Weekly digest #7

Injured child given a teddy bear is now "well" : A 5 year old girl was caught in the crossfire in an attempted robbery of Emperor's Palace Casino earlier this week. Marketing manager of the Casino said that they had given her a teddy bear and she is doing "well". He says she is also recovering "well". Apparently her parents are "well" as well. Thanks, PR, thanks for keeping us so well-informed. I'd just like to query why this 5 year old was at the casino anyway. I understand that there are other restaurants there and it could have been for a number of reasons that she was within shooting distance, but I am allowed to wonder (surely?).

Taxis ranked as the most dangerous form of public transport (SA) : A mobile survey conducted by Pondering Panda found that of the youths questioned, our South African taxi service was ranked as the most dangerous, with a high concern for accidents occurring or of being attacked. We hear of attacks often occurring at taxi ranks, and we often see the appalling state of the taxis driving around (spanners for steering wheels, bumpers duct-taped onto the car): these fears are understandable. The problem is that people sometimes really have no choice but to use these services. I look forward to the day when we have an efficient and (fairly) safe public transport system like that which I have enjoyed in London, or even Hong Kong (speaking less of their taxis, which are also deathtraps, but more of the buses, ferries and the MTR). This service also needs to be reasonably priced, unlike the Gautrain.

I have a food addiction : Hey look, another Internet self-diagnosis! Scientists have had a look into whether or not food addiction is a real thing. They make the important point that it's really hard to give up something that you actually have to have in order to survive. I know I obsess over it. It can get quite bad... Food is just so delicious (come visit me, I'll show you!) I really struggle to say when enough is enough. I take far too much advantage of an opportunity to eat, and I carry on eating when I'm "full". So that "full" signal isn't really a factor anymore. This is why I have to monitor what I eat. The easiest way for me to do this is by not having "more" available to have, or not having any snacks (or unhealthy snacks, at least) around me. It's best if I don't let it end up on my plate, or even in my room. Then, I get to live like a normal human being, fighting with myself only when I'm in the shops, or when faced with a decision to buy a huge delicious choc chip cookie (that you will most certainly hear more about in due course) when I am already treating myself to a Cappuccino at one of the great new coffee shops in town.

Weekly digest #4

More bird flu! Possible pandemic : A new strain of bird flu, the H7N9 virus, is spreading in China. It has killed 3 people so far. Luckily, it currently transmits only from bird to bird or bird to human, so human to human transmission is not a concern yet. However, the mutations that have already been observed indicate that this could change, thus leading to a pandemic of the disease, so the situation needs to be closely monitored. The World Health Organisation is apparently pleased with China's response to the situation, so I think we should handle possible outbreaks pretty well. Here's to hoping that doesn't happen though. I found it really interesting that this disease has been analysed using DNA sequencing: science, medicine and technology is amazing! Another fun fact that could be handy to remember to bring up in conversation in the future: the H and the N in the names of these flu viruses refer to proteins on their surfaces, namely hemagglutinin and neuraminidase.

Plagiarism issues at Fort Hare University : Postgraduate students at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape have been accused of plagiarism by copying and pasting in their Political Sciences assignments. The students claimed that they had been told that they were allowed to do this. Plagiarism is something that has been growing in importance in my life, not because I do it, but because everyone is so worried that I, along with my fellow students, will commit this serious offence some time in our University careers. They even started drumming this into us at a school level. We know: don't copy and paste or claim an idea as your own if it is not! And something I told a friend today: at University level, nothing is your own idea, and nothing is common knowledge - it all comes from somewhere and everything has to be referenced! Until late in post-grad at least, like when you have your phD. These people were dumb, and the outcome of this situation is actually ridiculous and should definitely be investigated further. Follow the link for the full (though somewhat difficult to follow) story.

Grahamstown Spur gets itself robbed (accidentally) : A man fell asleep in the local steak house chain Spur, and the restaurant closed for the night and locked up. When he woke up, he thought it would be a good idea to rob the till. He was apprehended when he was trying to leave the building. I was lucky enough to come across this story filed under both Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth (not even remotely true in location) - an occurrence in this little town that should have been bigger news amongst my peers. I also don't understand how Spur managed to lock someone up in their restaurant...

