One of my most beautiful buddies, Noorunisa Bennet, submitted the following words of wisdom of the Dalai Lama: “The paradox of our age – We have bigger houses but smaller families; More conveniences but less time; We have more degrees but less sense; More knowledge but less judgement; More experts but more problems; More medicines but less healthiness; We’ve been all the way to the moon and back but have trouble crossing the street to meet the neighbour; We have built more computers to hold more information and to produce more copies than ever before but still have less communication; We have become long on quantity but short on quality; These are times of fast foods but slow digestion; Tall man but short character; Steep profits but shallow relationships; We are living in an age where there is much in the window but nothing in the room.” Food for thought, don’t you think? Thanks, Nisa!
* Was that beautiful overhead bridge on the N11 outside Limit Hill worth the cost? Just a handful, if any, pedestrians use that overpass – because it is quicker to cross that busy arterial road from one bus shelter to the other. Attractive? Yes. Effective? No. Waste of money?
* Will the pedestrian bridge at the Boxer corner pose similar problems? That is the busiest intersection in town. With the imminent opening of Shoprite at the old Riga Building, the volume of foot traffic is bound to increase. Will bollards (structures to control or direct road traffic) restrict pedestrians to the bridge?
* An earthquake that killed more than 200 people in Pakistan has created a new island off the country’s coast. The 7.7-magnitude quake struck last Tuesday afternoon at a depth of 20km (13 miles) north-east of Awaran. People gathered on the beach to see the new island, which is reported to be about 200m long, 100m wide and 20m high. Dr Simon Boxhall, an oceanographer from the UK, said the event was “extraordinary but not unique”.
* According to a study conducted in the US, getting young children to take an hour-long nap after lunch could help them with their learning by boosting brain power.
A nap appeared to help three- to five-year-olds better remember pre-school lessons, US researchers said. The benefit persisted in the afternoon after a nap and into the next day. The study authors say their results suggest naps are critical for memory consolidation and early learning. When the children were allowed a siesta after lunch, they performed significantly better on visual-spatial tasks in the afternoon and the next day.
Following a nap, children recalled 10% more of the information they were being tested on than they did when they had been kept awake. As the children napped, they experienced increased activity in brain regions linked with learning and integrating new information.
* Stolen paperwork is among the reasons South Africa’s consumer watchdog received a qualified audit report for last year. According to the Auditor General (AG), the basis for his issuing such an opinion on the National Consumer Commission’s finances include that he was “unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence for irregular expenditure, as supporting information was stolen from the premises”. The irregular spending is stated at R15.6-m. Among the AG’s other findings is that the NCC failed to achieve 13 of its 16 planned targets. NCC commissioner Ebrahim Mohamed said the qualification was “unavoidable due to historical reasons”.
He said a theft of supply chain documents had occurred shortly after his appointment “and at a time when an ‘as is’ audit was being conducted at my request”. Mohamed was appointed in an acting capacity in September last year, after a decision not to renew former commissioner Mamodupi Mohlala-Molaudzi’s contract.
The NCC is an agency of the Department of Trade & Industry. So corruption raised its ugly head even in a commission that is supposed to protect consumer rights.
No wonder corruption has become a way of life in our country!
