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| << February08, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 120 dated 7.2.2005 |
February21, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 122 dated 21.2.2005 >> |
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Turtle Essays Edition no 121 dated 14th February 2005 Love to Travel? Find out how to make your money go further! Get your copy of ???The Travel Secrets Guide??? and start saving today! http://hop.clickbank.net/?Brerrabbit/infodawg ** Looking for cheap airtickets to all destinations. Try us! http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=26917872&siteid=41315606&bfpage=homepage" ** Do you live in an area where droughts occur? Visit : http://www.landscapingsecrets.com/?hop=brerrabbit to find out how to plan your low water garden. ** In this edition: Editor's Blurb Maynardville Three UCT lecturers die in two weeks! ** Editor's Blurb Hi there folks. Happy Valentine's Day everyone. This week I have a mixed bag for you. We have a number of Universities here in Cape Town and one of them ???The University of Cape Town??? has been in the news this week. Unfortunately not for academics but for the strange deaths of three of their senior lecturers. The second article about Maynardville tells about one of the annual cultural events that take place here in Cape Town. On Friday the Opening of Parliament took place with all its pomp and ceremony. Reading the reports in the newspapers took me back to 1968 when I was part of the President's guard which took the main salute when the State President arrived to open Parliament. With the heat that we are experiencing in Cape Town this year I am glad that it was not me who had to stand outside parliament while the SP made his speech. I thinks that enough from me for this week. See you all soon. Geoff Fairman ** Maynardville Way back in 1820, Levi and Sarah Maynard moved to Wynberg to live there after emigrating from their home in Britain. Their son James Mortimer Maynard a bachelor accompanied them and as a money lender taking mortgages over farms and land to protect his investments soon became a wealthy landlord. In 1838, he took over the farm, Rozendal from an insolvent widow who had borrowed money from him. This property became known as Maynardville. Today Maynardville is a large park with beautiful gardens, large trees and it even boasts an open air theatre. The theatre came about way back in 1956 when two Cape Town actresses Cecilia Sonenberg and Ren?© Ahrenson recognised the potential of Maynardville and decided to establish an open air theatre in the grounds. To stage their first play they invited Leslie French from Regents Park Open-air Theatre in London to visit Wynberg and on the 29th of January 1956 their first Shakespearian production ??? The Taming of the Shrew??? took to the stage. Maynardville Open Air theatre was born. Each year since 1956 a different Shakespearian play has been staged in the theatre. The play ???Much Ado About Nothing??? is being produced this year. As Shakespeare forms part of the English syllabus for senior school students here in South Africa the production of the play gives them an ideal opportunity to see their setwork book in action. The schools in Cape Town utilise this annual opportunity and send hundreds of students to see the plays. This year director Fred Abrahamse decided to give the Bard's famous love story of Beatrice and Benedick a swingy edge and added plenty of music, dance and good looks to the production. The play appears to have been a great success. To keep the park in the public eye Maynardville hosts a second event at this time of the year. It's the Community Chest Carnival which starts at the end of February and runs for a number of days. This event has over the years proven to be a family favourite and provides something of interest for everyone. Live entertainment for adults and a delicious assortment of international foods from the different communites living in Cape Town brings in the crowds. A gastonomic delight of herrings and cheese, spring rolls, Swiss chocolate, and Indian curries are on sale for the hungry visiting the carnival. For the thirsty there are the beer tents where one can listen to the Oompah bands and enjoy German beer. The children are not overlooked and for them there is a fun fair, pony rides, puppet shows, face painting and numerous other attractions including live animals such as sheep and goats. The Community Chest who organise the Carnival support a wide variety of charities with their main focus being on poverty alleviation, tuberculosis, AIDS and youth development. As the Carnival is only a few weeks away why not plan your holiday in Cape Town to include a visit to this park when the carnival is in full swing. I'm sure you will enjoy the outing and the foods on offer. See you there at the end of February! ** Three UCT Professors die in two weeks! The University of Cape Town or UCT as it is known by most Capetonians has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this week. In the days of Apartheid this English Language University was in the forefront of anti apartheid rallys and gatherings. So much so that it got itself the name of ??? Little Moscow???. Since the advent of our new government things have settled down on the campus and political rallys although they may still take place do not hit the headlines as they did in the past. This week the headlines have been bad news again. The newspapers have not attacked the University over some communist plot, nor have there been political rallys that have turned violent. Unfortunately a number of their teaching staff have died after being attacked. The first person to pass away after being attacked on campus by an ex student was Professor Hahn. He was beaten about the head with an umbrella and after being admitted to hospital had a stroke from which he succumbed. A man has been arrested and charged with assault but as the Professor has died the charges against him are likely to be changed to that of murder. In a second attack on a Professor from UCT, Lisb?© Smit senior lecturer and head of Afrikaans & Netherlandic Studies in the School of Languages and Literature was attacked and thrown into her swimming pool at her home in Wellington. When she was found by police shortly after the attack she was still alive but died soon afterwards. Her neighbour who heard her screams and came to her assistance was also stabbed a number of times with a screwdriver by the assailant. Luckily for her police had been alerted to the attacks and were on the scene in minutes. After a short chase they managed to arrest a 16 year old youth who when caught still had items from Professor Smit's home on his person. After two deaths amongst UCT staff one would think that it would be enough. Unfortunately it was not to be. Keith Hart, the building supervisor of the University of Cape Town's sports centre and a well known rower capsized his canoe while rowing on Zeekoeivlei and disappeared. He is presumed to be drowned. It's such a tragedy that such highly educated people have died for no apparent reason. What have the killers gained from their behaviour and actions? For the families the trauma of losing a loved one is terrible, but worse is still to come when they have to face the killers when they are brought to trial . In many instances families want revenge, but, are they even going get justice from our courts? Here in South Africa life has become cheap especially in the townships where people face hardship every day. Some of them are so desperate that they are prepared to commit murder for a couple of cents. The courts unfortunately take the assailants background into consideration when handing down sentences and many murderers are back on the streets after a year or two. Because nothing has changed in their communities they are back to their old habits within days and many repeat murders occur just days after release. A number of changes appear to be happening in our legal system that might just avert early release of people convicted of serious crimes. A new law is in the offing that belonging to a gang is a crime, so the problem of gangsterism is likely to be nipped in the bud and the training ground for many future murderers will be taken away. Secondly, when it comes to early release of prisoners, the victims in future will be consulted and their views obtained. Hopefully many of the convicted murderers who come up for parole will be kept behind bars where they belong. ** Turtle Travels new blog is online now. Latest Topic : Whats happening in Cape Town? http://turtleessays.blogspot.com * Like to have your own rose garden. Find out how to do it from an expert. Here is his link: http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/mcplants ** For my personal details, contact address, and warnings regarding products advertised in this ezine please read the disclaimers which can be found at: http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html See you all soon Geoff Fairman ** |
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| << February08, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 120 dated 7.2.2005 |
February21, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 122 dated 21.2.2005 >> |
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