Christian Aid is launching its gifts catalogue www.presentaid.org with a spoof Christmas single Feeling Flush this Christmas? on 17 November 2005 to help tackle sanitation problems such as 'flying toilets' which affect many people in third world slums. The single is a remix of the Christmas carol We Three Kings of Orient Are. No musical instruments are used. Instead the carol is composed of unusual sounds associated with gifts from the Present Aid catalogue. The 'musicians' include a mosquito choir, a chorus of cows, sheep, and goats as well as toilet flushes. The term 'flying toilets' might sound funny but it's deadly serious. In some African slums, such as Kibera, in Nairobi, up to 15,000 people could be sharing a single block of six toilets. Without running water people are forced to use plastic bags to defecate in. They then throw the bags into the street - and hence are known as 'flying toilets'.

Listen to the single by clicking on: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/news/presentaidmusic/3kingzzz%20.mp3

Developing women's ability to write is essential to enabling women to express their needs, wants and demands effectively and to influence the development of society. The creation and dissemination of information about gender is essential for both men and women to challenge the gender status quo. These processes have been at the core of Agenda's mission and the Writing Skills Development Programme adds to this. The Writing Programme has two primary objectives: to develop the writing skills of women from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and; to contribute to the development of gender-informed writers producing gender-informed media.

Will lectures in Afrikaans and English kill off the taal? Yes, reckons a very vocal band of current and former Stellenbosch University students, after the university recently approved the introduction of dual-medium instruction in the final undergraduate year of the arts faculty. For the past two months, a well-oiled media campaign has been raging in the letters and news columns of Die Burger, the largest Afrikaans daily in the country. From this it has been clear that not all Afrikaans speakers are happy that their language has to compete with 10 other official languages instead of being one of only two official languages.