South Africans Worldwide Newsletter

Once again fate has intervened-this time with continued power-cuts
in Harare, which in turn cuts the Server to my Internet connection.
Thus although I’ve had the contents for the 17 July Newsletter saved,
I’ve been frustrated in any attempts to build the newsletter into the web-based programme..
Coupled with many ‘Medi-Vac’s ’ there has been no time to
use alternate sources that could enable on to log-on somewhere. Besides there is the matter of requiring transport to drive around a strange city at night- which is never a desirable option.

So dear Readers, you have to wait for possible double editions next time.
‘Till next time.

Letters to the Editor TOP

None received -maybe some not seen due to difficult Internet connections-if so, sorry.

Quote/s of the Week TOP

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.
-- e e cummings

Undoubtedly, we become what we envisage.
-- Claude M. Bristol

The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.
-- Jawaharlal Nehru

She was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always wanted to do.
-- Zelda Fitzgerald, 1922

There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains. the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.
-- Bette Davis, The Lonely Life, 1962

I can't think of any sorrow in the world that a hot bath wouldn't help,just a little bit.
-- Susan Glasee, The Visioning, 1911

When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all.
-- Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign, 1999

Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.
-- Mary Tyler Moore

Ad Hoc Article/s of the Week TOP

Petrol: Brace yourselves!
South African motorists can brace themselves for a significant hike in the petrol price in August. Reuters reports oil prices surged to record highs above $78 on Friday as global geopolitical storm clouds gathered, with supply disruption in Opec exporter Nigeria and tensions across the Middle East driving crude into un-chartered territory.
Escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanon and fresh supply fears in the world's eighth-largest exporter, Nigeria, took centre stage, firing prices 1.8% above Thursday's close and over $80 a barrel for fourth-quarter delivery contracts.
Iran's nuclear stand-off with the West limped back to the UN Security Council, North Korea stormed out of talks with South Korea, and falling crude stocks in the world's top oil consumer, the US, added fuel to the red-hot oil prices.

Read more…

www.mail.fin24.co.za

Protea puts Uganda on growth list

July 14, 2006

The next step in Protea Hotels' expansion into Africa will be to manage a 70-bedroom boutique hotel in Kampala, Uganda, for the Simba group of companies.
The hotel is under construction and is due to open in November 2007, in time to accommodate some of the delegates to the Commonwealth summit.
Stuart Cook, the general manager of Simba's hotel division, said it had chosen Protea because it could offer a marketing presence in the international market. - Audrey d'Angelo, Cape Town

http://www.busrep.co.za

Revamp of power grid too slow - Gcabashe

July 14, 2006 By Mzwandile Faniso

Johannesburg - Slow progress in the restructuring of the electricity distribution industry was a key challenge facing South Africa's efforts to stabilise its electricity supply, Eskom chief executive Thulani Gcabashe said yesterday.

The plan to restructure the industry, which is marred by inequality stemming from different tariffs charged by municipalities and poor service delivery due to lack of capacity in poorer local governments, was announced in 2003.

According to EDI Holdings, the company that is overseeing the restructuring process, municipalities charged about 2 000 different tariffs, ranging between 19c and 71c a kilowatt-hour.

The government has delayed its decision partly because of concerns raised by municipalities that saw electricity distribution as their cash cows and a debate within the government about who would finance the process.

Read More…

http://www.busrep.co.za

Eskom to decide on 2nd Koeberg

13/07/2006 14:44 By: Sikonathi Mantshantsha
Johannesburg - Eskom said on Wednesday it would make a decision whether to build another nuclear power station in South Africa in September and is currently looking at a feasibility study.
"It is government policy that nuclear is included as a source of energy. We are looking at a feasibility of a new nuclear station and we'll make a decision," said CEO Thulani Gcabashe.
Gcabashe said Eskom is diversifying its power sources and is on track to complete the two open cycle gas turbine power stations at Atlantis and Mossel Bay.

