|
Last Update: January 7, 2002 |
| RSA-O Homepage | Live Chat | Find-A-Friend | Events/Announcements |
| Previous Editions: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 |
|
End racism and help save the rand, says Mbeki The leader of the African National Congress, President Thabo Mbeki, has called for the eradication of racism and the promotion of the national interest to help rescue the country's currency. Mbeki was addressing thousands of ANC supporters who attended the party's 90th anniversary, which was held at the Absa Stadium, in Durban, on Sunday. The event was also attended by representatives from leading liberation movements across the African continent and Europe. A notable absentee at the function was ANC Women's League president, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Leaders of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Cosatu re-committed themselves to their alliance with the ruling party. The ANC president said South Africa belonged to every person who lives in it but said he was concerned about renewed racism that continued to divide the nation. Mbeki said the ANC had to continue with its economic policies because the fall of rand had nothing to do with the way in which the economy was being run in the country. "Let us avoid acting in a manner that will undermine our common future and the common objective of building a better life for all. Despite the negative financial developments we are experiencing, let us continue our steady advance towards the building of a vibrant economy," he said. He said the ANC was aware that millions of people were still poor and without basic needs. "As the ANC we will continue using our victories to improve the standard of living of our people," he said. Mbeki said the ANC would seek possible working relations with other political parties, as was the situation in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. "In the party's 90 years of existence we have stood for a non-racial society and this is a policy we are prepared to die for. "This is the year of the volunteer and our membership will lead in the development of the communities by rendering their services without remuneration," he said. He said the nation was facing a new struggle in the form of HIV/Aids and other life-threatening illnesses. "Africa is synonymous with Aids and this is a major challenge facing the continent. We need to deal with this situation through co-operation with other African states," he said. He said South Africa could not work in isolation from other countries who wanted to to improve their economies. "As a country we need to fight, discourage and defeat all kinds of terrorism to ensure economic stability. We believe that deliberate attacks against honest human beings should be punishable by the international court," he said. Mbeki called for mass action for the development of South Africa by both black and white. General-secretary of the SA Communist Party, Blade Nzimande, said different opinions in their alliance with the ANC did not mean the alliance was heading for a split. However, Nzimande said there were members who were "sneaking out in the night" to canvas for division. "I would like to assure the people of this country that there will be no division in the tripartite alliance because we are still behind the alliance so that we can satisfy the needs of our people. We believe that the alliance has a role to play in the country and outside our borders," said Nzimande. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ]  Kytie Koekblik ColumnKytie Koekblik Washington D.C. - Kytie koekblik vir die nuwe jaar So ons het dit toe gemaak tot in 2002. Dit is ‘n vreemde gevoel, ek dink ek het die jaar 2001 geskip. Ek het stuck geraak in die jaar 2000, die jaar waarin ek na die VSA gekom het. En ek het altyd gepraat van 1999 as “verlede jaar in SA.” Vir twee jaar was dit net twee werelde, Suid-Afrika 1999 en Amerika 2000, die een bekend en die ander onbekend. Vir my voel dit asof 2001 so vinnig verbygegaan het dat ek eintlik die jaar gemis het. Ek het winter 2000 in ‘n winterslaap gegaan en dwarsdeur somer 2001 gedroom en ‘n nagmerrie gehad soos die res van die wereld na September 11. Nou ewe skielik hit die reality van Kuilsrivier-Kytie in die VERENIGDE STATE VAN AMERIKA my weer van voor af. Ek is wakker en dis die jaar 2002 en ek word nie jonger nie… Ek is nou al ‘n jaar en ‘n half in die land. Ek is volbloed Washingtonian. Ek het selfs Saterdag-oggend “tomytoes” ge-order vir brekfist met die Amerikaanse aksent i.p.v. “tomaatoes.” Wat het van laasjaar geword? Soms dink ek aan die 11de September en die verskriklike dag en die gesprekke en trane en argumente en maande daarop se anthrax vrees en jou eie senuagtigheid in die metro en die eerie gevoel in Washington DC word onwerklik. Chandra Levy word onwerklik. Wat werklik geword het, is Osama Bin Laden grappiesen ‘n oorlog wat net soveel ‘n movie kon gewees het op TV. En wat nou werklik geword het is 2002. Toe die werklike minus-twee-grade-celcius koue Washington DC tref hier in die nuwe jaar na ‘n lou Desember, toe besef