EN PASSANT

MAY I suggest to the new American administration to check and find somewhere in the library of the White House, or even better in the Library of Congress, a copy of Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People and of course another very important book from a very successful series – Diplomacy for Dummies.

President Donald Trump should then make it his business to read, digest and apply both of these books and, having done so, he might humbly apologise to all the countries and people whose feathers he has ruffled so far (being very polite here). Bryanston IT IS crucial that mistakes of the past are not repeated. The invasion of Iraq on the flimsy grounds of the misperceived WMDs and chemical weapons has created immense misery already. To be fair and objective, the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria should be investigated in a transparent manner. The rebels are no saints and involvement of foreign hands cannot be ruled out, either.

The US, UK and the UN have a questionable track record in this regard, and their moves have to be closely monitored. Isipingo Hills, KwaZulu-Natal I STILL cannot understand why the military had to take such an active role in the funeral service of the late Joost van der Westhuizen.

I was appalled to see the physical condition of our generals. They really look like fat cats and hardly inspire any of us should we ever need to defend our country.

Whatever one might think of the apartheid-era military, at least the generals in those days looked the part. I would hate to think of the citizens of South Africa having to rely on the new breed of generals (if this is what they all look like) in the event of South Africa having to go to war. In their current shape and condition, they could not even run away. Craighall WHILST I do appreciate that legal matters need to be fair and thorough, I find it amazing that the following matters have not yet reached conclusion: Judge Nkola Motata (2007), Riah Phiyega (2012), Tony Yengeni (2013), the Zuma corruption case.

Surely there is evidence to prove these cases, and get the matters concluded, or the matters should be abandoned.

What has been the cost to the public purse in these few matters alone? Is this simply protection of the government’s deployed cadres, or are there genuine reasons for such long delays? Oakdene GROWING up as a Prince Edward schoolboy in Harare, Zimbabwe in the ’80s, we used to take pride watching our cricketers playing at the home of cricket, Harare Sports Club. Even though the issue of race was always an issue, as schoolboys we used to bury our heads in the sand and were encouraged to participate.

I remember watching some of the finest cricketing brothers – Penny brothers Steve and Trevor – who ended up playing at Old Hararians Sports; my question is where are they now?

It’s painful to see the Zimbabwe ‘A’ National Team losing at home to Afghanistan, yet we have the best Zimbabwean coaches from that era coaching around the world.

Let’s bring back these coaches to coach locally… I don’t care what colour they are, all I want is for ZC to include them in their structures including coaching in primary and secondary schools. Harare, Zimbabwe