Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

Eve Hall, a former consultant and expert with the UN's International Labour Organisation, took a hard look at a global virus that causes communities a great deal of harm. It doesn't take much to start trashing a community. For a start, bring in people from hundreds of kilometres away to replace permanent workers. Don't offer the incoming workers anything but piecemeal and temporary jobs for the barest minimum wage (if they are lucky). What happens to them when they aren't employed is none of your business. Advertise these wonderful opportunities on the local radio station to make sure you have got a surplus to choose from. Don't give them housing, let them squat, wherever, but let the proper houses that were occupied by the permanent workers, before they were retrenched, fall into the hands of thieves and squatters who take away the doors and the windows and finally, show incredulity when crime happens. Subcontracting and sub-contracting ... big fleas and little fle

We, the family of Eve and Tony Hall, wish to thank you most warmly for your messages of sympathy and condolences received on the occasion of the death of both our mother and father. The bouquet you sent on the occasion of our mother's memorial service were photographed in the sitting room of Matumi, above. As loyal ANC members almost all their adult lives they would both have been very honoured to be so remembered. The three sons and their families were likewise very honoured and touched by the presence of ANC friends. Among the ANC members present at the funeral ceremonies were longtime friends Josiah Jele, Agnes Msimang, Gertrude Shope, Max Sisulu and Elinor Sisulu, Francinah Baloyi, Mpande Msimang and Mandla Msimang. From Mozambique came our friend, former Frelimo and Mozambique Vice President Marcelino dos Santos. We wish you every strength in the near future, in helping to lead the ANC, alongside the SACP and Cosatu, in renewing the policies of the

Look back, look around - and get going Tony Hall, in this posting of early 2006, goes into a rave of global proportions, looks modern history in the eye, and asks: doesn't it all add up to a multitude of models, a huge variety of lessons, a rich tapestry of possibilities for a broad consensus of the left? Dear debaters… I am so exercised with the enormity of present events and the fallout ahead, that like many of us, I am spreading out into a rave of global proportions. In my case, it's about revisiting almost at random, moments in the history of modern times, not afraid of the contradictions, but really to call up the positive, and to build a broader consensus than ever. I hope some will want to follow and stay the winding course of my meander, picking up or knocking down points and pointers as they go along. Most of all, I hope that people will read this roundup, and other blog essays before it, and postings to follow, as my archive of actuality, my rhetoric of reality. As a

No, Hodge was right. What you get after a revolution. The French revolution say, is a cultural revolution. This is a "good" thing. Let me give you the example of the Mexican Cultural revolution, which was messy and partial, like the Mexican Revolution itself. Well before the revolution the descendants of the Olmecs and the Zapotecs and the Tarascos and the Aztecs and the Mayas were despised and looked down upon by the ruling class in Mexico. After the Revolution this changed. Now in every school in Mexico they are taught to be fiercely proud of the achievements of the old Mexican civilisations going back about 3000 years. Statues to the kings and princes, like Cuahtemoc and Nezahualcoyatl, went up in every town. And when we look at France, or at any country that has been mature enough and lucky enough to get rid of its ancien regime, then we see the cultural flowering that happened as a result. Russia in the 20s, despite the grinding poverty and the civil war, was a great cul

1. Soak four layers of Victoria sponge with sherry. 2. Bind the discs of sponge together using clotted cream and lemon curd. 3. Mix some Elderflower cordial into whipped Jersey cream. 5. Layer the whipped cream mixture on top of the cake. 6. Arrange the raspberries and blueberries into a Union Jack on the cream. 7. Decorate with sparklers and ribbons. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/02/ask_allegra_tarts_and_open_pie.html

It is apt that the most glorious moment of Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón's life was when a gun on a French ship blew his leg off. Well done that ship! He was an old fashioned, white, middle class Mexican, who openly despised Indians and seduced the maids. Not a nice boy. He was clever and half educated. He was a bully! He was born in Xalapa, which is a pretty town. Though Xalapa doesn't boast about him much. He started out as as a shopkeeper in Vera Cruz and then became Captain Arredondo, the Indian killer's cadet, which was a Bad move. And bad move followed bad move. He stole money to gamble, womanised. In the early years, he follwed Arredondo about hunting down Mexican fighters for Independence and killing the so called Chichimecas and then, when the Spanish were already on the run, really, he chose to fight for the Mexican "Emperor" Iturbide, who made him a general. By way of thanks, Antonio helped overthrow Iturbide. The