South Africans Worldwide Newsletter

Contents Issue No. 343 -- 3 October 2005

Editor's Message

Quote/s of the Week

Ad Hoc Article/s of the Week

Credits and Contact Info

Subscribing and Unsubscribing

Send this Issue to a Friend! TOP

Editor's Message TOP

Captain Ken and I have decided that we want to do all the ‘touristy’ things around the Hartbeespoort area so we are visiting a new place each Sunday we have the time to see what is around.

This weekend we visited Mountain Sanctuary Park. Not expensive to get in... R25 each and R10 for the car. The stonework is amazing... and at present due to the dry climate, we were able to hike more or less up the river bed to an out of this world grotto where we sat and had lunch.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to see the great natural attractions that the area has to offer. I would recommend that you go early in the day rather than later as it does get hot! I don’t do well with hot!

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Quote/s of the Week TOP

These from me...

Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake. Henry David Thoreau

I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come. Abraham
Lincoln

Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to
be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self. Millicent Fenwick

These from Des Cowie...

There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success. - George Burton Adams

Time isn't the enemy. Fear of change is. Accept that nothing lasts forever and you'll start to appreciate the advantages of whatever age you are now. - Unknown

These from Daniel Jan le Roux...

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking. - Buddhist Proverb

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them. - Ernest Hemingway

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

Ad Hoc Article/s of the Week TOP

Coming Home
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!

Kind regards

Alana
COME HOME CAMPAIGN

Migrasie / Migration
Solidariteit Alliansie / Solidarity Alliance
P O Box 8766, Centurion, 0046, RSA
Tel: 0027-(0)12-6438532
Fax: 0027-(0)12-6438587
admin@cfi.org.za

Interesting story from News24 - Namibia govt grabs 1st farm
This from Theo Truter truter@mweb.co.za

This is serious, as they now all see it as a means of copying ZinBobwe !!

Sep 02 2005 10:25:31:700AM
Namibia's government has expropriated its first white-owned farm under the terms of its land reform programme.

Windhoek - Namibia's government has quietly expropriated its first white-owned farm under the terms of its land reform programme, ordering its former occupants off the premises by the end of November, said the farm's owner on Thursday.
Hilde Wiese was among 15 white farm owners who were told in May last year by the southwest African state's government to "make an offer" for the sale of their land.
Wiese said the government paid 3.7 million Namibian dollars ($583 000) for the Ongombo West farm, located about 40km east of the capital.
Wiese said: "The ministry of lands and resettlement handed the cheque last week to my lawyer."
The 69-year-old farm owner, who last month estimated that the 9 880-acre farm at a value of about nine million Namibian dollars, had reluctantly agreed on the set price.
'Buyer pays the costs'
She said: "The money was paid into a trust account and I will receive it only once the transfer is completed."
The Wiese family also had to pay 6 000 Namibian dollars in transfer fees saying they were "forced to do that by the ministry of lands, although usually the buyer pays the costs and not the seller".
Namibia's 3 800 white farmers own most of the arable land in the desert country, an imbalance the government had vowed to redress.
Owning Ongombo West farm for the past four generations, the Wieses were drawn into a political storm of land ownership after a dispute last year with six farm workers who were evicted.

The workers were reinstated after an order by Namibia's labour court. The family as well as 70 black farm workers would now have to be off the farm by the end of November.

Wiese asked: "Where do they go from here, why can't they stay and be resettled?"
Namibia's lands ministry confirmed it had paid the money.
A government official said: "Payment was made last week and we now wait for the transfer of ownership to be completed."

Former president Sam Nujoma singled out the Wiese farm in a speech, saying "some of the whites are behaving as if they came from Holland or Germany" for evicting their workers.

Nujoma's successor and former lands minister Hifikepunye Pohamba had vowed to press on with the expropriations, warning in March that Namibia could face a "revolution" if the land imbalance was not addressed.
The small opposition Republican Party had condemned the expropriation.
Party president Henk Mudge said: "The government has confirmed on various occasions it would not use expropriation as a punitive measure against farmers who are perceived to have problems with their workers."

Mudge said: "It is with utter disbelief that we now learn that the government went ahead to expropriate Ongombo West", adding that Namibia's constitution only allowed for land to be expropriated if it was in the public interest.

http://www.news24.com/News24/...

Call for new campaign to market South Africa
This from the Daily News

In order to grow the South African economy, create jobs for a growing population and fight poverty, it was vitally important to establish South Africa as an international brand.

Top branding guru, Anthony Swart, CEO of global branding company, ENTERPRISE IG, said the most recent Markinor Sunday Times Top Brand Survey 2005 yet again proved the power of brands and the role they played in the world.

"Two of the top brands in the banking category – Volkskas and Perm – have ceased to exist for some time yet live on in the minds of consumers," Swart said.

Swart, whose company worked on more than two thirds of the top brands identified in the survey, called for a private public partnership between government and the private sector to launch the development of a south African economic brand, followed by a high-profile international campaign to market this brand.

