Health officials in Francistown, Botswana have warned the public to be on guard following recent reports of a new cholera outbreak in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital public relations officer Caiphus Gabana said the hospital in conjunction with the district health team is closely monitoring the situation to avoid the deadly disease from spreading to Botswana.

He said they are still assessing the seriousness of the situation to see there is a threat to Botswana. He added that if the assessment proves that there is a crisis they will send some doctors-without-borders to Zimbabwe to help control the outbreak. "We haven’t sat down yet to consider which way to go. But as for now, I can only advise people to be on guard.

If they see any symptoms that they suspect to be of cholera, they should rush to the nearest hospital or clinic before the disease gets out of hand," cautioned Gabana. He said it was paramount for the disease to be treated at an early stage, before the bacteria spreads. He urged the general public to practice personal hygiene, adding that supermarkets and food outlets in the city should exercise caution when serving clients. He explained that cholera is a bacterial disease that is caused by drinking contaminated water or eating unhygienic food.

He said the major symptoms of cholera are diarrhea and vomiting. Last week it was reported that at least five people in Zimbabwe had died of cholera, while many others received treatment.
 

Sabie, South Africa – In a country that sees 51 murders a day and people around the world already sees it as the rape and murder capital of the world, the response from Department of economic development, environment and tourism MEC Jabu Mahlangu was a strange considering that this has been going on for years and no mention from government about the rest of the victims.

Why did they say anything about this murder?

Lean and Hetta Steyn, two well known owners a award winning rural Artists Cafe at Hendriksdal railway station near a also well known town of Sabie in Mpumalanga was shot dead in cold blood with a R5 military assault weapon in th early hours of the morning of the 30th of October 2009

Not only were they shot execution style while still in their sleeping clothes the even more shocking fact is that nothing was stolen, not even Leon Steyn’s handgun which was right there. The motive for this murder clearly shows the continuing genocide in South Africa and the only reason we believe this was condemned by the South African government is because “it could hurt tourism”.

Although the minister condemned the attack this clearly outlines the issues ordinary South Africans face as ministers and government is only worried about the “money” and “tourism” but not about the actual citizens living in the country.

The fact that the minister also admitted that it happened “while the world is watching us” says a lot about what the South African government think about cases like these when no one is watching.

Even further we can clearly and confidently say that if these criminals are caught that this will in fact not be labeled as a racist attack but as crime as we also documented in a previous article called Is there a silent Genocide in South Africa?

The worlds largest cruise ship is to set sail from Finland to Florida on Friday, this city on water basically has everything you can imagine. From swimming pools to theme parks and even ice rinks. You can even play mini golf on this massive ship that set on her maiden voyage on the 1st of November.

Check out the video and gallery:

The movie only cost $15 000 to make but has made more than $65 000 000, the movie has a success of 414,233% return on the investment of making the movie and has also passed the blair witch project in profitability.

Scientists have discovered that eyes with poor vessels can lead to blindness but the eye itself can still be healthy.  Eyes that have gone blind may still have hope months afterwards and that people with blindness caused by poorly developed blood vessels may have some hope

Like all tissues in the body, the eye needs a healthy blood supply to function properly. Poorly developed blood vessels can lead to visual impairment or even blindness. While many of the molecules involved in guiding the development of the intricate blood vessel architecture are known, only now are we learning how these molecules work and how they might affect sight.

Reporting in the Oct. 16 issue of Cell, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine find that when some cells in the mouse retina are not properly fed by blood vessels, they can remain alive for many months and can later recover some or all of their normal function, suggesting that similar conditions in people may also be reversible.

"This finding is intriguing," says Jeremy Nathans, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of molecular biology and genetics, neuroscience and ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "It suggests that neurons in the retina can survive for an extended period of time even though they have been functionally silenced."

Three genes — named Fz4, Ndp and Lrp5 — previously were suspected to be involved in blood vessel development in the human retina. Defects in any of these genes cause hypovascularization — a lack of sufficient blood vessels — in the retina. Similarly, eliminating any of these genes in mice can lead to hypovascularized retinas.