ek skielik: Dis Januarie. En dis is winter, nie die somer waaraan ek gewoond is nie. En ek het ‘n jaar oor op my werkspermit. Hierdie jaar moet ek besluite maak oor my lewe. Scary besluite. Waarheen is Kytie oppad en wanneer is sy oppad. Gaan ek probeer om ‘n green card sponsor te kry; gaan ek my huidige visa probeer verleng, watse soort job wil ek doen; hoe gaan ek die lawyers betaal ens. Natuurlik het daar mos nou hierdie komplikasie ook ingekruip. Ek kom Amerika toe en ontmoet al hierdie great ouens van oraloor die wereld en ek het soveel pret en ek soek g’n vir niks ‘n boyfriend nie. Maar soms kies ‘n mens nie, hulle se mos wanneer ‘n mens dit die minste verwag, dan gebeur dit met jou. Wanneer jy nie soek nie, kry jy dit. Jy ontmoet iemand. Kyk, Kytie het nie net sommer ‘n crush nie. My misterieuse rollerblader het letterlik my voete onder my uitgeskaats. Dis maar ‘n kort relationship, amper twee maande, maar ons het saam halloween en thanksgiving en kersfees gehou en ek het die family ontmoet. Ons is saam die nuwe jaar ook in laas week. Ek het saam met hom en sy ou universiteits buddies gaan rondhang in ‘n bitterkoue klein plekkie in Connecticut, Avon, in die middel van die woud op ‘n skoolterrein saam met ‘n klomp regte egte kleindorpie Amerikaners. Die plan was om te sled in die sneeu en toe kry ons niks sneeu nie. Ek en die rollerblader het saam die nuwe jaar in ge-skateboard. Ek het natuurlik my twee kniee blou geval. (en nog harder vir die rollerblader ook geval) So ‘n minuut of wat na twaalf, toe haal ons kastig ons harte uit ons borskaste uit en ruil dit om. Vreeslik corny maar nou ja…( Kytie hou haarself altyd so cool en sy is mos so ‘n hardcore miss independent en nou ewe skielik het sy ontaard in hierdie whoosy girlfriend wat sinne se soos “I’ll talk to my boyfriend.” So dan en wan vra ek vir die rollerblader, “how is my african heart?” of “is my heart still safe?” Dit was net ‘n joke, maar dis daai soort serious jokes waarmee ek in hierdie nuwe jaar sal moet saamleef. Ek het net een simpele nuwe jaar resolution gemaak vanjaar wat ek ernstig opneem: MOENIE KOP VERLOOR NIE, KYTIE, want die hart is ek besig om te verloor….. My ander voornemens sluit in om vir myself ‘n soort basies roetine te skep: 1)Borsel tande en flos ELKE dag; 2)drink minder koffie (die een gaan by die een oor in en by die ander oor uit) 3)kook ten minste een maal ‘n week; 4)doen meer gereeld oefening (i.p.v. intense langdurige oefensessies waarna my lyf vir drie dae nie kan beweeg nie en ek shin splints en goeters kry;) 5)gaan minder uit; 6)probeer om nie ‘n random haphard lewe te lei waarin ek doen soos ek voel nie, maar eerder waarin ek doen soos ek dink; 7)hou al my papiere en files netjies en ge-organiseerd; 8)moenie dinge se vir die boyfriend soos “Girlfriends are overrated nie”; 9)praat minder oor die foon; 10)skryf meer, lees meer; gaan kyk na die museums in Washington; 11)leer om te stop as jy rollerblade (i.p.v. om op die boyfriend te vertrou om my by elke stopstraat te vang ) 12)organiseer die BIG CHEESE Die Big Cheese aan die anderkant, se nuwejaarsvoorneme is om all loose ends vas te maak. Dit beteken ons gaan al die agterstallige invoices instuur en ons eie bills betaal en al die goed done wat ons verskeie maande gelede moes gedoen het. Dit beteken ook ons hoop om ten minste teen die einde van die jaar ‘n nuwe mat in die kantoor te kry. Die eintlike ding is, ons kan nie ‘n nuwe mat in die kantoor kry of die kantoor laat uitverf nie omdat daar net eenvoudig te VEEL BOKSE EN PAPIERE in ons klein ruimte gesaai le. Ons het behoorlik ‘n war on terrorism nodig om die kantoor op te ruim. Die landlord het so ewe aangebied om die mat te vervang einde laasjaar, maar die Big Cheese het geweier. “We’ll wait for the new year, then we’ll clean up our act.” Ek het net gelag. In die lewe wonder ek of ons ooit hierdie oficina gaan opruim. Voor ons enige loose ends kan vasmaak, het daar alweer ‘n volgende loose end uitgerafel of die Big Cheese het ‘n nuwe bee in die bonnet. “Why can’t I just go in a timewarop, where there is no new loose ends. Every day brings new loose ends.” Die e-bay besigheid (my nuwe titel is deesdae “Master of E-bay”) het vir ons soveel hoofpyne en loose ends en ‘n administrasie nagmerrie gebring, dat ons die nuwe jaar op die mees chaotiese manier moontlik begin… “There’s lot of loose ends” se die Big Cheese… “There’s five years of loose ends. And to tidy up my messy office. Actually its fifteen years of loose ends. And when its all squared away I’m immigrating back to South Africa.” Dus, son ongeveer in 2017 is die Big Cheese se nuwejaars voorneme om terug te keer na sy moederland... Mooiste wense van kytie af vir almal. Hoop 2002 bring baie lagtrane.. Kytie K. Kytie Koekblik would like you to respond to her tongue-in-cheek running commentary on suburban life in America in this editorial. Fresh off the boat, she is ready to explore and experiment with American bath plugs and to drive on the other side of the road. You can contact her here. © RSA-Overseas & Matheson Communications [ Top ] Armed police stand by as thousands evicted