新白娘子传奇 - New White Serpent Tale Ep. 03

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Thanks & Credits to Zzyuxx

PENGANTIN KECIL EPISODE 2 - 3

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Terima kasih dan kredit kepada SAPPHIREBLU08

ONE IN A MILLION SEASON 3 COMING SOON!

Sabah – 15th November 2008 (Saturday)

Location : Sabah
Date : 15th November 2008 (Saturday)
Time : 9am – 3pm
Venue : Imperial International Hotel, Sabah

Address;
Imperial International Hotel
D-G-28, Block D, Warisan Square,
Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens,
88000 Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia.


Sarawak – 15th November 2008 (Saturday)

Location : Sarawak
Date : 15th November 2008 (Saturday)
Time : 9am – 3pm
Venue : Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites,

Address;
Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites,
Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg,
93000, Kuching,
Sarawak, Malaysia.


Johor Baru – 22nd November 2008 (Saturday)

Location : Johor Bahru
Date : 22nd November 2008 (Saturday)
Time : 9am – 3pm
Venue : The Puteri Pacific, Johor Baru (formerly known as Puteri Pan Pacific)

Address;
The Puteri Pacific Johor Bahru
'The Kotaraya'
Jalan Abdullah Ibrahim
83000, Johor Bahru,
Johor D.T., Malaysia.


Penang – 22nd November 2008 (Saturday)

Location : Penang
Date : 22nd November 2008 (Saturday)
Time : 9am – 3pm
Venue : Sunway Hotel Georgetown

Address;
Sunway Hotel, Georgetown
No. 33, Lorong Baru (New Lane),
10400, Penang,
West Malaysia.


Kuala Lumpur – 29th November 2008 (Saturday)

Location : KL (Public)
Date : 29th November 2008 (Saturday)
Time : 9am – 3pm
Venue : Berjaya Times Square Mall

Address;
Berjaya Time Square
6th Floor Exhibition Hall,
No 1, Jalan Imbi,
55100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

PENGANTIN KECIL -SINOPSIS, KLIP VIDEO & LAGU TEMA

SINOPSIS SINETRON PENGANTIN KECIL

Sinetron yang pasti mencerikan hari shinystar dan semua peminat sinetron ini bermula dengan kisah persahabatan dua kanak-kanak kecil Cheril(Nakita Willy)dan Vito (Samuel Zylgwn) yang telah menikah dan berjanji untuk sehidup semati.

Cheril dan Vito melakukan 'pernikahan' ini setelah mereka menyaksikan peristiwa pernikahan dari jiran tetangga mereka. Dengan kata lain mereka melakukan pernikahan tersebut agar persahabatan mereka akan berkekalan dan tidak akan dipisahkan.

Walau bagaimanapun, Cheril sekeluarga terpaksa berpindah ke Paris kerana pekerjaan ayah Cheril. Persahabatan di antara Cheril dan Vito terpaksa berakhir di sini apabila Cheril sekeluarga berpindah. Sebelum mereka berpisah, Vito memberikan salah satu daripada kalung burung merpati kecil pemberian daripada almarhum neneknya kepada Cheril dan mereka berjanji akan terus menyimpannya hingga mereka bertemu kembali 9 tahun kemudian.

9 tahun berlalu tanpa disedari dan dua insan ini bertemu di sebuah sekolah yang sama. Vito menjadi pemain basket handal yang juga merupakan bintang di sekolah sementara Cheril pula berubah menjadi gadis yang mempunyai paras yang bertumbuh bintik-bintik di mukanya. Pada mulanya Vito tidak mengambil kisah tentang Cheril hingga kedua ibubapa mereka mejodohkan mereka. Vito dipaksa bernikah dengan Cheril dengan harapan dapat membantu kewangan mereka......

OPENING LAGU TEMA PENGANTIN KECIL



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SILA KLIKKAN HUBUNGAN DI BAWAH INI UNTUK MENERUSKAN TONTONAN SINETRON YANG SETERUSNYA

EPISODE 2 & 3

EPISODE 4 & 5

EPISODE 6 & 7

EPISODE 8 & 9

EPISODE 10 & 11

Thanks and credits to sapphireblu08

新白娘子传奇 - New White Serpent Tale Ep. 02

新白娘子传奇 - New White Serpent Tale Ep. 02 (1 of 5)



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Thanks & Credits to Zzyuxx

South Africa 'at risk of cholera'

A leading South African scientist has warned that gross underinvestment in water management has left it at risk of a cholera outbreak.

Five people have died from cholera in South Africa, after crossing from Zimbabwe, where a recent outbreak has killed more than 300 people.

Anthony Turton told the BBC that unless South Africa increased its spending on water, it was heading for disaster.

He was recently sacked from a state body over his report on water safety.

Mr Turton was suspended by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) last week after being prevented from presenting a paper in which he concludes that South Africa is "heading for a significant crisis in the water sector".

His report said:

• Investment in South Africa's water quality has fallen sharply since the 1980s

• Decades of mining for gold and other minerals has left much of the water supply heavily polluted with heavy metals an other minerals.

• Many municipalities across South Africa have no qualified engineers.

Mr Turton said the situation was still very different to that in Zimbabwe but compared it to a plane losing height.

"Unless we alter course, we are heading for a disaster," he said.

Cholera is a water-bourne disease, which spreads rapidly if water supplies are contaminated - there is no evidence that this is the case at the moment in South Africa.

Skills shortage

In the paper, Mr turton outlines the issues that have led to this situation, saying that South Africa has failed to maintain its investment in the infrastructure needed to maintain a clean water supply.

In the decades since the 1980s, spending on treatment works, pump stations, reservoirs and other items has fallen sharply.

In the 1980s it hit 40,000m rand ($4,080m).

By the 1990s this had fallen to around 17,000m rand ($1,734m) and then to about 4,000m rand ($408m in the 2000s.



This fall, says Mr Turton, was matched by a skills shortage. Qualified engineers, most of whom were white, were not replaced by younger, men and women.

Many are now close to retirement age, and younger whites, says Mr Turton, have been discouraged by affirmative action and many have simply left the country.

As a result, Mr Turton argues, South Africa is faced with increasing problems of water quality.

The CSIR has issued a statement denying reports that it had gagged Mr Turton and that he was suspended for what are called "inappropriate statements" to the media.

