The Sunday Independent (South Africa) back issues from August 2008:
India's central banker loves to surprise and confound the global market.(Business Report Weekend)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: bloomberg One such slip occurred on April 29, when Reddy left interest rates unchanged while traders expected an increase. As inflation continued to soar, the currency market became nervous. The rupee lost more than 6.5 percent of its value against the US ...
Absa funds costly weekend jaunt despite cutting costs.(Business Report Weekend)
Aug 03, 2008 ... On Mathebula's watch, the bank has reportedly forked out R1.2 million for a weekend jaunt of the Black Business Executive Circle (BBEC) to Knysna. The circle consists of senior black business executives who travel to exotic locations where they share experiences, network, ...
Toyota ready to roll with personal transport robot.(Business Report Weekend)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Naoko Fujimura and Makiko Kitamura Tokyo Toyota Motor will soon start testing a new robot as part of its plan to offer alternative modes of transport. Testing of the Winglet, a personal transport assistance robot ridden in a standing position, would begin ...
Safety shutdowns and fall in profit rock Gold Fields.(Business Report Weekend)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Carli Lourens Johannesburg Gold Fields fell the most in more than two years in Friday trading after profit missed analyst estimates and it said output would fall due to safety improvements. "We will not mine if we cannot mine safely," chief executive Nick ...
Large wage hikes are feeding the inflation monster.(Business Report Weekend)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Wiseman Khuzwayo Johannesburg Wage settlements above the inflation rate were feeding the inflation monster, labour analysts and economists have warned. They said these wage settlements hurt the profitability of businesses and might force firms to reduce wage ...
Charter festival highlights show-stopping BEE acts.(Business Report Weekend)
Aug 03, 2008 ... There was a voluntary adoption of the charter, without any obligation being placed on the government or other companies to accept the scorecard arising from it. There was also a lot of fanfare around the information and communications technology charter, which used glitz and ...
Foreclosures eat into US metros.(Business Report Weekend)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Bloomberg Home prices fell in 23 of 25 US metropolitan areas in May from a year earlier as foreclosure sales pushed down values and most areas remained mired in the housing recession. Sacramento had the biggest drop, falling 31 percent, said data company ...
High base set for future settlements.(Business Report Weekend)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: wiseman Khuzwayo In the latest round of wage settlements the fears of a wave of double-digit increases have become reality. De Beers recently announced a 12 percent wage deal with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for this year, backdated to May. This ...
The art of being on holiday comes with heavy baggage.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... There is nothing quite so traumatic as being on holiday. Although the prospect of being at work doesn't necessarily appeal, especially when we have heaps of deadlines weighing on our consciences, it is never quite as daunting as doing absolutely f-all. The fact is, we are better ...
Nostalgia and naivety not always entertaining.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Very early in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Frances McDormand, as the title's bedraggled English governess, knocks on Amy Adams's door. And when Adams opens it, the craziest thing happens: nothing. In Enchanted, whenever Adams batted her eyelashes, lilted and intoned her ...
All theworldis astage; 'Greasepaint, terror, hot glue and stale perfume' ... Astrid Stark takes a trip down memory lane with South African actor Pieter Dirk Uys and discovers the then and now of some of Cape Towns' most famous theatre venues.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Pieter-Dirk Uys, the multiple award-winning satirist, playwright and author, recalls some of his early olfactory memories of the theatre. "It's a cross between greasepaint and terror, hot glue and stale perfume." Uys is referring to the University of Cape Town's Little Theatre, ...
The pomp of circumstance; With too many hours to kill between flights in London, Harvey Tyson and his friends hopped on a bus to Windsor Castle, built more than 900 years ago and now the preferred weekend home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... In St George's Chapel, within the ancient precincts of Windsor Castle, I was pondering the problems of time and relativity when I happened to look down. To my astonishment, horror - and inexplicable delight - I found that I was standing on the bones of King Henry VIII, Jane ...
Art Pick.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... The tendency these days when presenting group collections of photographic art is to show the artworks under the banner of a theme. While themed shows do encourage new and sometimes unexpected readings of the artworks, they can also limit interpretations or, in some cases, ...
SA web developers win international kudos.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Edwin Naidu Facebook, the global social networking site, now has a distinct South African flavour with a winning paintball feature created by Chris Blake and Lean van Heerden - Johannesburg internet application developers - allowing users to create a free-for-all game ...
Teens dying on roadsTraffic accidents the main cause of fatalities in people aged between 10 and 24.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg Young drivers account for 45 percent of fatalities on South African roads between 11pm and 6am and are 10 times more likely to have an accident at night, rising to 14 times more likely on weekend nights, insurance industry figures show. ...
All aboard for anti-graft conference.(News)(Conference news)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg Political parties are expected to join government institutions, civil society and business in debating the regulation of political party funding at the third national anti-corruption conference, which starts tomorrow in Boksburg, outside Johannesburg. ...
