It aint easy...

I just dont get it. Why are there so many morons in this world, i guess at one stage in my life , or maybe more, i may have fitted slap bang in the middle of this category. Ok bear with me here. The South African National Blood Services, just cant seem to get its nose out of the news. Last year it was revealed that they chuck the blood of blacks, and to think during my varsity and articles life i diligently gave blood, got called to come back to give more and they just turfed it...and i despise needles on top of it all and damn those needles ain't small! Now they are in the news for not accepting the blood of gay people. Their argument is gay blood, like black blood is more risky blah blah...i say fair enough. Promiscuity is promiscuity, black, white, gay, straight, that disease knows no boundaries.

My argument is this. People are dying, they need blood to survive, the blood bank is running short. Get the whole damn country to donate blood if they will and can. Hold the blood for more than 3 months, test the damn thing if its tainted, turf it if not then wha-la u save a life or more. Do this on a rolling basis, so at least u have a constant supply of blood. Ya so its expensive to test blood, so we wont take ur blood even if it may be clean! I just dont get it. So its expensive to test blood, government can subsidize it for crying out loud, i mean how much do they collect from us taxpayers every year. VAT, transfer duties (this tax drives me insane, but lets not go there just yet) licensing fees, STC, CGT, PAYE, SITE, traffic fines, u name it they'll tax it, and what is it spent on definitely not on upgrading the power stations. I dislike mocking the govt. but in think they can afford to subsidize blood testing instead of paying R700k for the deputy president and her family to go on holiday.

This wasnt how i intended to start off the email, i just saw this smug looking woman on the tv and she grated my cheese plenty!

So lets start again, i am sitting here at my desk at home, nice warm evening with a brisk cool breeze, up high in the sky the moon almost full. Roof over my head, food in my belly, lovely girlfriend on the cell, friend just left my house, other mates on Skype, hell even have enough loose change which Telkom rapes me of monthly(story for another time), i sit here and i can only be thankful for what i have. That wasnt how i wanted to start neither it was just a thought floating thru my head as i start typing.

3rd time lucky. So surfin the net looking for what to write about this week and i go to my newly found favourite website thanks to Sean Harps and come across a rather interesting article. The 16 Jan other than being todays date and also Martin Luther King day in the USA, believe it or not, also occurred in 1547...nope i kid u not. In 1547, it was the day that Ivan the Terrible was crowned the first Tsar of Russia, at the age of 16. Ivan Grozny was his name, son of Vasily III (who he was i know not, but so its written in all the articles read and thus i insert it as it must be of some importance). His father died when he was very young and at the age of 3 he came to the throne, but being only 3 yrs old his mam Elna Glinskaya ran the show. His mother didnt seem to have much time for him and her socialising with the boyars (“In the Russian language, the singular is boyarin (??????), the plural is boyare. Boyars wielded considerable power through their military support of the Kievean princes. Power and prestige of many of them, however, soon came to depend almost completely on service to the state, family history of service and to a lesser extent, landownership.
The boyars occupied the highest state offices and through a council (Duma) advised the prince. They received extensive grants of land and, as members of the Boyars' Duma, were the major legislators of Kievan Rus'.”) also led to much of mental instability. It is written that in a letter, he recalled a rather painful experience when a drunken boyar put his dirty boots on Ivan's bed.
In his early years as Tsar, his rule was peaceful bringing forth many a positive change, such as the revision of the law code (sudebnik) created a standing army, set up the council of nobles. The first printing press in Russia was set up during his reign even though the first Russian printers had to flee Russia. He had St Basils Cathedral built. Legend has it that it was so beautiful that he had the architects blinded so that they could never create anything as beautiful again in their lives. He forged new trading relationships opening up the White Sea and the port of Archangel to English merchants.
But this was not what made him terrible. As with most rulers the old adage of absolute power corrupting absolutely started to set in. He instituted the first laws restricting the mobility of the peasants, but this wasn't it neither. Many believe though that his near fatal illness and the death of his first wife, Anastasia Romanova, may have been the trigger. From here on Ivan went dilly. He suspected the boyars of poisoning his wife and plotting to overthrow him. During his illness he asked the boyars to swear allegiance to his eldest son. Many of the elder ones thought whateverrrr, Ivan is going to die anyway, his health is so terrible and they refused to. Sorry for them, Ivan got better and well u can guess what happened. Murder after mass murder of innocent people.
His reign would not be the same. He set put on a trail to conquer the region, his aim to gain seaward expansion. Problem...Swedes, Lithuanians, poles and the Livonian Teutonic Knights. He was not to gain anything from this war. For 22 years the war dragged on, its result, an economically and 'militarily' crippled Russia with absolutely nothing gained in return. To make matters worse, Ivan's closest friend and advisor defected to the Poles. His mental instability worsened. Mood swings were rife, ranging from raging orgies to prayers and fasting in a monastery.
In 1564, he had a section of Russia which he ruled directly and was policed by his personal servicemen. This area was called Oprichina or Ochrana (which means security). The reason for setting up this region was to oppose the omnipotent boyars who opposed the absolute drive of the tsar.