The CSIR says Mr Turton's presentation used inappropriate material, including an image of a person being executed by a burning tire placed around their necks during the 1980s.

They also question his scientific argument.

Water tested

But a number of organisations have come to Mr Turton's support.

A petition launched by the Federation for a Sustainable Environment described Dr Turton as a "present-day giant" and called for him to be reinstated.

South Africa's Minister of Health Barbara Hogan said South Africa was not facing a severe cholera crisis, but said the country was dealing with the disease as a matter of urgency, with nearly 200 cases reported so far.

Local government officials said the quality of water at the town of Musina and the crossing of Beit Bridge had been tested and that it showed no signs of being contaminated with cholera.

SA a country of God - Zuma

Zuma and most black Africans still dwell in the darkness of witchcraft, and in the darkness of a false “christianity” that is nothing but Marxism dressed up in Christian terminology.

Pastor Zuma

Political vultures are gathering
A Caribbean voodoo spiritualist was reportedly called in to calm down a restless President Thabo Mbeki soon after he was toppled as ANC leader last year.

The night before Jacob Zuma, the ANC leader, appeared before Judge Chris Nicholson, it was whispered that he consulted a traditional seer.

NIA paid witchdoctors how much? See I Luv South Africa Thursday, November 27, 2008

NIA paid witchdoctors how much?
See NIA’s R750 000 sangomas: claim - http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=83952,1,22

SA a country of God - Zuma

ANC president Jacob Zuma said in Kempton Park on Thursday

"South Africa is a country based on the rules and principles of God". (such as? rape, theft, lies, witchcraft, false gods?)

The Preamble of the Constitution "calls upon God to help us" said Zuma at the National Presidential Religious Leaders summit.

"When all of us take office in government... we raise our right hand and indeed pronounce... so help me God. I believe no one can argue South Africa is not based on the principles of God," said Zuma.

"The bible says pray for those who are in government. I believe we must go beyond that. You must advise and criticise if there are things we do that are not in keeping with the principles of God."

Earlier the ANC's chaplain general Reverend Vukile Mehana told Zuma he must feel "safe".

"You must know that you are safe. As we prayed for your predecessor, we will continue to pray for you. Don't shake. The God, your ancestors, are here."

新白娘子传奇 - New White Serpent Tale

SYNOPSIS

This is a pretty old and famous drama. In short, it's about this snake demon that falls in love with a little boy who saves her. She wants to repay him but is unable to gain human form until 1700 years later. When she does, she finds and falls in love with the reincarnation of the boy that saved her. The second part of the story is about her son as he tries to save his mother from a tower prison. I used to like it a lot when I was a kid, maybe not as much as Journey to the West but close. Now that I watch it again it's kinda scary. I don't know why so many of the male roles are played by women or why the father and the son are played by the same actress but enjoy.

新白娘子传奇 (赵雅芝 叶童) 主题曲 千年等一回



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PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO WATCH THE FOLLOWING EPISODES

新白娘子传奇 - New White Serpent Tale Ep. 02

新白娘子传奇 - New White Serpent Tale Ep.03

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新白娘子传奇 - New White Serpent Tale Ep. 16 - 20

新白娘子传奇 - New White Serpent Tale Ep. 21 - 25


Thanks and credits to Zzyxx

Failed agricultural project into which the SA government and Eskom poured millions.

Controversy surrounds a failed Zululand agricultural project into which the government and Eskom have poured millions of rands.

Serious allegations have been made concerning the bumbled project - whose failure has left local people feeling bitter.

The issue began when Nomcebo Zondi, now chief director of the provincial land reform office, and Silondile Mkhize, founder members of the Phezu-komkhono Co-operative, took ownership of a R700 000 farm near Empangeni six years ago.

The co-operative received more than R1 million from the department to start a poultry business, grow paprika, tea and rice. It also received a tractor through the agricultural department's mechanisation programme.

A further R1,5 million was spent through Eskom's development foundation to build a farm to breed catfish for export.

When The Mercury visited the farm recently, there was no evidence of activity. Buildings had been reduced to rubble and only the remains of the half-built fish-breeding ponds could be seen. There was no sign of ploughed fields, chicken houses, or even a tractor.

Mkhize claimed locally instigated criminals had prevented the project from getting off the ground. "We wanted to grow paprika and had 5 000 chickens, but criminals came and hit our workers. They even killed somebody. They stole the fencing and broke down all our buildings."

However, local traditional leader Zenzo Zungu denied claims about the role of criminals. He handed a document to The Mercury, which showed that money given to the group in 2001 by the traditional affairs department was spent on offices set up at Zondi's home.

"Mrs Zondi - she was a lawyer then - came to me at tribal court and asked that I call my people together because they wanted to start a development project for our women. After some time passed, I heard they were given R250 000 from traditional affairs. I wanted to know who had the money, who had decided on the co-operative - but they (Zondi and Mkhize) just kept quiet."

"I called traditional affairs and told it what had happened. It promised to set up an audit, but we haven't heard anything."

Zungu claimed the project had failed because the government had not authenticated written submissions.

"Our people were used to get money - they got it in our name - which is very wrong."

The traditional affairs department did not respond to questions from The Mercury.

However, land affairs spokes-man Sipho Dlamini confirmed, on behalf of Zondi, that she was a founder member of the co-operative.

"And about R1,3 million was allocated to the project which was paid directly to the land owner and service providers."

Dlamini confirmed that the project had collapsed.

A "taking parliament to the people" report showed the co-operative had received a tractor and 3 000 chickens from the agriculture department. Busi-ness management training and a poultry mentor were provided, construction of an abattoir was under way and a plan to market the paprika overseas was in the pipeline. According to a source, Mkhize travelled to Paris to find buyers. But the report suggested markets should have been found locally. Theft, skills development and budgeting were listed as challenges.

Eskom confirmed that its development fund had paid more than R1,5 million towards the construction of fish ponds.

Meanwhile, a local farmer has said: "The area is not suitable for paprika and crime is rife there. The project just wasn't viable."

ANC says Zuma needed 33 cars for wives, Jesus, beer

PRETORIA. The ANC has defended using taxpayers' money to provide Jacob Zuma with a 33-car motorcade for electioneering in Limpopo last week. According to a spokesman Zuma required 28 cars for his wives, one for himself, one for Jesus Christ in case He returned as Zuma has been promising, and three for his elephant guns, leopard skins and beer.

