Australian civil aircraft register.

    VH-UVK "Puck"
    Type: DL-1A Vega Special
    Msn: 155
    Previous Identities:
    NC372E
    G-ABFE
    G-ABGK


    Subsequent Identities:

    A42-1

    History:

    30 Built by Detroit-Lockheed, with a metal fuselage and Pratt and Whitney Wasp SC1 engine. It was later registered NC372E.
    30SEP30 Registered as G-ABFE to Lieutenant Commander Glen Kidston of London. Kidston intended to build Vegas under licence in the U.K.
    JAN31 Shipped to the U.K.
    03JAN31 Re-registered G-ABGK at the request of the owner to incorporate his initials.
    17JAN31 British CofA No V45 issued.
    31JAN31 Test-flown by Kidston from Croydon Aerodrome, London.
    14FEB31 A local training flight was made from Croydon by Kidston and his partner Lieutenant Owen Cathcart-Jones along with two other crew.
    20FEB31 Another local training flight was made from Croydon.
    21FEB31 Flown from Croydon to le Bourget, Paris in the record time of 1 hour 12 minutes. The aircraft returned to Croydon two days later.
    19MAR31 Test-flown at Croydon after installation of long range tanks.
    28MAR31 The Vega was positioned from Croydon to Netheravon.
    31MAR31 Kidston and Cathcart-Jones departed Netheravon on an attempt to break the Capetown record. Routing was Naples, Malta, Cairo, Kosti, Malakal, Kisumu, Salisbury, Bulawayo and Pretoria. A wireless operator, T.A. Vallette on loan from the Marconi Company, joined the flight as far as Cairo. At Cairo his place was taken by an engineer, G.W. Hills.
    05APR31 Forced landing at Lichtenburg, Pretoria due engine trouble. The propellor was damaged when the Vega ran through wire fences. The aircraft later departed for Capetown.
    06APR31 Arrived Capetown in the record time of 6 days 9 hours at an average speed of 134 mph.
    05MAY31 Lt Cdr Kidston and Capt T.A. Gladstone were killed in the crash of Puss Moth ZS-ACC in the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa.
    05DEC31 The Vega was test-flown at Hamble, U.K. having been shipped back from South Africa. The aeroplane was flown to Hanworth by Cathcart-Jones the same day. The Vega was administered by a trust set up by the Kidston family.
    12APR32 Cathcart-Jones flew the Vega during Sir Alan Cobham's National Aviation Day Display at Hanworth and later toured various air pageants throughout the U.K.
    28MAY32 The Vega attended the Guild of Air Pilots Civil Air Day.
    19JUN32 The Vega was demonstrated at the Royal Aeronautical Society's Garden Party.
    17JUL32 Cathcart-Jones flew the Vega to Stoke and return.
    08AUG32 The Vega was flown from Hanworth to Belfast.
    22AUG32 The Vega returned from Belfast to Hanworth via Dublin.
    05OCT32 The Vega visited Dublin.
    25OCT32 Cathcart-Jones demonstrated the Vega to His Highness the Maharajah of Jodhpur and to Sir Frank Spickwell of Imperial Chemical Industries with a view to selling the aeroplane, but no sale was concluded.
    24MAR33 Cathcart-Jones flew the Vega from Hanworth to Liverpool and return after which the aeroplane was hangared at Hanworth awaiting sale.
    15AUG34 Test-flown at Hanworth by Capt James Woods on behalf of the new owner, Australian Horrie Miller who intended to enter the Vega in the Centenary Air Race from England to Australia.
    16AUG34 Woods flew the Vega from Hanworth to Heston and Rotterdam where the engine was to be overhauled and a new propellor fitted by KLM at Waalhaven.
    14SEP34 The Vega returned to Heston.
    20OCT34 The Vega positioned from Heston to Mildenhall to join the Centenary Air Race. It departed Mildenhall at 0639 crewed by Jimmy Woods and Don Bennett and carrying the race number 36. (Australian D.C.T. Bennett later founded the famed "Pathfinder Force" and eventually rose to the rank of Air Vice-Marshal.) The Vega was named "Puck" in honour of the late Hugh "Puck" Grosvenor, Aide-de-Camp to the South Australian Governor and a personal friend of Horrie Miller. The Vega flew from Mildenhall to Marseilles, Rome and Athens where it overnighted.
    21OCT34 Departed Athens for Aleppo, Syria where the Vega landed heavily collapsing the undercarriage and overturning. Although injured, both pilots walked away from the wreck. With no hope of completing the race, Bennett returned to the U.K. and Woods stayed with the aircraft pending receipt of funds to ship it to Australia.
    JAN35 The Vega arrived at Fremantle, W.A. and was trucked to the MacRobertson Miller Aviation Company's workshops at Maylands Aerodrome in Perth for repairs which lasted eight months.

