Great Quotes
I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol. - Alexandre Dumas
[:en]Apartheid police as organised crime – now we know![:]

Apartheid era officials stole a 25 metre sophisticated printing press, bombed the building to conceal their theft, reassembled the printing press at police Head Quarters and then began printing counterfeit money a court case reveals (note 1 and 2). Jeremy Vearey and Andre Lincoln were officers in ANC’s intelligence organisation who busted the group. Much of this is now playing out in a court in Western Cape. US intelligence became involved as these officials  had been counterfeiting US dollars. It…

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[:en]Harry Greaves – RIP [:]

It is over a year since Harry’s body was found on a beach in Liberia and no explanation has been found to date.   Harry and I were at prep school  together in England  or to be more precise in Langton Green in Kent. Harry Augustus Greaves Jnr as he wished to be known then (he emphatically insisted on the American  postfix jnr having the same name as his father). Our headmaster, Mr Bairamian, or Bob as we called…

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[:en]Yinka Shonibare MBE – Gallery opening 27 sep16[:]

Yinka Shonibare  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinka_Shonibare) is a wonderful artist and my good friend. His work is often breathtaking – cutting across many cultures, but fundamentally African. There are some who might ask how is Shonibare so fundamentally African – basically there is a place where you arrive at  in terms of artistic  creation that whatever you do reflects who you are  and you have no need to  imitate or reflect. That is Shonibare. Whatever he does is African  – you may…

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[:en]Jerry Lockspeiser – book launch – 12 sep 16[:]
wine jerry lockspeiser

Its  a welcome evening with my good friend Jerry Lockspeiser (http://www.harpers.co.uk/jerry-lockspeiser/1000.bio) . Jerry  has shown great devotion to Africa and has donated and helped schools in Sierra Leone. He is also major supporter of Action Aid. Tonight he is launching his new book on wine. ‘Your wine questions answered’ or  as he subtitled it in his introductory talk ‘everything you wished to know about wine but were too embarrassed to ask!’   Its on Amazon -. Jerry was a major…

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