End of An Era

The Lady that the media sometimes called Ms Beetroot/garlic et al has succumbed. Dr Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang fondly remembered by some as Manto died of liver failure. The same liver that was transplanted into her two years ago from a young teenager. At the memorial service in Durban speaker after political speaker waxed on about her many achievements. This included speaking fluent Russian to helping the poor. Little mention was made of her AIDS stance on ARV's. Bizarrely one HIV pos lady went to the podium and addressed the packed city hall and praised Manto for her work in the AIDS environment. Strangely there were no speakers from the families of the alleged thousands who were denied the life saving drugs during the Manto/Mbeki reign. Another speaker claimed that he never heard of any death due to Manto's policies. A bit like Alice in Wonderland. I personally will always remember her for freeing up my sensitive asthmatic lungs with her bans on smokers in public places. May she rest in peace.

Floods and Droughts

They came they talked they argued they fought they got loaded into police vans. There was plenty of action as well as inaction at Copenhagen depending on which side you stood. I wondered how many of the protesters had flown there or used other means of transport that made their own contribution to the CO2 emissions. Still I guess they meant well. I heard one of the young protest delegates from a first world country saying the solution was simply to stop buying stuff. I assume she meant other than food and medicine. I once read about an experiment where one did not buy any new item barring food and medicine for a period of about six months to a year. In the meantime back at the Durban ranch a group of children from the Merebank area sang and danced and did their own little protest. As far as I am aware it was the only one in my area. The rest of us simply got on with burning fossil fuels.

Wet and Wild

So finally the new Soccer stadium built for the world cup was opened.Two local teams played each other and a total of 22 000 fans were allowed into the 50 000 plus venue. Touted as a dry run it was anything but. In typical Durban summer fashion there was a steady gentle rain falling throughout the day. No expense was spared on this state of the art stadium and nearly R3 billion later it was all systems go. As I stood on the fourth level well back from the covered roof I wondered why everything was sopping wet including the fancy new work station areas for journalists. I looked up and a gentle fine spray fell from the now covered roof. Maybe the stadium was designed for Durban's winters when there is very little rain ...who knows? If I had coughed up R3b I would want some answers.