The president of the ANC has been condemned by opposition parties for spending taxpayers' money while not holding any public office, but this morning Zuma's spokesman, Yesman Nkandla, said that the criticism was unfair.

"If he'd brought Comrade Julius Malema with him he'd have needed three more cars for Comrade Julius's wet-wipes, diaper bag, bottles of Purity, and so on," said Nkandla.

"So under the circumstances 33 cars was fairly modest."

He also hit back at opposition leader Helen Zille who last week accused Zuma of banana republic-style displays of opulent leadership.

"To say that Msholozi's motorcade reflected a banana republic brand of leadership is grossly untrue," said Nkandla.

"The presidents of banana republics drive 1974 diesel Mercedes sedans with leopard-print upholstery.

"Msholozi drives a 2008 7-series BWM with condor-skin upholstery. It is totally different."

He said that comparisons to the motorcades of Zimbabwean despot Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF henchmen were also completely baseless.

"Comrade Zuma is nothing like Mugabe," he said. "Mugabe is a fascist who has betrayed his people.

"And he only has fifteen cars in his motorcade, not 33. In all respects he is inferior to Msholozi."

Meanwhile the Ministry of Transport has urged motorists to cooperate with official motorcades.

In a statement released this morning Deputy Transport Minister Quickfit Nkabinde said that motorists should refrain from driving "in a manner that is provocative to public officials and might result in them getting shot at in a defensive manner by the officials' bodyguards".

He listed these provocative actions as "driving on any public road being used by a government motorcade, failing to direct your motor vehicle into the nearest ditch upon seeing a motorcade approach, and weaving across lanes to present an unsporting moving target to bodyguards".

South Africa Sucks

For those of you who are still asking....

SAS is now at http://www.zasucks.com/.

New ministers wait for houses in R1 000-a-night opulence

Status-conscious new ministers and MPs are preferring to stay at a five-star R1 000-night hotel at the taxpayers' expense rather than in the modest parliamentary village while waiting for official accommodation.

And there have been reports of two Cabinet ministers at odds over who is to live in one of the ministerial houses.

An insider close to the Department of Public Works says there is a shortage of ministerial housing and blamed this on the failure by former public works minister, the late Stella Sigcau, to approve buying land and building more houses for ministers years ago.

The problem had been exacerbated by the resignations of former deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi and his wife, former public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, who had shared a house.

Their successors, who are not a couple, need two houses.

Several newly sworn-in MPs are staying at the five-star Mandela-Rhodes hotel as their houses are "undergoing refurbishments".

"We did not get houses as they are fixing all the broken stuff. I'm sure when we return (in January) they will be ready," said one new ANC MP.

Also without a house is Eastern Cape ANC chairperson Stone Sizani, sworn in as an MP last month. He is staying at a hotel when in Cape Town because he has his eye on the house occupied by newly appointed Deputy Defence Minister Fezile Bhengu.

Bhengu will vacate his house at the parliamentary village next month.

Both Provincial and Local Government Minister Sicelo Shiceka and Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge want to live in the house vacated by Shiceka's predecessor, Sydney Mufamadi, who resigned from the Cabinet.

A Government official said Shiceka claimed that he was entitled to Mufamadi's house on the basis of having the same portfolio.

However, Doidge had already moved into the house.

An MP, who declined to be named, said yesterday that he was not sure why Doidge had chosen Mufamadi's house and not that of the former public works minister Thoko Didiza.

The MP said: "But there are no rules that dictate that your portfolio entitles you to the same house (that was) occupied by your predecessor, unless you are the speaker, the president or deputy president (who have designated housing). But I understand that Sicelo was a little irritated."

However, an official at the ministerial complex said the fight for the house was between the two ministers' administrative assistants, "and not necessarily between the two men".

The housing problem has prompted Doidge to propose a policy on the criteria for allocating "prestige accommodation" for ministers.

He said the problem could worsen next year when the number of ministers in Cabinet increased, while the number of houses stayed the same.

He said the current ratio was almost one house to one minister and that the shortage had started when the number of deputy ministers was increased.

The ANC and its alliance partners have already suggested a two-tier Cabinet system that could see the next national executive growing bigger if the ruling party wins the elections.

Shiceka's spokesperson, Vuyelwa Qinga-Vika, said Shiceka stayed at a hotel when in Cape Town because Parliament was due to close for the holidays.

Another VIP cop charged with assaulting a motorist

A 27-year-old VIP unit police officer will appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Monday after he attacked a motorist in a road rage incident on Friday around 6pm in Villieria, Pretoria.

"The officer bumped the man's car off the road. He then proceeded to open the door of his victim's car, pulled him out and attacked him with his fists." Van der Kooi said the police officer was arrested shortly after eyewitnesses called the police. He was detained at the Villieria police station overnight.

"The officer was released on a warning on Saturday morning. He will appear on charges of common assault and reckless or negligent driving in court on Monday."

The victim was taken by an ambulance to a nearby hospital where he was still recovering, van der Kooi said.

According to Sunday's Rapport newspaper, the victim, auditor and businessman Henk Griesel, 47, had three of his teeth knocked out when the policeman assaulted him with a piece of metal. The officer, a constable, worked for the VIP protection unit in Pretoria.

Is Jacob Zuma talking himself out of a job?

Is Jacob Zuma talking himself out of a job? One would think so, given the increasingly bizarre nature of his public statements.

His off-the-cuff, almost stream-of-consciousness declarations are becoming more and more reactionary, even right wing, and are not what we would expect from a seasoned, canny, wise politician who is the most senior representative of a party that is supposed to represent the revolutionary socialist tradition in South Africa.

The ANC needs to answer the question: is what your president is telling crowds around the country party policy as adopted at Polokwane or simply the random thoughts of a rural fundamentalist?

It began with him saying that delinquent school children who dropped out should be educated by force. "If a child does not go to school, he must be taught by force until he gets a degree. We return him to his parents as a person who has been developed," he told a meeting in Gugulethu. He told an earlier audience in Soweto that kids found on the streets during school hours should be "caught" and sent to colleges far from their homes.

