It all started with my wife. She is the one who does the illustrations for this column and often  contributes with ideas. Working on a painting of glorious flamingoes with their cocky long necks and hazy, mysterious pink plumage, she suddenly looked up and with a wink and a glint in the eye asked me: “I wonder where the surname Woodcock comes from.”

Mankind is facing a triple threat: peak oil, climate disruption and economic inequity and instability. If we are to come to grips with our environmental future some out-of-the-box thinking might needed because the future will arrive whether we plan for it or not was the message from a recent high-octane conference in Guelph in Canada.

Is our highly integrated, interactive and open global village, with its shared economy, common currency and inter-active financial systems, its myriad of international organisations and agencies, global communications networks and open flow of information presently experiencing a City of Babel moment?

Instead of nervously shuffling past a few legendary previous record-holders, AB de Villiers blasted his way into the history books to become the man who boasts the highest individual score in test cricket for South Africa. His undefeated 278 in the second test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi was also the third-highest score of all time in test cricket by a No. 5 batsman.

Discussions and assessments of last month’s mid-term budget forecast are not quite behind us yet and it is still three months away but finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget address scheduled for February 23 2011 is already shaping up to be one of the most important in the history of the country.

If you are South African and have always thought that illegal electricity connections and electricity theft is mostly a uniquely South African problem associated with squatters and backyard dwellers in townships, you are wrong. A short extract from a recent edition of  Nick Hodge’s  Energy & Capital newsletter gives a fascinating picture of what is happening in some American cities.

Act now, or be embarrassed witnesses of a doomed 2011 Rugby World Cup campaign. These are the options available to the South African Rugby Union (Saru) after the Springboks stumbled to defeat against the number-8 ranked team in the world, Scotland.

South Africa’s once proud, innovative and highly efficient defence sector  seems to be in a state disintegration under the assault of controversy after controversy, with the present minister of defence often in the middle of some of these controversies.

The changing face of modern warfare and especially the increasing role of terrorism in what can be described as global guerilla tactics has moved dramatically closer to home for Southern Africa last week with the discovery of a bomb in the baggage onboard a passenger flight in Windhoek en route to Munich, Germany.

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President Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress are busy with a spring-cleaning exercise of sorts whereby the national cabinet, various provincial cabinets as well as parliamentary committees have been subjected to reshuffles. The aim with these shakeouts appears to be multi-faceted, but some key objectives stand out. More changes may yet follow.

Along with the run-down state of South Africa’s defence capability, that we report on elsewhere defence policy also seems to lack clear strategic focus as defence minister Lindiwe Sisulu just signed a defence agreement with Argentina.

The two-week  2010 United Nations  Climate Change Conference  starts next week in Cancún, Mexico, without much hope of any real success  with some commentators even saying that the climate change scare is dying. At best there is some hope that the foundations could be laid for progress at next year’s conference to be held in South Africa.