Thousands of squatters were forcibly evicted from makeshift homes in Soweto, Johannesburg on Monday after residents complained they fanned crime in the township. Armed police protected private workers who demolished shacks where about 2 000 families had lived since 1991. Witnesses said mothers and their children were stranded with their belongings close to a Johannesburg roadside. The witnesses said some of those evicted threw stones at police but the demolitions passed off relatively peacefully. The evictions put the focus back on South Africa's acute housing shortage despite nearly eight years of democracy and efforts of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to deliver basic services to those denied it under white rule. "We are fighting for our rights... It's through our votes what made them (the government)," one man who lost his Soweto home told Reuters. One 71-year-old man was arrested by police after encouraging the squatters to resist their relocation, the South African Press Association (Sapa) reported. Johannesburg City Council, which obtained a court order for the eviction and hired the private security workers, offered alternative accommodation in nearby hostels to those displaced. The council said as well as worries about crime, the land was unfit for human use as there was no proper sanitation or other facilities. Last July, the takeover of a piece of land outside Johannesburg raised fears that South Africa risked the type of lawlessness that has gripped neighbouring Zimbabwe which in turn contributed to a slump in value of the South African rand. On that occasion the government also evicted the squatters after obtaining a court order. [ Top ] 'SA pupils being groomed for unemployment' Only seven percent of all new matriculants are likely to get jobs in the formal sector in South Africa, with the remaining 93 percent left to find alternative ways of earning a living, according to statistics supplied by Dorothy Blacklaws & Associates, a business consultancy. Dorothy Blacklaws, director of the consultancy, is also founder of the Entrepreneurial Educational Initiative, which was largely instrumental in promoting awareness of the need for business skills for high school pupils - a need now recognised by the government and incorporated into the national curriculum. The latest grim statistical projections follow hard on the heels of recent excitement generated by the improvement in the 2001 matric results. Last year, 450 000 pupils wrote matric in South Africa, but only 227 000 passed. In KwaZulu-Natal, about 93 000 pupils wrote matric exams, with 50 000 passing. Meanwhile Protus Madlala, director of the Thekwini Business Development Centre, said: "We are not training our students towards employment, but unemployment. To put it bluntly, no institution in the country is geared at the moment to deal with the question of training students for the needs of the South African economy." Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ]  Nel's KitchenRagel Nel Ragel Nel Washington D.C. - The New Year in Baltimore started off with a bang. And I don’t just mean the snapping, crackling and popping of the fireworks that were launched from a barge in the harbour at midnight in sub-zero temperatures, even though they were loud enough to reliably set off car alarms all over downtown. As always, they also sent petrified family pets all over the state scattering, poor things. (Which brings me to another point: why on earth do people keep their pets outside in these brutal winters? And even if it wasn’t cold, why would anyone keep their pets outside on New Year’s Eve, knowing how unsettling fireworks are to animals? Unless of course, American pets are so sophisticated that they’re able to unlock windows and doors to let themselves out. That would at least explain the term ‘cat burglar’.) Anyway… back to the bangs. I meant the New Year in Baltimore literally started off with a few bangs. A 19-year old woman, enjoying the fireworks at Baltimore’s Inner Harbour, was struck in the forehead by a stray bullet from a .45 Calibre handgun. It was fired by a man (idiot?) who was keeping up an age-old, foolish and illegal tradition in the city during which people fire random shots into the air at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve with REAL guns containing REAL bullets. I know. It left me speechless too. Luckily, apart from a graze wound and being understandably shell-shocked out of her senses, the woman is relatively unscathed. What a way to start the New Year though! What’s more, it wasn’t an isolated incident. Baltimore City Police responded to several calls of weapons being used as noisemakers that night. They arrested 99 people and confiscated 113 weapons. It also led to two police-involved shootings during which police officers wounded three trigger happy men who refused to hand over their "noisemaker" weapons. Yes, indeed, and we thought these people couldn’t get any dumber! On the news the following day, a rather perplexed looking police officer showed off the confiscated weapons to the local media. Apart