    It was requisitioned by the RAAF at the beginning of the WWII and was crashed frequently by inexperienced pilots…

    09MAR44 The Vega was issued to the Department of Civil Aviation for disposal having been declared surplus by the RAAF. DCA had intended to issue the aeroplane to Ansett Airways, but as a result of reports by RAAF pilots that the Vega had longitudinal instability problems, the DCA decided that the aeroplane should remain in storage with 3CU at Mascot.
    15OCT45 Capt James Woods advised DCA that he wished to purchase the Vega. DCA replied that the Vega was to be scrapped because of instability problems. This action was protested by Capt Woods who indicated that he had flown the aeroplane more than anyone else in Australia and was fully aware of its capabilities. DCA replied that they would not renew the Vega's CofA. By this time, the Vega had been chopped up with axes at Richmond RAAF Base. Thus ended the career of Australia's only Lockheed Vega.

    The sting in the tail is the entry for 05MAY31. My father flew on the search for Glen Kidston. I am named after him.

    The family tradition for a couple of centuries had been to name their eldest son Robert – as I did mine. I am the exception.

    ----------

    Beating George Walker Bush to the punch

    Yesterday, August 29th John Howard saw the Governor-General and received permission to dissolve Parliament and half the Senate and to hold a Federal election on October 9th.

    He had sound reasons for deciding to call an early election. They include

    He needed to hold the election before the US Federal election so that potential bad news about his friend George Bush would not adversely affect his chances of victory.

    He needed to shut Parliament down forthwith to avoid a blistering attack over misinforming the Australian public during the last election campaign by telling them that Muslim parents had thrown their own children overboard to force the navy to take them to Australia when their illegal boat was apprehended in the Timor sea.
    September is the month of the football Grand Finals which would mean that voters would be distracted from Labor’s campaign.

    And how very appropriate that this election should be called in the fading hours of August.

    For if ever there was a month steeped in politics, it is August, stolen and named in ancient times by a leader haunted by history and hubris, determined to make his mark and triumph over all.

    Augustus Caesar claimed the month formerly known as Sextillius more than two millennia ago, after deciding he should be honoured the same way his Uncle Julius had been. He even stole a day off February to plump August's count to 31, as he didn't want Uncle Jules's July to appear better endowed. But if August was a triumph for Augustus, it has been an interminable grind for John Howard. An August horribilis, if you will.

    It wasn't meant to be this way. August was meant to be the month when the nation took a collective breath and slumped on the couch, remote control in one hand, Australian flag in the other.

    For the Prime Minister, checking out the competition from the Yanks and the Chinese and the Russians must have seemed a welcome change of pace after a year in which Mark Latham has been performing some medal-winning gymnastics of his own. The Labor leader kicked off his floor routine at the ALP national conference in January, accompanied by the INXS hit New Sensation (bonus points for taste), before an awkward stumble in March over the troops-out-by-Christmas line (points deducted for competitor tripping over own tongue), and then regrouping to snooker the Government with a now famous move: the free trade agreement half-pike with Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme amendment twist (a 3.2 degree of difficulty).

    But if the Olympics were supposed to be a temporary reprieve from domestic politics, a man named Mike Scrafton hadn't read the script.

    Some tried to brand Mr Scrafton a Labor stooge when the former senior Defence bureaucrat went public with revelations he had advised Mr Howard the children overboard story was untrue on the eve of the last election.

