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/ 23 October 2006

Growth is needed to reduce poverty

The International Monetary Fund has estimated that Africa needs to accelerate annual GDP growth to 7% to attain the goal of reducing by half the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day by 2015. Africa’s economy as a whole is growing at about 5,5% in 2006.

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/ 23 October 2006

Namibian teachers forced to seek other jobs

Pasilius Haingura, of the National Association of Namibian Teachers’ Unions, says that many of the country’s 20 000 teachers want to leave the profession. While noting that Namibian teachers are better off in terms of salaries than other public servants, he says the conditions under which teachers operate leave them with no other option but to seek other jobs.

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/ 23 October 2006

French farmers twist tradition to subsist

Purists may frown, but chocolate foie gras and kiwi liquor are just two examples of how French farmers are evolving their offerings in order to lure new customers in a competitive food market. Six times a year, small farmers from across France meet in the Paris region to sell their wares directly to city customers.

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/ 22 October 2006

Places of death, not life

”On a visit home I collapsed on the night of June 7 and was admitted as an emergency case to the intensive care unit at the Nelson Mandela Hospital. There I was stripped and lay naked in bed under an obviously used sheet for two days until a member of my family managed to bring me some night clothes.”

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/ 22 October 2006

The Auckland Decalogue

Some years ago — 1969 I think — in a revue called <i>Finger Trouble</i>, I had a sketch entitled <i>The Ten Commandments of the SABC</i>. I introduced the sketch by explaining how Dr Piet Meyer, then chairman of the SABC board, would go into the wilderness once a year. What amused me was that, in updating the sketch, how little I had to change its 1969 version.