But despite beautiful sunshine, I found myself getting rather wound up when reading the news today.
Julius “Juju” Malema had once again made the front page with the scandal about his secret trust fund unfolding.
Apparently rich business men who wanted to be awarded government contracts were encouraged to pay money into this fund and Julius would then “assist” them in getting the contract. The papers were full of statements and allegations from Government and all political parties; there were photos of Juju’s house, car and watches; quotes from his recent press conference (“I am not going to be silenced. I am not scared of jail. You can arrest me but you can't arrest my ideas!”); and numerous editorials and comments.
And then on page 14 – the second last page of the political section – the paper reported briefly about the crisis in Somalia.
As a result of changes in land ownership, severe droughts, a civil war and the ruling Islamist militia banning international aid agencies, at least 2.8 million people including 1.25 million children are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance in Southern Somalia. Even though the World had hoped never to hear it again, the United Nations has used the f-word to describe the situation – famine. Famine occurs when 30% of children are acutely malnourished, 20% of the population is without food and deaths are running two per 10 000 adults of four per 10 000 children every day. In Somalia, malnutrition rates exceed 38% and with the crisis worsening, up to 10 000 people could die of starvation – in August alone.
I wonder what it says about our society that the first page of the newspaper had this picture on it...
... while on the fourteenth page, only the patient reader would find this one...
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