    But surely no Labor spinmeister would have countenanced dropping of such a bombshell in the same 24 hours as Ian Thorpe became the most successful Olympian in Australian history. They didn't have to. The story didn't go away.

    Desperate to neutralise it, Mr Howard released records of those discussions, only to confirm that two high-ranking military officers also backed Scrafton's claim.

    So the sports-mad PM didn't get the Olympics he wanted. And when his advisers began filing into The Lodge on Saturday, it was a fair bet they weren't rallying to cheer on our Olympians.

    But August's hex was yet to lift. Maybe it was all the athletic grace we had witnessed in the past fortnight, but somehow the calling of this election seemed remarkably clumsy. Australians woke to the news the PM was going to announce an election date but not go to the Governor-General until next weekend -- a plan so cunning, with apologies to Blackadder, it was never going to work.

    By lunchtime, Mr Howard had made the requisite trip to Government House, but was then forced by rain to move his press conference from the stately prime ministerial courtyard to a stuffy room inside.

    Cue vision of the Prime Minister with beads of perspiration glittering above his lip, caught in several camera spotlights.

    If it was any consolation to Mr Howard, the ABC did not broadcast the uncomfortable moment. While the commercial networks cut live to the press conference, Aunty chose to stick with the scheduled gardening program.

    Meanwhile Mark Latham, who had assured the press the day before that he planned to spend Sunday with "one ear on the radio and two eyes on the boys", had to don a suit to front the cameras in Sydney. Fortunately, the absent ear had been found in the interim.

    Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, Sky News could not transmit vision of the Latham press conference, which meant Australians could not see their alternative prime minister. But they did get to hear him remind them nine times in fewer minutes about the ladder of opportunity he offered them.

    Meanwhile, holidaymakers on Hayman Island must have felt nervous to see three political heavyweights - Defence Minister Robert Hill, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd - playing duelling text messages as they jostled for the last waffle at the breakfast buffet.

    Had war been declared in some far-flung region? Or had someone forgotten to pay for the last round of daiquiris from the night before?

    Mr Downer, a vision in chinos and chambray, attempted to restore calm as he swept off the island paradise, reassuring waiting media he had "known a lot about this for a long time".

    Downer, Hill and Rudd weren't the only ones forced to overhaul their travel plans in the wake of the PM's announcement. Pity the planeload of MPs who arrived in Canberra at 6am, having caught the overnight “red-eye” flight from Perth, only to have to fly back out again a few hours later.

    When Augustus demanded a month, 2000-odd years ago, the Roman Senate was reluctant to argue with a bloke who had just defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra, and added Egypt to the empire.

    They ratified his demand thus: “Whereas the Emperor Augustus Caesar, in the month of Sextilius, thrice entered the city in triumph, and whereas the said month has been most fortunate to this empire, it is hereby decreed by the Senate that the said month shall be called August.”

    And so to John Howard, who has three times entered the polls and exited in triumph, who must hope September will be a more fortunate month for him. He'll bother about the empire later.

    Mark Latham may prefer to adopt the Irish calendar for a while. There, August is known as Lughnasa, named after the Celtic sun-god Lugh, famous for his perpetual youth, energy and ingeniousness.

    Latham is better placed to win this election than any of his four predecessors. Paul Keating was dead meat in a lion park in 1996; Kim Beazley did well but did not have a hope in 1998, and in 2001 Beazley's early reticence meant he was unprepared for the tsunami of the Tampa illegal boatpeople and Terror.

    Latham has a fresh appeal, he is not afraid to talk about policy and he works the media well.

    And John Howard is the most vulnerable he has been at election-time since 1996.

    The Prime Minister has appeared rattled and uncertain in recent months, lacking the focus he had in 2001 as he fought out of the doldrums for that poll.

    Last Friday's debacle on the children overboard was an example of how things often get worse when they are going badly. Howard looked uncomfortable talking about lies and honesty in interviews.

