- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Chad10

Rwanda: Agricultural Production Excellent While Other EAC Regions Face Famine

Chad — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:16:24 +0000

1.02 billion people have gone hungry this year, according to a report released this year. This comes at a time when several regions in East Africa are threatened by famine due to drought. Rwanda, for its part, looks at the moment to be holding its...

Data transfer? Forget email, send for the pigeon post

Chad — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:24:24 +0000

Carrier pigeons are being used to transfer data between offices because bosses believe it is quicker than broadband.

Computer experts at a South African firm said it took six hours to transfer four gigabytes of encrypted data from Durban to a call centre 50 miles away near Pietermaritzburg.

Staff at Unlimited Group, a financial services company, today attached a memory card to the leg of a pigeon called Winston who took just over an hour for the trip.

Unrest in South Africa

Chad — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:27:14 +0000

This country’s rituals of protest most often call for the burning of tires, the barricading of streets and the throwing of rocks. So when the municipal mayor here went to address the crowd after three days of such agitation, the police thought it...

S. African troops demanding pay rise, loses job

Chad — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:25:41 +0000

South Africa’s defence minister could dismiss more than 1,000 soldiers who went on the rampage in the capital Pretoria on Wednesday, officials say. The troops left their barracks and marched to the Union Buildings, insisting on seeing...

Gay rights campaigners in Zimbabwe see chance to push for equality

Chad — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:28:17 +0000

Gay men and lesbians in Zimbabwe are hoping for an end to years of “hysterical homophobia” by having their rights enshrined in the new constitution.

Sexual acts between men are outlawed in the socially conservative country (there is no legal reference to women) and the president, Robert Mugabe, has encouraged a climate of hostility by condemning homosexuality, describing it as a western import.

His opponents in the Movement for Democratic Change are more supportive of gay rights, raising hopes that Zimbabwe’s constitution could follow that of South Africa, the first in the world to specifically outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference.

Keith Goddard said the group Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) – of which he is director – had tried twice to get sexual orientation included in the constitution.

In a Complex Family, Death Adds to the Indignity

Chad — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:32:21 +0000

When Fatima Hassam returned to South Africa after a visit to Mecca, her husband, Ebrahim, met her at the airport and said he had something important to announce. To further prepare her, he added cryptically, “It’s not such a nice...

Bank fits ATMs with pepper spray to deter thieves in South Africa

Chad — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:16:31 +0000

A bank in South Africa has fitted pepper sprays at 11 of its high-risk cash machines to deter thieves and fraudsters.

Attacks on ATMs are a growing problem in the country, with gangsters often blowing them up or removing them with diggers to get at the cash inside.

Card skimmers who regularly target tourists in restaurants, hotels and airports also use the dispensers to withdraw money from unwitting visitors’ accounts.

Prostitution: families, relationships, communities all in peril

Chad — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:24:58 +0000

PROSTITUTION, sex tourism, trafficking in women and other such practices reduce women to sexual commodities and have a devastating impact on women in developing countries, and oppressed groups in developed countries. Decriminalisation causes an increase in these practices to meet the demand created by a legalised sex industry.

In South Africa prostitutes have the same access to facilities and services as everyone else. However, in line with international evidence which shows that a majority of prostitutes do not want to be regulated, departments cannot force prostitutes to comply. Even in countries where prostitution is legal prostitutes, for various reasons, choose not to use protection or get regular health services.

We must protect the weak and vulnerable in society whom prostitution most targets.

An overwhelming body of international evidence shows that the terrible abuse and exploitation of women and children trapped in prostitution does not decline where there is decriminalisation, and in fact the opposite is true.

Secret plot to let 50-million African workers into EU

Chad — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:58:13 +0000

than 50 million African workers are to be invited to Europe in a far-reaching secretive migration deal, the Daily Express can reveal today.

SOUTH AFRICA: White Students Use The Internet To Unite

Chad — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:42:50 +0000

Thirteen students from the North West University have been identified as being involved in the racist group on the popular social network website, Facebook.The group,...