DogsDinner was told years ago the “office maketh a man”, but the oxymoronic way it has shaped British Prime Minister David Cameron has left Oom Doggie gaping.

Technically, South Korea is a country at war. The war with the north between 1950 and 1953 ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. More than 50 years on, conflict symbols are still part of daily life.

Let us stay with the MKM saga and wring the truth out of it, and sculpt realistic and socially acceptable solutions for it and its likes. Such is the stuff of genuine national intellectuals and mature statesmen.

Like a good Christian, convicted ruling party felon and disgraced former chief whip Tony Yengeni has decided to end the year on a note of grace towards his fellow citizens, or subjects.

As we celebrate Human Rights Day today – December 10 – let us remember that human rights are an expression of our God-given rights, which are now universally recognised. Our rights can only gain social status when they become moral values and are maintained as a necessary quality of human relationships.

The word “snake”, and the image that goes with that (apparently similar in Islam and Christianity), has recently been returned to public discourse in yonder lands by those WikiLeaks revelations that the king of Saudi Arabia enjoined the US to “cut the head of a snake” – referring to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Among the major challenges facing our societies today are the high incidence rates of violence within the family, the increase in degrading and cruel treatment of spouses and children, and the spread of sexual abuse.

Call it bitter or petty but it rings bells, many bells. When South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma visited Namibia last month, his national broadcaster, SABC television said in the news, “Both countries are members of the SACU. Both have not signed trade agreements with the EU pending clarification of certain issues”.

Is it possible to discuss the MKM saga without being one-sided, and without straddling the fence; or is it as unthinkable not to choose a side here as in the 1998 and 2007 post-election wrangles?

That organisation, World Vision, has a lot of vision indeed. It recently published an invitation for Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to bid for donation of
motorbikes, with a special positive discrimination towards Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) groups. It ended with a caveat: “Please note that motorbikes will be donated as they are (voetstood).