Annual Tri-varsity and moments of madness...

Being part of the vibe, celebrating, partying, wearing overalls, feeling patriotic, enjoying drinks, oh, and watching a bit of sport, is what the annual Tri-varsity event is all about. The University of Fort Hare, Rhodes University and of course the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University get together every year in August to hold this fun event. This year Tri-varsity took place on the 17th and 18th of August. Tri-Varsity is a marathon of sporting events where teams from all sorts of sport codes battle it out over a two day period. One of the funny things about tri-varsity is that not many of the spectators actually attend because of the sport. Tri-varsity is more about having the party of a lifetime and creating a memorable student experience with your friends. This ‘party of a lifetime’ mentality is often taken to the extreme as you see students behaving like people that have been let out of a cage! Thank goodness this period of absolute craziness only lasts for a weekend (well for NMMU and Fort Hare at least, I personally think that the Rhodes University students are more used to this kind of madness) otherwise a lot more people would end up with criminal records that range from drinking in public to indecent exposure.
With that said, I still think that tri-varsity is a lot of fun and it is always memorable. I play club hockey for NMMU, so our team went to the event in Grahamstown last year and it was a weekend that I will never forget. This year the event was held at the NMMU campus and it was just as much fun! I know that I will never experience anything quite like tri-varsity and I hope that all the students that attended made just as many memories as I did.

http://nmmu.ac.za/

The weather declares war.

Veldfires, floods, earthquakes, landslides, typhoons and record breaking weather. These phenomenons in the weather have affected all parts of our world in the last few months. Earthquakes in Peru, landslides in the Himalayas, flooding in India and last but not least, and bringing this out of control weather closer to home, are the veldfire’s in Mpumalanga which have devastated large portions of land and caused the death of livestock and people. Officials have declared the area a disaster zone. The opposite extreme of weather is taking place in Cape Town as floods and heavy rain damage homes in townships that cannot cope with the severe storms. These opposite extremes in weather prove yet again that South Africa is a diverse country.
Dramatic shifts in climate are affecting the whole world and little is being done about it. Al Gore’s documentary about global warming, called ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, is one of the first things that I think about when I hear yet another story in the news about extreme weather in different parts of the world. Loathe it or love it, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ can be a potential eye- opener to people who believe that the world is a perfect place and that the change in climate could just be a natural process.
When you mention the word ‘global warming’ people normally role their eyes at you or make a remark about what a load of rubbish it is. This is an unfortunate truth because how much more evidence do people need when it comes to taking more care about the environment? The evidence is all around us with all of the news reports about ravaging winds, record breaking heat waves and damaging floods that leave more and more people homeless and hopeless. My suggestion is that we start being more observant about what is happening around us and think about the kind of future we would like to create for our environment and the generation to follow us. You might think that one little person cannot make a difference to a global problem, but in actual fact change does begin with individuals doing their bit and spreading the word. So, the next time that you think recycling is for sissies, think again!


To find out more visit these links:
http://www.climatecrisis.com/
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/

Upset in Plett, the murder of Steven Siebert.

Theunis Olivier was sentenced to a life in prison on Wednesday the 8th of August 2007. The ruling was made by Judge Essa Moosa at the Cape High Court.
Steven Siebert was kidnapped, molested and murdered by Theunis Olivier in Plettenbergbay in December 2005. This disgusting crime committed by Theunis Olivier rocked the community of Plettenbergbay. I was working in a bookshop in Plettenbergbay over that December holiday because I am from Plettenbergbay and often work there during the holidays. I remember stopping at a robot on my way to work on the day before Christmas and seeing posters and flyers being handed out that had the picture of six year old Stevens’s innocent face on them.
This crime had happened to him the day before Christmas! I remember thinking that somebody who could do such a despicable crime on the day before Christmas must be really sick. The rumours that spread around town were horrendous, ranging from stories that Steven had been kidnapped and used as an offering for satanistic ritual to rumours that he had been found with the numbers 666 carved into his body.
I remember that we had to take all of the books that we had on wicca and witchcraft in that section of the bookshop off our shelves because of the rumours.
Everybody that I spoke to about what had happened to Steven said how sad it must have been for his family on Christmas day when all of Stevens presents lay untouched.
It is also sad to think that his family is still experiencing so much pain today and that their Christmas’s will forever be tainted by Stevens’s murder.
I have been following the progression of this case since it happened because it is so scary that something like this happened in my hometown. So many innocent people could have walked past Theunis Olivier in the shop or on the street and obviously not suspected a thing about this “pathological liar” as he was called by Judge Moosa because of his claims that he had multiple personalities that controlled him and his criminal activity!
A life in prison for Theunis Olivier almost seems like to light a sentence for this man who is a disgrace to humanity. The fact that Theunis Olivier has gotten away with similar crimes in South Africa and Zimbabwe before is terrible and simply creates a situation where our already failing law system seems even worse when it comes to certain crimes and getting criminals off our streets.


To find out more:

http://www.weekendpost.co.za/.../news/n104_07012006.htm

http://news24.com/...0,,2-7-1442_1855973,00.html