"In the same way that Coke, SAB Miller and Vodacom have become branding icons, we need to establish brand South Africa as a country-icon."

http://www.cbn.co.za/dailynews/September2005/article982.htm

Bits and Bobs TOP

Choice Coach – Work in Progress
After spending most of the month of August in England visiting family and friends, I returned to the U.S. to a surge of new clients, plus the teaching of some classes to which I am committed because it gives me the opportunity to help others to use coaching skills, in a non-coaching context, so as to help yet others. I also have commitments to Toastmasters - an organization which I recommend highly.

As a result, I have been swamped, time-wise, and so did not get to a Work in Progress in September. October seems to have snuck up on me. Rather than overwhelm myself, I am sending you an issue of Work in Progress that originally came out in 1998, which which I believe is as relevant today as it ever was. In fact, the topic has come up several times lately in conversation with clients. Please consider this to be the September issue, even though you will be receiving it at the beginning of October.

Diana

Relatedness versus Autonomy

In Greek mythology Penelope spent her days weaving and her nights unraveling her work so as to delay its completion. She had good reason for her actions, but we would usually prefer NOT to waste time unraveling the progress we have just made toward one goal or another. Yet, often, we do. Why? And how can we stop working against ourselves?

There are many areas in our lives where both ends of a dimension are, in their own way, desirable. One example is being independent and at the opposite end being related/connected with others. Both are desirable, but at extremes each tends to work against the other. At another time I will look at other dimensions that give us similar difficulties, but this month the focus is on the independence and connectedness problem.

We tend to move back and forth on this dimension, at one moment eager to be free and independent of everyone, at another yearning to be enfolded in the bosom of a loving community. Then, feeling that enfoldment to be too smothering, we push indignantly away again. In young children this ambivalence is almost comic in its obviousness. In some adults it continues so that they spend time and energy on achieving goals in one direction, only to undo them when they feel a need to move back in the other.

The truth is that all normal human beings have need for both independence and connectedness. The issue is, how much? How much independence are we prepared to surrender in order to retain the support of our family or community? How much connectedness are we prepared to give up so as to pursue our independence and do our own
thing?

For each of us the answers are very strongly affected by the "tribal ethic" of our family or community. The pressures can be intense. In my work as a substance abuse counselor I have seen people whose health, even lives, are endangered, but who are unable to work the effective recovery that they desperately desire because, in order to
do so, they would have to separate from family members who continue to use. Psychologists call such families "enmeshed." Another way to put it is, "If one person stubs her toe, the rest of the family limps for a month." With the best of intentions these communities (not always families) may hold each other back from important change and growth. In the opposite direction, there are families like my own, whose traditions may involve separation through boarding schools, travel, and emigration across the world - greatly increasing independence but reducing the availability of support and connectedness.

For many families and individuals, a compromise is reached by family togetherness at the holidays and the maintenance of distance and independence the rest of the year. For others, the push/pull may continue daily, leaving them rarely comfortable or free from external pressures and 'shouldas,' and from internal yearnings and 'wannas.'

It is because there are no definite right or wrong standards to guide us that these decisions are so difficult, and therefore often remain unmade. Independence is good. Connectedness is good. Tough choice! Yet if we do not choose, we may spend our lives alternately seeking and then fleeing from opposing goals and lifestyles at either end of the dimension. The more extremely we approach one end, the more likely is a rebound to the other.

Ideally each individual needs to decide where s/he is most comfortable, and then consciously work toward establishing a lifestyle that encompasses the chosen levels of both independence and connectedness. This is often a difficult choice and may involve a compromise with oneself that can only be guided by careful and deliberate self-examination. In other words, as always, "know thyself."

How do you respond to these competing pressures?

Do you find that your need for independence and your need for connectedness continue to war with each other in your decisions and your lifestyle?

Have you created for yourself a community that offers both space AND support?

Can you? Why not?

Muscles in Motion

People who fidget burn many more calories per hour than those who remain physically relaxed. Consider, not as an alternative to aerobic exercise but as a extra "bonus," when you could exercise one or more muscle groups while doing something else. Tighten and hold some portion of your anatomy for the count of ten while driving? Waiting at a red light? Sitting at your computer? Rhythmically move arms and/or legs while waiting for a web site to load? Strengthen foot muscles by raising on tiptoe while standing in line or in front of the mirror? The muscles strengthen and the calories burn - it's a win/win actively with no down side! Try it.

TO SUBSCRIBE to Work in Progress send a blank e-mail to
workinprogress-On@lists.webvalence.com.
TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send a blank e-mail to
workinprogress-Off@lists.webvalence.com
To offer feedback e-mail Diana at Diana@ChoiceCoach.com or visit her web site at www.ChoiceCoach.com

Copyright 2005 Diana Robinson, PhD., PCC. Work in Progress may be reproduced in its entirety only, including this copyright line. Disclaimer -The contents herein are solely the opinions of Work in Progress owner, and should not be considered as a form of therapy nor advice. There is no guarantee of validity or accuracy. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought.

