Shashe

Credit for the title's source is duly given to Mrs. Margaret Thatcher on her departure to give her resignation to the Queen, as reported by the BBC. I have just read an article titled "The myth of the Masisi-Khama feud" in the latest Sunday Standard newspaper. The author of the article is not revealed. My views that the Khama-Masisi feud is NOT real have not changed. I still believe it is a ruse to hoard news space by the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP, aka Domi). That said, I agree completely with the author of the Sunday Standard article. But the author made one big mistake: in his/her zeal to show how former president Ian Khama broke the law, and how President Mokgweetsi Masisi is merely applying the law, the author ignores a vital piece of information reported elsewhere in the same paper. Just two pages prior, in a report titled "Francistown land scam syndicate slapped with heavy penalties", Joseph Balise quotes High Court Judge Lot Moroka (in p...

I've just watched the BBC documentary about killings of women and children accused of being Boko Haram by the Cameroon army. I find it hard to believe that the authorities did not recognise the culprits as their own soldiers, prior to the BBC carrying out their investigations. The clarity of the video makes nonsense of any denials of culpability of the Cameroon army. So the question now is: Can the world expect any real investigation and punishment of the culprits from the same authorities who failed even to acknowledge the identity of the criminal soldiers on the video? I don't think so. In my view the only authority that can objectively put on trial those responsible for the horrendous crimes is the International Criminal Court (ICC). Those uniformed criminals wearing the Cameroon army uniform should be sent to the ICC to answer for their crimes. African countries should not have the bar set any lower than European or Asian countries when it comes to war crimes, crimes agai...

If it is true that government has reneged on the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) during next year's general elections, and if it is true that there are no contractual obligations that will "force" government to re-adopt EVM use once the hurdle of voter registration has been passed, then all that amounts to very welcome news indeed. The alternative would have been, (to use P.W. Botha's words) "too ghastly to contemplate! Most of us have heard how an IBM computer by name of Big Blue defeated the World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov in a chess game. When he walked into that room, Gary Kasparov knew, but did not care that Big Blue was "hackable". He didn't care whether or not Big Blue was connected to any other computer remotely. He knew that whatever entity Big Blue might have been connected to, or networked with, that entity simply became part of Big Blue anyway. So as far as Gary Kasparov was concerned, he was facing a "standalone...

I am a dirt poor and semi-knowledgeable man. How I wish I could buy all Zechariah Sitchins books! How I wish I could read at least one of his books! How I wish I could visit Egypt and learn something about the antiquities, and share with you my readers! If  you wish to help me financially, please send one US dollar ($1) or any amount you can afford to: First National Bank of Botswana limited. Account number: 62779987357 Branch Code: 281867 Swift Code:FIRNBWGX I will post here to inform of amount accumulated in the account at this same time every week. Thank You and God bless!

I seldom listen to my country's broadcasting stations, be it over radio or on television. While the country is undoubtedly mine (I would fight to the death to keep it that way) the language on the airwaves is not. Tswana language is as foreign to me as English language. I have, however embraced the English language for two reasons: 1. As the language of my erstwhile colonial masters, English had to be learnt by all my forebears in the last 200 years. 2. The English language is so widely spoken in the world that one is guaranteed to be understood at least by someone in virtually every country in the world. Neither of the above reasons applies to Tswana language. Added on to that disadvantage is the fact that Tswana language speakers have become oppressors of my language, therefore oppressors of me, the speaker of that language. They use my tax to improve their language; they build broadcasting stations which broadcast ONLY in their language. They forced me to learn their languag...

This post is relevant only to citizens of our country. Somewhere in the capital city Gaborone, lies a freshly severed head of a Botswana woman. The grieving relatives buried the headless torso a few weeks ago. According to news reports, the boyfriend has already appeared before a magistrate, charged with her murder. Somewhere in Mathangwane a woman lies critically injured on the head by a love partner. Somewhere ................ It goes on and on, in this month of elimination of gender-based violence against women and the girl child. The first question that comes to mind is: Where are women leaders of this country? Where are women leaders in the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), a party commonly known as Domi? Where is Dorcas Makgatho? What has she, in her official capacity as BDP women's leader, said about these heinous crimes perpetrated against her kind? If she said anything publicly, I must have missed it, and I apologise for calling her out. What I did not miss th...

It is a crazy thought, I agree. However, some things make you wonder. In old Kalanga "El" meant the Anunnaki god Enlil/Jehovah , and was pronounced "Ilo". The Sumerian/Coptic/Sotho/Tswana (Tswana for short) translation of "Ilo" is "lone", pronounced somewhat like "loney". So "lone" is mordern Tswana for "El", that is Jehovah. Now, the name of the US aircraft that dropped the nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945 was "Enola Gay". Read backwards, "Enola Gay" becomes "Ya ga lone". The latter phrase is Tswana language for "Belonging to El", that is "Belonging to Enlil/Jehova". The thought that Enlil/Jehovah may have ordered the nuclear conflagration in Japan wakes one up to the reality that we humans are not in charge, someone else is.