Some of our bad guys

last week stole an old Nissan bakkie (pickup), concealed it for a while, then, in a desperate attempt to retain their ill-gotten gains, tried to rush the road block on the way to South Africa. The Police, with information systems commendably on the ball, intercepted the vehicle and killed its occupants and thieves in a blazing Bonnie and Clyde style shoot-out.

Was it legal? Probably not. But the guys are dead and would not have been able to afford lawyers anyway.

The owner expressed his regret that two men had to die for this bakkie. Indeed. I could imagine someone selling his soul to the Devil for a new 350Z, Murano or Navara (I've even thought of it myself), but sacrificing yourself for a 1400 diesel with 85000 on the clock? Ridiculous.

may

is of course not the start of summer in Namibia (wrong hemisphere) neither is it then the season of mellow autumn. The weather here doesn't really do mellowness - it's a simple blowtorch climate 10 months of the year and 2 months freezing, with an abrupt transition in between.

No, it's the month of Public Holidays - four of them at last count. Cassinga day, May 4, commemorates the Fallujah style massacre of refugees by the South African air force in 1978, and must be kept.

May Day is another story. Year after year it's a non-event - this year I stayed alone in the house, never once venturing out, never seeing a soul - the universe might have come to an end, beyond my suburban horizon. But year after year, on the day after, politicians bemoan the pathetic attendance at the 'mass' rallies which were organised for the workers. Where were the workers? The politicians cannot understand it.

Let me attempt an answer. What does any genuine worker do on a holiday? That's right - he stays in bed. Should he rather get up, struggle out to some dusty stadium where some minor trade union official or some deputy minister will show up an hour late to deliver some rambling attack on imperialists and demon employers? I don't think so.

Anyway, this writing effort has exhausted me. Roll on the next holiday on Thurday (Ascension day), and then, to get over that, the week after, Africa day...?

ZIMBABWE

is elected to chair the UN commission on sustainable development.

Just one question (out of many): Could someone explain how an inflation rate of 1400% is 'sustainable'. Or actually another - how sustainable is the flight of maybe 20000 people a week from the country (braving razor wire, croc infested rvers, you name it)?

We can wait now for the chair of the Commission for Religous Rights and Toleration to be awarded to Saudi Arabia, for the chair of the Commision for freedom of political self-expression to be awarded to China, for the Commission for International Peace and non-Intervention to be filled by the United States, and the Commission for the Reginition and Combatting of Climate Change to be filled also by the United States. I think the Commision for Human rights, seriously, is headed up by Sudan, at least it was at one stage?

It's only logical after all.