Mailing Address:
Diana Robinson
2604 Elmwood Avenue #230
Rochester, NY 14618
USA

Mind Massage
Mindfulness and Touch: Triggering Tenderness

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Mexico was touch and tenderness.
Despite the heat and humidity, everywhere I turned I saw people using touch in a surprisingly tender way.
Lovers sitting on the benches of the plaza, gazing into each other's eyes and stroking a cheek tenderly.
Fathers carrying sleeping babies, and bending to kiss their eyelids every few steps.
Grandmothers caressing the backs of fidgety toddlers. Women soothing other women with gentle strokes of the shoulder. Children kissing their younger siblings with exuberant and spontaneous affection.

Here it was, hot and sticky, and despite the sweltering heat, everyone was touching everyone. Nobody cared about the perspiration matting hair to foreheads and adhering shirts to backs. Nobody indicated any embarrassment about the drops of perspiration their loved ones patted tenderly.

I tend to pay attention to physical affection wherever I happen to be in the world. It's fascinating to see how different cultures use touch. And I can't help but recognize that despite the countless hours of people-watching I've done in the United States--and about 20 other countries--I've never, ever seen so much affection and tenderness shown through touch.

Are we too rushed? Are we too Victorian? Are we afraid of germs? Of someone finding our touch inappropriate? Of invading the privacy of others by subjecting them to the sight of us touching someone else lovingly?

What would happen if we reached out and touched others more frequently, more intentionally, and more publicly?

I'm not talking about making out in the balcony at the movie theater.

Instead, we can begin to view touch as a mindfulness trigger, and we can use it to watch our own reactions as well as those of others.

The touch zone for our focus? Shoulders. Think of 'warming up' a cold shoulder.

Look for ways to touch the shoulder of someone with whom you are having a conversation. Can you do it naturally? Can you do it so that it conveys a particular emotion: empathy, joy, worry, sharing? Can you touch a shoulder as a way to be mindful of the emotional connection you feel? What can you notice about the way the other person responds to your touch?

Pay attention to your own shoulders as well, and notice when you are touched by someone else. Under what circumstances do others touch your shoulder? What emotions are they trying to convey? What does the touch feel like--is it a tap, a clap, a gentle stroke?

By playing with touch, we can play with mindfulness. Whenever you are in a public place, notice shoulders. Watch how and when others touch the shoulders of those they love, those they meet, and those whose attention they are trying to get. Pay attention to your own shoulders, and be mindful of the ways you touch the shoulders of others.

Try using touch as a trigger for mindfulness, and you'll find tenderness trickling into your day.

Your Secret Assignment: Reach Out and Touch Someone

You know what to do:

Watch shoulders.

Reach out and touch someone.

Pay attention when someone reaches out and touches YOU.

See what you learn about mindfulness, touch, and tenderness.

Want to share what you've learned? Reach out and touch me--virtually--by sending an email to: Maya@MassageYourMind.com

What's Your Key?
There are many, many ways to develop greater awareness.

The most important part--the critical element that will guarantee your sustained interest and attention--is zeroing in on your own innate ability to connect to that Wow of Wonder.

For some, SOUND is the greatest trigger for mindfulness. For others, it's TOUCH or BODY MOVEMENT. It might be more VISUAL for you, or perhaps you're most connected and aware when you are surrounded by NATURE in some way.

The only way to discover your own key to greater mindfulness is to play with several different keys!

I've developed a program that will give YOU the tools you need to tap into your own special way of connecting.

You can get started right now and find your secret key--for about $1.50 a day during the next month.

To learn how you can start playing with mindfulness in order to become more calm, clear and creative, visit my website at:

http://www.Real-WorldMindfulness.com/courses.htm

**********************************
Maya Talisman Frost has taught thousands of people how to pay attention. Through her company, Real-World Mindfulness Training, she offers playful and powerful eyes-wide-open ways to get calm, clear and creative. To receive her free special report, 'The Dirty Little Secret About Meditation,' visit her website at MassageYourMind.com
(C) Copyright 2005, Maya Talisman Frost
**********************************

52 Best Stories – A Story from Katrina
While en route to New Jersey, I was stopped in traffic on Interstate 81 just below the Virginia state line involving a tanker truck hauling a hazardous load that developed a leak which meant that we weren't going anywhere for several hours.

After being told by the state troopers that we would be sitting still until the clean up was completed, I set my brakes on the truck and got out to stretch my legs. Other truck drivers did the same and at one point there were 5 of us standing there by my truck complaining.

Sitting right beside me in the left lane were two elderly people in a Silverado pick up truck which was loaded quite well. The man, Joe, lowered his window and asked what was going on regarding the traffic situation.

Soon we were all talking with this couple. I mentioned that if I had known we were going to be stuck in traffic, I would have bought something to drink because I was becoming thirsty.

