Thabo Mbeki's lamentably  belated statement re. the horrors taking place in his neighbouring country , Zimbabwe , that Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai should 'negotiate' seems about as useful as a cardboard bicycle .
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I  for the first time  watched the first two hours of 'Schindlers List' , and I'll see the final hour tomorrow .
It's no more or less disturbing than I expected , and it's brilliantly , hauntingly compelling .
Sometimes I wonder why we hear  far much more about the appalling evils of nazi genocide that that of Stalin , Mao or anyone else : I have ideas which I'll not go into now  .
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A good piece by Janice Turner in yesterday's 'Times about the British reluctance to adequately educate , inform and advise  youngsters about  the practicalities of sexual matters , pointing out that statistically , comparing the approach in various countries , the more comprehensive the sex education , the less under-age sex and pregnancies there is .
And that  in Britain  a third of girls are not told by their parents about periods , who leave all of that to the patchily good or bad standard of sex education in our schools .
And that  despite the biological information given  there , many young teenagers seem woefully ignorant of some basic practicalities , and that girls should be advised re. how to deal with boys saying 'anything' to  get them to consent . 
I'm sure that it's better than it once was , but  in the past  the public shame of pregnancy out of wedlock was the greatest deterrent . Now that's rightly not considered shameful , but too many parents , especially some  'religious' ones seemingly would prefer youngsters to be left 'in the dark' about sex .
Or they just find it all so embarrassing , and hope that schools are doing what they feel that they can't  , and  there's still some , including some Catholics , who have a horror of their children being told anything about sex .
I attended a Rudolf Steiner school , which taught no sex education whatever , and I recall a new teacher once saying " I could talk to you about sex , but I'm not allowed to " .
At least there were no pregnancies there that I knew of .
I recall my Mum once telling me that women have a hole , and that if a man puts his penis into it she'll have a baby .
For a few months I had a few interestingly 'innocent' encounters with a girl , then I came into possesion of dozens of 'mens magazines' , that she and her siblings had found on Kings Langley Common .
I was undoubtedly too young for a sexual relationship then , and as I grew older I had chances squandered in the name of shyness .
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I'm £71.50 up after Royal Ascot - Could've been much more if I'd staked more on my most confident selections .
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Borrowed from SeasideMan : Automatic Writing : Go On : I dare you : Type something here that's completely spontaneously unpremeditated , without hesitation , then post it , unedited , even of typing / spelling errors . .

- Yes , well , you know you can do so much better than that !

Warm and sunny today with a strong , but warm wind , which is nice .
My cat's beem miaouwing outside a bit I think 'cause he's a little overawed by the wind .
I know I'm stating the obvious but it never ceases to amaze me how cats are so brilliantly  accomplished at the cute , purry , furry adorable baby act , as well as being highly accomplished psycopathic killers , of wild creatures smaller and weaker than themselves , or mine is anyway .

Most 'heroes' appear to have 'feet of clay' if you  look , and think hard enough , but I'm  prepared to believe that Mandela is indeed a  very special person and I look forward to attending the event on friday .