Complaints, lakes of death and human genome

the kingly dignity on something short of £500 000, and Queen Victoria’s earnings as a Royal personage are £440 000 a year In addition to those salaries each of the Royal individuals named had lodging free, and other perquisites. . April 24, 1878 At what shade are we to stop? Writing on the existing education law in the Free State, The Friend remarks: The Ordinance recognises white children alone. It does not define what it means by white. Does the least trace of colour disqualify a child from attendance at a government school? If not, at what particular shade are we to stop? Away with such distinctions i n a Government Ordinance; let the good sense determine such questions, and let any pupil, of whatever shade, who comes up to a given standard, earn a grant. Then we shall be more able to boast of our “public” education. April 29, 1914 The Balkan Tragedy – Sensational details The civilised world is horrified by the assassination at Sarajevo. The latest details show the first attempt on the life of the Archduke and his wife by means of a bomb yesterday morning would probably have been successful but for the Archduke’s deflecting the infernal machine with his arm. It fell to the ground and exploded, injuring 11 people. The Royal visitors then proceeded to the Town Hall. Later, after visiting the victims of the bomb explosion, the Royal car had not proceeded far when two pistol shots rang out. The first lodged in the Archduke’s face. The Duchess made a wild attempt to save him. She threw herself in front of him; she received the assassin’s shot in the breast and fell across her husband’s knees. April 23, 1925 Unsavoury plays in London There is a great outcry in certain circles against the production of so many sexual problem plays in London. The Fallen Angels at the Globe Theatre is described as disgusting by many critics. It concerns two young married women both in love with a French man of whom each before marriage was a temporary mistress. Another play, Rain, featuring South African actress, Marda Vanne, is likely to cause some excitement. This had a sensational success in America. The heroine is a girl from the San Francisco underworld who is wrecked on a South Sea island. There a missionary first saves her soul, then falls victim to her undisciplined charms. April 30, 1954 Survey shows state of poverty on the Cape Flats Only one household of every 10 living in a belt in the Cape Flats stretching from Princess Vlei to Zeekoe Vlei are not in a state of bordering on poverty, according to a UCT survey. More than half the householders are living below the subsistence line. A total of 971 households were investigated – of these 920 were coloured and 50 mixed. One-third of all the households occupied one room or oneroomed shack. April 28, 1954 Elephant-killer to lead dance for Queen On the floodlit lawns of Government House, Entebbe, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will see one of Africa’s most spectacular Native dances – the royal drum dance of the Acholi tribe. The leader of the dance is a middle-aged goat trader named Edward Omara, GC, who 20 years ago received the Empire Medal for Gallantry (converted to the George Cross during the war) for twice, single-handed and armed only with a spear, killing savage elephants. April 27, 1972 Absurd, costly, shameful One of the world’s greatest artists performed in Cape Town last night – in a theatre that was three-quarters empty. Dame Margot Fonteyn performed at financial loss to her promoters. Yet thousands of people wanted to see her; the Whites could not (she was dancing for non-Whites only), most non-Whites would not, for political reasons. It is an absurd situation. But it follows logically from a political policy solemnly endorsed by most White people. It means that an R11-million theatre complex can be built in Cape Town for one race only with the money of all races, and that a famous visitor like Fonteyn must dance somewhere else if she wants an audience that includes people other than the ruling whites. Like the empty buses for one race that drive past bus-stops crowded by another race, so did Cape Town theatre last night dramatise political policies that are absurd, costly and shameful. April 25, 1984 Breakthrough claimed in Aids research American researchers have announced a breakthrough in the battle against Aids. After three years of research the experts believe they may have discovered and isolated a virus that may be the cause of the illness. Aids, a disease contracted mainly by homosexuals, has been contracted by a known 4 087 people in the US since 1981 and is known to have caused the deaths of 1 758 in that time. The disease renders victims incapable of fighting infection. April 30, 1986 Spy camera sees reactor inferno An American spy satellite over the Soviet Union has transmitted photographs showing massive destruction at the Chernobyl nuclear power station near Kiev. US officials report that the fire in the plant’s graphite reactor is still raging and could continue for days, spewing lethal radiation into the atmosphere. It is still not known how many casualties there are. Official Soviet figures range from two deaths to “less than 100” but US officials say these figures are “preposterous”. April 22, 1996 Kuwait’s lakes of death The raging well fires have long been extinguished, but Kuwait still faces damage to its fresh water supplies and carcinogenic dust storms from oil lakes created by retreating Iraqi troops, environmentalists warn. Five years after the Iraqi invaders fled, some 50km2 of desert in the north and south of the country lie beneath a sickly black ooze that has formed “oil lakes” up to 2m deep. April 26, 2003 Human genome researcher gets millions to map the Sargasso Sea The scientist best known for leading the crash effort to sequence the human genetic map won government funding this week to take on an entire ecosystem – the Sargasso Sea. The US Department of Energy said it would give Craig Venter $9 million to try to sequence the genomes of every organism his team could find in the sea, an ellipse of warm, algae-filled waters that circulates in the Atlantic Ocean from the West Indies.