Top-notch hotel on the cards for Kruger Park
| JULIUS BAUMANN |
Published: 2010/11/01 06:39:57 AM |
REZIDOR Hotel group has signed an agreement with SanParks to build a new five-star Radisson Blu Hotel in the Kruger National Park, a first for the more than 100-year-old park.
The announcement yesterday comes after SanParks invited hotel operators in May last year to submit proposals for a new four- or five-star hotel at a site 10km inside the park, close to the Malelane Gate.
The intention is for SanParks to increase revenue from commercial tourism ventures through private partnerships while it focuses on its core activity of conservation. “The main objective of SanParks is conservation. Only 20% of our funding comes from the government and this is dropping off annually. We need to find new ways of becoming more self-sufficient,” SanParks’ head of tourism development and marketing, Glenn Phillips, said.
SHOOT: Why the hell are they damaging this pristine area by building a big hotel INSIDE the KNP. Build it outside on the boundary for goodness sake.
Shock, anger at doctor's rape
The passage at Pelonomi hospital in Bloemfontein where a doctor was raped by three attackers while working night shift over the weekend. (Volksblad)
Pieter Steyn, Volksblad
Fidel Hadebe, spokesperson for Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, described the incident as "barbaric", adding that safety at hospitals is a big concern to him.
The horrific attack could also cause a crisis at the hospital this week, as female doctors are too scared to work here at night. Doctors have been complaining for some time about the poor security at the hospital.
Even after the attack early on Saturday morning, security was still lacking.
Hit with a brick
The 35-year-old doctor, who is specialising in paediatrics and is very popular with young patients, was heading for the neo-natal unit on the ground floor at about 02:00 on Saturday morning when three men overpowered her on a dark staircase and hit her in the face with a brick.
All three attackers raped her. One of them is only 16.
After the attackers ran off, she made her way to the neo-natal unit where a student doctor helped her to call her husband.
The police's unit against family violence, child abuse and sexual offences arrested the three attackers hours later.
They will appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court on Monday.
Meanwhile, several female doctors have told reporters they are too scared to work at night.
They are, however, not allowed to refuse to work, despite the poor safety at the biggest hospital in the area.
The new hotel will have 120 rooms and is expected to open in the third quarter of 2012.
SHOOT: This falls into the category of the disgusting crime levels and culture of criminality. How many crimes are perpetrated and then the suspects are caught soon after? Is the idea [or their mentality] that they rely on a justice system that takes so long to convict them it might as well not exist? Solution to these sort of problems is to erect closed circuit TV cameras in these buildings and a fast-tracked judicial system.
What's the deal with halloween? [WIKI]
Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)".[1] The name is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".[1] A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced Kálan Gái av).
The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm.
SHOOT: We sometimes forget the long long lines of time that we're all decended from. It goes beyond just our biblical heritage, which, arguably, is only the heritage of a very thin tribal line of humanity. I've always been facinated by the Celtic tradition, and even wrote a manuscript over 2 years - when i was in high school - depicting a Celtic family in modern Scotland. The celts are exceptional as a people who did not really write books or erect structures to preserve their traditions. They told stories. Halloween is one of the traditions that we practise today thanks to the Celts, although few people today know why. Stonehenge is another structure which many believe was built by Celts.
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