While most of mankind’s focus is on the problem of climate change it runs the risk of being blindsided by fresh-water shortages, driven by unmanageable population growth, and food shortages, with some important regions of the globe already in negative territory in terms of its water and other resources.

The world has already experienced the first results of a cycle of solar storms heading its way that could shut down telecommunications, ground airline traffic and even lead to global blackouts, according to scientists and government officials at a recent meeting in Washington, DC.

The weekend before last we took the kids for a moonlight picnic at the beach to observe a perigee, which is also called a super moon and happens only about every 20 years. It is therefore extremely rare and one could say that it happens only once in a blue moon.

It would be a grave mistake to think that the recent upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt and surrounding countries are a purely regional phenomenon. There are increasing signs that civil unrest could go global even if some of the underlying factors may differ from region to region of even from country to country.

At the end of this week, a year after it was signed into law, the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) comes into force, but the customers of the majority of the country’s municipalities will be missing out … or will they?

One of the most vivid pictures in the history of lawn tennis was Jana Novotna crying on the shoulder of the sympathetic Duchess of Kent after finishing runner-up to Steffi Graf at Wimbledon in 1993. Novotna led 4-1 in the deciding set before she plummeted to a 4-6 loss. Afterwards, one newspaper headline summed it up: “It is never over until the Czech lady chokes.” But, she can teach the Proteas something.

This past weekend saw probably the best rugby of the Super Rugby -season to date, with two South African teams at both the dishing-out and receiving-ends of spectacular games, with Twickenham the scene of a blueprint for modern rugby.

International experts are increasingly warning that many countries around the globe are running the danger of being plunged into destabilising turmoil by hardening unemployment figures, especially for the youth. In the meantime South Africa, with changes to labour legislation presently on the table, seems to be heading in exactly the wrong direction to what is needed to meet the challenge.

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More than 300 South African towns and many more villages and rural settlements depend solely on ground water, but frequently this valuable resource is incorrectly managed, leading to misconceptions about its significant potential, a South African expert warned on World Water Day last week, while the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) posed the question: “Would people invest more in clean water if they knew just how expensive dirty water is?

South African customers too often find the conditions attached to complex financial products too difficult to understand according to the ombudsman for long-term insurance. In Germany its highest civil court recently ruled against Deutsche Bank for not adequately informing a customer about the risks involved in a financial product it supplied.

South African sport enjoyed one of its saddest weekends … and one of its greatest, depending on which game you were watching on TV or live. Bafana Bafana made up on the football pitch for the disappointment inflicted by the Proteas in the cricket field.

As news of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power station in Japan broke in mid-March, South African energy minister, Dipuo Peters was quick to declare she is satisfied with the Koeberg nuclear plant’s readiness for emergencies. But, as a disturbing history leading up to the Fukushima drama starts to unfold it is unlikely that political assurances will be widely accepted at face value.

With South Africa’s municipal elections due to take place on May 18, we will, as from this week, publish a weekly update called Election Watch 2011, providing a briefing on the latest developments.