One thing that has left a bitter taste these holidays, perhaps from the background of living in a Country where thankfully the death penalty is a disgraceful remnant of our pre Bill of Rights state, has been the execution of Saddam Hussein.  No doubt the man deserves little or no sympathy, but the way in which America despatched him - of course in the name of the Iraqi people - to whom they turned him over only 35 minutes before he was hung, has been most distasteful.

The European Union condemned the action afterwards, but did nothing beforehand when it was patently obvious that an execution was planned before the new year.  The Amercian media continues to feed one with propaganda - and a desire that we must know that he was scared before his death and even if video did not show it, then the official photographer is interviewed to "confirm" he saw fear in Saddam's eyes.  Of course, the fact that he was the accused in other unfinished trials currently on the go in Iraq never stopped anything.  The Iraqi trial process seems to be incredibly quick - a trial finishes and the appeal is also finalized within about 2 months!

Of course, for all the tyrant he was, they never found nuclear weapons, still have not and undoubtedly never will because it appears he did destoy them a decade or so before the US invasion - or should we correctly, and laughingly say, "coalition" invasion.  Now that over 3000 US troops have died, more than on 9/11 in the World Trade Centre, he is beginning to feel the wrath of one of the most forgiving, and seemily naive voters, the American public.

The Star weighed in with a lengthy Road Accident Fund article yesterday  saying the RAF was under pressure because of the huge number of car sales.  Of course that is getting the story from the totally incorrect end.

With levies per litre you may just as well have said it was boom times for the Fund with increasing levies being collected due to more petrol being sold to the owners of all these new cars.  The real problem is that people in this Country do not drive well, even when they have legitimate licences, which an estimated 20% of them do not.  If the RAF is under pressure it is because the levy on the petrol price is not high enough, not because there are more or less cars on our road.

More ominously though, stories like these typically seem to precede change - so maybe we will see those regulations soon.

The RAF regulations were published while we were all on holiday.

I have put them up on the JAA website under Documents and have alerted the Law Society and the LSSA. 

You only have until 31 January to comment.

The Road Accident Fund draft regulations are in two parts, and quite lengthy.  You can access them by clicking the two links below:

Part 1
and then
Part 2

A recent meeting with the High Court judges reveals some interesting statistics about trial applications in the Witwatersrand Local Division.  Apparently applications are dealt within 14 weeks (my personal experience would suggest it is often longer) and that the waiting period for a trial date is now 11 months.  40 cases are enrolled a day compared to 50 a day at the TPD.

Undefended divorces have a waiting period of 1 week officially but my experience is that it is 2 to 3 weeks.  320 opposed motion applications are set down each week.

I will detail a few of my thoughts on the RAF regulations in my blog shortly.  We have been hard at work on our contribution on behalf of the JAA and are having Counsel add the finishing touches.  Whether it will be read is another story.  One wonders, with all sincerity, how much comment is wanted, or read, if they are published on 15 December, the day when the Courts close and attorneys close, with a deadline of end of January?!

The AMA Guidelines, which I ordered from America are a nightmare.

Its the 2007 J & B Met tomorrow and I have made the trip to Cape Town for a number of racing functions.  I have a runner in the race immediately before the Met and am attending - she is 2nd favourite so there is reason to be hopeful.  55 000 people should make it a packed Kenilworth - but thankfully it will not be the 38 degrees and hotter temperatures I experienced on Wednesday and Thursday.  Cape Town is cooking and this time its the people here!  A heatwave of epic proportions and is this global warming getting more and more serious.......?  It will be covered live on SABC 2 - so have a look at the excitment racing can and should generate more often.

The Met had traffic problems, seating problems and no shortage of some of the most wonderful looking people!  My filly got close, so close, to winning but was outdone by a magnificent Australian bred filly Sun Classique who is the Cape darling and won almost every important race they have for fillies.  Festive Occasion, pictured above, flew at the finish once she had a gap but could not catch Sun Classique and so we had to settle for 2nd.  Next target is a mjor feature race in early March.