Mice lacking functional Fz4 have poor blood vessel growth in the retina and are blind, but it was not known whether the blood vessel deficiency was the cause of blindness or whether the absence of Fz4 leads to some other defect that causes blindness. The team found that Fz4 function is required only in blood vessels, where it senses a signal produced by the Ndp gene in other retinal cells.

When the team measured electrical responses in retinal cells of mice lacking Fz4, they found a defect in electrical signaling in the middle layer of the retina — the same region lacking blood vessels.

The researchers then bathed the Fz4 mutant retinas in oxygen and nutrients to mimic a normal blood supply, and measured electrical signaling in response to light. They found that when provided with oxygen and nutrients, the retinas were able to sense light and generate signals similar to those generated by normal retinas. The team suggests that in the absence of Fz4 the defective blood vessels provide the retinas with only enough oxygen and nutrients to keep the retinal cells alive, but not enough for them to function normally to send electrical signals.

"If the human retina responds to a decrease in blood supply in the same way that the mouse retina responds, then these results may have relevance for those patients with vision loss due to vascular defects," says Nathans.

"In particular, these experiments suggest that if a region of the retina has been deprived of its normal blood supply, then completely or partially restoring that supply may also restore some visual function, even if this happens weeks or months later."

Not only do they waste tax payers money on cars they dont need they spend even more money to get those cars to the same level a movie gangster would drive. The DA today asked why the ministers need BOSE sound systems to do basic government work.

Apparently the ministers also have electric folding towbars as well, a huge cost for the tax payers to carry. They did not just stop there they include

* Advance key privacy gloss
* Audit lane change assist
* 19"7 spoke design alloy wheels
* Burr Wallnut High Gloss
* Reversing camera
* Various bluetooth devices (x3)

The DA also said:
"But what is most remarkable of all, is that the deputy minister
states in his reply that he is using Prados and X-Trails to get
around, and that he is ordering two vehicles at a cost of R342,688
each. If R342,688 vehicles are good enough for the deputy minister
to perform his duties, why do the minister’s vehicles both need to
be more than twice as expensive? His R828,850.00 Mercedes Benz
S320CDI and R732,344.00 Audi Q7 4.2 TDi Quattro Tiptronic
constitute another R1.5m of blatant wasteful expenditure."

The ANCYL, especially Julius Malema is a like a child that wants attention. Every meeting where someone has done something that could attract attention, everyone that mentions racism will see Julius Malema and his gang arrive to entertain the media with revolutionary words but the fact behind this as the DA mentions in their statement is that they are as incoherent as ever.

Statement from the DA:

The ANC Youth League has yet again displayed how incoherent, contradictory and out of touch it is with the nature of our democratic state and its role in it. Even while refusing to repent for calling for the vice chancellor of the University of the Free State to be ‘shot and killed’, the Youth League has now performed a sizeable u-turn by proclaiming Prof. Jansen to be ‘one of us’. Now Julius Malema can’t even decide what he wants Prof. Jansen to do about the Reitz Four. In one newspaper this morning he is quoted as saying that the Youth League is still “going to force [Jansen] to change his decision”. In another, he says “we are not going to oppose the four students going back”. Talk about incoherence.

This is textbook ANC Youth League. There is absolutely no semblance of consistency, no rationale for its statements. It simply exists as a platform for giant egos to draw attention to themselves.

How else do you explain the recent proclamation by Floyd Shivambu that the ANC Youth League is the best youth party in the world? The truth – in spite of what certain people in the ANC seem to think – is that there could be nothing less Mandela-like than pontificating about your own innate superiority.

The ANCYL knows no boundaries in its behaviour, has no concept of autonomy, and believes it is this omnipresent force that can freely interfere anywhere and anyhow it likes. This is wrong, political parties have a particular mandate and they should stick to them.

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the fact that Prof. Jansen has pledged to redress the ‘racist culture of the university’, but the ANC Youth League’s role in this mess is disconcerting, and they need to apologise immediately, as an organisation, for their array of offensive remarks about the UFS vice chancellor.

