As information from the farthest corners pours in from news emissaries like WikiLeaks and other sources, editors are having a field day in putting together the biggest show of our times: The demise of the American empire also places those editors close to their own ancient roots.

The Chinese nation went into mourning during the weekend, while Australia and Belgium were in jubilant mood, and there were some important lessons in sport psychology for South Africa’s cricket team as they head for the World Cup in India later this month.

The war on drugs has failed. It is time to face realities squarely and rationally debate the question of decriminalisation. Pragmatism is urgently needed in debates about the issues involved and in the responses to them.

Another front in the battle to safeguard one of South Africa’s most threatened natural resources, water, has opened on the dusty plains of the Karoo. Civil society organisations, environmentalists, the people of Graaff-Reinet and business tycoon Johann Rupert have stepped up their plans to jealously guard this precious resource in their area against gas exploration.

The political landscape in KwaZulu-Natal is set to change significantly come the 2011 municipal elections. KZN and the Western Cape will arguably be the two most hotly contested provinces. For the past 18 months the African National Congress  has steadily chipped away at the KZN support base of the  Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)  in municipal by-elections.

Listening to the veiled threats disguised as advice from the White House and the State Department in Washington to the beleaguered autocrats in the Middle East one is involuntarily reminded of the famous observation by a British politician many years ago that “countries have no permanent friends but only permanent interests”.

As the initial hype over the massive dumping of leaked American diplomatic cables by the WikiLeaks are subsiding commentators are assessing the question: Will the world of diplomacy ever be the same? Assessments differ but the consensus seems to be probably not, but some of the consequences might turn out quite different from the original intensions.

This edition of “Worth a read?” provides a review of the Kindle, Amazon’s portable e-book reader. However, this is not your standard review.
Most reviewers of electronic devices can explain to you in detail the inner workings of the device, using terms like Linux-based, network platforms and encoding. In other words, their reviews are useless to a Luddite like me.

Most of the possible outcomes of the present Egyptian revolution he envisions will leave Egypt pretty much where it is. But not entirely. “The situation is, as they say, in doubt, and the outcome is not trivial,” writes George Friedman in a special report for Stratford Global Intelligence on the unfolding drama in this strategically very important country.

Some 10 years ago, when the deregulation of the financial services sector was the order of the day in the developed world, Canada resisted the trend. When financial turbulence struck in late 2007 the country managed to avoid much of the carnage that afflicted the United States and Europe and is now poised to become one of the foremost global hubs for financial risk management.

Many companies do not see the value of moving towards more environmentally friendly practices. However, according to Jako Volschenk, Environmental Finance lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, what has been considered an ethical and then legal issue for years, is now also considered a societal requirement and it is in the interest of South African companies to comply.

The leaked 2008 cables from the American embassy in Pretoria reporting on conversations with head of South Africa’s Secret Service (SASS) Moe Shaik delivers some interesting perspective on the WikiLeaks phenomenon and might be more revealing about inadequacies of American intelligence than about the South African spy boss.

With the exception of the major political opposition force of the Democratic Alliance/Independent Democrats partnership, South African opposition parties seem to habitually squabble themselves out of any relevance. But despite this small new parties continue to proliferate with every election, splintering the opposition vote even more and giving the African National Congress  a virtual blank ruling cheque.

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