When Mastercard sent the emergency card ydy they said cash could not be drawn at an ATM, but at any bank.
Last night Mastercard supervisor Michael Monk phoned to apologise for the lack of service I had received and said I would have no problems wi...
Yest (Saturday) my purse was stolen @ Rome Termini shortly before I boarded a train for Salerno, Italy. I have no money + 5 biscuits until my Mastercard is replaced on Wednesday.
I disc the theft on t train when I wanted to buy tea + a sandwich.
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There are a number of unspokens in the most silent of crimes. The one is that most rapists experience erectile dysfunction, in other words they get it up but they can't keep it up and that is when the person raped is in most danger because the...
The odds are stacked against men. There are about 750 million sperm per ejaculate, yet only one sperm can fertilise the single egg a woman produces once a month. A male foetus is less likely to survive full-term pregnancy than a female, and...
How do you help children forced to watch while their mom is gangraped? Or a shy, teenage boy whose mother remains silent when a gang threatens to rape him unless she reveals the safe? (*see below for help organisations)
Perhaps the more impo...
In Namibia the sentence for stealing a cow is higher than that for raping a woman. For the first offence both rape and theft of a cow carries a 10 year sentence but for second offenders rape carries a 15 years sentence while a person who steals ...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which we celebrate on December 10, came at a time when the world was reeling under the devastation of a global war that had seen millions die. But the words from Nuremberg, "never again", have shown we ...
If the world relied on politicians for meaningful progress we'd still be in animal skins hunting rabbits. Individuals have always driven real change. And you cannot do it by email petition or Facebook group. You have to get out of the office or ...
Every 26 seconds in South Africa a woman gets raped, it was my turn last Thursday night. Before I began writing this I took AZT, 3TC and Crixivan -- they are anti-retroviral drugs, they will hopefully help lessen the potential of me getting Aids...
Whether in Kabul, London, Washington or Pretoria global leaders appear to believe that big mouth is more important than sound math. In South Africa only a small percentage of the populace pay tax, electricity bills or television licences, they are al...
Charlene Smith is a multi-award-winning journalist, author and media consultant. Her latest book is "Committed to Me." She writes for newspapers and magazines in South Africa and internationally and has had 13 books published, one of which was shortlisted for an Alan Paton award.
Television documentaries for which she has worked have also won major international awards.
She has worked as a broadcast journalist and radio-station manager. Smith's areas of expertise are politics, economics, violence, women's and children's issues and HIV and Aids. She is frequently invited to address conferences around the world. www.charlenesmith.net