Then he lashed out at sex and nudity on television. "You sit with your kids and you don't know what to do," he said in Lentegeur. Later in the month, speaking in Polokwane, he said that citizens should "defend" themselves against TV progamming that contained violence and sex.

Suggesting that age restrictions and content warnings were marketing ploys to get children to watch programmes with sex in them, he said "the children go to bed early, forcing their parents to go to sleep earlier, and then they get up and watch these programmes".

This came hard on the heels of his statements that teenage girls who fell pregnant should have their babies forcibly removed from them, and that they should be sent away. He also suggested that many teen girls fall pregnant simply so that they can access social grants.

But those bits of fundamentalism were just the warm-up act in the good reverend's tub-thumping crusade to be the new moral voice of South Africa.

Speaking in Polokwane on Wednesday, Zuma thundered out that "we need to teach our people to fear God". He went on to ask: "How do you teach society to fear God? Is it not by making children pray before school as it was in the past?"

One wonders how the ANC's partners in the Tripartite Alliance will view the following statement: "Even those who are not religious - they may be communists - must learn to fear others. We must also learn to fear our ancestors."

According to the report on the event in this newspaper, Zuma "decried what he described as the 'erosion of morality and values in our modern society' and called for a return to the norms of yesteryear, when orphans and the elderly were cared for by their communities and there was no need for orphanages or old age homes".

Well, at least that part of it makes sense.

But then he went on to tell the gathered religious leaders that we need to return to the days when traditional healers were made strong by being blessed by medicine men and women "to make them strong".

He added that in those same good old days, murderers would be "cleansed" to stop them killing. He was quoted as saying "scientists will argue and tell you this is nonsense. They will tell you to go for therapy - to talk to a psychiatrist for a long time. But there is a link".

Next he took aim at the Land Rights Act, an act which was carefully negotiated as part of the Codesa talks at the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park as part of the run-up to the 1994 elections that brought South Africa democracy. He slammed it, saying it was "a very strange law" because land had been taken from black people over centuries, but that a relatively small window period had been set for them to get it back.

Reports had it that Zuma said "some people" said this was because the law had been drafted by whites.

Wham. With just months to go before the general election, the man who would be the next president of this country has: a) said he does not believe in children's rights; b) said he does not believe in the rights of teen mothers; c) said he does not believe in the separation of church and state; d) said modern science and the science of psychiatry are rubbish and e) has made a blatantly racist statement.

Wanted: 94000 teachers, urgently

We are starting to enter a critical period where those infected (with HIV/Aids) are now dying

By 2015, 18000 will die, 42000 will retire, while 2000 emigrate annually

South Africa faces a shortage of up to 94000 teachers by 2015, thanks to poor government planning and the effects of Aids-related illnesses.

Analysts have warned of an education crisis, while unions have demanded that teacher training colleges be reopened to deal with the issue.

Up to 42000 teachers are expected to retire over the next seven years, according to a report by the Education, Training and Development Practices Seta.

The report, which deals with the skills shortage in the education sector, was handed to the Department of Labour in August but has not yet been released.

In addition, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a report, commissioned by the Department of Education, which points out that while 20000 new teachers have been needed every year for the past few years to replace those who have left, only 6000 have qualified.

And of these, only 4000 enter the system while the rest leave to teach in the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Dubai.

On Tuesday, education experts will meet in Johannesburg to discuss the crisis at a South African Council for Educators seminar.

Unions and analysts this week again blamed poor salaries for the lack of interest in teaching as a career. Teachers with a four-year degree earn just under R130000 in their first year in the job.

Of the 433280 teaching posts in South African schools, 62616 were vacant at the end of May, and 31949 posts were staffed by under-qualified, temporary teachers.

The Department of Education is now so desperate to plug the gaps that it has hired a recruitment agency to lure foreign teachers.

But Limpopo province, which desperately needs 1600 maths and science teachers, has only managed to attract 300 Zimbabwean teachers so far. The province has also only managed to entice 97 pupils to train as maths and science teachers since last year — despite making available 500 bursaries, each worth R50000 per student per year.

The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) said the Education Department needed 10000 more teachers a year for grade 1 alone if it wanted to reduce class sizes from 40 to 30 pupils in that grade.

The Seta report says the shortage of teachers is “nothing less than a crisis for the formal education sector”.

It also warns that the HIV/Aids pandemic could prove to be one of the biggest contributors to the mass shortage of teachers.

HIV/Aids is already taking its toll on teacher numbers as:

Two hundred out of 500 National Teachers’ Union (Natu) members who volunteered for Aids tests between last October and this September tested HIV-positive; and

Naptosa suspects that most of its 250 members who died in Gauteng this year died of Aids-related illnesses.

South African Democratic Teachers’ Union general secretary Thulas Nxesi slammed the Education Department for not “factoring in” HIV/Aids in its calculations on teacher supply.

“We are starting to enter a critical period where those who were infected are now dying,” he said.

Sadtu and Naptosa have demanded the reopening of teacher training colleges shut down in the ’90s by the ANC government in a move to rationalise higher education institutions.

Nxesi said Sadtu had recently decided to “vigorously campaign” for their reopening because “no proper teacher training was taking place at universities”.

He said the Education Department did not know how bad the teacher shortage was and this was “an embarrassment”.

Wits School of Education head Professor Mary Metcalfe suggested that the government provide more bursaries, which students could repay by teaching for a minimum period.

“We are not producing enough teachers although there’s capacity in the system to do so. There are several universities which, if given additional staff, could probably double the number of graduates,” she said.

The OECD report said teachers cited too much paperwork and a host of unnecessary rules as reasons for leaving the profession.

Education director-general Duncan Hindle admitted there were shortages of teachers in certain subjects, but he rejected suggestions that pupils found teaching unattractive as a career, saying there was “enormous” demand for the government’s teacher bursary scheme.

KZN Health minister mimics Manto and punts herbal remedies for Aids

Peggy Nkonyeni, the MEC for health in KwaZulu-Natal openly encourages the practice of charlatans and con artists touting bogus cures and hocus-pocus potions for treating Aids, while attacking dedicated HIV doctors. This in a province which has the country’s worst HIV infection rate. How is it possible that she could be so confused? Surely even she knows that it’s the other way round? Support the doctors. Run the frauds out of town. Well, apparently not. She is the MEC for death. Not health. She is the Bride of Frankenmanto. Where she goes, there too goes the Grim Reaper. Patients die in her wake. And why? Because she’s a crackpot. Ditch her. It’s the healthy option.

