Reports. They gather dust on the desks of journalists and bureaucrats — after having been opened with reluctance, and closed with speed. Months of work may have gone into their production; but all too often, the only use for them seems to be as doorstops. The findings contained in reports are often disregarded by those who draw up social and economic policies.
Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Alliance, writes for the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> on the debate in Parliament two weeks ago about President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, which "contained two parallel debates — one looking back at the past, the other focused on the future".
Millions of Africans have never had power on tap, and in isolated rural areas most rely on battery-powered radios as their only source of news. But in many impoverished communities even the cost of batteries is out of reach. This predicament led to the establishment of Freeplay Group, a company that markets appliances such as wind-up radios and torches.
Some say meat is murder, while others dismiss a meal without animal products as rabbit food. Now a leading United States nutritionist has given both sides something to chew on with a claim that parents who refuse to feed children meat are acting unethically. She says a lack of meat during the critical first few years of life could cause permanent damage.
Almost every woman I know is pregnant or planning. Either high on post-conception, heavy with foetus in utero, panicked for the Caesarean section booked for Monday or relentlessly copulating every time there is suspected ovulation. It is as if somebody has rewired the big picture and it has frozen on the birth channel.
The chief of an eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia group has been arrested in connection with last week’s killing of nine United Nations peacekeepers, a source close to the DRC presidency said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, aid agencies operating in northern Ituri have suspended operations due to poor security there.
It’s the dream of all naturalists: immortalising themselves by naming a new animal or plant species they have discovered. But scientists Robert Wallace and Humberto Gomez of the United States Wildlife Conservation Society have decided to carry out an internet sale to auction off the rights to name a monkey species the two men recently discovered in Bolivia.
South America’s political shift leftward continued on Tuesday with the inauguration of Uruguay’s first leftist president. Several of South America’s most prominent leftist leaders were expected to join thousands of Uruguayans celebrating the swearing-in of Tabare Vazquez, a 65-year-doctor who won the presidency in the October 31 election.
West African leaders said on Tuesday they have appointed a regional observer to help reconcile Togo’s polarised political parties ahead of presidential elections in April to choose a successor to long-time autocrat Gnassingbe Eyadema. The appointment of the observer is one in a series of proposals to accompany the Togo electoral process.
The government is to review the visa regime inherited from ”the bad old days”, Director General of Home Affairs Barry Gilder said on Tuesday. He was speaking to journalists on the final day of a regional meeting of the United Nations-backed Global Commission on International Migration.