Scratching at the past for cruel truths and healing lies.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... The Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie caper Mr and Mrs Smith risibly portrayed Bogota as a sun-scorched tropical outpost. Colombia's high-altitude capital is a huge, drizzly maze of a metropolis flanked by its wall of wooded mountains, peopled (in the words of this book's narrator) by "grey faces" ...
SMS to win these books from Struik.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... To celebrate our relaunch, Struik is giving away three hampers, each containing three books. They are: Through the Darkness: A Life in Zimbabwe by Judith Garfield Todd R199,95. Todd, the daughter of Sir Garfield Todd, erstwhile prime minister of colonial Southern Rhodesia, spent eight ...
Intimacy this intense can happen only once in a lifetime.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... To get classifications out of the way: Call Me By Your Name is the story of an intensely erotic romance between two men. And yet to call it a "gay novel" would be to limit the reach of what is, in fact, a profound meditation on memory and desire, or on the memory of desire. ...
Thriller should be a hit despite a few missing body parts.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... The X-Files has, over the decades, achieved cult status and an army of international fans are familiar with every aspect of this ground-breaking series which blended elements of the supernatural and horror with mystery and a cynical pinch of realism. Chris Carter has been the ...
Feel presidential in the Mother City.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Enter our latest Sunday Independent/Star Travel Club competition and win a two-night getaway for two at the Protea Hotel President, Cape Town, with dinner, bed and breakfast. Send your details, including your travel club number and the name of the hotel to the Marketing Department, Box ...
US seeks an easy conviction for Bin Laden's former driver.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Jerry Markon Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Salim Ahmed Hamdan did not want to fight. The man who wound up chauffeuring the world's most wanted terrorist emerged from an al-Qaeda camp in 1999 unimpressed with the weapons training he had received, according to an FBI ...
In Zimbabwe, evil has an ordinary face.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Staff Writer When Robert Mugabe's "green bombers" walk the streets, they know everyone else is afraid of them. But what everyone else doesn't realise is that the green bombers are frightened of them too. The youth militias are so notorious that they can seem ...
Trombones and conch shells in a rainbow symphony of jazz.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Steve Turre is a trombonist par excellence! And we will forgive him for hijacking our national nickname for Rainbow People, even if we seem to be observing the term loosely these days. Turre was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 12 1948 and is respected as a trombonist, ...
Farming with seawater to save the world.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Marla Dickerson A few kilometres inland from the Pacific Ocean of Tastiota, Mexico, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactuses, neat rows of emerald plants sprout from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing ...
Eritrean farm a model for Mexican salicornia plan.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Scientist Carl Hodges' model for the Mexico project is a seawater farm he designed for the government of Eritrea, the impoverished, bone-dry East African nation perched on the Red Sea. Opened in 1999, the farm consisted of ocean-fed ponds of shrimp and fish, whose waste was used to ...
Ancient temples buckle under tourists' feet; Cambodian sandstone monuments are being eroded by an ever-rising number of visitors, writes Paul Watson.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... The ancient sandstone temples of Angkor in Cambodia have stood up to endless assaults down the centuries, from medieval raiders armed with clubs and spears to genocidal looters laying land mines. These days, the onslaught begins in the early morning darkness, when invading ...
Mining still a relentless threat to heritage.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg More than a quarter of natural world heritage sites are under pressure by existing or future mineral extraction. Because of this, the IUCN World Conservation Union recently called on the private sector, state-run companies and governments to ...
Cruise criticals.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Peter Deilmann River Cruises offers a "per person sharing" fare for all single-occupant bookings on all remaining 2008 river cruises, subject to availability. This means that the single traveller will pay the "per person sharing" fare but still have their own cabin, which means ...
Eden of the forgotten people; The Democratic Republic of Congo is the stage for what some call the world's worst humanitarian crisis, writes Heidi Kingstone.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... White United Nations helicopters fly endless missions across the clear blue skies of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. To get to this miserable town from Kinshasa, the capital, across a country larger than western Europe, it costs nearly $1 000 (about R7 000), more than three times ...
Evil under the sun; Kathy Marks writes a harrowing story of sexual abuse on Pitcairn Island and its community's defiant response to justice.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Pitcairn Island, a lump of rock situated roughly halfway between New Zealand and Chile, is probably the world's most remote inhabited spot. It has no airstrip, no safe harbour and no scheduled shipping service. Visitors must hitch a lift on a container vessel travelling through the ...
50 years, 50 giant leaps; This week, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration marked its first half-century of exploration and discovery. But missions to the Moon and beyond are only part of the story. Without Nasa's scientists, life on Earth would be very different indeed. Rob Sharp chronicles a technological revolution.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... 1The hand-held vacuum cleaner: The cordless miniature vacuum cleaner was born after Black & Decker developed a self-contained portable drill for the Apollo Moon landings between 1963 and 1972. The machine used a specially developed computer program, meaning it used less power to extract ...