    Latham's ability to turn debates into favourable treatment for himself and to concentrate on voter-friendly issues have confronted Howard with the most competition he has had in years.

    As a result, Latham is in a box seat. Latham has done well and Howard has done badly.

    But Latham cannot make the same mistakes Labor has made in the past by reliving old campaigns and assuming that public clamour about Howard means they can count on a wave of resentment washing on to the shore of government.

    For all the talk of Howard being the underdog, Latham needs to realise that he is a sly ol' dog and they are both in the fight of their lives.



    Northern Lighties

    Nothing received from Charles this week.


    Ramblings Of A Francophobe

    Mike will be back soon.


    Changing Lanes – Motorways 2004

    As you know, I come originally from good ol' Zim, and as a result, my knowledge of "motorways" has previously been fairly limited! In fact, dual carriageways were sophisticated! South Africa first introduced me to the ever-moving roads, the slapping of tyres against the concrete and tar. The first time I drove on a motorway myself was here in the UK. Man, what a rush! That knowledge of death being so close, hovering outside your window, around the next corner, or calmly waiting in the car in front or behind. Speed junkie that I am, limits are merely suggestions, a caution for the less experienced. It is so easy to get sucked into the frantic pace of the fast lane, and before you know it, you are hitting 100 mph. Ah yes, miles. For ages it used to crack me up that the signage indicating exits and towns were stipulated in miles, denoted with an "m". Of course, being grounded in the metric system, I read "m" and I think "metre". It was curious to consider that an exit would be signed for just 1m away!
    And the speedometers are also in miles. Being used to driving at an average of 140kmh, dropping to 70mph seemed criminal. Distances meant less to me here, and yards to this day continue to befuddle my simple African mind. Of course, to impress my fellow countrymen I will always relate distances walked or travelled in kilometres for maximum effect. In fact, the amount of walking done here is a bafflement to Africans in general, but that's another topic.

    The cars themselves harbour minor differences. The most annoying one being that the indicator is on the left here. So naturally when I wished to turn a corner, my windscreen wipers would scrape on instead! A fog light is a new concept too. I mean please, what's fog? General driving etiquette is also noticeably different. Aside from some of the rudest drivers, on average, the standard of driving is better over here. With dilapidated, ancient cars still struggling on the roads back home, it creates a modern versus old approach to road behaviour.

    Here people seem to switch their headlights at the slightest chance! Of course, the grey and dark winter nights necessitate such at about 3.30pm, but in the slightest drizzle or shower you will easily pass about 70% of cars with their headlights on. Now I'm a fan of being able to see the vehicles around me, but what I simply cannot stand is the glare of lights on bright as the plonker hovers in your rear view mirror waiting to attempt the latest Schumacker move to pass you! Because of course, if one has a new car, or simply drive a status-recognised model - a Bima, Merc, Lotus or Ferrari for example, well then, one must obviously know how to drive beyond the abilities of every other vehicle on the road. In fact, why they don't just slap a "Worship at my feet, peasants" sticker on the back is beyond me.

    Then there are the women drivers. Now being one myself I can appreciate the hackles that I have just caused to rise! But lets be honest girls, it's not all male chavaunism now is it? Nothing incenses me more than mod mums chauffeuring little Johnny in their big four by fours, the grand distance of no more than a few miles! But that's not all. They expect that other drivers will let them into traffic, but don't return the courtesy. Driving takes up a significant portion of my days, I drive over 3000 miles a month, and I have a first hand view of motorway life from the inside. Depending on my mood, I can respond to the 'eccentricities' of fellow drivers in various ways. My ongoing fantasy is to have a button I can press that raises a sign saying a variety of informative things. Examples: "The accelerator is on the right", Get out of my lane", "Your engine is wasted if you're going to drive it like that", "Do you know how to drive?", "You may not have somewhere to be, but I do!", "Get off the phone", "Do you never look in your rear view mirror?", "What's your phone number?". In fact, the list is endless, and whoever is unfortunate enough to be in the car with me when I think up such a phrase must suffer the explanation of what I think is a rather brilliant idea!

