Introducing Mystery Class #1

Hi,

My name (as you might have picked up) is Paul Smeddle and
I'm a STD 9 (Grade 11) Student at Pinelands High School,
Cape Town, in the Republic of South Africa.

Although I am not strictly speaking a South African by
heritage (my mother is American, and my father is English),
I have lived here all my life and would have to say that
South Africa is, IMHO, one of the most beautiful countries
in the World, but unfortunately also has one of the saddest
histories, which I will not go into as it is well-known to
most of the world.

South Africa (and Cape Town) is a place of great natural
heritage, containing most of the species of animal prevalent
in the savannas of Africa and not a few of its own. There
are about 200+ species of bird indigeonous to Southern
Africa. Cape Town, where I live, is situated below Table
Mountain (named for obvious reasons if you've seen a picture
of it), on which grow many species of FYNBOS. Fynbos is one
of the (seven?) floral kingdoms in the world and 10% of the
worlds non-rain-forest plant species are indigeonous to the
slopes of Table Mountain and the surrounding ranges.

Cape Town (and South Africa at large) is a melting pot of 11
distinct cultures which make up the people of South Africa.
I'll name a few, you see if you can pronounce them: Shangaan,
North Sotho, South Sotho, Pedi, Venda, Tswana, Zulu, Xhosa.

Cape Town, unfortunately, is known as one of the most
violent and gang-ridden cities in the world. Crime in South
Africa is 6 times higher than in the United States, but this
is due mainly to the rapid, startling change in South
African society and partially due to non-deliverance of
election promises. However, this will sort itself out in
time and is starting to ease of as many ANC supporters
realise that even though the government has changed, the
concept of property ownership hasn't and President Mandela
has taken a hard line against crime. What this country will
do when he dies, I'm not entirely sure.

...but I ramble... before I sign off I'll tell you a bit
more about myself. My primary interests are Astronomy,
computer programming and telecommunications, my secondary
interests are reading, languages and the game D&D. Right now
I have no political or religious persuasions, but that'll
probably change in  the future. I intend on studying
Computer Sciences at the University of Cape Town. I don't
play organised team sport, but go to the gym regularly.

Yeah, that's about it...

Cheers, and sorry for the long letter ;)

        Paul Smeddle

        PAUL@phs.wcape.school.za