South Africans Worldwide Newsletter

This week I wish to draw attention to the forthcoming global fuel shortages looming, now already apparent and in fact predicted to get worse within the next 6 years! All can make the effort to reduce energy consumption in many ways, so therefore everyone needs to become informed exactly what actions to take.

Reading more about solar-power ,wind-power generation, alternative fuels and nuclear power broadens one’s mind, and increases general awareness of the situation.

The articles in this issue about the Bottled Water scam describes things nicely, as does the article on: Flight schools face fuel shortages – globally. Recent news reports indicate that jet-fuel and other petroleum products are vulnerable too!

Then the Turbosteamer sounds just right, but only available in mass-production 10 years from now! Lastly the new fuel cells seem to point to a new way to power the hungry portable devices in our lives.

Thanks to all that have completed the Reader’s Survey so far. The cut-off date will be with the February 27 Issue. Later the analysis may be revealed.

Most news one sees daily, focuses on negative happenings, so in my humble opinion, publishing mostly positive articles could help redress that. This aspect is dealt with in the Reader’s Survey under:-
Are you satisfied with the content of the SAW Newsletter?

Good web-sites creating more awareness about South Africa, as well as South Africans abroad, are out there on the Internet a-plenty. However we always welcome their news, so invite all to send stories to: editor@saw.co.za

Readers Survey-please complete TOP

Readers Survey

Please complete. then copy and paste the completed survey into a e-mail and send to : editor@saw.co.za

• Number of subscribers per SAW Newsletter ____
• Number of readers per newsletter. ____
• Number of people logging on to website ____
• Satisfaction level with SAW content ________________________
• Suggestions to improve Newsletter___________________________
• Type of work you do ? ______________________________________
• Qualifications-Profession-Trade etc.________________________
• Family size _____
• Where located ? In SA or elsewhere ? _______________________
• From where in SA did you emigrate ? _______________________
• To where did you emigrate ? _______________________
• Impressions of new country _______________________
• Satisfaction with new country _______________________
• Do you interact with other S.Africans ?______________________
• Probability of re-emigrating back to SA ____________________
• Number of visits to SA since emigrating _____________________
• Impressions of SA after visiting SA? _____________________
• Still owning property in SA ? _____________________
• Require help with Visa’s _____________________
• Require help to find employment in SA ?______________________

Thanks for your time !

Letters to the Editor TOP

Dual Nationality

This may be of interest to you or people you know.

The Department of Home Affairs have changed the regulations in respect of SA citizens who are also nationals of another country. In essence, it's this :

http://home-affairs.pwv.gov.za/sa_citizenship...

http://www.iol.co.za/index...

The Department has received a number of enquiries from our ports of entry on whether or not South African citizens who arrive at border posts with foreign passports may be refused to enter or depart from the Republic.

The Department is obliged to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act. However, we acknowledge that many affected South Africans may not yet be aware of the amendments to the Citizenship Act and the implications for themselves.

We have therefore decided that affected South Africans departing or arriving through our ports of entry, attempting to use a foreign passport, will be issued with a warning giving those three months to obtain a South African passport. They will be allowed to depart or enter South Africa.

Accordingly, we would like to advise all South Africans who have dual citizenship and do not have South African passports to apply for their South African passports at their earliest opportunity.

Best wishes

Mike

Quote/s of the Week TOP

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. - Galileo Galilei

It matters little if we have the most beautiful feelings, if we are not able to communicate them. - Stephan Zweig

Life Recipes TOP

Nothing to hand this week

News from Kiwiland TOP

Digging a garden

by Jan Coetsee

An old man lived alone at his family home in the far north of a city. He wanted to dig his sweet-potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, Hone, who used to help him was in the new prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Hone, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my garden this year I'm just getting too old to be digging up the hard ground for my garden plot. I know if you were here, all my troubles would be over as I know you would dig the garden plot for me. Love Papa.

A few days later he received a reply from his son.

Dear Papa, For god's sake don't dig that garden. That's where I buried the bodies. Love Hone.

At 4am the next morning, the local police arrived with a search warrant and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologised and left.

Later the same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Papa, Go ahead and plant your sweet potatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances. Love Hone

Ad Hoc Article/s of the Week TOP

Building Plans up 51.4% in 2005

Preliminary estimates indicate that the value of recorded building plans passed by larger municipalities (at current prices) during 2005 increased by 51.4%, or by 22.777 billion rand compared with 2004, Stats SA said on Wednesday.