Kettle baths and loads of laundry

In my previous post, I reported on how there was no water in Grahamstown. Here are some details on living in these conditions. Not to be read by the weak-of-stomach...

The water supply was dodgy from Sunday lunchtime, something we became aware of as we were served our lunch on polystyrene plates with plastic knives and forks. This is becoming more and more of a problem, as it is now Wednesday, and we are still unable to flush our toilets, or have a shower.

Luckily, we have rainwater tanks behind our building. Unfortunately, it hasn't rained in a few weeks, so this supply is dwindling as well (unsurprisingly, as it has to cater to the water needs of 73 girls), and our neighbouring building of 88 boys has run out of their rainwater supply completely, so I hear.

I had my first kettle bath yesterday. I am fortunate to have a sink in my room: I don't know how I would feel about bathing from a sink in the bathroom where people come, do their business, and leave, unable to flush after themselves, and leaving a horrible smell behind them. You come into the building, and you are just hit by a wall of odours, emanating from bodies who, like me, have been unable to shower as often as they might have, and who, apparently, don't know how to fill up a bucket of water to flush the toilet after themselves. It is severely unpleasant.

This morning I decided the kettle bath wouldn't work for me, so I went down to the gym where there was rumoured to be water. Apparently I was not the only one to have heard such rumours: the change rooms, which are normally otherwise fairly empty at 6:30 am, was full, the floors wet, as ladies endured harsh conditions. My shower was brief: it was cold, with little water pressure (a huge disappointment, as the gym pressure is normally exceptionally good). One of the showers was blocked, verging on flooding. But I got to wash my hair, and my whole body. I now wait with anticipation for the water to come back, dreading the possibility of it not returning before my Spinning class that I have to instruct later today (the uniform for which I have to wash by hand, again).

My laundry is piling up: it was my intention to do laundry the other afternoon. I could have done it in the morning, but I was procrastinating. "It's fine, I'll do it this afternoon!" I had thought. I will never put off doing my laundry again: I am nearly down to my last set of underwear, and I am running out of laundry "shelf" space (the laundry basket was full a very long time ago).

Hold thumbs that pressure returns the water to us on the hill soon, and I am able to clean myself before I return home on Friday: we wouldn't want my mother thinking I am unable to look after myself at university.

Weekly digest #3

Fans disappointed that their mail isn't read by their heroes : Over-decorated and generic letters addressed to Taylor Swift were found in the recycling bin, to the dismay of those who sent it. Her management team were quick to claim that this disposal had been done accidentally, of course. How do fans expect every single one of their letters to be read, why would they think that theirs is so important and has something so new and interesting to say, that their celebrity sweetheart would take the time out of their busy and famous lives to give a damn for a moment? You could probably just send an envelope with the star's name on it, and they would get the idea. I do not understand the point of fan mail. If you really want to get a message to someone, make sure that it stands out, without having to resort to copious amounts of glitter glue and heart stickers. Be creative, be unusual, have something different to say. The same goes with life: if you think you're important enough that people should listen to you, put your message across in a way that conveys that! Also, well done to Taylor's management team for recycling, #savetheplanet.

Nepotism in schools: teacher fired for not adjusting principle's child's marks : A Northern Cape teacher was fired after she did not adjust one of her pupils marks so that he could pass. Said pupil was the principle's son. Pregnant mathematics and science teacher, Arlene Nel refused the request to up the grade 11 student's mark for a life sciences paper for which he received 28%. He had also only achieved 14% and 24% for maths and physical sciences respectively. The arbitration case for this situation will continue next month.
We thought we had it bad in our school, where there were relatives all throughout the staff. We had nothing on this. This is so unfair, because of the treatment and preference given to one student (who clearly doesn't deserve a chance - it's not as though he was having a little bit of trouble with one subject, he was failing others as well), and because the teacher now has a newborn child to care for, without a job to support it. Perhaps there are other underlying issues in the pupil's life that has caused him to perform badly, but if this is the case, then it needs to be dealt with openly (with discretion of course), and not through sneakily firing a staff member.

