My single friend believes that social pressures placed on bachelors are a new phenomenon. I tell him bachelors have suffered social stigmas in many cultures. "Think of severe Roman marriage laws," I say, "that regarded old bachelors as reprehensible, barring them from advancing in a public career and prohibiting their receiving inheritance."
Oil industry executives, petroleum ministers and other role players traipsed into Johannesburg recently for the so-called "Olympics of the global oil and gas trade", which was staged in Africa for the first time. The event itself was the 18th World Petroleum Congress which brings together the World Petroleum Council’s 60 members.
In the 560-odd years since Gutenberg’s printing presses consigned illuminated manu-scripts to museums, the written word has been replaced by an ever-accelerating kaleidoscope of media. Whether Christianity would have taken such a firm hold had St Paul used bulk e-mail and SMS to get his message to people in other lands is open to debate.
African leaders will meet on Thursday to seek means of averting the disintegration of war-divided Côte d’Ivoire, plunged deeper into crisis with the indefinite postponement of elections meant to bring peace. Côte d’Ivoire has for three years been split into two along truce lines patrolled by French and United Nations soldiers.
In a parallel world, Steve Jobs could have been a poker player with a reputation as a cool hand. After three decades at the top table of technology, all the required skills are there: patience, self-belief, bravado — and, most importantly, the ability to ride a streak of luck. ”Some people thought we got really lucky with the iPod, and we did,” says Jobs, the CEO of Apple.
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"Clean-shaven, straight teeth and a friendly smile … in a word, handsome. After a week of vigorous SMSing and long phone conversations, "handsome" and I decide to meet. Eager to see each other in real life, we meet in a parking lot — and as I walk towards him, my excitement is replaced with anger almost immediately," writes Reesha Chibba.
The grieving father of murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble told mourners at his son’s funeral service in Cape Town on Tuesday that he would do everything in his power to get to the bottom of his son’s murder. ”Of one thing I am sure, I will do all within my power to get to the bottom of Brett’s death,” vowed Roger Kebble.
South Africa would put processes in motion to open a mission in Iraq, deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. The matter was raised in talks with his Iraqi counterpart Talib Hamid Al-Bayati in Pretoria on Tuesday afternoon. ”We will be looking at sending an advance team to Iraq sooner rather than later,” said Pahad.
The Pentagon has notified the United States Congress of possible military sales to Saudi Arabia valued at more than -billion, if all options are exercised. The proposed sales include a laundry list of armored personnel carriers, command vehicles, water cannons, a variety of trucks, ambulances, ammunition and assault rifles for the Saudi Arabian National Guard.