Kwazulu-Natal Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni wants to experiment with traditional medicine for Aids patients at a Durban hospice. She is being assisted by traditional healers who are opposed to antiretroviral medication.

Nkonyeni asked the management of the Pinetown-based Dream Centre whether it would be prepared to integrate traditional medicine at the hospice. The hospice, which is almost entirely dependent on a government subsidy, agreed to explore the possibility.

However, Dream Centre public relations manager Neil McDonald admitted that a number of patients who had recovered sufficiently to be discharged returned to the hospice some weeks later in a “bad way” after taking traditional medicine, particularly uBhejane.

The push towards traditional medicine with sick patients triggered disquiet among some of the staff. They said privately that they would consider resigning if traditional medicine were integrated, as their patients were usually not in a position to make an informed choice. But others, particularly senior nurses, were said to support the initiative.

On August 15, Nkonyeni personally introduced the controversial head of the Traditional Healers Organisation, Nhlavana Maseko, to Dream Centre management. Maseko, a critic of antiretroviral medication, had an alliance with vitamin seller Dr Matthias Rath, aimed at “undermining the pharmaceutical business” of antiretrovirals.
A few days after her visit, Nkonyeni established a task team to work with the Dream Centre staff to develop a protocol for the “integration of traditional and western medicine”.

But western antiretroviral drugs are the only treatment yet proven scientifically to control HIV/Aids and restore health to very ill patients.

University of KwaZulu-Natal Professor Nceba Gqaleni chairs the task team, which includes Zeblon Gwala, who sells the potion uBhejane, which he claims can cure Aids. Gqaleni is involved in testing whether uBhejane has any effect on people with HIV and has signed a confidentiality agreement with Gwala.

Gwala, whose office is a short walk from Dream Centre, is adamant that uBhejane cannot be taken with antiretroviral medication. Gwala’s own daughter, his first uBhejane patient, died at the Dream Centre some years ago, according to Dream Centre general manager Neville de Witt.

Treatment Action Campaign national spokesman Lesley Odendal said: “Traditional healers have a role in combating HIV but we are concerned that a quack like Gwala, who is not a traditional healer and who has caused a lot of harm with uBhejane, is included.”

The Dream Centre task team, made up of centre staff, government officials and traditional healers, has been meeting every Wednesday. Minutes from the first meeting show that every member of the team had to sign a confidentiality form.

“Traditional medicine has not been integrated yet as we are at the beginning stages and this would just be a pilot,” said the Dream Centre’s Dr Portia Mkhize. “You should ask the Department of Health about this because this comes from their side.”

De Witt said that while management was “open to hearing from all role players”, he admitted that there were “a lot of grey areas” regarding traditional medicine. “There is no record-keeping or statistics about traditional medicine. Traditional medicine seems to have been handed down from ancestors, not tested and tried.”

He said the task team was expected to present a plan to Dream Centre management by the end of the month, after which the medical staff would help decide whether the centre should become a pilot site for traditional medicine.

The government apparently offered to increase its subsidy to the centre, should management agree to allow traditional medicine to be used on its premises, but De Witt said that the Department of Health hadn’t “made any hard and fast decision” about this.

Nkonyeni’s initiative came after she hosted a small invitation-only meeting with traditional healers, including Maseko and Gwala, in May. Former minister of health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang addressed the meeting that excluded local traditional healers.

In a brief reply that failed to address a number of queries, Department of Health spokesman Leon Mbangwa admitted that “a multi-stakeholder task team had been established to explore the possibility of introducing traditional medicine at the Dream Centre”.

“The work of the task team will remain exploratory, strategic and pilot oriented rather than operational,” he said, stressing that participants were bound by a confidentiality agreement.

Gqaleni declined to comment, saying simply that the task team was trying to implement government policy on traditional medicine. — health-e news

Nkonyeni’s Medicine
Since her appointment as KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC in 2004, Peggy Nkonyeni has followed in the footsteps of her mentor, former minister of health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, by claiming that antiretroviral medication is toxic.

• March 2006: Nkonyeni and Tshabalala-Msimang recommend to Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s mother, who runs a hospice, that she should give her patients the traditional concoction uBhejane, made by Zeblon Gwala.
  
  
• May 2006: At a funeral, Nkonyeni attacks the Treatment Action Campaign and raises the possibility that the HI virus could have been developed as a weapon of ‘biological warfare’.
  
  
• January 2008: Nkonyeni supports disciplinary action being taken against Dr Colin Pfaff of Manguzi Hospital in the Umkhanyakude district, KwaZulu-Natal, for using donor funds to provide ‘dual therapy’ to pregnant women and their babies ahead of an official government roll-out. February: Nkonyeni says she is unhappy about microbicide trials being conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, saying that “our people should not be regarded as guinea pigs".
  
  
• February 2008: Nkonyeni tells a meeting at Manguzi Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal: ‘We have a problem with doctors that work in rural areas. They do not care about people. It is all about profit.’ She describes AZT as ‘toxic’. After hearing these comments, Manguzi doctor Mark Blaylock throws the MEC’s picture into a dustbin.
  
  
• February 2008: In a meeting with the TAC to discuss disciplinary action against Blaylock, Nkonyeni displays a booklet on her desk called ‘End Aids: Break the chains of pharmaceutical colonialism’. Printed by the Dr Rath Foundation and the SA National Civic Organisation, it compares the TAC to the Nazis, says all ARVs are toxic and claims Vitamin C ‘can block the multiplication of HIV by more than 99%.
  
  
• March 2008 : Nkonyeni accuses Pfaff and his colleagues of ‘anarchy’ for introducing dual therapy at Manguzi before the official launch.
  
  
• April 2008 : She uses her budget speech to attack Blaylock.
  
  
• May 5: Nkonyeni’s task team into Blaylock and Pfaff starts its work at Manguzi
  
  
• May 2008 : The AIDS Law Project complains to the SA Human Rights Commission about Nkonyeni ‘harassing doctors and violating their rights and those of their community’.
  
  
• May 2008: Nkonyeni asks Treasury to audit Manguzi operations relating to the private donation arranged by Pfaff to cover ‘dual therapy’.
  