Large increases in the value of recorded building plans passed were reported for non-residential buildings (+72.5%), additions and alterations (+56.7%) and residential buildings (+44.0%), Stats SA said.

Read more here: http://www.property24.com/property24...

Branding South Africa

Proudly South African with a competitive edge Manana Moroka took up the position of CEO of Proudly South African from November 1 last year. She took the reins when the company was on a back foot -- it had lost about 2,8% of its membership in less than a year and was accused by business of not delivering on promises.

What will you bring that is different to the Proudly South African brand? As CEO I will be contributing my fair share of management, executive, strategic and marketing expertise and commitment to excellence.

Read more here: http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage...

Mugabe to give land back to white farmers

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has reversed his land policies and has offered some white farmers their land back.

With the fastest-shrinking economy in the world, Mugabe has had to backtrack on six years of chaos and his own determination to rid Zimbabwe of all white farmers.

At the beginning of 2000, in an orgy of violence, Mugabe seized the land, homes, equipment and infrastructure of about 4 000 white commercial farmers who produced nearly half Zimbabwe's foreign currency.

Read more here: http://www.iol.co.za/index...

Flying schools running out of gas, globally

There is a shortage of Avgas - a fuel used for small planes and helicopters, particularly at flying schools - in South Africa and most of the world.

The Avgas problem is a global problem - only about four refineries in the world produce this product, said Kader Jacobs, BP Aviation supply logistics manager.

Local helicopter and flying schools have reported two shortages in the past two weeks. This interruption in fuel supply is very unusual and makes fuel management a pressing issue, said David Heyes of the Starlite helicopter training school.

Read more here: http://www.iol.co.za/index...

BMW develops turbo steam fuel-saving concept

BMW engineers are working on a steam-powered auxiliary drive system that reduces fuel consumption by up to 15% and boosts performance at the same time, the car maker said.

The "Turbosteamer" concept applied to a 1,8 litre, four-cylinder petrol engine recycles the waste heat in the exhaust gases and cooling system.

Read more here: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage...

A power plant in your pocket

Fuel cells are being called the energy sources of the 21st century. And despite what some people think, the first commercial applications for the technology are less likely to be in your car than in your briefcase or jacket packet.

For the cellphones and laptops of the future, the batteries may run on alcohol or hydrogen -- and if they run out of juice, you simply refill them.

Read more here: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage...

Bits and Bobs TOP

Driving licence: Why only old folk under fire?

London, England - Drivers who reach the age of 75 in the UK could soon have to be tested to make sure they are cognitive and can see properly or off the road they'll go.

Those who fail will see their driving licence zapped - which is fair enough. But, asks Britain's Driving Instructors' Association, why only the wrinklies? Much younger people can be unfit to drive or have lousy eyesight yet don't wear glasses.

Such tests - the first at 75, the next at 80 and so on (and so on? - who're they kidding!) - it says, should be compulsory for all drivers but every 10 years.

Read more here: http://www.motoring.co.za/index...

SEAT: Scoop!

As Wheels24 revealed exclusively a week ago, the Spanish SEAT brand is coming to South Africa. Now we're the first SA website to drive the cars.

Read more here: http://www.mweb.co.za/motoring/?p=newsarticlepage&i=75570

Getting involved in South Africa

We’d like to appeal to you to tell as many people as you can about the site, so that they can enjoy it too-the more the merrier and the more interesting it will become.

If you have a website, then please consider adding a link to us on your site – and if you do, please send us your site address and name, so that we can add a link on this site as well.

We started this site because we want to share the movie we saw, and we wanted to find out why people love South Africa so much. But that doesn’t mean that the site can’t evolve. If you’ve got any ideas, then please do get in touch and tell us! Visit us at:- http://www.ilovesouthafrica.org/getting-involved/

Cape circus school zips over to Melbourne

Performers from Cape Town-based circus school, Zip Zap, will soon be flying to Australia to perform at their biggest event yet, the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next month, including the opening and closing ceremonies. Ten of the school's performers, the youngest being 12, will leave for the country on February 27. Co-owner of the school, Brent van Rensburg, said everyone was very excited: this is our biggest international event yet.