    Of course crime and the roads go hand in hand. There are in fact, numerous ways to break the law in your car - speeding, recklessness, illegal manoeuvres, being on the phone without a hands-free kit, driving with undue care and attention (e.g. writing whilst driving, getting something out of a bag on the back seat whilst driving, etc). Angelic and perfect driver that I am, I continue to be amazed and angered by the blatant flaunting of such laws that go on about me! In Zim the police presence is minimal. Speed cameras are non-existent. And there is always the possibility of 'negotiating' the ticket. Ah, sweet corruption.
    Here though, it is road savvy that permits the seasoned driver to zoom unbraking past the flashing yellow lights, for these belong to road maintenance. It is the blue lights of the police that you need to keep an eagle eye out for. In fact, the radar device Road Angel, can detect speed tracking devices and alert you in time to avoid apprehension. I have not yet had points docked off my license to the extent I would consider purchasing such an aid! In the UK, the police park out of sight off the roads and simply wait for you to gush past. In South Africa they are a little more cunning, and speed camera operators can be seen hiding behind roadside greenery - spotted almost always too late!

    Speed limits are also rather higgledy piggledy. Some towns and villages go out of their way to make driving an absolute headache, with the most vicious speed bumps, ramps, numerous cameras scattered with agonising frequency, and a multitude of changing speeds along their residential limits. I always applaud the town that recognises that roads are for driving on, and not crawling along at a pedestrian pace. And it is Sods' Law that every dinky town I drive through, I happen to catch the eye of the neighbourhood busy body, shuffling around her garden, stopping to beadily monitor my progress with a scowl and incriminating glare that only the old are masters at.

    Services stops are fantastic. What a great idea. For those on the road all day, they are a beacon to the weary, the thirsty, the hungry and the stiff-legged. And they are heaven-sent in terms of picking up last minute gifts, flowers, CD's, books - in fact, you name it, and you'll probably find it on sale at a service stop!

    With the electronic gadgetry to broadcast traffic information on boards above the motorways, this has the potential in theory to be useful. However, there is nothing more annoying than the board telling you there is a queue caution, and to limit your speed to 40, when you in fact stantionary in said traffic, and have been for half an hour! Map books are essential to find alternative routes. These can take you through some of the most picturesque, hidden treasures of towns, and also some of the dodgiest!

    Caravans are the bane of A and B road drivers. Blocking roads and stacking up queues of miles of traffic behind them, they should be banned from driving during rush hours! Abnormal loads are also a hazard, but less so, and personally, I'd much prefer to be able to see the helicopter or train being hauled on the road than stare through the wide butt of a Winnebago or Deluxe caravan with kids pulling faces through its rear window!!!!

    All in all, with bus lanes, the joys of roundabouts, traffic jams, speed cameras and motorcyclists, driving on the UK roads is nothing short of a test of personal endurance and sanity of mind! I'm sorry, were you planning on hiring a car when you came over for a holiday?


    Boetjie Worldwide

    Innocence and experience

    Look, I try very hard to keep my sardonic streak and my cynic’s spots turned from the limelight, but with the news breaking today that the federal elections here in Australia are now on the cards at last, I was forced to confront my darker side…

    No, I am not going to say any more about local politics, so relax! Let me just leave this wish with you (and a very mischievous one at that): won’t it be wonderful if a politician were suddenly to start being brutally honest? But can you imagine Mark Latham of Labor, for example, addressing the press and saying, “Look, mates, I don’t really have anything different to offer, but I really want to be Prime Minister for a change.”? Mmmm I don’t think we should hold our collective breath here!

    Losing the innocence of youth or childhood is always a sad stage in one’s life, and the English poet William Blake felt so strongly about it that he wrote a collection of poems on the theme. This week’s column title alludes to his work. We can all recall, when we allow ourselves, that first disillusionment, the first act of betrayal, the first shock realisation that life is not fair, people are not always honest and eternal love is a fond figment of an infatuation-fevered mind. We all have our own tales of broken promises, of broken hearts and, in extremis, of lives broken by people or events.

