South Africa

- After all the furor surrounding the Cartoon interdict, it seems only appropriate that we start off with this story. Ever since the story broke the reaction (from what I have seen and read) has been 90% negative towards the High Court's ruling. As I noted in my previous post I doubted this interdict would stand and awaited a challenge from some interested party in the matter. Well it seems the Sunday Times has stepped up to the plate saying it has "every intention of challenging the ruling when the matter returns to court" later this month. Now, I predict the people who originally proposed this ban will try to frame the debate in terms of religious "dignity" - we must not fall into this trap. This is a matter of Freedom of Speech and giving newspapers the right to decide the content they want to publish. Note that the Sunday Times never said they were actually going to publish the pictures, instead they were just reserving their right to do so. We'll watch this story closely. 

 

- As you may have noticed, we here at Someamongus have a natural aversion to political opportunists and sham artists. In KZN it doesn't get any more opportune or shamtastic than the Minority Front and their paper-tiger in chief Amichand "the chameleon" Rajbansi. Taking responsibility has never been one of the Raj's strong suits and so he plays on with his natural style in the latest furore. A newspaper advert by someone (wink wink nudge nudge) was placed in a Chatsworh newspaper stating :

 

 "Certain people are targeting poor Indian people. They say they want to put low-cost matchbox houses next to your Chatsworth houses. If that happens, these houses will be given to people from informal settlements. I don't have to tell you what will happen."(sic)

 

The Raj's reply to these statements : it was not him but some underling who had did the deed. Proving once again in the Raj's world the buck stops anywhere but with the Raj!

 

- Something a bit different but having an effect on SA's image is the story of how SA crime is big news in China. "Armed robbers in South Africa have shot dead four Chinese people in one month, state press reported on Monday, with the events making front-page news of many papers in China...The most recent events were carried on the front page of a wide range of papers in the Chinese capital on Monday, including the China Daily, the Beijing News and the Beijing Morning Post."

 

- Finally the State has made clear its intention to move away from the willing-buyer-willing-seller principle. I will be making a more thorough analysis of this in the next few days.