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A frustrated individual

 I just had a concversation with an upset man. He gave his name as Damien Uwe Hobona, in the village of Mafhungo/Hubona. I will try to present his narration verbatim as follows: On 28th of this month I visited a private clinic in Francistown to get advice on diet. A relative works there. I was advised that my medical scheme (BPOMAS) necessitates that I be referred by my doctor, having done tests, to the clinic. It made sense. My relative asked me how I am feeling though. I told him “reasonably fine”. He suggested that he take my blood pressure. I obliged. He took two readings, declared the pressure is fine. Then he took a piece of paper, wrote down the date and wrote down some numbers: Bp ….; Pulse…..; MAP….; Repeat…. He then suggested that if I have reason to suspect that my blood pressure is not O.K. when I am at home in Mafhungo/Hubona village, perhaps the best thing would be to visit the clinic in Mafhungo/Hubona and check my blood pressure, seeing as I do not know how to measu...
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How to steal a 14000 hectares ranch - (Two)

 Mindful of the great extent to which the British Colonial administration seems to have gone to obscure the beacon positions of Hubona Nshakazhogwe’s ranch, I am constrained to describe in any detail, the actual position of Hubona Nshakazhogwe’s stolen ranch.  Suffice it to say that the British referred to the ranch as Nshakazhogwe ranch.  Needless to say, that ranch is nowhere to be found on official Botswana Government maps. Instead a FAKE “Nshakazhogwe ranch” now appears, well to the north of what the British can surely identify as the correct position of the genuine Nshakazhogwe ranch. The genuine Nshakazhogwe ranch lies between the two latitudes (20 degrees 48.996 minutes South) and (21 degrees 01.460 mintues South). The FAKE “Nshakazhogwe ranch” has been drawn on the official Botswana Government’s  1: 1000 000 map, between the latitudes (20 degrees 42.162 minutes South) and (20 degrees 46.486 minutes South). Just like the stolen, genuine Nshakazhogwe ranch, the...
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How to steal a fourteen thousand (14000) hectares ranch

Stealing fourteen thousand hectares of pristine, flat, productive land may seem hard to accomplish, but not if the thief is a government, and the owner of the land is illiterate. As our country’s sixtieth Independence anniversary approaches, one family sees it as yet another milestone in their forced deprivation. Hubona Nshakazhogwe was a peasant in colonial Bechuanaland Protectorate, who sued Chief Khama iii following the chief’s despatch of a regiment to assault, and if necessary, kill him in or around the year 1914. Hubona won the suit on appeal to the British Privy Council, and was compensated with the 14000 hectares of land. That land has now been stolen.  To be fair to the ruling Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) party, which came to power only in 2024 after fifty eight (58) years of rule by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) , the UDC had nothing to do with the said theft. The theft was entirely the work of the BDP government. But conventional wisdom, and even the legal ...
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How to solve the "one boundary" problem

We have identified a problem regarding the SADC unity referenda between South Africa and Lesotho. Given that there is only one boundary involved, the referendum in Lesotho would simply reduce to whether the Lesotho nationals want unity or not, rather than to assigning different weights to different boundaries as in other countries, South Africa included. The referendum billet in Lesotho would then be about unity, and not about which country to unite with. If UNITY passes the referendum test, then we could end up with a new composite country called South Afr-otho (South Afrotho) at Level1. Well, just thinking... 
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Further on SADC unities' referenda

 The referenda can be conducted simultaneously or at different times in all SADC countries. However, the best results are likely to accrue from simultaneous referenda because such referenda eliminate neighbour contamination bias. Unity of SADC countries is assumed to be in stages, herein referred to as unity levels (UL). Unity Level1 (UL1) proceeds from the current state of country sovereignty to the first composite sovereignty, where some countries will have united with others. Unity Level2 (UL2) involves the unity of composite, as opposed to initial, sovereignties. As Unity levels are progressively traversed, the nature of the SADC organisation itself will gradually approach a Union State. How long a stage or level lasts will be determined by the SADC organisation prevailing at the time.  This write-up concerns itself only with Unity level1 (UL1).  A SADC member country (SMC) may unite only with a SMC with which it shares a common border. A sea border is considered a co...
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News reading on Botswana Television (BTV) often leaves me confused

Broadcasting news in national languages other than English and Setswana is a good thing. The government deserves to be praised for that. However, the implementation of the measure leaves listeners somewhat confused, When a report written by correspondent X is presented on BTV, it has to be translated by correspondent Y into whatever the current newscast language is. The identities of both correspondents X and Y are revealed. So far, so good.  The problem comes at the end of the translation. The translator signs off as if the report was WRITTEN by him/her, and not merely so translated. This is wrong. Unless the listener followed the report all the way from start of introduction, the listener is left with the false impression that the report was written/crafted by the translator Y and not by its true author X. The correct approach  should swap the introductions around. The news reader should present ONLY the name of the WRITER of the report. At the end of the translation, the tr...
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Unities (yes, Unities) in Southern African Development Community (SADC)

 I just watched (on TV) an operation by South African Police Service (SAPS) to arrest illegal miners in Gauteng Province. According to General Fred Kekana of the SAPS, one hundred and seven (107) of the captured illegal miners are Lesotho nationals, while a lesser number are from other SADC countries. Presumably, all the foreigners will be deported back to their countries, once the legal processes have been finalised. In the case of Lesotho nationals what this suggests is that they will no longer be welcome in South Africa. But their country is TOTALLY surrounded by South Africa, meaning that it is practically impossible for the latter to make her borders impenetrable to the soon to be deported illegal miners! So my question to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is: Why has no SADC meeting resolved to conduct referendums in ALL SADC countries to determine what percentage of their nationals WANT their countries to UNITE, and with which, if any, of their neighbours?...
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