    Those of us who have lived through South African history from the establishment of the republic in 1961 to the present will also always carry the marks of that era. Some of the marks are scars, yes, and some are bumps that no longer show, but that we are aware of. In my own case the worst of it all was my loss of national innocence, if you’ll allow me to coin the phrase. I started my teens filled with patriotism, with hope for the future and convinced that I was living in the greatest country in the world. Sadly, of course, time brought the realisation that patriotism is all too often blind, and not necessarily a good thing, that politicians and leaders have their own agendas which only coincide with those of the people as long as it suits the politicians. We all lived through brash promises left unfulfilled, thundering speeches and thundering silences, through the deaths and maiming of thousands of innocents as opposing factions postured and jostled for dominance.

    Too soon after realising that my teachers were not gods and goddesses who knew all, came the realisation that not all leaders are worth following, and the latter realisation was quickly followed by a further disillusionment; that leaders are all too often just really good opportunists who know which bandwagon to jump onto. The more successful the opportunist, the longer will his bandwagon stay in the parade. And success, for political leaders, really does not mean much other than being able to bamboozle enough people for long enough!

    OK, so now that I have vented some spleen (ah, the literati will exclaim, a reference to Baudelaire!) let us get onto something else I have been wanting to mention for a while now. It does tie in with the patriotism I have been talking about -- loosely, that is.

    I really admire Australians for their fervent patriotism, even though it is a state of mind I will never again experience (too much experience, see?!). But with this admiration there also goes a goodly dollop of exasperation, I must add. Exasperation, because I see in them my own young self, and because their preoccupation with themselves and their country makes things a bit difficult for newcomers.

    Let me explain: I truly consider myself a citizen of the world. My allegiance is to the world I know and to the wonder of life as I see it wherever I go. I will never again be fortunate enough to wrap myself so totally in one country, one people (and one party, for that matter!). Because I have a world perspective, I find it difficult to get used to news coverage on television here, for instance. Often hugely momentous events in some other part of the world hardly make it to the news, because local events get dominance – even to the point where footy news comes ahead of some really serious and important national news items! The same goes for sports coverage, actually. When Australia is not involved with a cricket tour it is easy to think that there is no cricket being played anywhere in the world!

    I love reading, and I love my classics. In South Africa, or Portugal even, one can walk into any bookshop in a largish town and find Camus and Sylvia Plath, William Golding and Byron et cetera on the shelves. World literature hardly makes it on the average bookshelf here. I have been scouring new and second-hand bookshops for a copy of Ted Hughes’s Collected Poems, with absolutely no success at all. The middle-aged librarian at the library I belonged to before we moved had not even heard of Ted Hughes! Translations of the great European writers are about as common here as hen’s teeth. One bookshop owner confessed that he doesn’t stock them, because no-one is interested. He told me I was the first person in the ten or so years he’s been open to ask him whether he had any copies of Thomas Mann, not to mention the lesser known greats!

    Clearly, there are very different priorities here, and it is up to me to either accept them or at least find a way to live with or around them. Of course the anthropologist in me wants to tie this Aussie preoccupation with self to the people’s history and the geopolitical and geographical position of the country in relation to the rest of the world. And the ubiquitous war memorials have another piece to add to the picture, but I shall leave you to draw your own conclusions.

    All this is meant with love, really. For, although I cannot yet think of myself as an Australian, I have chosen to live here and therefore feel that this is my home now, in the temporal sense at least. But I have eyes that have seen much and in many places, so my perspective is very different. That is my problem, no-one else’s. They must just please bear with my tendency to comment on what I see and experience!

    Perhaps my own preoccupation with nature, the landscape and the open spaces, the forests and oceans of this planet stems from my loss of innocence and is an attempt to make peace with it. I am certainly tempted to think so, for nature is without pretence, without falsehood and intentional malice. There’s a brutal innocence in all things natural that appeals exactly because it is free of any sham or conceit, arrogance or desire to masquerade or posture. With the passing into oblivion of my childhood innocence I acquired a deep and intense dislike of any pretence. Hell, I don’t even paint wood!