The lady, Anna, said that they had plenty of water and sodas in the cooler in the bed of the truck and offered everyone something. While she was back there, she said that she had plenty of tuna salad made up, and asked if we would be interested in a sandwich. After some urging from Joe, we agreed to a sandwich. While Anna was making the sandwiches on the tailgate of the truck, she was singing like a songbird.

To be close to 70, (I guess), she had a remarkable voice. When she finished making the sandwiches, and putting everything up, Joe raised the tailgate of the truck to close it. I noticed a Mississippi license plate on it.

I inquired as to what part of Mississippi they were from. Joe said Biloxi. Knowing that Biloxi had been ravaged by hurricane Katrina, I asked if they sustained any damage. Joe said that they lost everything except what they had on and what was in the pickup.

All of us drivers tried unsuccessfully to pay them for their drinks and the sandwiches. They would have nothing to do with it. Joe said that their son was living around Harrisonburg, Virginia, and that they were going there. He was in the real estate business and that there was a home that became open and that they were going to start all over there. Starting over at their age would not be easy.

I will soon be 48 years old, and I have to say that I have never eaten a tuna sandwich with side orders of reality and humility. These people lost everything except the pictures, important documents, and some clothes. Joe had managed to get their antique heirloom grandfather clock into the bed of the truck and Anna got her China and silverware, but that was all.

These wonderful people lost practically everything they owned and still would not accept any money for their food and drinks. Joe said that "it was better to give than it is to receive."

When Katrina hit, they sought refuge behind a block wall that he had built years ago, and they watched their belongings and their home disappear in hurricane. Joe said that during all this he had one hand holding onto Anna and the other holding on to God. Their truck and themselves came out of Katrina unscathed.

As I stated before, Anna was singing a song while making the sandwiches. The song is titled "I Know Who Holds Tomorrow," an old gospel song. She knew every word and was quite a gifted singer of it. Have you ever heard it?

The chorus of this song is, "Many things, about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know Who holds my hand." There is no doubt in my mind, Who was holding both their hands.

I have read many stories that have touched my heart, but this one I personally was involved in. Forget all of the politics that the TV and news focuses in upon and think about people just like Joe and Anna. I know that these two elderly people got to this old boy and I will always remember them.

And you know, these two are not alone, there are hundreds of thousands of others that made it through Katrina and now Rita that have shown the same love and concern for others and the same unselfish giving that continues to make this country and this world a beautiful place in which to live.

~ The author is Mike Dowdy from Hartselle, Alabama ~

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

One Man’s Australia – Reminiscing
I have realised that by the time you read this I will have lived half my life in Australia. If I take out the 3 years that we lived in Birmingham and the 3 years that we lived in Gif-sur-Yvette I have spent substantially more time in Australia than I ever did in South Africa.

It has been a long journey.

I was born a second-generation South African in Ladysmith, some 60 years after my paternal grandfather and his younger brother had arrived in Natal as recruits for the Natal Mounted Police. Joining colonial police or the Queen's army were two options they had as Cockneys for escaping from Waterloo Road, Lambeth, where they had been born and brought up.

They saw adventure - lots of it - in the form of the 1879 Zulu war. Both were assigned to be scouts for the British army. They were both wounded - grandpa's brother at Isandhlwana and grandpa at Rorke's Drift.

I still have grandpa's discharge certificate from the police.

Grandpa ended up in Jagersfontein - attracted by the diamonds where he met and married my grandmother, who was the governess of the mine General Manager's children and was a gifted pianist.

Also attracted to the town by the diamonds was one Karl Vogt, son of a Hanoverian soldier who had migrated to the Eastern Cape with Baron Richard Carl Gustav Ludwig Wilhelm Julius von Stutterheim (I'm sorry but I cannot resist that rolling name) in 1857 as a Kaffrarian German - who, it was hoped, would do a better job of securing the Frontier than the 1820 settlers had.

When the Boer War started grandpa was considered to be a burgher by the Free State Government and, as he had "military" experience, was appointed Veld-Kornet of the local Kommando.

However he considered himself a Brit and, because there was soon going to be a battle for the town, deserted. He mounted his horse, rode to the Orange river, crossed it, met up with the Seaforth Highlanders under Major King-Hall (later Lord Methuen), was commissioned into the regiment as a Lieutenant, about turned and was mentioned in garrison orders for his conduct during the battle for Jagersfontein.

To say that the Boer inhabitants were unimpressed is an understatement. They burned down grandpa's Tarry's business and the family home. Grandma became a refugee down the diamond mine with my father, who was just a few weeks old.

When the Brits realised that grandpa was wanted dead or alive they transferred him out of the war zone to the Western Cape. He established a new business in Mossel Bay.

My father was a banker who fought in both world wars - in the first as a teenager. When he joined up his rifle with bayonet fixed was about as tall as he was. I am always amazed that the army did not realise how young he was.

In my father's day the bank's security system depended on there having to be collusion between at least two members of staff to steal money. And collusion took time to develop.