The Copenhagen climate summit in December this year will change a lot of things but one thing it might not change is the minds of people. From conspiracy theorists to scientists everyone has a opinion and a lot of money goes into those opinions. We have people like Alex Jones screaming that global warming is a myth and we have people writing books where they expose big companies with access to more money than most organizations trying to stop the danger of climate change.

People are sick of being lied to, they are sick of being the puppets of the media where a few select people has the views and opinions of millions of people in their own hands, twisting the fate of the planet to enhance their own deceiteful goals and gains.

The truth is that whether global warming is real or not, the planet is changing because of either natural cycles or what we are talking about, global warming. What could go wrong if people looked better after the planet than they currently do? Society and civilization cant go on like this forever, if in fact global warming does not exist now like many claim then why not change the course that it wont happen in the future?

If all nations sign a treaty on global warming and cutting emissions what could go wrong? Should’nt we all stand behind a cause that will or might be a positive thing for the earth and that might save species that years from now our children’s, children can still see the animals we see instead of reading about them in books?

Democracy now had a great episode the other day where they showed and exposed "The Crusade to Deny Global Warming"

So who do you trust?

See the video:

For those who do not know what a embargo is, it’s when there is a agreement not to release something to the public/press for a specific time period. Nathi Mthethwa Police Commissioner has called a embargo on all police reports because he unwisely believes it would frighten foreigners who want to come to the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. 

Remember these are police reports not crime statistics. Police reports are what is filed in explaining what the police found at a crime scene or whatever is needed for instance if someone assaulted someone else. This will not influence visitors these are things that locals can use to help with crime. This could also stop communication between the police and the public so we would be left in the dark about what is really happening in our very own towns. 

MadibengPulse wrote a objection letter to the Minister of Police and the National Commissioner

Dear Minister and Commissioner, 

• Re: Embargo on crime reports issued by police stations

An embargo has been placed on police stations providing newspapers with crime reports. It was said that the embargo was meant to ‘protect the Soccer World Cup next year so that potential visitors are not put off from coming to South Africa by high crime statistics. ‘

We’ll show that such thinking is seriously flawed, unnecessary even for the dubious goal of protecting the World Cup and an example of how the SAPS is shooting itself in the foot by heeding advisers who have not done straight thinking on the issue.

In the thinking process – if there was one – which preceded a decision to restrict information on crime at local police stations, several incompatible concepts were apparently confused:

1. Local crime reports versus National crimes statistics.
2. Go it alone policing versus Community policing.
3. The difference between a statistic and reality
4. The interests of the SAPS nationally versus the interests of the local police stations.
5. Provincial crime reports versus local crime reports.

We’ll examine each of these aspects to illustrate our point.

1. National crime statistics and crime reports.
These two phenomena bear little relationship to each other in reality except that, presumably, if one totals the various types and totals for each category of crime at all the police stations in the country for a given period, one would arrive at a national statistic for each category of crime for that period.

• These statistics – being abstract in nature – would be of little real interest or use to a citizen living in a police district.

Their only conceivable use would be for the opposition parties to use in parliament as a stick to beat the government and for the top management of the SAPS and the president to measure the effectiveness of various approaches in combating crime. So, the compilation and publishing of these statistics have no influence on effective community policing.

The only organisation which can possibly compile these figures from crime reports at local police stations to arrive at provincial and national statistics is the SAPS. So whether or not such statistics are compiled and used by opposition parties to show how badly the police are doing or by Andy Capp the London soccer fan in deciding to come to the World Cup or stay away, is entirely in the hands of the SAPS top management.

2. SAPS policing versus Community policing.
The effect on local policing of restricting national statistics would be virtually zero, but the effect of placing embargoes on local reports is extremely negative. If the top managements of the SAPS believe it themselves when they tell the public that effective policing is the result of teamwork between the SAPS and the community, why should they then take a decision that leaves the other half of the team in the dark?

In many thousands of experiments in industrial psychology it has been shown without exception, that if teams are given tasks to perform, those who get continuous feedback on results, far outperform teams which are kept in the dark. The criminal grapevine has continuous feedback on their successes and failures, why should the other half of the community policing team be deprived of it?

