Well, things have been happening in SA of late. Mostly odd and politically dangerous in my mind, but that could just be me overreacting to that which I observe. Last week a DA parliamentarian asked for information about Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, wanting to know whether the government had known if she had a criminal record. He was thrown out of parliament.

More recently, on Sunday September 9, the Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, was arrested for taking part in a march. The march was legal. The march was against police apathy and inactivity in Mitchell's Plain. The Mitchell's Plain police made the time though to arrest Zille, a drug-protesting Muslim priest (Imam) and several others. Go POLICE!

The ANC meeting in December looms. There are two well-stated camps. The one supports President Mbeki standing for a third time and the ANC amending the constitution. The other camp stands for Jacob Zuma being the ANC President (and therefore SA's next president). Neither of these are good outcomes. In fact they are particularly poor. Mbeki has several individuals who he thinks should get the presidency, of which Joel Netshitenzhe is one. However, Netshitenzhe is about as charismatic (and therefore as likely) to get the presidency as a soft-rotting carrot at the back of a fridge. He's a supremely bright character involved in the drafting of all central policy in the country, but none of the grass roots (the ANC's /Zuma's favourite people) know who the hell he is. Oh well...

And I am leaving in two and a half weeks. 16 days to be exact. Weird. I am going to have to become accustomed to an entirely different political structure in Italy and acquaint myself far better with EU politics than I am currently. British politics I have down pat - Cameron is a conservative twit with a carrot up his bum. Brown is the successor to a Blair who went wonky, but we're hoping he'll pull through and stop brown-nosing Bush. Apologies for the nether region imagery.

In other news it has finally and conclusively been shown that colourants and additives in food cause hyperactivity. GO the British FSA! Carefully controlled and tightly researched it shows that additives can affect ALL children and not just those 'prone to ADHD'. Hmm... Well done you lot, telling us what mum told me when I insisted on eating my box of smarties and then bounced around the room like a gummie bear on speed. Once and for all showing that Mum (and Mrs. Larsen) knows best.

Returning to me leaving (see what I did there) I have crazy amounts to do before departure. Non-trivially including the pending hand-in of my Creative Writing dissertation. Should be interesting. I am reaching the point with some of the poems where I feel (if I could validly anthropomorphise them) like strangling them, chopping their little heads off and treading them into a merry mulch. However, others are like cool, serene waters that placate me, caressing my warm head with gentle fingers and lulling me into a false sense of poetic security. Oh well...

Ok, must be off. I should be working.