A hungover hooray!
And so we wake this Sunday morning, foggy of head and proud of heart. Thanks go to the Boks, for those men brought a great victory to this nation.
I’ve got to say I was caught quite by surprise at the Bok Fever which swept over South Africa in the days before the final. It was amazing going into my local supermarket on Friday evening and Saturday morning and seeing people wearing green and gold from one end of the store to the other.
It was great to see the national anthems being sung last night before the final. I remember the TV cameras catching Bok fans in the stadium singing our national anthem as if their lives depended on it. How amazing it must have been to be there.
It was moving to see the tears of emotion in Brian Habana’s eyes as the anthem played. He was not alone. I think there must have been millions around the world and in SA who shared a tear too.
I know I’ve been rude about our President lately but the effort he made in going to the final and celebrating with the Boks was a good thing to do. Some may think it contrived in the shadow of Madiba ’95 World Cup final appearance but I think it was a genuine effort to show support and to close something of the divide our country has experienced lately. Good one, Mr President.
How I wish we could have World Cup finals every week. We’d never have to worry about politics and nation-building ever again. Of course we’d all be nervous wrecks and alcoholics, but it would be a price worth paying 
Planet Padayachee
The M&G online quotes some comments from ANC MP Roy Padayachee, who while calling the imminent arrest of Mondli Mankhanya and Jocelyn Maker "unfortunate", also had the following to say (withouth any apparent sense of irony):
Scridb filter"We want the media to stick close to the truth and we welcome a diversity of views. But the media has taken on a role of being an opposition to the ANC and the government."
Will children rule the world?
We ran this sapa story in today's paper about how parents could face a R300 fine if they are convicted of smacking their children in terms of new legislation. Who will do the policing of this? Well, it would seem the children themselves. So the authorities will have to investigate every complaint by a child that their parent has smacked them, it appears.
Look, don't get me wrong. I'm not into smacking kids (although I'll admit I smacked my son on his hand when he was learning to crawl and kept trying to poke his fingers into a plug socket. It happened once and I wouldn't want to do it again) Does that make me criminal?
Well, it would according to the new law where “any minor smack on the buttocks or rap over the knuckles” would be illegal. What's going to happen here? Is little Johnny going to threaten his folks with a smacking rap with the cops when they refuse to up his pocket money or buy him a sweetie?
Scridb filterShould white women count?
Tando, a contributer to this blog, in a comment for another post, has offered a potential hot potato for discussion: Should white women count in Employment Equity? There is a view that this group of people has benefited most from equity legislation. Some feel this is wrong and was surely not the intention of these laws. It's not the most comfortable idea for people to discuss - but what the hey, I'd be interested in your views.
Scridb filterA prickly problem.
There's a pretty interesting story that we carried in Tuesday's paper which reported how Education Minister Naledi Pandor appealed to students to stay in South Africa rather than move abroad. She also revealed that some 300 000 African professionals - mostly graduates in the sciences - were living overseas.
She highlights a prickly problem, and it certainly is a major issue for South Africa and other developing countries. The question is how do you get them to stay at home when there is a global market out there for folk like this. In my research I have come across an amazing statistic that the largest number of Phd students in the US are from South Korea (if I recall accurately, I read this some time back).
Yet other countries have managed to tackle this issue with some success. India, for one, from the reading that I have done has very successfully used the Indian diaspora to its advantage and has managed to lure highly-qualified people back to the sub-continent.
I'd be interested to hear readers' views on this.