MALAYSIA is a good place to go if you want a promotion. This year 10,000 graduate teachers will be promoted at the same time as the Government acts to show its appreciation of teachers, says New Straits Times (Jan 18).
In Ghana, meanwhile, scarecrows are being drafted in to help with traffic safety. Dummies dressed as policemen will be positioned just after police checkpoints, because this is where drivers start to speed up, writes www.Ghanaweb.com (Jan 18). It is hoped that the sight of the policeman scarecrows will encourage drivers to keep an eye on their speed.
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Back to Malaysia and news on preparations for Chinese New Year. Concerned that annual imports of mandarin oranges bring disease with them, the agriculture department is “aggressively promoting” the cultivation of domestic mandarin oranges. About 90,000 disease-free seedlings will be made available to farmers, says the Malaysian National News Agency, www.Bernama.com (Jan 16), which should meet future demand for the festive fruit.
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Bats have forced the closure of a library in Simunye, South Africa. Africa’s www.news24.com (Jan 16) reports that a colony of bats made a home in the roof of the library, but an accumulation of their waste and soil that they brought in to build their nests caused the ceiling to collapse. Fortunately the ceiling gave way at night and nobody was hurt, but the bats have left behind “quite a foul smell”.
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Local councillors in Australia could be forced to take training courses in reading budget papers and chairing meetings, the Sydney Daily Telegraph (Jan 17) reveals. “Many councillors lack essential financial skills and are sometimes unsure what role they are supposed to perform,” says Kerry Hickey, the local government minister. Critics argue that more incentives — such as increased wages — are needed to attract better representatives.