The three stages of a man's life

SHOOT: Hence this unbeatable advice - DON'T GET MARRIED!

clipped from www.tweetphoto.com

World Swine flu deaths surge past 4000, South Africa now at 47 dead [11 000 infections]

SHOOT: America is approaching 50 000 infections and 800 deaths, but Brazil is the world leader with 14 400 infections and 848 deaths. Argentina is third with 8 851 infections and 514 deaths. If you compare the Argentina total, South Africa's looks suspect: 8 851/514 - 11 000/47.

clipped from www.ecr.co.za The Health Department's told ECR Newswatch that 47 people have died of H1N1 while about 11 000 people are confirmed to have the illness. It emerged over the weekend that a KZN doctor had died of swine flu. However the department's Fidel Hadebe says those getting infected are still mainly pregnant women and young children. He says the situation has become more manageable at hospitals. "Panic seems to have eroded somehow. I think people gradually have come to understand more about the H1N1 influenza. We still working hard as a department and as a country to respond to this pandemic. We cannot rest until we begin to see a significant decline in the number of cases reported." clipped from en.wikipedia.org Outbreak evolution in South America:     Deaths     Confirmed cases     Suspected cases     No reported cases

South Africa's Mobile network operators to reduce interconnection rates to 60c/minute by 1 November 2009, and to 15c/minute by 1 November 2012.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille says she wants the operators to justify to parliament why interconnection rates can’t come down to the levels proposed by the portfolio committee. She says parliament will hold hearings around mid-October at which the operators will be given a chance to give their input.

SHOOT: I hope it happens, but historical precedents show that operators tend to keep rates high in favour of giving up market share. Those 'shares' will be picked up by tiny operators like Cell C and Virgin Mobile.

ANC MP and former deputy justice minister Johnny de Lange: “Of course you must try as far as possible to avoid conflict and going to court but, while you’re sitting and waffling on for years and years, we are paying billions and billions and billions of rand to this industry, which they should not be getting. And you seem to fail to understand that. Every day and every minute that you waste … you’re exacerbating hte problem."

clipped from www.techcentral.co.za The parliamentary portfolio committee on communications will issue a statement on Tuesday afternoon in which it will call on mobile network operators to reduce interconnection rates to 60c/minute by 1 November 2009, and to 15c/minute by 1 November 2012. Among other things, the committee’s draft statement says the rates, set at R1,25/minute during peak hours, are “exorbitant and excessive, resulting in extremely high telecoms prices” and that they are the consequence of “apparent collusion between dominant mobile operators in the country”. “The high cost of mobile and fixed-line telecoms has impacted adversely on the SA economy and negatively on citizens, particularly the poor and marginalised,” the draft statement says. “The present situation is socially indefensible and economically unjustifiable”. The statement says further that Icasa should “act professionally, effectively and boldly to regulate interconnection rates in SA as a matter of urgency”.

Deflation or Stagflation: We are now in a scenario where there are no good choices, just less-bad ones.

SHOOT: The best case scenario is inflation...and at least one double-dip recession. I foresee a multiple dip recession. Great article.

ALPHA: The reality is somewhat more nuanced. When faced with the possibility of deflation, I can almost hear Bernanke saying, "Sir, I have not yet begun to print!" The Fed has more room to print money than most of us realize. How much more? My bet is that we'll find out. Will they print too much at some point? Probably.

clipped from seekingalpha.com Saturday I got another letter from Peter Schiff, who seems to be ubiquitous. He says the rise in gold is because of rising inflation expectations among investors. Gold is predicting inflation. Maybe, but the correlation between gold and inflation for the last 25-plus years has been zero. I rather think that gold is rising in terms of value against most major fiat (paper) currencies because it is seen as a neutral currency. The Fed and the Obama administration seem to be pursuing policies that are dollar-negative, and they give no hint of letting up. The rise in gold above $1,000 does not really tell us anything about the future of inflation. The answer to the question "Will we have inflation in our future?" is "You better hope so!" It is not a matter of pain or no pain; it is a matter of choosing which pain we will face and for how long, and perhaps in what order. As I wrote a few weeks ago, like teenagers, we as an economic polity have made some very bad choices.