Branson unveils the pioneering 'mother ship' of private space travel.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Karl Vick Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur and adventurer, this week took the wraps off the aircraft that, for $200 000 (about R1,4 million) a seat, may some day take tourists who can afford it on the first leg of regular, albeit very brief, commercial flights ...
Naipaul is the true heir of Jane Austen.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Imraan Coovadia Patrick French's definitive biography of the 2001 Nobel laureate takes its title from the opening lines of Vidia Surajprasad Naipaul's best novel, A Bend in the River, which begins: "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to ...
Going out in a Blaise of glory; Adrienne Sichel remembers Blaise Koch, an actor who brought theatre alive for thousands in a career that spanned many genres.(Life)
Aug 03, 2008 ... It takes a legend the calibre of Blaise Koch to get the theatre world out of bed in time for a church service at 10am on a Sunday. It was fitting that the Tesson stage at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, where Koch gave his last theatre performance in Love! Valour! Compassion! ...
Pausch's testament stirs grief.(Dispatches)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Maureen Isaacson Not since Erich Segal's novel Love is Never Having to Say You're Sorry (1971) has there been such an outpouring of empathy and grief about untimely death. Audiences were instructed to take tissues along to the film version of Segal's sentimental story ...
Giving shtick to anti-competitors; The competition commission is earning a reputation for professional conduct. Thulani Kunene is the man behind the enforcement.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Charlene Smith The Scorpions behaved like everyone's favourite United States soap stars - they'd screech up to suspects' homes in fast black cars and step out in FBI-type black jumpsuits, bullet-proof vests and killer shades. It was all thrilling - unless it was you they ...
Young sommelier savours the fruits of ambition and hard work.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Shootings, robberies, assaults: damaging levels of long-term unemployment. Young people without jobs and with little hope ... But South Africa is like so many countries. The young people who have strayed tend to attract the headlines. Those quietly getting on, steadily working ...
Gay isn't good, but neither is gay bashing.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... I have not read Jon Qwelane's article in the Sun and so cannot comment on all he opined but, if he had written "murder is not okay, or shoplifting, extortion, paedophilia, adultery or bestiality", there would have been hardly a murmur. If Qwelane had written "gay is not okay" 30 ...
Lack of patriotism is worrying.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... South Africa will host the Confederations Cup in 2009 and the World Cup in 2010. Now, 14 years into our democracy, we still have a lot of South Africans who are not devoted to their own country. The observation was made at the recent Vodacom Challenge. It was truly an ...
Reactive state threatens otherwise vibrant media.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Raymond Louw Government transparency to the media, so evident in 1994, is in rapid retreat. In the wake of the euphoria generated by South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, the customary surliness and unhelpfulness of the civil service towards the ...
A very narrow view of nation-building.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Edwin Naidu (Second Take, July 13) has some very angry things to say about me and the organisation Media Tenor. He seems to be one of those many people who have a very narrow view of the world. Media Tenor South Africa is a local company, even if part of an international network ...
Racists are still trying to deny us freedom.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... With reference to the Second Take column (July 27) by Edwin Naidu, I must say that the racist incident he experienced on the bus at OR Tambo is one of many. Racism is rife. White people treat black people as stupid slaves; they pay them peanuts and still refer to them, as Edwin ...
Competition cops 2008.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... February - A case of collusion in health product tenders between Adcock Ingram Critical Care, Tiger Brands, Dismed Criticare and Thusanong Health Care was sent to the competition tribunal. Fresenius Kabi South Africa avoided prosecution by agreeing to co-operate with the investigations. ...
Sex for soap, salt and sugar at Zim border.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Musina - The border between South Africa and Zimbabwe is more than an international boundary; it also determines the method of payment for sex workers, because on one side cash is taken, while on the other, goods are bartered. The border town of Musina is a regional trucking hub ...
Politics of pigment mars regeneration.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Free from the shackles of white supremacy, South Africa was well positioned to lead the world into undoing the damage racism has inflicted on the idea of democracy. It chose not to move far away, and fast enough, from the old politics of pigmentation even as the richly textured ...
Time to knock the stuffing out of the fake breast craze.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Bethan Cole I remember distinctly the first time I saw a pair of surgically enhanced breasts with my own eyes. It was around eight or nine years ago, in the changing rooms of the gym where a friend had taken me for a workout. I was getting undressed and there was another ...
Broke? You can still be a philanthropist.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Bryony Gordon When Jon Brooks launched the website The Big Give last year, the idea was to provide a database of philanthropic projects that the super-wealthy could have at their fingertips should they feel the need to splurge a few hundred thousand - or a few million. ...
