A post template

No image available
/ 1 March 2006

Angola’s dangerous profession of motherhood

Walking into the Angolan capital’s main maternity hospital, the first thing that hits any visitor is the stench: a nauseating combination of blood and excrement. After a short while, the stomach settles and the eyes adjust to the poor light in the Maternidade Lucrecia Paim; then, the true wretchedness of the grey walls and broken windows begins to sink in.

No image available
/ 1 March 2006

Marriage = equality

I was recently on a discussion programme with a fully signed-up card-carrying feminist. ”Damn,” she said, as we came off, ”I said ‘husbands’ by mistake, instead of ‘partners’.” She’d made the ultimate faux pas — the assumption that couples must be married. But is it right, particularly when so many feminists — like herself — have chosen to get married, that marriage should continue to be taboo?

No image available
/ 28 February 2006

China’s ‘new socialism’

Against a background of rising rural unrest, China recently unveiled ambitious plans to help the 800-million people living in the countryside catch up economically with people in the cities. More rural investment, agricultural subsidies and improved social services are the main planks of a policy to create a ”new socialist countryside”.

No image available
/ 28 February 2006

Rushdie rails against Islamic ‘totalinarianism’

The recent violence surrounding the publication in the West of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad illustrate the danger of Islamic ”totalitarianism”, Salman Rushdie and a group of other writers said in a statement obtained on Tuesday. ”After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global threat: Islamism,” they wrote.

No image available
/ 28 February 2006

Municipal row: Court dismisses asset application

The Pretoria High Court on Tuesday dismissed urgent applications by four municipalities to stop the transfer of their assets and services to other provinces. The Merafong Demarcation Forum applied to restrain government from handing over at midnight on Tuesday their assets and service duties from Gauteng to the North West province.

No image available
/ 28 February 2006

IEC plans to count votes by candlelight

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Western Cape is planning to conduct Wednesday’s municipal election as if there will be no power available in the province. ”We are planning for no electricity. That is the safest,” provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson told a media briefing in Bellville on Tuesday afternoon.