Grahamstown has no water and it really sucks:  I've attached two links for this story, but really it is my own. We have no water here in Grahamstown, and it is the second time in two weeks. Last week this inconvenience lasted about a day. Now, we have had no water for a few days. Certain areas seem to have started to get water back, now that the problem has been "fixed", but many people still have no access to water, which means no washing, no cooking water, no flushing water, in many cases.
A message from "Cllr Les Reynolds Da Caucus Leader" on the Rhodes University Community Forum Facebook group informed members of the group as to the cause of the outages, and explained that once the broken pipe that was the cause of the problems was fixed, water supply should resume.

[Note: this is a Monday post, but written on Wednesday, so the water issues timeline may be somewhat confusing. The events it describes were confusing anyway, so this shouldn't be a problem. Also, any water supply issues is an issue, regardless of how long that has been the case for]

Weekly Digest #2

North Korea have abandoned their peace pact with South Korea, and have threatened the US with a pre-emptive nuclear strike : nuclear war seems to be a threat, as of late. There have been assertions that the US are at no risk of such a strike, but there are warnings that South Korea still remains vulnerable, and apparently Japan should be careful as well. From a reader's perspective, I almost look forward to the day that bio-warfare becomes a thing. Then I stop and realise that that would really suck. Perhaps I'm just in my own world where I think that I'd probably be one of those evolved super-humans who is immune to whatever disease becomes air-borne, and that my body holds the cure. Poor human race: I don't do well with needles, so it's just going to be me and the rest of the superior folk to remain on this earth. 

Fine, Ted Dekker is a really great author. And that's all I can say. Even though this has now become rather impalpable.

Homeless man’s scrap metal turns out tobe a live mortar bomb : reporting a "suspicious man" lead to  the discovery of a live mortar bomb, possibly from WWII, in the Durban-area last week. There was shady handling of the situation: Desmond Daniels, from UTI Electronics, who discovered the man and his trolley, suspected that the found bomb was live, and moved it to an open field in case it went off. When a police van drove past and Daniels reported the incident, they advised what to do, and drove off. Also, the suspect has subsequently disappeared. I find this story very bizzarre. Where could it have come from, why was he carrying it around, and what a random situation! Perhaps the reporting of the case is a little bit lacking, and this is why the circumstances are not clear: there are so many issues with this story, what could you decide to focus on?

Patients had clean their ward after thehospital cleaners didn’t show up for work : mothers in the maternity ward at Frere Hospital were told that if they did not clean up after themselves, their babies would get lung infections. When cleaning staff did not arrive to work, the inhabitants of the Kangaroo ward were told to clean the ward, and had to remove rubbish, change sheets, and mop the floors. Great healthcare we provide in this province of the Eastern Cape (note the sarcasm). 

Weekly Digest 1

Federal investigation into Colorado students' version of the Harlem Shake, performed on an airplane : Members of the Colorado College ultimate frisbee team are being investigated by the FAA for performing and filming their rendition of the viral video The Harlem Shake. They did this during flight time (not during take off or landing). I thought it was a pretty good version of the video, much better than the Rhodes University one, which I felt could have at least been done from different angles, or performed with fewer people just doing boring and generic fist-pumping (though, granted, Rhodie was very cool, and there were very original and unusual costumes that people donned for the occasion). I think that because of the masses (of course EVERYONE has to be involved...) a lot of good aspects of it were lost...

Four-year-old hospitalised after being given the wrong medicine - Eastern cape : while the events leading up to the situation are unclear, a four-year-old girl has nevertheless had a bad reaction to the medication that she received after she went into hospital allegedly for vomiting and diarrhoea. Her reaction to the medicine that she received (after what the girl's mother describes as dismissive treatment by the nurse) resulted in her being further hospitalised. While the circumstances are not entirely clear, it is suspected that she was given medicine that is usually prescribed to adults for the same symptoms she was experiencing. 

Mass spaying of Grahamstown dog population : Last weekend there was a drive to spay 57 dogs. With the support of the SPCA, 53 of these dogs were "fixed", with the others not being operated on. This effort works towards reducing the number of breeding dogs in a town where unwanted litters could pose a serious problem, for both the people and for the animals, who might otherwise be left homeless.