Botswana 4x400m relay final

Christmas in Africa

One for the road...

With 33.8 road deaths per 100 000 inhabitants, Botswana has one of the highest road fatalities ratios in the world. Only last week, 17 people died in traffic accidents. Up to 1 December, the total number of road deaths for 2011 was 424, compared to 343 in the same period last year.
And the Festive Season is yet to start...

World AIDS Day 2011

President Ian Khama has warned that as a developing country Botswana does not have the capacity to extend free ARVs to everybody forever.

In a speech in Moshupa to mark World Aids day Khama spelled out that the only alternative is for the country to focus its efforts of the prevention of new infections.

He also pointed out that the country spends tremendous amounts of money to keep people on the treatment programme and meeting the needs of orphans.

The budget allocation this year is 981millionPula with ARVs alone accounting for 185 million Pula, while the Orphan Care program accounts for 290 million Pula.

Herd instinct

On 15 November, the rumour that a woman in a yard in Boseja had partly turned into a snake, spread through Maun like wildfire. Hundreds of people were moving to the woman's compound and taxi's had a filed day. Traffci in the area was jammed and people outside the yard demanded entrance as they 'had the right' to go and look at the snake woman. People were throwing stones and threatening to burn the house down so that the woman would have to come out. At last, someone alerted the police, who came to restore order. The crowd was so determined that the police had to use force to disperse the people. Later on, people complained the had been injured because the police had beaten them. The woman in question was an innocent elderly lady who remained mainly indoors. Incidents like these show that people are typical herd animals. Once the herd instinct sets in, there is no more individual thinking and behaviour and the mob rules. Quite scary actually...

Fuel prices up again

Fuel prices are going up again. As from midnight, 10 November, petrol is to be increased by 40 thebe per litre and diesel by 51 thebe. The price of paraffin is also to be increased by 50 thebe. I'm considering buying a cart and some donkeys...

Road needs re-surfacing after short period

The road to the new Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital has been stripped of its asphalt surface. After having been in use for only a few years, and after constantly developing new potholes, it has been decided to re-surface the road. It would be advisable that when tenders are given out for projects like these, serious follow-up and quality control during the project and upon completion would be carried out. The present situation is embarrassing for all parties involved and a serious inconvenience to the public using the hospital. Another important question: who is going to foot the bill for this operation?