    How you, dear reader, has coped or experienced this journey from the wonderful world of childhood into the often almost seemingly post-apocalyptic present I do not know. But we are brothers and sisters in our loss, no matter where we find ourselves, no matter what our race or creed or language may be. I trust that you will have managed by now to make peace with grim reality!

    In any case, mooiloop!

    Ray

    Raytheron at iprimus.com.au

    The Legal Beagle TOP

    Our Legal Beagles are available for all your relevant queries... please continue to send in any queries you have for them and we will get them answered for you free of charge!

    We have expanded our circle of helpers to include New Zealand and Europe. Remember that sometimes it takes a while for the relevant ‘Legal Beagle’ to answer. Also please remember that the advice is offered as a free service, THOS and SAW are not personally responsible for the content.

    Nobody needing advice this week.

    Help Desk TOP

    Nobody needing help this week.

    Where are they now? TOP

    If you are looking for a lost friend... if you would like old friends to contact you... If you want to find old school friends... if you just want people who used to know you to find you again for a chat...

    Send in your info, the info of anyone you are looking for and let’s see if we can find them for you!

    This from Stuart Jones stujones23@hotmail.com

    Hi Maureen,

    Looking for an old friend. His name was Joe Crewe, he used to live in Chester, UK. He should be 22 by now. That's all I know, we used to go to junior school together, then he moved over there.

    Many thanks for your help,

    Stu

    Club and Other News TOP


    USA - San Diego

    Greetings / Groete! This e-mail is to inform you of upcoming social events and happenings. The Braai-Connections concert featuring SA superband JUST JINGER was a huge success. We received dozens of e-mails from people saying how much they enjoyed the evening and the amazing music. A big thanks to Sacred Desire for a fabulous opening act. At the end of this e-mail is a link to click on to view photos taken at the concert.

    What's coming up?

    ENSENADA, Baja MEXICO weekend luxury coach trip from San Diego
    Depart Saturday 16th October at 9:30 am
    Return Sunday 17th approx 7 pm.
    Cost for hotel and transport - $199 per 2 people with shared room and $125 per single room occupancy
    Cost includes all transport, taxes, tolls and accommodations.
    Limited to 50 people. Singles and couples welcome. No children under 16.
    BOOK NOW as we already have 20 of the 50 that we can accommodate.
    Full details and itinerary can be found at www.braai-connection.org

    Braai in San Diego and Orlando - dates to be announced
    Just Jinger concerts - Central Florida / Atlanta / Houston / Arizona - dates to be announced
    Beach sunset & bonfire in Encinitas - Friday Sept 17th 6 pm - contact us if interested for details & directions.

    Please forward this e-mail to your SA / Zim pals wherever they reside in the USA and Canada so they too can learn about future events that may be coming to their part of the country.

    Thanks to Charlene Avis of Juluka magazine ( www.julukanews.com/ ) who provided some of the photos which can be viewed by clicking on or pasting the link below into a broswer window.

    http://pages.zdnet.com/wvjumper/braaiconnection/id46.html

    Regards

    Derek Selbo
    www.braai-connection.org

    Humour TOP


    New Employment Policies

    This from Alet Dreyer minx@thos.co.za

    Effective 1 September 2004

    Lunch Break

    Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch as they need to eat more, so that they can look healthy. Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure. Fat people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.

    It is advised that you should come to work dressed according to your salary:
    If we see you wearing R4000 Prada shoes and carrying a R8000 Gucci bag, we assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.

    It you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.
    If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

    Sick Days

    We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

    Family Responsibilities Leave

    Each employee will receive 104 FRL days a year. They are called Saturday & Sunday.

    Bereavement Leave

    This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or co-workers.
    Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend to the arrangements.
    In rare cases where employees involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early.

    Toilet Use

    Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After your second offence, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the "Chronic Offenders category". Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company's mental health policy!

    Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternation, and input should be directed elsewhere.

    Signed,

    Human resources


    You Know It's Your Last Day At Work When...

    This from Marlene Smith

    You hand a bank teller an envelope, and when she asks, "What's this?", you realize you just dropped the company's deposit in a mailbox.

