Graham Hayman CROSSFIRE Red tape at the Medicines Control Council (MCC) is reported to be standing in the way of the registration of complementary medicines and African traditional medicine in the organisation’s databank. Complementary medicines (CMs) form part of the rapidly expanding worldwide market for non-prescription medicines. CMs include traditional herbal medicines (both African and […]

Anthropolgists looking at the dawn of the 21st century may surmise that we were schizophrenic: a society that idealised childhood, but demonised problematic, sexualised adolescents. New research suggests that the first dark signs of adolescence – menstrual blood and pubic hair – are now often occurring in children as young as eight or nine. Whither […]

As health budgets are cut to the bone, a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal is pioneering community-based care for people with HIV/Aids Khadija Magardie An unzipped first-aid kit lies on an empty table in the Community Outreach Centre at St Mary’s Hospital in Marianhill, KwaZulu-Natal. The kit comprises some bleached, carefully packaged sterile instruments, a pair of […]

Earlier this year doctors made history, using their knowledge of the genome to treat a child with a congenital condition James Meek Last February an air of euphoria seeped into the corridors of the Necker hospital for sick children in the Montparnasse district of Paris. Wondrous cures, great courage and the heart-hollowing grief of parents […]

Zanu-PF militiamen were very active during Zimbabwe’s voting days. Mercedes Sayagues reports Mashimba Jeremani gasped as he walked into the polling station at Mataga. His torturer was seated at the table, a Zanu- PF polling agent badge pinned on his chequered flannel shirt. When their eyes met, Musiwa Mapiye lowered his head. Jeremani (22) and […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION At what stage, I wonder, will SABC upper management, let alone its board, decide to exercise some authority and bring the crude excesses of its television news department under some sort of control? The department quite clearly believes itself to be immune to any sort of restraint, nor does it deem necessary […]

Shaun de Waal NOT QUITE THE THRILLER OFTHEWEEK Tom Cruise has big plans for his Mission: Impossible franchise. The role of superspy Ethan Hunt offers him a well- paying action-movie base from which to venture in more challenging directions – Eyes Wide Shut, for instance, or his brilliant turn in Magnolia. Moreover, being co-producer as […]

Chris Buchanan The liberation of our gambling laws, allowing a manifestation of mega casino resorts in metropolitan areas, has done very little for the architectural integrity of our new nation. Long have we strived for that identity that would render our commercial, retail and hospitality developments reminiscent of an African ethos, rather than a post-modern […]

It would take decades and cost billions to map the human genome, they said. Tim Radford tells how it was done Scientists have just finished deciphering the genome – the book of human life. Their DNAblueprint will change everything. The once undreamed-of knowledge has already begun to alter agriculture, forensic science, archaeology, biology and medicine. […]