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/ 17 September 2007

The long and short of it

Pictures of Sophie Dahl and her boyfriend, jazz musician Jamie Cullum, are deemed insufficient, by certain newspapers, to ram home what an unnatural pairing they make. The London Daily Mail newspaper called them ”The Little and Large Show”, and the Sun, confusingly, ”Little Dahling”. Even Cullum’s own website says, ”Dates: Sophie Dahl (seven inches taller)”.

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/ 17 September 2007

World loses vocal Aids prophet

Professor Ruben Sher, the man who predicted 20 years ago that HIV/Aids would become a “biological holocaust” in South Africa, has died at the age of 78. Under apartheid, and at a time when the disease was seen as a problem of white homosexuals, he was the stubborn, forthright and vocal prophet warning of the looming tragedy.

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/ 17 September 2007

Niger’s uranium rebellion

Before the protest march, leaflets were scattered around town claiming Libyan troops had entered Niger to annex the country’s oil and land while French business people were busy looting the country of its meagre wealth. And when hundreds of Nigeriens took to the streets of their capital recently, they did more than accuse neighbouring Libya of backing rebels and call for Areva, a French nuclear firm mining uranium in the north of the country, to leave.

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/ 17 September 2007

Bulawayo faces water crisis

The government is refusing to tackle increasing water shortages and instances of waterborne diseases in Bulawayo because of a struggle over control of the city’s water supply. Unless local officials hand over control of the water supply to a government agency, the central authorities have said they will not help the residents of the second-largest city.

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/ 17 September 2007

Cuba puts US to shame

A tropical sun rises over Havana and in the neighbourhood of Vedado, a maze of worn, bleached apartment blocks, a unique healthcare system limbers up for another day. In Parque Aguirre, a small plaza shaded by palms, two dozen pensioners form a semi-circle and perform a series of stretches and gentle exercises, responding to the commands of a spry septuagenarian.

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/ 17 September 2007

Mouth wide open

What strange creatures we are, we yawners, a category that extends across species to include, I am told, mammals of many shapes, colours and stripes. How incomprehensible it is to us that we are sometimes taken, possessed even, by a fit of our physiologies, to extend our jaws and exhale with an intensity that animates only the orgasm and laughter.

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/ 16 September 2007

Women, the state and Africa

As South Africa debates the political challenges associated with the ANC’s year-end conference at Polokwane, this is perhaps a good moment to think beyond immediate struggles and to consider what women have achieved beyond the borders of this country.

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/ 16 September 2007

Nation-building, not nation-bashing

Throughout history, we have been taught to see the media as instruments of change with a role to play in nation-building and fighting for a just society. The belief that working as a journalist is a way to fight oppression and contribute to the creation of a non-racial, democratic and united nation was what motivated and inspired the passionate idealism of black and white media workers.

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/ 16 September 2007

Filling the gaps in land reform

The report of the panel of experts on the development of policy on foreign ownership of land in South Africa is the product of a multidisciplinary team of highly qualified and experienced individuals. Although I am expressing myself in this piece in a personal capacity, the report itself is a product of the collective and ought to be treated as such.

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/ 16 September 2007

Merciless France hammer 14-man Namibia

Hosts France showed no mercy to 14-man Namibia on Sunday as they got some vital momentum for Friday’s crucial Group D World Cup clash with Ireland, winning 87-10 to post their record score in international rugby. Vincent Clerc ran in three tries, while locks Jerome Nallet and Sebastian Chabal grabbed a brace each.