What’s going on here? Look carefully for the syringe

What do you think is going on here? It can’t be influencing the young and impressionable because they are not supposed to smoke or play with fire. She can’t be advocating drug abuse, surely? Maybe she is promoting self medication. This is a ‘Clipper’ brand cigarette lighter from China, a cheap copy of the Spanish-designed…

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Poor old Charlie

Charlie got a hole in one on the ninth. In his last will and testament he asked that his ashes be sprinkled on the ninth green and fairway. And so it was done on a quiet day after the funeral. Cremation is a cultural taboo among the majority in these parts. It is not done,…

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Identity crisis

  They found the passport office in the ruins of Mogadishu and gave them out as  new identity documents for a fee. The idea was that they would be recognised by militants at road blocks, rather than the United Nations  militiary ID (below). It was a trick to get money, of course. It didn’t help…

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Danger: Politics, harmful to health

Bored with the British election coverage? Who is going to swing where? According to The Guardian, the average Briton worries about the personalities and the policies for about two weeks a year; they cough and splutter, get short of breath, the blood pressure goes up over promises that won’t be kept… It will probably be…

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New safety rules for hiking on ‘the mountain that swallows people’

Beautiful Mount Nyangani turns  hostile in moments. It “swallows people” in the local legend – many have disappeared without trace over the years but there’s no way of knowing exactly how many. The latest publicised disappearance was of  31-year-old businessman Zayd Dada who became separated from his family and friends  as the weather quickly deteriorated…

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Why we never win the lottery

  More chance of seeing  Elvis in the local supermarket, more chance of getting shot dead in a random drive-by. More chance of stumbling across an unpublished Ernest Hemingway manuscript, an undiscovered Picasso…            

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Well, well, Mr Kissinger…

Well, well, Mr Kissinger. The outlook might have looked different in 1974. Dire economic  hardships persist in the developing world. Poor, inadequate harvests are again forecast in Zimbabwe this year. Many families will go to bed hungry. Most will trudge on through hard times with heavy footsteps. (New Zimbabwean flip-flops graphic courtesy ehudnamboyo)

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