Our newspaper reported a few months ago on the local head of uniform policing saying that local crime compared to a year ago had been cut in half. We report continuously on police matters because of its importance in everybody’s life, and we know that such results came from good policing, a clean up of corrupt policing at our police station and the installation of neighbourhood watches.

• Would those who work tiresome hours without pay and at their own expense be willing to do so if they’re kept in the dark about its effectiveness? How you do motivate them if it’s not with the feedback of their own successes?

This embargo merely serves to interfere with the mutual trust between communities and their local police which is an essential ingredient for effective policing.

3. The difference between a statistic and reality.
There is a difference between those who take part in community policing, the police reservists, the CPF and neighbourhood watches on the one hand, and those who merely read about crime in their local newspaper. But even for those, local crime reports are valuable. Reading about a murder in Cape Town is a statistic; reading about it in my neighbourhood is a reality. It makes me double lock my doors, warn my neighbours and report any suspicious looking characters to the police.

Reports on a series of car thefts in my suburb, cause me to take extra care with my car thus making it more difficult for the car thieves and easier for the police.

Such reactions to local crime reports, which strengthen community policing, have nothing to do with crimes statistics, which are abstractions and bear no resemblance to local realities.

Perhaps Mr. Minister and Commissioner, you should have another look at those of your advisers who do not know the difference between a local crime report and a national statistic, or their influences on community policing. The influence of the statistic is zero; the reality of reports is immense.

4. The interests of the SAPS nationally versus the interest of the local police station.
The local police station has very little to do with national or provincial statistics, but much to do with crime statistics for the particular police station. Presumably, you use statistics at the local level to assess the performance of the members and the station commissioner. (This assumes of course that you keep staff at one police station long enough and do not chop and change policies, which will make it impossible to measure performance for an individual police station.)

The community which is part of a policing district does not have a great interest in local statistics which is a measure of incidents over a given time period. But they very definitely have an interest in current crime reports and trends as realities on an ongoing basis. They react to these and so form a vital part of the total community policing effort. If you withhold that information from them they will lose interest and, dare one say, live in a fool’s paradise and such people would not be very useful to have as partners in community policing.

In conclusion, it may be necessary in your perception to keep national crimes figures secret, but it’s definitely not in the interest of the local police station to withhold information on individual crime incidents from the community.

5. Provincial crime reports versus local crime reports.
Advisers, whom I also suggest you should have another look at, presumably suggested that crime reports should be provided by a provincial press office; in other words information should be controlled. This is based on a complete misconception of the function of a newspaper in a community. Newspapers do not need a certain quota of crime reports to fill editorial space nor do they have a demand for a given percentage of crime stories. They publish crime reports because they are of interest to their readers and they have such reader interest when they are local.

Who cares if you live in Hartbeespoort or Brits and a bank manager in Taung conspired with his teller to conspire with two robbers to fake a robbery? But put that bank in Brits or Hartbeespoort and every resident is interested. It is only through such interest and the vital interest in one’s personal safety – and personal safety is a local reality not a statistic -  that you get the cooperation of the community. And as we all agree, community cooperation is vital for effective policing.

This newspaper attends every Community Policing Forum meeting, not because what happens there is always that interesting, but because we believe we should inform our readers about community policing. We regularly went to police stations (before the embargo) for briefings – often to be stood up by discourteous police members at Brits Police Station – not because, as professionals we think all the crime reports are that interesting, but because we believe that to establish a point of contact between the police and the community, is vital to community policing. In what way would you as top SAPS management do it otherwise? Your official press releases are far too dull to rely on for automatic publication.

None of our readers or the local police would question our commitment to maintaining healthy relations between the public and their local police station, and we lauded the appointment of both you the Minister and you the Commissioner because of a new attitude of putting the honest citizen ahead of the criminal.

For that reason we make no apology in shooting from the hip by saying: in an emergency at a crime scene it may make sense to shoot first and ask questions later. In a vast organisation with complicated interrelationships with the public it serves, an embargo decision should not have been taken in an act now and think later mode.
We urge you to rethink the decision to withhold crime reports from the media; in the long term it will do more harm than good to local policing.