Read more here: http://www.iol.co.za/index...

Mindfulness and Tango: Passion and Possibilities

By Maya Talisman Frost

For Valentine's Day, we went to see a production of "Forever Tango!" presented at the Angela Peralta Theater just two blocks from our home here in Mazatlan.

After all, since we're moving to Argentina in July, we need to learn more about tango, which was born in Buenos Aires back in the late 1800s.

It was a great show--passionate dancing, stirring music, spectacular costumes. But I wanted to know more about how this dance form started, so I did a little research on the history of tango.

Read more here: http://www.real-worldmindfulness.com

Ramblings of a Francophobe - On smoking and bottled water

I am delighted almost beyond words to see that the UK is to ban smoking definitively in public places. There was discussion about where the law would apply, to whom, and concerning definitions of 'serving food'. Now they've decided to remove all grey areas and ban the filthy obnoxious killer habit.

I can only hope that countries such as France which have not yet taken a real stand on this, will soon be obliged to do so. There is of course a law about this in France, as there is a law about most things in France. The problem is that for a Frenchman, and even more so, for a French woman, the law applies only to other people, never to ‘moi’!

Even Spain, nation of inveterate smokers that they are, has banned smoking in certain public places, whilst allowing an element of choice, and is to take the law a step further next year to widen its scope. Ironically, the only country to totally ban the use and sale of tobacco is one we probably think of as third world - the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.

The misery and cost caused by smoking is enormous, almost incalculable, and for many people it ruins the pleasure of an evening out, or even a trip to the beach.

It kills, slowly and painfully, not only those who choose to smoke, but also passive smokers who don't have the choice. It causes fires (Table Mountain recently) which destroy vast swathes of nature, and peoples' homes, and in which people die. It causes car accidents when people pay more attention to their cigarettes than to their fellow road users. Motorcyclists have suffered burns as drivers carelessly flick still lighted cigarette ends out of their car windows.

It used to cost passenger transportation companies and hotels massive sums of money in frequent replacement of filtration units and cleaning of soft fabrics. It causes fights at airport check ins, and in public places (I've been in two recently!)

Cigarette companies are nothing but legalized drug peddlers, and legalized only because of the enormous revenues for governments. This is worse than living off the proceeds of prostitution.

Some of you may say there are other, worse, forms of pollution, and you'd be right, but let's control those we can. You may also say that people have the right to poison themselves to death, and you'd be right there too, as long as society does not have to pick up the tab (sorry for the pun) and suffer the consequences. Unfortunately this is not the case.

I feel particularly strongly about this right now because this week I went to the funeral of a friend who died of cancer, and who had been a heavy smoker all her life.

Many people say this law implies the ‘death’ of the ‘pub’ industry, but in my view the traditional British pub began to kill itself off years ago by installing awful 'music' systems, live music, and gaming machines with that infuriating clinking and jingles, in response to 'public demand'. It's funny how it's always 'public demand' and yet anybody you talk to says they detest the noise and the type of people that this attracts.

Perhaps I'm not typical, but if I go to a pub I want a quiet chat with a friend or a small group of friends. I don't want to have my ears assailed by raucous 'music', and I never have. Perhaps I was born old. Music is catered for at other venues.

The main reason that I don't go to public places, apart from ochlophobia, is the foul air created by smokers. If more publicans had applied a little foresight and introduced non smoking zones, the industry might have been able to save itself. As it is, even in the so-called 'family zones' of many UK pubs, smoke is tolerated. This should never have been the case.

Too late, everyone has woken up to the reality of what smoking does, and a kneejerk reaction has resulted in a total ban. From my own purely selfish point of view, I could, and do, applaud this, but it's been done in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons.

I will now be able to go to traditional English pubs, and there are still plenty, with a couple of mates, have a steak and ale pie, a pint or two, and enjoy this without the foul stench of someone's second hand tobacco fumes wafting over me.

A couple of years ago I was working in Lancashire (NW England), and was staying in a small village. All three pubs there had been converted into raucous plasticky discotheque type bars, and so had many of those in the area, and I was trying to find somewhere where I could go in the evenings for my dinner. I spent an evening driving around and in the middle of nowhere, on the banks of a canal just off the A6, found a pub that looked so welcoming and serene that I stopped and went in. It looked like the traditional English pub of olden days. There was no smell of smoke or stale beer or sweat, it just smelled slightly of wood smoke and good food, there was no music, in short, it was perfect.