    A woman comes into the store, you turn to the other salesman and say, "I waited on the last fat ugly old lady. This one's your turn". Your boss is standing behind you. It's his wife.

    While your boss is at lunch, you sneak in and look at some confidential information on his computer. You spill coffee on the keyboard. It shorts out.

    You return from a week's vacation to find that you had scheduled *this* week as vacation, not last week.

    You take a "sick" day. The next morning the boss asks you, "So, how was the fishing on Rock Creek yesterday?".

    You wake up hung over. You have a black eye and barked knuckles. You're in jail. Last night was the company Christmas party.


    Writing's Powerful Message

    More from Marlene...

    There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed a desire to become a "great" writer.
    When asked to define "great" he said "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, wail, howl in pain, desperation, and anger!"

    He now works for Microsoft writing error messages


    Tax Payer Dollars at Work
    More from Marlene...

    Two guys were working for the city. One would furiously dig a hole, then the other would come behind him and quickly fill the hole. They were drenched in sweat.

    A man watching from the sidewalk couldn't believe how hard they were working, but also couldn't understand what they were doing. Finally he said:

    "I'm confused. You dig a hole and then your partner comes behind you and fills it up again!"

    The digger leaned on his shovel and replied, "Oh yeah, it must look funny.

    You see, the lazy jackass who plants the trees is sick again today!"


    Spell Check

    This from Dee Mack Deemack@Eircom.net

    Eye halve a spelling chequer
    It came with my pea sea.
    It plainly marques four my revue
    Miss steaks eye kin knot sea
    Eye strike a quay and type a word
    And weight four it two say
    Weather eye am wrong oar write
    It shows me strait a weigh,
    As soon as a mist ache is maid
    It nose bee fore two long
    And eye can put the error rite
    Its rare lea ever wrong.
    Eye have run this poem threw it
    I am shore your pleased two no
    Its letter perfect awl the weigh
    My chequer tolled me sew.

    (Sauce unknown)

    Recipes TOP

    Warmer weather around – so less heavy meals!

    Try this one...

    Couscous with Mushrooms and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

    1 cup dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes
    1 1/2 cups water
    1/2 (10 ounce) package couscous
    1 teaspoon olive oil
    3 cloves garlic, pressed
    1 bunch green onions, chopped
    1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
    1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
    1/2 lemon, juiced
    salt and pepper to taste
    4 ounces portobello mushroom caps, sliced

    Directions
    1 Place the sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl with 1 cup water. Soak 30 minutes, until rehydrated. Drain, reserving water, and chop.

    2 In a medium saucepan, combine the reserved sun-dried tomato water with enough water to yield 1 1/2 cups. Bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Cover, remove from heat, and allow to sit 5 minutes, until liquid has been absorbed. Gently fluff with a fork.

    3 Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and green onions. Cook and stir about 5 minutes, until the green onions are tender. Mix in the basil, cilantro, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in the mushrooms, and continue cooking 3 to 5 minutes. Toss with the cooked couscous to serve.

    Sports News TOP

  • Warm welcome for SA team [iafrica.com]
    Ululations, hugs from friends and strangers, and a gutsy rendition of Shosholoza greeted South Africa's Olympic team on their arrival in Johannesburg on Tuesday from the Athens Olympic Games.
    http://sport.iafrica.com/news/topstory/344599.htm


  • 'I can't pull off grand slam with tired Boks' [IOL]
    The success of South Africa's end-of-season grand slam tour could depend on top players being rested during the Currie Cup, Springbok coach Jake White indicated on Monday.
    http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=18&...


  • Sri Lanka sweep series [The Statesman]
    Sanath Jayasuriya hit 79 and captured three wickets today as Sri Lanka trounced South Africa by 49 runs in the final One-Day International despite a fighting century from Jacques Kallis. Sri Lanka swept the series 5-0.
    http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?cli...


  • England set sights on SA [BBC]
    English cricket coach Duncan Fletcher believes England can win their first series in South Africa for 40 years this winter.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/3590016.stm

    • Credits and Contact Info TOP

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