from the .45 Calibre guns, there were even – wait for this – sawed off shotguns! Said the officer: "Some of these guns I have never even heard of!" I share his astonishment. Not just at the array of weapons used, but at the very thought of such practices actually existing in urban, 21st Century America. Perhaps in rural Mississippi, yes, where some people are said to drive around in juiced-up pickup trucks with fur on the dash, horns mounted above the headlights and the sawed off shotgun sticking out the back window. Shootings are almost at the order of the day in Baltimore, and – although I don’t mean to condone it in ANY way – when a drive-by shooting occurs, at least I understand that someone is shooting at someone else (even though it sometimes ends up being the wrong someone else!) out of anger, hate, revenge, twisted love… for whatever reason. My point is that at least in such cases they HAVE a purpose and a reason – however bizarre it might seem to the rest of us – unlike these other gun-toting guys who just shoot randomly, often ending up hurting or killing innocent bystanders or animals. As if the police don’t have their hands full enough already in trying to crack down on the drive-by shooters! My best friend, who lives in Botswana, loves to watch an American program called Reality TV showing American cops on the beat. She’s in awe and thinks the United States is the most dangerous place. That those of us who live here dodge bullets every time we go to the grocery store and risk a stick-up when going to the 7-Eleven for a cup of coffee. (The latter, actually, isn’t all that far-fetched.) I used to reassure her, saying that we hardly ever lock our doors here in this urban jungle which is "Bawl-mur" (Baltimore, for the uneducated among you.). Ever since New Year, though, I’m not so sure anymore. I mean ordinary hold-ups are disconcerting enough, but now we have to keep an eye out for those shooting without any motive other than to merely hear the sound of their own guns. Apart from those 99 who were arrested, there are still other "noisemakers" shooters out there and on the loose. It’s a troubling thought, so, as I leopard-crawl down the cereal aisle at the supermarket to the produce department, I’m a bit worried about what the shooters might have up their barrels … eh … sleeves for coming celebrations, such as, say … Valentine’s Day? Shooting heart-shaped bullets in shades of crimson into the air, perhaps to the beat of a Frank Sinatra love song standard? I also wonder whether the shooters only celebrate on American calendar holidays, or if they are going to grace (graze?!) us with sound effects on Jewish holidays as well? Oh, it’s going to be a very long year. © RSA-Overseas [ Top ] Leon Schuster's Mr Bones rakes in R21m Leon Schuster's Mr Bones is the biggest South African movie ever. It has raked in more than R21 million in its five weeks on circuit. It is also the first movie (local or international) in history to earn more than R21 million at the box office in less than five weeks. "It's a moerse lekker feeling. There were resistance and criticism like there always are but I think we have achieved something with Mr Bones. It shows that we are South Africans and if we like something that we have created ourselves, we have really achieved something," the overwhelmed Schuster said on Monday. Schuster's latest is now officially in the second position, second to Titanic on the list of top earners ever in South Africa. The movie has booted the Mel Gibson comedy What Women Want to third position. Titanic has earned more than R40 million on the local circuit in approximately six months. Time will tell whether the sangoma, like the doomed ship, will rake in a constant million or so per week. Michelle Hemphill, South African representative of Fox, which released Titanic in 1997, is of the opinion that one should compare apples with apples. "As a result of Titanic's duration there were only three showings per day in comparison to Mr Bones' six. Titanic's circulation consisted of 56 prints countrywide. Mr Bones has a circulation of 78 prints." She added that she thought Titanic was so remarkable because its earnings did not fall with between 20% and 30% per week, as is usual, but stayed constant for the whole period. Filmmaker Anant Singh of Videovision, the company which released Mr Bones, is of the opinion that the achievement is a big one for any movie and more remarkable because it is a South African film. "We are elated that the movie is doing so well despite the competition of big international box office hits such as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Lord of the Rings. The latter has earned R13.5 million in three weeks. The film's producer, Gray Hofmeyr is equally ecstatic. "Our next stop is America and Europe." The film will make its American debut at a film festival next month. Mr Bones was made with a budget of R35 million, the largest budget for a Schuster movie so far. The total earnings of the movie stood at R21 661 675 just after the weekend. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] |
|