So every time they promoted a member of staff they transferred him to a different branch where he had no friends and did not owe anybody any favours and so - inevitably - we ended up on the Reef, in Germiston, where I started school during WW2.

The family were Anglicans. Our rector was one Gonville Aubey ffrench-Beytagh - a New Zealander who was a protégé of Trevor Huddleston and through him a friend of Alan Paton. Along with other young people from the parish I met both of them - several times.

After the 1948 elections the then Archbishop of Cape Town, Geoffrey Clayton, took the Anglican church into the trenches in opposition to Apartheid. The next decade or so saw our rector locked up for treason and our bishop deported.

In the meantime I had been recruited from final year engineering at Wits by the (then) South African Atomic Energy Board and was transferred to the UK and France for some 6 years, taking Lynette with me as my new bride.

Lynette was a Kritzinger whose elder sister had married into the Botha clan and there were some tensions. The word went round the family that "Griet het 'n kommunis getrou".

The day I met her maternal grandmother was memorable. A little lady with snow white hair, a back like a ramrod and the bluest eyes I have ever seen.

When she heard my middle name - which in not a common one - she asked me if I was related to a Robert Green with the same middle name. I said son and grandson. Had the family ever lived in Jagersfontein? I said yes.

The response was "GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE".

And so the Greens and the Vogts met again after 2 generations.

After a decade with the South African Atomic Energy Board - during which I enjoyed the biggest technological rocket-ship ride of my life I realised that I could not accept the direction that we were travelling. I told the Director-General what I thought. That was a mistake.

Our security clearances were looked after by General Hendrik van den Bergh of BOSS and a series of unsettling interviews ensued.

The upshot was that, in military parlance, we "left our tents standing and our campfires burning". We walked out on everything - house, possessions, the lot and arrived in Australia with what we stood up in and a new baby.

We could not sell up in an orderly manner because that would have alerted BOSS to the fact that we were going.

A side issue is that we discovered that we could sell our house and belongings by proxy and use the money in Australia to re-establish ourselves. But it took 5 years.

Back in 1970/71 BHP had problems staffing its Whyalla steel plant. There was no good reason for East Coast staff to go there with full employment and a nationwide shortage of skilled staff. On the other hand a migrant will do anything, go anywhere to get a start.

And so we found ourselves in Whyalla where among other things we learned to love the smell of sewage because the "treatment" plant was south of the town. The smell meant that the wind had swung to the south and it would become a little cooler.

And BHP agreed to make me available to the State Air Ambulance as a pilot to do mostly night and weekend flying.

I spent many hundreds of hours in the "office" shown watching the constellations wheel overhead.

This resulted in an unsettling introduction to the Pitjanjara Aboriginal people at Yalata, northwest of Ceduna. These people had roamed the Central Desert for many thousands of years. In the 1950s they had the misfortune of having their ancestral lands designated as the Brits' nuclear weapon testing range, with its headquarters at Maralinga. Then they were rounded up and concentrated at Yalata under the care of the Lutheran church.

At the time nobody knew how many were "out there" - or where exactly they were - as, under the Act of the Westminster Parliament which became the Australian constitution Aboriginal people did not exist and were never counted in the census. This was a consequence of the "Terra nullius" (uninhabited) doctrine under which Britain had annexed Australia in 1770 and which remained in force until the constitution was amended by referendum in 1966/67.

As a result, when the earlier bombs were detonated, some were afforded a better view of the explosions than had been anticipated.

The first time I went there I had been sent to transport a compound fracture of the femur to Adelaide. On the way the patient panicked. To him it must have been like Close Encounters of the Third Kind - probably never having seen an aircraft before let alone being in one - and I could hear the bone ends grinding together as he struggled against his restraints.

So I refused to fly any further patients from Yalata unless they were sedated. This resulted in a difference of opinion with the local doctor. But I had Australian Federal aviation law behind me. The captain is in absolute charge.

We were in shock in our early days. We feared that we had migrated into a looming civil war. Crowds of around 100,000 marched through the streets of Melbourne, of Sydney, of Adelaide, of Perth etc each weekend - demanding that our troops be pulled out of Viet Nam. The police admitted that they had lost control of the streets.

In 1972 The Australian Labor Party under Gough Whitlam was elected to Government in Canberra with a specific mandate to bring the troops home unilaterally. They did.

The 1972 election was generally known as the "It's Time!" election. To parents in Whyalla it was known as the chickenpox election. A family went down to Adelaide to a political meeting. On their return their toddler daughter became irritable at play group - and chickenpox raged through the town.

Whyalla was isolated. Children grew up without the immunities acquired swiftly in a big city. If chickenpox, mumps or some like children's' illness was brought to town there was an epidemic which burned itself out in time.

Then another cohort of children would be born who would grow up without the immunities acquired swiftly in a big city. If chickenpox, mumps or some like children's' illness was brought to town there was an epidemic which burned itself out in time.

Etc.