Read more…

http://www.fin24.co.za/

Bike unfolds to tackle the urban jungle

July 13 2006 at 07:43PM

By Robert MacPherson

London - In the dog-eat-dog world of cutting-edge bicycle design, the A-Bike wants to be the Jack Russell terrier - small, cute as a button, but as tough as they come.

Conceived in Britain, built in Malaysia and sold via the Internet, it's the latest - and potentially one of the most successful - ideas to come out of the mind of prolific inventor Sir Clive Sinclair.
No bigger than a piece of carry-on luggage when folded, it opens up in just 10 seconds into an A-frame bicycle -- hence its name -- ready for use as an urban get-around vehicle.

Read more…

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

'Farming is SA's most dangerous profession'

July 14 2006 at 12:43AM

Rural crime has turned farming into one of the most dangerous professions in the country,
the Freedom Front Plus said on Thursday.

"The likelihood of a victim dying during a farm attack is three times higher than a victim dying during a cash-in-transit heist," said FF Plus spokesperson Pieter Groenewald.

Groenewald said the rate of police killings - 153 out of every 100 000 - was much less than in the case of farmers.

"It can be accepted that since 1991 up to now, approximately 1 600 farmers in nearly 10 000 farm attacks have already been killed."

Read more…

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

Airport robbery raises 2010 fears, says ACDP

July 14 2006 at 12:06AM

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has expressed concern that Thursday's cash heist at Bloemfontein Airport would affect preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

"One does not wish to relate everything to the country's preparedness to host the 2010 Fifa event, but it is a matter of concern," Free State ACDP leader Casper Nordier said in a media
statement.

"This incident involves two controversial aspects - security and our transport infrastructure."

Meanwhile, police in the province have launched a manhunt for the gang that robbed a chartered aircraft at the airport of an undisclosed amount of money early on Thursday morning.

Read more…

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

Majority of poor people live on R20 a day

July 14 2006 at 05:20AM By Sholain Govender

While some people spend more than R20 a day on breakfast alone,
people in half of South Africa's households live on R20 or less a day.

This is according to a study by Eighty20, based on official statistics published by Statistics SA in Pretoria.

The study, reported in Business Report on Thursday, found that people in 5.2-million households were living on less than R20 each a day.

Read more…

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

Mars at it’s closest in our lifetime

Since this won't happen again for between 5,000 and 60,000 years...might be worth a look now. I'm sure some of you already know and are watching for this phenomenon, but if you aren't - here's your chance.

Mars- The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!

This month the Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within
34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide.
At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and
reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30am. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

Share this with your children and grandchildren.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Bits and Bobs TOP

SA woman wins Caine Prize for African writing

London, United Kingdom

A South African whose short story offered a child's view of life under apartheid has won this year's Caine Prize, organisers of the award for African writing said on Monday.

Mary Watson's Jungfrau explores family dynamics from the perspective of the young daughter of a committed teacher in late apartheid South Africa.

"It is a powerfully written narrative that works skillfully through a child's imagination to suggest a world of insights about familial and social relationships in the new South Africa," Nana Wilson-Tagoe, an expert on African literature at the University of London and chairperson of the judges panel, said in a statement.

Jungfrau is part of a collection of stories the Cape Town-born Watson first wrote as her master's thesis at the University of Cape Town. She now teaches film at the university and is working on her first novel.

Watson was the seventh winner of the £10 000 prize, sometimes dubbed the African Booker because of its link to the late Man Booker Prize chairperson Michael Caine. Previous winners include Helon Habila, who won in 2001 and went on to win the Commonwealth Writers Prize for a later novel.

The annual short story prize was created in honour of Caine, a British businessman with a deep interest in Africa who for almost 25 years chaired the management committee of the Booker, Britain's most prestigious literary award.

