All posts in World News

Boy oh boy did I get a massive shock when I checked the financial indicators today, it’s like the rand is turning into the Zim dollar, well, not quite that bad (yet)!

Rand to Dollar = R10.27
Rand to Euro = R13.80
Rand to Pound = R17.79

Brend $, Platinum $ and Gold $/oz are also down between 1 and 5 points!

Two scenarios come to mind:

1. You’re planning to go overseas on a holdiay – GOOD LUCK!
2. You’ve not cashed your Adsense cheques yet – AWESOME!

I’m still wondering whether it’s time to start worrying yet. I’m no financial expert, but I’m getting the feeling that if things don’t stabalize in the next few weeks, times could start getting really tough!

Today, South African stocks plunged more than 7%, which reaches the lowest figure we have experience in just over 2 years. 7%.. can you even imagine how many millions of rands in loss that is? Can you imagine how many people have seen their butts because of this huge shift?

The Johannesburg Top-40 index of blue-chip stocks fell 7.54 percent to 18,584.01 points, erasing two days of robust gains to hit its lowest closing level since June 2006. The All-share index fell 6.99 percent to 20,571.87 points.

This is all incredibly scary and shows us all just how easily the market shares can fluctuate. Ok, we all sort of saw it coming, but you can never be 100% accurate!

It’s interesting to watch the markets fluctuate, whilst keeping a strong eye on the eptrol price – Shell has set the next petrol price change for Wed 5th November.

Petrols: 17.00 – 20.00 c/l decrease
Brent Crude: $81.30 per barrel

This Price Forecast is based on information as at 08 October 2008 and is based on current price regulation guidelines as stipulated by the Department of Minerals and Energy. This is mainly based on international crude and finished product price movements coupled with prevailing Rand – US Dollar exchange rates.

via

So Blog Action Day has finally arrived and it’s great to be here!

This year Blog Action Day is all about poverty, something that any of us sitting here reading this blog, probably have never experienced! The Blog Action Day has a massive collection of information from fundraising, videos and press coverage.

So anyway, in my support today, I urge that everyone who reads this blog takes a few minutes to do one of the following about the awareness of Poverty and Blog Action Day:

1. Post to your Twitter stream
2. Change your Facebook Status
3. Share on Facebook by clicking here
4. Write a Blog post
5. Change your status on MSN, GTalk, Yahoo, Skype

Any one of these linking to Blog Action Day will help spread the word!

A non-profit Internet rights group has filed a lawsuit against President George Bush and others in his administration for the “massively illegal” surveillance of emails and telephone calls without court warrants.

The suit was filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which took the administration to task for what it argued is “illegal surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans.”

EFF lawyers filed a suit against AT&T in 2006 charging the US telecoms giant had opened up its network to National Security Agency (NSA) agents without proper court-approved warrants.

Read more on IOLtechnology..

I think this is really awesome..

Good for Google!

The creator of the Zakumi design is Andries Odendaal, an independent Cape Town-based designer and developer of interactive media. The mascot costume was produced by Boksburg costume-maker Cora Simpson, who also produced the costume for Dazzler, the official mascot of the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

Read More..

Being registered to vote is incredibly important, what’s the point of just sitting back and watching all these things fly past, when your view could help change the nation?

Have you registered to vote? If you’re not sure, the process is really easy:

Click here, enter in your ID number and the security code. The next screen will tell you whether you’re eligable to vote or not. See the image below as my example:

On this screen, you’ll have two choices:

1. View the municipal office details (here)
2. Show the voting district map (here)

Take the time to register yourself and take the time to vote!

I just finished watching a live broadcast on SABC, of Thabo Mbeki stepping down as president of South Africa. I’m no political guru, in fact, I’m fairly uneducated in terms of politics, especially inside South Africa.

I’m still trying to decide what my opinion really is, I think as a democracy, this is a good thing. Seeing leaders, deputies and cabinate members being removed shows a mature side to our government. If I think back, many presidents stayed in place for years, even when their governance was not up to scratch, so seeing Thabo step down, shows that out Government is capable of standing up to the plate. I feel some kind of respect to Mr Mbeki for doing this for the nation.

I’m not quite sure what happens from here. I would imagine the aim is a smooth transission, between now and the up coming elections. I feel that the ANC will suffer from this, how much they are going to suffer is not measurable. The next elections are coming up towards the 1st quarter of next year, it will be really interesting to see what the outcome is! My understanding is that Mr Mbeki will remain president until the next elections, but I don’t think this has ultimately been decided – it might mean the smoothest transission in my opinion. What I really wanted to know, was who would take his place should he leave effective immediately? I couldn’t quite figure this out and would prefer to keep my views reserved on this. Remember to register to vote!

Economically, this outcome might have a negative effect. When it comes to shares, stocks, trading and so forth, uncertainty is a critical factor. If I had shares, I would most definitely be rather worried about what would happen to their value and might easily withdraw them and place the investment somewhere else. Internationally, it’s extremely difficult to predict whether International investors will see this as something to worry about.

I’d love to hear all your views on this matter! A word of warning, I WILL NOT tolerate unethical commenting on my blog and should I see any unethical comments, the comments will be closed on this topic will not longer be up for discussion – please have respect.

Please note: These views are strictly mine, and are spoken as an uneducated citizen.