Most South Africans don’t appreciate that there are two places named Washington in America, one is a state on the West Coast and one is a City, the political capital, which most people know.  Washington state has as its largest city, Seattle.  Washington D.C. actually stands for Washington, District of Columbia and strangely enough, it is not a State of America.  A number of States donated land towards the capital, and it is an independent district, not part of any state of the United States and one where Congress makes the final political decisions.  

It is a beautiful city and of course it is very much in the news now, as it is most of the year, given that whatever happens in America affects the world, and it is America’s political capital.  Right now the Congress, controlled by the Republicans, is holding the President and the Senate which is controlled by the Democrats, to ransom, saying that until such time as President Obama changes his Medicare laws, they will not approve a raising of the American debt ceiling, which is necessary for America to honour its bills.  If the matter is not resolved soon, it will no doubt throw the world’s economy into more turmoil and it basically boils down to a fight between a President, who does not want to be threatened, and a party, namely the Republican Party, who want to use everything in their power to stop what they call Obama care being implemented.  We will all have to hope that they come to a settlement shortly, so that economies around the world are not plagued by even more uncertainty, if America does not honour its bills.