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/ 21 December 2007
I had a moment of pure recognition a few days ago when I read a column in Time magazine. In it Lisa Takeuchi Cullen laments: "I am not particularly eco-conscious. But I am increasingly eco-anxious." How many of us feel like that? There’s just enough drumming on about climate change to keep everyone uneasy, writes Julienne Marais.
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/ 21 December 2007
Sabie is the undisputed outdoor adventure capital of the Lowveld. There’s an amazing choice of things to do. You can experience the adrenaline rush of the world’s highest cable gorge swing with a 68m freefall. Yihaa! You can go rock climbing, abseiling, spelunking, river-rafting, bungee jumping, quad biking, canoeing, tubing or horse-riding. You can go fly-fishing, sailing, power boating or 4x4ing.
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/ 21 December 2007
We’re in southern Nepal; we’re not quite sure where as we lost the main highway about 30 minutes earlier in a desperate search for a petrol station. We didn’t find one in time. I’m barefoot and covered in dirt, straining to push our auto-rickshaw down a two-lane highway, as my boyfriend steers and tries to pump the clutch into action, writes Melissa Bell.
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/ 21 December 2007
From death threats to deadly falls, many quirky news items in 2007 dealt with the bizarre things than animals get up to around the world. We round up some of the most entertaining items, concerning travelling hedgehogs, chocolate eggs and shooting dogs.
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/ 21 December 2007
Thabo Mbeki has often been accused in post-apartheid South Africa of carrying a racial chip on his shoulder. I once asked one of the only white ANC cadres billeted in Lusaka in the Eighties if he ever encountered anything like this in exile. He responded thoughtfully by comparing Mbeki with Chris Hani.
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/ 21 December 2007
With the first showdown only days away, United States presidential hopefuls will take a break for Christmas and let their television ads propagate some holiday cheer, but not exempt of political undertones. As expected, it looks like all the candidates have cleared their agendas of rallies and meetings at least on December 25, though the first contest, the Iowa caucuses, is held only nine days later.
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/ 21 December 2007
Living in Afghanistan, the world’s unrivalled producer of heroin, Faqirullah has no problem finding drugs to feed his habit. What concerns him is getting the cash to buy them. No matter how difficult, the 27-year-old says he has to find the equivalent of $4 to $6 for his daily fix. Faqirullah, who goes by a single name, is one of a growing number of Afghan drug addicts.
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/ 21 December 2007
On an evolutionary level you could say the species had a fabulously successful year. It increased by more than 80million people and most of its 6,5billion members lived longer than they could have expected just 30 years ago. People moved around and traded with one another more than ever and mostly survived whatever the natural world chucked at them.
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/ 21 December 2007
Brigitte Mabandla, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, scores a double GG — and that stand for ”get going”. She and her boss, Mbeki, suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli, apparently for party-political reasons, with blatant disregard for the Constitution and the values it represents.
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/ 21 December 2007
It is likely the ANC has not had a more complex president than Jacob Gedleyihlikisa Zuma (65) or posited in a single individual all things that the party is to its constituency. Abroad he is a diplomat whose initiatives saw Burundi achieve peace, while at home he leads songs calling for his machine gun.