The recent withdrawal of President Joe Biden as a candidate for the upcoming American presidential election and the various responses to that event set me thinking once again about the manner in which ageing is addressed in the world today. In a world that has become progressively more politically correct we are made aware of the need to be sensitive to discrimination in all its various manifestations. Ageism simply stated is the prejudice or discrimination against people on the grounds of their age. President Biden a man of 81 had been the presumptive Democratic Party candidate elected through the process of primaries across the various American states but in recent…
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Government of National Unity (GNU) … illusion or reality?
The May 29th 2024 election delivered a parliament for the first time in the 30 years since 1994 in which no single party had a majority. During the past 30 years the African National Congress (ANC) had a significant majority at both national and provincial level with the exception of the Western Cape province where since 2009 the opposition Democratic Alliance had a majority which was maintained in the 2024 election. Clearly after the 2024 election the ANC which was the largest party with just over 40% of the votes had to seek coalition partners. After tough negotiations a coalition was formed with the Democratic Alliance as the second largest…