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Zanzibar for Christmas



 
 
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  #21  
Old May 30th, 2006, 06:14 AM posted to rec.travel.africa,soc.culture.south-africa
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Default Zanzibar for Christmas


"Robert Kay" wrote in message

I shall never forget the (young) barman in a motel in Musina many

years ago,
who, after taking my order for a pink G&T came back after 5

minutes
searching, with the announcement that he couldn't find a pink gin!

Only
white, meneer. Luckily the motel manager was with me, and he

'gently'
explained what a pink gin was.


The main reason I believe that story is because it's happened to me
before. In Bronkhorstspruit.


--
Moira de Swardt posting from Johannesburg, South Africa
Remove the dot in my address to find me at home.


  #22  
Old May 30th, 2006, 07:07 AM posted to rec.travel.africa,soc.culture.south-africa
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Default Zanzibar for Christmas

On Mon, 29 May 2006 20:35:50 +0200, "Peter H.M. Brooks"
wrote:


Talking of which, why is is so difficult to find sugar free tonic in SA?



Woolworths has recently launched a WW branded sugar-free tonic water.
It's available at all stores in Johannesburg. I imagine it must be
available in Cape Town too.

BTW, the levels of quinine in tonic water will have no effect on
preventing, curing, or treating malaria... but it's a good excuse to
drink the stuff :-)
  #23  
Old May 30th, 2006, 07:19 AM posted to rec.travel.africa,soc.culture.south-africa
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Default Zanzibar for Christmas


Marc Lurie wrote:
On Mon, 29 May 2006 20:35:50 +0200, "Peter H.M. Brooks"
wrote:


Talking of which, why is is so difficult to find sugar free tonic in SA?


Woolworths has recently launched a WW branded sugar-free tonic water.
It's available at all stores in Johannesburg. I imagine it must be
available in Cape Town too.

I'll look out for it - I've found some sugar-free tonic, but, so far,
it has only been in those tiny little tins that ought to have been
thrown back as not yet ready for catching. I'd like to buy it in two
litre bottles.

BTW, the levels of quinine in tonic water will have no effect on
preventing, curing, or treating malaria... but it's a good excuse to
drink the stuff :-)

Surely that depends on how much of it your drink - or, I suppose,
whether you've had enough drink to turn you into a homeopathy believer.
Not, of course, that believing in the nonsense will save you.

I mentioned here that, a few years back, I found a chemise (in
Constantia, actually) offering tablets that claimed to be homeopathic
malaria prophylaxis - I reported them to the pharmaceutical society for
what was, as I said, effectively a conspiracy to murder and I think
that the practice stopped after that.

  #24  
Old May 30th, 2006, 07:34 AM posted to rec.travel.africa,soc.culture.south-africa
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Default Zanzibar for Christmas

On Mon, 29 May 2006 21:52:20 +0200, "Robert Kay"
wrote:


Yeah - that wasn't nice of us, was it? But you'd think that after all these
years some rebuilding would have been done? And they asked for it. Anyway,
let bygones be bygones. Moz should ask the Chinese to help them. After all,
they built the Tanzam railways in the 60's.


Robert, I don't really want to get into an extended debate about this,
but sufice it to say that, regardless of who is right or wrong, "All's
fair in love and war". What the Rhodesians did was perfectly
understandable in the context of an army at war with another.
Tactically you can't fault the crippling of an enemy's railway system.
As for rebuilding, the Mozambiquans had enough to worry about for
years afterwards, to worry about rebuilding a railway system. By the
time they were in a position where they might have been able to repair
bridges, the railway lines were in chaos, and so the vicious cycle
starts.

I've travelled alongside the now defunct railway lines through large
parts of Mozambique, and from what I can see, it would be virtually
impossible to repair any of it. I'm constantly amazed at how far
explosives can throw a railway carriage. Starting from scratch would
be the only option, and that would cost far too much for a country
like Mozambique.

From my point of view, getting the Chinese involved would be like
signing away a birthright. The Mozambiquans would end up giving away
most of the country just to have a railway line, and that would be
disastrous in the long term.

Marc
  #25  
Old May 30th, 2006, 07:46 AM posted to rec.travel.africa,soc.culture.south-africa
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Default Zanzibar for Christmas


Marc Lurie wrote:
On Mon, 29 May 2006 21:52:20 +0200, "Robert Kay"
wrote:

From my point of view, getting the Chinese involved would be like
signing away a birthright. The Mozambiquans would end up giving away
most of the country just to have a railway line, and that would be
disastrous in the long term.

I'm not sure about that. I think that there are some false metaphors
here. The Chinese won't pack the place up and take it back to China
with them. The Chinese don't enjoy foreign parts all that much either -
which is why we don't speak Chinese now.

Having Chinese investment, companies and so forth in the country is
likely only to improve the lot of local people.

They said that Tanzania and Zambia had sold themselves for a railway
line. But there is the railway and there are hardly any Chinese people
to be seen anywhere. It seems to have been an extremely good deal to me
- though they certainly didn't need that vast and ugly railway station
in Dar.

The important thing, really, is to avoid importing Chinese customs,
like slicing up shop-lifters and using the bits for spare-part surgery.

  #26  
Old May 30th, 2006, 12:36 PM posted to rec.travel.africa,soc.culture.south-africa
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Default Zanzibar for Christmas

On 29 May 2006 23:46:59 -0700, "Peter H.M. Brooks"
wrote:


I'm not sure about that. I think that there are some false metaphors
here. The Chinese won't pack the place up and take it back to China
with them. The Chinese don't enjoy foreign parts all that much either -
which is why we don't speak Chinese now.

My experience with Chinese companies in Lesotho, South Africa and
Nigeria has prompted me to be weary of Chinese involvement in Africa.
My impression is that Chinese expatriates doing business in Africa
tend to be very exploitative and highly unethical, and they have no
loyalty towards the country that they are milking. They dodge
taxation, they under/over invoice as it suits them, they are involved
in nefarious activities, they often endanger the lives of their
employees, and they take all profits out of the coutry, leaving it in
a worse position than if the business didn't operate in the first
place.


Having Chinese investment, companies and so forth in the country is
likely only to improve the lot of local people.

Investment for reasonable ROI with reasonable reciprocal agreements
certainly would benefit the country. Investment with the view to
getting as much as possible out of the country in as short a time as
possible, can only be a bad thing.



The important thing, really, is to avoid importing Chinese customs,
like slicing up shop-lifters and using the bits for spare-part surgery.


:-)
  #27  
Old May 31st, 2006, 06:41 AM posted to rec.travel.africa,soc.culture.south-africa
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Default Zanzibar for Christmas

On Tue, 30 May 2006 07:14:52 +0200, "Moira de Swardt"
wrote:


"Robert Kay" wrote in message

I shall never forget the (young) barman in a motel in Musina many

years ago,
who, after taking my order for a pink G&T came back after 5

minutes
searching, with the announcement that he couldn't find a pink gin!

Only
white, meneer. Luckily the motel manager was with me, and he

'gently'
explained what a pink gin was.


The main reason I believe that story is because it's happened to me
before. In Bronkhorstspruit.


I once stopped for lunch at a cafe in Marintal, where the menu had "Rice (or
something else)"



--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
 




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