  
• May 2008: Nkonyeni hosts an information workshop on HIV treatment at a Durban hotel, attended by about 30 people, where speakers condemn antiretroviral drugs.
  
  
• July 2008: Nkonyeni approaches the management of the Dream Centre Hospice in Pinetown and asks them to consider integrating traditional medicine into their treatment regimen for people with AIDS.
  
  
• 15 August 2008: Nkonyeni visits the Dream Centre to introduce Traditional Healers Organisation president Nhlavana Maseko and set up a task team to investigate introducing traditional medicine at the hospice.
  

Home Affairs managers 'inept'

More than 70% of senior managers at home affairs did not have the necessary skills to perform their jobs, the department's director-general Mavuso Msimang said on Friday.

Briefing the media in Cape Town, Msimang said a majority of the department's senior officials could not pass a competency test evaluating their capabilities.

"More than 70% of people did not meet the requirements of the test," Msimang said.

As part of the department's restructuring process, Msimang said the department would be assessing its entire workforce to establish whether employees had the necessary skills to execute their job functions.

Employees whose skills did not match their job description would be asked to apply for other positions.

"Where there is a complete mismatch, we will... encourage people to look at other options such as severance package," he said.

Earlier on Friday, Msimang told the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) that incompetence was one of the main factors contributing to poor financial management that had seen the department receiving negative reports from the Auditor General in successive years.

Scopa's chairperson Themba Godi said the department's turnaround strategy was doomed to fail unless the problem of incompetent staff was decisively dealt with.

"As long as we have people who are not efficient, things will just collapse," he said.

While the department had improved on the service delivery front, including the turnaround time for issuing of identity documents and passports, its capacity to management finances had not improved.

The department recently received a qualified from the auditor-general's office after failing to provide supporting documents for transaction worth millions of rands.

Specialised traffic unit, Jaws of Life, cop clocked at 246km/h

Klerksdorp - A traffic officer from the elite Jaws of Life traffic unit in North West province was recently caught on a speed camera doing 246km/h in a 120km/h zone.

A complaint received via Beeld about the alleged lawless behaviour of this unit (which replaced the former Transvaal Provincial Administration's traffic department in this province) was called "unconvincing" by the spokesperson of the responsible MEC, Frans Vilakazi.

But when asked to comment on the officer's behaviour, he backtracked.

"Unfortunately I can't discuss this with the media. There are security measures that need to be taken into account when I give out information," said Mandla Mathebula, spokesperson for North West's MEC for roads, safety and public security.

The traffic violation was allegedly committed on the N12 near Wolmaransstad.

Unpaid fines

According to a document seen by Beeld, Jaws has accumulated unpaid fines of R216 978 at the Maquassi Hills municipality only.

"We are not aware of this outstanding amount. The fact that you know about it and we don't makes me smell a rat," said Mathebula.

About two weeks ago, Dewald du Bruyn, a businessman from Kosmos near Hartbeespoort, complained to Beeld that three Jaws vehicles had forced him off the Mooinooi-Brits road when they passed a truck at high speed against a solid white line.

De Bruyn's BMW 320D's custom alloy wheels were bent, causing thousands of rand of damage when he had to drive off the road to avoid an accident.

VIP escort

Mathebula told Beeld on Sunday that he was not convinced that this incident actually took place.

"We have not received a complaint about this. Nobody has told us about this, except you."

He said the Jaws team's vehicles were emergency vehicles that were used to get to emergency situations like accidents and traffic jams. They were also used to escort VIPs.

He denied in the strongest terms that it was irresponsible to drive that fast on the province's "bad" roads. Mandla Mathebula:- Head of Communications

"What do you mean by the roads are bad? I was in the Maquassi Hills area a long time ago, but the province's roads aren't that bad," Mathebula had said earlier.

Spot fine for farmer

A farmer from Wolmaransstad, Klasie Visser, had his bakkie keys confiscated at a Jaws roadblock due to an alleged outstanding traffic fine of R100.

He had to pay R300 on the spot before they would let him go.

When he produced the receipt for the R100 fine a few days later, he was told via Beeld's reporter: "Come to the department (about 200 km from Wolmaransstad) and come get your R300 and your apology".

Mathebula said more people were satisfied with the work Jaws did than the other way round.

Condoning speeding

Chris Hattingh, DA leader in North West, said it was disturbing that the MEC openly condoned speeding of this nature by travelling in speeding convoys.

The MEC also stated in an answer to a question in the legislature that provincial traffic officers were exempt from speeding regulations in the course of duty.

"All indications are there that most of the Jaws traffic violations have nothing to do with law enforcement, but with travel to and from places of work," Hatting said.

Zuma zips through Limpopo at '180km/h'

Heavy metal thunder as JZ storms through

On the day that a KwaZulu-Natal magistrate was lambasting the police's VIP protection unit for "terrorising road users and having no regard for the law" it was reported that ANC President Jacob Zuma's 33-vehicle motorcade ripped through Limpopo, often travelling three times faster than the speed limit.

With blue and white lights flashing, the motorcade zipped over zebra crossings in built-up areas at 180km/h where the speed limit is clearly marked at 60km/h.

At one point, the convoy stretched over more than 1km. Traffic officers drove ahead, forcing traffic in both directions off the road while their colleagues blocked off every crossing on the route to allow the convoy unimpeded progress.

Then came the so-called "blue-light bullies" of the VIP protection unit, who zig-zagged in front of and behind the three-vehicle hub carrying the ANC leader and his company, which included ANC Treasurer-General Mathews Phosa.

Rifle barrels protruded menacingly from one of these vehicles as motorists scrambled to get out of the way.

On the same day, magistrate Thys Taljaard denied bail to constable Hlanganani Nxumalo, 28, saying VIP protection unit members had a history of "terrorising" motorists and were not automatically entitled to bail.

Nxumalo, of the Alexandra Road police barracks in Pietermaritzburg, allegedly shot out the tyre of a Mazda on the N3 near Camperdown last Saturday.

The driver of the car lost control, veered into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a bakkie. There were six people in each car. Eight of them were injured.

The court had earlier heard how Nxumalo was in a hurry to pick up KwaZulu-Natal social development MEC Meshack Radebe.