Schooling in Whyalla was a shambles. Newly graduated teachers had to do 2 years "bush" before they could be appointed to a metropolitan school. So 50% of the teaching staff at the State schools "turned over" every year, leaving only the Principal to stay on.

The nuns in the Catholic system, on the other hand, stayed. So we decided that Robert would attend the local convent until he went to high school, when we would send him down to boarding school in Adelaide.

As it happened, just before he started school we were transferred to the flagship Port Kembla steelworks in Wollongong, just south of Sydney, where he was raised and went to university.

And where I live to this day.

I have never returned to South Africa, although I have travelled the world on business on an Australian passport since 1973.

For the first couple of decades it appeared to be too risky, with a family to support, to go there. I had few fears of being arrested as the diplomatic fallout would be severe.

On the other hand an "accident" would be deniable.

After a quarter of a century it no longer mattered. The family regards my residual interest in South Africa as a harmless eccentricity.

And Australia is a nation of immigrants. 51% of the population at the last census were immigrants and their children. So loneliness is not a problem. Most people share your experience.

Every time I pick my granddaughter up and listen to her chatter I realise how easily Australians have accommodated immigrants.

She is an 8th generation Australian. The first Leavers arrived on the Second Fleet in 1789, having been given a free passage out from the UK. They point out, however that all immigrants from the UK who married into the family subsequently bought their tickets.

The problem that we seem to be incapable of managing is our Aboriginal people - 1% of the population. Like their cultural and genetic relatives in Southern Africa, the San, they appear to have a hard time accommodating their hunter-gather society to the mainstream.

About 100,000 of them live scattered over 7.5 million square kilometres in around 1,000 small groups with addresses that are map co-ordinates. They have no need to work because the Government pays them "Sit-down money".

For the first 4 years of their schooling, in an attempt to preserve their culture, they are entitled to mother-tongue education - in some 200 mother-tongues. The children of the other 99% of the population have to undergo Total Immersion English education.

At the end of 4 years when they are "integrated" into the mainstream they may as well be on Mars. They cannot speak or understand English adequately. Learning to do dot painting or dance like a Brolga stork has failed to introduce them to science or mathematics. So they switch off and drop out.

And the problems perpetuate themselves.

But we have had a peaceful life in Australia. We have crime, it is true. But it has rarely affected us in the area where we live. In 1981 my car was stolen, having, as usual, been parked in the street. In 1994 we had an "Affray" in the street - a good deal of shouting. The results were hilarious. 000 calls sent the police hotfooting it to our suburb.

Trouble was that they did not know how to find our street because none of them had been up this way for years. With each repeated 000 call they sent in more reinforcements - who also got lost.

Eventually the general duties branch, the dog squad and the highway patrol all screamed in from different directions and the police dog and our kelpie (Australian sheep dog) "got it on" big-time in a second Affray in the middle of the street.

The suburb still talks about it.

Ramblings Of A Francophobe
Dear Maureen

I have spent the last three weeks in Johannesburg and a few days in Cape Town, where I enjoyed a few days of fine spring weather. Last Friday I went for a long walk on Melkbos Strand and after an hour or so realised that the sun had started to burn my shoulders quite sore - or perhaps it was radiation from the nearby Koeberg Power Station.

In my younger days, I worked for a travel company which handled the accounts for some of the French companies involved in the construction of the power station, and it was probably my contacts with these folk which confirmed and deepened my dislike for the nationality. I'd foolishly let slip that I spoke French, so I was sent out twice a week to Koeberg to sit in a tiny airless prefabricated cubicle, thick with the stench of Gauloises, garlic, and unwashed French labourers. To make it worse, it was so small that I was confronted nose to nose by the person on the other side of the desk. Not only was it a unique form of torture, but the time I suffered there was wasted as the labourers exchanged their home leave air tickets for cash, most of which was injected straight back into the local economy via the local prostitutes as they contravened the 'immorality act'. Meanwhile I acquired the nickname 'Mr. Colbeck' in our office, as whenever the Frenchmen phoned and I was busy, or pretending to be busy, our operator said I would 'call back'. One of them, in a rage, yelled down the line at her: "Colbeck, always Colbeck, what ees zees Colbeck?" The name stuck.

Back to the present, my biggest disappointment with the trip to Cape Town was trying at least 4 branches of Woolies and not being able to find my usual vacuum packed fillet steak which I always bring back with me! I was also less than pleased with a well known car rental company at Johannesburg International (no names but their logo is yellow and black) who gave me a rather tatty CA registered Toyota Corolla which I later noticed had a deep gash, down to canvas, a couple of inches long in one of the front tyres which, apart from this damage, were worn down to a degree which whilst legal, was below the standards to which I maintain my own car. I do wonder what sort of inspection these vehicles are given before being rented out

Talking of JIA, please warn anybody going there to watch out for the thieving scum pretending to be taxi drivers who prey on people arriving, particularly early morning from the international flights. Friends of mine were charged R1000 a couple of weeks ago for the trip to Morningside (Sandton), which should have been R250. I did make a complaint to the police but for some reason they won't/can't do anything about this problem - maybe they will when someone is murdered, which will put a huge dent into SA's tourist industry. It will be terribly sad if this is allowed to happen. The touts approach people inside the terminals, whilst the genuine taxi drivers, most of whom are members of JIATA, Johannesburg International Airport Taxi Association, wait outside at the official taxi area.

