VIEW FROM THE SOUTH

South Africa, that is:

"Measured by progress made towards a just and peaceful world order, 2003 is thankfully over and best forgotten. Especially depressing was the spectacle of the richest, most scientifically advanced human beings on the planet lapse into a kind of high-tech barbarism. It was a year that saw the world's only superpower, on an increasingly unhinged score-settling mission, lose its democratic compass and all but opt out of the human family."