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Leave Mandela alone

November 14th 2010 21:25
: Vyoos news
Nelson Mandela

Major news agencies around the world, of which we obviously consider ourselves one, have undertaken to spread an important message regarding the the most-loved human being on Earth, Nelson Mandela.

The message is this: leave him alone


The plea comes from The Nelson Mandela Foundation, a social justice forum established by Mandela when he retired in 1999.

"Nelson Mandela receives at least 4000 messages a month from people throughout the world," the foundation says on its web page. "Many of these pay tribute to Mr Mandela and wish him well in his retirement. However, there are just as many requests for his signature, a message of support, a public appearance or an interview. There are also continued injunctions for him to intervene in struggles around the world, and to endorse various causes."

The trouble, the Foundation says, is that Mandela is 92 years old and no longer capable of carrying the weight of South Africa, let alone the world, on his shoulders.

The great man these days prefers sitting quietly in the sunshine. He didn't even want to attend the football World Cup in South Africa this year, although he did in the end because of the pressure of public desire.

The feeling was that South Africa couldn't put itself on the world stage without giving us a look - poignantly, possibly a final look - at the face of the man who freed the country from tyranny, and freed the rest of world from the guilt and frustration of living alongside such tyranny without finding a way to end it.


Nelson Mandela didn't want to attend the World Cup, but everyone else on Earth wanted him there. And so he honoured us by making an appearance.

But no more. Please. "The Nelson Mandela Foundation would like to ask people everywhere" to help make Nelson Mandela's retirement "a time of peace and tranquility''.

He's not ours any more. We have to let go. We have to let him sit peacefully in the sunshine.

So leave him alone.



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The end of chocolate is coming

November 9th 2010 01:19
: Vyoos news
cocao tree chocolate
Raw chocolate: pods on a cocao tree

Just when we thought we thought we had heard all the bad news possible recently - cholera in Haiti, a killer volcano in Indonesia, a plane crash in Cuba - comes news of a global tragedy which will strike us all within 20 years.

That is how long, according to reports today, before the world runs short of chocolate.

The problem, according to the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council, is that African farmers are abandoning cocao as a cash crop.

The typical African cocoa farmer earns less than US$1 a day and farming cocao has its difficulties. For example, the trees have a limited life, and every time they die off, the farmer must move to a new area and wait three to five years for a new crop to mature.

Cocao cultivation is being deserted so quickly that the world will run out of affordable chocolate within two decades, said John Mason, executive director and founder of the Nature Conservation Research Council.

"In 20 years, chocolate will be like caviar. It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won't be able to afford it,'' Mason said.

Our path is clear. We must start choc-piling.
independent.co.uk


chocolate
Going, going ...



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Rape, Zimbabwe style

October 7th 2010 03:14
: Vyoos
zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a much-maligned place, possibly because there is much about it to malign.

In Zimbabwe, a person can be charged with rape only if the victim is female.

This could be why authorities in the country are reporting an escalation in rapes by women on men - there have been five such incidents in the past 12 months.

In the latest, in Bulawayo yesterday, a 26-year-old man was offered a lift by three woman. He was drugged and robbed of his money and mobile phone.

When he woke up, "He was naked and the ladies took turns to rape and abuse him,'' police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said.

Police say the motive could have been ritualistic. We assume they aren't talking about the theft of the money and phone.

The first of these female gang attacks happened last November when three women kidnapped an 18-year-old man.

In February, four women forced a 25-year-old to have sex with them at gunpoint.

Last month, a 44-year-old man was raped by two women while a man stood guard. In this case, the victim was ordered to wear a condom.

In a fourth incident, a 30-year-old man was drugged by three women, two of whom had guns, and sexually assaulted.

If any of these women, or male accomplices, are caught, they could be charged with theft and assault. But not rape.
news.com.au




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Women as bread winners

March 18th 2010 07:19
vervet monkeys, female dominant

So much for males being the bread winners. According to new research based on monkey responses we may, at a basic and instinctive level, see women as the bread winners.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Poor pirates

October 7th 2009 19:00
somali pirates
Oh, well, if you're going to shoot back, we give up!

When Somali pirates in outboard-powered skiffs saw a 160-metre, gun-metal grey ship with some obvious and clearly sophisticated communications gadgetry bolted to its superstructure, they decided it was a cargo ship and approached.

[ Click here to read more ]
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A show of sanity

March 8th 2009 00:48
tsvangirai susan morgan zimbabwe politics racism
Susan and Morgan Tsvangirai


The week has had its share of ugliness. On Orble we have confronted the themes of racism and intolerance, and the people who foster it for selfish motives. And yesterday we learned of fresh tragedy in Zimbabwe, with the news that Susan Tsvangirai, wife of the country's face of hope, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has died in car accident


[ Click here to read more ]
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Darfur doublespeak

July 13th 2008 00:57
darfur omar al-bashri
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashri - to be indicted for war crimes
Photo: Rebecca Blackwell, Associated Press


[ Click here to read more ]
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