Fast-growing emerging markets are making energy efficiency a high priority. Leading the way: China.

SHOOT: Good to see China making a few logical choices; the USA and SA could learn from these. Energy efficiency isn't a game, or a choice, it's an imperative.

clipped from online.wsj.com When it comes to boosting efficiency, China has been among the most active of its emerging-market peers and is, arguably, the most important: The country is the world's second-biggest oil consumer after the U.S., and its consumption is expected to grow by at least 3% annually over the next four years. China is also the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. China is also looking to home appliances for energy savings. This year, the government announced plans to subsidize purchases of energy-efficient air conditioners—on the order of $44 to $125 per unit, depending on the buyer's financial needs. The country's National Development and Reform Commission is hoping the purchase of new air conditioners will save 75 terawatt-hours of power demand annually in coming years. The country used about 2,900 terawatt-hours of electricity a year in 2006, according to the most recent data from the Asian Development Bank; the U.S. used around 4,000.

Power price increase will be shocking

SHOOT: And it seems the educated don't really want to talk about energy because apparently it's not relevant. Reality can sometimes come as a shock when you postpone dealing with it.

clipped from www.thetimes.co.za THERE was a tough message for electricity consumers yesterday from the chief executive of Eskom, Jacob Maroga: “Brace yourself, next year’s power price increase will be shocking.” Yesterday, Maroga would neither confirm nor deny one MP’s suggestion in a parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday that the next increase might be above 40% — but indications are that it will be higher. The power utility introduced a 31.3% tariff increase in July that is only now being felt by already struggling consumers. Eskom is running at a loss. If it is to cover increases in the price of coal and provide for repayments on the loans it will have to take to fund the construction programme, consumers can expect the utility to put in a medium-term application for an increase similar to last year’s rejected 60%. I am not happy. My belief is that you grew up in a rural area yourself and you understand how price increases affect the poor people.

How to Campaign for AIDS awareness, and against the disease itself?

SHOOT: Apparently no one knows. Apparently it is an enigma, a mystery, a puzzle the marketers cannot solve. Eeek. Reaaly?

Instead of having one super sensitive customised message, instead of tip toeing around the subject there should be a dozen different messages:

1) the offensivve shocking mass murderer concept [I get that personally]
2] the educational ad [which some intelligent people will get, but many cool hip youngsters will snore through
3] the brutal truth ad, showing gritty footage of actual AIDS sufferers in their final hours [should work for all]
4] the AIDS sufferers themselves, looking healthy, saying effectively: We're just like you, don't discriminate, but please be careful if you're HIV negative
5] A complaint that SA is the rape capital of the world
6] A complaint that movies and media fan the flame of sexual appetites, and don't make condom use and AIDS part of the culture enough [some soapies aside]
7] Newsy updates on AIDS stats - deaths, infections, medical progress, if any...
8] The soapie schpiel showing how easy it can worm its way into our lives via conventional [ignorant] human behaviors.
Have more suggestions but running out of space.
Bottom line, with a disease killing millions, can you ever say TOO much? My perception is AIDS communications barely reach my radar, and THAT'S the problem. Too little is being transmitted.

clipped from www.thoughtleader.co.za One of the biggest problems in talking about HIV is the stigma around talking about sex. HIV is primarily sexually transmitted, and for the majority of the South African prudish patriarchy, this is a no-go zone. What this means then is that people have become fearful of talking about sex with their sexual partners, if we can’t talk about sex, we’re most certainly not going to talk about HIV or condom use. This goes for men and women. The 2009 Female Nation Survey revealed that 47% of the more than 8 000 women who responded NEVER use condoms when having sex. The majority of respondents to this survey were in the 25 to 34 years age group. South Africa’s current statistics show that the HIV prevalence in that age group is between 23% and 39% for women, and between 12% and 23% for men. But enough of the statistics, we all know there’s a problem — right? What do our campaigns say? Pretty much nothing. I