Nxumalo has been charged with eight counts of attempted murder and one count of malicious damage to property. The matter was postponed to December 11.

Do they really need those flashing lights?

The Democratic Alliance has since written to the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), calling for an investigation into the VIP Protection Unit of the SAPS.

Dianne Kohler-Barnard, DA spokesperson for safety and security, said the state spent R312-million a year to keep VIP protection service officers in the field - a figure she received in a parliamentary question she submitted.

She labelled the Zuma motorcade incident as "pure and utter banana-republic power abuse".

"It is criminal behaviour. It is the clearest manifestation of the 'Malemasation' culture that now has a stranglehold on the once-proud ANC. It is an example set by ANC President, Jacob Zuma, a man well known for enjoying ostentatious displays of power," Kohler-Barnard said.

National police spokesperson Vish Naidoo said that in terms of the Traffic Management Act members of the VIP unit may exceed the speed limit and use their blue and white lights when there justifiable circumstances.

"They may not intimidate or threaten other road users while executing work. They may also never brandish their firearms - this is completely unacceptable."

Water probed after hundreds of Kruger crocs die

The perplexing deaths of hundreds of crocodiles in the Kruger National Park may have stumped South Africa's leading scientists, but Danie Pienaar believes it has also created awareness about this predator's vital role in ecosystems.

"It's mostly children who get really excited about these big crocodiles because they're magnificent and old like dinosaurs," said Pienaar, the head of scientific services at Kruger Park.

"And we should get really excited about them. They're not these horrible beasts lurking around trying to eat you. They play an important role in the system, and if you're happy to lose things like big crocodiles, what else are you willing to sacrifice?"

One of the goals of the newly launched Consortium for the Restoration of the Olifants Catchment (Croc), a gathering of about 40 of SA's top researchers, scientists, conservationists and wildlife pathologists, is to raise the profile of crocodiles, said Pienaar.

Croc will focus on unravelling the mystery behind the deaths of more than 160 crocodiles - the real figure is believed to be double this - in the Olifants Gorge since May this year as well as saving the Olifants river system, one of SA's hardest-working - and most polluted - systems.

"We've now got to put together specialist groups [within Croc] that will be looking at different issues in more detail around water quality, crocodiles and the fish. People who work on the Olifants have been saying for a long time that there's a big problem coming with the Olifants. By the time the crocodiles are dying, things have gone way too far. We want to look at the bigger environmental problem, which we believe is growing in all our rivers, around water quality."

Led by SANParks, Croc includes experts from the Water Research Commission, the universities of North West and Pretoria, as well as the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.

It also hopes to draw in expertise from the neighbouring Limpopo National Park in Mozambique. Post-mortem results show the crocodiles died of pansteatitis, or body fat hardening, which leads to starvation.

There is also concern over rural communities in SA and Mozambique who source untreated water from the river. "Around Mozambique's Massinger Dam [where the wall was recently raised] people eat the fish and drink water from the dam, but if the [Olifants] river keeps deteriorating, we could start seeing problems in humans as well. We've seen cholera outbreaks in Zimbabwe and now South Africa."

Dr Peter Ashton, an aquatic ecologist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and a member of Croc, said the Olifants had been "used and abused" for the past 50 years.

He believes acidic mine pollution from abandoned and closed coal mines on the escarpment, raw and treated sewage pumped into the river system from surrounding municipalities, as well as contamination from agricultural chemicals and domestic effluent could all be placing the Olifants system under extreme stress.

"All these could be adding up. You start to see sensitive organisms disappearing and the character of the river changing. We're putting all our heads together now to see how this catchment is being worked, where the problems are and how these are impacting the river. The river is functioning as a kidney in the landscape."

Croc represents the largest grouping of aquatic specialists. "We can't just leave it up to the authorities," he said, because staff are lacking.

Ashton hopes to see the same action on other hard-working rivers in SA. "They are all heavily utilised. We need to look carefully at how they supply water, and transport and dispose of treated effluents."

Europe in Crisis: World in Danger?

October 7, 2008 From theTrumpet.com

Germany and Europe’s history is a series of crises and Germany’s crucial reactions to them. That history is not over yet. By Robert Morley

America’s banking crisis tore into Europe last week with shocking ferocity. Governments from London to Berlin are assessing the carnage and scrambling to prop up collapsing banks. With more failures expected, and unemployment rising, Europe may be facing its gravest crisis since the 1930s. And when Europe is faced with crisis, history says you had better beware: Earthshaking events often soon follow!

The global depression of the 1930s was not just an economic crisis; it was a political and social one too. That disaster sowed the seeds for the rise of radical nationalistic and totalitarian movements around the world. In Russia and elsewhere it emboldened communism. In Japan it led to the Cult of the Emperor. In Britain, it provided fertile ground for the Union of Fascists. In France, it was the Croix-de-Feu.

In Germany, it was the Nazis.

People were desperate, and leaders with radical solutions gained power.

The current global banking crisis is creating desperation in Europe again! We need to take notice: The last worldwide financial catastrophe left more than dead banks. The Great Depression only ended when the world went to war. That economic crisis ended in a global bloodbath!

Right now Europe is shaken. Shortly after Lehman fell in America, dominoes across the Continent began cascading. UK mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley came crashing down; so did Iceland’s third-largest bank, Blitnir Bank. In Germany, Hypo Real Estate Holdings, the largest commercial property domino in the nation, had to be propped up by the government in order to keep it from falling and taking a whole lot of people with it.

Then, the biggest shock to that date hit Europe. Fortis, the 300-year-old bastion of Flemish finance, narrowly avoided tumbling into oblivion by a Dutch and Belgian nationalization. But it didn’t stop there. The next day, Dexia, a financial company whose roots stretch back to 1860, was felled and hurriedly propped back up again by the French, Belgians and Luxembourgers. In Switzerland, banking giant ubs is teetering on the edge, and it is unclear whether even the Swiss government possesses the resources it would take to save it from falling. In Denmark, a whole host of smaller banks are ready to tip over, according to the Financial Times.

But European disasters and emergency rescues were all trumped by Ireland. The Telegraph called the Dublin government’s blanket guarantee of its largest lenders the “most radical bank bailout” in years. Irish taxpayers are now responsible for $400 billion, twice the gross domestic product of the country. On Sunday, Germany went one step more radical and announced it has followed suit, federally guaranteeing all private savings accounts.

