This is the last in my current nostalgia series. The photo was taken in October 1990 at Victoria Falls from the Zambian side.

I did a week-long tour of Zimbabwe and really enjoyed the spectacle of the falls. With another Australian, two Swiss and an Italian we hired bikes, hazarded the border crossing and took a glimpse from Zambia as well.

We paid a kid to watch our bikes while we walked a steep part of the bush track. We also haggled with traders for souvenirs and I picked up a nicely carved wooden hippo.

He was already out of the political scene when I visited South Africa for the first time in 1990 and FW de Klerk had accelerated the reform process. Botha was seen as stubborn in the face of irresistible change but in terms of negotiating the transition his obstinacy may have helped make things smoother in the long run.

I mean that in the sense that all parties to the final solution made compromises they may not have done otherwise if change had occurred faster. The end result is relative peace and stability in South Africa today.

My wife Juliet is related to Botha on her mother’s side. The maiden name of Juliet’s mum is Botha and they came from George, which is close to where PW Botha lived in retirement at Wilderness.

PW Botha was born on the farm Telegraaf in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State, the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, also named Pieter, fought in a commando against the British in the Second Boer War (1899–1902).

During the war his mother was interned in a British concentration camp. He initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School Bethlehem, South Africa.

She is now a dual citizen of South Africa and Australia.

1. Woman marries dolphin.
2. Porn star arrested for raping boy.
8. Australia feels the heat of Proteas’ slow burn.
9. Woman weds dolphin (again … breaking news?).
10. For sale: Two-headed snake.

It’s unthinkable that South Africa is poised to defeat Australia, as indicated by number eight on that list. The dolphin story is a beatup, no more newsworthy than saying New Zealanders are fond of sheep.

What does this list say though about readers of the esteemed Age? You’d expect this of the London tabloids, rather than a broadsheet that takes itself too seriously.

I saw him play World Series Cricket at provincial Traralgon in the late 70s. It was probably the biggest non-football crowd at the Traralgon Showgrounds, around 7000 people. Max Walker was playing too and I remember revelling in the atmosphere.

South Africa was isolated at that time and Barlow was a novelty. He impressed with his all-round skills. I think it was a game between Australia and the Cavaliers, or something like that.

Barlow deserved better and should have played scores of test matches. Of course, South Africa was ostracised because of apartheid and he never realised his true potential. He got to play 30 tests though, which is more than many others of his era.

You have to wonder what impact South Africa would have had on the sport if politics hadn’t intervened. I suspect the likes of Pollock, Richards and Barlow would have dominated and raised a new generation of champions.

All players wore black armbands for Packer at the MCG this week. I think Barlow is equally worthy of the honor at Sydney on Monday.

Ugandan cricket is improving.

West Indies isn’t a country. It’s a collection of islands and nations from the same region that share an interest in cricket. Some of the nations have very small populations and could never expect to compete at test level in their own right.

Waugh was concerned for the future of cricket in Zimbabwe, and he commented that the game is making great strides in Kenya and Uganda.

He also mentioned that composite East African teams competed at World Cup level in the 1970s.

I think the idea has much merit. Zimbabwe is no longer competitive and the future doesn’t look bright.

It makes sense to establish a federation that includes Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya and Uganda, with a first-class competition involving their national teams.

If a South African national obtains foreign citizenship without permission they forfeit their birthright.

The approval process took nearly a year. I guess the bottle they threw in the water finally made its way across the pond.

Senior Victorian police officer Peter Halloran was last night cleared by the Sierra Leone Court of Appeal of sexually assaulting a teenage girl while working as a war crimes investigator for the United Nations.

Superintendent Halloran was facing 18 months in jail after he was controversially convicted in February.

The two-one decision in his favour by the three-judge appeal court came after months of delay. The appeal decision was repeatedly adjourned after one of the judges refused to attend court because he was on holiday.

Halloran was working in Sierra Leone for the United Nations. He was charged after a colleague made accusations against him. The girl he supposedly abused gave evidence in his favor, but somehow he was convicted.

He has spent several months in a fetid cell, with little publicity in this country, especially compared with Schapelle Corby in Indonesia.

Zimbabwean journalists already faced long jail terms for publishing "falsehoods" under existing law. Under Section 15 of the Public Order and Security Act enacted in 2002, journalists could be jailed for up to five years or fined Z$100,000 for publishing incorrect information.

This is blatant intimidation. In past years one might have trusted the judiciary in Zimbabwe to treat such cases fairly, but all the indepenent judges have been sacked and replaced by Mugabe appointees.

Even if a journalist wins the case at court, they will have spent months or years in fetid prisons on remand, and probably suffer several beatings by police.

We take it for granted in the civilised world that we can say what we like. This blog would land me in more trouble than I’d care for, if I lived in Zimbabwe.

What concerns me is the world’s ambivalence to Mugabe. The latest destruction of urban townships would have been decried more loudly if it had occurred under Ian Smith or apartheid in South Africa.

Mugabe’s tactic here is to remove disgruntled poor black voters from the cities and force them to rural areas where they can be more easily controlled. It’s classic Stalinism.

Mugabe is worse than Saddam Hussein. The world should intervene to save a country from ruin.