Dateline: Luanda, 2 June 2004 Some of you will know that President Aristide from Haiti is arriving in South Africa soon for an extended holiday. You may also know that 70 so-called mercenaries are being held in Zimbabwe on all sorts of trumped-up charges. The main charge is that they were on their way to Equatorial Guinea (A Pariah state without a Shoprite store), to instigate a coup de tat. Our dear President Aristide will have all the comforts of home while our “mercenaries” will be ...

Dateline: Luanda, June 7 2004 “We’ll beat ‘em up, boy. Show ‘em our way.” I normally comment on the trials and tribulations of Africa. I digress this week because I have been shaken and disturbed by two coincidental “sightings” on TV. Each one relates to Abu Ghraib prison. Two weeks ago I watched a Ruby Wax program about the Hill-Billy people in Appalachia. The program showed the Appalachians in their homes, their stores, their church. These people did not seem normal (ask Ruby)...

I have written about the "mercenaries" incarcerated in Zimbabwe before. This groupof 70 mercenaries was arrested in Harare about 6 months ago as they landed to pick up some arms they had ordered. They have been accused of planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea, an oil rich country with a ruthless, corrupt and backward government. We do not know all the facts but the following emerged/did not emerge, after the arrest: * Said group alleged that they were heading to the Congo to protect diam...

I'm stunned that an application has been made for sanctions to be instituted against the Sudan. Is this how the world is going to solve the problem? We know that the government of Sudan is partly responsible for the genocide and starvation in the Darfour region. We know this because: * The Janjaweed (Arab militia) is govt. backed. *The Janjaweed is slowly "cleansing" the non-Arab Darfour region with Govt. help. * The Janjaweed has no truck with human rights. They are on a cleansing mi...

The USA is due to hand over Saddam Hussein to the Iraqi authorities any day now. Little information has been given out by authorities as to Saddam’s whereabouts at present, but we are led to believe that he is secure in Iraq. If he is, the forces in Iraq deserve a medal. That country is in turmoil and close to blast-off. How they could have concealed him in the country and kept it ultra-secret is a puzzle to me. However, we are never sure of anything so he could have been at Guantanamo...

(As published in the NY times Readers Forum June 8 2004) I live 5000 miles away in Southern Africa. I am not an American, but I have admired Ronald Reagan for most of my life. I admired him because of his extraordinary charisma, his joie de vivre , his immense capability, his faith in himself, and, most of all, because he had faith in others. This amazing person was able to charm the likes of my Queen, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhael Gorbachev. It is said that he called the Queen “Liz” an...

Comrade Robert Mugabe, eternal president (no capitals deserved), of Zimbabwe, Great mongoose of Africa, Heavenly God of nothing, King of disaster mismanagement etc. etc. has refused tents from the UN to house the 700 000 rendered homeless by his " Clear Out Trash" campaign. Jan Egelund, UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, a man I greatly admire, has been touring Zimbabwe and has offered to give the crippled government tents for the homeless who were evicted/hounded out, by the "C...

Britain: Tuesday: 21 June 2005. The Daily Express reported today that people have a "helpline" if they want to report "sneaky smokers", i.e. smokers who try to sneak a quick puff in a banned area. Nothing wrong with telling smokers off if they smoke in a non-smoking area. We smokers go along with this. What we do not go with is the fact that we may be spied upon, tittle-tattled upon and looked upon as social outcasts. If we are going to be reported so that we have to be fined then I think ...

This is a completely new column from the United Kingdom. It is topical and controversial, as it's meant to be. No conclusions should be drawn as to bias, but there will be anti-US sentiments and pro-US sentiments expressed. I sit on the fence as there's bad and good in every society. I admire the United States of America and the United Kingdom as well so let's say that I praise where praise is deserved and come down hard on the lawmakers when it is deserved. NEWS AT FIVE will report weekly on...

Dear Comrade, I fully believe that there is something wrong with your mind. I mean, you are starving MDC supporters to gain votes. You are sleeping uneasily at night because of Tony Blair. You are screwing up a perfectly good country (once the breadbasket of Southern Africa), because of the disease invading your brain cells. You are dribbling and falling over during your speeches. Alas, you cannot be like Hitler, Comrade, no, God forbid that you do not wish that. But, you do act like an Afri...

Michael Howard said it all. I quote, roughly, " We can only provide privileges to those in Britain, we cannot provide welfare for the world." How on earth can any country expect to provide refuge for every Tom, Dick and Harry from Africa, Europe and Asia. Britain is not a lucky packet or a charity? I agree entirely with any move by the Conservatives or Labour to clamp down on illegal immigration and asylum grabbers. For goodness sake, some people try to send young children into Britain to ...

Auschwitz today bowed its solemn head and was the scene of recrimination, sorrow and forgiveness. As the fires and candles burned overhead, an amazing scene was played out in the former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Former prisoners re-lived their experiences behind the cold barbed wire fences---fences guarding secrets so horrible that it beggars belief. The barrack buildings,the towering chimneys of death, the horror and the deprivation----it must have shocked the newcomer and, worse, brought bac...

The British media is full of the Queen's visit to Germany. The papers (like the Daily Express), have headlines blaring: " The Germans say you should apologise for the war Your Majesty! I hope that Bild Zeitung and the British papers have it all wrong---in fact, I hope this is just cheap publicity to sell newspapers. No way is my Queen going to apologise for the destruction of Dresden when Adolf and his chums screwed Poland and killed 3 or so Million Jews. No way! My father fought for King ...

Bird Flu has been found in Egypt and, as expected, the locals are in a panic. The little farmyard fowl is having his throat cut as I speak, as are the turkey, duck and pigeon cousins. There are rumours that KFC will be out of business within a week. Supermarkets are girding up their loins for an attack on their frozen chickens and eggs. Will their stocks be dumped on the street like Danish butter? I am sorry but I have always been a risk-taker. I shall have my KFC (if ithey stay open long ...