The European banking sector is starting to resemble the carnage in America. The Telegraph claims the European Central Bank (ecb) may be losing control. “The ecb is no longer able to inject liquidity because the money is just coming back to them again,” says Hans Redeker, currency chief at France’s bnp Paribas. The central bank can lend money to endangered financial institutions, but if these banks are unwilling or unable to lend it out to others, then everything remains jammed up. “[T]here is no expectation that loaning money will be profitable and not loss-making,” says UK economist Barry Gills. The banks are instead taking the emergency money and hoarding it back at the ecb.

The European economy is faltering too. The eurozone economy shrank during the second quarter of this year. France is already in recession, and the European Commission expects Germany, Britain and Spain to enter recession soon too. Meanwhile, eurozone unemployment hit 7.5 percent in August, and Germany is now expected to join France, Italy and Spain in the ranks of those with growing numbers of unemployed.

Historically, a Europe, especially a Germany, facing an economic crisis is not a good sign.

The rise of the Nazis and Hitler’s grab for power following the hyperinflationary years of the Weimar Republic may be the most infamous case of a radical leader vaulting to power to save the people from economic problems, but it was hardly without precedent. Comparisons to this time period are already being made—and by German leaders. Germany’s interior minister just warned that an economic depression could turn many of his own people to extremism. “We learned from the worldwide economic crisis of the 1920s (1930s) that an economic crisis can result in an incredible threat for all of society,” said Wolfgang Schäuble in an interview with Spiegel. “The consequences of that depression was Adolf Hitler and, indirectly, World War ii and Auschwitz.” Schäuble indicated that a similar scenario could happen again if the current economic crisis is not properly managed.

Time after time, it has been the pretext of a “crisis”—economic, religious, social, military or otherwise—that opened the door for Europe’s most notorious leaders—Napoleon, Charles the Great, Louis the xiv, Bismarck—to rush through and grab power, then unite nations and start bloodbaths.

The history of Germany, for example, is filled with leaders who effectively capitalized on a crisis to impose their solutions at the expense of the rest of the world.

Otto von Bismarck (1866-1890) was a master of using “crisis” to further Germany’s advantage. In Chancellor Bismarck’s day, Germany was booming, and consequently had the most modern and most powerful army in Europe. To further his pan-Germania goals, and to break the political deadlock between his royalist party and the liberals who were trying to divest the authority of the king, he decided he needed a crisis that would allow him to cement power.

“If there is to be revolution, we would rather make it than suffer it,” he infamously said. So he created a crisis with Austria. Through belligerence and malicious international alliances, Bismarck forced his chosen enemy, Austria, into action—action he could exploit. Because its outdated, slow and cumbersome military would take many weeks to marshal, Austria, when it saw the looming threat from Germany, began mobilizing for defense. Bismarck pounced on this as the opportunity to claim that Austria was about to attack. The resulting “Seven Weeks War” was an astounding and rapid victory for Germany and its modernized army.

“By defeating Austria … and consolidating all of Germany north of the Main River, [Bismarck] was able to offer the parliamentarians something that was even more precious to them than their parliamentarianism: a united national state. It was an offer they could not refuse” (Theodore S. Hamerow, Otto von Bismarck and Imperial Germany).

The results were startling. The war ended the political conflict. Elections returned a massive royalist victory, and even the liberals now supported Bismarck. As German prime minister, foreign minister, and chancellor of the new German Confederation, Bismarck was conveniently able to rewrite the Prussian (German) Constitution without opposition. Thanks to homemade “crisis,” Germany had conquered Austria, and Bismarck had conquered Germany.

It didn’t stop there for the Iron Chancellor. To expand Germany’s reach, and his own influence, Bismarck became a master at instigating crises, which, in turn, swayed opposing public opinion to his side and allowed Germany to pursue militaristic goals and become the dominant power in Europe, crushing France, Denmark and other countries in the process.

When crisis looms in Europe, especially in Germany, the world should take notice.

European leaders have been waiting for years for just such an economic crisis. A crisis of this magnitude allows them to sweep away national sovereignties and consolidate power “for the greater good.”

The European Commission’s top economists warned politicians back when the euro was created that it might not survive a crisis. Analysts have long envisioned that because it has “no EU treasury or debt union to back it up” and a “one-size-fits-all regime of interest rates [that] caters badly to the different needs of Club Med and the German bloc,” the day would come that economic crisis would threaten the EU, reports the Telegraph (emphasis mine throughout).

The fathers of the euro did not dispute this. They knew the European economic union was risky, but they saw it as an acceptable risk—Bismarck might even call it a desirable one—as a last-ditch option to force the pace of political union. As the Telegraph said, “They welcomed the idea of a ‘beneficial crisis.’” And as “ex-Commission chief Romano Prodi remarked, it would allow Brussels to break taboos and accelerate the move to a full-fledged EU economic government.”

Europe’s founders now have their “beneficial crisis.” But it will not be Brussels that will come out on top of the federalist European superstructure.

We can expect that it will be the European nation with the best economy, strongest banking sector, and the largest gold reserves in Europe and maybe the world. It will be the nation that dominates the European Central Bank: Germany.

German banking officials have been awaiting the opportunity to assert control over the European economic union. UK author and political economist Rodney Atkinson wrote in the Salisbury Review earlier this year that a member of the German Bundesbank once commented after being warned that the one-size-fits-all euro could cause serious economic problems, “Good, that means we can use the crisis to acquire the kind of power which otherwise might not be given to us” (April 2008).

Watch: The European crisis will not only act as a catalyst to unite Europe, but it will also cement the status of its leader, Germany.

A crisis-responsive, German-dominated, united Europe is around the corner—and that is not a good thing.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher summed it up best back in 1995 when she warned, “You have not anchored Germany to Europe; you have anchored Europe to a newly dominant, unified Germany. … In the end, my friends, you’ll find it will not work.”

Continental European leaders are again blaring warnings of threats to Europe’s safety and security. Europe is in “crisis.” A new superpower is about to rise. Europe’s war-filled history in such circumstances is about to come to life once again, just as the late Herbert W. Armstrong predicted for decades it would.

To get a far more detailed picture of where this European crisis is heading, read Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.

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