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Showing posts from October, 2008

Bloody poor service and Rugby

Tardy service at government departments From time to time circumstances force us to go a government department to do this or other, and often the service is below par. The tardiness in these departments usually lies in the lack of co-ordination and integration of systems, i.e., you will be asked to go from this door to the other in order to do something that can in fact be done by one person, all at once. Furthermore, whereas so many people still do not have access to computers or internet, there are however those who have, and they must be accommodated when plans are made. This will ease off administrative workload and may improve the speed with which service is delivered. At the Watloo Testing Centre in Pretoria a first time visitor may not know how to get service, because there are no people dedicated to receive and direct you. At the First National Bank for example upon arrival you are met by a floor consultant whose task is to direct you to the relevant counter. This kind of s...

The year is gone, we are in October!

On the 30 Sep - 1 Oct I attended the 24th annual SASAS conference held the University of Pretoria. This year's theme was heritage and rain, and emphasised on the heritage of rain making. This opened up an opportunity for Dr Mathole Motshega of Kara Institute to give a key note address on opening day.  The highlight of this conference for me was the award that was given to Ms Mary-Jane Kgatuke by the WMO for her ground-breaking work on atmospheric modeling. She received the award for the best young African scientist!  Dr Francois Engelbrecht of Tukkies made a call,cajoling young African scientists to seize the moment of African rebirth by taking part in scientific research that will help Africa to develop its first model. He says, the fourth IPCC report did not have any model results developed in Africa.