And if your bags are weighed and appear to be overweight, make the airline personnel check them on another weighing machine. I had a little lesson in this last week in Cape Town when I weighed myself (65 kgs) on a baggage scale which registered my weight as a sylph-like 47 kgs. I jokingly told the check in girl I'd come to her when my baggage was overweight with all those bottles of Stellenbosch's finest. I then weighed myself on the next machine which showed my weight as 72 kgs! I am not sure if there is some scam going on or simply that the machines need re-calibrating but there does seem to be a problem.

Tot siens

MIKE

And now onto more serious matters...

I've received the following from my friend Jack Hirschberg in Dubai.

South Africa is dying!

Jay Hirschberg (Honeydew, Johanesburg) - Leigh Mathews (Johannesburg) - Inge Lotz (Stellenbosch) - Tracey Thompson (Benoni)........

These are four children who have been murdered in South Africa. Of the four above, two have been high profile news items. Leigh Mathews and Inge Lotz. The media coverage of these two kids put the SAPS on the spot and they had to investigate the cases properly, and subsequently Leigh Mathews’ murderer was sentenced to life in prison. Inge Lotz’s alleged murderer was arrested and the case has been referred to the Supreme Court in Cape Town for a hearing in one year’s time.

The cases of Jay Hirschberg and Tracey Thompson received no media hype and as a result the SAPS did nothing to solve these murders. This goes to show that the SAPS only sometimes do their job properly when it appears that their lack of proper investigating skill will get exposed in the press. You can read all about these cases by logging onto SKOP. Stop Killing Our People at: http://www.sanguae.com/skop.html

As the grieving parents of the unsolved murders of Jay and Tracey, I am pleading with the world to help Carol, Tracey’s mother, and me, to put pressure on the SAPS to give us answers by investigating these cases in a professional manner.

I have a copy of the entire police docket of my late son’s case – given to me by the inquest magistrate – and even to my amateur “Sherlock Holmes” eyes there are serious flaws in the investigation. As an aside, the inquest magistrate could not make a decision on how Jay died as there was a totally incomplete investigation into the case and she has sent the docket back to the senior public prosecutor for further investigation. This is after 3 years!!!!

South Africa is dying. Please help us give South Africa hope.

Jack Hirschberg

You can read the heart rending 'blog' from Tracey's mother here:
http://blogmark.mg.co.za/?q=node/1848

and an article from the Star here :
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=225&fArticleId=2857409

The Legal Beagle TOP

Legal Beagle - SA
Dear editor,

Coming across your website via the Internet, I have the following questions, seeing that I’ve been away for over ten years and been living in Germany since.

Working in Germany in the production metal-branch, I may consider of coming back if jobs opportunities are available. Maybe you could send me more information, where to apply for employment.

Secondly, being born Namibian but still having my old South-African ID number, but no document any more, I would appreciate if you can tell me if I could gain an SA-citizenship again? I’m sure that this would help me a lot more.

Best wishes from a cold Germany

Chris

Dear Chris,

Your e-mail has come through to me as the Legal Beagle on the SAW website.

I note that you were born in Namibia that still have an old South African ID number.

If you would let me have your full names and the ID number I would be able to verify for you quickly as to whether in fact you are still a South African citizen or entitled to South African citizenship status.

Greetings to you from a very sunny South Africa.

Regards,

Julian

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!

Club and Other News TOP

USA – New York
Duma opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, September 30, 2005

Duma is a lyrical, magnificently photographed adventure film about the friendship between a South African boy and the cheetah he rescues as an orphan cub, raises and returns to the wild after an exciting and perilous journey across the deserts and jungles of southern Africa. The film is family-friendly (rated PG and appropriate for ages 5 and up), but plays really well to all ages. DUMA stars Hope Davis (Proof, About Schmidt), Campbell Scott (Roger Dodger, Secret Lives of Dentists) and Eamonn Walker (Lord of War, Oz). Of course the real stars are the unknown South African boy who plays the lead (Alex Michaletos), the multiple cheetahs who play Duma, and the stunning African landscape they traverse. For more information, visit the website at: www.dumamovie.com.

Editor’s note: If you haven’t seen it, go and see it soon! The movie is really great and the cheetahs are all from De Wildt!

---------

To All in YeboLand!

For those who don't know...every Friday I do the "Yebo Friday Session" at SARFM Radio between 9pm and 12..as Da Luv Dj.

Send an event, dedication and song to family and friends in SA, here or anywhere in the world... by emailing me by Thursday night....you can call the show on Friday... but requested songs can not be guaranteed.

