I think we can all agree that it was tough to be a South African over the last two weeks. We had to face the violent undercurrent that runs through our nation. Men in particular continue to turn on the weak and vulnerable – children, women and foreigners. As the extent of this became more and more evident over the last few weeks it was really hard to stay positive.

Then, to add to my general sense of despair, I was invited to a talk by Mary Robinson (former UN Human Rights Commissioner and President of Ireland) and Kumi Naidoo (former head of Greenpeace and now global head of Amnesty International) on climate change.

I regard myself as generally well informed on environmental issues, but just hearing the facts scared the living daylights out of me…