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/ 22 February 2006

Beginning the battle

Experts and practitioners involved in early childhood development have raised serious concerns about the government’s lack of early childhood interventions in the years preceding Grade R. Their main gripe is that, despite compelling international evidence that the provision of ECD education plays a significant role in preparing children for schooling in their formative stages, the government continues to focus the available ECD resources on Grade R.

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/ 22 February 2006

Cheaply departed

Two new developments in the morbid world of undertaking are breathing new life into the coffin trade, which has seen prices rise exponentially, with even poor families spending up to R20 000 for a casket. The Eco-Friendly Coffin and the Every-Body DIY Coffin aim to make the business of dying not only affordable but also environmentally friendly.

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/ 22 February 2006

Fanny people

Durban’s tikka wind twirled litter off the pavement as three of us arrived at a friend’s wishbone flat to flesh it out with gifts of Cabernet and cushions. After the third bottle was opened, we began to discuss men. Selfish men. Funny men. Men with spreading hips. Wally men. Swimming men. Men who smell from the mouth. And as the wine flowed, the issue of men and their penises came up.

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/ 22 February 2006

The shock absorbers of nature

Recent floods in Gauteng demonstrated the importance of caring for wetlands and keeping them intact. Homes were washed away and a young mother was killed because of building and dumping in a wetland area in Diepsloot, north-west of Johannesburg, Gauteng. Development in the wetland and a landfill created for rubbish had diverted a river and disturbed the wetland in Diepsloot.

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/ 22 February 2006

Gono goes too far

Divergent groups — ranging from the International Monetary Fund to Cabinet ministers, the security establishment and the opposition — want Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono reined in, albeit for different reasons. ”Some of the issues he touches are outside his domain,” complained opposition Movement for Democratic Change shadow secretary for economic affairs, Tendayi Biti.

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/ 22 February 2006

A world-altering speech

If the great history lesson of the 20th century is that socialism does not work, then the watershed event in that tragic enlightenment was the one that took place in Moscow 50 years ago this month — the so-called ”secret speech” delivered by Nikita Khrushchev to a closed session of the 20th congress of the Soviet Communist Party on February 25 1956.

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/ 22 February 2006

Hamas: We won’t bow to threats

Hamas has accused the United States and Israel of refusing to accept the result of a democratic election, following a report that the two countries were discussing means to de- stabilise and bring down a Hamas-led Palestinian administration. An article in The New York Times reported that Washington and Israel intended to block funding for the Palestinian Authority.