Best Regards & Care

Deon " DaLuvDj"de Jongh

Requests to: dldj@sarfmradio.com
SARFM Radio in partnership with
South African Culture in New York Social Group
Promoting the Cultural Diversity of SA
www.sacultureinny.org or www.sarfmradio.com
Contact: 347-531-9557

UK
Starfish UK invites you to its Annual Gala Function: 'A Celebration of Africa'

It's that time of year again when we encourage Starfish party-goers across the UK to join us to celebrate a fantastic year of achievement. This year's party aims to unite nations and make a real impact on the lives of the thousands of children supported by the Starfish Greathearts Foundation across Southern Africa.

When: Saturday 29th October 2005, 19h30 til 1am
Where: The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London EC1Y 4SD

What: Drinks reception, three course South African themed dinner followed by music and dancing from Jazzbomb.

Auction prizes include:
authentic African experience for two at Mosetlha Bushcamp, Madikwe;

annual polo membership for two at the Guards Polo, Windsor.

Tickets: £80 per head / £800 per table
To reserve your tickets email celebrate@starfishcharity.org.

Payment: Bank transfer to Starfish Greathearts Foundation (Barclays)
Account No: 50446564, Sort code: 20-41-41
or
cheque made payable to 'Starfish' and marked Gala Function,
c/o Exchange House, Primrose Street, London EC2A 2HS.

At Starfish, we believe that all individuals in their various spheres of influence can help to bring life, hope and opportunity to children orphaned or made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Working with established NGOs in over 50 communities in South Africa, Starfish currently supports over 9,000 children and with your help could reach out to so many more… Each and every one of us can make a difference!

Spread the Starfish story and invite your friends... www.starfishcharity.org

Humour TOP

If you were wondering why I haven't used a joke you sent in; some of the jokes
I receive are just not suitable for general publication. So send me suitable jokes and I will publish them and acknowledge their origin.

No suitable jokes sent in this week.

Recipes TOP

Vegan Coconut Flan – from the Dr Weil website www.drweil.com

This light tofu pudding is very much like an egg custard made with coconut milk - a very common Southeast Asian dessert (but good with any tropical menu, including Latin American). I like to serve it with chunks of canned pineapple and fresh mint sprigs as an edible decoration. Fans of traditional flan will find this to be a delicious and healthful substitute. If you don't tell your guests about the switch, it's likely they won't even know the difference! There is an option, too, for vegan creme caramel.

Syrup:
5 tablespoons brown sugar or Sucanat or Rapadura
3 tablespoons water

Pudding:
2/3 cup medium-firm tofu (or use extra-firm silken tofu), crumbled
2 tablespoons light unbleached sugar or white beet sugar
1 tablespoon of the Syrup, above
3/4 teaspoons coconut extract
Pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups (reduced fat, if you like) soymilk or other non-dairy milk, such as rice or almond milk
3/4 teaspoons agar powder or1 1/2 tablespoons agar flakes

To make the Syrup:
1. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan with a heavy bottom, over low heat. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

2. Working quickly, place in the blender the tofu, 1 tablespoon of Syrup, 2 tablespoons sugar, coconut extract and salt. Set this aside and pour the remaining syrup evenly into 6 custard molds. Rotate each one to coat the base and sides with the syrup. Set aside.

3. Into the same saucepan pour the non-dairy milk and the agar. Bring this quickly to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Continue stirring. Add this hot milk mixture to the ingredients in the blender and immediately blend it to a smooth cream. Stir down the bubbles. Pour the blended mixture into the coated molds, and skim off any remaining foam. Cover the molds with plastic wrap, and refrigerate them until serving time.

To unmold the puddings:
Dip the bottom of each mold briefly into boiling water, then remove the plastic wrap and turn upside down on a dessert plate. The pudding should slide out easily. Pour any syrup left in the bottom of the mold over the pudding. Decorate each plate with fruit and mint or lemon balm sprigs.

Variation: Vegan Crème Caramel or Individual Spanish-Style Flans:
Omit the coconut extract and add 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract (you could use some orange extract or orange zest in the pudding and/or the syrup, if you like, and use less vanilla). I like this version less sweet, so I leave out the extra 2 tablespoons sugar in the pudding mixture, but you can leave it (or part of it) in, if you prefer.

Recipe from "The Almost No-Fat Holiday Cookbook" by Bryanna Clark Grogan (The Book Publishing Co., 1994)

Sports News TOP

Neethling hopes for fan-tastic time in Durban
Ryk Neethling is looking forward to receiving good support from the Durban crowds when the Fina World Cup rolls into town early next month.

SA surfers brace themselves for US contest
South Africa's junior surfing team will be flying out to California tomorrow to compete in the World Junior Surfing Championships. This year, 25 nations will take part in the event at Huntington Beach starting Saturday.

Shosholoza win again
Team Shosholoza notched up their second victory in the Trapani Louis Vuitton Act 8 match racing event being held in Mediterranean waters off Sicily with a dramatic win on Saturday against United Internet Germany.

Credits and Contact Info TOP

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