EN PASSANT

MANY people have lived, or are living, fake lives because of the need to appease others, or to look good in the eyes of others. This friendly advice is that people will only be appeased by things you do to them, not things you do for yourself. Very few people are happy with your progress but, if you want to appease them, then you will be digging your own grave in many aspects of your life.

I know of people who are today drowning in debt and (leading) miserable lives because of the same mistake I’m talking about here. It is good to be selfless and think of others but don’t live to appease them. How many people have bought cars and houses they can’t afford just to look rich in the eyes of others? So think twice. Meshack Mathe Mtititi Lombard

WHILE much is said of the success of the world’s first heart transplant occurring in a South African hospital, using South African surgeons, history is playing a very one-sided role.

Dr Chris Barnard beat his US counterpart by a few hours and summed it up as “like we were at a swimming pool and we jumped in first”. Credit needs to be given to his brother, Dr Marius Barnard, who was also a great pioneer and, in fact, instrumental in the disability and medical aid schemes we have today.

As for the heart transplant, Dr Marius Barnard had to harvest the heart from the donor and Dr Chris Barnard did the transplant. Had the harvesting been unsuccessful, there would have been no Chris Barnard as we know him. Some hospital in SA should be named after Marius Barnard specifically.

All media reports should reflect this as a joint achievement of the Barnard brothers and not just the effort of Dr Chris Barnard, who reflected only on his own achievements and was a bit arrogant after his success. Dr Marius Barnard had a bigger, if not similar, role. Muhammad Omar Durban North

REPORTS of slavery in Libya are a blistering indictment against civilisation in Africa. Slavery was abolished 200 years ago, sadly it is still with us on a global basis.

Throughot our painful history, it was black africans who bore the brunt of extreme brutality under the slave trade. Slavery is an affront to humanity, we must ensure that the perpetrators are severely punished. Our humanity is at stake here.

At the anti-racism conference in Durban, it was clearly stated that ‘Slavery and the slave trade were appalling tragedies, a crime against humanity and should have always been so’. Child slavery is rampart across the entire third world. Today’s brutal slavery in Libya is reducing the African slave to a non-entity, reducing his freedom and obliterating his family ties. Farouk Araie Benoni