The Hillside Beach Club near Fethiye on the Turquoise Coast is very easy on the eye. Set in a secluded bay surrounded by pine-covered hills, the steeply terraced rooms look out over a sea the required shade of turquoise, and beyond to the Toros mountains. <i>Escape</i> takes it easy in the country’s most exclusive beach resort.
If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, then freedom of expression must be the bigot’s favourite hideout. As I see it, writing and circulating an e-mail suggesting that if you want to create black people you need a wheelbarrow-load full of faeces and another of mud has nothing to do with showcasing the right to freedom of expression, as a case before the Equality Court argued. It is bigotry.
South Africa should manage its trade relations with China more effectively, rather than "naively pursuing" a free trade deal with the emerging-world economic giant, says Martyn Davies, a director of research and strategy at the research consultancy Emerging Markets Focus. Davies said the main barriers to entry were cultural, linguistic and political and that these would not disappear with a free-trade agreement.
This week’s column is the second part of some reflections on the proposed new legislation: the draft Prohibition of Hate Speech Bill. It is hard to decide which part of the draft Bill is the most revealing of insidious government intentions. In some of its provisions the Bill is disturbingly similar to legislation in Zimbabwe and under which virtually all independent political and social comment has been obliterated by the Robert Mugabe government.
It is not quite a monastic life, but as Jean-Bertrand Aristide waits in South Africa for the call to go home, his background has come to the fore. "I was a priest, which means I could stay in one place for months without feeling the same thing someone else would feel. Staying in one place is not a problem for me." The deposed Haitian president says Africa must continue in its role as custodian of democratic values.
It helps to be an optimist if you are Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, but Gideon Gono is perhaps reading too much into his early successes. Gono acknowledged that the economy had been through a rough patch in the past years, but added, "In the same breath I can attest to the world that the Zimbabwean economy is now on the mend. We have bottomed out and it’s definitely looking up."
Teenage pregnancy has often dealt a mortal blow to the educational aspirations of girls in Africa. But, laws compelling schools to re-admit these young mothers could hold the key to solving this problem. At present, just a handful of countries in Africa have instituted laws that make it compulsory for schools to re-admit young mothers.
Kenenisa Bekele, the 22-year-old Ethiopian who is set to emerge as the glittering star of the track at the Olympic Games in Athens, hides his face in his hands. The laughter takes hold of him. He rocks gently back and forth, unsure whether he is more embarrassed or exhilarated to be asked if his mentor, Haile Gebrselassie, has recovered from having two of his world records smashed.
South African soldiers attached to the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are among the 3 700 troops now deployed on that country’s tense eastern border. More than 20 000 DRC troops have massed on the eastern border with Rwanda, say UN officials.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has never visited South Africa, has missed three African presidential inaugurations and the launch summit of the African Union. This has led to mounting criticism of Egypt’s role in Africa. Mubarak has even stayed away from meetings of the five-man New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) steering committee.