While the United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon was ringing global alarm bells about the need for urgent action on climate change after visiting the remote Solomon Islands, leading scientists and media-experts were doing the same thing about geo-engineering efforts to inject particles into the atmosphere from a gigantic balloon attached to a hosepipe.

This coming weekend will mark 10 years since the 9/11 terrorist attack from the air on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon just outside Washington DC in which nearly 3 000 people died. But still Americans and the world do not know the full truth behind the event that has changed that country and most of the rest of the world forever and probably never will.

The heat in the General Seyni Koutche Stadium in Niamey, the injury crisis, and excellent performances by Niger and Sierra Leone have conspired against Bafana Bafana to put South Africa’s participation in next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in jeopardy.

South Africa, in the words of a statement by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, is heading for a “robust debate” on the subject of land reform in the wake of the release of a cabinet green paper last week. A holistic approach that goes beyond a mere redistribution of land is needed if food security, among others, is not to be put in danger by the outcomes.

Last week the world was treated to the spectacle of the Paris Conference where one Western leader after the other – together with a few token Arab dictators – patted themselves on the back for “liberating” Libya from the rule of Muammar Gaddafi. It quickly brought to mind the infamous Berlin Conference of 1884 at which Africa was sliced up among its European colonisers.

It was a remarkable barb by the Welsh coach Warren Gatland, telling the gathered media in his first press conference in New Zealand on Monday that the Springboks play no rugby, nothing at all, and that he had them worked out. It is remarkable because it might backfire as a psychological ploy to upset the preparation of the Springboks prior to their opening match of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) in Wellington on Sunday. Instead of irking the Springboks, it would probably motivate them.

The outcome and implications of the incoherent but muscular dissent of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) cannot yet be predicted. But what has already become clear is that the over-extension of the ANC's network of power has profoundly undermined the quality of South Africa's democracy and the ruling party's effectiveness in dealing with critically important policy challenges.

To what extent governments are battling to come to grips with the new reality of social media was illustrated by a meeting last week between British officials and representatives of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry to discuss voluntary ways to limit or restrict the use of social media to combat crime and during periods of civil unrest. It came in the wake of threats during recent riots in Britain by prime minister David Cameron that government might seek powers to bar suspected troublemakers from using social media and other digital communications tools.

Time for the Voluntary Disclosure Programmes (VDP) announced last year by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is quickly running out for taxpayers and forex transgressors , says global audit, tax and advisory firm Mazars. The deadline for applications for both the tax and exchange control VDPs is 31 October 2011.

It is new-word season at the moment as a number of dictionary publishers have of late published lists of new words that have won official recognition by being included in their publications. These lists illustrate how the major events and/or developments of a particular period in history become reflected in new words or new meaning to old words.

The South African government and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) are frequently criticised for a variety of perceived failures, non-delivery or a lack of political will to implement promised actions and policies effectively. However, very recently most of its critics – and its supporters – seem to have missed an important statement by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe regarding one of the government’s biggest successes.

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Standard & Poor’s (S&P), in downgrading the US, made the right call for the wrong reason. Keynesians like Jeffrey Sachs see this but need to go even further: the developed world will come out of recession only when the mighty engine of finance turns to the task of developing a sustainable future. And that faces political, not economic obstacles, writes Simon Zadek.

The free media in South Africa is at a bad juncture in its history, being attacked from all sides. Regardless of whether the day’s top billing goes to tenderpreneurs, corrupt officials and politicians’ attempts to sweep all that under a legally protected carpet, political power struggles, or to the inefficiencies of government, the play  lately is always the same: shoot the messenger.