Bolo'Bolo , the new vegan restaurant open on Palmer Road, is more than your average eatery...

Bolo Bolo interior contains an air of effortless style

Palmer Road’s vegan restaurant has just changed hands and its new name, Bolo’Bolo, makes reference to a anthropological joke - the fictional name given to societies that don’t follow normal cultural patterns. Proud new owner Aragorn has experience in this type of business before, having opened and ran South Africa’s first vegan restaurant ‘Earth2’ while he was still living in Johannesburg some years ago.

UPDATE: Please note that since 1st July 2013, all products produced in the FUTURELIFE factory have been made from NON-GMO raw materials. For more info please visit http://www.futurelife.co.za/gmo or see our post here

FUTURELIFE replaced GMO ingredients with NON-GMO ingredients in July 2013. Thanks for making a difference FUTURELIFE!

ACB's press release follows:

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) is outraged that several food products, including baby cereal, maize meal consumed as a staple, a renown and heavily promoted dietary supplement for active sports people and wheat free cereal, have tested positive for GM- yet are all unlabelled.

Home Birth Gathering at Erin Hall : Birth as a humans rights issue

Ever wondered about your birthing options?

‘We’re not anti-hospital, we’re just about sharing,’ says Ruth as we begin. According to her, natural home birth is a valid option for an expecting mother. These gathering events are a chance for the interested to meet up and discuss – from couples to mothers-to-be, doulas, midwives or simply anyone who is curious about the idea of having a baby at home. As it was Human Rights Month, this particular Home Birth Gathering topic was titled ‘birth as a human rights issue’.

Meeting with Patrick Dowling, family friend and WESSA environmental educator, we discuss a more perfect world and a positive way out of our current economic and environmental dysfunction...

Patrick Dowling (pictured here doing some planting) believes that a Steady State Economy is now the way to go

Ok so we get that we are stuffed - with the economy doing a double dive and the planet protesting years of misuse - so now what? If economists have been questioning the idea of perpetual growth for centuries, how have we allowed ourselves to walk headlong into this mess? Surely this is a good a sign as any that we must make changes to our system, but the real question is, how?

Patrick believes that a Steady State System could just be the answer to our current situation.

We will not die quietlyWomen's Demonstration on International Women's Day Against Nuclear Power

The Women's Energy and Climate Change Forum is a forum of women from grassroots organisations around Gauteng. The women of this Forum chose to mark International Women's Day with a demonstration at the Department of Energy to highlight their concerns over the announcement by the Minister of Energy on the new nuclear build programme.

Demonstration Date: 8th of March 2012
Time: 12:00 to 14:30
Address: Department of Energy, 75 Meintjies Street, cnr Schoeman Street, Sunnyside, Pretoria

Anthea Torr, eco-entrepreneur and part of the local Freeman Movement - 'The Republic of Good Hope', has recently faced trial and a warrant for her arrest in an attempt for her critisms of the system to be heard.

Anthea Torr, owner of Enchantrix

It all began with a building.

Having lately become very interested in the Freeman Society movement , Anthea decided not to follow the compliant route of obtaining legal papers for her structure, explaining her reasons clearly in 6 letters hand delivered to the council over the duration of a year.

Not exactly a 'green' trend, but definitely a revolution. Yarn bombing is knit and crochet graffiti – colourful pieces of knit wrapped around telephone posts, around branches of trees and over abandoned cars.

It's creating graffiti, with yarn (the not SA word meaning 'wool'). And those who do it, consider it artistic vandalism. It's also a girl thing (mostly), as opposed to street art and graffiti, both of which are dominated by guys.

It's turning what is considered a distinctly 'matronly' craft and making it part of the urban streetscape. And it's a global phenomenon (google it, and you'll see). Who needs an aerosol can, if you've got knitting needles and ball of wool?

It's a way of reclaiming public space, without defacing it – knit and crochet work are hardly permanent now are they? A yarn bomb is a piece of crochet or knit that is made a little smaller than the object you intend it to go around or on, so that it can stretch and hug the given object.

And to sew it in place? Well, some use cable ties, some sew, some do both.

Anyone seen any around SA?

“My message to the people of Cape Town is get involved. This is your mountain. We are custodians of this mountain for future generations. I feel we have to stand up".

So says Fiona Hinds who was arrested after occupying the Chapman's Peak toll plaza construction site for five days. Fiona appeared in court yesterday on a charge of "malicious injury to property" for reportedly spraypainting "Murray & Robbers" on netting around the site. Entilini, developers of the R 54-million plaza and administrative centre, are owned partly by construction firm Murray and Roberts.

Hinds' legal representative asked the court to remove the bail condition imposed on her after her arrest on Monday which prevented her from returning to the construction site. Removal of the bail condition was granted and the court hearing postponed until 23 March.

Graham Taylor (Hinds' attorney) said: "It is a long shot to prosecute people for

The Department of Energy has promulgated two draft bills that it intends to send to Parliament. These Bills are the National Energy Regulator Amendment Bill and the Electricity Regulation Second Amendment Bill. Due to these Bills highly undemocratic nature, the Department of Energy should withdraw these Bills without delay.

One Struggle – a conference on social justice, animal rights and radical environmentalism - took place in Muizenberg last Saturday (18 Feb) thanks to the South African Vegan Society.

The conference focused on the rights of animals, the environment and human beings.

Hearing about the One Struggle conference, I was immediately excited; the South African Vegan Society represent a genuine passion for true authentic societal change, and I knew this would be reflected in any event they organised.

When we arrived in the afternoon, was busy giving her talk on veganism and food security in Cape Town: explaining how being vegan is better not only for animals, but for people and the earth too. The young lady really sounded like she knew her stuff, and displayed all the facts to back up her statements.

‘We may be making attempts to save water in our home due to turning off taps and showering instead of bathing, but when 85% of our water waste is on our plate it is important that we re-evaluate our diet. And this is not mere theory – the U.N. have been urging people to eat local and plant-based for years,' she explained, adding: 'But it is not just our diet that must change, but the production system of our diet.’

Opening up discussion to the audience, there were