Yours faithfully,
R. J. R. Dreyer
Editor

The ANC is trying to handle all the problems the ‘ostrich’ way, if you make as if there is no problem and act as if there is no problem the problem will go away or at least divert everyone’s attention away from the problem. They honestly think if they stop the police reports from reaching the international press that is what is best for the people. The world needs to see what dire situation we have with crime not smooth it over so that we can get more tourist to come.

Pretoria, South Africa – Shocking details have emerged that when white South Africans get murdered their death certificates are marked as "died of natural causes". Is this just plain stupidity or are these people really trying to cover up the real crime here?

Government officals claims that these so called errors are "mistakes" and it did not happen on purpose but can we believe them?

There are two confirmed incidents we can name here. Henry Locke was shot through his heart in front of his family but the death certificate says it was a "heart attack", then there was the incident of a woman known as Elsabe that also reported her incident to Beeld newspaper where her husband was shot dead on their smallholding in Pretoria but the death certificate also says that he died of "natural causes".

The murder rate of Afrikaners keeps groing by the day, they get tortured in the most cruel ways and it is the most under reported genocide of our time.

Thanks to Adriana Stuijt that got our attention on this topic.

Sure a guy may of played a offensive CD, four students might of pranked workers at a college but is this really what we should focus on? What about Bianca Warburton that was shot in her car, what about the people that got murdered in their own restaurant in Sabie, was this not racist?

People are so quick to claim when white people are murdered and tortured that it has nothing to do with racial hatred against white people, so why are they so quick and why is there such a fuss about white people that did not hurt or murder anyone but instead just messed around doing stupd things.

Was it not racist when 3 black policemen attacked and raped a white woman? At what point is it racism when white people suffer the most disgusting attacks and tortures by black armed criminals. Sometimes they are tortured beyond regocnition and dont ask for photos because we can prove it.

What about the Karien Kruger, a 21 year old student that was placed under her own car while and driven over 5 times by black men? Should the news really put their focus on these people that could not even think for themselves, the reitz 4 and the workers that could not simply say no? Come on this is South Africa, racism is worst now than it was 15 years ago and how could they blindly trust those students?

Did the ANCYL or the ANC say anything about these racist attacks against white people? No, they did not, but put on a cd that swears at a old man and all hell breaks lose. Time to look at the facts that matter and stop running after every Juluis Malema that screams racism, time to look at the real racism in South Africa, one that even the president supports. Why else would Jacob Zuma call Julius Malema eligible for being the next president?

We all know the famous sayings “Kill the white man” that even Nelson Mandela sang.

Yesterday we wrote about how 1 out of every 4 South Africans are jobless but today the DA made statement claiming that it is in fact worse, 6% worse. The unemployment rate is 31,7%.

Statement by the DA:

The increase in unemployment to 31.1% in the third quarter of 2009 (from 29.7% in Q2) announced today by StatsSA is a clear and urgent signal to the ANC government that the status quo on labour regulation is not workable, nor sustainable. This figure incorporates “discouraged work-seekers” and is actually much more accurate in showing the shocking state of affairs. In essence, every third person capable of working does not have a job.

Time is being wasted while people are losing their jobs. Now is not the time for naval-gazing on labour brokers, it is time for an honest assessment of what is needed in labour policy – chief among them a loosening of stringent labour regulation. Far from creating the 500,000 new jobs that President Zuma promised, the ANC’s misguided labour policy is actively fueling job losses – thus compounding the effects of the global recession in South Africa. The effect of this is clear:
Families are facing the very real problem of not being able to buy food
Homeowners are no longer able to service their mortgages
School leavers have little prospect of finding a job in order to support themselves and contribute to society

South Africa will only be able to create employment opportunities when employers feel safe to expand business and employ more people. Going out of one’s way to accommodate the wishes of trade unions is not prudent labour policy, and commitments towards employment creation need to be backed by a capable administration.

The Democratic Alliance will take the ANC government to task on its promise to reduce unemployment – time is ticking on the supposed 500 000 jobs that will be available by year end – the whole country is waiting with baited breath for Zuma to pull the rabbit out of the hat.