A return to South Africa triggers deep thoughts - can one person have two homelands?

In the wake of Nelson Mandela's death, an old friend asked his Facebook friends to say what, if anything, they did to fight apartheid.

The majority rules, or a show of hands, is a pretty common sense and clear-cut example of democracy at work.

The little white boy shouted: "Daddy, Daddy!! Mandela shook my hand."

Nothing pops the bubble of the myth that nuclear power is "clean" like the ongoing struggle to stabilise and decommission the plant at Fukushima, Japan.

On Saturday, December 14, we will publish a story on the person chosen as Hawke's Bay Today's Person of the Year.

It is amazing what a difference a couple of days make at this time of the year.