Low-budget spin with high returns.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... When Sean Tevis, a Kansas Democrat, decided to run for a seat in the legislature he was told by the authorities that he would need at least $26 000 (about R190 000) in his "war chest" to do so. Just two weeks ago, he had only $1 525 in the kitty. So, in a last-ditch ...
Playing by the Queensberry rules; Maureen Isaacson meets Moss Mashishi and encounters a winning combination of professional ethics and uncompromising personal principles.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... As Beijing struggles to clear its smoggy air, ahead of the opening of the Olympic games next week, our own South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has been cleansed of pollution of a different kind. On Friday, after a running battle between Butana ...
Watching and waiting as Zuma heads for court.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... A puzzling contradiction characterises the stance adopted by Jacob Zuma, the ANC president, in respect of his appearance in the high court in Pietermaritzburg tomorrow. Although admitting in papers submitted to the court that he is unable to prove that he is the victim of a conspiracy to ...
A war of hurtling athletes as civilisations clash.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Dominic Lawson It was inevitable that the closer the Olympic Games drew, the more difficult it would become to make a fuss. For a country that is frequently described as "immune to criticism", the Peoples' Republic of China (PRC) - or rather, its governing elite - is ...
Couch potatoes' dreams of being marathan man come true.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Jeremy Laurance and Amol Rajan A new threat to the Beijing Olympics has emerged in the shape of two new undetectable drugs that could boost the performance of endurance athletes by a medal-winning margin. Scientists warned that the pills, which mimic the ...
Why China's Olympic superstar will be a concert pianist.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Clifford Coonan Dressed in his trademark Versace jacket and plain T-shirt, his Liberace quiff all aquiver, Lang Lang is China's first true international musical star. His bright-red Steinway piano, assured technical virtuosity and eccentric playing style have ...
Remember, my chinas, it's not over until the prison hooter blows.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... If Jacob Zuma and his friends and acolytes think he's been having a hard time at the hands of the judiciary - which they do - they might want to reflect on the sad case of a Chinese person by the name of Liu Shaokun. Liu, who is a teacher in that wonderful country currently ...
Beijing 2008: the imperfect 10; Simon Turnbull delivers his reasons to be cheerful or fearful about the soon-to-be-held games in the Chinese capital.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Not to be confused with John Carpenter's cult classic movie of 1980, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother, Janet Psycho Leigh. That was simply The Fog, the story of a glowing "killer fog" containing zombie-like creatures that terrorised a north Californian fishing community. The Smog, ...
Ditch thepolitics and save the sting.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... To most Americans, South Africa seems far away and its problems insignificant in the framework of broader issues affecting the African continent and the world beyond. But for those of us who are South African or have an interest in the country, the problems South Africa faces ...
Chronology of the conflict.(News)(Chronology)
Aug 03, 2008 ... Some major events in the conflict in western Sudan: February 2003 - Two rebel groups rise up, saying government neglects arid region and arms Arab militia against civilians. April 8 2004 - Government, Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) ...
Most powerful man in cricket looks to England.(Sports)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Scyld Berry Not many people outside India know the name of the most powerful person in cricket, let alone what his initials stand for. But ultimately, the future of an England-promoted Champions League for the best domestic 20-over sides, not to mention other issues like ...
Gravy train careering to destination unknown.(Sports)
Aug 03, 2008 ... To the table of astonishing figures on the right, one can now also add R43,3-million. That is the amount, announced this week, on offer for the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League which is due to take place from September 29 to October 8. The sheer volume of cash now floating ...
Nearly-man in rush for gold glory.(Sports)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Nazli Thomas Mbulaeni Mulaudzi is out to prove that he is more than just a nearly-man. The 27-year-old from Venda has carried the weight of expectation on his shoulders since he first made a breakthrough at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester six years ago, ...
Good old days of civil service now long gone.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... A plea for a five-year term to make things right? It has taken 15 years to break the better management structures in this country and chase the older, well-trained and competent people away. Fixing it in five years when you don't even know what you have to fix is a big ask. We ...
Power blackouts: we're not in the clear yet.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg Eskom was not crying wolf when it continued to warn of the possibility of more load shedding. "We have been fairly fortunate to have come through winter with little load shedding. But we remain on the edge [of supply capacity] on many days," ...
More clients logging onto internet banking.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Edwin Naidu After a relatively slow start, South Africans have flocked to internet and cellphone banking. Absa, one of the country's big four financial institutions, announced this week that it had reached 1 million customers transacting online. First ...
SABC teeters on the brink; Battle for power between corporation's board and its suspended CEO is taking a heavy toll.(News)
Aug 03, 2008 ... BYLINE: Edwin Naidu The battle for the SABC resumes this week with the ANC plotting in parliament to get rid of the board while Dali Mpofu, the suspended group chief executive, returns to court to fend of attempts by the board to get him sacked. This duelling in ...