Shashe

Today I watched a TV report which attributed the success of Japan at containing the Covid-19 pandemic, to aspects of Japanese culture, such as preferring to bow to each other rather than shake hands; taking off shoes on entry to a house and generally, a population that is not obese. I fully concur with the above analysis, and wish to point out that the Japanese culture may have developed from past (unrecorded) pandemics that their people successfully vanquished. You see, the name Japan is written as ancient Kalanga language where vowels, especially the terminal ones, were routinely omitted. Currently, you would write the name as " Ja phani ". The infinitive case verb " ku ja " means "to eat". The word " phani " means "scorpion". Japan therefore means "to eat scorpions" in Kalanga language. For many years I have resisted the temptation to demonstrate this link of Japan to Kalanga language, a temptation to which I have readi...

Our country's government deserves to be praised for having acted promptly to lock us all down. That is not to say that the execution of the lockdown was perfect, but it was definitely necessary. Another reason to praise them is their decision NOT to repatriate our students from China. We have no infrastructure to fight Covid-19, and so it was thoughtfull of them to leave the students where they stood a better chance of surviving the pandemic. Now it is up to us, the people, to relieve the government and police ourselves so that any infections that have broken through do not spread! The problem of truck drivers is a vexing one. Our "big brothers" across our borders are doing their best to arrest the spread of the monster in their own countries. We can help them and help ourselves by tracking the trucks ourselves and reporting any violations of route behaviour to relevant authorities. No government can afford the tracking costs involved. The trucking companies can do a ...

I have had the misfortune to watch Botswana Television (BTv) updates on the Covid-19 pandemic. The presenters, who are mostly ministers, spend almost all their time telling us about the different colours of "permits" without even bothering to explain what the reasoning behind the issuance of each permit is. Government seems to think that, we the people, have no right whatsoever to know why we have to continue being locked down, and for how much longer. They never bother to present an exit strategy. Another reason why the updates suck is that they are presented in Setswana language. This dialect of the Sotho language really sucks. To many of us the language is more foreign than English. English was the national language of this nation prior to and following Independence. The Setswana speakers then forced their language onto the national scene by outlawing the speaking of other indigenous languages. Think of that: a group of tribes, mostly from South Africa in the last 150 ye...

I am not a lawyer, therefore I do not know where in our laws the word "youth" as a category of our citizenry, is defined. Every political party has a "Youth wing". The Government has economic stimulus packages directed only at the "youth". So one expects that somewhere in our laws that word should be defined. Interestingly during this Covid19 pandemic I have watched reports from almost every country on earth. Such reports never segregate the citizens of those countries into "youth" and whatever else. I have never heard reference being made to the "youth wing" of the British Labour Party, or of the US Conservatives or Democrats. In the vast majority of developed countries citizens are just that - citizens. The moment you reach adulthood, you are just a citizen, ready to support your own family. If you closely analyse the regimes of countries that embrace the "youth" mantra, you will see that at the bottom of it all is masked...

Like many citizens of this, our beautiful land, I have a large map of Botswana pinned on my wall. Each time I listen to the radio or watch BTV, I try to find where in the country the reporter is reporting on. I seldom find it. The reporter always announces his/her name, then the name of the village. I rush to the map to find the location of the village, but sadly I seldom find it. If every reporter displayed a placard behind him or beside him stating the geographical coordinates of the village, be it the Kgotla or the rain gauge in the case of weather reports, we could easily locate the said village on the map. It makes no sense to announce the name of a village, if only the residents of that village end up knowing where the rain has fallen. Please Radithupa, milidzani makumbo Ntombo .  Yesterday I tuned in to the Parliamentary debate on TV. The one thing I remember clearly was a suggestion by one MP (I can't remember his name) that drones can be used to deliver medicines to el...