I walked up to the bar and greeted the couple behind it, and told them this was just what I'd been looking for. The man replied, in a strong South African accent: Ja man, we took it over 18 months ago when we came here from South Africa and decided to turn it back into a typical British pub...

Funny how it took South Africans to see this.

The bottled water scam

Something which hacks me off big time is the great bottled water scam. Not only is it utterly unnecessary most of the time, but it is harmful to the environment, not to mention your pocket.

Bottled water is making a significant contribution to climate change. To supply the more than two billion litres of bottled water that is consumed just in the UK every year, bottled-water companies produce 33,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

As if that weren’t bad enough, what really gets up my nose is that Britain, a small island known primarily for its damp climate, does not suffer from a water shortage, so why is about a quarter of the bottled water sold there imported from France? Next time you think
about buying bottled water, at least try to buy local, and not French (Evian, Perrier, Volvic etc), and keep your country’s foreign exchange for worthier causes.

A major environmental cost comes from transport and it really does seem absurd to transport water half way round the world in some cases, to countries quite able to produce their own. I have been offered, and have refused, French mineral water in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and Chile. The latter two countries certainly do not suffer from water shortages. The worst example was recently when I was having lunch in a restaurant near Caledon in the Cape. That’s Caledon, as in spa, as in water from where much of South Africa’s bottled water originates.

I was offered Perrier water, or rather, given it without being offered a choice. I asked the owner of the restaurant if he was not ashamed of himself for not supporting local industry, for not being Proudly South African, and his limpwristed and pathetic reply was that ‘customers want it.’ I told him that if it weren’t on the list customers would have to do without it and drink local produce – hardly likely to lose him business.

Environmental groups have urged consumers to return to tap water, which they say is 10,000 times cheaper, just as healthy and far less environmentally costly.

Bottled water ranks alongside patio heaters as one of the absurd producers of greenhouse gas emissions, the head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth said.

A report concluded that of the 154 billion litres of bottled water consumed globally each year, about a quarter had been imported. Evian exports about 50% of its water to more than 120 countries. Nolvic exports about 60%. The report accused some producers of disrupting the water supply of local communities. The water-extraction facilities for Coca-Cola’s Dasani line in India, for example, had caused water shortages in more than 50 villages, it said.

Bob Geldof, who has worked on water conservation issues in Africa, said: “It is the great irony of the 21st century that the most basic things in the supermarket, such as water and bread, cost the most. Getting water from the other side of the Earth to sell here is ridiculous.”

Please think about this next time you buy bottled water. Firstly, ask yourself if you really need to buy bottled water at all, and then, if you need to buy something that has been imported from the other side of the world. A simple filter may be all you need to ensure yourself a cheap and safe water supply for many years at a fraction of the cost of the bottled stuff.

I’ve been away from the Cape for too long... as I sit here on a grey day in Europe, leaden skies about to issue forth snow, temperature just above freezing, we have snow on our mountains but I'd rather see the sparkling Atlantic in front of me and the Twelve Apostles behind me, and the whales and the chicks and smell the braais and the ozone and feel the crash of the surf.

If only I could get my residence back and find something to do in SA to keep body and soul together.

Best wishes, tot siens

Mike

The Legal Beagle TOP

Nothing new received

Help Desk TOP

Nothing new received

Where are they now? TOP

Nothing new received.

Club and Other News TOP

New York Springbok Club
from Jerry Weitsz

The next New York Springbok Club get together will be on 23 February, 2006.

Date: 23 February, 2006 (Thursday)
Time: 6:00 pm till 11:00 pm
Place: Pig & Whistle Pub (165 West 47th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues - Manhattan). We have the whole 2nd floor to ourselves for the event.

www.nynjspringbok.com

SA Club Luxembourg

Just a reminder about the Carnival Party on Saturday 25th February. Check out any updates as well on www.saclubluxembourg.com for the carnival and other upcoming events.

Important notice: For those of you have have booked tickets for the
VUSI concert on 11th March 06 and have not yet paid their tickets please can you do so asap in order for us to send you the tickets by the end of February. The bank details are:
South African Club Luxembourg:BCEE-/LU32 0019 1455 9248 2000

Please make sure you put your full name on the payment and send your address to: sa_club_lux@hotmail.com

Listen to ARA City Radio on Tuesday morning at 8:00 and I will give you more updates. Cheers for now.

