Every country in the world is supposed to have an up-to-date list of essential medicines - basic drugs that should be available to all through the public health service. In Africa though, the reality is that drugs are often out of stock in health clinics. In some cases it's a few drugs for a few days, in others almost no drugs are available for months. A group of NGOs from east and southern Africa met in Nairobi this week to formulate a campaign to demand 100% access and availability to all.

As I write this, US lawmakers are still haggling about whether or not to approve the $700-million bail-out package, to rescue Wall Street. Exactly how all of this international financial stuff works is rather beyond me (and from reading newspapers and magazines such as Time, it seems not even seasoned financial reporters understand all of it, let alone the regulators). But one of my concerns, is how the current global financial melt-down is affecting, or going to affect, Africa.

We're in Uganda for the CJA in-country training. Yesterday, we had a session covering the difference in the kind of news coverage between mainstream media and citizen journalism. Participants had a look at two Ugandan newspapers, to assess the kind of stories that are covered: the Daily Monitor, and the Red Pepper -- seeing these are the only two newspapers readily available at our hotel. As we looked through the two papers, I found myself utterly shocked by the Red Pepper. This is a sensationalist tabloid, rather like the Voice and Die Son, which we get in Cape Town. But it's way worse than anything I've seen before.

There's an old saying, that a week is a long time in politics. Tell me about it! What a week it's been -- in politics and in finance. I went on a short trip to Europe and by the time I got back to South Africa, everything had changed: in politics in South Africa, and in finance around the world.

Several months ago, I discovered Monocle magazine. It's an international magazine, with headquarters in London, and it looks at a wide range of issues (current affairs, business, culture, and design). The most recent issue has a very interesting feature looking at 3 countries the magazine thinks can be looked at as failing states. What makes it interesting is that these three countries are not in the developing world.

At present there's quite a heated debate going on in South Africa over a cartoon that appeared in the Sunday Times last Sunday.  The cartoon depicts Jacob Zuma, the president of the ANC and the man most likely to be the next president of South Africa. Zuma is seen undoing his trousers, while people representing the ANC, SACP, Cosatu and the ANC Youth League are holding down a woman, representing the justice system. The men are urging Zuma to rape the woman.

On the latest series of the TV reality show, Survivor, they're conducting another social experiment. One team or 'tribe' has been given everything they need -- furniture, food, shelter and fire. The other has nothing. And guess what -- the tribe with all the advantages has been winning all of the challenges, week after week. And each time they win, they get more food, and more luxuries. The 'have-nots' go home each time with nothing. It's an interesting parallel of real life.

A recent survey by Stellenbosch University's Centre for International and Comparative Politics compared the views and values held by the 'elite' to those held by 'ordinary people'. The 'elite' were defined as people who hold top positions in business, government, cultural and other institutions. The study found that there are some sharp differences between the perspectives of these two groups on issues such as politics, religion, homosexuality, corruption, and domestic violence.

There's a fascinating exhibition on in Cape Town right now, that challenges, or shall I say, destroys, some of the stereotypes and myths about Africa. The exhibition is at the Castle in Cape Town, and it is called, "Timbuktu:Script & Scholarship'. The exhibition destroys the myths that Africa has no written history, and that Africa lacks a long intellectual tradition. It consists of some 40 manuscripts from the Ahmed Baba Institute in Mali.

On one of my recent trips to Lusaka, I had to take a taxi cab in rush hour. It took us over an hour to travel a distance that usually takes 15 minutes at other times. The taxi driver and I got chatting about Lusaka's ever-increasing traffic, and he commented that the only solution would be to build a new capital city somewhere else, with wider roads. But according to one of the world's leading urban thinkers, exactly the opposite is needed -- we need to cut down on the space available to cars and make our cities people-friendly.