Voices from the Ground: Youth Ignored, Football Fever, and the Truth About What We’re Drinking

Letters to the Editor

Do the youth not matter to politicos?

Of often during election campaigns you hear politicians promising this and that – employment of young people, academic bursaries, roads and other things that just turn out to be pie in the sky.

However, you hardly hear political aspirants mentioning issues affecting the reproductive health of adolescents and young adults. When is the last time you heard a political aspirant addressing issues of HIV or even promising to establish a youth friendly service centre if they got elected?

This an indication of two things: Either the reproductive health of young people is not a priority to our leaders or the leaders do not understand the significance of a healthy young nation.

This is a call to sensitise our political leaders on the importance of reproductive health of young people. | Daniel Otieno Network for Adolescent and Youth of Africa

What a great football weekend that was

There was the Manchester derby, Liverpool against Burnley, Nottingham Forest v Arsenal, Aston Villa against Everton and, of course, the Afcon final late on Sunday night.

The Afcon final at Rabat, in Morocco, was a showpiece for Africa, watched by millions across the continent, but it was not as big as the Manchester derby that was viewed around the world. Man United did the improbable under interim manager Michael Carrick by beating Manchester City 2-0 at Old Trafford.

Fans of the Red Devils were ecstatic because they had beaten the great pretender. What was even more remarkable was that Carrick had beaten Manchester United both as a player and as a manager.

Last year’s premier league winners, Liverpool, could only manage a draw with Burnley. And then Unai Emery was left a frustrated figure at Villa Park when his hopes of narrowing the gap on log leaders Arsenal was dealt a heavy blow by Everton’s 1-0 win.

Both Manchester United and Everton had done Arsenal a big favour, but in spite of that, the gunners could not capitalise on the advantage and were held to a goalless draw against Nottingham Forest. Still the defeat of the teams in the chasing pack means that the gunners are left sitting pretty on top of the league.

Then, to round off the weekend, the Afcon final in Rabat. What was supposed to have been Africa’s showpiece event ended in chaos, tarnishing the image of African football. Senegal displayed unsporting behaviour with players walking off the field and causing a 20-minute delay when Morocco was awarded a penalty.

But the hosts couldn’t seize the golden opportunity to lift the Afcon trophy for the first time in front of an enthusiastic home crowd because Brahim Diaz failed to convert the penalty into a goal.

Then Senegal ended Morocco’s dream with a stunning long distance strike. Although Senegal lifted the Afcon trophy for the second time, their behaviour was shameful and gave Africa football a bad image.

Yours faithfully | T Markandan Kloof

Reverse osmosis or reverse logic?

Today, many people drink bottled water because it is perceived as fashionable, or they believe the quality of the tap water supplied is dubious.

The source of most bottled water is from natural springs. Thus, such water contains minerals or elements, for example, calcium (21mg/l) and magnesium (10mg/l), and is of some nutritional value.

On the other side of the coin, some brands of bottled water are distilled or purified tap water, with, for example, calcium content (<1.5mg/l) and magnesium content (<1.8mg/l). Some manufacturers even boast that their water has been processed via reverse osmosis, a distilling process, meant to produce a “superior product.” It would be interesting to know how they arrive at such a conclusion!

I have in my possession a bottle of water as supplied by a leading hotel group that they call “mineral water” (water that contains minerals or elements) that was produced by reverse osmosis. These two terms are mutually exclusive, as how can water that has been through a distilling process contain minerals?

Could such claims be deemed false and/or misleading advertising?

While distilled water may have hydration value, why would anyone knowingly want to drink distilled tap water with virtually no nutritional content?It certainly appears that not all in the bottled water industry is kosher. | Kevin Meineke Summerveld

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