Win a free holiday to South Africa! The Station Network, in conjunction with the South African Club Luxembourg, is promoting two events over the coming months:

A Carnival Party on Saturday 25 February, at the Check Inn,Findel

A South African Freedom Day cultural event on Sunday 30 April, at the Abbaye de Neumunster.

How to win a free holiday to SA. Tickets for the Tombola go on sale on Saturday 25 February at the Carnival Party, with 10 prizes on offer, the top of which is a holiday to South Africa. Return flights for 2 people from Luxembourg to either Cape Town or Johannesburg are being provided by South African Airways, and 2 weeks accommodation is being provided by Boomerang Reisen. The winners will be drawn at the Freedom Day Cultural Event on Sunday 30 April.

Tickets to the Carnival Party: Tickets cost 12 Euros (pre-paid) or 15 Euros at the door. To apply for tickets to the Carnival Party, send an e-mail to tickets@station.lu, together with your name, address, mobile phone number and number of tickets requested, with Carnival Party in the subject line. Tickets will be posted when payment is received at BILLLULL LU52 0023 1200 9886 1900. Please note that ticket applicants must be registered with The Station Network. As numbers are limited, you are urged to book early to avoid disappointment.

Humour TOP

Dangerous Vir*s

There is a dangerous vir*s being passed electronically, orally and by hand. This virus is called Worm-Overload-Recreational-Killer
(WORK).

If you receive WORK from any of your colleagues, your boss or anyone else via any means do not touch it.

This vir*s will wipe out your private life completely. If you should come into contact with WORK put your jacket on and take Daniel/Jan to the nearest wine bar or pub then purchase the antidote known as
Work-Isolator-Neutralizer-Extractor (WINE).

The quickest acting WINE type is called Swift-Hitting-Infiltrator-Remover-All-Zones (SHIRAZ) but this is only available for those who can afford it, the higher the price the higher the chances of cure,
the next best equivalent is Cheapest-Available-System-Killer (CASK). Take the antidote Repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.

Forward this warning to 5 friends. If you do not have 5 friends you have already been infected and WORK is controlling your life. This vir*s is DEADLY (Destroys-Every-Available-Decent-Living-Youngster).

Update 14.FEB.06
After extensive testing it has been concluded that Best-Equivalent-Extractor-Remedy (BEER) may be substituted for WINE but may require a more far generous application.

Happy Valentines Day [received too late for Valentine s Day -Ed]

Clean joke of the day

Henry's first stop on his vacation was his sister's house. She's extremely organized. Before she leaves on a trip, she always types up address labels for her postcards.

This time, Henry figured he'd done her one better. He boasted to her, You'll be impressed. I've already written thank-you notes to everyone with whom I'll be staying. They're all stamped and ready to go.

His sister was silent for a moment, and then she said, You mean those little envelopes I saw in your room and mailed this morning?

Recipes TOP

About African Cooking

The person who has not traveled widely thinks his or her mother is the only cook (the best cook). - proverb of the Ganda people of Uganda; (Courtesy:- African Proverbs, Sayings and Stories Website)

Congo Cook Book - Vegetarian African Recipes

African cooking is often meat-, fish-, fowl-, and dairy-free more of necessity than choice. For most Africans, the ideal meal would have meat, if meat can be had. Even when it can not be obtained in quantity, a small amount of meat (fish, fowl, etc.) is often used as a flavoring in many dishes.

Read much more at http://www.congocookbook.com/

Sports News TOP

Cape Town could get MotoGP race

The world's premier motorcycling championship, MotoGP, will be staged at the proposed new Cape Town International F1 Circuit if the overall South African F1 Grand Prix project goes ahead.

Read more here: http://www.mweb.co.za/motoring...

South African dam levels TOP

Dam levels according Department of Water Affairs graphs at www.dwaf.gov.za

Vaaldam - 99% Two top-sluices still open.
Bloemhof Dam - 96.5%
Gariep Dam - 95%

Most other dam-levels seem high.

Water pollution in SA TOP

Bloemhof Dam catchment area

Residents were warned to boil drinking water after illnesses were reported, as recent floods washed pollutants down-stream.

Credits and Contact Info TOP

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