The South Atlantic

All of the lectures now are being directed to South Africa. This morning, The South African
Ambassador to Argentina who was part of the Parliament when Nelson Mandela became
their president, spoke on the topic, "From Apartheid to Democracy and Beyond". Gave us
an on the spot description of those momentous times.

We have been busy looking at lists of places to see when we reach Cape Town. There are
so many that we'll have to select the best as well as those that are physically possible to
reach.

I'll say farewell to all of you for now (cancel this). It's Sunday and quite hectic at the
computer stations. Many Brits and other Europeans who had planned to depart Cape Town
and go home through Cairo are trying to change flights because of the chaos in Egypt.
Fortunately, I decided to go back from Johannesburg to London rather than break up the
journey by visiting North Africa. The topic of conversation by our speakers has now
included the political situation in the Middle East. Their concern is the possible move
of the radical Islamists to positions of power in this region and how the US will respond,
especially if it is a popular movement.

We also heard an interesting presentation by a South African Game Manager about his
work and how they control wild life in many of the areas. Since many of the people are
now encroaching on sections formerly occupied by herds of grazers as well as predators,
the wild life managers have been pressed to keep a reasoable balance among all.
Incidently, to all those who are interested in such a career, there is ample opportunity
here in Africa.

If you're still with me, we listned to Roy Leon the South African Ambassador speak about
the events that took place when Nelson Mandela was freed from Robben Island. He
was involved in some of the intrigue that brought le Klerk and Mandela together. It
was at that time both men helped launch S.Africa on its course to toward a democratic
gov't. However, S.Africa is still suffering from high unemployment(25%) as well as a
considerable crime wave.

We are going to view the film, Invictus, on Thursday. We saw it while at home but now
we can see it with more information than before. Both men, Mandela and le Klerk
took tremendous risks to get the ball rolling against Apartheid.