As his mental instability erupted into fits of rage and violence (sheesh if i carry on with such descriptive language, i will have to forgive some people for mistaking me for an accomplished writer, digress...) so too the aggression and barbarism of the Oprichniks grew. Nobles..murdered, peasants... Men were conscripted to fight in the raging war of Livonia. The result, famine and depopulation. In a dispute with the Novgorod Republic, he ordered the death of all the inhabitants of the region 40-50 thousand people slain. In 1581, he beat his pregnant daughter in law which led to a miscarriage. His reason, she was wearing inappropriate clothing. His son was enraged when he heard this and confronted his father, the result, son...dead.

Ivan died in 18 March 1584, a date apparently prophesied as the date of his death. In the 1960's Ivans tomb was opened and his remains examined. Vast amounts of mercury was detected, thus proving that he was indeed poisoned or the result of the treatment for syphilis which he was believed to have had. His death left Russia at the mercy of his unfit and childless son Feodor.

FYI, the word terrible is apparently the english translation for Grozny which happened to be Ivans nickname. This name was given to him by the Russian people when he seized Kazan.

Ya i know last weeks email was pretty arb, hope this one was better even if slightly.

Birthdays
16th Ann-Louise

Quote
“When you really trust someone, you have to be okay with not understanding some things”.-
Real Live Preacher

A good week is my wish for you all. Maximum respect!

So it begins. Akwaaba (welcome back) to those who took time off and ventured away from the realms of what their every day entails. To those who held down the fort whilst everyone did what they were doing, fear thee not, for your time will come, perhaps you might join me in Germany (if i do actually end up going to watch history being made when Ghana takes on the Italians in their first ever world cup game, but that plan is looking a tad dim at the moment as my good mate Mr Wickins has decided to get married in the UK in July...alas!
Almost didnt write an email this week, cos i have been under the whip a bit with some pretty frustrating admin for a deal i have been working on for ages, which just doesnt seem to want to go away, if it was a massive deal i wouldn't be complaining but this my dear friends is a mini-me deal and its drained the excitement i had for this year right out of me...for now, but as the saying goes, this too shall pass, but then again u guys arent my therapists now are you, so why would u care??
So the year has started off on a bit of a dodgy note, Iran back on the nuclear warpath, bird flu incidents on the increase, russia and the ukraine i think in some funny oil deal that has sent world oil prices on a bit of a ride, but on the other hand gold price is hitting some record highs (whats driving this other than demand, wickins how big was that ring u got V? I dont get it, but i guess thats why i am not a commodities trader...) Vodafone's acquisition of SA based Venfin has been given the all clear thus plenty foreign investment in SA hence the R:$ at about 6.05 or so. Mixed bag this year. Thus far though i think the story making the most/biggest news is the health of Mr Sharon. He has been said to have suffered a major stroke.
I think i know what a stroke is, in my laymans view a stroke is when part of your brain doesnt get much oxygen for some time. Which i now gather is correct, but then the reports were mentioning that there was severe bleeding in and around his brain, now i was not sure if it was because of the operation or the stroke, so i decided to do google on stroke and i came up with the following. U may b interested u may not be but here goes.
There are 2 types of strokes (the medical term is cerebrovascular accident), one where there is a blood clot caused by the arteries that provide oxygen rich blood to the brain (carotid arteries, for those of us who did bio at school or can read ;-)), this is known as a ischemic stroke. The second type is caused by bleeding around the brain and is known as a hemorrhagic stroke. So what causes this stroke. Plaque tends to build up in our arteries as a result of cholesterol. In some more than others. And over time this build up gets worse. High blood pressure doesnt help matters much as it places pressure on this plaque and after sometime it ruptures. Thats when the cr ap hits the fan. The raptured plaque causes platelets to stick together which eventually results in a clot which results in blood flow to the heart or the brain being restricted or even totally halted. Basically what this means is that a blood clot is the cause of heart attacks and strokes, but high blood and cholesterol are definitely catalysts in this whole process.
So what are the tell tale signs of a stroke?
Weakness/numbness of a part or side of the body, sudden confusion or difficulty in speech, sight trouble or dizizness.
Thats your medical lesson for the day people, my bed calls.
Birthdays to date
1st Vanessa
6th Ingrid
11th My Pops' 60th
15th Dr Clarke's 50th
On that note i am out. Maximum respect!!