Four other writers had been shortlisted for this year's Caine Prize: United States-based Nigerian Sefi Atta; South African Darrel Bristow-Bovey; Kenyan Muthoni Garland; and Moroccan Laila Lalami. - Sapa-AP

http://www.mg.co.za

Little town flies proudly South African flag

July 10 2006 at 11:06AM By Botho Molosankwe

Imagine living in a town of 350 inhabitants where tranquillity and clean air greets you every morning as you open the windows.

A little town surrounded by mountains where everyone knows each other and where there are no chain stores or fast food outlets and almost everything you eat or wear was made in the country.

Clarens is that place and because of its continuing use of locally made products it is the first South African town to be awarded Proudly South Africa membership status

Read more…

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

DRC's mineral profits go to small, powerful elite

Emad Mekay | Washington, United States

International companies and local elites in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are pocketing revenues from copper and cobalt production instead of sharing it with local communities or spending it to reduce poverty, a watchdog group charged this week.

A new report by the London-based Global Witness says that despite being one of the richest copper- and cobalt-producing areas in the world, the province of Katanga in the south-eastern DRC remains severely poor and the population has little or no infrastructure or public services.

"The profits are serving to line the pockets of a small but powerful elite -- politicians and businessmen who are exploiting the local population and subverting natural riches for their own private ends," says the report, whose authors based their findings on field research in November and December last year.

Read more…

http://www.mg.co.za/

SA's high road death rate worse than Dehli

Anna Cox July 10 2006 at 11:56AM

The death rate of 56 per 100 000 population on South Africa's roads should be declared a public health issue.

So says Geetam Tiwari, chairperson and associate professor of Transport Research and Injury Prevention Programme at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi.

She was speaking at an Urban Age Conference hosted by the London School of Economics in Johannesburg at the weekend.

Tiwari expressed shock, saying the figure had remained static since 1997 and was worse than Tehran which stood at 39. Delhi stands at 12 per 100 000; New York 5; Mexico 7 and London 3.

Read more…

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

The Legal Beagle TOP

Nobody asked for help

Help Desk TOP

Nobody asked for help.

Where are they now? TOP

Not being able to access my e-mail whilst in Harare,this column has nothing to report.

Club and Other News TOP

Nothing available

Humour TOP

A golfer came home from a hard eighteen-hole golf match with
some of his neighbors.

His wife greeted him and said, "Well, honey, did you win the
game today?"

"Well," he said, "let's put it this way. I got to hit the
ball more times than anyone else."

Here's a revised list of kitchen lingo especially applicable
to kids...

BOIL: The point a parent reaches upon hearing the automatic
"Yuck" before a food is even tasted.

CASSEROLE: Combination of favorite foods that go uneaten
because they are mixed together.

DESSERT: The reason for eating a meal.

EVAPORATE: Magic trick performed by children when it comes
time to clear the table or wash dishes.

FRUIT: A natural sweet not to be confused with dessert.

REFRIGERATOR: A very expensive and inefficient room air
conditioner when not being used as an art gallery.

SODA POP: Shake 'N Spray.

TABLE LEG: Percussion instrument.

Recipes TOP

Nothing available this week-sorry.

Sports News TOP

Sorry not able to access sources this week.

Advertising on South Africans Worldwide TOP

Readers are invited to place adverts on the website, www.saw.co.za as well as place ads in this newsletter, SAWmail.

Costs:

An article about your service or site - R 3000

Your banner - R 3000/month [on SAW home site & run of site]

Ad in SAW-mail- 4 lines of text - R 1000/issue.

[There are 27 000 subscribers to the Newsletter plus many thousands of "hits" on the web-site - Ed]

Reader's Interests or Hobbies TOP

Nothing to report.

Credits and Contact Info TOP

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Disclaimer TOP

The editors, publishers, directors and shareholders of Maesti Web Consulting (being the holding company that publishes SAW) place on record that opinions and comment published in this newsletter are those of the authors, contributors and correspondents.

It should not be construed that we agree or disagree with any of the material. All information about events is published in good faith as received from the correspondents.

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